Jerusalem’s siege

4 You, human one, take a brick. Put it in front of you and draw the city of Jerusalem on it. ² Prepare the siege: Build a wall, construct ramps, set up army camps, and place battering rams all around. ³ Take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. Face it directly. When it is under siege like this, press hard against it. This is a sign for the house of Israel.

⁴ Now, lie on your left side, and set the guilt of the house of Israel on it. For the length of time that you lie on your side, you will bear their punishment. ⁵ I appoint to you three hundred ninety days, one day for each year of their guilt. So you will bear the punishment of the house of Israel. ⁶ When you have completed these days, lie on your right side to bear the guilt of the house of Judah. I appoint forty days to you, one day for each year. ⁷ With your arm stretched out, face the siege of Jerusalem directly and prophesy against it. ⁸ I’ve now bound you with cords so that you can’t turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.

⁹ You, gather some wheat and barley, beans and lentils, and millet and spelt. Put them in a bowl and make your bread from them. Eat it during the three hundred ninety days that you lie on your side. ¹⁰ At fixed times you will eat your food by weight, fourteen ounces a day.^{[a] 11} You will also ration your water by measure, drinking a sixth of a hin^[b] at fixed times each day. ¹² Eat it like barley bread, and bake it on human excrement while they watch. ¹³ The Lord says: In this same way the Israelites will eat their unclean bread among the nations where I am scattering them.

¹⁴ And I said: “Ah, Lord God! I’ve never been unclean! From my childhood until now I’ve never eaten anything that wasn’t properly slaughtered,^[c] and no unclean meat has ever entered my mouth!”

¹⁵ He answered me: “Then I’ll let you use cow dung instead of human excrement. You can make your bread over that.”

¹⁶ Then he said to me: Human one, I’m destroying the food supply in Jerusalem. They will anxiously ration and eat their food, and in dismay they will dole out and drink their water. ¹⁷ When their food and water dwindles away, everyone will be horrified, and they will waste away because of their guilt.

5 You, human one, take a sharp sword. Use it like a razor and shave your head and beard. Then use scales to divide the hair. ² At the end of the siege, burn one-third of it in the city. Strike another third with the sword left and right. Then scatter one-third to the wind and let loose^[d] the sword after it. ³ From that third, take a few strands and hide them in your garment. ⁴ From that hair, take yet another batch and throw it into the fire and burn it up. From there, fire will spread to the whole house of Israel.

⁵ The Lord God proclaims: This is Jerusalem! I have set her in the middle of the nations and surrounding countries. ⁶ But she rebelled against my case laws and my regulations with greater treachery than these nations and surrounding countries, who also rejected my case laws and didn’t follow my regulations. ⁷ Therefore, the Lord God proclaims: You have become more turbulent than these nations around you because you haven’t obeyed my regulations or followed my case laws. You haven’t even followed the case laws of the nations around you! ⁸ So now the Lord God proclaims: I myself am now against you! I will impose the case law penalties on you in the sight of the nations. ⁹ Because of you, I will do what I’ve never done before and will never do again—all because of your detestable practices. ¹⁰ Therefore, parents among you will eat their children, and children will eat their parents. I will impose penalties from case laws on you and scatter all that is left of you to the winds. ¹¹ Therefore, as surely as I live, this is what the Lord God says: Because you made my sanctuary unclean with all your disgusting practices and detestable things, I myself will shave you. I will not shed a tear. You will have no compassion, even from me. ¹² One-third of you will die of plague and waste away by famine among you. One-third will fall by the sword all around you. And one-third I will scatter to all the winds, letting loose a sword to pursue them. ¹³ My anger will be complete. I will exhaust my wrath against them and take my revenge. Then they will know that I, the Lord, have spoken against them in my zeal and consumed them in my wrath. ¹⁴ I will turn you into a desolation to the ridicule of the nations all around you, in the sight of all who pass by. ¹⁵ You will become an object of ridicule, a mockery, and a horrifying lesson to the nations all around you, when I impose penalties from case laws against you in anger, wrath, and overflowing fury. I, the Lord, have spoken. ¹⁶ When I launch my deadly arrows of famine against you, I have released them for your destruction! I will add to your famine and completely cut off your food supply. ¹⁷ I will send famine and wild animals against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will come to you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken.

Baggage for exile

12 The Lord’s word came to me: ² Human one, you live in a household of rebels. They have eyes to see but they don’t see, ears to hear but they don’t hear, because they are a household of rebels. ³ But you, human one, prepare a backpack for going into exile. In the daytime while they watch, go into exile; while they watch, go out from your place to another. Even though they are a household of rebels, perhaps they will understand. ⁴ In the daytime while they watch, carry your backpack as if for exile. At twilight while they watch, go out like those who are led out to exile. ⁵ While they watch, dig a hole through the wall and take your backpack out through it. ⁶ While they watch, shoulder your backpack and carry it out in the dark. Cover your face so that you can’t see the land, because I’m making you a sign for the house of Israel. ⁷ So I did as I was commanded. I carried out my backpack like an exile’s backpack in the daytime. At night I dug a hole through the wall with my hands. In the darkness, I shouldered my backpack and carried it out while they watched.

