Ezekiel 24

¹In the seventh year, on the tenth day of the fifth month, some of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the Lord, and they sat down before me.

¹In the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting before me; and there the hand of the Lord God fell upon me.

¹²Jehoiachin king of Judah, his mother, his servants, his commanders, and his officials all surrendered to the king of Babylon. So in the eighth year of his reign, the king of Babylon took him captive.

¹In the twelfth year, on the first day of the twelfth month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²¹In the twelfth year of our exile, on the fifth day of the tenth month, a fugitive from Jerusalem came to me and reported, “The city has been taken!”

¹In the eleventh month of the twelfth year, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

¹So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army. They encamped outside the city and built a siege wall all around it.

¹In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army and laid siege to the city.

⁴So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army. They encamped outside the city and built a siege wall all around it.

⁸Go now, write it on a tablet in their presence and inscribe it on a scroll; it will be for the days to come, a witness forever and ever.

⁹These are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to obey the Lord’s instruction.

²Then the Lord answered me: “Write down this vision and clearly inscribe it on tablets, so that a herald may run with it.

³For the vision awaits an appointed time; it testifies of the end and does not lie. Though it lingers, wait for it, since it will surely come and will not delay.

¹Then the Lord said to me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary stylus: Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

⁴⁹Then I said, “Ah, Lord God, they are saying of me, ‘Is he not just telling parables?’”

³They are saying, ‘Is not the time near to build houses? The city is the cooking pot, and we are the meat.’

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

²Listen, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken: “I have raised children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against Me.

⁶But you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns surround you, and you dwell among scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their presence, though they are a rebellious house.

³“Son of man,” He said to me, “I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me. To this very day they and their fathers have rebelled against Me.

²You hate good and love evil. You tear the skin from my people and strip the flesh from their bones.

³You eat the flesh of my people after stripping off their skin and breaking their bones. You chop them up like flesh for the cooking pot, like meat in a cauldron.”

¹⁸“Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me. All of them are copper, tin, iron, and lead inside the furnace; they are but the dross of silver.

¹⁹Therefore this is what the Lord God says: ‘Because all of you have become dross, behold, I will gather you into Jerusalem.

²For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

²⁴The captain of the guard also took away Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest of second rank, and the three doorkeepers.

²⁵Of those still in the city, he took a court official who had been appointed over the men of war, as well as seven trusted royal advisers. He also took the scribe of the captain of the army, who had enlisted the people of the land, and sixty men who were found in the city.

¹⁰There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also killed all the officials of Judah.

⁶There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also killed all the nobles of Judah.

⁴⁷Say to the forest of the Negev: Hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Lord God says: I am about to ignite in you a fire, and it will devour all your trees, both green and dry. The blazing flame will not be quenched, and by it every face from south to north will be scorched.

⁹Yes, this is what the Lord God says: ‘Woe to the city of bloodshed! I, too, will pile the kindling high.

¹⁰Pile on the logs and kindle the fire; cook the meat well and mix in the spices; let the bones be burned.

¹⁶I will seek the lost, bring back the strays, bind up the broken, and strengthen the weak; but the sleek and strong I will destroy. I will shepherd them with justice.’

¹⁷This is what the Lord God says to you, My flock: ‘I will judge between one sheep and another, between the rams and the goats.

²“As for you, son of man, will you judge her? Will you pass judgment on the city of bloodshed? Then confront her with all her abominations

¹Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without prey.

²⁷Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood, and destroying lives for dishonest gain.

²The godly man has perished from the earth; there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt one another with a net.

¹¹On the day you stood aloof while strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gate and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were just like one of them.

⁴and also for the innocent blood he had shed. For he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord was unwilling to forgive.

¹³And if any Israelite or foreigner living among them hunts down a wild animal or bird that may be eaten, he must drain its blood and cover it with dirt.

¹⁶but you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.

²⁴You must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.

¹⁸O earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry for help never be laid to rest.

³⁴Moreover, your skirts are stained with the blood of the innocent poor, though you did not find them breaking in. But in spite of all these things

²¹For behold, the Lord is coming out of His dwelling to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth will reveal her bloodshed and will no longer conceal her slain.

