Ezekiel 4–6

CHAPTER 4

Ezekiel Bears Israel’s Iniquity

¹“Now as for you, son of man, ^aget yourself a brick, set it before you, and inscribe a city on it, Jerusalem.

²“Then ^aset a siege against it, build a siege wall against it, ¹raise 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 ^ait is under siege, and besiege it. This is a ^bsign 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 ^abear 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 ^ayou 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 ^aeach year.

⁷“Then you shall establish your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and ^aprophesy against it.

⁸“Now behold, I will ^aset 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 ^aspelt; 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 ^1atwenty 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 ¹hin 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 ^adung.”

¹³Then Yahweh said, “Thus will the sons of Israel eat their bread ^aunclean among the nations where I will banish them.”

¹⁴But I said, “^aAh, Lord Yahweh! Behold, I have ^bnever been defiled; for from my youth until now I have never eaten what ^cdied of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has any ^doffensive meat ever entered my mouth.”

¹⁵Then 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.”

¹⁶Moreover, He said to me, “Son of man, behold, I am going to ^abreak the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by ^bweight and with anxiety, and they will drink water by ^cmeasure and in desolation

¹⁷because bread and water will be lacking; and they will be in desolation with one another and ^arot away in their iniquity.

CHAPTER 5

The Siege of Jerusalem

¹“Now as for you, son of man, take a ^asharp sword; take and ¹use it as a barber’s razor on your head and beard. Then take ^bscales for weighing and divide ²the hair.

²“One-third you shall burn in the fire at the center of the city when the ^adays of the siege are fulfilled. Then you shall take one-third and strike it with the sword all around ¹the city, and one-third you shall scatter to the wind; and I will ^bunsheathe a sword behind them.

³“You shall also take a few in number from ¹them 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 ¹spread to all the house of Israel.

⁵“Thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘This is ^aJerusalem; I have set her at the ^bcenter 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 ^amore than the lands which are all around her; for they have ^brejected My judgments and have not walked ¹in My statutes.’

⁷“Therefore, thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Because you have ^amore 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,’

⁸therefore, thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Behold, I, even I, am ^aagainst you, and I will ^bexecute judgments among you in the sight of the nations.

⁹‘And I will do among you what I have ^anot done and the like of which I will never do again because of all your abominations.

¹⁰‘Therefore, ^afathers will eat their sons among you, and sons will eat their fathers; for I will execute judgments on you and ^bscatter all your remnant to every wind.

¹¹‘So as I live,’ declares Lord Yahweh, ‘surely, because you have ^adefiled My sanctuary with all your ^bdetestable 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 ^aplague or be consumed by the famine among you, one-third will fall by the sword around you, and one-third I will ^bscatter to every wind, and I will ^cunsheathe 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 ^1aappeased; then they will know that I, Yahweh, have ^bspoken in My zeal when I have spent My wrath upon them.

¹⁴‘Moreover, I will make you a ¹ruin and a ^areproach among the nations which are all around you, in the sight of all who pass by.

¹⁵‘So ¹it will be a reproach, a reviling, a ^achastisement, and a desecration to the nations who are all around you when I ^bexecute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and wrathful reproofs. I, Yahweh, have spoken.

¹⁶‘When I send against them the ¹deadly arrows of famine which ²were 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, ^aI will send on you famine and wild beasts, and they will bereave you of children; ^bplague and bloodshed also will pass through you, and I will bring the sword on you. I, Yahweh, have spoken.’”

CHAPTER 6

Yahweh Will Destroy Israel’s Pagan Altars

¹And the word of Yahweh came to me saying,

²“Son of man, set your face toward the ^amountains of Israel, and prophesy against them

³and 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 ^aI will destroy your high places.

⁴“So your ^aaltars 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 ^abones all around your altars.

⁶“In all your places of habitation, ^acities will become waste, and the high places will be desolate, that your altars may become waste and ¹desolate, your ^bidols 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 ^aremnant, for you will have those who ^bescaped the sword among the nations when you are scattered among the lands.

⁹“Then those of you who escape will ^aremember Me among the nations to which they will be carried captive, how I have ^bbeen broken over their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me, and by their eyes which played the harlot after their idols; and they will ^cloathe 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, ^astamp your foot and say, “^bAlas, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, which will fall by the ^csword, by the famine, and by the plague!

¹²“He who is ^afar 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 ^bspend My wrath on them.

¹³“Then you will know that I am Yahweh when their ^aslain are among their idols all around their altars, on ^bevery high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every green tree, and under every leafy oak—the places where they ¹offered a soothing aroma to all their idols.

¹⁴“So throughout all their habitations I will ^astretch 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.” ’ ”