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Ezekiel 5-8
Modern English Version
Ezekiel 5-8
Modern English Version
A Sword Against Jerusalem
5 As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword. Take and cause it to pass upon your head and upon your beard as a barber’s razor. Then take balances to weigh and divide the hair. 2 You shall burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city when the days of the siege are fulfilled. Then you shall take a third part and strike it with the sword all around the city. And a third part you shall scatter in the wind. And I will draw out a sword after them. 3 You shall also take a few in number from them and bind them in the edges of your robes. 4 Then take some of them again and cast them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire. For a fire shall come out into all the house of Israel.
5 Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem. I have set it in the midst of the nations, with countries that are all around her. 6 But she has rebelled against My judgments more wickedly than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are all around her. For they have refused My judgments and My statutes, and have not walked in them.
7 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have more turmoil than the nations that are round about you and have not walked in My statutes, or have kept My judgments, and have not even acted according to the judgments of the nations that are all around you, 8 therefore thus says the Lord God: Pay attention. I, even I, am against you and will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. 9 I will do in you what I have not done, and the like of which I will not do anymore, because of all your abominations. 10 Therefore the fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and the sons shall eat their fathers. For I will execute judgments on you, and the whole remnant of you I will scatter into all the winds. 11 Therefore, as I live, says the Lord God, surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you, and My eye shall have no pity, nor will I spare. 12 A third part of you shall die by pestilence or by famine; they shall be consumed in your midst. And a third part shall fall by the sword all around you. And I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.
13 Thus My anger shall be accomplished, and I will cause My fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted. Then they shall know that I the Lord have spoken it in My zeal when I have accomplished My fury in them.
14 Moreover I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations that are all around you, in the sight of all who pass by. 15 So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and an astonishment to the nations that are all around you, when I execute judgments in you in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I the Lord have spoken it. 16 When I send upon them the deadly arrows of famine which shall be for their destruction and which I will send to destroy you, then I will also increase the famine upon you and break your staff of bread. 17 So I will send upon you famine and wild beasts, and they shall bereave you of children. And pestilence and bloodshed shall pass through you. And I will bring the sword upon you. I the Lord have spoken it.
Judgment on Idolatrous Israel
6 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 2 Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, 3 and say, Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. Thus says the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys: Pay attention. I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places. 4 Your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken. And I will cast down your slain men before your idols. 5 I will lay the dead corpses of the sons of Israel before their idols. And I will scatter your bones all around your altars. 6 In all your dwelling places, the cities shall be laid waste and the high places shall be desolate so that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished. 7 The slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am the Lord.
8 Yet I will leave a remnant, for you will have some who escape the sword among the nations when you are scattered among the countries. 9 Those of you who escape shall remember Me among the nations wherever they shall be carried captive, because I am broken by their whorish heart which has departed from Me, and with their eyes which play the harlot after their idols. And they shall loathe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations. 10 They shall know that I am the Lord, and that I have not said in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them.
11 Thus says the Lord God: Clap your hand, and stamp with your foot, and say, Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! For they shall fall by sword, by famine, and by pestilence. 12 He who is far off shall die of pestilence, and he who is near shall fall by the sword, and he who remains and is besieged shall die by famine. Thus I will accomplish My fury upon them. 13 Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when their slain men shall be among their idols all around their altars, on every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they offered sweet savor to all their idols. 14 So, in all their habitations I will stretch out My hand upon them and make the land desolate, indeed, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblah. And they shall know that I am the Lord.
The Day of the Lord’s Wrath
7 Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 2 And you, son of man, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel:
An end, the end is coming
upon the four corners of the land.
3 Now the end has come upon you,
and I will send My anger upon you,
and will judge you according to your ways,
and will recompense upon you all your abominations.
4 My eye shall not spare you,
nor will I have pity;
but I will recompense your ways upon you,
and your abominations shall be in your midst.
And you shall know that I am the Lord!
5 Thus says the Lord God:
A disaster, a singular disaster;
it is coming!
6 An end is coming,
the end has come;
it watches for you;
it has come!
7 Your doom has come to you,
O inhabitant in the land;
the time has come, the day of trouble is near,
and not the joyful shouting on the mountains.
8 Now I will shortly pour out My fury upon you,
and accomplish My anger upon you;
and I will judge you according to your ways,
and will recompense you for all your abominations.
9 My eye shall not spare,
nor will I have pity;
I will recompense you according to your ways,
and your abominations that are in your midst.
And you shall know that I am the Lord who strikes.
10 The day is coming!
Your doom has gone out;
the rod has blossomed,
pride has budded.
11 Violence has risen up
into a rod of wickedness;
none of them shall remain,
none of their people,
none of their wealth,
nor anything eminent among them.