²¹They have provoked My jealousy by that which is not God; they have enraged Me with their worthless idols. So I will make them jealous by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation without understanding.

²²For a fire has been kindled by My anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol; it consumes the earth and its produce, and scorches the foundations of the mountains.

⁴⁵But righteous men will sentence them to the punishment of those who commit adultery and bloodshed, because they are adulteresses with blood on their hands.

³⁷therefore I will surely gather all the lovers with whom you found pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and expose you before them, and they will see you completely naked.

³⁸And I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and those who shed blood; so I will bring upon you the wrath of your bloodshed and jealousy.

⁵Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.

²²Then the generation to come—your sons who follow you and the foreigner who comes from a distant land—will see the plagues of the land and the sicknesses the Lord has inflicted on it.

²³All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His fierce anger.

⁵For her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.

⁶Give back to her as she has done to others; pay her back double for what she has done; mix her a double portion in her own cup.

¹²Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by iniquity!

⁶Therefore this is what the Lord God says: ‘Woe to the city of bloodshed, to the pot now rusted, whose rust will not come off! Empty it piece by piece; cast no lots for its contents.

⁷And by that same word, the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

⁸Beloved, do not let this one thing escape your notice: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

⁶For they have spilled the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink, as they deserve.”

³¹So I have poured out My indignation upon them and consumed them with the fire of My fury. I have brought their ways down upon their own heads, declares the Lord God.”

¹⁹The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. And God remembered Babylon the great and gave her the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath.

¹⁰The adversary has seized all her treasures. For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary—those You had forbidden to enter Your assembly.

³O My mountain in the countryside, I will give over your wealth and all your treasures as plunder, because of the sin of your high places, within all your borders.

⁵I will give away all the wealth of this city—all its products and valuables, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah—to their enemies. They will plunder them, seize them, and carry them off to Babylon.

¹⁶All your enemies open their mouths against you. They hiss and gnash their teeth, saying, “We have swallowed her up. This is the day for which we have waited. We have lived to see it!”

¹⁰For I have set My face against this city to bring disaster and not good, declares the Lord. It will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, who will destroy it with fire.’

¹“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the Lord of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”

²⁵I will turn My hand against you; I will thoroughly purge your dross; I will remove all your impurities.

¹⁸But if you do not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, then this city will be delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans. They will burn it down, and you yourself will not escape their grasp.’”

¹²If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw,

¹³his workmanship will be evident, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will prove the quality of each man’s work.

¹²His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

³O Lord, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.

⁵Each one betrays his friend; no one tells the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they wear themselves out committing iniquity.

¹³“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns—broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

⁵⁸This is what the Lord of Hosts says: “Babylon’s thick walls will be leveled, and her high gates consumed by fire. So the labor of the people will be for nothing; the nations will exhaust themselves to fuel the flames.”

¹³Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our iniquities and giving attention to Your truth.

¹⁴Therefore the Lord has kept the calamity in store and brought it upon us. For the Lord our God is righteous in all He does; yet we have not obeyed His voice.

¹³Is it not indeed from the Lord of Hosts that the labor of the people only feeds the fire, and the nations weary themselves in vain?

¹³And when My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath against them, I will be appeased. And when I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, the Lord, in My zeal have spoken.

²⁴“Son of man, say to her, ‘In the day of indignation, you are a land that has not been cleansed, upon which no rain has fallen.’

⁴²So I will lay to rest My wrath against you, and My jealousy will turn away from you. Then I will be calm and no longer angry.

¹⁸Therefore I will respond with wrath. I will not look on them with pity, nor will I spare them. Although they shout loudly in My ears, I will not listen to them.”

²She heeded no voice; she accepted no correction. She does not trust in the Lord; she has not drawn near to her God.

¹Therefore, beloved, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that defiles body and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

²⁷For the Son of Man will come in His Father’s glory with His angels, and then He will repay each one according to what he has done.

¹¹Woe to the wicked; disaster is upon them! For they will be repaid with what their hands have done.

³⁰Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each according to his ways, declares the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, so that your iniquity will not become your downfall.

⁴I will not look on you with pity, nor will I spare you, but I will punish you for your ways and for the abominations among you. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’

¹¹Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Lord God, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and abominations, I Myself will withdraw My favor; I will not look upon you with pity, nor will I spare you.

