The Daily Audio Bible

^16 (A)At the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ¹⁷ “Son of man, I have appointed you a ^(B)watchman to the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from My mouth, ^(C)warn them from Me. ¹⁸ When I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his ^(D)blood I will require at your hand. ¹⁹ Yet if you have ^(E)warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have ^(F)delivered yourself. ²⁰ Again, ^(G)when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I place an ^(H)obstacle before him, he will die; since you have not warned him, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. ²¹ However, if you have ^(I)warned ^[a]the righteous man that the righteous should not sin and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; and you have delivered yourself.”

²² The hand of the Lord was on me there, and He said to me, “Get up, go out to the plain, and there I will ^(J)speak to you.” ²³ So I got up and went out to the plain; and behold, the ^(K)glory of the Lord was standing there, like the glory which ^(L)I saw by the river Chebar, and I fell on my face. ²⁴ The ^(M)Spirit then entered me and made me stand on my feet, and He spoke with me and said to me, “Go, shut yourself up in your house. ²⁵ As for you, son of man, they will ^(N)put ropes on you and bind you with them so that you cannot go out among them. ²⁶ Moreover, ^(O)I will make your tongue stick to ^[b]the roof of your mouth so that you will be mute and cannot be a man who rebukes them, for they are a rebellious house. ²⁷ But ^(P)when I speak to you, I will open your mouth and you will say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord ^[c]God.’ He who hears, let him hear; and he who refuses, let him refuse; ^(Q)for they are a rebellious house.

Siege of Jerusalem Predicted

4 “Now you son of man, ^(R)get yourself a brick, place it before you and inscribe a city on it, Jerusalem. ² Then ^(S)lay siege against it, build a siege wall, ^[d]raise up a ramp, pitch camps and place battering rams against it all around. ³ Then get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city, and set your face toward it so that ^(T)it is under siege, and besiege it. This is a ^(U)sign to the house of Israel.

⁴ “As for you, lie down on your left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; you shall ^(V)bear their iniquity for the number of days that you lie on it. ⁵ For I have assigned you a number of days corresponding to the years of their iniquity, three hundred and ninety days; thus ^(W)you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. ⁶ When you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah; I have assigned it to you for forty days, a day for ^(X)each year. ⁷ Then you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and ^(Y)prophesy against it. ⁸ Now behold, I will ^(Z)put ropes on you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.

Defiled Bread

⁹ “But as for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and ^(AA)spelt, put them in one vessel and make them into bread for yourself; you shall eat it according to the number of the days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days. ¹⁰ Your food which you eat shall be ^(AB)twenty shekels a day by weight; you shall eat it from time to time. ¹¹ The water you drink shall be the sixth part of a hin by measure; you shall drink it from time to time. ¹² You shall eat it as a barley cake, having baked it in their sight over human ^(AC)dung.” ¹³ Then the Lord said, “Thus will the sons of Israel eat their bread ^(AD)unclean among the nations where I will banish them.” ¹⁴ But I said, “^(AE)Ah, Lord ^[e]God! Behold, I have ^(AF)never been defiled; for from my youth until now I have never eaten what ^(AG)died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has any ^(AH)unclean meat ever entered my mouth.” ¹⁵ Then He said to me, “See, I will give you cow’s dung in place of human dung over which you will prepare your bread.” ¹⁶ Moreover, He said to me, “Son of man, behold, I am going to ^(AI)break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by ^(AJ)weight and with anxiety, and drink water by ^(AK)measure and in horror, ¹⁷ because bread and water will be scarce; and they will be appalled with one another and ^(AL)waste away in their iniquity.

Jerusalem’s Desolation Foretold

5 “As for you, son of man, take a ^(AM)sharp sword; take and ^[f]use it as a barber’s razor on your head and beard. Then take ^(AN)scales for weighing and divide ^[g]the hair. ² One third you shall burn in the fire at the center of the city, when the ^(AO)days of the siege are completed. Then you shall take one third and strike it with the sword all around ^[h]the city, and one third you shall scatter to the wind; and I will ^(AP)unsheathe a sword behind them. ³ Take also a few in number from ^[i]them and bind them in the edges of your robes. ⁴ Take again some of them and throw them into the fire and burn them in the fire; from it a fire will ^[j]spread to all the house of Israel.

⁵ “Thus says the Lord ^[k]God, ‘This is ^(AQ)Jerusalem; I have set her at the ^(AR)center of the nations, with lands around her. ⁶ But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations and against My statutes ^(AS)more than the lands which surround her; for they have ^(AT)rejected My ordinances and have not walked ^[l]in My statutes.’ ⁷ Therefore, thus says the Lord God, ‘Because you have ^(AU)more turmoil than the nations which surround you and have not walked in My statutes, nor observed My ordinances, nor observed the ordinances of the nations which surround you,’ ⁸ therefore, thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I, even I, am ^(AV)against you, and I will ^(AW)execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. ⁹ And because of all your abominations, I will do among you what I have ^(AX)not done, and the like of which I will never do again. ¹⁰ Therefore, ^(AY)fathers will eat their sons among you, and sons will eat their fathers; for I will execute judgments on you and ^(AZ)scatter all your remnant to every wind. ¹¹ So as I live,’ declares the Lord God, ‘surely, because you have ^(BA)defiled My sanctuary with all your ^(BB)detestable idols and with all your abominations, therefore I will also withdraw, and My eye will have no pity and I will not spare. ¹² One third of you will die by ^(BC)plague or be consumed by famine among you, one third will fall by the sword around you, and one third I will ^(BD)scatter to every wind, and I will ^(BE)unsheathe a sword behind them.

