The Siege of Jerusalem Portrayed

4 “You also, son of man, take a clay tablet and lay it before you, and portray on it a city, Jerusalem. ^2 (A)Lay siege against it, build a ^(B)siege wall against it, and heap up a mound against it; set camps against it also, and place battering rams against it all around. ³ Moreover take for yourself an iron plate, and set it as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face against it, and it shall be ^(C)besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. ^(D)This will be a sign to the house of Israel.

⁴ “Lie also on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it. According to the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity. ⁵ For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days; ^(E)so you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. ⁶ And when you have completed them, lie again on your right side; then you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days. I have laid on you a day for each year.

⁷ “Therefore you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem; your arm shall be uncovered, and you shall prophesy against it. ^8 (F)And surely I will ^[a]restrain you so that you cannot turn from one side to another till you have ended the days of your siege.

⁹ “Also take for yourself wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them into one vessel, and make bread of them for yourself. During the number of days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days, you shall eat it. ¹⁰ And your food which you eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; from time to time you shall eat it. ¹¹ You shall also drink water by measure, one-sixth of a hin; from time to time you shall drink. ¹² And you shall eat it as barley cakes; and bake it using fuel of human waste in their sight.”

¹³ Then the Lord said, “So ^(G)shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, where I will drive them.”

¹⁴ So I said, ^(H)“Ah, Lord God! Indeed I have never defiled myself from my youth till now; I have never eaten ^(I)what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has ^(J)abominable^[b] flesh ever come into my mouth.”

¹⁵ Then He said to me, “See, I am giving you cow dung instead of human waste, and you shall prepare your bread over it.”

¹⁶ Moreover He said to me, “Son of man, surely I will cut off the ^(K)supply of bread in Jerusalem; they shall ^(L)eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and shall ^(M)drink water by measure and with dread, ¹⁷ that they may lack bread and water, and be dismayed with one another, and ^(N)waste away because of their iniquity.

A Sword Against Jerusalem

5 “And you, son of man, take a sharp sword, take it as a barber’s razor, ^(O)and pass it over your head and your beard; then take scales to weigh and divide the hair. ^2 (P)You shall burn with fire one-third in the midst of ^(Q)the city, when ^(R)the days of the siege are finished; then you shall take one-third and strike around it with the sword, and one-third you shall scatter in the wind: I will draw out a sword after ^(S)them. ^3 (T)You shall also take a small number of them and bind them in the edge of your garment. ⁴ Then take some of them again and ^(U)throw them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will go out into all the house of Israel.

⁵ “Thus says the Lord God: ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations and the countries all around her. ⁶ She has rebelled against My judgments by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are all around her; for they have refused My judgments, and they have not walked in My statutes.’ ⁷ Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Because you have ^[c]multiplied disobedience more than the nations that are all around you, have not walked in My statutes ^(V)nor kept My judgments, ^[d]nor even done according to the judgments of the nations that are all around you’— ⁸ therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Indeed I, even I, am against you and will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. ^9 (W)And I will do among you what I have never done, and the like of which I will never do again, because of all your abominations. ¹⁰ Therefore fathers ^(X)shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments among you, and all of you who remain I will ^(Y)scatter to all the winds.

¹¹ ‘Therefore, as I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘surely, because you have ^(Z)defiled My sanctuary with all your ^(AA)detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you; ^(AB)My eye will not spare, nor will I have any pity. ^12 (AC)One-third of you shall die of the pestilence, and be consumed with famine in your midst; and one-third shall fall by the sword all around you; and ^(AD)I will scatter another third to all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after ^(AE)them.

¹³ ‘Thus shall My anger ^(AF)be spent, and I will ^(AG)cause My fury to rest upon them, ^(AH)and I will be avenged; ^(AI)and they shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it in My zeal, when I have spent My fury upon them. ¹⁴ Moreover ^(AJ)I will make you a waste and a reproach among the nations that are all around you, in the sight of all who pass by.

¹⁵ ‘So ^[e]it shall be a ^(AK)reproach, a taunt, a ^(AL)lesson, and an astonishment to the nations that are all around you, when I execute judgments among you in anger and in fury and in ^(AM)furious rebukes. I, the Lord, have spoken. ¹⁶ When I ^(AN)send against them the terrible arrows of famine which shall be for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, I will increase the famine upon you and cut off your ^(AO)supply of bread. ¹⁷ So I will send against you famine and ^(AP)wild beasts, and they will bereave you. ^(AQ)Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken.’ ”

Judgment on Idolatrous Israel

6 Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ² “Son of man, ^(AR)set your face toward the ^(AS)mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, ³ and say, ‘O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! Thus says the Lord God to the mountains, to the hills, to the ravines, and to the valleys: “Indeed I, even I, will bring a sword against you, and ^(AT)I will destroy your ^[f]high places. ⁴ Then your altars shall be desolate, your incense altars shall be broken, and ^(AU)I will cast down your slain men before your idols. ⁵ And I will lay the corpses of the children of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones all around your altars. ⁶ In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the ^[g]high places shall be desolate, so that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, your idols may be broken and made to cease, your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be abolished. ⁷ The slain shall fall in your midst, and ^(AV)you shall know that I am the Lord.

^8 (AW)“Yet I will leave a remnant, so that you may have some who escape the sword among the nations, when you are ^(AX)scattered through the countries. ⁹ Then those of you who escape will ^(AY)remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, because ^(AZ)I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and ^(BA)by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols; ^(BB)they will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all their abominations. ¹⁰ And they shall know that I am the Lord; I have not said in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them.”

¹¹ ‘Thus says the Lord God: ^(BC)“Pound^[h] your fists and stamp your feet, and say, ‘Alas, for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! ^(BD)For they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. ¹² He who is far off shall die by the pestilence, he who is near shall fall by the sword, and he who remains and is besieged shall die by the famine. ^(BE)Thus will I spend My fury upon them. ¹³ Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when their slain are among their idols all around their altars, ^(BF)on every high hill, ^(BG)on all the mountaintops, ^(BH)under every green tree, and under every thick oak, wherever they offered sweet incense to all their idols. ¹⁴ So I will ^(BI)stretch out My hand against them and make the land desolate, yes, more desolate than the wilderness toward ^(BJ)Diblah, in all their dwelling places. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.’ ” ’ ”

The Promise of Rest

4 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, ^(A)let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. ² For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, ^[a]not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. ³ For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said:

although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. ⁴ For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: ^(C)“And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; ⁵ and again in this place: ^(D)“They shall not enter My rest.”

⁶ Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, ⁷ again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said:

⁸ For if ^[b]Joshua had ^(F)given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. ⁹ There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. ¹⁰ For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.

The Word Discovers Our Condition

^11 (G)Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. ¹² For the word of God is ^(H)living and powerful, and ^(I)sharper than any ^(J)two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is ^(K)a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. ^13 (L)And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are ^(M)naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

Our Compassionate High Priest

¹⁴ Seeing then that we have a great ^(N)High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, ^(O)let us hold fast our confession. ¹⁵ For ^(P)we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but ^(Q)was in all points tempted as we are, ^(R)yet without sin. ^16 (S)Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Praise to the Sovereign Lord for His Creation and Providence^(A)