Hello, this is Father Paul, and I'm glad we're
taking this journey together to read the Bible
in a year. Today's reading is from the book of
Ezekiel, chapters 4 and 5. Chapter 4 You also,
son of man, take a clay tablet and lay it before
you, and portray on it a city, Jerusalem. Lay
siege against it, build a siege wall against
it, and heap up a mound against it. set camps
against it also and place battering rams against
it all around moreover take for yourself an iron
plate and set it as an iron wall between you
and the city set your face against it and it
shall be besieged and you shall lay siege against
it this will be a sign to the house of israel
lie also on your left side and lay the iniquity
of the house of israel upon it According to the
number of the days that you lie on it, you shall
bear their iniquity. For I have laid on you the
years of their iniquity according to the number
of the days, 390 days. So you shall bear the
iniquity of the house of Israel. And when you
have completed them, lie again on your right
side. Then you shall bear the iniquity of the
house of Judah 40 days. I have laid on you a
day for each year. Therefore, you shall set your
face toward the siege of Jerusalem. Your arm
shall be uncovered, and you shall prophesy against
it. And surely I will restrain you, so that you
cannot turn from one side to another till you
have ended the days of your siege. Also take
for yourself wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet,
and spelt. Put them into one vessel, and make
bread of them for yourself. During the number
of days that you lie on your side, three hundred
and ninety days you shall eat it. And your food
which you eat shall be by weight twenty shekels
a day. From time to time you shall eat it. You
shall also drink water by measure, one sixth
of a hin. From time to time you shall drink,
and you shall eat it as barley cakes, and bake
it using fuel of human waste in their sight.
Then the Lord said, So shall the children of
Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles,
where I will drive them. So I said, Ah, Lord
God, indeed, I have never defiled myself from
my youth till now. I have never eaten what died
of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has abominable
flesh ever come into my mouth. Then he said to
me, see i am giving you cow dung instead of human
waste and you shall prepare your bread over it
moreover he said to me son of man surely i will
cut off the supply of bread in jerusalem they
shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety and
shall drink water by measure and with dread that
they may lack bread and water and be dismayed
with one another and waste away because of their
iniquity chapter 5 And you, son of man, take
a sharp sword, take it as a barber's razor, and
pass it over your head and your beard. Then take
scales to weigh and divide the hair. You shall
burn with fire one -third in the midst of the
city, when the days of the siege are finished.
Then you shall take one -third and strike around
it with the sword, and one -third you shall scatter
in the wind. I will draw out a sword after them.
You shall also take a small number of them and
bind them in the edge of your garment. Then take
some of them again and throw them into the midst
of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From
there a fire will go out into all the house of
Israel. Thus says the Lord God, This is Jerusalem.
I have set her in the midst of the nations and
the countries all around her. She has rebelled
against my judgments by doing wickedness. more
than the nations, and against my statutes, more
than the countries that are all around her. For
they have refused my judgments, and they have
not walked in my statutes. Therefore thus says
the Lord God, Because you have multiplied disobedience
more than the nations that are all around you,
have not walked in my statutes, nor kept my judgments,
nor even done according to the judgments of the
nations that are all around you. therefore thus
says the lord god indeed i even i am against
you and will execute judgments in your midst
in the sight of the nations and i will do among
you what i have never done and the like of which
i will never do again because of all your abominations
Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your
midst, and sons shall eat their fathers. And
I will execute judgments among you, and all of
you who remain I will scatter to all the winds.
Therefore as I live, says the Lord God, surely
because you have defiled my sanctuary with all
your detestable things and with all your abominations,
therefore I will also diminish you. My eye will
not spare, nor will I have any pity. One third
of you shall die of the pestilence, and be consumed
with famine in your midst. And one third shall
fall by the sword all around you. And I will
scatter another third to all the winds, and I
will draw out a sword after them. Thus shall
my anger be spent, and I will cause my fury to
rest upon them, and I will be avenged. And they
shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it in
my zeal, when I have spent my fury upon them.
Moreover, I will make you a waste and a reproach
among the nations that are all around you in
the sight of all who pass by. So it shall be
a reproach, a taunt, a lesson, and an astonishment
to the nations that are all around you when I
execute judgments among you in anger and in fury
and in furious rebukes. I the Lord have spoken.
When I send against them the terrible arrows
of famine, which shall be for destruction, which
I will send to destroy you, I will increase the
famine upon you and cut off your supply of bread.
So I will send against you famine and wild beasts,
and they will bereave you. Pestilence and blood
shall pass through you, and I will bring the
sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken.
I hope you enjoyed today's reading as much as
I did, and I look forward to seeing you again
tomorrow to continue on our journey. God bless
you and have a great day.