Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
Ezekiel 11
The leaders at the gate
A spirit lifted me and brought me to the east gate of the LORD’s house, the gate facing east. At its entrance were twenty-five men. Among them I saw Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, leaders of the people. He said, “Son of man, these are the men who plan wrongdoing and give evil counsel in this city. They say, ‘The time to build houses is not near. The city is the pot, and we are the meat.’ So prophesy against them. Prophesy, son of man!” The spirit of the LORD fell upon me. He told me, “Say: This is what the LORD says: That is what you say, house of Israel. I know the thoughts that rise in your spirit. You have multiplied the slain in this city and filled its streets with the dead. Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: The slain you have laid within the city are the meat, and the city is the pot. But you will be brought out of it. You fear the sword, and I will bring a sword against you, declares the Lord GOD. I will bring you out of the city, hand you over to foreigners, and carry out judgments against you. You will fall by the sword. I will judge you at Israel’s border, and you will know that I am the LORD. This city will not be your pot, nor will you be the meat within it. I will judge you at Israel’s border. Then you will know that I am the LORD. You have not lived by my statutes or carried out my judgments, but have followed the judgments of the nations around you.” While I was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. I fell facedown and cried out loudly, “Ah, Lord GOD! Are you making an end of all who remain of Israel?”
A sanctuary among the nations
The word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, your brothers—your brothers, your own kin—and the whole house of Israel, all of them, are the ones the people of Jerusalem have told, ‘Stay far from the LORD. The land has been given to us as our possession.’ Therefore say: This is what the Lord GOD says: Though I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them through other lands, I have been a sanctuary for them for a little while in the lands where they went. Therefore say: This is what the Lord GOD says: I will gather you from the peoples and bring you together from the lands where you have been scattered. I will give you the land of Israel. They will come there and remove all its detestable things and all its abominations. 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 live by my statutes, keep my judgments, and carry them out. They will be my people, and I will be their God. But those whose hearts pursue their detestable things and abominations—I will bring their ways down on their own heads, declares the Lord GOD.”
The vision departs
The cherubim lifted their wings, with the wheels beside them and the glory of the God of Israel above them. The glory of the LORD rose from the middle of the city and stopped on the mountain east of it. A spirit lifted me and brought me in the vision, by the spirit of God, to the exiles in Chaldea. Then the vision I had seen rose away from me. I told the exiles everything the LORD had shown me.