And men from the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me.
And the word of the LORD came to me, saying:
Son of man, these men have brought their idols up into their heart, and the stumbling block of their iniquity they have set before their face. Should I be sought at all by them?
Therefore speak with them and say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD: Any man of the house of Israel who brings his idols up into his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and then comes to the prophet — I the LORD will answer him who comes, according to the abundance of his idols,
so as to seize the house of Israel by their heart, all of them who have become strangers to me through their idols.
Therefore say to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord GOD: Turn back and turn away from your idols, and from all your abominations turn away your faces.
For any man of the house of Israel, or of the sojourner who sojourns in Israel, who separates himself from following me and brings his idols up into his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and then comes to the prophet to seek me for himself — I the LORD will answer him myself.
And I will set my face against that man and make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and you will know that I am the LORD.
And the prophet, if he is enticed and speaks a word, I the LORD have enticed that prophet; and I will stretch out my hand against him and destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.
And they will bear their iniquity — as the iniquity of the one seeking, so the iniquity of the prophet will be —
so that the house of Israel no longer strays from following me and no longer defiles itself with all their transgressions. And they will be my people, and I will be their God, the utterance of the Lord GOD.
Four Dire Judgments
And the word of the LORD came to me, saying:
Son of man, when a land sins against me by acting unfaithfully, and I stretch out my hand against it and break for it the staff of bread and send famine into it and cut off from it man and beast,
and these three men were in her midst — Noah, Daniel and Job — they by their righteousness would deliver their own soul, the utterance of the Lord GOD.
If I make evil beasts pass through the land and they bereave it, and it becomes a desolation with none passing through because of the beasts,
and these three men were in her midst — as I live, the utterance of the Lord GOD — they would deliver neither sons nor daughters; they alone would be delivered, and the land would be a desolation.
Or if I bring a sword upon that land and say: Sword, pass through the land — and I cut off from it man and beast,
and these three men were in her midst — as I live, the utterance of the Lord GOD — they would not deliver sons and daughters; for they alone would be delivered.
Or if I send pestilence to that land and pour out my wrath on it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast,
and Noah, Daniel and Job were in her midst — as I live, the utterance of the Lord GOD — they would deliver neither son nor daughter; they by their righteousness would deliver their own soul.
For thus says the Lord GOD: How much more when I send my four evil judgments — sword and famine and evil beast and pestilence — against Jerusalem, to cut off from her man and beast!
And see, there will be left in her an escaped remnant, those brought out, sons and daughters. See, they are coming out to you, and you will see their way and their deeds; and you will be eased concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, all that I have brought upon her.
And they will ease you when you see their way and their deeds; and you will know that not for nothing did I do all that I did in her, the utterance of the Lord GOD.
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