Ezekiel 14

¹Then certain of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me.

²And the word of the Lord came to me:

³Son 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?

⁴Therefore 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 ,

⁵that I may lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel , who are all estranged from me through their idols .

⁶Therefore 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 .

⁷For 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.

⁸And 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.

⁹And 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 .

¹⁰And they shall bear their punishment —the punishment of the prophet and the punishment of the inquirer shall be alike—

¹¹that 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.

¹²And the word of the Lord came to me:

¹³Son 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 ,

¹⁴even 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.

¹⁵If 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 ,

¹⁶even 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 .

¹⁷Or 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 ,

¹⁸though 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 .

¹⁹Or 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 ,

²⁰even 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 .

²¹For 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 !

²²But 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.

²³They 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.