16 At the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me and said:
17 Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for the house of Israel. When you hear a word from my mouth, you must give them a warning from me. 18 When I announce to a wicked man, "You shall surely die," if you do not warn him, and you do not speak up to warn the wicked man against his wicked way so that he can live, then that wicked man will die because of his guilt, and I will hold you responsible for his blood. 19 But you, if you warn the wicked man, and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die because of his guilt, but you will have saved your own life. 20 Or when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and becomes unrighteous, and I place a stumbling block in front of him, he shall die. If you have not warned him, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he had done will not be remembered, and I will hold you responsible for his blood. 21 But you, if you do warn that righteous man not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall certainly live because he heeded the warning, and you will have saved your own life.
22 Then the hand of the Lord was upon me there, and he said to me, "Get up, go out to the center of the river valley, and there I will speak with you." 23 So I got up and went out to the center of the valley, and suddenly there it was! The Glory of the Lord was standing there, just like the Glory that I had seen by the Kebar Canal, and I fell on my face. 24 But the Spirit entered into me and brought me to my feet.
Then he spoke to me and said to me, "Go, shut yourself up inside your house. 25 And this is what will happen to you, son of man. They will certainly place ropes upon you and tie you up with them, so that you will not be able to go out among them. 26 I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, so that you will be speechless, and you will not be able to rebuke them, for they are a rebellious house. 27 But whenever I speak to you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, 'This is what the Lord God says.' Whoever listens, let him listen. Whoever refuses to listen, let him refuse, for they are a rebellious house."
Action Prophecies About the Siege and the Exile
4 Now you, son of man, take a brick for yourself, place it in front of you, and sketch on it a city, which is Jerusalem. 2 Lay siege against it, build a siege wall against it, heap up a ramp against it, set up camps against it, and station battering rams against it, all the way around it.
3 And you, take an iron griddle and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. Direct your face toward it, so that it will be under siege as you besiege it. This will be a sign for the house of Israel.
4 And you, lie down on your left side, and place the guilt of the house of Israel on it. For as many days as you lie on your side, you shall bear their guilt. 5 I will assign to you the number of days you are to lie on your side on the basis of the number of years of their guilt: three hundred ninety days. So you shall bear the guilt of the house of Israel. 6 When you have finished these days, you shall lie down a second time on your right side, and you shall bear the guilt of the house of Judah for forty days. I have assigned to you one day for each year. 7 You shall direct your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm bared, and you shall prophesy against it. 8 See, I have placed ropes upon you, so that you will not turn from your one side to your other side until you finish the days of your siege.
9 And you, take some wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and emmer wheat for yourself. You shall put them in a single dish and make bread for yourself with them. During the whole number of days that you are lying on your side—three hundred ninety days—you shall eat it. 10 You shall weigh out the food you eat—half a pound a day. You are to eat it at set times each day. 11 You shall measure the water you drink—a pint and a half a day. You are to drink it at set times each day. 12 You are to eat it as you would eat flat bread made of barley, and you are to bake it over balls of human excrement in their sight.
13 Then the Lord said, "This is how the people of Israel will eat their food: They will be ceremonially unclean among the nations where I will banish them."
14 Then I said, "Oh no, Lord God, I have never made myself unclean. I have never eaten a carcass or something torn by wild animals, from my youth until now. Neither has any meat which is ceremonially unclean ever entered my mouth."
15 Then he answered me, "Very well, I will let you use droppings of cattle instead of balls of human excrement, and you shall bake your bread over them."
16 He also said this to me: "Son of man, watch for this! I am about to take away the bread supply from Jerusalem, and they will measure out their bread by weight and eat it with anxiety, and they will measure out their water and drink it with horror. 17 So they will lack food and water, and they will be horrified, each man and his brother, and they will waste away because of their guilt."
