Bring your baggage outside during the day so they can watch you. Then in the evening, as they are watching, leave your house as captives do when they begin a long march to distant lands.
Parallel translations
- WEB You shall bring out your stuff by day in their sight, as stuff for moving; and you shall go out yourself at evening in their sight, as when men go out into exile.
- KJV Then 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.
- BSB Bring out your baggage for exile by day, as they watch. Then in the evening, as they watch, go out like those who go into exile.
- NKJV By day you shall bring out your belongings in their sight, as though going into captivity; and at evening you shall go in their sight, like those who go into captivity.
- NASB Bring your baggage out by day in their sight, as baggage for exile. Then you shall go out at evening in their sight, as those who are going into exile.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Ezekiel is to bring out his baggage by day and go out at evening like a man going into exile.
Overview
The staged departure mirrors the experience of those about to be deported from Jerusalem. Carrying out the gear by day, then leaving at dusk, dramatizes both the certainty and the manner of the coming captivity. The sign-act preaches to the eyes what words alone might fail to convey to a hardened people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Jer 39:4When Zedekiah the king of Judah and all the men of war saw them, then they fled, and went out of the city by night, by the way of the king’s garden, through the gate between the two walls; and he went out toward the Arabah.
- 2 Kgs 25:4Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden (now the Chaldeans were against the city around it); and the king went by the way of the Arabah.
- Ezek 12:12“‘The prince who is among them will bear on his shoulder in the dark, and will go out. They will dig through the wall to carry out that way. He will cover his face, because he will not see the land with his eyes.
- Jer 52:7Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled, and went out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden. Now the Chaldeans were against the city all around. The men of war went toward the Arabah,
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Christ at the center
The promise of one Shepherd-King David, a new heart and new Spirit, and the river of life flowing from the temple all stream toward Christ, the good Shepherd who gives the Spirit.
How Ezekiel 12:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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