Ezekiel 11
God vows to bring exiles home
Bad men as corpses
1God’s Spirit lifted me off the ground and carried me to the east gate that leads into the Jerusalem Temple. This entrance faces east. I saw 25 men standing there, including two officials: Jaazaniah, who is Azzur’s son, and Pelatiah, Benaiah’s son. 2The Spirit said, “Human, these are the city leaders—wicked men who create evil plans and give terrible advice. 3They say among themselves, ‘We don’t need to build any homes for ourselves. This town is a cooking pot and we’re the meat.’ [1]4So, human, I want you to speak out against these men.
The Spirit as a mind reader
5The Spirit said: Tell them that these words come from the LORD: I know what you’re thinking. I can see what’s on your mind. 6You have killed many people in this town and left them lying in the streets.7So, this is what the Lord God says: The people you’ve killed are the meat. This city is the cooking pot. As for you, I’m scooping you out of the pot. 8Because you’re afraid of dying by the sword, I’m sending the swords. 9I’m booting you out of this town and turning you over to foreigners. That’s the punishment I’m imposing on you. [2]
10A sword will kill you. I’ll pass judgment on you in Israel. [3] Then you’ll know that I’m the LORD. 11This town is not your cooking pot. And you’re not the prime cuts of meat. You’ll discover that when I pass judgment on you in Israel. 12Then you’ll know that I’m the LORD whose laws you broke and whose rules you violated. You didn’t act like my people. You followed the customs of other nations.”
13While I was continuing to deliver this message of prophecy, Pelatiah died. I dropped face-down on the ground and prayed, “No, Lord God! You’re going to kill the rest of us—all that’s left of Israel.” [4]
God: I give you back your land
14The LORD answered: 15Human, people back in Jerusalem are talking about you and your relatives and your fellow exiles from Israel. They’re saying, “Those people are long gone and far from the LORD now. So, we have a right to take their land.”16I want you to deliver this message. Say, this is what the Lord God says:
Yes, I did move those people far away, scattering them to other countries. But I have been with them all along. I followed them wherever they went, to whatever nations. 17Tell the people that this, too, is what the Lord God says: I'm going to gather up those people I scattered among the nations. And I am going to give them back the land of Israel. 18When they get home, they’ll destroy all the idols and shrines and anything else associated with those detestable religions and worship practices.
19I’m going to unite them in spirit as one people. I’ll transplant their hearts, switching out their stubborn, stone hearts with warm hearts of muscle and blood.
20And finally, they’ll keep my laws and obey my rules. Then, they'll be my people, and I’ll be their God. 21Now about those people who have a heart for the repulsive, and prefer disgusting idol worship. I’ll make them pay for that. This is what the Lord God says.
God leaves Jerusalem
22Then the cherubim lifted their wings and rose into the air, with the wheels following behind them. Above it all, rose the glowing, glorious presence of the God of Israel. 23I watched as the glowing presence of the LORD’s glory lifted from above the middle of the city and slipped over to the mountains east of town. [5]24Then the Spirit lifted me off the ground and brought me in this vision back to the land of the Babylonians, and to the exiles living here. That's when the vision stopped. 25And that's when I started telling my fellow exiles about what the LORD showed me.
Footnotes
One way of interpreting this is that the reason crooked city leaders don’t need to build homes is because they can confiscate homes they want and deny the former homeowners the right to live inside the walled city (compare this with Ezekiel 11:15, when they confiscate land). In modern times, the Israeli government has demolished homes and seized land of Palestinians living in East Jerusalem and in the West Bank. They have done so for a variety of reasons, including security pretexts, declaration of “state land,” and because homeowners lacked building permits for repairs and upgrades, when permits were notoriously difficult for Palestinians to get.
They’re getting double-dipped in punishment. First, God kicks them out of town. Second, invaders will kill them.
Some Bibles say judgment takes place “at the border.” But the Hebrew word gᵉbûl can also mean “territory,” “land,” or “country.” Some say they see in the “border” a reference to the Babylonian invaders executing Jerusalem leaders at the Syrian town of Riblah (2 Kings 25:20-21), north of Israel’s border. Riblah is today Rablah, Syria, about 200 miles (320 km) north of Jerusalem, as the crow flies. And it’s about 100 miles (160 km) north of Israel’s modern border.
The southern Jewish Kingdom of Judah was all that remained of the once united nation of Israel. The nation split after King Solomon died in about 930 BC. But Assyrians erased the northern Jewish Kingdom of Israel from the world map in 722 BC and deported the survivors. The people never came back from exile to rebuild their nation in the north. They became known as the Lost Tribes of Israel.
The picture of God leaving Jerusalem would have been a big deal for many in Israel. Some folks seemed to believe that God would never let invaders take his city and especially his Temple, considered his home on earth among his people. But God is sending the message that he is no longer sticking around to defend the Jews from the coming invaders. They are on their own. The Mount of Olives was the ridge of hills just east of Jerusalem, across the narrow Kidron Valley. Beyond those hills, the land dipped into the Jordan River Valley further east, about a day’s walk. Across the river lies the Arab nation of Jordan.
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