And it cometh to pass, in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth of the month, and I am in the midst of the Removed by the river Chebar, the heavens have been opened, and I see visions of God.

I was amazed to see a wind storm blow in from the north, consisting of a massive cloud and fire that was flashing back and forth, surrounded by bright light. From deep within the cloud, something was shining that appeared to have a color like bronze that had been placed in fire until it glowed.

Their wheels and their construction details looked like gold-colored beryl. Each wheel was identical in form to the others, and they appeared to have been constructed and designed as if one wheel were within another.

And I see as the colour of copper, as the appearance of fire within it round about, from the appearance of his loins and upward, and from the appearance of his loins and downward, I have seen as the appearance of fire, and brightness is to it round about.

He said to me, "Son of man, I am sending you to the house of Israel, to rebellious nations who have rebelled against me; both they and their fathers have revolted against me to this very day.

Yea, I will send thee unto a people that have rough visages and stiff stomachs: unto whom thou shalt say on this manner, 'This the LORD God himself hath spoken,'

and they -- whether they hear, or whether they forbear, for a rebellious house they are -- have known that a prophet hath been in their midst.

And you, son of man, have no fear of them or of their words, even if sharp thorns are round you and you are living among scorpions: have no fear of their words and do not be overcome by their looks, for they are an uncontrolled people.

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

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

not to many peoples of unintelligible speech or difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. But I have sent you to them who should listen to you and pay attention to My message;

But the children of Israel will not give ear to you; for they have no mind to give ear to me: for all the children of Israel have a hard brow and a stiff heart.

"I have made your face adamant to match their faces, and your forehead hard to match their foreheads.

I have made your forehead harder than flint -- like diamond! Do not fear them or be terrified of the looks they give you, for they are a rebellious house."

And go now to those who have been taken away as prisoners, to the children of your people, and say to them, This is what the Lord has said; if they give ear or if they do not.

"Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you must give them a warning from me.

But as for you, if you warn the wicked and he does not turn from his wicked deed and from his wicked lifestyle, he will die for his iniquity but you will have saved your own life.

"When a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I set an obstacle before him, he will die. If you have not warned him, he will die for his sin. The righteous deeds he performed will not be considered, but I will hold you accountable for his death.

However, if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he does not sin, he will certainly live because he was warned, and you will have saved your own life."

And the hand of the Lord was on me there; and he said, Get up and go out into the valley and there I will have talk with you.

And thou - O son of man, lo! they have put upon thee bands, and they will bind thee therewith,-.so that thou go not forth in their midst;

And I will make your tongue fixed to the roof of your mouth, so that you have no voice and may not make protests to them: for they are an uncontrolled people.

But when I have talk with you I will make your mouth open, and you are to say to them, This is what the Lord has said: Let the hearer give ear; and as for him who will not, let him keep his ears shut: for they are an uncontrolled people.

I have determined that the number of the years of their iniquity are to be the number of days for you -- 390 days. So bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

"When you have completed these days, then lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah 40 days -- I have assigned one day for each year.

Now behold, I will put ropes on you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.

"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.

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.

And the Lord said, Even so the children of Israel will have unclean bread for their food among the nations where I am driving them.

And I said, "Ah, sovereign Lord, I have never been ceremonially defiled before. I have never eaten a carcass or an animal torn by wild beasts; from my youth up, unclean meat has never entered my mouth."

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

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.

And when they have no more bread nor water, one shall be destroyed with another, and famish away for their wickedness."

You are to have a third part burned with fire inside the town, when the days of the attack are ended; and a third part you are to take and give blows with the sword round about it; and give a third part for the wind to take away, and let loose a sword after them.

“Thus says the Lord God, ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the center of the nations, and countries are around her.

Then she defied my regulations and my statutes, becoming more wicked than the nations and the countries around her. Indeed, they have rejected my regulations, and they do not follow my statutes.

"Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Because you are more arrogant than the nations around you, you have not followed my statutes and have not carried out my regulations. You have not even carried out the regulations of the nations around you!

Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Lo, I am against thee, even I, And I have done in thy midst judgments, Before the eyes of the nations.

I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again because of all your abominable practices.

Therefore fathers do eat sons in thy midst, And sons eat their fathers, And I have done in thee judgments, And have scattered all thy remnant to every wind.

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

Then my anger will be fully vented; I will exhaust my rage on them, and I will be appeased. Then they will know that I, the Lord, have spoken in my jealousy when I have fully vented my rage against them.

You will be an object of scorn and taunting, a prime example of destruction among the nations around you when I execute judgments against you in anger and raging fury. I, the Lord, have spoken!

In that I have sent the malignant arrows of famine among them which were for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, - and famine, will I increase upon you, and will break for you the staff of bread.

I will send famine and wild beasts against you and they will take your children from you. Plague and bloodshed will overwhelm you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken!"

And thou hast said: Mountains of Israel, Hear ye a word of the Lord Jehovah: Thus said the Lord Jehovah To the mountains, and to the hills, To the streams, and to the valleys, Lo, I, I am bringing in against you a sword, And I have destroyed your high places.

And your altars will be made waste, and your sun-images will be broken: and I will have your dead men placed before your images.

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 fallen hath the wounded in your midst, And ye have known that I am Jehovah.

“Yet I will leave some of you alive [a remnant], for you will have some who escaped the sword among the nations when you are scattered throughout the countries.

Then your survivors will remember me among the nations where they are exiled. They will realize how I was crushed by their unfaithful heart which turned from me and by their eyes which lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves because of the evil they have done and because of all their abominable practices.

Then they will know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord; I have not said in vain that I would bring this disaster [as punishment] on them.”’

The far-off by pestilence dieth, And the near by sword falleth, And the left and the besieged by famine dieth, And I have completed my fury upon them.

Then you will know that I am the Lord -- when their dead lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill and all the mountaintops, under every green tree and every leafy oak, the places where they have offered fragrant incense to all their idols.

And I have stretched out my hand against them, And have made the land a desolation, Even a desolation from the wilderness to Diblath, In all their dwellings, And they have known that I am Jehovah!'

Now is the end unto thee, And I have sent Mine anger upon thee, And judged thee according to thy ways, And set against thee all thine abominations.

For My eye will have no pity on you, nor will I spare you, but I will repay you for your evil ways, while your abominations are among you; and you will know (recognize, understand) [without any doubt] that I am the Lord.’

Now, shortly I pour out My fury on thee, And have completed Mine anger against thee, And judged thee according to thy ways, And set against thee all thine abominations.

My eye will show no pity nor will I spare [you]. I will repay you in accordance with your ways, while your abominations are in your midst; then you will know and understand that it is I, the Lord, who strikes you.

The time has come, the day is near: let not him who gives a price for goods be glad, or him who gets the price have sorrow:

"They have blown the trumpet and everyone is ready, but no one goes to battle, because my anger is against their whole crowd.

And escaped away have their fugitives, And they have been on the mountains As doves of the valleys, All of them make a noising -- each for his iniquity.

And they have girded on sackcloth, And covered them hath trembling, And unto all faces is shame, And on all their heads -- baldness.

They will put out their silver into the streets, and their gold will be as an unclean thing; their silver and their gold will not be able to keep them safe in the day of the wrath of the Lord; they will not get their desire or have food for their need: because it has been the cause of their falling into sin.

As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty; but they made the images of their abominations and their detestable things therein: therefore have I made it unto them as an unclean thing.

And I will give it into the hands of men from strange lands who will take it by force, and to the evil-doers of the earth to have for themselves; and they will make it unholy.

And I have turned My face from them, And they have polluted My hidden place, Yea, come into it have destroyers, and polluted it.

And I have brought in the wicked of the nations, And they have possessed their houses, And I have caused to cease the excellency of the strong, And polluted have been those sanctifying them.

When this trouble cometh, they shall seek peace, but they shall have none.

