The Daily Audio Bible
Today's audio is from the GNT. Switch to the GNT to read along with the audio.
Ezekiel to Watch Over Israel
16 At the end of seven days the Word of the Lord came to me, saying, 17 “Son of man, I have chosen you to be a watchman over the people of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from My mouth, tell them of the danger. 18 If I say to the sinful man, ‘You will die for sure,’ and you do not tell him of the danger, and try to turn him from his sinful way so that he may live, that sinful man will die in his sin. But you will be guilty for his blood. 19 But if you tell a sinful man of the danger he is in, and he does not turn from his sins or from his sinful way, then he will die in his sin. But you will have saved yourself. 20 Again, if a right and good man turns away from his right and good way and sins, and I put a cause of falling in his way, he will die. Because you have not told him of the danger, he will die in his sin, and the right and good things he has done will not be remembered. But you will be guilty for his blood. 21 Yet if you have told the right and good man of the danger of his sinning, and he does not sin, he will live for sure because he listened to you. And you will have saved yourself.”
Ezekiel Is Not Able to Speak
22 The hand of the Lord was upon me there, and He said to me, “Get up, go out to the plain, and I will speak to you there.” 23 So I got up and went out to the plain, and saw the shining-greatness of the Lord standing there. It was like the shining-greatness which I saw by the Chebar River, and I fell on my face. 24 Then the Spirit came into me and made me stand on my feet. And He spoke and said to me, “Go, shut yourself up in your house. 25 As for you, son of man, they will put ropes on you and tie you up with them, so that you cannot go out among the people. 26 And I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you cannot speak. You will not be able to speak sharp words to them, for they will not obey Me. 27 But when I speak to you, I will open your mouth, and you will tell them, ‘This is what the Lord God says.’ He who hears, let him hear. And he who is not willing to hear, let him not be willing. For they are a sinful people.
Ezekiel Shows How Jerusalem Will Be Taken
4 “Now, son of man, get a hard clay block. Set it down in front of you and draw the city of Jerusalem on it. 2 Then build a battle-wall around it to shut it in, and build a hill of dirt against the wall. Cut down trees and lay them on wheels all around the city, to use for breaking down the walls. 3 Then get an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city, and turn your face toward it. It will be shut in, and you will fight a battle against it. This will be something special for the people of Israel to see.
4 “Then lie on your left side, and I will lay the sin of the people of Israel upon you. You will be under the weight of their sin for the number of days that you lie on your side. 5 I have set a number of days for you which is the same as the number of years of their sin, 390 days. This is how long you must be under the weight of the sin of the people of Israel. 6 When you have completed these, you must lie down a second time, but on your right side. And you must be under the weight of the sin of the people of Judah. I have set a time of forty days for you to do this, one day for each year. 7 Then you must turn your face toward the battle against Jerusalem with no covering on your arm, and tell what will happen against the city. 8 I will tie you up with ropes so that you cannot turn from one side to the other, until you have completed the days of your battle.
9 “Take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and spelt and put them in one pot, and make them into bread for yourself. Eat it during the 390 days that you lie on your side. 10 The food you eat each day will weigh as much as twenty pieces of silver, and will have to last until the next day. 11 And the water you drink each day will be enough to fill a bottle. You will drink it from time to time. 12 Eat your food as you would barley cakes, making it ready in front of their eyes over a fire burning human waste.” 13 The Lord said, “In this way the people of Israel will eat unclean food among the nations where I will drive them.” 14 But I said, “O Lord God! See, I have never been unclean. Since I was young until now, I have never eaten what died of itself or what was torn by wild animals. No unclean meat has ever come into my mouth.” 15 So He said to me, “Then I will let you make your bread over cow’s waste instead of human waste.” 16 And He said to me, “Son of man, I am going to take away the bread that is needed in Jerusalem. They will weigh the bread they eat and they will drink water from small cups, and be afraid 17 because there will not be enough bread and water. They will look at one another in fear, and waste away in their sin.
Ezekiel Cuts His Hair with a Sword
5 “As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword. Use it to cut the hair from your head and face. Then weigh and divide the hair. 2 A third part you must burn in the fire in the center of the city, when the days of the battle are completed. Then take a third part and cut it up with your sword as you move around the city. And a third part you must throw to the wind. For I will pull out a sword behind them. 3 Take a small number of the hairs and tie them in the cloth of your coat. 4 Take some more of them and throw them into the fire, and burn them up. A fire will spread from there to all the people of Israel. 5 The Lord God says, ‘This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center of the nations, with lands around her. 6 But she has turned against My Laws worse than the nations and the lands around her. The people of Jerusalem have turned away from My Laws and have not obeyed them.’ 7 So the Lord God says, ‘You have been more sinful than the nations around you. You have not walked in My Laws or kept them. You have not even kept Laws like the nations around you have. Because you have acted this way,’ 8 the Lord God says, ‘I Myself am against you, and I will punish you in the eyes of the nations. 9 Because of all the things you have done which I hate, I will do with you what I have never done before, and what I will never do again. 10 Fathers will eat their sons among you, and sons will eat their fathers. I will punish you and divide you, and spread to every wind those of you who are left. 11 You have made My holy place unclean with all your hated objects of worship and sinful ways. So as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘for sure I will turn away from you. My eye will have no pity and I will punish all of you. 12 One third of you will die by disease or be destroyed by hunger among you. A third will be killed by the sword around you. And a third I will spread to every wind, and go after them with a sword.
