The Daily Audio Bible

Watchman Must Warn

¹⁶ Now at the end of seven days, the word of Adonai came to me saying: ¹⁷ “Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for the house of Israel. When you hear a word from My mouth, give them a warning from Me. ¹⁸ When I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak to warn the wicked of his wicked way, to save his life, that wicked person will die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood from your hand. ¹⁹ Yet you, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he will die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your soul. ²⁰ When a righteous person turns from his righteousness and acts perversely, I will lay a stumbling block before him and he will die. Because you have not warned him, he will die in his sin. His righteous deeds that he has done will not be remembered—but I will require his blood at your hand. ²¹ If you warn the righteous person not to sin and the righteous person does not sin, he will surely live, because he took warning. You will have delivered your soul.”

²² The hand of Adonai came upon me there. He said to me: “Arise, go out to the valley. I will speak with you there.” ²³ So I arose, and went out to the valley. Behold, the glory of Adonai stood there—like the glory that I saw by the River Chebar—and I fell on my face. ²⁴ The Ruach came into me, and stood me upon my feet. Then He spoke with me and said to me: “Go, shut yourself in your house. ²⁵ You, son of man, behold, ropes will be put on you. You will be bound with them, so that you cannot go out among the people. ²⁶ I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth. You will be mute and unable to reprove them, for they are a rebellious house. ²⁷ But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth. You will say to them: ‘Thus says Adonai Elohim.’ he that hears, let him hear. He that refuses to hear, let him refuse—for they are a rebellious house.”

Ezekiel Portrays the Siege of Jerusalem

4 “Now you, son of man, take a brick and lay it before you. Engrave on it a city, Jerusalem. ² Lay siege against it, build earthworks against it, raise an assault ramp against it; pitch camps against it and place battering rams all around it. ³ Then take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face toward it so that it is under siege. So you will lay siege against it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.

⁴ “Then you are to lie on your left side, and set on it the punishment of the house of Israel; according to the number of days that you lie on it, you will bear their iniquity. ⁵ I have appointed the years of their punishment to you as a number of days—390 days. So you will bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. ⁶ When you have completed these, you will lie on your right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah—40 days—a day for each year, I have appointed to you. ⁷ You will set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm bared, and prophesy against it.

⁸ “Behold, I will put ropes upon you. You will not be able to turn from side to side until you have completed the days of your siege. ⁹ Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and rye, and put them in one bowl. You will make bread from them for the number of days that you will lie on your side; for 390 days, you will eat it. ¹⁰ The food that you will eat will be 20 shekels a day by weight^[a]. You may eat from it from time to time. ¹¹ You are also to drink water by measure, a sixth of a hin^[b]. You may drink it from time to time. ¹² Eat it as barley cakes. Bake it on human dung before their eyes.”

¹³ Then Adonai said, “This is how Bnei-Yisrael will eat their bread—unclean, among the nations where I will scatter them.”

¹⁴ Then I said, “Ah, Adonai Elohim! Behold, I have never defiled myself. From my youth up until now have I not eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts. Tainted meat has never come into my mouth.”

¹⁵ He said to me, “See, I have given you cow dung instead of human dung. So you will prepare your bread on it.” ¹⁶ Then he said to me, “Son of man, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem. They will eat bread by weight, in anxiety, and they will drink water by measure, in horror. ¹⁷ On account of their lack of bread and water they will be appalled at one another and waste away in their iniquity.

Sign of a Shaved Head

5 “Now you, son of man, take a sharp sword. Use it as a barber’s razor to shave your head and your beard. Then take balances to weigh and divide the hair. ² A third you will burn in fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are complete. Take a third and strike it with the sword all around the city. Scatter a third to the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them. ³ Take a few from there and tie them up in your garment. ⁴ Again take some of them, throw them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire. A fire will spread from it into all the house of Israel.”

⁵ Thus says Adonai Elohim: “This is Jerusalem! I have set her in the midst of the nations, with countries all around her. ⁶ She has rebelled against My ordinances by doing wickedness worse than the nations, and against My decrees worse than the surrounding countries. For they have rejected My ordinances and as for My decrees, they have not walked in them.”

⁷ Therefore thus says Adonai Elohim: “Because you are more turbulent than the surrounding nations, in that you have not walked in My decrees or followed my ordinances, nor have you observed the ordinances of the surrounding nations, ⁸ therefore thus says Adonai Elohim: Behold, I in turn am against you. I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. ⁹ On account of your abominations I will do with you that which I have never done, and the like of which I would never do again. ¹⁰ Therefore the fathers will eat the sons in your midst, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments on you and I will scatter the remainder of you to all the winds.

