Then certain of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before
me. And the word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, these men
have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling
block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let
myself be consulted by them? Therefore speak to them and say to
them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Any one of the house of Israel who
takes his idols into his heart and sets the stumbling block of his
iniquity before his face, and yet comes to the prophet, I the LORD
will answer him as he comes with the multitude of his idols, that I
may lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel, who are all
estranged from me through their idols.
“Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD:
Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from
all your abominations. For any one of the house of Israel, or of
the strangers who sojourn in Israel, who separates himself from me,
taking his idols into his heart and putting the stumbling block of
his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to a prophet to consult
me through him, I the LORD will answer him myself. And I will set
my face against that man; I will make him a sign and a byword and
cut him off from the midst of my people, and you shall know that I
am the LORD. And if the prophet is deceived and speaks a word, I,
the LORD, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my
hand against him and will destroy him from the midst of my people
Israel. And they shall bear their punishment—the punishment of the
prophet and the punishment of the inquirer shall be alike—that the
house of Israel may no more go astray from me, nor defile
themselves anymore with all their transgressions, but that they may
be my people and I may be their God, declares the Lord GOD.”
And the word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, when a land
sins against me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand
against it and break its supply of bread and send famine upon it,
and cut off from it man and beast, even if these three men, Noah,
Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own lives
by their righteousness, declares the Lord GOD.
“If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land, and they ravage
it, and it be made desolate, so that no one may pass through
because of the beasts, even if these three men were in it, as I
live, declares the Lord GOD, they would deliver neither sons nor
daughters. They alone would be delivered, but the land would be
desolate.
“Or if I bring a sword upon that land and say, Let a sword pass
through the land, and I cut off from it man and beast, though these
three men were in it, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, they would
deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they alone would be
delivered.
“Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out my wrath
upon it with blood, to cut off from it man and beast, even if Noah,
Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, they
would deliver neither son nor daughter. They would deliver but
their own lives by their righteousness.
“For thus says the Lord GOD: How much more when I send upon
Jerusalem my four disastrous acts of judgment, sword, famine, wild
beasts, and pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast! But
behold, some survivors will be left in it, sons and daughters who
will be brought out; behold, when they come out to you, and you see
their ways and their deeds, you will be consoled for the disaster
that I have brought upon Jerusalem, for all that I have brought
upon it. They will console you, when you see their ways and their
deeds, and you shall know that I have not done without cause all
that I have done in it, declares the Lord GOD.”
