Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

1 He said to me, “Human being! Stand up! I want to speak with you!”

2 As he spoke to me, a spirit entered me and put me on my feet, and I heard him who was speaking to me.

3 He said, “Human being! I am sending you to the people of Isra’el, that nation of rebels who have rebelled against me — they and their ancestors have been transgressing against me to this very day.

4 Because they are defiant, hardhearted children, I am sending you; and you are to tell them, ‘Here is whatAdonaiElohimsays.’

5 Whether they listen or not, this rebellious house will still know that a prophet has been among them!

6 “As for you, human being, don’t be afraid of them or their words, even if briars and thorns surround you, and you sit among scorpions. Don’t be afraid of their words or be upset by their looks, for they are a rebellious house.

7 You are to speak my words to them, whether they listen or not, for they are very rebellious.

8 But you, human being, hear what I am telling you: don’t you be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth, and eat what I am about to give you.”

9 When I looked, there was a hand stretched out to me, holding a scroll.

10 He spread it out in front of me, and it was covered with writing front and back. Written on it were laments, dirges and woes.

1 He said to me, “Human being, eat what you see in front of you; eat this scroll. Then go and speak to the house of Isra’el.”

2 So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat,

3 as he said, “Human being, eat this scroll I am giving you; fill your insides with it.” When I ate it, it tasted as sweet as honey.

4 “Human being,” he said to me, “go to the house of Isra’el, and speak my words to them.

5 For you are not being sent to a people with a difficult language and unintelligible speech, but to the house of Isra’el —

6 not to many peoples with difficult languages and unintelligible speech, whose words you can’t understand when you hear them. Without doubt, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you.

7 But the house of Isra’el will not be willing to listen to you, because they aren’t willing to listen to me; since all the house of Isra’el are obstinate and hardhearted.

8 However, I am making you as defiant and obstinate as they are.

9 Yes, I am making your resoluteness harder than flint, as hard as a diamond. So don’t be afraid of them or depressed by how they look at you, because they are a rebellious house.”

10 Then he said to me, “Human being, receive in your heart and hear with your ears all my words that I speak to you.

11 Then go to the exiles, to your countrymen; and speak to them. Tell them, ‘Here is whatAdonaiElohim, says,’ whether they listen or not.”

12 A spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a very loud sound — blessed be the glory ofAdonaifrom his place!

13 It was the sound of the wings of the living creatures as they beat against each other, and the sound of the wheels next to them, a very loud sound.

14 So a spirit lifted me up and took me away. I went in bitterness and the heat of my spirit, with the hand ofAdonaistrong on me.

15 I went to the exiles who were living in Tel-Aviv, by the K’var River and stayed with them there in a stupefied state for seven days.

16 After seven days the word ofAdonaicame to me:

17 “Human being, I have appointed you to be a watchman for the house of Isra’el. When you hear a word from my mouth, you are to warn them for me.

18 If I say to a wicked person, ‘You will certainly die’; and you fail to warn him, to speak and warn the wicked person to leave his wicked way and save his life; then that wicked person will die guilty; and I will hold you responsible for his death.

19 On the other hand, if you warn the wicked person, and he doesn’t turn from his wickedness or his wicked way, then he will still die guilty; but you will have saved your own life.

20 Similarly, when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and commits wickedness, I will place a stumblingblock before him — he will die; because you failed to warn him, he will die in his sin; his righteous acts which he did will not be remembered; and I will hold you responsible for his death.

21 But if you warn the righteous person that a righteous person should not sin, and he doesn’t sin; then he will certainly live, because he took the warning; and you too will have saved your life.”

22 The hand ofAdonaicame on me there, and he said to me, “Get up, go out to the valley, and I will speak with you there.”

23 So I got up and went out to the valley. The glory ofAdonaiwas there, like the glory I had seen by the K’var River; and I fell on my face.

24 A spirit entered me and put me on my feet. Then he spoke with me and said to me, “Go, shut yourself inside your house.

25 Human being, you are going to be bound with ropes, unable to go out among the people.

26 I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, so that you will be mute, unable to reprove them; for they are a rebellious house.

