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Ezekiel 5-8
The Message
Ezekiel 5-8
The Message
A Jealous God, Not to Be Trifled With
5 1-2 “Now, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a straight razor, shaving your head and your beard. Then, using a set of balancing scales, divide the hair into thirds. When the days of the siege are over, take one-third of the hair and burn it inside the city. Take another third, chop it into bits with the sword and sprinkle it around the city. The final third you’ll throw to the wind. Then I’ll go after them with a sword.
3-4 “Retrieve a few of the hairs and slip them into your pocket. Take some of them and throw them into the fire—burn them up. From them, fire will spread to the whole family of Israel.
5-6 “This is what God, the Master, says: This means Jerusalem. I set her at the center of the world, all the nations ranged around her. But she rebelled against my laws and ordinances, rebelled far worse than the nations ranged around her—sheer wickedness!—refused my guidance, ignored my directions.
7 “Therefore this is what God, the Master, says: You’ve been more headstrong and willful than any of the nations around you, refusing my guidance, ignoring my directions. You’ve sunk to the gutter level of those around you.
8-10 “Therefore this is what God, the Master, says: I’m setting myself against you—yes, against you, Jerusalem. I’m going to punish you in full sight of the nations. Because of your disgusting no-god idols, I’m going to do something to you that I’ve never done before and will never do again: turn families into cannibals—parents eating children, children eating parents! Punishment indeed. And whoever’s left over I’ll throw to the winds.
11-12 “Therefore, as sure as I am the living God—Decree of God, the Master—because you’ve polluted my Sanctuary with your obscenities and disgusting no-god idols, I’m pulling out. Not an ounce of pity will I show you. A third of your people will die of either disease or hunger inside the city, a third will be killed outside the city, and a third will be thrown to the winds and chased by killers.
13 “Only then will I calm down and let my anger cool. Then you’ll know that I was serious about this all along, that I’m a jealous God and not to be trifled with.
14-15 “When I get done with you, you’ll be a pile of rubble. Nations who walk by will make coarse jokes. When I finish my angry punishment and searing rebukes, you’ll be reduced to an object of ridicule and mockery, turned into a horror story circulating among the surrounding nations. I, God, have spoken.
16-17 “When I shoot my lethal famine arrows at you, I’ll shoot to kill. Then I’ll step up the famine and cut off food supplies. Famine and more famine—and then I’ll send in the wild animals to finish off your children. Epidemic disease, unrestrained murder, death—and I will have sent it! I, God, have spoken.”
Turn Israel into Wasteland
6 1-7 Then the Word of God came to me: “Son of man, now turn and face the mountains of Israel and preach against them: ‘O Mountains of Israel, listen to the Message of God, the Master. God, the Master, speaks to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and the valleys: I’m about to destroy your sacred god and goddess shrines. I’ll level your altars, bust up your sun-god pillars, and kill your people as they bow down to your no-god idols. I’ll stack the dead bodies of Israelites in front of your idols and then scatter your bones around your shrines. Every place where you’ve lived, the towns will be torn down and the pagan shrines demolished—altars busted up, idols smashed, all your custom-made sun-god pillars in ruins. Corpses everywhere you look! Then you’ll know that I am God.
8-10 “‘But I’ll let a few escape the killing as you are scattered through other lands and nations. In the foreign countries where they’re taken as prisoners of war, they’ll remember me. They’ll realize how devastated I was by their betrayals, by their voracious lust for gratifying themselves in their idolatries. They’ll be disgusted with their evil ways, disgusting to God in the way they’ve lived. They’ll know that I am God. They’ll know that my judgment against them was no empty threat.
11-14 “‘This is what God, the Master, says: Clap your hands, stamp your feet, yell out, “No, no, no!” because of all the evil obscenities rife in Israel. They’re going to be killed, dying of hunger, dying of disease—death everywhere you look, people dropping like flies, people far away dying, people nearby dying, and whoever’s left in the city starving to death. Why? Because I’m angry, furiously angry. They’ll realize that I am God when they see their people’s corpses strewn over and around all their ruined sex-and-religion shrines on the bare hills and in the lush fertility groves, in all the places where they indulged their sensual rites. I’ll bring my hand down hard on them, demolish the country wherever they live, turn it into wasteland from one end to the other, from the wilderness to Riblah. Then they’ll know that I am God!’”
