The Daily Audio Bible

^16 (A)Now it happened at the end of seven days, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, ¹⁷ “Son of man, I have given you as a ^(B)watchman to the house of Israel; so you will hear a word from My mouth, and you shall ^(C)warn them from Me. ¹⁸ When I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his ^(D)blood I will require at your hand. ¹⁹ Yet if you have ^(E)warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have ^(F)delivered yourself. ²⁰ Again, ^(G)when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and does evil, and I put a ^(H)stumbling block before him, he will die; since you have not warned him, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. ²¹ However, if you have ^(I)warned ^[a]the righteous man that the righteous should not sin and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; and you have delivered yourself.”

²² And the hand of Yahweh was on me there, and He said to me, “Get up, go out to the plain, and there I will ^(J)speak to you.” ²³ So I got up and went out to the plain; and behold, the ^(K)glory of Yahweh was standing there, like the glory which ^(L)I saw by the river Chebar, and I fell on my face. ²⁴ The ^(M)Spirit then entered me and caused me to stand on my feet, and He spoke with me and said to me, “Go, shut yourself up in your house. ²⁵ Now as for you, son of man, they will ^(N)put ropes on you and bind you with them so that you cannot go out among them. ²⁶ Moreover, ^(O)I will make your tongue cling to ^[b]the roof of your mouth so that you will be mute and cannot be a man who reproves them, for they are a rebellious house. ²⁷ But ^(P)when I speak to you, I will open your mouth, and you will say to them, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh.’ He who hears, let him hear; and he who refuses, let him refuse; ^(Q)for they are a rebellious house.

Ezekiel Bears Israel’s Iniquity

4 “Now as for you, son of man, ^(R)get yourself a brick, set it before you, and inscribe a city on it, Jerusalem. ² Then ^(S)set a siege against it, build a siege wall against it, ^[c]raise up a ramp against it, set up camps against it, and place battering rams against it all around. ³ Now as for you, get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city, and establish your face toward it so that ^(T)it is under siege, and besiege it. This is a ^(U)sign to the house of Israel.

⁴ “Now as for you, lie down on your left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; you shall ^(V)bear their iniquity for the number of days that you lie on it. ⁵ Now I have set a number of days for you corresponding to the years of their iniquity, 390 days; thus ^(W)you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. ⁶ And you shall complete these, and you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah; I have set it for you for forty days, a day for ^(X)each year. ⁷ Then you shall establish your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and ^(Y)prophesy against it. ⁸ Now behold, I will ^(Z)set ropes upon you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.

Making Unclean Bread

⁹ “Now as for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and ^(AA)spelt; set them in one vessel and make them into bread for yourself; you shall eat it according to the number of the days that you lie on your side, 390 days. ¹⁰ And your food which you eat shall be ^[d](AB)twenty shekels a day by weight; you shall eat it from time to time. ¹¹ The water you drink shall be the sixth part of a ^[e]hin by measure; you shall drink it from time to time. ¹² You shall eat it as a barley cake, having baked it in their sight over human ^(AC)dung.” ¹³ Then Yahweh said, “Thus will the sons of Israel eat their bread ^(AD)unclean among the nations where I will banish them.” ¹⁴ But I said, “^(AE)Ah, Lord Yahweh! Behold, I have ^(AF)never been defiled; for from my youth until now I have never eaten what ^(AG)died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has any ^(AH)offensive meat ever entered my mouth.” ¹⁵ Then He said to me, “See, I will set for you cow’s dung in place of human dung over which you will prepare your bread.” ¹⁶ Moreover, He said to me, “Son of man, behold, I am going to ^(AI)break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by ^(AJ)weight and with anxiety, and they will drink water by ^(AK)measure and in desolation ¹⁷ because bread and water will be lacking; and they will be in desolation with one another and ^(AL)rot away in their iniquity.

The Siege of Jerusalem

5 “Now as for you, son of man, take a ^(AM)sharp sword; take and ^[f]use it as a barber’s razor on your head and beard. Then take ^(AN)scales for weighing and divide ^[g]the hair. ² One-third you shall burn in the fire at the center of the city when the ^(AO)days of the siege are fulfilled. Then you shall take one-third and strike it with the sword all around ^[h]the city, and one-third you shall scatter to the wind; and I will ^(AP)unsheathe a sword behind them. ³ You shall also take a few in number from ^[i]them and bind them in the edges of your robes. ⁴ Take again some of them and throw them into the fire and burn them in the fire; from it a fire will ^[j]spread to all the house of Israel.

⁵ “Thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘This is ^(AQ)Jerusalem; I have set her at the ^(AR)center of the nations, with lands all around her. ⁶ But she has rebelled against My judgments more wickedly than the nations and against My statutes ^(AS)more than the lands which are all around her; for they have ^(AT)rejected My judgments and have not walked ^[k]in My statutes.’ ⁷ Therefore, thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Because you have ^(AU)more turmoil than the nations which are all around you and have not walked in My statutes, nor done My judgments, nor done the judgments of the nations which are all around you,’ ⁸ therefore, thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Behold, I, even I, am ^(AV)against you, and I will ^(AW)execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. ⁹ And I will do among you what I have ^(AX)not done and the like of which I will never do again because of all your abominations. ¹⁰ Therefore, ^(AY)fathers will eat their sons among you, and sons will eat their fathers; for I will execute judgments on you and ^(AZ)scatter all your remnant to every wind. ¹¹ So as I live,’ declares Lord Yahweh, ‘surely, because you have ^(BA)defiled My sanctuary with all your ^(BB)detestable idols and with all your abominations, therefore I will also withdraw, and My eye will have no pity, and I will not spare. ¹² One-third of you will die by the ^(BC)plague or be consumed by the famine among you, one-third will fall by the sword around you, and one-third I will ^(BD)scatter to every wind, and I will ^(BE)unsheathe a sword behind them.

