Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.

In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity,

the word of the Lord came directly to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar Canal. And the Lord’s hand was on him there.

And, looking, I saw a storm-wind coming out of the north, a great cloud with flames of fire coming after one another, and a bright light shining round about it and in the heart of it was something coloured like electrum.

And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass.

Under their wings upon all the four corners they had men's hands. Their faces and their wings were toward the four corners:

yet were the wings so, that one ever touched another. When they went, they turned them not about: but each one went straight forward.

So [were] their faces; their wings [were] spread out {upward}; each [had] two touching one another and two covering their bodies.

And I see the living creatures, and lo, one wheel is in the earth, near the living creatures, at its four faces.

The fashion and the work of the wheels was like the sea. The four wheels were joined and made, to look upon, as it had been one wheel in another.

Upon their four sides, when they went, so did they go, - they turned not when they went.

As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four.

So when the living creatures moved, the wheels moved beside them, and when the creatures rose from the earth, the wheels also rose.

And on the top of the arch which was over their heads was the form of a king's seat, like a sapphire stone; and on the form of the seat was the form of a man seated on it on high.

And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about.

As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.

It is the appearance of the likeness of the honour of Jehovah, and I see, and fall on my face, and I hear a voice speaking, and He saith unto me, 'Son of man, stand on thy feet, and I speak with thee.'

And as he was communing with me, the spirit came in to me, and set me up upon my feet: so that I marked the thing, that he said unto me.

And he will say to me, Son of man, I send thee to the sons of Israel, to rebellious nations who rebelled against me: they and their fathers transgressed against me even to this same day.

For they are impudent children and stiffhearted. I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD.

And they, if they give ear to you or if they do not give ear (for they are an uncontrolled people), will see that there has been a prophet among them.

"Now as for you, Son of Man, never be afraid of them or of anything they have to say, because being with them will be like settling down to live among briers, thorn bushes, and scorpions! Don't be afraid of anything they have to say, and don't be awed by their appearance, since they are a rebellious group.

You are to tell them whatever I have to say to them, whether they listen or not, since they are rebellious."

But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee; Be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house: open thy mouth, and eat that I give thee.

So I looked and saw a hand reaching out to me, and there was a written scroll in it.

And he said to me, Son of man, take this roll for your food, and go and say my words to the children of Israel.

So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll.

“Son of man,” He said to me, “eat and fill your stomach with this scroll I am giving you.” So I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.

And he said to me, Son of man, go now to the children of Israel, and say my words to them.

But the house of Israel won't listen to you, since they weren't willing to listen to me. That's because the entire house of Israel is hard-headed and hard-hearted.

See, I have made your face hard against their faces, and your brow hard against their brows.

I'm making you harder than flint like diamond! So you are not to fear them or be intimidated by how they look at you, since they're a rebellious group."

Then he said to me, Son of man, take into your heart all my words which I am about to say to you, and let your ears be open to them.

And come, go to the exiles, to the children of your people, and you must speak to them, and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh!' whether they listen or whether they fail [to listen]."

So 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.

And so in the beginning of the Month Abib, I came to the prisoners that dwelt by the water of Chebar and remained in that place, where they were: And so continued I among them seven days, being very sorry.

Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the children of Israel: so give ear to the word of my mouth, and give them word from me of their danger.

When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.

"Now if a righteous man go from his righteousness, and do the thing that is evil: I will lay a stumbling block before him, and he shall die, because thou hast not given him warning - Yea, die shall he in his own sin, so that the virtue which he did before shall not be thought upon, but his blood will I require of thine hand.

But if you say to the upright man that he is not to do evil, he will certainly keep his life because he took note of your word; and your life will be safe.

And the hand of Jehovah will be there upon me; and he will say to me, Arise, go forth to the valley, and there I will speak with thee

Then I arose, and went forth into the plain: and, behold, the glory of the LORD stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river of Chebar: and I fell on my face.

The Spirit entered me, rested on me, caused me to stand on my feet, and then he spoke to me. This is what he had to say: "Go barricade yourself in your house.

And you, son of man, they will put ropes on you and bind you with them so you cannot go out among them.

And I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you cannot talk and you cannot be a man who rebukes the people, for they are a rebellious house.

But when I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; He that heareth, let him hear; and he that forbeareth, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house.

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 for the house of Israel.

Then, stretching yourself out on your left side, take the sin of the children of Israel on yourself: for as long as you are stretched out, so long will the sin of the children of Israel be on you.

For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

When thou hast fulfilled these days, lie down again, and sleep upon thy right side forty days, and bear the sins of the house of Judah. A day for a year; a day, I say, for a year will I ever lay upon thee.

Thus then unto the siege of Jerusalem, shalt thou direct thy face, with thine arm made bare, - so shalt thou prophesy against it.

Be aware that I will put cords on you so you cannot turn from side to side until you have finished the days of your siege.

Barley cakes shalt thou eat, yet shalt thou first strike them over with man's dung, that they may see it."

And Jehovah said, So shall the children of Israel eat their bread unclean among the nations whither I will drive them.

And I say, 'Ah, Lord Jehovah, lo, my soul is not defiled, and carcase, and torn thing, I have not eaten from my youth, even till now; nor come into my mouth hath abominable flesh.'

Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.

And he said to me, Son of man, see, I will take away from Jerusalem her necessary bread: they will take their bread by weight and with care, measuring out their drinking-water with fear and wonder:

so that they lack bread and water, and have been astonished one with another, and been consumed in their iniquity.

And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber's rasor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard: then take thee balances to weigh, and divide the hair.

And again take some of these and put them in the fire, burning them up in the fire; and say to all the children of Israel,

So says the Lord Jehovah: This is Jerusalem. I have set it in the middle of the nations, and all around her are the lands.

Therefore so says the Lord Jehovah: Because you multiplied more than the nations that are all around you, and have not walked in My Laws, neither have kept My judgments, nor have done according to the judgments of the nations all around you;

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.

So the fathers shall eat the sons in your midst, and the sons shall eat their fathers. And I will execute judgments in you, and I will scatter the whole remnant of you into all the winds.

So as I live,’ declares the Lord God, ‘surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominations, therefore I will also withdraw, and My eye will have no pity and I will not spare.

So my wrath will be complete and my passion will come to rest on them; and they will be certain that I the Lord have given the word of decision, when my wrath against them is complete.

So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment unto the nations that are round about thee, when I shall execute judgments in thee in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I the LORD have spoken it.

So will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee; and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee; and I will bring the sword upon thee. I the LORD have spoken it.

Son of man, let your face be turned to the mountains of Israel, and be a prophet to them, and say,

And say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD; Thus saith the Lord GOD to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.

So your altars will become desolate and your incense altars will be smashed; and I will make your slain fall in front of your idols.

In all your dwellings the cities are laid waste, And the high places are desolate, So that waste and desolate are your altars, And broken and ceased have your idols, And cut down have been your images, And blotted out have been your works.

And the slain shall fall in your midst, So shall ye nod that I a Yahweh.

But I will spare [some], {so there will be} for you fugitives from [the] sword among the nations {when you are scattered} in the countries.

Then shall they who have escaped of you remember me, among the nations whither they have been carried captive, In that I have broken their adulterous heart, which hath turned aside from me, And their eyes which have adulterously gone after their manufactured gods, So shall they become loathsome in their own sight, for the wicked things which they have done in all their abominations.

And they will be certain that I am the Lord: not for nothing did I say that I would do this evil to them.

Thus saith the Lord GOD; Smite with thine hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.

He who is afar off shall die of the plague; and he who is near shall fall by the sword; and he who remains and is under siege shall die by the famine. So I will fulfill My fury on them.

So shall ye know that I, am Yahweh, In that their slain are in the midst of their manufactured gods, on every side of their altars, - Upon every high hl In all the tops of the mountains and Under every green tree and Under every tangled oak, The place where they offered a satisfying odour to all their manufactured gods.

So will I stretch out my hand upon them, and make the land desolate, yea, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblath, in all their habitations: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

And you, son of man, say, This is what the Lord has said to the land of Israel: An end has come, the end has come on the four quarters of the land.

And mine eye shall not shield thee. Neither will I pity, - . For thy ways - upon thee, will I lay. And thine abominations in thy midst, shall be found, So shall ye know that, I, am Yahweh.

“Thus says the Lord God, ‘A disaster is coming, [one so destructive and injurious, so sudden and violent, that it stands alone,] a unique disaster, look it is coming!

An end is coming; the end has come! It has awakened against you. Look, it has come!

My eye will not have mercy, and I will have no pity: I will send on you the punishment of your ways, and your disgusting works will be among you; and you will see that I am the Lord who gives punishment.

See, the day; see, it is coming: the crowning time has gone out; the twisted way is flowering, pride has put out buds.

For the seller will not regain and return to what he sold, even were they yet alive; for the vision [of punishment] regarding all the multitude [of people] will not be turned back, nor will any one of them sustain his life because of his sin.

The sword shall be without; pestilence and hunger within: so that whoso is in the field shall be slain with the sword; and he that is in the city shall perish with hunger and pestilence.

Even when their survivors escape, they will be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, each over his [punishment for] sin.

They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be as an impurity: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of Jehovah's wrath; they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their belly; for it hath been the stumbling-block of their iniquity.

I will give it to foreigners as loot, to the world's wicked ones as plunder, and they will desecrate it.

I'll turn my face away from them so that they'll defile my treasured place. Robbers will enter and profane it!

So I will bring the most evil of nations
to take possession of their houses.
I will put an end to the pride of the strong,
and their sacred places will be profaned.

The king shall mourn, and the ruler shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled. I will do to them according to their way, and according to their deserts I will judge them. And they s

and I saw, and look! A figure like [the] appearance of a man; from the appearance of his waist and below [was] fire, and from his waist and {upward} [was] like [the] appearance of brightness, like the {outward appearance of} amber.

The form of a hand reached out and took me by the hair of my head. Then the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and sky, brought me toward Jerusalem, and in visions that came from God took me through the doors of the inner gate that faced north, where an image that provoked God's jealous anger had been erected.

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

Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry.

He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations.

And he brought me to the doorway of the courtyard, and I saw, and look! A hole in the wall.