Ezekiel 14:12-23

Evangelical Heritage Version

¹³ Son of man, when a land sins against me by adding one act of infidelity to another, so that I stretch out my hand against it to cut off its bread supply,^[a] to send famine against it, and to cut off man and beast from it, ¹⁴ even if these three men were in its midst—Noah, Daniel, and Job—by their righteousness they would save only their own lives, declares the Lord God.

¹⁵ If I cause wild animals to pass through the land and they rob it of its children, so that it becomes desolate, and no one can pass through because of the wild animals, ¹⁶ and if these three men were in its midst, as I live, says the Lord God, they would not save either their sons or their daughters. They alone would be saved, but the land would be devastated.

¹⁷ Or if I bring a sword upon that land and say, “A sword shall pass through the land,” and I cut off from it man and beast, ¹⁸ and these three men were in its midst, as I live, says the Lord God, they would not be able to save either their sons or their daughters, but they alone would be saved.

¹⁹ Or if I send a plague on that land, and with bloodshed I pour out my wrath on it to cut off man and beast from it, ²⁰ and if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in its midst, as I live, says the Lord God, they would not be able to save either their sons or their daughters. By their righteousness they would save only their own lives.

²¹ For this is what the Lord God says. How much worse it will be when I send my four terrible judgments—sword, famine, wild animals, and plague—upon Jerusalem to cut off man and beast from it!

²² But wait! A group of survivors will be left in it, those sons and daughters who will be brought out. Look! They are coming out to you, and you shall see their ways and their actions. Then you will be comforted concerning the disaster that I brought upon Jerusalem, everything that I brought upon it. ²³ And they will comfort you, because you will see their ways and their actions. Then you will know that it was not without cause that I did everything that I did against the city, declares the Lord God.