Exile · 592–588 BC
Chapter 5
Signs of the Siege
I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them. I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh,that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
For parents
In a vision, six men with weapons go through Jerusalem and kill old and young, women and little children, sparing only those marked on the forehead (Ezekiel 9:5–7), and a leader named Pelatiah dies while Ezekiel prophesies (11:13). Two of the Lord’s messages picture Jerusalem and Samaria as unfaithful women, briefly and with no detail: Jerusalem sacrifices her children to idols (16:20–21), and Samaria’s children are taken and she is killed (23:10). Ezekiel is told to bake his bread over dung (4:12–15), and his wife dies (24:15–18).
the lived among the captives by the , in the land of the , where he had seen visions of God. The Lord had told him to shut himself in his house. Ropes would be put on him, and the Lord would make his tongue stick to the roof of his mouth so that he could not speak. When the Lord spoke with him, the Lord would open his mouth, and he would tell the people, “This is what the Lord God says.”
Now the Lord said, “, take a tile, lay it in front of you, and draw a city on it: . Lay siege to it: build forts, heap up a mound and set up camps against it, with battering rams all around it, heavy beams for breaking down walls.
“Then set up an iron pan as a wall of iron between you and the city, and face the city. It will be under siege, and you will be the one besieging it. This will be a sign for the people of .
“After that, lie on your left side and lay the sin of the people of Israel on it. For as many days as you lie there, you will carry their sin. Each year of their sin is one day for you: three hundred and ninety days. When those days are over, lie on your right side and carry the sin of the people of for forty days, a day for each year.
“Keep your face turned toward Jerusalem under siege, with your arm bare, and prophesy against it. I will put ropes on you, so that you can’t turn from one side to the other until the days of your siege are over.”
“Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, and the grains millet and spelt,” the Lord said, “and put them in one jar. Make bread from them, and eat it for all three hundred and ninety days that you lie on your side.
“Weigh out twenty of it a day, about seven ounces, and eat it from time to time. Measure out your water too, a sixth of a , about a quart, and drink it from time to time.
“Eat it as you would eat barley cakes, and bake it where the people can see you, with human dung as the fuel.”
“That is how the people of Israel will eat bread,” the Lord said, “among the nations where I will drive them.”
“Oh, Lord God!” said Ezekiel. “I have never been made unclean. From the time I was young until now, I have never eaten anything that died by itself or was torn apart by wild animals. No foul meat has ever come into my mouth!”
“Look,” the Lord said, “I will let you use cow’s dung instead of human dung. Bake your bread over that.”
Then he said, “Son of man, I will take away the bread that Jerusalem lives on. They will weigh out their bread and eat it in fear, and measure out their water and drink it in dismay. They will run short of both, and look at each other in dismay as they waste away in their sin.”
“Now, son of man,” the Lord said, “take a sharp sword and use it on yourself like a barber’s razor. Shave your head and your beard with it. Then take a pair of scales, weigh the hair, and divide it.
“When the days of the siege are over, burn a third of the hair in the fire in the middle of the city. Take another third and strike at it with the sword all around the city. Scatter the last third to the wind, and I will pull out a sword and go after them.
“Take a few of the hairs and tie them up in the fold of your robe. Then take some of those, throw them into the middle of the fire, and burn them. From there a fire will spread to all the people of Israel.
“This is Jerusalem,” says the Lord God. “I set her in the middle of the nations, with countries all around her. Yet she has rebelled against my laws and my rules, doing more wickedness than any of them. Her people have rejected my laws.
“A third of you will die of disease and waste away with hunger inside your walls. A third will fall by the sword around you. And I will scatter the last third to all the winds, and I will pull out a sword and go after them.”
In the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, Ezekiel was sitting in his house, with the of Judah sitting in front of him. There the hand of the Lord God came on him.
Ezekiel saw a figure like fire: fire below what looked like his waist, and above it a brightness like glowing metal. He reached out the shape of a hand and took Ezekiel by a lock of his hair. The Spirit lifted Ezekiel up between earth and sky and brought him, in the visions of God, to Jerusalem, to the door of the north gate of the inner court. The of jealousy was set up there, the image that stirs up jealousy.
