A prophecy against the presumptuous assurance of the great ones. A
remnant shall be saved, and receive a new spirit, and a new heart.
11:1. And the spirit lifted me up, and brought me into the east gate of
the house of the Lord, which looketh towards the rising of the sun: and
behold in the entry of the gate five and twenty men: and I saw in the
midst of them Jezonias the son of Azur, and Pheltias the son of Banaias,
princes of the people.
11:2. And he said to me: Son of man, these are the men that study
iniquity, and frame a wicked counsel in this city,
11:3. Saying: Were not houses lately built? This city is the caldron,
and we the flesh.
Were not houses lately built, etc... These men despised the predictions
and threats of the prophets; who declared to them from God, that the
city should be destroyed, and the inhabitants carried into captivity:
and they made use of this kind of argument against the prophets, that
the city, so far from being like to be destroyed, had lately been
augmented by the building of new houses; from whence they further
inferred, by way of a proverb, using the similitude of a cauldron, out
of which the flesh is not taken, till it is thoroughly boiled, and fit
to be eaten, that they should not be carried away out of their city, but
there end their days in peace.
11:4. Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, thou son of man.
11:5. And the spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and said to me: Speak:
Thus saith the Lord: Thus have you spoken, O house of Israel, for I know
the thoughts of your heart.
11:6. You have killed a great many in this city, and you have filled the
streets thereof with the slain.
11:7. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Your slain, whom you have laid
in the midst thereof, they are the flesh, all this is the caldron: and I
will bring you forth out of the midst thereof.
11:8. You have feared the sword, and I will bring the sword upon you,
saith the Lord God.
11:9. And I will cast you out of the midst thereof, and I will deliver
you into the hand of the enemies, and I will execute judgments upon you.
11:10. You shall fall by the sword: I will judge you in the borders of
Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord.
In the borders of Israel... They pretended that they should die in peace
in Jerusalem; God tells them it should not be so; but that they should
be judged and condemned, and fall by the sword in the borders of Israel:
viz., in Reblatha in the land of Emath, where all their chief men were
put to death by Nabuchodonosor. 4 Kings 25., and Jer. 52.10, 27.
11:11. This shall not be as a caldron to you, and you shall not be as
flesh in the midst thereof: I will judge you in the borders of Israel.
11:12. And you shall know that I am the Lord: because you have not
walked in my commandments, and have not done my judgments, but you have
done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you.
11:13. And it came to pass, when I prophesied, that Pheltias the son of
Banaias died: and I fell down upon my face, and I cried with a loud
voice: and said: Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God: wilt thou make an end of
all the remnant of Israel?
11:14. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
11:15. Son of man, thy brethren, thy brethren, thy kinsmen, and all the
house of Israel, all they to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have
said: Get ye far from the Lord, the land is given in possession to us.
Thy brethren, etc... He speaks of them that had been carried away
captives before; who were despised by them that remained in Jerusalem:
but as the prophet here declares to them from God, should be in a more
happy condition than they, and after some time return from their
captivity.
11:16. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because I have removed them
far off among the Gentiles, and because I have scattered them among the
countries: I will be to them a little sanctuary in the countries whither
they are come.
11:17. Therefore speak to them: Thus saith the Lord God: I will gather
you from among the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries
wherein you are scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.
11:18. And they shall go in thither, and shall take away all the
scandals, and all the abominations thereof from thence.
11:19. And I will give them one heart, and will put a new spirit in
their bowels: and I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh,
and will give them a heart of flesh:
11:20. That they may walk in my commandments, and keep my judgments, and
do them: and that they may be my people, and I may be their God.
11:21. But as for them whose heart walketh after their scandals and
abominations, I will lay their way upon their head, saith the Lord God.
11:22. And the cherubims lifted up their wings, and the wheels with
them: and the glory of the God of Israel was over them.
11:23. And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and
stood over the mount that is on the east side of the city.
11:24. And the spirit lifted me up, and brought me into Chaldea, to them
of the captivity, in vision, by the spirit of God: and the vision which
I had seen was taken up from me.
11:25. And I spoke to them of the captivity all the words of the Lord,
which he had shewn me.