Ezekiel

Ezekiel

Book Outhne

Key theme: Showing reverence for the name and glory of God.

Key verse:

I. The Prophet’s Call ()

A. Seeing God’s glory ()

B. Hearing God’s Word ()

C. Becoming God’s watchman ()

II. The Fall of Jerusalem ()

A. The judgment predicted ()

B. God’s glory departs ()

C. Godless leaders exposed ()

D. God’s justice defended ()

E. The end of the city ()

III. The Nations Judged ()

A. Ammon ()

B. Moab ()

C. Edom ()

D. Philistia ()

E. Tyre ()

F. Sidon ()

G. Egypt ()

IV. The Glorious Future of Israel ()

A. The city of Jerusalem restored ()

B. The land of Israel renewed ()

C. The nation of Israel resurrected and reunited ()

D. The temple and the priesthood reestablished ()

Book Overview

Like Jeremiah (), Zechariah (), and John the Baptist (.), Ezekiel (“God strengthens”) was called by God from being a priest to serving as a prophet. As God’s spokesman to the Jewish exiles in the land of Babylon, he would rebuke them for their sins and expose their idolatry, but he would also reveal the glorious future the Lord had prepared for them. He was thirty years old at the time of his call (), the normal age for a priest to begin his ministry (, ).

Jeremiah had been ministering in Jerusalem for four years when Ezekiel was born in 622 B.C., but surely as he grew up, Ezekiel must have paid attention to what Jeremiah was saying. Daniel and Ezekiel probably knew each other before the captivity, though the Bible provides no evidence that they saw each other in Babylon. Ezekiel’s prophetic ministry was greatly needed in Babylon, because false prophets abounded and were giving the Jewish people false hopes of a quick deliverance (usually by Egypt) and a triumphant return to their land (, ; ; ). Quite possibly King Zedekiah’s visit to Babylon () and the arrival of Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles () both occurred the year Ezekiel received his call. Jeremiah’s letter told the Jews that they would be in Babylon for seventy years, and, therefore, they should settle down, raise families, and pray for their captors. But Jeremiah also announced the ultimate fall of Babylon, a message the exiles were only too eager to hear.

The most difficult task of a prophet is to change people’s minds. This means pulling up the weeds of false theology and planting the good seed of the Word of God. It also means tearing down the flimsy thought structures that false prophets build and constructing in their place lasting buildings on solid foundations of truth (; ).

“Be Transformed”

If the Book of Ezekiel teaches us anything, it teaches us that we must honor God’s name and magnify His glory. The glory of God had departed from Israel because they had defiled the temple. The glory of God returned to the new Temple because it was holy and a place where God could dwell. “You shall know that I am the Lord” (, ; , ) is a statement found at least sixty times in Ezekiel’s book. While God’s glory doesn’t dwell in our church buildings, God can be glorified or disgraced by what we do in those buildings we have dedicated to Him. As His people, we should be reverent and honor His name.

The first vision God gave Ezekiel was that of His glorious throne, moving quickly here and there so that His angelic creatures could accomplish His purposes in the world. Today, the church of Jesus Christ is left in this world not just to pray “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” but to help accomplish that will in the power of the Holy Spirit. God is still on the throne, and “all authority has been given to [Jesus Christ] in heaven and on earth” (). Need we ask for more? We need to live as people under Christ’s supreme authority.

Ezekiel’s Vision of God

2On the fifth day of the month, which was in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity,

6Each one had four faces, and each one had four wings.

7Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the soles of calves’ feet. They sparkled like the color of burnished bronze.

8The hands of a man were under their wings on their four sides; and each of the four had faces and wings.

9Their wings touched one another. The creatures did not turn when they went, but each one went straight forward.

11Thus were their faces. Their wings stretched upward; two wings of each one touched one another, and two covered their bodies.

13As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches going back and forth among the living creatures. The fire was bright, and out of the fire went lightning.

14And the living creatures ran back and forth, in appearance like a flash of lightning.

16The appearance of the wheels and their workings was like the color of beryl, and all four had the same likeness. The appearance of their workings was, as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel.

17When they moved, they went toward any one of four directions; they did not turn aside when they went.

18As for their rims, they were so high they were awesome; and their rims were full of eyes, all around the four of them.

19When the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.

20Wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went, because there the spirit went; and the wheels were lifted together with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

21When those went, these went; when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up together with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

23And under the firmament their wings spread out straight, one toward another. Each one had two which covered one side, and each one had two which covered the other side of the body.

24When they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of many waters, like the voice of the Almighty, a tumult like the noise of an army; and when they stood still, they let down their wings.

25A voice came from above the firmament that was over their heads; whenever they stood, they let down their wings.

27Also from the appearance of His waist and upward I saw, as it were, the color of amber with the appearance of fire all around within it; and from the appearance of His waist and downward I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire with brightness all around.

Ezekiel Sent to Rebellious Israel

So when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of One speaking.

4“For they are impudent and stubborn children. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD.’

5“As for them, whether they hear or whether they refuse—for they are a rebellious house—yet they will know that a prophet has been among them.

7“You shall speak My words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are rebellious.

9Now when I looked, there was a hand stretched out to me; and behold, a scroll of a book was in it.

1Moreover He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.”

2So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat that scroll.

3And He said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly, and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you.” So I ate, and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness.

5“For you are not sent to a people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, but to the house of Israel,

6“not to many people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, had I sent you to them, they would have listened to you.

7“But the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to Me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted.

8“Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads.

9“Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.”

11“And go, get to the captives, to the children of your people, and speak to them and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ whether they hear, or whether they refuse.”

13I also heard the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels beside them, and a great thunderous noise.

14So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the LORD was strong upon me.

Ezekiel Is a Watchman

17“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me:

18“When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand.

23So I arose and went out into the plain, and behold, the glory of the LORD stood there, like the glory which I saw by the River Chebar; and I fell on my face.

26“I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth, so that you shall be mute and not be one to rebuke them, for they are a rebellious house.

The Siege of Jerusalem Portrayed

2“Lay siege against it, build a siege wall against it, and heap up a mound against it; set camps against it also, and place battering rams against it all around.

5“For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days; so you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

6“And when you have completed them, lie again on your right side; then you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days. I have laid on you a day for each year.

7“Therefore you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem; your arm shall be uncovered, and you shall prophesy against it.

8“And surely I will restrain you so that you cannot turn from one side to another till you have ended the days of your siege.

10“And your food which you eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; from time to time you shall eat it.

11“You shall also drink water by measure, one-sixth of a hin; from time to time you shall drink.

13Then the LORD said, “So shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, where I will drive them.”

14So I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Indeed I have never defiled myself from my youth till now; I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has abominable flesh ever come into my mouth.”

15Then He said to me, “See, I am giving you cow dung instead of human waste, and you shall prepare your bread over it.”

16Moreover He said to me, “Son of man, surely I will cut off the supply of bread in Jerusalem; they shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and shall drink water by measure and with dread,

17“that they may lack bread and water, and be dismayed with one another, and waste away because of their iniquity.

A Sword Against Jerusalem

2“You shall burn with fire one-third in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are finished; then you shall take one-third and strike around it with the sword, and one-third you shall scatter in the wind: I will draw out a sword after them.

3“You shall also take a small number of them and bind them in the edge of your garment.

4“Then take some of them again and throw them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will go out into all the house of Israel.

6‘She has rebelled against My judgments by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are all around her; for they have refused My judgments, and they have not walked in My statutes.’

8“therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Indeed I, even I, am against you and will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations.

9‘And I will do among you what I have never done, and the like of which I will never do again, because of all your abominations.

10‘Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments among you, and all of you who remain I will scatter to all the winds.

11‘Therefore, as I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you; My eye will not spare, nor will I have any pity.

13‘Thus shall My anger be spent, and I will cause My fury to rest upon them, and I will be avenged; and they shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken it in My zeal, when I have spent My fury upon them.

14‘Moreover I will make you a waste and a reproach among the nations that are all around you, in the sight of all who pass by.

15‘So it shall be a reproach, a taunt, a lesson, and an astonishment to the nations that are all around you, when I execute judgments among you in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I, the LORD, have spoken.

16‘When I send against them the terrible arrows of famine which shall be for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, I will increase the famine upon you and cut off your supply of bread.

17‘So I will send against you famine and wild beasts, and they will bereave you. Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, the LORD, have spoken.’ ”

Judgment on Idolatrous Israel

2“Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,

3“and say, ‘O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD! Thus says the Lord GOD to the mountains, to the hills, to the ravines, and to the valleys: “Indeed I, even I, will bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.

4“Then your altars shall be desolate, your incense altars shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.

5“And I will lay the corpses of the children of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones all around your altars.

6“In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate, so that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, your idols may be broken and made to cease, your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.

7“The slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am the LORD.

10“And they shall know that I am the LORD; I have not said in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them.”

12‘He who is far off shall die by the pestilence, he who is near shall fall by the sword, and he who remains and is besieged shall die by the famine. Thus will I spend My fury upon them.

13‘Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when their slain are among their idols all around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and under every thick oak, wherever they offered sweet incense to all their idols.

14‘So I will stretch out My hand against them and make the land desolate, yes, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblah, in all their dwelling places. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.’ ” ’ ”

Judgment on Israel Is Near

2“And you, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD to the land of Israel:

‘An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land.

3Now the end has come upon you,

And I will send My anger against you;

I will judge you according to your ways,

And I will repay you for all your abominations.

4My eye will not spare you,

Nor will I have pity;

But I will repay your ways,

And your abominations will be in your midst;

Then you shall know that I am the LORD!’

5“Thus says the Lord GOD:

‘A disaster, a singular disaster;

Behold, it has come!

6An end has come,

The end has come;

It has dawned for you;

Behold, it has come!

7Doom has come to you, you who dwell in the land;

The time has come,

A day of trouble is near,

And not of rejoicing in the mountains.

8Now upon you I will soon pour out My fury,

And spend My anger upon you;

I will judge you according to your ways,

And I will repay you for all your abominations.

9‘My eye will not spare,

Nor will I have pity;

I will repay you according to your ways,

And your abominations will be in your midst.

Then you shall know that I am the LORD who strikes.

Behold, it has come!

Doom has gone out;

The rod has blossomed,

Pride has budded.

11Violence has risen up into a rod of wickedness;

None of them shall remain,

None of their multitude,

None of them;

Nor shall there be wailing for them.

The day draws near.

‘Let not the buyer rejoice,

Nor the seller mourn,

For wrath is on their whole multitude.

13For the seller shall not return to what has been sold,

Though he may still be alive;

For the vision concerns the whole multitude,

And it shall not turn back;

No one will strengthen himself

Who lives in iniquity.

But no one goes to battle;

For My wrath is on all their multitude.

15The sword is outside,

And the pestilence and famine within.

Whoever is in the field

Will die by the sword;

And whoever is in the city,

Famine and pestilence will devour him.

Like doves of the valleys,

All of them mourning,

Each for his iniquity.

17Every hand will be feeble,

And every knee will be as weak as water.

18They will also be girded with sackcloth;

Horror will cover them;

Shame will be on every face,

Baldness on all their heads.

And their gold will be like refuse;

Their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them

In the day of the wrath of the LORD;

They will not satisfy their souls,

Nor fill their stomachs,

Because it became their stumbling block of iniquity.

20‘As for the beauty of his ornaments,

He set it in majesty;

But they made from it

The images of their abominations—

Their detestable things;

Therefore I have made it

Like refuse to them.

Into the hands of strangers,

And to the wicked of the earth as spoil;

And they shall defile it.

22I will turn My face from them,

And they will defile My secret place;

For robbers shall enter it and defile it.

23‘Make a chain,

For the land is filled with crimes of blood,

And the city is full of violence.

24Therefore I will bring the worst of the Gentiles,

And they will possess their houses;

I will cause the pomp of the strong to cease,

And their holy places shall be defiled.

25Destruction comes;

They will seek peace, but there shall be none.

26Disaster will come upon disaster,

And rumor will be upon rumor.

Then they will seek a vision from a prophet;

But the law will perish from the priest,

And counsel from the elders.

The prince will be clothed with desolation,

And the hands of the common people will tremble.

I will do to them according to their way,

And according to what they deserve I will judge them;

Then they shall know that I am the LORD!’ ”

Abominations in the Temple

2Then I looked, and there was a likeness, like the appearance of fire—from the appearance of His waist and downward, fire; and from His waist and upward, like the appearance of brightness, like the color of amber.

4And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the plain.

5Then He said to me, “Son of man, lift your eyes now toward the north.” So I lifted my eyes toward the north, and there, north of the altar gate, was this image of jealousy in the entrance.

6Furthermore He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel commits here, to make Me go far away from My sanctuary? Now turn again, you will see greater abominations.”

7So He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, there was a hole in the wall.

8Then He said to me, “Son of man, dig into the wall”; and when I dug into the wall, there was a door.

9And He said to me, “Go in, and see the wicked abominations which they are doing there.”

10So I went in and saw, and there—every sort of creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed all around on the walls.

11And there stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and in their midst stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan. Each man had a censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense went up.

13And He said to me, “Turn again, and you will see greater abominations that they are doing.”

14So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the LORD’s house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.

15Then He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn again, you will see greater abominations than these.”

16So He brought me into the inner court of the LORD’s house; and there, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping the sun toward the east.

The Wicked Are Slain

2And suddenly six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his battle-ax in his hand. One man among them was clothed with linen and had a writer’s inkhorn at his side. They went in and stood beside the bronze altar.

4and the LORD said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.”

7Then He said to them, “Defile the temple, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out!” And they went out and killed in the city.

8So it was, that while they were killing them, I was left alone; and I fell on my face and cried out, and said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Will You destroy all the remnant of Israel in pouring out Your fury on Jerusalem?”

9Then He said to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of bloodshed, and the city full of perversity; for they say, ‘The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD does not see!’

10“And as for Me also, My eye will neither spare, nor will I have pity, but I will recompense their deeds on their own head.”

11Just then, the man clothed with linen, who had the inkhorn at his side, reported back and said, “I have done as You commanded me.”

The Glory Departs from the Temple

1And I looked, and there in the firmament that was above the head of the cherubim, there appeared something like a sapphire stone, having the appearance of the likeness of a throne.

2Then He spoke to the man clothed with linen, and said, “Go in among the wheels, under the cherub, fill your hands with coals of fire from among the cherubim, and scatter them over the city.” And he went in as I watched.

3Now the cherubim were standing on the south side of the temple when the man went in, and the cloud filled the inner court.

5And the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard even in the outer court, like the voice of Almighty God when He speaks.

6Then it happened, when He commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, “Take fire from among the wheels, from among the cherubim,” that he went in and stood beside the wheels.

7And the cherub stretched out his hand from among the cherubim to the fire that was among the cherubim, and took some of it and put it into the hands of the man clothed with linen, who took it and went out.

9And when I looked, there were four wheels by the cherubim, one wheel by one cherub and another wheel by each other cherub; the wheels appeared to have the color of a beryl stone.

10As for their appearance, all four looked alike—as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel.

11When they went, they went toward any of their four directions; they did not turn aside when they went, but followed in the direction the head was facing. They did not turn aside when they went.

12And their whole body, with their back, their hands, their wings, and the wheels that the four had, were full of eyes all around.

13As for the wheels, they were called in my hearing, “Wheel.”

14Each one had four faces: the first face was the face of a cherub, the second face the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.

15And the cherubim were lifted up. This was the living creature I saw by the River Chebar.

16When the cherubim went, the wheels went beside them; and when the cherubim lifted their wings to mount up from the earth, the same wheels also did not turn from beside them.

17When the cherubim stood still, the wheels stood still, and when one was lifted up, the other lifted itself up, for the spirit of the living creature was in them.

18Then the glory of the LORD departed from the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim.

19And the cherubim lifted their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight. When they went out, the wheels were beside them; and they stood at the door of the east gate of the LORD’s house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.

21Each one had four faces and each one four wings, and the likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings.

22And the likeness of their faces was the same as the faces which I had seen by the River Chebar, their appearance and their persons. They each went straight forward.

Judgment on Wicked Counselors

1Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the East Gate of the LORD’s house, which faces eastward; and there at the door of the gate were twenty-five men, among whom I saw Jaazaniah the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people.

4“Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man!”

5Then the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and said to me, “Speak! ‘Thus says the LORD: “Thus you have said, O house of Israel; for I know the things that come into your mind.

6“You have multiplied your slain in this city, and you have filled its streets with the slain.”

8“You have feared the sword; and I will bring a sword upon you,” says the Lord GOD.

9“And I will bring you out of its midst, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and execute judgments on you.

10“You shall fall by the sword. I will judge you at the border of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the LORD.

11“This city shall not be your caldron, nor shall you be the meat in its midst. I will judge you at the border of Israel.

12“And you shall know that I am the LORD; for you have not walked in My statutes nor executed My judgments, but have done according to the customs of the Gentiles which are all around you.” ’ ”

13Now it happened, while I was prophesying, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then I fell on my face and cried with a loud voice, and said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Will You make a complete end of the remnant of Israel?”

God Will Restore Israel

15“Son of man, your brethren, your relatives, your countrymen, and all the house of Israel in its entirety, are those about whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘Get far away from the LORD; this land has been given to us as a possession.’

18“And they will go there, and they will take away all its detestable things and all its abominations from there.

20“that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.

21“But as for those whose hearts follow the desire for their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord GOD.

23And the glory of the LORD went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain, which is on the east side of the city.

24Then the Spirit took me up and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to those in captivity. And the vision that I had seen went up from me.

25So I spoke to those in captivity of all the things the LORD had shown me.

Judah’s Captivity Portrayed

2“Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, which has eyes to see but does not see, and ears to hear but does not hear; for they are a rebellious house.

3“Therefore, son of man, prepare your belongings for captivity, and go into captivity by day in their sight. You shall go from your place into captivity to another place in their sight. It may be that they will consider, though they are a rebellious house.

4“By day you shall bring out your belongings in their sight, as though going into captivity; and at evening you shall go in their sight, like those who go into captivity.

5“Dig through the wall in their sight, and carry your belongings out through it.

6“In their sight you shall bear them on your shoulders and carry them out at twilight; you shall cover your face, so that you cannot see the ground, for I have made you a sign to the house of Israel.”

7So I did as I was commanded. I brought out my belongings by day, as though going into captivity, and at evening I dug through the wall with my hand. I brought them out at twilight, and I bore them on my shoulder in their sight.

8And in the morning the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

9“Son of man, has not the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said to you, ‘What are you doing?’

10“Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “This burden concerns the prince in Jerusalem and all the house of Israel who are among them.” ’

11“Say, ‘I am a sign to you. As I have done, so shall it be done to them; they shall be carried away into captivity.’

12“And the prince who is among them shall bear his belongings on his shoulder at twilight and go out. They shall dig through the wall to carry them out through it. He shall cover his face, so that he cannot see the ground with his eyes.

13“I will also spread My net over him, and he shall be caught in My snare. I will bring him to Babylon, to the land of the Chaldeans; yet he shall not see it, though he shall die there.

14“I will scatter to every wind all who are around him to help him, and all his troops; and I will draw out the sword after them.

15“Then they shall know that I am the LORD, when I scatter them among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries.

16“But I will spare a few of their men from the sword, from famine, and from pestilence, that they may declare all their abominations among the Gentiles wherever they go. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.”

Judgment Not Postponed

18“Son of man, eat your bread with quaking, and drink your water with trembling and anxiety.

19“And say to the people of the land, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the land of Israel: “They shall eat their bread with anxiety, and drink their water with dread, so that her land may be emptied of all who are in it, because of the violence of all those who dwell in it.

20“Then the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall become desolate; and you shall know that I am the LORD.” ’ ”

22“Son of man, what is this proverb that you people have about the land of Israel, which says, ‘The days are prolonged, and every vision fails’?

24“For no more shall there be any false vision or flattering divination within the house of Israel.

25“For I am the LORD. I speak, and the word which I speak will come to pass; it will no more be postponed; for in your days, O rebellious house, I will say the word and perform it,” says the Lord GOD.’ ”

26Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

27“Son of man, look, the house of Israel is saying, ‘The vision that he sees is for many days from now, and he prophesies of times far off.’

Woe to Foolish Prophets

2“Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to those who prophesy out of their own heart, ‘Hear the word of the LORD!’ ”

3Thus says the Lord GOD: “Woe to the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing!

4“O Israel, your prophets are like foxes in the deserts.

6“They have envisioned futility and false divination, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD!’ But the LORD has not sent them; yet they hope that the word may be confirmed.

7“Have you not seen a futile vision, and have you not spoken false divination? You say, ‘The LORD says,’ but I have not spoken.”

8Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Because you have spoken nonsense and envisioned lies, therefore I am indeed against you,” says the Lord GOD.

10“Because, indeed, because they have seduced My people, saying, ‘Peace!’ when there is no peace—and one builds a wall, and they plaster it with untempered mortar—

11“say to those who plaster it with untempered mortar, that it will fall. There will be flooding rain, and you, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall tear it down.

12“Surely, when the wall has fallen, will it not be said to you, ‘Where is the mortar with which you plastered it?’ ”

13Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “I will cause a stormy wind to break forth in My fury; and there shall be a flooding rain in My anger, and great hailstones in fury to consume it.

14“So I will break down the wall you have plastered with untempered mortar, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation will be uncovered; it will fall, and you shall be consumed in the midst of it. Then you shall know that I am the LORD.

15“Thus will I accomplish My wrath on the wall and on those who have plastered it with untempered mortar; and I will say to you, ‘The wall is no more, nor those who plastered it,

18“and say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Woe to the women who sew magic charms on their sleeves and make veils for the heads of people of every height to hunt souls! Will you hunt the souls of My people, and keep yourselves alive?

19“And will you profane Me among My people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, killing people who should not die, and keeping people alive who should not live, by your lying to My people who listen to lies?”

20‘Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I am against your magic charms by which you hunt souls there like birds. I will tear them from your arms, and let the souls go, the souls you hunt like birds.

21“I will also tear off your veils and deliver My people out of your hand, and they shall no longer be as prey in your hand. Then you shall know that I am the LORD.

22“Because with lies you have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and you have strengthened the hands of the wicked, so that he does not turn from his wicked way to save his life.

23“Therefore you shall no longer envision futility nor practice divination; for I will deliver My people out of your hand, and you shall know that I am the LORD.” ’ ”

Idolatry Will Be Punished

2And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

3“Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts, and put before them that which causes them to stumble into iniquity. Should I let Myself be inquired of at all by them?

4“Therefore speak to them, and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Everyone of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity, and then comes to the prophet, I the LORD will answer him who comes, according to the multitude of his idols,

7“For anyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell in Israel, who separates himself from Me and sets up his idols in his heart and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity, then comes to a prophet to inquire of him concerning Me, I the LORD will answer him by Myself.

8“I will set My face against that man and make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of My people. Then you shall know that I am the LORD.

10“And they shall bear their iniquity; the punishment of the prophet shall be the same as the punishment of the one who inquired,

11“that the house of Israel may no longer stray from Me, nor be profaned anymore with all their transgressions, but that they may be My people and I may be their God,” says the Lord GOD.’ ”

Judgment on Persistent Unfaithfulness

13“Son of man, when a land sins against Me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will stretch out My hand against it; I will cut off its supply of bread, send famine on it, and cut off man and beast from it.

15“If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land, and they empty it, and make it so desolate that no man may pass through because of the beasts,

16“even though these three men were in it, as I live,” says the Lord GOD, “they would deliver neither sons nor daughters; only they would be delivered, and the land would be desolate.

17“Or if I bring a sword on that land, and say, ‘Sword, go through the land,’ and I cut off man and beast from it,

18“even though these three men were in it, as I live,” says the Lord GOD, “they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but only they themselves would be delivered.

19“Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out My fury on it in blood, and cut off from it man and beast,

20“even though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live,” says the Lord GOD, “they would deliver neither son nor daughter; they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness.”

21For thus says the Lord GOD: “How much more it shall be when I send My four severe judgments on Jerusalem—the sword and famine and wild beasts and pestilence—to cut off man and beast from it?

22“Yet behold, there shall be left in it a remnant who will be brought out, both sons and daughters; surely they will come out to you, and you will see their ways and their doings. Then you will be comforted concerning the disaster that I have brought upon Jerusalem, all that I have brought upon it.

23“And they will comfort you, when you see their ways and their doings; and you shall know that I have done nothing without cause that I have done in it,” says the Lord GOD.

The Outcast Vine

2“Son of man, how is the wood of the vine better than any other wood, the vine branch which is among the trees of the forest?

3“Is wood taken from it to make any object? Or can men make a peg from it to hang any vessel on?

4“Instead, it is thrown into the fire for fuel; the fire devours both ends of it, and its middle is burned. Is it useful for any work?

5“Indeed, when it was whole, no object could be made from it. How much less will it be useful for any work when the fire has devoured it, and it is burned?

6“Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so I will give up the inhabitants of Jerusalem;

7‘and I will set My face against them. They will go out from one fire, but another fire shall devour them. Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I set My face against them.

8‘Thus I will make the land desolate, because they have persisted in unfaithfulness,’ says the Lord GOD.”

God’s Love for Jerusalem

2“Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,

3“and say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem: “Your birth and your nativity are from the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.

5“No eye pitied you, to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out into the open field, when you yourself were loathed on the day you were born.

6“And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’

7“I made you thrive like a plant in the field; and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed, your hair grew, but you were naked and bare.

8“When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine,” says the Lord GOD.

9“Then I washed you in water; yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood, and I anointed you with oil.

10“I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of badger skin; I clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk.

11“I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your wrists, and a chain on your neck.

12“And I put a jewel in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head.

13“Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate pastry of fine flour, honey, and oil. You were exceedingly beautiful, and succeeded to royalty.

14“Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through My splendor which I had bestowed on you,” says the Lord GOD.

Jerusalem’s Harlotry

16“You took some of your garments and adorned multicolored high places for yourself, and played the harlot on them. Such things should not happen, nor be.

17“You have also taken your beautiful jewelry from My gold and My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images and played the harlot with them.

18“You took your embroidered garments and covered them, and you set My oil and My incense before them.

19“Also My food which I gave you—the pastry of fine flour, oil, and honey which I fed you—you set it before them as sweet incense; and so it was,” says the Lord GOD.

20“Moreover you took your sons and your daughters, whom you bore to Me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your acts of harlotry a small matter,

21“that you have slain My children and offered them up to them by causing them to pass through the fire?

22“And in all your abominations and acts of harlotry you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, struggling in your blood.

23“Then it was so, after all your wickedness—‘Woe, woe to you!’ says the Lord GOD—

24“that you also built for yourself a shrine, and made a high place for yourself in every street.

25“You built your high places at the head of every road, and made your beauty to be abhorred. You offered yourself to everyone who passed by, and multiplied your acts of harlotry.

26“You also committed harlotry with the Egyptians, your very fleshly neighbors, and increased your acts of harlotry to provoke Me to anger.

27“Behold, therefore, I stretched out My hand against you, diminished your allotment, and gave you up to the will of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior.

28“You also played the harlot with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable; indeed you played the harlot with them and still were not satisfied.

29“Moreover you multiplied your acts of harlotry as far as the land of the trader, Chaldea; and even then you were not satisfied.

30“How degenerate is your heart!” says the Lord GOD, “seeing you do all these things, the deeds of a brazen harlot.

Jerusalem’s Adultery

31“You erected your shrine at the head of every road, and built your high place in every street. Yet you were not like a harlot, because you scorned payment.

32“You are an adulterous wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband.

33“Men make payment to all harlots, but you made your payments to all your lovers, and hired them to come to you from all around for your harlotry.

34“You are the opposite of other women in your harlotry, because no one solicited you to be a harlot. In that you gave payment but no payment was given you, therefore you are the opposite.”

Jerusalem’s Lovers Will Abuse Her

36‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Because your filthiness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your harlotry with your lovers, and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children which you gave to them,

37“surely, therefore, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved, and all those you hated; I will gather them from all around against you and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness.

38“And I will judge you as women who break wedlock or shed blood are judged; I will bring blood upon you in fury and jealousy.

39“I will also give you into their hand, and they shall throw down your shrines and break down your high places. They shall also strip you of your clothes, take your beautiful jewelry, and leave you naked and bare.

40“They shall also bring up an assembly against you, and they shall stone you with stones and thrust you through with their swords.

41“They shall burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women; and I will make you cease playing the harlot, and you shall no longer hire lovers.

42“So I will lay to rest My fury toward you, and My jealousy shall depart from you. I will be quiet, and be angry no more.

43“Because you did not remember the days of your youth, but agitated Me with all these things, surely I will also recompense your deeds on your own head,” says the Lord GOD. “And you shall not commit lewdness in addition to all your abominations.

More Wicked than Samaria and Sodom

44“Indeed everyone who quotes proverbs will use this proverb against you: ‘Like mother, like daughter!’

45“You are your mother’s daughter, loathing husband and children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and children; your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.

46“Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells with her daughters to the north of you; and your younger sister, who dwells to the south of you, is Sodom and her daughters.

47“You did not walk in their ways nor act according to their abominations; but, as if that were too little, you became more corrupt than they in all your ways.

49“Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

50“And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit.

51“Samaria did not commit half of your sins; but you have multiplied your abominations more than they, and have justified your sisters by all the abominations which you have done.

52“You who judged your sisters, bear your own shame also, because the sins which you committed were more abominable than theirs; they are more righteous than you. Yes, be disgraced also, and bear your own shame, because you justified your sisters.

54“that you may bear your own shame and be disgraced by all that you did when you comforted them.

55“When your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, return to their former state, and Samaria and her daughters return to their former state, then you and your daughters will return to your former state.

56“For your sister Sodom was not a byword in your mouth in the days of your pride,

57“before your wickedness was uncovered. It was like the time of the reproach of the daughters of Syria and all those around her, and of the daughters of the Philistines, who despise you everywhere.

58“You have paid for your lewdness and your abominations,” says the LORD.

