Ezekiel 3:16-6:14

New American Standard Bible

¹⁶Now ^(A)at the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ¹⁷“Son of man, I have appointed you as a ^(B)watchman for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from My mouth, ^(C)warn them from Me. ¹⁸When I say to the wicked, ‘You will certainly die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way so that he may live, that wicked person shall die for wrongdoing, but his ^(D)blood I will require from your hand. ¹⁹However if you have ^(E)warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die for wrongdoing, but you have ^(F)saved yourself. ²⁰Again, ^(G)when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and commits sin, and I place an ^(H)obstacle before him, he will die; since you have not warned him, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require from your hand. ²¹However, if you have ^(I)warned ^[a]the righteous person that the righteous is not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall certainly live because he took warning; and you have saved yourself.”

²²Now the hand of the Lord was on me there, and He said to me, “Get up, go out to the plain, and there I will ^(J)speak to you.” ²³So I got up and went out to the plain; and behold, the ^(K)glory of the Lord was standing there, like the glory that ^(L)I saw by the river Chebar, and I fell on my face. ²⁴But the ^(M)Spirit entered me and set me up on my feet; and He spoke with me and said to me, “Go, shut yourself inside your house. ²⁵And as for you, son of man, they will ^(N)put ropes ^[b]around you and bind you with them so that you do not go out among them. ²⁶Moreover, ^(O)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. ²⁷But ^(P)when I speak to you, I will open your mouth and you will say to them, ‘This is what the Lord ^[c]God says:’ The one who hears, let him hear; and the one who refuses, let him refuse; ^(Q)for they are a rebellious house.

Siege of Jerusalem Predicted

4 “Now you, son of man, ^(R)get yourself a brick, place it before you, and inscribe a city on it—Jerusalem. ²Then ^(S)lay siege against it, build a siege wall, pile up an assault ramp, set up camps, and place battering rams against it all around. ³Then 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 ^(T)it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a ^(U)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 ^(V)bear their wrongdoing for the number of days that you lie on it. ⁵For I have assigned you a number of days corresponding to the years of their wrongdoing, 390 days; so ^(W)you shall bear the wrongdoing of the house of Israel. ⁶When 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 ^(X)each year. ⁷Then you shall direct your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared, and ^(Y)prophesy against it. ⁸Now behold, I will ^(Z)put ropes ^[d]around you so that you cannot turn from your one side to your other until you have completed the days of your siege.

Defiled Bread

⁹“But as for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and ^(AA)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. ¹⁰Your food which you eat shall be ^(AB)twenty shekels a day by weight; you shall eat it from time to time. ¹¹The water you drink shall be a ^[e]sixth of a hin by measure; you shall drink it from time to time. ¹²You shall eat it as a barley cake, having baked it in their sight over human ^(AC)dung.” ¹³Then the Lord said, “In this way the sons of Israel will eat their bread ^(AD)unclean among the nations where I will scatter them.” ¹⁴But I said, “^(AE)Oh, Lord ^[f]God! Behold, ^[g]I have ^(AF)never been defiled; for from my youth until now I have never eaten what ^(AG)died of itself or was torn by animals, nor has any ^(AH)unclean meat ever entered my mouth!” ¹⁵Then 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.” ¹⁶Moreover, He said to me, “Son of man, behold, I am going to ^(AI)break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by ^(AJ)weight and with anxiety, and drink water by ^(AK)measure and in horror, ¹⁷because bread and water will be scarce; and they will tremble with one another and ^(AL)waste away in their guilt.

Jerusalem’s Desolation Foretold

5 “As for you, son of man, take a ^(AM)sharp sword; take and ^[h]use it as a barber’s razor on your head and beard. Then take ^(AN)scales for weighing and divide ^[i]the hair. ²A third you shall burn in the fire at the center of the city, when the ^(AO)days of the siege are completed. Then you shall take a third and strike it with the sword all around ^[j]the city, and a third you shall scatter to the wind; for I will ^(AP)unsheathe a sword behind them. ³Take also a few hairs in number from ^[k]them and bind them in the hems of your robes. ⁴Take again some of them and throw them into the fire and burn them in the fire; from it a fire will ^[l]spread to all the house of Israel.

