Jerusalem’s Siege Dramatized

4 “Now you, son of man, take a brick, set it in front of you, and draw the city of Jerusalem on it. ² Then lay siege against it:^(A) construct a siege wall, build a ramp, pitch military camps, and place battering rams against it on all sides. ³ Take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city. Turn your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a sign for the house of Israel.^(B)

⁴ “Then lie down on your left side and place the iniquity^[a] of the house of Israel on it. You will bear their iniquity for the number of days you lie on your side. ⁵ For I have assigned you the years of their iniquity according to the number of days you lie down, 390 days; so you will bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.^{(C) 6} When you have completed these days, lie down again, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah. I have assigned you 40 days, a day for each year. ⁷ You must turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared, and prophesy against it. ⁸ Be aware that I will put cords on you so you cannot turn from side to side until you have finished the days of your siege.^(D)

⁹ “Also take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt. Put them in a single container and make them into bread for yourself. You are to eat it during the number of days you lie on your side, 390 days. ¹⁰ The food you eat each day will be eight ounces^[b] by weight; you will eat it from time to time.^{[c] 11} You are also to drink water by measure, a sixth of a gallon,^[d] which you will drink from time to time. ¹² You will eat it as you would a barley cake and bake it over dried human excrement in their sight.” ¹³ The Lord said, “This is how the Israelites will eat their bread—ceremonially unclean—among the nations where I will banish them.”^(E)

¹⁴ But I said, “Oh, Lord God, I have never been defiled. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything that died naturally or was mauled by wild beasts.^(F) And impure meat has never entered my mouth.”^(G)

¹⁵ He replied to me, “Look, I will let you use cow dung instead of human excrement, and you can make your bread over that.” ¹⁶ Then He said to me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of bread in Jerusalem.^(H) They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight and in dread drink water by measure.^{(I) 17} So they will lack bread and water; everyone will be devastated and waste away because of their iniquity.^(J)

Ezekiel Dramatizes Jerusalem’s Fall

5 “Now you, son of man, take a sharp sword,^(K) use it as you would a barber’s razor, and shave your head and beard. Then take a set of scales and divide the hair. ² You are to burn up a third of it in the city when the days of the siege have ended;^(L) you are to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind, for I will draw a sword to chase after them. ³ But you are to take a few strands from the hair and secure them in the folds of your robe.^{(M) 4} Take some more of them, throw them into the fire, and burn them in it.^(N) A fire will spread from it to the whole house of Israel.

⁵ “This is what the Lord God says: I have set this Jerusalem in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. ⁶ But she has rebelled against My ordinances with more wickedness than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that surround her. For her people have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.

⁷ “Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: Because you have been more insubordinate than the nations around you^(O)—you have not walked in My statutes or kept My ordinances; you have not even kept the ordinances of the nations around you— ⁸ therefore, this is what the Lord God says: See, I am against you, Jerusalem, and I will execute judgments within you in the sight of the nations. ⁹ Because of all your detestable practices, I will do to you what I have never done before and what I will never do again.^{(P) 10} As a result, fathers will eat their sons^(Q) within Jerusalem,^[e] and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your survivors to every direction of the wind.

¹¹ “Therefore, as I live”—this is the declaration of the Lord God—“I am going to cut you off and show you no pity, because you have defiled My sanctuary^(R) with all your detestable practices and abominations.^(S) Yes, I will not spare you. ¹² A third of your people will die by plague and be consumed by famine within you;^(T) a third will fall by the sword all around you; and I will scatter a third to every direction of the wind, and I will draw a sword to chase after them.^{(U) 13} When My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath on them, I will be appeased.^(V) Then after I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in My jealousy.^(W)

¹⁴ “I will make you a ruin and a disgrace among the nations around you, in the sight of everyone who passes by. ¹⁵ So you^[f] will be a disgrace and a taunt, a warning and a horror, to the nations around you when I execute judgments against you in anger,^(X) wrath, and furious rebukes. I, Yahweh, have spoken. ¹⁶ When I shoot deadly arrows of famine at them, arrows for destruction that I will send to destroy you, inhabitants of Jerusalem, I will intensify the famine against you and cut off your supply of bread. ¹⁷ I will send famine and dangerous animals against you. They will leave you childless, Jerusalem. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, Yahweh, have spoken.”^(Y)

Prophecy against Israel’s Idolatry

6 The word of the Lord came to me: ² “Son of man, turn your face toward the mountains of Israel^(Z) and prophesy against them. ³ You are to say: Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! This is what the Lord God says to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.^{(AA) 4} Your altars will be desolated and your incense altars smashed. I will throw down your slain in front of your idols. ⁵ I will lay the corpses of the Israelites in front of their idols and scatter your bones around your altars. ⁶ Wherever you live the cities will be in ruins and the high places will be desolate, so that your altars will lie in ruins and be desecrated,^[g] your idols smashed and obliterated, your incense altars cut down, and your works wiped out. ⁷ The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am Yahweh.

