Study Desk

This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of the people of Israel, says: "Babylon is like a threshing floor, where people beat the grain at harvest time. And the time to beat Babylon is coming soon.

I will punish the false god Bel in Babylon. I will make him vomit out the people he swallowed. The wall around Babylon will fall, and other nations will stop coming to Babylon.

I am a man who has seen much trouble. God beat us with a stick, and I saw it happen.

I say to myself, "The Lord is my God, and I trust him."

He does not like anyone to be unfair to another person. Some people will do such things right in front of God Most High.

God Most High commands both good and bad things to happen.

Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to the God of heaven.

Some of the men of Judah were dedicated to God in a special way. They were very pure. They were whiter than snow, and whiter than milk. Their bodies were red like coral and their beards like sapphire stones.

I am the priest, Ezekiel son of Buzi. I was in exile by the Kebar Canal in Babylonia when the skies opened up, and I saw visions of God. This was on the fifth day of the fourth month of the thirtieth year. (This was the fifth year of King Jehoiachin's exile. The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel. The power of the Lord came over him at that place.)

I am sending you to speak to them, but they are very stubborn. They are very hardheaded, but you must speak to them. You must say, ‘This is what the Lord God says.'

God said to me, "Son of man, eat what you see. Eat this scroll, and then go tell these things to the family of Israel."

Then God said, "Son of man, I am giving you this scroll. Swallow it! Let that scroll fill your body." So I ate the scroll. It was as sweet as honey in my mouth.

Then God said to me, "Son of man, go to the family of Israel. Speak my words to them.

Then God said to me, "Son of man, listen to every word I say to you and remember them.

Then go to all of your people in exile and tell them, ‘This is what the Lord God says ….' They will not listen, and they will not stop sinning, but you must still tell them my message."

But I will talk to you, and then I will allow you to speak. But you must say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says.' If a person wants to listen, fine. If a person refuses to listen, fine. But those people always turn against me.

Then I said, "Oh, but Lord God , I have never eaten any unclean food. I have never eaten meat from an animal that died from a disease or from an animal that was killed by a wild animal. I have never eaten unclean meat—not from the time that I was a little baby until now. None of that bad meat ever entered my mouth."

Then God said to me, "Very well, I will let you use dry cow dung to cook your bread. You don't have to use dry human dung."

Then God said to me, "Son of man, I am destroying Jerusalem's supply of bread. People will have only a little bread to eat. They will be very worried about their food supply, and they will have only a little water to drink. Every time they take a drink, they will feel more afraid.

Then the Lord God said to me, "The brick is a picture of Jerusalem. I put Jerusalem in the middle of other nations with countries all around her.