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 word of the Lord 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 says: 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.”
17. The word of the Lord came to me:
18. “Son of man, eat your bread with trembling, and drink your water with anxious shaking.