Then he told me, "Son of Man, eat! Eat what you see this scroll and then go talk to the house of Israel."

Then he told me, "Son of Man, fill your stomach and digest this scroll that I'm giving you." So I ate it, and it was like sweet honey in my mouth.

Then he told me, "Son of Man, go to the house of Israel and tell them what I have to say to them,

Next, he told me, "Son of Man, take to heart every word that I'm telling you. Listen carefully,

Then I came to them of the captivity at Telabib, that dwelt by the river of Chebar, and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days.

The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he told me, "Get up! Go to the valley, and I'll speak with you there."

He also told me, "Son of Man, look! I'm about to disrupt the source of bread in Jerusalem. As a result, they'll ration bread by weight while their terror continues to grow and they'll ration drinking water while their horror continues to mount!

Then he told me, "Son of Man, look up toward the north." So I looked off toward the north. Suddenly, off toward the north, facing the gate that led to the altar, the image that provoked God's jealousy was standing near the entrance.

Then the Spirit told me, "Son of Man, don't you see what they're doing? The house of Israel practices awful, detestable things here, so I'm going far away from my sanctuary. But you're about to see things even more detestable than these."

Then he told me, "Son of Man, dig through the wall!" So I dug into the wall. That's when I uncovered an entrance!

Then he told me, "Go on through that entrance, so you may see the wicked, detestable things that they're committing here."

Then the Spirit told me, "You're about to see even more detestable practices that they're doing!"

The LORD told him, "Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of everyone who sighs and moans over all of the loathsome things that are happening in it."

As I continued to listen, he also told the others, "Follow him through the city and start killing. Don't spare anyone you see, and don't show pity of any kind.

"Desecrate my Temple," he told them, "and fill its courtyard with the dead!" So they went out and began striking down people throughout the city.

And behold, the man that had the linen raiment upon him, and the writer's inkhorn by his side, told all the matter how it happened, and said, "LORD, as thou hast commanded me, so have I done."

Then he told me, "Son of Man, these men are plotting evil and are giving wicked advice in this city.

Then the Spirit of the Lord came on me, and He told me, “You are to say: This is what the Lord says: That is what you are thinking, house of Israel; and I know the thoughts that arise in your mind.

But to those whose hearts delight in loathsome things and detestable practices, I'll bring the consequences of their behavior crashing down on their own heads," declares the Lord GOD.'"

Then I told the exiles everything that the Lord had shown me.

Therefore, O thou son of man, make thy gear ready to flit, and go forth by fair daylight, that they may see. Yea, even in their sight shalt thou go from thy place to another place: if peradventure they will consider that they be an unobedient household.

Thy gear that thou hast made ready to flit withal, shalt thou bear out by fair daylight, that they may see: and thou thyself shalt go forth also at even in their sight, as a man doth when he goeth forth to flight.

In their sight shalt thou bear it upon thy shoulders, and carry it forth in the twilight: thou shalt cover thy face, that thou see not the ground: for I have set thee for a sign unto the house of Israel.

And I did so as I was commanded: I brought forth my stuff by day, as stuff for captivity, and in the even I digged through the wall with mine hand; I brought it forth in the twilight, and I bare it upon my shoulder in their sight.

And the prince that is among them shall bear upon his shoulder in the twilight, and shall go forth: they shall dig through the wall to carry out thereby: he shall cover his face, that he see not the ground with his eyes.

"'And that for this cause: they have deceived my people, and told them of peace, where no peace was. One setteth up a wall, and they daub it with loose clay.

"""When I passed by you, I saw you kicking around, covered in your own blood. That's when I told you, "Live!' while you were wallowing in your blood. I commanded you to live, even as you lay there in your own blood.

Now your older sister is Samaria, she with her daughters (outlying cities) who live north of you; and your younger sister is Sodom, she with her daughters who live south of you.

For thus said the Lord Jehovah: I have dealt with thee as thou hast done, In that thou hast despised an oath -- to break covenant.

In a mountain -- the high place of Israel, I plant it, And it hath borne boughs, and yielded fruit, And become a goodly cedar, And dwelt under it have all birds of every wing, In the shade of its thin shoots they dwell.

