Study Desk

"As for you, son of man, they will put ropes on you and bind you with them so that you cannot go out among them.

"And I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you cannot talk and you cannot be a man who rebukes the people, for they are a rebellious house.

"Further, take an iron plate and place it as an iron wall between you and the city, and set your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This is a sign to the house of Israel.

"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.

'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].

'So it will be a disgrace, a taunt, a warning and an object of horror to the [pagan] nations who surround you when I execute judgments against you in anger and in wrath and in raging reprimands—I, the LORD, have spoken.

"Everywhere you live, the cities will become waste and the high places will become deserted, so that your altars may bear their guilt and become deserted, your idols may be broken and destroyed, your incense altars [for sun-worship] may be cut down, and your works may be blotted out.

"Thus says the Lord GOD, 'A disaster is coming, [one so destructive and injurious, so sudden and violent, that it stands alone,] a unique disaster, look it is coming!

Then He said to me, "Son of man, now raise your eyes toward the north." So I looked toward the north, and behold, to the north of the altar gate was this idol (image) of jealousy at the entrance.

So I entered and looked, and saw every kind of creeping things and beasts and loathsome things, and all the idols of the house of Israel, carved all around on the wall.

So He brought me to the inner court of the LORD'S house. And behold, at the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the porch (vestibule, portico) and the [bronze] altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east; and they were bowing down toward the east and worshiping the sun.

"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].

And He said to the executioners, "Defile the temple and fill its courtyards with the dead. Go out!" So they went out and struck down the people in the city.

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

"As they look on, load the provisions and supplies on your shoulder and carry it out in the dark. You shall cover your face so that you cannot see the land, for I have set you as a sign to the house of Israel."

"Say, 'I am a sign to you. As I have done, so it will be done to them; they will go into exile, into captivity.'

"The prince who is among them will load his provisions and supplies on his shoulder in the dark and go out. They will dig a hole through the wall to go out. He will cover his face so that he cannot see the land with his eyes.

"So they will know and understand fully that I am the LORD when I scatter them among the nations and disperse them among the [pagan] countries.

"So My hand will be against the [counterfeit] prophets who see (make up) empty and delusive visions and who give lying prophecies. They will have no place in the [secret] council of My people, nor will they be recorded in the register of the house of Israel, nor will they enter into the land of Israel, that you may know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord GOD.

so tell those who plaster it with whitewash, that it will fall! A flooding rain [of judgment] will come, and you, O [great] hailstones, will fall; and a violent wind will tear the wall apart.