Ezekiel 6:1–38:23

Turn Israel into Wasteland

^1–76Then the Word of God came to me: “Son of man, now turn and face the mountains of Israel and preach against them: ‘O Mountains of Israel, listen to the Message of God, the Master. God, the Master, speaks to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and the valleys: I’m about to destroy your sacred god and goddess shrines. I’ll level your altars, bust up your sun-god pillars, and kill your people as they bow down to your no-god idols. I’ll stack the dead bodies of Israelites in front of your idols and then scatter your bones around your shrines. Every place where you’ve lived, the towns will be torn down and the pagan shrines demolished—altars busted up, idols smashed, all your custom-made sun-god pillars in ruins. Corpses everywhere you look! Then you’ll know that I am God.

^8–10“ ‘But I’ll let a few escape the killing as you are scattered through other lands and nations. In the foreign countries where they’re taken as prisoners of war, they’ll remember me. They’ll realize how devastated I was by their betrayals, by their voracious lust for gratifying themselves in their idolatries. They’ll be disgusted with their evil ways, disgusting to God in the way they’ve lived. They’ll know that I am God. They’ll know that my judgment against them was no empty threat.

^11–14“ ‘This is what God, the Master, says: Clap your hands, stamp your feet, yell out, “No, no, no!” because of all the evil obscenities rife in Israel. They’re going to be killed, dying of hunger, dying of disease—death everywhere you look, people dropping like flies, people far away dying, people nearby dying, and whoever’s left in the city starving to death. Why? Because I’m angry, furiously angry. They’ll realize that I am God when they see their people’s corpses strewn over and around all their ruined sex-and-religion shrines on the bare hills and in the lush fertility groves, in all the places where they indulged their sensual rites. I’ll bring my hand down hard on them, demolish the country wherever they live, turn it into wasteland from one end to the other, from the wilderness to Riblah. Then they’ll know that I am God!’ ”

Fate Has Caught Up with You

^1–47God’s Word came to me, saying, “You, son of man—God, the Master, has this Message for the land of Israel:

“ ‘Endtime.

The end of business as usual for everyone.

It’s all over. The end is upon you.

I’ve launched my anger against you.

I’ve issued my verdict on the way you live.

I’ll make you pay for your disgusting obscenities.

I won’t look the other way,

I won’t feel sorry for you.

I’ll make you pay for the way you’ve lived:

Your disgusting obscenities will boomerang on you,

and you’ll realize that I am God.’

^5–9“I, God, the Master, say:

‘Disaster after disaster! Look, it comes!

Endtime—

the end comes.

The end is ripe. Watch out, it’s coming!

This is your fate, you who live in this land.

Time’s up.

It’s zero hour.

No dragging of feet now,

no bargaining for more time.

Soon now I’ll pour my wrath on you,

pay out my anger against you,

Render my verdict on the way you’ve lived,

make you pay for your disgusting obscenities.

I won’t look the other way,

I won’t feel sorry for you.

I’ll make you pay for the way you’ve lived.

Your disgusting obscenities will boomerang on you.

Then you’ll realize

that it is I, God, who have hit you.

^10–13“ ‘Judgment Day!

Fate has caught up with you.

The scepter outsized and pretentious,

pride bursting all bounds,

Violence strutting,

brandishing the evil scepter.

But there’s nothing to them,

and nothing will be left of them.

Time’s up.

Countdown: five, four, three, two …

Buyer, don’t crow; seller, don’t worry:

Judgment wrath has turned the world topsy-turvy.

The bottom has dropped out of buying and selling.

It will never be the same again.

But don’t fantasize an upturn in the market.

The country is bankrupt because of its sins,

and it’s not going to get any better.

^14–16“ ‘The trumpet signals the call to battle:

“Present arms!”

But no one marches into battle.

My wrath has them paralyzed!

On the open roads you’re killed,

or else you go home and die of hunger and disease.

Either get murdered out in the country

or die of sickness or hunger in town.

Survivors run for the hills.

They moan like doves in the valleys,

Each one moaning

for his own sins.

^17–18“ ‘Every hand hangs limp,

every knee turns to rubber.

They dress in rough burlap—

sorry scarecrows,

Shifty and shamefaced,

with their heads shaved bald.

^19–27“ ‘They throw their money into the gutters.

Their hard-earned cash stinks like garbage.

They find that it won’t buy a thing

they either want or need on Judgment Day.

They tripped on money

and fell into sin.

Proud and pretentious with their jewels,

they deck out their vile and vulgar no-gods in finery.

I’ll make those god-obscenities a stench in their nostrils.