The First Judgment Oracle
5 You, son of man, get a sharp sword for yourself. You shall use it on yourself like a barber's razor. Use it on your head and on your beard. Then get scales for yourself so that you can weigh and divide the hair. 2 One third of it you shall burn with fire inside the city when the days of siege are completed. Then you shall take another third and strike it with the sword all around the city. Another third you shall scatter to the wind, but I will unsheathe the sword to pursue them. 3 But take a few hairs and wrap them in the folds of your robe. 4 Then take some of those and throw them into the middle of the fire and burn them up in the fire. From there a fire will spread to the whole house of Israel.
5 This is what the Lord God says. This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the midst of the nations, and all around her there are other countries. 6 But she rebelled against my ordinances, becoming more wicked than the nations, and she rebelled against my statutes more than the countries around her did, because the Israelites rejected my ordinances, and they did not walk in my statutes. 7 Therefore, this is what the Lord God says. Because you have outdone the nations around you, and you have not walked in my statutes, and you have not performed what I judged to be right, and you have not even acted according to the standards of justice followed by the nations around you, 8 therefore, this is what the Lord God says. Watch out! I am against you. I myself will perform judgments among you in the sight of the nations. 9 I will do among you something that I have never done before and the likes of which I shall never do again, because of all your abominations. 10 That is why fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you, and I will scatter any of you who are left to every wind.
11 Therefore, as surely as I live, declares the Lord God, because you have defiled my sanctuary by all your detestable practices and all your abominations, I, yes I myself, will withdraw. My eye will not show pity, and I myself will have no compassion. 12 A third of you will die in the plague or perish during the famine in your midst. All around you, a third will fall by the sword, and a third I will scatter to every wind. Then I will unsheathe the sword in pursuit of them. 13 Finally, my anger will be finished. I will let my wrath against them rest, and I will be satisfied. Then they will know that I, the Lord, have spoken in my jealousy—when I exhaust my wrath against them. 14 I will make you into a ruin and a reproach among the nations around you, in the sight of everyone who passes by. 15 You, Jerusalem, will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and something horrifying to the nations around you, when I execute judgments upon you in anger, in wrath, and in furious punishments. I, the Lord, have spoken. 16 I will also send deadly arrows of famine against them, arrows that shall become a destroyer, arrows that I will send to destroy you. I will also increase the famine upon you and cut off your supply of bread. 17 I will send famine and dangerous wild animals against you, and they will take away your children from you. Plague and bloodshed will pass through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken.
Judgment on the Mountains for Idolatry
6 The word of the Lord came to me.
2 Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them. 3 You shall say, "Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God." This is what the Lord God says to the mountains and to the hills, to the streambeds and to the valleys. Without fail, I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places. 4 Your altars will be demolished, and your incense altars will be smashed, and I will throw down your fallen bodies in front of your filthy idols. 5 I will lay out the corpses of the people of Israel in front of their filthy idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars. 6 In all the places where you live, the towns will be laid waste, and the high places will be demolished, so that your altars will be laid waste and demolished, your filthy idols will be crushed and cease to exist, your incense altars will be broken in pieces, and the things you have made will be wiped out. 7 The slain will fall in your midst, and then you will know that I am the Lord.
8 Nevertheless, when you are scattered in various countries, I will preserve for you some survivors who escape the sword among the nations. 9 Then, those of you who escape will remember me in the nations where they have been carried as captives. They will remember how I was heartbroken by their lustful hearts, which turned away from me, and by their eyes, which lusted for their filthy idols. They will loathe themselves because of all the evils they have done, for all their abominations. 10 Then they will know that I, the Lord, did not speak about bringing this disaster on them without it having a result.
11 This is what the Lord God says. Clap your hands, stomp your feet, and say, "We are doomed," on account of all the vile abominations of the house of Israel, for by the sword, famine, and plague they will fall. 12 Anyone who is far away will die of the plague, and anyone who is near will fall by the sword, and anyone who remains under siege will die of famine. In this way I will exhaust my wrath upon them. 13 Then you will know that I am the Lord, when their fallen bodies lie among their filthy idols around their altars, on every high hill and on all the mountaintops, under every green tree and under every leafy oak, in every place where they offered fragrant sacrifice to appease all their filthy idols. 14 I will stretch out my hand against them, and I will make the land a desolate waste from the desert to Riblah, in all the places they live. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment