It chanced, in the thirtieth year, the fifth day of the fourth Month, that I was among the prisoners by the river of Chebar: where the heavens opened, and I saw a vision of God.

At the same time came the word of the LORD unto Ezekiel the son of Buzi the priest, in the land of the Chaldeans by the water of Chebar, where the hand of the LORD came upon him.

And I looked, and behold: a stormy wind came out of the North with a great cloud full of fire, which, with his glister, lightened all round about. And in the midst of the fire it was all clear,

that every one had four faces and four wings.

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

Upon the right side of these four, their faces were like the face of a man, and the face of a Lion: But upon the left side, they had the face of an ox and the face of an eagle.

Their faces also and their wings were spread out above: so that two wings of one touched ever two wings of another, and with the other two they covered their body.

Every one, when it went, it went straight forward. Whereas the spirit led them, thither they went; and turned not about in their going.

Now when I had well considered the beasts, I saw a work of wheels upon the earth with four faces also like the beasts.

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.

When one went forward, they went all four, and turned them not about in their going.

They were large, great and horrible to look upon. Their bodies were full of eyes round about them all four. When the beasts went, the wheels went also with them:

And when the beasts lift themselves up from the earth, the wheels were lift up also.

Whithersoever the spirit went, thither went they also, and the wheels were lift up, and followed them: for the spirit of life was in the wheels.

When the beasts went forth, stood still, or lift themselves up from the earth: then the wheels also went, stood still, and were lift up, for the breath of life was in the wheels.

under the same firmament were their wings laid abroad, one toward another, and two wings covered the body of every beast.

And when they went forth I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as it had been the voice of the great God, and a rushing together as it were of a host of men. And when they stood still, they let down their wings.

Now when they stood still, and had let down their wings, it thundered in the firmament that was above their heads.

Above the firmament that was over their heads, there was the fashion of a seat, as it had been made of Sapphire. Upon the seat there sat one like a man.

I beheld him, and he was like a clear light, as it had been all of fire within from his loins upward. And beneath when I looked upon him under the loins, methought he was like a shining fire, that giveth light on every side.

Yea the shine and glister that lightened round about, was like a rainbow, which in a rainy day appeareth in the clouds. Even so was the similitude, wherein the glory of the LORD appeared. When I saw it, I fell upon my face, and hearkened unto the voice of him that spake.

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.

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 said unto me, "Thou son of man, thy belly shall eat, and thy bowels shall be filled with the book, that I give thee." Then did I eat the book and it was, in my mouth, sweeter than honey.

so that thy forehead shall be harder than an Adamant or flint stone: that thou mayest fear them the less, and be less afraid of them, for they are a froward household."

He said moreover unto me, "Thou son of man, take diligent heed with thine ears, to the words that I speak unto thee, fasten them in thine heart:

and go to the prisoners of thy people. Speak unto them, and say on this manner, 'Thus the LORD God hath spoken: Whether ye hear, or hear not.'"

I heard also the noise of the wings of the beasts, that rushed one against another; yea, and the rattling of the wheels that were by them - which rushing and noise was very great.

Now when the spirit took me up, and carried me away, I went with a heavy and sorrowful mind, but the hand of the LORD comforted me right soon.

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.

And when the seven days were expired, the LORD said unto me,

If I say unto thee, concerning the ungodly man, that without doubt he must die: and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest unto him, that he may turn from his evil way, and so to live - Then shall the same ungodly man die in his own unrighteousness, but his blood will I require of thine hand.

Nevertheless, if thou give warning unto the wicked: and he yet forsake not his ungodliness - Then shall he die in his own wickedness, but thou hast discharged thy soul.

"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.

So when I had risen up, and gone forth into the field: Behold, the glory of the LORD stood there, like as I saw it afore, by the waters of Chebar. Then fell I down upon my face,

and the spirit came in to me, which set me up upon my feet, and said thus unto me, "Go thy way, and shut thyself in thine house.

And I will make thy tongue cleave so to the roof of thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb, and not be as a chider with them: for it is an obstinate household.

But when I speak unto thee, then open thy mouth, and say, 'Thus sayeth the LORD God: whoso heareth, let him hear; who so will not, let him leave.' For it is an obstinate household."

how it is besieged, how bulwarks and strong ditches are graven on every side of it. Describe also the tents, and a host of men round about it.

Moreover, take an iron pan, and set it betwixt thee and the city instead of an iron wall. Then set thy face toward it, besiege it, and lay ordinance against it, to win it. This shall be a token unto 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.

Behold, I will lay chains upon thee, that thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another, till thou hast ended the days of thy 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 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."

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."

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."

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.

Yet afterward take a little of the same, and bind it in thy coat lap.

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."

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:

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.

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 -

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,

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.

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

The cities shall be desolate, the hill chapels laid waste; your altars destroyed, and broken; your gods cast down, and taken away, your temples laid even with the ground, your own works clean rooted out.

And they that escape from you, shall think upon me among the Heathen, where they shall be in captivity. As for that whorish and unfaithful heart of theirs, wherewith they run away from me, I will break it: Yea, and put out those eyes of theirs, that committed fornication with their idols. Then shall they be ashamed, and displeased with their selves, for the wickedness and abominations, which they have done:

and shall learn to know how that it is not in vain, that I, the LORD, spake to bring such misery upon them.'"

