Ezekiel
Chapter 11
1 The spirit picked me up and took me to the east entrance of God’s house, facing east. There, at the entrance gate, I saw twenty-five men. Among them were Jaazaniah, Azur’s son, and Pelatiah, Benaiah’s son, who were leaders of the people.
2 He said to me, “Human, these are the people who plan trouble and give evil advice in this city.”
3 They say, “It’s not close; let’s build houses: this city is the pot, and we are the meat.”
4 So tell them what will happen, speak out, human.
5 God’s Spirit came on me and He said, “Speak: This is what God says; you, the people of Israel, have said these things, and I know every thought that comes into your minds.”
6 You have increased the number of your dead in this city, and you have filled its streets with the dead.
7 So God says: “The people you killed and left in the city are like meat, and the city is like a pot. But I will take you out of the city.”
8 You have been afraid of the sword; and I will bring a sword upon you, says God.
9 I will take you out of there, give you to foreigners, and carry out punishments on you.
10 You will die by the sword; I will judge you at Israel’s border; and you will know that I am God.
11 This city won’t be your cooking pot, nor will you be the meat inside it; instead, I will judge you at Israel’s border.
12 You will understand that I am God because you have not followed my laws or done what I said but have acted like the foreigners around you.
13 When I was prophesying, Pelatiah, Benaiah’s son, died. I fell face down, shouted loudly, and said, “Ah God! Are you going to completely destroy what’s left of Israel?”
14 God spoke to me again, saying,
15 Human, your relatives, your own family, and all the people of Israel are those to whom the people of Jerusalem have said, “Stay away from God: this land is ours to own.”
16 So say, God says this: Even though I sent them away among other nations, and I have spread them across different lands, I will still be like a small place of safety for them in the lands where they go.
17 So say this: God says, “I will bring you together from the people, gather you from the countries where you were spread out, and I will give you the land of Israel.”
18 They will go there and remove all its disgusting things and all its horrors.
19 I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit in you; I will remove the heart of stone from their body, and give them a heart of flesh.
20 So they can follow my rules, obey my commands, and do them: and they will be my people, and I will be their God.
21 But as for those who follow their wicked hearts and disgusting actions, I will make sure their actions come back on them, says God.
22 Then the cherubim lifted their wings, and the wheels were beside them; and God’s glory was above them.
23 God’s glory rose from the center of the city and rested on the mountain to the east of the city.
24 Later, the spirit lifted me up. In a vision from God’s spirit, I was taken to the land of the exiles in Chaldea. There, the vision I saw left me.
25 Then I told the captives everything that God had shown me.