Bible in 90 Days
The Anger of God Over Jerusalem
2 How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion
with a cloud in His anger!
He has cast down from heaven to the earth
the beauty of Israel;
He has not remembered His footstool
in the day of His anger.
2 The Lord has swallowed up without mercy
all the habitations of Jacob;
In His wrath He has thrown down
the strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
He has brought them down to the ground;
He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.
3 He has cut off in fierce anger
all the might of Israel;
He has drawn back His right hand
from before the enemy.
He has burned against Jacob
like a flaming fire, devouring all around.
4 He has bent His bow like an enemy,
with his right hand set like an adversary;
He has killed all who were pleasant to His eye;
in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion,
He has poured out His fury like fire.
5 The Lord has become like an enemy;
He has swallowed up Israel,
He has swallowed up all her palaces;
He has destroyed her strongholds,
and has increased mourning and lamentation
in the daughter of Judah.
6 He has violently taken away His tabernacle as if it were a garden;
He has destroyed His place of assembly;
the Lord has caused the solemn feasts and Sabbaths
to be forgotten in Zion.
In his fierce indignation He has despised the king and the priest.
7 The Lord has scorned His altar,
He has disowned His sanctuary;
He has given up the walls of her palaces
into the hand of the enemy.
They have made a noise in the house of the Lord
as on the day of a solemn feast.
8 The Lord has purposed to destroy
the wall of the daughter of Zion.
He has stretched out a line;
He has not withdrawn His hand from destroying;
therefore He caused the rampart and the wall to lament;
they languished together.
9 Her gates have sunk into the ground;
He has destroyed and broken her bars.
Her king and her princes are among the nations;
the Law is no more,
and her prophets find
no vision from the Lord.
10 The elders of the daughter of Zion
sit on the ground in silence;
they throw dust on their heads
and gird themselves with sackcloth.
The virgins of Jerusalem
bow their heads to the ground.
11 My eyes fail with tears,
my spirit is greatly troubled;
my bile is poured on the ground
because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
because the children and infants faint
in the streets of the city.
12 They say to their mothers,
“Where is grain and wine?”
when they faint like a wounded man
in the streets of the city,
as their life is poured out
on their mothers’ bosom.
13 What can I say for you,
to what shall I liken you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
What shall I compare with you,
that I may comfort you,
O virgin daughter of Zion?
For your devastation is great like the sea;
who can heal you?
14 Your prophets have seen for you
false and deceptive visions;
they have not revealed your iniquity,
to bring back your captives,
but have seen for you oracles
that are false and misleading.
15 All who pass by
clap their hands at you;
they hiss and shake their heads
at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying,
“Is this the city that men call
the perfection of beauty,
the joy of the whole earth?”
16 All your enemies
have opened their mouth against you;
they hiss and gnash their teeth.
They say, “We have swallowed her up!
Certainly this is the day that we longed for;
we have found it; we have seen it.”
17 The Lord has done what He planned;
He has fulfilled His word
that He had commanded in the days of old.
He has thrown down and has not pitied,
and He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you;
He has exalted the power of your adversaries.
18 Their heart cried to the Lord:
O wall of the daughter of Zion,
let your tears run down
like a river day and night;
give yourself no rest,
your eyes no respite!
19 Arise, cry out in the night,
at the beginning of the watches;
pour out your heart like water
before the face of the Lord.
Lift your hands to Him
for the lives of your young children,
who faint for hunger
at the head of every street.
20 Look, O Lord, and consider!
To whom have You done this?
Should the women eat their offspring,
the children who were born healthy?
Should the priest and the prophet be killed
in the sanctuary of the Lord?
21 The young and the old lie
on the ground in the streets;
my virgins and my young men
have fallen by the sword;
You have killed them in the day of Your anger,
You have slaughtered and not pitied.
22 You have invited as to a feast day the terrors all around;
in the day of the Lord’s anger
no one escaped or survived;
those whom I held and raised
my enemy destroyed.
