The Human Billboard

¹⁶At the end of seven days, the LORD’s word came to me, saying,

¹⁷“Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel. Therefore hear the word from my mouth, and warn them from me.

¹⁸When I tell the wicked, ‘You will surely die;’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that wicked man will die in his iniquity; but I will require his blood at your hand.

¹⁹Yet if you warn the wicked, and he doesn’t turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he will die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.”

²⁰“Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he will die. Because you have not given him warning, he will die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done will not be remembered; but I will require his blood at your hand.

²¹Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man, that the righteous not sin, and he does not sin, he will surely live, because he took warning; and you have delivered your soul.”

²²The LORD’s hand was there on me; and he said to me, “Arise, go out into the plain, and I will talk with you there.”

²³Then I arose, and went out into the plain, and behold, the LORD’s glory stood there, like the glory which I saw by the river Chebar. Then I fell on my face.

²⁴Then the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet. He spoke with me, and said to me, “Go, shut yourself inside your house.

²⁵But you, son of man, behold, they will put ropes on you, and will bind you with them, and you will not go out among them.

²⁶I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be mute and will not be able to correct them, for they are a rebellious house.

²⁷But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall tell them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says.’ He who hears, let him hear; and he who refuses, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.”

¹“You also, son of man, take a tile, and lay it before yourself, and portray on it a city, even Jerusalem.

²Lay siege against it, build forts against it, and cast up a mound against it. Also set camps against it and plant battering rams against it all around.

³Take for yourself an iron pan and set it for a wall of iron between you and the city. Then set your face toward it. It will be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

⁴“Moreover lie on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it. According to the number of the days that you shall lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity.

⁵For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be to you a number of days, even three hundred ninety days. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

⁶“Again, when you have accomplished these, you shall lie on your right side, and shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah. I have appointed forty days, each day for a year, to you.

⁷You shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm uncovered; and you shall prophesy against it.

⁸Behold, I put ropes on you, and you shall not turn yourself from one side to the other, until you have accomplished the days of your siege.

⁹“Take for yourself also wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel. Make bread of it. According to the number of the days that you will lie on your side, even three hundred ninety days, you shall eat of it.

¹⁰Your food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day. From time to time you shall eat it.

¹¹You shall drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin. From time to time you shall drink.

¹²You shall eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it in their sight with dung that comes out of man.”

¹³The LORD said, “Even thus will the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.”

¹⁴Then I said, “Ah Lord GOD! Behold, my soul has not been polluted; for from my youth up even until now I have not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn of animals. No abominable meat has come into my mouth!”

¹⁵Then he said to me, “Behold, I have given you cow’s dung for man’s dung, and you shall prepare your bread on it.”

¹⁶Moreover he said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem. They will eat bread by weight, and with fearfulness. They will drink water by measure, and in dismay;

¹⁷that they may lack bread and water, be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.

¹“You, son of man, take a sharp sword. You shall take it as a barber’s razor to yourself, and shall cause it to pass over your head and over your beard. Then take balances to weigh and divide the hair.

²A third part you shall burn in the fire in the middle of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled. You shall take a third part, and strike with the sword around it. A third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them.

³You shall take a small number of these and bind them in the folds of your robe.

⁴Of these again you shall take, and cast them into the middle of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From it a fire will come out into all the house of Israel.

⁵“The Lord GOD says: ‘This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the middle of the nations, and countries are around her.

⁶She has rebelled against my ordinances in doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries that are around her; for they have rejected my ordinances, and as for my statutes, they have not walked in them.’

⁷“Therefore the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you are more turbulent than the nations that are around you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my ordinances, neither have followed the ordinances of the nations that are around you;

⁸therefore the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I, even I, am against you; and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations.

⁹I will do in you that which I have not done, and which I will not do anything like it any more, because of all your abominations.

¹⁰Therefore the fathers will eat the sons within you, and the sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments on you; and I will scatter the whole remnant of you to all the winds.

¹¹Therefore as I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things, and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you. My eye won’t spare, and I will have no pity.

¹²A third part of you will die with the pestilence, and they will be consumed with famine within you. A third part will fall by the sword around you. A third part I will scatter to all the winds, and will draw out a sword after them.

¹³“‘Thus my anger will be accomplished, and I will cause my wrath toward them to rest, and I will be comforted. They will know that I, the LORD, have spoken in my zeal, when I have accomplished my wrath on them.

¹⁴“‘Moreover I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations that are around you, in the sight of all that pass by.

¹⁵So it will be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment, to the nations that are around you, when I execute judgments on you in anger and in wrath, and in wrathful rebukes—I, the LORD, have spoken it—

¹⁶when I send on them the evil arrows of famine that are for destruction, which I will send to destroy you. I will increase the famine on you and will break your staff of bread.

¹⁷I will send on you famine and evil animals, and they will bereave you. Pestilence and blood will pass through you. I will bring the sword on you. I, the LORD, have spoken it.’”