Siege of Jerusalem Symbolized

“Now, son of man, take a block of clay, put it in front of you and draw the city of Jerusalem on it. Then lay siege to it: Erect siege works against it, build a ramp(A) up to it, set up camps against it and put battering rams around it.(B) Then take an iron pan,(C) place it as an iron wall between you and the city and turn your face toward(D) it. It will be under siege, and you shall besiege it. This will be a sign(E) to the people of Israel.(F)

“Then lie on your left side and put the sin of the people of Israel upon yourself.[a] You are to bear their sin for the number of days you lie on your side. I have assigned you the same number of days as the years of their sin. So for 390 days you will bear the sin of the people of Israel.

“After you have finished this, lie down again, this time on your right side, and bear the sin(G) of the people of Judah. I have assigned you 40 days, a day for each year.(H) Turn your face(I) toward the siege of Jerusalem and with bared arm prophesy against her. I will tie you up with ropes so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have finished the days of your siege.(J)

“Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt;(K) put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself. You are to eat it during the 390 days you lie on your side. 10 Weigh out twenty shekels[b](L) of food to eat each day and eat it at set times. 11 Also measure out a sixth of a hin[c] of water and drink it at set times.(M) 12 Eat the food as you would a loaf of barley bread; bake it in the sight of the people, using human excrement(N) for fuel.” 13 The Lord said, “In this way the people of Israel will eat defiled food among the nations where I will drive them.”(O)

14 Then I said, “Not so, Sovereign Lord!(P) I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have never eaten anything found dead(Q) or torn by wild animals. No impure meat has ever entered my mouth.(R)

15 “Very well,” he said, “I will let you bake your bread over cow dung instead of human excrement.”

16 He then said to me: “Son of man, I am about to cut off(S) the food supply in Jerusalem. The people will eat rationed food in anxiety and drink rationed water in despair,(T) 17 for food and water will be scarce.(U) They will be appalled at the sight of each other and will waste away because of[d] their sin.(V)

God’s Razor of Judgment

“Now, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor(W) to shave(X) your head and your beard.(Y) Then take a set of scales and divide up the hair. When the days of your siege come to an end, burn(Z) a third(AA) of the hair inside the city. Take a third and strike it with the sword all around the city. And scatter a third to the wind.(AB) For I will pursue them with drawn sword.(AC) But take a few hairs and tuck them away in the folds of your garment.(AD) Again, take a few of these and throw them into the fire(AE) and burn them up. A fire will spread from there to all Israel.

“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.(AF) Yet in her wickedness she has rebelled against my laws and decrees more than the nations and countries around her. She has rejected my laws and has not followed my decrees.(AG)

“Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: You have been more unruly than the nations around you and have not followed my decrees or kept my laws. You have not even[e] conformed to the standards of the nations around you.(AH)

“Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will inflict punishment on you in the sight of the nations.(AI) Because of all your detestable idols, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again.(AJ) 10 Therefore in your midst parents will eat their children, and children will eat their parents.(AK) I will inflict punishment on you and will scatter all your survivors to the winds.(AL) 11 Therefore as surely as I live,(AM) declares the Sovereign(AN) Lord, because you have defiled my sanctuary(AO) with all your vile images(AP) and detestable practices,(AQ) I myself will shave you; I will not look on you with pity or spare you.(AR) 12 A third of your people will die of the plague or perish by famine inside you; a third will fall by the sword outside your walls; and a third I will scatter to the winds(AS) and pursue with drawn sword.(AT)

13 “Then my anger will cease and my wrath(AU) against them will subside, and I will be avenged.(AV) And when I have spent my wrath on them, they will know that I the Lord have spoken in my zeal.(AW)

14 “I will make you a ruin and a reproach among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by.(AX) 15 You will be a reproach(AY) and a taunt, a warning(AZ) and an object of horror to the nations around you when I inflict punishment on you in anger and in wrath and with stinging rebuke.(BA) I the Lord have spoken.(BB) 16 When I shoot at you with my deadly and destructive arrows of famine, I will shoot to destroy you. I will bring more and more famine upon you and cut off your supply of food.(BC) 17 I will send famine and wild beasts(BD) against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed(BE) will sweep through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I the Lord have spoken.(BF)

