Ezekiel 4:1

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

Ominous Object Lessons“And you, son of man, take a brick and set it in front of you. Inscribe a city on it– Jerusalem.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וְאַתָּ֤ה בֶן־אָדָם֙ קַח־לְךָ֣ לְבֵנָ֔ה וְנָתַתָּ֥ה אוֹתָ֖הּ לְפָנֶ֑יךָ וְחַקּוֹתָ֥ עָלֶ֛יהָ עִ֖יר אֶת־יְרוּשָׁלָֽ͏ִם׃

Transliteration

And ʾattāh ben-ʾādām take-to-you lᵊbēnāh and nāṯattāh ʾôṯāh before-you and ḥaqqôṯā upon-it ʿîr ʾeṯ-yᵊrûšālāim

Grammar Details

• *ʾattāh*: pronoun, 2nd person, masculine, singular - you
• *ben-ʾādām*: construct phrase, masculine - son of man/humanity
• *lᵊbēnāh*: noun, feminine, singular - brick/tile
• *nāṯattāh*: verb, qal perfect, 2nd person, masculine, singular - you will put/place
• *ʾôṯāh*: direct object marker with 3rd person feminine singular suffix - it (referring to the brick)
• *ḥaqqôṯā*: verb, qal perfect, 2nd person, masculine, singular - you will inscribe/draw/portray
• *ʿîr*: noun, feminine, singular - city
• *ʾeṯ*: direct object marker
• *yᵊrûšālāim*: proper noun - Jerusalem

Word Meanings

• *lᵊbēnāh*: brick/tile/clay tablet
• *ḥaqqôṯā*: inscribe/carve/portray/draw
• *ʿîr*: city/town/settlement

