Ezekiel 4–6

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: ^lconstruct 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. Turn your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a sign for the house of Israel. ^m

⁴“Then lie down on your left side and place the iniquity ⁿof 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. ^o6When 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 40 days, a day for each year. ⁷You must turn your face toward 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. ^p

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 be eight ounces ^qby weight; you will eat it from time to time. ^r11You are also to drink water by measure, a sixth of a gallon, ^swhich you will drink from time to time. 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.” ^t

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. ^uAnd impure meat has never entered my mouth.” ^v

¹⁵He replied to me, “Look, I will let you use cow dung instead of human excrement, and you can make your bread over that.” ¹⁶Then He said to me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of bread in Jerusalem. ^wThey will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight and in dread drink water by measure. ^x17So they will lack bread and water; everyone will be devastated and waste away because of their iniquity. ^y

Ezekiel Dramatizes Jerusalem’s Fall

5“Now you, son of man, take a sharp sword, ^zuse it as you would a barber’s razor, and shave your head and beard. Then take a set of scales and divide the hair. ²You are to burn up a third of it in the city when the days of the siege have ended; ^ayou are to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind, for I will draw a sword to chase after them. ³But you are to take a few strands from the hair and secure them in the folds of your robe. ^b4Take some more of them, throw them into the fire, and burn them in it. ^cA fire will spread from it to the whole house of Israel.

⁵“This is what the Lord God says: I have set this Jerusalem in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. ⁶But she has rebelled against My ordinances with more wickedness than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that surround her. For her people have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.

⁷“Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: Because you have been more insubordinate than the nations around you ^d—you have not walked in My statutes or kept My ordinances; you have not even kept the ordinances of the nations around you— ⁸therefore, this is what the Lord God says: See, I am against you, Jerusalem, and I will execute judgments within you in the sight of the nations. ⁹Because of all your detestable practices, I will do to you what I have never done before and what I will never do again. ^e10As a result, fathers will eat their sons ^fwithin Jerusalem, ^gand sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your survivors to every direction of the wind.

¹¹“Therefore, as I live”—this is the declaration of the Lord God—“I am going to cut you off and show you no pity, because you have defiled My sanctuary ^hwith all your detestable practices and abominations. ⁱYes, I will not spare you. ¹²A third of your people will die by plague and be consumed by famine within you; ^ja third will fall by the sword all around you; and I will scatter a third to every direction of the wind, and I will draw a sword to chase after them. ^k13When My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath on them, I will be appeased. ^lThen after I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in My jealousy. ^m

¹⁴“I will make you a ruin and a disgrace among the nations around you, in the sight of everyone who passes by. ¹⁵So you ⁿwill be a disgrace and a taunt, a warning and a horror, to the nations around you when I execute judgments against you in anger, ^owrath, and furious rebukes. I, Yahweh, have spoken. ¹⁶When I shoot deadly arrows of famine at them, arrows for destruction that I will send to destroy you, inhabitants of Jerusalem, I will intensify the famine against you and cut off your supply of bread. ¹⁷I will send famine and dangerous animals against you. They will leave you childless, Jerusalem. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, Yahweh, have spoken.” ^p

Prophecy against Israel’s Idolatry

6The word of the Lord came to me: ²“Son of man, turn your face toward the mountains of Israel ^qand prophesy against them. ³You are to say: Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! This is what the Lord God says to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places. ^r4Your altars will be desolated and your incense altars smashed. I will throw down your slain in front of your idols. ⁵I will lay the corpses of the Israelites in front of their idols and scatter your bones around your altars. ⁶Wherever you live the cities will be in ruins and the high places will be desolate, so that your altars will lie in ruins and be desecrated, ^syour idols smashed and obliterated, your incense altars cut down, and your works wiped out. ⁷The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am Yahweh.

⁸“Yet I will leave a remnant when you are scattered among the nations, for throughout the countries there will be some of you who will escape the sword. ^t9Then your survivors will remember Me among the nations where they are taken captive, ^uhow I was crushed by their promiscuous hearts that turned away from Me and by their eyes that lusted after their idols. ^vThey will loathe themselves because of the evil things they did, ^wtheir detestable practices of every kind. ¹⁰And they will know that I am the Lord; I did not threaten to bring this disaster on them without a reason.

Lament over the Fall of Jerusalem

¹¹“This is what the Lord God says: Clap your hands, stamp your feet, ^xand cry out over all the evil and detestable practices of the house of Israel, who will fall by the sword, famine, and plague. ^y12The one who is far off will die by plague; the one who is near will fall by the sword; and the one who remains and is spared ^zwill die of famine. In this way I will exhaust My wrath on them. ^a13You will all know that I am Yahweh when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, ^bon every high hill, ^con all the mountaintops, and under every green tree and every leafy oak—the places where they offered pleasing aromas to all their idols. ¹⁴I will stretch out My hand against them, ^dand wherever they live I will make the land a desolate waste, from the wilderness to Diblah. ^eThen they will know that I am Yahweh.”