⁸ “Yet I will leave a remnant when you are scattered among the nations, for throughout the countries there will be some of you who will escape the sword.^{(AB) 9} Then your survivors will remember Me among the nations where they are taken captive,^(AC) how I was crushed by their promiscuous hearts that turned away from Me and by their eyes that lusted after their idols.^(AD) They will loathe themselves because of the evil things they did,^(AE) their detestable practices of every kind. ¹⁰ And they will know that I am the Lord; I did not threaten to bring this disaster on them without a reason.

Lament over the Fall of Jerusalem

¹¹ “This is what the Lord God says: Clap your hands, stamp your feet,^(AF) and cry out over all the evil and detestable practices of the house of Israel, who will fall by the sword, famine, and plague.^{(AG) 12} The one who is far off will die by plague; the one who is near will fall by the sword; and the one who remains and is spared^[h] will die of famine. In this way I will exhaust My wrath on them.^{(AH) 13} You will all know that I am Yahweh when their slain lie among their idols around their altars,^(AI) on every high hill,^(AJ) on all the mountaintops, and under every green tree and every leafy oak—the places where they offered pleasing aromas to all their idols. ¹⁴ I will stretch out My hand against them,^(AK) and wherever they live I will make the land a desolate waste, from the wilderness to Diblah.^[i] Then they will know that I am Yahweh.”

Announcement of the End

7 And the word of the Lord came to me: ² “Son of man, this is what the Lord God says to the land of Israel:

⁵ This is what the Lord God says:

Paul Defends His Gospel at Jerusalem

2 Then after 14 years I went up again^(A) to Jerusalem with Barnabas,^(B) taking Titus^(C) along also. ² I went up according to a revelation^(D) and presented to them the gospel I preach among the Gentiles—but privately to those recognized as leaders—so that I might not be running, or have run the race, in vain. ³ But not even Titus who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. ⁴ This issue arose because of false brothers^(E) smuggled in, who came in secretly to spy on the freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, in order to enslave us. ⁵ But we did not give up and submit to these people for even an hour, so that the truth^(F) of the gospel would be preserved for you.

⁶ Now from those recognized as important (what they really were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism^[a](G))—they added nothing to me. ⁷ On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised,^(H) just as Peter^(I) was for the circumcised, ⁸ since the One at work in Peter for an apostleship to the circumcised was also at work in me for the Gentiles. ⁹ When James,^(J) Cephas,^(K) and John,^(L) recognized as pillars,^(M) acknowledged the grace that had been given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to me and Barnabas, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. ¹⁰ They asked only that we would remember the poor,^(N) which I made every effort to do.

Freedom from the Law

¹¹ But when Cephas^[b] came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.^{[c] 12} For he regularly ate with the Gentiles before certain men came from James. However, when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, because he feared those from the circumcision party. ¹³ Then the rest of the Jews^(O) joined his hypocrisy,^(P) so that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. ¹⁴ But when I saw that they were deviating from the truth of the gospel, I told Cephas^[d] in front of everyone, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile^(Q) and not like a Jew,^(R) how can you compel Gentiles to live^(S) like Jews?”^[e]

¹⁵ We who are Jews by birth and not “Gentile sinners” ¹⁶ know that no one is justified by the works of the law^(T) but by faith in Jesus Christ.^[f] And we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we might be justified by faith in Christ^[g] and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will^[h] be justified. ¹⁷ But if we ourselves are also found to be “sinners” while seeking to be justified by Christ,^(U) is Christ then a promoter^[i](V) of sin? Absolutely not!^{(W) 18} If I rebuild^(X) the system^[j] I tore down, I show myself to be a lawbreaker.^{(Y) 19} For through the law I have died to the law,^(Z) so that I might live for God.^(AA) I have been crucified with Christ^{[k] 20} and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.^(AB) The life I now live in the body,^[l] I live by faith in the Son of God,^(AC) who loved^(AD) me^(AE) and gave Himself^(AF) for me.^{(AG) 21} I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law,^(AH) then Christ died^(AI) for nothing.