It was in the thirtieth year, apparently from the discovery of a Torah scroll in the Temple by King Yoshiyahu, a significant event that generated changes in the position of the kings and the prophets, and raised public consciousness of the Torah and its obligations. It can be inferred from allusions in various verses that this was also the thirtieth year of the Jubilee cycle. It was in the fourth month, Tamuz, on the fifth of the month, and I was in the midst of the exile in Babylonia, where the inhabitants of Judah were exiled, by the Kevar River in southern Babylonia; the heavens opened, as it were, and I saw visions of God.

After introducing the prophecy in the first person, the verse shifts to a third-person account and provides additional context for the prophecy, providing a sort of external documentation of the event: On the fifth of the aforementioned month, in the aforementioned year, which was the fifth year of the exile of King Yehoyakhin. Much of Judah and its distinguished inhabitants were exiled along with Yehoyakhin; the prophet Ezekiel was apparently among them.

The word of the Lord was with Ezekiel son of Buzi the priest, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Kevar River, and the hand of the Lord, the spirit of prophecy, was upon him there.

The prophet resumes his description in the first person: I saw, and behold, a storm wind was coming from the north. The storm wind came from Babylonia, which, from the vantage point of the Land of Israel, was to the north. The storm wind brought with it a great cloud and a fire igniting around the cloud or within it, and an aura of light was surrounding it, the cloud; and from its, the fire’s, midst, there was a brightness, the resemblance of the ĥashmal, a mysterious entity unfamiliar to anyone who has not seen it, from the midst of the fire.

As the wind drew nearer, the figures inside it became increasingly clear: And from its midst, the likeness of four living creatures. This was their appearance: They had the general likeness of a person

and four faces for each one and four wings for each one of them.

Their legs were a straight leg, without a knee joint, and their feet were like the foot of a calf, and they, their feet, sparkled, resembling polished bronze.

There were the hands of a person under their wings on their four sides, and their faces and their wings were identical for the four of them, the four creatures.

Their wings were adjacent, touching one to another; they would not turn as they moved. When they changed the direction of their movement, they would not turn their faces; rather, each would move in the direction of its face, as they had faces on all sides.

For each creature, this was the likeness of their faces: The face of a human and the face of a lion to the right for the four of them and the face of an ox from the left for the four of them and the face of an eagle for the four of them,

and so were their faces. Their wings were separated from each other and spread from above; for each of the creatures, two separated wings were adjacent to each other, to the wings of another creature; alternatively, the edges of both wings emerged from one point on the body of each creature, and two additional wings covered their bodies.

As mentioned above, each would advance in the direction of its face. To where there was the will, or the storm wind, to go, they would go; they would not turn as they moved.

The likeness of the creatures, their appearance was like fiery coals, burning like the appearance of torches; it, the fire, would go among the creatures, and there was an especially bright aura to the fire, brighter than a typical fire, and from the fire lightning would emerge.

The creatures were constantly darting to and fro as if vibrating, like the appearance of a flash of fiery flames.

I saw the creatures, I further discerned, and behold, there was one wheel on the ground beside the creatures for its four faces. Each creature had four faces and was accompanied by one wheel.

The appearance of the wheels and their crafting had the resemblance of beryl, a precious stone that comes in many colors. It is possible that the wheels were white or blue; it has also been suggested that they were the color of the sky. And there was one likeness to the four of them, and their appearance and their crafting was as would be a wheel within a wheel. The wheels could turn easily in any direction, unlike an ordinary wheel that goes only forward and backward; it was as though there was another wheel attached, which diverged at a different angle.

As they moved, they would move to their four sides; they would not turn as they moved. Like the creatures, the wheels did not turn when they changed direction, as their structure allowed them to move in all directions.

The description of the wheels continues: As for their exteriors, they were tall and they were fearsome, and their exteriors were full of eyes all around for the four of them. The wheels were not merely implements for movement; rather, they were living beings with many eyes. Some explain that the phrase “full of eyes” means that the wheels were of many shades.

As the creatures moved, the wheels would move beside them, and as the creatures rose from upon the ground, the wheels would rise together with them.

To where there was the divine will to go, they, the creatures, would go, as the will was to go there, and the wheels would rise parallel to them. Although the wheels were not attached to the creatures, they would move together with the creatures, as the will of the creature was active in the wheels.

Therefore, as they, the creatures, moved they, the wheels, would move, and as they stood they would stand, and as they rose from upon the ground the wheels would rise parallel to them, as the will of the creature was in the wheels. The wheels are considered part of the form of the creatures even though they are distinct entities. The creatures appear as the image of people with multiple faces, intelligent beings that gaze and cast fear, while the wheels are a type of angel whose form is unique, that of a large wheel free to move in any direction.

The prophet describes what he observed above the wheels and the creatures: Over the heads of the creature I saw that there was the likeness of a firmament, resembling the awesome ice, an enormous glacier that filled the entire space, and it extended over their heads from above.

Beneath the firmament their wings, the wings of the creatures that spread over their heads, were parallel one to the other; for each and every one of the creatures there were two wings covering their bodies, as stated in verse 11.

I heard the clapping sound of their wings as they moved, like the sound of great waters, like the sound of the Almighty, a loud sound, a sound of commotion like the sound of a large camp of people. The creatures did not move as individual bodies but as a great multitude, like the massive buzz of a bustling, teeming city. And when they stood as an honor guard, their wings would slacken.

There was a voice heard from above the firmament that was over their heads; this occurred when they stood, and their wings would slacken.

Above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, like the appearance of a sapphire [sappir] stone; alternatively, the sappir was a reddish stone. And upon the likeness of the throne was a likeness, like the appearance of a person upon it, the throne, from above. The likeness was only similar to the appearance of a man; it was not the actual appearance of a man.

I saw the resemblance of ĥashmal, which was like the appearance of fire inside it all around, or, alternatively, like the appearance of a fire surrounded by some enclosure, from the appearance of his waist upward. The figure on the throne was adorned with the appearance of ĥashmal, and from the appearance of his waist downward I saw like the appearance of fire and an aura surrounding him.

Like the appearance of the colorful rainbow that is in the cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the aura all around; it, that likeness on the throne, was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord, who revealed Himself to me. I saw it, and I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice speaking.

He, the voice from God, said to me: Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak to you.

A spirit entered me, or, alternatively, I was girded with a new spirit, when He, the voice, spoke to me and stood me on my feet, and I heard Him who was speaking to me. Ezekiel heard the voice of God without discerning the source of the voice or its precise direction. It was as though the voice was radiating throughout the world and Ezekiel was simply attuned to it.

He said to me: Son of man, I am sending you to the children of Israel, to the rebellious nations. The plural term “nations” refers to the different tribes of Israel. Alternatively, the term is to be understood in the singular and refers to the nation of Israel as a whole. The book of Ezekiel contains many examples of the prophet employing the plural form when referring to a singular entity (see commentary on 12:10). In any case, God says to Ezekiel: I am sending you to a nation that rebelled against Me, as they and their fathers have transgressed against Me until this very day.

The children are hard-faced and stubborn-hearted. They are brazen and obstinate. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them: So said the Lord God. You are the one who shall deliver the word of God to this difficult nation.

And they, whether they heed or whether they refrain, as they are a defiant house, a group of rebels, in whom disobedience and contempt are ingrained like an ancestral tradition, they will know, after your prophecies come to pass, that a prophet had been among them.

You, Son of man, do not fear them, and do not fear their words, though they are briars, or caustic materials, and thistles to you and you sit by thornbushes. Do not fear their words, and do not be dismayed because of them, as they are a house of defiance, and it is only to be expected that their behavior will be unpleasant.

You shall speak My words to them, whether they will heed or whether they will refrain, as they are defiant people. Your journey will not be simple, and it is doubtful whether you will have any influence over Israel. Nevertheless, your task is to transmit My words to the people under any conditions, so that they will be reminded through you that they have not been abandoned. Even in exile, there was a prophet who assumed the mantle and warned them.

You, Son of man, heed that which I am speaking to you: Do not be defiant like the house of defiance in which you live. Obey My commands; do not refuse: Open your mouth and eat that which I am giving to you.

I looked, and behold, a hand was extended to me, and behold, in it there was a scrolled book.

He, the extended hand, spread it out before me, and it was written within and without, on both sides, and written in it were lamentations and matters that evoke moaning and woe.

He said to me: Son of man, eat all that which you find in the hand; eat this scroll, and then go speak to the house of Israel.

I opened my mouth, and He fed me that scroll.

He said to me: Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your innards with this scroll that I am giving to you. I ate it, and it was in my mouth like honey for sweetness. Although the contents of the scroll were grim, it tasted to Ezekiel like honey. Ezekiel understood that it is incumbent upon the prophet to stand willingly and wholeheartedly and deliver his message to the people, and he was prepared to do so.

After consuming the scroll, He said to me: Son of man, go, come to the house of Israel, and speak to them with My words, convey My words to them, or, alternatively, speak in My language.

For you are not being sent to a people of unintelligible speech and of cumbrous tongue, in which case your language would be foreign to them, but to the house of Israel, and you can understand one another. Your difficulties will not be due to a language barrier.

I am not sending you to many peoples of unintelligible speech and of cumbrous tongue, whose words you would not understand. Had I sent you to them, they would have heeded you.

But the house of Israel will be unwilling to heed you, not because of some flaw on your part, but just as they are unwilling to heed Me. Your ability to speak in their language will be of no help, for the entire house of Israel is stubborn-browed and hard-hearted.

Behold, I have set your face strong against their face and your brow stubborn against their brow. I will give you the strength to withstand their rebukes, their quarrels, and their problems.

Like crystal, a hard material, or a mysterious creature of some kind that can break and engrave stones, and even cut them, stronger than flint I have set your brow; do not fear them, and do not be dismayed because of them, as they are a house of defiance. They are a rebellious people, and they are unworthy of respect or fear; nevertheless, you will be provided with all the necessary strength to face them.

He said to me: Son of man, take all My words that I will speak to you into your heart, and heed with your ears. Pay close attention.

Go, come to the exiles, to the members of your people, and speak to them, and say to them, over and over again: So said the Lord God. Whether they will heed or whether they will refrain, your task is to state My words with the hope that they will listen, but their obedience is not your responsibility. Even if they will accept that you are a prophet, they remain very stubborn.

A wind lifted me, and I heard behind me the sound of a great noise, saying: Blessed is the glory of the Lord from His place,

and the sound of the wings of the creatures touching one against the other, and the sound of the wheels parallel to them, the creatures, and all this created the sound of a great noise. Not only was I lifted by the wind, but it was apparent from the clapping wings and the moving wheels that the divine chariot was moving as well.

A wind lifted me and took me, and in sharp contrast to the sweetness I experienced during the prophecy, I went in bitterness, in the fury of my spirit, with profound excitement, and the hand of the Lord was strong upon me. I no longer acted of my own will; God was directing me.

I came to the exiles at Tel Aviv, who dwelled by the Kevar River, and I dwelled where they were dwelling, and I sat there seven days among them, silent and stunned.

It was at the end of seven days of waiting in silence that the word of the Lord was with me, saying:

Son of man, I have appointed you as a sentinel for the house of Israel, and you will hear a word from My mouth, and you will warn them from Me, by My authority.

When I say to the wicked person: You shall die in your wickedness, and if you, Ezekiel, whom I have appointed as sentinel, did not warn him, and you did not speak to warn the wicked person about his wicked way, to preserve his life, he is wicked, he will die due to his iniquity, and his blood I will seek from your hand. You will be held responsible for his death.

But you, if you warned the wicked person, and he did not turn back from his wickedness and his wicked way, he will die due to his iniquity, but you will have saved your life. As the sentinel, it is your responsibility to warn the wicked person, but you do not control his response.

When a righteous person regrets his path and turns back from his righteousness and performs injustice, I will place an obstacle before him, and he will stumble over his iniquity, and he will die. If you did not warn him and he did not repent, he will die because of his sin, and his righteousness that he had performed will not be remembered to spare him from punishment. This principle is repeated several times throughout the book of Ezekiel: It is one’s conduct in the present that ultimately decides the person’s fate, and each individual bears responsibility for his own actions. Granted, one’s past, the merit of one’s ancestors, or societal influences are all given weight, but they do not exempt one from personal responsibility, for better or for worse (see 9:4–6, 14:13–20). If a righteous person turns from his righteousness, he will be held accountable. And if you did not warn him, then his blood I will seek from your hand.

But you, if you warned him, the righteous person, that the righteous not sin, and as befitting a righteous individual, he listened and did not sin, he will live, because he took warning, and you will have saved your life.

The hand of the Lord, the spirit of prophecy, was upon me there, in Tel Aviv, and He said to me: Arise, go out from the settled area to the plain, a broad expanse in Babylonia, itself an especially flat land, and there I will speak to you.

I arose and went out to the plain, and behold, the glory of the Lord was already standing there like the glory of the chariot that I saw by the Kevar River, and I fell upon my face.

A spirit came into me and stood me on my feet, and He spoke to me and said to me: Come, shut yourself inside your house.

You, Son of man, behold, it is as though they have placed thick ropes upon you and bound you with them. You are to be isolated and constricted, and you shall not go out among them, the exiles. From this point forward, you are no longer a social person.

I will cleave your tongue to your palate and you will be mute, and you will not be a man of rebuke for them, as they are a house of defiance.

But when I speak to you, I will open your mouth. When the time arrives, I will grant you permission, or the ability, to speak, and you shall say to them, verbatim, the words of My prophecy: So said the Lord God. Indeed, Ezekiel’s mouth was opened only after the tidings of the destruction of the Temple reached Babylonia (24:27). God reiterates for the third time: He who heeds will heed, and he who refrains will refrain, as they are a house of defiance.

You, Son of man, take for yourself a brick and place it before you, and depict upon it a city, Jerusalem.

Lay siege against it, build a model of a siege tower against it, and erect a ramp against it, up to the city wall, to enable enemy forces to penetrate the city; set camps against it and place battering rams against it all around.

You, after you have fashioned this model of a besieged Jerusalem, take for yourself a flat iron pan and place it as a wall of iron between you and the city; set your face toward it, and it, the city, will be besieged and you shall besiege it. It is a sign for the house of Israel. These acts symbolize what will happen to Jerusalem: It will be severed from its surroundings by its enemies, and God will conceal His face from the city.

You, lie on your left side, and you shall lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it. The pain of the weight bearing down on your left side will be for you like the burden of the sins of Israel. For the number of days that you will lie on it you will bear their iniquity and thereby provide some measure of atonement.

I have given you the years of their iniquity as a number of days, one day for each year, three hundred and ninety days, and you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

You will complete these days, and then you shall lie on your right side a second time, and you shall thereby bear the iniquity of the house of Judah: Forty days, each day for a year, I have given it to you. The commentaries offer varying explanations for the accounting of the years of iniquities for both Israel and Judah.

Throughout this period, which will last more than a year, while you are lying on your side, you shall set your face toward the model of the siege of Jerusalem, your arm shall be bared, as though ready for heroic action, and then you shall prophesy in its regard, the model of Jerusalem.

Behold, I have placed ropes upon you, as it were, and you shall not turn from your one side to your other side until your completion of the days of your siege. You will be forcibly bound by My hand, unable to move. Ezekiel will be placed in an onerous situation, as though invisible chains restrain him in one position, while he addresses the model city that he constructed for himself.

