Font Size
Ezekiel 3:16-6:14
New Living Translation
Ezekiel 3:16-6:14
New Living Translation
A Watchman for Israel
16 After seven days the Lord gave me a message. He said, 17 “Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for Israel. Whenever you receive a message from me, warn people immediately. 18 If I warn the wicked, saying, ‘You are under the penalty of death,’ but you fail to deliver the warning, they will die in their sins. And I will hold you responsible for their deaths. 19 If you warn them and they refuse to repent and keep on sinning, they will die in their sins. But you will have saved yourself because you obeyed me.
20 “If righteous people turn away from their righteous behavior and ignore the obstacles I put in their way, they will die. And if you do not warn them, they will die in their sins. None of their righteous acts will be remembered, and I will hold you responsible for their deaths. 21 But if you warn righteous people not to sin and they listen to you and do not sin, they will live, and you will have saved yourself, too.”
22 Then the Lord took hold of me and said, “Get up and go out into the valley, and I will speak to you there.” 23 So I got up and went, and there I saw the glory of the Lord, just as I had seen in my first vision by the Kebar River. And I fell face down on the ground.
24 Then the Spirit came into me and set me on my feet. He spoke to me and said, “Go to your house and shut yourself in. 25 There, son of man, you will be tied with ropes so you cannot go out among the people. 26 And I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be speechless and unable to rebuke them, for they are rebels. 27 But when I give you a message, I will loosen your tongue and let you speak. Then you will say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says!’ Those who choose to listen will listen, but those who refuse will refuse, for they are rebels.
A Sign of the Coming Siege
4 “And now, son of man, take a large clay brick and set it down in front of you. Then draw a map of the city of Jerusalem on it. 2 Show the city under siege. Build a wall around it so no one can escape. Set up the enemy camp, and surround the city with siege ramps and battering rams. 3 Then take an iron griddle and place it between you and the city. Turn toward the city and demonstrate how harsh the siege will be against Jerusalem. This will be a warning to the people of Israel.
4 “Now lie on your left side and place the sins of Israel on yourself. You are to bear their sins for the number of days you lie there on your side. 5 I am requiring you to bear Israel’s sins for 390 days—one day for each year of their sin. 6 After that, turn over and lie on your right side for 40 days—one day for each year of Judah’s sin.
7 “Meanwhile, keep staring at the siege of Jerusalem. Lie there with your arm bared and prophesy her destruction. 8 I will tie you up with ropes so you won’t be able to turn from side to side until the days of your siege have been completed.
9 “Now go and get some wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and emmer wheat, and mix them together in a storage jar. Use them to make bread for yourself during the 390 days you will be lying on your side. 10 Ration this out to yourself, eight ounces[a] of food for each day, and eat it at set times. 11 Then measure out a jar[b] of water for each day, and drink it at set times. 12 Prepare and eat this food as you would barley cakes. While all the people are watching, bake it over a fire using dried human dung as fuel and then eat the bread.” 13 Then the Lord said, “This is how Israel will eat defiled bread in the Gentile lands to which I will banish them!”
14 Then I said, “O Sovereign Lord, must I be defiled by using human dung? For I have never been defiled before. From the time I was a child until now I have never eaten any animal that died of sickness or was killed by other animals. I have never eaten any meat forbidden by the law.”
15 “All right,” the Lord said. “You may bake your bread with cow dung instead of human dung.” 16 Then he told me, “Son of man, I will make food very scarce in Jerusalem. It will be weighed out with great care and eaten fearfully. The water will be rationed out drop by drop, and the people will drink it with dismay. 17 Lacking food and water, people will look at one another in terror, and they will waste away under their punishment.
A Sign of the Coming Judgment
5 “Son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a razor to shave your head and beard. Use a scale to weigh the hair into three equal parts. 2 Place a third of it at the center of your map of Jerusalem. After acting out the siege, burn it there. Scatter another third across your map and chop it with a sword. Scatter the last third to the wind, for I will scatter my people with the sword. 3 Keep just a bit of the hair and tie it up in your robe. 4 Then take some of these hairs out and throw them into the fire, burning them up. A fire will then spread from this remnant and destroy all of Israel.