59‘For thus says the Lord GOD: “I will deal with you as you have done, who despised the oath by breaking the covenant.

An Everlasting Covenant

60“Nevertheless I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.

61“Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed, when you receive your older and your younger sisters; for I will give them to you for daughters, but not because of My covenant with you.

62“And I will establish My covenant with you. Then you shall know that I am the LORD,

63“that you may remember and be ashamed, and never open your mouth anymore because of your shame, when I provide you an atonement for all you have done,” says the Lord GOD.’ ”

The Eagles and the Vine

2“Son of man, pose a riddle, and speak a parable to the house of Israel,

“A great eagle with large wings and long pinions,

Full of feathers of various colors,

Came to Lebanon

And took from the cedar the highest branch.

4He cropped off its topmost young twig

And carried it to a land of trade;

He set it in a city of merchants.

And planted it in a fertile field;

He placed it by abundant waters

And set it like a willow tree.

6And it grew and became a spreading vine of low stature;

Its branches turned toward him,

But its roots were under it.

So it became a vine,

Brought forth branches,

And put forth shoots.

7“But there was another great eagle with large wings and many feathers;

And behold, this vine bent its roots toward him,

And stretched its branches toward him,

From the garden terrace where it had been planted,

That he might water it.

8It was planted in good soil by many waters,

To bring forth branches, bear fruit,

And become a majestic vine.” ’

9“Say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD:

“Will it thrive?

Will he not pull up its roots,

Cut off its fruit,

And leave it to wither?

All of its spring leaves will wither,

And no great power or many people

Will be needed to pluck it up by its roots.

10Behold, it is planted,

Will it thrive?

Will it not utterly wither when the east wind touches it?

It will wither in the garden terrace where it grew.” ’ ”

11Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

12“Say now to the rebellious house: ‘Do you not know what these things mean?’ Tell them, ‘Indeed the king of Babylon went to Jerusalem and took its king and princes, and led them with him to Babylon.

13‘And he took the king’s offspring, made a covenant with him, and put him under oath. He also took away the mighty of the land,

14‘that the kingdom might be brought low and not lift itself up, but that by keeping his covenant it might stand.

15‘But he rebelled against him by sending his ambassadors to Egypt, that they might give him horses and many people. Will he prosper? Will he who does such things escape? Can he break a covenant and still be delivered?

16‘As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘surely in the place where the king dwells who made him king, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke—with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die.

17‘Nor will Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company do anything in the war, when they heap up a siege mound and build a wall to cut off many persons.

18‘Since he despised the oath by breaking the covenant, and in fact gave his hand and still did all these things, he shall not escape.’ ”

19Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “As I live, surely My oath which he despised, and My covenant which he broke, I will recompense on his own head.

20“I will spread My net over him, and he shall be taken in My snare. I will bring him to Babylon and try him there for the treason which he committed against Me.

21“All his fugitives with all his troops shall fall by the sword, and those who remain shall be scattered to every wind; and you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken.”

Israel Exalted at Last

23“On the mountain height of Israel I will plant it; and it will bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a majestic cedar. Under it will dwell birds of every sort; in the shadow of its branches they will dwell.

A False Proverb Refuted

2“What do you mean when you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying:

‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,

And the children’s teeth are set on edge’?

3“As I live,” says the Lord GOD, “you shall no longer use this proverb in Israel.

4“Behold, all souls are Mine;

The soul of the father

As well as the soul of the son is Mine;

The soul who sins shall die.

And does what is lawful and right;

6If he has not eaten on the mountains,

Nor lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel,

Nor defiled his neighbor’s wife,

Nor approached a woman during her impurity;

7If he has not oppressed anyone,

But has restored to the debtor his pledge;

Has robbed no one by violence,

But has given his bread to the hungry

And covered the naked with clothing;

8If he has not exacted usury

Nor taken any increase,

But has withdrawn his hand from iniquity

And executed true judgment between man and man;

9If he has walked in My statutes

And kept My judgments faithfully—

He is just;

He shall surely live!”

Says the Lord GOD.

Or a shedder of blood,

Who does any of these things

11And does none of those duties,

But has eaten on the mountains

Or defiled his neighbor’s wife;

12If he has oppressed the poor and needy,

Robbed by violence,

Not restored the pledge,

Lifted his eyes to the idols,

Or committed abomination;

13If he has exacted usury

Or taken increase—

Shall he then live?

He shall not live!

If he has done any of these abominations,

He shall surely die;

His blood shall be upon him.

Who sees all the sins which his father has done,

And considers but does not do likewise;

15Who has not eaten on the mountains,

Nor lifted his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel,

Nor defiled his neighbor’s wife;

16Has not oppressed anyone,

Nor withheld a pledge,

Nor robbed by violence,

But has given his bread to the hungry

And covered the naked with clothing;

17Who has withdrawn his hand from the poor

And not received usury or increase,

But has executed My judgments

And walked in My statutes—

He shall not die for the iniquity of his father;

He shall surely live!

18“As for his father,

Because he cruelly oppressed,

Robbed his brother by violence,

And did what is not good among his people,

Behold, he shall die for his iniquity.

Turn and Live

20“The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

21“But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die.

22“None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live.

24“But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? All the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty and the sin which he has committed, because of them he shall die.

26“When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity, and dies in it, it is because of the iniquity which he has done that he dies.

27“Again, when a wicked man turns away from the wickedness which he committed, and does what is lawful and right, he preserves himself alive.

28“Because he considers and turns away from all the transgressions which he committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die.

29“Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ O house of Israel, is it not My ways which are fair, and your ways which are not fair?

30“Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways,” says the Lord GOD. “Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin.

31“Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel?

Israel Degraded

‘What is your mother? A lioness:

She lay down among the lions;

Among the young lions she nourished her cubs.

3She brought up one of her cubs,

And he became a young lion;

He learned to catch prey,

And he devoured men.

4The nations also heard of him;

He was trapped in their pit,

And they brought him with chains to the land of Egypt.

5‘When she saw that she waited, that her hope was lost,

She took another of her cubs and made him a young lion.

6He roved among the lions,

And became a young lion;

He learned to catch prey;

He devoured men.

7He knew their desolate places,

And laid waste their cities;

The land with its fullness was desolated

By the noise of his roaring.

8Then the nations set against him from the provinces on every side,

And spread their net over him;

He was trapped in their pit.

9They put him in a cage with chains,

And brought him to the king of Babylon;

They brought him in nets,

That his voice should no longer be heard on the mountains of Israel.

10‘Your mother was like a vine in your bloodline,

Planted by the waters,

Fruitful and full of branches

Because of many waters.

11She had strong branches for scepters of rulers.

She towered in stature above the thick branches,

And was seen in her height amid the dense foliage.

12But she was plucked up in fury,

She was cast down to the ground,

And the east wind dried her fruit.

Her strong branches were broken and withered;

The fire consumed them.

13And now she is planted in the wilderness,

In a dry and thirsty land.

And devoured her fruit,

So that she has no strong branch—a scepter for ruling.’ ”

This is a lamentation, and has become a lamentation.

The Rebellions of Israel

2Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

3“Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Have you come to inquire of Me? As I live,” says the Lord GOD, “I will not be inquired of by you.” ’

4“Will you judge them, son of man, will you judge them? Then make known to them the abominations of their fathers.

5“Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “On the day when I chose Israel and raised My hand in an oath to the descendants of the house of Jacob, and made Myself known to them in the land of Egypt, I raised My hand in an oath to them, saying, ‘I am the LORD your God.’

6“On that day I raised My hand in an oath to them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, ‘flowing with milk and honey,’ the glory of all lands.

7“Then I said to them, ‘Each of you, throw away the abominations which are before his eyes, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.’

8“But they rebelled against Me and would not obey Me. They did not all cast away the abominations which were before their eyes, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I said, ‘I will pour out My fury on them and fulfill My anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.’

9“But I acted for My name’s sake, that it should not be profaned before the Gentiles among whom they were, in whose sight I had made Myself known to them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt.

10“Therefore I made them go out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness.

11“And I gave them My statutes and showed them My judgments, ‘which, if a man does, he shall live by them.’

12“Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them.

13“Yet the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness; they did not walk in My statutes; they despised My judgments, ‘which, if a man does, he shall live by them’; and they greatly defiled My Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out My fury on them in the wilderness, to consume them.

14“But I acted for My name’s sake, that it should not be profaned before the Gentiles, in whose sight I had brought them out.

15“So I also raised My hand in an oath to them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, ‘flowing with milk and honey,’ the glory of all lands,

16“because they despised My judgments and did not walk in My statutes, but profaned My Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols.

17“Nevertheless My eye spared them from destruction. I did not make an end of them in the wilderness.

18“But I said to their children in the wilderness, ‘Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols.

19‘I am the LORD your God: Walk in My statutes, keep My judgments, and do them;

20‘hallow My Sabbaths, and they will be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God.’

21“Notwithstanding, the children rebelled against Me; they did not walk in My statutes, and were not careful to observe My judgments, ‘which, if a man does, he shall live by them’; but they profaned My Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out My fury on them and fulfill My anger against them in the wilderness.

22“Nevertheless I withdrew My hand and acted for My name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the Gentiles, in whose sight I had brought them out.

23“Also I raised My hand in an oath to those in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the Gentiles and disperse them throughout the countries,

24“because they had not executed My judgments, but had despised My statutes, profaned My Sabbaths, and their eyes were fixed on their fathers’ idols.

25“Therefore I also gave them up to statutes that were not good, and judgments by which they could not live;

26“and I pronounced them unclean because of their ritual gifts, in that they caused all their firstborn to pass through the fire, that I might make them desolate and that they might know that I am the LORD.” ’

28“When I brought them into the land concerning which I had raised My hand in an oath to give them, and they saw all the high hills and all the thick trees, there they offered their sacrifices and provoked Me with their offerings. There they also sent up their sweet aroma and poured out their drink offerings.

29“Then I said to them, ‘What is this high place to which you go?’ So its name is called Bamah to this day.” ’

30“Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Are you defiling yourselves in the manner of your fathers, and committing harlotry according to their abominations?

32“What you have in your mind shall never be, when you say, ‘We will be like the Gentiles, like the families in other countries, serving wood and stone.’

God Will Restore Israel

33“As I live,” says the Lord GOD, “surely with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out, I will rule over you.

35“And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will plead My case with you face to face.

36“Just as I pleaded My case with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will plead My case with you,” says the Lord GOD.

37“I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant;

38“I will purge the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out of the country where they dwell, but they shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

39“As for you, O house of Israel,” thus says the Lord GOD: “Go, serve every one of you his idols—and hereafter—if you will not obey Me; but profane My holy name no more with your gifts and your idols.

40“For on My holy mountain, on the mountain height of Israel,” says the Lord GOD, “there all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, shall serve Me; there I will accept them, and there I will require your offerings and the firstfruits of your sacrifices, together with all your holy things.

41“I will accept you as a sweet aroma when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered; and I will be hallowed in you before the Gentiles.

42“Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for which I raised My hand in an oath to give to your fathers.

43“And there you shall remember your ways and all your doings with which you were defiled; and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight because of all the evils that you have committed.

44“Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I have dealt with you for My name’s sake, not according to your wicked ways nor according to your corrupt doings, O house of Israel,” says the Lord GOD.’ ”

Fire in the Forest

46“Son of man, set your face toward the south; preach against the south and prophesy against the forest land, the South,

47“and say to the forest of the South, ‘Hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every green tree and every dry tree in you; the blazing flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be scorched by it.

48“All flesh shall see that I, the LORD, have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.” ’ ”

49Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! They say of me, ‘Does he not speak parables?’ ”

Babylon, the Sword of God

2“Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, preach against the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel;

3“and say to the land of Israel, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Behold, I am against you, and I will draw My sword out of its sheath and cut off both righteous and wicked from you.

4“Because I will cut off both righteous and wicked from you, therefore My sword shall go out of its sheath against all flesh from south to north,

5“that all flesh may know that I, the LORD, have drawn My sword out of its sheath; it shall not return anymore.” ’

7“And it shall be when they say to you, ‘Why are you sighing?’ that you shall answer, ‘Because of the news; when it comes, every heart will melt, all hands will be feeble, every spirit will faint, and all knees will be weak as water. Behold, it is coming and shall be brought to pass,’ says the Lord GOD.”

9“Son of man, prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the LORD!’ Say:

‘A sword, a sword is sharpened

And also polished!

10Sharpened to make a dreadful slaughter,

Polished to flash like lightning!

Should we then make mirth?

It despises the scepter of My son,

As it does all wood.

11And He has given it to be polished,

That it may be handled;

This sword is sharpened, and it is polished

To be given into the hand of the slayer.’

12“Cry and wail, son of man;

For it will be against My people,

Against all the princes of Israel.

Terrors including the sword will be against My people;

Therefore strike your thigh.

13“Because it is a testing,

And what if the sword despises even the scepter?

The scepter shall be no more,”

says the Lord GOD.

14“You therefore, son of man, prophesy,

And strike your hands together.

The third time let the sword do double damage.

It is the sword that slays,

The sword that slays the great men,

That enters their private chambers.

15I have set the point of the sword against all their gates,

That the heart may melt and many may stumble.

Ah! It is made bright;

It is grasped for slaughter:

16“Swords at the ready!

Thrust right!

Set your blade!

Thrust left—

Wherever your edge is ordered!

17“I also will beat My fists together,

And I will cause My fury to rest;

I, the LORD, have spoken.”

19“And son of man, appoint for yourself two ways for the sword of the king of Babylon to go; both of them shall go from the same land. Make a sign; put it at the head of the road to the city.

20“Appoint a road for the sword to go to Rabbah of the Ammonites, and to Judah, into fortified Jerusalem.

21“For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the road, at the fork of the two roads, to use divination: he shakes the arrows, he consults the images, he looks at the liver.

22“In his right hand is the divination for Jerusalem: to set up battering rams, to call for a slaughter, to lift the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to heap up a siege mound, and to build a wall.

23“And it will be to them like a false divination in the eyes of those who have sworn oaths with them; but he will bring their iniquity to remembrance, that they may be taken.

24“Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Because you have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your doings your sins appear—because you have come to remembrance, you shall be taken in hand.

25‘Now to you, O profane, wicked prince of Israel, whose day has come, whose iniquity shall end,

26‘thus says the Lord GOD:

“Remove the turban, and take off the crown;

Nothing shall remain the same.

Exalt the humble, and humble the exalted.

27Overthrown, overthrown,

I will make it overthrown!

It shall be no longer,

Until He comes whose right it is,

And I will give it to Him.” ’

A Sword Against the Ammonites

28“And you, son of man, prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD concerning the Ammonites and concerning their reproach,’ and say:

‘A sword, a sword is drawn,

Polished for slaughter,

For consuming, for flashing—

29While they see false visions for you,

While they divine a lie to you,

To bring you on the necks of the wicked, the slain

Whose day has come,

Whose iniquity shall end.

30‘Return it to its sheath.

I will judge you

In the place where you were created,

In the land of your nativity.

31I will pour out My indignation on you;

I will blow against you with the fire of My wrath,

And deliver you into the hands of brutal men who are skillful to destroy.

32You shall be fuel for the fire;

Your blood shall be in the midst of the land.

You shall not be remembered,

For I the LORD have spoken.’ ”

Sins of Jerusalem

2“Now, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Yes, show her all her abominations!

3“Then say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “The city sheds blood in her own midst, that her time may come; and she makes idols within herself to defile herself.

4“You have become guilty by the blood which you have shed, and have defiled yourself with the idols which you have made. You have caused your days to draw near, and have come to the end of your years; therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mockery to all countries.

5“Those near and those far from you will mock you as infamous and full of tumult.

7“In you they have made light of father and mother; in your midst they have oppressed the stranger; in you they have mistreated the fatherless and the widow.

8“You have despised My holy things and profaned My Sabbaths.

10“In you men uncover their fathers’ nakedness; in you they violate women who are set apart during their impurity.

11“One commits abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; and another in you violates his sister, his father’s daughter.

14“Can your heart endure, or can your hands remain strong, in the days when I shall deal with you? I, the LORD, have spoken, and will do it.

15“I will scatter you among the nations, disperse you throughout the countries, and remove your filthiness completely from you.

16“You shall defile yourself in the sight of the nations; then you shall know that I am the LORD.” ’ ”

Israel in the Furnace

17The word of the LORD came to me, saying,

18“Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me; they are all bronze, tin, iron, and lead, in the midst of a furnace; they have become dross from silver.

19“Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Because you have all become dross, therefore behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.

20‘As men gather silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into the midst of a furnace, to blow fire on it, to melt it; so I will gather you in My anger and in My fury, and I will leave you there and melt you.

21‘Yes, I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and you shall be melted in its midst.

22‘As silver is melted in the midst of a furnace, so shall you be melted in its midst; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have poured out My fury on you.’ ”

Israel’s Wicked Leaders

24“Son of man, say to her: ‘You are a land that is not cleansed or rained on in the day of indignation.’

25“The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured people; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst.

26“Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.

27“Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, to shed blood, to destroy people, and to get dishonest gain.

28“Her prophets plastered them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions, and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ when the LORD had not spoken.

29“The people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery, and mistreated the poor and needy; and they wrongfully oppress the stranger.

30“So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.

31“Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord GOD.

Two Harlot Sisters

2“Son of man, there were two women,

The daughters of one mother.

3They committed harlotry in Egypt,

They committed harlotry in their youth;

Their breasts were there embraced,

Their virgin bosom was there pressed.

4Their names: Oholah the elder and Oholibah her sister;

They were Mine,

And they bore sons and daughters.

As for their names,

Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem is Oholibah.

The Older Sister, Samaria

And she lusted for her lovers, the neighboring Assyrians,

6Who were clothed in purple,

Captains and rulers,

All of them desirable young men,

Horsemen riding on horses.

7Thus she committed her harlotry with them,

All of them choice men of Assyria;

And with all for whom she lusted,

With all their idols, she defiled herself.

8She has never given up her harlotry brought from Egypt,

For in her youth they had lain with her,

Pressed her virgin bosom,

And poured out their immorality upon her.

9“Therefore I have delivered her

Into the hand of her lovers,

Into the hand of the Assyrians,

For whom she lusted.

10They uncovered her nakedness,

Took away her sons and daughters,

And slew her with the sword;

She became a byword among women,

For they had executed judgment on her.

The Younger Sister, Jerusalem

11“Now although her sister Oholibah saw this, she became more corrupt in her lust than she, and in her harlotry more corrupt than her sister’s harlotry.

12“She lusted for the neighboring Assyrians,

Captains and rulers,

Clothed most gorgeously,

Horsemen riding on horses,

All of them desirable young men.

13Then I saw that she was defiled;

Both took the same way.

She looked at men portrayed on the wall,

Images of Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion,

15Girded with belts around their waists,

Flowing turbans on their heads,

All of them looking like captains,

In the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea,

The land of their nativity.

16As soon as her eyes saw them,

She lusted for them

And sent messengers to them in Chaldea.

17“Then the Babylonians came to her, into the bed of love,

And they defiled her with their immorality;

So she was defiled by them, and alienated herself from them.

18She revealed her harlotry and uncovered her nakedness.

Then I alienated Myself from her,

As I had alienated Myself from her sister.

19“Yet she multiplied her harlotry

In calling to remembrance the days of her youth,

When she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.

20For she lusted for her paramours,

Whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys,

And whose issue is like the issue of horses.

21Thus you called to remembrance the lewdness of your youth,

When the Egyptians pressed your bosom

Because of your youthful breasts.

Judgment on Jerusalem

‘Behold, I will stir up your lovers against you,

From whom you have alienated yourself,

And I will bring them against you from every side:

23The Babylonians,

All the Chaldeans,

Pekod, Shoa, Koa,

All the Assyrians with them,

All of them desirable young men,

Governors and rulers,

Captains and men of renown,

All of them riding on horses.

24And they shall come against you

With chariots, wagons, and war-horses,

With a horde of people.

They shall array against you

Buckler, shield, and helmet all around.

‘I will delegate judgment to them,

And they shall judge you according to their judgments.

25I will set My jealousy against you,

And they shall deal furiously with you;

They shall remove your nose and your ears,

And your remnant shall fall by the sword;

They shall take your sons and your daughters,

And your remnant shall be devoured by fire.

26They shall also strip you of your clothes

And take away your beautiful jewelry.

27‘Thus I will make you cease your lewdness and your harlotry

Brought from the land of Egypt,

So that you will not lift your eyes to them,

Nor remember Egypt anymore.’

28“For thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Surely I will deliver you into the hand of those you hate, into the hand of those from whom you alienated yourself.

29‘They will deal hatefully with you, take away all you have worked for, and leave you naked and bare. The nakedness of your harlotry shall be uncovered, both your lewdness and your harlotry.

30‘I will do these things to you because you have gone as a harlot after the Gentiles, because you have become defiled by their idols.

31‘You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore I will put her cup in your hand.’

32“Thus says the Lord GOD:

‘You shall drink of your sister’s cup,

The deep and wide one;

You shall be laughed to scorn

And held in derision;

It contains much.

33You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow,

The cup of horror and desolation,

The cup of your sister Samaria.

34You shall drink and drain it,

You shall break its shards,

And tear at your own breasts;

For I have spoken,’

Says the Lord GOD.

‘Because you have forgotten Me and cast Me behind your back,

Therefore you shall bear the penalty

Of your lewdness and your harlotry.’ ”

Both Sisters Judged

37“For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols, and even sacrificed their sons whom they bore to Me, passing them through the fire, to devour them.

38“Moreover they have done this to Me: They have defiled My sanctuary on the same day and profaned My Sabbaths.

39“For after they had slain their children for their idols, on the same day they came into My sanctuary to profane it; and indeed thus they have done in the midst of My house.

40“Furthermore you sent for men to come from afar, to whom a messenger was sent; and there they came. And you washed yourself for them, painted your eyes, and adorned yourself with ornaments.

41“You sat on a stately couch, with a table prepared before it, on which you had set My incense and My oil.

42“The sound of a carefree multitude was with her, and Sabeans were brought from the wilderness with men of the common sort, who put bracelets on their wrists and beautiful crowns on their heads.

43“Then I said concerning her who had grown old in adulteries, ‘Will they commit harlotry with her now, and she with them?’

44“Yet they went in to her, as men go in to a woman who plays the harlot; thus they went in to Oholah and Oholibah, the lewd women.

45“But righteous men will judge them after the manner of adulteresses, and after the manner of women who shed blood, because they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands.

46“For thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Bring up an assembly against them, give them up to trouble and plunder.

47‘The assembly shall stone them with stones and execute them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn their houses with fire.

48‘Thus I will cause lewdness to cease from the land, that all women may be taught not to practice your lewdness.

49‘They shall repay you for your lewdness, and you shall pay for your idolatrous sins. Then you shall know that I am the Lord GOD.’ ”

Symbol of the Cooking Pot

2“Son of man, write down the name of the day, this very day—the king of Babylon started his siege against Jerusalem this very day.

3“And utter a parable to the rebellious house, and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD:

“Put on a pot, set it on,

And also pour water into it.

4Gather pieces of meat in it,

Every good piece,

The thigh and the shoulder.

Fill it with choice cuts;

5Take the choice of the flock.

Also pile fuel bones under it,

Make it boil well,

And let the cuts simmer in it.”

“Woe to the bloody city,

To the pot whose scum is in it,

And whose scum is not gone from it!

Bring it out piece by piece,

On which no lot has fallen.

7For her blood is in her midst;

She set it on top of a rock;

She did not pour it on the ground,

To cover it with dust.

8That it may raise up fury and take vengeance,

I have set her blood on top of a rock,

That it may not be covered.”

9‘Therefore thus says the Lord GOD:

“Woe to the bloody city!

I too will make the pyre great.

10Heap on the wood,

Kindle the fire;

Cook the meat well,

Mix in the spices,

And let the cuts be burned up.

11“Then set the pot empty on the coals,

That it may become hot and its bronze may burn,

That its filthiness may be melted in it,

That its scum may be consumed.

12She has grown weary with lies,

And her great scum has not gone from her.

Let her scum be in the fire!

13In your filthiness is lewdness.

Because I have cleansed you, and you were not cleansed,

You will not be cleansed of your filthiness anymore,

Till I have caused My fury to rest upon you.

It shall come to pass, and I will do it;

I will not hold back,

Nor will I spare,

Nor will I relent;

According to your ways

And according to your deeds

They will judge you,”

Says the Lord GOD.’ ”

The Prophet’s Wife Dies

17“Sigh in silence, make no mourning for the dead; bind your turban on your head, and put your sandals on your feet; do not cover your lips, and do not eat man’s bread of sorrow.”

18So I spoke to the people in the morning, and at evening my wife died; and the next morning I did as I was commanded.

19And the people said to me, “Will you not tell us what these things signify to us, that you behave so?”

20Then I answered them, “The word of the LORD came to me, saying,

21‘Speak to the house of Israel, “Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Behold, I will profane My sanctuary, your arrogant boast, the desire of your eyes, the delight of your soul; and your sons and daughters whom you left behind shall fall by the sword.

22‘And you shall do as I have done; you shall not cover your lips nor eat man’s bread of sorrow.

23‘Your turbans shall be on your heads and your sandals on your feet; you shall neither mourn nor weep, but you shall pine away in your iniquities and mourn with one another.

24‘Thus Ezekiel is a sign to you; according to all that he has done you shall do; and when this comes, you shall know that I am the Lord GOD.’ ”

26‘on that day one who escapes will come to you to let you hear it with your ears;

27‘on that day your mouth will be opened to him who has escaped; you shall speak and no longer be mute. Thus you will be a sign to them, and they shall know that I am the LORD.’ ”

Proclamation Against Ammon

2“Son of man, set your face against the Ammonites, and prophesy against them.

3“Say to the Ammonites, ‘Hear the word of the Lord GOD! Thus says the Lord GOD: “Because you said, ‘Aha!’ against My sanctuary when it was profaned, and against the land of Israel when it was desolate, and against the house of Judah when they went into captivity,

4“indeed, therefore, I will deliver you as a possession to the men of the East, and they shall set their encampments among you and make their dwellings among you; they shall eat your fruit, and they shall drink your milk.

5“And I will make Rabbah a stable for camels and Ammon a resting place for flocks. Then you shall know that I am the LORD.”

6‘For thus says the Lord GOD: “Because you clapped your hands, stamped your feet, and rejoiced in heart with all your disdain for the land of Israel,

7“indeed, therefore, I will stretch out My hand against you, and give you as plunder to the nations; I will cut you off from the peoples, and I will cause you to perish from the countries; I will destroy you, and you shall know that I am the LORD.”

Proclamation Against Moab

10“To the men of the East I will give it as a possession, together with the Ammonites, that the Ammonites may not be remembered among the nations.

11“And I will execute judgments upon Moab, and they shall know that I am the LORD.”

Proclamation Against Edom

13‘therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “I will also stretch out My hand against Edom, cut off man and beast from it, and make it desolate from Teman; Dedan shall fall by the sword.

14“I will lay My vengeance on Edom by the hand of My people Israel, that they may do in Edom according to My anger and according to My fury; and they shall know My vengeance,” says the Lord GOD.

Proclamation Against Philistia

16‘therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “I will stretch out My hand against the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethites and destroy the remnant of the seacoast.

17“I will execute great vengeance on them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I lay My vengeance upon them.” ’ ”

Proclamation Against Tyre

2“Son of man, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, ‘Aha! She is broken who was the gateway of the peoples; now she is turned over to me; I shall be filled; she is laid waste.’

3“Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against you, as the sea causes its waves to come up.

4‘And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers; I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock.

5‘It shall be a place for spreading nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken,’ says the Lord GOD; ‘it shall become plunder for the nations.

6‘Also her daughter villages which are in the fields shall be slain by the sword. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.’

8‘He will slay with the sword your daughter villages in the fields; he will heap up a siege mound against you, build a wall against you, and raise a defense against you.

9‘He will direct his battering rams against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers.

10‘Because of the abundance of his horses, their dust will cover you; your walls will shake at the noise of the horsemen, the wagons, and the chariots, when he enters your gates, as men enter a city that has been breached.

11‘With the hooves of his horses he will trample all your streets; he will slay your people by the sword, and your strong pillars will fall to the ground.

12‘They will plunder your riches and pillage your merchandise; they will break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses; they will lay your stones, your timber, and your soil in the midst of the water.

13‘I will put an end to the sound of your songs, and the sound of your harps shall be heard no more.

14‘I will make you like the top of a rock; you shall be a place for spreading nets, and you shall never be rebuilt, for I the LORD have spoken,’ says the Lord GOD.

16‘Then all the princes of the sea will come down from their thrones, lay aside their robes, and take off their embroidered garments; they will clothe themselves with trembling; they will sit on the ground, tremble every moment, and be astonished at you.

17‘And they will take up a lamentation for you, and say to you:

“How you have perished,

O one inhabited by seafaring men,

O renowned city,

Who was strong at sea,

She and her inhabitants,

Who caused their terror to be on all her inhabitants!

18Now the coastlands tremble on the day of your fall;

Yes, the coastlands by the sea are troubled at your departure.” ’

20‘then I will bring you down with those who descend into the Pit, to the people of old, and I will make you dwell in the lowest part of the earth, in places desolate from antiquity, with those who go down to the Pit, so that you may never be inhabited; and I shall establish glory in the land of the living.

21‘I will make you a terror, and you shall be no more; though you are sought for, you will never be found again,’ says the Lord GOD.”

Lamentation for Tyre

2“Now, son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyre,

3“and say to Tyre, ‘You who are situated at the entrance of the sea, merchant of the peoples on many coastlands, thus says the Lord GOD:

“O Tyre, you have said,

‘I am perfect in beauty.’

4Your borders are in the midst of the seas.

Your builders have perfected your beauty.

They took a cedar from Lebanon to make you a mast.

