Ezekiel 14

¹In the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting before me; and there the hand of the Lord God fell upon me.

³²Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a messenger ahead, but before he arrived, Elisha said to the elders, “Do you see how this murderer has sent someone to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door to keep him out. Is not the sound of his master’s footsteps behind him?”

¹³Therefore the Lord said: “These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is but rules taught by men.

¹In the seventh year, on the tenth day of the fifth month, some of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the Lord, and they sat down before me.

³¹So My people come to you as usual, sit before you, and hear your words; but they do not put them into practice. Although they express love with their mouths, their hearts pursue dishonest gain.

⁵The next day the rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem,

⁷Surely the Lord God does nothing without revealing His plan to His servants the prophets.

⁴Jeroboam’s wife did as instructed; she arose and went to Shiloh and arrived at Ahijah’s house. Now Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were dim because of his age.

⁷For when any Israelite or any foreigner dwelling in Israel separates himself from Me, sets up idols in his heart, and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face, and then comes to the prophet to inquire of Me, I the Lord will answer him Myself.

¹⁹They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will seem unclean. Their silver and gold cannot save them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They cannot satisfy their appetites or fill their stomachs with wealth, for it became the stumbling block that brought their iniquity.

¹⁶because they kept rejecting My ordinances, refusing to walk in My statutes, and profaning My Sabbaths; for their hearts continually went after their idols.

³“Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel and tell them that this is what the Lord God says: Have you come to inquire of Me? As surely as I live, I will not be consulted by you, declares the Lord God.

¹⁵When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.

⁹Whoever turns his ear away from hearing the law, even his prayer is detestable.

⁷For when any Israelite or any foreigner dwelling in Israel separates himself from Me, sets up idols in his heart, and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face, and then comes to the prophet to inquire of Me, I the Lord will answer him Myself.

⁴So I will choose their punishment and I will bring terror upon them, because I called and no one answered, I spoke and no one listened. But they did evil in My sight and chose that in which I did not delight.”

¹⁷“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from My mouth, give them a warning from Me.

¹⁸If I say to the wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ but you do not warn him or speak out to warn him from his wicked way to save his life, that wicked man will die in his iniquity, and I will hold you responsible for his blood.

¹¹Woe to the wicked; disaster is upon them! For they will be repaid with what their hands have done.

¹⁶And Elijah said to King Ahaziah, “This is what the Lord says: Is there really no God in Israel for you to inquire of His word? Is that why you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not get up from the bed on which you are lying. You will surely die.”

²⁰When Elijah arrived, Ahab said to him, “So you have found me out, my enemy.” He replied, “I have found you out because you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the Lord.

²¹This is what the Lord says: ‘I will bring calamity on you and consume your descendants; I will cut off from Ahab every male in Israel, both slave and free.

⁴Alas, O sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who act corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord; they have despised the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on Him.

⁸And in one month I dismissed three shepherds. My soul grew impatient with the flock, and their souls also detested me.

⁹But if the prophet is enticed to speak a message, then it was I the Lord who enticed him, and I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him from among My people Israel.

¹⁰They will bear their punishment—the punishment of the inquirer will be the same as that of the prophet—

¹¹Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But My people have exchanged their Glory for useless idols.

¹²Be stunned by this, O heavens; be shocked and utterly appalled,” declares the Lord.

¹⁵But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked—becoming fat, bloated, and gorged. He abandoned the God who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation.

¹⁶They provoked His jealousy with foreign gods; they enraged Him with abominations.

¹²See to it, brothers, that none of you has a wicked heart of unbelief that turns away from the living God.

³⁰Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each according to his ways, declares the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, so that your iniquity will not become your downfall.

⁸Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

⁹Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom.

³⁹Why should any mortal man complain, in view of his sins?

⁴⁰Let us examine and test our ways, and turn back to the Lord.

³¹Then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and abominations.

³²It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God—let it be known to you. Be ashamed and disgraced for your ways, O house of Israel!

²²So you will desecrate your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away like menstrual cloths, saying to them, “Be gone!”

²⁰In that day men will cast away to the moles and bats their idols of silver and gold—the idols they made to worship.

⁴⁸If a foreigner resides with you and wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover, all the males in the household must be circumcised; then he may come near to celebrate it, and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised man may eat of it.

¹“Cry aloud, do not hold back! Raise your voice like a ram’s horn. Declare to My people their transgression and to the house of Jacob their sins.

²For day after day they seek Me and delight to know My ways, like a nation that does what is right and does not forsake the justice of their God. They ask Me for righteous judgments; they delight in the nearness of God.”

²²You are to have the same standard of law for the foreign resident and the native; for I am the Lord your God.’”

¹⁴I will not punish your daughters when they prostitute themselves, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery. For the men themselves go off with prostitutes and offer sacrifices with shrine prostitutes. So a people without understanding will come to ruin.

