Ezekiel 4:9-Ezekiel 5:17 - Ezekiel's Strange Defiled Meal

⁹ Take also unto thee wheat and barley and beans and lentils and millet and fitches and put them in one vessel and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof. ¹⁰ And thy food which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; from time to time shalt thou eat it. ¹¹ Thou shalt also drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin; from time to time shalt thou drink. ¹² And thou shalt eat barley cakes baked under the ashes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that comes out of man, in their sight. ¹³ And the LORD said, Even thus shall the sons of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, where I will drive them.

¹⁴ Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! behold, my soul is not defiled: for from my youth up even until now have I not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither has abominable flesh come into my mouth.

¹⁵ Then he said unto me, Behold, I give thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread with it. ¹⁶ Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I break the sustenance of bread in Jerusalem; and they shall eat bread by weight, and with anguish; and they shall drink water by measure, and with terror. ¹⁷ For they shall lack bread and water, and terrorize one another, and faint because of their iniquity.

¹ And thou, son of man, take a sharp knife, take a barber's razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard; then take balances to weigh, and divide the hair. ² Thou shalt burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled; and thou shalt take a third part and smite about it with a knife; and a third part thou shalt scatter in the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them. ³ Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number and bind them in the skirt of thy garment. ⁴ Then take of them again and cast them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire; for thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel.

⁵ Thus hath the Lord GOD said: This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the Gentiles and of the lands that are round about her. ⁶ And she has changed my judgments and my statutes into wickedness more than the Gentiles and more than the lands that are round about her; for they have disregarded my judgments and my commandments and have not walked in them.

⁷ Therefore thus hath the Lord GOD said: Because I multiplied you more than the Gentiles that are round about you, ye have not walked in my commandments, neither have ye kept my judgments. Ye have not even acted according to the judgments of the Gentiles that are round about you. ⁸ Therefore thus hath the Lord GOD said: Behold, I, even I, am against thee and will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the Gentiles. ⁹ And I will do in thee that which I have not done and whereunto I will not do any more the like because of all thine abominations. ¹⁰ For the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee I will scatter into all the winds.

¹¹ Therefore, as I live, said the Lord GOD, surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy contaminations and with all thine abominations, therefore I will also destroy thee; neither shall my eye forgive, neither will I have mercy. ¹² A third part of thee shall die of pestilence, and shall be consumed with famine in the midst of thee, and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee, and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them. ¹³ Thus shall my anger be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to cease in them, and I will be comforted; and they shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken it in my zeal when I have accomplished my fury in them.

¹⁴ And I will make thee a desert and a reproach among the Gentiles that are round about thee, in the sight of all that pass by. ¹⁵ And thou shalt be a reproach and a dishonour, and a chastisement and a terror unto the Gentiles 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. ¹⁶ When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction and which I will send to destroy you, then I will increase the famine upon you and will destroy your sustenance of bread. ¹⁷ So I will send upon you famine and evil beasts that will destroy thee; and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee; and I will bring the sword upon thee. I, the LORD, have spoken.