Beginning

Ezekiel Cuts His Hair

5 “Now, human being, take a sharp sword. Use it like a barber’s razor to shave your head and beard. Then take scales and weigh and divide the hair. ² Burn one-third with fire when the days of the attack on Jerusalem are over. Burn it in the middle of the city. Then take one-third and cut it up with the knife all around the city. And scatter one-third to the wind. This is how I will chase them with a sword. ³ Also take a few of these hairs and tie them in the folds of your clothes. ⁴ Take a few more and throw them into the fire and burn them up. From there a fire will spread to all the people of Israel.

⁵ “This is what the Lord says: This is Jerusalem. I have put her at the center of the nations with countries all around her. ⁶ But she has refused to obey my laws. She has been more evil than the nations. She has refused to obey my rules even more than those around her. The people of Jerusalem have rejected my laws and have not lived by my rules.

⁷ “So this is what the Lord God says: You caused more confusion than the nations around you. You did not follow my rules or obey my laws. You have not even obeyed the laws of the nations around you.

⁸ “So this is what the Lord God says: I myself am against you. I will punish you and the nations will watch. ⁹ I will do things among you that I have not done before. I will never do anything like them again. I will do them because you do the things I hate. ¹⁰ So fathers among you will eat their children. And children will eat their fathers. I will punish you. I will scatter to the winds all who are left alive. ¹¹ So the Lord God says: As surely as I live, you have made my Temple unclean. You have done it with all your evil idols and the hated things you do. Because of this I will cut you off. I will have no pity. I will show no mercy. ¹² A third of you will die by disease or be destroyed by hunger inside your walls. A third will fall dead by the sword outside your walls. And a third I will scatter in every direction. I will chase them with a sword. ¹³ Then my anger will come to an end. I will use it up against them. Then I will be satisfied. Then they will know that I, the Lord God, have spoken. After I have carried out my anger against them, they will know how strongly I felt.

¹⁴ “I will make you a ruin. And I will make you a shame among the nations around you. All who pass by will see this. ¹⁵ Then you will be shamed by the nations around you. They will make fun of you. You will be a warning to them. They will be terrified. This will happen when I punish you in my great anger. I, the Lord, have spoken. ¹⁶ I will send a time of hunger to destroy you. Then I will make your hunger get even worse. I will cut off your supply of food. ¹⁷ I will send a time of hunger and wild animals against you. They will kill your children. Disease and death will sweep through your people. I will bring the sword against you to kill you. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

Prophecies Against the Mountains

6 Again the Lord spoke his word to me. The Lord said, ² “Human being, look toward the mountains of Israel. Prophesy against them. ³ Say, ‘Mountains of Israel, listen to the word of the Lord God. The Lord God says this to the mountains, the hills, the ravines and the valleys: I will bring a sword against you. I will destroy your places of idol worship. ⁴ Your altars will be destroyed. Your incense altars will be broken down. Your people will be killed in front of your idols. ⁵ I will lay the dead bodies of the Israelites before their idols. And I will scatter your bones around your altars. ⁶ In all the places you live, cities will become empty. And the places of idol worship will be ruined. Your altars will become lonely ruins. Your idols will be broken and brought to an end. Your incense altars will be cut down. And the things you made will be wiped out. ⁷ Your people will be killed and fall among you. Then you will know that I am the Lord God.

⁸ “‘But I will leave some people alive. Some will not be killed by the nations when you are scattered among the foreign lands. ⁹ Then those who have escaped will remember me. They will be living among the nations where they have been taken as captives. They will remember how I was hurt because they were unfaithful to me. They had turned away from me. They will remember how I was hurt because they desired to worship their idols. They will hate themselves because of the evil things they did that I hate. ¹⁰ Then they will know that I am the Lord. I did not bring this terrible thing on them for no reason.

¹¹ “‘This is what the Lord God says: Clap your hands, stamp your feet. Say, “Oh!” because the people of Israel have done terrible things. So they will die by war, hunger and disease. ¹² The person who is far away will die by disease. The one who is nearby will die in war. The person who is still alive and has escaped these will die from hunger. So I will carry out my anger on them. ¹³ Their people will lie dead among their idols around the altars. They will be on every high hill, on all the mountain tops and under every green tree and leafy oak. These are the places where they offered sweet-smelling incense to their idols. Then you will know that I am the Lord. ¹⁴ I will use my power against them. I will make the land empty and wasted from the desert to Diblah, wherever they live. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’”

Ezekiel Tells of the End

7 Again the Lord spoke his word to me. He said: ² “Human being, the Lord says this to the land of Israel: An end! The end has come on the four corners of the land. ³ Now the end has come for you. I will send my anger against you. I will judge you for the way you have lived. I will make you pay for your terrible actions. ⁴ I will have no pity on you. I will not hold back punishment from you. I will make you pay for your ways and for your terrible actions. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

⁵ “This is what the Lord God says: Disaster on top of disaster is coming. ⁶ The end has come! The end has come! It has stirred itself up against you! Look! It has come! ⁷ The end has come for you who live in the land! The time has come. The day of confusion is near. There will be no happy shouting on the mountains. ⁸ Soon I will pour out my anger against you. I will carry out my anger against you. I will judge you for the way you have lived. I will make you pay for all the things you have done that I hate. ⁹ I will show no pity. I will not hold back punishment. I will pay you back for the way you have lived and the terrible things you have done. Then you will know that I am the Lord who punishes.