6Of oaks from Bashan they made your oars;

The company of Ashurites have inlaid your planks

With ivory from the coasts of Cyprus.

7Fine embroidered linen from Egypt was what you spread for your sail;

Blue and purple from the coasts of Elishah was what covered you.

Your wise men, O Tyre, were in you;

They became your pilots.

9Elders of Gebal and its wise men

Were in you to caulk your seams;

All the ships of the sea

And their oarsmen were in you

To market your merchandise.

10“Those from Persia, Lydia, and Libya

Were in your army as men of war;

They hung shield and helmet in you;

They gave splendor to you.

And the men of Gammad were in your towers;

They hung their shields on your walls all around;

They made your beauty perfect.

12“Tarshish was your merchant because of your many luxury goods. They gave you silver, iron, tin, and lead for your goods.

13“Javan, Tubal, and Meshech were your traders. They bartered human lives and vessels of bronze for your merchandise.

14“Those from the house of Togarmah traded for your wares with horses, steeds, and mules.

15“The men of Dedan were your traders; many isles were the market of your hand. They brought you ivory tusks and ebony as payment.

16“Syria was your merchant because of the abundance of goods you made. They gave you for your wares emeralds, purple, embroidery, fine linen, corals, and rubies.

17“Judah and the land of Israel were your traders. They traded for your merchandise wheat of Minnith, millet, honey, oil, and balm.

18“Damascus was your merchant because of the abundance of goods you made, because of your many luxury items, with the wine of Helbon and with white wool.

19“Dan and Javan paid for your wares, traversing back and forth. Wrought iron, cassia, and cane were among your merchandise.

20“Dedan was your merchant in saddlecloths for riding.

21“Arabia and all the princes of Kedar were your regular merchants. They traded with you in lambs, rams, and goats.

22“The merchants of Sheba and Raamah were your merchants. They traded for your wares the choicest spices, all kinds of precious stones, and gold.

23“Haran, Canneh, Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Assyria, and Chilmad were your merchants.

24“These were your merchants in choice items—in purple clothes, in embroidered garments, in chests of multicolored apparel, in sturdy woven cords, which were in your marketplace.

25“The ships of Tarshish were carriers of your merchandise.

You were filled and very glorious in the midst of the seas.

But the east wind broke you in the midst of the seas.

27“Your riches, wares, and merchandise,

Your mariners and pilots,

Your caulkers and merchandisers,

All your men of war who are in you,

And the entire company which is in your midst,

Will fall into the midst of the seas on the day of your ruin.

28The common-land will shake at the sound of the cry of your pilots.

29“All who handle the oar,

The mariners,

All the pilots of the sea

Will come down from their ships and stand on the shore.

30They will make their voice heard because of you;

They will cry bitterly and cast dust on their heads;

They will roll about in ashes;

31They will shave themselves completely bald because of you,

Gird themselves with sackcloth,

And weep for you

With bitterness of heart and bitter wailing.

32In their wailing for you

They will take up a lamentation,

And lament for you:

‘What city is like Tyre,

Destroyed in the midst of the sea?

33‘When your wares went out by sea,

You satisfied many people;

You enriched the kings of the earth

With your many luxury goods and your merchandise.

34But you are broken by the seas in the depths of the waters;

Your merchandise and the entire company will fall in your midst.

35All the inhabitants of the isles will be astonished at you;

Their kings will be greatly afraid,

And their countenance will be troubled.

36The merchants among the peoples will hiss at you;

You will become a horror, and be no more forever.’ ” ’ ”

Proclamation Against the King of Tyre

2“Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD:

“Because your heart is lifted up,

And you say, ‘I am a god,

I sit in the seat of gods,

In the midst of the seas,’

Yet you are a man, and not a god,

Though you set your heart as the heart of a god

3(Behold, you are wiser than Daniel!

There is no secret that can be hidden from you!

4With your wisdom and your understanding

You have gained riches for yourself,

And gathered gold and silver into your treasuries;

5By your great wisdom in trade you have increased your riches,

And your heart is lifted up because of your riches),”

6‘Therefore thus says the Lord GOD:

“Because you have set your heart as the heart of a god,

7Behold, therefore, I will bring strangers against you,

The most terrible of the nations;

And they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom,

And defile your splendor.

8They shall throw you down into the Pit,

And you shall die the death of the slain

In the midst of the seas.

9“Will you still say before him who slays you,

‘I am a god’?

But you shall be a man, and not a god,

In the hand of him who slays you.

10You shall die the death of the uncircumcised

By the hand of aliens;

For I have spoken,” says the Lord GOD.’ ”

Lamentation for the King of Tyre

12“Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD:

“You were the seal of perfection,

Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

13You were in Eden, the garden of God;

Every precious stone was your covering:

The sardius, topaz, and diamond,

Beryl, onyx, and jasper,

Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold.

The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes

Was prepared for you on the day you were created.

14“You were the anointed cherub who covers;

I established you;

You were on the holy mountain of God;

You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones.

15You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created,

Till iniquity was found in you.

You became filled with violence within,

And you sinned;

Therefore I cast you as a profane thing

Out of the mountain of God;

And I destroyed you, O covering cherub,

From the midst of the fiery stones.

17“Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty;

You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor;

I cast you to the ground,

I laid you before kings,

That they might gaze at you.

18“You defiled your sanctuaries

By the multitude of your iniquities,

By the iniquity of your trading;

Therefore I brought fire from your midst;

It devoured you,

And I turned you to ashes upon the earth

In the sight of all who saw you.

19All who knew you among the peoples are astonished at you;

You have become a horror,

And shall be no more forever.” ’ ”

Proclamation Against Sidon

21“Son of man, set your face toward Sidon, and prophesy against her,

22“and say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD:

“Behold, I am against you, O Sidon;

I will be glorified in your midst;

And they shall know that I am the LORD,

When I execute judgments in her and am hallowed in her.

23For I will send pestilence upon her,

And blood in her streets;

The wounded shall be judged in her midst

By the sword against her on every side;

Then they shall know that I am the LORD.

24“And there shall no longer be a pricking brier or a painful thorn for the house of Israel from among all who are around them, who despise them. Then they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.”

Israel’s Future Blessing

26“And they will dwell safely there, build houses, and plant vineyards; yes, they will dwell securely, when I execute judgments on all those around them who despise them. Then they shall know that I am the LORD their God.” ’ ”

Proclamation Against Egypt

2“Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt.

3“Speak, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD:

“Behold, I am against you,

O Pharaoh king of Egypt,

O great monster who lies in the midst of his rivers,

Who has said, ‘My River is my own;

I have made it for myself.’

4But I will put hooks in your jaws,

And cause the fish of your rivers to stick to your scales;

I will bring you up out of the midst of your rivers,

And all the fish in your rivers will stick to your scales.

You and all the fish of your rivers;

You shall fall on the open field;

You shall not be picked up or gathered.

I have given you as food

To the beasts of the field

And to the birds of the heavens.

Shall know that I am the LORD,

Because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel.

7When they took hold of you with the hand,

You broke and tore all their shoulders;

When they leaned on you,

You broke and made all their backs quiver.”

9“And the land of Egypt shall become desolate and waste; then they will know that I am the LORD, because he said, ‘The River is mine, and I have made it.’

10“Indeed, therefore, I am against you and against your rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, from Migdol to Syene, as far as the border of Ethiopia.

11“Neither foot of man shall pass through it nor foot of beast pass through it, and it shall be uninhabited forty years.

12“I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate; and among the cities that are laid waste, her cities shall be desolate forty years; and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries.”

14“I will bring back the captives of Egypt and cause them to return to the land of Pathros, to the land of their origin, and there they shall be a lowly kingdom.

15“It shall be the lowhest of kingdoms; it shall never again exalt itself above the nations, for I will diminish them so that they will not rule over the nations anymore.

16“No longer shall it be the confidence of the house of Israel, but will remind them of their iniquity when they turned to follow them. Then they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.” ’ ”

Babylonia Will Plunder Egypt

18“Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to labor strenuously against Tyre; every head was made bald, and every shoulder rubbed raw; yet neither he nor his army received wages from Tyre, for the labor which they expended on it.

19“Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Surely I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; he shall take away her wealth, carry off her spoil, and remove her pillage; and that will be the wages for his army.

20‘I have given him the land of Egypt for his labor, because they worked for Me,’ says the Lord GOD.

Egypt and Her Allies Will Fall

2“Son of man, prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD:

“Wail, ‘Woe to the day!’

3For the day is near,

Even the day of the LORD is near;

It will be a day of clouds, the time of the Gentiles.

4The sword shall come upon Egypt,

And great anguish shall be in Ethiopia,

When the slain fall in Egypt,

And they take away her wealth,

And her foundations are broken down.

5“Ethiopia, Libya, Lydia, all the mingled people, Chub, and the men of the lands who are allied, shall fall with them by the sword.”

6‘Thus says the LORD:

“Those who uphold Egypt shall fall,

And the pride of her power shall come down.

From Migdol to Syene

Those within her shall fall by the sword,”

Says the Lord GOD.

7“They shall be desolate in the midst of the desolate countries,

And her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are laid waste.

8Then they will know that I am the LORD,

When I have set a fire in Egypt

And all her helpers are destroyed.

9On that day messengers shall go forth from Me in ships

To make the careless Ethiopians afraid,

And great anguish shall come upon them,

As on the day of Egypt;

For indeed it is coming!”

10‘Thus says the Lord GOD:

“I will also make a multitude of Egypt to cease

By the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.

11He and his people with him, the most terrible of the nations,

Shall be brought to destroy the land;

They shall draw their swords against Egypt,

And fill the land with the slain.

12I will make the rivers dry,

And sell the land into the hand of the wicked;

I will make the land waste, and all that is in it,

By the hand of aliens.

I, the LORD, have spoken.”

“I will also destroy the idols,

And cause the images to cease from Noph;

There shall no longer be princes from the land of Egypt;

I will put fear in the land of Egypt.

14I will make Pathros desolate,

Set fire to Zoan,

And execute judgments in No.

15I will pour My fury on Sin, the strength of Egypt;

I will cut off the multitude of No,

16And set a fire in Egypt;

Sin shall have great pain,

No shall be split open,

And Noph shall be in distress daily.

17The young men of Aven and Pi Beseth shall fall by the sword,

And these cities shall go into captivity.

18At Tehaphnehes the day shall also be darkened,

When I break the yokes of Egypt there.

And her arrogant strength shall cease in her;

As for her, a cloud shall cover her,

And her daughters shall go into captivity.

19Thus I will execute judgments on Egypt,

Then they shall know that I am the LORD.” ’ ”

Proclamation Against Pharaoh

21“Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and see, it has not been bandaged for healing, nor a splint put on to bind it, to make it strong enough to hold a sword.

22“Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Surely I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, both the strong one and the one that was broken; and I will make the sword fall out of his hand.

23‘I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them throughout the countries.

24‘I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and put My sword in his hand; but I will break Pharaoh’s arms, and he will groan before him with the groanings of a mortally wounded man.

25‘Thus I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, but the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down; they shall know that I am the LORD, when I put My sword into the hand of the king of Babylon and he stretches it out against the land of Egypt.

26‘I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.’ ”

Egypt Cut Down Like a Great Tree

2“Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude:

‘Whom are you like in your greatness?

3Indeed Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon,

With fine branches that shaded the forest,

And of high stature;

And its top was among the thick boughs.

4The waters made it grow;

Underground waters gave it height,

With their rivers running around the place where it was planted,

And sent out rivulets to all the trees of the field.

5‘Therefore its height was exalted above all the trees of the field;

Its boughs were multiplied,

And its branches became long because of the abundance of water,

As it sent them out.

6All the birds of the heavens made their nests in its boughs;

Under its branches all the beasts of the field brought forth their young;

And in its shadow all great nations made their home.

7‘Thus it was beautiful in greatness and in the length of its branches,

Because its roots reached to abundant waters.

8The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it;

The fir trees were not like its boughs,

And the chestnut trees were not like its branches;

No tree in the garden of God was like it in beauty.

9I made it beautiful with a multitude of branches,

So that all the trees of Eden envied it,

That were in the garden of God.’

11‘therefore I will deliver it into the hand of the mighty one of the nations, and he shall surely deal with it; I have driven it out for its wickedness.

12‘And aliens, the most terrible of the nations, have cut it down and left it; its branches have fallen on the mountains and in all the valleys; its boughs lie broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the peoples of the earth have gone from under its shadow and left it.

13‘On its ruin will remain all the birds of the heavens,

And all the beasts of the field will come to its branches—

14So that no trees by the waters may ever again exalt themselves for their height, nor set their tops among the thick boughs, that no tree which drinks water may ever be high enough to reach up to them.

‘For they have all been delivered to death,

To the depths of the earth,

Among the children of men who go down to the Pit.’

16‘I made the nations shake at the sound of its fall, when I cast it down to hell together with those who descend into the Pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the depths of the earth.

17‘They also went down to hell with it, with those slain by the sword; and those who were its strong arm dwelt in its shadows among the nations.

18‘To which of the trees in Eden will you then be likened in glory and greatness? Yet you shall be brought down with the trees of Eden to the depths of the earth; you shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude,’ says the Lord GOD.”

Lamentation for Pharaoh and Egypt

2“Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say to him:

‘You are like a young lion among the nations,

And you are like a monster in the seas,

Bursting forth in your rivers,

Troubling the waters with your feet,

And fouling their rivers.

3‘Thus says the Lord GOD:

“I will therefore spread My net over you with a company of many people,

And they will draw you up in My net.

4Then I will leave you on the land;

I will cast you out on the open fields,

And cause to settle on you all the birds of the heavens.

And with you I will fill the beasts of the whole earth.

5I will lay your flesh on the mountains,

And fill the valleys with your carcass.

6“I will also water the land with the flow of your blood,

Even to the mountains;

And the riverbeds will be full of you.

7When I put out your light,

I will cover the heavens, and make its stars dark;

I will cover the sun with a cloud,

And the moon shall not give her light.

8All the bright lights of the heavens I will make dark over you,

And bring darkness upon your land,”

Says the Lord GOD.

9‘I will also trouble the hearts of many peoples, when I bring your destruction among the nations, into the countries which you have not known.

10‘Yes, I will make many peoples astonished at you, and their kings shall be horribly afraid of you when I brandish My sword before them; and they shall tremble every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of your fall.’

12‘By the swords of the mighty warriors, all of them the most terrible of the nations, I will cause your multitude to fall.

‘They shall plunder the pomp of Egypt,

And all its multitude shall be destroyed.

13Also I will destroy all its animals

From beside its great waters;

The foot of man shall muddy them no more,

Nor shall the hooves of animals muddy them.

14Then I will make their waters clear,

And make their rivers run like oil,’

Says the Lord GOD.

15‘When I make the land of Egypt desolate,

And the country is destitute of all that once filled it,

When I strike all who dwell in it,

Then they shall know that I am the LORD.

16‘This is the lamentation

With which they shall lament her;

The daughters of the nations shall lament her;

They shall lament for her, for Egypt,

And for all her multitude,’

Says the Lord GOD.”

Egypt and Others Consigned to the Pit

18“Son of man, wail over the multitude of Egypt,

And cast them down to the depths of the earth,

Her and the daughters of the famous nations,

With those who go down to the Pit:

19‘Whom do you surpass in beauty?

Go down, be placed with the uncircumcised.’

20“They shall fall in the midst of those slain by the sword;

She is delivered to the sword,

Drawing her and all her multitudes.

21The strong among the mighty

Shall speak to him out of the midst of hell

With those who help him:

‘They have gone down,

They lie with the uncircumcised, slain by the sword.’

22“Assyria is there, and all her company,

With their graves all around her,

All of them slain, fallen by the sword.

23Her graves are set in the recesses of the Pit,

And her company is all around her grave,

All of them slain, fallen by the sword,

Who caused terror in the land of the living.

24“There is Elam and all her multitude,

All around her grave,

All of them slain, fallen by the sword,

Who have gone down uncircumcised to the lower parts of the earth,

Who caused their terror in the land of the living;

Now they bear their shame with those who go down to the Pit.

25They have set her bed in the midst of the slain,

With all her multitude,

With her graves all around it,

All of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword;

Though their terror was caused

In the land of the living,

Yet they bear their shame

With those who go down to the Pit;

It was put in the midst of the slain.

26“There are Meshech and Tubal and all their multitudes,

With all their graves around it,

All of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword,

Though they caused their terror in the land of the living.

27They do not lie with the mighty

Who are fallen of the uncircumcised,

Who have gone down to hell with their weapons of war;

They have laid their swords under their heads,

But their iniquities will be on their bones,

Because of the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.

28Yes, you shall be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised,

And lie with those slain by the sword.

29“There is Edom,

Her kings and all her princes,

Who despite their might

Are laid beside those slain by the sword;

They shall lie with the uncircumcised,

And with those who go down to the Pit.

30There are the princes of the north,

All of them, and all the Sidonians,

Who have gone down with the slain

In shame at the terror which they caused by their might;

They lie uncircumcised with those slain by the sword,

And bear their shame with those who go down to the Pit.

31“Pharaoh will see them

And be comforted over all his multitude,

Pharaoh and all his army,

Slain by the sword,”

Says the Lord GOD.

32“For I have caused My terror in the land of the living;

And he shall be placed in the midst of the uncircumcised

With those slain by the sword,

Pharaoh and all his multitude,”

Says the Lord GOD.

The Watchman and His Message

2“Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their watchman,

3‘when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people,

4‘then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head.

5‘He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life.

6‘But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.’

8“When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you shall surely die!’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand.

9“Nevertheless if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.

10“Therefore you, O son of man, say to the house of Israel: ‘Thus you say, “If our transgressions and our sins lie upon us, and we pine away in them, how can we then live?” ’

11“Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’

The Fairness of God’s Judgment

12“Therefore you, O son of man, say to the children of your people: ‘The righteousness of the righteous man shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression; as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall because of it in the day that he turns from his wickedness; nor shall the righteous be able to live because of his righteousness in the day that he sins.’

13“When I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, but he trusts in his own righteousness and commits iniquity, none of his righteous works shall be remembered; but because of the iniquity that he has committed, he shall die.

14“Again, when I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ if he turns from his sin and does what is lawful and right,

15“if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has stolen, and walks in the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die.

16“None of his sins which he has committed shall be remembered against him; he has done what is lawful and right; he shall surely live.

17“Yet the children of your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ But it is their way which is not fair!

18“When the righteous turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he shall die because of it.

19“But when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what is lawful and right, he shall live because of it.

The Fall of Jerusalem

21And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month, that one who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me and said, “The city has been captured!”

22Now the hand of the LORD had been upon me the evening before the man came who had escaped. And He had opened my mouth; so when he came to me in the morning, my mouth was opened, and I was no longer mute.

The Cause of Judah’s Ruin

23Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying:

24“Son of man, they who inhabit those ruins in the land of Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was only one, and he inherited the land. But we are many; the land has been given to us as a possession.’

25“Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “You eat meat with blood, you lift up your eyes toward your idols, and shed blood. Should you then possess the land?

26“You rely on your sword, you commit abominations, and you defile one another’s wives. Should you then possess the land?” ’

27“Say thus to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “As I live, surely those who are in the ruins shall fall by the sword, and the one who is in the open field I will give to the beasts to be devoured, and those who are in the strongholds and caves shall die of the pestilence.

28“For I will make the land most desolate, her arrogant strength shall cease, and the mountains of Israel shall be so desolate that no one will pass through.

29“Then they shall know that I am the LORD, when I have made the land most desolate because of all their abominations which they have committed.” ’

Hearing and Not Doing

31“So they come to you as people do, they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain.

32“Indeed you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they do not do them.

33“And when this comes to pass—surely it will come—then they will know that a prophet has been among them.”

Irresponsible Shepherds

2“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD to the shepherds: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks?

3“You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fathngs, but you do not feed the flock.

4“The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them.

5“So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered.

6“My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill; yes, My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and no one was seeking or searching for them.”

7‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:

8“As I live,” says the Lord GOD, “surely because My flock became a prey, and My flock became food for every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, nor did My shepherds search for My flock, but the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock”—

9‘therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the LORD!

10‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require My flock at their hand; I will cause them to cease feeding the sheep, and the shepherds shall feed themselves no more; for I will deliver My flock from their mouths, that they may no longer be food for them.”

God, the True Shepherd

12“As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so will I seek out My sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day.

13“And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land; I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the valleys and in all the inhabited places of the country.

14“I will feed them in good pasture, and their fold shall be on the high mountains of Israel. There they shall lie down in a good fold and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.

15“I will feed My flock, and I will make them lie down,” says the Lord GOD.

16“I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong, and feed them in judgment.”

17‘And as for you, O My flock, thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I shall judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats.

18“Is it too little for you to have eaten up the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture—and to have drunk of the clear waters, that you must foul the residue with your feet?

19“And as for My flock, they eat what you have trampled with your feet, and they drink what you have fouled with your feet.”

20‘Therefore thus says the Lord GOD to them: “Behold, I Myself will judge between the fat and the lean sheep.

21“Because you have pushed with side and shoulder, butted all the weak ones with your horns, and scattered them abroad,

22“therefore I will save My flock, and they shall no longer be a prey; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.

24“And I, the LORD, will be their God, and My servant David a prince among them; I, the LORD, have spoken.

25“I will make a covenant of peace with them, and cause wild beasts to cease from the land; and they will dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods.

26“I will make them and the places all around My hill a blessing; and I will cause showers to come down in their season; there shall be showers of blessing.

27“Then the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase. They shall be safe in their land; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bands of their yoke and delivered them from the hand of those who enslaved them.

28“And they shall no longer be a prey for the nations, nor shall beasts of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and no one shall make them afraid.

29“I will raise up for them a garden of renown, and they shall no longer be consumed with hunger in the land, nor bear the shame of the Gentiles anymore.

30“Thus they shall know that I, the LORD their God, am with them, and they, the house of Israel, are My people,” says the Lord GOD.’ ”

Judgment on Mount Seir

2“Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir and prophesy against it,

3“and say to it, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD:

“Behold, O Mount Seir, I am against you;

I will stretch out My hand against you,

And make you most desolate;

4I shall lay your cities waste,

And you shall be desolate.

Then you shall know that I am the LORD.

5“Because you have had an ancient hatred, and have shed the blood of the children of Israel by the power of the sword at the time of their calamity, when their iniquity came to an end,

6“therefore, as I live,” says the Lord GOD, “I will prepare you for blood, and blood shall pursue you; since you have not hated blood, therefore blood shall pursue you.

7“Thus I will make Mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from it the one who leaves and the one who returns.

8“And I will fill its mountains with the slain; on your hills and in your valleys and in all your ravines those who are slain by the sword shall fall.

9“I will make you perpetually desolate, and your cities shall be uninhabited; then you shall know that I am the LORD.

10“Because you have said, ‘These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess them,’ although the LORD was there,

12“Then you shall know that I am the LORD. I have heard all your blasphemies which you have spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, ‘They are desolate; they are given to us to consume.’

13“Thus with your mouth you have boasted against Me and multiplied your words against Me; I have heard them.”

15“As you rejoiced because the inheritance of the house of Israel was desolate, so I will do to you; you shall be desolate, O Mount Seir, as well as all of Edom—all of it! Then they shall know that I am the LORD.” ’

Blessing on Israel

2‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Because the enemy has said of you, ‘Aha! The ancient heights have become our possession,’ ” ’

3“therefore prophesy, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Because they made you desolate and swallowed you up on every side, so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations, and you are taken up by the lips of talkers and slandered by the people”—

4‘therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD! Thus says the Lord GOD to the mountains, the hills, the rivers, the valleys, the desolate wastes, and the cities that have been forsaken, which became plunder and mockery to the rest of the nations all around—

5‘therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Surely I have spoken in My burning jealousy against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, who gave My land to themselves as a possession, with wholehearted joy and spiteful minds, in order to plunder its open country.” ’

6“Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and say to the mountains, the hills, the rivers, and the valleys, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I have spoken in My jealousy and My fury, because you have borne the shame of the nations.”

7‘Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “I have raised My hand in an oath that surely the nations that are around you shall bear their own shame.

9“For indeed I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown.

10“I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, all of it; and the cities shall be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt.

11“I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bear young; I will make you inhabited as in former times, and do better for you than at your beginnings. Then you shall know that I am the LORD.

12“Yes, I will cause men to walk on you, My people Israel; they shall take possession of you, and you shall be their inheritance; no more shall you bereave them of children.”

13‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Because they say to you, ‘You devour men and bereave your nation of children,’

14“therefore you shall devour men no more, nor bereave your nation anymore,” says the Lord GOD.

15“Nor will I let you hear the taunts of the nations anymore, nor bear the reproach of the peoples anymore, nor shall you cause your nation to stumble anymore,” says the Lord GOD.’ ”

The Renewal of Israel

17“Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own ways and deeds; to Me their way was like the uncleanness of a woman in her customary impurity.

18“Therefore I poured out My fury on them for the blood they had shed on the land, and for their idols with which they had defiled it.

19“So I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the countries; I judged them according to their ways and their deeds.

20“When they came to the nations, wherever they went, they profaned My holy name—when they said of them, ‘These are the people of the LORD, and yet they have gone out of His land.’

21“But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations wherever they went.

23“And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD,” says the Lord GOD, “when I am hallowed in you before their eyes.

24“For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.

28“Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.

29“I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. I will call for the grain and multiply it, and bring no famine upon you.

30“And I will multiply the fruit of your trees and the increase of your fields, so that you need never again bear the reproach of famine among the nations.

32“Not for your sake do I do this,” says the Lord GOD, “let it be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel!”

33‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will also enable you to dwell in the cities, and the ruins shall be rebuilt.

34“The desolate land shall be tilled instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass by.

36“Then the nations which are left all around you shall know that I, the LORD, have rebuilt the ruined places and planted what was desolate. I, the LORD, have spoken it, and I will do it.”

38“Like a flock offered as holy sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem on its feast days, so shall the ruined cities be filled with flocks of men. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.” ’ ”

The Dry Bones Live

2Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry.

5‘Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: “Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.

6“I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the LORD.” ’ ”

7So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a ratthng; and the bones came together, bone to bone.

8Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them.

10So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.

11Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!’

12“Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.

13“Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves.

One Kingdom, One King

16“As for you, son of man, take a stick for yourself and write on it: ‘For Judah and for the children of Israel, his companions.’ Then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions.’

17“Then join them one to another for yourself into one stick, and they will become one in your hand.

18“And when the children of your people speak to you, saying, ‘Will you not show us what you mean by these?’—

19“say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Surely I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will join them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand.” ’

20“And the sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes.

21“Then say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land;

22“and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all; they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again.

23“They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. Then they shall be My people, and I will be their God.

25“Then they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob My servant, where your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell there, they, their children, and their children’s children, forever; and My servant David shall be their prince forever.

28“The nations also will know that I, the LORD, sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.” ’ ”

Gog and Allies Attack Israel

2“Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him,

4“I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out, with all your army, horses, and horsemen, all splendidly clothed, a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords.

5“Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya are with them, all of them with shield and helmet;

6“Gomer and all its troops; the house of Togarmah from the far north and all its troops—many people are with you.

7“Prepare yourself and be ready, you and all your companies that are gathered about you; and be a guard for them.

8“After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely.

9“You will ascend, coming like a storm, covering the land like a cloud, you and all your troops and many peoples with you.”

10‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “On that day it shall come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind, and you will make an evil plan:

11“You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates’—

13“Sheba, Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish, and all their young lions will say to you, ‘Have you come to take plunder? Have you gathered your army to take booty, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great plunder?’ ” ’

15“Then you will come from your place out of the far north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army.

16“You will come up against My people Israel like a cloud, to cover the land. It will be in the latter days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me, when I am hallowed in you, O Gog, before their eyes.”

17‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Are you he of whom I have spoken in former days by My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied for years in those days that I would bring you against them?

Judgment on Gog

18“And it will come to pass at the same time, when Gog comes against the land of Israel,” says the Lord GOD, “that My fury will show in My face.

20‘so that the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all creeping things that creep on the earth, and all men who are on the face of the earth shall shake at My presence. The mountains shall be thrown down, the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.’

21“I will call for a sword against Gog throughout all My mountains,” says the Lord GOD. “Every man’s sword will be against his brother.

22“And I will bring him to judgment with pestilence and bloodshed; I will rain down on him, on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.

23“Thus I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.” ’

Gog’s Armies Destroyed

2“and I will turn you around and lead you on, bringing you up from the far north, and bring you against the mountains of Israel.

3“Then I will knock the bow out of your left hand, and cause the arrows to fall out of your right hand.

4“You shall fall upon the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the peoples who are with you; I will give you to birds of prey of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.

5“You shall fall on the open field; for I have spoken,” says the Lord GOD.

6“And I will send fire on Magog and on those who live in security in the coastlands. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.

7“So I will make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel, and I will not let them profane My holy name anymore. Then the nations shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.

8“Surely it is coming, and it shall be done,” says the Lord GOD. “This is the day of which I have spoken.

10“They will not take wood from the field nor cut down any from the forests, because they will make fires with the weapons; and they will plunder those who plundered them, and pillage those who pillaged them,” says the Lord GOD.

The Burial of Gog

11“It will come to pass in that day that I will give Gog a burial place there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea; and it will obstruct travelers, because there they will bury Gog and all his multitude. Therefore they will call it the Valley of Hamon Gog.

12“For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land.

13“Indeed all the people of the land will be burying, and they will gain renown for it on the day that I am glorified,” says the Lord GOD.

14“They will set apart men regularly employed, with the help of a search party, to pass through the land and bury those bodies remaining on the ground, in order to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make a search.

15“The search party will pass through the land; and when anyone sees a man’s bone, he shall set up a marker by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon Gog.

16“The name of the city will also be Hamonah. Thus they shall cleanse the land.” ’

A Triumphant Festival

“Assemble yourselves and come;

Gather together from all sides to My sacrificial meal

Which I am sacrificing for you,

A great sacrificial meal on the mountains of Israel,

That you may eat flesh and drink blood.

