Ezekiel 12:3–12

³“Now, mortal man, pack a bundle just as a refugee would, and start out before nightfall. Let everyone see you leaving and going to another place. Maybe those rebels will notice you.^{w 4}While it is still daylight, pack your bundle for exile, so that they can see you, and then let them watch you leave in the evening as if you were going into exile. ⁵While they are watching, break a hole through the wall of your house and take your pack out through it. ⁶Let them watch you putting your pack on your shoulder and going out into the dark with your eyes covered, so that you can’t see where you are going. What you do will be a warning to the Israelites.”

⁷I did what the Lord told me to do. That day I packed a bundle as a refugee would, and that evening as it was getting dark I dug a hole in the wall with my hands and went out. While everyone watched, I put the pack on my shoulder and left.

⁸The next morning the Lord spoke to me. ⁹“Mortal man,” he said, “now that those Israelite rebels are asking you what you’re doing, ¹⁰tell them what I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying to them. This message is for the prince ruling in Jerusalem and for all the people who live there. ¹¹Tell them that what you have done is a sign of what will happen to them—they will be refugees and captives. ¹²The prince who is ruling them will shoulder his pack in the dark and escape through a hole that they dig for him in the wall. He will cover his eyes and not see where he is going.