You, take for yourself kernels of wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, each of which can be eaten separately, and put them all into one vessel, and make them, the flour of this mixture, for you into bread, which will certainly have an unpleasant taste. This will be your food, and you shall eat it for the number of days that you are lying on your side, three hundred and ninety days.

Your food that you will eat will be twenty shekels a day by weight, approximately 200 g; you shall eat it from set time until set time, from a certain hour one day until the same hour the following day.

You shall drink water by measure, one-sixth of a hin, approximately 0.7 L according to the most accepted measure. You shall drink from set time until set time.

You shall eat it, the bread I am commanding you to bake, as a barley cake, a crudely made wafer from coarse grain, and with turds of human excrement you shall bake it. The dried human excrement shall serve as fuel for the fire when you bake this bread before their eyes, before those people who come to visit you.

The Lord said: So shall the children of Israel eat their bread, which will be repulsive and impure, among the nations where I will banish them. Your actions represent the people of Israel in exile.

I said: Alas, Lord God, behold, my soul has not been defiled, an unslaughtered carcass or a mauled animal I have not eaten from my youth until now, and foul flesh has not come into my mouth. Ezekiel said: All my life I have eaten only pure and clean food. How can I consume this bread that You are commanding me to prepare?

He said to me: I will ease matters for you. See, I have given you cattle dung instead of the far more malodorous human turds, and you shall prepare your bread upon it. You shall ignite the fire with cow dung, which is sometimes used as a fuel. Even today, cow dung is used for heating in some societies.

God now conveys to Ezekiel a prophecy: He said to me: Son of man, behold, I am breaking the staff of bread in Jerusalem; they will eat bread by weight and with anxiety, due to a great shortage, and they will drink water by measure and in desolation.

All this will occur as they will lack bread and water, and they will be confounded one with another, and they will molder, they will be eliminated, in their iniquity. Everything that you shall do in the near future will symbolize both the weight of their accumulated iniquities and the retribution to be visited upon Jerusalem. The famine and shortage that the city will suffer will last so long that any remaining food will be prepared and eaten in the crudest possible manner.

You, Son of man, take for yourself a sharp sword, not an actual sword but a barber’s razor; you shall take it for yourself, and pass it over your head and over your beard, and shave them, and take for yourself scales of balance and divide them, the shaved hairs.

One-third of the hair you shall burn in the fire inside the symbolic city that you drew on the brick, with the completion of the days of the siege that you symbolically besiege the city; and you shall take another one-third and strike it with the sword all around it, the city; and the remaining one-third you shall scatter to the wind, and I will draw the sword from its sheath after them, the scattered hairs.

You shall take from there a few hairs by number, and you shall bind them in your garment’s hems.

You shall take from them, the last one-third, again, cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; from it, this action, or from this part that you will take and throw into the fire, a fire will emerge and spread to the entire house of Israel.

So said the Lord God: This is Jerusalem. In the midst of the nations I placed it, and all around it there are countries.

It exchanged My ordinances for wickedness beyond that of the nations, by performing more evil than the other nations, and My statutes for evil beyond that of the countries that are around it. The residents of Jerusalem have adopted the worst elements from the surrounding nations, as they spurned My ordinances, and My statutes, they did not follow them.

Therefore, so said the Lord God: Because you have surpassed [hamonkhem] the wickedness of the nations that are around you, or, alternatively, because you are a distinct multitude [hamon] compared to the nations around you, or because you behaved like a wild mob more so than the nations around you: You did not follow My statutes, you did not perform My ordinances, and you did not even act in accordance with the proper and fair ordinances of the nations that are around you but rather you performed only evil;

therefore, so said the Lord God: Behold, I too am against you, and I will execute judgments, rebukes and punishments, in your midst before the eyes of the nations.

I will do to you that which I have not done and the like of which I will not do again; your punishment will be greater than that of the other nations because of all your abominations.

Therefore, due to extreme hunger, fathers will eat sons in your midst, and sons will eat their fathers. People will be reduced to eating the corpses of their relatives. And I will administer punishments to you, and I will scatter your entire remnant in every direction.

Therefore, as I live – the utterance of the Lord God – if not, I swear, that it will be because you have defiled My Sanctuary with all your repugnant objects and with all your abominations, I too will surely cause diminution, My eye will not pity, and I too will have no compassion.

One-third of you will die of pestilence, and they will perish of famine in your midst, corresponding to the aforementioned conflagration in the model of Jerusalem (verse 2), one-third will fall by sword around you, and one-third I will scatter in every direction, and I will draw a sword after them.

My wrath will be spent, I will assuage My fury upon them, and I will be consoled, and then they will know that I, the Lord, have spoken in My zeal, when I spend My fury upon them.

Until that time, many evils will befall Jerusalem: I will render you a ruin and a disgrace among the nations that are around you; Jerusalem will be desolate and shamed before the eyes of every passerby.

It, the city, will be a model of disgrace and a taunt. When someone wishes to curse a place, they will say: May your fate be like that of Jerusalem. Likewise, the city will be a chastisement and an astonishment for the nations that are around you when I will administer punishments to you in wrath, in fury, and in furious rebukes; I, the Lord, have spoken;

when I send among them, the nations that surround you, the evil arrows of famine, that were for destruction, that I will also send to destroy you, and I will intensify famine upon you, more than upon the other nations, and I will break for you the staff of bread.

I will send against you famine and evil beasts, and they will bereave you, pestilence and blood will pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you; I, the Lord, have spoken.

Another prophecy of rage against the Land of Israel and its sinful inhabitants: The word of the Lord was with me, saying:

Son of man, direct your attention, your pronouncements, to the mountains of Israel, which will serve as a landmark representing the entire land, and prophesy in their regard, primarily to the areas surrounding them.

Say: Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God: So said the Lord God to the mountains, to the hills, to the ravines, and to the valleys: Behold, it is I [hineni ani] who is bringing a sword of war upon you, and with it I will eradicate your shrines that you constructed for idol worship. The word hineni is a contraction of hineh ani, here I am, and is seemingly redundant when followed by the word ani, I or me. The double reference to the first person indicates determination and decisiveness in the fulfillment of the prophecy.

Your altars will become desolate, as they will be destroyed, and your sun pillars will be broken, and I will cast down your slain before your idols [gilluleikhem]. Literally translated, gilluleikhem means “your turds.” Here the verse utilizes this term as a derogatory reference to idols.

I will cast the carcasses of the children of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your desolate altars.

Throughout your dwellings, the cities will be destroyed and the shrines will become desolate [tishamna], so that your altars will be destroyed and become desolate [yeshemu]. The word asham also denotes guilt; indeed, these meanings are connected: They will be convicted of guilt and destroyed. Your idols will be broken and eliminated, your sun pillars will be cut down, and your actions will be obliterated.

The slain will fall in your midst, and you will know that I am the Lord.

But I will leave some, as with all these punishments you will have survivors from the sword among the nations, as when you will be scattered among the lands.

Ultimately, the refugees in exile will understand the cause of the destruction: Your survivors will remember Me among the nations where they were taken captive, where I caused their straying heart that turned away from Me and their eyes that stray after their idols to break. Alternatively, I was anguished, as it were, over their straying heart. And they will loathe themselves, and will be ashamed and filled with regret, for the evils that they performed, for all their abominations.

They will know that I am the Lord; I did not speak in vain to do this evil to them.

The prophecy of rage continues: So said the Lord God: Clap with your hand, and stamp with your foot. These are simple, emotive gestures with which one reacts to bad tidings. And say: Alas, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, who, because of their sins, will fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.

He who is distant from the city centers and from the battlefield will die of pestilence, he who is near the war will fall by sword, and the remnant of the sword and pestilence and the besieged inside the cities will die of famine, and I will spend My fury upon them through various punishments.

You will know that I am the Lord, when their slain will be strewn among the sites of their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, and under every flourishing tree and under every thick-branched terebinth, which went unpruned as part of a pagan practice. These represent every place where they presented a pleasing aroma to all their idols.

I will extend My hand against them and I will render the land desolation and waste, a twofold desolation in that it will be both uninhabited and in ruins, from the wilderness of Divla, which could be a reference to the southern border in the Judean desert, or, alternatively, from the wilderness in the south until Rivla, located on the northern border, in all their dwellings, and they will know that I am the Lord.

The word of the Lord was with me, saying:

You, Son of man, so said the Lord God to the territory of Israel: An end, the end has come upon the four corners of the land, upon this entire place.

Now the end is upon you, and I will send My anger against you, I will judge you in accordance with your ways, in accordance with the actions of those who dwell in the land, and I will lay retribution for all your abominations upon you. Jerusalem will soon be destroyed, and the end of Judean sovereignty over the land will come.

My eye will not pity you and I will have no compassion, for I will lay the punishment for your ways upon you, and your abominations will be in your midst. You will not consider the punishment coincidental, but a direct response to your deeds. And you will know that I am the Lord.

So said the Lord God: A singular evil, behold, evil is coming.

An end [ketz] has come; the end [haketz] has come, it has arisen [hekitz] against you. This is a deliberate use of alliteration. Behold, it is coming. The rule of the people of Judah over the land is coming to an end.

The appointed time has come to you, inhabitant of the land; the time has come, the day of tumult is near, and it is not merely a dim, distant mountain echo, but a day of actual bloodshed.

Now, soon, I will pour My fury upon you, I will spend My wrath upon you, and I will judge you in accordance with your ways, and I will lay all your abominations upon you. The prophet reiterates that this is not an arbitrary punishment unrelated to the people’s conduct; rather, it is a direct result of their evil actions.

My eye will not pity, and I will have no compassion; I will lay upon you in accordance with your ways, and your abominations will be in your midst, as I will afflict you according to the measure of your corruption, and you will know and understand that I, the Lord, am smiting.

Behold the day, behold, it is coming; the appointed time, or the morning, or the encirclement (see commentary on verse 7), has come forth, the rod coming to strike you has blossomed, evil has bloomed. The enemy is already prepared to appear.

Villainy, your lack of justice and ethics, has risen into a rod of wickedness to strike the wicked; there shall not be anything left among them, and not among their multitude [hamonam], and not among their offspring [mehemehem]. The word mehemehem appears to be a combination of the words mehem and hem, literally “those from them,” or it may also allude to hamiyat hahamon, the murmur of the multitude. Accordingly, the verse means that all will perish, and there is no one mourning among them. Alternatively, they will have no respite.

The time has come; the day has arrived when all will end. Let the buyer not rejoice in his purchase, and let the reluctant seller not mourn over the property he was forced to sell. On the approaching day of judgment, all be will lost and commercial transactions will be of no consequence, as great wrath is coming upon all its, the city’s, multitude.

For the seller will not return to that which was sold; even those who remain alive will not return to their land, as the vision of exile to all its multitude will not be reversed. Each man, his life is in his iniquity, they will not be strengthened. The soul of the sinner will be unable to withstand the suffering; he will not survive in exile.

The prophet describes the impending retribution: At the enemy’s approach, they have sounded the horn to call the people to arms and have prepared everything for battle, but despite this, there is no one going to war due to fear and despair, for My wrath is turned upon all its, the city’s, multitude. That is to say, it is pointless to prepare for war or to go forth in battle. My great wrath will bring crushing defeat upon the warriors.

The sword is outside the city, and pestilence and famine are within it; he who is found in the field will die by sword, and he who is in the city, famine and pestilence will consume him.

Their survivors, those who manage to evade the sword and the other calamities, will escape, and they will be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, who are banished from their nests to remote spots in the mountains, all of them cooing, sounding the sound of panic; so shall each man moan in his iniquity.

All hands will slacken, and all knees will drip with water in fear. One who is struck by a sudden fear occasionally loses control of his bladder.

They will gird themselves in sackcloth in mourning, and terror will cover them; on every face there will be shame, and on all their heads, baldness. They will pull out their hair in pain and grief.

They will cast their silver into the streets, and their gold will become an abhorrence; as their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them on the day of the fury of the Lord. They will not satisfy their souls and they will not fill their innards. The people will spurn their possessions, as they will afford the people no satisfaction, and they will be useless against the enemy. Moreover, they will discard their property, for it was the obstacle of their iniquity. Their wealth led them on this path from which there is no escape.

The destruction will not merely strike the land and its inhabitants; it will also reach the Temple and tear down Israel’s national treasure: The magnificence of its ornament, Israel’s splendor, the Temple, He had established it for a source of pride for Israel, but in it they made the images of their abominations, their repugnant objects. They sullied its beauty with the idolatrous images they installed therein. Therefore, I rendered it an abhorrence for them.

I will deliver it, the Temple, into the hand of the strangers as loot and to the wicked of the earth as spoils, and they will profane it.

I will turn My face away from them, and they will profane My place of concealment, the Temple; and the villainous, cruel men, will enter it, and they will profane it.

Make the chain for those who have been convicted, for the land is full of cases of bloodguilt, capital crimes, and the city is full of villainy.

I will bring the evildoers of the nations, and they will take possession of their houses; I will eliminate the pride of the brazen of Israel, and their holy places will be profaned.

Excision is coming; they will seek peace, but there is none.

Calamity will come upon calamity, and report of tragedy will be upon report of tragedy; they will seek a vision from the prophet, and Torah will be lost even from the priest. The priests were traditionally the masters of Torah scholarship and instruction. And the ability to give counsel will be lost from the elders.

The king will mourn, the prince will wear astonishment and helplessness, and the hands of the people of the land will be panicked, as I will do to them in accordance with their repulsive ways, and I will judge them according to the judgment that they deserve, and they will know that I am the Lord.

It was in the sixth year of the exile of Yehoyakhin, in the sixth month, Elul, on the fifth of the month; I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah, who were exiled together with Yehoyakhin, were sitting before me. It may be inferred from the verse that Ezekiel was the leading sage of his generation, as despite the peculiar nature of his conduct, the elders of Judah continued to consult him. And the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there. A spirit of prophecy suddenly fell upon Ezekiel while he was sitting with the elders.

I saw, and behold, there was a likeness like the appearance of fire: From the appearance of its waist and downward, fire, and from its waist and upward, like the appearance of radiance, like the appearance of the ĥashmal. Here the word ĥashmal appears with an additional heh, ĥashmala. As stated earlier (commentary on 1:4), the precise definition of ĥashmal is unknown. According to the Septuagint, it refers to a particular color, although it may refer to some other phenomenon.

It, the likeness, extended the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of hair on my head. Whether or not he was a nazirite, Ezekiel had long hair. And a wind lifted me between the earth and the heavens and brought me to Jerusalem in the visions of God. Ezekiel was taken to Jerusalem in a vision, not physically. Ezekiel continues: The spirit carried me to the Temple in Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gate of the inner courtyard that faces northward, where there was the seat of the infuriating image, an idolatrous object of infuriation, which angers God.

Behold, I saw that the glory of the God of Israel was there, in the inner courtyard, like the vision that I saw in the valley. This was a vision identical to the one that Ezekiel witnessed when he was by the Kevar River (see 1:1, 3:23). In that vision, which would recur to Ezekiel numerous times, God revealed Himself to Ezekiel borne in a type of chariot.