The Prophet’s Anguish
3 I am the man who has seen affliction
by the rod of His wrath.
2 He has driven and brought me
into darkness without any light.
3 Surely against me has He turned His hand
continually, the whole day long.
4 My flesh and my skin He has made waste away;
He has broken my bones;
5 He has besieged and enveloped me
with gall and travail.
6 He has set me in dark places,
like the dead of long ago.
7 He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out;
He has made my chain heavy.
8 Even when I cry for help,
He shuts out my prayer.
9 He has blocked my ways with hewn stone;
He has made my paths crooked.
10 He is to me a bear lying in wait,
a lion in hiding.
11 He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces;
He has made me desolate.
12 He has bent His bow
and set me as a target for the arrow.
13 He has caused the arrows of His quiver
to pierce my inward parts.
14 I have become the derision of all my people,
their mocking song all the day.
15 He has filled me with bitterness,
He has sated me with wormwood.
16 He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
and covered me with ashes.
17 My soul is bereft of peace;
I have forgotten prosperity.
18 So I say, “My strength and my hope
from the Lord have perished.”
19 Remember my affliction and my misery,
the wormwood and the gall.
20 Surely my soul remembers
and is humbled within me.
21 But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
22 It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed;
His compassions do not fail.
23 They are new every morning;
great is Your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in Him.”
25 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,
to the soul who seeks Him.
26 It is good that a man should wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke
in his youth.
28 Let him sit alone in silence
when it is laid on him;
29 let him put his mouth in the dust—
there may yet be hope.
30 Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes,
and let him be filled with insults.
31 For the Lord
will not cast off forever.
32 But though He causes grief, yet He will have compassion
according to the abundance of His mercies.
33 For He does not afflict from His heart,
nor grieve the sons of men.
34 To crush underfoot
all the prisoners of the earth,
35 to turn aside the justice due a man
in the presence of the Most High,
36 to subvert a man in his cause,
the Lord does not approve.
37 Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass,
unless the Lord has commanded it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that good and bad proceed?
39 Why should a living man complain,
a man for the punishment of his sins?
40 Let us search and try our ways,
and return to the Lord!
41 Let us lift up our hearts and hands
to God in heaven:
42 We have transgressed and rebelled;
You have not pardoned.
43 You have covered Yourself with anger and pursued us;
You have killed and not pitied.
44 You have covered Yourself with a cloud,
so that no prayer should pass through.
45 You have made us filthy refuse
in the midst of the peoples.
46 All our enemies have opened their mouths
against us.
47 Panic and snare have come upon us,
desolation and destruction.
48 My eyes flow with rivers of tears
for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49 My eyes flow and do not cease,
without respite,
50 until the Lord from heaven
looks down and sees.
51 My eyes bring suffering to my soul
at the fate of all the daughters of my city.
52 My enemies chased me like a bird,
without cause.
53 They cut off my life in the pit
and cast stones on me.
54 Waters flowed over my head;
I said, “I am cut off!”
55 I called on Your name, O Lord,
from the lowest pit.
56 You have heard my plea:
“Do not close Your ear to my cry for help!”
57 You drew near on the day I called on You,
and You said, “Do not fear!”
58 O Lord, You have pleaded the case for my soul;
You have redeemed my life.
59 O Lord, You have seen the wrong done to me;
judge my case.
60 You have seen all their vengeance,
all their schemes against me.
61 You have heard their reproach, O Lord,
all their schemes against me,
62 the lips of my enemies and
their devices against me all the day.
63 Look at their sitting down and their rising up;
I am their mocking song.
64 Render to them a recompense, O Lord,
according to the work of their hands.
65 Give them hardness of heart;
may Your curse be upon them!
66 In Your anger pursue and destroy them
from under Your heavens, O Lord!
The Punishment of Zion
4 How the gold has become dim!
How the most fine gold has changed!
The stones of the sanctuary lie scattered
at the head of every street.