And so shall ye learn to know that I am the LORD, when your slain men lie among your gods, and about your altars; upon all high hills and tops of mountains; among all green trees; among all thick oaks; even in the places where they did sacrifice to all their idols.

The word of the LORD came unto me on this manner:

"Thus sayeth the LORD God: Behold, one misery and plague shall come after another.

The hour is come against thee that dwellest in the land. The time is at hand; the day of sedition is hard by: and no glad tidings upon the mountains.

malicious violence is grown up, and the ungodly waxen to a staff. None of them shall remain over, none of their riches, not one of their seed: and no lamentation shall be made for them.

The time cometh, the day draweth nigh. Whoso buyeth, let him not rejoice: he that selleth, let him not be sorry. For why? Trouble shall come in the midst of all rest:

so that the seller shall not come again to the buyer, for neither of them both shall live. For the vision shall come so greatly over all, that it shall not be hindered: No man also with his wickedness shall be able to save his own life.

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.

"And such as escape and flee from among them, shall be upon the hills, like as the doves in the field: every one shall be afraid, because of his own wickedness.

their silver shall lie in the streets, and their gold shall be despised. Yea, their silver and gold may not deliver them in the day of the fearful wrath of the LORD. They shall not satisfy their hungry souls, neither fill their empty bellies therewith: For it is become their own decay through their wickedness:

Wherefore, I will bring the most cruel tyrants from among the Heathen to take their houses in possession. I will make the pomp of the proud to cease, and they shall take in their Sanctuary.

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

One mischief and sorrow shall follow another, and one rumor shall come after another: Then shall they seek visions in vain at their Prophets. The law shall be gone from the priests, and wisdom from the elders.

The king shall mourn, the princes shall be clothed with heaviness, and the hands of the people in the land shall tremble for fear. I will do unto them after their own ways, and according to their own judgments will I judge them: to learn them for to know, that I am the LORD."

It happened that in the sixth year, the fifth day of the sixth Month, I sat in my house, and the lords of the counsel of Judah with me. And the hand of the LORD God fell even there upon me.

This similitude stretched out a hand, and took me by the hairy locks of my head, and the spirit lift me up betwixt heaven and earth: And God brought me in a vision to Jerusalem, into the court of the inward port that lieth toward the north. There stood an image, with whom he that hath all things in his power was very wroth.

And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was in the same place: even as I had seen it afore in the field.

And he said unto me, "Thou son of man, O lift up thine eyes, and look toward the north." Then lift I up mine eyes toward the north, and behold: beside the port northward, there was an altar made unto the image of provocation in the very entering in.

And he said furthermore unto me, "Thou son of man, seest thou what these do? Seest thou the great abominations that the house of Israel commit in this place? Which ought not to be done in my sanctuary: But turn thee about, and thou shalt see yet greater abominations."

And with that brought he me to the court gate: and when I looked, behold, there was a hole in the wall.

Then said he unto me, "Thou son of man, dig through the wall." And when I digged through the wall, behold there was a door.

And he said unto me, "Go thy way in, and look what wicked abominations they do there."

So I went in, and saw: and behold, there were all manner of images of worms and beasts, all Idols and abominations of the house of Israel painted every which one round about the wall.

There stood also before the images: Seventy lords of the counsel of the house of Israel; and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan. And every one of them had a censor in his hand, and out of the incense there went a smoke, as it had been a cloud.

Then said he unto me, "Thou son of man, hast thou seen what the Senators of the house of Israel do secretly, everyone in his chamber? For they say, 'Tush, the LORD seeth us not, the LORD regardeth not the world.'"

And so he brought me into the inward court of the LORD's house. And behold, at the port of the LORD's house, betwixt the fore entry and the altar, there were five and twenty men that turned their backs on the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east, and these worshiped the sun.

Therefore will I also do something in my wrathful displeasure: so that mine eye shall not oversee them, neither will I spare them. Yea, and though they cry in mine ears with loud voice, yet will I not hear them."

He cried also with a loud voice in mine ears, saying, "Come here, ye rulers of the city; every man with his weaponed hand to the slaughter."

Then came there six men out of the street of the upper port toward the north, and every man a weapon in his hand to the slaughter. There was one amongst them, that had on him a linen raiment, and a writer's inkhorn by his side. These went in, and stood beside the brazen altar:

kill and destroy both old man and young, maidens, children and wives. But as for those, that have the mark upon them: see that ye touch them not. And begin at my Sanctuary." Then they began at the elders, which were in the temple,

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.

Now when they had done the slaughter, and I yet escaped: I fell down upon my face, and cried saying, "O LORD, wilt thou then destroy all the residue of Israel, in thy sore displeasure, that thou hast poured upon Jerusalem?"

And as I looked, behold, in the firmament that was above the cherubims there appeared the similitude of a stool of sapphire upon them.

Then said he that sat therein, to him that had the linen raiment upon him, "Creep in between the wheels that are under the Cherubims, and take thine hand full of hot coals out from between the Cherubims, and cast them over the city. And he crept in, that I might see."

Now the Cherubims stood upon the rightside of the house, when the man went in, and the cloud filled the innermore court.

Yea and the sound of the Cherubims' wings was heard into the fore court, like as it had been the voice of the almighty God when he speaketh.

Now when he had bidden the man that was clothed in linen, to go and take the hot coals from the midst of the wheels, which were under the Cherubims: he went and stood beside the wheels.