He said to me: Son of man, raise your eyes now to the way northward. I raised my eyes to the way northward, and behold, north of the gate of the altar was this image of infuriation situated in the entrance.

He said to me: Son of man, do you see what they are doing, great abominations of idol worship that the house of Israel is performing here to distance Me from My Sanctuary? And you will yet again see great abominations.

Ezekiel, who was taken to Jerusalem in this vision, traversed it with a vantage point unattainable for another person: He brought me to the entrance of the courtyard, and I looked, and behold, a single hole was in the wall.

He said to me: Son of man, burrow now into the hole in the wall, and I burrowed into the wall and behold, there was a single entrance.

He said to me: Come and see the evil abominations that they are performing here in a manner even more flagrant than the placement of an idolatrous image in the Temple.

I came, in my vision, entering an inner chamber of sorts in the Temple, and I saw, and behold, every form of crawling creature and animal, detestable things, and all the idols of the house of Israel, were engraved on the wall all around. The entire room was decorated with symbols of idols and animal forms used in idolatrous rituals.

And there were seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, a body of seventy elders that comprised a select leadership group of sages since the days of Moses, and Yaazanyahu son of Shafan, an esteemed individual from a family known for its good relations with the prophets, was standing in their midst. The elders were standing before them, the idols, each with his incense pan in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense was rising.

He said to me: Have you seen, Son of man, that which the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his ornamented rooms, as they say: The Lord does not see us; the Lord has forsaken the land. Despite the efforts of the elders to conceal their deeds, God exposed them before the prophet, who publicized those deeds.

He said to me: The prophetic visit has not ended. You will yet again see great abominations that they perform.

He brought me to the entrance of the gate of the House of the Lord, which was toward the north, and behold, the women were sitting, and weeping and mourning for Tamuz, a pagan deity worshipped by the Babylonians. The women practiced a form of worship based on the concept that the deity experienced cycles of death and resurrection. The women therefore cried over the demise of this idol; later, they would celebrate its resurrection. Many ancient cultures, including those of ancient Egypt and Greece, incorporated the worship of a deity that died and was subsequently resurrected.

He said to me: Did you see, Son of man? You will yet again see abominations greater than these.

He brought me to the inner courtyard of the House of the Lord, adjacent to the Temple, and behold, at the entrance of the Sanctuary of the Lord, between the Hall of the Sanctuary and the altar, were some twenty-five men, their backs to the Sanctuary of the Lord and their faces eastward, and they were prostrating themselves eastward to the sun. As in the Tabernacle, the Holy of Holies in the Temple was situated on the western side of the Sanctuary, opposite the rising sun. The men described by Ezekiel were standing next to the entrance of the Sanctuary but were bowing in the direction of the sun, away from the Sanctuary.

He said to me: Did you see, Son of man? Is it insignificant for the house of Judah that they performed the abominations that they performed here? For they filled the land with corruption, and they even returned to anger Me, and behold, they send the branch to their nose. The ancient Persian sun worshippers would hold a bundle of twigs of the barsom plant when they worshipped. Alternatively, the verse may allude to the fragrance of incense, or it may be a euphemism for repulsive matters, e.g., the emission of flatulence. This may be a factual description of a form of idol worship that was practiced in the Temple, or it may be a derogatory epithet.

I too will act as they have: They angered Me, so I too will act in fury. Since they claimed that I cannot see their deeds, My eye will not pity. And since they claimed that I have forsaken them, I will not have compassion, and they will cry in My ears with a loud voice when calamity befalls them, but I will not hear them.

He called in my ears in a loud voice, like that of a herald, saying: Those appointed [pekudot] to exact the punishment over the city, approach, and each with his weapon of destruction in his hand. Alternatively, the verse means that the day of the reckoning or the command [pekuda] for the destruction of the city is drawing near.

And behold, before me six men were coming from the way of the upper gate of the Temple, which faces northward. The upper gate was constructed by Yotam king of Judah. Each man was coming with his battering ram in his hand, and one man in their midst was clothed in linen, with a scribe’s inkwell at his waist. This man’s angelic clothing, together with his implements, indicated that he was an angel appointed over the other six. They, the six men, came and they stood beside the bronze altar.

At that moment, the glory of the God of Israel ascended from upon the cherub upon which it had been resting. God is referred to as the One “who abides upon the cherubs.” The cherubs shrouded, as it were, the throne upon which the glory of God rested in the Temple, and they stood at the ready to serve Him. Now the glory of God ascended from its place to the threshold of the House, preparing for its imminent departure, and He called to the man clothed in linen, the angel, at whose waist was the scribe’s inkwell.

The Lord said to him: Pass through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and mark a sign upon the foreheads of the men who are sighing in pain and who are crying out helplessly over the defilement of the city and over all the abominations that are performed in its midst.

And to those men who were carrying the battering rams, He said in my earshot: Pass through the city behind him, the man clothed in linen, who is passing through Jerusalem and marking those who shall be spared, and smite; let your eye not pity and do not have compassion.

You shall kill elder, youth and maiden, children and women for destruction, but do not approach any man upon whom is the sign, as it indicates his immunity from punishment; begin the onslaught from My Sanctuary, where you are currently standing. They began to carry out the order to smite with the elders who were before the House.

He said to them: Defile the House, and fill the courtyards with the slain. Leave the slain in their places and do not concern yourselves with the impurity of the Temple and its courtyards. Go out to the city. They went out, and smote throughout the city.

It was as they were smiting in the city, I remained alone in the Temple, surrounded by those slain, and I fell upon my face, and I cried out and said: Alas, Lord God, are You intent on destroying the entire remnant of Israel as You pour out Your fury upon Jerusalem?

He said to me: Indeed, the iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great; the land has become filled with blood. There have been numerous acts of murder, and vengeance is necessary. And the city has filled with injustice, as they said: The Lord has forsaken the land, and the Lord does not see. He no longer monitors our deeds. Therefore, the people contrive to do whatever they please.

I too, commensurate with their cruelty, My eye will not pity, and I will not have compassion; I placed their way upon their head. The punishment will take effect upon them in the manner that they sinned. I will punish them measure for measure.

And behold, the man clothed in linen with the inkwell at his waist was responding, as a subordinate reporting to his superior, saying: I have acted in accordance with everything that You commanded me.

Following the destruction of the wicked inhabitants of the city, I saw, and behold, on the firmament that was over the head of the cherubs was like a sapphire stone; like the appearance of the likeness of a throne was seen over them. This is the same scene described by Ezekiel in the vision recorded in chapter 1, with the notable exception that there the glory of God was envisioned above the throne (1:26–28), while here the verse does not state what was above the throne. Perhaps the glory of God was not currently on the throne, as it was still at the threshold of the House (9:3).

He said, a statement was issued from a source hidden from sight, to the man clothed in linen, the angel appointed over the men who came to destroy the city, and stated: Come to between the galgal, the wheels, beneath the cherub, where the galgal is located (see 10:6), and fill your hands with smoldering coals from between the cherubs (see 1:13), for the creatures, which are synonymous with the cherubs, were burning, and cast them upon the city of Jerusalem. He, the man clothed in linen, came before my eyes.

Concomitant with the description of Jerusalem’s destruction, the verse describes the departure of the glory of God from the Temple: The cherubs stood to the right of the House as the man clothed in linen entered to take the fire from beneath the cherubs. Alternatively, the verse means that the cherubs stood on the right side of the entrance to the House. And until that point, since the glory of God was in its place inside the House, the cloud filled the inner courtyard, which was relatively distant from the resting place of the glory inside the Sanctuary.

Once the glory began to leave, the glory of the Lord rose from upon the cherub in the Holy of Holies and came to the threshold of the House, as mentioned above (9:3), and the House was filled with the cloud, and the courtyard, through which the glory exited, was full of the aura of the glory of the Lord. According to this interpretation, the cloud filled the House when the glory departed to the courtyard. Some commentaries, however, explain that the cloud represented the glory itself, whereas the aura would glow in the surrounding area; accordingly, the glory was still inside the House at this point.

The sound of the flapping wings of the cherubs moving to and fro was so strong that it was heard as far as the outer courtyard. The sound was so strong, like the voice of God Almighty when He speaks. Again, this description evokes Ezekiel’s vision at the beginning of the book (1:24).

The prophet resumes his description of the actions of the man clothed in linen: It was when He commanded the man clothed in linen, saying: Take fire from between the galgal, from between the cherubs, that he, the angel clothed in linen, went in and stood beside the wheel.

The cherub extended his hand from between the cherubs to the fire that was between the cherubs, and he carried it, the fire, and placed it into the hands of the one clothed in linen. The man clothed in linen, the angel, did not take the handful of coal with his hands; rather, he did so with the help of the cherub. And he, the man, took it, the fire, and went out.

The prophet now describes the cherubs and the wheels: Then on the cherubs the form of a person’s hand was seen beneath their wings. Until now, the hands of the cherubs went unnoticed. Only after the cherub extended its hand to the fire was the form of a person’s hand revealed beneath their wings.

The rest of the description of the cherubs and the wheels resembles their depiction at the beginning of the book of Ezekiel: I saw and behold, four wheels beside the cherubs, one wheel beside the one cherub and one wheel beside the one cherub, one wheel beside each cherub; and the appearance of the wheels had the resemblance of a beryl stone.

As for their appearance, one likeness was to the four of them, the wheels were identical, as would be a wheel within a wheel. It was as if each wheel was fastened at a right angle to its neighbor, allowing the wheels to turn in all four directions with ease.

As they moved, they would move to their four sides. As mentioned, the wheels were capable of moving in all directions. Therefore, they would not turn to face another direction as they moved. Rather, to the place that the head would face they would follow it; they would not turn as they moved

their entire body, and their exteriors, their hands and their wings. This is either referring to the wings of the cherubs, or, alternatively, the wheels. And the wheels were full of eyes all around, and they could see in all directions without turning. So it was for the four of their wheels.

The prophet notes: As for the wheels, they were called the galgal in my ears. The voice that reached my ears referred to the wheels as galgal, as mentioned earlier (10:2).

There were four faces for each one of the cherubs: The face of the first was the face of the cherub. It is unknown what that means. According to the Sages, it resembled the face of a young child. The face of the second was the face of a grown human, the third was the face of a lion, and the fourth, the face of an eagle.

The cherubs rose; that is the creature that I saw at the Kevar River. The creatures described by Ezekiel in his initial vision of the divine chariot were in fact the cherubs. These visions differ in that here the divine vision is revealed in the Temple, while the earlier vision was revealed a great distance from there.

As the cherubs moved, the wheels would move beside them, and as the cherubs raised their wings to rise from upon the ground, the wheels too would not turn from beside them.

Even though the wheels did not appear attached to the cherubs, they were an integral part of the cherubs. Therefore, as they, the cherubs, stood, they, the wheels, would stand, and as they rose they would rise with them, as the will of the creature, the spirit of the cherubs as envisioned by Ezekiel, was in them, the wheels.

The prophet resumes his description of the glory’s departure from the Temple: Initially, Ezekiel saw the glory of God ascend from its abode inside the House to the threshold of the House. Now, the glory of the Lord emerged from upon the threshold of the House and stood upon the cherubs, which served as its chariot (1:22–28).

The cherubs raised their wings and rose from the ground before my eyes as they emerged from the Temple, and the wheels parallel to them were lifted as well, and it, the cherubs, stood at the entrance of the eastern gate of the House of the Lord, and the glory of the God of Israel was upon them, the cherubs, from above, namely from above the firmament that was spread over the heads of the cherubs (see 1:26–28).

The prophet continues to describe the cherubs: This was the creature that I had seen beneath the God of Israel at the Kevar River, and I knew that they, those creatures that I saw then, were the same cherubs that now stood in the Temple.

There were four faces for each one of the cherubs, and four wings for each one, and the likeness of a person’s hands beneath their wings.

As for the likeness of their faces, they were the faces that I had seen by the Kevar River, their appearances and themselves. The creatures that I saw then are identical to the cherubs that I see now, and each would move in the direction of its face. Since each cherub had four faces, wherever it turned, it faced that direction.

A wind lifted me and brought me to the eastern gate of the House of the Lord that faces eastward, where the glory of God stood, and behold, at the door of the gate were twenty-five men. I saw in their midst Yaazanya son of Azur, and Pelatyahu son of Benayahu, princes of the people. At the entrance to the eastern gate of the Temple stood a group of influential men, at the head of which stood these two individuals, who were apparently eminent leaders of Israel.

He, the voice (see 10:2), said to me: Son of man, these are the men who design wrongdoing and who devise evil schemes in this city. These distinguished individuals represent the foundations of the city’s evil.

These are the men who say: Perhaps the prophecies concerning the city’s destruction will be fulfilled; we are not belittling their legitimacy or the warnings contained in them. However, it will not be soon, they are not relevant for the near future. Therefore, it is appropriate to build houses in the city. It, the city, is the pot, and we are the meat. The city is fortified and will protect us from the enemy’s fire, as a pot protects the meat inside it. The city is our home, and we will live securely inside it until our deaths.

Therefore, prophesy in their regard; prophesy, Son of man.

The spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and He said to me: Say: So said the Lord: So you have said, house of Israel; and not only do I know your statements, but also that which arises in your thoughts I know.

You, the leaders of the city, have multiplied your slain in this city, and you have filled its streets with the slain. There were men among you who did not refrain from employing illegitimate means to achieve their goals; they took care to eliminate anyone standing in their way.

Therefore, so said the Lord God: Your slain whom you placed within it, they are the meat and it is the pot. Those individuals you murdered will remain in the city as the meat inside the pot. But you, I will remove [hotzi] from within it. The word hotzi, an imperative form, is understood here as otzi, I shall remove you. Alternatively, it is understood as lehotzi, you should be removed.

You feared the sword, and the sword I will bring upon you – the utterance of the Lord God.

I will take you out from within it, and I will deliver you into the hand of strangers, and I will administer punishments to you.

By sword you will all fall; on the border of Israel I will judge you, when you are taken out of the city; and then, when you face judgment, you will know that I am the Lord.

It will not be a pot for you, the city will not provide protection for you, but you nevertheless will be within it like meat. You will be cooked, metaphorically, in the city. Alternatively, the word “not” relates to the entire phrase: This city shall not be your caldron, and you will not be the flesh in it. On the border of Israel I will judge you.

You will know that I am the Lord, that My statutes you did not follow, and My ordinances you did not perform, but in accordance with the ordinances of the wicked nations that are around you, you acted. As with the second interpretation of the previous verse, this verse may be understood as follows: You did not perform My ordinances, and you did not follow the ordinances of the nations that are around you either (see 5:6–7).

It was as I was prophesying, and Pelatyahu son of Benaya died. I fell upon my face and I cried in a loud voice, and I said: Alas, Lord God, are You engendering annihilation of the remnant of Israel? Although Ezekiel was envisioning the divine chariot and prophesying Jerusalem’s destruction, he did not expect that his prophecy would be fulfilled in the immediate future. Ezekiel took the sudden death of so central and eminent a figure hard.