Mischief on mischief cometh, and report is on report, And they have sought a vision from a prophet, And law doth perish from the priest, And counsel from the elders,

The king doth become a mourner, And a prince putteth on desolation, And the hands of the people of the land are troubled, From their own way I deal with them, And with their own judgments I judge them, And they have known that I am Jehovah!'

Then He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, each man in his [secret] room of carved images? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us; the Lord has abandoned the land.’”

He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? Yet you will see still greater repulsive acts than these [that they are committing].”

He said to me, "Do you see, son of man? Is it a trivial thing that the house of Judah commits these abominations they are practicing here? For they have filled the land with violence and provoked me to anger still further. Look, they are putting the branch to their nose!

Therefore I will act with fury! My eye will not pity them nor will I spare them. When they have shouted in my ears, I will not listen to them."

Then [in my vision] I heard Him cry out with a thunderous voice, saying, “Approach now, executioners of the city, each with his weapon of destruction in his hand.”

But to the others I heard Him say, “Follow him [the man with the scribe’s writing case] throughout the city and strike; do not let your eyes have pity and do not spare [anyone].

Utterly slay old men, young men, maidens, little children, and women; but do not touch or go near anyone on whom is the mark. Begin at My sanctuary.” So they began with the old men who were in front of the temple [who did not have the Lord’s mark on their foreheads].

for he had said unto them, "When ye have defiled the temple, and filled the court with the slain, then go your way forth." So they went out, and slew down through the city.

And he said unto me the iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah, is exceeding, great, and the land is filled with shed blood, and the city is full of over-reaching, - for they have said. Yahweh hath forsaken the land, - and Yahweh doth not see.

But as for me, my eye will not pity them nor will I spare them; I hereby repay them for what they have done."

Next I noticed the man dressed in linen with the writing kit at his side bringing back word: "I have done just as you commanded me."

(The cherubim appeared to have the form of human hands under their wings.)

And as for their appearance, they four had one likeness, as if a wheel have been within a wheel.

And the Spirit of Jehovah fell upon me, and he said unto me, Speak, Thus saith Jehovah: Thus have ye said, O house of Israel; for I know the things that come into your mind.

You have killed many people in this city; you have filled its streets with corpses.'

Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: 'The corpses you have dumped in the midst of the city are the meat, and this city is the cooking pot, but I will take you out of it.

You have feared the sword; so I will bring a sword upon you,” says the Lord God.

And I have brought you out of its midst, And given you into the hand of strangers, And I have done among you judgments.

By the sword ye do fall, On the border of Israel I do judge you, And ye have known that I am Jehovah.

Then you will know that I am the Lord, whose statutes you have not followed and whose regulations you have not carried out. Instead you have behaved according to the regulations of the nations around you!'"

"Son of man, your brothers, your relatives, and the whole house of Israel, all of them are those to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, 'They have gone far away from the Lord; to us this land has been given as a possession.'

"Therefore say: 'This is what the sovereign Lord says: Although I have removed them far away among the nations and have dispersed them among the countries, I have been a little sanctuary for them among the lands where they have gone.'

"Therefore say: 'This is what the sovereign Lord says: When I regather you from the peoples and assemble you from the lands where you have been dispersed, I will give you back the country of Israel.'

And they have gone in thither. And turned aside all its detestable things, And all its abominations -- out of it.

And I have given to them one heart, And a new spirit I do give in your midst, And I have turned the heart of stone out of their flesh, And I have given to them a heart of flesh.

So that in My statutes they walk, And My judgments they keep, and have done them, And they have been to me for a people, And I am to them for God.

But those whose hearts are devoted to detestable things and abominations, I hereby repay them for what they have done, says the sovereign Lord."

And a spirit hath lifted me up, and bringeth me in to Chaldea, unto the Removed, in a vision, by the Spirit of God, and go up from off me doth the vision that I have seen;

"Son of man, you are living in the midst of a rebellious house. They have eyes to see, but do not see, and ears to hear, but do not hear, because they are a rebellious house.