Historical

Ezekiel Bears Israel’s Iniquity

4 “Now as for you, son of man, ^(A)get yourself a brick, set it before you, and inscribe a city on it, Jerusalem. ² Then ^(B)set a siege against it, build a siege wall against it, ^[a]raise up a ramp against it, set up camps against it, and place battering rams against it all around. ³ Now as for you, get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city, and establish your face toward it so that ^(C)it is under siege, and besiege it. This is a ^(D)sign to the house of Israel.

⁴ “Now as for you, lie down on your left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; you shall ^(E)bear their iniquity for the number of days that you lie on it. ⁵ Now I have set a number of days for you corresponding to the years of their iniquity, 390 days; thus ^(F)you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. ⁶ And you shall complete these, and you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah; I have set it for you for forty days, a day for ^(G)each year. ⁷ Then you shall establish your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and ^(H)prophesy against it. ⁸ Now behold, I will ^(I)set ropes upon you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.

Making Unclean Bread

⁹ “Now as for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and ^(J)spelt; set them in one vessel and make them into bread for yourself; you shall eat it according to the number of the days that you lie on your side, 390 days. ¹⁰ And your food which you eat shall be ^[b](K)twenty shekels a day by weight; you shall eat it from time to time. ¹¹ The water you drink shall be the sixth part of a ^[c]hin by measure; you shall drink it from time to time. ¹² You shall eat it as a barley cake, having baked it in their sight over human ^(L)dung.” ¹³ Then Yahweh said, “Thus will the sons of Israel eat their bread ^(M)unclean among the nations where I will banish them.” ¹⁴ But I said, “^(N)Ah, Lord Yahweh! Behold, I have ^(O)never been defiled; for from my youth until now I have never eaten what ^(P)died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has any ^(Q)offensive meat ever entered my mouth.” ¹⁵ Then He said to me, “See, I will set for you cow’s dung in place of human dung over which you will prepare your bread.” ¹⁶ Moreover, He said to me, “Son of man, behold, I am going to ^(R)break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by ^(S)weight and with anxiety, and they will drink water by ^(T)measure and in desolation ¹⁷ because bread and water will be lacking; and they will be in desolation with one another and ^(U)rot away in their iniquity.

The Siege of Jerusalem

5 “Now as for you, son of man, take a ^(V)sharp sword; take and ^[d]use it as a barber’s razor on your head and beard. Then take ^(W)scales for weighing and divide ^[e]the hair. ² One-third you shall burn in the fire at the center of the city when the ^(X)days of the siege are fulfilled. Then you shall take one-third and strike it with the sword all around ^[f]the city, and one-third you shall scatter to the wind; and I will ^(Y)unsheathe a sword behind them. ³ You shall also take a few in number from ^[g]them and bind them in the edges of your robes. ⁴ Take again some of them and throw them into the fire and burn them in the fire; from it a fire will ^[h]spread to all the house of Israel.

⁵ “Thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘This is ^(Z)Jerusalem; I have set her at the ^(AA)center of the nations, with lands all around her. ⁶ But she has rebelled against My judgments more wickedly than the nations and against My statutes ^(AB)more than the lands which are all around her; for they have ^(AC)rejected My judgments and have not walked ^[i]in My statutes.’ ⁷ Therefore, thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Because you have ^(AD)more turmoil than the nations which are all around you and have not walked in My statutes, nor done My judgments, nor done the judgments of the nations which are all around you,’ ⁸ therefore, thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Behold, I, even I, am ^(AE)against you, and I will ^(AF)execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. ⁹ And I will do among you what I have ^(AG)not done and the like of which I will never do again because of all your abominations. ¹⁰ Therefore, ^(AH)fathers will eat their sons among you, and sons will eat their fathers; for I will execute judgments on you and ^(AI)scatter all your remnant to every wind. ¹¹ So as I live,’ declares Lord Yahweh, ‘surely, because you have ^(AJ)defiled My sanctuary with all your ^(AK)detestable idols and with all your abominations, therefore I will also withdraw, and My eye will have no pity, and I will not spare. ¹² One-third of you will die by the ^(AL)plague or be consumed by the famine among you, one-third will fall by the sword around you, and one-third I will ^(AM)scatter to every wind, and I will ^(AN)unsheathe a sword behind them.

¹³ ‘Thus My anger will be spent, and I will cause My wrath against them to be at rest, and I will be ^[j](AO)appeased; then they will know that I, Yahweh, have ^(AP)spoken in My zeal when I have spent My wrath upon them. ¹⁴ Moreover, I will make you a ^[k]ruin and a ^(AQ)reproach among the nations which are all around you, in the sight of all who pass by. ¹⁵ So ^[l]it will be a reproach, a reviling, a ^(AR)chastisement, and a desecration to the nations who are all around you when I ^(AS)execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and wrathful reproofs. I, Yahweh, have spoken. ¹⁶ When I send against them the ^[m]deadly arrows of famine which ^[n]were for the destruction of those whom I will send to destroy you, then I will also intensify the famine upon you and break the staff of bread. ¹⁷ Moreover, ^(AT)I will send on you famine and wild beasts, and they will bereave you of children; ^(AU)plague and bloodshed also will pass through you, and I will bring the sword on you. I, Yahweh, have spoken.’”

Yahweh Will Destroy Israel’s Pagan Altars

6 And the word of Yahweh came to me saying, ² “Son of man, set your face toward the ^(AV)mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them ³ and say, ‘Mountains of Israel, hear the word of Lord Yahweh! Thus says Lord Yahweh to the mountains, the hills, the ravines, and the valleys: “Behold, I Myself am going to bring a sword on you, and ^(AW)I will destroy your high places. ⁴ So your ^(AX)altars will become desolate, and your incense altars will be broken; and I will make your slain fall in front of your idols. ⁵ I will also put the dead bodies of the sons of Israel in front of their idols; and I will scatter your ^(AY)bones all around your altars. ⁶ In all your places of habitation, ^(AZ)cities will become waste, and the high places will be desolate, that your altars may become waste and ^[o]desolate, your ^(BA)idols may be broken and cease, your incense altars may be cut in pieces, and your works may be blotted out. ⁷ The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am Yahweh.

