Historical
A message about Jerusalem
4 ‘Son of man, take a large brick and put it in front of you.[a] On the brick, draw a picture of the city, Jerusalem. 2 Show that soldiers are ready to attack the city. Build heaps of earth around it so that nobody can escape. Put heavy pieces of wood around the city that the enemy could use to break its walls. 3 Then you must do this. Take a flat plate of iron and put it between you and the brick. It will be like a wall between you and the city. Look towards the city. Show that soldiers are around the city and they are ready to attack it. Nobody can escape. This will be a picture to show Israel's people what will happen to them.[b]
4-5 Then lie down on your left side. Show that you are receiving the punishment for the sins of the Israelites. You will suffer like that for 390 days. It will show the number of years that I have decided to punish Israel's people. Each day that you suffer will show one year of their punishment.
6 After you have finished all those days, lie down again. This time, lie down on your right side for 40 days. You will suffer like that to show the punishment for the sins of Judah's people. Each day will show one year of their punishment. 7 Continue to look towards the brick which has the picture of Jerusalem on it. Show that you are ready to attack it, like soldiers all around it. Speak my message to warn the city. 8 Listen! I will use ropes to tie around you. You will not be able to turn from one side to another. You will lie on one side until you have finished all the days to attack the city.[c]
9 You must take some grains like wheat and barley, and different kinds of beans. Then put them all into a jar. Use them to make bread for yourself. You must eat this for 390 days while you lie on your left side. 10 You should eat 220 grams of food each day. Eat it at the same time each day. 11 You must measure the water that you drink each day. You may drink two cups at the same times each day. 12 Prepare your food like a cake that is made from barley. Bake it on a fire that you have made with human dung. Do this where the people can see you.’[d]
13 The Lord also said, ‘I will send Israel's people away to live in foreign lands. Then they will have to eat unclean food, as you will do now.’[e]
14 Then I said, ‘No, Almighty Lord, I could not use human dung. It would make me unclean. Since I was a child I have never eaten any food that would make me unclean. I have never eaten meat from a dead animal that people have found. I have not eaten meat from an animal that wild animals have killed.’
15 So God said to me, ‘I will allow you to use dung from cows instead of from humans. You may use that to make the fire to cook your bread.’
16 Then God said to me, ‘Son of man, I will soon take away the bread in Jerusalem. The people will have to measure the food that they eat. And they will have to measure the water that they drink. They will worry and be afraid. 17 They will not have enough food or water. Everyone will be very upset. Their bodies will become very thin when I punish them for their sins.’[f]
Ezekiel cuts his hair
5 ‘Son of man, take a sharp sword. Use it like a knife to cut off your hair and your beard. Then use some scales to weigh the hair. Put it into three separate parts that are the same weight.[g]
2 Wait until all the days when you are lying on your side have finished. Take one part of your hair and burn it on the brick which has the picture of Jerusalem. Take another part and use a sword to cut it into small pieces. Let the pieces fall all around the brick which shows the city. Then take the third part and throw the hairs into the wind. I will run after them with a sword. 3 But keep a few of your hairs. Tie them into the edge of your clothes. 4 Finally, take out some of these hairs. Throw them into the fire and burn them. This fire will grow so that it reaches all Israel's people.
5 I, the Almighty Lord, say this: This shows what will happen to Jerusalem. I have put the city in the centre of all the nations. It has countries all around it. 6 But Jerusalem's people have refused to obey my rules and my commands. They have become more wicked than the nations and countries around them. They have not obeyed my laws.
7 So this is what the Almighty Lord says: You people of Jerusalem have done worse things than any of the nations around you. You have not obeyed my rules or my laws. You have not even obeyed the laws of the nations around you.
8 So this is what the Almighty Lord says: I myself have become your enemy, people of Jerusalem. I will punish you while the other nations watch. 9 I will punish you for all the disgusting things that you have done. I have never punished anyone like that before. And I will never do it again. 10 When I punish you like that, you will have no food to eat. Parents will be so hungry that they will eat their children. Children will eat their parents. I will chase away those few people who are still alive. They will go to all parts of the earth.
11 The Almighty Lord says this: I promise you as surely as I live that I will remove you. You have made my holy place unclean. You have put your disgusting idols in my house. You have done wicked things there. Because of that I will not be sorry for you. I will not save you. 12 Illness or famine will kill one third of your people inside the city. The soldiers who are around the city will kill a third of your people. And I will chase away a third of them to all parts of the earth. I will cause their enemies to run after them with their swords.[h]
13 When I have done all that to them, I will not be angry any longer. I will not punish them any more, because it is enough. When I have finished, they will know that I, the Lord, have spoken to them. I have been angry with them because they have not been faithful to me.
14 I will cause your city to become a heap of stones. People of the other nations around you will laugh at you when they see what has happened to you. 15 They will all laugh at you and insult you. They will see that I was very angry with you and I punished you. Then they will be afraid of my great anger. I, the Lord, say this!
16 I will take away your bread so that famine kills more and more of you. It will seem that I am shooting arrows at you to destroy you. 17 Famine or wild animals will kill you. Your children will no longer live. Illness and war will destroy you. I will send soldiers to attack you. I, the Lord, say this!’