12 The time has come,
the day has drawn near.
Do not let the buyer rejoice,
or the seller mourn,
for wrath is against all their multitude.
13 For the seller shall not return
to that which is sold,
although they both live;
for the vision concerning the whole multitude
shall not return;
nor shall any strengthen his life
by his iniquity.
14 They have blown the trumpet
even to make all ready,
but none goes to the battle;
for My wrath is against all the multitude.
15 The sword is outside,
and the pestilence and the famine within.
He who is in the field
shall die by the sword;
and he who is in the city,
famine and pestilence shall devour him.
16 Even when their survivors escape,
they shall be on the mountains
like doves of the valleys,
all of them mourning,
every one over his iniquity.
17 All hands shall be feeble,
and all knees shall be weak as water.
18 They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth,
and horror shall cover them;
and shame shall be upon all faces,
and baldness upon all their heads.
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets,
and their gold shall become abhorrent;
their silver and their gold
shall not be able to deliver them
in the day of the wrath of the Lord;
they shall not satisfy their souls,
or fill their stomachs,
for their iniquity has become a stumbling block.
20 They transformed the beauty of His ornaments into pride,
and made the images of their abominations
and of their detestable things with it;
therefore I will make it an abhorrent thing to them.
21 I will give it into the hands of the strangers
as plunder and to the wicked of the earth for destruction,
and they shall pollute it.
22 My face also I will turn from them,
and they shall pollute My secret place;
for the robbers shall enter
and defile it.
23 Make a chain,
for the land is full of bloody crimes,
and the city is full of violence.
24 Therefore I will bring the worst of the nations,
and they shall possess their houses;
I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease,
and their holy places shall be defiled.
25 When destruction comes,
then they shall seek peace, but there shall be none.
26 Mischief shall come upon mischief,
and rumor shall be upon rumor.
Then they shall seek a vision of the prophet;
but the law shall perish from the priest,
and counsel from the elders.
27 The king shall mourn,
and the prince shall be clothed with desolation,
and the hands of the people of the land shall tremble.
I will do to them according to their way,
and according to what they deserve I will judge them.
And they shall know that I am the Lord!
Abominations in the Temple
8 In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house and the elders of Judah sat before me, the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there. 2 Then I looked, and there was a likeness as the appearance of a man. From His loins and downward was the appearance of fire. And from His loins and upward was the appearance of brightness, as the appearance of glowing metal. 3 He stretched out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head. And the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heavens, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the seat of the image of jealousy was, which provokes to jealousy. 4 The glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain.
5 Then He said to me, “Son of man, lift up your eyes now toward the north.” So I lifted up my eyes toward the north, and northward at the gate of the altar was this image of jealousy in the entrance.
6 He said furthermore to me, “Son of man, do you see what they do, even the great abominations that the house of Israel commits here, so that I should go far off from My sanctuary? But yet you shall see still greater abominations.”
7 Then He brought me to the door of the court. And when I looked, there was a hole in the wall. 8 So He said to me, “Son of man, now dig in the wall.” And when I had dug in the wall, there was a door.
9 He said to me, “Enter and notice the wicked abominations that they do here.” 10 So I went in and saw every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall all around. 11 There stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and in their midst stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense went up.
12 Then He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his images? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us. The Lord has forsaken the land.’ ” 13 He also said to me, “Yet again you shall see greater abominations that they do.”
14 Then He brought me to the door of the gate of the house of the Lord which was toward the north. And women sat there weeping for Tammuz. 15 Then He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Yet again you shall see greater abominations than these.”
16 He brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord, and at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east. And they worshipped the sun toward the east.
17 Then He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence and have continually provoked Me to anger. And they put the branch to their nose. 18 Therefore I will indeed deal in fury. My eye shall not spare, nor will I have pity. And though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, yet I will not listen to them.”