5 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: This is an illustration of what will happen to Jerusalem. I placed her at the center of the nations, 6 but she has rebelled against my regulations and decrees and has been even more wicked than the surrounding nations. She has refused to obey the regulations and decrees I gave her to follow.
7 “Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: You people have behaved worse than your neighbors and have refused to obey my decrees and regulations. You have not even lived up to the standards of the nations around you. 8 Therefore, I myself, the Sovereign Lord, am now your enemy. I will punish you publicly while all the nations watch. 9 Because of your detestable idols, I will punish you like I have never punished anyone before or ever will again. 10 Parents will eat their own children, and children will eat their parents. I will punish you and scatter to the winds the few who survive.
11 “As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, I will cut you off completely. I will show you no pity at all because you have defiled my Temple with your vile images and detestable sins. 12 A third of your people will die in the city from disease and famine. A third of them will be slaughtered by the enemy outside the city walls. And I will scatter a third to the winds, chasing them with my sword. 13 Then at last my anger will be spent, and I will be satisfied. And when my fury against them has subsided, all Israel will know that I, the Lord, have spoken to them in my jealous anger.
14 “So I will turn you into a ruin, a mockery in the eyes of the surrounding nations and to all who pass by. 15 You will become an object of mockery and taunting and horror. You will be a warning to all the nations around you. They will see what happens when the Lord punishes a nation in anger and rebukes it, says the Lord.
16 “I will shower you with the deadly arrows of famine to destroy you. The famine will become more and more severe until every crumb of food is gone. 17 And along with the famine, wild animals will attack you and rob you of your children. Disease and war will stalk your land, and I will bring the sword of the enemy against you. I, the Lord, have spoken!”
Judgment against Israel’s Mountains
6 Again a message came to me from the Lord: 2 “Son of man, turn and face the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them. 3 Proclaim this message from the Sovereign Lord against the mountains of Israel. This is what the Sovereign Lord says to the mountains and hills and to the ravines and valleys: I am about to bring war upon you, and I will smash your pagan shrines. 4 All your altars will be demolished, and your places of worship will be destroyed. I will kill your people in front of your idols.[c] 5 I will lay your corpses in front of your idols and scatter your bones around your altars. 6 Wherever you live there will be desolation, and I will destroy your pagan shrines. Your altars will be demolished, your idols will be smashed, your places of worship will be torn down, and all the religious objects you have made will be destroyed. 7 The place will be littered with corpses, and you will know that I alone am the Lord.
8 “But I will let a few of my people escape destruction, and they will be scattered among the nations of the world. 9 Then when they are exiled among the nations, they will remember me. They will recognize how hurt I am by their unfaithful hearts and lustful eyes that long for their idols. Then at last they will hate themselves for all their detestable sins. 10 They will know that I alone am the Lord and that I was serious when I said I would bring this calamity on them.
