A Heart of Flesh, and the Glory Leaves the City
1 Moreover the Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of Yahweh’s house, which looks eastward. Behold, twenty-five men were at the door of the gate; and I saw among them Jaazaniah the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people. 2 He said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity, and who give wicked counsel in this city; 3 who say, ‘The time is not near to build houses. This is the cauldron, and we are the meat.’ 4 Therefore prophesy against them. Prophesy, son of man.” 5 Yahweh’s Spirit fell on me, and he said to me, “Speak, ‘Yahweh says: “Thus you have said, house of Israel; for I know the things that come into your mind. 6 You have multiplied your slain in this city, and you have filled its streets with the slain.” 7 “‘Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: “Your slain whom you have laid in the middle of it, they are the meat, and this is the cauldron; but you will be brought out of the middle of it. 8 You have feared the sword; and I will bring the sword on you,” says the Lord Yahweh. 9 “I will bring you out of the middle of it, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and will execute judgments among you. 10 You will fall by the sword. I will judge you in the border of Israel. Then you will know that I am Yahweh. 11 This will not be your cauldron, neither will you be the meat in the middle of it. I will judge you in the border of Israel. 12 You will know that I am Yahweh, for you have not walked in my statutes. You have not executed my ordinances, but have done after the ordinances of the nations that are around you.”’” 13 When I prophesied, Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then I fell down on my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, “Ah Lord Yahweh! Will you make a full end of the remnant of Israel?” 14 Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 15 “Son of man, your brothers, even your brothers, the men of your relatives, and all the house of Israel, all of them, are the ones to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘Go far away from Yahweh. This land has been given to us for a possession.’ 16 “Therefore say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Whereas I have removed them far off among the nations, and whereas I have scattered them among the countries, yet I will be to them a sanctuary for a little while in the countries where they have come.”’ 17 “Therefore say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “I will gather you from the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.” 18 “‘They will come there, and they will take away all its detestable things and all its abominations from there. 19 I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them. I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh, 20 that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them. They will be my people, and I will be their God. 21 But as for them whose heart walks after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their way on their own heads,’ says the Lord Yahweh.” 22 Then the cherubim lifted up their wings, and the wheels were beside them. The glory of the God of Israel was over them above. 23 Yahweh’s glory went up from the middle of the city, and stood on the mountain which is on the east side of the city. 24 The Spirit lifted me up, and brought me in the vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to the captives. So the vision that I had seen went up from me. 25 Then I spoke to the captives all the things that Yahweh had shown me.
The men who felt safest in Jerusalem are told the city will not protect them, and the exiles they had written off are told God has become their sanctuary.
Twenty-five men stand at the east gate — the same number as the sun-worshipers a chapter earlier. These are named as princes and counselors. Their slogan is quoted, and it is a piece of grim confidence: This is the cauldron, and we are the meat. A pot protects what is inside it from the fire. They mean that the city walls will hold. They mean that they are the choice cuts left after the deportations. And they mean that there is no point building houses, because the situation is temporary.
The answer takes the metaphor apart from inside. The meat in the cauldron, they are told, is the men they have killed and left in the streets. And they themselves will be brought out of the middle of it. Being taken out of the pot is the one thing meat in a cauldron is safe from. They will be judged at the border of Israel rather than in the city. Their slogan promised containment. The reply grants the pot and removes them from it.
Then something happens that is unlike anything else in the book. When I prophesied, Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died — one of the two men named, dead as the words are spoken, in a vision. Ezekiel falls on his face and cries out for the second time in three chapters, asking whether God will make a full end of the remnant. The book keeps recording his protests, and it never presents them as faithlessness.
The answer is the turn the whole first half has been waiting for, and it begins by quoting an insult. The people still in Jerusalem had been saying of the deported, Go far away from Yahweh. This land has been given to us for a possession. Distance from the temple was read as distance from God, and the property had been redistributed accordingly. The reply concedes the geography and denies the conclusion: I will be to them a sanctuary for a little while in the countries where they have come. Not a substitute for the temple. A sanctuary, in the countries, to the people who had lost one.
What follows is the book's first statement of its central promise, given in brief here and in full later Ezekiel 36:26–27. One heart. A new spirit. The stony heart taken out and a heart of flesh put in, so that they may walk in my statutes. Every verb belongs to God, and the purpose clause is obedience rather than feeling. Then the chapter closes the movement it had been tracking. The cherubim lift their wings, and the glory goes up from the middle of the city and stands on the mountain to its east. God has left Jerusalem. The sentence immediately before said he had become a sanctuary in Chaldea.
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