27 But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth; and you will say to them, ‘This is whatAdonaiElohimsays.’ Whoever is inclined to listen will listen, and whoever is inclined to refuse will refuse, because they are a rebellious house.

1 “As for you, human being, take a clay slab, lay it down in front of you, and draw on it the city of Yerushalayim.

2 Show it under siege — build towers against it, raise earthworks against it, set up camps against it, and surround it with battering rams.

3 Then take an iron griddle and put it in place as a wall of iron between yourself and the city, and fix your gaze on it — the city is under siege, and you are the one besieging it. This will be a sign for the house of Isra’el.

4 “Next, you are to lie on your left side, and have it bear the guilt of the house of Isra’el — for as many days as you lie on your side, you will bear their guilt.

5 For I am assigning you one day for each year of their guilt; thus you are to bear the guilt of the house of Isra’el for 390 days.

6 Then, when you have finished that, you are to lie on your right side and bear the guilt of the house of Y’hudah for forty days, each day corresponding to a year; this is what I am assigning you.

7 You are to fix your gaze on the siege of Yerushalayim, and, with your arm bared, prophesy against it.

8 I am tying you down with ropes, and you are not to turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.

9 “Take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and buckwheat; put them together in one bowl; and make bread from it. For as long as you lie on your side, 390 days, this is what you are to eat.

10 Each day the food you eat must weigh only three-quarters of a pound; you may eat it from time to time [during the day].

11 You are also to drink a limited amount of water, two-thirds of a quart; you may drink it from time to time [during the day].

12 [The bread] you eat is to be baked like barley cakes; you are to bake it before their eyes, using human dung as fuel.”

13 Adonaisaid, “This is how the people of Isra’el will eat their food — unclean — in the nations where I am driving them.”

14 I objected: “No,AdonaiElohim! I have never defiled myself — from my youth until now I have never eaten anything that died by itself or was killed by wild animals; no such disgusting food has ever entered my mouth.”

15 He answered, “All right, I will give you cow dung to use instead of human dung, and you can prepare your bread on it.”

16 He then said to me, “Human being, I am going to cut off the supply of bread in Yerushalayim, so that they will anxiously weigh out bread to eat, and, horrified, ration water to drink.

17 Finally, due to lack of bread and water, they will stare at each other in shock, wasting away because of their guilt.”

1 “Now you, human being, take a sharp sword; and use it like a barber’s razor to shave your head and beard. Then weigh the hair on a balance-scale, and divide it up.

2 A third of it you are to burn in the city when the days of the siege are over. Take another third, and hit it with your sword all around the city. Scatter the last third to the wind, and I will pursue them with drawn sword.

3 Also take a few hairs and tie them up in the folds of your garment.

4 Again, of these take some; throw them in the fire, and burn them up; from there a fire will come out against the entire house of Isra’el.

5 “Here is whatAdonaiElohim, says:

‘This is Yerushalayim!

I have placed her in the middle of the nations;

countries can be found all around her.

6 But she has rebelled against my rulings

and committed wickedness more than the nations,

against my laws more than the countries around her;

because they have rejected my rulings

and not lived according to my laws.’

7 “Therefore here is whatAdonaiElohim, says: ‘Because you have outdone the nations around you by not living according to my laws or following my rulings or even following the rules of the nations around you,’

8 therefore here is whatAdonaiElohim, says: ‘I too am against you, yes, I; and I will execute judgments among you while all the nations look on.

9 Moreover, because of all your disgusting practices, I will do things to you that I have never done before; and I will never do such things again.

10 Parents among you will eat their children, and children will eat their parents! I will execute judgments among you and scatter to all the winds those of you who remain.

11 For, as I live,’ saysAdonaiElohim, ‘because you defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things and disgusting practices, therefore I swear that I will cut you off — my eye will not spare, I will have no pity.

12 A third of you will die from plague or be consumed by famine inside [Yerushalayim]; a third will fall by the sword all around [Yerushalayim]; and a third I will scatter to all the winds and pursue with the sword.’

