Amplified Bible (AMP)

The Prophet’s Call

1 Then He said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet and I will speak to you.”

2 Then as He spoke to me the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet; and I heard Him speaking to me.

3 And He said to me, “I am sending you, son of man, to the children of Israel, to a rebellious people [in both the north and the south] that have rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have sinnedandrevolted against Me to this very day.

4 I am sending you to them who are stubborn and obstinate children, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LordGod.’

5 As for them, whether they listen or refuse [to listen]–for they are a rebellious house–yet they will knowandbe fully aware of the fact that there has been a prophet among them.

6 And you, son of man, neither fear them nor fear their words; though briars and thorns are all around you and you sit among scorpions, neither fear their words nor be dismayed at their presence, for they are a rebellious house.

7 But you shall speak My words to them whether they will listen or refuse [to listen], for they are [most] rebellious.

8 “As for you, son of man, listen to what I say to you; do not be rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I am giving you.”

9 Then I looked, and I saw a hand stretched out toward me; and behold, a scroll of a book was in it.

10 And He spread it before me, and it was written on the front and on the back, and written on it were [words of] lamentation (funeral songs) and mourning and woe.

Ezekiel’s Commission

1 He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find [in this book]; eat this scroll, then go, speak to the house of Israel.”

2 So I opened my mouth, and He fed me the scroll.

3 He said to me, “Son of man, eat this scroll that I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.” So I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.

4 Then He said to me, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak My words to them.

5 For you are not being sent to a people of unintelligible speech or difficult language, but to the house of Israel,

6 not to many peoples of unintelligible speech or difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. But I have sent you to them who should listen to youandpay attention to My message;

7 yet the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to youandobey you, since they are not willing to listen to Meandobey Me, for the entire house of Israel is stubborn and obstinate.

8 Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces and your forehead as hard as their foreheads.

9 I have made your forehead like emery (diamond), harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them or be dismayed before them, though they are a rebellious house.”

10 Moreover, He said to me, “Son of man, receive into your heart all My words which I will speak to you and hear with your ears (listen closely).

11 Go to the [Jewish] exiles [in Babylon], to the children of your people, and speak to them, whether they listen or not, and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’”

12 Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard a great rushing sound behind me, “Blessed be the glory of the Lordin His place [above the expanse].”

13 And then Iheardthe sound of the wings of the living beings as they touched one another and [I heard] the sound of the wheels beside them, a great rushing sound.

14 So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went embittered [by the sins of Israel] in the rage of my spirit; and the hand of the Lordwas strong on me.

15 Then I came to the exiles who lived beside the River Chebar at Tel Abib. I sat there for seven days [in the place] where they were living, overwhelmed with astonishment [by my vision and the work before me].

16 At the end of seven days the word of the Lordcame to me, saying,

17 “Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman to the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from My mouth, warn them from Me.

18 When I say to the wicked, ‘You will certainly die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to tell him to turn from his wicked way to save his life, that same evil man will die in his sin, but you will be responsible for his blood.

19 However, if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he will die in his sin; but you havefreed yourself [from responsibility].

20 Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness (right standing with God) and sins, and I place an obstacle before him, he will die; since you have not warned him, he will die in his sin, and the righteous deeds which he has done will not be remembered; but you will be responsible for his blood.

21 However, if you have warned the righteous man not to sin and he does not sin, he will surely live because he took warning; also you havefreed yourself [from responsibility].”

22 The hand of the Lordwas on me there, and He said to me, “Arise, go out to the plain, and I will speak to you.”

23 So I got up and went out to the plain; and behold, the gloryandbrilliance of the Lordwas standing there, like the glory I had seen by the River Chebar, and I fell face downward.

24 Then the Spirit entered me and made me stand on my feet; He spoke and said to me, “Go, shut yourself up in your house.

25 As for you, son of man, they will put ropes on you and bind you with them so that you cannot go out among them.

26 And I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you cannot talk and you cannot be a man who rebukes the people, for they are a rebellious house.

27 But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth and you will say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ He who hears, let him hear; and he who refuses [to hear], let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.

Siege of Jerusalem Predicted

1 “Now you, son of man, take a brick, place it before you and inscribe on it [a diagram of] the city of Jerusalem.

