3And he said to me, “Son of man,^a what you find, eat! Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” ²And I opened my mouth, and he gave me this scroll to eat, ³and he said to me, “Son of man,^b you must give your stomach this to eat, and you must fill your belly with this scroll that I am giving to you.” And I ate, and it became like sweet honey^c in my mouth. ⁴And he said to me, “Son of man,^d come! Go to the house of Israel, and you must speak to them with my words. ⁵For you are sent to the house of Israel, not to a people of obscure speech^e and of a difficult language,^f ⁶and not to many nations of obscure speech^g and a difficult language^h whose wordsⁱ you do not understand, for if I had sent you to them they would have listened to you. ⁷And the house of Israel, they are not willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me, for all of the house of Israel is hard of forehead, and they are hard of heart. ⁸But look, I have made^j your face hard against^k their faces and your forehead hard against^l their forehead. ⁹Like a diamond harder than flint^m I have made your forehead; you must not fear them, and you must not be dismayed on account of them,ⁿ for they are a rebellious house.^o ¹⁰And he said to me, “Son of man,^p all of my words that I shall speak to you, receive into^q your heart and hear with your ears. ¹¹And come, go to the exiles,^r to the children^s of your people, and you must speak to them, and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh!’ whether they listen or whether they fail to listen.” ¹²And the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the sound of a great earthquake when the glory of Yahweh rose from its place. ¹³And it was the sound of the wings of the living creatures touching lightly^t one against the other,^u and the sound of the wheels beside them and the sound of a great earthquake. ¹⁴And the Spirit lifted me and took me, and I went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit, and the hand of Yahweh was strong on me. ¹⁵And I went to the exiles^v at Tel Abib, who were dwelling near the Kebar River,^w and I sat where they were dwelling. I sat there seven days in the midst of them, stunned. ¹⁶And then it happened^x at the end of seven days, the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, ¹⁷“Son of man,^y I have appointed you as a watchman for the house of Israel. When you hear a word from my mouth, then you must warn them from me. ¹⁸When I say^z to the wicked, ‘Surely you will die,’ and you do not warn him and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way so that he may live,^a that wicked person will die because of his guilt, and from your hand I will seek his blood. ¹⁹And you, if you do warn the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness and from his wicked way, on account of his guilt he will die, and you yourself will have saved your life.^b ²⁰And when the righteous turns from his righteousness^c and does injustice, and I place^d a stumbling block before him,^e he will die, for you did not warn him. Because of his sin he will die, and his righteousness^f that he did will not be remembered, and his blood I shall seek from your hand. ²¹And if you warn him, the righteous, not to sin, and the righteous does not sin, surely he will live, for he heeded a warning. And you will have saved your life.”^g

²²And the hand of Yahweh was on me there, and he said to me, “Rise up, go out to the valley, and there I will speak with you.” ²³And I rose up, and I went to the valley, and, look, there the glory of Yahweh was standing, like the glory that I saw near the Kebar River,^h and I fell on my face. ²⁴And the Spiritⁱ came into me, and it made me stand on my feet, and he spoke with me and said to me, “Come, shut yourself inside your house,^j ²⁵and you, son of man,^k look, they will place^l cords on you, and they will tie you up with them. Then you will not go out into the midst of them. ²⁶And I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth, and you will be silenced, and you will not be a reproving man for them, for they are a rebellious house.^m ²⁷And when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you must say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “The one hearing him, let him hear, and the one failing to hear, let him fail,” ’ for they are a rebellious house.ⁿ

Siege of Jerusalem Illustrated on a Brick

4“Now,^a son of man,^b take for yourself a brick, and you must put it before you,^c and you must portray on it a city, Jerusalem. ²And you must build against it siege works, and you must build against it a bulwark, and you must heap against it a siege ramp, and you must set up against it camps and put against it a battering ram all around. ³And take for yourself a plate of iron, and you must place it as a wall of iron between you and the city, and you must set your face against it, and it must be under siege,^d and you must lay the siege against it; it is a sign for the house of Israel. ⁴And you, lie down on your left side, and you must put^e the guilt of the house of Israel on it. You will carry their guilt the number of days that you will lie on it. ⁵And I will give to you the years of their guilt according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days, and you must bear the guilt^f of the house of Israel. ⁶When you have completed these, then you must lie a second time on your right side; and you must bear the guilt^g of the house of Judah forty days, a day for each year, a day for each year I give it to you. ⁷And toward the siege of Jerusalem you must set your face and your bared arm; then you must prophesy against it. ⁸Now^h look! I will put on you cords, and you may not turn yourself from one side to your other side until you complete the days of your siege.