Fate Has Caught Up with You
7 1-4 God’s Word came to me, saying, “You, son of man—God, the Master, has this Message for the land of Israel:
“‘Endtime.
The end of business as usual for everyone.
It’s all over. The end is upon you.
I’ve launched my anger against you.
I’ve issued my verdict on the way you live.
I’ll make you pay for your disgusting obscenities.
I won’t look the other way,
I won’t feel sorry for you.
I’ll make you pay for the way you’ve lived:
Your disgusting obscenities will boomerang on you,
and you’ll realize that I am God.’
5-9 “I, God, the Master, say:
‘Disaster after disaster! Look, it comes!
Endtime—
the end comes.
The end is ripe. Watch out, it’s coming!
This is your fate, you who live in this land.
Time’s up.
It’s zero hour.
No dragging of feet now,
no bargaining for more time.
Soon now I’ll pour my wrath on you,
pay out my anger against you,
Render my verdict on the way you’ve lived,
make you pay for your disgusting obscenities.
I won’t look the other way,
I won’t feel sorry for you.
I’ll make you pay for the way you’ve lived.
Your disgusting obscenities will boomerang on you.
Then you’ll realize
that it is I, God, who have hit you.
10-13 “‘Judgment Day!
Fate has caught up with you.
The scepter outsized and pretentious,
pride bursting all bounds,
Violence strutting,
brandishing the evil scepter.
But there’s nothing to them,
and nothing will be left of them.
Time’s up.
Countdown: five, four, three, two . . .
Buyer, don’t boast; seller, don’t worry:
Judgment wrath has turned the world topsy-turvy.
The bottom has dropped out of buying and selling.
It will never be the same again.
But don’t fantasize an upturn in the market.
The country is bankrupt because of its sins,
and it’s not going to get any better.
14-16 “‘The trumpet signals the call to battle:
“Present arms!”
But no one marches into battle.
My wrath has them paralyzed!
On the open roads you’re killed,
or else you go home and die of hunger and disease.
Either get murdered out in the country
or die of sickness or hunger in town.
Survivors run for the hills.
They moan like doves in the valleys,
Each one moaning
for his own sins.
17-18 “‘Every hand hangs limp,
every knee turns to rubber.
They dress in rough burlap—
sorry scarecrows,
Shifty and shamefaced,
with their heads shaved bald.
19-27 “‘They throw their money into the gutters.
Their hard-earned cash stinks like garbage.
They find that it won’t buy a thing
they either want or need on Judgment Day.
They tripped on money
and fell into sin.
Proud and pretentious with their jewels,
they deck out their vile and vulgar no-gods in finery.
I’ll make those god-obscenities a stench in their nostrils.
I’ll give away their religious junk—
strangers will pick it up for free,
the godless spit on it and make jokes.
I’ll turn my face so I won’t have to look
as my treasured place and people are violated,
As violent strangers walk in
and desecrate place and people—
A bloody massacre,
as crime and violence fill the city.
I’ll bring in the dregs of humanity
to move into their houses.
I’ll put a stop to the boasting and strutting
of the high-and-mighty,
And see to it that there’ll be nothing holy
left in their holy places.
Catastrophe descends. They look for peace,
but there’s no peace to be found—
Disaster on the heels of disaster,
one rumor after another.
They clamor for the prophet to tell them what’s up,
but nobody knows anything.
Priests don’t have a clue;
the elders don’t know what to say.
The king holds his head in despair;
the prince is devastated.
The common people are paralyzed.
Gripped by fear, they can’t move.
I’ll deal with them where they are,
judge them on their terms.
They’ll know that I am God.’”
The Spirit Carried Me in Visions
8 1-4 In the sixth year, in the sixth month and the fifth day, while I was sitting at home meeting with the leaders of Judah, it happened that the hand of my Master, God, gripped me. When I looked, I was astonished. What I saw looked like a man—from the waist down like fire and from the waist up like highly burnished bronze. He reached out what looked like a hand and grabbed me by the hair. The Spirit swept me high in the air and carried me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the Temple’s inside court where the image of the sex goddess that makes God so angry had been set up. Right before me was the Glory of the God of Israel, exactly like the vision I had seen out on the plain.
5 He said to me, “Son of man, look north.” I looked north and saw it: Just north of the entrance loomed the altar of the sex goddess, Asherah, that makes God so angry.