2 Then lay siege against it, build a siege wall, raise a ramp against it; set up [enemy] camps and place battering rams all around it.

3 Further, take an iron plate and place it as an iron wall between you and the city, and set your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This is a sign to the house of Israel.

4 “Then lie down on your left side (toward the north) to bear [symbolically] the wickednessandpunishment of thehouse of Israel. You shall bear their wickednessandpunishment for the number of days that you lie on your side.

5 For I have assigned you the years of their wickednessandpunishment, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days [representing three hundred and ninety years]; in this way you shall bear [symbolically] the wickednessandpunishment of the house of Israel.

6 When you have completed these [days for Israel], lie down again, but on your right side (toward the south), and you shall bear the wickednessandpunishment of thehouse of Judah forty days. I have assigned you one day for each year.

7 Then you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and prophesy against it.

8 Now behold, I will put ropes on you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.

Defiled Bread

9 “But as for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, and put them into one vessel and make them into bread for yourself. You shall eat it according to the number of the days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days.

10 The food you eat each dayshall be[measured] by weight,twenty shekels, to be eaten daily at a set time.

11 You shall drink water by measure also,the sixth part of a hin; you shall drink daily at a set time.

12 You shall eat your food as barley cakes, having baked it in their sight over human dung.”

13 Then the Lordsaid, “Thus the children of Israel will eat their bread uncleananddefiled among the nations where I will banish them.”

14 But I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold (hear me), I have never been defiled; for from my youth until now I have never eaten what died on its own or was torn by beasts, nor has any unclean meat ever entered my mouth.”

15 Then He said to me, “See, I will let you use cow’s dung instead of human dung over which you shall prepare your food.”

16 Moreover, He said to me, “Son of man, behold (listen carefully), I am going to break the staff of bread [that supports life] in Jerusalem; and they shall eat bread [rationed] by weight and [eat it] with anxietyandfear, and drink water by measure and [drink it] in horror [of the impending starvation],

17 because bread and water will be scarce; and they will look at one another in dismay and waste away [in punishment] for their wickedness.

Jerusalem’s Desolation Foretold

1 “And you [Ezekiel], son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor and shave your head and your beard. Then take scales for weighing and divide the hair [into three parts].

2 You shall burn one third with fire in the center of the city, when the days of the siege are completed. Then you shall take one third and strike it with the sword all around the city, and one third you shall scatter to the wind; and I will unsheathe a sword behind them.

3 Also take some of them and bind them in the edges of your robes.

4 Again take some hair and throw them into the fire and burn them in the fire; from it a fire will spread to all the house of Israel.

5 “Thus says the Lord God, ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the center of the nations, and countries are around her.

6 ~‘And she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the [pagan] nations and against My statutes more than the countries that are around her; for Israel has rejected My ordinances and has not walked in My statutes.’

7 Therefore, thus says the Lord God, ‘Because you have more turmoil than the nations which surround you and have not walked in My statutes, nor kept My ordinances, nor observed the ordinances of the nations which surround you,’

8 therefore, thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I, I Myself, am against you, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations.

9 ~‘And because of all your abominations, I will do among you that which I have not done, and the like of which I will not do again.

10 ~‘Therefore, fathers will eat their sons among you, and sons will eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments on you and I will scatter to all the winds the remnant of you.

11 ~‘So, as I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish youandwithdraw, and My eye will have no pity and I will not spare [you].

12 ~‘One third of you will die of virulent disease or be consumed by famine among you; one third will fall by the sword around you; and one third I will scatter to all the winds, and I will unsheathe a sword behind them.

13 ‘Thus My anger will come to an end and I will satisfy My wrath on them, and I will be appeased; then they will know [without any doubt] that I the Lordhave spoken in My zeal when I have spent My wrath on them.

14 ~‘Moreover, I will make you a desolation and a disgrace among the nations which surround you and in the sight of all who pass by.

15 ~‘So it will be a disgrace, a taunt, a warning and an object of horror to the [pagan] nations who surround you when I execute judgments against you in anger and in wrath and in raging reprimands–I, the Lord, have spoken.

16 ~‘When I send against them the deadly arrows of hunger which were for the destruction of those whom I will send to destroy you, then I will increase the famine upon you and break your staff of bread.