11 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Clap your hands in horror, and stamp your feet. Cry out because of all the detestable sins the people of Israel have committed. Now they are going to die from war and famine and disease. 12 Disease will strike down those who are far away in exile. War will destroy those who are nearby. And anyone who survives will be killed by famine. So at last I will spend my fury on them. 13 They will know that I am the Lord when their dead lie scattered among their idols and altars on every hill and mountain and under every green tree and every great shade tree—the places where they offered sacrifices to their idols. 14 I will crush them and make their cities desolate from the wilderness in the south to Riblah[d] in the north. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”
Ezekiel 3:16-6:14
New International Version
Ezekiel 3:16-6:14
New International Version
Ezekiel’s Task as Watchman
16 At the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me:(A) 17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman(B) for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me.(C) 18 When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,(D)’ and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for[a] their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood.(E) 19 But if you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn(F) from their wickedness(G) or from their evil ways, they will die(H) for their sin; but you will have saved yourself.(I)
20 “Again, when a righteous person turns(J) from their righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block(K) before them, they will die. Since you did not warn them, they will die for their sin. The righteous things that person did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for their blood.(L) 21 But if you do warn the righteous person not to sin and they do not sin, they will surely live because they took warning, and you will have saved yourself.(M)”
22 The hand of the Lord(N) was on me there, and he said to me, “Get up and go(O) out to the plain,(P) and there I will speak to you.” 23 So I got up and went out to the plain. And the glory of the Lord was standing there, like the glory I had seen by the Kebar River,(Q) and I fell facedown.(R)
24 Then the Spirit came into me and raised me(S) to my feet. He spoke to me and said: “Go, shut yourself inside your house.(T) 25 And you, son of man, they will tie with ropes; you will be bound so that you cannot go out among the people.(U) 26 I will make your tongue stick to the roof(V) of your mouth so that you will be silent and unable to rebuke them, for they are a rebellious people.(W) 27 But when I speak to you, I will open your mouth and you shall say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says.’(X) Whoever will listen let them listen, and whoever will refuse let them refuse; for they are a rebellious people.(Y)
Siege of Jerusalem Symbolized
4 “Now, son of man, take a block of clay, put it in front of you and draw the city of Jerusalem on it. 2 Then lay siege to it: Erect siege works against it, build a ramp(Z) up to it, set up camps against it and put battering rams around it.(AA) 3 Then take an iron pan,(AB) place it as an iron wall between you and the city and turn your face toward(AC) it. It will be under siege, and you shall besiege it. This will be a sign(AD) to the people of Israel.(AE)
4 “Then lie on your left side and put the sin of the people of Israel upon yourself.[b] You are to bear their sin for the number of days you lie on your side. 5 I have assigned you the same number of days as the years of their sin. So for 390 days you will bear the sin of the people of Israel.
6 “After you have finished this, lie down again, this time on your right side, and bear the sin(AF) of the people of Judah. I have assigned you 40 days, a day for each year.(AG) 7 Turn your face(AH) toward the siege of Jerusalem and with bared arm prophesy against her. 8 I will tie you up with ropes so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have finished the days of your siege.(AI)
9 “Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt;(AJ) put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself. You are to eat it during the 390 days you lie on your side. 10 Weigh out twenty shekels[c](AK) of food to eat each day and eat it at set times. 11 Also measure out a sixth of a hin[d] of water and drink it at set times.(AL) 12 Eat the food as you would a loaf of barley bread; bake it in the sight of the people, using human excrement(AM) for fuel.” 13 The Lord said, “In this way the people of Israel will eat defiled food among the nations where I will drive them.”(AN)
14 Then I said, “Not so, Sovereign Lord!(AO) I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have never eaten anything found dead(AP) or torn by wild animals. No impure meat has ever entered my mouth.(AQ)”
15 “Very well,” he said, “I will let you bake your bread over cow dung instead of human excrement.”
16 He then said to me: “Son of man, I am about to cut off(AR) the food supply in Jerusalem. The people will eat rationed food in anxiety and drink rationed water in despair,(AS) 17 for food and water will be scarce.(AT) They will be appalled at the sight of each other and will waste away because of[e] their sin.(AU)
God’s Razor of Judgment
5 “Now, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor(AV) to shave(AW) your head and your beard.(AX) Then take a set of scales and divide up the hair. 2 When the days of your siege come to an end, burn(AY) a third(AZ) of the hair inside the city. Take a third and strike it with the sword all around the city. And scatter a third to the wind.(BA) For I will pursue them with drawn sword.(BB) 3 But take a few hairs and tuck them away in the folds of your garment.(BC) 4 Again, take a few of these and throw them into the fire(BD) and burn them up. A fire will spread from there to all Israel.