The word of the Lord was with me in response to the cry over the remnant of Israel in Jerusalem, saying:

Son of man, concerning your brethren in exile: Your brethren, your kinsmen who were exiled together with Ezekiel, and all the entire house of Israel, other exiles who are not in Jerusalem, of whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem said: They have distanced themselves from the Lord; it is to us that the land has been given as an inheritance. Because they were the only ones remaining in the Land of Israel, and because of their physical proximity to the Temple, the inhabitants of Jerusalem considered themselves closer to God than their exiled brethren. They thought that the land was left to them alone, and that there was no hope for the rest of the people in the outlying areas. The inhabitants of Jerusalem were derisive toward the exiles in Babylonia.

Therefore, say: So said the Lord God: Although I have distanced them, your brethren and the entire house of Israel, among the nations and although I dispersed them through the lands, I have not completely rejected them; I will be for them as a lesser sanctuary in the lands to which they came. Although the inhabitants of Jerusalem think that their proximity to the Temple is tantamount for them to proximity to Me, I will not rest My presence among them; rather, I will rest it among the communities in the Diaspora that have cleaved to Me by engaging in matters of sanctity and the like in their communities.

Therefore, say: So said the Lord God: I will collect you, the banished, from among the peoples and I will gather you from the lands in which you were dispersed, and I will give to you, the exiles, the soil of Israel.

They will come there, from their scattered locations, and they will remove all of the land’s repugnant objects and all of its abominations from it.

I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will place within you, and I will remove the heart of stone, the insensate heart from their flesh, and I will give them a heart of flesh, a new sentient heart,

so that they will follow My statutes, and My ordinances they will observe, and they will perform them. They will be My people, and I will be their God.

But to those in Jerusalem, and perhaps in other places, whose heart follows the heart of their repugnant objects and their abominations, retribution for their way I will place upon their head – the utterance of the Lord God. The prophet is informed that the land will be rebuilt, but its salvation will come at the hands of the exiles in Babylonia and not from its current inhabitants.

After speaking of the punishment of Jerusalem’s inhabitants and the promise to those in exile, the glory of God departed from Jerusalem: The cherubs raised their wings, and the wheels rose parallel to them, and the glory of the God of Israel was upon them from above.

The glory of the Lord rose from above the midst of the city and stood upon the Mount of Olives, the mountain that was east of the city of Jerusalem.

A wind lifted me up at the conclusion of the terrifying visions that I witnessed in Jerusalem and brought me to Chaldea, Babylonia, to the exiles, in the vision by the spirit of God, and the vision that I had seen lifted from upon Me and left me.

I spoke to the exiles all the words of the Lord that He had shown me, all that I saw and heard regarding Jerusalem, the fate of the city and of the people in the Land of Israel and the Diaspora.

The word of the Lord was with me, saying:

Son of man, you dwell in the midst of the house of defiance, the exiles among whom you dwell defy God, who have eyes to see but they have not seen, who have ears to hear but they have not heard. The people in Babylonia refuse to accept rebuke, as they are a house of defiance. They refuse to believe that a lengthy exile has been decreed upon them and that Jerusalem will be destroyed. Because this is their character and conduct, you must cause them to see and hear the truth.

Ezekiel must cause the people to see and listen. You, Son of man, prepare for you tools of exile, simple clothing and equipment that are appropriate for the long journey into exile, and go into exile by day before their eyes. Exile yourself from your place to another place before their eyes. They shall see you wander from your house. In this manner you will demonstrate to them that the punishment of exile has been decreed upon the people, and that it will be even more severe than what is presently perceived. Perhaps, through your perplexing behavior, they will perceive and contemplate the matter, as they are a house of defiance, and words alone will not suffice to move them.

You shall take out your tools as one would prepare supplies before a journey, like tools of exile by day, so that your preparations will be before their eyes, and you shall go out with these tools in the evening before their eyes like the departure of exile, in the manner of one going into exile.

Before their eyes, burrow for yourself through the wall until there is a large hole, and take out your tools through it, the hole.

Before their eyes, on the shoulder you shall carry, and in the darkness of the evening you shall take out your tools with you; you shall cover your face, as one who is ashamed or afraid to be seen, and you shall not see the ground due to your limited vision, for I have designated you as an example to the house of Israel. Your actions will demonstrate for them their unknown future.

Ezekiel asked no questions; he carried out his orders even when they were uncomfortable for him: So I did, as I was commanded: I took out my tools like tools of exile by day, and in the evening I burrowed through the wall by hand, silently and without tools or the assistance of others, like a man fleeing for his life. In the darkness I took out, on the shoulder I carried, before their eyes.

The word of the Lord was with me in the following morning, saying:

Son of man, hasn’t the house of Israel, the house of defiance, said to you: What are you doing? Despite their defiant nature, they are curious to understand Ezekiel’s behavior. Alternatively, this was a rhetorical question.

Say to them: So said the Lord God: This prophecy [massa] of Jerusalem concerns the prince, the king, presumably Tzidkiyahu king of Judah, and concerning the entire house of Israel who are in their midst. The word massa literally means a burden borne on the shoulders, and by extension means prophecy, which is a burden borne on the prophet’s shoulders. Ezekiel was commanded to inform the onlookers that what they were witnessing was in fact a prophecy.

Say: I am your example, and a sign that the prophecy will come to pass: As I have done, so will be done to them, the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Into exile, into captivity, they will go.

The prince who is in their midst will carry on the shoulder in the darkness and will go out. In general, a king would not flee with a burden upon his shoulder. In this case, however, the king will be compelled to flee the city discreetly among all those fleeing. They will burrow through the wall for him to take out his belongings through it. He will cover his face so that he will not see the land with the eye. Although the king will cover his face primarily to avoid being seen, he will also do so to avoid eye contact due to the shame.

Furthermore, I will spread My net over him, the king, and he will be caught in My snare. Although he may slip away under the cover of night and evade his enemies who pursue him, he will nevertheless be caught in My trap, from which he will be unable to escape. I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, but he will not see it, and he will die there.

All who surround him, who aid him, and all his troops, or all the arms of his rule, I will scatter in every direction, all of Tzidkiyahu’s troops and aides will flee, and I will draw a sword after them.

They will know that I am the Lord, when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them through the lands.

I will leave of them men few in number, as the rest shall die from the sword, from famine, and from pestilence; those who survive will remain so that they will relate all their abominations and their resultant punishments among the nations where they came, and they will all know that I am the Lord.

Another prophecy accompanied by a demonstrative act: The word of the Lord was with me, saying:

Son of man, eat your bread with quaking, and drink your water with trembling and with anxiety. Again, Ezekiel is instructed to dramatize his prophecy: He is to eat and drink under duress.

Say to the people of the land: So said the Lord God concerning the inhabitants of Jerusalem upon the soil of Israel: Their bread they will eat with anxiety, and their water they will drink in desolation, so that its land will be desolate from its fullness because of the corruption of all those who inhabit it.

The inhabited cities will be destroyed, and the land will be desolate. And because these punishments will befall you according to My decree, when they come to pass, you will know that I am the Lord.

The word of the Lord was with me, saying:

Son of man, what is this proverb of yours upon the soil of Israel, saying: The days will lengthen and time will pass, and the prophecies will have yet been fulfilled and every vision will be void? When the people observed that the tragedies predicted by the earlier prophets had not yet materialized and Jerusalem remained intact, they did not claim that the prophecies were false. Instead they interpreted the prophecies, including those that apparently addressed the immediate future, as referring to the distant future, preventing those prophecies from affecting their lives.

Therefore, say to them: So said the Lord God: I will eliminate this proverb, and they shall no longer cite it in Israel. Rather, speak to them and tell them a converse proverb: The days are approaching, and with them the matter of every vision. The visions will indeed be fulfilled shortly.

For then, when the visions are fulfilled, there will no longer be any vain vision or smooth divination, the flattery and reassurance of diviners, within the house of Israel. The prophetic visions will not be void as declared in the original proverb; rather, the vain, optimistic visions of the future will be proven false.

For I am the Lord; I will speak only that matter of which I will speak, and it will be performed. My entire statement will come to pass; it will be delayed no longer. For in your days, house of defiance, I will speak of a matter and perform it – the utterance of the Lord God.

The word of the Lord was with me, saying:

Son of man, behold, the house of Israel are saying: The vision that he, Ezekiel, envisions is for many days in the future, and for distant times he prophesies. Therefore, we may continue living pleasant, tranquil lives.

Therefore, say to them: So said the Lord God: No longer will the fulfillment of any of My words be delayed, as I will speak of a matter and it will be performed – the utterance of the Lord God. The prophecies that you heard from Me are about to materialize. Their truth will be rapidly revealed, and consequently the status of the prophet among the people will also change. He will be transformed from one whose credibility is suspect to one recognized as a true prophet.

The word of the Lord was with me, saying:

Son of man, prophesy concerning the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to those who prophesy from their heart, and whose words do not reflect the word of God: Hear the word of the Lord:

So said the Lord God: Woe to the contemptible and lowly prophets who follow their own spirit and desires and that which they have not seen through prophecy but have fabricated.

Like foxes hiding among the ruins have your prophets been, Israel.

You did not go up into the breaches to seal them, or build a fence for the house of Israel, to enable it to withstand in battle against its enemies, on the day of the Lord. Foxes exploit the cover of ruins to stealthily launch attacks on vineyards and residential areas, and even widen existing breaches. Similarly, these false prophets did not warn the people of the impending punishment for their sins or repair the breaches, which are the basic obligations of a prophet. On the contrary, they exploited the people’s weaknesses and widened the breach among them.

They, these false prophets, have envisioned that which is vain and false divination; they are the ones who say: The utterance of the Lord, but the Lord did not send them, and yet they instill in their audience false hope that the matter will be fulfilled.

Isn’t it a vain vision that you have seen and false divination that you say? You say: The utterance of the Lord, but I have not spoken.

Therefore, so said the Lord God: Because you have spoken that which is vain and you have envisioned falsehood, therefore behold, I am against you – the utterance of the Lord God.

My punitive hand will be against the prophets, who envision that which is vain and who divine falsehood; in the company of My people they will not be, and they will not be inscribed in the register of the house of Israel. They will be lost from the nation and its collective memory, as they will not be listed among its leaders and their words will not be recorded, and to the soil of Israel they will not come at the end of the exile, and you will know that I am the Lord God.

Because and because they have misled My people, saying: Peace to you, and there is no peace. The false prophets would regularly promise that everything would continue to function routinely and that there was no cause for concern: The city was strong, the Temple still stood, and offerings were brought regularly, and therefore everything would be fine. And when he, the king deciding national policy, or the people, builds a partition, and behold, they, the false prophets, plaster it, the wall, with its deficiencies and cracks, with insubstantial plaster.The king’s plans engender an illusory hope that victory will be achieved and that the people will be protected. The false prophets, assuring the people of a rosy future, prevent the people from perceiving the weaknesses of the plan, which is likely to lead to disaster.

God addresses Ezekiel employing the same imagery: Say to those who plaster the wall with insubstantial plaster: It will fall. There will be torrential rain, and you, great hailstones, will fall, and a storm wind will breach or split the wall.

Behold, the wall has fallen; won’t it be said to you: Where is the plaster that you plastered?

Therefore, so said the Lord God: I will cause a storm wind to breach in My fury, and there will be pouring rain in My wrath and great hailstones in fury for annihilation.

I will destroy the wall that you plastered with insubstantial plaster and level it to the ground, and its foundation will be revealed. It, Jerusalem, will fall, and you will be annihilated within it, and you will know that I am the Lord.

I will spend My fury upon the wall and upon those who plaster it with insubstantial plaster, and I will say to you: The wall is not there, and those who plastered it are not there. The wall is nothing more than a fantasy, and all attempts at reinforcement would be futile.

These are the prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem and who envision visions of peace for it, and there is no peace – the utterance of the Lord God. To counter these visions based upon deceptive perceptions, God sends Ezekiel to the people with his unambiguous and harsh statements. Ezekiel rejects any idea of rebellion or war that these prophets encouraged, as those efforts have no chance of success.

Up to this point, Ezekiel has dealt with those who prophesied falsely about important political events, apparently in public. The prophet now turns his attention to a different group: You, Son of man, direct your attention to the daughters of your people who prophesy from their heart, and prophesy in their regard.

Say: So said the Lord God: Woe to the women who sew pads on all elbows and make kerchiefs, special hats or scarves, on the head of every erect person in order to entrap souls. These prophetesses were apparently more housebound and less public than their male counterparts. They engaged in methods of divination rather than declaiming visions. Their occult activities required them and their solicitors to don specific articles of clothing and ornaments. Perhaps some of these women even sought to create an impression of righteousness by wrapping their heads with special coverings. God declares: You, false prophetesses, will you entrap the souls of My people, but your souls you preserve? Will you mislead My people to the extent that they will betray their faith, so that you can provide for yourselves?

You profaned Me, My holiness, among My people, as they distance themselves from Me and instead trust in your words, and you did this in exchange for handfuls of barley and for crumbs of bread. These prophetesses had a much lower social status than the male prophets and so were paid significantly less. The prophet continues: They prophesy in order to slay souls that will not die and to preserve souls that will not live. If some woman complained about her neighbor, you prophesied that the neighbor would soon die, but in reality, she remained alive. Likewise, you encouraged individuals by telling them that their loved ones would live, when in fact they were destined to die in the near future. You thereby profane My name with your lying to My people, the listeners to lies. It is easy for you to deceive simple souls who place their faith in you, and you have exploited those opportunities.

Therefore, so said the Lord God: Behold, I am against your pads with which you entrap the souls like they were birds, and I will tear them, those pads, from your arms, and I will send forth the souls of My people, the souls that you entrap like birds. I will free from your clutches the souls that you captivated with your divinations.

I will tear your kerchiefs, and I will deliver My people from your hand, and they will no longer be in your hand to be entrapped, and you will know that I am the Lord.

God explains: I will respond in this manner because you have broken the heart of the righteous with falsehood, and I did not aggrieve him. For your own benefit you prophesy evil for the righteous and harass them, whereas no harm awaits them, and as a result of your assurances, you strengthened the hands of the wicked so that he would not repent his wicked way to keep him alive;

therefore, you will not envision that which is vain, and you will no longer perform divinations, and I will deliver My people from your hand, and you will know that I am the Lord.

Men of the elders of the exile of Israel came [vayavo] to me and sat before me. Ezekiel maintained a prominent status among the people. The verse uses the singular form vayavo because it is referring to a group of elders who approached him as one.

And the word of the Lord was with me, saying:

Son of man, these men sitting before you have set their idols upon their heart, and placed the obstacle of their iniquity before their faces. Their idol worship controls their hearts and minds. Should I acknowledge them, their presence, and respond to them?

Therefore, speak to them, and say to them: So said the Lord God: Any man of the house of Israel who sets his idols upon his heart and places the obstacle of his iniquity before his face and comes to the prophet, in the hope that the prophet will be unable to discern his true thoughts, I, the Lord, will respond to him as he comes, with the multitude of his idols. As is evident from the continuation of the passage, this means that God will answer that person by causing him to suffer. Some commentaries explain that God will respond by demonstrating that the individual in question still worships idols.

Although one might think it is best to ignore them, I will not do so, so as to seize the house of Israel by their heart, with their evil thoughts that they attempt to conceal, as all of them have distanced themselves from Me with their idols. I will disclose their inner thoughts in order to demonstrate that they cannot hide from God’s judgment.

