Ezekiel 11

Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the LORD's house, the gate that faces east. At the entrance of the gate were twenty-five men. Among them I saw Jaazaniah son of Azur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, who were leaders of the people.

1Moreover the spirit lifted me up, and brought me unto the east gate of the LORD’s house, which looketh eastward: and behold at the door of the gate five and twenty men; among whom I saw Jaazaniah the son of Azur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people.

NoteEzekiel is not physically in Jerusalem. He is sitting in his house in Babylon with the elders of Judah, and everything from chapter 8 through chapter 11 happens in a vision that carries him to the temple and back (8:1-3; 11:24). "The east gate of the LORD's house" is the main gate of the temple courts, facing the Mount of Olives. "Princes" in the KJV means senior officials or leading men, not sons of a king. This Jaazaniah son of Azur is a different man from the Jaazaniah son of Shaphan named in 8:11.

2Then he said to me, "Son of man, these are the men who plan harm and give wicked advice in this city.

2Then said he unto me, Son of man, these are the men that devise mischief, and give wicked counsel in this city:

Note"Son of man" is how God addresses Ezekiel throughout the book. The Hebrew ben adam means simply "human being, mortal"; it is a form of address, not a title of honor.

3They are saying, 'The time is not near. Let us build houses. This city is the cooking pot, and we are the meat inside it.'

3Which say, It is not near; let us build houses: this city is the caldron, and we be the flesh.

NoteThe first line is genuinely unclear in Hebrew and has been read two ways: as a flat statement ("the time is not near; let's get on with building houses") or as a question ("is not the time near to build houses?"). Either way the speakers are brushing aside warnings of imminent disaster. The saying about the pot works from a picture everyone knew: meat inside a thick cooking pot is enclosed and protected, so "we are the meat" means the city walls will keep us safe. Some read it instead as "we are the choice cuts," i.e. the best people, left behind while the rest went into exile. Verses 7-11 turn the image inside out.

4So prophesy against them. Prophesy, son of man."

4Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man.

5Then the Spirit of the LORD came on me and said to me, "Speak. Say: This is what the LORD says: This is what you have been saying, people of Israel. I know every thought that comes into your minds.

5And the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and said unto me, Speak; Thus saith the LORD; Thus have ye said, O house of Israel: for I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them.

Note"The Spirit of the LORD fell upon me" is a set idiom for the sudden onset of prophetic speech. "Fell" conveys force and seizure, not gentleness.

6You have killed more and more people in this city, and you have filled its streets with the dead.

6Ye have multiplied your slain in this city, and ye have filled the streets thereof with the slain.

NoteThe charge is killing inside the city, not deaths in battle: violent oppression and judicial murder by the men in power are what is meant.

7So this is what the Lord GOD says: The people you killed and laid inside this city are the meat, and the city is the pot. But I will bring you out of it.

7Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Your slain whom ye have laid in the midst of it, they are the flesh, and this city is the caldron: but I will bring you forth out of the midst of it.

NoteThe reversal of the proverb: the meat that stays in the pot is the corpses of those they have killed. Being "brought out" of the pot sounds like rescue but is not, verses 9-11 spell out that it means being dragged out of the city to be handed over and executed.

8You have been afraid of the sword, so I will bring a sword against you, says the Lord GOD.

8Ye have feared the sword; and I will bring a sword upon you, saith the Lord GOD.

Note"The sword" is standard shorthand throughout the prophets for war, and specifically for an invading army, here the Babylonians.

9I will bring you out of the city and hand you over to foreigners, and I will carry out my judgments against you.

9And I will bring you out of the midst thereof, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and will execute judgments among you.

Note"Strangers" in KJV English means foreigners, people not of your own nation. Here it means the Babylonians.

10You will die by the sword. I will judge you at the border of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

10Ye shall fall by the sword; I will judge you in the border of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

Note"In the border of Israel" means at the frontier, on the very edge of the land or just outside it. After Jerusalem fell, Nebuchadnezzar had the captured officials of Judah taken to Riblah, near the northern boundary, and executed there (2 Kings 25:18-21). To die outside the land and be buried nowhere near your family was itself understood as a disgrace.

11This city will not be a cooking pot for you, and you will not be the meat inside it. I will judge you at the border of Israel.

11This city shall not be your caldron, neither shall ye be the flesh in the midst thereof; but I will judge you in the border of Israel:

12Then you will know that I am the LORD. You have not lived by my rules or carried out my laws. Instead you have followed the customs of the nations around you."

12And ye shall know that I am the LORD: for ye have not walked in my statutes, neither executed my judgments, but have done after the manners of the heathen that are round about you.

Note"Heathen" in KJV English translates goyim, "the nations", simply the non-Israelite peoples, with no implication about how primitive they were. "Statutes" and "judgments" are the standard terms for the fixed rules and legal decisions of the law given through Moses.

