1   A spirit ^note lifted me up and brought me to the eastern gate of the Lord's house, the gate that faces east. By the doorway were twenty-five men, and I saw among them two of high office, Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah. 2   The Lord said to me, Man, it is these who are planning mischief and plotting trouble in this city, 3   saying to themselves, ‘There will be no building of houses yet awhile; the city is a stewpot and we are the meat in it.’ 4   Therefore, said he, prophesy against them, prophesy, O man. 5   Then the spirit of the Lord came suddenly upon me, and he told me to say, These are the words of the Lord: This is what you are saying to yourselves, you men of Israel; well do I know the thoughts that rise in your mind. 6   You have killed and killed in this city and heaped the streets with the slain. 7   These, therefore, are the words of the Lord God: The bodies of the slain that you have put there, it is they that are the meat. The city is indeed the stewpot, but I ^note will take you out of it. 8   It is a sword that you fear, and a sword I will bring upon you, says the Lord God. 9   I will take you out of it; I will give you over to a foreign power; I will bring you to justice. 10   You too shall fall by the sword when I judge you on the frontier of Israel; thus you shall know that I am the Lord. 11   So the city will not be your stewpot, nor you the meat in it. 12   On the frontier of Israel I will judge you; thus you shall know that I am the Lord. You have not conformed to my statutes nor kept my laws, but you have followed the laws of the nations around you.

13   While I was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah fell dead; and I threw myself upon my face, crying aloud, ‘O Lord God, must thou make an end of all the Israelites who are left?’

14    15   The word of the Lord came to me: Man, they are your brothers, your brothers and your kinsmen, this whole people of Israel, to whom the men who now live in Jerusalem have said, ‘Keep your distance from the Lord; the land has been made over to us as our property.’ 16   Say therefore, These are the words of the Lord God: When I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them in many lands, for a while I became their sanctuary in the countries to which they had gone. 17   Say therefore, These are the words of the Lord God: I will gather them ^note from among the nations and assemble them ^note from the countries over which I have scattered them, ^note and I will give them ^note the soil of Israel. 18   When they come into it, they will do away with all their vile and abominable practices. 19   I will give them a different ^note heart and put a new

Jerusalem's guilt and punishment spirit into them; ^note I will take the heart of stone out of their bodies and give them a heart of flesh. 20   Then they will conform to my statutes and keep my laws. They will become my people, and I will become their God. 21   But as for those whose heart is set upon ^note their vile and abominable practices, I will make them answer for all they have done. This is the very word of the Lord God.

22   Then the cherubim lifted their wings, with the wheels beside them and the glory of the God of Israel above them. 23   The glory of the Lord rose up and left the city, and halted on the mountain to the east of it. 24   And a spirit ^note lifted me up and brought me to the exiles in Chaldaea. All this came in a vision sent by the spirit of God, and then the vision that I had seen left me. 25   I told the exiles all that the Lord had revealed to me.

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