Ezekiel 1

1 In the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was among the exiles by the river Chebar, the heavens opened, and I saw divine visions.--
2 On the fifth day of the month, the fifth year, that is, of King Jehoiachin's exile,
3 the word of the LORD came to the priest Ezekiel, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar.--There the hand of the LORD came upon me.
4 As I looked, a stormwind came from the North, a huge cloud with flashing fire (enveloped in brightness), from the midst of which (the midst of the fire) something gleamed like electrum.
5 Within it were figures resembling four living creatures that looked like this: their form was human,
6 but each had four faces and four wings,
7 and their legs went straight down; the soles of their feet were round. They sparkled with a gleam like burnished bronze.
8 Human hands were under their wings, and the wings of one touched those of another.
9 Their faces (and their wings) looked out on all their four sides; they did not turn when they moved, but each went straight forward.
10 Their faces were like this: each of the four had the face of a man, but on the right side was the face of a lion, and on the left side the face of an ox, and finally each had the face of an eagle.
11 Each had two wings spread out above so that they touched one another's, while the other two wings of each covered his body.
12 (Each went straight forward; wherever the spirit wished to go, there they went; they did not turn when they moved.)
13 In among the living creatures something like burning coals of fire could be seen; they seemed like torches, moving to and fro among the living creatures. The fire gleamed, and from it came forth flashes of lightning.
14 (OMITTED TEXT)
15 As I looked at the living creatures, I saw wheels on the ground, one beside each of the four living creatures.
16 The wheels had the sparkling appearance of chrysolite, and all four of them looked the same: they were constructed as though one wheel were within another.
17 They could move in any of the four directions they faced, without veering as they moved.
18 The four of them had rims, and I saw that their rims were full of eyes all around.
19 When the living creatures moved, the wheels moved with them; and when the living creatures were raised from the ground, the wheels also were raised.
20 Wherever the spirit wished to go, there the wheels went, and they were raised together with the living creatures; for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.
21 (OMITTED TEXT)
22 Over the heads of the living creatures, something like a firmament could be seen, seeming like glittering crystal, stretched straight out above their heads.
23 Beneath the firmament their wings were stretched out, one toward the other. (Each of them had two covering his body.)
24 Then I heard the sound of their wings, like the roaring of mighty waters, like the voice of the Almighty. When they moved, the sound of the tumult was like the din of an army. (And when they stood still, they lowered their wings.)
25 (OMITTED TEXT)
26 Above the firmament over their heads something like a throne could be seen, looking like sapphire. Upon it was seated, up above, one who had the appearance of a man.
27 Upward from what resembled his waist I saw what gleamed like electrum; downward from what resembled his waist I saw what looked like fire; he was surrounded with splendor.
28 Like the bow which appears in the clouds on a rainy day was the splendor that surrounded him. Such was the vision of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I had seen it, I fell upon my face and heard a voice that said to me:

Ezekiel 2

1 Son of man, stand up! I wish to speak with you.
2 As he spoke to me, spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard the one who was speaking
3 say to me: Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their fathers have revolted against me to this very day.
4 Hard of face and obstinate of heart are they to whom I am sending you. But you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD!
5 And whether they heed or resist--for they are a rebellious house--they shall know that a prophet has been among them.
6 But as for you, son of man, fear neither them nor their words when they contradict you and reject you, and when you sit on scorpions. Neither fear their words nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.
7 (But speak my words to them, whether they heed or resist, for they are rebellious.)
8 As for you, son of man, obey me when I speak to you: be not rebellious like this house of rebellion, but open your mouth and eat what I shall give you.
9 It was then I saw a hand stretched out to me, in which was a written scroll
10 which he unrolled before me. It was covered with writing front and back, and written on it was: Lamentation and wailing and woe!