6 The Lord gave this message to me: 2 ‘Son of man, look towards the mountains of Israel. Tell them my message to warn them.[i] 3 Say, “You mountains of Israel, listen to this message from the Almighty Lord. This is what the Almighty Lord says to the mountains, the hills and the valleys: I am coming here to attack you. I will destroy the places where you worship false gods. 4 I will destroy your altars for sacrifices and your altars for incense. I will kill the people who worship there and put them in front of their idols.[j] 5 The dead bodies of you people of Israel will lie in front of your idols. I will cause soldiers to throw your bones on the ground around the altars.
6 In all the places that you live, soldiers will destroy your towns. They will also destroy the places where you worship false gods. They will break down the altars so that they become heaps of stones. They will break your idols into pieces. They will destroy the altars where you burn incense. They will remove all those things that you have made. 7 Dead bodies will lie on the ground everywhere that you live. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
8 But I will allow some of you to live. Those people will escape when the enemy army attacks. They will run away to live in foreign countries. 9 When they are living as prisoners among those other nations, they will remember me. They will realize that they made me very sad because they were not faithful to me. They stopped worshipping me. Instead, they chose to worship idols. Then they will be ashamed of themselves, because of all the disgusting things which they have done. 10 They will know that I am the Lord. They will know that it was true when I promised to bring this terrible trouble to them.” ’
11 This is what I, the Almighty Lord, say to you, Ezekiel: ‘Clap your hands together. Stamp on the ground with your feet. Show that you are very upset because of all the disgusting, evil things that Israel's people have done. War, famine and disease will kill them. 12 Illness will kill the people who live far away. Enemy soldiers will kill those who live near to the city. Famine will kill those people who are still alive. Because I am very angry with them, I will punish them very much.
13 Then they will know that I am the Lord. They will see the dead bodies of their own people. The bodies will be lying among the idols that they worshipped. They will be lying around the altars of their false gods, on every high hill and mountain. The dead bodies will lie under the big trees where they offered incense to all their idols. 14 I will punish them very much. I will destroy their land from the desert in the south as far as Diblah. I will make it a place where nobody can live. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’
The day has come for the Lord to punish Israel
7 The Lord gave this message to me: 2 ‘Son of man, this is what I, the Almighty Lord, say to the land of Israel: The end is now here! I will soon destroy the whole land. 3 The time has come for your final punishment! You will know that I am very angry with you. I will punish you because of the bad way that you have lived. You will receive the punishment that you deserve for all the disgusting things that you have done. 4 I will not be sorry for you. I will not be kind to you. I will punish you as you deserve. You have done disgusting things. So I will punish you and you will know that I am the Lord.
5 This is what the Almighty Lord says: Terrible trouble is coming to you! It will be worse than any other trouble. 6 The end has now come! It is finally here to destroy you! Look out! 7 You people who live in the land will now receive terrible punishment. The day for that to happen is very near. There will be no more sound of happy parties on the mountains. Instead there will be shouts of fear. 8 Very soon, I will punish you because of my great anger. You will know how angry I am. I will judge you for the way that you have lived. I will punish you as you deserve for the disgusting things that you have done. 9 I will not be sorry for you. I will not be kind to you. I will punish you as you deserve, because of the disgusting things that you have done. Then you will know that I, the Lord, am causing you pain.
10 Yes, the day of your punishment is here! Terrible trouble is coming to you! Like a tree that is ready to make flowers, your proud and wicked acts are ready for punishment. 11 You use violence to help you to do wicked things. None of all those people will escape. None of their riches or valuable things will remain. 12 The day of punishment has now come! The person who buys things will no longer be happy. Nor will the person who sells things. My anger will bring pain to all of them. 13 Any man who sells his land will never get it back as long as he lives. God has shown what he will do to all those people. He will not change his mind. Each one will lose his life because of their sins.
14 The soldiers make a noise with trumpets to prepare for war. But nobody goes out to fight a battle because my anger has brought punishment for all the people.
15 The enemy is ready to attack outside the city. Inside the city, there is disease and famine. Enemy soldiers will kill the people who are in the country. Famine and disease will kill everyone who is in the city. 16 Those who remain alive will escape. They will run to the mountains. They will be like doves that hunters have chased out of the valleys. They will cry aloud because of their sins. 17 Their hands will be weak. Their knees will shake. 18 They will wear sackcloth. They will be very afraid. Their faces will show that they are ashamed. They will cut all the hair from their heads. 19 They will throw their silver away in the streets. They will think that their gold has no value, like dirt. Their silver and their gold will not be able to save them on the day of the Lord's great anger. When they are hungry, their money will not buy them any food. It is their riches that have caused them to do wicked things. 20 They were proud of their beautiful jewels. They used them to make disgusting idols and images. That is why I, the Lord, have made them hate their valuable things. 21 I will allow foreigners and wicked people to take those things from them. They will use those valuable things in a disgusting way. 22 Those foreigners and robbers will go into my holy temple. They will cause it to become unclean. But I will look away and I will allow them to do that.
23 Prepare chains to tie my people. The whole land is full of murder and violence. 24 I will bring the most wicked people from other nations to attack. They will take the houses of my people and they will live in them. The strong men among my people will no longer boast. Enemies will spoil the holy places where my people worshipped.
25 Terrible trouble is coming to my people! When they are afraid, they will look for peace. But they will not find it. 26 Many troubles will happen, one after another. There will be lots of news about terrible things. People will ask the prophets to tell them what will happen. The priests will not have anything to teach the people. The leaders will not have any good advice. 27 The king will be very sad. His son will not hope for anything good to happen. The people will shake with fear.
I will punish them as they deserve for the way that they have lived. I will judge them in the same way that they have judged other people. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’
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