Therefore, say to the house of Israel: So said the Lord God: Repent and return to God, and turn back from your idols, and turn back your faces from all your abominations, from the idolatry that has permeated your lives.

For any man of the house of Israel or of the strangers who reside in Israel, who distances himself from Me and sets his idols upon his heart and places the obstacle of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet to seek Me through him, will receive a response. These sinners do not refrain from approaching the prophet, despite their sinful actions and thoughts. Even as they maintain faith in other gods, they also seek to hear the word of God from the prophet. I, the Lord, will respond to him Myself.

I will direct My attention against that man, and I will render him a sign and proverbs. His fate will serve as a prototype for the punishment that awaits similar individuals. And I will excise him from the midst of My people, and you will know that I am the Lord. The prophet is sending a message to the entire nation here, although he is directly addressing the distinguished elders sitting before him. He speaks to them with great anger, as they affiliate themselves with foreign religions and come to the prophet merely to broaden their horizons, or due to intellectual curiosity. Ezekiel initially told them that God would not reply to them at all, then added that if God were to respond to them, He would do so only in rage, as a punishment.

Yet even a prophet has weaknesses. When people come to him, the honor and respect he receives might tempt him to speak inappropriately or untruthfully, in order to gain attention or material benefits. If the prophet is enticed and speaks a matter, I, the Lord, enticed that prophet and have enabled him to follow the path he has chosen, and I will extend My mighty hand against him, and I will destroy him from the midst of My people Israel. Other commentaries explain that the notion of God enticing the prophet means that He is punishing him for covert sins he previously committed.

They will all bear responsibility for their iniquity; like the iniquity of the seeker of the prophet, whose heart turns to other gods, will be the iniquity of the prophet, who is enticed to voice inappropriate statements to his listeners. Therefore, their punishments will likewise be equivalent.

This will be so that the house of Israel will no longer stray from Me, and they will no longer be defiled with all their transgressions. They will be My people, and I will be their God – the utterance of the Lord God. The purpose of these severe punishments is to remove sinful thoughts from Israel so that they will have faith in God. Those who come to the prophet must realize that prophecy is the word of God, which they are obligated to accept and fulfill. If they fail to do so, they will be destroyed.

The word of the Lord was with me, saying:

God begins by presenting an example of His justice in the world: Son of man, if a land sins against Me to commit a trespass, by alienating themselves from Me, I will extend My hand against it, and I will break for it the staff of bread, its source of sustenance. I will send famine against it and eliminate from it man and animal.

Even were these three celebrated and righteous men in its midst, Noah, Daniel, and Job, who all survived destruction and calamity to their surroundings, they, if they lived in a land decreed to be afflicted with famine, in their righteousness, would save only themselves – the utterance of the Lord God.

If I pass evil beasts through the land and bereave it, and it becomes desolate without passersby because of the attack of the beasts,

even were these three men in it, as I live – the utterance of the Lord God – I swear (see commentary on 5:11) that they would surely not save sons or daughters, as the righteousness of parents will not save their children. They alone will be saved, but the land will be desolate.

Or if I bring the sword of war upon that land, and say, as a decree or a warning: Let the sword pass through the land, and I will eliminate from it man and animal,

were these three men in it, as I live – the utterance of the Lord God – they would not save sons or daughters, for they alone will be saved.

Or if I send a plague of pestilence to that land, and pour My fury upon it in blood, by killing the populace, to eliminate from it man and animal, as the plague of pestilence affects beasts as well as people,

were Noah, Daniel, and Job in it, as I live – the utterance of the Lord God – they would not save son or daughter. They, in their righteousness, would save themselves. When tragedy strikes, everyone is affected, and no one is spared through the merit of his relatives. Even the most righteous individuals, whose merit is incalculable, can save themselves, but no one else.

For so said the Lord God: It is all the more so when I send My four evil punishments, the sword, famine, evil beasts, and pestilence, against Jerusalem, to eliminate from it man and animal. If only the completely righteous are spared from each punishment on its own, all the more so the wicked inhabitants of Jerusalem, which will be afflicted with all four punishments; all its inhabitants will be annihilated.

But behold, a remnant has remained in it who are being taken out from the city, both sons and daughters, young refugees capable of enduring the long trip from Jerusalem to Babylon. Behold, they are coming out to you and will arrive in Babylon, and you will see their way and their exploits, and you will understand why Jerusalem was punished. You will accept the divine justice, and then you will be comforted and your sorrow will be assuaged concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, everything that I have brought upon it.

They, those refugees, will indirectly comfort you when you see their way and their exploits, and you will know that it is not for naught that I did everything that I did to it – the utterance of the Lord God.

The word of the Lord was with me, saying:

Son of man, what will be of the vine tree beyond any tree? How is it more significant than any other tree, and how is the vine branch that was among the trees of the forest more esteemed than the other trees? From halakhic and other perspectives, the vine is itself a tree, but it differs from the other trees in the manner described in the following verses.

Can wood be taken from it to use for labor? Does anyone carve utensils or build furniture from a vine tree? No one does, as vines remain soft and weak even after they have matured. Will they take wood to fashion a peg from it, to use to hang any vessel upon it? This is also not done, for the same reason.

Behold, if it has been given to the fire to be consumed; the fire will have immediately consumed its two ends, and its inside is charred. Since the inside of the vine is soft, when it is placed in the fire, it dries out completely and burns. If so, will it be effective for any kind of labor?

Behold, even when it was whole it could not be used for labor; all the more so when fire has consumed it and it is charred, can it yet be used for labor?

Therefore, so said the Lord God: Like the vine tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for consumption, as it serves no other purpose, so I have rendered the inhabitants of Jerusalem. From the beginning, they did not have much merit, and now, after enduring one conquest after another and they are subjugated to foreign nations, their status is similar to that of the burnt vine: They are of no use.

I will direct My attention against them; from the fire of previous conquests they emerged, but the fire will again consume them, and you will know that I am the Lord, when I direct My attention against them.

Ultimately, I will make the land desolate, because they committed a trespass – the utterance of the Lord God.

The word of the Lord was with me, saying:

Son of man, inform Jerusalem of its abominations. Although this section deals with the history of the entire nation, the prophecy is addressed to Jerusalem because the Kingdom of Israel no longer exists.

Say: So said the Lord God to Jerusalem, here likened to a woman: Your origins and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Emorite and your mother a Hitite. Your transgressions and corrupt actions reflect your Canaanite moral origins. Others maintain that the Emorite father and Hitite mother are references to the genealogies of Abraham and Sarah respectively. Alternatively, Abraham and Sarah are characterized in this manner because they relied on the Emorites and Hitites for their status and security in the land of Canaan. This verse can also be interpreted as a reference to the city of Jerusalem, whose original inhabitants were Emorites and Hitites.

As for the matter of your birth, on the day you were born your umbilical cord was not cut properly, which is the first act performed on a newborn infant, and you were not washed in water for cleansing. You were not salted, as it was customary to spread and rub salt upon the skin of a new baby, and you were not swaddled with cloth. You were born in the most neglectful conditions imaginable. Israel, the infant of this metaphor, was transformed from a large family into a nation during the exile in Egypt. The nation was not born by means of a revolution, or from a privileged class or a group of exalted status. They became their own national entity when the people were lowly, penniless slaves, with no meaningful past or future, living their precarious lives entirely in the present.

No eye pitied you, to do any of these to you, to have compassion upon you; you were cast upon the open field in the loathsomeness of your body, when your body was filthy and covered in blood, on the day of your birth.

I, God, passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, abandoned and wretched, and I said to you: In your blood, you shall live; I said to you: In your blood, you shall live. The blood in which you wallow does not signify your end; rather, it signifies the beginning of your life. While blood was spilled all around you, I commanded you to live, thereby endowing you with the ability to survive in deplorable conditions.

I rendered you numerous like the plants of the field. You grew like wild vegetation, which spreads even if no one waters or cultivates it. And you increased and grew, and you came to great beauty, possessed of naturally beautiful features: Your breasts developed and your hair grew, but you were still naked and bare, abandoned and impoverished. In other words, your life still had little purpose and direction.

I passed by you again, after you had matured, and I saw you, and behold, your time was a time of love. In those days, women would often marry soon after puberty. And I spread My hem over you and took you under My care and promised to take you as a wife, and I covered your nakedness, and I swore to you and entered into a covenant with you – the utterance of the Lord God – and you became Mine, as a wife. This neglected child, who did not have much of a chance to survive, grew up without parents, teachers, education, or love. However, in her early adolescence, she came under the protection and care of the great Master who sought to honor her, and ultimately she became His partner in marriage, as it were. The bridegroom-mentor continued to care for His bride and beautify her.

I washed you with water and rinsed your blood from upon you, and I anointed you with oil.

I clothed you in garments adorned with embroidery and vibrant colors, and shod you with choice taĥash, and I wrapped you with linen and covered you with robes of silk. You left Egypt, not as a band of slaves fleeing their master, but as a free nation that was privileged to receive the kindness and revelation of God. These garments and materials possibly allude to the materials utilized in the construction of the Tabernacle, which embodied Israel’s unique closeness to God.

I decked you with ornaments, and I placed bracelets on your hands and a chain on your neck. In ancient Egypt, a gold chain was a symbol of authority and status.

I placed a ring on your nose, earrings on your ears, and a crown of splendor on your head.

You were decked with gold and silver, and your raiment was of linen, silk, and embroidery; you ate fine flour, honey, and oil; you became exceedingly beautiful, and you became fit for royalty. Your steady development qualified you for a kingdom of your own.

Your renown went forth among the nations due to your beauty, as it was perfect, not only due to your natural beauty, but also due to My grandeur that I placed upon you – the utterance of the Lord God.

The ideal picture that has been depicted thus far changes sharply: But you relied on your beauty and whored through your renown. You exploited your reputation of beauty among the nations for abominable purposes like a harlot, and you engaged in licentiousness and poured out your harlotries on every passerby, to be his. The prophet is referring to Israel’s lack of faith in God, which is analogous not merely to a wife who abandons her husband for another man but to a harlot who is available to everyone. Jerusalem did not entirely abandon the faith of Israel but added the idolatry of the surrounding regions to its worship.

You took from your garments that I gave you and made for yourself from them cushioned shrines, covered with various garments, and you whored on them. This bed of licentiousness is a metaphor for idol worship, conduct entirely unacceptable and that which should not happen and will not be.

You took the vessels of your splendor that were fashioned of My gold and of My silver which I gave to you, and you made for yourself male images from them, and you whored with them. The worship of idolatry is described here in extremely crude terms.

You took the garments of your embroidery and covered your idols with them, and My oil and My incense you placed before them.

And My bread that I gave you, choice flour, oil, and honey that I fed you and with which I sustained you, you regularly placed it before them for an offering and a pleasing aroma, and so it was, despite the perversion of the matter – the utterance of the Lord God.

You took your sons and your daughters, whom you bore to Me, and you slaughtered them for them, your paramours, to devour through the worship of Molekh and similar rites, which involved child sacrifice. Were your harlotries trivial

that you also slaughtered My children and gave them, in passing them through fire to them, your gods?

With all your abominations and your harlotries, when you gave all you had to others, you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare and you were wallowing in your blood.

It was that all the possessions, success, and beauty that I granted you to support your growth have all gone after all your evil, as they have been given in some form to idolatry; woe, woe to you – the utterance of the Lord God.

You built for yourself an elevated place and made for yourself a high place, a shrine, in every square.

At the head of every path you built your shrine, and you made your beauty an abomination and spread your legs for every passerby, and you multiplied your harlotries. In their spiritual emptiness and enthusiasm for foreign forms of worship, Israel adopted every type of idolatry available and did not reject any of them.

You whored with the sons of Egypt, your neighbors, great of flesh, a reference to the male member, and you multiplied your harlotry to anger Me. Israel participated in the worship of Egyptian gods and learned from the Egyptians.

Behold, due to these sins, I have extended My hand against you and diminished your portion of sustenance that I provide you, and I have delivered you to the will of those who hate you, the daughters of the neighboring Philistines, to do to you as they wish. Indeed, Israel was attacked many times by its Philistine enemies who, even though they were idolaters, were ashamed of your lewd conduct, because you do not suffice with imitating their practices; rather, you surpass them in your abominations.

You whored with the Assyrians, by forming cultural, religious, and diplomatic ties with them, without satisfying yourself. Even after King Solomon established formal ties with Egypt, this was not enough for Jerusalem, as Ahaz king of Judah later requested assistance from Assyria to wage war against the Kingdom of Israel and the Arameans, albeit without success. You whored with them, yet you were not satisfied. The Kingdom of Judah did not suffice with its ties to Assyria, and it sought to expand its alliances to include other kingdoms.

You expanded your harlotries in a different direction, to the land of Canaan, or, alternatively, to the land of merchants, to Chaldea, Babylon (see 17:4, 12), and even with that you were not satisfied. The nation of Israel jumped from one relationship to another. It sampled all the different cultures and idolatries, yet nothing satisfied it.

How feeble is your heart – the utterance of the Lord God – as you performed all of these, the work of an imperious, licentious woman, who publicly engages in licentious actions,

as you built your high place, your high places of worship, at the head of every path and your shrine in every square. Israel is like a fornicator who establishes a bed for herself in every location. But you were not like a harlot to disdain a fee. When a harlot receives her pay, she pretends to ignore it because it is contemptible in her eyes. You, however, do not act in that manner. Some explain that a harlot feigns scorning the pay she is given in order to receive more, but you are so eager to engage in harlotry that any payment is satisfactory in your eyes.

You are likened to an adulterous wife, who desires and takes strangers instead of her husband and is prepared to pay them.

To all harlots they, the lovers, give gifts, but in contrast, you have given your gifts to all your lovers. The nation of Israel was enticed to worship idolatry without compensation. And in fact, you secretly bribed them to come to you from all around with your abundance of harlotries.

There was about you the opposite of other promiscuous women in your harlotries, and after you there will be no harlotry. From the beginning of your career of harlotry, no other prostitute was as licentious as you, in that you gave a fee and a fee was not given to you; you became the opposite of a typical whore. The worship rituals and customs of the other nations became widespread in Israel, not because those nations sought to influence Israel, but rather it was Israel that sought relations with those nations and their worship rituals.

Ezekiel prophesies about the fate of sinful Jerusalem: Therefore, harlot, hear the word of the Lord.

So said the Lord God: Because of the outpouring of your nether regions [neh·], your nakedness was uncovered through your harlotries with your lovers and with all the idols of your abominations, and because of the blood of your children, that you gave to them, sacrificed to these idols, I will act in the manner described in the following verse. Some explain that the metaphor neĥoshet, literally bronze, is an allusion to the bottom of a pot, and so here Israel is likened to a pot whose cooked food has been emptied, thereby revealing the bronze bottom.

Therefore, behold, I am gathering all your lovers to whom you had been pleasant. This refers to all the nations in the region with whom Israel developed relations and whose idolatrous ceremonies they enjoyed. And I will gather all whom you loved with all whom you hated, and I will gather them upon you all around, and I will uncover your nakedness, disgrace, to them, and they will see all your nakedness. Your lovers, Jerusalem, will be invited to observe your chastisement. In this manner, the shame of your sins and the ensuing retribution will be publicized before all.

