Ezekiel 3–4

3Then the Lord said to me, “Human, eat what you find; eat this scroll. Then go and speak to the people of Israel.” ²So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat.

³He said to me, “Human, eat this scroll which I am giving you, and fill your stomach with it.” Then I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.

⁴Then he said to me, “Human, go to the people of Israel, and speak my words to them. ⁵You are not being sent to people whose speech you can’t understand, whose language is difficult. You are being sent to Israel. ⁶You are not being sent to many nations whose speech you can’t understand, whose language is difficult, whose words you cannot understand. If I had sent you to them, they would have listened to you. ⁷But the people of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, because they are not willing to listen to me. Yes, all the people of Israel are stubborn and will not obey. ⁸See, I now make you as stubborn and as hard as they are. ⁹I am making you as hard as a diamond, harder than stone. Don’t be afraid of them or be frightened by them, though they are a people who turn against me.”

¹⁰Also, he said to me, “Human, believe all the words I will speak to you, and listen carefully to them. ¹¹Then go to the captives, your own people, and say to them, ‘The Lord God says this.’ Tell them this whether they listen or not.”

¹²Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard a loud rumbling sound behind me, saying, “Praise the glory of the Lord in heaven.” ¹³I heard the wings of the living creatures touching each other and the sound of the wheels by them. It was a loud rumbling sound. ¹⁴So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away. I was unhappy and angry, and I felt the great power of the Lord. ¹⁵I came to the captives from Judah, who lived by the Kebar River at Tel Abib. I sat there seven days where these people lived, feeling shocked.

Israel’s Warning

¹⁶After seven days the Lord spoke his word to me again. He said, ¹⁷“Human, I now make you a watchman for Israel. Any time you hear a word from my mouth, warn them for me. ¹⁸When I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ you must warn them so they may live. If you don’t speak out to warn the wicked to stop their evil ways, they will die in their sin. But I will hold you responsible for their death. ¹⁹If you warn the wicked and they do not turn from their wickedness or their evil ways, they will die because of their sin. But you will have saved your life.

²⁰“Again, those who do right may turn away from doing good and do evil. If I make something bad happen to them, they will die. Because you have not warned them, they will die because of their sin, and the good they did will not be remembered. But I will hold you responsible for their deaths. ²¹But if you have warned those good people not to sin, and they do not sin, they will surely live, because they believed the warning. And you will have saved your life.”

²²Then I felt the power of the Lord there. He said to me, “Get up and go out to the plain. There I will speak to you.” ²³So I got up and went out to the plain. I saw the glory of the Lord standing there, like the glory I saw by the Kebar River, and I bowed facedown on the ground.

²⁴Then the Spirit entered me and made me stand on my feet. He spoke to me and said, “Go, shut yourself up in your house. ²⁵As for you, human, the people will tie you up with ropes so that you will not be able to go out among them. ²⁶Also, I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so you will be silent. You will not be able to argue with the people, even though they turn against me. ²⁷But when I speak to you, I will open your mouth, and you will say to them, ‘The Lord God says this.’ Those who will listen, let them listen. Those who refuse, let them refuse, because they are a people who turn against me.

The Map of Jerusalem

4“Now, human, get yourself a brick, put it in front of you, and draw a map of Jerusalem on it. ²Then surround it with an army. Build battle works against the city and a dirt road to the top of the city walls. Set up camps around it, and put heavy logs in place to break down the walls. ³Then get yourself an iron plate and set it up like an iron wall between you and the city. Turn your face toward the city as if to attack it and then attack. This is a sign to Israel.

⁴“Then lie down on your left side, and take the guilt of Israel on yourself. Their guilt will be on you for the number of days you lie on your left side. ⁵I have given you the same number of days as the years of the people’s sin. So you will have the guilt of Israel’s sin on you for three hundred ninety days.

⁶“After you have finished these three hundred ninety days, lie down a second time, on your right side. You will then have the guilt of Judah on you. I will give it to you for forty days, a day for each year of their sin. ⁷Then you will look toward Jerusalem, which is being attacked. With your arm bare, you will prophesy against Jerusalem. ⁸I will put ropes on you so you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have finished the days of your attack on Jerusalem.

⁹“Take wheat, barley, beans, small peas, and millet seeds, and put them in one bowl, and make them into bread for yourself. You will eat it the three hundred ninety days you lie on your side. ¹⁰You will eat eight ounces of food every day at set times. ¹¹You will drink about two-thirds of a quart of water every day at set times. ¹²Eat your food as you would eat a barley cake, baking it over human dung where the people can see.” ¹³Then the Lord said, “In the same way Israel will eat unclean food among the nations where I force them to go.”

¹⁴But I said, “No, Lord God! I have never been made unclean. From the time I was young until now I’ve never eaten anything that died by itself or was torn by animals. Unclean meat has never entered my mouth.”

¹⁵“Very well,” he said. “Then I will give you cow’s dung instead of human dung to use for your fire to bake your bread.”

¹⁶He also said to me, “Human, I am going to cut off the supply of bread to Jerusalem. They will eat the bread that is measured out to them, and they will worry as they eat. They will drink water that is measured out to them, and they will be in shock as they drink it. ¹⁷This is because bread and water will be hard to find. The people will be shocked at the sight of each other, and they will become weak because of their sin.