6 Then he said, “Son of man, do you see what they’re doing? Outrageous obscenities! And doing them right here! It’s enough to drive me right out of my own Temple. But you’re going to see worse yet.”
* * *
7 He brought me to the door of the Temple court. I looked and saw a gaping hole in the wall.
8 He said, “Son of man, dig through the wall.”
I dug through the wall and came upon a door.
9 He said, “Now walk through the door and take a look at the obscenities they’re engaging in.”
10-11 I entered and looked. I couldn’t believe my eyes: Painted all over the walls were pictures of reptiles and animals and monsters—the whole pantheon of Egyptian gods and goddesses—being worshiped by Israel. In the middle of the room were seventy of the leaders of Israel, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing in the middle. Each held his censer with the incense rising in a fragrant cloud.
12 He said, “Son of man, do you see what the elders are doing here in the dark, each one before his favorite god-picture? They tell themselves, ‘God doesn’t see us. God has forsaken the country.’”
13 Then he said, “You’re going to see worse yet.”
* * *
14-15 He took me to the entrance at the north gate of the Temple of God. I saw women sitting there, weeping for Tammuz, the Babylonian fertility god. He said, “Have you gotten an eyeful, son of man? You’re going to see worse yet.”
* * *
16 Finally, he took me to the inside court of the Temple of God. There between the porch and the altar were about twenty-five men. Their backs were to God’s Temple. They were facing east, bowing in worship to the sun.
17-18 He said, “Have you seen enough, son of man? Isn’t it bad enough that Judah engages in these outrageous obscenities? They fill the country with violence and now provoke me even further with their obscene gestures. That’s it. They have an angry God on their hands! From now on, no mercy. They can shout all they want, but I’m not listening.”
Ezekiel 5-8
New International Version
Ezekiel 5-8
New International Version
God’s Razor of Judgment
5 “Now, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor(A) to shave(B) your head and your beard.(C) Then take a set of scales and divide up the hair. 2 When the days of your siege come to an end, burn(D) a third(E) of the hair inside the city. Take a third and strike it with the sword all around the city. And scatter a third to the wind.(F) For I will pursue them with drawn sword.(G) 3 But take a few hairs and tuck them away in the folds of your garment.(H) 4 Again, take a few of these and throw them into the fire(I) and burn them up. A fire will spread from there to all Israel.
5 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.(J) 6 Yet in her wickedness she has rebelled against my laws and decrees more than the nations and countries around her. She has rejected my laws and has not followed my decrees.(K)
7 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: You have been more unruly than the nations around you and have not followed my decrees or kept my laws. You have not even[a] conformed to the standards of the nations around you.(L)
8 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will inflict punishment on you in the sight of the nations.(M) 9 Because of all your detestable idols, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again.(N) 10 Therefore in your midst parents will eat their children, and children will eat their parents.(O) I will inflict punishment on you and will scatter all your survivors to the winds.(P) 11 Therefore as surely as I live,(Q) declares the Sovereign(R) Lord, because you have defiled my sanctuary(S) with all your vile images(T) and detestable practices,(U) I myself will shave you; I will not look on you with pity or spare you.(V) 12 A third of your people will die of the plague or perish by famine inside you; a third will fall by the sword outside your walls; and a third I will scatter to the winds(W) and pursue with drawn sword.(X)
13 “Then my anger will cease and my wrath(Y) against them will subside, and I will be avenged.(Z) And when I have spent my wrath on them, they will know that I the Lord have spoken in my zeal.(AA)
14 “I will make you a ruin and a reproach among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by.(AB) 15 You will be a reproach(AC) and a taunt, a warning(AD) and an object of horror to the nations around you when I inflict punishment on you in anger and in wrath and with stinging rebuke.(AE) I the Lord have spoken.(AF) 16 When I shoot at you with my deadly and destructive arrows of famine, I will shoot to destroy you. I will bring more and more famine upon you and cut off your supply of food.(AG) 17 I will send famine and wild beasts(AH) against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed(AI) will sweep through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I the Lord have spoken.(AJ)”
Doom for the Mountains of Israel
