Escape Artist
- It's performance art time again.
- God tells Ezekiel—who's now apparently in Jerusalem—to act out going into exile in the sight of everyone by packing his bags and digging through the wall in plain sight. He'll cover his face so that he won't see the land as he symbolically walks through it.
- God says that the House of Israel might take the hint, even though they're so dense and rebellious.
- After Ezekiel does all this, God tells him that if people ask him what he's doing he's to say that he's symbolically demonstrating what will happen to them and their king (Zedekiah).
- He predicts that King Zedekiah will try to escape and walk away just as Ezekiel had done.
- But he'll be caught by the Babylonians and his servants and troops will be scattered and killed. Some people will survive to tell other nations about their destruction and humiliation.
Eat and Quake
- God's word comes to Ezekiel yet again. It tells him to eat bread and drink water with quaking terror and to tell everyone else to do the same: their land is going to be destroyed and stripped of inhabitants.
- God says he'll put an end to the people's proverb, "The days are prolonged and every vision come to nothing." God will fulfill Ezekiel's visions of destruction and doom.
- When the people start to say that these visions probably relate to the distant future, God tells Ezekiel to tell them that they'll be fulfilled sooner rather than later.