I will judge you with the judgment of adulteresses and murderesses. Israel committed both of these sins, as mentioned by all of the prophets. And I will subject you to blood, fury, and jealousy.

I will deliver you into their hand, to all of your lovers. The surrounding nations with whom you established ties will participate in your punishment, and they will destroy your elevated place, the high places that you constructed for idol worship, and shatter your shrines, strip you of your garments, and take the vessels of your splendor, and leave you naked and bare. They will strip you of all your possessions. All places of worship, including the one that was actually dedicated to God, will be destroyed, and all material property will be plundered. The hatred of your lovers and their appropriation of everything you own will return you to your original state, and you will once again be left abandoned and naked as you were at your birth.

They will raise an assembly against you to participate in your judgment. They will ascend against you for battle, and they will stone you with stones and pierce you with their swords.

They will burn your houses in fire, and administer punishments to you before the eyes of many women. I will stop you from being a harlot, and you shall also no longer give a fee. Since you will have nothing left to give in compensation, you will be forced to refrain from harlotry.

After your punishment, and when your desire to commit acts of licentiousness ceases, I will assuage My fury upon you, and My jealousy will turn from you; I will be calm, and I will be angry no longer.

Because you did not remember the days of your youth, and you provoked Me with all these sins of yours, behold, I too have brought your way upon your head – the utterance of the Lord God – and you still did not rectify the lewdness along with all your abominations.

Behold, all who cite proverbs will cite this proverb about you, saying: As the mother, so her daughter.

The prophet elaborates: You are your mother’s daughter, who loathes her husband and her children. You continue the legacy of your mother, who estranged herself from her husband and children, and you are also like your sisters’ sister, who loathed their husbands and their children. Ezekiel reveals the identity of these relatives: Your mother was a Hitite, and your father an Emorite. You, Israel, originate from an admixture of nations with an inferior culture, the peoples of Canaan and Het.

Your elder sister, greater in status and the size of her land, is Samaria, she and her daughters, the suburbs, who dwells to your left, to the north; and your sister who is younger than you, who dwells to your right, to the south, is Sodom and her daughters. You, Jerusalem, are located in between your elder sister, whom you know from the recent past, and your younger sister, also present in your historical consciousness.

But you did not only follow their ways and act in accordance with their abominations; in a very short while you acted more corruptly than them in all your ways. Not only have you emulated the deeds of the people of Samaria and Sodom, the repulsiveness of your actions even surpassed theirs.

As I live – the utterance of the Lord God – Sodom, your sister, she and her daughters, Gomorrah, Adma, and Tzevoyim, surely did not do as you and your daughters have done.

Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters had pride, which was due to its surfeit of bread and tranquil calm, but she did not support the hand of the poor and indigent. The people of Sodom kept all they had for themselves.

They, Sodom and its daughters, were haughty and performed an abomination before Me, and I removed them in accordance with that which I saw, their arrogant deeds.

Samaria, even half your sins she did not sin; you multiplied your abominations more than they, and you vindicated your sisters with all your abominations that you performed. Relative to you, your two sisters appear almost righteous. You are more immoral than they were, as you have blended together myriad cultures of idolatry. You have been enticed by influences from every direction: Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt, and Canaan.

You too, bear your humiliation which you adjudged for your sister. You maintained that Samaria should be ashamed, but you are more deserving of shame than she, as through your sins, in which you acted more abominably than they, they are more righteous than you. And again, you too, be ashamed and bear your humiliation, as you have vindicated your sisters. The people of Jerusalem considered Samaria and Sodom cities of sin, but in comparison to Jerusalem, they could be deemed righteous.

Ultimately, I will restore their returnees as well, the captives of Sodom and her daughters and the captives of Samaria and her daughters, and the captives of your returnees in their midst. When redemption arrives, Sodom and Samaria will be rebuilt, and you will be rehabilitated together with them,

so that you will bear your humiliation, and you will be humiliated because of everything that you did, as you consoled them. They find comfort of sorts in the fact that you suffered more than they did.

Your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, will return to their former state, Samaria and her daughters will return to their former state, and you and your daughters will be restored to your former state.

Your sister Sodom was not an adage in your mouth on the day of your pride. During your period of greatness, you did not sufficiently contemplate Sodom’s sins and subsequent destruction,

before your evildoing was revealed, like at the time of the disgrace of the daughters of Aram and all its surroundings, the daughters of the Philistines, who demean you from all around. You should have learned and internalized what happened in Sodom and refrained from abominations before the cities of Aram and its surrounding areas, as well as the Philistine cities, scorned your dissolute, unrestrained culture. Alternatively, the verse is asking why Israel did not repent when Aram and the Philistines were attacking them and plundering their possessions.

Your lewdness and your abominations you have borne – the utterance of the Lord. You alone are responsible for your worship of idolatry.

For so said the Lord God: I will do to you as you have done, as you scorned an oath to breach a covenant that you established with Me at Mount Sinai. The harshness of your punishment corresponds to the severity of your actions.

But, although you have disgraced the covenant, I will remember My covenant that I established with you in the days of your youth, and I will uphold an everlasting covenant with you. I will save you and will no longer be angry with you.

You will remember your ways and be humiliated because of them when you take your sisters who are older than you, Samaria and its daughters, with those sisters who are younger than you, Sodom and its daughters, and I will give them to you as daughters and they will be under your rule, but not because you deserve it, as you have been neglectful of your covenant.

But I, I will fulfill My covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord,

so that you will remember and be ashamed, and you will no longer be able to open your mouth because of your humiliation. Most importantly, this will occur when I atone for you for everything that you have done – the utterance of the Lord God.

The word of the Lord was with me, saying:

Son of man, pose an allegory and relate a parable, a vision relayed in meter and poetic form, to the house of Israel.

Say: So said the Lord God: The great eagle, great of wings, long of pinion, abundant of plumage that is multicolored, came to the Lebanon, a mountain renowned for its tall cedars, and took the top of the cedar.

It cropped the highest of its young twigs, with the soft shoots, and brought it to the land of merchants; it placed it in a city of peddlers. The eagle took the highest branch from its natural place and location and brought it to a commercial city.

It, the eagle, took from the seed of the land and placed it in a fertile field, a plot of land designated for sowing; it took it to alongside many waters; placed it as a poplar, a tree that grows quickly in well-irrigated areas. After breaking the branch from the top of the cedar tree, the eagle planted it in a suitably fertile location.

It, the seed, grew, and it became a creeping vine, low of stature. The vine’s purpose was to turn its tendrils, long branches, toward it, the eagle, to recognize it as its master to whom it would turn for all its needs. Alternatively, the vine’s branches were pointed toward its center, so that it would not spread sideways or rise. And its roots will be and stay beneath it, unlike the tendrils, which spread. It became a full-fledged vine, and produced branches and sprouted sprigs [porot]. Porot may also be branches that are generally considered to be long and beautiful. The vine grew and thickened, and although it was sprawled along the ground with its branches entwined over itself, the vine was still capable of rising and spreading.

There was one other great eagle, great of wings and abundant of plumage, and behold, this vine bent its roots toward it, this other eagle, and the vine sprouted its tendrils toward it, in order to strike roots for this other eagle, to water it from the furrows of its orchard. The vine sought to find a new patron, but not because it lacked anything.

In a good field with abundant water it was planted, to produce branches and to bear fruit, and to be a stately vine.

Say, Son of man, to your listeners: So said the Lord God: Will it, the vine, prosper and succeed in its endeavor to improve its status by going beyond its boundaries and attempting to find foreign support for its move? Won’t it, the first eagle, sever its roots and gnaw its fruit and wither? All the leaves of its growth will wither. Not with great might or with a great people will it be torn from its roots. The vine will be uprooted without much effort.

Behold, although it was planted in its spot, will it prosper? Won’t it wither when the hot east wind touches it? In the furrows of its growth it will wither. The vine cannot possibly rely on the waters of the new eagle, as the easterly wind is strong enough to easily dry it up.

The word of the Lord was with me, saying. The prophet articulates the meaning of the parable:

Say now to the house of defiance, a standard reference in the book of Ezekiel to the people of the house of Israel, as they defied the word of God: Do you not know what these metaphors are? Say and explain to them: Behold, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, who is “the great eagle” (verse 3), came to Jerusalem, which is likened to the summit of Lebanon, and he took its king, the young King Yekhonya, and its princes, symbolized by the highest of the cedar’s young twigs (verse 4) and the top of the cedar (verse 3), respectively, and he brought them to him, to Babylon, the “city of peddlers” in the parable above (verse 4).

He, Nebuchadnezzar, took one of royal descent, Yekhonya’s uncle Matanya, also known as Tzidkiyahu, as the new king of Judah, and established a covenant with him and placed him under oath. The word used here for oath also means curse, for the oath Tzidkiyahu accepted upon himself to fulfill the covenant with Nebuchadnezzar incorporated a curse if he did not comply. And he took, as guarantors for fulfillment of the covenant, the mighty, the dignitaries and powerful people, of the land,

in order to render it, Judah, a lowly kingdom that would not exalt itself, to keep his covenant for it to endure. Nebuchadnezzar’s objective was not to destroy Judah, but to allow it to survive as a small kingdom under his patronage, loyal to the covenant made with its king, whom he himself had appointed.

But he, Tzidkiyahu, rebelled against him, Nebuchadnezzar, by sending his emissaries to Egypt, the second eagle in the parable, to provide him with horses and many people. Will he who does these prosper? Will he escape? Will he breach the covenant, thereby betraying the king who appointed him, and yet escape unscathed?

As I live – the utterance of the Lord God – surely in the place of the king who crowned him king, whose oath he scorned and whose covenant he breached, with him in the midst of Babylon he will die.

Not with a large army and with a great assembly will Pharaoh Hofra engage in the war for him. Pharaoh will not come to Tzidkiyahu’s aid, despite his promise to do so. The Babylonian siege of Jerusalem will commence when a ramp is erected and a siege tower is built to annihilate numerous lives.

He, Tzidkiyahu, scorned the oath by breaching the covenant, and behold, he had given his hand, a handshake confirming his oath of loyalty, but still he did all these things; he will not escape. Alternatively, the giving of his hand is referring to Tzidkiyahu’s alliance with the king of Egypt, which led to his acting against Babylon.

Therefore, so said the Lord God: As I live, surely due to My oath that he scorned and My covenant that he breached, I will place a fitting retribution upon his head. God will punish Tzidkiyahu, as not only did he betray the king of Babylon, but he also violated a covenant that he accepted upon himself with an oath in God’s name.

I will spread My net over him, and he will be caught in My snare. I will bring him to Babylon, and I will contend with him there and bring him to judgment for his trespass that he committed against Me by swearing falsely in My name.

All those who flee with him, Tzidkiyahu, or all those who will give him refuge, from among his troops, or from among his neighbors, will fall by the sword, and those who remain will be dispersed in every direction, and you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken.

The prophecy ends on a note of consolation. So said the Lord God: I too will take from the lofty top of the cedar, and I will place, plant it; from the highest of its young twigs I will crop a tender one, and I will plant it, not in the land of the Babylonians, but upon a high and steep mountain.

On the mountain of the height of Israel I will plant it, and it will bear boughs and produce fruit, and it will become a stately cedar, rather than a creeping vine. This tree will not be dominated by winged creatures as before, but on the contrary, beneath it will dwell every bird, every winged creature; in the shadow of its branches they will dwell.

All the trees of the field will know that I, the Lord, lowered a tall tree, elevated a lowly tree, dried a moist tree, and made a dry tree blossom; I, the Lord, have spoken and acted. After the downfall of the Kingdom of Judah, and the exile of its population to Babylonia, Israel will rise again. God will take an insignificant branch that seemingly has no chance of survival, and ensure that it will grow and thrive. The house of Israel will be built anew.

The word of the Lord was with me, saying:

What is it with you that you relate this parable concerning the territory of Israel, saying: Fathers will eat unripe grapes, and the children’s teeth will be damaged? In other words, why are children punished for the sins of their fathers?

I take an oath, as I live – the utterance of the Lord God – surely there will no longer be a reason for relating this parable for you in Israel. It will disappear from your language and thoughts.

Behold, all lives are Mine. Since they are all in My possession, I can assess them and determine their fate. Alternatively, this means that God does not employ favoritism in His dealings with people. The life of the father and the life of the son alike are Mine, and therefore, the person who sins, he will die. Each individual is personally responsible for his choices, for good or for evil.

God explains this principle in detail: If a man is righteous, and he performs justice and righteousness,

did not eat idolatrous offerings upon the mountains, where idols were normally established, and did not raise his eyes enviously to the idols of the house of Israel and was not drawn into the worship of the idols that were popular among his people, did not defile his neighbor’s wife by committing adultery with her, and would not approach a menstruating woman, even if it was his own wife. He refrained from committing sins between both man and God, e.g., idol worship, and between man and woman, e.g., forbidden sexual relations.

In monetary matters, he would not mistreat, cheat or harm, any man, and would return his collateral for a debt to the poor borrower every day so that he could use it, as required by Torah law; he would not commit a robbery, he would give his bread to the hungry, and he would cover the naked with a garment;

he would not give a loan with interest and would not take increase, any profit for giving a loan; he would withdraw his hand from injustice, and would execute true justice between a man and another;

he would follow My statutes and observe My ordinances to perform faithfully. This is a general description of one who fulfills God’s commandments and refrains from sin. He is a righteous man; he will live – the utterance of the Lord God.

But if he begot a scoundrel of a son [ben-paritz], one who breaches [poretz] the boundaries of justice and morality, a shedder of blood, and he performed, alas [ah·], apparently a cry of anguish (see 6:11, 21:20), one of these deeds, from which his father refrained,

and he did not perform all of those meritorious practices of his father, for he also ate upon the mountains, and he defiled his neighbor’s wife,

mistreated the poor and the indigent, committed robberies, would not return collateral, raised his eyes to the false gods, performed abomination,

gave his money with interest and took increase: Will he live? Can it be supposed that such a wicked person merits life? He will not live. He performed all these abominations; he will be put to death, his blood will be upon him. This evil son deserves to die, and he will be punished with utmost severity, despite his father’s righteousness.

The prophet continues the story of the family: Behold, if he, the evil son, also begot a son, and he, the child, saw all the sins of his father that he performed; he saw, but he did not act in accordance with them. Although the son of the evil son grew up in a corrupt home, and presumably received an immoral education, he recognized his father’s wicked ways and chose to refrain from following in his path:

Upon the mountains he did not eat, and he did not raise his eyes to the false gods of the house of Israel, did not defile his neighbor’s wife,

did not mistreat any man, did not unlawfully take collateral and did not commit robbery, gave his bread to the hungry and covered the naked with a garment;

withdrew his hand from against the poor, who are typically the most vulnerable; did not take interest or increase, performed My ordinances, followed My statutes. He will not die for the iniquity of his father; he will live.

His father, because he engaged in exploitation, committed robbery of his brother, and that which is not good he did among his people, behold, he died for his iniquity. Although a wicked father will die for his sins, they will not affect his righteous son.

Yet you say, questioning this principle: Why didn’t the son bear the iniquity of the father? But the answer is that the son performed justice and righteousness; he observed all My statutes and performed them in the proper manner. Therefore, he will live.