18You shall eat the flesh of the mighty,

Drink the blood of the princes of the earth,

Of rams and lambs,

Of goats and bulls,

All of them fathngs of Bashan.

19You shall eat fat till you are full,

And drink blood till you are drunk,

At My sacrificial meal

Which I am sacrificing for you.

20You shall be filled at My table

With horses and riders,

With mighty men

And with all the men of war,” says the Lord GOD.

Israel Restored to the Land

22“So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day forward.

24“According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I have dealt with them, and hidden My face from them.” ’

25“Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Now I will bring back the captives of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name—

26‘after they have borne their shame, and all their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, when they dwelt safely in their own land and no one made them afraid.

27‘When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and I am hallowed in them in the sight of many nations,

28‘then they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who sent them into captivity among the nations, but also brought them back to their land, and left none of them captive any longer.

29‘And I will not hide My face from them anymore; for I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,’ says the Lord GOD.”

A New City, a New Temple

4And the man said to me, “Son of man, look with your eyes and hear with your ears, and fix your mind on everything I show you; for you were brought here so that I might show them to you. Declare to the house of Israel everything you see.”

5Now there was a wall all around the outside of the temple. In the man’s hand was a measuring rod six cubits long, each being a cubit and a handbreadth; and he measured the width of the wall structure, one rod; and the height, one rod.

The Eastern Gateway of the Temple

6Then he went to the gateway which faced east; and he went up its stairs and measured the threshold of the gateway, which was one rod wide, and the other threshold was one rod wide.

7Each gate chamber was one rod long and one rod wide; between the gate chambers was a space of five cubits; and the threshold of the gateway by the vestibule of the inside gate was one rod.

8He also measured the vestibule of the inside gate, one rod.

9Then he measured the vestibule of the gateway, eight cubits; and the gateposts, two cubits. The vestibule of the gate was on the inside.

10In the eastern gateway were three gate chambers on one side and three on the other; the three were all the same size; also the gateposts were of the same size on this side and that side.

11He measured the width of the entrance to the gateway, ten cubits; and the length of the gate, thirteen cubits.

12There was a space in front of the gate chambers, one cubit on this side and one cubit on that side; the gate chambers were six cubits on this side and six cubits on that side.

13Then he measured the gateway from the roof of one gate chamber to the roof of the other; the width was twenty-five cubits, as door faces door.

14He measured the gateposts, sixty cubits high, and the court all around the gateway extended to the gatepost.

15From the front of the entrance gate to the front of the vestibule of the inner gate was fifty cubits.

16There were beveled window frames in the gate chambers and in their intervening archways on the inside of the gateway all around, and likewise in the vestibules. There were windows all around on the inside. And on each gatepost were palm trees.

The Outer Court

18The pavement was by the side of the gateways, corresponding to the length of the gateways; this was the lower pavement.

19Then he measured the width from the front of the lower gateway to the front of the inner court exterior, one hundred cubits toward the east and the north.

The Northern Gateway

20On the outer court was also a gateway facing north, and he measured its length and its width.

21Its gate chambers, three on this side and three on that side, its gateposts and its archways, had the same measurements as the first gate; its length was fifty cubits and its width twenty-five cubits.

22Its windows and those of its archways, and also its palm trees, had the same measurements as the gateway facing east; it was ascended by seven steps, and its archway was in front of it.

23A gate of the inner court was opposite the northern gateway, just as the eastern gateway; and he measured from gateway to gateway, one hundred cubits.

The Southern Gateway

24After that he brought me toward the south, and there a gateway was facing south; and he measured its gateposts and archways according to these same measurements.

25There were windows in it and in its archways all around like those windows; its length was fifty cubits and its width twenty-five cubits.

26Seven steps led up to it, and its archway was in front of them; and it had palm trees on its gateposts, one on this side and one on that side.

27There was also a gateway on the inner court, facing south; and he measured from gateway to gateway toward the south, one hundred cubits.

Gateways of the Inner Court

29Also its gate chambers, its gateposts, and its archways were according to these same measurements; there were windows in it and in its archways all around; it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.

30There were archways all around, twenty-five cubits long and five cubits wide.

31Its archways faced the outer court, palm trees were on its gateposts, and going up to it were eight steps.

32And he brought me into the inner court facing east; he measured the gateway according to these same measurements.

33Also its gate chambers, its gateposts, and its archways were according to these same measurements; and there were windows in it and in its archways all around; it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.

34Its archways faced the outer court, and palm trees were on its gateposts on this side and on that side; and going up to it were eight steps.

35Then he brought me to the north gateway and measured it according to these same measurements—

36also its gate chambers, its gateposts, and its archways. It had windows all around; its length was fifty cubits and its width twenty-five cubits.

37Its gateposts faced the outer court, palm trees were on its gateposts on this side and on that side, and going up to it were eight steps.

Where Sacrifices Were Prepared

38There was a chamber and its entrance by the gateposts of the gateway, where they washed the burnt offering.

39In the vestibule of the gateway were two tables on this side and two tables on that side, on which to slay the burnt offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering.

40At the outer side of the vestibule, as one goes up to the entrance of the northern gateway, were two tables; and on the other side of the vestibule of the gateway were two tables.

41Four tables were on this side and four tables on that side, by the side of the gateway, eight tables on which they slaughtered the sacrifices.

42There were also four tables of hewn stone for the burnt offering, one cubit and a half long, one cubit and a half wide, and one cubit high; on these they laid the instruments with which they slaughtered the burnt offering and the sacrifice.

43Inside were hooks, a handbreadth wide, fastened all around; and the flesh of the sacrifices was on the tables.

Chambers for Singers and Priests

44Outside the inner gate were the chambers for the singers in the inner court, one facing south at the side of the northern gateway, and the other facing north at the side of the southern gateway.

45Then he said to me, “This chamber which faces south is for the priests who have charge of the temple.

46“The chamber which faces north is for the priests who have charge of the altar; these are the sons of Zadok, from the sons of Levi, who come near the LORD to minister to Him.”

Dimensions of the Inner Court and Vestibule

47And he measured the court, one hundred cubits long and one hundred cubits wide, foursquare. The altar was in front of the temple.

48Then he brought me to the vestibule of the temple and measured the doorposts of the vestibule, five cubits on this side and five cubits on that side; and the width of the gateway was three cubits on this side and three cubits on that side.

49The length of the vestibule was twenty cubits, and the width eleven cubits; and by the steps which led up to it there were pillars by the doorposts, one on this side and another on that side.

Dimensions of the Sanctuary

1Then he brought me into the sanctuary and measured the doorposts, six cubits wide on one side and six cubits wide on the other side—the width of the tabernacle.

2The width of the entryway was ten cubits, and the side walls of the entrance were five cubits on this side and five cubits on the other side; and he measured its length, forty cubits, and its width, twenty cubits.

3Also he went inside and measured the doorposts, two cubits; and the entrance, six cubits high; and the width of the entrance, seven cubits.

4He measured the length, twenty cubits; and the width, twenty cubits, beyond the sanctuary; and he said to me, “This is the Most Holy Place.”

The Side Chambers on the Wall

6The side chambers were in three stories, one above the other, thirty chambers in each story; they rested on ledges which were for the side chambers all around, that they might be supported, but not fastened to the wall of the temple.

7As one went up from story to story, the side chambers became wider all around, because their supporting ledges in the wall of the temple ascended like steps; therefore the width of the structure increased as one went up from the lowest story to the highest by way of the middle one.

8I also saw an elevation all around the temple; it was the foundation of the side chambers, a full rod, that is, six cubits high.

9The thickness of the outer wall of the side chambers was five cubits, and so also the remaining terrace by the place of the side chambers of the temple.

10And between it and the wall chambers was a width of twenty cubits all around the temple on every side.

11The doors of the side chambers opened on the terrace, one door toward the north and another toward the south; and the width of the terrace was five cubits all around.

The Building at the Western End

12The building that faced the separating courtyard at its western end was seventy cubits wide; the wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, and its length ninety cubits.

Dimensions and Design of the Temple Area

13So he measured the temple, one hundred cubits long; and the separating courtyard with the building and its walls was one hundred cubits long;

14also the width of the eastern face of the temple, including the separating courtyard, was one hundred cubits.

15He measured the length of the building behind it, facing the separating courtyard, with its galleries on the one side and on the other side, one hundred cubits, as well as the inner temple and the porches of the court,

16their doorposts and the beveled window frames. And the galleries all around their three stories opposite the threshold were paneled with wood from the ground to the windows—the windows were covered—

17from the space above the door, even to the inner room, as well as outside, and on every wall all around, inside and outside, by measure.

18And it was made with cherubim and palm trees, a palm tree between cherub and cherub. Each cherub had two faces,

19so that the face of a man was toward a palm tree on one side, and the face of a young lion toward a palm tree on the other side; thus it was made throughout the temple all around.

20From the floor to the space above the door, and on the wall of the sanctuary, cherubim and palm trees were carved.

22The altar was of wood, three cubits high, and its length two cubits. Its corners, its length, and its sides were of wood; and he said to me, “This is the table that is before the LORD.”

23The temple and the sanctuary had two doors.

24The doors had two panels apiece, two folding panels: two panels for one door and two panels for the other door.

25Cherubim and palm trees were carved on the doors of the temple just as they were carved on the walls. A wooden canopy was on the front of the vestibule outside.

26There were beveled window frames and palm trees on one side and on the other, on the sides of the vestibule—also on the side chambers of the temple and on the canopies.

The Chambers for the Priests

2Facing the length, which was one hundred cubits (the width was fifty cubits), was the north door.

3Opposite the inner court of twenty cubits, and opposite the pavement of the outer court, was gallery against gallery in three stories.

4In front of the chambers, toward the inside, was a walk ten cubits wide, at a distance of one cubit; and their doors faced north.

5Now the upper chambers were shorter, because the galleries took away space from them more than from the lower and middle stories of the building.

6For they were in three stories and did not have pillars like the pillars of the courts; therefore the upper level was shortened more than the lower and middle levels from the ground up.

7And a wall which was outside ran parallel to the chambers, at the front of the chambers, toward the outer court; its length was fifty cubits.

8The length of the chambers toward the outer court was fifty cubits, whereas that facing the temple was one hundred cubits.

9At the lower chambers was the entrance on the east side, as one goes into them from the outer court.

10Also there were chambers in the thickness of the wall of the court toward the east, opposite the separating courtyard and opposite the building.

11There was a walk in front of them also, and their appearance was like the chambers which were toward the north; they were as long and as wide as the others, and all their exits and entrances were according to plan.

12And corresponding to the doors of the chambers that were facing south, as one enters them, there was a door in front of the walk, the way directly in front of the wall toward the east.

13Then he said to me, “The north chambers and the south chambers, which are opposite the separating courtyard, are the holy chambers where the priests who approach the LORD shall eat the most holy offerings. There they shall lay the most holy offerings—the grain offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering—for the place is holy.

14“When the priests enter them, they shall not go out of the holy chamber into the outer court; but there they shall leave their garments in which they minister, for they are holy. They shall put on other garments; then they may approach that which is for the people.”

Outer Dimensions of the Temple

15Now when he had finished measuring the inner temple, he brought me out through the gateway that faces toward the east, and measured it all around.

16He measured the east side with the measuring rod, five hundred rods by the measuring rod all around.

17He measured the north side, five hundred rods by the measuring rod all around.

18He measured the south side, five hundred rods by the measuring rod.

19He came around to the west side and measured five hundred rods by the measuring rod.

20He measured it on the four sides; it had a wall all around, five hundred cubits long and five hundred wide, to separate the holy areas from the common.

The Temple, the LORD’s Dwelling Place

2And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east. His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory.

3It was like the appearance of the vision which I saw—like the vision which I saw when I came to destroy the city. The visions were like the vision which I saw by the River Chebar; and I fell on my face.

4And the glory of the LORD came into the temple by way of the gate which faces toward the east.

5The Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the temple.

7And He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. No more shall the house of Israel defile My holy name, they nor their kings, by their harlotry or with the carcasses of their kings on their high places.

8“When they set their threshold by My threshold, and their doorpost by My doorpost, with a wall between them and Me, they defiled My holy name by the abominations which they committed; therefore I have consumed them in My anger.

9“Now let them put their harlotry and the carcasses of their kings far away from Me, and I will dwell in their midst forever.

11“And if they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the temple and its arrangement, its exits and its entrances, its entire design and all its ordinances, all its forms and all its laws. Write it down in their sight, so that they may keep its whole design and all its ordinances, and perform them.

12“This is the law of the temple: The whole area surrounding the mountaintop is most holy. Behold, this is the law of the temple.

Dimensions of the Altar

13“These are the measurements of the altar in cubits (the cubit is one cubit and a handbreadth): the base one cubit high and one cubit wide, with a rim all around its edge of one span. This is the height of the altar:

14“from the base on the ground to the lower ledge, two cubits; the width of the ledge, one cubit; from the smaller ledge to the larger ledge, four cubits; and the width of the ledge, one cubit.

15“The altar hearth is four cubits high, with four horns extending upward from the hearth.

16“The altar hearth is twelve cubits long, twelve wide, square at its four corners;

17“the ledge, fourteen cubits long and fourteen wide on its four sides, with a rim of half a cubit around it; its base, one cubit all around; and its steps face toward the east.”

Consecrating the Altar

18And He said to me, “Son of man, thus says the Lord GOD: ‘These are the ordinances for the altar on the day when it is made, for sacrificing burnt offerings on it, and for sprinkling blood on it.

19‘You shall give a young bull for a sin offering to the priests, the Levites, who are of the seed of Zadok, who approach Me to minister to Me,’ says the Lord GOD.

20‘You shall take some of its blood and put it on the four horns of the altar, on the four corners of the ledge, and on the rim around it; thus you shall cleanse it and make atonement for it.

21‘Then you shall also take the bull of the sin offering, and burn it in the appointed place of the temple, outside the sanctuary.

22‘On the second day you shall offer a kid of the goats without blemish for a sin offering; and they shall cleanse the altar, as they cleansed it with the bull.

23‘When you have finished cleansing it, you shall offer a young bull without blemish, and a ram from the flock without blemish.

24‘When you offer them before the LORD, the priests shall throw salt on them, and they will offer them up as a burnt offering to the LORD.

25‘Every day for seven days you shall prepare a goat for a sin offering; they shall also prepare a young bull and a ram from the flock, both without blemish.

26‘Seven days they shall make atonement for the altar and purify it, and so consecrate it.

27‘When these days are over it shall be, on the eighth day and thereafter, that the priests shall offer your burnt offerings and your peace offerings on the altar; and I will accept you,’ says the Lord GOD.”

The East Gate and the Prince

2And the LORD said to me, “This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter by it, because the LORD God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut.

3“As for the prince, because he is the prince, he may sit in it to eat bread before the LORD; he shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gateway, and go out the same way.”

Those Admitted to the Temple

4Also He brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple; so I looked, and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD; and I fell on my face.

6“Now say to the rebellious, to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “O house of Israel, let Us have no more of all your abominations.

7“When you brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary to defile it—My house—and when you offered My food, the fat and the blood, then they broke My covenant because of all your abominations.

8“And you have not kept charge of My holy things, but you have set others to keep charge of My sanctuary for you.”

9‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart or uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter My sanctuary, including any foreigner who is among the children of Israel.

Laws Governing Priests

10“And the Levites who went far from Me, when Israel went astray, who strayed away from Me after their idols, they shall bear their iniquity.

11“Yet they shall be ministers in My sanctuary, as gatekeepers of the house and ministers of the house; they shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister to them.

12“Because they ministered to them before their idols and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity, therefore I have raised My hand in an oath against them,” says the Lord GOD, “that they shall bear their iniquity.

13“And they shall not come near Me to minister to Me as priest, nor come near any of My holy things, nor into the Most Holy Place; but they shall bear their shame and their abominations which they have committed.

14“Nevertheless I will make them keep charge of the temple, for all its work, and for all that has to be done in it.

15“But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, who kept charge of My sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me, they shall come near Me to minister to Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer to Me the fat and the blood,” says the Lord GOD.

16“They shall enter My sanctuary, and they shall come near My table to minister to Me, and they shall keep My charge.

18“They shall have linen turbans on their heads and linen trousers on their bodies; they shall not clothe themselves with anything that causes sweat.

19“When they go out to the outer court, to the outer court to the people, they shall take off their garments in which they have ministered, leave them in the holy chambers, and put on other garments; and in their holy garments they shall not sanctify the people.

20“They shall neither shave their heads nor let their hair grow long, but they shall keep their hair well trimmed.

21“No priest shall drink wine when he enters the inner court.

22“They shall not take as wife a widow or a divorced woman, but take virgins of the descendants of the house of Israel, or widows of priests.

23“And they shall teach My people the difference between the holy and the unholy, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.

24“In controversy they shall stand as judges, and judge it according to My judgments. They shall keep My laws and My statutes in all My appointed meetings, and they shall hallow My Sabbaths.

25“They shall not defile themselves by coming near a dead person. Only for father or mother, for son or daughter, for brother or unmarried sister may they defile themselves.

26“After he is cleansed, they shall count seven days for him.

27“And on the day that he goes to the sanctuary to minister in the sanctuary, he must offer his sin offering in the inner court,” says the Lord GOD.

28“It shall be, in regard to their inheritance, that I am their inheritance. You shall give them no possession in Israel, for I am their possession.

29“They shall eat the grain offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering; every dedicated thing in Israel shall be theirs.

30“The best of all firstfruits of any kind, and every sacrifice of any kind from all your sacrifices, shall be the priest’s; also you shall give to the priest the first of your ground meal, to cause a blessing to rest on your house.

31“The priests shall not eat anything, bird or beast, that died naturally or was torn by wild beasts.

The Holy District

2“Of this there shall be a square plot for the sanctuary, five hundred by five hundred rods, with fifty cubits around it for an open space.

3“So this is the district you shall measure: twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand wide; in it shall be the sanctuary, the Most Holy Place.

4“It shall be a holy section of the land, belonging to the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary, who come near to minister to the LORD; it shall be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary.

5“An area twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand wide shall belong to the Levites, the ministers of the temple; they shall have twenty chambers as a possession.

Properties of the City and the Prince

6“You shall appoint as the property of the city an area five thousand cubits wide and twenty-five thousand long, adjacent to the district of the holy section; it shall belong to the whole house of Israel.

8“The land shall be his possession in Israel; and My princes shall no more oppress My people, but they shall give the rest of the land to the house of Israel, according to their tribes.”

Laws Governing the Prince

9‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Enough, O princes of Israel! Remove violence and plundering, execute justice and righteousness, and stop dispossessing My people,” says the Lord GOD.

10“You shall have honest scales, an honest ephah, and an honest bath.

11“The ephah and the bath shall be of the same measure, so that the bath contains one-tenth of a homer, and the ephah one-tenth of a homer; their measure shall be according to the homer.

12“The shekel shall be twenty gerahs; twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, and fifteen shekels shall be your mina.

13“This is the offering which you shall offer: you shall give one-sixth of an ephah from a homer of wheat, and one-sixth of an ephah from a homer of barley.

14“The ordinance concerning oil, the bath of oil, is one-tenth of a bath from a kor. A kor is a homer or ten baths, for ten baths are a homer.

15“And one lamb shall be given from a flock of two hundred, from the rich pastures of Israel. These shall be for grain offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings, to make atonement for them,” says the Lord GOD.

16“All the people of the land shall give this offering for the prince in Israel.

17“Then it shall be the prince’s part to give burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings, at the feasts, the New Moons, the Sabbaths, and at all the appointed seasons of the house of Israel. He shall prepare the sin offering, the grain offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offerings to make atonement for the house of Israel.”

Keeping the Feasts

18‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “In the first month, on the first day of the month, you shall take a young bull without blemish and cleanse the sanctuary.

19“The priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the temple, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the gateposts of the gate of the inner court.

20“And so you shall do on the seventh day of the month for everyone who has sinned unintentionally or in ignorance. Thus you shall make atonement for the temple.

21“In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall observe the Passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten.

22“And on that day the prince shall prepare for himself and for all the people of the land a bull for a sin offering.

23“On the seven days of the feast he shall prepare a burnt offering to the LORD, seven bulls and seven rams without blemish, daily for seven days, and a kid of the goats daily for a sin offering.

24“And he shall prepare a grain offering of one ephah for each bull and one ephah for each ram, together with a hin of oil for each ephah.

25“In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, at the feast, he shall do likewise for seven days, according to the sin offering, the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the oil.”

The Manner of Worship

2“The prince shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gateway from the outside, and stand by the gatepost. The priests shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings. He shall worship at the threshold of the gate. Then he shall go out, but the gate shall not be shut until evening.

3“Likewise the people of the land shall worship at the entrance to this gateway before the LORD on the Sabbaths and the New Moons.

4“The burnt offering that the prince offers to the LORD on the Sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish, and a ram without blemish;

5“and the grain offering shall be one ephah for a ram, and the grain offering for the lambs, as much as he wants to give, as well as a hin of oil with every ephah.

6“On the day of the New Moon it shall be a young bull without blemish, six lambs, and a ram; they shall be without blemish.

7“He shall prepare a grain offering of an ephah for a bull, an ephah for a ram, as much as he wants to give for the lambs, and a hin of oil with every ephah.

8“When the prince enters, he shall go in by way of the vestibule of the gateway, and go out the same way.

10“The prince shall then be in their midst. When they go in, he shall go in; and when they go out, he shall go out.

11“At the festivals and the appointed feast days the grain offering shall be an ephah for a bull, an ephah for a ram, as much as he wants to give for the lambs, and a hin of oil with every ephah.

12“Now when the prince makes a voluntary burnt offering or voluntary peace offering to the LORD, the gate that faces toward the east shall then be opened for him; and he shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings as he did on the Sabbath day. Then he shall go out, and after he goes out the gate shall be shut.

13“You shall daily make a burnt offering to the LORD of a lamb of the first year without blemish; you shall prepare it every morning.

14“And you shall prepare a grain offering with it every morning, a sixth of an ephah, and a third of a hin of oil to moisten the fine flour. This grain offering is a perpetual ordinance, to be made regularly to the LORD.

15“Thus they shall prepare the lamb, the grain offering, and the oil, as a regular burnt offering every morning.”

The Prince and Inheritance Laws

16‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “If the prince gives a gift of some of his inheritance to any of his sons, it shall belong to his sons; it is their possession by inheritance.

17“But if he gives a gift of some of his inheritance to one of his servants, it shall be his until the year of liberty, after which it shall return to the prince. But his inheritance shall belong to his sons; it shall become theirs.

18“Moreover the prince shall not take any of the people’s inheritance by evicting them from their property; he shall provide an inheritance for his sons from his own property, so that none of My people may be scattered from his property.” ’ ”

How the Offerings Were Prepared

19Now he brought me through the entrance, which was at the side of the gate, into the holy chambers of the priests which face toward the north; and there a place was situated at their extreme western end.

20And he said to me, “This is the place where the priests shall boil the trespass offering and the sin offering, and where they shall bake the grain offering, so that they do not bring them out into the outer court to sanctify the people.”

21Then he brought me out into the outer court and caused me to pass by the four corners of the court; and in fact, in every corner of the court there was another court.

22In the four corners of the court were enclosed courts, forty cubits long and thirty wide; all four corners were the same size.

23There was a row of building stones all around in them, all around the four of them; and cooking hearths were made under the rows of stones all around.

24And he said to me, “These are the kitchens where the ministers of the temple shall boil the sacrifices of the people.”

The Healing Waters and Trees

2He brought me out by way of the north gate, and led me around on the outside to the outer gateway that faces east; and there was water, running out on the right side.

3And when the man went out to the east with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the water came up to my ankles.

4Again he measured one thousand and brought me through the waters; the water came up to my knees. Again he measured one thousand and brought me through; the water came up to my waist.

5Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross; for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed.

6He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?” Then he brought me and returned me to the bank of the river.

7When I returned, there, along the bank of the river, were very many trees on one side and the other.

8Then he said to me: “This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley, and enters the sea. When it reaches the sea, its waters are healed.

9“And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live. There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes.

10“It shall be that fishermen will stand by it from En Gedi to En Eglaim; they will be places for spreading their nets. Their fish will be of the same kinds as the fish of the Great Sea, exceedingly many.

11“But its swamps and marshes will not be healed; they will be given over to salt.

Borders of the Land

14“You shall inherit it equally with one another; for I raised My hand in an oath to give it to your fathers, and this land shall fall to you as your inheritance.

15“This shall be the border of the land on the north: from the Great Sea, by the road to Hethlon, as one goes to Zedad,

16“Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim (which is between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath), to Hazar Hatticon (which is on the border of Hauran).

17“Thus the boundary shall be from the Sea to Hazar Enan, the border of Damascus; and as for the north, northward, it is the border of Hamath. This is the north side.

18“On the east side you shall mark out the border from between Hauran and Damascus, and between Gilead and the land of Israel, along the Jordan, and along the eastern side of the sea. This is the east side.

19“The south side, toward the South, shall be from Tamar to the waters of Meribah by Kadesh, along the brook to the Great Sea. This is the south side, toward the South.

20“The west side shall be the Great Sea, from the southern boundary until one comes to a point opposite Hamath. This is the west side.

21“Thus you shall divide this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel.

22“It shall be that you will divide it by lot as an inheritance for yourselves, and for the strangers who dwell among you and who bear children among you. They shall be to you as native-born among the children of Israel; they shall have an inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel.

23“And it shall be that in whatever tribe the stranger dwells, there you shall give him his inheritance,” says the Lord GOD.

Division of the Land

1“Now these are the names of the tribes: From the northern border along the road to Hethlon at the entrance of Hamath, to Hazar Enan, the border of Damascus northward, in the direction of Hamath, there shall be one section for Dan from its east to its west side;

2“by the border of Dan, from the east side to the west, one section for Asher;

3“by the border of Asher, from the east side to the west, one section for Naphtali;

4“by the border of Naphtali, from the east side to the west, one section for Manasseh;

5“by the border of Manasseh, from the east side to the west, one section for Ephraim;

6“by the border of Ephraim, from the east side to the west, one section for Reuben;

7“by the border of Reuben, from the east side to the west, one section for Judah;

8“by the border of Judah, from the east side to the west, shall be the district which you shall set apart, twenty-five thousand cubits in width, and in length the same as one of the other portions, from the east side to the west, with the sanctuary in the center.

9“The district that you shall set apart for the LORD shall be twenty-five thousand cubits in length and ten thousand in width.

10“To these—to the priests—the holy district shall belong: on the north twenty-five thousand cubits in length, on the west ten thousand in width, on the east ten thousand in width, and on the south twenty-five thousand in length. The sanctuary of the LORD shall be in the center.

11“It shall be for the priests of the sons of Zadok, who are sanctified, who have kept My charge, who did not go astray when the children of Israel went astray, as the Levites went astray.

12“And this district of land that is set apart shall be to them a thing most holy by the border of the Levites.

13“Opposite the border of the priests, the Levites shall have an area twenty-five thousand cubits in length and ten thousand in width; its entire length shall be twenty-five thousand and its width ten thousand.

14“And they shall not sell or exchange any of it; they may not alienate this best part of the land, for it is holy to the LORD.

15“The five thousand cubits in width that remain, along the edge of the twenty-five thousand, shall be for general use by the city, for dwellings and common-land; and the city shall be in the center.

16“These shall be its measurements: the north side four thousand five hundred cubits, the south side four thousand five hundred, the east side four thousand five hundred, and the west side four thousand five hundred.

17“The common-land of the city shall be: to the north two hundred and fifty cubits, to the south two hundred and fifty, to the east two hundred and fifty, and to the west two hundred and fifty.

18“The rest of the length, alongside the district of the holy section, shall be ten thousand cubits to the east and ten thousand to the west. It shall be adjacent to the district of the holy section, and its produce shall be food for the workers of the city.

19“The workers of the city, from all the tribes of Israel, shall cultivate it.

20“The entire district shall be twenty-five thousand cubits by twenty-five thousand cubits, foursquare. You shall set apart the holy district with the property of the city.

21“The rest shall belong to the prince, on one side and on the other of the holy district and of the city’s property, next to the twenty-five thousand cubits of the holy district as far as the eastern border, and westward next to the twenty-five thousand as far as the western border, adjacent to the tribal portions; it shall belong to the prince. It shall be the holy district, and the sanctuary of the temple shall be in the center.

22“Moreover, apart from the possession of the Levites and the possession of the city which are in the midst of what belongs to the prince, the area between the border of Judah and the border of Benjamin shall belong to the prince.

23“As for the rest of the tribes, from the east side to the west, Benjamin shall have one section;

24“by the border of Benjamin, from the east side to the west, Simeon shall have one section;

25“by the border of Simeon, from the east side to the west, Issachar shall have one section;

26“by the border of Issachar, from the east side to the west, Zebulun shall have one section;

27“by the border of Zebulun, from the east side to the west, Gad shall have one section;

28“by the border of Gad, on the south side, toward the South, the border shall be from Tamar to the waters of Meribah by Kadesh, along the brook to the Great Sea.

29“This is the land which you shall divide by lot as an inheritance among the tribes of Israel, and these are their portions,” says the Lord GOD.

The Gates of the City and Its Name

31“(the gates of the city shall be named after the tribes of Israel), the three gates northward: one gate for Reuben, one gate for Judah, and one gate for Levi;

32“on the east side, four thousand five hundred cubits, three gates: one gate for Joseph, one gate for Benjamin, and one gate for Dan;

33“on the south side, measuring four thousand five hundred cubits, three gates: one gate for Simeon, one gate for Issachar, and one gate for Zebulun;

34“on the west side, four thousand five hundred cubits with their three gates: one gate for Gad, one gate for Asher, and one gate for Naphtali.