Ezekiel 5-8
New International Version
Ezekiel 5-8
New International Version
God’s Razor of Judgment
5 “Now, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor(A) to shave(B) your head and your beard.(C) Then take a set of scales and divide up the hair. 2 When the days of your siege come to an end, burn(D) a third(E) 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.(F) For I will pursue them with drawn sword.(G) 3 But take a few hairs and tuck them away in the folds of your garment.(H) 4 Again, take a few of these and throw them into the fire(I) 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.(J) 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.(K)
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[a] conformed to the standards of the nations around you.(L)
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.(M) 9 Because of all your detestable idols, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again.(N) 10 Therefore in your midst parents will eat their children, and children will eat their parents.(O) I will inflict punishment on you and will scatter all your survivors to the winds.(P) 11 Therefore as surely as I live,(Q) declares the Sovereign(R) Lord, because you have defiled my sanctuary(S) with all your vile images(T) and detestable practices,(U) I myself will shave you; I will not look on you with pity or spare you.(V) 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(W) and pursue with drawn sword.(X)
13 “Then my anger will cease and my wrath(Y) against them will subside, and I will be avenged.(Z) And when I have spent my wrath on them, they will know that I the Lord have spoken in my zeal.(AA)
14 “I will make you a ruin and a reproach among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by.(AB) 15 You will be a reproach(AC) and a taunt, a warning(AD) 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.(AE) I the Lord have spoken.(AF) 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.(AG) 17 I will send famine and wild beasts(AH) against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed(AI) will sweep through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I the Lord have spoken.(AJ)”
Doom for the Mountains of Israel
6 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face(AK) against the mountains(AL) of Israel; prophesy against them(AM) 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:(AN) I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.(AO) 4 Your altars will be demolished and your incense altars(AP) will be smashed; and I will slay your people in front of your idols.(AQ) 5 I will lay the dead bodies of the Israelites in front of their idols, and I will scatter your bones(AR) around your altars.(AS) 6 Wherever you live,(AT) the towns will be laid waste and the high places(AU) demolished, so that your altars will be laid waste and devastated, your idols(AV) smashed and ruined, your incense altars(AW) broken down, and what you have made wiped out.(AX) 7 Your people will fall slain(AY) among you, and you will know that I am the Lord.(AZ)
8 “‘But I will spare some, for some of you will escape(BA) the sword when you are scattered among the lands and nations.(BB) 9 Then in the nations where they have been carried captive, those who escape will remember(BC) me—how I have been grieved(BD) by their adulterous hearts, which have turned away from me, and by their eyes, which have lusted after their idols.(BE) They will loathe themselves for the evil(BF) they have done and for all their detestable practices.(BG) 10 And they will know that I am the Lord;(BH) I did not threaten in vain to bring this calamity on them.(BI)
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.(BJ) 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(BK) on them.(BL) 13 And they will know that I am the Lord, when their people lie slain among their idols(BM) around their altars, on every high hill and on all the mountaintops, under every spreading tree and every leafy oak(BN)—places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols.(BO) 14 And I will stretch out my hand(BP) against them and make the land a desolate waste from the desert to Diblah[b]—wherever they live. Then they will know that I am the Lord.(BQ)’”
The End Has Come
7 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, this is what the Sovereign Lord says to the land of Israel:
“‘The end!(BR) The end has come
upon the four corners(BS) of the land!
3 The end is now upon you,
and I will unleash my anger against you.
I will judge you according to your conduct(BT)
and repay you for all your detestable practices.(BU)
4 I will not look on you with pity;(BV)
I will not spare you.
I will surely repay you for your conduct
and for the detestable practices among you.
“‘Then you will know that I am the Lord.’(BW)
5 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“‘Disaster!(BX) Unheard-of[c] disaster!
See, it comes!
6 The end(BY) has come!
The end has come!
It has roused itself against you.
See, it comes!
7 Doom has come upon you,
upon you who dwell in the land.
The time has come! The day(BZ) is near!(CA)
There is panic, not joy, on the mountains.
8 I am about to pour out my wrath(CB) on you
and spend my anger against you.
I will judge you according to your conduct
and repay you for all your detestable practices.(CC)
9 I will not look on you with pity;
I will not spare you.(CD)
I will repay you for your conduct
and for the detestable practices among you.(CE)
“‘Then you will know that it is I the Lord who strikes you.(CF)
10 “‘See, the day!
See, it comes!
Doom has burst forth,
the rod(CG) has budded,
arrogance has blossomed!
11 Violence(CH) has arisen,[d]
a rod to punish the wicked.
None of the people will be left,
none of that crowd—
none of their wealth,
nothing of value.(CI)
12 The time has come!
The day has arrived!
Let not the buyer(CJ) rejoice
nor the seller grieve,
for my wrath is on the whole crowd.(CK)
13 The seller will not recover
the property that was sold—
as long as both buyer and seller live.
For the vision concerning the whole crowd
will not be reversed.
Because of their sins, not one of them
will preserve their life.(CL)
14 “‘They have blown the trumpet,(CM)
they have made all things ready,
but no one will go into battle,
for my wrath(CN) is on the whole crowd.
15 Outside is the sword;
inside are plague and famine.
Those in the country
will die by the sword;
those in the city
will be devoured by famine and plague.(CO)
16 The fugitives(CP) who escape
will flee to the mountains.
Like doves(CQ) of the valleys,
they will all moan,
each for their own sins.(CR)
17 Every hand will go limp;(CS)
every leg will be wet with urine.(CT)
18 They will put on sackcloth(CU)
and be clothed with terror.(CV)
Every face will be covered with shame,
and every head will be shaved.(CW)
19 “‘They will throw their silver into the streets,(CX)
and their gold will be treated as a thing unclean.
