7. Into what three sections does the book of Ezekiel naturally fall?

⁷ The book falls naturally into three sections. The first, chapters 1 to 24, contains warnings of the certain destruction of Jerusalem.

10. What sign to Israel does Ezekiel enact?

¹⁰ Enacting the siege of Jerusalem (4:1–7:27). Jehovah tells Ezekiel to engrave a sketch of Jerusalem on a brick. He must stage a mock siege against it as a sign to Israel. To impress the point, he is to lie before the brick 390 days on his left side and 40 days on his right side, while subsisting on a very meager diet. That Ezekiel actually acts out the scene is indicated by his plaintive appeal to Jehovah for a change of cooking fuel.​—4:9-15.

11. (a) How does Ezekiel portray the calamitous end of the siege? (b) Why will there be no relief?

¹¹ Jehovah has Ezekiel portray the calamitous end of the siege by shaving off his hair and his beard. A third of this he must burn, a third hack with a sword, and a third scatter to the wind. Thus, at the end of the siege, some of Jerusalem’s inhabitants will die by famine, pestilence, and the sword, and the rest will be scattered among the nations. Jehovah will make her a devastation. Why? Because of the offensiveness of her depraved and detestable idolatry. Wealth will buy no relief. In the day of Jehovah’s fury, the people of Jerusalem will throw their silver in the streets, “and they will have to know that I am Jehovah.”​—7:27.

12. What detestable things are seen by Ezekiel in his vision of apostate Jerusalem?

¹² Ezekiel’s vision of apostate Jerusalem (8:1–11:25). It is now 612 B.C.E. In a vision Ezekiel is transported to faraway Jerusalem, where he sees the detestable things that are happening in Jehovah’s temple. In the courtyard, there is a disgusting symbol inciting Jehovah to jealousy. Boring through the wall, Ezekiel finds 70 of the elderly men worshiping before wall carvings of loathsome beasts and dungy idols. They excuse themselves by saying: “Jehovah is not seeing us. Jehovah has left the land.” (8:12) At the north gate, women are weeping over the pagan god Tammuz. But that is not all! Right in the entrance of the temple itself, there are 25 men, with their backs to the temple, worshiping the sun. They are profaning Jehovah to his face, and he will surely act in his rage!

13. What orders do the man in linen and the six men with weapons carry out?

¹³ Now look! Six men appear with smashing weapons in their hands. Among them is a seventh clothed with linen, with a secretary’s inkhorn. Jehovah tells this man in linen to pass through the midst of the city and put a mark on the foreheads of the men sighing and groaning over the detestable things being done in its midst. Next, he tells the six men to move in and kill off everyone, “old man, young man and virgin and little child and women,” on whom there is no mark. This they do, starting with the old men before the house. The man in linen reports: “I have done just as you have commanded me.”​—9:6, 11.

14. What does the vision finally show as to Jehovah’s glory and his judgments?

¹⁴ Ezekiel again sees the glory of Jehovah, rising above the cherubs. A cherub thrusts out fiery coals from between the wheelwork, and the man in linen takes them and scatters them over the city. As for the scattered ones of Israel, Jehovah promises to regather them and give them a new spirit. But what of these wicked false worshipers in Jerusalem? “Upon their head I shall certainly bring their own way,” says Jehovah. (11:21) The glory of Jehovah is seen ascending from over the city, and Ezekiel proceeds to tell the vision to the exiled people.

15. By what further illustration does Ezekiel show the certainty of Jerusalem’s inhabitants going into captivity?

¹⁵ Further prophecies in Babylon concerning Jerusalem (12:1–19:14). Ezekiel becomes the actor in another symbolic scene. During the daytime, he brings out of his house his luggage for exile, and then at night he goes through a hole in the wall of the city with his face covered. He explains this to be a portent: “Into exile, into captivity they will go.” (12:11) Those stupid prophets who walk after their own spirit! They are crying, “There is peace!” when there is no peace. (13:10) Even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in Jerusalem, they could not deliver a soul but themselves.

