² (On the fifth of the month ^[a]in the ^(A)fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s exile, ³ the ^(B)word of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, son of Buzi, in the ^(C)land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and there ^(D)the hand of the Lord came upon him.)

⁴ Then He said to me, “Son of man, ^[a]go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them. ⁵ For ^(A)you are not being sent to a people of ^[b](B)unintelligible speech or difficult language, but to the house of Israel, ⁶ nor to many peoples of ^[c]unintelligible speech or difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. ^[d]But I have sent you to ^[e]the people who understand you; ⁷ yet the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, since they are ^(C)not willing to listen to Me. The entire house of Israel certainly is ^[f]stubborn and obstinate.

²⁶ Moreover, ^(A)I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be unable to speak and will not be a man who reprimands them, since they are a rebellious house. ²⁷ But ^(B)when I speak to you, I will open your mouth and you will say to them, ‘This is what the Lord ^[a]God says:’ The one who hears, let him hear; and the one who refuses, let him refuse; ^(C)for they are a rebellious house.

Siege of Jerusalem Predicted

4 “Now you, son of man, ^(A)get yourself a brick, place it before you, and inscribe a city on it—Jerusalem. ² Then ^(B)lay siege against it, build a siege wall, pile up an assault ramp, set up camps, and place battering rams against it all around. ³ Then get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city, and direct your face toward it so that ^(C)it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a ^(D)sign to the house of Israel.

⁴ “Then you are to lie down on your left side and put the wrongdoing of the house of Israel on it; you shall ^(E)bear their wrongdoing for the number of days that you lie on it. ⁵ For I have assigned you a number of days corresponding to the years of their wrongdoing, 390 days; so ^(F)you shall bear the wrongdoing of the house of Israel. ⁶ When you have completed these days, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the wrongdoing of the house of Judah; I have assigned it to you for forty days, a day for ^(G)each year. ⁷ Then you shall direct your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared, and ^(H)prophesy against it.

Defiled Bread

⁹ “But as for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and ^(A)spelt, and put them in one vessel and make them into bread for yourself; you shall eat it according to the number of the days that you lie on your side, 390 days. ¹⁰ Your food which you eat shall be ^(B)twenty shekels a day by weight; you shall eat it from time to time. ¹¹ The water you drink shall be a ^[a]sixth of a hin by measure; you shall drink it from time to time. ¹² You shall eat it as a barley cake, having baked it in their sight over human ^(C)dung.” ¹³ Then the Lord said, “In this way the sons of Israel will eat their bread ^(D)unclean among the nations where I will scatter them.”

¹⁵ Then He said to me, “See, I will give you cow’s dung in place of human dung, so that you may prepare your bread over it.”

¹⁷ because bread and water will be scarce; and they will tremble with one another and ^(A)waste away in their guilt.

⁸ “However, I will leave a ^(A)remnant, in that you will have those who ^(B)escaped the sword among the nations when you are scattered among the countries. ⁹ Then those of you who escape will ^(C)remember Me among the nations to which they will be taken captive, how I have ^[a](D)been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me, and by their eyes which committed infidelity with their idols; and they will ^(E)loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed, for all their abominations.