Noah, Daniel and Job
1 Then some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me. 2 Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 3 “Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their heart, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face. Should I be inquired of at all by them? 4 Therefore speak to them and tell them, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Every man of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face then comes to the prophet, I Yahweh will answer him there according to the multitude of his idols, 5 that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.”’ 6 “Therefore tell the house of Israel, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Return, and turn yourselves from your idols! Turn away your faces from all your abominations. 7 “‘“For everyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who live in Israel, who separates himself from me and takes his idols into his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet to inquire for himself of me, I Yahweh will answer him by myself. 8 I will set my face against that man and will make him an astonishment, for a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from among my people. Then you will know that I am Yahweh. 9 “‘“If the prophet is deceived and speaks a word, I, Yahweh, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand on him, and will destroy him from among my people Israel. 10 They will bear their iniquity. The iniquity of the prophet will be even as the iniquity of him who seeks him, 11 that the house of Israel may no more go astray from me, neither defile themselves any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God,” says the Lord Yahweh.’” 12 Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 13 “Son of man, when a land sins against me by committing a trespass, and I stretch out my hand on it, and break the staff of its bread and send famine on it, and cut off from it man and animal— 14 though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only their own souls by their righteousness,” says the Lord Yahweh. 15 “If I cause evil animals to pass through the land, and they ravage it and it is made desolate, so that no man may pass through because of the animals— 16 though these three men were in it, as I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “they would deliver neither sons nor daughters. They only would be delivered, but the land would be desolate. 17 “Or if I bring a sword on that land, and say, ‘Sword, go through the land, so that I cut off from it man and animal’— 18 though these three men were in it, as I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only would be delivered themselves. 19 “Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out my wrath on it in blood, to cut off from it man and animal— 20 though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “they would deliver neither son nor daughter; they would deliver only their own souls by their righteousness.” 21 For the Lord Yahweh says: “How much more when I send my four severe judgments on Jerusalem—the sword, the famine, the evil animals, and the pestilence—to cut off from it man and animal! 22 Yet, behold, there will be left a remnant in it that will be carried out, both sons and daughters. Behold, they will come out to you, and you will see their way and their doings. Then you will be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought on Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought on it. 23 They will comfort you, when you see their way and their doings; then you will know that I have not done all that I have done in it without cause,” says the Lord Yahweh.
Elders come to inquire with idols already in their hearts, and are told that three of the most righteous men who ever lived could not have saved anyone but themselves.
The scene is the same as chapter 8 — elders sitting before the prophet to inquire — and the question God asks about them is blunt: Should I be inquired of at all by them? The charge is located precisely. They have taken their idols into their heart and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face. Nothing is said about images in their houses. The problem is portable and internal. It has come into the room with them.
What God says he will do about the inquiry is the most unsettling sentence in the chapter: I Yahweh will answer him there according to the multitude of his idols. A man who comes with his heart already committed will get an answer shaped to what he brought, and he will experience it as an answer from God. It is a judicial act with a stated purpose: that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart. The related verse about a deceived prophet works the same way Ezekiel 14:9. Both are the settled scriptural pattern of a lie permitted to people who insisted on one 1 Kings 22:22–23. And in the middle of it stands an open door: Return, and turn yourselves from your idols!
The second half answers a hope the exiles were evidently holding. Four times the same case is put — famine, wild animals, sword, pestilence — and four times the same verdict is given about three named men: though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only their own souls by their righteousness. Not sons, not daughters. The three are chosen for a reason a reader can check. Each is on record as a righteous man who survived a catastrophe. In two of the three cases a household was preserved with him. Precisely that is withdrawn here.
The argument being closed is the one from Sodom, where a city could have been spared for ten righteous men Genesis 18:32. That bargain is not available to Jerusalem, and the chapter says so four times over so that nobody misses it. What is offered instead is stranger and better than a reprieve. A remnant will be brought out, and the exiles who receive them will see their way and their doings — that is, see how the survivors behave. Then they will be comforted. Comfort is promised not from an explanation but from evidence, and the conclusion drawn is the only one that could settle the matter: you will know that I have not done all that I have done in it without cause.
held with reason What this mark means