Annotations for Ezekiel

Israel was experiencing dark days, and the first truth Ezekiel needed to understand was that, no matter how discouraging the circumstances, God was still on the throne accomplishing His divine purposes in the world. Ezekiel’s vision contains many unexplained mysteries, but one message comes through with clarity and power: Jehovah is the sovereign Lord of Israel and of all the nations of the earth.

, The Chebar River or canal flowed from the Euphrates River, south of the city of Babylon, where the Jewish exiles gathered for prayer (see ). Ezekiel mentioned it in ; ; , , ; and . Apparently Ezekiel was there interceding with the other captives when the Lord called him to his new ministry.

The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel in the form of a vision, and the hand of the Lord laid hold of him and claimed him for special service. The phrase “the word of the LORD” is used fifty times in Ezekiel’s prophecy and speaks of the authority of his message.

Since the immense whirlwind cloud Ezekiel beheld was coming from the north, it indicated the invasion of Judah by the Babylonian army and the destruction of the land, the city of Jerusalem, and the temple (; ).

– In and , Ezekiel identified the living creatures as the cherubim, heavenly creatures first mentioned in . The tabernacle curtains were embroidered with images of the cherubim (), and two cherubim were on the golden covering of the ark, traditionally called the “mercy seat” (). Depictions of cherubim were very much in evidence in Solomon’s temple.

Of special interest are the faces of the “four living creatures”: Each one had the face of a human, a lion, an ox, and an eagle. A human being is the highest of God’s creatures, being made in the image of God. The lion is the greatest of the untamed beasts of the forest, while the ox is the strongest of the domesticated beasts of the field. The eagle is the greatest of the birds and is even a picture of God (, ).

The presence of the winged creatures before the throne of God is assurance that God remembers His promise and cares for His creatures. But it also reminds us that God uses all of creation to bless or to chasten His people. In this vision, they are a part of God’s judgment on His sinful people.

The spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels, so that the creatures moved in whatever direction the wheels moved. It was indeed an awesome sight, the huge wheels, the living creatures, the enfolding fire, and the eyes in the rims of the wheels. What an arresting picture of the providence of God, always at work, intricately designed, never wrong, and never late!

The wheels symbolize God’s omnipresence, while the eyes on their rims suggest the God’s omniscience, seeing and knowing everything. Ezekiel was seeing a representation of the providence of God as He worked in His world. But one more item remained.

While the wheels depict God’s omnipresence and omniscience, the throne speaks of His omnipotent authority. The throne was “the likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone” (symbolizing holiness; see ) and a rainbow around it (symbolizing covenant grace). Noah saw the rainbow after the storm (), the apostle John saw it before the storm (), but Ezekiel saw it over the storm and in control of the storm. In His wrath, God remembers mercy ().

The glory of the Lord is one of the key themes in Ezekiel (, ; ; ; , , ; , ; ; , , ; ). The prophet will watch God’s glory leave the temple and go over the Mount of Olives, and he will also see it return to the kingdom temple. Because of Israel’s sins, the glory had left the temple; but God’s promise is that one day the city of Jerusalem and the temple will be blessed by the glorious presence of the Lord. The city will be called Jehovah Shammah—“THE LORD IS THERE” ().

Now we can begin to grasp the message that God was giving His prophet. Though His people were in exile and their land and temple and nation were about to be destroyed, God was still on the throne and able to handle every situation. In His marvelous providence, He moves in the affairs of nations and works out His hidden plan.

, As a result of beholding the vision, Ezekiel fell to the ground, completely overwhelmed by the glory of the Lord and the wonder of His providential working in the world. Who but the sovereign Lord could have a throne like a chariot and move as quickly as He pleased? Who but the Lord could travel in the midst of a fiery whirlwind to accomplish His great purposes?

Ezekiel is called “son of man” ninety-three times in his book, a title that the Lord also gave to Daniel (). “Son of man” is also a messianic title (), which the Lord Jesus applied to himself at least eighty-two times when He was ministering on earth. In the case of Daniel and Ezekiel, however, the title “son of man” emphasized their humanity and mortality.

Ezekiel was now to receive his official commission as a prophet of the Lord God, and the Lord told him he was facing a very difficult task. Whether we are raising a family, teaching a Sunday school class, shepherding a church, or evangelizing in a distant nation, we have to accept people as they are before we can lead them to what God wants them to be. God gave Ezekiel four important commandments to obey:

1. Stand and listen (, ).

2. Go and speak ().

3. Don’t fear people or their threats (, ).

4. Receive God’s Word like food ().

God has made you and placed you as surely as He placed Ezekiel. Your life can be lived in obedience to the same commandments God gave to Ezekiel.

Go to the

At times, we need to fall down in humble adoration; at other times, however, we need to stand up and take orders (). The command of the Word and the power of the Spirit enabled Ezekiel to stand to his feet, and the Spirit entered him and strengthened him. On many occasions, the Spirit would lift up Ezekiel (, ; ; , ; ; ) and give him special power for his tasks (; ). The important thing was that Ezekiel stand obediently before the Lord and listen to His word.

Prophets weren’t people who majored only in foretelling the future, although that was part of their ministry. They were primarily forthtellers who declared God’s Word to the people. Sometimes they would give a message of judgment, but usually that would be followed by a message of hope and forgiveness. The Jews needed to hear Ezekiel’s messages because they were “rebellious,” “impudent,” and “stubborn.”

, Three times in verse the Lord admonished the prophet not to be afraid of the people, and He repeated it again (). He had given a similar caution to Jeremiah (), and Jesus gave the same warning to His disciples (, , ).

Being a priest, Ezekiel knew that the Hebrew Scriptures pictured God’s Word as food to be received within the heart and digested inwardly. Job valued God’s Word more than His “necessary food” (), and Moses admonished the Jews to live on God’s Word as well as on the bread (manna) that the Lord supplied daily (; see ). The prophet Jeremiah “ate” the Word of God (), and so did the apostle John (). God’s prophets must speak from within their hearts, or their messages will not be authentic.

Had Ezekiel heard the description of the hardness of his people before he saw the vision of God’s glory, he may have had a difficult time accepting his call. But having seen the glorious throne of the sovereign Lord, Ezekiel knew that he had all the help he needed to obey God’s will. The only motivation that never fails is doing all for the glory of God.

What the people needed more than anything else was to hear the Word of the Lord. Even before the nation fell, Jeremiah had warned them not to listen to the false prophets, but neither the leaders nor the common people would obey (, ; ; ; ).

Catalyst

Three elements are involved in the process of communication: speaking, receiving (understanding) the message, and obeying. “Go . . . speak with My words to them” () was God’s commission. Ezekiel was the messenger, the people of Israel were the audience, and the Word of God was the message to be delivered. The prophet wasn’t allowed to send a substitute messenger, nor was he permitted to alter the message or go to a different audience.

The first element is speaking (v. ). One of the New Testament words for preaching is kerusso, which means “to proclaim as a herald.” In ancient days, rulers would send out royal heralds to convey their messages to the people, and the herald was obligated to deliver the message just as he received it. If Ezekiel wanted to be a faithful herald, every part of God’s commission had to be obeyed to the last detail.

The second element is receiving (vv. ). To receive the Word of God means to understand it and take it into the heart and mind (). Since Ezekiel was a chosen prophet of the Lord, what he said was important, and the people were obligated to receive it. He was speaking their own language, so they couldn’t make excuses.

The third element is obeying. God doesn’t send His messengers to His people to entertain them or give them good advice. He expects us to obey what He commands. Unfortunately, the nation of Israel had a tragic history of disobedience to the law of God and rebellion against the will of God. The tragedy continues to unfold throughout history whenever people who receive God’s Word fail to obey God’s Word.

Go to the

Ezekiel was by the river Chebar when he saw the vision and heard God’s Word (), but now he was commanded to join the other exiles at a place called Tel-Abib. This site hasn’t been identified, but it was not at the same location as the modern Tel Aviv.

As the Spirit began to work, Ezekiel heard behind him several sounds: the rusthng of the wings of the living beings, the whirring of the wheels, and “great thunderous voice,” like an earthquake. He knew that God’s glorious throne was moving and that the Lord was working out His purposes.

As Ezekiel sat with the people, overwhelmed by what the Lord had said to him and done for him, he realized the seriousness of his calling and how great was the responsibility God had placed on his shoulders. It is good for the servant of God to be among His people, to weep with those who weep and to rejoice with those who rejoice, for he can better minister to them when he knows their hearts and feels their pain. Simply proclaiming the message of God is not enough; we must also seek to have the caring heart of God.

The watchmen on the walls were important to the safety of the city, and the image shows up frequently in the Scriptures (; ; , ; ; ; ; ). The emphasis here is on judgment, while in it is on hope, but the message is the same: The prophet must be faithful to warn the people of judgment, and the people must heed the warning and turn from their sin.

Ezekiel is the prophet of human responsibility. Some of the captives were blaming God for their sad plight, while others were blaming their ancestors. Ezekiel made it clear that each individual is held responsible and accountable before God (ch. ).

, Personal responsibility is the key here, both of the watchman and of the people. If the Jews under the old covenant were held responsible for their actions, how much more responsible are believers today who have the complete Bible, the indwelling Holy Spirit, and the revelation of God through Jesus Christ? (See .)

, These two verses probably had no break between them. Ezekiel did go to the people and give them God’s warning, but they would not listen. God told him to leave the gathering by the river and go out into the plain for a new set of instructions. What do you do when the people close their ears to the Word of God? God certainly could have judged them for their wickedness, but in His grace He gave them further opportunities to hear His saving word.

Ezekiel not only spoke God’s Word to the people, but he also lived before them in such a way that they saw God’s message portrayed before their very eyes. You will find the prophet performing twelve action sermons to convey God’s truth to people who were becoming more and more deaf to the voice of God.

The Word of God may not have penetrated the hearts of the people, but the glory of God and the Spirit of God were still with God’s servant. If the people wouldn’t respond to Ezekiel’s public ministry, perhaps he could reach them in his own house. The elders of the people could come to hear his messages (; ; ) and then share them with the people. The prophet shut himself up in his house although at times he did leave for special reasons (; ), and he never spoke unless he had a message from the Lord. When the news came of the destruction of Jerusalem, this command of silence was removed, and he was able to speak as other people (; , ).

The phrase “they will put ropes on you” is probably a figurative statement because we find no evidence that Ezekiel was literally bound and forced to remain in his house. As we have seen, he did leave the house (; ), and nobody prevented him. The Jewish people “bound” Ezekiel in the sense that their sins made it necessary for him to remain home in silence until God gave him a message. The attitude of the people wasn’t that of militant opposition but rather passive indifference; hence, the necessity for Ezekiel to use action sermons to get their attention.

Ezekiel’s silence was a sign to the Jews that God’s Word is not to be taken for granted or treated lightly like trivial daily conversation. When God speaks, we had better listen and obey! “He who hears, let him hear” is a familiar and important phrase in Scripture because it indicates that we have the responsibility to pay attention to God’s Word, cherish what He says, meditate on it, and obey it.

This writing surface, a “clay tablet,” would have been common in Babylon. On it, Ezekiel drew a sketch of the city of Jerusalem, which the people would easily recognize, and then he set it on the ground and began to play soldier as he acted out the siege of Jerusalem.

Imagine how shocked the spectators were when Ezekiel’s face became hard and resolute and he placed a flat, iron griddle between his face and the besieged city. It was the kind of utensil that the priests used in the temple for preparing some of the offerings (; ; ). The iron griddle symbolized the wall that stood between the Lord and the sinful Jewish nation so that God could no longer look on them with approval and blessing. Ezekiel the priest could not pronounce on them the priestly blessing of , for God’s face was not shining on them with blessing.

At specified times each day (v. ), Ezekiel was commanded to lie on the ground, facing the model he had constructed of the siege of Jerusalem. He was to be “restrained” (v. ), his arm “uncovered,” and he had to eat the meager food described in verses through . He was to lie on his left side for 390 days and then on his right side for 40 days. This symbolic act told the Jewish exiles why the Lord was allowing their Holy City to be ravaged and ruined: The nation had sinned and their sins had caught up with them.

Ezekiel didn’t “bear their iniquity” in the sense of atoning for them, for only the Son of God can do that (). But “bearing the iniquity” of the nation before God was one of the ministries of the priesthood, and Ezekiel was a priest (; ). The restraint of the prophet and the baring of his arm spoke of the future binding of the prisoners and the baring of God’s arm in judgment.

In the first two action sermons, Ezekiel showed the Jewish people the reality of the siege of Jerusalem and the reason for it, and in the next two, he would display the horror of it, beginning with famine. The Lord commanded him to combine three grains (wheat, barley, and millet) and two vegetables (beans and lentils) and grind them into flour and bake bread. This combination would produce the very poorest kind of bread and therefore represented the scarcity of food during the siege of Jerusalem.

, The Jews sometimes cooked over fires made from cow dung mixed with straw, and this was not against the Law of Moses; but the use of human excrement was a sign of abject poverty and want. Of course, no priest would defile himself and his food by using human excrement for cooking his food (; ), so the Lord allowed Ezekiel to use cow dung.

The prophet Isaiah compared the invasion of an enemy to the shaving of a man’s head and beard (), so Ezekiel used that image for his fourth action sermon. Shaving could be a part of a purification ritual (; ), but the Jews had to be careful how they dressed their hair and their beards (; ), and the priests had to be especially careful (, ).

When Ezekiel, a priest, publicly shaved his head and his beard, the people must have been stunned; but it took extreme measures to get their attention so they would get the message. The shaving of the head and the beard would be a sign of humiliation and great sorrow and mourning, and that’s the way the Lord felt about the impending destruction of Jerusalem and the holy temple. By using a sword and not a razor, Ezekiel made the message even more dramatic: An army was coming whose swords would “cut down” the people of the land.

, Israel was a privileged people, but privilege involves responsibility and accountability. The day of reckoning had come, with no escape. Israel was called to be a light to the Gentiles, to lead them to the true and living God (; ); but instead, they had adopted the wicked ways of the Gentiles and had become greater sinners than their neighbors.

God would punish Israel openly, in the sight of the nations whose evil practices they followed. This would not only chasten Israel, but it would also be a warning to the Gentiles that the God of Israel was a God of justice. Before, God had been with and for His people, but now He would be against them, which reminds us of the iron plate Ezekiel held between his face and the city of Jerusalem ().

The Lord explained again the awfulness of the judgment coming to the people left in the city and the land. Pestilence and famine would take one-third of them; another third would be killed by the Babylonian army; the remainder would be scattered. Why? Because God was releasing His fury upon His sinful people. God’s anger against sin is a holy anger, not a temper tantrum, for He is a holy God.

Jesus Christ warned the church of Ephesus that they would lose their light if they refused to repent and obey His instructions (). How tragic when a local assembly openly disobeys God’s Word and begins to act like the unsaved people of the world! Once a church has lost its witness for the Lord, is there anything left?

Throughout Old Testament history, the presence of a “faithful remnant” in Israel was important to the fulfillment of God’s plan. The entire nation of Israel accepted God’s covenant at Mount Sinai (), but most of them failed to obey the Lord and died in the wilderness. In the years that followed the nation’s entrance into the Promised Land, the people gradually declined spiritually, but the remnant prayed, obeyed God’s Word, and remained faithful to the Lord.

God had commanded Ezekiel to remain silent except for when he commanded Ezekiel to preach a special message. These two chapters contain two messages of judgment from the Lord. The first explains that the idolatry of the people had defiled the land and the temple, and the second describes the terrible disaster that would come with the arrival of the Babylonian army. Ezekiel the watchman was warning the people that an invasion was coming because God had seen their sins and was about to punish them.

This passage explains why Ezekiel was instructed to “face” the mountains, hills, ravines, and valleys of the land—the idolatry of Israel had defiled them. Of course, the physical terrain itself had not sinned but the Jewish people who had polluted the Holy Land by erecting their “idols all around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and under every thick oak” (v. ; see ). The Jewish prophets despised idolatry and spoke scornfully about the idols that the people valued so much (; ; ) and called them “abominable” (), and “obscene” ().

Against the background of this nationwide slaughter, Ezekiel reminded the people of the grace of God in sparing a remnant, a topic that he had illustrated when he had put some of the shaved hair in the hem of his garment (). He would mention the remnant again in ; ; , ; , ; and . That a remnant of faithful people would be spared was part of the covenant promise ().

Not only was the worship of idols an abomination and a participation in filth, but it was adultery. The nation had been “married” to Jehovah at Sinai, and the worship of any other god was an act of adultery. God’s chaste love for Israel, His wife, is the major theme of the prophet Hosea, whose wife became a prostitute and had to be bought back by her loving husband. This was an action sermon (and a costly one) that rebuked Israel for their unfaithfulness to God, but Hosea assured them that the Lord would forgive if they would repent and return (, ; ).

As he lamented the abominations that his people had committed, Ezekiel combined both speech and action (pounding his fists, stamping his feet). In and , these actions represented God’s response to the invasion and assault of the Babylonians. From the context, we see that Ezekiel striking his hands together symbolized the marching of soldiers and the clashing of the swords as God’s wrath was unleashed against His disobedient people.

Israel had disobeyed the law, defied their Lord, and defiled the land, and God would not accept that kind of conduct. First, He had punished them in their land by permitting seven enemy nations to occupy the land and oppress the people, as recorded in the Book of Judges. But each time, after God had delivered Israel from their oppressors, the Jews eventually had returned to the worship of idols. So God finally took them away from the land, some through death and others through exile in Babylon. This story is tragic, but it reminds us that the Lord is serious about His covenant and our obedience.

In this spoken message, the key phrases are “the land” and “the end has come.” The land is personified in this message; Ezekiel spoke to it and announced that disaster was about to fall. The judgment was certain because the prophet made an announcement like, “The end is near!” at least nine times in verses . Ezekiel was a faithful watchman, warning the people that the Babylonian army was coming from the north to invade the land, rob it, and ruin it. In previous chastisements, the Lord had shown pity and spared His people, but this judgment would be different. They had defiled His land with their sins, and the only way the land could be cleansed was by punishing the people for their sins.

Always the master of vivid language to help the people “see” the truth, Ezekiel painted five word pictures to arouse their interest and perhaps reach their hearts. The first picture is from nature (vv. , ) as Ezekiel pictures Israel as “rod has blossomed.” God had been longsuffering as His people had disobeyed His law and defied His prophets, but now their sins had “budded,” and the nation would have to reap what they sowed.

, The second picture is taken from the business world, with Israel’s “Year of Jubilee” as the background (). Every seventh year was to be set apart as a Sabbath year, during which the land would lay fallow and debts would be cancelled (; ). After seven of these Sabbath years, the fiftieth year was to be set apart as a Year of Jubilee, when the land would lay fallow, debts would be cancelled, servants would be freed, and the land would be returned to the original owners.

, The third picture is from the military. God had made Ezekiel a watchman (), and it was his responsibility to warn the people when danger was at hand. If an enemy army approached, the watchmen on the walls would blow their trumpets and summon the soldiers to man their posts and protect the city. But for the watchmen in Jerusalem to blow their trumpets would have been a waste of time because no Jewish army was available, so any resistance would be futile.

In his fourth picture, Ezekiel compared the fugitives who would escape to mourning doves, frightened and alone in the mountains. From this group God would form His remnant, so they were important to Him. Instead of rejoicing at their escape, these people were mourning over their sins (), wearing sackcloth and shaving their heads in sorrow and repentance, a fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy in , .

The fifth and final picture is of people throwing away their valuables. During the final years of the kingdom of Judah, the rich were getting richer and the poor were getting poorer, with the rich robbing the poor without any interference from the courts. The prophets thundered against this evil, but the leaders would not listen. The refugees couldn’t carry their wealth as they fled from Jerusalem, so they treated it like garbage and threw it into the streets.

The survivors’ gold and silver were only excess baggage that would slow them down, and their idols were even more worthless. In a time of crisis, we quickly learn what’s valuable and important to life. The lust for wealth lured them into sin, and their sins brought about judgment. The Babylonian soldiers took the wealth of the Jews as loot, along with their expensive idols; this was God’s payment to Babylon for their services in chastening Israel.

The leadership in Judah had begun to collapse when the kings had refused to listen to Jeremiah’s messages from the Lord, admonishing them to surrender to Babylon and thus save the city and the temple. Whenever leaders of the Jewish nation depended on politics rather than the prophetic word, they gradually moved into compromise and confusion (). Judah had sought alliances with Egypt and had tried to negotiate a way to peace (). But the Lord had determined that His people should be chastened, and no political power can overrule the sovereign will of God.

, Above everything else, God’s servants need to focus on the glory of God. Seeing God’s glory is what kept Moses going when he was heavily burdened for the people (), and Ezekiel needed that same kind of encouragement. He saw the same glorious being and the same chariot throne that he had seen in the first vision (ch. ). God’s servants may think that their greatest need is to see new visions and hear new voices, but the Lord doesn’t always work that way. Instead, He often meets the need by giving us a fresh experience of the original call. The Lord reminded His servant that God was still on the throne and that His providential care for Ezekiel and Israel had never ceased. What more did Ezekiel need to know?

By “the Spirit,” Ezekiel was lifted from his house in Babylon and taken to the temple in Jerusalem. He wasn’t transported bodily; he remained in his house and saw what was going on in the temple (see , ; ; ). The first thing he saw in the temple was an idol. It is said to “provoke jealousy” (, ) because idolatry provokes the Lord who is jealous over His people (). As the nation decayed spiritually, the religious leaders incorporated into the temple rituals the worship of other gods along with the worship of Jehovah.

God knew what was in the hearts of these leaders and how they were justifying their sin. But God wasn’t like the dead idols they worshiped, and the people had forsaken the Lord long before He forsook them. Sad to say, the false thinking of these elders reached to the people, and they adopted it as their excuse for sin ().

, Ezekiel had seen only a part of the evidence that the people in Jerusalem had abandoned themselves to idolatry. He had seen an idol in the temple, defiling its very precincts and yet being worshiped by people who also claimed to worship the Lord, as though Jehovah was one God among many, not the Lord of lords. Then he saw the leaders secretly worshiping false gods in the temple. After that, everything was out in the open: the women weeping for Tammuz, and the leaders bowing down to the sun. In God’s sight, these things were abominable and detestable and they provoked Him to anger. Except for the faithful remnant, the Jewish people no longer feared God or cared about pleasing Him.

The Lord had presented the evidence and announced the verdict, and now He declared the sentence: He would obey His covenant and severely punish His people for their multiplied sins. “Fury” was the sentence, and no pity added. The guilty nation could cry out for mercy, but God would not listen to them, and they couldn’t appeal to a higher court. He had given them opportunity after opportunity to turn from their sins, but they refused to listen; now He wouldn’t listen to them.

This section allows us to sense the central themes of Ezekiel’s message, and delivering it must have broken his heart. Read the Book of Lamentations and see how thoroughly the Lord “dealt in fury” with His people. Jeremiah was an eyewitness of the destruction of Jerusalem, and what Ezekiel predicted, Jeremiah saw fulfilled.

, Interestingly, the glory of God is associated with the judgment of a polluted city, but God judges sin for His glory. Also for His glory God graciously saves those who put their trust in Him (, , ). The Jewish people who had God’s glory dwelling among them didn’t seek to glorify Him by obeying His will, so He received glory by punishing their sins.

The other six angels were to follow the scribe-angel and kill everybody on whom he didn’t put the mark, and nobody was to be spared because of sex or age. The word for “mark” in the Hebrew text is the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet (taw or tau), which in that day was written like a cross (X). The angels were to see to it that God’s plans were fulfilled for individuals and nations, but they would perform their duties invisibly, unseen by the people whose lives they affect.

The scribe-angel was commanded to go through the streets of Jerusalem and mark the people who lamented and grieved because of the sins of the city. No matter how dark the day, God has always had His faithful remnant who obeyed His will and trusted Him for deliverance, and Ezekiel was among them (; ; see ; ; ).

“Begin at My sanctuary.” (See .) This seems like a strange order, but the idolatry in the temple is what had aroused the Lord’s anger. Often in Scripture we see God sending judgment, not because unbelievers have sinned but because His own people have disobeyed His law.

In response to Ezekiel’s concern and prayer, the Lord revealed His glory once again, just as it had been revealed when Moses dedicated the tabernacle and when Solomon dedicated the temple. The glory cloud left the chariot-throne and hovered over the threshold. The Lord commanded the scribe-angel to enter between the wheels and take coals from the fire that was there and to scatter the coals over the city of Jerusalem. Not only would the city be visited by famine, pestilence, and sword, but it would be burned by the Babylonian army. This was not a fire of purification, such as Isaiah experienced (), but a fire of condemnation (, ).

Ezekiel described the vision of God’s glory that he had seen on the day of his ordination (vv. , ). One new feature is the fact that the living creatures “were full of eyes all around” just like the wheels, which suggests God’s omniscience (see ). God’s providential working in this world is not aimless or haphazard. Everything is done by the One who “works all things according to the counsel of His will” ().

Ezekiel was learning that the most important part of the nation’s life was to magnify the glory of God. The presence of God in the sanctuary was a great privilege for the people of Israel, but it was also a great responsibility. The glory of God cannot dwell with the sins of God’s people, so it was necessary for the glory to leave and the sanctuary and the people to be judged.

These men were giving wicked advice to the king and other leaders in Jerusalem, but their counsel was not from the Lord. How could they give wise counsel when they were idolaters who worshiped the sun? At the same time, they were plotting evil so that they could benefit personally from the Babylonian attack on the city. In every crisis, we will find opportunists who seek to help themselves instead of helping their country, and they usually hide behind the mask of patriotism.

The people in Jerusalem were foolish to build houses, for God had ordained that the Babylonian army would destroy the city and slaughter most of the inhabitants. These evil leaders were sure that Jerusalem was as safe for them as a piece of meat in a cooking pot. The innuendo in this metaphor was that the people in Jerusalem were choice cuts of meat, while the exiles in Babylon were just the scraps and rejected pieces. Of course, just the opposite was true!

The Lord told Ezekiel to prophesy against those evil leaders and point out that they weren’t the meat—they were the butchers! They had killed innocent people in Jerusalem and stolen their possessions; and even if the leaders weren’t killed in Jerusalem, they would not escape judgment. They might flee the city, but the Babylonians would catch them at the border, pass sentence on them, and kill them; and that is exactly what happened.

This is God’s word of encouragement to His servant that He would fulfill His promise and spare a remnant of the people. The people in Jerusalem were sure that God would deliver them and give back their land because the exiles had left the land and were far from Jerusalem and the temple. In ancient days, people believed that each nation had its own gods, and when someone left his or her home country, that person left his or her gods behind. Of course, Jehovah had revealed himself to Abraham as “the Possessor of heaven and earth” (), so the Jewish leaders shouldn’t have had such a narrow view of God. What they said was probably just an excuse for confiscating land that belonged to some of the exiles.

The self-confident Jews in Jerusalem thought they were secure as long as they had the temple, but the true temple was with the exiles in Babylon! Long before there ever was a tabernacle or a temple, the patriarchs had God as their refuge and strength, their sanctuary, and their abiding place. Wherever Abraham pitched his tent, he also built an altar to the Lord because he knew God was with him (; , ; ). The New Testament equivalent of this experience is to abide in Christ ().

A remnant of Jews would one day return to the land and rebuild the temple. No matter where the Jews had been scattered, the Lord would find them and bring them home. This promise goes far beyond the restoration after the captivity, for the Lord has promised that in the end times He will gather His people back to their land.

The promises here go beyond the return of the Jewish exiles after the Babylonian captivity, for Scripture records no evidence of this kind of spiritual renewal in the post-exilic period. In fact, the account given in Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, and Malachi is just the opposite. The promises apply to the end times when God’s people, Israel, will be regathered to their land, will repent of their sins and trust their Messiah (), and will welcome Him as their King.

After the temple was destroyed in 586 B.C., the glory of God disappeared from the earth and didn’t return until the birth of Christ in Bethlehem (, ; ). Wicked people crucified the Lord of glory (), but He arose again and ascended back to heaven from Bethany (, ; ), which is on the eastern slope of Mount Olivet. One day Jesus will return to the Mount of Olives () to deliver His people and establish His kingdom. The glory will have returned!

When the Lord called Ezekiel, He warned him that he would be ministering to a rebellious people () who were spiritually blind and deaf (). In order to understand God’s truth, we must be obedient to God’s will (; ), but Israel was far from being obedient. Years before, Isaiah had spoken to people who were spiritually blind and deaf (, ), and Jeremiah had preached to that kind of people in Jerusalem (). When our Lord was here on earth, many of the people were spiritually blind and deaf (, ), and so were the people who heard Paul (). In order to get the attention of the exiles and excite their interest, Ezekiel performed two action sermons, and after each one he gave a message from the Lord.

The Lord instructed Ezekiel to play the part of a fugitive escaping from a besieged city. Part of Ezekiel’s activity occurred in the daytime and part at twilight, and the curious but perplexed Jewish exiles watched his strange actions. Packing the knapsack and leaving it at a distance from his house conveyed the message that the leaders in Jerusalem were planning to flee for their lives. Digging through the wall from outside the house pictured the Babylonian army’s assault on the walls of Jerusalem. That evening, when Ezekiel climbed out of the house through the hole and with the knapsack on his back, he depicted the Jewish leaders secretly trying to flee from the city to save their lives.

Ezekiel’s second action sermon probably took place the next day at mealtime. Perhaps some of the Jews were in the house with him, but more likely, he ate the meal outside and continued the fugitive image. He ate his bread and drank his water—a frugal meal—while shaking and trembling as if in fear. He was illustrating the tragic condition of the people in Jerusalem during the Babylonian siege. They would have very little food and would eat it with fear and trembling because it might well be their last meal.

The next morning, in the message that followed the action sermon, Ezekiel predicted that these events would occur. How could such a thing happen? Very simply, the Babylonians gouged out the king’s eyes, so Zedekiah couldn’t see anything! But the Babylonian army wasn’t who had captured the king of Judah and his officers; God’s net had caught them. Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army didn’t win because of their own skill; they were God’s instruments to defeat the people of Judah and Jerusalem ().

