EZEKIEL IN A VISION IS COMMANDED TO SPEAK TO THE CAPTIVES BY THE RIVER CHEBAR. HE MAKES KNOWN TO THEM BY SIGNS THE COMING DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. IN A SECOND VISION HE IS CARRIED TO THE TEMPLE AND SHOWN THE IDOLATRY OF THE JEWS.
WE have read that while Jehoiachin was king in Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up and besieged the city. And Jehoiachin, because he was afraid of Nebuchadnezzar, went out to him and promised to be his servant. Then Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiachin, his mother, his wives, and the princes of Judah; the builders also, and carpenters, and all the strong and brave soldiers that were in Jerusalem and carried them away as captives. Yet Nebuchadnezzar did not at that time destroy Jerusalem nor take all the people away; he left some of them and made Zedekiah their king. But he took many of the Jews to his own land, and there gave them a place where they might live by the river Chebar. The Lord allowed Nebuchadnezzar to take them, because he was punishing them for their sins.
Yet even after they had been carried away captive, these Jews would not obey the Lord. We have read how Jeremiah, the prophet, wrote a letter to them from Jerusalem, telling them to serve the king of Babylon and be contented in the land to which he had taken them, because the Lord said they should stay there for seventy years. But instead of doing as Jeremiah told them, they found fault, and complained and wanted to go back to Jerusalem; for they would not believe that the city was to be destroyed, and that the Jews who were still living there, were to be carried away captive too. The prophets of the Lord had told them so, but they chose to believe the false prophets who said that these things should not happen.
Now among the captives by the river Chebar, was a priest named Ezekiel. And in the fifth year after they were carried away, Ezekiel had a vision. He looked, and behold a whirlwind came out of the north, and with the whirlwind a cloud; and out of the midst of the cloud came four cherubim. Above the wings of the cherubim was a throne, and on the throne Ezekiel saw a form like the form of a man, yet not made of flesh; it seemed to be of fire, or as if fire were burning in it: and around it were bright colors like a rainbow. This form that Ezekiel saw, sitting upon a throne, with a rainbow around it, was a likeness, or a picture, of the glory of the Lord. And when he saw it he turned away his eyes, and fell on his face to the ground.
And the Lord said to him, Stand upon thy feet. And when he had risen up, the Lord commanded him to go and speak to the Jews who were captives with him by the river Chebar. I send thee to them, the Lord said, because they are a disobedient people; both they and their fathers have disobeyed me. Yet thou shalt tell them my message whether they will hear or whether they will not hear. And be not thou afraid of them, though they be fierce as serpents and scorpions; or like briars and thorns that would tear thy flesh; fear them not, for I will make thee strong and brave when thou standest before them, and thou shalt speak all the words that I tell thee to speak against them.
After this, the Lord commanded Ezekiel to take a tile, or earthen slate, and to draw upon it a picture of Jerusalem. When he had done so, he was to stand the tile up on the ground; and around it he was to build little forts, in the shape of the forts which soldiers used to build around cities that they besieged in those days. Then Ezekiel was to go and lie down on the ground before the picture of Jerusalem, with his face toward it; and there he was to stay many days. And while he lay there he was to eat only a little coarse bread, and to drink only a little water, every day.
The Lord commanded Ezekiel to do these things, that the people might see him; for in this way the Lord intended to teach them what would happen to Jerusalem; how Nebuchadnezzar would come up with his army against the city, and build forts around it and besiege it, for many days. And when the people should see Ezekiel taking only a little coarse bread and a little water every day, they would understand how the Jews who were still in Jerusalem, were to suffer from famine, and how they would have hardly enough food to keep them from starving, while the Chaldeans were fighting against them.
And the Lord commanded Ezekiel to take a barber's razor and with it to shave off the hair of his head and his beard. After he had done this he was to take a pair of scales, and weigh out the hair into three equal parts. Then he was to go to the place where he stood the picture of Jerusalem; and one part of the hair he was to burn there, as though it were burned in the midst of the city; one part he was to cut up into small pieces with a knife; and one part he was to hold out in his hand and let the wind blow it away on every side.
And the Lord told Ezekiel, that so it should be done to the people in Jerusalem. For the Lord had chosen them to be his people before all other people, yet they had sinned against him more than any other people; therefore he was going to punish them as he had never punished any people before. A third part of them, he said, should die with the pestilence and the famine, in the midst of the city, like the hair that Ezekiel was to burn with fire; a third part should be killed by their enemies around and outside of the city, like the hair that he was to cut into pieces with a knife; and a third part should be carried away from their own land and scattered over all the earth, like the hair that Ezekiel was to hold out in his hand, for the wind to blow it away on every side.
For the time had come, the Lord said, to punish the children of Israel for their sins, and very soon their punishment should come upon them. For he would send the worst of the heathen nations against them, who would destroy Jerusalem and go into the temple, even into the most holy place, and take away its precious and holy things. Then, the Lord said, the men of Israel would be weak with fear, and unable to fight against their enemies. And they would bring out their gold and silver and throw it into the streets; for it could do them no good, but would increase their trouble, because they had loved it more than they loved God, and had so often broken his laws in getting it.
In the sixth year after Jehoiachin was taken captive, Ezekiel saw again, the form like the form of a man, which he had seen before, sitting on a throne above the wings of the cherubim. And Ezekiel thought that a hand was stretched out from it, and that the hand took hold of a lock of his hair and lifted him up between the earth and the sky, and carried him away from the river Chebar to the gate of the temple in Jerusalem. There the Lord spoke to him, saying, Look now toward the north. So Ezekiel looked, and he saw near the altar of burnt offering, an idol set up. And the Lord said, Dost thou see what the children of Israel have done, how they have set up an idol, even in this holy place, to offend me, and make me go far away from my temple?
But turn away from this, and thou shalt see still greater wickedness. Then the Lord brought Ezekiel near to the court of the temple, and when he looked, he saw a hole in the wall. And the Lord said to him, Dig now through the wall. When Ezekiel had done so, he saw a door that led into a dark chamber. And the Lord said, Go into this chamber and see the things that are done there. So Ezekiel went in, and there, on the walls around him, he saw the pictures of unclean beasts and creeping things, and of all the idols that the children of Israel worshipped. Before these pictures stood seventy of the elders of Israel, each with a censer in his hand, burning incense to the idols; and a thick cloud of smoke went up from the incense through the chamber. And the Lord said to Ezekiel, Seest thou what the elders of Israel are doing, every man worshipping his idol in the dark? For they say, The Lord does not see us, he has gone away from the earth.
Then the Lord said to Ezekiel, Turn away again, and thou shalt see yet more of their sin. And he brought him to the inner court of the temple, and there Ezekiel saw about twenty-five men with their backs turned toward the temple, and their faces toward the east, where the sun rose up in the sky; and they were bowing down to the sun and worshipping it. And the Lord said, Dost thou see this? Is it a little thing for the men of Judah to do all the evil they are doing here? For they have filled the whole land with wickedness, and now they have come back to the temple to sin against me and provoke me to anger. Therefore I will punish them in my anger, neither will I pity them; and though they shall cry out to me in their suffering I will not hear.
After the vision was over, Ezekiel thought that he was lifted up again between the earth and the sky, and brought away from Jerusalem, back to the river Chebar. When he had come there he told the captives who were living by the river, of all the things he had seen in the vision. But they would not believe what he told them; for they still chose to believe the false prophets who said that the people in Jerusalem should not be punished, and that the city should not be taken by the king of Babylon.