Ezekiel 24:1-14

Parable of the Boiling Pot

¹Now the word of the Lord came to me in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, saying, ²“Son of man, write the name of the day, this very day. The king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem this very day. ³Present a parable to the rebellious house and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says:

“Put on the pot, put it on and also pour water into it;

4Put in it the pieces of meat,

Every good piece, the thigh and the shoulder;

Fill it with choice bones.

5“Take the choicest of the flock,

And also stack wood under the pot.

Make it boil vigorously.

Also boil its bones in it.”

⁶‘Therefore, this is what the Lord God says:

“Woe to the bloody city,

To the pot in which there is rust

And whose rust has not gone out of it!

Take out of it piece after piece,

Without making a choice.

7“For her blood is in her midst;

She placed it on the bare rock;

She did not pour it on the ground

To cover it with dust.

8“So that it may cause wrath to come up to take vengeance,

I have put her blood on the bare rock,

So that it will not be covered.”

⁹Therefore, this is what the Lord God says:

“Woe to the bloody city!

I also will make the wood pile great.

10“Heap on the wood, kindle the fire,

Cook the meat thoroughly

And mix in the spices,

And let the bones be burned up.

11“Then set it empty on its burning coals

So that it may be hot

And its bronze may glow,

And its filthiness may be melted in it,

Its rust eliminated.

12“She has wearied Me with work,

Yet her great rust has not gone from her;

Let her rust be in the fire!

13“In your filthiness is outrageous sin.

Because I would have cleansed you,

Yet you are not clean,

You will not be cleansed from your filthiness again

Until I have expended My wrath on you.

¹⁴I, the Lord, have spoken; it is coming and I will act. I will not overlook, I will not pity, and I will not be sorry; according to your ways and according to your deeds I will judge you,” declares the Lord God.’ ”

Death of Ezekiel’s Wife Is a Sign