Judgment on Jerusalem and Its Leaders
Ezekiel 11Moreover the Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the house of YHWH, which looks eastward. I saw twenty-five men were at the door of the gate; and I saw among them Jaazaniah the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people. He said to me, “Son of humanity, these are the men who devise iniquity, and who give wicked counsel in this city; who say, ‘The time is not near to build houses. This is the cauldron, and we are the meat.’ Therefore prophesy against them. Prophesy, son of humanity.”
The Spirit of YHWH fell on me, and ʜᴇ said to me, “You are to say, ‘This is what YHWH says: “This is what y’all are saying, house of Israel, but I know the things that come into y’all’s mind. Y’all have increase the number of corpses in this city, and y’all have filled its streets with corpses.”
“‘Therefore Lord YHWH says: “The corpses that y’all have laid in the middle are the meat, and this city is the cauldron. But y’all will be brought out of the middle of it. Y’all have feared the sword, and I will bring the sword on y’all,” says Lord YHWH. “I will bring y’all out of the middle of it, and deliver y’all into the hands of strangers and execute judgments against y’all. Y’all will fall by the sword. I will judge y’all in the border of Israel. Then y’all will know that I am YHWH. This will not be a pot for y’all, nor will y’all be the meat in it. I will judge y’all in the border of Israel. Y’all will know that I am YHWH, for y’all have not walked according to my statutes. Y’all have not kept my laws, but have acted according to the laws of the nations around y’all.”’”
When I prophesied, Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then I fell down on my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, “Ah Lord YHWH! Will you make a full end of the remnant of Israel?”
Promise of Israel’s New Heart
The word of YHWH came to me, saying, “Son of humanity, your brothers, your relatives, and all the house of Israel, all of them, are the ones to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘Y’all must go far away from YHWH. This land has been given to us for a possession.’
“Therefore say, ‘Lord YHWH says: “Whereas I have removed them far off among the nations, and whereas I have scattered them among the countries, yet I will be to them a sanctuary for a little while in the countries where they have come.”’
“Therefore you are to say, ‘Lord YHWH says: “I will gather y’all from the peoples, and assemble y’all from the countries where y’all have been scattered, and I will give y’all the land of Israel.”
“‘They will return to it, and they will remove all its detestable things and all its abominations from there. I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within y’all. I will remove their heart of stone from their flesh, and I will give them a heart of flesh, so that they will follow my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them. They will be my people, and I will be their God. But as for them whose heart walks after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their way on their own heads,’ says Lord YHWH.”
Then the cherubim lifted up their wings, and the wheels were beside them. The glory of the God of Israel was over them above. YHWH’s glory went up from the middle of the city, and stood on the mountain which is on the east side of the city. The Spirit lifted me up, and brought me in the vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to the captives.
So the vision that I had seen went up from me. Then I spoke to the captives all the things that YHWH had shown me.