The of the God of Israel was there, the way Ezekiel had seen it on the plain.
“Son of man,” he said, “look toward the north.” Ezekiel looked, and in the entrance north of the gate he saw this image of jealousy. Then he said, “Son of man, do you see what they do? Do you see the great, disgusting things the people of Israel do here, that would make me go far away from my ? But you will see still more great, disgusting things.”
He brought Ezekiel to the door of the court, where there was a hole in the wall. “Son of man,” he said, “dig into the wall.” Ezekiel dug and found a door. “Go in,” he said, “and see the wicked, disgusting things they do here.”
Ezekiel went in and looked. All around the walls were pictures of every kind of crawling creature and disgusting animal, and all the idols of Israel. Seventy of Israel’s elders stood in front of them, with son of Shaphan standing in the middle. Each man had his in his hand, and the smell of the cloud of went up.
“Son of man,” he said, “have you seen what the elders of Israel do in the dark, each in his own room of images? They say, ‘The Lord doesn’t see us. The Lord has left the land.’ You will see them do even more disgusting things.”
He brought Ezekiel to the doorway of the north gate of the Lord’s house. Women were sitting there, weeping for . “Have you seen this, son of man?” he said. “You will see things more disgusting than these.”
Then he brought Ezekiel into the inner court of the Lord’s house. There, at the door of the Lord’s temple, between the porch and the altar, stood about twenty-five men. Their backs were toward the Lord’s temple and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping the sun.
“Have you seen this, son of man?” he said. “Do the people of Judah think it is a small thing to do the disgusting things they do here? They have filled the land with violence and turned back to make me angry again. Look, they put the branch to their nose! So I will act in anger, without sparing them or having pity. Even if they cry out loudly in my ears, I will not listen.”
Then he shouted in Ezekiel’s ears, “Bring the men in charge of the city here, each with his weapon of destruction in his hand!”
Six men came from the upper gate on the north side, each with a weapon for killing in his hand. In the middle of them was a man dressed in linen, with a writer’s inkhorn, a case for pen and ink, by his side. They went in and stood beside the bronze altar.
The glory of the God of Israel rose from the it had rested on and went to the threshold, the doorway of the house. The Lord called to the man in linen: “Go through the middle of Jerusalem and set a mark on the foreheads of those men who sigh and cry over all the disgusting things done there.”
To the others he said, as Ezekiel listened, “Go after him through the city and strike them down. Don’t spare anyone or have pity. Kill them all: old men and young men, young women, little children and women. But don’t come near anyone with the mark on him. Begin at my sanctuary.” Then they started with the old men in front of the house.
“Make the house unclean,” he told them. “Fill its courts with the dead. Go!” So they went out and killed people in the city.
While they were killing, Ezekiel was left there. He bowed with his face to the ground and cried out, “Oh, Lord God! Will you destroy everyone left in Israel as you pour out your anger on Jerusalem?”
“The sin of Israel and Judah is very, very great,” he answered. “The land is full of blood, and the city full of wrongdoing. They say, ‘The Lord has left the land. The Lord doesn’t see.’ So I will not spare them, and I will have no pity. I will bring what they have done down on their own heads.”
Then the man in linen with the inkhorn reported back: “I have done what you commanded me.”
Then Ezekiel looked, and in the expanse above the heads of the cherubim he saw something like a sapphire stone, shaped like a throne.
He spoke to the man in linen: “Go in between the whirling wheels, under the cherub. Fill both your hands with coals of fire from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city.” The man went in as Ezekiel watched.
The cherubim stood on the right side of the house when the man went in, and the cloud filled the inner court. The Lord’s glory rose from the cherub and stood over the threshold. The house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord’s glory. Even in the outer court, the sound of the cherubim’s wings could be heard. It sounded like the voice of when he speaks.
