Ezekiel 11

11 ¹ The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the house of our Father, which faces east. At the entrance were twenty-five men, and among them I saw Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, leaders of the people.

² He said to me, "Son of man, these are the men plotting harm and giving evil counsel in this city, ³ who say, 'Isn't it nearly time to build houses? This is the pot, we're the meat.' ⁴ Therefore prophesy against them; prophesy, son of man."

⁵ Then the Spirit of our Father fell on me, and told me to say: "This is what our Father says: So you are saying, house of Israel; I know what rises in your mind." ⁶ You have slain many in this city and filled its streets with the dead.

⁷ So the Sovereign Father says: those you killed and laid in the city are the meat, the city the pot; but you will be driven out of it. ⁸ You have feared the sword, and I will bring the sword upon you, declares the Sovereign Father. ⁹ I will bring you out of the city, hand you over to foreigners, and carry out judgments against you. ¹⁰ You will fall by the sword. I will judge you at Israel's border, and you will know I am your Father. ¹¹ This city will not be a pot for you, nor you the meat in it. I will judge you at Israel's border, ¹² Then you will know I am your Father—you who did not follow my statutes or keep my rules, but lived by the rules of the nations around you.

The Father Promises a New Heart

¹³ As I prophesied, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. I fell facedown and cried out loudly, "Oh, Sovereign Father! Will you wipe out the remnant of Israel completely?"

¹⁴ Then the word of our Father came to me:

¹⁵ Son of man, your brothers—your brothers, your own relatives, the whole house of Israel, all of them—the people of Jerusalem have said, 'Stay far from God; this land is given to us as a possession.'

¹⁶ Therefore say, 'This is what the Sovereign Father says: Though I sent them far among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet I was a sanctuary to them for a little while in the countries where they went.'

¹⁷ So say: 'The Sovereign Father says: I will gather you from the peoples, collect you from the countries where you were scattered, and give you the land of Israel.'

¹⁸ When they come there, they will remove all its vile idols and all its detestable things from it. ¹⁹ I will give them one heart and put a new spirit in them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, ²⁰ so that they may follow my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they will be my children, and I will be their Father. ²¹ But those whose hearts chase after their detestable things and disgusting practices — I will bring their conduct down on their own heads, declares the Sovereign Father.

²² Then the cherubim raised their wings, the wheels beside them, and the glory of the Father of Israel above them. ²³ The glory of our Father rose from within the city and stood on the mountain east of the city. ²⁴ The Spirit lifted me and brought me in a vision, by the Spirit of our Father, to the exiles in Babylonia. Then the vision I had seen left me. ²⁵ And I told the exiles all the things that our Father had shown me.