The prophet clarifies the basic principle: The person who sins, he will die; a son will not bear the iniquity of the father, and a father will not bear the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself. Righteousness and wickedness are not hereditary. Each person is responsible for his actions, and not for those of his parents or children.

But even though the wicked person is responsible for his past behavior, if he repents all his sins that he committed, observes all My statutes, and performs justice and righteousness, he will live; he will not die.

All his transgressions that he committed will not be remembered against him; for his righteousness that he performed he will live. Since he repented, his previous wickedness will be forgiven, and he will merit life.

God explains why this is so: Do I desire a wicked person’s death? I have no wish to kill the wicked – the utterance of the Lord God. Isn’t it through his repenting his ways, which I prefer, that he will live? Since the preferred outcome is repentance, I lovingly accept the repentance of the wicked.

However, this principle applies equally to the opposite case as well: But when the righteous turns from his righteousness, forsaking his former ways, and commits iniquity, will he act in accordance with all the abominations that the wicked performed, and live? All his righteous deeds that he performed will not be remembered; for his trespass that he committed and for his sin that he sinned, for them he will die.

Yet you say: The way of the Lord is improper, contending that this is unfair: Why should a renowned righteous person whose reputation was complicated by scandals in his later years be condemned? Shouldn’t his past virtues be considered, and his punishment reduced? Hear now, house of Israel: Is My way improper? Aren’t your ways improper? Your standard is flawed; one’s family background and past conduct should not determine the present.

When the righteous turns back from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he will die on their, his iniquities’, account; for his iniquity that he committed he will die.

However, past actions do not preclude the possibility of remedy: When the wicked repents his wickedness that he committed and performs justice and righteousness, he will preserve his life through repentance.

The reason is that he scrutinized his actions, and repented all his transgressions that he had committed. He will live; he will not die.

The prophet reiterates: But the house of Israel have said: The way of the Lord is improper. Are My ways improper, house of Israel? Aren’t your ways improper?

Therefore, I will judge you, each person in accordance with his ways, house of Israel – the utterance of the Lord God. Repent and facilitate the repentance of others for all your transgressions, and it will not be an obstacle of iniquity for you.

Cast from upon you all your transgressions with which you transgressed, and make a new heart and a new spirit for yourselves. Why should you die, house of Israel? If your path is corrupt, nothing is forcing you to continue along that path. There is no reason to persist in performing the immoral deeds you have performed. Renew your hearts and your spirits, and you will be rewarded with life.

For I do not desire the death of the one who dies – the utterance of the Lord God. I do not seek vengeance on a sinner by killing him. Therefore, facilitate the repentance of others and live.

You, Ezekiel, sound a lamentation for the princes of Israel, all the kings of Judah who reigned after Yoshiyahu.

You shall say: How great your mother was, like a lioness! Among lions she lay, among young lions, in the safest and most natural of places, she reared her cubs.

She raised up one of her cubs; he grew up and became a young lion. He learned to maul prey, but instead, he devoured people, something a lion does not generally do unless it is in distress. This young lion is a reference to Yeho’ahaz son of Yoshiyahu, king of Judah, who was appointed king by the people while he was still young and inexperienced. After a very brief period in power, Yeho’ahaz was removed from his position, and the people of Judah were punished, as the king of Egypt was displeased with his behavior.

The nearby nations heard of him, or assembled against him. The surrounding nations heard about the dangerous lion wandering the region and set out to stop him. He was caught in their pit, which they dug in order to trap him. They brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt. The lion was trapped and restrained, and led away to Egypt with the type of hooks that are inserted into an animal’s nose. Yeho’ahaz reigned for only three months before the army of Pharaoh Nekho exiled him to Egypt. This Pharaoh failed to accomplish most of his aims on that particular campaign, other than his entry into Jerusalem and the capture and exile of King Yeho’ahaz. Presumably, Yeho’ahaz remained in the Egyptian prison until his death.

She, the lioness, then saw that she had been frustrated, after she had waited in vain for a very long time, and she eventually realized that her hope that Yeho’ahaz would return had been lost, and she took another one of her cubs, and she made him a young lion. Another of Yoshiyahu’s sons, Yehoyakim, was anointed king instead of Yeho’ahaz.

He prowled among lions; he became a young lion. He learned to maul prey, but instead, he devoured men.

He ravished their widows, or he destroyed their castles, and he destroyed their cities through his evil deeds, and the land and everything that was in it became desolate from the sound of his roar. Yehoyakim hastened the destruction by corrupting the land’s character: its sense of justice, morality, and political leadership.

The nations from the states around joined forces and arrayed against him in order to catch him. They spread their net over him; he was caught in their pit.

They put him in a cage with hooks, and they brought him to the king of Babylon, who had ascended at that time to the Land of Israel. They brought him into the fortresses, or traps, so that his voice as ruler of Judah would no longer be heard upon the mountains of Israel.

This lamentation over the kings of Judah expresses sadness, not only for the loss of the kings and their kingdoms, but also for the loss of hope for the once majestic kingdom’s restoration: Your mother country, like you, was like a metaphorical vine, planted by the water; it was fecund and had many branches due to abundant water.

It had mighty branches for scepters of rulers, a reference to the line of important leaders in the Judean dynasty, and its stature became lofty beyond the midst of tangled branches. This description is a reference to Yoshiyahu king of Judah, during whose reign the monarchy blossomed. In a manner unusual for a grapevine, it grew upward like a tall tree, and it was visible through its height, through its many tendrils.

But it, the vine, was uprooted in fury, cast to the ground, and the strong, hot east wind withered its fruit. Its mighty rods were broken and withered; fire consumed it.

Now it, the once fertile vine that was full of branches and planted in abundant water, is planted in the wilderness, in an arid and parched land, without hope.

Fire emerged from the staff of its branches; it, the fire, consumed its dry fruit, and on it there was no mighty staff, a scepter to rule. The various metaphoric representations of Judah as a lion and a grapevine carry one message: It is a lamentation recited by the prophet for the collapsing kingdom and its impending destruction, and once Ezekiel issued and recorded this lamentation prophetically, it became a lamentation, and it was adopted and recited among the people as an actual lamentation. Ezekiel was unable to add any words of hope or encouragement to his message, and it remains a lamentation.

It was in the seventh year following the exile of Yehoyakhin, in the fifth month, Av, on the tenth of the month, that men of the elders of Israel came to me to seek the Lord. They came to the prophet to clarify a matter of current or future importance, or to hear words of Torah, and they sat before me.

The word of the Lord was with me, saying:

Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, and say to them: So said the Lord God: Do you genuinely come to seek Me? Your attempt to inquire of Me is insincere. Therefore, as I live, I swear that I will surely not acquiesce to you and will not answer you – the utterance of the Lord God.

Will you judge them, will you judge, Son of man? The early commentaries interpret this as a rhetorical question meaning: Do not judge them in light of their own deeds, but rather in light of their ancestors’ deeds (see also 22:2). God continues His instruction to the prophet: Do not occupy yourself with the matters about which they came to you; rather, inform them of the abominations of their fathers. The elders must hear a complete analysis of the general state of their nation instead of an exclusive focus on the problems of this specific time.

Therefore, you shall say to them: So said the Lord God: On the day that I chose Israel, I raised My hand and swore to the descendants of the house of Jacob and made Myself known to them in the land of Egypt, and at that time, when I revealed Myself to them, I raised My hand to them, saying: I am the Lord your God, and you are My nation.

On that day, I raised My hand to them to take them out of the land of Egypt to the land that I scouted for them, a land flowing with milk and honey. It is the most magnificent and beautiful of all the lands, or the most desired of all lands. According to the latter interpretation, this phrase is similar to the phrase “a desired land [eretz ĥefetz],” which appears elsewhere in the Bible.

I said to them: Each man shall cast out the repugnancies of his eyes, those idols to which he is attracted by his eyes, or those that appear in his eyes to be gods, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I command you to discard your statues and images and to worship Me alone, as I am the Lord your God.

However, they defied Me and were unwilling to heed Me; no man cast out the repugnancies of their eyes, and they did not forsake the idols of Egypt. Even before they left Egypt, the children of Israel had already begun to show signs of disloyalty and rebellion against God. I determined to pour My fury upon them, to spend My wrath upon them within the land of Egypt.

But ultimately, I did not destroy them. I spared them not in their own merit, but rather, I acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned before the eyes of the nations in whose midst they, the children of Israel, were, before whose eyes, the eyes of the nations, I made Myself known to them, the children of Israel, to take them out of the land of Egypt, as I had sworn.

Therefore, although they were unworthy, I took them out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness.

I gave them My statutes, and I informed them of My ordinances. I taught them the commandments, which a person shall perform, and he shall live by them. The ordinances of God delineate the correct path in life.

I also gave them My Sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, for them to know that I am the Lord, their sanctifier.

But the house of Israel defied Me in the wilderness; they did not follow My statutes, and they spurned My ordinances, those statutes and ordinances that a person shall perform, and he shall live by them, and My Sabbaths they also profaned greatly. Therefore, I said once again to pour My fury upon them. I considered administering a devastating punishment there in the wilderness, to annihilate them,

but nevertheless, again I acted for the sake of My name and refrained from destroying them. I did so not in their merit; rather, I did this so that it, My name, should not be profaned before the eyes of the nations before whose eyes I took them, the children of Israel, out.

I also raised My hand to them in the wilderness, and swore that I would not bring them, the generation that had come out of Egypt, to the land that I gave them, a land flowing with milk and honey, which is the most magnificent of all the lands,

because they spurned My ordinances, did not follow My statutes, and profaned My Sabbaths, as their heart was following their idols.

But in spite of this, My eye pitied them rather than destroyed them, and I did not engender annihilation of them in the wilderness.

I then said to their children, the next generation, those who were born or reached adulthood in the wilderness: Do not follow the practices of your fathers, do not observe their ordinances, and do not defile yourselves with their idols.

This is because I am the Lord your God; follow My statutes, and observe My ordinances and perform them,

and sanctify My Sabbaths, and they shall be a sign between Me and you, to know that I am the Lord your God.

But the children also defied Me; they did not follow My statutes, and My ordinances they did not observe to perform them, which a person shall perform and live by them; they profaned My Sabbaths, and therefore, as this generation had also failed to listen to Me, I determined to pour My fury upon them, to spend My anger upon them in the wilderness.

But nevertheless, this third time I again restrained My hand and did not destroy them. And this time as well, I did not do this in their merit; rather, I acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned before the eyes of the nations, before whose eyes I took them out.

I also raised My hand to them, referring to the second generation, the children of those who came out of Egypt, in the wilderness, taking an oath to disperse them among the nations and to scatter them throughout the lands in the future, when the time would come that their actions would necessitate this,

because they did not observe My ordinances, and they spurned My statutes, and they profaned My Sabbaths, and their eyes followed the idols of their fathers.

I too, in accordance with their behavior, gave them statutes that were not good for them and ordinances by which they could not live. My statutes, which were designed to bring life and blessing to Israel, became an obstacle for them because they failed to observe them. This is because they distorted My laws, and also because My statutes are unsuitable for those who do not have faith in Me.

I defiled them, I allowed them to err, with their own gifts to idols, with the transference to Molekh sacrifices of every first issue of the womb, the firstborn children, so that I would render them desolate, so that they would know that I am the Lord.

Therefore, speak to the house of Israel, Son of man, and say to them: So said the Lord God: With this too your fathers blasphemed and reviled Me, in their trespass that they committed against Me, as explained in the following verses:

I brought them into the land with regard to which I raised My hand to give it to them, and they saw in the land every high hill, and every thick-branched tree laden with dense foliage, and they slaughtered their idolatrous offerings there, and they presented there the provocation of their offering, meaning that they brought offerings that anger Me. It is also possible that this refers to idolatrous rituals designed to provoke the idolater’s own emotions and arouse his pain and wrath. And they placed their pleasing aromas there, and they poured their libations there.

Then I said to them: What is the shrine [bama] that you go there? That high place has no significance. Its name was called Bama to this day. This is a mocking play on words, meaning one of the following: What [bameh] is its significance? For what do you come [ba ma] to this place? What is in it [ba ma]?

The prophet now turns his attention to the present situation. Therefore, say to the house of Israel: So said the Lord God: Do you defile yourselves in the way of your fathers, and do you stray after their repugnancies?

With the giving of your gifts, specifically with the passing of your sons through the fire in the worship of Molekh, you defile yourselves with all your idols until today, and in this situation, shall I acquiesce to you, house of Israel? Do you, elders who came to the prophet to inquire of Me, think that I will be responsive to the people, who still continue their sinful ways? No. As I live – the utterance of the Lord God – I swear that I will surely not acquiesce to you. I will not respond to you because you are unworthy and continue to engage in these repulsive acts of foreign worship.

That thought which arises in your thoughts will not be, that which you say: We will be like the nations, like the families of the lands, to follow their lifestyle and serve wood and stone. After years in exile, and with the destruction of Jerusalem looming, some of the people had begun to think that perhaps it would be better for them to abandon God and live as a “normal” nation, like all of the other nations that surrounded them in Babylonia, that worshipped images made of wood and stone.

As I live – the utterance of the Lord God – I swear that surely with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with outpoured fury, I will reign over you. My reign over you is not dependent upon your wishes; even if you desire to assimilate among the nations, you will not be able to do so. Against your will, you will remain My people.

I will take you out from among the nations, and I will gather you from the lands in which you were scattered. Ultimately, I will redeem you from exile even if you do not deserve it. However, you will not merit departing from the exile and gathering together in a state of joy. Rather, I will bring you to your land with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with outpoured fury, after wars, persecutions, slaughter, and other troubles.

I will bring you to the wilderness of the peoples, a metaphoric expression meaning that you will wander from one exile to another, abandoned to prey and plunder, and I will contend with you and enter into judgment with you there, face to face.

As I contended with your fathers when they were judged in the metaphorical wilderness of their wanderings when they left the land of Egypt, so will I contend with you in “the wilderness of the peoples” when I redeem you – the utterance of the Lord God.

I will pass you under the rod. As a shepherd counts and inspects his sheep by passing them individually under his staff, so you will each be tested and judged, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.

I will purge you of the rebels and the transgressors against Me. Indeed, I will take them out of the land of their residence, but nevertheless to the soil of Israel they will not come,and thus you will know that I am the Lord.

You, house of Israel, so said the Lord God, with irony: Let each man go worship his idols, since you do not heed Me. Alternatively, let each man go worship his idols; afterward, we shall see if you heed Me. And you shall no longer profane My holy name with your gifts and with your idols. Those who still insist on worshipping their idols are invited to do so as much as they wish and see what the consequences will be: I will remove those who rebel against Me from your midst. They will not come to the Land of Israel, and they will no longer be able to profane My name.

For on My holy mountain, on the mountain of the height of Israel – the utterance of the Lord God – there all the house of Israel, in its entirety, will worship Me in the Land of Israel, not in the wilderness of the peoples. There I will grant them propitiation, and there I will seek your separated portions and the first of your gifts, of all your consecrated items, referring to the firstborn animals offered in the Temple, the first fruits to be presented to the priest, and the first portion of the produce separated as a gift for the priest [teruma].

