Add parallel Print Page Options

14 Then the Lord’s message came to me: 15 “Son of man, your brothers,[a] your relatives,[b] and the whole house of Israel, all of them are those to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘They have gone far away[c] from the Lord; to us this land has been given as a possession.’

16 “Therefore say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Although I have removed them far away among the nations and have dispersed them among the countries, I have been a little[d] sanctuary for them among the lands where they have gone.’

17 “Therefore say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: When I regather you from the peoples and assemble you from the lands where you have been dispersed, I will give you back the country of Israel.’

18 “When they return to it, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations. 19 I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within them;[e] I will remove the hearts of stone from their bodies[f] and I will give them tender hearts,[g] 20 so that they may follow my statutes and observe my regulations and carry them out. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God.[h] 21 But those whose hearts are devoted to detestable things and abominations, I hereby repay them for what they have done,[i] says the Sovereign Lord.”

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 11:15 tc The MT reads “your brothers, your brothers” either for emphasis (D. I. Block, Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:341, n. 1; 346) or as a result of dittography.
  2. Ezekiel 11:15 tc The MT reads גְאֻלָּתֶךָ (geʾullatekha, “your redemption-men”), referring to the relatives responsible for deliverance in times of hardship (see Lev 25:25-55). The LXX and Syriac read “your fellow exiles,” assuming an underlying Hebrew text of גָלוּתֶךָ (galutekha) or having read the א (alef) as an internal mater lectionis for holem.
  3. Ezekiel 11:15 tc The MT has an imperative form (“go far!”), but it may be read with different vowels as a perfect verb (“they have gone far”).
  4. Ezekiel 11:16 tn Or “have been partially a sanctuary”; others take this as temporal (cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV “a little while”).
  5. Ezekiel 11:19 tc The MT reads “you”; many Hebrew mss along with the LXX and other ancient versions read “within them.”
  6. Ezekiel 11:19 tn Heb “their flesh.”
  7. Ezekiel 11:19 tn Heb “heart of flesh.”
  8. Ezekiel 11:20 sn The expression They will be my people, and I will be their God occurs as a promise to Abraham (Gen 17:8), Moses (Exod 6:7), and the nation (Exod 29:45).
  9. Ezekiel 11:21 tn Heb “their way on their head I have placed.”

14 The Lord’s word came to me: 15 Human one, when the people living in Jerusalem said, “They’ve gone far from the Lord, and we’ve been given the land as an inheritance,” they were talking about your family, your nearest relatives, the whole house of Israel, all of it.

16 Therefore, say, The Lord God proclaims: Even though I made them go far away among the nations and caused them to scatter throughout the earth, I’ve provided some sanctuary for them in the countries to which they’ve gone.

17 Therefore, say, The Lord God proclaims: I will gather you from the nations, assemble you from the countries where you were scattered, and I will give you Israel’s fertile land. 18 They will enter the land, and they will remove from it all its disgusting and detestable things. 19 I will give them a single heart, and I will put a new spirit in them. I will remove the stony hearts from their bodies and give them hearts of flesh 20 so that they may follow my regulations and carefully observe my case laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God. 21 As for those whose hearts continue to go after their disgusting and detestable things, I will hold them accountable for their ways. This is what the Lord God says!

Read full chapter