⁸ In the morning, the Lord’s word came to me: ⁹ Human one, has the house of Israel, that household of rebels, asked you, “What are you doing?” ¹⁰ Say to them, The Lord God proclaims: This concerns the prince in Jerusalem, along with the entire house of Israel in it.^{[a] 11} Say: I’m your sign. Just as I have done, so it will be done to them. They will go into captivity in exile. ¹² Their prince will shoulder his backpack at night and go out. They will dig through the wall to lead him out through it, and he will cover his face so that his eyes won’t see the land. ¹³ But I will spread my net over him, catch him in my trap, and bring him to Babylon, to the land of the Chaldeans. He won’t see it, but he will die there. ¹⁴ As for all those who are in league with him, I will scatter his helpers and all his troops to the winds and let the sword loose after them. ¹⁵ They will know that I am the Lord when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands. ¹⁶ But I will preserve a few of their number from the sword, famine, and plague, so that they may confess all their detestable practices among the nations where they go. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

¹⁷ The Lord’s word came to me: ¹⁸ Human one, eat your bread in trembling, and drink your water in anxious agitation. ¹⁹ Say to the land’s people, The Lord God proclaims to those living in Jerusalem regarding Israel’s fertile land: As they anxiously eat up their bread and drink up their water in dismay, the land will be emptied of everything in it because of the violence of all who live there. ²⁰ The inhabited cities will be laid waste, the land left desolate, and you will know that I am the Lord.

Ezekiel’s wife dies

¹⁵ The Lord’s word came to me: ¹⁶ Human one, I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you in a single stroke. Don’t mourn or weep. Don’t even let your tears well up. ¹⁷ Sigh inwardly; be deathly still. Don’t perform mourning rites, but bind on your turban and put your shoes on your feet. And don’t cover your upper lip or eat in human company.

¹⁸ I spoke with the people in the morning, and by evening my wife was dead. The next morning I did as I was commanded. ¹⁹ The people asked, “Won’t you tell us what your actions mean for us?”

²⁰ So I said to them, The Lord’s word came to me: ²¹ Say to the house of Israel, the Lord God proclaims: I’m about to make my sanctuary impure, the pride of your strength, the delight of your eyes. Your heart’s desire, the sons and daughters you left behind, will fall by the sword. ²² You will do as I have done. You will neither cover your upper lip nor eat in human company. ²³ Your turbans will be on your heads, your sandals on your feet. You won’t mourn or weep. You will waste away in your guilt, all of you groaning to each other. ²⁴ Ezekiel is your sign. You will do everything that he has done. When this happens, you will know that I am the Lord God.

²⁵ And you, human one: On the day that I take from them their proud stronghold—their crowning joy, the delight of their eyes—and their sons and daughters, whose fate weighs on them, ²⁶ on that day, a refugee will come to you so that you yourself will hear the news. ²⁷ On that day your mouth will be opened to the refugee, and you will speak and no longer be silent. You will be their sign, and they will know that I am the Lord.

Divided kingdom united

¹⁵ The Lord’s word came to me: ¹⁶ You, human one, take a stick, and write on it, “Belonging to Judah and to the Israelites associated with him.” Take another stick and write on it, “Stick of Ephraim belonging to Joseph and everyone of the house of Israel associated with him.” ¹⁷ Join them to each other to make a single stick so that they become one stick in your hand. ¹⁸ When your people ask you, “Why won’t you tell us what these sticks mean to you?” ¹⁹ say to them, The Lord God proclaims: I’m taking Joseph’s stick, which has been in Ephraim’s hand, and the tribes of Israel associated with him, and I’m putting it with Judah’s stick, and I’m making them into a single stick so that they will be one stick in my hand. ²⁰ When the two sticks that you’ve written on are in your hand in their sight, ²¹ speak to them, This is what the Lord God says: I will take the Israelites from among the nations where they’ve gone, I will gather them from all around, and I will bring them to their fertile land. ²² I will make them into a single nation in the land on Israel’s highlands. There will be just one king for all of them. They will no longer be two nations, and they will no longer be divided into two kingdoms. ²³ They will no longer defile themselves with their idols or their worthless things or with any of their rebellions. I will deliver them from all the places where they sinned, and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God. ²⁴ My servant David will be king over them. There will be just one shepherd for all of them. They will follow my case laws and carefully observe my regulations. ²⁵ They will live on the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where their ancestors lived. They will live on it, they and their children and their grandchildren, forever. My servant David will be their prince forever. ²⁶ I will make a covenant of peace for them. It will be their covenant forever. I will grant it to them and allow them to increase. I will set my sanctuary among them forever. ²⁷ My dwelling will be with them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. ²⁸ The nations will know that I, the Lord, make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever.