Ezekiel 12King James Version
More signs. Ezekiel is told to pack his baggage in daylight like a man going into exile, and to dig a hole through the wall by night and carry it out. He eats his bread with quaking and drinks his water with trembling. The prince in Jerusalem will flee by night but be caught.
God tells Ezekiel to perform another sign-act: pack his bags in daylight, then dig through the wall at dusk and carry them out on his shoulder, covering his face so he cannot see the land. This enacts the exile of the king. When the exiles ask what he is doing, he explains. God also says that the proverb 'the days are prolonged and every vision faileth' is false: the time of fulfillment is close.
The people have found ways to hold the prophecies at arm's length, treating them as distant or failed predictions. God says the distance is closing.
2: "Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not." Willful blindness is not the same as ignorance, and the distinction matters.
Around 592 BC in Babylonia. The sign-act of digging through a wall and carrying things out at dusk dramatizes King Zedekiah's eventual escape attempt from Jerusalem, which will happen in 586 BC and end with him blinded and carried captive to Babylon.
Ezekiel performing the sign-act of exile; the house of Israel who watch but resist understanding; the prince in Jerusalem whose specific fate is enacted; the LORD who insists the vision is imminent.
This is at least the third consecutive sign-act. Ezekiel's body has been a siege map, a shaved beard, and now a refugee packing up in the dark. The repetition signals that normal speech has failed and the prophet's physical performance is the last available medium for the message.
For when people you care about keep finding reasons why the warning doesn't apply to them. The chapter names the exhaustion of that: the people have eyes and ears and they still don't see or hear. Ezekiel keeps going anyway.
1The word of the LORD also came unto me, saying,
2Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house.
3Therefore, thou son of man, prepare thee stuff for removing, and remove by day in their sight; and thou shalt remove from thy place to another place in their sight: it may be they will consider, though they be a rebellious house.
4Then shalt thou bring forth thy stuff by day in their sight, as stuff for removing: and thou shalt go forth at even in their sight, as they that go forth into captivity.
5Dig thou through the wall in their sight, and carry out thereby.
6In their sight shalt thou bear it upon thy shoulders, and carry it forth in the twilight: thou shalt cover thy face, that thou see not the ground: for I have set thee for a sign unto the house of Israel.
7And I did so as I was commanded: I brought forth my stuff by day, as stuff for captivity, and in the even I digged through the wall with mine hand; I brought it forth in the twilight, and I bare it upon my shoulder in their sight.
8And in the morning came the word of the LORD unto me, saying,
9Son of man, hath not the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said unto thee, What doest thou?
10Say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; This burden concerneth the prince in Jerusalem, and all the house of Israel that are among them.
11Say, I am your sign: like as I have done, so shall it be done unto them: they shall remove and go into captivity.
12And the prince that is among them shall bear upon his shoulder in the twilight, and shall go forth: they shall dig through the wall to carry out thereby: he shall cover his face, that he see not the ground with his eyes.
13My net also will I spread upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare: and I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there.
14And I will scatter toward every wind all that are about him to help him, and all his bands; and I will draw out the sword after them.
15And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall scatter them among the nations, and disperse them in the countries.
16But I will leave a few men of them from the sword, from the famine, and from the pestilence; that they may declare all their abominations among the heathen whither they come; and they shall know that I am the LORD.
17Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
18Son of man, eat thy bread with quaking, and drink thy water with trembling and with carefulness;
19And say unto the people of the land, Thus saith the Lord GOD of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and of the land of Israel; They shall eat their bread with carefulness, and drink their water with astonishment, that her land may be desolate from all that is therein, because of the violence of all them that dwell therein.
20And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be desolate; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
21And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
22Son of man, what is that proverb that ye have in the land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth?
23Tell them therefore, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel; but say unto them, The days are at hand, and the effect of every vision.
24For there shall be no more any vain vision nor flattering divination within the house of Israel.
25For I am the LORD: I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass; it shall be no more prolonged: for in your days, O rebellious house, will I say the word, and will perform it, saith the Lord GOD.
26Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
27Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are far off.
28Therefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; There shall none of my words be prolonged any more, but the word which I have spoken shall be done, saith the Lord GOD.