Ezekiel 11

The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the LORD’s house, which faces east. There at the entrance of the gate were twenty-five men. Among them I saw Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, leaders of the people. He said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who plot evil and give wicked counsel in this city. They say, ‘The time to build houses is not near. This city is the pot, and we are the meat.’ Therefore prophesy against them. Prophesy, son of man!” The Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and he said to me, “Say, ‘This is what the LORD says: That is what you have said, house of Israel, and I know what rises in your spirit. You have multiplied your slain in this city and filled its streets with the slain. Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Your slain whom you have laid within it are the meat, and it is the pot. But you—he has brought you out of it. You have feared the sword, and I will bring the sword upon you, declares the Lord GOD. I will bring you out of it, deliver you into the hands of foreigners, and execute judgments against you. You will fall by the sword. I will judge you at the border of Israel, and you will know that I am the LORD. This city will not be a pot for you, nor will you be the meat within it. I will judge you at the border of Israel. You will know that I am the LORD, whose statutes you have not followed and whose ordinances you have not carried out. Instead, you have acted according to the ordinances of the nations around you.’” As I was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. I fell facedown and cried out with a loud voice, “Ah, Lord GOD! Are you making a complete end of the remnant of Israel?” The word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, your brothers, your brothers, your kinsmen, and the entire house of Israel, all of it, are those to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘Stay far from the LORD! This land has been given to us as a possession.’ Therefore say, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: Though I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, I have been a small sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.’ Therefore say, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.’ They will come there and remove all its detestable things and all its abominations from it. I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, so that they may follow my statutes and keep my ordinances and carry them out. They will be my people, and I will be their God. But as for those whose heart follows the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their ways upon their own heads, declares the Lord GOD.” The cherubim lifted their wings, with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them. The glory of the LORD rose from the midst of the city and stood over the mountain east of the city. The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the exiles in Chaldea, in a vision by the Spirit of God. Then the vision I had seen left me. I told the exiles all the words of the LORD that he had shown me.

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