until the Lord from heaven looks down and sees;
my eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the daughters of my city.
they flung me alive into the pit and cast stones on me;
“I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit;
You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord; judge my cause.
The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all the day long.
Behold their sitting and their rising; I am the object of their taunts.
“You will repay them, O Lord, according to the work of their hands.
How the gold has grown dim, how the pure gold is changed! The holy stones lie scattered at the head of every street.
The precious sons of Zion, worth their weight in fine gold, how they are regarded as earthen pots, the work of a potter's hands!
Even jackals offer the breast; they nurse their young; but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
The tongue of the nursing infant sticks to the roof of its mouth for thirst; the children beg for food, but no one gives to them.
Those who once feasted on delicacies perish in the streets; those who were brought up in purple embrace ash heaps.
For the chastisement of the daughter of my people has been greater than the punishment of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, and no hands were wrung for her.
Her princes were purer than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than coral, the beauty of their form was like sapphire.
Now their face is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as wood.
Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of hunger, who wasted away, pierced by lack of the fruits of the field.
The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people.
The Lord gave full vent to his wrath; he poured out his hot anger, and he kindled a fire in Zion that consumed its foundations.
The kings of the earth did not believe, nor any of the inhabitants of the world, that foe or enemy could enter the gates of Jerusalem.
This was for the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed in the midst of her the blood of the righteous.
They wandered, blind, through the streets; they were so defiled with blood that no one was able to touch their garments.
“Away! Unclean!” people cried at them. “Away! Away! Do not touch!” So they became fugitives and wanderers; people said among the nations, “They shall stay with us no longer.”
The Lord himself has scattered them; he will regard them no more; no honor was shown to the priests, no favor to the elders.
Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles in the heavens; they chased us on the mountains; they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.
The breath of our nostrils, the Lord's anointed, was captured in their pits, of whom we said, “Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.”
Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz; but to you also the cup shall pass; you shall become drunk and strip yourself bare.
The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter of Zion, is accomplished; he will keep you in exile no longer; but your iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he will punish; he will uncover your sins.
We must pay for the water we drink; the wood we get must be bought.
We have given the hand to Egypt, and to Assyria, to get bread enough.
We get our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword in the wilderness.
Our skin is hot as an oven with the burning heat of famine.
Women are raped in Zion, young women in the towns of Judah.
Princes are hung up by their hands; no respect is shown to the elders.
Young men are compelled to grind at the mill, and boys stagger under loads of wood.
The old men have left the city gate, the young men their music.
The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned to mourning.
The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned!
In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
On the fifth day of the month (it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin),
the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar canal, and the hand of the Lord was upon him there.
As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming metal.
And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had a human likeness,
Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf's foot. And they sparkled like burnished bronze.
Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. And the four had their faces and their wings thus:
As for the likeness of their faces, each had a human face. The four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had the face of an eagle.
Such were their faces. And their wings were spread out above. Each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wing of another, while two covered their bodies.
And each went straight forward. Wherever the spirit would go, they went, without turning as they went.
As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches moving to and fro among the living creatures. And the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.
And the living creatures darted to and fro, like the appearance of a flash of lightning.
The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
ESV® Permanent Text Edition (2016). The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers.
Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.