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

⁹ "Wherefore, take unto thee wheat, barley, beans, growell seed, Millium and fitches: and put these together in a vessel, and make thee loaves of bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou must lie upon thy side: that thou mayest have bread to eat, for three hundred and ninety days. ¹⁰ And the meat that thou eatest, shall have a certain weight appointed: namely twenty shekels every day. This appointed meat shalt thou eat daily, from the beginning to the end. ¹¹ Thou shalt drink also a certain measure of water: Namely, the sixth part of a Hin shalt thou drink daily from the beginning to the end. ¹² Barley cakes shalt thou eat, yet shalt thou first strike them over with man's dung, that they may see it." ¹³ And with that said the LORD, "Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread in the midst of the Gentiles, among whom I will scatter them."

¹⁴ Then said I, "O LORD God: Behold, my soul was yet never stained, for from my youth up to this hour. I did never eat of a dead carcass, or that which was slain of wild beasts, neither came there ever any unclean flesh in my mouth."

¹⁵ Whereunto he answered me, and said, "Well then, I will grant thee to take cow's dung, for the dung of a man, and to strike the bread over withal, before them." ¹⁶ And he said unto me, "Behold thou son of man, I will minish all the provision of bread in Jerusalem, so that they shall weigh their bread, and eat it with scarceness. But as for water, they shall have a very little measure thereof, to drink. ¹⁷ And when they have no more bread nor water, one shall be destroyed with another, and famish away for their wickedness."

¹ O Thou son of man, take thee then a sharp knife, namely a razor. Take that, and shave the hair of thy head and beard: Then take the scales and weight, and divide the hair asunder. ² And burn the third part thereof in the fire in the midst of the city, and cut the other third part in pieces with a knife. As for the third part that remaineth, cast it in the wind, and then show the bare knife. ³ Yet afterward take a little of the same, and bind it in thy coat lap. ⁴ Then take a courtesy of it, and cast it in the midst of the fire: and burn it in the fire. Out of the same fire shall there go a flame upon the whole house of Israel."

⁵ Moreover, thus said the LORD God, "This same is Jerusalem. I set her in the midst of the Heathen and nations that are round about her: ⁶ but she hath despised my judgments more than the Gentiles themselves, and broken my commandments more than the nations that lie round about her. For they have cast out mine ordinances, and not walked in my laws.

⁷ Therefore, thus sayeth the LORD God: Forsomuch as ye with your wickedness far exceed the Heathen that dwell round about you - For ye have not walked in my laws, neither have ye kept mine ordinances - ⁸ Therefore thus sayeth the LORD God: I will also come upon thee, for in the midst of thee will I sit in judgment, in the sight of the Heathen, ⁹ and will handle thee of such a fashion as I never did before, and as I never will do from that time forth, and that because of all thine abominations. ¹⁰ For in thee the fathers shall be fain to eat their own sons, and the sons their own fathers. Such a court will I keep in thee, and the whole remnant will I scatter into all the winds.

¹¹ Wherefore as truly as I live, sayeth the LORD God, seeing thou hast defiled my Sanctuary with all manner of abominations and with all thy shameful offenses: For this cause will I also destroy thee. Mine eye shall not oversee thee, neither will I spare thee. ¹² One third part within thee shall die of the pestilence and of hunger: Another third part shall be slain down round about thee with the sword: The other third part, that remaineth, will I scatter abroad toward all the winds, and draw out the sword after them. ¹³ Thus will I perform my indignation and set my wrath against them, and ease myself. So that when I have fulfilled mine anger against them, they shall know that I am the LORD, which with a fervent jealousy have spoken it.

¹⁴ Moreover, I will make thee waste and abhorred before all the Heathen that dwell about thee, and in the sight of all them that go by thee: ¹⁵ so that when I punish thee in my wrath, in mine anger, and with the plague of my hot displeasure, thou shalt be a very abomination, shame, a gasping and wondering stock among the Heathen that lie about thee. Even I, the LORD, have spoken it: and it shall come to pass. ¹⁶ When I shoot among them the perilous darts of hunger, which shall be but death: Yea, therefore shall I shoot them, because I will destroy you. I will increase hunger, and diminish all the provision of bread among you. ¹⁷ Plagues and misery will I send you; yea, and wild beasts also to destroy you. Pestilence and bloodsheding shall come upon you, and the sword will I bring over you. Even I, the LORD, have said it."