1 The Spirit lifted me and brought me to the east gate of the LORD's house, the one that faces east, and there at the doorway of the gate were twenty-five men. Among them I saw Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, leaders of the people.
2 He said to me, "Son of man, these are the men who plot iniquity and give evil advice in this city.
3 They say, 'The time is not near to build houses. This city is the cauldron and we are the meat.'
4 So prophesy against them, prophesy, Son of man!"
5 The Spirit of the LORD fell on me, and he told me, "Say, Thus says the LORD: That is what you are saying, house of Israel, and I know what rises up in your spirit.
6 You have multiplied your slain in this city and filled its streets with the slain.
7 So thus says the Lord GOD: The slain you laid inside it are the meat, and this city is the cauldron; but you I will bring out of it.
8 It is the sword you feared, and the sword is what I will bring on you, declares the Lord GOD.
9 I will bring you out of it and hand you over to foreigners and carry out judgments on you.
10 By the sword you will fall; at the border of Israel I will judge you, and you shall know that I am the LORD.
11 This city will not be a cauldron for you, nor will you be the meat inside it; at the border of Israel I will judge you.
12 And you shall know that I am the LORD, in whose statutes you did not walk and whose judgments you did not carry out; instead you acted by the judgments of the nations around you."
13 As I was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. I fell face down and cried out with a loud voice, "Ah, Lord GOD! Are you making an end of what is left of Israel?"
14 The word of the LORD came to me:
15 "Son of man, your brothers, your own brothers, your relatives who have the right of redemption, and the whole house of Israel, all of them, are the ones of whom the people of Jerusalem have said, 'Keep far away from the LORD; this land has been given to us as our possession.'
16 So say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: Though I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the lands, yet I have been to them a sanctuary for a little while in the lands where they have gone.'
17 So say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: I will gather you from the peoples and collect you from the lands where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.'
18 They will come there and clear out of it all its vile things and all its abominations.
19 I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,
20 so that they will walk in my statutes and keep my judgments and carry them out. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
21 But those whose heart walks after their vile things and their abominations, I will bring their conduct down on their heads, declares the Lord GOD."
22 Then the cherubim raised their wings, with the wheels alongside them, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.
23 The glory of the LORD went up from the middle of the city and stopped on the mountain east of the city.
24 The Spirit lifted me and brought me in the vision, by the Spirit of God, to Chaldea, to the exiles. Then the vision I had seen left me.
25 And I told the exiles everything the LORD had shown me.