Idolatrous Elders Condemned
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And the word of the LORD came to me:
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3"Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set 4the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. 5Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them?
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Therefore speak to them and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Any one of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to the prophet, 6I the LORD will answer him as he comes with the multitude of his idols,
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7that I may lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel, 8who are all estranged from me through their idols.
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"Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: 9Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations.
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For any one of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel, 10who separates himself from me, taking his idols into his heart and putting the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to a prophet to consult me through him, 11I the LORD will answer him myself.
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And 12I will set my face against that man; I 13will make him a sign and a byword 14and cut him off from the midst of my people, 15and you shall know that I am the LORD.
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And if the prophet is deceived and speaks a word, 16I, the LORD, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.
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And they shall bear their punishmenta--the punishment of the prophet and the punishment of the inquirer shall be alike--
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that the house of Israel may no more go astray from me, nor 17defile themselves anymore with all their transgressions, 18but that they may be my people and I may be their God, declares the Lord GOD."
Jerusalem Will Not Be Spared
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And the word of the LORD came to me:
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19"Son of man, when a land sins against me 20by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and 21break its supplyb of bread and send famine upon it, and 22cut off from it man and beast,
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23even if these three men, 24Noah, 25Daniel, and 26Job, were in it, 27they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord GOD.
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28"If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land, and they ravage it, 29and it be made desolate, so that no one may pass through because of the beasts,
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even if these three men were in it, 30as I live, declares the Lord GOD, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters. They alone would be delivered, but 31the land would be desolate.
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"Or 32if I bring a sword upon that land and say, Let a sword pass through the land, 33and I cut off from it man and beast,
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34though these three men were in it, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they alone would be delivered.
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"Or 35if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out my wrath upon it with blood, to cut off from it man and beast,
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even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, they would deliver neither son nor daughter. They would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness.
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"For thus says the Lord GOD: How much more 36when I send upon Jerusalem my four disastrous acts of judgment, 37sword, 38famine, 39wild beasts, and 40pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast!
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But behold, 41some survivors will be left in it, sons and daughters who will be brought out; behold, when they come out to you, and 42you see their ways and their deeds, you will be consoled for the disaster that I have brought upon Jerusalem, for all that I have brought upon it.
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They will console you, when you see their ways and their deeds, and you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, declares the Lord GOD."
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.
(English Standard Version - The Holy Bible Online)