Ezekiel 11 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Then the Breath lifted me up and carried me to the east gate of Yahweh's house — the one that faces the sunrise. And there at the entrance of the gate stood twenty-five men. Among them I saw Jaazaniah son of Azzur, and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, leaders of the people.

And he said to me: "Son of man, these are the men who plot injustice and give deadly counsel in this city.

They say, 'Isn't it time to build houses? This city is the pot, and we are the meat.'

So prophesy against them — prophesy, son of man!

Then the Breath of Yahweh fell on me and told me to say: "This is what Yahweh says — I know every thought in your heads, people of Israel. I know what rises in your minds.

You have piled up the dead in this city. You have filled its streets with corpses.

So the Sovereign Yahweh says this: The dead you threw in the streets — they are the meat in the pot. But you? You will be dragged out of it.

You are afraid of the sword — and I will bring the sword against you," declares the Sovereign Yahweh.

"I will drag you out of the city and hand you over to foreigners. I will execute judgment on you.

You will fall by the sword. I will judge you at the borders of Israel. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.

This city will not be your pot, and you will not be the meat inside it. I will judge you at the borders of Israel.

Then you will know that I am Yahweh — whose laws you refused to follow, whose standards you refused to keep. Instead, you lived by the rules of the nations around you.

While I was still prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah dropped dead. I fell facedown and cried out in a loud voice: "Sovereign Yahweh! Will you completely destroy what's left of Israel?"

Then the word of Yahweh came to me:

"Son of man — your relatives, your own blood, the whole house of Israel, every one of them — these are the ones Jerusalem's people say about: 'They've been sent far from Yahweh. This land has been given to us now.'

So tell them: this is what the Sovereign Yahweh says — 'Yes, I sent them far away among the nations. Yes, I scattered them across foreign lands. But I myself have been a small sanctuary for them wherever they have gone.'

So tell them: this is what the Sovereign Yahweh says — 'I will gather you from the peoples. I will collect you from the countries where you've been scattered. And I will give you back the land of Israel.'

When they return, they will remove every disgusting idol and every detestable thing from it.

And I will give them a single, undivided heart. I will put a new breath inside them. I will take out the heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of living flesh —

so that they will walk in my laws and carefully keep my standards. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

But those whose hearts chase after their disgusting idols and detestable things — I will bring their own conduct down on their heads," declares the Sovereign Yahweh.

Then the winged beings lifted their wings, with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel hovered above them.

And the glory of Yahweh rose up from the middle of the city and stopped on the mountain east of it.

Then the Breath lifted me up and brought me back — in this vision given by the Breath of God — to the exiles in Babylon. And the vision I had seen rose up and left me.

Then I told the exiles everything Yahweh had shown me.