Historical

Ezekiel Portrays the Siege of Jerusalem

4 “Now you, son of man, take a brick and lay it before you. Engrave on it a city, Jerusalem. ² Lay siege against it, build earthworks against it, raise an assault ramp against it; pitch camps against it and place battering rams all around it. ³ Then take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face toward it so that it is under siege. So you will lay siege against it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.

⁴ “Then you are to lie on your left side, and set on it the punishment of the house of Israel; according to the number of days that you lie on it, you will bear their iniquity. ⁵ I have appointed the years of their punishment to you as a number of days—390 days. So you will bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. ⁶ When you have completed these, you will lie on your right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah—40 days—a day for each year, I have appointed to you. ⁷ You will set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm bared, and prophesy against it.

⁸ “Behold, I will put ropes upon you. You will not be able to turn from side to side until you have completed the days of your siege. ⁹ Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and rye, and put them in one bowl. You will make bread from them for the number of days that you will lie on your side; for 390 days, you will eat it. ¹⁰ The food that you will eat will be 20 shekels a day by weight^[a]. You may eat from it from time to time. ¹¹ You are also to drink water by measure, a sixth of a hin^[b]. You may drink it from time to time. ¹² Eat it as barley cakes. Bake it on human dung before their eyes.”

¹³ Then Adonai said, “This is how Bnei-Yisrael will eat their bread—unclean, among the nations where I will scatter them.”

¹⁴ Then I said, “Ah, Adonai Elohim! Behold, I have never defiled myself. From my youth up until now have I not eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts. Tainted meat has never come into my mouth.”

¹⁵ He said to me, “See, I have given you cow dung instead of human dung. So you will prepare your bread on it.” ¹⁶ Then he said to me, “Son of man, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem. They will eat bread by weight, in anxiety, and they will drink water by measure, in horror. ¹⁷ On account of their lack of bread and water they will be appalled at one another and waste away in their iniquity.

Sign of a Shaved Head

5 “Now you, son of man, take a sharp sword. Use it as a barber’s razor to shave your head and your beard. Then take balances to weigh and divide the hair. ² A third you will burn in fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are complete. Take a third and strike it with the sword all around the city. Scatter a third to the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them. ³ Take a few from there and tie them up in your garment. ⁴ Again take some of them, throw them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire. A fire will spread from it into all the house of Israel.”

⁵ Thus says Adonai Elohim: “This is Jerusalem! I have set her in the midst of the nations, with countries all around her. ⁶ She has rebelled against My ordinances by doing wickedness worse than the nations, and against My decrees worse than the surrounding countries. For they have rejected My ordinances and as for My decrees, they have not walked in them.”

⁷ Therefore thus says Adonai Elohim: “Because you are more turbulent than the surrounding nations, in that you have not walked in My decrees or followed my ordinances, nor have you observed the ordinances of the surrounding nations, ⁸ therefore thus says Adonai Elohim: Behold, I in turn am against you. I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. ⁹ On account of your abominations I will do with you that which I have never done, and the like of which I would never do again. ¹⁰ Therefore the fathers will eat the sons in your midst, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments on you and I will scatter the remainder of you to all the winds.

¹¹ “Therefore, as I live, says Adonai Elohim, surely, because you have defiled My Sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will shave you off. My eye will not spare, and I will have no pity. ¹² A third of you will die with the plague and will be consumed with famine in your midst. A third will fall by the sword all around you. A third I will scatter to all the winds, and draw out a sword after them. ¹³ I will vent all My anger and satisfy My fury on them. Then I will rest. So they will know that I, Adonai, have spoken in My zeal, when I have satisfied My fury on them.

¹⁴ “Moreover I will make you a ruin and a mockery among the surrounding nations and in the sight of all who pass by. ¹⁵ When I execute judgment upon you in anger, rage and furious chastisement, you will be a mockery and a taunt, a warning and a horror to the surrounding nations: I, Adonai, have spoken it. ¹⁶ When I send evil arrows of famine upon them, for destruction I will send them to destroy you, and I will intensify the famine upon you and will break your staff of bread. ¹⁷ I will send on you famine and evil beasts, and they will make you childless. Plague and blood will sweep through you. I will bring the sword upon you. I, Adonai, have spoken.”

Woe to the Mountains

6 The word of Adonai came to me saying: ² “Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy to them. ³ Say: mountains of Israel, hear the word of Adonai!” Thus says Adonai Elohim concerning the mountains and concerning the hills, concerning the wadis and concerning the valleys: “Behold, I will bring a sword on you. I will destroy your high places. ⁴ Your altars will become desolate. Your sun pillars will be broken. I will cast down your slain men before your idols. ⁵ I will lay the corpses of Bnei-Yisrael before their idols. I will scatter your bones around your altars. ⁶ In all your dwellings the cities will be desolate. The high places will be deserted. Your altars will be laid waste and made desolate, your idols broken and destroyed, your sun pillars cut down and your works blotted out. ⁷ The slain will fall in your midst. Then you will know that I am Adonai.

