Wicked Counsel in the City
At the city gate Ezekiel names twenty-five officials whose confident talk of safety is a lie, and one of them drops dead as he prophesies. Horrified, he asks whether anyone survives. Our Father's promise goes to the scattered exiles: a heart of flesh instead of stone.
11 1The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the house of our Father, which faces east. At the entrance were twenty-five men, and among them I saw Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, leaders of the people.
2He said to me, "Son of man, these are the men plotting harm and giving evil counsel in this city, 3who say, 'Isn't it nearly time to build houses? This is the pot, we're the meat.' 4Therefore prophesy against them; prophesy, son of man."
5Then the Spirit of our Father fell on me, and told me to say: 'This is what our Father says: So you are saying, house of Israel; I know what rises in your mind.' 6You have slain many in this city and filled its streets with the dead.
7So the Sovereign Father says: those you killed and laid in the city are the meat, the city the pot; but you will be driven out of it. 8You have feared the sword, and I will bring the sword upon you, declares the Sovereign Father. 9I will bring you out of the city, hand you over to foreigners, and carry out judgments against you. 10You will fall by the sword. I will judge you at Israel's border, and you will know I am your Father. 11This city will not be a pot for you, nor you the meat in it. I will judge you at Israel's border, 12then you will know I am your Father—you who did not follow my statutes or keep my rules, but lived by the rules of the nations around you.
The Father Promises a New Heart
13As I prophesied, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. I fell facedown and cried out loudly, "Oh, Sovereign Father! Will you wipe out the remnant of Israel completely?"
14Then the word of our Father came to me:
15Son of man, your brothers—your brothers, your own relatives, the whole house of Israel, all of them—the people of Jerusalem have said, 'Stay far from God; this land is given to us as a possession.'
16Therefore say, 'This is what the Sovereign Father says: Though I sent them far among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet I was a sanctuary to them for a little while in the countries where they went.'
17So say: 'The Sovereign Father says: I will gather you from the peoples, collect you from the countries where you were scattered, and give you the land of Israel.'
18When they come there, they will remove all its vile idols and all its detestable things from it. 19I will give them one heart and put a new spirit in them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 20so that they may follow my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they will be my children, and I will be their Father. 21But those whose hearts chase after their detestable things and disgusting practices—I will bring their conduct down on their own heads, declares the Sovereign Father.
22Then the cherubim raised their wings, the wheels beside them, and the glory of the Father of Israel above them. 23The glory of our Father rose from within the city and stood on the mountain east of the city. 24The Spirit lifted me and brought me in a vision, by the Spirit of our Father, to the exiles in Babylonia. Then the vision I had seen left me. 25And I told the exiles all the things that our Father had shown me.