2 The precious sons of Zion,
comparable to fine gold,
how they are esteemed as earthen pots,
the work of a potter’s hands!
3 Even the jackals offer the breast;
they nurse their young,
yet the daughter of my people has become cruel,
like ostriches in the wilderness.
4 The tongue of the infant cleaves
to the roof of his mouth for thirst;
the children beg for bread,
but no one divides it for them.
5 Those who once ate delicacies
are desolate in the streets;
those who were brought up in scarlet
embrace ash heaps.
6 For the iniquity of the daughter of my people
is greater than the sin of Sodom,
which was overthrown in a moment,
and no hands were wrung for her.
7 Her princes were purer than snow,
whiter than milk;
their bodies were more ruddy than rubies,
their appearance like sapphire.
8 Their form is blacker than coal;
they are not recognized in the streets;
their skin cleaves to their bones,
it has become as dry as wood.
9 Those killed by the sword
are better off than those who die of hunger,
for they pine away,
stricken for want of the fruits of the field.
10 The hands of compassionate women
have boiled their own children;
they became their food in the destruction
of the daughter of my people.
11 The Lord has fulfilled His fury,
He has poured out His fierce anger.
He kindled a fire in Zion,
and it has devoured its foundations.
12 The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world,
would not have believed
that the adversary and the enemy could enter
the gates of Jerusalem.
13 This was for the sins of her prophets
and the iniquities of her priests,
who poured out in her midst the blood of the righteous.
14 They wandered,
blind, in the streets;
they have defiled themselves with blood,
so that no one could touch their garments.
15 They cried out to them, “Depart! Unclean!
Depart, depart, do not touch us!”
Therefore they fled and wandered;
men among the nations said,
“They shall live with us no longer.”
16 The presence of the Lord scattered them;
He will regard them no more;
they do not respect the priests,
nor show favor to the elders.
17 Our eyes failed us,
watching vainly for help;
in our watchtowers we watched
for a nation that could not save us.
18 They tracked our steps
so that we could not walk in our streets.
Our end drew near; our days were numbered,
for our end had come.
19 Our pursuers were swifter
than the eagles of the skies.
They pursued us on the mountains;
they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.
20 The breath of our life, the anointed king of the Lord,
was captured in their traps,
of whom we said, “Under his shadow
we shall live among the nations.”
21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom,
you who dwell in the land of Uz!
The cup shall also pass to you;
you shall become drunk and strip yourself bare.
22 The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter of Zion, is accomplished;
He shall exile you no longer.
He shall punish your iniquity, O daughter of Edom;
He will expose your sins!
A Prayer for Restoration
5 Remember, O Lord, what has come upon us;
look, and see our reproach!
2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
our homes to foreigners.
3 We have become orphans and fatherless;
our mothers are like widows.
4 We must pay for the water we drink;
our wood is sold to us.
5 Our pursuers are at our necks;
we labor and have no rest.
6 We have given our hand to Egypt and to Assyria,
to be satisfied with bread.
7 Our fathers sinned and are no more,
but we bear their iniquities.
8 Slaves rule over us;
there is no one to deliver us from their hand.
9 We get our bread at the peril of our lives,
because of the sword in the wilderness.
10 Our skin is hot as an oven,
because of the terrible famine.
11 They ravished the women in Zion,
the virgins in the cities of Judah.
12 Princes were hung up by their hands,
the faces of elders were not honored.
13 Young men ground at the millstones;
boys staggered under loads of wood.
14 The elders have left the city gate,
the young men stopped their music.
15 The joy of our hearts has ceased;
our dancing has turned into mourning.
16 The crown has fallen from our head;
woe to us, for we have sinned!
17 For this our heart is faint;
for these things our eyes grow dim;
18 because of Mount Zion, which is desolate,
with foxes walking upon it.
19 You, O Lord, remain forever;
Your throne endures from generation to generation.
20 Why do You forget us forever,
and forsake us for so long a time?
