God

Then go to the exiles, to your countrymen; and speak to them. Tell them, 'Here is what Adonai ELOHIM, says,' whether they listen or not."

A spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a very loud sound - blessed be the glory of ADONAI from his place!

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

After seven days the word of ADONAI came to me:

"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.

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.

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.

The hand of ADONAI came on me there, and he said to me, "Get up, go out to the valley, and I will speak with you there."

So I got up and went out to the valley. The glory of ADONAI was there, like the glory I had seen by the K'var River; and I fell on my face.

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.

But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth; and you will say to them, 'This is what Adonai ELOHIM says.' Whoever is inclined to listen will listen, and whoever is inclined to refuse will refuse, because they are a rebellious house.

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.

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.

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.

ADONAI said, "This is how the people of Isra'el will eat their food - unclean - in the nations where I am driving them."

I objected: "No, Adonai ELOHIM! 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."

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

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.

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.

"Here is what Adonai ELOHIM, says: 'This is Yerushalayim! I have placed her in the middle of the nations; countries can be found all around her.

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.'

"Therefore here is what Adonai ELOHIM, 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,'

therefore here is what Adonai ELOHIM, says: 'I too am against you, yes, I; and I will execute judgments among you while all the nations look on.

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.

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.