Ezekiel 11

Judgment on Wicked Counselors

¹¹The spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the house of the Lord, which faces east. There, at the entrance of the gateway, were twenty-five men; among them I saw Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, officials of the people.^{* 2}He said to me, “Mortal, these are the men who devise iniquity and who give wicked counsel in this city;^{* 3}they say, ‘The time is not near to build houses; this city is the pot, and we are the meat.’^{* 4}Therefore prophesy against them; prophesy, O mortal.”^*

⁵Then the spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and he said to me, “Say, Thus says the Lord: This is what you think, O house of Israel; I know the things that come into your mind.^{* 6}You have killed many in this city and have filled its streets with the slain.^{* 7}Therefore thus says the Lord God: The slain whom you have placed within it are the meat, and this city is the pot, but you shall be taken out of it.^{* 8}You have feared the sword, and I will bring the sword upon you, says the Lord God. ⁹I will take you out of it and give you over to the hands of foreigners and execute judgments upon you.^{* 10}You shall fall by the sword; I will judge you at the border of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord.^{* 11}This city shall not be your pot, and you shall not be the meat inside it; I will judge you at the border of Israel. ¹²Then you shall know that I am the Lord, whose statutes you have not followed and whose ordinances you have not kept, but you have acted according to the ordinances of the nations that are around you.”^*

¹³Now, while I was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. Then I fell down on my face, cried with a loud voice, and said, “Ah Lord God! You are finishing off the remnant of Israel!”^*

God Will Restore Israel

¹⁴Then the word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁵Mortal, your kinsfolk, your own kin, your fellow exiles,^c the whole house of Israel, all of them, are those of whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, “Stay far from the Lord; to us this land is given for a possession.”^{* 16}Therefore say: Thus says the Lord God: Though I removed them far away among the nations and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a little while^d in the countries where they have gone.^{* 17}Therefore say: Thus says the Lord God: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.^{* 18}When they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations.^{* 19}I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them;^e I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,^{* 20}so that they may follow my statutes and keep my ordinances and obey them. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God.^{* 21}But as for those whose heart goes after their detestable things and their abominations,^f I will bring their deeds upon their own heads, says the Lord God.^*

²²Then the cherubim lifted up their wings, with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.^{* 23}And the glory of the Lord ascended from the middle of the city and stopped on the mountain east of the city.^{* 24}The spirit lifted me up and brought me in a vision by the spirit of God into Chaldea, to the exiles. Then the vision that I had seen left me. ²⁵And I told the exiles all the things that the Lord had shown me.