1Then a wind lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the house of Yahweh, the one that faces east. And behold, at the entrance of the gate were twenty-five men, and among them I saw Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, princes of the people.
2And he said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity and give evil counsel in this city,
3who say, ‘It is not near—the building of houses. This city is the pot, and we are the flesh.’
4Therefore prophesy against them; prophesy, son of man.”
5Then the Spirit of Yahweh fell upon me, and he said to me, “Say, ‘Thus says Yahweh: This is what you have said, house of Israel; and the things rising up in your spirit, I myself know them.
6You have multiplied your slain in this city and filled its streets with the slain.’
7Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘Your slain whom you have placed in her midst — they are the flesh, and she is the pot; but you he will bring out from her midst.
8You have feared the sword, and the sword I will bring upon you, declares the Lord Yahweh.
9And I will bring you out of her midst and give you into the hand of strangers, and I will execute judgments among you.
10By the sword you shall fall; at the border of Israel I will judge you, and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
11This city will not be a pot for you, nor will you be the flesh in her midst; at the border of Israel I will judge you.
12And you shall know that I am Yahweh — you who have not walked in my statutes and have not done my judgments, but have acted according to the judgments of the nations that are around you.”
13And it happened, while I was prophesying, that Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. Then I fell on my face and cried out with a loud voice and said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Are you making a complete end of the remnant of Israel?”
14Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
15“Son of man, your brothers — your brothers, the men of your kindred and all the house of Israel, all of it — are those to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘Keep far from Yahweh; to us this land has been given as a possession.’
16Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Though I have removed them far off among the nations and though I have scattered them among the lands, yet I have become for them a sanctuary in small measure in the lands to which they have come.’
17Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the lands in which you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.’
18And they will come there and remove all its detestable things and all its abominations from it.
19And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,
20so that they may walk in my statutes and keep my judgments and do them. And they will be my people, and I will be their God.
21But as for those whose heart goes after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I have brought their way down upon their own head, declares the Lord Yahweh.”
22Then the cherubim lifted up their wings, and the wheels were beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.
23And the glory of Yahweh went up from the midst of the city and stood upon the mountain that is on the east of the city.
24And a wind lifted me up and brought me to Chaldea, to the exiles, in the vision, by the Spirit of God. Then the vision that I had seen went up from me.
25And I spoke to the exiles all the words of Yahweh that he had shown me.
Open in the interactive reader →