Ezekiel 14 GNV
Summary: Elders come to consult Ezekiel while secretly harboring idols in their hearts, prompting God's rebuke that he will answer such inquirers according to their idolatry, giving them over to it so that the house of Israel may be recovered from its estrangement. God declares that even if paragons of righteousness like Noah, Daniel, and Job were present in a sinful land, they could deliver only themselves by their own righteousness, not sons or daughters. The chapter details four severe judgments — sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague — that God may send upon a land, closing with the grim assurance that when Jerusalem's few survivors reach the exiles, their example will actually comfort the exiles by proving the disaster was justified.
1Then came certaine of the Elders of Israel vnto me, and sate before me.
2And the worde of the Lord came vnto me, saying,
3Sonne of man, these men haue set vp their idoles in their heart, and put the stumbling blocke of their iniquitie before their face: should I, being required, answere them?
4Therefore speake vnto them, and say vnto them, Thus saith the Lord God, Euery man of the house of Israel that setteth vp his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling blocke of his iniquitie before his face, and commeth to the Prophet, I the Lord will answere him that commeth, according to the multitude of his idoles:
5That I may take the house of Israel in their owne heart, because they are all departed from me through their idoles.
6Therfore say vnto the house of Israel, Thus sayth the Lord God, Returne, and withdraw your selues, and turne your faces from your idoles, and turne your faces from all your abominations.
7For euery one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that soiourneth in Israel, which departeth from mee, and setteth vp his idoles in his heart, and putteth the stumbling blocke of his iniquitie before his face, and commeth to a Prophet, for to inquire of him for me, I the Lord will answere him for my selfe,
8And I will set my face against that man, and will make him an example and prouerbe, and I will cut him off from the middes of my people, and ye shall knowe that I am the Lord.
9And if the Prophet be deceiued, when hee hath spoken a thing, I the Lord haue deceiued that Prophet, and I will stretch out mine hande vpon him, and will destroy him from the middes of my people of Israel.
10And they shall beare their punishment: the punishment of the Prophet shall bee euen as the punishment of him that asketh,
11That the house of Israel may go no more astray from mee, neither bee polluted any more with all their transgressions, but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, sayth the Lord God.
12The worde of the Lord came againe vnto me, saying,
13Sonne of man, when ye land sinneth against me by committing a trespasse, then will I stretch out mine hand vpon it, and will breake the staffe of the bread thereof, and will send famine vpon it, and I will destroy man and beast forth of it.
14Though these three men Noah, Daniel, and Iob were among them, they shoulde deliuer but their owne soules by their righteousnes, saith the Lord God.
15If I bring noysome beastes into the lande and they spoyle it, so that it bee desolate, that no man may passe through, because of beastes,
16Though these three men were in the mids thereof, As I liue, sayth the Lord God, they shall saue neither sonnes nor daughters: they onely shalbe deliuered, but the land shall be waste.
17Or if I bring a sworde vpon this land, and say, Sword, go through the land, so that I destroy man and beast out of it,
18Though these three men were in the mids thereof, As I liue, sayth the Lord God, they shall deliuer neither sonnes nor daughters, but they onely shall be deliuered themselues.
19Or if I send a pestilence into this land, and powre out my wrath vpon it in blood, to destroy out of it man and beast,
20And though Noah, Daniel and Iob were in the middes of it, As I liue, sayth the Lord God, they shall deliuer neither sonne nor daughter: they shall but deliuer their owne soules by their righteousnes.
21For thus saith the Lord God, Howe much more when I sende my foure sore iudgements vpon Ierusalem, euen the sworde, and famine, and the noysome beast and pestilence, to destroy man and beast out of it?
22Yet beholde, therein shalbe left a remnant of them that shalbe caryed away both sonnes and daughters: behold, they shall come forth vnto you, and ye shall see their way, and their enterprises: and ye shall be comforted, concerning the euill that I haue brought vpon Ierusalem, euen concerning al that I haue brought vpon it.
23And they shall comfort you, when yee see their way and their enterprises: and ye shall know, that I haue not done without cause all that I haue done in it, saith the Lord God.
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