Zion reaches out her hands, but no one offers comfort. The LORD has turned the neighboring nations against Jacob's descendants. Jerusalem is merely a filthy rag to her neighbors.
In Zedekiah's ninth year as king, on the tenth day of the tenth month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia led his entire army to attack Jerusalem. The troops set up camp outside the city and built ramps up to the city walls.
I looked again and saw people being mistreated everywhere on earth. They were crying, but no one was there to offer comfort, and those who mistreated them were powerful.
Jerusalem, you are sad and discouraged, tossed around in a storm. But I, the LORD, will rebuild your city with precious stones; for your foundation I will use blue sapphires.
I heard groaning and crying. Was it a woman giving birth to her first child? No, it was Jerusalem. She was gasping for breath and begging for help. "I'm dying!" she said. "They have murdered me."
Each night, bitter tears flood her cheeks. None of her former lovers are there to offer comfort; her friends have betrayed her and are now her enemies.
Everyone heard my groaning, but no one offered comfort. My enemies know of the trouble that you have brought on me, and it makes them glad. Hurry and punish them, as you have promised.
Jerusalem's horrible sins have made the city a joke. Those who once admired her now hate her instead-- she has been disgraced; she groans and turns away.
Her sins had made her filthy, but she wasn't worried about what could happen. And when Jerusalem fell, it was so tragic. No one gave her comfort when she cried out, "Help! I'm in trouble, LORD! The enemy has won."
Instead, everyone shouted, "Go away! Don't touch us! You're filthy and unfit to belong to God's people!" So they had to leave and become refugees. But foreign nations told them, "You can't stay here!"
Ezekiel, son of man, when the people of Israel were living in their own country, they made the land unclean by the way they behaved, just as a woman's monthly period makes her unclean.