13While I was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. Then I fell facedown and cried out in a loud voice, "Oh, Lord GOD! Are you going to put a complete end to all who are left of Israel?"

13And it came to pass, when I prophesied, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then fell I down upon my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah Lord GOD! wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?

NotePelatiah's name means "the LORD delivers" or "the LORD grants escape," and the irony of who dies here would have been audible to a Hebrew listener. "Remnant" is the ordinary word for what is left over after a disaster, the survivors, the small group not destroyed. Falling facedown is the posture of someone bringing an urgent petition before a king.

14Then the word of the LORD came to me again. He said:

14Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

15"Son of man, your brothers (yes, your brothers, your own relatives, and the whole house of Israel, all of them) are the ones the people living in Jerusalem are talking about when they say, 'Stay far away from the LORD. This land has been given to us as our own.'

15Son of man, thy brethren, even thy brethren, the men of thy kindred, and all the house of Israel wholly, are they unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Get you far from the LORD: unto us is this land given in possession.

Note"The men of thy kindred" translates a Hebrew phrase that means literally "the men of your redemption", your kinsmen-redeemers, the near relatives whose legal duty it was to buy back family land that had been lost and keep it inside the family. The term is pointed, because the quarrel is precisely about who owns the land. The saying quoted can be read either as words spoken at the exiles ("keep well away from the LORD") or as words spoken about them ("they have gone far from the LORD"). Either way, those left in Jerusalem are claiming that deportation has canceled the exiles' claim and that the property has passed to them.

16So say: This is what the Lord GOD says: Although I sent them far away among the nations, and although I scattered them among the countries, I have still been a holy place for them, in a small way, in the countries where they have gone.

16Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.

NoteA "sanctuary" is a holy place, a temple. The Hebrew phrase (miqdash me'at) is ambiguous and can mean "a sanctuary in small measure", something less than the Jerusalem temple, or "a sanctuary for a little while." The phrase directly answers the claim quoted in verse 15, that being far from Jerusalem means being cut off from God.

17So say: This is what the Lord GOD says: I will gather you from the peoples and bring you together out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.

17Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.

18They will come back to it, and they will remove from it every disgusting thing and every hateful practice.

18And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence.

Note"Detestable things" and "abominations" render two standard Hebrew words (shiqqutsim and to'evot) used for idols and for the rites carried out for them. Both are words of physical disgust, of the kind used for things ritually unclean.

19I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit inside you. I will take the heart of stone out of their bodies and give them a heart of flesh,

19And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:

NoteIn Hebrew the "heart" is the seat of thinking, willing and deciding, closer to "mind" than to "feelings." "One heart" (lev echad) is what the Hebrew text reads here, but some manuscripts and ancient versions have "a new heart" (lev chadash), a difference of one letter. Stone against flesh contrasts something hard and unresponsive with living, workable tissue. The abrupt switch between "them" and "you" inside the verse is in the Hebrew too.

20so that they can live by my rules, keep my laws, and carry them out. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

20That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

Note"They shall be my people, and I will be their God" is a fixed formula in Hebrew, repeated across the Old Testament as the standard wording of the covenant bond; comparable set phrases were used in ancient treaties and in declarations of marriage and adoption.

21But as for those whose hearts keep following their disgusting idols and hateful practices, I will bring back on their own heads what they have done, says the Lord GOD."

21But as for them whose heart walketh after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their way upon their own heads, saith the Lord GOD.

Note"Recompense their way upon their own heads" is a legal idiom: to make the consequences of what someone has done fall back on the person who did it.

22Then the cherubim spread their wings, with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.

22Then did the cherubims lift up their wings, and the wheels beside them; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.

NoteCherubim are winged composite creatures; in the ancient Near East they guarded thrones and temple entrances, and here they are the beings described in chapters 1 and 10, with their accompanying wheels. (KJV "cherubims" adds an English plural to a word already plural in Hebrew.) "The glory of the God of Israel" translates kavod, the visible, blazing presence of God, pictured in the earlier chapters as fire, brightness and a throne.

23The glory of the LORD rose up from inside the city and stopped over the mountain on the east side of the city.

23And the glory of the LORD went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city.

NoteThe mountain east of the city is the Mount of Olives, immediately across the Kidron Valley from the temple.

24Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me back to Chaldea, to the people living in exile there, in the vision given by the Spirit of God. Then the vision I had seen went up away from me.

24Afterwards the spirit took me up, and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to them of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up from me.

NoteChaldea means Babylonia, in southern Mesopotamia (now southern Iraq); the Chaldeans were the dynasty ruling the Babylonian empire. "Them of the captivity" are the Judeans deported by Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BC, among whom Ezekiel was settled in a community by the Chebar canal.

25And I told the exiles everything the LORD had shown me.

25Then I spake unto them of the captivity all the things that the LORD had shewed me.