Referenced Verses

• 1 Sam 15:27-28 : 27 When Samuel turned to leave, Saul grabbed the edge of his robe and it tore. 28 Samuel said to him,“The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to one of your colleagues who is better than you!
• 1 Kgs 11:30-31 : 30 and he grabbed the robe and tore it into twelve pieces. 31 Then he told Jeroboam,“Take ten pieces, for this is what the LORD God of Israel has said:‘Look, I am about to tear the kingdom from Solomon’s hand and I will give ten tribes to you.
• Isa 20:2-4 : 2 At that time the LORD announced through Isaiah son of Amoz:“Go, remove the sackcloth from your waist and take your sandals off your feet.” He did as instructed and walked around in undergarments and barefoot. 3 Later the LORD explained,“In the same way that my servant Isaiah has walked around in undergarments and barefoot for the past three years, as an object lesson and omen pertaining to Egypt and Cush, 4 so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, both young and old. They will be in undergarments and barefoot, with the buttocks exposed; the Egyptians will be publicly humiliated.
• Jer 6:6 : 6 All of this is because the LORD of Heaven’s Armies has said:‘Cut down the trees around Jerusalem and build up a siege ramp against its walls. This is the city which is to be punished. Nothing but oppression happens in it.
• Jer 13:1-9 : 1 An Object Lesson from Ruined Linen Shorts The LORD said to me,“Go and buy some linen shorts and put them on. Do not put them in water.” 2 So I bought the shorts in keeping with the LORD’s instructions and put them on. 3 Then the LORD’s message came to me again, 4 “Take the shorts that you bought and are wearing and go at once to Perath. Bury the shorts there in a crack in the rocks.” 5 So I went and buried them at Perath as the LORD had ordered me to do. 6 Many days later the LORD said to me,“Go at once to Perath and get the shorts I ordered you to bury there.” 7 So I went to Perath and dug up the shorts from the place where I had buried them. I found that they were ruined; they were good for nothing. 8 Then the LORD’s message came to me, 9 “I, the LORD, say:‘This shows how I will ruin the highly exalted position in which Judah and Jerusalem take pride. 10 These wicked people refuse to obey what I have said. They follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts and pay allegiance to other gods by worshiping and serving them. So they will become just like these linen shorts which are good for nothing. 11 For,’ I say,‘just as shorts cling tightly to a person’s body, so I bound the whole nation of Israel and the whole nation of Judah tightly to me.’ I intended for them to be my special people and to bring me fame, honor, and praise. But they would not obey me. 12 “So tell them,‘The LORD, the God of Israel, says,“Every wine jar is made to be filled with wine.”’ And they will probably say to you,‘Do you not think we know that every wine jar is supposed to be filled with wine?’ 13 Then tell them,‘The LORD says,“I will soon fill all the people who live in this land with stupor. I will also fill the kings from David’s dynasty, the priests, the prophets, and the citizens of Jerusalem with stupor. 14 And I will smash them like wine bottles against one another, children and parents alike. I will not show any pity, mercy, or compassion. Nothing will keep me from destroying them,’ says the LORD.”
• Jer 18:2-9 : 2 “Go down at once to the potter’s house. I will speak to you further there.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house and found him working at his wheel. 4 Now and then there would be something wrong with the pot he was molding from the clay with his hands. So he would rework the clay into another kind of pot as he saw fit. 5 Then the LORD’s message came to me, 6 “I, the LORD, say:‘O nation of Israel, can I not deal with you as this potter deals with the clay? In my hands, you, O nation of Israel, are just like the clay in this potter’s hand.’ 7 There are times, Jeremiah, when I threaten to uproot, tear down, and destroy a nation or kingdom. 8 But if that nation I threatened stops doing wrong, I will cancel the destruction I intended to do to it. 9 And there are times when I promise to build up and establish a nation or kingdom. 10 But if that nation does what displeases me and does not obey me, then I will cancel the good I promised to do to it. 11 So now, tell the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem this: The LORD says,‘I am preparing to bring disaster on you! I am making plans to punish you. So, every one of you, stop the evil things you have been doing. Correct the way you have been living and do what is right.’ 12 But they just keep saying,‘We do not care what you say! We will do whatever we want to do! We will continue to behave wickedly and stubbornly!’”
• Jer 19:1-9 : 1 An Object Lesson from a Broken Clay Jar The LORD told Jeremiah,“Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take with you some of the leaders of the people and some of the leaders of the priests. 2 Go out to the part of the Hinnom Valley which is near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. Announce there what I tell you. 3 Say,‘Listen to the LORD’s message, you kings of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem! This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, has said,“Look here. I am about to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it ring! 4 I will do so because these people have rejected me and have defiled this place. They have offered sacrifices in it to other gods which neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah knew anything about. They have filled it with the blood of innocent children. 5 They have built places here for worship of the god Baal so that they could sacrifice their children as burnt offerings to him in the fire. Such sacrifices are something I never commanded them to make! They are something I never told them to do! Indeed, such a thing never even entered my mind! 6 So I, the LORD, say:“The time will soon come that people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Hinnom Valley. But they will call this valley the Valley of Slaughter! 