I’ll give away their religious junk—

strangers will pick it up for free,

the godless spit on it and make jokes.

I’ll turn my face so I won’t have to look

as my treasured place and people are violated,

As violent strangers walk in

and desecrate place and people—

A bloody massacre,

as crime and violence fill the city.

I’ll bring in the dregs of humanity

to move into their houses.

I’ll put a stop to the boasting and strutting

of the high-and-mighty,

And see to it that there’ll be nothing holy

left in their holy places.

Catastrophe descends. They look for peace,

but there’s no peace to be found—

Disaster on the heels of disaster,

one rumor after another.

They clamor for the prophet to tell them what’s up,

but nobody knows anything.

Priests don’t have a clue;

the elders don’t know what to say.

The king holds his head in despair;

the prince is devastated.

The common people are paralyzed.

Gripped by fear, they can’t move.

I’ll deal with them where they are,

judge them on their terms.

They’ll know that I am God.’ ”

The Spirit Carried Me in Visions

^1–48In the sixth year, in the sixth month and the fifth day, while I was sitting at home meeting with the leaders of Judah, it happened that the hand of my Master, God, gripped me. When I looked, I was astonished. What I saw looked like a man—from the waist down like fire and from the waist up like highly burnished bronze. He reached out what looked like a hand and grabbed me by the hair. The Spirit swept me high in the air and carried me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the Temple’s inside court where the image of the sex goddess that makes God so angry had been set up. Right before me was the Glory of the God of Israel, exactly like the vision I had seen out on the plain.

⁵He said to me, “Son of man, look north.” I looked north and saw it: Just north of the entrance loomed the altar of the sex goddess, Asherah, that makes God so angry.

⁶Then he said, “Son of man, do you see what they’re doing? Outrageous obscenities! And doing them right here! It’s enough to drive me right out of my own Temple. But you’re going to see worse yet.”

⁷He brought me to the door of the Temple court. I looked and saw a gaping hole in the wall.

⁸He said, “Son of man, dig through the wall.”

I dug through the wall and came upon a door.

⁹He said, “Now walk through the door and take a look at the obscenities they’re engaging in.”

^10–11I entered and looked. I couldn’t believe my eyes: Painted all over the walls were pictures of reptiles and animals and monsters—the whole pantheon of Egyptian gods and goddesses—being worshiped by Israel. In the middle of the room were seventy of the leaders of Israel, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing in the middle. Each held his censer with the incense rising in a fragrant cloud.

¹²He said, “Son of man, do you see what the elders are doing here in the dark, each one before his favorite god-picture? They tell themselves, ‘God doesn’t see us. God has forsaken the country.’ ”

¹³Then he said, “You’re going to see worse yet.”

^14–15He took me to the entrance at the north gate of the Temple of God. I saw women sitting there, weeping for Tammuz, the Babylonian fertility god. He said, “Have you gotten an eyeful, son of man? You’re going to see worse yet.”

¹⁶Finally, he took me to the inside court of the Temple of God. There between the porch and the altar were about twenty-five men. Their backs were to God’s Temple. They were facing east, bowing in worship to the sun.

^17–18He said, “Have you seen enough, son of man? Isn’t it bad enough that Judah engages in these outrageous obscenities? They fill the country with violence and now provoke me even further with their obscene gestures. That’s it. They have an angry God on their hands! From now on, no mercy. They can shout all they want, but I’m not listening.”

A Mark on the Forehead

¹9Then I heard him call out loudly, “Executioners, come! And bring your deadly weapons with you.”

²Six men came down the road from the upper gate that faces north, each carrying his lethal weapon. With them was a man dressed in linen with a writing case slung from his shoulder. They entered and stood by the bronze altar.

^3–4The Glory of the God of Israel ascended from his usual place above the cherubim-angels, moved to the threshold of the Temple, and called to the man with the writing case who was dressed in linen: “Go through the streets of Jerusalem and put a mark on the forehead of everyone who is in anguish over the outrageous obscenities being done in the city.”

^5–6I listened as he went on to address the executioners: “Follow him through the city and kill. Feel sorry for no one. Show no compassion. Kill old men and women, young men and women, mothers and children. But don’t lay a hand on anyone with the mark. Start at my Temple.”

They started with the leaders in front of the Temple.

^7–8He told the executioners, “Desecrate the Temple. Fill it with corpses. Then go out and continue the killing.” So they went out and struck the city.

While the massacre went forward, I was left alone. I fell on my face in prayer: “Oh, oh, God, my Master! Are you going to kill everyone left in Israel in this pouring out of your anger on Jerusalem?”

^9–10He said, “The guilt of Israel and Judah is enormous. The…