¹³ ‘Thus My anger will be spent, and I will cause My wrath against them to be at rest, and I will be ^[l](BF)appeased; then they will know that I, Yahweh, have ^(BG)spoken in My zeal when I have spent My wrath upon them. ¹⁴ Moreover, I will make you a ^[m]ruin and a ^(BH)reproach among the nations which are all around you, in the sight of all who pass by. ¹⁵ So ^[n]it will be a reproach, a reviling, a ^(BI)chastisement, and a desecration to the nations who are all around you when I ^(BJ)execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and wrathful reproofs. I, Yahweh, have spoken. ¹⁶ When I send against them the ^[o]deadly arrows of famine which ^[p]were for the destruction of those whom I will send to destroy you, then I will also intensify the famine upon you and break the staff of bread. ¹⁷ Moreover, ^(BK)I will send on you famine and wild beasts, and they will bereave you of children; ^(BL)plague and bloodshed also will pass through you, and I will bring the sword on you. I, Yahweh, have spoken.’”

Yahweh Will Destroy Israel’s Pagan Altars

6 And the word of Yahweh came to me saying, ² “Son of man, set your face toward the ^(BM)mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them ³ and say, ‘Mountains of Israel, hear the word of Lord Yahweh! Thus says Lord Yahweh to the mountains, the hills, the ravines, and the valleys: “Behold, I Myself am going to bring a sword on you, and ^(BN)I will destroy your high places. ⁴ So your ^(BO)altars will become desolate, and your incense altars will be broken; and I will make your slain fall in front of your idols. ⁵ I will also put the dead bodies of the sons of Israel in front of their idols; and I will scatter your ^(BP)bones all around your altars. ⁶ In all your places of habitation, ^(BQ)cities will become waste, and the high places will be desolate, that your altars may become waste and ^[q]desolate, your ^(BR)idols may be broken and cease, your incense altars may be cut in pieces, and your works may be blotted out. ⁷ The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am Yahweh.

⁸ “However, I will leave a ^(BS)remnant, for you will have those who ^(BT)escaped the sword among the nations when you are scattered among the lands. ⁹ Then those of you who escape will ^(BU)remember Me among the nations to which they will be carried captive, how I have ^(BV)been broken over their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me, and by their eyes which played the harlot after their idols; and they will ^(BW)loathe themselves to their own faces for the evils which they have done, for all their abominations. ¹⁰ Then they will know that I am Yahweh; I have not said in vain that I would do this calamitous evil against them.”’

¹¹ “Thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Strike your hands together, ^(BX)stamp your foot and say, “^(BY)Alas, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, which will fall by the ^(BZ)sword, by the famine, and by the plague! ¹² He who is ^(CA)far off will die by the plague, and he who is near will fall by the sword, and he who remains and is besieged will die by the famine. Thus will I ^(CB)spend My wrath on them. ¹³ Then you will know that I am Yahweh when their ^(CC)slain are among their idols all around their altars, on ^(CD)every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every green tree, and under every leafy oak—the places where they ^[r]offered a soothing aroma to all their idols. ¹⁴ So throughout all their habitations I will ^(CE)stretch out My hand against them and make the land more desolate and desecrated than the wilderness toward Diblah; thus they will know that I am Yahweh.”’”

The Believer’s Rest

4 Therefore, let us fear, lest, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have ^(A)fallen short of it. ² For indeed we have had good news proclaimed to us, just as they also; but ^(B)the word ^[a]that was heard did not profit those ^[b]who were not united with faith among those who heard. ³ For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said,

although His works were finished ^(D)from the foundation of the world. ⁴ For He has spoken ^(E)somewhere in this way concerning the seventh day: “^(F)And God ^(G)rested on the seventh day from all His works”; ⁵ and again in this passage, “^(H)They shall not enter My rest.” ⁶ Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news proclaimed to them failed to enter because of ^(I)disobedience, ⁷ He again determines a certain day, “Today,” saying ^[c]through David after so long a time just ^(J)as has been said before,

⁸ For ^(L)if ^[d]Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. ⁹ So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. ¹⁰ For the one who has entered His rest has himself also ^(M)rested from his works, as ^(N)God did from His. ¹¹ Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall into the same ^(O)example of ^(P)disobedience. ¹² For ^(Q)the word of God is ^(R)living and ^(S)active and sharper than any two-edged ^(T)sword, and piercing as far as the division of ^(U)soul and ^(V)spirit, of both joints and marrow, and ^(W)able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ¹³ And ^(X)there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are ^[e](Y)uncovered and laid bare to the eyes of Him to whom we have an account to give.

Jesus Our Great High Priest

¹⁴ Therefore, since we have a great ^(Z)high priest who has ^(AA)passed through the heavens, Jesus ^(AB)the Son of God, let us take hold of our ^(AC)confession. ¹⁵ For we do not have ^(AD)a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been ^(AE)tempted in all things like we are, yet ^(AF)without sin. ¹⁶ Therefore let us ^(AG)draw near with ^(AH)confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.