Study Desk

"Then lay siege against it, build a siege wall, pile up an assault ramp, set up camps, and place battering rams against it all around.

"Then get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city, and direct your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.

"For I have assigned you a number of days corresponding to the years of their wrongdoing, 390 days; so you shall bear the wrongdoing of the house of Israel.

"When you have completed these days, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the wrongdoing of the house of Judah; I have assigned it to you for forty days, a day for each year.

"Your food which you eat shall be twenty shekels a day by weight; you shall eat it from time to time.

"The water you drink shall be a sixth of a hin by measure; you shall drink it from time to time.

"You shall eat it as a barley cake, having baked it in their sight over human dung."

"As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword; take and use it as a barber's razor on your head and beard. Then take scales for weighing and divide the hair.

"A third you shall burn in the fire at the center of the city, when the days of the siege are completed. Then you shall take a third and strike it with the sword all around the city, and a third you shall scatter to the wind; for I will unsheathe a sword behind them.

"Take also a few hairs in number from them and bind them in the hems of your robes.

"Take again some of them and throw them into the fire and burn them in the fire; from it a fire will spread to all the house of Israel.

'A third of you will die by plague or perish by famine among you, a third will fall by the sword around you, and a third I will scatter to every wind, and I will unsheathe a sword behind them.

'Moreover, I will make you a site of ruins and a disgrace among the nations that surround you, in the sight of everyone who passes by.

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

and say, 'Mountains of Israel, listen to the word of the Lord GOD! This is what the Lord GOD says to the mountains, the hills, the ravines, and the valleys: "Behold, I Myself am going to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.

"However, I will leave a remnant, in that you will have those who escaped the sword among the nations when you are scattered among the countries.

"Then you will know that I am the LORD, when their dead are among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every leafy tree and under every massive oak with thick branches—the places where they offered a soothing aroma to all their idols.

"This is what the Lord GOD says: 'A disaster, a unique disaster, behold, it is coming!

'Violence has grown into a rod of wickedness. None of them shall remain, none of their people, none of their wealth, nor anything eminent among them.

'They will put on sackcloth and shuddering will overwhelm them; and shame will be on all faces, and a bald patch on all their heads.