When he ordered the man in linen to take fire from between the whirling wheels, the man went in and stood next to a wheel. A cherub reached out to the fire between the cherubim and put some into the man’s hands. The man took it and went out. Under the cherubim’s wings was the shape of a man’s hand.
Beside the cherubim were four wheels, one beside each cherub. They gleamed like beryl, a precious stone, and each one looked like a wheel inside a wheel. Ezekiel heard them called “the whirling wheels.” The wheels and the cherubim were full of eyes, and each cherub had four faces: a cherub’s, a man’s, a lion’s and an eagle’s. When the cherubim rose up, the wheels rose with them, because the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
Then the Lord’s glory went out from over the threshold and stopped above the cherubim. As Ezekiel watched, the cherubim lifted their wings and rose from the earth, with the wheels beside them. They stopped at the door of the east gate of the Lord’s house, with the glory of the God of Israel over them.
These were the living creatures Ezekiel had seen under the God of Israel by the river Chebar, and now he knew that they were cherubim.
Then the Spirit lifted Ezekiel up and brought him to the east gate of the Lord’s house. At the door of the gate were twenty-five men. Among them were two leaders of the people, son of Azzur and son of Benaiah.
“Son of man,” Ezekiel was told, “these are the men who plan wrongdoing and give wicked advice in this city. They say, ‘The time to build houses is not near. This is the cooking pot, and we are the meat.’ So prophesy against them. Prophesy, son of man.”
Then the Lord’s Spirit came on Ezekiel, and the Lord told him to say: “So that is what you have been saying, people of Israel. I know what comes into your minds. You have piled up the dead in this city and filled its streets with them.
“So this is what the Lord God says: The dead you have left lying in the city are the meat, and this city is the pot. Yet you will be brought out of it. You have been afraid of the sword, and I will bring the sword on you. I will hand you over to foreigners. You will fall by the sword. I will judge you at Israel’s border, and then you will know that I am the Lord, because you have not followed my laws. Instead, you have followed the rules of the nations around you.”
While Ezekiel was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. Ezekiel bowed with his face to the ground and cried out loudly, “Oh, Lord God! Will you completely destroy what is left of Israel?”
Then the Lord’s word came to him: “Son of man, those who live in Jerusalem have told your relatives and all Israel, ‘Go far away from the Lord. This land has been given to us.’ So say this: Even though I have sent them far away and scattered them among the nations, I will be their sanctuary for a little while in the lands where they have gone. And say this too: I will gather you from the peoples and bring you together from the countries where you were scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. They will go there and clear away all its hateful and disgusting things.
“I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them. I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them a heart of flesh, so they will live by my laws, and keep my rules and carry them out. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
“But as for those whose hearts follow their hateful and disgusting things, I will bring what they have done down on their own heads, says the Lord God.”
Then the cherubim lifted their wings. The wheels were beside them, and the glory of Israel’s God was above them. The Lord’s glory went up from the middle of the city and stood on the mountain on the east side of the city.
The Spirit lifted Ezekiel up and brought him back to the captives in Chaldea, in a vision from the Spirit of God. Then the vision ended, and he told the captives everything the Lord had shown him.
The Lord’s word came to Ezekiel again: “Son of man, you live among a rebellious people, who have eyes to see but don’t see, and ears to hear but don’t hear. So pack your bags as if you were moving away. In the daytime, while they watch, move from your place to another place. Maybe they will think about it, even though they are rebellious.
“Bring out your bags during the day, and in the evening go out yourself, the way people go into exile. Dig through the wall and carry your bags out through it. Carry them on your shoulder in the dark, and cover your face so that you don’t see the land. Let them watch it all, because I have made you a sign to the people of Israel.”
Ezekiel did as he was told. He brought out his bags during the day. In the evening he dug through the wall with his hand, and in the dark he carried his bags out on his shoulder while they watched.
In the morning the Lord’s word came to him: “Son of man, haven’t the rebellious people of Israel asked you, ‘What are you doing?’ Tell them this message is about the prince in Jerusalem and all the people of Israel there. Tell them, ‘I am your sign. What I have done will happen to them. They will go into exile, into captivity.’
