Ezekiel 3-4

Ezekiel 3

¹And he said to me, Son of man, take this roll for your food, and go and say my words to the children of Israel.

²And, on my opening my mouth, he made me take the roll as food.

³And he said to me, Son of man, let your stomach make a meal of it and let your inside be full of this roll which I am giving you. Then I took it, and it was sweet as honey in my mouth.

⁴And he said to me, Son of man, go now to the children of Israel, and say my words to them.

⁵For you are not sent to a people whose talk is strange and whose language is hard, but to the children of Israel;

⁶Not to a number of peoples whose talk is strange and whose language is hard and whose words are not clear to you. Truly, if I sent you to them they would give ear to you.

⁷But the children of Israel will not give ear to you; for they have no mind to give ear to me: for all the children of Israel have a hard brow and a stiff heart.

⁸See, I have made your face hard against their faces, and your brow hard against their brows.

⁹Like a diamond harder than rock I have made your brow: have no fear of them and do not be overcome by their looks, for they are an uncontrolled people.

¹⁰Then he said to me, Son of man, take into your heart all my words which I am about to say to you, and let your ears be open to them.

¹¹And go now to those who have been taken away as prisoners, to the children of your people, and say to them, This is what the Lord has said; if they give ear or if they do not.

¹²Then I was lifted up by the wind, and at my back the sound of a great rushing came to my ears when the glory of the Lord was lifted up from his place.

¹³And there was the sound of the wings of the living beings touching one another, and the sound of the wheels at their side, the sound of a great rushing.

¹⁴And the wind, lifting me up, took me away: and I went in the heat of my spirit, and the hand of the Lord was strong on me.

¹⁵Then I came to those who had been taken away as prisoners, who were at Telabib by the river Chebar, and I was seated among them full of wonder for seven days.

¹⁶And at the end of seven days, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

¹⁷Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the children of Israel: so give ear to the word of my mouth, and give them word from me of their danger.

¹⁸When I say to the evil-doer, Death will certainly be your fate; and you give him no word of it and say nothing to make clear to the evil-doer the danger of his evil way, so that he may be safe; that same evil man will come to death in his evil-doing; but I will make you responsible for his blood.

¹⁹But if you give the evil-doer word of his danger, and he is not turned from his sin or from his evil way, death will overtake him in his evil-doing; but your life will be safe.

²⁰Again, when an upright man, turning away from his righteousness, does evil, and I put a cause of falling in his way, death will overtake him: because you have given him no word of his danger, death will overtake him in his evil-doing, and there will be no memory of the upright acts which he has done; but I will make you responsible for his blood.

²¹But if you say to the upright man that he is not to do evil, he will certainly keep his life because he took note of your word; and your life will be safe.

²²And the hand of the Lord was on me there; and he said, Get up and go out into the valley and there I will have talk with you.

²³Then I got up and went out into the valley; and I saw the glory of the Lord resting there as I had seen it by the river Chebar; and I went down on my face.

²⁴Then the spirit came into me and put me on my feet; and he had talk with me and said to me, Go and keep yourself shut up inside your house.

²⁵But see, O son of man, I will put bands on you, prisoning you in them, and you will not go out among them:

²⁶And I will make your tongue fixed to the roof of your mouth, so that you have no voice and may not make protests to them: for they are an uncontrolled people.

²⁷But when I have talk with you I will make your mouth open, and you are to say to them, This is what the Lord has said: Let the hearer give ear; and as for him who will not, let him keep his ears shut: for they are an uncontrolled people.

Ezekiel 4

¹And you, son of man, take a back and put it before you and on it make a picture of a town, even Jerusalem.

²And make an attack on it, shutting it in, building strong places against it, and making high an earthwork against it; and put up tents against it, placing engines all round it for smashing down its walls.

³And take a flat iron plate, and put it for a wall of iron between you and the town: and let your face be turned to it, and it will be shut in and you will make an attack on it. This will be a sign to the children of Israel.

⁴Then, stretching yourself out on your left side, take the sin of the children of Israel on yourself: for as long as you are stretched out, so long will the sin of the children of Israel be on you.

⁵For I have had the years of their sin measured for you by a number of days, even three hundred and ninety days: and you will take on yourself the sin of the children of Israel.

⁶And when these days are ended, turning on your right side, you are to take on yourself the sin of the children of Judah: forty days, a day for a year, I have had it fixed for you.

⁷And let your face be turned to where Jerusalem is shut in, with your arm uncovered, and be a prophet against it.

⁸And see, I will put bands on you; and you will be stretched out without turning from one side to the other till the days of your attack are ended.

⁹And take for yourself wheat and barley and different sorts of grain, and put them in one vessel and make bread for yourself from them; all the days when you are stretched on your side it will be your food.

¹⁰And you are to take your food by weight, twenty shekels a day: you are to take it at regular times.

¹¹And you are to take water by measure, the sixth part of a hin: you are to take it at regular times.

¹²And let your food be barley cakes, cooking it before their eyes with the waste which comes out of a man.

¹³And the Lord said, Even so the children of Israel will have unclean bread for their food among the nations where I am driving them.

¹⁴Then I said, Ah, Lord! see, my soul has never been unclean, and I have never taken as my food anything which has come to a natural death or has been broken by beasts, from the time when I was young even till now; no disgusting flesh has ever come into my mouth.

¹⁵Then he said to me, See, I have given you cow's waste in place of man's waste, and you will make your bread ready on it.

¹⁶And he said to me, Son of man, see, I will take away from Jerusalem her necessary bread: they will take their bread by weight and with care, measuring out their drinking-water with fear and wonder:

¹⁷So that they may be in need of bread and water and be wondering at one another, wasting away in their sin.