Ezekiel’s messages rang with the certainty and the nearness of God’s judgment on Jerusalem and the land of Judah. But the people were quoting a proverb that may have been devised by the false prophets to humiliate Ezekiel: “The days are prolonged, and every vision fails” (v. ). With God’s timing, appearances can certainly be misleading.

Because Ezekiel’s prophecies had not been fulfilled immediately, the people were paying more attention to the false prophets than to the true Word of God. The visions of the false prophets were false and misleading, and they delivered only the soothing and encouraging words that the people wanted to hear (). God made clear that His word would be fulfilled with no more delays.

The Lord made it clear that Ezekiel’s words would be fulfilled very soon when He stated, “ ‘None of My words will be postponed any more, but the word which I speak will be done,’ says the Lord GOD.” Six years later, the Babylonian army breached the walls of Jerusalem, and Ezekiel’s predictions came true. How tragic when people deliberately ignore or reject the dependable Word of God and put their faith in the empty but soothing words of false religious leaders!

God declared that the false prophets had spoken only lies. God hadn’t called them (, ), and God hadn’t given them their messages; yet they claimed to be His prophets. These “prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and who see visions of peace for her when there is no peace” () had spoken out of their own imaginations, and their “inspiration” had been self-induced. Ezekiel compared them to foxes in the deserts (v. ). They cared only for themselves; they did nothing to improve the situation; they lived off the fears of the people. In times of crisis, religious opportunists will arrive and prey on weak and ignorant people who are seeking cheap assurance and comfort.

, Ezekiel also compared the false prophets to workmen who failed to build something that would last. The spiritual “wall” that had protected the Jewish people for centuries had fallen into ruin, and prophets like Ezekiel and Jeremiah were trying to rebuild and strengthen it by proclaiming the Word and calling the people back to God.

God explained how He would judge the false prophets. First, they would be exposed as counterfeits and no longer have an exalted reputation among the people. They would lose their prominent places in the councils of the nation. God would treat them like Jews who had also lost their citizenship (, ) and, therefore, be deprived of the privilege of returning to their land. The false prophets in Jerusalem would be slain by the enemy, and those in Babylon would be left there to die. Because the counterfeit prophets gave the people a false hope, God gave them no hope at all.

To be called of God and to speak His Word to His people is serious and should not be taken lightly. To assume a place of ministry without being called and gifted is arrogance, and to manufacture messages without receiving them from the Lord is impertinence. The false prophets in Ezekiel’s day were guilty of both. Popularity is not a test of truth. History shows that those who spoke the truth were usually rejected by the majority, persecuted, and even killed.

The gift of prophecy wasn’t given exclusively to men, for several prophetesses are named in Scripture: Miriam (), Deborah (, ), the wife of Isaiah (), Huldah (), and the daughters of Philip the evangelist (). Noadiah () was apparently a self-styled prophetess and not a true servant of God. The Jewish women Ezekiel was exposing were more like sorceresses who claimed to be prophetesses. They practiced the magical arts that they had probably learned in Babylon, all of which were forbidden to the Jews (). They manufactured magic charms that people could wear on various parts of the body and thus ward off evil. They also told fortunes and enticed people to buy their services. Like the false prophets, they were using the crisis situation for personal gain and preying on the fears of the people.

God told Ezekiel that these leaders were like some of the spiritual leaders Ezekiel had seen in his vision of the temple (ch. ): Outwardly they were serving the Lord, but secretly they were worshiping idols. Instead of loving God and His Word, the leaders loved idols. Yet they piously sat before God’s prophet and acted spiritual, but to them, listening to Ezekiel speak was more like religious entertainment than receiving spiritual enlightenment.

Believers today probably would not love physical idols—images. But anything that replaces God in our affections and our obedience is certainly an idol. It might be wealth, as in the case of Achan (), Ananias and Sapphira (), and the man we call “the rich young ruler” (). Jonah’s idol was a selfish patriotism that made him turn his back on the Gentiles who needed to hear His message. Pilate’s idol was holding the approval of the people and his status in the Roman Empire (; ). What we have in our hearts affects what we see and how we live. If Christ is our Lord (), then we will have no place for idols.

Repentance is a change of mind; it means turning from sin and turning to the Lord. The Jewish exiles needed to change their minds about idols and the sin of worshiping idols and then turn to the Lord who alone is worthy of worship. God would judge each sinner personally and deal with each one personally (v. ), and He would use some of them as examples to warn the other exiles (v. ).

Loving and accepting the false prevents us from knowing and loving the true () and results in our becoming estranged from the Lord (). By worshiping false gods, Israel abandoned the Lord whom they had “married” at Sinai (), so they needed to turn back to the Lord. Like the believers in the church of Ephesus, they had left their first love ().

The condition of a person’s heart determines his or her response to the Lord’s test, for God deals with people according to their hearts (, ). The attitude of the lost world today is that no absolutes exist; therefore, we cannot know “truth.” Satan is the liar and the deceiver, and He has blinded the minds of people so that they believe lies and reject God’s truth. We must do all we can to share the truth of the Word with a blind and deaf world, trusting the Holy Spirit to open their eyes and ears and save them by His grace.

In this particular message, the Lord described once again the four judgments He would send on the people of Judah and Jerusalem, and He emphasized one compelling fact: There would be no escape. Perhaps some of the Jews remembered how their father Abraham had interceded for Sodom and Gomorrah, and how the Lord had promised to spare the city if he could locate in it ten righteous people ().

Why did the Lord choose these three men? For one thing, all three of them are identified in the Old Testament Scriptures as righteous (; , ; ; , , ). All of them were tested and proved faithful—Noah by the flood, Daniel in the lions’ den, and Job by painful trials from Satan. All were men of faith.

The responsibility of each person before God is a key subject in this book (see in particular ch. ). God doesn’t punish people because of the sins of others, nor will God accept the righteousness of others to compensate for the wicked deeds of sinners. This principle is made clear in both the Law of Moses and the covenant God made with Israel. The only time God abandoned this principle was when Jesus Christ His Son died on the cross: He suffered for the sins of the world. When we trust Jesus as Savior and Lord, we receive the gift of His righteousness, and God accepts us because of His Son (; ).

Ezekiel spoke about a vine, an unfaithful wife, and three shoots from a tree, and each of these images conveyed God’s truth to those who really wanted to understand. These pictures and parables not only described the sins of the nation of Israel, but they also declared her terrible judgment. Ezekiel spoke to his people in the most vivid language found anywhere in Scripture, but the messages fell on deaf ears.

Catalyst

The vine is an image found frequently in Scripture. Jesus compared Himself to a vine and His disciples to branches in the vine, because we depend wholly on Him for life and fruitfulness (). Without Him, we can do nothing. speaks of “the vines of the earth,” a symbol of corrupt Gentile society at the end of the age, ripening for judgment in the winepress of God’s wrath.

Ezekiel’s contribution to the recurring illustration was to point out the worthlessness of the vine if it doesn’t bear fruit. If a tree becomes useless, we can at least cut it down and make something useful out of the wood; but what can we make out of the wood of a vine? We can’t even carve a tent peg or a wall peg out of it! It’s good for only one thing, and that’s fuel for the fire. If the wood was useless before being thrown into the fire, it’s even more worthless after it’s been singed and marred by the flames.

Those of us who are branches in Jesus Christ, the true vine, need to take this lesson to heart. If we fail to abide in Christ, we lose our spiritual power, wither, and fail to bear fruit for His glory. The fruitless branch is tossed aside and eventually burned (). This burning does not mean condemnation in the lake of fire, for no true believer can be condemned for sins for which Jesus died (; ; ).

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This long chapter contains some of the most vivid language found anywhere in Scripture. It is addressed to the city of Jerusalem but refers to the entire nation. The chapter traces the spiritual history of the Jews from “birth” (God’s call of Abraham) through “marriage” (God’s covenant with the people), and up to their “spiritual prostitution” (idolatry) and the sad consequences that followed (ruin and exile).

Israel is pictured here as an unwanted child—exposed, abandoned, and left to die, but then rescued by the Lord and, eventually, becoming his wife. Many Jews were excessively proud of their heritage and called the Gentiles “dogs,” but the Lord reminded them that they had descended from the Amorites and the Hittites (see , ; ) and that their great city of Jerusalem was once inhabited by the Jebusites.

God compared Jerusalem to a newborn child whose parents did not give her the humane treatment that every baby deserves. They didn’t cut the umbilical cord, wash the child, rub her skin with salt, or even wrap her in cloths for her protection and to keep her limbs straight. Without pity or compassion, they threw her out into the open field and exposed her to the elements. The Lord passed by, saw the helpless baby, took pity on her, and saved her. By the power of His Word He gave her life, and this was wholly an act of divine grace. God was saying, “Remember who you were when I found you and what I have done for you!”

When Israel became prosperous and famous, she forgot the Lord who had given her such great wealth and began to use God’s generous gifts for worshiping idols (; ; , , ). Like the ignorant heathen nations around her, she worshiped the creation rather than the Creator () and abandoned her “husband” for false gods. She didn’t simply occasionally commit adultery, as wicked as that is; she became a professional prostitute. Unlike other prostitutes, however, she sought out her lovers and paid them to sin with her.

The Lord announced that Israel would suffer a great discipline. Her punishments would be for being a prostitute, an adulteress, and an idolater because the nation had committed those very sins. According to the law, prostitutes were to be burned (; see ), adulterers and adulteresses stoned (), and idolaters killed by the sword and their possessions burned (). God used the Babylonian army to inflict these same judgments on the people of Israel (, ). Many Jews were slain by the sword, and the city of Jerusalem and the temple were looted and burned.

The people left in Israel were proud and haughty, overfed, idle, unconcerned about the poor and needy, and guilty of detestable acts, probably referring to their homosexual lifestyle (). These were abominable sins of attitude and action, commission and omission; and yet the people of Jerusalem and Judah were far more guilty than were the people of Sodom!

Members of local churches commit the same sins we read about in the newspapers, but the news doesn’t always get to the headlines. Congregations are being torn apart because of professed Christians who are involved in lawsuits, divorces, immorality, family feuds, crooked business deals, financial scandals, and a host of other activities that belong to the world. No wonder lost sinners pay little attention to our public ministry or our personal witness!

Israel will experience a great restoration. The captives in Babylon would be restored, return to the land, and rebuild the temple. God’s goodness in allowing this to happen would bring them to shame and repentance ().

From the images of a vine and a marriage, Ezekiel turned to the image of a great tree, two eagles, and three shoots. This message is called a “parable” or “riddle,” which means a story with a deeper meaning, an allegory in which various objects refer to people and what they do. The Jewish people were fond of discussing the wise sayings of the ancients and were always seeking to discover deeper meanings (). Ezekiel hoped that his allegory would awaken his dull hearers and give them something to think about. Perhaps the truth would grip their hearts and change their outlook on what God was doing.

This allegory is about three kings (“branch” and “seedling”), because the cedar tree represents the royal dynasty of David. David’s dynasty was very important because through it God had promised to bring a Savior to His people and to the world (; , , ). A descendant of David had to sit on the throne so that the blessing of God’s covenant with David might rest on the land.

, , , When Nebuchadnezzar swooped down on Judah in 597 B.C., he deposed King Jehoiachin and took him and his family and staff to Babylon. He also took the temple treasures and ten thousand officers, artisans, and soldiers ().

, After deposing Jehoiachin, Nebuchadnezzar made Jehoiachin’s uncle Mattaniah the new king and changed his name to Zedekiah. He was the youngest son of good King Josiah, and Nebuchadnezzar “planted” him in Judah where he “grew” for eleven years. But instead of producing a tree, King Zedekiah produced a humble vine. Zedekiah was the king who asked Jeremiah to pray for him and the people and the one who hid him and cared for him (, ).

Zedekiah reigned for eleven years and was the twentieth and last resident king of Judah. His dethronement and death in Babylon seemed to mark the end of the Davidic line and therefore the failure of God’s covenant with King David, but this was not the case. The prophet Hosea predicted that the children of Israel would be “without a king or prince” (), but the messianic line did not die out. After Babylon was conquered by the Medes and Persians, Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to their land. One of their leaders was Zerubbabel, a great-great-grandson of godly King Josiah () and an ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ (; ).

The day was dark for the people of Israel; but when the day is the darkest, the Lord’s promises shine the brightest. God’s people today need to take heed to this prophetic Word, which is a light that shines in our dark world (). Just as Jesus fulfilled prophecy and came the first time to die for the sins of the world, so He will come the second time and reign over His righteous kingdom. The tender “shoot” of David will be the mighty monarch, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

Throughout this chapter, the prophet was answering the erroneous statements the Jewish exiles were making about God and their difficult situation (vv. , , , ). God knew what His people were saying and so did His prophet. Ignoring the inspired Word of God, the people were building their case on a popular proverb: “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” In other words, “Our fathers have sinned and we, their children, are being punished for it.” This philosophy came from two sources: (1) a misinterpretation of what the Lord had said in His law, that He visited the sins of the fathers upon the children (; , ; ; , ), and (2) the Jewish idea of the oneness of the nation.

According to the Law of Moses, innocent animals could suffer and die for guilty sinners, but nowhere was it taught that innocent people should be punished for sins committed by guilty people. The warning in and , implies that the Lord punishes the children if they commit the sins their fathers committed. Furthermore, God also promised to bless those children who followed godly examples and obeyed the Lord (; , ), so He gave promises of blessing as well as warnings of chastening.

The point of this passage is that the people cannot blame their ancestors. Ezekiel refutes the popular proverb by imagining a situation involving three men in a family, people with whom his listeners certainly could identify. He began with a righteous father (vv. ), a hypothetical Jew who kept God’s law and therefore was just and would not die because of sin (vv. , ).

This righteous father had an unrighteous son, about whom Ezekiel had nothing good to say. He listed ten offenses against God’s law, three of them capital crimes: murder (vv. , ), idolatry (vv. , ), and adultery (v. ). This godless son exploited the poor and took interest from his debtors. He never returned the debtor’s pledge (; , ) and did all he could to make a profit, even if it meant hurting people and defying God’s laws. The verdict was clear: “He must die.”

The third character in this drama was a righteous grandson. How strange that the godly man of verses should raise an ungodly son who himself had a godly son! The grandson followed the righteous example of his grandfather and not the evil example of his father. King Hezekiah was a godly father whose son Manasseh was evil although late in life he did repent. Manasseh’s son Amon was evil, but he fathered godly King Josiah.

Here God’s message is that the people should blame themselves. In this part of his message, Ezekiel responded to the questions of his hearers given in verse , just as he had responded to their question in verse . He described a wicked man who repented, turned from his sins, and lived (vv. ), and then described a righteous man who returned to his sins and died (v. ). The lesson from these two examples is obvious and answered their questions. The point? People determine their own character and destiny by the decisions that they make.

Ezekiel was giving the Jewish nation a message of hope! If they would truly repent and turn to the Lord, he would work on their behalf as he had promised (; ). If they persisted in sinning, however, the Lord would continue to deal with them as rebellious children. God has no delight in the death of the wicked (; see ; ), but He isn’t obligated to invade their minds and hearts and force them to obey Him.

Finally the message is that the people could not blame the Lord. For the third time, Ezekiel quoted the words of the complaining exiles: “The way of the Lord is not fair” (v. , see vv. , ). They were saying that God wasn’t playing fair with His people. But Ezekiel pointed out that the people were the ones who weren’t being fair with God. When they obeyed the Lord, they wanted Him to keep the terms of the covenant that promised blessing, but when they disobeyed, they didn’t want Him to keep the terms of the covenant that brought chastening. They wanted God to act contrary to His own Word and His own holy nature.

The conclusion of this message is an invitation from the Lord for the people to repent (change their minds), turn from their sins, cast away their transgressions like filthy garments, and seek a new heart and a new spirit. God promised them a new heart if only they would seek Him by faith (; see ).

While Ezekiel clearly stated that individual Jews were responsible for their own sins, their leaders had also led them astray because they had rebelled against God. Jeremiah had told the kings of Judah to surrender to Nebuchadnezzar because he was God’s chosen servant to chasten Israel, but they had refused to obey.

Whether we read secular or sacred history, we soon discover that people become like their leaders. The same people who applauded Solomon when he built the temple also applauded Jeroboam when he set up the golden calves and instituted a new religion. One of the most difficult tasks of Christian leaders today is to keep our churches true to the Word of God so that people don’t follow every religious celebrity whose ideas run contrary to Scripture. Apparently being popular and being “successful” are more important today than being faithful.

Had the nation of Israel obeyed the Lord, it would have become and remained a mighty lion and a fruitful vine that would have brought glory to the name of the Lord. Israel would have been a “light to the Gentiles” (), and many would have trusted in the true and living God. Israel didn’t keep the terms of the covenant, but the Lord did; and that’s why He chastened them and scattered them.

Ezekiel delivered this message on August 14, 591 B.C., to some of the Jewish elders who had come to his house to “inquire of the LORD” (v. ). But the prophet knew that their hearts were not right with God and that they had no right to ask God for instruction (vv. ; see ; ). A willingness to submit and obey is the mark of the person who can seek God’s guidance and expect to receive it. Ezekiel’s response to their request was to review the history of the nation of Israel and point out the repeated rebellion of the people and the gracious longsuffering of the Lord.

Scripture teaches that God is working out His plan for the nations (; ; ; ) and that His people Israel are at the heart of that plan. Other nations are mentioned in Scripture primarily as they relate to Israel, for Israel is the only nation with whom God has entered into covenant relationship.

By reviewing the history of the nation, God was judging the current generation because they were guilty of the same sins of unbelief and rebellion. Jeremiah said that his generation of Jews was even worse than their fathers ()! In this historical summary, God proved that He had been consistent in His dealings with the Jews. The exiles had complained that God had not treated Israel fairly (, , , ), but their national history proved that God was not only fair with them but also very longsuffering and merciful. God wasn’t punishing the Jews in Ezekiel’s day because of the sins their fathers committed centuries before but because Ezekiel’s contemporaries had committed the very same sins! That’s why God reviewed the history of Israel.

Joshua brought the people into Canaan and led them in the defeat of the enemy and the claiming of the land. Before he died, he directed the assigning of the land to the various tribes, and encouraged them each to claim the land they had been assigned. Moses had commanded the people to wipe out the godless religion of the inhabitants of Canaan (; ), and warned them that if they failed to obey, their children would become idolaters and lose the Promised Land. Of course, that’s exactly what happened. The people lusted after the Canaanite gods and participated in the filthy rites of heathen worship in the high places.

, This is the message to the people of Ezekiel’s generation: They were living just like their ancestors! Even “to this day” they were sinning against the Lord. Ignoring their privilege of being God’s special people (), their ancestors wanted to be like the pagan nations in their worship and in their leadership (); and God let them have their way and then punished them. “When in Babylon, do as the Babylonians do” was the philosophy of the exiles, but they had been idolaters long before they went into exile.

This statement implies much more than the release of the exiles from Babylon. It speaks of a future regathering of Israel from the nations of the world to which they have been scattered (). God promises to bring them out, but He also says He will bring them “into the wilderness” () where He will deal with their sins and cleanse them of their rebellion (, ; , ).

In the Hebrew Scriptures, chapter begins with , and this is the best arrangement because introduces the coming judgment on Judah and Jerusalem. Ezekiel has explained the individual responsibility of the people and their leaders and the national responsibility of Israel. Here he focused on the fact that God has a responsibility to punish His people when they rebel against Him. He must be true to His character and true to His covenant.

Frequently in this book, God commanded His servant to “turn and face” and “preach” or “prophesy” against something or someone (v. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ). This was one way to point out the target at which His judgment would be hurled, in this case, Judah and Jerusalem (, ). The prophet assumed a posture of stern judgment as he announced that threatened judgment was about to fall against “the south” (the Negev)—Judah and Jerusalem were in the territory south of Babylon.

The word “sword” is used nineteen times in this chapter to represent the invasion and attack of the Babylonian army. God had His eye on three targets: the land of Judah, the city of Jerusalem, and the holy place of the temple. Unfortunately, some of the righteous would suffer along with the wicked, but that often happens in times of war.

, At this point, God commanded Ezekiel to perform another action sermon by sighing like someone experiencing great pain and grief. When the people asked him why he was sighing so, he would tell them, “Because of the terrifying news; when it comes, every heart will melt, all hands will be feeble, every spirit will faint, and all knees will be weak as water,” referring to the news of the fall of Jerusalem. The news didn’t happen until January 8, 585 B.C. (, ), five months after the city had been burned, which was August 14, 586 B.C.

In this action sermon, Ezekiel not only cried and wailed (v. ), but he pounded his thighs and clapped his hands together. The Lord was preparing the Babylonian army to be effective and efficient in carrying out His plans.

The message of this passage is that God directs the army. God had willed that the army attack Jerusalem, so He overruled the soothsayers and diviners and made sure that their signs pointed to Jerusalem. This doesn’t mean that their system of divining was accurate or even proper, but that the Lord used it to accomplish His purposes.

Catalyst

We come away from the study of chapters to with a fresh realization of the tragedy of rebellion against the Lord. Israel had a long history of rebellion, but the other nations weren’t any better, except that Israel was sinning against the light of God’s Word and His providential care over His people. Israel of all peoples had the obligation to obey and serve the Lord, for God had blessed them abundantly. Instead of becoming a holy nation to the glory of God, she became like all the other nations and failed to be God’s light to the Gentiles.

Yet woven throughout this series of messages is the theme of Israel’s hope. The prophet reminded them that God had promised to regather them from the Gentile nations and give them their King and their kingdom. Historically speaking, weak King Zedekiah was the last ruler in the Davidic dynasty, but not prophetically speaking; for Jesus Christ, the Son of David (), will one day come and reign from David’s throne. In the mixture of deliberate disaster and undeserved hope we recall the truth, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance” ().

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God said that the city of Jerusalem and the temple would be invaded by unclean Gentiles who were brought there by the Lord! Why would the Lord destroy His own beloved city and temple? Because His people had sinned and broken the covenant; thus, they were beyond remedy. Ezekiel described the true character of the “beautiful city” and named some of the sins that the people in Jerusalem were committing even while he spoke. Ezekiel had exposed the past sins of the nation, but now he brought Jerusalem into the courtroom and brought the record up-to-date.

Words related to “blood” or “bloody” are repeated seven times in the paragraph and speak of death and defilement. The prophet named two grievous sins: the shedding of innocent blood (injustice) and the worship of foreign gods (idolatry) (see ; ). The officials in Jerusalem were accepting bribes and condemning innocent people to death so that others could claim their property (; ). These judges had no respect for God or for humans made in the God’s image, yet they were supposed to be honest people who upheld the law of the Lord.

Idolatry, injustice, and the abuse of power are rampant in our world today, and God in His mercy is holding back His hand of judgment to give sinners opportunity to repent and be saved. Divine truth and human rights are being ignored, but “the day of the Lord will come” (), and sinners will be judged righteously by the all-knowing Lord.

How could the people persist in these sins and not be judged by the courts? Because the courts were run by wicked judges who had no desire to acquit the innocent or punish the guilty. The rich were set free and the poor were exploited. People accepted bribes and agreed to slander innocent people, forgetting that the law prohibited slander and false witness.

Sexual sins in the church and in so-called Christian homes have ripped churches and families apart, and many churches close their eyes to these offenses. Pornography—in print, on video, and on the Internet—is common these days, and television is becoming more and more daring. Unmarried people living together, trial marriages, gay marriages, and even mate-swapping have shown up in evangelical churches. The world has little reason to respond to our message if our lives contradict what we say we believe.

Why were God’s chosen people living such wicked lives? Because they had forgotten the Lord, a sin that Moses had commanded them to avoid (, ; ; ). They were admonished to remember their slavery in Egypt and God’s grace in redeeming them (; ; ; ), and also remember the Lord their God (). People who forget God gradually become their own god and begin to disobey God’s Word, mistreat other people, and take God’s gifts for granted. The prophet Jeremiah in Jerusalem was accusing the people of the same sin ().

God’s first act of judgment would be dispersion; the people would be exiled to Babylon and others scattered to the surrounding nations (vv. , ), some of which had already occurred. The second judgment would be fire (vv. ), the destruction of their beloved city and temple. The prophet pictured a smelting furnace with different kinds of metals in it, and the “dross” (v. ) being removed. That dross represented the people of Jerusalem who thought they were the best because they hadn’t gone into exile.

The princes were acting like animals—lions and wolves—hungry for their prey. Sin always debases people and turns them into beasts (; ; ), even into worse than beasts! These men abused their power and destroyed innocent people just to acquire more wealth. They made poor widows by murdering their innocent husbands and stealing their wealth.

This chapter is similar to chapter in that it depicts the history of the nation of Israel and her apostasy from the Lord. In both chapters, the image is that of prostitution, the nation breaking her “marriage vows” and, like a harlot, turning to other “lovers.” In chapter , however, the sin is idolatry, trusting the false gods of the pagans, while in chapter , the sin is trusting other nations to protect her.

Oholah represents Israel, whose capital was Samaria, while her sister Oholibah represents Judah, whose capital was Jerusalem. Oholah means “her tent” while Oholibah means “my tent is in her.” When hearing the word “tent,” most Jews would immediately think of the tabernacle where God lived among His people. The northern kingdom of Israel had its own sanctuary and priesthood in Samaria, as well as idols and shrines throughout the land, but that was “her tent” and not “the Lord’s tent.” The Mosaic law was still held in Judah, however, even though not always obeyed, and the Levitical priests still served at the temple that Solomon had built by God’s direction and authority. Looking at Jerusalem, even with all of her sins, the Lord could still say, “My tent is in her.” The glory had departed from the temple (; , ), but the temple was still known as God’s dwelling place.

Catalyst

God allowed Ezekiel to express the Lord’s longing for faithful people within generations that are bent on rebellion. He looks for those who will stand against the crowd rather than compete to lead it. He is looking for a few who will be so committed to Him that He can build out of their lives a righteous community.

The Lord is still seeking men and women who will take their stand for the moral law of God, stand in the gap at the wall, and confront the enemy with God’s help. As you read history, you meet godly men and women who had the courage to resist the popular evils of their day and dare to expose the breaks in the wall and seek to mend them. The Lord is looking for intercessors (, ) who will cry out to God for mercy and for a return to holiness. Surely the Lord must be disappointed that His people have time for everything except intercessory prayer.

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Both Israel and Judah were positioned in such a way geographically that the political tensions among the larger nations and empires (such as Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon) affected them drastically. Israel and Judah were often like bridges over which these nations would march their armies, and the Israelites would usually take sides. In the days when the nation was united, King David trusted the Lord to help him defend and deliver his people, but King Solomon’s policy was to make political treaties to guarantee peace. This is why he married numerous heathen princesses so that their fathers wouldn’t attack the Jewish nation.

The people of Judah sinned even more than Samaria did. God’s punishment of Samaria and His miraculous deliverance of Judah should have brought the people of Judah to their knees in gratitude and dedication, but it didn’t happen that way. The kingdom of Judah became more and more idolatrous as one weak king after another took the throne, some of them for only three months. Judah was actually more corrupt than her sister Samaria ()!

The people of Judah would suffer the wrath of God. The logic should have been obvious: If God punished Samaria for her sins, and if Judah sinned worse than Samaria, then Judah must be punished also.

The two accused sisters had been presented to the court and their crimes had been explained. All that remained was for the judge to sum up the case and describe the sentence, which Ezekiel did (vv. ). Neither Samaria nor Judah had any defense, and they couldn’t take their case to a higher court. God’s verdict was true and final. Ezekiel included Samaria in this summation so that Judah couldn’t say that God’s judgment of the northern kingdom was unjust. All the evidence was presented, and only one verdict could be rendered: guilty as charged.

From God’s point of view, Judah was nothing but a worn-out adulteress soliciting “lovers,” and her sin was something that God couldn’t accept. As Samaria had sinned by patronizing Assyria, so Judah was playing the harlot by seeking the help of pagan nations instead of trusting the Lord. That being the case, Judah would be treated like an adulteress and even worse. The Law of Moses called for the adulteress to be stoned (; ), prostitutes to be burned (; ), and murderers to be put to death, probably by stoning (; ). Judah would be punished for adultery, prostitution, and shedding innocent blood (). Her sins would find her out.

This chapter closes the section of the book that focuses on the destruction of Jerusalem (chs. ), and it is divided into two parts: a parable about a boiling pot () and an action sermon involving the sudden death of the prophet’s wife (vv. ). Throughout the rest of his book, Ezekiel deals with God’s judgment on the Gentile nations (chs. ) and His glorious promises for the people of Israel (chs. ).

God called Judah “rebels” not only because they had broken His laws and violated His covenant, but also because Zedekiah had broken His treaty with Babylon, incurring the displeasure of Nebuchadnezzar. The image of the cooking pot takes us back to , where the Jewish leaders boasted that the Jews left in Jerusalem were better than the Jews taken off to Babylon.

Ezekiel used the image and vocabulary of the Jerusalem leaders. Yes, God would put “the choice pieces of meat” into his pot (Jerusalem) and boil the meat and the bones (the Babylonian siege). He wouldn’t “cook” the flesh; he would consume it (ch. )! Then he would pour out the burned mess and burn the pot itself! Jerusalem was an evil city, filled with sin like a filthy pot encrusted with rust and scum. Jerusalem had shed innocent blood and hadn’t even been decent enough to cover the blood (; ; , ; ). The murderers had left the evidence for everyone to see and didn’t worry about the consequences. But God would avenge the innocent victims and expose the blood of their murderers for all to see.

Today our society lives on delusions and myths because, like the Jews in Ezekiel’s day, the world won’t accept the authority of God’s Word. People still believe that might makes right, that money is the measure of worth and success, and that the aim of life is to have fun and do what we want to do. We can believe whatever we please about God, ourselves, and others, and life will turn out fine because no consequences exist. But one day God will expose the stupidity of these delusions, and the world will discover too late that what we believe and how we behave have consequences.

