Bible Reading Plan

Chapter 4

Jerusalem's Siege Dramatized

¹ "Now you, son of man, take a brick, set it in front of you, and draw the city of Jerusalem on it. ² Then lay siege against it:^(a) construct a siege wall, build a ramp, pitch military camps, and place battering rams against it on all sides. ³ Take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city. Turn your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a sign for the house of Israel.^(b)

⁴ "Then lie down on your left side and place the iniquity^[a] of the house of Israel on it. You will bear their iniquity for the number of days you lie on your side. ⁵ For I have assigned you the years of their iniquity according to the number of days you lie down, 390 days; so you will bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.^{(c) 6} When you have completed these days, lie down again, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah. I have assigned you 40 days, a day for each year. ⁷ You must turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared, and prophesy against it. ⁸ Be aware that I will put cords on you so you cannot turn from side to side until you have finished the days of your siege.^(d)

⁹ "Also take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt. Put them in a single container and make them into bread for yourself. You are to eat it during the number of days you lie on your side, 390 days. ¹⁰ The food you eat each day will be eight ounces^[b] by weight; you will eat it from time to time.^{[c] 11} You are also to drink water by measure, a sixth of a gallon,^[d] which you will drink from time to time. ¹² You will eat it as you would a barley cake and bake it over dried human excrement in their sight." ¹³ The Lord said, "This is how the Israelites will eat their bread—ceremonially unclean—among the nations where I will banish them."^(e)

¹⁴ But I said, "Oh, Lord God , I have never been defiled. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything that died naturally or was mauled by wild beasts.^(f) And impure meat has never entered my mouth."^(g)

¹⁵ He replied to me, "Look, I will let you use cow dung instead of human excrement, and you can make your bread over that." ¹⁶ Then He said to me, "Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of bread in Jerusalem.^(h) They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight and in dread drink water by measure.^{(i) 17} So they will lack bread and water; everyone will be devastated and waste away because of their iniquity.^(j)

Chapter 5

Ezekiel Dramatizes Jerusalem's Fall

¹ "Now you, son of man, take a sharp sword,^(a) use it as you would a barber's razor, and shave your head and beard. Then take a set of scales and divide the hair. ² You are to burn up a third of it in the city when the days of the siege have ended;^(b) you are to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind, for I will draw a sword to chase after them. ³ But you are to take a few strands from the hair and secure them in the folds of your robe.^{(c) 4} Take some more of them, throw them into the fire, and burn them in it.^(d) A fire will spread from it to the whole house of Israel.

⁵ "This is what the Lord God says: I have set this Jerusalem in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. ⁶ But she has rebelled against My ordinances with more wickedness than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that surround her. For her people have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.

⁷ "Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: Because you have been more insubordinate than the nations around you^(e)—you have not walked in My statutes or kept My ordinances; you have not even kept the ordinances of the nations around you— ⁸ therefore, this is what the Lord God says: See, I am against you, Jerusalem, and I will execute judgments within you in the sight of the nations. ⁹ Because of all your detestable practices, I will do to you what I have never done before and what I will never do again.^{(f) 10} As a result, fathers will eat their sons^(g) within Jerusalem,^[a] and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your survivors to every direction of the wind.

¹¹ "Therefore, as I live"—this is the declaration of the Lord God —"I am going to cut you off and show you no pity, because you have defiled My sanctuary^(h) with all your detestable practices and abominations.⁽ⁱ⁾ Yes, I will not spare you. ¹² A third of your people will die by plague and be consumed by famine within you;^(j) a third will fall by the sword all around you; and I will scatter a third to every direction of the wind, and I will draw a sword to chase after them.^{(k) 13} When My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath on them, I will be appeased.^(l) Then after I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in My jealousy.^(m)

¹⁴ "I will make you a ruin and a disgrace among the nations around you, in the sight of everyone who passes by. ¹⁵ So you^[b] will be a disgrace and a taunt, a warning and a horror, to the nations around you when I execute judgments against you in anger,⁽ⁿ⁾ wrath, and furious rebukes. I, Yahweh, have spoken. ¹⁶ When I shoot deadly arrows of famine at them, arrows for destruction that I will send to destroy you, inhabitants of Jerusalem, I will intensify the famine against you and cut off your supply of bread. ¹⁷ I will send famine and dangerous animals against you. They will leave you childless, Jerusalem. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, Yahweh, have spoken."^(o)

Chapter 6

Prophecy against Israel's Idolatry

¹ The word of the Lord came to me: ² "Son of man, turn your face toward the mountains of Israel^(a) and prophesy against them. ³ You are to say: Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God ! This is what the Lord God says to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.^{(b) 4} Your altars will be desolated and your incense altars smashed. I will throw down your slain in front of your idols. ⁵ I will lay the corpses of the Israelites in front of their idols and scatter your bones around your altars. ⁶ Wherever you live the cities will be in ruins and the high places will be desolate, so that your altars will lie in ruins and be desecrated,^[a] your idols smashed and obliterated, your incense altars cut down, and your works wiped out. ⁷ The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am Yahweh.

⁸ "Yet I will leave a remnant when you are scattered among the nations, for throughout the countries there will be some of you who will escape the sword.^{(c) 9} Then your survivors will remember Me among the nations where they are taken captive,^(d) how I was crushed by their promiscuous hearts that turned away from Me and by their eyes that lusted after their idols.^(e) They will loathe themselves because of the evil things they did,^(f) their detestable practices of every kind. ¹⁰ And they will know that I am the Lord ; I did not threaten to bring this disaster on them without a reason.

Lament over the Fall of Jerusalem

¹¹ "This is what the Lord God says: Clap your hands, stamp your feet,^(g) and cry out over all the evil and detestable practices of the house of Israel, who will fall by the sword, famine, and plague.^{(h) 12} The one who is far off will die by plague; the one who is near will fall by the sword; and the one who remains and is spared^[b] will die of famine. In this way I will exhaust My wrath on them.^{(i) 13} You will all know that I am Yahweh when their slain lie among their idols around their altars,^(j) on every high hill,^(k) on all the mountaintops, and under every green tree and every leafy oak—the places where they offered pleasing aromas to all their idols. ¹⁴ I will stretch out My hand against them,^(l) and wherever they live I will make the land a desolate waste, from the wilderness to Diblah.^[c] Then they will know that I am Yahweh."

Chapter 7

Announcement of the End

¹ And the word of the Lord came to me: ² "Son of man, this is what the Lord God says to the land of Israel:

⁵ This is what the Lord God says:

Chapter 8

Visionary Journey to Jerusalem

¹ In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, I was sitting in my house and the elders of Judah were sitting in front of me,^(a) and there the hand of the Lord God came down on me.^{(b) 2} I looked, and there was a form that had the appearance of a man.^[a] From what seemed to be His waist down was fire, and from His waist up was something that looked bright,^(c) like the gleam of amber.^{(d) 3} He stretched out what appeared to be a hand and took me by the hair of my head. Then the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and carried me in visions of God^(e) to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the inner gate that faces north, where the offensive statue that provokes jealousy^(f) was located. ⁴ I saw the glory of the God of Israel^(g) there, like the vision I had seen in the plain.^(h)

Pagan Practices in the Temple

⁵ The Lord said to me, "Son of man, look toward the north." I looked to the north, and there was this offensive statue north of the altar gate, at the entrance. ⁶ He said to me, "Son of man, do you see what they are doing here, more detestable things that the house of Israel is committing,⁽ⁱ⁾ so that I must depart from My sanctuary? You will see even more detestable things."

⁷ Then He brought me to the entrance of the court, and when I looked there was a hole in the wall. ⁸ He said to me, "Son of man, dig through the wall." So I dug through the wall, and there was a doorway. ⁹ He said to me, "Go in and see the terrible and detestable things they are committing here." ¹⁰ I went in and looked, and there engraved all around the wall was every form of detestable thing, crawling creatures and beasts, as well as all the idols of the house of Israel.^(j)

¹¹ Seventy elders from the house of Israel were standing before them, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan^(k) standing among them. Each had a firepan in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising up. ¹² Then He said to me, "Son of man, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his idol? For they are saying, ‘The Lord does not see us. The Lord has abandoned the land.'"^{(l) 13} Again He said to me, "You will see even more detestable things, which they are committing."

¹⁴ So He brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the Lord 's house, and I saw women sitting there weeping for Tammuz. ¹⁵ And He said to me, "Do you see this, son of man? You will see even more detestable things than these."

¹⁶ So He brought me to the inner court of the Lord 's house, and there were about 25 men at the entrance of the Lord 's temple, between the portico and the altar,^(m) with their backs to the Lord 's temple and their faces turned to the east.⁽ⁿ⁾ They were bowing to the east in worship of the sun.^{(o) 17} And He said to me, "Do you see this, son of man? Is it not enough for the house of Judah to commit the detestable things they are practicing here, that they must also fill the land with violence^(p) and repeatedly provoke Me to anger,^(q) even putting the branch to their nose?^{[b][c] 18} Therefore I will respond with wrath.^(r) I will not show pity or spare them.^(s) Though they cry out in My ears with a loud voice,^(t) I will not listen to them."