The Responsibility of the Prophet

3 Moreover He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find; ^(A)eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” ² So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat that scroll.

³ And He said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly, and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you.” So I ^(B)ate, and it was in my mouth ^(C)like honey in sweetness.

⁴ Then He said to me: “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them. ⁵ For you are not sent to a people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, but to the house of Israel, ⁶ not to many people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, ^(D)had I sent you to them, they would have listened to you. ⁷ But the house of Israel will not listen to you, ^(E)because they will not listen to Me; ^(F)for all the house of Israel are ^[a]impudent and hard-hearted. ⁸ Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads. ^9 (G)Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; ^(H)do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.”

¹⁰ Moreover He said to me: “Son of man, receive into your heart all My words that I speak to you, and hear with your ears. ¹¹ And go, get to the captives, to the children of your people, and speak to them and tell them, ^(I)‘Thus says the Lord God,’ whether they hear, or whether they refuse.”

¹² Then ^(J)the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a great thunderous voice: “Blessed is the ^(K)glory of the Lord from His place!” ¹³ I also heard the ^(L)noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels beside them, and a great thunderous noise. ¹⁴ So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the ^[b]heat of my spirit; but ^(M)the hand of the Lord was strong upon me. ¹⁵ Then I came to the captives at Tel Abib, who dwelt by the River Chebar; and ^(N)I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days.

Ezekiel Is a Watchman

¹⁶ Now it ^(O)came to pass at the end of seven days that the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ^17 (P)“Son of man, I have made you ^(Q)a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them ^(R)warning from Me: ¹⁸ When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man ^(S)shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. ¹⁹ Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; ^(T)but you have delivered your soul.

²⁰ “Again, when a ^(U)righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you did not give him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. ²¹ Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man that the righteous should not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; also you will have delivered your soul.”

^22 (V)Then the hand of the Lord was upon me there, and He said to me, “Arise, go out ^(W)into the plain, and there I shall talk with you.”

²³ So I arose and went out into the plain, and behold, ^(X)the glory of the Lord stood there, like the glory which I ^(Y)saw by the River Chebar; ^(Z)and I fell on my face. ²⁴ Then ^(AA)the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet, and spoke with me and said to me: “Go, shut yourself inside your house. ²⁵ And you, O son of man, surely ^(AB)they will put ropes on you and bind you with them, so that you cannot go out among them. ^26 (AC)I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth, so that you shall be mute and ^(AD)not be ^[c]one to rebuke them, ^(AE)for they are a rebellious house. ^27 (AF)But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, ^(AG)‘Thus says the Lord God.’ He who hears, let him hear; and he who refuses, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.

The Siege of Jerusalem Portrayed

4 “You also, son of man, take a clay tablet and lay it before you, and portray on it a city, Jerusalem. ^2 (AH)Lay siege against it, build a ^(AI)siege wall against it, and heap up a mound against it; set camps against it also, and place battering rams against it all around. ³ Moreover take for yourself an iron plate, and set it as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face against it, and it shall be ^(AJ)besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. ^(AK)This will be a sign to the house of Israel.

⁴ “Lie also on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it. According to the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity. ⁵ For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days; ^(AL)so you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. ⁶ And when you have completed them, lie again on your right side; then you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days. I have laid on you a day for each year.

⁷ “Therefore you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem; your arm shall be uncovered, and you shall prophesy against it. ^8 (AM)And surely I will ^[d]restrain you so that you cannot turn from one side to another till you have ended the days of your siege.

⁹ “Also take for yourself wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them into one vessel, and make bread of them for yourself. During the number of days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days, you shall eat it. ¹⁰ And your food which you eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; from time to time you shall eat it. ¹¹ You shall also drink water by measure, one-sixth of a hin; from time to time you shall drink. ¹² And you shall eat it as barley cakes; and bake it using fuel of human waste in their sight.”

¹³ Then the Lord said, “So ^(AN)shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, where I will drive them.”

¹⁴ So I said, ^(AO)“Ah, Lord God! Indeed I have never defiled myself from my youth till now; I have never eaten ^(AP)what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has ^(AQ)abominable^[e] flesh ever come into my mouth.”

¹⁵ Then He said to me, “See, I am giving you cow dung instead of human waste, and you shall prepare your bread over it.”

¹⁶ Moreover He said to me, “Son of man, surely I will cut off the ^(AR)supply of bread in Jerusalem; they shall ^(AS)eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and shall ^(AT)drink water by measure and with dread, ¹⁷ that they may lack bread and water, and be dismayed with one another, and ^(AU)waste away because of their iniquity.

A Sword Against Jerusalem

5 “And you, son of man, take a sharp sword, take it as a barber’s razor, ^(AV)and pass it over your head and your beard; then take scales to weigh and divide the hair. ^2 (AW)You shall burn with fire one-third in the midst of ^(AX)the city, when ^(AY)the days of the siege are finished; then you shall take one-third and strike around it with the sword, and one-third you shall scatter in the wind: I will draw out a sword after ^(AZ)them. ^3 (BA)You shall also take a small number of them and bind them in the edge of your garment. ⁴ Then take some of them again and ^(BB)throw them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will go out into all the house of Israel.

⁵ “Thus says the Lord God: ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations and the countries all around her. ⁶ She has rebelled against My judgments by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are all around her; for they have refused My judgments, and they have not walked in My statutes.’ ⁷ Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Because you have ^[f]multiplied disobedience more than the nations that are all around you, have not walked in My statutes ^(BC)nor kept My judgments, ^[g]nor even done according to the judgments of the nations that are all around you’— ⁸ therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Indeed I, even I, am against you and will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. ^9 (BD)And I will do among you what I have never done, and the like of which I will never do again, because of all your abominations. ¹⁰ Therefore fathers ^(BE)shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments among you, and all of you who remain I will ^(BF)scatter to all the winds.

¹¹ ‘Therefore, as I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘surely, because you have ^(BG)defiled My sanctuary with all your ^(BH)detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you; ^(BI)My eye will not spare, nor will I have any pity. ^12 (BJ)One-third of you shall die of the pestilence, and be consumed with famine in your midst; and one-third shall fall by the sword all around you; and ^(BK)I will scatter another third to all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after ^(BL)them.

¹³ ‘Thus shall My anger ^(BM)be spent, and I will ^(BN)cause My fury to rest upon them, ^(BO)and I will be avenged; ^(BP)and they shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it in My zeal, when I have spent My fury upon them. ¹⁴ Moreover ^(BQ)I will make you a waste and a reproach among the nations that are all around you, in the sight of all who pass by.

¹⁵ ‘So ^[h]it shall be a ^(BR)reproach, a taunt, a ^(BS)lesson, and an astonishment to the nations that are all around you, when I execute judgments among you in anger and in fury and in ^(BT)furious rebukes. I, the Lord, have spoken. ¹⁶ When I ^(BU)send against them the terrible arrows of famine which shall be for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, I will increase the famine upon you and cut off your ^(BV)supply of bread. ¹⁷ So I will send against you famine and ^(BW)wild beasts, and they will bereave you. ^(BX)Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken.’ ”