1Then some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat down in front of me.
2And the word of the LORD came to me:
3"Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts. They have put the stumbling block of their sin right in front of their faces. Should I let them ask anything of me at all?"
4"So speak to them and say to them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: Every man of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his sin in front of his face, and then comes to the prophet - I the LORD will answer him when he comes, according to the great number of his idols.'"
5"I will do this to take hold of the house of Israel by their own hearts, because they have all turned away from me through their idols."
6"So say to the house of Israel, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: Repent. Turn yourselves away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your disgusting things.'"
7"For anyone of the house of Israel, or any foreigner living in Israel, who cuts himself off from me, and sets up his idols in his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his sin in front of his face, and then comes to a prophet to ask him about me - I the LORD will answer him myself."
8"I will set my face against that man. I will make him a sign and a saying, and I will cut him off from among my people. Then you will know that I am the LORD."
9"And if the prophet is deceived when he has spoken something, I the LORD have deceived that prophet. I will stretch out my hand against him and destroy him from among my people Israel."
10"They will carry the punishment of their sin. The punishment of the prophet will be the same as the punishment of the man who goes to ask him,"
11"so that the house of Israel may not wander away from me any more, and may not make themselves unclean any more with all their wrongdoing. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God, says the Lord GOD."
12The word of the LORD came to me again:
13"Son of man, when a land sins against me by breaking faith badly, I will stretch out my hand against it. I will break the supply of its bread, and send famine on it, and cut off both people and animals from it."
14"Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel and Job, were in it, they would save only their own lives by their righteousness, says the Lord GOD."
15"If I send wild beasts through the land, and they leave it empty, so that it becomes a waste where no one can pass because of the beasts,"
16"then even if these three men were in it, as surely as I live, says the Lord GOD, they would not save either sons or daughters. They alone would be saved, but the land would be a waste."
17"Or if I bring a sword on that land and say, 'Sword, go through the land,' so that I cut off both people and animals from it,"
18"then even if these three men were in it, as surely as I live, says the Lord GOD, they would not save either sons or daughters. They alone would be saved."
19"Or if I send a plague into that land, and pour out my fury on it in blood, to cut off both people and animals from it,"
20"then even if Noah, Daniel and Job were in it, as surely as I live, says the Lord GOD, they would not save either son or daughter. They would save only their own lives by their righteousness."
21"For this is what the Lord GOD says: How much worse will it be when I send my four terrible judgments on Jerusalem - the sword, the famine, the wild beasts and the plague - to cut off both people and animals from it?"
22"Yet look, some will be left in it who will be brought out, both sons and daughters. Look, they will come out to you, and you will see their way and the things they have done. Then you will be comforted about the disaster that I have brought on Jerusalem, about everything that I have brought on it."
23"They will comfort you when you see their ways and the things they have done. Then you will know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, says the Lord GOD."