¹⁰ “Look, the day is here. It has come. Destruction has come. Violence has grown. There is more pride than ever. ¹¹ Violence has grown into a weapon for punishing wickedness. None of the people will be left. None of that crowd, none of their wealth, and nothing of value will be left among them. ¹² The time has come. The day has arrived. Don’t let the buyer be happy or the seller be sad. My burning anger is against the whole crowd. ¹³ Sellers will not return to the land they have sold as long as they live. This is because the vision against all that crowd will not be changed. Because of their sins, no one will save his life. ¹⁴ They have blown the trumpet, and everything is ready. But no one is going to the battle. My anger is against all that crowd.

¹⁵ “The sword is outside. Disease and hunger are inside. The person who is in the field will die by the sword. Hunger and disease will destroy those in the city. ¹⁶ Those who are left alive and who escape will be on the mountains. They will moan like doves of the valleys. Each person will groan about his own sin. ¹⁷ All hands will hang weakly. All knees will become as weak as water. ¹⁸ They will put on rough cloth to show how sad they are. They will tremble all over with fear. Their faces will show their shame. And all their heads will be shaved. ¹⁹ The people will throw their silver into the streets. Their gold will be like trash. Their silver and gold will not save them from the Lord’s anger. It will not satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs. It was what caused them to fall into sin. ²⁰ They were proud of their beautiful jewelry. They used it to make their idols, which I hate, and their evil statues. So I will turn their wealth into something they hate. ²¹ And I will give it to the foreigners as treasures from war. I will give it to the evil people of the earth as treasure. These foreigners and evil people will dishonor the people’s jewelry. ²² I will also turn away from the people of Israel. They will dishonor my treasured place. Then robbers will enter and dishonor it.

²³ “Make chains for captives. The land is full of bloody crimes. And the city is full of violence. ²⁴ So I will bring the worst of the nations to take over the people’s houses. I will also end the pride of the rich. And their holy places will be dishonored. ²⁵ When the people are suffering greatly, they will look for peace. But there will be none. ²⁶ Disaster will come on top of disaster. Rumor will be added to rumor. Then they will try to get a vision from a prophet. Even the teachings of God from the priest will be lost. And advice from the elders will also be lost. ²⁷ The king will cry greatly. The prince will give up hope. The hands of the people who owned land will shake with fear. I will punish them for the way they have lived. The way they have judged others is the way I will judge them. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

Ezekiel’s Vision of Jerusalem

8 It was the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month of our captivity. I was sitting in my house with the elders of Judah before me. There I felt the power of the Lord God. ² I looked and saw something that looked like a man. From his waist down he looked like fire. From his waist up he looked like bright glowing metal. ³ He stretched out the shape of a hand. And he caught me by the hair on my head. The Spirit lifted me up between the earth and the sky. He took me in the visions of God to Jerusalem. He took me to the entrance to the north gate of the inner courtyard of the Temple. The courtyard was where the idol was that caused God to be jealous. ⁴ The glory of the God of Israel was there. It was like what I had seen on the plain.

⁵ Then God said to me, “Human being, now look toward the north.” So I looked up toward the north. I saw an altar to the north of the gate. The idol that caused God to be jealous was in the entrance.

⁶ The Lord said to me, “Human being, do you see what they are doing? Do you see how many hated things the people of Israel are doing here? This will drive me far away from my Temple. But you will see things more hated than these.”

⁷ Then the Lord brought me to the entry of the courtyard. When I looked, I saw a hole in the wall. ⁸ The Lord said to me, “Human being, dig through the wall.” So I dug through the wall and saw an entrance.

⁹ Then the Lord said to me, “Go in and see the terrible, evil things they are doing here.” ¹⁰ So I entered and looked. And I saw pictures of every kind of crawling thing. I saw awful beasts and all the idols of the people of Israel. They were carved on the wall all around. ¹¹ Seventy of the elders of Israel were standing there. They were in front of these carvings and idols. Jaazaniah son of Shaphan stood with them. Each man had his pan for burning incense in his hand. A sweet-smelling cloud of incense was rising.

¹² Then the Lord said to me, “Human being, have you seen what the elders of Israel are doing in the dark? Have you seen each man in the room of his own idol? They say, ‘The Lord doesn’t see us. The Lord has left the land.’” ¹³ And he said to me, “You will see even more terrible things that they are doing.”

¹⁴ Then the Lord brought me to the opening of the north gate of the Temple. And I saw women sitting there crying for Tammuz.^{[a] 15} The Lord said to me, “Do you see, human being? You will see things even more terrible than these.”

¹⁶ Then the Lord brought me into the inner courtyard of the Temple. And I saw about 25 men. They were at the entrance to the Temple, between the porch and the altar. Their backs were turned to the Temple of the Lord. They faced east. They were worshiping the sun in the east.

¹⁷ The Lord said to me, “Do you see, human being? Is it unimportant that the people of Judah are doing the terrible things they have done here? They have filled the land with violence. They continually make me angry. Look, they are insulting me every way they can. ¹⁸ So I will act in anger. I will have no pity. I will not show mercy. Even if they shout in my ears, I won’t listen to them.”