¹⁰But as for Me, I will not look on them with pity, nor will I spare them. I will bring their deeds down upon their own heads.”

¹⁰Do not weep for him who is dead; do not mourn his loss. Weep bitterly for him who is exiled, for he will never return to see his native land.

¹⁷But if you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride. My eyes will overflow with tears, because the Lord’s flock has been taken captive.

¹³Brothers, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who are without hope.

¹⁸So I spoke to the people in the morning, and in the evening my wife died. And the next morning I did as I had been commanded.

¹⁰I belong to my beloved, and his desire is for me.

²¹Tell the house of Israel that this is what the Lord God says: ‘I am about to desecrate My sanctuary, the pride of your power, the desire of your eyes, and the delight of your soul. And the sons and daughters you left behind will fall by the sword.’

²²Then you will do as I have done: You will not cover your lips or eat the bread of mourners.

⁴They will not pour out wine offerings to the Lord, and their sacrifices will not please Him, but will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat will be defiled. For their bread will be for themselves; it will not enter the house of the Lord.

³⁰But David continued up the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went up. His head was covered, and he was walking barefoot. And all the people with him covered their heads and went up, weeping as they went.

¹⁰The priest who is highest among his brothers, who has had the anointing oil poured on his head and has been ordained to wear the priestly garments, must not let his hair hang loose or tear his garments.

⁶Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “Do not let your hair become disheveled and do not tear your garments, or else you will die, and the Lord will be angry with the whole congregation. But your brothers, the whole house of Israel, may mourn on account of the fire that the Lord has ignited.

⁴“They will die from deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried, but will lie like dung on the ground. They will be finished off by sword and famine, and their corpses will become food for the birds of the air and beasts of the earth.”

⁵Indeed, this is what the Lord says: “Do not enter a house where there is a funeral meal. Do not go to mourn or show sympathy, for I have removed from this people My peace, My loving devotion, and My compassion,” declares the Lord.

³“In that day,” declares the Lord God, “the songs of the temple will turn to wailing. Many will be the corpses, strewn in silence everywhere!”

²⁹What I am saying, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none;

³⁰those who weep, as if they did not; those who are joyful, as if they were not; those who make a purchase, as if they had nothing;

⁹“Son of man, hasn’t the rebellious house of Israel asked you, ‘What are you doing?’

¹⁸When your people ask you, ‘Won’t you explain to us what you mean by these?’

¹²“Now say to this rebellious house: ‘Do you not know what these things mean?’ Tell them, ‘Behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, carried off its king and officials, and brought them back with him to Babylon.

⁴⁹Then I said, “Ah, Lord God, they are saying of me, ‘Is he not just telling parables?’”

⁷And when they ask, ‘Why are you groaning?’ you are to say, ‘Because of the news that is coming. Every heart will melt, and every hand will go limp. Every spirit will faint, and every knee will turn to water.’ Yes, it is coming and it will surely happen, declares the Lord God.”

¹³“Your words against Me have been harsh,” says the Lord. “Yet you ask, ‘What have we spoken against You?’

⁴⁷The mob will stone them and cut them down with their swords. They will kill their sons and daughters and burn down their houses.

⁴One thing I have asked of the Lord; this is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and seek Him in His temple.

¹⁴therefore what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears My Name, the house in which you trust, the place that I gave to you and your fathers.

²⁵And I will set My jealous rage against you, and they will deal with you in fury. They will cut off your noses and ears, and your survivors will fall by the sword. They will seize your sons and daughters, and your remnant will be consumed by fire.

¹For the choirmaster. According to Gittith. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. How lovely is Your dwelling place, O Lord of Hosts!

¹⁶“Son of man, behold, I am about to take away the desire of your eyes with a fatal blow. But you must not mourn or weep or let your tears flow.

⁴“They will die from deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried, but will lie like dung on the ground. They will be finished off by sword and famine, and their corpses will become food for the birds of the air and beasts of the earth.”

⁵Indeed, this is what the Lord says: “Do not enter a house where there is a funeral meal. Do not go to mourn or show sympathy, for I have removed from this people My peace, My loving devotion, and My compassion,” declares the Lord.

