Ezekiel 14
1WHEN some of the elders, principal men of the people of Israel, had come to me and were sitting before me a
2word of the Lord came to me, saying:
3Son of man, these men have given their imaginations the rule over their hearts, though they placed before their eyes the punishment of their transgressions. Shall I, being consulted, return them an answer?
4Therefore speak to them, and thou shalt say to them, Thus saith the Lord: Be the man who he may of the house of Israel, who giveth his imagination the rule over his understanding, when he hath set before his eyes the punishment of his iniquity, and cometh to a prophet: I the Lord will answer him by the things with which his mind is entangled,:5] that h e may lead the house of Israel astray, according to their hearts which are alienated from Me by their desires.
6Say therefore to the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God: reform and turn from your evil devices, and from all your acts of impiety; and turn your faces about.
7For be the man who he may of the house of Israel, or of the proselytes who have sojourned with Israel, who shall separate himself from Me, and give his desires the rule over his understanding when he hath set before his eyes the punishment of his iniquity and shall come to the prophet that he may inquire of Me; I the Lord will answer him by that with which he is entangled.
8And I will set My face against that man, and give him up to desolation and destruction; and remove him from among My people; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
9And with respect to that prophet when he shall have wandered and spoken, I the Lord have caused that prophet to wander, and I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him from among My people Israel.
10And they shall bear their iniquity; the inquirer according to his guilt, and in like manner the prophet according to his guilt,
11that the house of Israel may no more be led astray from Me, and that they may no more be polluted with their transgressions: so they shall be my people and I will be their God, saith the Lord.
12Again a word of the Lord came to me saying,
13Son of man, when a country transgresseth against Me, so as to incur ruin; and I stretch out My hand against it; and break the staff of bread, and send against it famine, and destroy out of it both man and beast:
14should there be in it three such men as Noe, Daniel and Job, they for their righteousness shall be saved, saith the Lord.
15Or if I send wild beasts against that land and punish it, and it become a desolation not to be travelled by reason of the wild beasts,
16and there be in it three such as those: as I live, saith the Lord, neither sons nor daughters shall be saved; none save them only shall escape, and the land shall be for destruction.
17Or if I bring a sword against that land and say, Sword, pass thou through this land, that I may cut off from it man and beast;
18should there be in it three such men as those: as I live, saith the Lord, they shall not deliver sons nor daughters; they and they only shall be saved.
19Or if I send a pestilence against that land, and pour out My wrath upon it with slaughter, with intent to destroy out of it man and beast,
20and Noe, Daniel and Job be therein; As I live, saith the Lord, neither sons nor daughters shall be left: they for their righteousness shall deliver only their own souls.
21Yet thus saith the Lord: Though I send these My four severe judgments sword and famine and wild beasts and pestilence, against Jerusalem to destroy out of it man and beast,
22still, behold some are left in it, the saved of it, who are leading out of it sons and daughters; behold they are coming out to you and you shall see their ways and their desires, and be sorry for the evils which they have brought on Jerusalem—for all the evils which they have brought upon it.
23And they will comfort you, for you will see their ways and their desires; and you will know that I have not without cause done all those things which I have done to it, saith the Lord.