In order to give his message, Ezekiel had to see his wife die suddenly, and he was not to show great grief because of it! God told him that she would suddenly die and that he was not to do what the Jews usually would do in times of bereavement. He was allowed to groan quietly, but he was not permitted to weep or make the kind of lamentation that was typical of his people.

Ezekiel’s wife was the joy of his life and the desire of his eyes, but the Lord took her away. The temple in Jerusalem was the joy of the Jewish people because no other nation had such a sanctuary, but the Lord would take the temple away. On August 14, 586 B.C., the Babylonians set fire to the temple in Jerusalem. The death of the prophet’s dear wife was an act of God; so, too, was the destruction of the temple. The woman who had died was innocent of any gross sin, but the temple had become a den of thieves. God gave Ezekiel only one day’s notice that he would become a widower; but he had been speaking to sinful Judah for many years, and they had not listened. The destruction of the temple and the city should not have surprised anyone.

The next day, God opened Ezekiel’s mouth and removed the discipline He had imposed at the beginning of his ministry (). From this point on, the prophet was free to speak as he felt led. At the same time, the focus of his ministry shifted. He had exposed the nation’s sins and announced her judgment. Now he would announce God’s plans for the Gentile nations, including victorious Babylon; then he would minister hope to the Jewish exiles and share with them visions of the kingdom yet to come. Ezekiel has been a faithful servant of God, even to the point of sacrificing his beloved wife so he could declare the Word of God. What an example of dedication!

The Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites were all blood relatives of the Jews. The Ammonites and Moabites were related to Israel through Lot, Abraham’s nephew. Ammon and Moab were the two sons born out of the incestuous union of Lot and his two daughters (). Edom is another name for Jacob’s twin brother Esau (; Edom means “red”), and Jacob fathered the twelve tribes of Israel. You would think that nations related by blood would be supportive of one another, but these three nations had a long-standing hatred of Israel and kept the feud going.

When Israel was marching toward the Promised Land, defeating one nation after another, God had commanded them not to attack the Ammonites because He had given them their land (). But the Ammonites had rejoiced at the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple (, ). And when Nehemiah had gone to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls, the Ammonites had joined with Sanballat in opposing him ().

It was Balak, king of Moab, who had hired Balaam to curse Israel as they camped on the plains of Moab (), and it was Balaam who had taught the Moabites how to seduce Israel into sinning against God (; ). Moab’s sin was slander against Israel, a refusal to see the Jews as God’s special people. The Moabites were a very proud people because they thought their nation was impregnable ().

Moab was located in the high mountains, with the Dead Sea on the west and the desert on the east. God told them He would bring invaders through their “eastern flank,” even though it was made up of sheer cliffs and seemingly inaccessible; and He did. The Assyrians invaded and destroyed Moab, and today Moab is no longer remembered among the nations.

Edom’s hatred of the Israelites began when Esau foolishly sold his birthright to his brother Jacob, and when their mother schemed to secure the patriarchal blessing for her favorite son Jacob (; ). Jacob had gone to Haran to live with his uncle primarily to escape the anger and murderous intent of his brother. Esau’s descendants became powerful tribal chiefs (), but Jacob’s sons became the founders of the twelve tribes of Israel, the people God had chosen to accomplish His great purposes on this earth. The prophet Obadiah wrote that God would destroy Edom because of the way they treated Israel ().

After the Israelites entered and occupied the land of Canaan, the neighboring Philistines became serious enemies. When the Israelite nation divided, the Philistines asserted their independence and became successful merchants and traders along with the Phoenicians. The Philistines cultivated a national hatred for the Jews and seized every opportunity to harass and attack them. Ezekiel wasn’t the only prophet who prophesied God’s judgment on the Philistines (see ; ; ).

Ezekiel devoted four messages to the sins and the fate of the capital of Phoenicia (vv. ; ; , ). The image used here is that of a storm producing great destructive waves (, ). The city of Tyre was situated partly on the Mediterranean coast and partly on an island about half a mile from the coast, so Ezekiel’s storm image was appropriate. God was angry at Tyre for rejoicing at Jerusalem’s destruction and seeing it as an opportunity for Tyre to prosper even more. But the Lord announced that the nations would come like successive waves of the sea and bring Tyre to ultimate ruin. The name “Tyre” means “rock,” so the statement “bare rock” (vv. , ) is significant. Tyre did become a bare rock and a place where fishermen dried their nets.

Ezekiel gave a description of the Babylonian siege of the part of Tyre that was on the shore of the Mediterranean. Nebuchadnezzar began his siege in 587 B.C., after the siege of Jerusalem, and though the coastal city was a formidable fortress, he managed to persevere and conquer. The Babylonians threw the timbers and stones into the water and claimed the spoils for themselves.

Because Tyre was at the center of all merchandising along the Mediterranean coast and did business with every known country, her fall was devastating to the economy. More than a ripple effect, a tidal wave occurred! Their partners in business—called “princes of the sea” (v. ) and “kings” ()—had lost everything and could only lament the great tragedy that had struck.

Ezekiel’s description of the victims’ descent into “the Pit” (v. ) gives us insight into the full extent of Tyre’s destruction. The Hebrew word bor means “a well, a pit, a cistern,” but it also refers to the pit of death (; , ) and sometimes is an equivalent of Sheol, the realm of departed spirits. Tyre’s pride and evil attitude toward the Israelite people had tragic consequences.

The Old Testament prophets occasionally used funeral dirges in a satirical manner to ridicule their enemies, and we find something of that spirit in this lament over the fall of Tyre. Neither Ezekiel nor the Jewish nation was grieved over Tyre’s destruction, but the event gave the prophet opportunity to express spiritual truth in this song.

This was not only a useful ship that brought wealth to the city, but it was a beautiful ship that the nations admired (vv. , ; see ). Tyre was proud of its beauty and its success but didn’t give any praise to the Lord for His goodness.

A nation or a city isn’t really a ship, but many points of comparison can help us better understand the nation and the city. This chapter contains many references to merchants and merchandise because Tyre was a mercantile city. The ship metaphor included all that was a part of the city of Tyre, its agents and customers, its business, and the large trading network that it had developed in the Mediterranean world.

In describing the ship’s crew, Ezekiel was actually naming some of the nations that had made it possible for Tyre to become such a great success. Oarsmen came from Sidon and Arvad, two other cities in Phoenicia, but the skilled mariners, the people who really managed things, came from Tyre. Veteran shipwrights from Gebal, another coastal city, traveled on board to caulk the seams and keep the ship in good repair.

We shouldn’t carry a metaphor too far, but the fact that Ezekiel brought in the army and navy as necessary parts of the business enterprise of Tyre is significant. Certainly national defense is as important to the success of business as it is to the safety of the private citizen, and sometimes “national interest” and “business” become intertwined. Big business always appreciates a foreign policy that opens new markets and protects them.

This passage has admiration turning to desolation. The storm arrived that was promised in and , and the great ship was shattered in the mighty waters. No matter how efficient, rich, and beautiful the ship of state might be, when the Lord decides to sink it, nothing can stay His hand.

Evidently two different persons are addressed in these verses: the prince of Tyre (vv. ) and the king of Tyre (vv. ). The first speech is a declaration of divine judgment, while the second is more of a lamentation. Both of these persons were guilty of great pride because of their wisdom and wealth, and both abused their privileges and offended the Lord. In fact, the prince of Tyre even claimed to be a god! Foreign invaders would destroy the prince of Tyre (vv. ), while the Lord himself would judge the king of Tyre (vv. ).

The issue here is pride, a sin that God hates (, ). This ruler was proud of his wisdom and his wealth (), and because of this pride, he had exalted himself as a god. God would demonstrate that he was merely human, however, for the prince of Tyre would be slain and die like any other man.

The previous declaration was one of Ezekiel’s “because . . . therefore” (vv. , ) themes, such as you find in chapters and , but this paragraph is simply a statement of God’s intention to judge the king of Tyre and destroy him. Reading these verses we get the impression that this “king” is much more than a human regent and that this could be a description of Satan.

The prince of Tyre, motivated and energized by the devil, engaged in business and also in violence, for he considered himself to be a god (v. ). His way of doing business was also dishonest, for verse speaks of “the iniquity of your trading.” Satan’s boast was, I will “be like the Most High” (), and his promise to Eve was, “you will be like God” (). The prince of Tyre accepted Satan’s offer and it led to his downfall, just as it led to Satan’s downfall.

After delivering a message of judgment, Ezekiel sometimes would drop in a message of hope for God’s hurting people. Even though the Lord was chastising His own people by destroying Jerusalem and the temple, He was still their God and had a loving concern for them.

Here is God’s judgment on Sidon, a rival city located about twenty-five miles north of Tyre. Usually the two cities are mentioned together (; ; ), but here Sidon was singled out for judgment by the Lord. The people of Sidon despised the Jews and often would cause trouble for them, but that opposition would end.

, Eventually God’s people would be gathered from the distant lands. One of the major themes of this book is the deliverance of the Jewish exiles from Babylon and the future regathering and reuniting of the nation. After the seventy years of exile and the Persian conquest of Babylon, God did cause Cyrus to allow the Jewish people to return to their land and rebuild the temple (, ; ). A time is coming when God will call His chosen people together into their own land, judge them, cleanse them, and establish His glorious kingdom (; ; ). God gave the land of Palestine to Abraham and his descendants (; ), and He renewed the promise to Jacob.

Ezekiel gave his first message against Egypt on January 7, 587 B.C., about seven months before Jerusalem was destroyed. The prophet turned and faced south and spoke against Pharaoh Hophra, who ruled Egypt from 589 to 570 B.C. (see ). The picture here is of killing a sea monster.

The Lord compared Hophra to a monster, like a giant crocodile, that lived in the Nile and claimed the river for himself. The Nile River was so essential to the life of Egypt that it was treated like a god; but Hophra claimed that he was the one who had created the river and that it belonged to him. In this message, Pharaoh, the ferocious crocodile, was guarding the waters of the land—the Nile and all the canals—and attacking anybody who dared to challenge his claims. His major sin was pride (vv. ), taking credit for what the Lord God had done.

The Lord wasn’t impressed by the monster-crocodile or afraid of him! He promised to catch him, put hooks in his mouth, and drag him and the fish clinging to him (the people of Egypt) out to the fields where they would be exposed to the sun and die. They would become food for the beasts of the field and the carrion-eating birds. The Egyptian pharaohs were diligent to prepare their burial places, but Hophra would be buried like an unwanted dead animal. What a humiliating way to bury someone who claimed to be a god!

, Hophra’s second sin was his disloyalty to Israel. Egypt was like a weak reed that couldn’t be trusted. The Jews should never have turned to Egypt for help, but when they did, the Egyptians should at least have kept their word. The Egyptians had a reputation for making promises and not keeping them (, ; ).

This is a prophecy of the coming of the Babylonian army to Egypt, where they would fulfill God’s word and destroy people and animals as well as ravage the land (; ). The people would either be killed or scattered, and the land would be left a “totally desolate wasteland” ().

After forty years, the Lord would regather the scattered Egyptians to their land and permit them to establish their kingdom, but their kingdom would not regain its former power and glory. It would become “the lowhest of kingdoms.”

Ezekiel’s second message was given April 26, 571 B.C., the latest date mentioned in the Book of Ezekiel. The prophet included it here because it relates to Egypt. Since Nebuchadnezzar was a servant of the Lord (; ; 43:19), he deserved his pay; but the spoils of war from the conquest of Tyre couldn’t begin to compensate him for the time and work his army had put into the siege. God determined that Egypt should provide the wages for the Babylonian army that had grown bald and bruised during the siege. God is sovereign over the nations and can accomplish His will without destroying either their freedom or their accountability to Him.

What does all this have to do with God’s people, Israel? Ezekiel added a word of promise for the Jews, assuring them that there would come for them a time of restoration when He would give them new strength for their new challenges. Whatever the other nations may do, God sees to it that His people maintain their witness and accomplish their assigned work on earth.

This third message about Egypt isn’t dated but was probably delivered about the same time as the previous one. It pictures the judgment of Egypt in terms of a great storm that shakes the very foundations of the land.

“The day of the LORD” (v. ) is a biblical phrase that describes any period of divine judgment, such as the judgment of Egypt. It particularly refers to the time of tribulation in the last days when the Lord will punish the nations before He returns to earth to establish His kingdom. Whether this judgment is local, as with Egypt, or global, as in the last days, it is the Lord’s work, and nobody can stop it or control it.

Ezekiel has explained what would happen and how it would happen, and here he reveals the vast scope of God’s wrath. As a result of God’s judgment, the power and pride of Egypt would be destroyed, and the nation would never rise to its former heights again. The young men would be slain and the young women taken into slavery, so the future generation would be given into the hands of the enemy.

This fourth message against Egypt was delivered on April 29, 587 B.C., and refers to God’s crushing the Egyptian military power. The arm is a symbol of power, but God would break both of Pharaoh’s arms and leave Egypt helpless. Nobody would apply splints or even bandage up the wounds to promote healing. The first “breaking” took place at Carchemish in 605 B.C., when Nebuchadnezzar defeated Pharaoh Neco (; ). Carchemish is where godly King Josiah was slain. The second “breaking” occurred when Pharaoh Hophra tried to help Judah as Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem (.). With both arms “broken,” Egypt would not be able to wield a sword, and that would put an end to the battle. Pharaoh Hophra had a second title, “The Strong-Armed,” but that title would not apply anymore.

The date of this message is June 21, 587 B.C., and the image in the message is that of a great tree that is cut down. In Scripture, a tree is sometimes used as the image of a nation or an empire (ch. ; ). The argument the prophet presented was simple. Egypt boasted in its greatness, yet Egypt wasn’t as great as Assyria, and Assyria was conquered by Babylon. Conclusion: If Babylon can conquer Assyria, Babylon can conquer Egypt.

The cedars in Lebanon were widely known for their quality and their height. Assyria was like one of those cedars, impressive in height and expansive in growth. It was nurtured by many waters, which symbolize the nations under Assyria’s control that contributed to her wealth. (These nations are also symbolized by the fowl and the beasts that had security because of the tree.) The Lord allowed Assyria to achieve greatness because He had a work for her to do. The northern kingdom of Israel had rebelled against the Lord, so He had used the Assyrians to chastise them and conquer their land (722 B.C.).

The tree was very tall and stately, but it would be cut down and left on the land to decay. The smaller nations would abandon Assyria and seek help elsewhere. From the highest heights, Assyria would end up in the deepest depths of the underworld, “the pit” (Sheol). From a position of great strength, the kingdom would fall into utter weakness, and from sustaining the lives of others to experiencing death and decay.

As with Tyre in chapter and Babylon in , Assyria was brought down to the pit along with all the other rulers and nations that rebelled against God. When Assyria fell, a shock wave went through the nations, but the king of Assyria had this comfort: He wasn’t any different from the rulers who had preceded him.

The date of this message against Egypt is March 5, 585 B.C., two months after the exiles in Babylon received the news that Jerusalem had fallen (, ). The “monster” theme had been used earlier (), but Ezekiel used it again to bring out some additional spiritual truths.

This passage is an official lamentation for the king of Egypt, who thought he was a great lion, but in God’s sight he was only a crocodile. Pharaoh thrashed about in the water and made a big scene, but all he did was muddy the waters and create problems by disobeying the Lord.

Here Ezekiel repeated the prophecy that the sword of Babylon would leave Egypt desolate and that all of Egypt’s pride and pomp would vanish. Even the animal life in the land would be destroyed as it was during the plagues of Egypt in Moses’ time. With no people and animals available to work the land and draw the water, the streams and canals wouldn’t be muddied, and the water would “run like oil” (v. ), with nothing to impede its flow. Sometimes God decides that desolation is the most effective way to restore a land that has been polluted by its inhabitants.

Ezekiel named some of the nations, great and small, that welcomed Pharaoh and his people to “the pit”: Assyria (v. ); Elam (v. ), an area in Iran; Meshach and Tubal (v. ), probably located in Asia Minor; and Edom and the Sidonians, neighbors of Israel (vv. , ). Like the king of Assyria before him (), Pharaoh would see all these princes and common people and be comforted that he wasn’t the only one defeated and slain. Death is the great leveler.

Ezekiel focused on the hope of Israel as found in the promises God has made to His chosen people. In chapter , God reminded His prophet that he had been commissioned to be a watchman with the task of protecting and informing the people by keeping his eyes open to what was happening and his ears open to what God was saying. The most important characteristic about prophets is not that they have hindsight or foresight but that they have insight. Prophetic hindsight is important because it helps us deal with the past and understand better what God did and why He did it. Foresight helps us avoid trouble and have hope for the future. But insight helps us better understand ourselves and those around us, and what we must do to become better men and women who do the will of God.

This chapter reaches back into some of Ezekiel’s previous messages and brings together truths that were important to Israel’s understanding of God, their situation, and what God wanted them to do.

Every Jew who had ever lived in a walled city knew what Ezekiel was talking about when he referred to the watchmen on the wall, for these watchmen were important to the city’s defense. Faithful watchmen kept their eyes focused on the horizon and gave the warning when they saw the enemy approaching. If the watchmen were alert and faithful and the people obedient, lives would be saved; if the watchmen were careless, or the people unconcerned, the city would be captured and people would die.

God had called Ezekiel to be His watchman () and it was his task to hear God’s word of warning and declare it to the people. A faithful watchman had clean hands, but an unfaithful watchman had hands that were stained by the blood of the victims who died because he didn’t warn them. Isaiah compared unfaithful watchmen to blind men, dogs that can’t bark, and people who can’t stay awake (). Ezekiel was a faithful watchman who delivered God’s message to the Jews in Babylon as well as those back in Judah, and that message was “Repent—turn from your sins!”

Catalyst

This discussion in reminds us of , where Ezekiel explained human responsibility before God. The Jews had blamed the older generation for what had happened to the nation, but Ezekiel had made it clear that God doesn’t punish the children for the sins of their fathers. Each person is accountable for his or her own sins and shouldn’t blame somebody else.

We must correctly distinguish regret, remorse, and true repentance. Regret is an activity of the mind, whenever we remember what we’ve done and ask ourselves, “Why did I do that?” Remorse includes both the heart and the mind, and we feel disgust and pain, but we don’t change our ways. But true repentance includes the mind, the heart, and the will. We change our mind about our sins and agree with what God says about them; we abhor what we have done; and we deliberately turn from our sin and turn to the Lord for His mercy.

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The Jews were saying, “God isn’t using standard weights on His scales! He’s got the scales fixed!” But their accusation against the Lord was false. As Ezekiel had already told them (vv. ), their ways were false, not God’s. Their responsibility wasn’t to prove God wrong but to admit that they were wrong!

Ezekiel knew that the people who came to his house to hear him speak didn’t appreciate his ministry or obey what they heard. As the exiles met one another during the day, they would step out of the hot sunlight and discuss the prophet’s ministry (v. ). They would even invite people to come with them to hear the preacher. But they weren’t serious about going to hear the Word of God (v. ), they weren’t concerned about God’s truth or their personal responsibility; all they wanted to do was get up-to-date information so they could make money! They listened to God’s preacher but refused to obey what God told them to do.

Believers today have the Word of God readily accessible, not only in public meetings, but also in literature, on the Internet, over radio and television, as well as on video and audio tapes, CDs, and PDAs, and we will have much to answer for when we see the Lord. At the judgment seat of Christ, how much Bible we studied or learned won’t be nearly as important as how much we loved and obeyed.

Ezekiel had already exposed the sins of the nation’s leaders (ch. ), but he returned to this theme because it had a bearing on Israel’s future. While this message applied to Israel’s current situation in Ezekiel’s day, it also has application in that future day when the Lord gathers His scattered people back to their land. This message certainly must have brought hope to the exiles as they realized the Lord had not forsaken them but would care for them as a shepherd for His sheep.

Kings and officers in government were often referred to as “shepherds.” They were responsible to care for the people, protect them, and make sure their needs were met. But the selfish leaders of the kingdom of Judah had abused and exploited the people because they had thought only of themselves. They milked the sheep and ate the curds, fleeced the sheep and made garments of the wool, and butchered the sheep and enjoyed the meat, but they failed to care for the sheep and meet their needs. Whenever leaders take from their people but don’t give them something in return, they are exploiting them.

Was there any hope for God’s scattered people? Yes, because the Lord would come to deliver His flock from their oppressors and gather them to himself. In Ezekiel’s time, the Lord brought His people back from Babylon; but the picture here is certainly much broader than that because God spoke about “countries” (v. ). Ezekiel promised that in the end times, the Lord would gather His flock “from all the places where they were scattered” (v. ) and bring them back to their own land where He would be their Shepherd ().

This is a prophecy of future events. The returned remnant didn’t have an august ruler caring for them, nor did “showers . . . come down in their season” (v. ) to the land. The economic situation at the beginning was difficult, the harvests were poor, and the peoples of the land were opposed to any Jewish presence there. But when Israel is regathered to her land in the end times, the Messiah will rule over them and be their Shepherd-King. The “prince” (v. ) will not be King David, resurrected and enthroned, but the Lord Jesus Christ whom Israel will receive and trust when they see Him.

Neither the pain of scarcity nor the shame of defeat will rob the Jewish people of the blessings the Lord has planned for them. In the past, the people’s sins had forced the Lord to turn His face against them; but in the future kingdom, He will smile upon them and dwell with them. Ezekiel had watched the glory of God leave the temple (, ), but he would also see God’s glory return (). The name of the Holy City would become “THE LORD IS THERE” ().

The Lord had already pronounced judgment on Edom through Isaiah (; ), Jeremiah (), and Ezekiel (), but here He did it again and added some details. Mount Seir is another name for Edom, the nation founded by Esau, Jacob’s twin brother. “Edom” means “red” and was a nickname given to Esau (). The Lord reminded the Edomites of their great sin against their brothers when they assisted the Babylonians in attacking the Jews during the siege of Jerusalem. The Edomites carried on a perpetual hatred against Israel, so the land of Edom would receive a perpetual desolation. Edom would be no more.

The Lord also saw Edom’s anger and promised to repay them in kind, for nations as well as individuals reap what they sow. He heard their blasphemous words against their brothers the Jews, how they rejoiced because the land of Israel was being ravaged and plundered by the Babylonian invaders. But they weren’t blaspheming people; they were blaspheming God and boasting in their pride as though they would escape judgment. In their arrogance, Edom had rejoiced over the fall of Israel; but one day, the whole earth would rejoice over the fall of Edom.

, God’s promise to the Jews was that one day they would no longer be a prey to the other nations (), and this chapter explains why: God would deal with their enemies and remove them from the face of the earth.

God had given the land of Israel to the Hebrews as a part of the Abrahamic covenant (; ; ). That settled their ownership of the land; but their possession and enjoyment of the land depended on their faith and obedience (). The Christian life is similar. We enter God’s family by trusting Jesus Christ (; , ), but we enjoy God’s family by believing His promises and obeying His will (). Disobedient children have to be chastened (), and God often had to chasten the people of Israel because of their rebellion and disobedience.

Ezekiel described that future day when the land would be healed and once again produce abundant flocks, herds, and harvests (vv. , ). This was a part of God’s covenant with Israel (). The land would not only be fruitful; it would also be safe and secure (). God had promised that Abraham’s descendants would be as numerous as the dust of the earth and the stars of the heavens (; ). If the nation was to fulfill its divine purposes on earth, the people had to multiply.

Since the founding of the nation of Israel in 1948, great progress has been made by the Jewish people in reclaiming the land. A great deal of reforestation and irrigation has taken place, and the waste places are being transformed. As wonderful as this is, it is nothing compared with what the Lord will do when His people are gathered back to their land from the nations of the world.

Israel was guilty of two great sins, the first of which was polluting God’s land (vv. ). Long before the Babylonians had swept through the kingdom of Judah, the sins of the leaders and the people had polluted the so-called Holy Land. When God’s people disobeyed God’s law and behaved like the heathen nations around them, they defiled the land and broke the covenant. Their second sin was that of profaning God’s name before the Gentiles (). Polluting the land God allowed them to enjoy was bad enough, but they also had profaned God’s holy name instead of being godly witnesses in the Gentile lands where He sent them.

The Lord promises to change the people because He desires to sanctify and glorify His great name. In the last days, when God gathers His people back to their land, everything He will do for them will be because of His grace and not because they deserve it. God didn’t give them the land because of their righteousness (), and He won’t restore the land because of anything good they have done. God in His grace gives us what we don’t deserve, and in His mercy He doesn’t give us what we do deserve! All that we have in Christ comes from God’s grace (; ) and was designed for God’s glory (, , ).

Catalyst

In the last days, when God brings His chosen people back to the Promised Land (), He will change them spiritually; after all, only a transformed people can enjoy a transformed land. The spiritual experience described in this section illustrates what happens to all sinners who trust Jesus Christ.

First, God will cleanse them from their sins, and this is pictured by “sprinkling” (vv. , ; ). According to the Mosaic law, every Jew who became defiled had to be cleansed before he or she could return to the camp and the blessings of the covenant community. This was accomplished either by bathing in running water or by being sprinkled with water prepared for that purpose (; ; ; ).

Second, God will give them new hearts (v. ). Ezekiel had already spoken about this inward change (; ), the kind of change that the Lord yearned for Israel to experience before they entered the Promised Land. “Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever” ().

Third, God will give them the Holy Spirit within (v. ). The Spirit accomplishes these divine miracles in the hearts of those who trust the Lord for salvation. He gives us each a new heart and a new spirit and also a new desire to love the Lord and obey Him. The Holy Spirit is given like refreshing water upon parched ground, and this produces the “fruit of the Spirit” in our lives (; , ).

Fourth, God will claim them again as His people (v. ). This will be like a renewal of the covenant, for they will live in the land—He will be their God, and they will be His people. This will be a permanent arrangement, for they will no longer rebel against the Lord and disobey His will.

Fifth, God will cause the land to flourish (vv. , , ). Under the covenant God made with Israel before they entered Canaan, He agreed to bless them and meet their needs if they would obey Him (; ).

Sixth, the people will abhor their sins (vv. , ). When some people remember their sins, they enjoy them again in the dirty depths of their imagination. This is evidence that they really haven’t judged them and repented. One of the evidences of the Spirit’s presence within is a growing sensitivity to sin and a strong desire to turn away from it.

Seventh, the people will enjoy fellowship with the Lord (v. ). In Ezekiel’s day, individuals couldn’t inquire of the Lord or pray and be heard, because they had sin in their hearts (; , , ). God even told the prophet Jeremiah not to pray for the people (; ; ). But under the new covenant, the people will have fellowship with the Lord and be able to pray to Him.

Eighth, the population will multiply (vv. , ). As in , God pictures His people as a flock of sheep, and every shepherd wants to see his flock increase. The Jewish population was greatly reduced during the Babylonian invasion, but the Lord will bless His people and cause them to be fruitful and multiply (see , ).

Finally, the Lord will be glorified. Israel didn’t glorify God in their land or the temple, nor did they glorify Him in the countries to which they had been scattered. But the day will come when God will be glorified by His people and the glory of the Lord will return to the land.

Every born-again believer sees a parallel here with his or her own experience of faith in Christ. The Lord has washed us () and has given us new hearts and His Holy Spirit within, and because of this, we should have a holy hatred for sin. We have the privilege of communion with God and prayer for our needs, plus a desire within to do His will. God wants to make our lives abundantly fruitful so we will glorify His name. The Lord has made us a part of His new covenant (; ) so that our union with Him through Christ is eternal and unchanging. Hallelujah, what a Savior!

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Of course, sprinkled water can never change the heart, but this is only a picture of the gracious forgiveness we have through faith. God forgives trusting sinners because of the death of Jesus on the cross (). When believers confess their sins to the Lord, they are cleansed because of Christ’s blood ().

The prophet Jeremiah shared the same promise that Ezekiel gave: “I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart” (). Jeremiah was speaking about the new covenant that God would make with the Jews, a covenant not written on stones but on their hearts and in their minds (; ; see ; ). A “stubborn” heart is a stony, hard heart, one that doesn’t receive God’s Word and nurture spiritual growth (; ).

The witness of the Spirit in the heart is proof that the person has been born of God (, ; , ). Because we have God’s Spirit within, we share in the divine nature () and therefore want to obey the divine will. One’s nature determines his or her conduct. Dogs act like dogs because they each have a dog’s nature, and God’s people act like they belong to God because they each have God’s nature within (). Ezekiel will deal again with this gift of the Spirit in and .

When true children of God remember their past disobedience, they’re ashamed of themselves and abhor themselves because of what they have done to the Lord, themselves, and others. “You who love the LORD, hate evil” (). “Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good” ().

, When we read these promises, we are amazed at what the Jews gave up when they turned from serving God to serving idols. But when Israel enters into the promised kingdom, God will bless them and make the land like the garden of Eden. The land will yield its harvests, and the people will be enriched by the blessing of the Lord. The cities will be rebuilt and the ruins removed. This will be a wonderful new land for the new people of God. The beauty and fruitfulness of the land will be a testimony to the nations (v. ).

, The picture here is of the people going to Jerusalem for the annual Passover festival, bringing animal sacrifices with them. The number of animals in Jerusalem would increase greatly, and that’s the way the Jewish people will increase in their kingdom.

Ezekiel had told the people of the Lord’s promise to restore the land and regenerate His people. But what about the nation itself, a nation divided (Israel and Judah) and without a king or a temple? The remnant would return to the ravaged land and rebuild the temple and the city, but none of the blessings Ezekiel had promised would come to them at that time. No, the prophet Ezekiel was looking far down the corridor of time to the end of the age when Jesus the Messiah would return and claim His people. Ezekiel told the people that the dead nation would one day be raised to life, and the divided nation would be united.

For the body of a dead Jew not to be washed, wrapped, and buried with dignity in a grave or a tomb would be humiliating. These bodies were left on the battlefield to become food for the vultures to eat and objects for the sun to bleach. But the Lord had warned Israel in the covenant He made with them that their sins would lead to just that kind of shameful experience.