“The prince among them will carry his bags on his shoulder in the dark and go out, and they will dig through the wall to carry things out. He will cover his face, because he will not see the land. I will catch him in my net and bring him to , the land of the Chaldeans. He will not see it, even though he will die there. I will scatter his helpers and all his troops to every wind and go after them with a sword.
“They will know that I am the Lord when I scatter them among the nations. But I will leave a few of them alive after the sword, the famine and the disease, so that they can tell about all their disgusting ways among the nations where they go.”
The Lord gave Ezekiel many other messages. Suppose a land sinned against him, he said, and he sent famine or disease on it. Even if Noah, Daniel and Job were living there, their would rescue only themselves, not a son or a daughter.
In another, the Lord told Jerusalem her story. On the day she was born she was left in the open field, unwashed, with no one to pity her. He passed by and said to her, “Live!” She grew up beautiful, and he pledged himself to her in a and dressed her in gold and silver. But she trusted in her beauty and acted like a with anyone who passed by. She made images of men from his gold and silver. She even killed her sons and daughters, the children she had given him, as sacrifices to the images, making them pass through the fire.
The people of Israel had a saying about their land: “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” But the Lord God said, “As surely as I live, you will not use this saying in Israel anymore.”
Instead he said:
Every soul belongs to me.The father’s soul is mine, and the son’s soul is mine too.The soul who sins will die.Throw away all the wrongs you have done,and make yourself a new heart and a new spirit.People of Israel, why should you die?The death of anyone who dies gives me no pleasure.So turn back, and live!
Another time the Lord told of two sisters, daughters of one mother. When they were young, they acted like prostitutes in . The older one was , and her sister was . They became the Lord’s and had sons and daughters. is Oholah, and Jerusalem is Oholibah.
Oholah was unfaithful while she was his. She longed for the and made herself unclean with their idols, so the Lord handed her over to them. They put her to shame, took her sons and her daughters, and killed her with the sword.
Oholibah saw this, yet she was worse. She longed for the Assyrians, then for the Chaldeans, whose pictures she saw painted in red on a wall. The Babylonians became her lovers and made her unclean. Then her heart turned away from them, and the Lord’s heart turned away from her, as it had from her sister. “You have gone the way your sister went,” he said, “so I will hand you her cup.”
In the ninth year, on the tenth day of the tenth month, the Lord’s word came to Ezekiel: “Son of man, write down today’s date. The king of Babylon drew close to Jerusalem on this very day.”
Then the Lord said, “Son of man, I will take away from you the desire of your eyes with one blow. But you must not mourn or weep or let your tears run down. Sigh, but not aloud. Don’t mourn for the dead. Tie on your headdress and put on your sandals. Don’t cover your lips, and don’t eat the bread that mourners eat.” Covering the lips and going without a headdress or sandals were ways people mourned.
So Ezekiel spoke to the people in the morning, and that evening his wife died. The next morning he did as he had been commanded.
The people asked him, “What do these things you are doing mean for us? Won’t you tell us?”
So Ezekiel told them, “The Lord’s word came to me: ‘Speak to the people of Israel. The Lord God says: I will make my sanctuary unholy, the strength you are proud of, the desire of your eyes, the thing your soul cares for. And your sons and your daughters that you left behind will fall by the sword.
“‘You will do as I have done. You won’t cover your lips or eat mourners’ bread. Your turbans will be on your heads and your sandals on your feet. You won’t mourn or weep. Instead you will waste away in your sins and groan to one another. Ezekiel will be a sign to you: everything he has done, you will do. When this comes, you will know that I am the Lord God.’”
“As for you, son of man,” the Lord said, “I will take from them their strength and their joy, the desire of their eyes and what their hearts are set on: their sons and their daughters. On that day, someone who has escaped will come to tell you the news. That day your mouth will be opened to him, and you will speak, and you won’t be silent anymore. So you will be a sign to them. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”