17 ~‘Further, I will send against you hunger and wild beasts, and they will bereave you of children; virulent disease and bloodshed also will pass through you, and I will bring the sword on you. I, the Lord, have spoken.’”

Idolatrous Worship Denounced

1 And the word of the Lordcame to me, saying,

2 “Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them,

3 and say, ‘You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! Thus says the Lord Godto the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: “Behold, I Myself am going to bring a sword on you, and I will destroy your high places [of idolatrous worship],

4 and your altars will become deserted and your pillars for sun-worship will be smashed in pieces; and I will throw down your slain in front of your idols [that cannot bring them back to life].

5 I will also lay the dead bodies of the children of Israel in front of their [Canaanite] idols; and I will scatter your bones all around your altars.

6 Everywhere you live, the cities will become waste and the high places will become deserted, so that your altars may bear their guiltandbecome deserted, your idols may be broken and destroyed, your incense altars [for sun-worship] may be cut down, and your works may be blotted out.

7 The slain will fall among you, then you shall know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord.

8 “Yet I will leave some of you alive [a remnant], for you will have some who escaped the sword among the nations when you are scattered throughout the countries.

9 Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations to which they will be exiled, how I have been broken by their lewdnessandtheir adulterous hearts which have turned away from Me, and by their eyes which lust after their idols; and they will loathe themselves for the evils which they have committed, for all their repulsive acts.

10 Then they will know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord; I have not said in vain that I would bring this disaster [as punishment] on them.”’

11 “Thus says the Lord God, ‘Strike with your fist, stamp with your foot and say, “Alas, because of all the evil atrocities of the house of Israel, which will fall by sword, by famine, and by virulent disease!

12 He who is far away will die of the virulent disease, and he who is near will fall by the sword, and he who remains and is besieged will die by the famine. Thus I will spend My wrath on them.

13 Then you will know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord, when their slain are among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every leafy tree and under every oak with thick branches, the places where they offered sweet incenseanda soothing aroma to all their idols.

14 And I will stretch out My hand against them and make the land a more desolate waste than the wilderness toward Diblah [the Moabite city], throughout all the places where they live; and they will know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord.”’”

Punishment for Wickedness Foretold

1 Moreover, the word of the Lordcame to me, saying,

2 “Also, son of man, thus says the Lord Godto the land of Israel, ‘An end! The end is coming on the four corners of the land.

3 ~‘Now the end is upon you, and I will send My anger against you and will judge you in accordance with your ways and I will bring [retribution for] all your abominations upon you.

4 ~‘For My eye will have no pity on you, nor will I spare you, but I will repay you for your evil ways, while your abominations are among you; and you will know (recognize, understand) [without any doubt] that I am the Lord.’

5 “Thus says the Lord God, ‘A disaster is coming, [one so destructive and injurious, so sudden and violent, that it stands alone,] a unique disaster, look it is coming!

6 ~‘An end is coming; the end has come! It has awakened against you. Look, it has come!

7 ~‘Your doom has come to you, O inhabitant of the land; the time has come, the day is near–tumult rather than joyful shouting on the mountains.

8 ~‘Now I will soon pour out My wrath on you and spend My anger against you, and I will judge you in accordance with your ways and will repay you [with punishment] for all your outrageous acts.

9 ~‘My eye will show no pity nor will I spare [you]. I will repay you in accordance with your ways, while your abominations are in your midst; then you will knowandunderstand that it is I, the Lord, who strikes you.

10 ‘Behold, the day! Behold, it is coming! Your doom has gone forth, the rod has blossomed, arrogance has sprouted.

11 ~‘Violence has grown into a rod of wickedness; none of them (Israel)will remain,none of their people, none of their wealth, nor anything eminent among them.

12 ~‘The time has come, the day has arrived. Let not the buyer rejoice nor the seller mourn, for wrath is against all their multitude [of people].

13 ~‘For the seller will not regainandreturn towhat he sold, even were they yet alive; for the vision [of punishment] regarding all the multitude [of people] will not be turned back, nor will any one of them sustain his life because of his sin.

14 ‘They have blown the trumpet and have made everything ready, but no one is going to the battle, for My wrath is against all their multitude [of people].