5 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.(BE) 6 Yet in her wickedness she has rebelled against my laws and decrees more than the nations and countries around her. She has rejected my laws and has not followed my decrees.(BF)
7 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: You have been more unruly than the nations around you and have not followed my decrees or kept my laws. You have not even[f] conformed to the standards of the nations around you.(BG)
8 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will inflict punishment on you in the sight of the nations.(BH) 9 Because of all your detestable idols, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again.(BI) 10 Therefore in your midst parents will eat their children, and children will eat their parents.(BJ) I will inflict punishment on you and will scatter all your survivors to the winds.(BK) 11 Therefore as surely as I live,(BL) declares the Sovereign(BM) Lord, because you have defiled my sanctuary(BN) with all your vile images(BO) and detestable practices,(BP) I myself will shave you; I will not look on you with pity or spare you.(BQ) 12 A third of your people will die of the plague or perish by famine inside you; a third will fall by the sword outside your walls; and a third I will scatter to the winds(BR) and pursue with drawn sword.(BS)
13 “Then my anger will cease and my wrath(BT) against them will subside, and I will be avenged.(BU) And when I have spent my wrath on them, they will know that I the Lord have spoken in my zeal.(BV)
14 “I will make you a ruin and a reproach among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by.(BW) 15 You will be a reproach(BX) and a taunt, a warning(BY) and an object of horror to the nations around you when I inflict punishment on you in anger and in wrath and with stinging rebuke.(BZ) I the Lord have spoken.(CA) 16 When I shoot at you with my deadly and destructive arrows of famine, I will shoot to destroy you. I will bring more and more famine upon you and cut off your supply of food.(CB) 17 I will send famine and wild beasts(CC) against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed(CD) will sweep through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I the Lord have spoken.(CE)”
Doom for the Mountains of Israel
6 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face(CF) against the mountains(CG) of Israel; prophesy against them(CH) 3 and say: ‘You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Sovereign Lord. This is what the Sovereign Lord says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys:(CI) I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.(CJ) 4 Your altars will be demolished and your incense altars(CK) will be smashed; and I will slay your people in front of your idols.(CL) 5 I will lay the dead bodies of the Israelites in front of their idols, and I will scatter your bones(CM) around your altars.(CN) 6 Wherever you live,(CO) the towns will be laid waste and the high places(CP) demolished, so that your altars will be laid waste and devastated, your idols(CQ) smashed and ruined, your incense altars(CR) broken down, and what you have made wiped out.(CS) 7 Your people will fall slain(CT) among you, and you will know that I am the Lord.(CU)
8 “‘But I will spare some, for some of you will escape(CV) the sword when you are scattered among the lands and nations.(CW) 9 Then in the nations where they have been carried captive, those who escape will remember(CX) me—how I have been grieved(CY) by their adulterous hearts, which have turned away from me, and by their eyes, which have lusted after their idols.(CZ) They will loathe themselves for the evil(DA) they have done and for all their detestable practices.(DB) 10 And they will know that I am the Lord;(DC) I did not threaten in vain to bring this calamity on them.(DD)
11 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Strike your hands together and stamp your feet and cry out “Alas!” because of all the wicked and detestable practices of the people of Israel, for they will fall by the sword, famine and plague.(DE) 12 One who is far away will die of the plague, and one who is near will fall by the sword, and anyone who survives and is spared will die of famine. So will I pour out my wrath(DF) on them.(DG) 13 And they will know that I am the Lord, when their people lie slain among their idols(DH) around their altars, on every high hill and on all the mountaintops, under every spreading tree and every leafy oak(DI)—places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols.(DJ) 14 And I will stretch out my hand(DK) against them and make the land a desolate waste from the desert to Diblah[g]—wherever they live. Then they will know that I am the Lord.(DL)’”
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 3:18 Or in; also in verses 19 and 20
- Ezekiel 4:4 Or upon your side
- Ezekiel 4:10 That is, about 8 ounces or about 230 grams
- Ezekiel 4:11 That is, about 2/3 quart or about 0.6 liter
- Ezekiel 4:17 Or away in
- Ezekiel 5:7 Most Hebrew manuscripts; some Hebrew manuscripts and Syriac You have
- Ezekiel 6:14 Most Hebrew manuscripts; a few Hebrew manuscripts Riblah
New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
New International Version (NIV) 
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.