Ezekiel 4; Ezekiel 5; Ezekiel 6; Ezekiel 7 (New Living Translation)

1 "And now, son of man, take a large brick and set it down in front of you. Then draw a map of the city of Jerusalem on it. 2 Build siege ramps against the city walls. Surround it with enemy camps and battering rams. 3 Then take an iron griddle and place it between you and the city. Turn toward it and demonstrate how the enemy will attack Jerusalem. This will be a warning to the people of Israel. 4 "Now lie on your left side and place the sins of Israel on yourself. You are to bear their sins for the number of days you lie there on your side. 5 You will bear Israel's sins for 390 days -- one day for each year of their sin. 6 After that, turn over and lie on your right side for 40 days -- one day for each year of Judah's sin. 7 "Meanwhile, continue your demonstration of the siege of Jerusalem. Lie there with your arm bared and prophesy her destruction. 8 I will tie you up with ropes so you won't be able to turn from side to side until the days of your siege have been completed. 9 "Now go and get some wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, and mix them together in a storage jar. Use this food to make bread for yourself during the 390 days you will be lying on your side. 10 Ration this out to yourself, eight ounces of food for each day, and eat it at set times. 11 Then measure out a jar of water for each day, and drink it at set times. 12 Each day prepare your bread as you would barley cakes. While all the people are watching, bake it over a fire using dried human dung as fuel and then eat the bread. 13 For this is what the LORD says: Israel will eat defiled bread in the Gentile lands, where I will banish them!" 14 Then I said, "O Sovereign LORD, must I be defiled by using human dung? For I have never been defiled before. From the time I was a child until now I have never eaten any animal that died of sickness or that I found dead. And I have never eaten any of the animals that our laws forbid." 15 "All right," the LORD said. "You may bake your bread with cow dung instead of human dung." 16 Then he told me, "Son of man, I will cause food to be very scarce in Jerusalem. It will be weighed out with great care and eaten fearfully. The water will be portioned out drop by drop, and the people will drink it with dismay. 17 Food and water will be so scarce that the people will look at one another in terror, and they will waste away under their punishment. 1 "Son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a razor to shave your head and beard. Use a scale to weigh the hair into three equal parts. 2 Place a third of it at the center of your map of Jerusalem. After acting out the siege, burn it there. Scatter another third across your map and slash at it with a sword. Scatter the last third to the wind, for I will scatter my people with the sword. 3 Keep just a bit of the hair and tie it up in your robe. 4 Then take a few of these hairs out and throw them into the fire, burning them up. A fire will then spread from this remnant and destroy all of Israel. 5 "This is what the Sovereign LORD says: This is an illustration of what will happen to Jerusalem. I placed her at the center of the nations, 6 but she has rebelled against my regulations and has been even more wicked than the surrounding nations. She has refused to obey the laws I gave her to follow. 7 So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Since you have refused to obey my laws and regulations and have behaved even worse than your neighbors, 8 I myself, the Sovereign LORD, am now your enemy. I will punish you publicly while all the nations watch. 9 Because of your detestable idols, I will punish you more severely than I have punished anyone before or ever will again. 10 Parents will eat their own children, and children will eat their parents. And I will punish you by scattering the few who survive to the far reaches of the earth. 11 "As surely as I live, says the Sovereign LORD, I will cut you off completely. I will show you no pity at all because you have defiled my Temple with idols and vile practices. 12 A third of your people will die in the city from famine and disease. A third of them will be slaughtered by the enemy outside the city walls. And I will scatter a third to the winds and chase them with my sword. 13 Then at last my anger will be spent, and I will be satisfied. And when my fury against them has subsided, all Israel will know that I, the LORD, have spoken to them in my jealous anger. 14 "So I will turn you into a ruin, a mockery in the eyes of the surrounding nations and to everyone who travels by. 15 You will become an object of mockery and taunting and horror. You will be a warning to all the nations around you. They will see what happens when the LORD turns against a nation in furious rebuke. I, the LORD, have spoken! 16 "I will shower you with the deadly arrows of famine to destroy you. The famine will become more and more severe until every crumb of food is gone. 17 And along with the famine, wild animals will attack you, robbing you of your children. Disease and war will stalk your land, and I will bring the sword of the enemy against you. I, the LORD, have spoken!" 1 Again a message came to me from the LORD: 2 "Son of man, look over toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them. 3 Give the mountains of Israel this message from the Sovereign LORD. This is what the Sovereign LORD says to the mountains and hills and to the ravines and valleys: I am about to bring war upon you, and I will destroy your pagan shrines. 