Historical

4 “You also, son of man, take a tile, and lay it before yourself, and portray on it a city, even Jerusalem. ² Lay siege against it, build forts against it, and cast up a mound against it. Also set camps against it and plant battering rams against it all around. ³ Take for yourself an iron pan and set it for a wall of iron between you and the city. Then set your face toward it. It will be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

⁴ “Moreover lie on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it. According to the number of the days that you shall lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity. ⁵ For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be to you a number of days, even three hundred ninety days. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

⁶ “Again, when you have accomplished these, you shall lie on your right side, and shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah. I have appointed forty days, each day for a year, to you. ⁷ You shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm uncovered; and you shall prophesy against it. ⁸ Behold, I put ropes on you, and you shall not turn yourself from one side to the other, until you have accomplished the days of your siege.

⁹ “Take for yourself also wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel. Make bread of it. According to the number of the days that you will lie on your side, even three hundred ninety days, you shall eat of it. ¹⁰ Your food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels^[a] a day. From time to time you shall eat it. ¹¹ You shall drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin.^[b] From time to time you shall drink. ¹² You shall eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it in their sight with dung that comes out of man.” ¹³ Yahweh said, “Even thus will the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.”

¹⁴ Then I said, “Ah Lord Yahweh! Behold, my soul has not been polluted; for from my youth up even until now I have not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn of animals. No abominable meat has come into my mouth!”

¹⁵ Then he said to me, “Behold, I have given you cow’s dung for man’s dung, and you shall prepare your bread on it.”

¹⁶ Moreover he said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem. They will eat bread by weight, and with fearfulness. They will drink water by measure, and in dismay; ¹⁷ that they may lack bread and water, be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.

5 “You, son of man, take a sharp sword. You shall take it as a barber’s razor to yourself, and shall cause it to pass over your head and over your beard. Then take balances to weigh and divide the hair. ² A third part you shall burn in the fire in the middle of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled. You shall take a third part, and strike with the sword around it. A third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them. ³ You shall take a small number of these and bind them in the folds of your robe. ⁴ Of these again you shall take, and cast them into the middle of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From it a fire will come out into all the house of Israel.

⁵ “The Lord Yahweh says: ‘This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the middle of the nations, and countries are around her. ⁶ She has rebelled against my ordinances in doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries that are around her; for they have rejected my ordinances, and as for my statutes, they have not walked in them.’

⁷ “Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Because you are more turbulent than the nations that are around you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my ordinances, neither have followed the ordinances of the nations that are around you; ⁸ therefore the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I, even I, am against you; and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. ⁹ I will do in you that which I have not done, and which I will not do anything like it any more, because of all your abominations. ¹⁰ Therefore the fathers will eat the sons within you, and the sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments on you; and I will scatter the whole remnant of you to all the winds. ¹¹ Therefore as I live,’ says the Lord Yahweh, ‘surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things, and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you. My eye won’t spare, and I will have no pity. ¹² A third part of you will die with the pestilence, and they will be consumed with famine within you. A third part will fall by the sword around you. A third part I will scatter to all the winds, and will draw out a sword after them.

¹³ “‘Thus my anger will be accomplished, and I will cause my wrath toward them to rest, and I will be comforted. They will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in my zeal, when I have accomplished my wrath on them.

¹⁴ “‘Moreover I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations that are around you, in the sight of all that pass by. ¹⁵ So it will be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment, to the nations that are around you, when I execute judgments on you in anger and in wrath, and in wrathful rebukes—I, Yahweh, have spoken it— ¹⁶ when I send on them the evil arrows of famine that are for destruction, which I will send to destroy you. I will increase the famine on you and will break your staff of bread. ¹⁷ I will send on you famine and evil animals, and they will bereave you. Pestilence and blood will pass through you. I will bring the sword on you. I, Yahweh, have spoken it.’”

6 Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, ² “Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy to them, ³ and say, ‘You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh! The Lord Yahweh says to the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys: “Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword on you, and I will destroy your high places. ⁴ Your altars will become desolate, and your incense altars will be broken. I will cast down your slain men before your idols. ⁵ I will lay the dead bodies of the children of Israel before their idols. I will scatter your bones around your altars. ⁶ In all your dwelling places, the cities will be laid waste and the high places will be desolate, so that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be abolished. ⁷ The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am Yahweh.

