24
It was the ninth year since King Jehoiachin had been brought to Babylon as a prisoner. On the tenth day of the tenth month, a message from the Lord came to me. The Lord said, 2 ‘Son of man, write down today's date. The king of Babylon has surrounded Jerusalem and attacked it today. 3 Your people refuse to obey me. So tell them a story. Say to them, “The Lord and King told me, ‘ “ ‘Put a cooking pot on the fire.
Pour water into it.
4 Put pieces of meat in it.
Use all the best pieces.
Use the leg and shoulder.
Fill it with the best bones.
5 Pick the finest animal in the flock.
Pile wood under the pot to cook the bones.
Bring the water to a boil.
Cook the bones in it.’ ” ’
6 The Lord and King says,
‘How terrible it will be for this city!
It has so many murderers in it.
How terrible for the pot that is coated with scum!
The scum on it will not go away.
Take the meat out of the pot piece by piece.
Take it out in whatever order it comes.
7 ‘The blood Jerusalem's people spilled is inside its walls.
They poured it out on a bare rock.
They did not pour it on the ground.
If they had, dust would have covered it up.
8 So I put their blood on the bare rock.
I did not want it to be covered up.
I poured out my great anger on them.
I paid them back.’
9 So the Lord and King said to me,
‘How terrible it will be for this city!
It has so many murderers in it.
I too will pile the wood high.
10 So pile on the wood.
Light the fire.
Cook the meat well.
Mix in the spices.
Let the bones be blackened.
11 Then set the empty pot on the coals.
Let it get hot. Let its copper glow.
Then what is not pure in it will melt.
Its scum will be burned away.
12 But it can't be cleaned up.
Its thick scum has not been removed.
Even fire can't burn it off.
13 ‘Jerusalem, you are really impure. I tried to clean you up. But you would not let me make you pure. So you will not be clean again until I am no longer so angry with you.
14 ‘I have spoken. The time has come for me to act. I will not hold back. I will not feel sorry for you. I will do what I said I would do. You will be judged for your conduct and actions. I am the Lord,’ announces the Lord and King.
15 A message from the Lord came to me. The Lord said, 16 ‘Son of man, I will take away from you the wife you delight in. It will happen very soon. But do not sing songs of sadness. Do not let any tears flow from your eyes. 17 Groan quietly. Do not mourn for your wife when she dies. Keep your turban on your head. Keep your sandals on your feet. Do not cover your moustache and beard. Do not eat the food people eat to comfort them when someone dies.’
18 So I spoke to my people in the morning. And in the evening my wife died. The next morning I did what I had been commanded to do.
19 Then the people said to me, ‘Tell us what these things have to do with us. Why are you acting like this?’
20 So I told them. I said, ‘A message from the Lord came to me. The Lord said, 21 “Speak to the people of Israel. Tell them, ‘The Lord and King says, “I am about to make my temple ‘unclean’. I will let the Babylonians burn it down. It is the beautiful building you are so proud of. You take delight in it. You love it. The sons and daughters you left behind will be killed by swords. 22 So do what Ezekiel did. Do not cover your moustache and beard. Do not eat the food people eat to comfort them when someone dies. 23 Keep your turbans on your heads. Keep your sandals on your feet. Do not mourn or weep. You will waste away because you have sinned so much. You will groan among yourselves. 24 What Ezekiel has done will show you what is going to happen to you. You will do just as he has done. Then you will know that I am the Lord and King.” ’ ”
25 ‘Son of man, I will take away their beautiful temple. It is their joy and glory. They take delight in it. Their hearts long for it. I will also take away their sons and daughters. 26 On the day I destroy everything, a man will escape. He will come and tell you the news. 27 At that time I will open your mouth. Then you will no longer be silent. You will speak with the man. That will show them what will happen to them. And they will know that I am the Lord.’
12:1–24:27 Ezekiel continued sharing God's messages of judgement among the Jews in Babylon. His actions of prophecy included packing bags for a trip and trembling while eating. He groaned and beat his chest and also drew a map for the king of Babylon. He didn't cry when his wife died even though he loved her. Some messages he spoke clearly to the people. He gave a short account of the entire history of Israel. He spoke against men and women who were false prophets. He spoke against elders who asked God for advice even while they worshipped false gods. Some people accused God of being unfair. They said that God punished them for sins they hadn't committed. Those sins had been committed by their parents and their people from long ago. Ezekiel explained that God always and only ever does what is fair. God holds each person responsible for their own choices. Ezekiel sang a sad song about Israel's princes. Then he spoke clearly about King Zedekiah as an unholy and evil prince. Some Jews said that the judgement Ezekiel announced wouldn't come for a very long time. They didn't believe that God would allow Jerusalem to be destroyed. They didn't believe that they deserved to be judged in this way. They didn't think that they had lived in evil ways that had to be stopped. And they trusted that other nations would save Jerusalem from the Babylonian armies. God said that the time had come for him to act. This made it clear that no one could stop his judgement from coming. Ezekiel shared some of God's messages as poems and others as stories. In these stories God compared his people to different things. He compared them to a useless vine that was burnt in a fire. He compared them to a vine that grew the wrong way. He compared them to the scum left behind when metals are burnt to make silver. They were like meat in a pot that would be cooked over a hot fire. These were ways to describe the sins of the southern kingdom. God compared his people to a baby girl that God rescued from the desert. But she grew up to be an unfaithful wife to God. God described Jerusalem and Samaria as two sisters who belonged to God. But they acted like prostitutes. These stories don't mean that God had sex with anyone. God used marriage as a way to talk about being faithful and committed. God had committed himself to being the Israelites' God for ever. He had done this in the Mount Sinai covenant. The Israelites had committed to faithfully following the Law of Moses. The most important part of that was to worship and serve God only. But the people of the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom hadn't done that. They didn't trust God to give them peace, rest and safety. Instead they trusted the governments of nations like Assyria, Egypt and Babylon to protect them. They followed the practices of the nations around them. They worshipped the false gods of other nations. This led them to treat needy people badly. It led them to want more and more wealth. It led them to sacrifice children to false gods. All of these things went against God's laws. These were ways that God's people had been unfaithful to him.