Episode 200: Lie on your side for 430 days

Ezekiel 4-6

Draw Jerusalem on a tile

4 ¹ God said to Ezekiel,

Son of man, take a tile and draw Jerusalem on it.

² Show a battle taking place, with a fort and battering rams.

³ Use an iron pan for a wall around the city. This will be a sign to everyone in Israel.

Lie on your side for 430 days

⁴ Lie on your left side for 390 days - for the number of years of Israel's guilt.

⁶ Lie on your right side for 40 days - for the number of years of Judah's guilt.

⁸ I'll tie you up with ropes so that you won't turn from one side to another until you're done with the 430 days.

Bake some bread with human dung

⁹ God said to Ezekiel,

Get some wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt to bake bread with it.

^10-11 Eat twenty shekels of this bread each day while you're lying on your side, along with one-sixth of a hin of water.

¹² Bake the bread with human dung. And make sure everyone sees what you're doing.

¹³ The people of Israel will have to eat bread like this when I scatter them among the Gentiles.

¹⁴ Ezekiel said to God,

Oh God, I've never eaten anything that offended you.

Don't make me eat this abominable bread now.

¹⁵ God said,

OK. You can replace the human dung with cow dung when you bake the bread.

¹⁶ But Son of man, I'm going to cause a famine in Jerusalem. The people won't have enough bread and water to survive.

Ezekiel's haircut

5 ¹ God said,

Cut off your hair and beard with a knife. Then weigh the hair with a balance.

² Burn one-third in Jerusalem. Take another third and smite it about with a knife. And scatter the remaining third in the wind. I will chase after the hair in the wind with my sword.

³ Keep a few strands to tie on your skirt. ⁴ Burn these strands in the fire later.

Fathers will eat their sons, and vice versa

⁸ This is what God says,

I myself, am coming against you.

⁹ Because of your abominations, ¹⁰ fathers will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers.

¹¹ Since you have defiled my sanctuary with abominations and detestable things, I will have no pity on you.

¹² A third of you will die with pestilence and famine. Another third will die with the sword. And I'll scatter the remaining third to the winds, while chasing them with a sword.

¹³ This will satisfy my anger and fury, and I will be comforted. And they'll know that I'm God.

¹⁴ I'll completely destroy you. All the nations will laugh at you as they pass by.

¹⁵ All your neighbors will be astonished when they see what happened to you.

¹⁶ I'll send the evil arrows of famine to destroy you by starving you to death.

¹⁷ I'll send wild beasts to eat you, and bring pestilence, blood, and the sword to kill the survivors. I, God, have said it.

God threatens the mountains

6 ¹ The word of God came to me [Ezekiel], saying,

² Son of man, turn your face toward the mountains and prophesy against them, saying,

³ You mountains of Israel, hear the word of God.

This is what God says to the mountains, hills, rivers, and valleys:

I, even I, am going to kill you with a sword and destroy your high places.

⁴ I'll break your altars and images. And cast dead people in front of your idols.

⁵ I'll bury the idols in dead bodies, and scatter bones around your altars.

⁷ When the dead people will fall on you, you'll know that I am God.

⁸ But I'll let a few survive, who will be scattered around.

⁹ They'll remember me with their whorish hearts and eyes that go a whoring. And they'll hate themselves for committing abominations.

¹⁰ Then they'll know that I'm God and remember that I said I'd do these evil things to them.

Clap your hands and stomp your feet

¹¹ So clap your hands and stomp your feet and say,

The people of Israel will be killed with the sword, famine, and pestilence because of their evil abominations.

¹² Those that are far away will die from the pestilence, those that are near will be killed with a sword, and everyone else will die in a famine. This is how I'll satisfy my fury on them.

And that's how you'll know that I am God.