Ezekiel 13–28

False Prophets Condemned

¹³The word of the Lord came to me: ²Mortal, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who are prophesying; say to those who prophesy out of their own imaginations: “Hear the word of the Lord!”^{* 3}Thus says the Lord God: Alas for the senseless prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing!^{* 4}Your prophets have been like jackals among ruins, O Israel. ⁵You have not gone up into the breaches or repaired a wall for the house of Israel, so that it might stand in battle on the day of the Lord.^{* 6}They have envisioned falsehood and lying divination; they say, “Says the Lord,” when the Lord has not sent them, and yet they wait for the fulfillment of their word!^{* 7}Have you not seen a false vision or uttered a lying divination when you have said, “Says the Lord,” even though I did not speak?

⁸Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have uttered falsehood and envisioned lies, I am against you, says the Lord God. ⁹My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations; they shall not be in the council of my people nor be enrolled in the register of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter the land of Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord God.^{* 10}Because, in truth, because they have misled my people, saying, “Peace,” when there is no peace, and because, when the people build a flimsy wall, these prophets^j smear whitewash on it.^{* 11}Say to those who smear whitewash on it that it shall fall. There will be a deluge of rain,^k great hailstones will fall, and a stormy wind will break out.^{* 12}When the wall falls, will it not be said to you, “Where is the whitewash you smeared on it?” ¹³Therefore thus says the Lord God: In my wrath I will make a stormy wind break out, and in my anger there shall be a deluge of rain and hailstones in wrath to destroy it. ¹⁴I will break down the wall that you have smeared with whitewash and bring it to the ground, so that its foundation will be laid bare; when the city falls, you shall perish within it, and you shall know that I am the Lord.^{* 15}Thus I will spend my wrath upon the wall and upon those who have smeared it with whitewash, and I will say to you, “The wall is no more, nor those who smeared it—¹⁶the prophets of Israel who prophesied concerning Jerusalem and saw visions of peace for it when there was no peace, says the Lord God.”^*

¹⁷As for you, mortal, set your face against the daughters of your people who prophesy out of their own imaginations; prophesy against them^{* 18}and say: Thus says the Lord God: Woe to the women who sew bands on all wrists and make veils for the heads of persons of every height, in the hunt for lives! Will you hunt down lives among my people and maintain your own lives?^{* 19}You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, putting to death those who should not die and keeping alive those who should not live, by your lies to my people, who listen to lies.^*

²⁰Therefore thus says the Lord God: I am against your bands with which you hunt lives;^l I will tear them from your arms and let the lives go free, the lives that you hunt down like birds. ²¹I will tear off your veils and save my people from your hands; they shall no longer be prey in your hands, and you shall know that I am the Lord. ²²Because you have disheartened the righteous falsely, although I have not disheartened them, and you have encouraged the wicked not to turn from their wicked way and save their lives,^{* 23}therefore you shall no longer see false visions or practice divination; I will save my people from your hand. Then you will know that I am the Lord.^*

God’s Judgments Justified

¹⁴Certain elders of Israel came to me and sat down before me.^{* 2}And the word of the Lord came to me: ³Mortal, these men have taken their idols into their hearts and placed their iniquity as a stumbling block before them; shall I let myself be consulted by them?^{* 4}Therefore speak to them, and say to them: Thus says the Lord God: Any of those of the house of Israel who take their idols into their hearts and place their iniquity as a stumbling block before them and yet come to the prophet, I the Lord will answer those who come with the multitude of their idols, ⁵in order that I may take hold of the hearts of the house of Israel, all of whom are estranged from me through their idols.^*

⁶Therefore say to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord God: Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations.^{* 7}For any of those of the house of Israel or of the aliens who reside in Israel who separate themselves from me, taking their idols into their hearts and placing their iniquity as a stumbling block before them and yet come to a prophet to inquire of me by him, I the Lord will answer them myself.^{* 8}I will set my face against them; I will make them a sign and a byword and cut them off from the midst of my people, and you shall know that I am the Lord.^*

⁹If a prophet is deceived and speaks a word, I, 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.^{* 10}And they shall bear their punishment—the punishment of the inquirer and the punishment of the prophet shall be the same—¹¹so that the house of Israel may no longer go astray from me nor defile themselves any more with all their transgressions. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God, says the Lord God.^*

¹²The word of the Lord came to me: ¹³Mortal, when a land sins against me by acting faithlessly and I stretch out my hand against it and cut off its supply of bread^m and send famine upon it and cut off from it humans and animals,^{* 14}even if Noah, Daniel,ⁿ and Job, these three, were in it, they would save only their own lives by their righteousness, says the Lord God.^{* 15}If I send wild animals through the land to ravage it so that it is made desolate and no one may pass through because of the animals,^{* 16}even if these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they would save neither sons nor daughters; they alone would be saved, but the land would be desolate. ¹⁷Or if I bring a sword upon that land and say, “Let a sword pass through the land,” and I cut off humans and animals from it,^{* 18}though these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they would save neither sons nor daughters, but they alone would be saved. ¹⁹Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out my wrath upon it with blood, to cut off humans and animals from it,^{* 20}even if Noah, Daniel,^o and Job were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they would save neither son nor daughter; they would save only their own lives by their righteousness.

²¹Therefore thus says the Lord God: How much more when I send upon Jerusalem my four deadly acts of judgment, sword, famine, wild animals, and pestilence, to cut off humans and animals from it!^{* 22}Yet survivors shall be left in it, sons and daughters who will be brought out; they will come out to you. When you see their ways and their deeds, you will be consoled for the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, for all that I have brought upon it.^{* 23}They shall console you when you see their ways and their deeds, and you shall know that it was not without cause that I did all that I have done in it, says the Lord God.^*

The Useless Vine

¹⁵The word of the Lord came to me:

²O mortal, how does the wood of the vine surpass all other wood,

the vine branch that is among the trees of the forest?^*

³Is wood taken from it to make anything?

Does one take a peg from it on which to hang any object?

⁴It is put in 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?^*

⁵When 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: Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so I will give up the inhabitants of Jerusalem.^{* 7}I will set my face against them; although they escape from the fire, the fire shall still consume them, and you shall know that I am the Lord when I set my face against them.^{* 8}And I will make the land desolate because they have acted faithlessly, says the Lord God.^*

God’s Faithless Bride

¹⁶The word of the Lord came to me: ²Mortal, make known to Jerusalem her abominations^{* 3}and say: Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.^{* 4}As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in cloths.^{* 5}No eye pitied you to do any of these things for you out of compassion for you, but you were thrown out in the open field, for you were abhorred on the day you were born.^*

⁶I passed by you and saw you flailing about in your blood. As you lay in your blood, I said to you, “Live!^{* 7}and grow up^p like a plant of the field.” You grew up and became tall and arrived at full womanhood;^q your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown, yet you were naked and bare.^*

⁸I passed by you again and looked on you; you were at the age for love. I spread the edge of my cloak over you and covered your nakedness: I pledged myself to you and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord God, and you became mine.^{* 9}Then I bathed you with water and washed off the blood from you and anointed you with oil. ¹⁰I clothed you with embroidered cloth and with sandals of fine leather; I bound you in fine linen and covered you with rich fabric.^{r 11}I adorned you with ornaments: I put bracelets on your arms, a chain on your neck,^{* 12}a ring on your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown upon your head. ¹³You were adorned with gold and silver, while…