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Historical

Read the books of the Bible as they were written historically, according to the estimated date of their writing.

Duration: 365 days

Ezekiel 11-12

Chapter 11

Death for the Remnant in Jerusalem. ¹The spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the house of the Lord facing east. There at the entrance of the gate were twenty-five men; among them I saw the public officials Jaazaniah, son of Azzur, and Pelatiah, son of Benaiah. ²The Lord said to me: Son of man, these are the men who are planning evil and giving wicked counsel in this city. ³They are saying, “No need to build houses! The city is the pot, and we are the meat.”^[a]^(A) ⁴Therefore prophesy against them, son of man, prophesy! ⁵Then the spirit of the Lord fell upon me and told me to say: Thus says the Lord: This is how you talk, house of Israel. I know the things that come into your mind! ⁶You have slain many in this city, filled its streets with the slain. ⁷Therefore thus says the Lord God: The slain whom you piled up in it, that is the meat, the pot is the city. But you I will bring out of it.^(B) ⁸You fear the sword—that sword I will bring upon you—oracle of the Lord God.^(C) ⁹I will bring you out of the city, hand you over to foreigners, and execute judgments against you. ¹⁰By the sword you shall fall. At the borders of Israel I will judge you so that you will know that I am the Lord. ¹¹The city shall not be a pot for you, nor shall you be meat within it. At the borders of Israel I will judge you,^(D) ¹²so you shall know that I am the Lord, whose statutes you did not follow, whose ordinances you did not keep. Instead, you acted according to the ordinances of the nations around you.

¹³While I was prophesying, Pelatiah, the son of Benaiah, dropped dead. I fell down on my face and cried out in a loud voice: “Alas, Lord God! You are finishing off what remains of Israel!”^[b]^(E)

Restoration for the Exiles. ¹⁴The word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁵^[c]Son of man, the inhabitants of Jerusalem are saying about all your relatives, the other exiles, and all the house of Israel, “They are far away from the Lord. The land is given to us as a possession.”^(F) ¹⁶Therefore say: Thus says the Lord God: I have indeed sent them far away among the nations, scattered them over the lands, and have been but little sanctuary for them in the lands to which they have gone. ¹⁷Therefore, thus says the Lord God, I will gather you from the nations and collect you from the lands through which you were scattered, so I can give you the land of Israel.^(G) ¹⁸They will enter it and remove all its atrocities and abominations. ¹⁹^(H)And I will give them another heart and a new spirit I will put within them. From their bodies I will remove the hearts of stone, and give them hearts of flesh, ²⁰so that they walk according to my statutes, taking care to keep my ordinances. Thus they will be my people, and I will be their God.^(I) ²¹But as for those whose hearts are devoted to their atrocities and abominations, I will bring their conduct down upon their heads—oracle of the Lord God.

²²Then the cherubim lifted their wings and the wheels alongside them, with the glory of the God of Israel above them.^(J) ²³^[d]The glory of the Lord rose up from the middle of the city and came to rest on the mountain east of the city.^(K) ²⁴In a vision, the spirit lifted me up and brought me back to the exiles in Chaldea, by the spirit of God. The vision I had seen left me,^(L) ²⁵and I told the exiles everything the Lord had shown me.^(M)

Chapter 12

Acts Symbolic of the Exile. ¹The word of the Lord came to me: ²Son of man, you live in the midst of a rebellious house; they have eyes to see, but do not see, and ears to hear but do not hear. They are such a rebellious house!^(N) ³Now, son of man, during the day while they watch, pack a bag for exile,^[e] and again while they watch, go into exile from your place to another place; perhaps they will see that they are a rebellious house. ⁴During the day, while they watch, bring out your bag, an exile’s bag. In the evening, again while they watch, go out as if into exile.^(O) ⁵While they watch, dig a hole through the wall^[f] and go out through it. ⁶While they watch, shoulder your load and go out in darkness. Cover your face so you cannot see the land, for I am making you a sign for the house of Israel!^(P)

⁷I did just as I was commanded. During the day I brought out my bag, an exile’s bag. In the evening while they watched, I dug a hole through the wall with my hands and set out in darkness, shouldering my load.