Ezekiel’s Strange Defiled Meal

⁹“And you, take for yourselfⁱ wheat and barley and beans and lentils and millet^j and spelt, and you must put them in one vessel, and you must make them for yourself^k into a food during the number of days that you are lying on your side; three hundred and ninety days you shall eat it. ¹⁰And your food that you will eat^l will be according to weight; twenty shekels for each day at fixed times^m you shall eat it. ¹¹And an amount of waterⁿ you shall drink, a sixth of a hin; at fixed times^o you shall drink it. ¹²And as a bread-cake of barley you shall eat it, and with human excrement^p you shall bake it before their eyes.” ¹³And Yahweh said, “Thus shall the Israelites^q eat their unclean food among the nations where I will scatter them.”^r ¹⁴And I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Look! I have not been defiling myself, and a dead body and mangled carcass I have not eaten from my childhood until now, and unclean meat^s has not come into my mouth!” ¹⁵And he said to me, “See I will give you cattle manure^t in the place of the feces of a human, and you may prepare your food on it.” ¹⁶And he said to me, “Son of man,^u look, I am going to break the supply^v of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by weight, anxiously,^w and rationed water,^x and they will drink with horror, ¹⁷so that they will lack food and water, and they will be appalled with one another,^y and they will waste away because of their guilt.^z

Read in Logos

Footnotes

aOr “mortal,” or “son of humankind”
bOr “mortal,” or “son of humankind”
cLiterally “like honey for sweetness”
dOr “mortal,” or “son of humankind”
eLiterally “obscure of lip”
fLiterally “heavy/thick of tongue”
gLiterally “obscure of tongue”
hLiterally “heavy/thick of tongue”
iLiterally “their words”
jOr “set”
kLiterally “to correspond to”
lLiterally “to correspond to”
mLiterally “hard more than flint”
nLiterally “from the face of them”
oLiterally “are a house of rebellion”
pOr “mortal,” or “son of humankind”
qHebrew “in”
rHebrew “exile”
sOr “sons”
tOr “brushing against”
uLiterally “each against each its sister
vHebrew “exile”
wLiterally “river of Kebar”
xOr “was”
yOr “mortal,” or “son of humankind”
zLiterally “at/in my saying”
aLiterally “so that you let him live”
bOr “soul,” or “self”
cLiterally “and at the to turn of the righteous from his righteousness”
dOr “give”
eLiterally “to the face of him”
fOr “righteous deeds”
gOr “soul,” or “self”
hLiterally “river of Kebar”
iOr “a spirit”
jLiterally “in the midst of your house”
kOr “mortal,” or “son of humankind”
lOr “give”
mLiterally “a house of rebellion”
nLiterally “a house of rebellion”
aOr “And”
bOr “mortal,” or “son of humankind”
cLiterally “to the face of you”
dLiterally “in the siege”
eOr “you will put”
fOr “punishment”
gOr “punishment”
hOr “and”
iHebrew “you”
jOr “sorghum”
kHebrew “you”
lHebrew “will eat it”
mLiterally “from time to time”
nLiterally “water by amount”
oLiterally “from time to time”
pLiterally “with human dung of the excrement of the human”
qLiterally “sons/children of Israel”
rLiterally “which I will scatter them there”
sLiterally “flesh of unclean meat”
tLiterally “the manure of cattle”
uOr “mortal,” or “son of humankind”
vLiterally “staff”
wLiterally “and with worry”
xLiterally “and water by amount”
yLiterally “a man and his brother”
zOr “punishment”