21 Restore us to Yourself, O Lord, that we may return!
Renew our days as of old,
22 unless You have utterly rejected us,
and are very angry with us.
The Vision of the Lord’s Glory
1 In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Kebar, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.
2 On the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of the captivity of King Jehoiachin, 3 the word of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the River Kebar. And the hand of the Lord was on him there.
4 As I looked, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud with fire flashing forth continually, and a brightness was all around it, and in its midst something as glowing metal in the midst of the fire. 5 Also out of the midst came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: They had the likeness of a man. 6 Every one had four faces, and every one had four wings. 7 Their legs were straight and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf’s hoof. And they gleamed like the color of burnished bronze. 8 They had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides. As for the faces and wings of the four of them, 9 their wings were joined to one another. Their faces did not turn when they went. Each went straight forward.
10 As for the likeness of their faces, each had the face of a man, and all four had the face of a lion on the right side, and the face of an ox on the left side, and the face of an eagle. 11 Thus were their faces. And their wings were stretched upward. Two wings of every one were joined to one another, and two covered their bodies. 12 Each went straight forward. Wherever the spirit was to go, they would go and not turn as they went. 13 As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire and like the appearance of lamps. It went up and down among the living creatures. And the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. 14 The living creatures ran to and fro as the appearance of a flash of lightning.
15 Now as I looked at the living creatures, one wheel was on the ground by the living creatures for each of the four faces. 16 The appearance of the wheels and their work was like the color of sparkling beryl. And all four of them had one likeness. And their appearance and their work was, as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel. 17 Whenever they went, they went in any of their four sides and did not turn as they went. 18 As for their rims, they were so high that they were dreadful. And the rims of all four of them were full of eyes all around.
19 Whenever the living creatures went, the wheels went with them. And whenever the living creatures were lifted up from the ground, the wheels also were lifted up. 20 Wherever the spirit was about to go, they would go in that direction. And the wheels rose close beside them. For the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. 21 Whenever those went, these went. And whenever those stood still, these stood still. And whenever those rose from the ground, the wheels rose close beside them. For the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.
22 The likeness of the expanse over the heads of the living creatures was as the awesome gleam of crystal, stretched out over their heads above. 23 Under the expanse their wings were stretched out straight, the one toward the other. Each one also had two wings which covered its body on the one side and the other. 24 When they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of abundant waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the noise of tumult as the noise of an army camp. Whenever they stood still, they let down their wings.
25 There was a voice from the expanse that was over their heads whenever they stood still and let down their wings. 26 Above the expanse that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone. And on the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man on it high up. 27 Then I saw as glowing metal, as the appearance of fire all around within it, from the appearance of His loins and upward; and from the appearance of His loins and downward I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was a brightness around Him. 28 As the appearance of the rainbow that is in the cloud on a day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around.
This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice of one speaking.
The Call of Ezekiel
2 Then He said to me: Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak to you! 2 When He spoke to me, the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet. Then I heard Him speaking to me.
3 And He said to me: Son of man, I send you to the sons of Israel, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me. They and their fathers have transgressed against Me even to this very day. 4 And as for the impudent and obstinate children, I am sending you to them. And you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord God.” 5 As for them, whether they listen or not (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them. 6 And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with you, and you dwell among scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words or be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. 7 You shall speak My words to them, whether they listen or not, for they are rebellious. 8 But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I give you.
9 When I looked, a hand was sent to me. And a scroll was in it. 10 And He spread it before me. And there was writing on the inside and on the outside, and written on it were words of lamentation and mourning and woe.
3 Moreover He said to me, Son of man, eat what you find. Eat this scroll and go speak to the house of Israel. 2 So I opened my mouth, and He fed me this scroll.
3 He said to me, Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your inward parts with this scroll that I give you. Then I ate it, and it was as honey for sweetness in my mouth.
