Through My Bible Yr 2 – May 24

Ezekiel 11

Judgment on Israel’s Leaders

¹ Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the gate of the house of the LORD that faces east. There at the entrance to the gate were twenty-five men, and I saw among them Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, leaders of the people. ² The LORD said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who are plotting evil and giving wicked advice in this city. ³ They say, ‘Will it not soon be time to build houses? ^[a] This city is a cooking pot, and we are the meat.’ ⁴Therefore prophesy against them; prophesy, son of man.”

⁵ Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon me, and he told me to say: “This is what the LORD says: That is what you are saying, O house of Israel, but I know what is going through your mind. ⁶You have killed many people in this city and filled its streets with the dead.

⁷ “Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: The bodies you have thrown there are the meat and this city is the pot, but I will drive you out of it. ⁸ You fear the sword, and the sword is what I will bring against you, declares the Sovereign LORD. ⁹ I will drive you out of the city and hand you over to foreigners and inflict punishment on you. ¹⁰ You will fall by the sword, and I will execute judgment on you at the borders of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD. ¹¹ This city will not be a pot for you, nor will you be the meat in it; I will execute judgment on you at the borders of Israel. ¹²And you will know that I am the LORD, for you have not followed my decrees or kept my laws but have conformed to the standards of the nations around you.”

¹³Now as I was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. Then I fell facedown and cried out in a loud voice, “Ah, Sovereign LORD! Will you completely destroy the remnant of Israel?”

¹⁴ The word of the LORD came to me: ¹⁵ “Son of man, your brothers—your brothers who are your blood relatives ^[b] and the whole house of Israel—are those of whom the people of Jerusalem have said, ‘They are ^[c]far away from the LORD; this land was given to us as our possession.’

Promised Return of Israel

¹⁶“Therefore say: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Although I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet for a little while I have been a sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.’

¹⁷“Therefore say: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.’

¹⁸ “They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. ¹⁹ I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. ²⁰ Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God. ²¹But as for those whose hearts are devoted to their vile images and detestable idols, I will bring down on their own heads what they have done, declares the Sovereign LORD.”

²² Then the cherubim, with the wheels beside them, spread their wings, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them. ²³ The glory of the LORD went up from within the city and stopped above the mountain east of it. ²⁴ The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the exiles in Babylonia ^[d] in the vision given by the Spirit of God.
Then the vision I had seen went up from me, ²⁵ and I told the exiles everything the LORD had shown me.

Footnotes:

1. Ezekiel 11:3 Or This is not the time to build houses.
2. Ezekiel 11:15 Or are in exile with you (see Septuagint and Syriac)
3. Ezekiel 11:15 Or those to whom the people of Jerusalem have said, ‘Stay
4. Ezekiel 11:24 Or Chaldea

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.