Ezekiel 3–4

3He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find here. Eat this scroll,^m then go and speak to the house of Israel.” ²So I opened my mouth, and he fed me the scroll. ³“Son of man,” he said to me, “feed your stomach and fill your belly with this scroll I am giving you.” So I ate it,ⁿ and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.^o

⁴Then he said to me, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak my words to them. ⁵For you are not being sent to a people of unintelligible speech or a difficult language but to the house of Israel—⁶not to the many peoples of unintelligible speech or a difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. No doubt, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you.^{p 7}But the house of Israel will not want to listen to you because they do not want to listen to me.^q For the whole house of Israel is hardheaded and hardhearted. ⁸Look, I have made your face as hard as their faces and your forehead as hard as their foreheads.^{r 9}I have made your forehead like a diamond, harder than flint. Don’t be afraid of them or discouraged by the look on their faces, though they are a rebellious house.”

¹⁰Next he said to me, “Son of man, listen carefully to all my words that I speak to you and take them to heart. ¹¹Go to your people, the exiles, and speak to them. Tell them, ‘This is what the Lord God says,’ whether they listen or refuse to listen.”^s

¹²The Spirit then lifted me up,^t and I heard a loud rumbling sound behind me—bless the glory of the Lord in his place!—¹³with the sound of the living creatures’ wings brushing against each other^u and the sound of the wheels beside them,^v a loud rumbling sound. ¹⁴The Spirit lifted me up and took me away. I left in bitterness and in an angry spirit, and the Lord’s hand was on me powerfully.^{w 15}I came to the exiles at Tel-abib, who were living by the Chebar Canal, and I sat there among them stunned for seven days.^x

EZEKIEL AS A WATCHMAN

¹⁶Now at the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me:^{y 17}“Son of man, I have made you a watchman over the house of Israel.^z When you hear a word from my mouth, give them a warning from me.^{aa 18}If I say to the wicked person,^ab ‘You will surely die,’ but you do not warn him—you don’t speak out to warn him about his wicked way in order to save his life—that wicked person will die for his iniquity. Yet I will hold you responsible for his blood. ¹⁹But if you warn a wicked person and he does not turn from his wickedness or his wicked way, he will die for his iniquity, but you will have rescued yourself.^{ac 20}Now if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and acts unjustly,^ad and I put a stumbling block in front of him, he will die.^ae If you did not warn him, he will die because of his sin, and the righteous acts he did will not be remembered. Yet I will hold you responsible for his blood. ²¹But if you warn the righteous person that he should not sin, and he does not sin, he will indeed live because he listened to your warning, and you will have rescued yourself.”

²²The hand of the Lord was on me there, and he said to me, “Get up, go out to the plain,^a and I will speak with you there.”^{b 23}So I got up and went out to the plain. The Lord’s glory was present there,^c like the glory I had seen by the Chebar Canal,^d and I fell facedown. ²⁴The Spirit entered me and set me on my feet.^e He spoke with me and said, “Go, shut yourself inside your house. ²⁵As for you, son of man, they will put ropes on you^f and bind you with them so you cannot go out among them. ²⁶I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth,^g and you will be mute^h and unable to be a mediator for^A them, for they are a rebellious house. ²⁷But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth,ⁱ and you will say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says.’ Let the one who listens, listen, and let the one who refuses, refuse—for they are a rebellious house.

JERUSALEM’S SIEGE DRAMATIZED

4“Now you, son of man, take a brick, set it in front of you, and draw the city of Jerusalem on it. ²Then lay siege against it:^j Construct a siege wall, build a ramp, pitch military camps, and place battering rams against it on all sides. ³Take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city. Face it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a sign for the house of Israel.^k

⁴“Then lie down on your left side and place the iniquity^B of the house of Israel on it. You will bear their iniquity for the number of days you lie on your side. ⁵For I have assigned you the years of their iniquity according to the number of days you lie down, 390 days; so you will bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.^{l 6}When you have completed these days, lie down again, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah. I have assigned you forty days, a day for each year. ⁷Face the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared, and prophesy against it. ⁸Be aware that I will put cords on you so you cannot turn from side to side until you have finished the days of your siege.^m

⁹“Also take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt. Put them in a single container and make them into bread for yourself. You are to eat it during the number of days you lie on your side, 390 days. ¹⁰The food you eat each day will weigh eight ounces;^C you will eat it at set times. ¹¹You will also drink a ration of water, a sixth of a gallon,^E which you will drink at set times. ¹²You will eat it as you would a barley cake and bake it over dried human excrement in their sight.” ¹³The Lord said, “This is how the Israelites will eat their bread—ceremonially unclean—among the nations where I will banish them.”ⁿ

¹⁴But I said, “Oh, Lord God, I have never been defiled. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything that died naturally or was mauled by wild beasts.^o And impure meat has never entered my mouth.”^p

¹⁵He replied to me, “Look, I will let you use cow dung instead of human excrement, and you can make your bread over that.” ¹⁶He said to me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of bread in Jerusalem.^q They will anxiously eat food they have weighed out and in dread drink rationed water^{r 17}for lack of bread and water. Everyone will be devastated and waste away because of their iniquity.^s