The Lord told Ezekiel to walk around among the bones so he could appreciate their vast number and see how dry they were. As a priest, Ezekiel was never to be defiled by the dead, but this was a vision and the bones were not toxic. The prophet must have been wondering why the Lord had given him this vision, but God’s question gave him the answer: “Can these bones become living people again?” From the human point of view, the answer is no, but from the divine point of view, nothing is impossible.

Ezekiel had prophesied to the mountains (; ) and to the forests (), and here he was commanded to prophesy to the dead bones. The Word of the Lord is “living and powerful” (); it not only has life but it lives and abides forever (). “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (). God’s word of command in verse is followed by His word of promise in verses and . Ezekiel believed the promise and obeyed the command, and the bones came together. Then the skeletons were covered with flesh and skin so that what was lying there in the valley looked like a sleeping army. The bodies lacked only one thing: life.

God commanded Ezekiel to prophesy to the winds and told him what to say. In the Hebrew language, the word ruah can mean “wind,” “breath,” “spirit,” or “Spirit.” Jesus made use of this when He spoke to Nicodemus about the blowing of the wind and the new birth through the Spirit (). Also included is a reference to the creation of Adam in .

Of course, this vision has a spiritual application for any individual or ministry that needs new life from God. Too often God’s people are like that standing army—lifelike but not alive. How does the life come? Through the Holy Spirit, using the faithful proclamation of the Word of God.

This is the last of Ezekiel’s action sermons. He took two pieces of wood, each one to represent one of the divisions of the nation. One he labeled “For Judah and for the children of Israel, his companions,” and the other “for Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions.” Like a performer before an audience, the prophet announced that the two sticks would become one in his hands—and they did! The people saw what he did, but they didn’t understand what he meant by it.

Ezekiel explained that the Lord would gather the people together to one place, their own land of Israel. He would make them one nation, obeying one king, and, most important, worshiping one God. There would be no more idols or disobedience to the law of the Lord.

The nation would be governed by a “covenant of peace” (see ), which is the “new covenant” that Jeremiah wrote about in . But central to the nation’s unity would be the new temple (), where the glory of God would dwell. In their wilderness days, Israel had the tabernacle to unite the camp of Israel, with each tribe assigned a specific place to pitch their tents. The temple in Jerusalem was also a source of unity, for three times a year the people had to go to Jerusalem to celebrate festivals, and they were allowed to offer sacrifices only at the temple.

, Whether the children of Israel or the saints in the church today, the Lord wants His people to be united (; ; ). Sometimes prayer, sacrifice, and patience are needed to maintain the unity of God’s people, but we must do so. Jesus prayed that His people might be one and manifest to the lost world the living unity between Christ and His church and among believers and local churches (). A divided church is not a strong church or a church bearing witness to the grace and glory of God. God’s people today need the fresh wind of the Spirit to give us new life from God and new love for one another.

Many Bible scholars consider this section of Ezekiel to rank among the most difficult prophetic passages in Scripture, and they don’t all agree in their interpretations. Some have identified this invasion with the Battle of Armageddon, described in and , but these two events differ greatly. Others see as a description of an imagined, idealized battle, assuring the Jews in exile of God’s power to protect His people. While the assurance is certainly there, this approach doesn’t explain the many details recorded in these two chapters. We will approach these chapters assuming that they are describing actual events.

The leader of this army is named Gog, ruler of “Magog,” which means “the land of Gog.” This land was located between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. The title “prince” can be translated “prince of Rosh,” a place that hasn’t been determined yet. But if “prince of Rosh” is the correct translation, then this man will rule over Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. The latter two places are located in eastern Asia Minor along with Gomer and the house of Togarmah. Prince Gog’s allies will be Persia (Iran), Ethiopia, Libya, Gomer, and the house of Togarmah (located near the Black Sea).

, The prophet encouraged his listeners and readers by telling them the end of the story even before he began: God would defeat this vast coalition army and rescue His people Israel in their land. This invasion wouldn’t occur until “after many days” (v. ), when Israel would be enjoying peace and security.

, Why would Gog and its allies want to attack Israel at all? The overt purpose stated here would be to seize the wealth in the land of Israel, a purpose that the other nations would understand. But if our suggested scenario is correct, perhaps these nations also would want to prevent the rebuilding of the Jewish temple. Whatever Prince Gog’s thinking, clearly the Lord would bring out this army. Prince Gog would think he had worked out the whole scheme (vv. , ), but God was in charge. When the northern coalition would enter Israel confident of victory, they would be walking into a trap.

The decisions made in the war room of Magog would conform to the will of the Lord, who had planned this invasion for His own purposes. God in no way would violate their own freedom to think and decide, but He would overrule Gog’s decisions for His own purposes, just as He had done with Babylon ().

God would intervene in His jealous wrath and wipe out the invading forces! First, He would cause an earthquake that would be felt around the world. This earthquake doesn’t seem to fit any of the earthquakes mentioned in the Book of the Revelation (; ; , ; ), but in some places on the earth, the damage would be terrible. The shaking of the land of Israel would throw the invading army into panic, and the soldiers would begin to slaughter one another. Then God would send rain, hailstones, and fire and burning sulfur from heaven as well as a plague on the army, and this would end the invasion, leaving so many corpses that it would take seven months to bury all of them ().

The defeat in chapter focuses on the army, but in , the focus is on the leader of the army, Prince Gog of Magog. God not only would lead the prince, but He would also disarm him so that he would be helpless before his enemy (v. ). Instead of slaughtering the Jews, his soldiers themselves would be slaughtered and become food for the vultures and the beasts of the field. But the Lord wouldn’t stop with His judgment of the armies that invade Israel; He would also send a fiery judgment on the land of Magog (v. ).

The Lord gives four reasons here for bringing Gog and his armies to Israel and then defeating them so dramatically.

• First, this victory will reveal the greatness of the Lord as He displays His power before the nations. The Lord intervened and used weapons that no general on earth could use—rain, hailstones, and burning sulfur from heaven!

• Second, this victory will also reveal God’s holiness as He judges the sins of the leader from Magog and deals with its enmity against the Jews.

• Third, the victory will make Jehovah known to the Gentile nations, and the world will see that the God of Israel is the only true and living God.

• Perhaps the most important reason is given in , that Israel will recognize the holiness of God and be convicted of her own sins. During their time of dispersion in the other nations, the Jews had profaned the name of the Lord (). Here God gathers them back into their own land, but they are still not a converted people; otherwise they would confess God’s holiness and greatness. Their time of renewal is still coming.

Go to the

The sudden destruction of this great army would leave behind a multitude of corpses as well as a huge amount of military material. Scripture doesn’t reveal how much other damage would be done by the storm God sent, but clearly the land would need cleaning up.

People from the cities of Israel would go out and gather and burn the weapons and supplies left by Gog’s defeated army. The ancient military equipment listed here includes hand shields and body shields, bows and arrows, and clubs and spears. These are not the weapons of a modern army, but Ezekiel had to use language the people could understand.

Not all the corpses could be buried immediately, so the carrion-eating birds and beasts would enjoy a feast at the invitation of the Lord. (The bones left behind would be buried; see v. .) This invitation to a feast is a frequent biblical image for the judgment of God and His victory over His enemies. Isaiah used it for God’s victory over Edom (), Jeremiah for God’s victory over Egypt (), and Zephaniah for the Lord’s dealing with Judah (, ).

God destroyed the invading army not only for the protection of His people but also for the demonstration of His glory before the Gentiles. This miracle was also a reminder to the Jews, newly returned to their land (vv. , ), that Jehovah alone was the Lord. The fact that the Jews rebuild their temple is evidence they have faith in the ancient religious system, but that isn’t the same as saving faith in their Messiah, Jesus Christ. This experience of deliverance would remind them of the many times their ancestors had been miraculously delivered by the Lord, as recorded in their Scriptures.

, The victory over Gog and his hordes would say something to the Gentile nations about Israel. It would tell them that the Jews were indeed the people of God who had been chastened by God in the past but were destined for a kingdom. A day will come when this rebellious nation will be cleansed and forgiven, and the Lord will pour out His Spirit on His people. That will happen when they see the Messiah, repent of their sins, and trust Him for their salvation.

On April 28, 573 B.C.—the first day of Passover—God gave Ezekiel the vision recorded in chapters through . The Jews had been captives in Babylon for twenty-five years, and Passover would only remind them of their deliverance from Egypt. Passover was also the beginning of Israel’s religious year (), and the Lord chose that significant day to tell His servant about the glory that Israel would share when Messiah established His kingdom.

Ezekiel saw a new land and a glorious new temple. Just as Moses had received the tabernacle plans while on a mountain, so Ezekiel received the plans for the temple while on a mountain. Moses hadn’t been allowed to enter the Promised Land, but he had seen it from a mountain (), and from a high mountain Ezekiel saw the land and its new tribal divisions.

Ezekiel held a cord and a rod, both of which were used for taking measurements, the cord for long distances () and the rod for shorter measurements. The rod was probably a little over ten feet long (). To measure property is symbolic of claiming it for one’s self. During those years when the Jewish remnant was trying to rebuild their temple, the prophet Zechariah saw a man measuring the temple, and this was a sign that the temple and the city would one day be restored (). God commanded the apostle John to measure the temple in Jerusalem before it was trampled down by the Gentiles (). This was evidence that no matter what happened, Jerusalem and the temple belonged to God and would one day be restored and sanctified.

The outer courtyard covered nearly 400,000 square feet, but it would not have a Court of the Gentiles with the all-important separating wall (), nor would it have a separate Court of the Women. Our Lord’s desire would be fulfilled that His house be a house of prayer for men and women of all nations (; ; ). The size of the outer court and the accessibility of so many rooms suggest that the area would be a place for fellowship, where people could meet and enjoy sacrificial meals together.

; Walking straight across the outer court from any of the three gates in the outer wall, we would come to one of the three gates leading into the inner court. Eight steps would take us through the gate (), past the rooms for guards, and into the inner court. The walls containing these inner gates would contain chambers for the priests and for the preparation of offerings. The inner court was 175 feet square and the altar of sacrifice was placed in the center of the court ().

The angelic guide showed Ezekiel the various rooms adjacent to the inner court and the temple proper, all of them set aside for the ministering priests.

, The text says nothing about a veil between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place, but since the Messiah would be present with His people, the veil would not be necessary. He wants His glory to be revealed to all. Also, the text makes no mention of the ark of the covenant or the mercy seat on which the blood would be sprinkled on the annual Day of Atonement. Mention is made of a wooden altar or table that probably stood before the entrance to the Most Holy Place.

Nothing is said about a golden altar of incense or the seven-branched golden lampstand in this temple. The altar of incense symbolized the prayers of God’s people ascending to the Lord (; ), but since the Lord would be present, symbolic prayer would not be needed. As for the lampstand, which symbolized the light of God’s truth through the nation of Israel, the shekinah glory would be present in the temple of the Lord.

Ezekiel had seen the glory depart from the temple, but now he saw the glory return. His guide took him back to the eastern gate in the outer court, and when the prophet looked out, he saw the glory approaching from the east. Along with the sight of the glory came the sound of the Lord’s voice “like the roar of rushing waters” (v. ; see ; ; ; ). The whole land of Israel was enlightened by the radiance of God’s glory, and Ezekiel fell to the ground as he did when he saw the glory throne at the beginning of His ministry (; ; ; ). Then the temple was filled with God’s glory, and the Spirit transported Ezekiel back into the inner court.

, The temple would be God’s throne and the Messiah would reign as both King and Priest (). Today, Jesus Christ is enthroned in heaven as our “High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (; see ). The king-priest Melchizedek had met Abraham after the battle of the kings and had blessed him with bread and wine (); the spiritual significance of this event is explained in .

, The presence of God’s glory and God’s throne would so sanctify the temple that the people would approach the sanctuary with awe and not treat it like any other building, nor would they repeat their heinous sin of defiling the temple with their idols. God spoke to the prophet and told him to tell the Jewish people what he saw and heard so they would be ashamed of their past sins and turn from them.

Catalyst

We must now consider the perplexing problem of the sacrifices on the bronze altar (). The Lord instructed the priests in how the altar should be dedicated by the offering of a series of sacrifices during the week of consecration (vv. ). In the dedication of the tabernacle () and Solomon’s temple (), sacrifices had been offered and the blood applied to the altar.

If this temple described by Ezekiel is the millennial temple, why will we need to return to animal sacrifices when Jesus has made one perfect offering for all time? This is one of the major arguments used by some students against taking through literally. Understanding the role of the sacrifices under the old covenant will help us see their significance in the millennial temple.

The sacrifices mentioned in this section of Ezekiel are the burnt offering (, ; , , ; ; , , , ; , , , , ); the trespass or guilt offering (; ; ; ); the sin offering (; ; , , , ; , ; , , , , ; ); the peace or fellowship offering (; , ; , ); the meal (grain) offering (; ; , , , ; , , , , , ); and the drink offering (). For the Mosaic regulations for these offerings, see through .

All of these offerings in some way pointed to Christ and His sacrifice of Himself for our sins (). God would forgive the sins of the worshipers if they would bring the sacrifice by faith and trust the Lord, because the blood of animals can never remove the guilt of human sin (). God’s forgiveness was declared (, , , ; , , , ; ), but only because of the work of Jesus Christ which was pictured by the sacrifice. Old Testament believers weren’t forgiven because animals died, but because they had put their faith in the Lord.

The temple will be a place of learning for both Jews and Gentiles (), and no doubt the worshipers will study the Old Testament law and learn more about Jesus. They will study the New Testament as well and see the deeper significance of the sacrifices and the feasts.

Regarding the priests (; ; ; ), God’s desire was that the entire nation of Israel be “a kingdom of priests” (), but this was never fulfilled. Believers today are part of “a holy priesthood” and “a royal priesthood” (see , ) through Jesus Christ their High Priest. In the millennial temple, the priests and Levites will minister to the people and to the Lord.

We have already seen that special chambers will be set aside in the temple for the use of the priests (; ). Some will be residences, while other rooms will be used for daily ministry, such as changing garments, preparing the sacrifices, and cooking the meat for the meals. (See , .) When the millennial temple is dedicated, the priests will offer the sacrifices (), just as the priests did when the tabernacle and the temple were dedicated (; ).

Go to the

Without giving this person’s true identity, Ezekiel introduced “the prince” (v. ), and mentioned him at least sixteen times in the rest of the book. See . for more on this prince.

The Lord was very particular about the way the sanctuary would be used. He warned the future priests that they must teach the people to make a difference between the clean and the unclean (v. ; see ) and not to permit outsiders to defile the temple. Many of the Mosaic regulations for the priests are summarized in .

The Lord was also very particular about the conduct of the priests. He told them what to wear (vv. ), how to groom themselves (v. ), not to drink wine while ministering (v. ), whom not to marry (v. ), and at all times to show and teach the difference between clean and unclean (v. ), even if a relative were to die (vv. ). They should act as judges and see to it that the law is honored and obeyed (v. ). Like the Old Testament priests, the kingdom priests would not have an inheritance of land but would have the Lord as their inheritance and be able to live from the temple offerings (vv. ; see ; , ; ).

The closing chapters of Ezekiel’s prophecy explain how the land of Israel would be divided during the kingdom age, with a section assigned to the Lord, another to the prince, and then one to each of the twelve tribes. The first assignments of the Promised Land had been made after the conquest of Canaan, with Joshua, Eleazar the high priest, and the heads of the twelve tribes casting lots before the Lord to determine the boundaries (; ; ). During his reign, King Solomon had divided the land into twelve royal “districts,” and had required each district to provide food for the king and his household for one month (), but no actual boundary lines were changed; however, the plan wasn’t popular with the people ().

; , Between the areas assigned to Judah and Benjamin would be a section reserved for the Lord and the prince. The Lord’s section would be 8.3 miles square, which equals about 55 square miles. The area would be divided horizontally into three sections, each section 8.3 miles long. The top section (3.3 miles wide) would be the sacred area for the temple and the priests. The priests would not be permitted to own land but would be allowed to live there near the sanctuary ().

; , The prince referred to should not be confused with “David . . . their prince” (; , ), whom some see as the Messiah, the heir to David’s throne (); nor should he be confused with the Messiah. The prince would be a married man and would have sons who can inherit his land (), which is located on either side of the central sacred area. Nowhere is he identified as a member of the royal family, a priest, or a Levite. We aren’t even told what tribe he will come from. Apparently he will be a civil ruler, a vice-regent under the authority of the Messiah, and yet most of his functions will be religious.

On the Sabbath and at new moon, the prince would present his offerings before the people were permitted to worship. During the week, the eastern gate into the inner court would be closed, but it would be opened for the prince on the Sabbath and at new moon, or whenever he wanted to present a voluntary burnt offering or peace offering (v. ). He would be allowed to come as far as the eastern gate but not to the altar in the inner court.

After the sacrifice, the prince would leave the sanctuary just as he had come in. When the people come in to worship on the special feast days, they must exit by the gate opposite the one by which they entered (v. ). The prince would not isolate himself from the people on the feast days but be a part of the crowd (v. ). The prince must see to it that the daily burnt offerings were presented on the altar, just as they had been in the tabernacle and temple (; ).

After seeing the kitchens in the temple (), Ezekiel noticed a trickle of water issuing from the Most Holy Place, past the altar on the south side. The guide led him out the north gate (the eastern gate was closed) and around the temple to the eastern gate where he saw the water coming out from under the building on the south side of the gate. (See ; .) The guide measured the depth of the water four times and the river became so deep that a person could swim in it. Ezekiel learned that the river flowed to the Dead Sea where it brought new life to that forsaken area. The water from the temple would heal the Dead Sea as well as the rivers, and the water creatures would multiply wherever the waters came. The trees on the banks of the river would provide food each month and the leaves would be used for healing.

Catalyst

In examining all the information Ezekiel recorded for us, we must be careful not to lose the major messages among these important details. In one sense, the messages of the entire book are wrapped up in one way or another in chapters through . The spiritual lessons are as meaningful to us today as they were to Israel in Ezekiel’s day, or as they will be to the Jewish people in Messiah’s day:

Separation from sin. Ezekiel was a priest as well as a prophet, and priests had the responsibility to teach the people the difference between the holy and the unholy and the clean and the unclean (; , ). Israel drifted into sin because they began to erase these differences and became like the pagan nations around them. The temple in Jerusalem, with its special courts and holy chambers, reminded the people that God put a difference between the holy and the profane. For people to “say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter” () is to violate the basic principle of holy living. (See ; ; .)

Worship. The temple was a place of worship, but the heart of the worshiper was far more important that his or her gifts. The Jews in the southern kingdom of Judah had defiled the holy temple of God and dared to worship Jehovah along with the idols of the nations around them. God’s people don’t decide how they are going to worship the Lord; they simply obey what He has told them in His Word.

Fulfillment. One of the purposes of the millennial kingdom is that God might fulfill His promises to His people, promises He couldn’t fulfill because of their rebellion and unbelief. In His grace and mercy, God gave Israel a wonderful land, a perfect law, and a glorious Lord. They defiled the land by their terrible crimes; they disobeyed the law by adopting pagan practices; and they defied their Lord and tempted Him by resisting His calls to repentance. But during the kingdom, Israel will trust the Lord, obey His Word, worship in His temple as they should, and bring delight to the Lord who will rule from David’s throne.

But here’s a further fulfillment—the kingdom age will wrap up all the previous ages in God’s revelation of Himself and His purposes. The land will be like the garden of Eden (), complete with a river of life and trees of life. The promises made to Abraham will be fulfilled, and his descendants will possess and enjoy their land. The Law of Moses will be obeyed from the heart, and the Lord will be worshiped and glorified. The Messiah that Israel rejected at His first coming will be received and honored and will reign over them (, ). God will fulfill every kingdom promise found in the pages of the prophets!

Go to the

Jerusalem is the only great city of the ancient world that wasn’t located on a river, and in the east, a dependable water supply is essential for life and for defense. During the kingdom age, Jerusalem would have a river such as no other nation had ever had. But would this be a literal river or merely a sacred symbol of the life-giving power of the Lord? Perhaps it is both. and and , speak of this river as a literal entity, so the river both illustrates and accomplishes the life-giving work of God. Jesus saw such a river as a symbol of the Holy Spirit (), and the apostle John saw a similar scene in the heavenly city of God (, ).

, In the millennial kingdom, the boundaries of the tribes would be altogether different from what they had been before Israel fell to Assyria and Judah to Babylon. The boundaries of the land () would be about what Moses described in , but each tribe’s allotment would cut straight across the land. From north to south, the tribes would be Dan, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Ephraim, Reuben, and Judah.

This would be a “kingdom Jerusalem,” a new city for the new nation and the new era. Jerusalem’s gates have always been significant (; ; ; ), but here the city would have twelve gates, each one named after one of Jacob’s twelve sons. Instead of “Ephraim” and “Manasseh” (two gates), there would be “Joseph” (one gate), and Levi would have a gate. Any Gentile coming to the city to learn about the Lord would have to enter the city through one of these gates and be reminded that “salvation is of the Jews” (). The city would be about 1.6 miles square. These gates, of course, remind us of the gates to the Holy City that John described in , .

The most important characteristic of the new city would be the presence of the Lord among His united people (see ). The new name would be Jehovah Shammah—“THE LORD IS THERE.” This is one of seven compound names of Jehovah found in the Old Testament: Jehovah Jireh—“The-LORD-Will-Provide” (, ); Jehovah Rapha—“the LORD who heals” (); Jehovah Shalom—“The-LORD-Is-Peace” (); Jehovah Tsidkenu—“THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (); Jehovah Shammah—“THE LORD IS THERE” (); Jehovah Nissi—“The-LORD-Is-My-Banner” (); and Jehovah Ra’ah—“the LORD is my shepherd” ().

Ezekiel 1

1:1 , ;

1:1 ;

1:1

1:1 Following Masoretic Text, Septuagint, and Vulgate; Syriac and Targum read a vision.

1:3 ,

1:3 Or Babylonians, and so elsewhere in this book

1:4 ;

1:4

1:5

1:5

1:5

1:7

1:8 ,

1:9 ;

1:10

1:10

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1:10

1:11

1:12 ,

1:13

1:14 []

1:15

1:16 ,

1:16

1:18

1:19 ,

1:20

1:20 Literally living creature; Septuagint and Vulgate read spirit of life; Targum reads creatures.

1:21 Literally living creature; Septuagint and Vulgate read spirit of life; Targum reads creatures.

1:22

1:22

1:22

1:22 Following Septuagint, Targum, and Vulgate; Masoretic Text reads living creature.

1:24 ;

1:24

1:24 ,

1:26

1:26 ,

1:26

1:27

1:28 ;

1:28 ;

1:28

Ezekiel 2

2:1

2:2

2:3 ; , ,

2:3

2:4

2:5 , ,

2:5

2:5

2:6 ,

2:6

2:6 []

2:6 , ,

2:7 ,

2:8

2:9 []

2:9

Ezekiel 3

3:1 ,

3:3

3:3 ;

3:6

3:7 ,

3:7

3:9

3:9 ,

3:11 ,

3:12

3:12 ;

3:13 ;

3:14

3:15

3:16

3:17

3:17

3:17 []

3:18 [, ]

3:19 ;

3:20 ;

3:22

3:22

3:23

3:23

3:23

3:24

3:25

3:26 ,

3:26

3:26

3:27 ;

3:27

Ezekiel 4

4:2

4:2

4:3 ,

4:3 , ; ,

4:5

4:8

4:13

4:14

4:14 ;

4:14

4:16

4:16 , ;

4:16

4:17

Ezekiel 5

5:1

5:2

5:2

5:2 ,

5:2

5:3 ;

5:4 , ;

5:7 ,

5:7 Following Masoretic Text, Septuagint, Targum, and Vulgate; many Hebrew manuscripts and Syriac read but have done (compare ).

5:9 []

5:10

5:10 ;

5:11 []

5:11

5:11 , ; ;

5:12

5:12

5:12 , ;

5:13

5:13

5:13

5:13 ;

5:14

5:15

5:15 []

5:15 ;

5:15 Septuagint, Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate read you.

5:16

5:16

5:17

5:17

Ezekiel 6

6:2 ; ;

6:2

6:3

6:4

6:7 ,

6:8

6:8

6:9 []

6:9

6:9 ,

6:9 ;

6:11

6:11

6:12

6:13 ;

6:13

6:13

6:14

6:14

Ezekiel 7

7:2 ,

7:3 []

7:4

7:4

7:5 ,

7:7

7:7 ,

7:8 ,

7:10

7:11

7:11 ,

7:12

7:12

7:15

7:16 ;

7:17

7:18

7:19

7:20

7:21

7:23

7:24 ;

7:24

7:26

7:26

Ezekiel 8

8:1 ; ;

8:1 ;

8:2 ,

8:2 ,

8:3

8:3

8:3 , ;

8:3

8:3 ,

8:4 ;

8:4 ; ,

8:6 ,

8:10

8:10

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8:12

8:16

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8:16 ;

8:16

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8:18 ; ;

8:18 ; , ; ,

8:18

Ezekiel 9

9:2

9:3 ; ; , ; ,

9:3 Literally house

9:4 , ; ;

9:4

9:5

9:5

9:6

9:6

9:6

9:6 , ,

9:8

9:8

9:9

9:9

9:9

9:10 ; ;

9:10

Ezekiel 10

10:1 ,

10:2

10:2

10:2

10:3 ,

10:3 Literally house, also in verses and

10:4

10:4

10:4 ,

10:5

10:5 []

10:8 ;

10:9

10:9

10:11

10:12 ,

10:14 , ,

10:15 ,

10:16

10:17 , ,

10:17 Literally they

10:17 Literally they

10:17 Literally they

10:18

10:18

10:19

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10:20

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10:21 , ; ; ,

10:22

10:22 ,

Ezekiel 11

11:1 ,

11:1

11:1

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11:5 ;

11:5 [; ]

11:6 ; , , ,

11:7 ,

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11:10

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11:11 ,

11:12 ,

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11:17 , ;

11:18

11:19

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11:19

11:19 Literally you

11:20

11:20

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11:23 ;

11:23

11:23

11:24

11:24 Or Babylon, and so elsewhere in this book

Ezekiel 12

12:2 ,

12:2

12:2

12:6 ;

12:9

12:9 ;

12:10

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12:11 , ,

12:12 ;

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12:15 , ; ,

12:16

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12:23

12:24

12:24

12:25 []

12:25 []

12:27

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Ezekiel 13

13:2

13:2

13:2 ; ,

13:4

13:5

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13:6

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13:9 ,

13:9

13:9 ,

13:10 ;

13:10

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13:16 ; ;

13:17 ;

13:17

13:18 []

13:18 Literally over all the joints of My hands; Vulgate reads under every elbow; Septuagint and Targum read on all elbows of the hands.

13:19

13:21

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13:23 ,

Ezekiel 14

14:1 ; ;

14:3

14:3 ,

14:6 ; ; ,

14:8

14:8

14:8 ;

14:9

14:11

14:11 ;

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14:14 []

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14:16 ; ,

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14:22 ;

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14:22

14:23 ,

Ezekiel 15

15:4 []

15:7

15:7

15:7

Ezekiel 16

16:2 ;

16:3

16:3

16:4

16:7

16:8

16:8

16:8

16:8 []

16:11 ,

16:11

16:13 ,

16:13

16:14

16:15

16:15 ;

16:16

16:19

16:20

16:21

16:22

16:22

16:24

16:24 ;

16:25

16:26 ; ,

16:26

16:27

16:28 ,

16:29

16:31 ,

16:31

16:33 ,

16:36

16:37

16:38

16:38

16:39 ,

16:39

16:40

16:40 ,

16:41

16:41 ; ,

16:41

16:42 ;

16:43

16:43 ; ;

16:43 Following Septuagint, Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate; Masoretic Text reads were agitated with Me.

16:45

16:45

16:46

16:47 ,

16:48 ;

16:49

16:50 ; ;

16:50

16:50 Vulgate reads you saw; Septuagint reads he saw; Targum reads as was revealed to Me.

16:51

16:51

16:53

16:53

16:54

16:57

16:57

16:57 Following Masoretic Text, Septuagint, Targum, and Vulgate; many Hebrew manuscripts and Syriac read Edom.

16:58

16:59

16:59

16:60

16:60

16:61 ;

16:61 []

16:61

16:62 ,

16:63 ,

16:63 []

Ezekiel 17

17:2 ;

17:3

17:3

17:5

17:5

17:6

17:7

17:7 Following Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate; Masoretic Text and Targum read one.

17:9

17:10

17:12 ;

17:12

17:13

17:13

17:14

17:15

17:15

17:15

17:16

17:17

17:17

17:18

17:20

17:20

17:21

17:21 ;

17:21 Following Masoretic Text and Vulgate; many Hebrew manuscripts and Syriac read choice men; Targum reads mighty men; Septuagint omits All his fugitives.

17:22 []

17:22

17:22 []

17:23 [, ]

17:23

17:24

17:24

Ezekiel 18

18:2

18:4 ;

18:4 []

18:6

18:6 ;

18:6 ;

18:7

18:7

18:7 ,

18:7

18:8

18:8

18:9

18:10

18:12 ,

18:13 , , ,

18:15

18:17 Following Masoretic Text, Targum, and Vulgate; Septuagint reads iniquity (compare verse ).

18:18

18:19

18:20

18:20

18:20 ,

18:20

18:21 ; ,

18:22 ;

18:22 []

18:23 [; ]

18:24 ; ;

18:24 []

18:25 ; ,

18:26

18:27

18:28

18:29

18:30 ;

18:30

18:31 ,

18:31

18:32

18:32 [, , ]

Ezekiel 19

19:1 ;

19:3 ,

19:4 ,

19:5

19:6 ,

19:6

19:7 Septuagint reads He stood in insolence; Targum reads He destroyed its palaces; Vulgate reads He learned to make widows.