7 In this place I will thwart the plans of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. I will deliver them over to the power of their enemies who are seeking to kill them. They will die by the sword at the hands of their enemies. I will make their dead bodies food for the birds and wild beasts to eat. 8 I will make this city an object of horror, a thing to be hissed at. All who pass by it will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn because of all the disasters that have happened to it. 9 I will reduce the people of this city to desperate straits during the siege imposed on it by their enemies who are seeking to kill them. I will make them so desperate that they will eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters and the flesh of one another.”’” 10 The LORD continued,“Now break the jar in front of those who have come here with you. 11 Tell them the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says,‘I will do just as Jeremiah has done. I will smash this nation and this city as though it were a potter’s vessel which is broken beyond repair. The dead will be buried here in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.’ 12 I, the LORD, say:‘That is how I will deal with this city and its citizens. I will make it like Topheth. 13 The houses in Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled by dead bodies just like this place, Topheth. For they offered sacrifice to the stars and poured out drink offerings to other gods on the roofs of those houses.’” 14 Then Jeremiah left Topheth where the LORD had sent him to give that prophecy. He went to the LORD’s temple and stood in its courtyard and called out to all the people. 15 “The LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel says,‘I will soon bring on this city and all the towns surrounding it all the disaster I threatened to do to it. I will do so because they have stubbornly refused to pay any attention to what I have said!’”
• Jer 25:15-38 : 15 Judah and the Nations Will Experience God’s Wrath So the LORD, the God of Israel, spoke to me in a vision.“Take this cup from my hand. It is filled with the wine of my wrath. Take it and make the nations to whom I send you drink it. 16 When they have drunk it, they will stagger to and fro and act insane. For I will send wars sweeping through them.” 17 So I took the cup from the LORD’s hand. I made all the nations to whom he sent me drink the wine of his wrath. 18 I made Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and its officials drink it. I did it so Judah would become a ruin. I did it so Judah, its kings, and its officials would become an object of horror and of hissing scorn, an example used in curses. Such is already becoming the case! 19 I made all of these other people drink it: Pharaoh, king of Egypt; his attendants, his officials, his people, 20 the foreigners living in Egypt; all the kings of the land of Uz; all the kings of the land of the Philistines, the people of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, the people who had been left alive from Ashdod; 21 all the people of Edom, Moab, Ammon; 22 all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon; all the kings of the coastlands along the sea; 23 the people of Dedan, Tema, Buz, all the desert people who cut their hair short at the temples; 24 all the kings of Arabia who live in the desert; 25 all the kings of Zimri; all the kings of Elam; all the kings of Media; 26 all the kings of the north, whether near or far from one another; and all the other kingdoms which are on the face of the earth. After all of them have drunk the wine of the LORD’s wrath, the king of Babylon must drink it. 27 Then the LORD said to me,“Tell them that the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel says,‘Drink this cup until you get drunk and vomit. Drink until you fall down and can’t get up. For I will send wars sweeping through you.’ 28 If they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink it, tell them that the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says‘You most certainly must drink it! 29 For take note, I am already beginning to bring disaster on the city that I call my own. So how can you possibly avoid being punished? You will not go unpunished! For I am proclaiming war against all who live on the earth. I, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, affirm it!’ 30 “Then, Jeremiah, make the following prophecy against them:‘Like a lion about to attack, the LORD will roar from the heights of heaven; from his holy dwelling on high he will roar loudly. He will roar mightily against his land. He will shout in triumph like those stomping juice from the grapes against all those who live on the earth. 31 The sounds of battle will resound to the ends of the earth. For the LORD will bring charges against the nations. He will pass judgment on all humankind and will hand the wicked over to be killed in war.’ The LORD so affirms it! 32 The LORD of Heaven’s Armies says,‘Disaster will soon come on one nation after another. A mighty storm of military destruction is rising up from the distant parts of the earth.’ 33 Those who have been killed by the LORD at that time will be scattered from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be mourned over, gathered up, or buried. Their dead bodies will lie scattered over the ground like manure. 34 Wail and cry out in anguish, you rulers! Roll in the dust, you who shepherd flocks of people! The time for you to be slaughtered has come. You will lie scattered and fallen like broken pieces of fine pottery. 35 The leaders will not be able to run away and hide. The shepherds of the flocks will not be able to escape. 36 Listen to the cries of anguish of the leaders. Listen to the wails of the shepherds of the flocks. They are wailing because the LORD is about to destroy their lands. 37 Their peaceful dwelling places will be laid waste by the fierce anger of the LORD. 38 The LORD is like a lion who has left his lair. So their lands will certainly be laid waste by the warfare of the oppressive nation and by the fierce anger of the LORD.”
