Ezekiel 14

Revised Geneva Translation

14 Then some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me.

² And the Word of the LORD came to me, saying:

³ “Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face. Should I be required to consult them?

⁴ “Therefore speak to them, and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Every man of the House of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and comes to the Prophet! I, the LORD, will answer who comes, according to the multitude of his idols,

⁵ so that I may take the House of Israel by their own heart, because they have all departed from Me through their idols.”’

⁶ “Therefore say to the House of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Return, and withdraw yourselves; and turn your faces from your idols; and turn your faces from all your abominations.

⁷ “For every one of the House of Israel, or the stranger who sojourns in Israel, who departs from Me and sets up his idols in his heart and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and comes to a Prophet to inquire of him about Me, I the LORD will answer him Myself.

⁸ “And I will set My Face against that man and will make him an example and a proverb. And I will cut him off from the midst of My people. And you shall know that I am the LORD.

⁹ “And if the Prophet is persuaded to speak a thing, I the LORD have persuaded that Prophet. And I will stretch out My Hand upon him and will destroy him from the midst of My people of Israel.

¹⁰ “And they shall bear their punishment. The punishment of the Prophet shall be the same as the punishment of him who inquires,

¹¹ “so that the House of Israel may no longer go astray from Me or be polluted anymore with all their transgressions, and that they may be my people and I may be their God,” says the Lord GOD.’”

¹² The Word of the Lord GOD came to me again, saying:

¹³ “Son of man, when the land sins against Me by committing a trespass, then I will stretch out My Hand upon it and will break the staff of its bread and will send famine upon it. And I will cut off man and beast from it.

¹⁴ “Even if these three men—Noah, Daniel, and Job—were among them, they could only deliver their own souls by their righteousness,” says the Lord GOD.

¹⁵ “If I bring evil beasts into the land and they plunder it, so that it is desolate, so that no one may pass through because of beasts,

¹⁶ “even if these three men were in its midst, as I live,” says the Lord GOD, “they shall save neither sons nor daughters. They alone shall be delivered, but the land shall be desolate.

¹⁷ “Or if I bring a sword upon this land, and say, ‘Sword, go through the land, so that I cut off man and beast from it,

¹⁸ “though these three men were in its midst, as I live,” says the Lord GOD, “they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but only they themselves shall be delivered.

¹⁹ Or if I send a pestilence into this land, and pour out My wrath upon it in blood, to cut off man and beast from it,

²⁰ with Noah, Daniel and Job in the midst of it, as I live,” says the Lord GOD, “they shall deliver neither son nor daughter: they shall only deliver their own souls by their righteousness.”

²¹ For thus says the Lord GOD: “How much more when I send My four severe judgments upon Jerusalem—the sword, and famine, and the evil beast, and pestilence—to cut off man and beast from it?

²² “Yet behold, therein shall be left a remnant of those who shall be carried away, sons and daughters. Behold, they shall come forth to you, and you shall see their ways and their enterprises. And you shall be comforted concerning the misery that I have brought upon Jerusalem, concerning all that I have brought upon it.

²³ “And they shall comfort you when you see their ways and their enterprises. And you shall know that I have not done all that I have done in it without cause,” says the Lord GOD.