Ezekiel 13:22–28:26

^22aBecause you have disheartened the righteous falsely, although I have not grieved him, and ^byou have encouraged the wicked, that ^che should not turn from his evil way to save his life, ^23dtherefore you shall no more see false visions nor practice divination. I will deliver my people out of your hand. And you shall know that I am the Lord.”

Idolatrous Elders Condemned

14Then certain of the ^eelders of Israel came to me ^eand sat before me. ²And the word of the Lord came to me: ^3f“Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set ^gthe stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. ^hShould I indeed let myself be consulted by them? ⁴Therefore speak to them and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Any one of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to the prophet, ⁱI the Lord will answer him as he comes with the multitude of his idols, ^5jthat I may lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel, ^kwho are all estranged from me through their idols.

⁶“Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: ^lRepent and turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations. ⁷For any one of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel, ^kwho separates himself from me, taking his idols into his heart and putting the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to a prophet to consult me through him, ^mI the Lord will answer him myself. ⁸And ⁿI will set my face against that man; I ^owill make him a sign and a byword ⁿand cut him off from the midst of my people, ^pand you shall know that I am the Lord. ⁹And if the prophet is deceived and speaks a word, ^qI, the Lord, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel. ¹⁰And they shall bear their punishment¹—the punishment of the prophet and the punishment of the inquirer shall be alike— ¹¹that the house of Israel may no more go astray from me, nor ^rdefile themselves anymore with all their transgressions, ^sbut that they may be my people and I may be their God, declares the Lord God.”

Jerusalem Will Not Be Spared

¹²And the word of the Lord came to me: ^13t“Son of man, when a land sins against me ^uby acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and ^vbreak its supply² of bread and send famine upon it, and ^wcut off from it man and beast, ^14xeven if these three men, ^yNoah, ^zDaniel, and ^aJob, were in it, ^bthey would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord God.

^15c“If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land, and they ravage it, ^dand it be made desolate, so that no one may pass through because of the beasts, ¹⁶even if these three men were in it, ^eas I live, declares the Lord God, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters. They alone would be delivered, but ^fthe land would be desolate.

¹⁷“Or ^gif I bring a sword upon that land and say, Let a sword pass through the land, ^hand I cut off from it man and beast, ^18xthough these three men were in it, as I live, declares the Lord God, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they alone would be delivered.

¹⁹“Or ⁱif I send a pestilence into that land and pour out my wrath upon it with blood, to cut off from it man and beast, ²⁰even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, declares the Lord God, they would deliver neither son nor daughter. They would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness.

²¹“For thus says the Lord God: How much more ^jwhen I send upon Jerusalem my four disastrous acts of judgment, ^ksword, ^lfamine, ^mwild beasts, and ⁿpestilence, to cut off from it man and beast! ²²But behold, ^osome survivors will be left in it, sons and daughters who will be brought out; behold, when they come out to you, and ^pyou see their ways and their deeds, you will be consoled for the disaster that I have brought upon Jerusalem, for all that I have brought upon it. ²³They will console you, when you see their ways and their deeds, and you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, declares the Lord God.”

Jerusalem, a Useless Vine

15And the word of the Lord came to me: ^2q“Son of man, how does ^rthe wood of the vine surpass any wood, the vine branch that is among the trees of the forest? ³Is wood taken from it to make anything? Do people take ^sa peg from it to hang any vessel on it? ^4tBehold, it is given to the fire for fuel. When the fire has consumed both ends of it, and the middle of it is charred, is it useful for anything? ^5uBehold, when it was whole, it was used for nothing. How much less, when the fire has consumed it and it is charred, can it ever be used for anything! ⁶Therefore thus says the Lord God: ^vLike the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, ^twhich I have given to the fire for fuel, so have I given up the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ^7wAnd I will set my face against them. Though ^xthey escape from the fire, the fire shall yet consume them, ^yand you will know that I am the Lord, ^wwhen I set my face against them. ^8zAnd I will make the land desolate, because ^athey have acted faithlessly, declares the Lord God.”

The Lord’s Faithless Bride

16Again the word of the Lord came to me: ^2b“Son of man, ^cmake known to Jerusalem her abominations, ³and say, Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an ^dAmorite and your mother a ^eHittite. ⁴And as for your birth, ^fon the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. ⁵No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, ^gbut you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred, ^fon the day that you were born.

⁶“And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing ^hin your blood, I said to you ^hin your blood, ‘Live!’ I said to you ^hin your blood, ‘Live!’ ⁷ⁱI made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall ^jand arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown; yet ^kyou were naked and bare.

⁸“When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and ^lI spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you ^mand entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, ⁿand you became mine. ⁹Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and ^oanointed you with oil. ^10pI clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk.^{1 11q}And I adorned you with ornaments and ^rput bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck. ¹²And I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. ¹³Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. ^sYou ate fine flour and honey and oil. ^tYou grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. ¹⁴And ^uyour renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord God.

^15v“But you trusted in your beauty ^wand played the whore² because of your renown ^xand lavished your whorings³ on any passerby; your beauty⁴ became his. ¹⁶You took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful shrines, and on them played the whore. The like has never been, nor ever shall be.^{5 17}You also took ^yyour beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and ^zmade for yourself images of men, and with them played the whore. ¹⁸And you took your embroidered garments to cover them, ^aand set my oil and my incense before them. ^19bAlso my bread that I gave you—^sI fed you with fine flour and oil and honey—you set before them for ^ca pleasing aroma; and so it was, declares the Lord God. ^20dAnd you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and ^ethese you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your whorings so small a matter ²¹that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them? ²²And in all your abominations and your whorings you did not remember ^fthe days of your youth, ^gwhen you were naked and bare, wallowing in your blood.

²³“And after all your wickedness (woe, woe to you! declares the Lord God), ²⁴you built yourself ^ha vaulted chamber and made yourself a lofty place in every square. ²⁵At the head of every street ⁱyou built your lofty place and made ^jyour beauty an abomination, ^koffering yourself⁶ to any passerby and multiplying your whoring. ^26wYou also played the whore ^lwith the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, ^mmultiplying your whoring, ⁿto provoke me to anger. ²⁷Behold, therefore, I stretched out my hand against you ^oand diminished your allotted portion ^pand delivered you to the greed of your enemies, ^qthe daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior. ^28wYou played the whore also ^rwith the Assyrians, because you were not satisfied; yes, you played the whore with them, and still you were not satisfied. ²⁹You multiplied your whoring also with the trading land ^tof Chaldea, and even with this you were not satisfied.

³⁰“How sick is your heart,⁷ declares the Lord God, because you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute, ³¹building your vaulted chamber at the head of every street, and making your lofty place in every square. Yet you were not like a prostitute, ^ubecause you scorned payment. ³²Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband! ³³Men give gifts to all prostitutes, ^vbut you gave your gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from every side with your whorings. ³⁴So you were different from other women in your whorings. No one solicited you to play the whore, and ^vyou…