But you, like a birth before its time, are stretched out with no resting-place in the earth; clothed with the bodies of the dead who have been put to the sword, who go down to the lowest parts of the underworld; a dead body, crushed under foot.

And the evil-doers will be crushed under you, they will be dust under your feet, in the day when I do my work, says the Lord of armies.

When it was full, they took it up on the sands; and seated there they put the good into vessels, but the bad they put away.

For no good tree gives bad fruit, and no bad tree gives good fruit.

But man, like the animals, does not go on for ever; he comes to an end like the beasts.

But these men, like beasts without reason, whose natural use is to be taken and put to death, crying out against things of which they have no knowledge, will undergo that same destruction which they are designing for others;

This is why their townsmen had no power, they were broken and put to shame; they were like the grass of the field and the green plant, like grass on the house-tops.

And I will send trouble on men so that they will go about like the blind, because they have done evil against the Lord: and their blood will be drained out like dust, and their strength like waste.

Let them be: they are blind guides. And if a blind man is guiding a blind man, the two will go falling into a hole together.

All of them are turned away, going about with false stories; they are brass and iron: they are all workers of deceit.

Son of man, the children of Israel have become like the poorest sort of waste metal to me: they are all silver and brass and tin and iron and lead mixed with waste.

In place of the thorn will come up the fir-tree, and in place of the blackberry the myrtle: and it will be to the Lord for a name, for an eternal sign which will not be cut off.

And you, son of man, have no fear of them or of their words, even if sharp thorns are round you and you are living among scorpions: have no fear of their words and do not be overcome by their looks, for they are an uncontrolled people.

A great herd of oxen is round me: I am shut in by the strong oxen of Bashan.

How frequently are they as dry stems before the wind, or as grass taken away by the storm-wind?

The evil-doers are not so; but are like the dust from the grain, which the wind takes away.

In whose hand is the instrument with which he will make clean his grain; he will put the good grain in his store, but the waste will be burned up in the fire which will never be put out.

Their poison is like the poison of a snake; they are like the adder, whose ears are shut;

Like a dog going back to the food which he has not been able to keep down, is the foolish man doing his foolish acts over again.

Do not give that which is holy to the dogs, or put your jewels before pigs, for fear that they will be crushed under foot by the pigs whose attack will then be made against you.

They are an example of that true saying, The dog has gone back to the food it had put out, and the pig which had been washed to its rolling in the dirty earth.

All the sinners of the earth are like waste metal in your eyes; and for this cause I give my love to your unchanging word.

Son of man, the children of Israel have become like the poorest sort of waste metal to me: they are all silver and brass and tin and iron and lead mixed with waste. For this cause the Lord has said: Because you have all become waste metal, see, I will get you together inside Jerusalem.

So they will be like the morning cloud, like the dew which goes early away, like the dust of the grain which the wind is driving out of the crushing-floor, like smoke going up from the fireplace.

For you will be like a tree whose leaves have become dry, and like a garden without water.

You will make them like a flaming oven before you; the Lord in his wrath will put an end to them, and they will be burned up in the fire.

They are all untrue; they are like a burning oven; the bread-maker does not make up the fire from the time when the paste is mixed till it is leavened.

They are round me like bees; but they are put out like a fire among thorns; for in the name of the Lord I will have them cut down.

And everyone to whom my words come and who does them not, will be like a foolish man who made his house on sand;

The land was dark with the wrath of the Lord of armies: the people were like those who take men's flesh for food.

And before him all the nations will come together; and they will be parted one from another, as the sheep are parted from the goats by the keeper.

For they will quickly be cut down like grass, and become dry like the green plants.

Because your wrath against me and your words of pride have come up to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my cord in your lips, and I will make you go back by the way you came.

I have seen the evil-doer in great power, covering the earth like a great tree.

I took note and gave ear, but no one said what is right: no man had regret for his evil-doing, saying, What have I done? everyone goes off on his way like a horse rushing to the fight.

Those who make them are like them; and so is everyone who puts his faith in them.

Let them be like smoke before the driving wind; as wax turning soft before the fire, so let them come to an end before the power of God.

See, the Lord God is my helper; who will give a decision against me? truly, all of them will become old like a robe; they will be food for the worm.

For like a coat they will be food for the insect, the worm will make a meal of them like wool: but my righteousness will be for ever, and my salvation to all generations.

When the storm-wind is past, the sinner is seen no longer, but the upright man is safe for ever.

Smooth lips and an evil heart are like a vessel of earth plated with silver waste.

They will be named waste silver, because the Lord has given them up.

You snakes, offspring of snakes, how will you be kept from the punishment of hell?

For he will be like the brushwood in the upland, and will not see when good comes; but his living-place will be in the dry places in the waste land, in a salt and unpeopled land.

And some of the seed went among the stones, where it had not much earth, and straight away it came up because the earth was not deep:

For see, the day is coming, it is burning like an oven; all the men of pride and all who do evil will be dry stems of grass: and in the day which is coming they will be burned up, says the Lord of armies, till they have not a root or a branch.

But the evil-doers are like the troubled sea, for which there is no rest, and its waters send up earth and waste.

He is gone like a dream, and is not seen again; he goes in flight like a vision of the night.

But what comparison may I make of this generation? It is like children seated in the market-places, crying out to one another,

These are fountains without water, and mists before a driving storm; for whom the eternal night is kept in store.

A curse is on you, scribes and Pharisees, false ones! for you are like the resting-places of the dead, which are made white, and seem beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men's bones and of all unclean things.

And so a hollow-minded man will get wisdom, when a young ass of the field gets teaching.