Ezekiel 11

The Fall of Jerusalem

11:1 A wind¹ lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the Lord’s temple that faces the east. There, at the entrance of the gate, I noticed twenty-five men. Among them I saw Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, officials of the people.² 11:2 The Lord³ said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who plot evil and give wicked advice in this city. 11:3 They say,⁴ ‘The time is not near to build houses;⁵ the city⁶ is a cooking pot⁷ and we are the meat in it.’ 11:4 Therefore, prophesy against them! Prophesy, son of man!”

11:5 Then the Spirit of the Lord came⁸ upon me and said to me, “Say: This is what the Lord says: ‘This is what you are thinking,⁹ O house of Israel; I know what goes through your minds.¹⁰ 11:6 You have killed many people in this city; you have filled its streets with corpses.’ 11:7 Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘The corpses you have dumped¹¹ in the midst of the city¹² are the meat, and this city¹³ is the cooking pot, but I will take you out of it.¹⁴ 11:8 You fear the sword, so the sword I will bring against you,’ declares the sovereign Lord. 11:9 ‘But I will take you out of the city.¹⁵ And I will hand you over to foreigners. I will execute judgments on you. 11:10 You will die by the sword; I will judge you at the border of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord. 11:11 This city will not be a cooking pot for you, and you will not¹⁶ be meat within it; I will judge you at the border of Israel. 11:12 Then you will know that I am the Lord, whose statutes you have not followed and whose regulations you have not carried out. Instead you have behaved according to the regulations of the nations around you!’”

11:13 Now, while I was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. Then I threw myself face down and cried out with a loud voice, “Alas, sovereign Lord! You are completely wiping out the remnant of Israel!”¹⁷

11:14 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 11:15 “Son of man, your brothers,¹⁸ your relatives,¹⁹ and the whole house of Israel, all of them are those to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem²⁰ have said, ‘They have gone²¹ far away from the Lord; to us this land has been given as a possession.’

11:16 “Therefore say: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Although I have removed them far away among the nations and have dispersed them among the countries, I have been a little²² sanctuary for them among the lands where they have gone.’

11:17 “Therefore say: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: When I regather you from the peoples and assemble you from the lands where you have been dispersed, I will give you back the country of Israel.’

11:18 “When they return to it, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations. 11:19 I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within them;²³ I will remove the hearts of stone from their bodies²⁴ and I will give them tender hearts,²⁵ 11:20 so that they may follow my statutes and observe my regulations and carry them out. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God.²⁶ 11:21 But those whose hearts are devoted to detestable things and abominations, I hereby repay them for what they have done,²⁷ says the sovereign Lord.”

11:22 Then the cherubim spread²⁸ their wings with their wheels alongside them while the glory of the God of Israel hovered above them. 11:23 The glory of the Lord rose up from within the city and stopped²⁹ over the mountain east of it. 11:24 Then a wind³⁰ lifted me up and carried me to the exiles in Babylonia,³¹ in the vision given to me by the Spirit of God.

Then the vision I had seen went up from me. 11:25 So I told the exiles everything³² the Lord had shown me.

Next Chapter