4 Then He said to me: Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them. 5 For you are not being sent to a people of foreign speech and hard language, but to the house of Israel, 6 nor to many peoples of foreign speech and hard language, whose words you cannot understand. But I have sent you to them who should listen to you. 7 But the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to Me. For all the house of Israel is impudent and obstinate. 8 But I have made your face as hard as their faces and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. 9 As emery harder than flint, I have made your forehead. Do not be afraid of them or be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.
10 Moreover He said to me: Son of man, all My words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart and hear with your ears. 11 Go to the captives, to the sons of your people, and speak to them and tell them, whether they listen or not, “Thus says the Lord God.”
12 Then the Spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a great thundering voice: “Blessed be the glory of the Lord in His place.” 13 I heard also the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another and the noise of the wheels beside them, even a great rushing sound. 14 So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit, and the hand of the Lord was strong upon me. 15 Then I came to the captives at Tel Aviv, who lived by the River Kebar, and I sat there where they sat seven days, causing consternation among them.
Ezekiel, a Watchman for Israel
16 At the end of seven days, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 17 Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel. Whenever you hear the word from My mouth, then warn them from Me. 18 When I say to the wicked, “You shall surely die,” and you do not warn him, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. 19 Yet if you warn the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity. But you have delivered your soul.
20 Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you have not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered. But his blood I will require at your hand. 21 Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man that the righteous should not sin and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning. And you have delivered your soul.
22 The hand of the Lord was upon me there, and He said to me, Rise, go out into the plain, and I will talk with you there. 23 Then I arose, and went out into the plain. And the glory of the Lord stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river of Kebar, and I fell on my face.
24 Then the Spirit entered me, and set me on my feet, and spoke with me and said to me: Go, shut yourself up within your house. 25 As for you, son of man, they shall put bands on you and shall bind you with them, so that you cannot go out among them. 26 And I will make your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth so that you shall be mute and cannot be one to rebuke them, for they are a rebellious house. 27 But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord God.” He who hears, let him hear. And he who refuses, let him refuse. For they are a rebellious house.
The Siege of Jerusalem Portrayed
4 You also, son of man, take a brick and lay it before you and inscribe a city on it, even Jerusalem. 2 Then lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and build a mound against it; set camps and place battering rams against it all around. 3 Moreover take for yourself an iron plate and set it up for a wall of iron between you and the city. And set your face against it so that it is besieged, and lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.
4 As for you, lie down on your left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it. According to the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity. 5 For I have laid upon you the years of their iniquity according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.
6 When you have accomplished them, lie again on your right side, and you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days. I have appointed you each day for a year. 7 Therefore you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and your arm shall be uncovered, and you shall prophesy against it. 8 I will lay bands upon you, and you shall not turn yourself from one side to another until you have ended the days of your siege.
9 Also take for yourself wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel and make bread. According to the number of the days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days, you shall eat it. 10 Your food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels[a] a day. From time to time you shall eat it. 11 You also shall drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin.[b] From time to time you shall drink it. 12 You shall eat it as barley cake, having baked it in their sight with dung that comes out of man. 13 Then the Lord said, “Even so the sons of Israel shall eat their defiled bread among the nations where I drive them.”
14 Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! My soul has not been defiled. For from my youth up even until now I have not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn in pieces, nor has abominable meat come into my mouth.”
15 Then He said to me, “I have given you cow dung instead of man’s dung over which you shall prepare your bread.”
16 Moreover He said to me, Son of man, I will cut off the supply of bread in Jerusalem. They shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety and drink water by measure and with horror, 17 because bread and water will be scarce, and they will be appalled with one another, and waste away for their iniquity.
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.”
The Slaughter of the Wicked
9 He cried out also in my ears with a loud voice, saying, “Cause those who have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.” 2 Six men came from the way of the higher gate which lies toward the north, each with his battle weapon in his hand. And one man among them was clothed with linen with a writer’s case by his side. And they went in and stood beside the bronze altar.
3 Then the glory of the God of Israel ascended from the cherub on which it had been, to the threshold of the temple. And He called to the man clothed with linen who had the writer’s case by his side. 4 And the Lord said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan for all the abominations that are done in its midst.”