13 In this way my anger will spend itself, my fury against them will die down, and I will be satisfied. Then, when I have spent my fury on them, they will know that I,Adonai, have spoken out of my zeal.

14 ‘I will make you a ruin and an object of reproach among the nations around you, in the sight of all passing by.

15 When I execute judgments and furious punishments among you in anger and fury, [Yerushalayim] will be an object of reproach, derision and horror, and a lesson to warn the nations around you. I,Adonai, have announced it.

16 I will send upon them the deadly, destructive arrows of famine, which I will send to destroy you. I will make the famine worse for you by cutting off your food supply.

17 Yes, I will send famine and savage beasts upon you to leave you without children; plague and bloodshed will sweep through you; and I will bring the sword upon you. I,Adonai, have spoken it.’”

1 The word ofAdonaicame to me:

2 “Human being, face toward the mountains of Isra’el, and prophesy against them:

3 ‘Mountains of Isra’el, hear the word ofAdonaiElohim: here is whatAdonaiElohimsays about the mountains, hills, ravines and valleys: “I myself will bring a sword against you and destroy your high places.

4 Your altars will be wrecked and your pillars for sun-worship broken, and I will throw down your slain ones in front of your idols.

5 I will lay the corpses of the people of Isra’el in front of their idols and scatter your bones all around your altars.

6 Everywhere you live, the cities will be destroyed and the high places wrecked; so that your altars can be destroyed and wrecked, your idols broken and abolished, your pillars for sun-worship cut down and the things you have made wiped out.

7 The slain will fall among you; then you will know that I amAdonai.

8 “‘“Nevertheless, I will leave a remnant, some who will escape the sword among the nations, when you have been scattered throughout the countries.

9 Those of you who escape will remember me among the nations where they have been exiled. How broken I have been over their whoring hearts that left me, and over their eyes that went whoring after their idols! They are going to loathe themselves for all the evils they committed in their disgusting practices.

10 Then they will know that I amAdonai; it isn’t for nothing that I said I would bring this calamity upon them.”’

11 “Here is whatAdonaiElohimsays: ‘Strike with your hand, and stamp with your foot, and bemoan all the terrible disgusting practices of the house of Isra’el. For they will fall by sword, famine and plague.

12 Those far away will die from the plague, those nearby will fall by the sword, and whoever stays and is besieged will die from famine. This is how I will spend my fury on them.

13 You will know that I amAdonaiwhen their slain men are lying among their idols around their altars on every high hill, on every mountaintop, under every green tree, under every thick pistachio tree, wherever they offered sweet-smelling sacrifices to appease their idols.

14 I will stretch out my hand over them and make the land wherever they live into a desolate waste worse than the Divlah Desert. Then they will know that I amAdonai.’”

1 The word ofAdonaicame to me:

2 “As for you, human being, here is whatAdonaiElohimsays about the land of Isra’el:

‘The end! The end is coming

to the four corners of the land!

3 Now the end is upon you!

I will send my anger upon you,

I will judge you according to your ways.

I will bring on you all your disgusting practices.

4 My eye will not spare you, I will have no pity,

but I will bring your ways upon you,

and your disgusting practices will be done among you.

Then you will know that I amAdonai.’

5 “Here is whatAdonaiElohimsays:

‘Disaster, unique disaster — here it comes!

6 The end is coming! The end is coming!

It rouses itself against you — here it comes!

7 Doom has come to you,

you who live in the land!

The time has come, the day is near,

for tumult, not joyful shouts on the mountains.

8 Now, soon, I will pour out my fury on you,

I will spend my anger on you;

I will judge you according to your ways

I will bring on you all your disgusting practices.

9 My eye will not spare you, I will have no pity;

but will bring upon you what your ways deserve;

and your disgusting practices will be among you.

Then you will know it is I,Adonai, striking you.

10 “‘Here is the day! Here it comes!

Doom has gone out, the rod has blossomed,

arrogance has budded.

11 Violence has grown

into a rod of wickedness.

Nothing is left of them,

nothing of their crowds,

nothing of their wealth —

there is nothing of importance in them.