13 ‘This is how My anger will stop. I will cause My anger to be upon them, and I will be comforted. Then they will know that I, the Lord, have spoken in My jealousy when I have sent My anger upon them. 14 I will make you a waste and a shame among the nations around you, in the eyes of all who pass by. 15 You will be a shame, and people will speak against you. You will show people the danger of sinning and fill the nations around you with fear, when I punish you in anger and with angry words. I, the Lord, have spoken. 16 I will keep you from getting food. I will make your hunger worse, and take away the bread you need. 17 I will send hunger and wild animals against you, and they will take away your children. Disease and death will pass through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken.’”
The Lord Judges Israel for Worshiping False Gods
6 The Word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, turn your face toward the mountains of Israel, and tell what is going to happen against them. 3 Say, ‘Mountains of Israel, listen to the Word of the Lord God! This is what the Lord God says to the mountains, the hills, the deep and wide valleys: “I Myself am going to bring a sword against you. And I will destroy your high places. 4 So your altars will be laid waste. Your altars for special perfume will be broken. And I will kill your people in front of your false gods. 5 I will lay the dead bodies of the sons of Israel in front of their false gods, and spread your bones around your altars. 6 In every place you live, cities will be laid waste and the high places will be destroyed. Your altars will be laid waste and destroyed. Your false gods will be broken and destroyed. Your altars for special perfume will come to an end. 7 Your people will fall dead among you, and you will know that I am the Lord.
8 “But I will leave some of you alive. For some of you will get away from the sword when you are spread among the lands and nations. 9 Then those who get away will remember Me in the nations where they have been taken. They will remember how I have been hurt by their sinful hearts which turned away from Me, and by their sinful eyes which followed after their false gods. And they will hate themselves in their own eyes for the sins they have done, for all their sinful ways. 10 Then they will know that I am the Lord. I have not spoken with empty words that I would bring this trouble upon them.”’
11 “The Lord God says, ‘Clap your hands, and step hard with your feet, and say, “It is bad because of all the hated sins of the people of Israel! They will fall by the sword, hunger, and disease. 12 He who is far away will die by disease. And he who is near will be killed by the sword. He who stays and is shut in by armies will die by hunger. This is how I will send My anger upon them. 13 Then you will know that I am the Lord, when their dead lie among their false gods around their altars. They will lie on every high hill, on all the mountain tops, under every green tree, and under every oak tree with many leaves. Their dead will be in all the places where they burned special perfume to all their false gods. 14 I will put out My hand against them in every place they live. I will make the land more of a waste than the desert toward Diblah. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”’”
The Christian’s Rest
4 The same promise of going into God’s rest is still for us. But we should be afraid that some of us may not be able to go in. 2 We have heard the Good News even as they did, but it did them no good because it was not mixed with faith. 3 We who have put our trust in God go into His rest. God said this of our early fathers, “I was angry and said, ‘They will not go into My rest.’”(A) And yet God’s work was finished after He made the world.
God’s Rest
4 In the Holy Writings He said this about the seventh day when He made the whole world, “God rested on the seventh day from all He had made.” (B) 5 But God said this about those who turned against Him, “They will not go into My rest.” (C) 6 Those who heard the Good News first did not go into His rest. It was because they had not obeyed Him. But the promise is still good and some are going into His rest. 7 God has again set a certain day for people to go into His rest. He says through David many years later as He had said before, “If you hear His voice today, do not let your hearts become hard.” (D)
8 If Joshua had led those people into God’s rest, He would not have told of another day after that. 9 And so God’s people have a complete rest waiting for them. 10 The man who goes into God’s rest, rests from his own work the same as God rested from His work. 11 Let us do our best to go into that rest or we will be like the people who did not go in.
12 God’s Word is living and powerful. It is sharper than a sword that cuts both ways. It cuts straight into where the soul and spirit meet and it divides them. It cuts into the joints and bones. It tells what the heart is thinking about and what it wants to do. 13 No one can hide from God. His eyes see everything we do. We must give an answer to God for what we have done.
Jesus—Our Great Religious Leader
14 We have a great Religious Leader Who has made the way for man to go to God. He is Jesus, the Son of God, Who has gone to heaven to be with God. Let us keep our trust in Jesus Christ. 15 Our Religious Leader understands how weak we are. Christ was tempted in every way we are tempted, but He did not sin. 16 Let us go with complete trust to the throne of God. We will receive His loving-kindness and have His loving-favor to help us whenever we need it.
24 O Lord, how many are Your works! You made them all in wisdom. The earth is full of what You have made. 25 There is the wide sea full of both large and small animals. There are too many for us to number. 26 The ships sail there. And the very large sea animal You have made plays in it.
27 They all wait for You to give them their food at the right time. 28 You give it to them and they gather it up. You open Your hand and they are filled with good things. 29 They are troubled and afraid when You hide Your face. And when You take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. 30 They are made when You send Your Spirit. And You make the land of the earth new again.
31 May the shining-greatness of the Lord last forever. May the Lord be glad in His works. 32 He looks at the earth and it shakes with fear. He touches the mountains and they smoke. 33 I will sing to the Lord all my life. I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. 34 May the words of my heart be pleasing to Him. As for me, I will be glad in the Lord. 35 Let sinners be destroyed from the earth. And let the sinful be no more. Honor the Lord, O my soul! Praise the Lord!
27 He who digs a deep hole will fall into it, and he who rolls a stone will have it return upon him.
Copyright © 1969, 2003 by Barbour Publishing, Inc.