⁵“This is what the Lord ^[m]God says: ‘This is ^(AQ)Jerusalem; I have placed her at the ^(AR)center of the nations, with lands around her. ⁶But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations, and against My statutes ^(AS)more than the lands which surround her; for they have ^(AT)rejected My ordinances and have not walked ^[n]in My statutes.’ ⁷Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: ‘Because you have ^(AU)more turmoil than the nations that surround you and have not walked in My statutes, nor executed My ordinances, nor acted in accordance with the ordinances of the nations around you,’ ⁸therefore, this is what the Lord God says: ‘Behold, I, even I, am ^(AV)against you, and I will ^(AW)execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. ⁹And because of all your abominations I will do among you what I have ^(AX)not done, and the like of which I will never do again. ¹⁰Therefore, ^(AY)fathers will eat their sons among you, and sons will eat their fathers; for I will execute judgments on you and ^(AZ)scatter all your remnant to every wind. ¹¹Therefore as I live,’ declares the Lord God, ‘Because you have ^(BA)defiled My sanctuary with all your ^(BB)detestable idols and with all your abominations, I definitely will also withdraw and My eye will have no pity, and I also will not spare. ¹²A third of you will die by ^(BC)plague or perish by famine among you, a third will fall by the sword around you, and a third I will ^(BD)scatter to every wind, and I will ^(BE)unsheathe a sword behind them.

¹³‘Then My anger will be spent and I will satisfy My wrath on them, and I will be ^(BF)appeased; then they will know that I, the Lord, have ^(BG)spoken in My zeal, when I have spent My wrath upon them. ¹⁴Moreover, I will make you a site of ruins and a ^(BH)disgrace among the nations that surround you, in the sight of everyone who passes by. ¹⁵So ^[o]it will be a disgrace, an object of abuse, a ^(BI)warning, and an object of horror to the nations that surround you when I ^(BJ)execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and raging reprimands. I, the Lord, have spoken. ¹⁶When I send against them the ^[p]deadly arrows of famine which ^[q]were for the destruction of those whom I will send to destroy you, then I will also intensify the famine upon you and break off your ^[r]provision of bread. ¹⁷^(BK)I will send on you famine and vicious animals, and they will bereave you of children; ^(BL)plague and bloodshed also will pass through you, and I will bring the sword on you. I, the Lord, have spoken.’”

Idolatrous Worship Denounced

6 Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ²“Son of man, set your face toward the ^(BM)mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them ³and say, ‘Mountains of Israel, listen to the word of the Lord ^[s]God! This is what the Lord ^[t]God says to the mountains, the hills, the ravines, and the valleys: “Behold, I Myself am going to bring a sword against you, and ^(BN)I will destroy your high places. ⁴So your ^(BO)altars will become deserted and your incense altars will be smashed; and I will make your slain fall in front of your idols. ⁵I will also lay the dead bodies of the sons of Israel in front of their idols; and I will scatter your ^(BP)bones around your altars. ⁶^[u]Everywhere you live, ^(BQ)cities will be in ruins and the high places will be deserted, so that your altars will be in ruins and ^[v]deserted, your ^(BR)idols will be broken and brought to an end, your incense altars will be cut down, and your works wiped out. ⁷The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the Lord.

⁸“However, I will leave a ^(BS)remnant, in that you will have those who ^(BT)escaped the sword among the nations when you are scattered among the countries. ⁹Then those of you who escape will ^(BU)remember Me among the nations to which they will be taken captive, how I have ^[w]^(BV)been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me, and by their eyes which committed infidelity with their idols; and they will ^(BW)loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed, for all their abominations. ¹⁰Then they will know that I am the Lord; I have not said in vain that I would inflict this disaster on them.”’

¹¹“This is what the Lord ^[x]God says: ‘Clap your hands, ^(BX)stamp your foot and say, “^(BY)Woe, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, which will fall by the ^(BZ)sword, famine, and plague! ¹²Anyone who is ^(CA)far away will die by the plague, anyone who is near will fall by the sword, and anyone who remains and is spared from these will die by the famine. So I will ^(CB)expend My wrath on them. ¹³Then you will know that I am the Lord, when their ^(CC)dead are among their idols around their altars, on ^(CD)every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every leafy tree and under every massive oak with thick branches—the places where they offered a soothing aroma to all their idols. ¹⁴So through all their dwelling places I will ^(CE)stretch out My hand against them and make the land more desolate and waste than the wilderness toward Diblah; so they will know that I am the Lord.”’”