12 The time has come, the day has arrived;

let neither buyer rejoice nor seller regret;

for wrath is coming to all her many people.

13 For the seller will not return to what he sold,

even if he is still alive;

for though the vision was brought to all her many people,

nobody repented.

Each kept living his own wicked life;

they weren’t strong enough [to repent].

14 Theshofarhas sounded, everything is ready,

but no one goes out to the battle,

for my wrath is coming to all her many people.

15 “‘Outside is the sword, inside plague and famine.

Those in the country will die by the sword.

And as for those in the city,

plague and famine will eat them up.

16 But if any of them manage to escape,

they will head for the mountains

like doves from the valleys,

all of them moaning, each for his sin.

17 All hands will droop, all knees turn to water.

18 They will put on sackcloth;

horror will cover them;

every face will be ashamed,

every head shaved bald.

19 They will throw their silver into the streets;

their gold will be like something unclean.

On the day ofAdonai’s wrath their silver and gold

won’t be able to rescue them.

These things won’t satisfy their hunger,

these things won’t fill their stomachs,

because these are what caused them to sin.

20 From their beautiful jewellery,

in which they took such pride,

they made their abominable idols

and their other detestable things;

therefore, for them I have caused it

to be like something unclean.

21 I will hand it over to foreigners as booty,

to the wicked of the earth as spoil,

and they will profane it.

22 I will turn my face away from them;

then [Bavel] will profane my secret place,

robbers will enter and profane it.

23 “‘Forge a chain,

for the land is full of capital crimes

and the city full of violence.

24 Therefore I will bring the worst of the nations

to take possession of their homes;

I will end the arrogance of the strong;

and their holy places will be profaned.

25 When horror comes, they will seek peace;

but there will be none.

26 Calamity will follow calamity,

rumor will follow rumor;

they will seek a vision from the prophet,

butTorahwill perish from thecohen

and advice from the leaders.

27 The king will go into mourning,

the prince will be clothed with fright,

and the hands of the people of the land

will tremble in terror.

I will treat them as their way of life deserves

and judge them as they have judged others.

Then they will know

that I amAdonai.’”

1 On the fifth day of the sixth month of the sixth year, as I was sitting in my house, and the leaders of Y’hudah were sitting there with me, the hand ofAdonaiElohimfell on me.

2 I looked and saw what seemed like a man made of fire. From what appeared to be his waist downward was fire, and from his waist upward was what appeared to be a gleaming amber-colored brilliance.

3 The form of a hand was put out, which took me by a lock of my hair; and a spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me, in these visions from God, to Yerushalayim, to the entrance of the inner [courtyard] gate that faces north. There stood the idol that [arouses God’s] jealousy and provokes [his] zealous indignation.

4 There before me was the glory of the God of Isra’el, as in the vision I had seen in the valley.

5 Then he said to me, “Human being, raise your eyes toward the north.” I raised my eyes toward the north and saw, north of the Altar Gate, this image that [arouses God’s] jealousy in the entryway.

6 He asked me, “Human being, do you see what they are doing, the horribly disgusting practices that the house of Isra’el is committing here, so that I must distance myself from my own sanctuary? But you will see even worse abominations.”

7 He brought me to the entrance of the courtyard; and when I looked, I saw a hole in the wall.

8 He said to me, “Human being, dig into the wall.” After digging in the wall, I saw a door.

9 “Go in,” he said, “and see the wicked practices they are engaged in here.”

10 So I went in and looked, and there, carved on the walls all around, were every kind of reptile and repulsive animal, along with all the idols of the house of Isra’el.

11 Standing in front of them were seventy of the leading men of the house of Isra’el — in the center stood Ya’azanyahu the son of Shafan. Each man had his incense-burner in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense went up.

12 Then he said to me, “Human being, did you see what the leaders of the house of Isra’el are doing in the dark, each one in the room of his own carved image, because they say, ‘Adonaican’t see us;Adonaihas left the land.’?”

13 He also said to me, “You will see even worse abominations that they are doing.”

14 He brought me to the entrance of the north gate toAdonai’s house; and there before me were women weeping for Tammuz.

15 “Human being,” he asked me, “have you seen this? You will see practices even more disgusting than these.”