6 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face(AK) against the mountains(AL) of Israel; prophesy against them(AM) 3 and say: ‘You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Sovereign Lord. This is what the Sovereign Lord says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys:(AN) I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.(AO) 4 Your altars will be demolished and your incense altars(AP) will be smashed; and I will slay your people in front of your idols.(AQ) 5 I will lay the dead bodies of the Israelites in front of their idols, and I will scatter your bones(AR) around your altars.(AS) 6 Wherever you live,(AT) the towns will be laid waste and the high places(AU) demolished, so that your altars will be laid waste and devastated, your idols(AV) smashed and ruined, your incense altars(AW) broken down, and what you have made wiped out.(AX) 7 Your people will fall slain(AY) among you, and you will know that I am the Lord.(AZ)
8 “‘But I will spare some, for some of you will escape(BA) the sword when you are scattered among the lands and nations.(BB) 9 Then in the nations where they have been carried captive, those who escape will remember(BC) me—how I have been grieved(BD) by their adulterous hearts, which have turned away from me, and by their eyes, which have lusted after their idols.(BE) They will loathe themselves for the evil(BF) they have done and for all their detestable practices.(BG) 10 And they will know that I am the Lord;(BH) I did not threaten in vain to bring this calamity on them.(BI)
11 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Strike your hands together and stamp your feet and cry out “Alas!” because of all the wicked and detestable practices of the people of Israel, for they will fall by the sword, famine and plague.(BJ) 12 One who is far away will die of the plague, and one who is near will fall by the sword, and anyone who survives and is spared will die of famine. So will I pour out my wrath(BK) on them.(BL) 13 And they will know that I am the Lord, when their people lie slain among their idols(BM) around their altars, on every high hill and on all the mountaintops, under every spreading tree and every leafy oak(BN)—places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols.(BO) 14 And I will stretch out my hand(BP) against them and make the land a desolate waste from the desert to Diblah[b]—wherever they live. Then they will know that I am the Lord.(BQ)’”
The End Has Come
7 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, this is what the Sovereign Lord says to the land of Israel:
“‘The end!(BR) The end has come
upon the four corners(BS) of the land!
3 The end is now upon you,
and I will unleash my anger against you.
I will judge you according to your conduct(BT)
and repay you for all your detestable practices.(BU)
4 I will not look on you with pity;(BV)
I will not spare you.
I will surely repay you for your conduct
and for the detestable practices among you.
“‘Then you will know that I am the Lord.’(BW)
5 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“‘Disaster!(BX) Unheard-of[c] disaster!
See, it comes!
6 The end(BY) has come!
The end has come!
It has roused itself against you.
See, it comes!
7 Doom has come upon you,
upon you who dwell in the land.
The time has come! The day(BZ) is near!(CA)
There is panic, not joy, on the mountains.
8 I am about to pour out my wrath(CB) on you
and spend my anger against you.
I will judge you according to your conduct
and repay you for all your detestable practices.(CC)
9 I will not look on you with pity;
I will not spare you.(CD)
I will repay you for your conduct
and for the detestable practices among you.(CE)
“‘Then you will know that it is I the Lord who strikes you.(CF)
10 “‘See, the day!
See, it comes!
Doom has burst forth,
the rod(CG) has budded,
arrogance has blossomed!
11 Violence(CH) has arisen,[d]
a rod to punish the wicked.
None of the people will be left,
none of that crowd—
none of their wealth,
nothing of value.(CI)
12 The time has come!
The day has arrived!
Let not the buyer(CJ) rejoice
nor the seller grieve,
for my wrath is on the whole crowd.(CK)
13 The seller will not recover
the property that was sold—
as long as both buyer and seller live.
For the vision concerning the whole crowd
will not be reversed.
Because of their sins, not one of them
will preserve their life.(CL)
14 “‘They have blown the trumpet,(CM)
they have made all things ready,
but no one will go into battle,
for my wrath(CN) is on the whole crowd.
15 Outside is the sword;
inside are plague and famine.
Those in the country
will die by the sword;
those in the city
will be devoured by famine and plague.(CO)
16 The fugitives(CP) who escape
will flee to the mountains.
Like doves(CQ) of the valleys,
they will all moan,
each for their own sins.(CR)
17 Every hand will go limp;(CS)
every leg will be wet with urine.(CT)
18 They will put on sackcloth(CU)
and be clothed with terror.(CV)
Every face will be covered with shame,
and every head will be shaved.(CW)
19 “‘They will throw their silver into the streets,(CX)
and their gold will be treated as a thing unclean.
