The Daily Audio Bible

Ezekiel, a Watchman for Israel

¹⁶ At the end of seven days, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ¹⁷ Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel. Whenever you hear the word from My mouth, then warn them from Me. ¹⁸ When I say to the wicked, “You shall surely die,” and you do not warn him, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. ¹⁹ Yet if you warn the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity. But you have delivered your soul.

²⁰ Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you have not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered. But his blood I will require at your hand. ²¹ Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man that the righteous should not sin and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning. And you have delivered your soul.

²² The hand of the Lord was upon me there, and He said to me, Rise, go out into the plain, and I will talk with you there. ²³ Then I arose, and went out into the plain. And the glory of the Lord stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river of Kebar, and I fell on my face.

²⁴ Then the Spirit entered me, and set me on my feet, and spoke with me and said to me: Go, shut yourself up within your house. ²⁵ As for you, son of man, they shall put bands on you and shall bind you with them, so that you cannot go out among them. ²⁶ And I will make your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth so that you shall be mute and cannot be one to rebuke them, for they are a rebellious house. ²⁷ But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord God.” He who hears, let him hear. And he who refuses, let him refuse. For they are a rebellious house.

The Siege of Jerusalem Portrayed

4 You also, son of man, take a brick and lay it before you and inscribe a city on it, even Jerusalem. ² Then lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and build a mound against it; set camps and place battering rams against it all around. ³ Moreover take for yourself an iron plate and set it up for a wall of iron between you and the city. And set your face against it so that it is besieged, and lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

⁴ As for you, lie down on your left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it. According to the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity. ⁵ For I have laid upon 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 When you have accomplished them, lie again on your right side, and you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days. I have appointed you each day for a year. ⁷ Therefore you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and your arm shall be uncovered, and you shall prophesy against it. ⁸ I will lay bands upon you, and you shall not turn yourself from one side to another until you have ended the days of your siege.

⁹ Also take for yourself wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel and make bread. According to the number of the days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days, you shall eat it. ¹⁰ Your food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels^[a] a day. From time to time you shall eat it. ¹¹ You also shall drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin.^[b] From time to time you shall drink it. ¹² You shall eat it as barley cake, having baked it in their sight with dung that comes out of man. ¹³ Then the Lord said, “Even so the sons of Israel shall eat their defiled bread among the nations where I drive them.”

¹⁴ Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! My soul has not been defiled. For from my youth up even until now I have not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn in pieces, nor has abominable meat come into my mouth.”

¹⁵ Then He said to me, “I have given you cow dung instead of man’s dung over which you shall prepare your bread.”

¹⁶ Moreover He said to me, Son of man, I will cut off the supply of bread in Jerusalem. They shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety and drink water by measure and with horror, ¹⁷ because bread and water will be scarce, and they will be appalled with one another, and waste away for their iniquity.

A Sword Against Jerusalem

5 As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword. Take and cause it to pass upon your head and upon your beard as a barber’s razor. Then take balances to weigh and divide the hair. ² You shall burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city when the days of the siege are fulfilled. Then you shall take a third part and strike it with the sword all around the city. And a third part you shall scatter in the wind. And I will draw out a sword after them. ³ You shall also take a few in number from them and bind them in the edges of your robes. ⁴ Then take some of them again and cast them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire. For a fire shall come out into all the house of Israel.

⁵ Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem. I have set it in the midst of the nations, with countries that are all around her. ⁶ But she has rebelled against My judgments more wickedly than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are all around her. For they have refused My judgments and My statutes, and have not walked in them.

⁷ Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have more turmoil than the nations that are round about you and have not walked in My statutes, or have kept My judgments, and have not even acted according to the judgments of the nations that are all around you, ⁸ therefore thus says the Lord God: Pay attention. I, even I, am against you and will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. ⁹ I will do in you what I have not done, and the like of which I will not do anymore, because of all your abominations. ¹⁰ Therefore the fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and the sons shall eat their fathers. For I will execute judgments on you, and the whole remnant of you I will scatter into 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, and My eye shall have no pity, nor will I spare. ¹² A third part of you shall die by pestilence or by famine; they shall be consumed in your midst. And a third part shall fall by the sword all around you. And I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.

¹³ Thus My anger shall be accomplished, and I will cause My fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted. Then they shall know that I the Lord have spoken it in My zeal when I have accomplished My fury in them.

¹⁴ Moreover I will make you a desolation 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 and a taunt, a warning and an astonishment to the nations that are all around you, when I execute judgments in you in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I the Lord have spoken it. ¹⁶ When I send upon them the deadly arrows of famine which shall be for their destruction and which I will send to destroy you, then I will also increase the famine upon you and break your staff of bread. ¹⁷ So I will send upon you famine and wild beasts, and they shall bereave you of children. And pestilence and bloodshed shall pass through you. And I will bring the sword upon you. I the Lord have spoken it.

Judgment on Idolatrous Israel

6 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ² Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, ³ and say, Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. Thus says the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys: Pay attention. I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places. ⁴ Your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken. And I will cast down your slain men before your idols. ⁵ I will lay the dead corpses of the sons 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, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images 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.

⁸ Yet I will leave a remnant, for you will have some who escape the sword among the nations when you are scattered among the countries. ⁹ Those of you who escape shall remember Me among the nations wherever they shall be carried captive, because I am broken by their whorish heart which has departed from Me, and with their eyes which play the harlot after their idols. And they shall loathe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations. ¹⁰ They shall know that I am the Lord, and that I have not said in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them.

¹¹ Thus says the Lord God: Clap your hand, and stamp with your foot, and say, Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! For they shall fall by sword, by famine, and by pestilence. ¹² He who is far off shall die of pestilence, and he who is near shall fall by the sword, and he who remains and is besieged shall die by famine. Thus I will accomplish My fury upon them. ¹³ Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when their slain men shall be among their idols all around their altars, on every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they offered sweet savor to all their idols. ¹⁴ So, in all their habitations I will stretch out My hand upon them and make the land desolate, indeed, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblah. And they shall know that I am the Lord.

4 Therefore, since the promise of entering His rest remains, let us fear lest any of you should seem to come short of it. ² For the gospel was preached to us as well as to them. But the word preached did not benefit them, because it was not mixed with faith in those who heard it. ³ For we who have believed have entered this rest, as He has said,

However, His works have been finished since the creation of the world. ⁴ For He spoke somewhere about the seventh day like this: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works.”^{[b] 5} And again in the present passage He said, “They shall not enter My rest.”^[c]

⁶ Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and they to whom it was first preached did not enter due to unbelief, ⁷ again He establishes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David, after so long a time, as it has been said:

⁸ For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have later spoken of another day. ⁹ Therefore a rest remains for the people of God. ¹⁰ For whoever enters His rest will also cease from his own works, as God did from His. ¹¹ Let us labor therefore to enter that rest, lest anyone fall by the same pattern of unbelief.

¹² For the word of God is alive, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intents of the heart. ¹³ There is no creature that is not revealed in His sight, for all things are bare and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

Jesus the Great High Priest

¹⁴ Since then we have a great High Priest who has passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to our confession. ¹⁵ For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who was in every sense tempted like we are, yet without sin. ¹⁶ Let us then come with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.