16. How is the worthlessness of Jerusalem pictured, but why will there be a restoration?

¹⁶ The city is like a worthless vine. The wood is no good for making poles, not even pegs! It is burned at both ends and scorched in the middle​—useless. How faithless and worthless has Jerusalem become! Born from the land of the Canaanites, she was picked up by Jehovah as an abandoned infant. He reared her and entered into a marriage covenant with her. He made her beautiful, “fit for royal position.” (16:13) But she has become a prostitute, turning to the nations as they pass by. She has worshiped their images and burned her sons in the fire. Her end will be destruction at the hands of these same nations, her paramours. She is worse than her sisters Sodom and Samaria. Even so, Jehovah, the merciful God, will make atonement for her and restore her according to his covenant.

17. What does Jehovah show by the riddle of the eagle and the vine?

¹⁷ Jehovah gives the prophet a riddle and then relates the interpretation. It illustrates the futility of Jerusalem’s turning to Egypt for help. A great eagle (Nebuchadnezzar) comes and plucks the top (Jehoiachin) of a lofty cedar, brings him to Babylon, and plants in his place a vine (Zedekiah). The vine turns its branches toward another eagle (Egypt), but is it successful? It is torn out by the roots! Jehovah himself will take a tender twig from the lofty treetop of the cedar and transplant it upon a high and lofty mountain. There it will grow into a majestic cedar as a residing place for “all the birds of every wing.” All will have to know that Jehovah has done it.​—17:23, 24.

18. (a) What principles does Jehovah state in reproving the Jewish exiles? (b) What judgment awaits the kings of Judah?

¹⁸ Jehovah reproves the Jewish exiles for their proverbial saying: “Fathers are the ones that eat unripe grapes, but it is the teeth of the sons that get set on edge.” No, “the soul that is sinning​—it itself will die.” (18:2, 4) The righteous one will keep living. Jehovah takes no delight in the death of the wicked. His delight is to see the wicked turn from his evil ways and live. As for the kings of Judah, like young lions they have been snared by Egypt and by Babylon. Their voice will “no more be heard on the mountains of Israel.”​—19:9.

19. (a) Against the background of ruin, what hope does Ezekiel make known? (b) How does he illustrate the unfaithfulness of Israel and Judah and its result?

¹⁹ Denunciations against Jerusalem (20:1–23:49). Time has moved on to 611 B.C.E. Again the elders among the exiles come to Ezekiel to inquire of Jehovah. What they hear is a recital of Israel’s long history of rebellion and depraved idolatry and a warning that Jehovah has called for a sword to execute judgment against her. He will make Jerusalem “a ruin, a ruin, a ruin.” But, glorious hope! Jehovah will hold the kingship (“the crown”) for the one who comes with “the legal right” and will give it to him. (21:26, 27) Ezekiel reviews the detestable things done in Jerusalem, “the bloodguilty city.” The house of Israel has become like “scummy dross” and is to be gathered into Jerusalem and liquefied there as in a furnace. (22:2, 18) The unfaithfulness of Samaria (Israel) and of Judah is illustrated by two sisters. Samaria as Oholah prostitutes herself to the Assyrians and is destroyed by her lovers. Judah as Oholibah does not learn a lesson but does even worse, prostituting herself first to Assyria and then to Babylon. She will be utterly destroyed, “and you people will have to know that I am the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”​—23:49.

20. To what is besieged Jerusalem likened, and what powerful sign does Jehovah give with regard to his judgment on her?

²⁰ The final siege of Jerusalem commences (24:1-27). It is 609 B.C.E. Jehovah announces to Ezekiel that the king of Babylon has besieged Jerusalem on this tenth day of the tenth month. He compares the walled city to a widemouthed cooking pot, with its choice inhabitants as the flesh therein. Heat it up! Boil out all the uncleanness of Jerusalem’s abominable idolatry! On that same day, Ezekiel’s wife dies, but in obedience to Jehovah, the prophet does not mourn. This is a sign that the people must not mourn at Jerusalem’s destruction, for it is a judgment from Jehovah, in order that they may know who he is. Jehovah will send an escapee to advise of the destruction of “the beautiful object of their exultation,” and until he arrives, Ezekiel must speak no more to the exiles.​—24:25.