• Jer 27:2-9 : 2 The LORD told me,“Make a yoke out of leather straps and wooden crossbars and put it on your neck. 3 Use it to send messages to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon. Send them through the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to King Zedekiah of Judah. 4 Charge them to give their masters a message from me. Tell them,‘The LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel says to give your masters this message. 5 “I made the earth and the people and animals on it by my mighty power and great strength, and I give it to whomever I see fit. 6 I have at this time placed all these nations of yours under the power of my servant, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I have even made all the wild animals subject to him. 7 All nations must serve him and his son and grandson until the time comes for his own nation to fall. Then many nations and great kings will in turn subjugate Babylon. 8 But suppose a nation or a kingdom will not be subject to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Suppose it will not submit to the yoke of servitude to him. I, the LORD, affirm that I will punish that nation. I will use the king of Babylon to punish it with war, starvation, and disease until I have destroyed it. 9 So do not listen to your prophets or to those who claim to predict the future by divination, by dreams, by consulting the dead, or by practicing magic. They keep telling you,‘You do not need to be subject to the king of Babylon.’ 10 Do not listen to them, because their prophecies are lies. Listening to them will only cause you to be taken far away from your native land. I will drive you out of your country and you will die in exile. 11 Things will go better for the nation that submits to the yoke of servitude to the king of Babylon and is subject to him. I will leave that nation in its native land. Its people can continue to farm it and live in it. I, the LORD, affirm it!”’” 12 I told King Zedekiah of Judah the same thing. I said,“Submit to the yoke of servitude to the king of Babylon. Be subject to him and his people. Then you will continue to live. 13 There is no reason why you and your people should die in war or from starvation or disease! That’s what the LORD says will happen to any nation that will not be subject to the king of Babylon. 14 Do not listen to the prophets who are telling you that you do not need to serve the king of Babylon. For they are prophesying lies to you. 15 For I, the LORD, affirm that I did not send them. They are prophesying lies to you in my name. If you listen to them, I will drive you and the prophets who are prophesying lies out of the land and you will all die in exile.” 16 I also told the priests and all the people,“The LORD says,‘Do not listen to what your prophets are saying. They are prophesying to you that the valuable articles taken from the LORD’s temple will be brought back from Babylon very soon. But they are prophesying a lie to you. 17 Do not listen to them. Be subject to the king of Babylon. Then you will continue to live. Why should this city be made a pile of rubble?’” 18 I also told them,“If they are really prophets and the LORD is speaking to them, let them pray earnestly to the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. Let them plead with him not to let the valuable articles that are still left in the LORD’s temple, in the royal palace of Judah, and in Jerusalem be taken away to Babylon. 19 For the LORD of Heaven’s Armies has already spoken about the two bronze pillars, the large bronze basin called‘The Sea,’ and the movable bronze stands. He has already spoken about the rest of the valuable articles that are left in this city. 20 He has already spoken about these things that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon did not take away when he carried Jehoiakim’s son King Jeconiah of Judah and the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem away as captives from Jerusalem to Babylon. 21 Indeed, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel has already spoken about the valuable articles that are left in the LORD’s temple, in the royal palace of Judah, and in Jerusalem. 22 He has said,‘They will be carried off to Babylon. They will remain there until it is time for me to show consideration for them again. Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.’ I, the LORD, affirm this!”
• Jer 32:31 : 31 This will happen because the people of this city have aroused my anger and my wrath since the time they built it until now. They have made me so angry that I am determined to remove it from my sight.
• Ezek 5:1-9 : 1 “As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor. Shave off some of the hair from your head and your beard. Then take scales and divide up the hair you cut off. 2 Burn a third of it in the fire inside the city when the days of your siege are completed. Take a third and slash it with a sword all around the city. Scatter a third to the wind, and I will unleash a sword behind them. 3 But take a few strands of hair from those and tie them in the ends of your garment. 4 Again, take more of them and throw them into the fire, and burn them up. From there a fire will spread to all the house of Israel. 5 “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: This is Jerusalem; I placed her in the center of the nations with countries all around her. 6 Then she defied my regulations and my statutes, becoming more wicked than the nations and the countries around her. Indeed, they have rejected my regulations, and they do not follow my statutes. 7 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Because you are more arrogant than the nations around you, you have not followed my statutes and have not carried out my regulations. You have not even carried out the regulations of the nations around you! 8 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I– even I– am against you, and I will execute judgment among you while the nations watch. 9 I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again because of all your abominable practices. 10 Therefore fathers will eat their sons within you, Jerusalem, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments on you, and I will scatter any survivors to the winds. 