¹Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made Zedekiah son of Josiah the king of Judah, and he reigned in place of Coniah son of Jehoiakim.

²But he and his officers and the people of the land refused to obey the words that the Lord had spoken through Jeremiah the prophet.

¹⁰I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the firstfruits of the fig tree in its first season. But they went to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves to Shame; so they became as detestable as the thing they loved.

⁷And I will set My face against them. Though they may have escaped the fire, yet another fire will consume them. And when I set My face against them, you will know that I am the Lord.

¹¹Therefore this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I will set My face to bring disaster and to cut off all Judah.

¹⁵So you will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror to the nations around you, when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and raging fury. I, the Lord, have spoken.

¹⁰If anyone from the house of Israel or a foreigner living among them eats any blood, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from among his people.

¹⁵You will leave behind your name as a curse for My chosen ones, and the Lord God will slay you; but to His servants He will give another name.

¹¹Now these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.

²⁵I also gave them over to statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not live.

¹⁰Then I said, “Ah, Lord God, how completely You have deceived this people and Jerusalem by saying, ‘You will have peace,’ while a sword is at our throats.”

²¹Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh; together they turn against Judah. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.

¹⁵Therefore this is what the Lord says about the prophets who prophesy in My name: I did not send them, yet they say, ‘No sword or famine will touch this land.’ By sword and famine these very prophets will meet their end!

¹⁶Yet You are our Father, though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O Lord, are our Father; our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name.

²⁰And the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab to march up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one suggested this, and another that.

²¹Then a spirit came forward, stood before the Lord, and said, ‘I will entice him.’ ‘By what means?’ asked the Lord.

⁴⁹They will repay you for your indecency, and you will bear the consequences of your sins of idolatry. Then you will know that I am the Lord God.’”

¹¹They dress the wound of the daughter of My people with very little care, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace at all.

¹²Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse, says the Lord.

⁹Because I have sinned against Him, I must endure the rage of the Lord, until He argues my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me into the light; I will see His righteousness.

¹⁵Therefore this is what the Lord says about the prophets who prophesy in My name: I did not send them, yet they say, ‘No sword or famine will touch this land.’ By sword and famine these very prophets will meet their end!

²If a man or woman among you in one of the towns that the Lord your God gives you is found doing evil in the sight of the Lord your God by transgressing His covenant

³and going to worship other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven—which I have forbidden—

¹If a prophet or dreamer of dreams arises among you and proclaims a sign or wonder to you,

²and if the sign or wonder he has spoken to you comes about, but he says, “Let us follow other gods (which you have not known) and let us worship them,”

²³They will no longer defile themselves with their idols or detestable images, or with any of their transgressions. I will save them from all their apostasies by which they sinned, and I will cleanse them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God.

¹¹It will be for the consecrated priests, the descendants of Zadok, who kept My charge and did not go astray as the Levites did when the Israelites went astray.

¹⁰Surely the Levites who wandered away from Me when Israel went astray, and who wandered away from Me after their idols, will bear the consequences of their iniquity.

⁷The one who overcomes will inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son.

⁴which I commanded your forefathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying, ‘Obey Me, and do everything I command you, and you will be My people, and I will be your God.’

³⁸They will be My people, and I will be their God.

¹⁶Then He told me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight, and in despair they will drink water by measure.

²⁶When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and dole out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied.

¹For behold, the Lord God of Hosts is about to remove from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support: the whole supply of food and water,

²¹For this is what the Lord God says: ‘How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem My four dire judgments—sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague—in order to cut off from it both man and beast?

⁸Thus I will make the land desolate, because they have acted unfaithfully,’ declares the Lord God.”

¹⁶When I shower you with the deadly arrows of famine and destruction that I will send to destroy you, I will intensify the famine against you and cut off your supply of food.

²⁰then as surely as I live, declares the Lord God, even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they could not deliver their own sons or daughters. Their righteousness could deliver only themselves.

¹Then the Lord said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel should stand before Me, My heart would not go out to this people. Send them from My presence, and let them go!

³Behold, you are wiser than Daniel; no secret is hidden from you!

¹Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.

¹There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. And this man was blameless and upright, fearing God and shunning evil.

¹⁸then as surely as I live, declares the Lord God, even if these three men were in it, they could not deliver their own sons or daughters. They alone would be delivered.

¹⁷I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

²²I will send wild animals against you to rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and reduce your numbers, until your roads lie desolate.

³I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the Lord: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the air and beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.

²⁵Now when the settlers first lived there, they did not worship the Lord, so He sent lions among them, which killed some of them.

³⁶Then the prophet said to him, “Because you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, as soon as you depart from me a lion will kill you.” And when he left, a lion found him and killed him.

