Jerusalem: Chosen Yet Unfaithful

14 I said, “Oh, Lord G, believe me! I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now, I have never eaten something found dead or torn by beasts. Unclean meat has never entered my mouth.” 15 So he said to me, “Look here: I have given you cow manure instead of human feces. You may cook your food over that.” 16 He continued, “Son of man, hear this: I’m ending the food supplya in Jerusalem. They’ll anxiously eat rationed foodb and drink rationed water with shuddering, 17 because food and water will be scarce. They’ll be horrified at the sight of each other and will rot away in their sin.

5Ezekiel

Jerusalem’s Destruction Prophesied

1 “As for you, son of man: Take a sharp sword. Use it asc a barber’s razor and shaved your head and your beard. Take a balance scale and divide up the hair. 2 Burn one-third of it in the fire in the middle of the city when the days of the siege are completed. Cut to pieces one-third of it with the sword, let them fall all around the brick that represents the city,e and scatter one-third to the wind. In the same way, I’ll draw a sword behind my scattering people.f 3 Take a small number of hairs and stick them in the edges of your clothes. 4 Then take a few of those and throw them in the midst of the fire. Burn them in the fire, and a fire will spread from it to all the Israelites. 5 “The Lord G says this: ‘This is Jerusalem. I put her in the middle of the nations; countries are all around her. 6 But because of her wickedness, she has rebelled against my judgments more than the nations and against my statutes more than the countries that surround her. She has rejected my judgments and has not walked in my statutes.’ 7 Therefore the Lord G says this: ‘Because you have rebelled more thang the nations that surround you, you haven’t walked in my statutes nor observed my ordinances, not even observed the ordinances of the nations around you,

a Literally, “breaking the staff of bread.” b Literally, “by weight.” c Literally, “Take for yourself.” d Literally, “and pass it over.” To shave yourself was a sign of deep distress. e See Ezekiel 4:1. f Literally, “behind them.” g Or “You have more tumult than”; the Hebrew is uncertain.

8 therefore the Lord G says this: ‘Look! I, yes I, am against you. I will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. 9 Because of your abominable idols, I’ll do among you what I have never done before, and the like of which I’ll never do again. 10 Therefore parents will eat their children in your midst, and children will eat their parents. I’ll execute judgments among you and scatter all of your survivors to the four winds.a 11 “ ‘Therefore, as I live, declares the Lord G, because you defiled my sanctuary with all your disgusting idols and all your abominations, I, yes I, will disgrace you;b my eye won’t pity you, nor will I spare you. 12 A third of you will die from the plague or be finished off by the famine among you. A third will fall by the sword of the enemy troops all around you, and a third of you I’ll scatter to the four winds. And I’ll draw the sword behind my scattering people.c 13 “ ‘Then my anger will be spent, and I will calm my wrath against them. I’ll be avenged. When I have spent my wrath on them, they’ll know that I, the L, have spoken in my zeal. 15b When I execute judgments against you in anger and wrath and fierce reproof, 14 to the eyes of all who pass by, I’ll make you a desolation, a reproach among the nations that surround you. 15a You’ll be a reproach and a term of abuse, and a warning and an object of horror among the nations that surround you. 15c I, the L, have spoken. 16 “ ‘When I shoot the terrible arrows of famine against you (which were originally intended to destroy those whom I will now send to destroy you), I will increase the famine against you and cut off the food supply.d 17 I’ll send famine against you and ferocious beasts, and they’ll deprive you of your children. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I’ll bring a sword upon you.’

I, the L, have spoken.”

a Literally, “to all the wind” or “to every wind.” And verse 12. b Literally, “shave you”: an action that confers deep disgrace. Or “withdraw from you.” c Literally, “behind them.” d Literally, “and break the staff of bread.”

Prophecy Against Idolatry

1 The word of the L came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them. 3 Say, ‘Mountains of Israel, listen to the words of the Lord G! The Lord G says this to mountains and heights, riverbeds and valleys: Listen! I’m bringing a sword upon you. I will destroy your high-place shrines. 4 Your altars will be devastated; your incense altars will be shattered, and I’ll cause your slain to fall in front of your idols. 5 I’ll put the corpses of the Israelites before their idols and scatter your bones all around your altars. 6 In every place where you live, the cities will be laid waste and the high-place shrines devastated so that your altars will be laid waste and devastated, your idols shattered and ruined, your incense altars smashed, and the things you have made will be wiped out. 7 The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the L. 8 “ ‘But I will leave a remnant among the nations, for some will escape the sword when you are scattered among the countries. 9 Your fugitives will remember me among the nations where they are taken as captives—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts that turned away from me and by their eyes that lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves for all the evil and abominable things they have done 10 and know that I am the L, that I didn’t speak an idle threata to do them this harm.’ 11 “The Lord G says this: ‘Clap your hands and stamp your feet. Say: Alas! Because of all the evil abominations of the Israelites, they will fall by the sword, famine, and plague. 12 Those far off will die by the plague, those nearby will fall by the sword, and those who are left and are besieged will die from famine.