Idolatrous Elders Condemned

14 Then some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me. ² 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 inquired of by them at all? 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 him who comes according to the multitude of his idols, ⁵ in order to seize the heart of the house of Israel who are estranged from Me through all their idols.

⁶ Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Repent and turn away from your idols and turn away your faces from all your abominations.

⁷ For every one of the house of Israel or of the stranger who sojourns in Israel who separates himself from Me, and sets up his idols in his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet to inquire of Me for himself, I the Lord will answer him by Myself. ⁸ And I will set My face against that man and will make him a sign 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 deceived when he has spoken a word, I the Lord have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand against him and will destroy him from the midst of My people Israel. ¹⁰ They shall bear the punishment of their iniquity. The punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him who seeks him ¹¹ in order that the house of Israel may no more go astray from Me or be polluted anymore with all their transgressions. Thus they shall be My people, and I shall be their God, says the Lord God.

Jerusalem’s Imminent Judgment

¹² The word of the Lord came to me again, saying: ¹³ Son of man, when the land sins against Me by trespassing grievously, then I will stretch out My hand against it, and break the staff of the bread, and send famine against it, and cut off man and beast from it. ¹⁴ Even though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they could deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, says the Lord God.

¹⁵ If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land, and they destroy it so that it becomes desolate, that no man may pass through because of the beasts, ¹⁶ though these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they could deliver neither their sons nor their daughters. They alone would be delivered, but the land would be desolate.

¹⁷ Or if I bring a sword on that land, and say, “Let the sword go through the land and cut off man and beast from it,” ¹⁸ though these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they would deliver neither their sons nor their daughters, but they alone would deliver themselves.

¹⁹ Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out My fury on it in blood to cut off from it man and beast, ²⁰ though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they would deliver neither their sons nor their daughters. They would deliver only their own souls by their righteousness.

²¹ For thus says the Lord God: How much more when I send My four sore judgments on Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the wild beasts, and the pestilence, to cut off man and beast from it. ²² Yet a remnant shall be left in it who shall be brought out, both sons and daughters. They shall come out to you, and you shall see their way and their deeds. Then you shall be comforted concerning the disaster that I have brought against Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought upon it. ²³ Then they shall comfort you when you see their ways and their deeds. And you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, says the Lord God.