¹¹ “Therefore, as I live, says Adonai Elohim, surely, because you have defiled My Sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will shave you off. My eye will not spare, and I will have no pity. ¹² A third of you will die with the plague and will be consumed with famine in your midst. A third will fall by the sword all around you. A third I will scatter to all the winds, and draw out a sword after them. ¹³ I will vent all My anger and satisfy My fury on them. Then I will rest. So they will know that I, Adonai, have spoken in My zeal, when I have satisfied My fury on them.

¹⁴ “Moreover I will make you a ruin and a mockery among the surrounding nations and in the sight of all who pass by. ¹⁵ When I execute judgment upon you in anger, rage and furious chastisement, you will be a mockery and a taunt, a warning and a horror to the surrounding nations: I, Adonai, have spoken it. ¹⁶ When I send evil arrows of famine upon them, for destruction I will send them to destroy you, and I will intensify the famine upon you and will break your staff of bread. ¹⁷ I will send on you famine and evil beasts, and they will make you childless. Plague and blood will sweep through you. I will bring the sword upon you. I, Adonai, have spoken.”

Woe to the Mountains

6 The word of Adonai came to me saying: ² “Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy to them. ³ Say: mountains of Israel, hear the word of Adonai!” Thus says Adonai Elohim concerning the mountains and concerning the hills, concerning the wadis and concerning the valleys: “Behold, I will bring a sword on you. I will destroy your high places. ⁴ Your altars will become desolate. Your sun pillars will be broken. I will cast down your slain men before your idols. ⁵ I will lay the corpses of Bnei-Yisrael before their idols. I will scatter your bones around your altars. ⁶ In all your dwellings the cities will be desolate. The high places will be deserted. Your altars will be laid waste and made desolate, your idols broken and destroyed, your sun pillars cut down and your works blotted out. ⁷ The slain will fall in your midst. Then you will know that I am Adonai.

⁸ “Yet I will leave a remnant, some that escape the sword among the nations, when you have been scattered through the countries. ⁹ The survivors will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I was crushed by their adulterous heart that has strayed from Me and their eyes which have lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils that they committed in all their abominations. ¹⁰ They will know that I am Adonai. I have not warned in vain that I would do this evil to them.”

¹¹ Thus says Adonai Elohim: “Clap your hands, stamp your foot and cry, ‘Alas!’ because of all the vile abominations of the house of Israel who will fall by the sword, by famine and by plague. ¹² The one who is far off will die of the plague; the one who is near will fall by the sword. Whoever remains and is spared will die by the famine; this is how I will spend My fury on them. ¹³ You will know that I am Adonai, when your slain lie among their idols surrounding their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree and under every leafy oak—the places where they offer sweet aroma to all their idols. ¹⁴ I will stretch out My hand over them and make the land desolate and waste, more than the wilderness of Diblah, wherever they live. Then they will know that I am Adonai.”

Make Every Effort to Enter God’s Rest

4 Let us fear then! Though a promise of entering His rest is left open, some of you would seem to have fallen short. ² For we also have had Good News proclaimed to us, just as they did. But the word they heard did not help them, because they were not unified with those who listened in faith. ³ For we who have trusted are entering into that rest. It is just as God has said,

even though His works were finished since the foundation of the world. ⁴ For somewhere He has spoken about the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works,” ^{[b] 5} and again in this passage:

⁶ So then it remains for some to enter into it; yet those who formerly had Good News proclaimed to them did not enter because of disobedience. ⁷ Again, God appoints a certain day—“Today”—saying through David after so long a time, just as it has been said before,

⁸ For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. ⁹ So there remains a Shabbat rest for the people of God. ¹⁰ For the one who has entered God’s rest has also ceased from his own work, just as God did from His.

¹¹ Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through the same pattern of disobedience. ¹² For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword—piercing right through to a separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ¹³ No creature is hidden from Him, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.^[e]

Yeshua, Our Compassionate Kohen Gadol

¹⁴ Therefore, since we have a great Kohen Gadol who has passed through the heavens, Yeshua Ben-Elohim, let us hold firmly to our confessed allegiance. ¹⁵ For we do not have a kohen gadol who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all the same ways—yet without sin. ¹⁶ Therefore let us draw near to the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help in time of need.