15 ~‘The sword is outside and virulent disease and famine are within. He who is in the field will die by the sword, and famine and disease will devour those in the city.

16 ~‘Even when their survivors escape, they will be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, each over his [punishment for] sin.

17 ~‘All hands will hang limp and all knees will be as weak as water.

18 ~‘They will also cover themselves with sackcloth; horror will overwhelm them, and shamewill beon all faces and baldness on all their heads [as evidence of grief].

19 ~‘They will fling their silver into the streets and their gold will be [discarded] like something unclean; their silver and their gold shall not be able to save them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. These [things] cannot satisfy their soul nor fill their stomachs, for they have become their stumbling blockandsource of sin.

The Temple Profaned

20 ~‘As for the beauty of [gold for] ornaments, they turned it to pride and from it made the images of their repulsive things (idols) and of their vile things. Therefore I will make it an unclean thing to them.

21 ~‘I will give it into the hands of strangers (Babylonians) as plunder and to the wicked of the earth as spoil, and they shall profane it.

22 ~‘I will also turn My face away from them, and they will desecrate My secret treasure (the Jerusalem temple); and robbers will enter [irreverently] into it (the Holy of Holies) and violate it.

23 ‘Prepare the chain [for imprisonment], for the land is full of bloody crimes [murders committed under the pretense of civil justice] and the city is full of violence.

24 ~‘Therefore, I will bring the worst of the [Gentile] nations, and they will take possession of their houses [those of the people of Judah]; I will also silence their pride, and their holy places will be profaned.

25 ~‘When anguish comes, they [of Judah] shall seek peace, but there will be none.

26 ~‘Disaster will come upon disaster and rumor will beheapedon rumor; they will seek a vision from a prophet, but the lawandguidance will be lost from the priest and [wise] counsel [will cease] from the elders.

27 ~‘The king [of Judah] will mourn and the prince (Zedekiah) will be clothed with [garments of] despairandanguish, and the hands of the people of the land shall tremble [in terror]. I will deal with them in accordance with their conduct, and by their judgments I will judge them. And they will know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord.’”

Vision of Repulsive Acts in Jerusalem

1 It came about in thesixth year [of the captivity of King Jehoiachin], on the fifth day of the sixth month, as I sat in my house [near Babylon] with the elders of Judah sitting before me, that the hand of the LordGodfell on me there.

2 Then I looked, and behold, a likeness [of a man] with the appearance of fire; from Hisloins downward He was like fire, and from His loins upward He had the appearance of brightness, like gleaming metal (bronze).

3 He stretched out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of hair on my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the innercourtyard,where the seat of the idol (image) ofjealousy, which provokes to jealousy, waslocated.

4 And behold, the gloryandbrilliance of the God of Israel [who had loved and chosen them] was there, like the vision which I saw in the plain.

5 Then He said to me, “Son of man, now raise your eyes toward the north.” So I looked toward the north, and behold, to the north of the altar gate was this idol (image) of jealousy at the entrance.

6 Furthermore, He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great repulsive acts which the house of Israel is committing here, to drive Me far away from My sanctuary? But you will again see greater repulsive acts.”

7 Then He brought me to the entrance of the courtyard; and when I looked, behold, [there was] a hole in the wall.

8 He said to me, “Son of man, now dig into the wall.” And when I had dug into the wall, behold, there was an entrance.

9 And He said to me, “Go in and see the wicked, repulsive acts that they are committing here.”

10 So I entered and looked, and saw every kind of creeping things and beasts and loathsome things, and all the idols of the house of Israel, carved all around on the wall.

11 Standing before these [images] were seventy elders of the house of Israel, and among them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan [the scribe], each man with his censer in his hand and a thickandfragrant cloud of incense was rising [as they prayed to these gods].

12 Then He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, each man in his [secret] room of carved images? For they say, ‘The Lorddoes not see us; the Lordhas abandoned the land.’”

13 He also said to me, “Yet again you will see even greater repulsive acts which they are committing.”

14 Then He brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the Lord’shouse; and behold, women were sitting there weeping forTammuz.

15 He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? Yet you will see still greater repulsive acts than these [that they are committing].”