¹³ ‘Thus My anger will be spent and I will ^[m]satisfy My wrath on them, and I will be ^[n](BF)appeased; then they will know that I, the Lord, have ^(BG)spoken in My zeal when I have spent My wrath upon them. ¹⁴ Moreover, I will make you a desolation and a ^(BH)reproach among the nations which surround you, in the sight of all who pass by. ¹⁵ So ^[o]it will be a reproach, a reviling, a ^(BI)warning and an object of horror to the nations who surround you when I ^(BJ)execute judgments against you in anger, wrath and raging rebukes. I, the Lord, have spoken. ¹⁶ When I send against them the ^[p]deadly arrows of famine which ^[q]were for the destruction of those whom I will send to destroy you, then I will also intensify the famine upon you and break the staff of bread. ¹⁷ Moreover, ^(BK)I will send on you famine and wild beasts, and they will bereave you of children; ^(BL)plague and bloodshed also will pass through you, and I will bring the sword on you. I, the Lord, have spoken.’”

Idolatrous Worship Denounced

6 And the word of the Lord came to me saying, ² “Son of man, set your face toward the ^(BM)mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them ³ and say, ‘Mountains of Israel, listen to the word of the Lord ^[r]God! Thus says the Lord ^[s]God to the mountains, the hills, the ravines and the valleys: “Behold, I Myself am going to bring a sword on you, and ^(BN)I will destroy your high places. ⁴ So your ^(BO)altars will become desolate and your incense altars will be smashed; and I will make your slain fall in front of your idols. ⁵ I will also lay the dead bodies of the sons of Israel in front of their idols; and I will scatter your ^(BP)bones around your altars. ⁶ In all your dwellings, ^(BQ)cities will become waste and the high places will be desolate, that your altars may become waste and ^[t]desolate, your ^(BR)idols may be broken and brought to an end, your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be blotted out. ⁷ The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the Lord.

⁸ “However, I will leave a ^(BS)remnant, for you will have those who ^(BT)escaped the sword among the nations when you are scattered among the countries. ⁹ Then those of you who escape will ^(BU)remember Me among the nations to which they will be carried captive, how I have ^[u](BV)been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me, and by their eyes which played the harlot after their idols; and they will ^(BW)loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed, for all their abominations. ¹⁰ Then they will know that I am the Lord; I have not said in vain ^[v]that I would inflict this disaster on them.”’

¹¹ “Thus says the Lord ^[w]God, ‘Clap your hand, ^(BX)stamp your foot and say, “^(BY)Alas, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, which will fall by ^(BZ)sword, famine and plague! ¹² He who is ^(CA)far off will die by the plague, and he who is near will fall by the sword, and he who remains and is besieged will die by the famine. Thus will I ^(CB)spend My wrath on them. ¹³ Then you will know that I am the Lord, when their ^(CC)slain are among their idols around their altars, on ^(CD)every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every green tree and under every leafy oak—the places where they offered soothing aroma to all their idols. ¹⁴ So throughout all their habitations I will ^(CE)stretch out My hand against them and make the land more desolate and waste than the wilderness toward Diblah; thus they will know that I am the Lord.”’”

The Believer’s Rest

4 Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have ^(A)come short of it. ² For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but ^(B)the word ^[a]they heard did not profit them, because ^[b]it was not united by faith in those who heard. ³ For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said,

although His works were finished ^(D)from the foundation of the world. ⁴ For He has said ^(E)somewhere concerning the seventh day: “^(F)And God ^(G)rested on the seventh day from all His works”; ⁵ and again in this passage, “^(H)They shall not enter My rest.” ⁶ Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of ^(I)disobedience, ⁷ He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying ^[c]through David after so long a time just ^(J)as has been said before,

⁸ For ^(L)if ^[d]Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. ⁹ So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. ¹⁰ For the one who has entered His rest has himself also ^(M)rested from his works, as ^(N)God did from His. ¹¹ Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same ^(O)example of ^(P)disobedience. ¹² For ^(Q)the word of God is ^(R)living and ^(S)active and sharper than any two-edged ^(T)sword, and piercing as far as the division of ^(U)soul and ^(V)spirit, of both joints and marrow, and ^(W)able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ¹³ And ^(X)there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are ^(Y)open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

¹⁴ Therefore, since we have a great ^(Z)high priest who has ^(AA)passed through the heavens, Jesus ^(AB)the Son of God, let us hold fast our ^(AC)confession. ¹⁵ For we do not have ^(AD)a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been ^(AE)tempted in all things as we are, yet ^(AF)without sin. ¹⁶ Therefore let us ^(AG)draw near with ^(AH)confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.