Holman Christian Standard Bible (245 page)

14
 But I said, “Oh, Lord
God
, I have never been defiled. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything that died naturally or was mauled by wild beasts. And impure meat has never entered my mouth.” 

15
 He replied to me, “Look, I will let you use cow dung instead of human excrement, and you can make your bread over that.”
16
 Then He said to me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of bread in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight and in dread drink water by measure. 
17
 So they will lack bread and water; everyone will be devastated and waste away because of their iniquity. 

Ezekiel

Ezekiel Dramatizes Jerusalem's Fall

5
“Now you, son of man, take a sharp sword, use it as you would a barber's razor, and shave your head and beard. Then take a set of scales and divide the hair.
2
 You are to burn up a third of it in the city when the days of the siege have ended; you are to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind, for I will draw a sword to chase after them.
3
 But you are to take a few strands from the hair and secure them in the folds of your robe. 
4
 Take some more of them, throw them into the fire, and burn them in it. A fire will spread from it to the whole house of Israel.

5
 “This is what the Lord
God
says: I have set this Jerusalem in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.
6
 But she has rebelled against My ordinances with more wickedness than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that surround her. For her people have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.

7
 “Therefore, this is what the Lord
God
says: Because you have been more insubordinate than the nations around you  — you have not walked in My statutes or kept My ordinances; you have not even kept the ordinances of the nations around you —
8
 therefore, this is what the Lord
God
says: See, I am against you, Jerusalem, and I will execute judgments within you in the sight of the nations.
9
 Because of all your detestable practices, I will do to you what I have never done before and what I will never do again. 
10
 As a result, fathers will eat their sons within Jerusalem, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your survivors to every direction of the wind.

11
 “Therefore, as I live” — this is the declaration of the Lord
God
 — “I am going to cut you off and show you no pity, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable practices and abominations. Yes, I will not spare you.
12
 A third of your people will die by plague and be consumed by famine within you; a third will fall by the sword all around you; and I will scatter a third to every direction of the wind, and I will draw a sword to chase after them. 
13
 When My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath on them, I will be appeased. Then after I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I,
•Yahweh
, have spoken in My jealousy. 

14
 “I will make you a ruin and a disgrace among the nations around you, in the sight of everyone who passes by.
15
 So you will be a disgrace and a taunt, a warning and a horror, to the nations around you when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and furious rebukes. I, Yahweh, have spoken.
16
 When I shoot deadly arrows of famine at them, arrows for destruction that I will send to destroy you, inhabitants of Jerusalem, I will intensify the famine against you and cut off your supply of bread.
17
 I will send famine and dangerous animals against you. They will leave you childless, Jerusalem. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, Yahweh, have spoken.” 

Ezekiel

Prophecy against Israel's Idolatry

6
The word of the
Lord
came to me:
2
 “Son of man, turn your face toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.
3
 You are to say: Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord
God
! This is what the Lord
God
says to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your
•high
places. 
4
 Your altars will be desolated and your incense altars smashed. I will throw down your slain in front of your idols.
5
 I will lay the corpses of the Israelites in front of their idols and scatter your bones around your altars.
6
 Wherever you live the cities will be in ruins and the high places will be desolate, so that your altars will lie in ruins and be desecrated, your idols smashed and obliterated, your incense altars cut down, and your works wiped out.
7
 The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am
•Yahweh
.

8
 “Yet I will leave a remnant when you are scattered among the nations, for throughout the countries there will be some of you who will escape the sword. 
9
 Then your survivors will remember Me among the nations where they are taken captive, how I was crushed by their promiscuous hearts that turned away from Me and by their eyes that lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves because of the evil things they did, their detestable practices of every kind.
10
 And they will know that I am the
Lord
; I did not threaten to bring this disaster on them without a reason.

Lament over the Fall of Jerusalem

11
 “This is what the Lord
God
says: Clap your hands, stamp your feet, and cry out over all the evil and detestable practices of the house of Israel, who will fall by the sword, famine, and plague. 
12
 The one who is far off will die by plague; the one who is near will fall by the sword; and the one who remains and is spared will die of famine. In this way I will exhaust My wrath on them. 
13
 You will all know that I am Yahweh when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, and under every green tree and every leafy oak — the places where they offered pleasing aromas to all their idols.
14
 I will stretch out My hand against them, and wherever they live I will make the land a desolate waste, from the wilderness to Diblah. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.”

Ezekiel

Announcement of the End

7
And the word of the
Lord
came to me:
2
 “Son of man, this is what the Lord
God
says to the land of Israel:

5
 This is what the Lord
God
says:

Ezekiel

Visionary Journey to Jerusalem

8
In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, I was sitting in my house and the elders of Judah were sitting in front of me, and there the hand of the Lord
God
came down on me. 
2
 I looked, and there was a form that had the appearance of a man. From what seemed to be His waist down was fire, and from His waist up was something that looked bright, like the gleam of amber. 
3
 He stretched out what appeared to be a hand and took me by the hair of my head. Then the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and carried me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the inner gate that faces north, where the offensive statue that provokes jealousy was located.
4
 I saw the glory of the God of Israel there, like the vision I had seen in the plain. 

Pagan Practices in the Temple

5
 The
Lord
said to me, “Son of man, look toward the north.” I looked to the north, and there was this offensive statue north of the altar gate, at the entrance.
6
 He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing here, more detestable things that the house of Israel is committing, so that I must depart from My sanctuary? You will see even more detestable things.”