Ezekiel 13-14

Common English Bible

Against the prophets

13 The Lord’s word came to me: ² Human one, prophesy to Israel’s prophets who prophesy from their own imaginations. Say, Hear the Lord’s word! ³ The Lord God proclaims: Doom to the foolish prophets who follow their own whims but see nothing. ⁴ Israel, your prophets have been like jackals among ruins. ⁵ You haven’t gone up into the breach or reinforced the wall of the house of Israel, so that it might withstand the battle on the day of the Lord. ⁶ They saw worthless visions and performed deceptive divinations. Even though the Lord didn’t send them, they said, “This is what the Lord says” and expected their word to stand. ⁷ Didn’t you see worthless visions? And didn’t you report deceptive divinations and say, “This is what the Lord says,” even though I didn’t speak?

⁸ Therefore, the Lord God proclaims: Because you spoke worthless things and had false visions, I’m against you. This is what the Lord God says! ⁹ I’ll wield my power against the prophets, those seers of nothingness and diviners of lies. They won’t be included in my people’s council, or recorded in the house of Israel’s official records, or enter Israel’s fertile land. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

¹⁰ Without a doubt, they led my people astray, saying “Peace” when there was no peace, and “He is building a wall” when they were the ones who laid on the plaster. ¹¹ Say to those who laid on the plaster that it will fall. When the flooding rains appear and I send hailstones, it will collapse, and the storm winds will break it apart. ¹² The wall will certainly fall. Won’t it be said about you, “Where is your plaster now?”

¹³ Therefore, the Lord God proclaims: In my fury I will make a storm wind break out, and in my anger there will be flooding rains and hailstones in consuming wrath. ¹⁴ I will tear down the wall on which you laid plaster. I will raze it to the ground and expose its foundation. When it falls, you will be destroyed with it, and you will know that I am the Lord. ¹⁵ I will exhaust my fury on the wall and on those who laid plaster on it. Then I will say to you, “Where is the wall?”^[a] and “Where are those who plastered it, ¹⁶ those prophets of Israel who prophesied to Jerusalem and envisioned peace when there was no peace?” This is what the Lord God says!

¹⁷ You, human one, face the daughters of your people, those women who prophesy from their imaginations. Prophesy against them ¹⁸ and say, The Lord God proclaims: Doom to the women who sew bands on every wrist and make veils for heads of all sizes to entrap human lives. Will you ensnare my people’s lives but preserve your own? ¹⁹ When you degrade me to my people for handfuls of barley and bread crumbs, you mislead my gullible people, and you bring about the death of those who shouldn’t die and keep alive those who shouldn’t live.

²⁰ Therefore, the Lord God proclaims: I’m against the bands that you use to trap human lives.^[b] I will tear them from your arms, and I will set free the lives that you’ve trapped like birds. ²¹ I will tear off your veils and snatch my people out of your clutches. They will be prey in your clutches no longer. Then you will know that I am the Lord. ²² You hurt the righteous with slander—I didn’t wound them!—and you strengthened the hands of the wicked so that they survived without changing their evil ways! ²³ Therefore, you will no longer see empty visions or perform divinations. I will rescue my people from your clutches, and you will know that I am the Lord.

False devotion

14 When some of the elders of the house of Israel came to sit in my presence, ² the Lord’s word came to me: ³ Human one, these men decide on their own to set up their idols, so the cause of their downfall is right in front of them. Why should I allow them to ask me anything? ⁴ Therefore, speak to them and tell them, The Lord God proclaims: If anyone from the house of Israel decides on his own to set up his idols and puts the cause of his downfall right in front of him, but then comes to the prophet, I, the Lord, will require an answer from him through his many idols. ⁵ So I’ll seize the hearts of the house of Israel, whose idols have made them all strangers to me.

⁶ Therefore, say to the house of Israel, The Lord God proclaims: Come back! Turn away from your idols and from all your detestable practices. Turn away! ⁷ Or anyone of the house of Israel or any immigrant in Israel who becomes estranged from me by deciding on their own to set up their idols and puts the cause of their downfall right in front of them, but then comes to the prophet to ask me something through him, I, the Lord, will require an answer. ⁸ I will confront that one. I will set them up as a sign and an object lesson, and I will cut them off from my people. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

⁹ As for the prophet who was seduced into speaking a word, even though it was I, the Lord, who seduced that prophet, I will use my power against him and cut him off completely from my people Israel. ¹⁰ The prophet and the inquirer alike will bear their guilt, ¹¹ so that the house of Israel won’t stray away from me again or make themselves impure with any of their sins. They will be my people, and I will be their God. This is what the Lord God says!

Failed request

¹² The Lord’s word came to me: ¹³ Human one, suppose a land sins against me by acting faithlessly, so that I use my power against it, break off its food supply, let famine run rampant, and eliminate both humans and animals. ¹⁴ If these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, lived there, their lives alone would be saved because they were righteous. This is what the Lord God says. ¹⁵ Or suppose I allow wild animals to roam through the land, and it becomes so wild that no one can live there or even travel through it on account of the wild animals. ¹⁶ If these three men lived there, as surely as I live, proclaims the Lord God, they wouldn’t be able to rescue even their sons or daughters. They alone would be rescued, but the land would become a ruin. ¹⁷ Or suppose I bring a sword against that land and command the sword to pass through and eliminate both humans and animals. ¹⁸ If these three men lived there, as surely as I live, proclaims the Lord God, they wouldn’t be able to rescue even their sons or daughters. They alone would be rescued. ¹⁹ Or suppose I send a plague against that land and pour out my fury on it. With great bloodshed I would eliminate both humans and animals. ²⁰ If Noah, Daniel, and Job lived there, as surely as I live, proclaims the Lord God, they wouldn’t be able to rescue either sons or daughters. But they would save their lives because they were righteous.

²¹ The Lord God proclaims: How much more if I send all four of these terrible acts of judgment—sword, famine, wild animals, and plague—against Jerusalem, to eliminate both humans and animals? ²² Yet a few survivors will be left. Sons and daughters will be brought out to you. When you see their ways and their deeds, you will be consoled for the evil that I inflicted on Jerusalem, for all that I brought against it. ²³ Seeing their ways and their deeds will bring you some consolation, because then you will understand what I’ve done, and that I didn’t do any of these things without cause. This is what the Lord God says.