16 He brought me into the inner courtyard ofAdonai’s house; and there, at the entrance to the temple ofAdonai, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple ofAdonaiand their faces toward the east; and they were worshipping the sun toward the east.

17 He asked me, “Human being, have you seen this? Does the house of Y’hudah consider it a casual matter that they commit the disgusting practices they are committing here, thus filling the land with violence, provoking me still more? Look! They are even putting the branch to their nose!

18 Therefore I will act in fury, my eye will not spare, I will have no pity. Even if they cry loudly right in my ears, I will not listen to them.”

1 Then he cried loudly right in my ears: “Summon the commanders of the city, each holding his weapon of destruction.”

2 At once, six men approached on the path from the upper gate, to the north, each man holding his weapon of destruction. Among them was a man clothed in linen, with a scribe’s writing equipment at his waist. They entered and stood by the bronze altar.

3 Then the glory of the God of Isra’el was made to go up from over thekeruv, where it had been, to the threshold of the house. He called to the man clothed in linen, who had the scribe’s writing equipment at his waist.

4 Adonaisaid to him, “Go throughout the city, through all Yerushalayim, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who are sighing and crying over all the disgusting practices that are being committed in it.”

5 To the others I heard him say, “Go through the city after him and strike! Don’t let your eye spare; have no pity!

6 Kill old men, young men, girls, little children, women — slaughter them all! But don’t go near anyone with the mark. Begin at my sanctuary.” They began with the leaders in front of the house.

7 Then he said to them, “Defile the house! Fill the courtyards with corpses! Get going!” So they went out, spreading death in the city.

8 While the killing was going on, I was left alone. I fell on my face, cried, and said, “Oh,AdonaiElohim! In pouring out your fury on Yerushalayim, are you going to destroy everyone left in Isra’el?”

9 Then he said to me, “The wickedness of the house of Isra’el and Y’hudah is enormous, the land is full of blood, and the city is full of justice denied; because they say, ‘Adonaihas left the land,Adonaidoesn’t see.’

10 But as far as I am concerned, my eye will not spare, and I will have no pity, but I will bring [the consequences of] their ways on their own heads.”

11 At this point the man clothed in linen with the writing equipment at his waist returned and reported, “I have done everything you ordered me to do.”

1 Then I looked, and suddenly, on the dome over the heads of thek’ruvim, there appeared above them something like sapphire that seemed to take the form of a throne.

2 He spoke to the man clothed in linen; he said, “Go in between the wheels under thek’ruvim, fill both your hands with fiery coals from between thek’ruvim, and throw them on the city.” As I watched, he went.

3 Now thek’ruvimwere standing to the right of the house when the man entered, and the cloud filled the inner courtyard.

4 The glory ofAdonairose from above thekeruvto the threshold of the house, leaving the house filled with the cloud and the courtyard full of the brilliance ofAdonai’s glory.

5 The sound of the wings of thek’ruvimcould be heard even in the outer courtyard sounding like the voice of God,Shaddai, when he speaks.

6 When he ordered the man clothed in linen to take fire from between the wheels, from between thek’ruvim, he went in and stood next to a wheel;

7 and akeruvput out his hand from between thek’ruviminto the fire between thek’ruvim, took some of it, and put it in the hands of the one clothed in linen, who took it and went out.

8 Now there appeared among thek’ruvimthe form of a man’s hand under their wings.

9 I looked and saw four wheels next to thek’ruvim, one wheel next to onekeruvand another wheel next to anotherkeruv: the wheels had the color of beryl.

10 Their shape was the same for all four, like a wheel inside a wheel.

11 When they moved, they could go in any of the four directions without turning as they moved; rather, wherever the head looked, they followed without turning as they moved.

12 Their whole bodies, including their backs, hands and wings, and also the wheels, were full of eyes all around — even the wheels of the fourk’ruvim.

13 As for the wheels, I heard them called “the wheel apparatus.”

14 Every one [of thek’ruvim] had four faces: the first face was the face of akeruv, the second face was the face of a man, the third the face of a lion and the fourth the face of an eagle.

