Yehezkiel 11:16-25

11:16 “Therefore say: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Although I have removed them far away among the nations and have dispersed them among the countries, I have been a little ¹  sanctuary for them among the lands where they have gone.’

11:17 “Therefore say: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: When I regather you from the peoples and assemble you from the lands where you have been dispersed, I will give you back the country of Israel.’

11:18 “When they return to it, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations. 11:19 I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within them; ²  I will remove the hearts of stone from their bodies ³  and I will give them tender hearts, ⁴  11:20 so that they may follow my statutes and observe my regulations and carry them out. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God. ⁵  11:21 But those whose hearts are devoted to detestable things and abominations, I hereby repay them for what they have done, ⁶  says the sovereign Lord.”

11:22 Then the cherubim spread ⁷  their wings with their wheels alongside them while the glory of the God of Israel hovered above them. 11:23 The glory of the Lord rose up from within the city and stopped ⁸  over the mountain east of it. 11:24 Then a wind ⁹  lifted me up and carried me to the exiles in Babylonia, ¹⁰  in the vision given to me by the Spirit of God.

Then the vision I had seen went up from me. 11:25 So I told the exiles everything ¹¹  the Lord had shown me.

[11:16]  ¹ tn Or “have been partially a sanctuary”; others take this as temporal (cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV “a little while”).

[11:19]  ² tc The MT reads “you”; many Hebrew mss along with the LXX and other ancient versions read “within them.”

[11:19]  ³ tn Heb “their flesh.”

[11:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “heart of flesh.”

[11:20]  ⁵ sn The expression They will be my people, and I will be their God occurs as a promise to Abraham (Gen 17:8), Moses (Exod 6:7), and the nation (Exod 29:45).

[11:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “their way on their head I have placed.”

[11:22]  ⁷ tn Heb “lifted.”

[11:23]  ⁸ tn Heb “stood.”

[11:24]  ⁹ tn Or “spirit.” See note on “wind” in 2:2.

[11:24]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to Chaldea.”

[11:25]  ¹¹ tn Heb “all the words of.”