4 All your altars will be demolished, and your incense altars will be smashed. I will kill your people in front of your idols. 5 I will lay your corpses in front of your idols and scatter your bones around your altars. 6 Wherever you live there will be desolation. I will destroy your pagan shrines, your altars, your idols, your incense altars, and all the other religious objects you have made. 7 Then when the place is littered with corpses, you will know that I am the LORD. 8 "But I will let a few of my people escape destruction, and they will be scattered among the nations of the world. 9 Then when they are exiled among the nations, they will remember me. They will recognize how grieved I am by their unfaithful hearts and lustful eyes that long for other gods. Then at last they will hate themselves for all their wickedness. 10 They will know that I alone am the LORD and that I was serious when I predicted that all this would happen to them. 11 "This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Clap your hands in horror, and stamp your feet. Cry out, 'Alas!' because of all the evil that the people of Israel have done. Now they are going to die from war and famine and disease. 12 Disease will strike down those who are far away in exile. War will destroy those who are nearby. And anyone who survives will be killed by famine. So at last I will spend my fury on them. 13 When their dead lie scattered among their idols and altars, on every hill and mountain and under every green tree and great oak where they offered incense to their gods, then they will know that I alone am the LORD. 14 I will crush them and make their cities desolate from the wilderness in the south to Riblah in the north. Then they will know that I am the LORD." 1 Then this message came to me from the LORD: 2 "Son of man, this is what the Sovereign LORD says to Israel: The end is here! Wherever you look -- east, west, north, or south -- your land is finished. 3 No hope remains, for I will unleash my anger against you. I will call you to account for all your disgusting behavior. 4 I will turn my eyes away and show no pity, repaying you in full for all your evil. Then you will know that I am the LORD! 5 "This is what the Sovereign LORD says: With one blow after another I will bring total disaster! 6 The end has come! It has finally arrived! Your final doom is waiting! 7 O people of Israel, the day of your destruction is dawning. The time has come; the day of trouble is near. It will ring with shouts of anguish, not shouts of joy. 8 Soon I will pour out my fury to complete your punishment for all your disgusting behavior. 9 I will neither spare nor pity you. I will repay you for all your detestable practices. Then you will know that it is I, the LORD, who is striking the blow. 10 "The day of judgment is here; your destruction awaits! The people's wickedness and pride have reached a climax. 11 Their violence will fall back on them as punishment for their wickedness. None of these proud and wicked people will survive. All their wealth will be swept away. 12 Yes, the time has come; the day is here! There is no reason for buyers to rejoice over the bargains they find or for sellers to grieve over their losses, for all of them will fall under my terrible anger. 13 And if any merchants should survive, they will never return to their business. For what God has said applies to everyone -- it will not be changed! Not one person whose life is twisted by sin will recover. 14 "The trumpets call Israel's army to mobilize, but no one listens, for my fury is against them all. 15 Any who leave the city walls will be killed by enemy swords. Those who stay inside will die of famine and disease. 16 The few who survive and escape to the mountains will moan like doves, weeping for their sins. 17 Everyone's hands will be feeble; their knees will be as weak as water. 18 They will dress themselves in sackcloth; horror and shame will cover them. They will shave their heads in sorrow and remorse. 19 "They will throw away their money, tossing it out like worthless trash. It won't buy their deliverance in that day of the LORD's anger. It will neither satisfy nor feed them, for their love of money made them stumble into sin. 20 They were proud of their gold jewelry and used it to make vile and detestable idols. That is why I will make all their wealth disgusting to them. 21 I will give it as plunder to foreigners from the most wicked of nations, and they will defile it. 22 I will hide my eyes as these robbers invade my treasured land and corrupt it. 23 "Prepare chains for my people, for the land is bloodied by terrible crimes. Jerusalem is filled with violence. 24 I will bring the most ruthless of nations to occupy their homes. I will break down their proud fortresses and defile their sanctuaries. 25 Terror and trembling will overcome my people. They will look for peace but will not find it. 26 Calamity will follow calamity; rumor will follow rumor. They will look in vain for a vision from the prophets. They will receive no teaching from the priests and no counsel from the leaders. 27 The king and the prince will stand helpless, weeping in despair, and the people's hands will tremble with fear. I will bring against them the evil they have done to others, and they will receive the punishment they so richly deserve. Then they will know that I am the LORD!"