⁸In the morning, the word of the Lord came to me: ⁹Son of man, did not the house of Israel, that house of rebels, say, “What are you doing?”^(Q) ¹⁰Tell them: Thus says the Lord God: This load is the prince in Jerusalem and the whole house of Israel within it. ¹¹Say, I am a sign for you: just as I have done, so it shall be done to them; into exile, as captives they shall go.^(R) ¹²The prince among them shall shoulder his load in darkness and go out through the hole they dug in the wall to bring him out. His face shall be covered so that he cannot even see the ground.^(S) ¹³^(T)I will spread my net over him and he shall be caught in my snare. I will bring him into Babylon, to the land of the Chaldeans, though he shall not see it,^[g] and there he shall die. ¹⁴All his retinue, his aides and all his troops, I will scatter to the winds and pursue them with the sword.^(U) ¹⁵Then they shall know that I am the Lord, when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands.^(V) ¹⁶But I will let a few of them escape the sword, starvation, and plague, so that they may recount all their abominations among the nations to which they go. Thus they may know that I am the Lord.^[h]

¹⁷The word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁸Son of man, eat your bread trembling and drink your water shaking with fear.^(W) ¹⁹And say to the people of the land:^[i] Thus says the Lord God about the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the land of Israel: they shall eat their bread in fear and drink their water in horror, because the land will be emptied of what fills it—the lawlessness of all its inhabitants. ²⁰Inhabited cities shall be in ruins, the land a desolate place. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.

Prophecy Ridiculed. ²¹The word of the Lord came to me: ²²Son of man, what is this proverb you have in the land of Israel: “The days drag on, and every vision fails”?^[j]^(X) ²³Say to them therefore: Thus says the Lord God: I will put an end to that proverb; they shall never use it again in Israel. Say to them instead: “The days are at hand and every vision fulfilled.”^(Y) ²⁴No longer shall there be any false visions or deceitful divinations within the house of Israel,^(Z) ²⁵for whatever word I speak shall happen without delay. In your days, rebellious house, whatever I speak I will bring about—oracle of the Lord God.^(AA)

²⁶The word of the Lord came to me: ²⁷Son of man, listen! The house of Israel is saying, “The vision he sees is a long time off; he prophesies for distant times!”^(AB) ²⁸Say to them therefore: Thus says the Lord God: None of my words shall be delayed any longer. Whatever I say is final; it shall be done—oracle of the Lord God.

Footnotes

11:3 No need to build houses…meat: this advice is based on the conviction that invincible Jerusalem will protect its citizens from further danger just as a pot shields the meat inside from the fire. The poorer citizens of Jerusalem and the refugees from nearby villages can now appropriate the property abandoned by the city’s wealthier upper class when they were deported (v. 15). The metaphor of the pot and its contents reappears in chap. 24.
11:13 In Ezekiel’s vision Pelatiah represents the people left in Jerusalem, “the remnant of Israel.” His sudden death in the vision, but not in reality, is a figure for the judgment described in vv. 8–10 and prompts Ezekiel’s anguished question about the survival of the people left in the land after the deportations in 597.
11:15–21 Ezekiel insists that those who remained in Judah are doomed; the exiles, under a new covenant, will constitute a new Israel. Cf. chap. 36; Jer 24:7; 29.
11:23 The glory of the Lord departs toward the east, to the exiles in Babylon; it will return once the Temple is rebuilt (43:1–3).
12:3–10 An exile’s bag contains bare necessities, probably no more than a bowl, a mat, and a waterskin. The prophet’s action foreshadows the fate of ruler and people (vv. 11–14).
12:5 Through the wall: mud-brick outer wall of a private home. In this symbolic action, Ezekiel represents the enemy forces, and the house wall, the city wall of Jerusalem breached by the Babylonian army.
12:13 Though he shall not see it: according to a Targum, an allusion to Nebuchadnezzar having Zedekiah blinded before deporting him to Babylonia (cf. 2 Kgs 25:7); according to the Septuagint, the king is ashamed of his flight from the city and disguises himself so others will not recognize him.
12:16 Both exiles and nations shall know that the exile is divine punishment for Israel’s betrayal of the Lord and the covenant, not evidence that the Lord is too weak to fight off the Babylonian deity.
12:19 The people of the land: the exiles in Babylon who, ironically, are now outside the land.
12:22–28 This proverb conveys the skepticism the people of Jerusalem have; cf. Jer 20:7–9.

New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)

Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.