16 So He brought me to the inner court of the Lord’shouse. And behold, at the entrance to the temple of the Lord, between the porch (vestibule, portico) and the [bronze] altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the Lordand their faces toward the east; and they were bowing down toward the eastandworshiping the sun.

17 He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? Is it too slight a thing for the house of Judah to commit the repulsive acts which they have committed here, that they have filled the land with violence and repeatedly provoked Me to anger? And behold, they are putting thebranch to their nose.

18 Therefore, I indeed will deal in wrath. My eye will have no pity nor will I spare [them]; and though they cry loudly in My ears, yet I will not listen to them.”

The Vision of Slaughter

1 Then [in my vision] I heard Him cry out with a thunderous voice, saying, “Approach now, executioners of the city, each with his weapon of destruction in his hand.”

2 Behold, six men [angelic beings] came from the direction of the Upper Gate, which faces north, each with his battle-axe in his hand; and among them was acertain man clothed in linen, with a scribe’s writing case at his side. They entered and stood beside the bronze altar.

3 Then the [Shekinah] gloryandbrilliance of the God of Israel (the cloud)went up from the cherubim on which it had rested, to [stand above] the threshold of the [Lord’s] temple. And the Lordcalled to the man clothed with linen, who had the scribe’s writing case at his side.

4 The Lordsaid to him, “Go through the midst of the city, throughout all of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh [in distress] and grieve over all the repulsive acts which are being committed in it.”

5 But to the others I heard Him say, “Follow him [the man with the scribe’s writing case] throughout the city and strike; do not let your eyes have pity and do not spare [anyone].

6 Utterly slay old men, young men, maidens, little children, and women; but do not touchorgo near anyone on whom is the mark. Begin at My sanctuary.” So they began with the old men who were in front of the temple [who did not have the Lord’smark on their foreheads].

7 And He said to the executioners, “Defile the temple and fill its courtyards with the dead. Go out!” So they went out and struck downthe peoplein the city.

8 As they were executing them and Ialonewas left, I fell face downward and cried out, “Alas, Lord God! Will You destroy all that is left of Israel [the whole remnant] by pouring out Your wrathandindignation on Jerusalem?”

9 Then He said to me, “The wickedness (guilt) of the house of Israel and Judah is extremely great; the land is full of blood and the city is full of perversionandinjustice; for they say, ‘The Lordhas abandoned the land; the Lorddoes not see [what we are doing].’

10 But as for Me, My eye will have no pity, nor will I spare, but I will bring their [wicked] conduct upon their [own] heads.”

11 Then behold, the man clothed in linen, who had the scribe’s writing case at his side, reported, “I have done just as You have commanded me.”

Vision of God’s Glory Departing from the Temple

1 Then I looked, and behold, in the expanse (firmament) that was over the heads of the cherubim there appeared something [glorious and brilliant] above them looking like a [huge] sapphire stone, formed to resemble a throne.

2 And the Lordspoke to the man (seventh angel) clothed in linen and said, “Go between the whirling wheels under the cherubim; fill your hands with coals of fire from between the cherubim and scatter them over the city.” And he entered as I watched.

3 Now the cherubim were standing on the right side of the temple when the man entered; and a cloud [the Shekinah glory of God] filled the inner courtyard.

4 Then the gloryandbrilliance of the Lordmoved upward from the cherubim to [rest over] the threshold of the temple; and the temple was filled with the cloud and the courtyard was filled with the brightness of the Lord’sglory.

5 And the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard [even] as far as the outer courtyard, like the voice ofGod Almighty when He speaks.

6 It came about when He commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, “Take fire from between the whirling wheels, from between the cherubim,” the man entered and stood beside a wheel.

7 Then a cherub stretched out his hand from between the cherubim to the fire that was between [the four of] them, and took some [of it] and put it into the hands of the man clothed in linen, who took it and departed.

8 Beneath their wings the cherubim seemed to have [something in] the form of a man’s hand.

9 Then I looked and behold, [there were] four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside one cherub and another wheel beside each other cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was like a sparkling Tarshish stone (beryl).

10 As for their appearance, all four looked alike, as if one wheel were within another wheel.

11 When they moved, they went in any of their four directions without turning as they went; but they followed in the direction which they faced, without turning as they went.

12 Their whole body, their backs, their hands, their wings, and the wheels were full of eyes all around, even the wheels belonging to all four of them.