5 To the others He said in my hearing, “Go after him through the city and strike. Do not let your eye spare or have pity. 6 Utterly slay old and young, both maidens and little children, and women. But do not touch any man on whom is the mark. And begin at My sanctuary.” Then they began with the elders who were before the temple.
7 Then he said to them, “Defile the temple, and fill the courts with the slain. Go forth!” So they went out and killed in the city. 8 While they were killing, I was left alone; and I fell on my face and cried out, “Ah, Lord God! Will You destroy all the rest of Israel by Your pouring out of Your fury upon Jerusalem?”
9 Then He said to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of blood, and the city is full of perverseness. For they say, ‘The Lord has forsaken the land, and the Lord does not see.’ 10 But as for Me, My eye shall not spare, nor will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their heads.”
11 Then the man clothed with linen who had the case by his side reported the matter, saying, “I have done just as You have commanded me.”
The Glory of God Leaves the Temple
10 Then I looked, and in the expanse that was above the heads of the cherubim there appeared over them, as it were, a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne. 2 And He spoke to the man clothed with linen and said, “Go in between the wheels under the cherubim and fill your hands with coals of fire from among the cherubim and scatter them over the city.” And he entered in my sight.
3 Now the cherubim stood on the right side of the temple when the man went in, and the cloud filled the inner court. 4 Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub and stood over the threshold of the temple. And the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the glory of the Lord. 5 The sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard even in the outer court, like the voice of the Almighty God when He speaks.
6 When He had commanded the man clothed with linen, saying, “Take fire from between the wheels, from among the cherubim,” he went in and stood beside the wheel. 7 One cherub stretched out his hand from among the cherubim to the fire that was between the cherubs, and took some, and put it into the hands of him who was clothed with linen, who took it and went out. 8 There appeared among the cherubim the form of a man’s hand under their wings.
9 Then I looked, and there were the four wheels by the cherubim, one wheel by one cherub, and another wheel by another cherub. And the appearance of the wheels was as the color of a beryl stone. 10 As for their appearances, all four had one likeness, as if one wheel had been in the middle of a wheel. 11 When they went, they went on their four sides. They did not turn as they went, but they followed to the place wherever the head looked. They did not turn as they went. 12 Their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels that the four had were full of eyes all round. 13 As for the wheels, they were called in my hearing the whirling wheels. 14 Each one had four faces. The first face was the face of a cherub, the second face was the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.
15 Then the cherubim rose up. They are the living creatures that I saw by the River Kebar. 16 When the cherubim went, the wheels went by them. And when the cherubim lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the same wheels also would not turn from beside them. 17 When the cherubim stood, the wheels stood. And when they rose up, the wheels also rose up with them. For the spirit of the living creatures was in them.
18 Then the glory of the Lord departed from off the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim. 19 The cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight. When they went out, the wheels were beside them. They stood at the door of the east gate of the house of the Lord; and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.
20 These are the living creatures that I saw under the God of Israel by the River Kebar. So I knew that they were cherubim. 21 Every one had four faces apiece, and every one four wings. And the likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings. 22 The likeness of their faces was the same faces which I saw by the River Kebar, their appearances and themselves. Each went straight forward.
God’s Judgment on Wicked Counselors
11 Moreover the Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the house of the Lord which faces eastward. And at the door of the gate were twenty-five men, among whom I saw Jaazaniah the son of Azzur and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, officials of the people. 2 Then He said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who devise mischief and give wicked counsel in this city, 3 who say, ‘The time is not near to build houses. This city is the cauldron, and we are the flesh.’ 4 Therefore prophesy against them; prophesy, son of man!”
5 Then the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and He said to me, Say, Thus says the Lord: Thus you have said, O house of Israel, for I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them. 6 You have multiplied your slain in this city, and you have filled the streets with them.
