Idolatrous Elders Condemned
1 Then some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me. 2 The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 3 “Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts and put stumbling blocks of sin before their faces. Should I be inquired of at all by these elders?
4 Therefore speak to them and tell them that this is what the Lord God says: ‘Every man of the house of Israel who takes idols into his heart and puts sinful stumbling blocks before his face and comes to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him there, according to the multitude of his idols, 5 that I may take hold of the house of Israel by their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.’
6 Therefore tell the house of Israel that this is what the Lord God says: ‘Repent and turn from your idols! Turn your face away from all your abominations. 7 For everyone of the house of Israel or among the foreigners who live in Israel who separates himself from me, who takes idols into his heart and puts a sinful stumbling block before his face and comes to the prophet to inquire for himself of me, I the Lord will answer him myself. 8 I will set my face against that man and will make him appalling–a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from among my people. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
9 If the prophet is deceived and speaks a word, I, the Lord, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand on him and will destroy him from among my people Israel. 10 They will bear their iniquity. The iniquity of the prophet will be like the iniquity of the one who seeks him, 11 that the house of Israel may no longer go astray from me nor defile themselves any more with all their transgressions. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God, declares the Lord God.’ ”
God’s Irrevocable Sentence
12 The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 13 ‘Son of man, when a land sins against me by committing a trespass, and I stretch out my hand on it and break the staff of its bread and send famine on it and cut off from it man and animal, 14 though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness, declares the Lord God.
15 If I cause dangerous animals to pass through the land, ravaging it and making it desolate so that no man can pass through it because of the animals, 16 though these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters. They alone would be delivered, but the land would be desolate.
17 Or if I bring a sword on that land and say, ‘Sword, go through the land so that I cut off from it man and animal, 18 though these three men were in it, as surely as I live, declares the Lord God, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but only they themselves would be delivered.
19 Or if I send a plague into that land and pour out my wrath on it in blood, to cut off from it man and animal, 20 even if Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, declares the Lord God, they would deliver neither son nor daughter. They would deliver only themselves by their righteousness.
21 For the Lord God says: ‘How much more when I send my four severe judgments on Jerusalem, the sword, the famine, the dangerous animals, and the plague, to cut off from it man and animal! 22 Yet there will be left a remnant in it that will be carried out, both sons and daughters. They will come out to you, and you will see their ways and their deeds. Then you will be comforted concerning the disaster that I have brought on Jerusalem and concerning all that I have brought on it. 23 They will comfort you when you see their character and their deeds. Then you will know that I have not done all that I have done in it without good reason,’ declares the Lord God.