11 “Therefore, as surely as I live, says the Sovereign LORD, because you defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominable practices, I will withdraw; my eye will not pity you, nor will I spare you. 12 A third of your people will die of plague or be overcome by the famine within you. A third of your people will fall by the sword surrounding you, and a third I will scatter to the winds. I will unleash a sword behind them. 13 Then my anger will be fully vented; I will exhaust my rage on them, and I will be appeased. Then they will know that I, the LORD, have spoken in my jealousy when I have fully vented my rage against them. 14 “I will make you desolate and an object of scorn among the nations around you, in the sight of everyone who passes by. 15 You will be an object of scorn and taunting, a prime example of destruction among the nations around you when I execute judgments against you in anger and raging fury. I, the LORD, have spoken! 16 I will shoot against them deadly, destructive arrows of famine, which I will shoot to destroy you. I will prolong a famine on you and will remove the bread supply. 17 I will send famine and wild beasts against you and they will take your children from you. Plague and bloodshed will overwhelm you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, the LORD, have spoken!”
• Ezek 12:3-9 : 3 “Therefore, son of man, pack up your belongings as if for exile. During the day, while they are watching, pretend to go into exile. Go from where you live to another place. Perhaps they will understand, although they are a rebellious house. 4 Bring out your belongings packed for exile during the day while they are watching. And go out at evening, while they are watching, as if for exile. 5 While they are watching, dig a hole in the wall and carry your belongings out through it. 6 While they are watching, raise your baggage onto your shoulder and carry it out in the dark. You must cover your face so that you cannot see the ground because I have made you an object lesson to the house of Israel.” 7 So I did just as I was commanded. I carried out my belongings packed for exile during the day, and at evening I dug myself a hole through the wall with my hands. I went out in the darkness, carrying my baggage on my shoulder while they watched. 8 The LORD’s message came to me in the morning: 9 “Son of man, has not the house of Israel, that rebellious house, said to you,‘What are you doing?’ 10 Say to them,‘This is what the Sovereign LORD has said: The prince will raise this burden in Jerusalem, and all the house of Israel within it.’ 11 Say,‘I am an object lesson for you. Just as I have done, it will be done to them; they will go into exile and captivity.’ 12 “The prince who is among them will raise his belongings onto his shoulder in darkness, and will go out. He will dig a hole in the wall to leave through. He will cover his face so that he cannot see the land with his eyes. 13 But I will throw my net over him, and he will be caught in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans(but he will not see it), and there he will die. 14 All his retinue– his attendants and his troops– I will scatter to every wind; I will unleash a sword behind them. 15 “Then they will know that I am the LORD when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them among foreign countries. 16 But I will let a small number of them survive the sword, famine, and pestilence, so that they can confess all their abominable practices to the nations where they go. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”
• Hos 1:2-9 : 2 Symbols of Sin and Judgment: The Prostitute and Her Children When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, he said to him,“Go marry a prostitute who will bear illegitimate children conceived through prostitution, because the nation continually commits spiritual prostitution by turning away from the LORD.” 3 So Hosea married Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim. Then she conceived and gave birth to a son for him. 4 Then the LORD said to Hosea,“Name him‘Jezreel,’ because in a little while I will punish the dynasty of Jehu on account of the bloodshed in the valley of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. 5 At that time, I will destroy the military power of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.” 6 She conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the LORD said to him,“Name her‘No Pity’(Lo-Ruhamah) because I will no longer have pity on the nation of Israel. For I will certainly not forgive their guilt. 7 But I will have pity on the nation of Judah. I will deliver them by the LORD their God; I will not deliver them by the warrior’s bow, by sword, by military victory, by chariot horses, or by chariots.” 8 When she had weaned‘No Pity’(Lo-Ruhamah) she conceived again and gave birth to another son. 9 Then the LORD said:“Name him‘Not My People’(Lo-Ammi), because you are not my people and I am not your God.”
• Hos 3:1-5 : 1 An Illustration of God’s Love for Idolatrous Israel The LORD said to me,“Go, show love to your wife again, even though she loves another man and continually commits adultery. Likewise, the LORD loves the Israelites although they turn to other gods and love to offer raisin cakes to idols.” 2 So I paid fifteen shekels of silver and about seven bushels of barley to purchase her. 3 Then I told her,“You must live with me many days; you must not commit adultery or become joined to another man, and I also will wait for you.” 4 For the Israelites must live many days without a king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred fertility pillar, without ephod or idols. 5 Afterward, the Israelites will turn and seek the LORD their God and their Davidic king. Then they will submit to the LORD in fear and receive his blessings in the future.
• Hos 12:10 : 10 I spoke to the prophets; I myself revealed many visions; I spoke in parables through the prophets.”
• Amos 3:2 : 2 “I have chosen you alone from all the clans of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all your sins.”