Then, with a pleasing aroma, I will grant you propitiation, when I take you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands in which you were dispersed, and I will be sanctified through you before the eyes of the nations. The nations will see that I am bringing you back to the Land of Israel, and My name will be sanctified once again.

You will know that I am the Lord when I bring you to the soil of Israel, to the land concerning which I raised My hand to give it to your fathers. You may think that you will be absorbed into the nations in whose midst you sit in exile, and that you will thereby exempt yourselves from your obligations to Me. It will not be so. Willingly or not, you will return to the land that I promised to your forefathers, and then you will know that I am God.

There, in the Land of Israel, you will remember your ways and all of your past exploits with which you were defiled, and after your lives have improved, you will look at yourselves with regret and disparagement, and you will loathe yourselves for all your evils that you committed.

You will know that I am the Lord, when you see that I act with you for My name’s sake and not in accordance with your evil ways or in accordance with your corrupt exploits, house of Israel – the utterance of the Lord God.

The word of the Lord was with me, saying:

Son of man, set your face, direct your attention, in a southward [temana] direction, and proclaim your message to the south [darom], and prophesy to the forest of the field of the south [negev]. This apparently refers to the virgin forests in the southern part of the land of Judah.

You shall say to the forest of the south: Hear the word of the Lord. So said the Lord God: Behold, I am igniting a fire within you, and it will consume everything within you, including every moist tree, which takes longer to burn than a dry tree, and every dry tree. The intense flame will not be extinguished. The fire will spread until every face from south to north will be seared by it.

All flesh will see and understand that I, the Lord, ignited it; therefore, it will not be extinguished.

The prophet interjects: I said: Alas, Lord God, they who hear me speak of the forest burning say about me: Is he not just a purveyor of parables? Although my intent should have been clear to them, as they had grown up in the Land of Israel and were well informed of the situation there, they did not take the content of my prophecies seriously; rather, they reacted to them as if they were merely moral messages expressed as moving poetry.

The word of the Lord was with me again, this time with a more explicit message, saying:

Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, proclaim to the sanctuaries, stated in the plural as a reference to the different sections of the Temple and the sacred vessels, and prophesy to the territory of Israel.

You shall say to the territory of Israel: So said the Lord: Behold, I am turning against you, and I will draw My sword from its sheath, and I will eradicate from among you the righteous and the wicked alike. The slaughter will not differentiate between people.

Because I eradicated from among you the righteous and the wicked, therefore My all-consuming sword will be drawn from its sheath. It will not return there quickly; rather, it will continue to strike against all flesh from south to north.

When this prophecy is fulfilled, all flesh will know that I, the Lord, have drawn My sword from its sheath; it will not return any longer.

Therefore, you, Son of man, sigh; with shattering of the waist, a deep moan that is felt all the way through the chest and below, and with the bitterness of grave distress, you shall sigh before their eyes.

It shall be when they say to you: For what are you sighing publicly in this manner? You shall say to them: It is because of the report that is coming. Soon, news will arrive from Jerusalem that will terrify and depress all those who hear it. Every heart will melt, all hands will grow feeble, every spirit will grow faint, and because people seized by great fear are often unable to control their bodily functions, all knees will drip with waste water. Behold, it is coming, and it will be – the utterance of the Lord God. This prophecy regarding the impending destruction of the Temple will come to pass imminently. The Temple is the people’s great hope for survival, and they are convinced it will remain standing forever. When it is destroyed, all their hopes will dissipate.

The word of the Lord was with me, saying:

Son of man, prophesy, and say: So said the Lord: Say: A sword, a sword belonging to the king of Babylon, has been sharpened and also polished.

It is in order to wreak slaughter that it has been sharpened, and so that it will have a sheen, it has been polished, resulting in a flawlessly sharp, shiny sword without any imperfections. The prophet asks rhetorically: Or should we be glad? Perhaps the sword has been polished in honor of our upcoming salvation? God then answers: No, there is no cause for rejoicing. The sword is designed to be used as the rod of punishment of My son. It is a sword that spurns every tree; it was not intended for just cutting down trees.

He gave it for polishing, to grasp in the palm; a sword, it has been sharpened and it has been polished in order to place it in the hand of a killer and make it easier for him to wield and handle it. The sharper and smoother the sword is, the more effectively it can be used as a weapon.

Therefore, cry and wail, Son of man, for it, the sword, has been used against My people. It is striking against all the princes of Israel, the kings of Judah. They have been gathered to the sword, or are frightened by it, or are resigned to it, together with My people. Therefore, slap your thigh as a sign of mourning.

For it has been ascertained. The sword of which we speak comes to examine and try men, to frighten them in the hope that they will mend their ways, and to punish them if they fail to do so. And what is it? It is such that it, the polished sword, will not even be a despising rod of anyone of My people in particular; it will cut through all and spare none – the utterance of the Lord God.

You, Son of man, prophesy, and slap one hand against the other as a sign of the impending disaster, and the sword will be doubled and tripled; it is the sword of the slain, the sword of the great slaughter that penetrates their bodies and kills all of them.

In order to enfeeble the heart of Israel, to frighten them and increase the obstacles placed before them, I have set the thrust of the sword against all their gates. Alas, it is made to flash, concealed and preserved for slaughter.

The prophet speaks to the sword: Select a single direction: Go right; set a course: Go left. These unusual terms are probably technical instructions about how to hold and wield a sword; similar terms are found in other languages. To where, sword, is your face set? A sword of this type in the hand of a skilled warrior moves so fast that one cannot know where it is or where it is headed.

I too, like you, Ezekiel, will slap My hand against the other, so to speak, like one lamenting the catastrophe, and I will assuage My fury. I will calm My anger. I, the Lord, have spoken.

The word of the Lord was with me, saying:

You, Son of man, designate for yourself two paths, either in your imagination or in practice, for the sword of the king of Babylon to take; both shall come out of one land, or from the land of one king. Both roads will come from the north. Clear a space by removing the vegetation; clear at the head of a city’s path. Since the minor kings surrounding the Land of Israel joined Tzidkiyahu in his rebellion against Babylon, there were two possible routes that Nebuchadnezzar could take when leading his army south.

Designate a path indicating one possible route for the sword to come to Raba, the capital city of the children of Amon, and designate a second path indicating the other possible route, leading to Judah in fortified Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar would need to decide whether to proceed along the road on the eastern side of the Jordan River leading to Raba or along the western route toward Jerusalem, probably referring to the Via Maris, “the Way of the Sea,” the ancient route along the Mediterranean coast. It is not known if Nebuchadnezzar actually deliberated between these two choices, but from a strategic perspective, they were both valid options.

For the king of Babylon has stood at the crossroad, at the head of the two roads. In order to determine which road to take, he would need to perform divination; he shook, polished or shot, the arrows as a method of divination. He consulted the teraphim, images used for fortune-telling and as talismans for success. He also gazed at the liver. Babylonian priests would sometimes remove the liver of an animal designated as an offering to examine it for omens for determining their decisions.

In his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem. All of the divinations Nebuchadnezzar would use would point him to the path on his right, the road to Jerusalem. He would therefore take that path in order to place battering rams in preparation for breaching the wall, or to appoint commanders for the battle, to open the mouth in a scream, to raise the voice with shouting, to place battering rams against the gates, to erect a ramp, to build a siege tower. Nebuchadnezzar might have preferred to first besiege a small city such as Raba, one that would be easier to conquer, rather than Jerusalem, with its strong natural defenses and which indeed ultimately took a long time to conquer. However, all his divinations, the arrows, the household idols, and the livers, will indicate that he should first advance in the direction of Jerusalem.

But it, the divination, will be to them, the residents of Jerusalem, like a vain divination in their eyes. They do not believe that Nebuchadnezzar will conquer their city because the false prophets uttered oaths upon oaths to them, promising that Nebuchadnezzar would not attack them, and the people believed them. And it, adherence to the assurances of the false prophets, only evokes iniquity, increasing and reaffirming their sins and leading them to be captured.

The prophet further explains: Therefore, so said the Lord God: Because you have evoked your iniquity when your transgressions were revealed for your sins to be seen in all your exploits, because you are remembered, you will be seized by the hand. By your actions, you have brought about your own capture.

You, slain wicked one, prince of Israel, referring to King Tzidkiyahu, who had been found guilty, and was therefore considered as though he was already dead, whose final day has come at the time of ultimate iniquity, the point at which sins can no longer be tolerated,

so said the Lord God to Tzidkiyahu: Remove the mitre and lift off the crown. Tzidkiyahu’s royal headwear will be removed as an indication that he has been removed from the throne. This mitre is already not as it was. The king’s mitre is improperly positioned. Its higher and lower sections have been reversed, and therefore, exalt and raise the abased sections and abase and lower the exalted sections, this action being a metaphor for what is to happen: The monarchy will be destroyed. Some commentaries understand this as a prophecy about the future leadership of another person, perhaps Yehoyakhin’s grandson Zerubavel or Gedalya son of Ahikam.

A ruin, a ruin, a ruin I will render it. Tzidkiyahu’s kingdom will be entirely lost, and troubles will befall him. This too has not been, until the advent of he by whom is the judgment, and I will deliver it, the judgment. Alternatively, I will deliver, bring, Nebuchadnezzar, who will administer Tzidkiyahu’s punishment.

Alongside Jerusalem, Ezekiel also prophesies with regard to Amon, which participated in Tzidkiyahu’s rebellion: You, Son of man, prophesy and say: So said the Lord God concerning the children of Amon and concerning their disgrace, their idols. And you shall say: Do not think that if Nebuchadnezzar turns to Jerusalem, you will be spared. Sword, a drawn sword, polished for slaughter, to bear it for the sheen,

while they, the prophets of Amon, envision for you that which is vain, while they divine for you falsehood, claiming that you will not harm them. God has in fact decided to place you upon the necks of the slain wicked ones, whose day has come at the time of the ultimate iniquity.

Return it, the sword, to its sheath. The killing will end in the place where you were created, in the land of your origins and your birth, where I will judge you.

I will pour My fury upon you, I will blow upon you with the fire of My wrath, and I will deliver you into the hand of brutish men [bo’arim], or men who know how to use burning [bo’er] fires in their trade, that is, metalsmiths and craftsmen of weapons of destruction.

To the fire it, Amon, will be fuel. Your blood will be spilled in the midst of the land you possess. You will not be exiled; rather, you will be punished in your homeland, or your blood will be absorbed into the earth and will not call out for vengeance. You will not be remembered. You will be entirely destroyed, as I the Lord have spoken.

The word of the Lord was with me, saying:

You, Son of man, will you judge, will you wish to judge the city of bloodshed? Inform it, the city, of all its abominations.

You shall say to it: So said the Lord God: City that sheds blood in its midst and makes that its end time may come, and that crafted idols within itself for its own defilement:

Through your blood that you shed you became guilty, and with your idols that you crafted you were defiled. You thus brought the end of your days near, and you came to the conclusion of your years. Therefore, I rendered you a disgrace to the nations and an object of derision to all the countries.

Those who are near and those who are far from you will deride you, you of ill repute, and the wild city, great of tumult.

Behold, the princes of Israel, the kings of Judah. Each by relying on his might has been within you, city, in order to shed blood. Your kings are belligerent and aggressive.

They demeaned father and mother within you. They engaged in the exploitation of the stranger in your midst. They mistreated the orphan and the widow among you. Not only have they not supported those unfortunate people, but they have actively harassed and cheated them.

That city of Jerusalem, which is sacred to Me, you scorned, and My Sabbaths you profaned.

Gossipmongers were within you, who slandered in order to cause people to shed the blood of those about whom they spoke. Among you, they, those who bring offerings to idols, ate upon the mountains, where they typically performed their rites. This phrase can also mean that their religious attention was toward the mountains, which were themselves objects of worship. Not only have they murdered and worshipped idols, but lewdness was also performed in your midst.

One uncovered a father’s nakedness within you, meaning that they sinned with the wives of their fathers. They raped the impure menstruant among you.

One committed an abomination with his neighbor’s wife, and one defiled his daughter-in-law with lewdness, and one raped [ina] his sister, the daughter of his father, among you.

Bribery was taken by the judges among you to shed blood, to protect murderers or justify murder. You took interest and increase (see commentary on 18:8). You enriched your neighbors through money that came from exploitation. Alternatively, this means that you broke down your neighbors by oppressing them. And you forgot Me, who warned you about all these sins – the utterance of the Lord God.

Behold, I have struck My hand, as an expression of suffering and pain, at your ill-gotten gain that you made and at your bloodshed, which was in your midst.

Will your heart endure your impending suffering, will your hands be strong enough on the days that I will prepare to deal with you with vengeance? You will be utterly destroyed. I, the Lord, have spoken, and will act on this.

Then I will disperse you among the nations and scatter you among the lands, and I will eliminate your impurity from you, perhaps by means of your dispersion.

You will profane yourself, you will realize on your own that you are profaned before the eyes of the nations, and then you will know that I am the Lord.

The word of the Lord was with me, saying:

Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me; they are all like copper, tin, iron, and lead inside a crucible; they have become the dross of silver. Israel has become a polluting, contaminating substance.

Therefore, so said the Lord God: Because all of you are dross, therefore, behold, I am gathering you into the midst of Jerusalem.

Like the gathering of silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin into a crucible, where the dross is separated from the metals, to fan the fire upon it to melt it, so will I gather you in My wrath and in My fury to the crucible of Jerusalem, and I will set you down and melt you and remove the dross. The city’s government and social structure, and the rest of its institutions, will entirely crumble away.

God reiterates: I will gather you and blow upon you with the fire of My wrath, and you will be melted in its, Jerusalem’s, midst.

Like the melting of silver within a crucible, so will you be melted within it, and you will know that I, the Lord, have poured My wrath upon you.

The word of the Lord was with me, saying:

Son of man, say to it, Jerusalem: You are a land that has not been purified, that has not been rained upon on the day of fury. No rain has fallen upon you to wash away your filth, and you remain impure even after you have received your punishment.

A conspiracy of its false prophets is in its midst. Alternatively, this can be understood as meaning that there is a band of false prophets, not necessarily organized, who seek to strengthen the status quo, and to that end they reaffirm the opinions of the leadership and the general populace, thereby becoming like a roaring lion that mauls prey. They have consumed, ruined, lives; they have taken others’ treasure and precious items, or their honor; and they have multiplied its widows in its midst, as their husbands died at the hands of the enemy after following the instructions of those prophets.

Its priests, traditionally the ones who taught the people Torah, have been villainous to My Torah, as they corrupted the words of the Torah or they stole My law from the people. And they profaned that which is sacred to Me; between sacred and profane they did not distinguish, that which is between the impure and the pure they did not make known, and they averted their eyes from My Sabbaths. All these distinctions were unimportant in their eyes, and I was profaned among them. The priests became a band of greedy, lustful men, who disparaged the sacred through their behavior.

Its princes, political leaders, in its midst are like wolves mauling prey: They want to shed blood, to destroy lives, directly or indirectly, in order to attain ill-gotten gain.

But its, Jerusalem’s, prophets, instead of pointing out the cracks in the city walls and raising awareness of its breaches, so to speak, plastered over them with insubstantial plaster which will not last, covering up the city’s failings, because they are envisioning that which is vain and divining falsehood for them, saying to the people: So said the Lord God, and the Lord did not speak.