3 He said to me, “O mortal, eat what is offered to you; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.”^{(A) 2} So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. ³ He said to me, “Mortal, eat this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it.” Then I ate it, and in my mouth it was as sweet as honey.^(B)

⁴ He said to me, “Mortal, go to the house of Israel and speak my very words to them. ⁵ For you are not sent to a people of obscure speech and difficult language but to the house of Israel, ⁶ not to many peoples of obscure speech and difficult language whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you.^{(C) 7} But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me, because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart.^{(D) 8} See, I have made your face hard against their faces and your forehead hard against their foreheads. ⁹ Like the hardest stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not fear them or be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.”^{(E) 10} He said to me, “Mortal, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart and hear with your ears; ¹¹ then go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them. Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ whether they hear or refuse to hear.”^(F)

Ezekiel at the River Chebar

¹² Then the spirit lifted me up, and as the glory of the Lord rose^[a] from its place, I heard behind me the sound of loud rumbling;^{(G) 13} it was the sound of the wings of the living creatures brushing against one another and the sound of the wheels beside them that sounded like a loud rumbling. ¹⁴ The spirit lifted me up and bore me away; I went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit, the hand of the Lord being strong upon me.^{(H) 15} I came to the exiles at Tel-abib, who lived by the River Chebar.^[b] And I sat there among them, stunned, for seven days.^(I)

¹⁶ At the end of seven days, the word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁷ Mortal, I have made you a sentinel for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.^{(J) 18} When I say to the wicked, “You shall surely die,” and you give them no warning and do not speak to warn the wicked from their wicked way in order to save their lives, those wicked persons shall die for their iniquity, but their blood I will require at your hand.^{(K) 19} But if you warn the wicked and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their wicked way, they shall die for their iniquity, but you will have saved your life.^{(L) 20} Again, if the righteous turn from their righteousness and commit iniquity and I lay a stumbling block before them, they shall die; because you have not warned them, they shall die for their sin, and their righteous deeds that they have done shall not be remembered, but their blood I will require at your hand.^{(M) 21} If, however, you warn the righteous not to sin and they do not sin, they shall surely live because they took warning, and you will have saved your life.^(N)

Ezekiel Isolated and Silenced

²² Then the hand of the Lord was upon me there, and he said to me, “Rise up, go out into the valley, and there I will speak with you.”^{(O) 23} So I rose up and went out into the valley, and the glory of the Lord stood there, like the glory that I had seen by the River Chebar, and I fell on my face.^{(P) 24} The spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and he spoke with me and said to me: “Go, shut yourself inside your house.^{(Q) 25} As for you, mortal, cords shall be placed on you, and you shall be bound with them so that you cannot go out among the people,^{(R) 26} and I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth so that you shall be speechless and unable to reprove them, for they are a rebellious house.^{(S) 27} But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God’; let those who will hear, hear, and let those who refuse to hear, refuse, for they are a rebellious house.^(T)

The Siege of Jerusalem Portrayed

4 “And you, O mortal, take a brick and set it before you. On it portray a city, Jerusalem,^{(U) 2} and put siegeworks against it, and build a siege wall against it, and cast up a ramp against it; set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it all around.^{(V) 3} Then take an iron plate and place it as an iron wall between you and the city; set your face toward it, and let it be in a state of siege, and press the siege against it. This is a sign for the house of Israel.^(W)

⁴ “Then lie on your left side and place the guilt of the house of Israel upon it; you shall bear their guilt for the number of the days that you lie there.^{(X) 5} For I assign to you a number of days, three hundred ninety days, equal to the number of the years of their guilt, and so you shall bear the guilt of the house of Israel.^{(Y) 6} When you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the guilt of the house of Judah; forty days I assign you, one day for each year. ⁷ You shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and with your arm bared you shall prophesy against it.^{(Z) 8} See, I am putting cords on you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.^(AA)

⁹ “And you, take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them into one vessel and make bread for yourself. During the number of days that you lie on your side, three hundred ninety days, you shall eat it. ¹⁰ The food that you eat shall be twenty shekels a day by weight; at fixed times you shall eat it. ¹¹ And you shall drink water by measure, one-sixth of a hin; at fixed times you shall drink. ¹² You shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it in their sight on human dung.”^{(AB) 13} The Lord said, “Thus shall the people of Israel eat their bread, unclean, among the nations to which I will drive them.”^{(AC) 14} Then I said, “Ah Lord God! I have never defiled myself; from my youth up until now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by animals, nor has carrion flesh come into my mouth.”^{(AD) 15} Then he said to me, “See, I will let you have cow’s dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread.”

¹⁶ Then he said to me, “Mortal, I am going to cut off the supply of bread^[c] in Jerusalem; they shall eat bread by weight and with fearfulness, and they shall drink water by measure and in dismay.^{(AE) 17} Lacking bread and water, they will look at one another in dismay and waste away under their punishment.^(AF)

²⁰ By faith Isaac invoked blessings for the future on Jacob and Esau. ²¹ By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, “bowing in worship over the top of his staff.”^{(A) 22} By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave instructions about his burial.^[a](B)

The Faith of Moses

²³ By faith Moses was hidden by his parents for three months after his birth, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.^{[b](C) 24} By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called a son of Pharaoh’s daughter, ²⁵ choosing rather to share ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. ²⁶ He considered abuse suffered for the Christ^[c] to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to the reward. ²⁷ By faith he left Egypt, unafraid of the king’s anger, for he persevered as though^[d] he saw him who is invisible. ²⁸ By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.^[e](D)

The Faith of Other Israelite Heroes

²⁹ By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned.^{(E) 30} By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days.^{(F) 31} By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient,^[f] because she had received the spies in peace.^(G)

³² And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, ³³ who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions,^{(H) 34} quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.^{(I) 35} Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection.^{(J) 36} Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment.^{(K) 37} They were stoned to death; they were sawn in two;^[g] they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented^(L)— ³⁸ of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains and in caves and holes in the ground.^(M)

³⁹ Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, ⁴⁰ since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect.^(N)