⁸ “However, I will leave a ^(BB)remnant, for you will have those who ^(BC)escaped the sword among the nations when you are scattered among the lands. ⁹ Then those of you who escape will ^(BD)remember Me among the nations to which they will be carried captive, how I have ^(BE)been broken over their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me, and by their eyes which played the harlot after their idols; and they will ^(BF)loathe themselves to their own faces for the evils which they have done, for all their abominations. ¹⁰ Then they will know that I am Yahweh; I have not said in vain that I would do this calamitous evil against them.”’

¹¹ “Thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Strike your hands together, ^(BG)stamp your foot and say, “^(BH)Alas, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, which will fall by the ^(BI)sword, by the famine, and by the plague! ¹² He who is ^(BJ)far off will die by the plague, and he who is near will fall by the sword, and he who remains and is besieged will die by the famine. Thus will I ^(BK)spend My wrath on them. ¹³ Then you will know that I am Yahweh when their ^(BL)slain are among their idols all around their altars, on ^(BM)every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every green tree, and under every leafy oak—the places where they ^[p]offered a soothing aroma to all their idols. ¹⁴ So throughout all their habitations I will ^(BN)stretch out My hand against them and make the land more desolate and desecrated than the wilderness toward Diblah; thus they will know that I am Yahweh.”’”

The Pitiless Wrath of Yahweh

7 Moreover, the word of Yahweh came to me saying, ² “Now as for you, son of man, thus says Lord Yahweh to the land of Israel, ‘An ^(BO)end! The end is coming on the four corners of the earth. ³ Now the end is upon you, and I will send My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways and put all your abominations upon you. ⁴ For My eye will have no pity on you, nor will I spare you, but I will ^(BP)put your ways upon you, and your abominations will be among you; then you will ^(BQ)know that I am Yahweh!’

⁵ “Thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘A ^(BR)calamitous evil, a unique calamitous evil, behold, it is coming! ⁶ An end has come; the end has come! It has ^(BS)awakened against you; behold, it is coming! ⁷ Your doom has come to you, O inhabitant of the land. The ^(BT)time has come; the ^(BU)day is near—confusion rather than joyful shouting on the mountains. ⁸ Now it is near when I will ^(BV)pour out My wrath on you and spend My anger against you and ^(BW)judge you according to your ways and put on you all your abominations. ⁹ My eye will show no pity, nor will I spare. I will give to you according to your ways, while your abominations are among you; then you will know that I, Yahweh, do the striking.

¹⁰ ‘Behold, the day! Behold, it is coming! Your doom has gone forth; the ^(BX)rod has blossomed; arrogance has budded. ¹¹ Violence ^[q]has grown into a rod of ^(BY)wickedness. None of them shall remain, none of their multitude, none of their ^(BZ)moaning, nor anything eminent among them. ¹² The ^(CA)time has come; the day has arrived. Let not the ^(CB)buyer be glad nor the seller mourn; for ^(CC)wrath is against all their multitude. ¹³ Indeed, the seller will not ^(CD)return to himself ^[r]what he sold as long as ^[s]they both live; for the vision regarding all their multitude will not return empty, nor will any of them strengthen his life by his iniquity.

¹⁴ ‘They have ^(CE)blown the trumpet and made everything ready, but no one is going to the battle, for My wrath is against all ^[t]their multitude. ¹⁵ The ^(CF)sword is outside, and the plague and the famine are inside. He who is in the field will die by the sword; famine and the plague will also devour those in the city. ¹⁶ Even when their survivors ^(CG)escape, they will be on the mountains like ^(CH)doves of the valleys, all of them ^(CI)moaning, each over his own iniquity. ¹⁷ All ^(CJ)hands will hang limp, and all knees will ^[u]become like water. ¹⁸ They will ^(CK)gird themselves with sackcloth, and ^(CL)horror will cover them; and shame will be on all faces and ^(CM)baldness on all their heads. ¹⁹ They will ^(CN)throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will become an impure thing; their ^(CO)silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of the fury of Yahweh. They cannot satisfy their soul, nor can they fill their stomachs, for their iniquity has become an occasion of stumbling.

The Temple Profaned

²⁰ They ^[v]transformed the beauty of His ornaments into pride, and ^(CP)they made the images of their abominations and their detestable things with it; therefore I will make it an impure thing to them. ²¹ I will give it into the hands of the ^(CQ)foreigners as plunder and to the wicked of the earth as spoil, and they will profane it. ²² I will also turn My ^(CR)face from them, and they will profane My secret place; then robbers will enter and profane it.

²³ ‘^(CS)Make the chain, for the land is full of ^(CT)judgments that promote bloodshed, and the city is ^(CU)full of violence. ²⁴ Therefore, I will bring the most evil of the ^(CV)nations, and they will possess their houses. I will also make the ^(CW)pride of the strong ones cease, and their ^(CX)holy places will be profaned. ²⁵ Anguish has come, and they will seek ^(CY)peace, but there will be none. ^26 (CZ)Disaster will come upon disaster, and ^(DA)report will be added to report; then they will seek a ^(DB)vision from a prophet, but the ^(DC)law will be lost from the priest and ^(DD)counsel from the elders. ²⁷ The king will mourn, the prince will be ^(DE)clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land will be dismayed. According to their way I will deal with them, and by their judgments I will judge them. And they will know that I am Yahweh.’”