Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth [month], in the fifth [day] of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
Then I came to those of the captivity at Tel-abib, who dwelt by the river Chebar, and to where they dwelt. And I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days.
the word of LORD came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar, and the hand of LORD was there upon him.
Their heart cried to LORD. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night. Give thyself no respite. Let not the apple of thine eye cease.
For these things I weep. My eye, my eye runs down with water, because the comforter who should refresh my soul is far from me. My sons are desolate, because the enemy has prevailed.
These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me, how I went with the throng, and led them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping holyday.
And I said to the king, Let the king live forever. Why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchers, lays waste, and the gates of it are consumed with fire?
Then we departed from the river Ahava on the twelfth [day] of the first month, to go to Jerusalem. And the hand of our God was upon us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and the ambushment by the way.
Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek of him a straight way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance.
Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off: Is not LORD in Zion? Is not her King in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with foreign vanities?