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Ezekiel 11

At the temple's east gate Ezekiel sees twenty-five officials, including the named Jaazaniah and Pelatiah, who scoff that the city is a cauldron protecting them like meat in a pot. The prophet inverts their slogan: the slain already in Jerusalem are the meat, and the schemers will be dragged out to fall at Israel's border. Watch the hinge at verse 13: as Ezekiel prophesies, Pelatiah drops dead, and the prophet cries out fearing the remnant is finished. The answer reframes exile itself.

  1. 1

    Moreover the Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the LORD’s house, which looks eastward. Behold, twenty-five men were at the door of the gate; and I saw among them Jaazaniah the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people.

  2. 2

    He said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity, and who give wicked counsel in this city;

  3. 3

    who say, ‘The time is not near to build houses. This is the cauldron, and we are the meat.’

  4. 4

    Therefore prophesy against them. Prophesy, son of man.”

  5. 5

    The LORD’s Spirit fell on me, and he said to me, “Speak, ‘The LORD says: “Thus you have said, house of Israel; for I know the things that come into your mind.

  6. 6

    You have multiplied your slain in this city, and you have filled its streets with the slain.”

  7. 7

    “‘Therefore the Lord GOD says: “Your slain whom you have laid in the middle of it, they are the meat, and this is the cauldron; but you will be brought out of the middle of it.

  8. 8

    You have feared the sword; and I will bring the sword on you,” says the Lord GOD.

  9. 9

    “I will bring you out of the middle of it, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and will execute judgments among you.

  10. 10

    You will fall by the sword. I will judge you in the border of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

  11. 11

    This will not be your cauldron, neither will you be the meat in the middle of it. I will judge you in the border of Israel.

  12. 12

    You will know that I am the LORD, for you have not walked in my statutes. You have not executed my ordinances, but have done after the ordinances of the nations that are around you.”’”

  13. 13

    When I prophesied, Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then I fell down on my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, “Ah Lord GOD! Will you make a full end of the remnant of Israel?”

  14. 14

    The LORD’s word came to me, saying,

  15. 15

    “Son of man, your brothers, even your brothers, the men of your relatives, and all the house of Israel, all of them, are the ones to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘Go far away from the LORD. This land has been given to us for a possession.’

  16. 16

    “Therefore say, ‘The Lord GOD says: “Whereas I have removed them far off among the nations, and whereas I have scattered them among the countries, yet I will be to them a sanctuary for a little while in the countries where they have come.”’

  17. 17

    “Therefore say, ‘The Lord GOD says: “I will gather you from the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.”

  18. 18

    “‘They will come there, and they will take away all its detestable things and all its abominations from there.

  19. 19

    I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them. I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh,

  20. 20

    that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

  21. 21

    But as for them whose heart walks after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their way on their own heads,’ says the Lord GOD.”

  22. 22

    Then the cherubim lifted up their wings, and the wheels were beside them. The glory of the God of Israel was over them above.

  23. 23

    The LORD’s glory went up from the middle of the city, and stood on the mountain which is on the east side of the city.

  24. 24

    The Spirit lifted me up, and brought me in the vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to the captives. So the vision that I had seen went up from me.

  25. 25

    Then I spoke to the captives all the things that the LORD had shown me.

A sanctuary in exile, and the glory leaving

God answers Ezekiel's panic by promising the scattered exiles a sanctuary "for a little while" abroad and a future regathering, with the famous pledge to replace the heart of stone with a heart of flesh (v.19). The promise is for the deported, not the proud occupiers boasting that the land is now theirs.

The chapter closes the great temple vision begun in chapter 8: the divine glory lifts from the city to the eastern mountain, and the Spirit carries Ezekiel back to the captives in Chaldea. God's presence has moved toward the exiles, away from a Jerusalem still confident it is safe.

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