Doom for the Mountains of Israel

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, set your face(BG) against the mountains(BH) of Israel; prophesy against them(BI) and say: ‘You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Sovereign Lord. This is what the Sovereign Lord says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys:(BJ) I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.(BK) Your altars will be demolished and your incense altars(BL) will be smashed; and I will slay your people in front of your idols.(BM) I will lay the dead bodies of the Israelites in front of their idols, and I will scatter your bones(BN) around your altars.(BO) Wherever you live,(BP) the towns will be laid waste and the high places(BQ) demolished, so that your altars will be laid waste and devastated, your idols(BR) smashed and ruined, your incense altars(BS) broken down, and what you have made wiped out.(BT) Your people will fall slain(BU) among you, and you will know that I am the Lord.(BV)

“‘But I will spare some, for some of you will escape(BW) the sword when you are scattered among the lands and nations.(BX) Then in the nations where they have been carried captive, those who escape will remember(BY) me—how I have been grieved(BZ) by their adulterous hearts, which have turned away from me, and by their eyes, which have lusted after their idols.(CA) They will loathe themselves for the evil(CB) they have done and for all their detestable practices.(CC) 10 And they will know that I am the Lord;(CD) I did not threaten in vain to bring this calamity on them.(CE)

11 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Strike your hands together and stamp your feet and cry out “Alas!” because of all the wicked and detestable practices of the people of Israel, for they will fall by the sword, famine and plague.(CF) 12 One who is far away will die of the plague, and one who is near will fall by the sword, and anyone who survives and is spared will die of famine. So will I pour out my wrath(CG) on them.(CH) 13 And they will know that I am the Lord, when their people lie slain among their idols(CI) around their altars, on every high hill and on all the mountaintops, under every spreading tree and every leafy oak(CJ)—places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols.(CK) 14 And I will stretch out my hand(CL) against them and make the land a desolate waste from the desert to Diblah[f]—wherever they live. Then they will know that I am the Lord.(CM)’”

Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 4:4 Or upon your side
  2. Ezekiel 4:10 That is, about 8 ounces or about 230 grams
  3. Ezekiel 4:11 That is, about 2/3 quart or about 0.6 liter
  4. Ezekiel 4:17 Or away in
  5. Ezekiel 5:7 Most Hebrew manuscripts; some Hebrew manuscripts and Syriac You have
  6. Ezekiel 6:14 Most Hebrew manuscripts; a few Hebrew manuscripts Riblah

Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city, even Jerusalem:

And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about.

Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity.

For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.

Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it.

And, behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege.

Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.

10 And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it.

11 Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part of an hin: from time to time shalt thou drink.

12 And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight.

13 And the Lord said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them.

14 Then said I, Ah Lord God! behold, my soul hath not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.

15 Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.

16 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment:

17 That they may want bread and water, and be astonied one with another, and consume away for their iniquity.

And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber's razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard: then take thee balances to weigh, and divide the hair.

Thou shalt burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled: and thou shalt take a third part, and smite about it with a knife: and a third part thou shalt scatter in the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them.

Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number, and bind them in thy skirts.

Then take of them again, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; for thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel.

Thus saith the Lord God; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her.

And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that are round about her: for they have refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them.

Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye multiplied more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my judgments, neither have done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you;

Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, am against thee, and will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations.

And I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all thine abominations.

10 Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds.

11 Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord God; Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity.

12 A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.

13 Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted: and they shall know that I the Lord have spoken it in my zeal, when I have accomplished my fury in them.

14 Moreover I will make thee waste, and a reproach among the nations that are round about thee, in the sight of all that pass by.

15 So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment unto the nations that are round about thee, when I shall execute judgments in thee in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I the Lord have spoken it.

16 When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread:

17 So will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee: and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee; and I will bring the sword upon thee. I the Lord have spoken it.

And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,

And say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God; Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.

And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.

And I will lay the dead carcases of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars.

In all your dwellingplaces the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.

And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries.

And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.

10 And they shall know that I am the Lord, and that I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them.

11 Thus saith the Lord God; Smite with thine hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.

12 He that is far off shall die of the pestilence; and he that is near shall fall by the sword; and he that remaineth and is besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish my fury upon them.

13 Then shall ye know that I am the Lord, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols.

14 So will I stretch out my hand upon them, and make the land desolate, yea, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblath, in all their habitations: and they shall know that I am the Lord.