Their silver and gold
will not be able to deliver them
in the day of the Lord’s wrath.(CY)
It will not satisfy(CZ) their hunger
or fill their stomachs,
for it has caused them to stumble(DA) into sin.(DB)
20 They took pride in their beautiful jewelry
and used it to make(DC) their detestable idols.
They made it into vile images;(DD)
therefore I will make it a thing unclean for them.(DE)
21 I will give their wealth as plunder(DF) to foreigners
and as loot to the wicked of the earth,
who will defile it.(DG)
22 I will turn my face(DH) away from the people,
and robbers will desecrate the place I treasure.
They will enter it
and will defile it.(DI)
23 “‘Prepare chains!
For the land is full of bloodshed,(DJ)
and the city is full of violence.(DK)
24 I will bring the most wicked of nations
to take possession of their houses.
I will put an end to the pride of the mighty,
and their sanctuaries(DL) will be desecrated.(DM)
25 When terror comes,
they will seek peace in vain.(DN)
26 Calamity upon calamity(DO) will come,
and rumor upon rumor.
They will go searching for a vision from the prophet,(DP)
priestly instruction in the law will cease,
the counsel of the elders will come to an end.(DQ)
27 The king will mourn,
the prince will be clothed with despair,(DR)
and the hands of the people of the land will tremble.
I will deal with them according to their conduct,(DS)
and by their own standards I will judge them.
“‘Then they will know that I am the Lord.(DT)’”
Idolatry in the Temple
8 In the sixth year, in the sixth month on the fifth day, while I was sitting in my house and the elders(DU) of Judah were sitting before(DV) me, the hand of the Sovereign Lord came on me there.(DW) 2 I looked, and I saw a figure like that of a man.[e] From what appeared to be his waist down he was like fire, and from there up his appearance was as bright as glowing metal.(DX) 3 He stretched out what looked like a hand(DY) and took me by the hair of my head. The Spirit lifted me up(DZ) between earth and heaven and in visions(EA) of God he took me to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court,(EB) where the idol that provokes to jealousy(EC) stood. 4 And there before me was the glory(ED) of the God of Israel, as in the vision I had seen in the plain.(EE)
5 Then he said to me, “Son of man, look toward the north.” So I looked, and in the entrance north of the gate of the altar I saw this idol(EF) of jealousy.
6 And he said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing—the utterly detestable(EG) things the Israelites are doing here, things that will drive me far from my sanctuary?(EH) But you will see things that are even more detestable.”
7 Then he brought me to the entrance to the court. I looked, and I saw a hole in the wall. 8 He said to me, “Son of man, now dig into the wall.” So I dug into the wall and saw a doorway there.
9 And he said to me, “Go in and see the wicked and detestable things they are doing here.” 10 So I went in and looked, and I saw portrayed all over the walls(EI) all kinds of crawling things and unclean(EJ) animals and all the idols of Israel.(EK) 11 In front of them stood seventy elders(EL) of Israel, and Jaazaniah son of Shaphan was standing among them. Each had a censer(EM) in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense(EN) was rising.(EO)
12 He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of Israel are doing in the darkness,(EP) each at the shrine of his own idol? They say, ‘The Lord does not see(EQ) us; the Lord has forsaken the land.’” 13 Again, he said, “You will see them doing things that are even more detestable.”
14 Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord, and I saw women sitting there, mourning the god Tammuz.(ER) 15 He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? You will see things that are even more detestable than this.”
16 He then brought me into the inner court(ES) of the house of the Lord, and there at the entrance to the temple, between the portico and the altar,(ET) were about twenty-five men. With their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, they were bowing down to the sun(EU) in the east.(EV)
17 He said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a trivial matter for the people of Judah to do the detestable things(EW) they are doing here? Must they also fill the land with violence(EX) and continually arouse my anger?(EY) Look at them putting the branch to their nose! 18 Therefore I will deal with them in anger;(EZ) I will not look on them with pity(FA) or spare them. Although they shout in my ears, I will not listen(FB) to them.”
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 5:7 Most Hebrew manuscripts; some Hebrew manuscripts and Syriac You have
- Ezekiel 6:14 Most Hebrew manuscripts; a few Hebrew manuscripts Riblah
- Ezekiel 7:5 Most Hebrew manuscripts; some Hebrew manuscripts and Syriac Disaster after
- Ezekiel 7:11 Or The violent one has become
- Ezekiel 8:2 Or saw a fiery figure
Modern English Version (MEV)
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.
New International Version (NIV) 
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NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.