⁸ “‘“Yet I will leave a remnant, in that you will have some that escape the sword among the nations, when you are scattered through the countries. ⁹ Those of you that escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I have been broken with their lewd heart, which has departed from me, and with their eyes, which play the prostitute after their idols. Then they will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations. ¹⁰ They will know that I am Yahweh. I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them.”’

¹¹ “The Lord Yahweh says: ‘Strike with your hand, and stamp with your foot, and say, “Alas!”, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel; for they will fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. ¹² He who is far off will die of the pestilence. He who is near will fall by the sword. He who remains and is besieged will die by the famine. Thus I will accomplish my wrath on them. ¹³ You will know that I am Yahweh when their slain men are among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every green tree, and under every thick oak—the places where they offered pleasant aroma to all their idols. ¹⁴ I will stretch out my hand on them and make the land desolate and waste, from the wilderness toward Diblah, throughout all their habitations. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.’”

7 Moreover Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, ² “You, son of man, the Lord Yahweh says to the land of Israel, ‘An end! The end has come on the four corners of the land. ³ Now the end is on you, and I will send my anger on you, and will judge you according to your ways. I will bring on you all your abominations. ⁴ My eye will not spare you, neither will I have pity; but I will bring your ways on you, and your abominations will be among you. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.’

⁵ “The Lord Yahweh says: ‘A disaster! A unique disaster! Behold, it comes. ⁶ An end has come. The end has come! It awakes against you. Behold, it comes. ⁷ Your doom has come to you, inhabitant of the land! The time has come! The day is near, a day of tumult, and not of joyful shouting, on the mountains. ⁸ Now I will shortly pour out my wrath on you, and accomplish my anger against you, and will judge you according to your ways. I will bring on you all your abominations. ⁹ My eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity. I will punish you according to your ways. Your abominations will be among you. Then you will know that I, Yahweh, strike.

¹⁰ “‘Behold, the day! Behold, it comes! Your doom has gone out. The rod has blossomed. Pride has budded. ¹¹ Violence has risen up into a rod of wickedness. None of them will remain, nor of their multitude, nor of their wealth. There will be nothing of value among them. ¹² The time has come! The day draws near. Don’t let the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for wrath is on all its multitude. ¹³ For the seller won’t return to that which is sold, although they are still alive; for the vision concerns the whole multitude of it. None will return. None will strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life. ¹⁴ They have blown the trumpet, and have made all ready; but no one goes to the battle, for my wrath is on all its multitude.

¹⁵ “‘The sword is outside, and the pestilence and the famine within. He who is in the field will die by the sword. He who is in the city will be devoured by famine and pestilence. ¹⁶ But of those who escape, they will escape and will be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, everyone in his iniquity. ¹⁷ All hands will be feeble, and all knees will be weak as water. ¹⁸ They will also clothe themselves with sackcloth, and horror will cover them. Shame will be on all faces, and baldness on all their heads. ¹⁹ They will cast their silver in the streets, and their gold will be as an unclean thing. Their silver and their gold won’t be able to deliver them in the day of Yahweh’s wrath. They won’t satisfy their souls or fill their bellies; because it has been the stumbling block of their iniquity. ²⁰ As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty; but they made the images of their abominations and their detestable things therein. Therefore I have made it to them as an unclean thing. ²¹ I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a plunder; and they will profane it. ²² I will also turn my face from them, and they will profane my secret place. Robbers will enter into it, and profane it.

²³ “‘Make chains, for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence. ²⁴ Therefore I will bring the worst of the nations, and they will possess their houses. I will also make the pride of the strong to cease. Their holy places will be profaned. ²⁵ Destruction comes! They will seek peace, and there will be none. ²⁶ Mischief will come on mischief, and rumor will be on rumor. They will seek a vision of the prophet; but the law will perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders. ²⁷ The king will mourn, and the prince will be clothed with desolation. The hands of the people of the land will be troubled. I will do to them after their way, and according to their own judgments I will judge them. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.’”