⁹And if there are ten men left in one house, they too will die.

¹⁰And when the relative who is to burn the bodies picks them up to remove them from the house, he will call to one inside, “Is anyone else with you?” “None,” that person will answer. “Silence,” the relative will retort, “for the name of the Lord must not be invoked.”

¹⁶“Son of man, behold, I am about to take away the desire of your eyes with a fatal blow. But you must not mourn or weep or let your tears flow.

¹⁷Groan quietly; do not mourn for the dead. Put on your turban and strap your sandals on your feet; do not cover your lips or eat the bread of mourners.”

⁶⁴His priests fell by the sword, but their widows could not lament.

³at the sound of the galloping hooves of stallions, the rumbling of chariots, and the clatter of their wheels. The fathers will not turn back for their sons; their hands will hang limp.

¹⁵His survivors will be buried by the plague, and their widows will not weep for them.

¹⁷So they will lack food and water; they will be appalled at the sight of one another wasting away in their iniquity.

³⁹Those of you who survive in the lands of your enemies will waste away in their iniquity and will decay in the sins of their fathers.

¹⁰Now as for you, son of man, tell the house of Israel that this is what they have said: ‘Our transgressions and our sins are heavy upon us, and we are wasting away because of them! How can we live?’

¹⁵His survivors will be buried by the plague, and their widows will not weep for them.

¹¹We all growl like bears and moan like doves. We hope for justice, but find none, for salvation, but it is far from us.

⁶⁴His priests fell by the sword, but their widows could not lament.

³Then take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city. Turn your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.

¹¹You are to say, ‘I am a sign to you.’ Just as it happened here, so will it be done to them; they will go into exile as captives.

²⁹As the crowds were increasing, Jesus said, “This is a wicked generation. It demands a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.

³⁰For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so the Son of Man will be a sign to this generation.

³Then the Lord said, “Just as My servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and omen against Egypt and Cush,

⁷The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the Lord.

¹Then the Lord said to me, “Go show love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love to offer raisin cakes to idols.”

²So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley.

²¹Tell the house of Israel that this is what the Lord God says: ‘I am about to desecrate My sanctuary, the pride of your power, the desire of your eyes, and the delight of your soul. And the sons and daughters you left behind will fall by the sword.’

²Beautiful in loftiness, the joy of all the earth, like the peaks of Zaphon is Mount Zion, the city of the great King.

²²So this is what the Lord of Hosts says: “I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters by famine.

²From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth.

¹A song of ascents. Of David. I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

²Our feet are standing in your gates, O Jerusalem.

³²Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, while your eyes grow weary looking for them day after day, with no power in your hand.

¹⁵the Sabeans swooped down and took them away. They put the servants to the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

¹⁶While he was still speaking, another messenger came and reported: “The fire of God fell from heaven. It burned and consumed the sheep and the servants, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

²¹In the twelfth year of our exile, on the fifth day of the tenth month, a fugitive from Jerusalem came to me and reported, “The city has been taken!”

²²Now the evening before the fugitive arrived, the hand of the Lord was upon me, and He opened my mouth before the man came to me in the morning. So my mouth was opened and I was no longer mute.

¹²That same day a Benjamite ran from the battle line all the way to Shiloh, with his clothes torn and dirt on his head.

¹³When he arrived, there was Eli, sitting on his chair beside the road and watching, because his heart trembled for the ark of God. When the man entered the city to give a report, the whole city cried out.

²²Now the evening before the fugitive arrived, the hand of the Lord was upon me, and He opened my mouth before the man came to me in the morning. So my mouth was opened and I was no longer mute.

²¹In that day I will cause a horn to sprout for the house of Israel, and I will open your mouth to speak among them. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

¹¹“Go and tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go out of his land.”

¹²But in the Lord’s presence Moses replied, “If the Israelites will not listen to me, then why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I am unskilled in speech?”

¹⁵O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise.

²⁶I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, and you will be silent and unable to rebuke them, though they are a rebellious house.

²⁷But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you are to tell them, ‘This is what the Lord God says.’ Whoever listens, let him listen; and whoever refuses, let him refuse, for they are a rebellious house.

¹⁵For I will give you speech and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.