Have I delight by any means [in the] death of [the] wicked, {declares} the Lord Yahweh, [and] not at his turning from his way, {so that} he lives?

For I cannot take delight in the death of him that dieth, Declareth My Lord Yahweh, Make good your return then and, live!

"Son of Man," the LORD told me,

Then I told them, "Each of you are to abandon your detestable practices. You are not to defile yourselves with Egypt's idols. I am the LORD your God.'"'"

But I acted for My Name’s sake, that it would not be profaned in the sight of the [pagan] nations among whom they lived, in whose sight I made Myself known to them by bringing them out of the land of Egypt.

I told their children in the wilderness, "You are not to follow the statutes of your ancestors, observe their ordinances, or be defiled by their idols.

“Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Again in this your fathers have blasphemed Me, in that they acted faithlessly and treacherously against Me.

And ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when I have dealt with you for my name's sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah.

Nevertheless, as for the soothsaying, they shall hold it but for vanity; even as though a jest were told them. Yea and they themselves remember their wickedness, so that by right they must be taken and won.

In thee have they set light by father and mother: in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow.

Every man hath dealt shamefully with his neighbour's wife, and abominably defiled his daughter-in-law. In thee hath every man forced his own sister, even his father's daughter.

And they go a-whoring in Egypt, In their youth they have gone a-whoring, There they have bruised their breasts, And there they have dealt with the loves of their virginity.

And her whoredoms out of Egypt she hath not forsaken, For with her they lay in her youth, And they dealt with the loves of her virginity, And they pour out their whoredoms on her.

And I have set My jealousy against thee, And they have dealt with thee in fury, Thy nose and thine ears they turn aside, And thy posterity by sword falleth, They, thy sons and thy daughters do take away, And thy posterity is devoured by fire.

And they have dealt with thee in hatred, And they have taken all thy labour, And they have left thee naked and bare, And revealed hath been the nakedness of thy whoredoms, And the wickedness of thy whoredoms.

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

Then the people told me, "Are you going to explain what these things that you're doing should mean to us?"

"Say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Look! I [will be] profaning my sanctuary, the pride of your strength [and] the delight of your eyes and the object of your own affection; and your sons and your daughters whom you left behind will fall by the sword,

‘As for you, son of man, on the day when I take their strength and their stronghold from them, their joy and their glory, the desire of their eyes and their heart’s [chief] delight (the temple), and I also take their sons and their daughters,

Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because that Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and hath greatly offended, and revenged himself upon them;

Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge, and have taken vengeance with a despiteful heart, to destroy it for the old hatred;

And they will plunder your wealth, and they will loot your merchandise, and they will break down your walls, and the houses of your delight they will break down, and your stones and your timbers and your earthen dirt they will cast into the midst of [the] water.

And they shall take up a lamentation over thee, and say to thee, How art thou destroyed, that wast inhabited by seafaring men, the renowned city, that was strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, that caused their terror to be on all that dwelt there!

For thus saith My Lord Yahweh, When I make thee a desolate city, Like cities which cannot be dwelt in,- When I bring up over thee the roaring deep, And the mighty waters cover thee,

Then will I bring thee down with them that go down into the pit. Unto the people of age-past times And cause thee to dwell in the earth below Among the desolations from age-past times With them that go down into the pit That thou mayest not be dwelt in, Nor yet present thyself in the land of the living.

Tarshish dealt with thee by reason of the abundance of all substance; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they furnished thy markets.

Syria dealt with thee for the multitude of thy handiworks: they traded in thy markets with carbuncles, purple, and broidered work, and fine linen, and corals, and rubies.

Damascus dealt with thee because of the multitude of thy handiworks, by reason of the abundance of all substance, with wine of Helbon, and white wool.

Thus said the Lord Jehovah: In My gathering the house of Israel, Out of the peoples among whom they were scattered, I have been sanctified in them, Before the eyes of the nations, And they have dwelt on their ground, That I gave to My servant, to Jacob,

And they have dwelt on it confidently, And builded houses, and planted vineyards, And dwelt confidently -- in My doing judgments, On all those despising them round about, And they have known that I, Jehovah, am their God!'