7 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Your slain whom you have laid in the midst of it, they are the flesh and this city is the cauldron. But I will bring you out of the midst of it. 8 You have feared the sword, so I will bring a sword upon you, says the Lord God. 9 I will bring you out of the midst of the city and deliver you into the hands of strangers and execute judgments against you. 10 You shall fall by the sword. I will judge you in the border of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord. 11 This city shall not be your cauldron, nor shall you be the flesh in the midst of it, but I will judge you in the border of Israel. 12 Thus you shall know that I am the Lord. For you have not walked in My statutes, or executed My judgments, but have done after the customs of the nations all around you.
13 Now while I was prophesying, Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then fell I down upon my face and cried out with a loud voice and said, “Ah, Lord God! Will You make a full end of the remnant of Israel?”
The Exiles’ Return Promised
14 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 15 Son of man, your brothers, your kindred, your fellow captives, and all the house of Israel, all of them, are they to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, “Go far from the Lord. This land has been given to us as a possession.”
16 Therefore say, Thus says the Lord God: Although I have cast them far off among the nations, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet I will be a sanctuary to them for a little while in the countries where they have gone.
17 Therefore say, Thus says the Lord God: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.
18 When they come there, they shall take away all the detestable things and all the abominations from it. 19 I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them. And I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, 20 that they may walk in My statutes, and keep My ordinances, and do them. And they shall be My people, and I will be their God. 21 But as for those whose hearts walk after the hearts of their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their way upon their own heads, says the Lord God.
22 Then the cherubim lifted up their wings with the wheels beside them. And the glory of the God of Israel was over them. 23 The glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain which is on the east side of the city. 24 Afterwards the Spirit took me up and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea to those of the captivity.
So the vision that I had seen went up from me. 25 Then I spoke to those of the captivity all the things that the Lord had shown me.
Judah’s Captivity Symbolized
12 The word of the Lord also came to me, saying: 2 Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, which has eyes to see but does not see, and ears to hear but does not hear. For they are a rebellious house.
3 Therefore, son of man, prepare baggage for captivity and go into captivity by day in their sight. And you shall go into captivity from your place to another place in their sight. It may be that they understand, though they are a rebellious house. 4 You shall bring out your belongings by day in their sight, as baggage for exile; and you shall go out at evening in their sight, as those who go into exile. 5 Dig a hole through the wall in their sight, and go out thereby. 6 In their sight you shall bear it on your shoulders and carry it out in the twilight. You shall cover your face so that you cannot see the land. For I have set you as a sign to the house of Israel.
7 I did so as I was commanded. I brought out my baggage by day as baggage for captivity, and in the evening I dug through the wall with my own hands. I brought it out at twilight, carrying it on my shoulder in their sight.
8 In the morning the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 9 Son of man, has not the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said to you, “What are you doing?”
10 Say to them, “Thus says the Lord God: This oracle concerns the prince in Jerusalem and all the house of Israel who are in it.” 11 Say, “I am your sign.
“As I have done, so it shall be done to them. They shall go into exile, into captivity.”
12 The prince who is among them shall bear his baggage on his shoulder in the twilight and go out. They shall dig through the wall to carry it out thereby. He shall cover his face so that he cannot see the land with his eyes. 13 My net also I will spread upon him, and he shall be taken in My snare. And I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans. Yet he shall not see it, though he shall die there. 14 I will scatter toward every wind all who are about him, his helpers and all his troops. And I will draw out the sword after them.
15 Then they shall know that I am the Lord when I scatter them among the nations and disperse them among the countries. 16 But I will spare a few men of them from the sword, from famine, and from pestilence, so that they may declare all their abominations among the nations where they go and know that I am the Lord.
17 Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 18 Son of man, eat your bread with quaking, and drink your water with trembling and with anxiety. 19 And say to the people of the land, Thus says the Lord God concerning the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the land of Israel: They shall eat their bread with carefulness and drink their water with astonishment, because their land shall be desolate from all that is in it, because of the violence of all those who dwell in it. 20 The cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be desolate. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.