13 Regarding the wheels [attached to them], I heard them called, “the whirling (rolling, revolving) wheels.”

14 And each one had four faces: the first face was the face of thecherub, the second the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.

15 Then the cherubim rose upward. They are the [same four] living beings [regarded as one] that I saw by the River Chebar [in Babylonia].

16 Now when the cherubim moved, the wheels would go beside them; and when the cherubim lifted up their wings to rise from the earth, the wheels would remain beside them.

17 When the cherubim stood still, the wheels would stand still; and when they rose upward, the wheels would rise with them, for the spirit of the living beings was in these [wheels].

18 Then the [Shekinah] glory of the Lorddeparted from the threshold of the temple and rested over the cherubim.

19 As I looked at them, the cherubim lifted up their wings and rose up from the earth, they departed with the wheels beside them; and they stood still at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the Lord, and the gloryandbrilliance of the God of Israel hovered over them.

20 These are the living beings that I saw beneath the God of Israel by the River Chebar; and I knew that they were cherubim.

21 Each one had four faces and each one had four wings, and beneath their wings was the form of human hands.

22 As for the likeness of their faces, they were the same faces whose appearance I had seen by the River Chebar. Each one went straight forward.

Evil Rulers to Be Judged

1 Moreover, the Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the gate of the Lord’shouse, which faced eastward. And behold, at the entrance of the gatethere weretwenty-five men; and I saw among them Jaazaniah the son of Azzur and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people.

2 Then the Spirit said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who devise evil and give wicked advice in this city,

3 who say, ‘Is notthe timenear to build houses? Thiscityis [secure just like] the pot and we are the meat [in it].’

4 Therefore, prophesy against them; prophesy, son of man!”

5 Then the Spirit of the Lordfell upon me, and He said to me, “Say, ‘Thus says the Lord, “This is what you think, house of Israel, for I know your thoughts.

6 You have multiplied your slain in this city, and you have filled its streets with the corpses [of righteous men].”

7 ~‘Therefore, thus says the Lord God, “Your dead whom you have laid in the midst of your city are the meat and this city is the pot; but I shall force you out of [the security of] it.

8 You have feared the sword; so I will bring a sword upon you,” says the Lord God.

9 “And I will bring you out of the midst of the city and hand you over to strangers and execute judgment against you.

10 You will fall by the sword; I will judgeandpunish you [in front of your neighbors] at the border of [the land of] Israel; and you will know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord.

11 Thiscitywill not be a pot for you, nor will you be meat [safe] in it, but I will judge you at the border of Israel.

12 And you will know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord; for you have not walked in My statutes nor have you executed My ordinances, but you have acted in accordance with the ordinances of the nations around you.”’”

13 Now it came about while I was prophesying, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then I fell face downward and cried out loudly, “Alas, Lord God! Will You bring the remnant of Israel to a complete end?”

Promise of Restoration

14 Then the word of the Lordcame to me, saying,

15 “Son of man, your brothers, your relatives, your fellow exiles and the whole house of Israel, all of them, are those to whom the [present] inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘Go far away from the Lord; this land has been given to us as a possession.’

16 Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Though I had removed Israel far away among the nations and though I had scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary for them for a little while in the countries to which they had gone.”’

17 Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give [back] to you the land of Israel.”’

18 When they return there, they will remove from it all [traces of] its detestable things and all its repulsive things (remnants of paganism).

19 And I will give them one heart [a new heart], and put a new spirit within them. I will take from them the heart of stone, and will give them a heart of flesh [that is responsive to My touch],

20 that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they shall be My people, and I will be their God.

21 But as for those whose heart longs forandfollows after their detestable things and their repulsive things [associated with idolatry], on their own head I will repay [them in full for] their [vile] conduct,” says the Lord God.

22 Then the cherubim lifted up their wings with the wheels beside them, and the [Shekinah] glory of the God of Israel hovered over them.

23 Then the gloryandbrilliance of the Lordwent up from the midst of the city and paused over the mountain, [the Mount of Olives] which is east of the city.

24 And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God to the exiles in Chaldea (Babylonia). Then the vision that I had seen left me.

25 Then I told the exiles everything that the Lordhad shown me.