²⁹So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, He remembered Abraham, and He brought Lot out of the catastrophe that destroyed the cities where he had lived.

²⁰‘Surely our foes are destroyed, and fire has consumed their excess.’

¹⁴then even if these three men—Noah, Daniel, and Job—were in it, their righteousness could deliver only themselves, declares the Lord God.

¹⁸then as surely as I live, declares the Lord God, even if these three men were in it, they could not deliver their own sons or daughters. They alone would be delivered.

²⁴and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And look, God has granted you the lives of all who sail with you.’

⁷By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in godly fear built an ark to save his family. By faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

³and tell her that this is what the Lord says: ‘I am against you, and I will draw My sword from its sheath and cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked.

⁴Because I will cut off both the righteous and the wicked, My sword will be unsheathed against everyone from south to north.

²⁵And I will bring a sword against you to execute the vengeance of the covenant. Though you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

³“I will sweep away man and beast; I will sweep away the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, and the idols with their wicked worshipers. I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord.

¹²A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them.

⁶‘Alas, O sword of the Lord, how long until you rest? Return to your sheath; cease and be still!’

¹³therefore this is what the Lord God says: I will stretch out My hand against Edom and cut off from it both man and beast. I will make it a wasteland, and from Teman to Dedan they will fall by the sword.

²²I will execute judgment upon him with plague and bloodshed. I will pour out torrents of rain, hailstones, fire, and sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him.

¹²Although they may fast, I will not listen to their cry; although they may offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will finish them off by sword and famine and plague.”

¹⁵So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel from that morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died.

⁸Very soon I will pour out My wrath upon you and vent My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways and repay you for all your abominations.

¹²A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them.

³⁷When famine or plague comes upon the land, or blight or mildew or locusts or grasshoppers, or when their enemy besieges them in their cities, whatever plague or sickness may come,

¹⁴then even if these three men—Noah, Daniel, and Job—were in it, their righteousness could deliver only themselves, declares the Lord God.

¹⁰By this the children of God are distinguished from the children of the devil: Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

⁷Little children, let no one deceive you: The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as Christ is righteous.

³⁵but welcomes those from every nation who fear Him and do what is right.

¹⁰Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their labor.

¹⁶then as surely as I live, declares the Lord God, even if these three men were in it, they could not deliver their own sons or daughters. They alone would be delivered, but the land would be desolate.

²⁷Tell them that this is what the Lord God says: ‘As surely as I live, those in the ruins will fall by the sword, those in the open field I will give to be devoured by wild animals, and those in the strongholds and caves will die by plague.

¹⁷I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

¹⁷Or if I bring a sword against that land and say, ‘Let a sword pass through it,’ so that I cut off from it both man and beast,

¹⁵Or if I send wild beasts through the land to leave it childless and desolate, with no man passing through it for fear of the beasts,

¹³“Son of man, if a land sins against Me by acting unfaithfully, and I stretch out My hand against it to cut off its supply of food, to send famine upon it, and to cut off from it both man and beast,

¹⁹Or if I send a plague into that land and pour out My wrath upon it through bloodshed, cutting off from it both man and beast,

¹⁶But I will spare a few of them from sword and famine and plague, so that in the nations to which they go, they can recount all their abominations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

⁴³There you will remember your ways and all the deeds with which you have defiled yourselves, and you will loathe yourselves for all the evils you have done.

⁶For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.”

⁷Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?

¹¹For I am with you to save you, declares the Lord. Though I will completely destroy all the nations to which I have scattered you, I will not completely destroy you. Yet I will discipline you justly, and will by no means leave you unpunished.”

²⁷For this is what the Lord says: “The whole land will be desolate, but I will not finish its destruction.

²⁷There at Riblah in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death. So Judah was taken into exile, away from its own land.

²⁸These are the people Nebuchadnezzar carried away: in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews;

⁸And many nations will pass by this city and ask one another, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this great city?’

⁹Then people will reply, ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and have worshiped and served other gods.’”

⁶For they have spilled the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink, as they deserve.”

⁶“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what they are doing—the great abominations that the house of Israel is committing—to drive Me far from My sanctuary? Yet you will see even greater abominations.”

⁷Then He brought me to the entrance to the court, and I looked and saw a hole in the wall.

⁸While they were killing, I was left alone. And I fell facedown and cried out, “Oh, Lord God, when You pour out Your wrath on Jerusalem, will You destroy the entire remnant of Israel?”

⁹He replied, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of bloodshed, and the city is full of perversity. For they say, ‘The Lord has forsaken the land; the Lord does not see.’

⁴Who will not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before You, for Your righteous acts have been revealed.”

²²And the two men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord.

²³Abraham stepped forward and said, “Will You really sweep away the righteous with the wicked?