15 Then thek’ruvimrose. These were the living creatures I had seen by the K’var River.

16 When thek’ruvimmoved, the wheels went with them; and when thek’ruvimlifted their wings to rise off the ground, these wheels did not stop going with them.

17 When [thek’ruvim] stood still, [the wheels] stood still; and when the former rose, the latter rose with them; because the spirit of the living creatures was in them.

18 Now the glory ofAdonaileft the threshold of the house and halted above thek’ruvim.

19 Thek’ruvimlifted their wings and rose off the earth — I was watching as they went off with the wheels next to them. They paused at the entrance to the east gate ofAdonai’s house, with the glory of the God of Isra’el over them, from above.

20 This was the living creature I had seen beneath the God of Isra’el by the K’var River, so I knew they werek’ruvim.

21 Each of the four had four faces, and each had four wings, and what looked like a man’s hands was under their wings.

22 As for how their faces looked, they were the faces I had seen by the K’var River, identical in appearance. Each one moved straight ahead.

1 Then a spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate ofAdonai’s house, the gate that faces eastward. At the entrance of the gate I saw twenty-five men; among them were Ya’azanyah the son of ‘Azur and P’latyahu the son of B’nayahu, leaders of the people.

2 He said to me, “Human being, these are the men who make evil plans and give wicked advice in this city.

3 They say, ‘The time hasn’t come to build houses. This city is the cooking pot, and we’re the meat!’

4 Therefore prophesy against them, human being, prophesy!”

5 The Spirit ofAdonaifell on me, and he said to me, “Say, ‘Here is whatAdonaisays: “What you are saying is correct, house of Isra’el; because I know how your minds work.

6 You have killed many in this city, you have filled its streets with the dead.”

7 ThereforeAdonaiElohimsays this: “Those you have killed and strewn all over it, they are the meat; and this city is indeed the cooking pot; but you will be removed from it.

8 You are afraid of the sword, but I will bring the sword upon you,” saysAdonaiElohim.

9 “I will bring you out of it, hand you over to foreigners and execute judgments among you.

10 You will die by the sword; I will judge you at the border of Isra’el; and you will know that I amAdonai.

11 This city will not be your cooking pot, but you will be the meat in it — I will judge you at Isra’el’s frontier;

12 and you will know that I amAdonai. For you have not lived by my laws or obeyed my rulings but have acted according to the rules of the nations surrounding you.”’”

13 As I was prophesying, P’latyahu the son of B’nayah died. I fell down on my face and cried out, “Oh,AdonaiElohim! Are you going to destroy completely those of Isra’el who are left?”

14 Then the word ofAdonaicame to me:

15 “Human being, it is to your kinsmen — your brothers, your relatives and the whole house of Isra’el — that the people living in Yerushalayim have said, ‘Get away fromAdonai! This land has been given to us to possess!’

16 Therefore, say thatAdonaiElohimsays this: ‘True, I removed them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries; nevertheless, I have been a little sanctuary for them in the countries to which they have gone.’

17 Therefore, say thatAdonaiElohimsays this: ‘“I will gather you from the peoples and collect you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give the land of Isra’el to you.”

18 Then they will go there and remove all its loathsome things and disgusting practices,

19 and I will give them unity of heart. “I will put a new spirit among you.” I will remove from their bodies the hearts of stone and give them hearts of flesh;

20 so that they will live by my regulations, obey my rulings and act by them. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God.

21 But as for those whose hearts go after the heart of their loathsome things and disgusting practices, I will bring [the consequences of] their ways on their own heads,’ saysAdonaiElohim.”

22 Thek’ruvimlifted their wings, and the wheels were next to them, with the glory of the God of Isra’el over them, above.

23 Next, the glory ofAdonairose from within the city and stood over the mountain which is on the east side of the city.

24 Then a spirit lifted me up and brought me, in the vision, by the Spirit of God, to the exiles in the land of the Kasdim; after which the vision I had seen left me.

25 So I told the exiles everythingAdonaihad shown me.