Dual Panel1A spirit lifted me up and brought me to the eastward-facing gate of the LORD's house. There by the gateway I saw twenty-five men, among them two of high office, Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah.
2The LORD said to me, “O man, these are the men who are planning mischief and offering bad advice in this city,
3saying, ‘The time has not yet come to build; the city is a cooking pot and we are the meat in it.’
4Therefore”, he said, “prophesy against them, O man, prophesy.”
5The spirit of the LORD came upon me, and he told me to say, “These are the words of the LORD: This is what you are saying to yourselves, you men of Israel; well do I know the thoughts that rise in your mind.
6You have caused the death of many in this city, heaping the streets with the dead.
7Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: The bodies of your victims, they are the meat, and the city is the cooking pot. But I shall drive you out of the city.
8You fear the sword, and it is a sword I shall bring on you, says the Lord GOD.
9I shall drive you out of the city and hand you over to a foreign power; I shall bring you to justice.
10You will fall by the sword when I bring you to judgement on the frontier of Israel; thus you will know that I am the LORD.
11So the city will no longer be your cooking pot, nor you the meat in it; on the frontier of Israel I shall bring you to judgement.
12Then you will know that I am the LORD. You have not conformed to my statutes, nor kept my laws, but have followed the laws of the nations round about you.”
13While I was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah fell dead; and I threw myself on the ground, crying aloud, “Lord GOD, are you going to make an end of all the Israelites who are left?”
14This word of the LORD came to me:
15“O man, they are your brothers and your kinsmen, this whole people of Israel, to whom the inhabitants now in Jerusalem have said, ‘They are separated far from the LORD; the land has been made over to us to possess.’
16Say therefore: These are the words of the Lord GOD: When I sent them far away among the nations and dispersed them over the earth, for a little time I became their sanctuary in the countries to which they had gone.
17Say therefore: These are the words of the Lord GOD: I shall gather you from among the nations and bring you together from the countries where you have been dispersed, and I shall give the land of Israel to you.
18When they come there, they will abolish all the vile and abominable practices.
19I shall give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit in them; I shall remove the heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh,
20so that they will conform to my statutes and keep my laws. They will be my people, and I shall be their God.
21But those whose hearts are set on vile and abominable practices will be made to answer for all they have done. This is the word of the Lord GOD.”
22Then the cherubim lifted their wings, with the wheels beside them and the glory of the God of Israel above them.
23The glory of the LORD rose up and left the city, and halted on the mountain to the east of it.
24In a vision sent by the spirit of God, a spirit lifted me up and brought me back to the exiles in Chaldaea. After the vision left me,
25I told the exiles all that the LORD had revealed to me.