Speak and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God,

“Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt,
The great monster that lies in the midst of his rivers,
[Boastfully] declaring, ‘My Nile is my own, and I have made it for myself.’

“And I will make the rivers [of the Nile delta] dry
And sell the land into the hands of evil men;
I will make the land desolate
And all that is in it,
By the hand of strangers. I the Lord have spoken.”

I will set fire to Egypt;
Pelusium will writhe in anguish,
Thebes will be breached,
and Memphis will face foes in broad daylight.

All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations.

then I gave it into [the] hand of [the] leader of nations; he {dealt thoroughly} with it according to its wickedness. I drove it [out].

They also went down into hell with him unto them that be slain with the sword; and they that were his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen.

Say unto them, I live -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, I delight not in the death of the wicked, But -- in the turning of the wicked from his way, And he hath lived, Turn back, turn back, from your evil ways, Yea, why do ye die, O house of Israel?

And I have made for them a covenant of peace, And caused evil beasts to cease out of the land, And they have dwelt in a wilderness confidently, And they have slept in forests.

And they are no more a prey to nations, And the beast of the earth devoureth them not, And they have dwelt confidently, And there is none troubling.

Therefore as I live, Declareth My Lord Yahweh, I will even deal according to thine anger, and according to thine envy, wherewith thou hast dealt, out of thy hatred with them,- So will I make myself known among them as soon as I shall judge thee

Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman.

And ye have dwelt in the land that I have given to your fathers, And ye have been to Me for a people, And I -- I am to you for God.

Then the LORD told me, "Prophesy to these bones. Tell them: "You dry bones, listen to the message from the LORD: "

And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.

After many days thou art appointed, In the latter end of the years thou comest in unto a land brought back from sword, A people gathered out of many peoples, Upon mountains of Israel, That have been for a perpetual waste, And it from the peoples hath been brought out, And dwelt safely have all of them.

And the nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile on account of their iniquity, because they dealt unfaithfully with Me. Therefore, I hid My face from them and handed them over to their enemies, so that they all fell by the sword.

I dealt with them in accordance with their uncleanness and their transgressions, and I hid My face from them.”’”

After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid.

This is what the man told me: "Son of Man, watch carefully, listen closely, and remember everything I'm going to be showing you, because you've been brought here to be shown what you're about to see. Be sure that you tell the house of Israel everything that you observe."

The angel told me, "This south-facing chamber is for the priests who maintain the Temple,

He measured its length at 20 cubits, its width at 20 cubits in front of the structure, and then he told me, "This is the most holy area."

The altar was made of wood, 5¼ feet high and 3½ feet long. It had corners, and its length and sides were of wood. The man told me, “This is the table that stands before the Lord.”

Then he told me, "The north and south chamber, which are opposite the courtyard, are consecrated areas where the priests who approach the LORD will eat consecrated offerings and lay the consecrated grain offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings, because the area is holy.

"Son of Man," the Lord GOD told me, "This is where my throne is, where I place the soles of my feet, and where I will live among the Israelis forever. The house of Israel will no longer defile my holy name neither they nor their kings by their unfaithfulness, by the lifeless idols of their kings on their funeral mounds,

Now do they put far off their whoredom, And the carcases of their kings -- from Me, And I have dwelt in their midst to the age.

Then he told me, "This is what the Lord GOD says: "These are the regulations for the altar, starting the day that it is constructed for presenting burnt offerings and sprinkling blood.

The LORD told me, "This gate is to remain shut. It will not be opened. No man is to enter through it, because the LORD God of Israel entered through it, so it is to remain shut.

Then the LORD told me, "Son of Man, watch carefully, listen closely, and remember everything I'm going to be telling you about all the statutes pertaining to the LORD's Temple and all of its laws. Pay careful attention to the entrance to the Temple, along with all of the exits from the sanctuary."

He told me, "This is where the ministers of the Temple will be preparing the sacrifices that will be presented by the people.

He told me, "This river flows toward the eastern territories all the way down into the Arabah, and from there its water flows toward the Dead Sea, where the sea water turns fresh.

"The river delta will consist of swamps and marshes that will remain a salt water wetland preserve.