Their silver and gold
will not be able to deliver them
in the day of the Lord’s wrath.(CY)
It will not satisfy(CZ) their hunger
or fill their stomachs,
for it has caused them to stumble(DA) into sin.(DB)
20 They took pride in their beautiful jewelry
and used it to make(DC) their detestable idols.
They made it into vile images;(DD)
therefore I will make it a thing unclean for them.(DE)
21 I will give their wealth as plunder(DF) to foreigners
and as loot to the wicked of the earth,
who will defile it.(DG)
22 I will turn my face(DH) away from the people,
and robbers will desecrate the place I treasure.
They will enter it
and will defile it.(DI)
23 “‘Prepare chains!
For the land is full of bloodshed,(DJ)
and the city is full of violence.(DK)
24 I will bring the most wicked of nations
to take possession of their houses.
I will put an end to the pride of the mighty,
and their sanctuaries(DL) will be desecrated.(DM)
25 When terror comes,
they will seek peace in vain.(DN)
26 Calamity upon calamity(DO) will come,
and rumor upon rumor.
They will go searching for a vision from the prophet,(DP)
priestly instruction in the law will cease,
the counsel of the elders will come to an end.(DQ)
27 The king will mourn,
the prince will be clothed with despair,(DR)
and the hands of the people of the land will tremble.
I will deal with them according to their conduct,(DS)
and by their own standards I will judge them.
“‘Then they will know that I am the Lord.(DT)’”
Idolatry in the Temple
8 In the sixth year, in the sixth month on the fifth day, while I was sitting in my house and the elders(DU) of Judah were sitting before(DV) me, the hand of the Sovereign Lord came on me there.(DW) 2 I looked, and I saw a figure like that of a man.[e] From what appeared to be his waist down he was like fire, and from there up his appearance was as bright as glowing metal.(DX) 3 He stretched out what looked like a hand(DY) and took me by the hair of my head. The Spirit lifted me up(DZ) between earth and heaven and in visions(EA) of God he took me to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court,(EB) where the idol that provokes to jealousy(EC) stood. 4 And there before me was the glory(ED) of the God of Israel, as in the vision I had seen in the plain.(EE)
5 Then he said to me, “Son of man, look toward the north.” So I looked, and in the entrance north of the gate of the altar I saw this idol(EF) of jealousy.
6 And he said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing—the utterly detestable(EG) things the Israelites are doing here, things that will drive me far from my sanctuary?(EH) But you will see things that are even more detestable.”
7 Then he brought me to the entrance to the court. I looked, and I saw a hole in the wall. 8 He said to me, “Son of man, now dig into the wall.” So I dug into the wall and saw a doorway there.
9 And he said to me, “Go in and see the wicked and detestable things they are doing here.” 10 So I went in and looked, and I saw portrayed all over the walls(EI) all kinds of crawling things and unclean(EJ) animals and all the idols of Israel.(EK) 11 In front of them stood seventy elders(EL) of Israel, and Jaazaniah son of Shaphan was standing among them. Each had a censer(EM) in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense(EN) was rising.(EO)
12 He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of Israel are doing in the darkness,(EP) each at the shrine of his own idol? They say, ‘The Lord does not see(EQ) us; the Lord has forsaken the land.’” 13 Again, he said, “You will see them doing things that are even more detestable.”
14 Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord, and I saw women sitting there, mourning the god Tammuz.(ER) 15 He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? You will see things that are even more detestable than this.”
16 He then brought me into the inner court(ES) of the house of the Lord, and there at the entrance to the temple, between the portico and the altar,(ET) were about twenty-five men. With their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, they were bowing down to the sun(EU) in the east.(EV)
17 He said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a trivial matter for the people of Judah to do the detestable things(EW) they are doing here? Must they also fill the land with violence(EX) and continually arouse my anger?(EY) Look at them putting the branch to their nose! 18 Therefore I will deal with them in anger;(EZ) I will not look on them with pity(FA) or spare them. Although they shout in my ears, I will not listen(FB) to them.”
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 5:7 Most Hebrew manuscripts; some Hebrew manuscripts and Syriac You have
- Ezekiel 6:14 Most Hebrew manuscripts; a few Hebrew manuscripts Riblah
- Ezekiel 7:5 Most Hebrew manuscripts; some Hebrew manuscripts and Syriac Disaster after
- Ezekiel 7:11 Or The violent one has become
- Ezekiel 8:2 Or saw a fiery figure
The Message (MSG)
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
New International Version (NIV) 
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NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.