Ezekiel 3

1 He said to me: Son of man, eat what is before you; eat this scroll, then go, speak to the house of Israel.
2 So I opened my mouth and he gave me the scroll to eat.
3 Son of man, he then said to me, feed your belly and fill your stomach with this scroll I am giving you. I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. He said:
4 Son of man, go now to the house of Israel, and speak my words to them.
5 Not to a people with difficult speech and barbarous language am I sending you,
6 nor to the many peoples (with difficult speech and barbarous language) whose words you cannot understand. If I were to send you to these, they would listen to you;
7 but the house of Israel will refuse to listen to you, since they will not listen to me. For the whole house of Israel is stubborn of brow and obstinate in heart.
8 But I will make your face as hard as theirs, and your brow as stubborn as theirs,
9 like diamond, harder than flint. Fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.
10 Son of man, he said to me, take into your heart all my words that I speak to you; hear them well.
11 Now go to the exiles, to your countrymen, and say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD!--whether they heed or resist!
12 Then spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the noise of a loud rumbling as the glory of the LORD rose from its place:
13 the noise made by the wings of the living creatures striking one another, and by the wheels alongside them, a loud rumbling.
14 The spirit which had lifted me up seized me, and I went off spiritually stirred, while the hand of the LORD rested heavily upon me.
15 Thus I came to the exiles who lived at Tel-abib by the river Chebar, and for seven days I sat among them distraught.
16 At the end of seven days...
17 Thus the word of the LORD came to me: Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel. When you hear a word from my mouth, you shall warn them for me.
18 If I say to the wicked man, You shall surely die; and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his wicked conduct so that he may live: that wicked man shall die for his sin, but I will hold you responsible for his death.
19 If, on the other hand, you have warned the wicked man, yet he has not turned away from his evil nor from his wicked conduct, then he shall die for his sin, but you shall save your life.
20 If a virtuous man turns away from virtue and does wrong when I place a stumbling block before him, he shall die. He shall die for his sin, and his virtuous deeds shall not be remembered; but I will hold you responsible for his death if you did not warn him.
21 When, on the other hand, you have warned a virtuous man not to sin, and he has in fact not sinned, he shall surely live because of the warning, and you shall save your own life.
22 The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he said to me: Get up and go out into the plain, where I will speak with you.
23 So I got up and went out into the plain, and I saw that the glory of the LORD was in that place, like the glory I had seen by the river Chebar. I fell prone,
24 but then spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and he spoke with me. He said to me: Go shut yourself up in your house.
25 (As for you, son of man, they will put cords upon you and bind you with them, so that you cannot go out among them.)
26 I will make your tongue stick to your palate so that you will be dumb and unable to rebuke them for being a rebellious house.
27 Only when I speak with you and open your mouth, shall you say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD! Let him heed who will, and let him resist who will, for they are a rebellious house.

Ezekiel 4

1 As for you, son of man, take a clay tablet; lay it in front of you, and draw on it a city (Jerusalem).
2 Raise a siege against it: build a tower, lay out a ramp, pitch camps, and set up batteringrams all around.
3 Then take an iron griddle and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. Fix your gaze on it: it shall be in the state of siege, and you shall besiege it. This shall be a sign for the house of Israel.
4 Then you shall lie on your left side, while I place the sins of the house of Israel upon you. As many days as you lie thus, you shall bear their sins.
5 For the years of their sins I allot you the same number of days, three hundred and ninety, during which you will bear the sins of the house of Israel.
6 When you finish this, you are to lie down again, but on your right side, and bear the sins of the house of Judah forty days; one day for each year I have allotted you.
7 Fixing your gaze on the siege of Jerusalem, with bared arm you shall prophesy against it.
8 See, I will bind you with cords so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.
9 Again, take wheat and barley, and beans and lentils, and millet and spelt; put them in a single vessel and make bread out of them. Eat it for as many days as you lie upon your side, three hundred and ninety.
10 The food you eat shall be twenty shekels a day by weight; each day the same.
11 And the water you drink shall be the sixth of a hin by measure; each day the same.
12 For your food you must bake barley loaves over human excrement in their sight, said the LORD.
13 Thus the Israelites shall eat their food unclean among the nations where I scatter them.
14 Oh no, Lord GOD! I protested. Never have I been made unclean, and from my youth till now, never have I eaten carrion flesh or that torn by wild beasts; never has any unclean meat entered my mouth.
15 Very well, he replied, I allow you cow's dung in place of human excrement; bake your bread on that.
16 Then he said to me: Son of man, I am breaking the staff of bread in Jerusalem. They shall eat bread which they have weighed out anxiously, and they shall drink water which they have measured out fearfully,
17 so that, owing to the scarcity of bread and water, everyone shall be filled with terror and waste away because of his sins.