⁸ “Yet I will leave a remnant, some that escape the sword among the nations, when you have been scattered through the countries. ⁹ The survivors will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I was crushed by their adulterous heart that has strayed from Me and their eyes which have lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils that they committed in all their abominations. ¹⁰ They will know that I am Adonai. I have not warned in vain that I would do this evil to them.”

¹¹ Thus says Adonai Elohim: “Clap your hands, stamp your foot and cry, ‘Alas!’ because of all the vile abominations of the house of Israel who will fall by the sword, by famine and by plague. ¹² The one who is far off will die of the plague; the one who is near will fall by the sword. Whoever remains and is spared will die by the famine; this is how I will spend My fury on them. ¹³ You will know that I am Adonai, when your slain lie among their idols surrounding their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree and under every leafy oak—the places where they offer sweet aroma to all their idols. ¹⁴ I will stretch out My hand over them and make the land desolate and waste, more than the wilderness of Diblah, wherever they live. Then they will know that I am Adonai.”

A Singular Evil Comes

7 The word of Adonai came to me saying: ² “You, son of man, thus says Adonai Elohim concerning the land of Israel:

An end! The end has come on the four corners of the land. ³ The end is upon you. I will send My anger on you. I will judge you according to your ways. I will bring all your abominations on you. ⁴ My eyes will not spare you nor will I have pity, but I will bring your ways upon you, for your abominations in your midst. Then you will know that I am Adonai.”

⁵ Thus says Adonai Elohim:

An evil, a singular evil, behold, it comes. ⁶ An end has come, the end has come! It has awakened against you. Look, it is coming! ⁷ Doom has come upon you, inhabitant of the land! The time has come, the day is near—panic, not joyful shouting on the hills. ⁸ Now, soon, I am about to pour out My fury on you. I will exhaust My anger on you. I will judge you according to your ways. I will bring all your abominations on you. ⁹ My eye will not spare you nor will I have pity—I will repay you for your ways—your abominations are in your midst. Then you will know that it is I, Adonai, who strikes. ¹⁰ Behold, the day! Look, it is coming! Doom has gone out. The rod has budded, arrogance has blossomed. ¹¹ Violence grows into a rod of wickedness. Nothing will come from them, nothing from their crowd, nothing from their tumult, nothing distinctive among them. ¹² The time has come—the day draws near. The buyer will not rejoice, the seller will not play the mourner, for wrath is on the entire crowd. ¹³ For a seller will not regain what he sold, as long as they are alive. For the vision against her whole crowd will not be revoked. No one will preserve his life, because of his iniquity.

¹⁴ “They have blown the horn. They have made everyone ready. Yet no one goes to the battle. Surely My wrath is on her whole crowd. ¹⁵ Outside is the sword, inside plague and famine. Whoever is in the field will die by the sword. Whoever is in the city will be devoured by famine and plague. ¹⁶ Those survivors who escape will head for the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, each one over his iniquity. ¹⁷ All hands will be feeble. All knees will turn to water. ¹⁸ They will also gird on sackcloth. Horror will cover them. Shame will be upon all faces. Baldness will be upon all their heads. ¹⁹ They will throw their silver in the streets. Their gold will be as garbage. Their silver and their gold cannot deliver them in the day of Adonai’s wrath. They will not satisfy their appetite or fill their bellies, for their iniquity is a stumbling block. ²⁰ They took pride in their beautiful jewelry and made images of their abominations and their detestable idols. Therefore I made it niddah to them. ²¹ I will give it into the hands of the strangers as plunder and to the wicked of the earth as spoil, and they will profane it. ²² I will turn My face from them, as they will profane the place I treasure. Robbers will enter it and profane it.

²³ “Forge the chain! For the land is full of bloodshed. The city is full of violence. ²⁴ I will bring the wicked of the nations. They will possess their houses. So I will end the pride of the strong, when their holy places are profaned. ²⁵ Shuddering comes. They will seek peace but there will be none. ²⁶ Disaster upon disaster will come, and rumor upon rumor. They will seek a vision from a prophet, but Torah will perish from the kohen and counsel from the elders. ²⁷ The king will mourn. The prince will be clothed with despair. The hands of the people of the land will tremble. By their conduct I will deal with them. By their own standards I will judge them. Then they will know that I am Adonai.”