Ezekiel 11

¹ The spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the Temple of Yahweh, the gate that lookseastwards. There at the entrance to the gate stood twenty-five men, among whom I saw Jaazaniah son of Azzurand Pelatiah son of Benaiah, leaders of the people.

² He said to me, 'Son of man, these are the wicked schemers who are spreading their bad advicethrough this city.

³ They say, "There will be no house-building yet awhile. The city is the cooking pot and we are themeat."

⁴ So prophesy against them, prophesy, son of man!'

⁵ The spirit of Yahweh fel on me, and he said to me, 'Say, "Yahweh says this: I know what you aresaying, House of Israel, I know how insolent you are.

⁶ You have filled this city with more and more of your victims; you have strewn its streets with victims.

⁷ And so the Lord Yahweh says this: Your victims, whom you have put in it, are the meat, and the city isthe cooking pot; but I shal take you out of it.

⁸ You are afraid of the sword and I shall bring the sword down on you -- declares the Lord Yahweh-

⁹ and I shall take you out of it and hand you over to foreigners and bring you to justice;

¹⁰ you will fal by the sword on the soil of Israel; I shal execute justice on you, and you wil know that Iam Yahweh.

¹¹ This city wil be no cooking pot for you, nor wil you be the meat inside; I shal execute justice on youon the soil of Israel;

¹² and you wil know that I am Yahweh, whose laws you have not obeyed and whose judgements youhave not kept; instead, you have adopted the customs of the nations round you." '

¹³ Now as I was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah dropped dead. I fel to the ground and cried out,'Ah, Lord Yahweh, are you going to annihilate the remnant of Israel?'

¹⁴ The word of Yahweh was then addressed to me as follows,

¹⁵ 'Son of man, to your brothers one and al , to your kinsfolk and to the whole House of Israel, theinhabitants of Jerusalem have said, "Keep wel away from Yahweh. This country has now been made over tous!"

¹⁶ So say, "The Lord Yahweh says this: Yes, I have sent them far away among the nations and I havedispersed them to foreign countries; and for a while I have been a sanctuary for them in the country to whichthey have gone."

¹⁷ So say, "The Lord Yahweh says this: I shall gather you back from the peoples, I shall col ect you infrom the countries where you have been scattered and give you the land of Israel.

¹⁸ When they come back, they wil purge it of al its horrors and loathsome practices.

¹⁹ I shal give them a single heart and I shal put a new spirit in them; I shall remove the heart of stonefrom their bodies and give them a heart of flesh,

²⁰ so that they can keep my laws and respect my judgements and put them into practice. Then they wilbe my people and I shall be their God.

²¹ But those whose hearts are set on their horrors and loathsome practices I shal repay for theirconduct -- declares the Lord Yahweh." '

²² The winged creatures then raised their wings and the wheels moved with them, with the glory of theGod of Israel over them, above.

²³ And the glory of Yahweh rose from the centre of the city and halted on the mountain to the east of thecity.

²⁴ Then the spirit lifted me up and took me, in vision, in the spirit of God, to the exiles in Chaldaea, andthe vision which I had seen faded.

²⁵ I then told the exiles everything that Yahweh had shown me.