11:1 Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the temple. At the entrance of the gate I saw twenty-five men, among whom were Jaazaniah, son of Azzur, and Pelatiah, son of Benaiah, princes of the people.
11:2 The LORD said to me: Son of man, these are the men who are planning evil and giving wicked counsel in this city.
11:3 "Shall we not," they say, "be building houses soon? The city is the kettle, and we are the meat."
11:4 Therefore prophesy against them, son of man, prophesy!
11:5 Then the spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and he told me to say: Thus says the LORD: This is the way you talk, house of Israel, and what you are plotting I well know.
11:6 You have slain many in this city and have filled its streets with your slain.
11:7 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Your slain whom you have placed within it, they are the meat, and the city is the kettle; but you I will take out of it.
11:8 You fear the sword, but the sword I will bring upon you, says the Lord GOD.
11:9 I will bring you out of the city, and hand you over to foreigners, and inflict punishments upon you.
11:10 By the sword you shall fall; at the boundaries of Israel I will judge you; thus you shall know that I am the LORD.
11:11 The city shall not be a kettle for you, nor shall you be the meat within it. At the boundaries of Israel I will judge you,
11:12 and you shall know that I am the LORD, by whose statutes you have not lived, and whose ordinances you have not kept; rather, you have acted according to the ordinances of the nations around you.
11:13 While I was prophesying, Pelatiah, the son of Benaiah, died. I fell prone and cried out in a loud voice: "Alas, Lord GOD! will you utterly wipe out what remains of Israel?"
11:14 Thus the word of the LORD came to me:
11:15 Son of man, it is about your kinsmen, your fellow exiles, and the whole house of Israel that the inhabitants of Jerusalem say, "They are far away from the LORD; to us the land of Israel has been given as our possession."
11:16 Therefore say: Thus says the Lord GOD: Though I have removed them far among the nations and scattered them over foreign countries ?and was for a while their only sanctuary in the countries to which they had gone ?
11:17 I will gather you from the nations and assemble you from the countries over which you have been scattered, and I will restore to you the land of Israel.
11:18 They shall return to it and remove from it all its detestable abominations.
11:19 I will give them a new heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove the stony heart from their bodies, and replace it with a natural heart,
11:20 so that they will live according to my statutes, and observe and carry out my ordinances; thus they shall be my people and I will be their God.
11:21 But as for those whose hearts are devoted to their detestable abominations, I will bring down their conduct upon their heads, says the Lord GOD.
11:22 Then the cherubim lifted their wings, and the wheels went along with them, while up above them was the glory of the God of Israel.
11:23 And the glory of the LORD rose from the city and took a stand on the mountain which is to the east of the city.
11:24 Spirit lifted me up and brought me back to the exiles in Chaldea (in a vision, by God’s spirit). Then the vision I had seen left me,
11:25 and I told the exiles everything the LORD had shown me.