1Then certain of the elders of Israel came to me, and sat before me. 2And the word of LORD came to me, saying, 3Son 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? 4Therefore speak to them, and say to them, Thus says lord LORD: 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, and comes to the prophet, I LORD will 5that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols. 6Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says lord LORD: Return ye, and turn yourselves from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations. 7For everyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel, that 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 prop 8And 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 the midst of my people. And ye shall know that I am LORD. 9And if the prophet is deceived and speaks a word, I, LORD, have deceived that prophet. And I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel. 10And they shall bear their iniquity. The iniquity of the prophet shall be even as the iniquity of him who seeks [him], 11that the house of Israel may no more go astray from me, nor defile themselves any more with all their transgressions, but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, says lord LORD. 12And the word of LORD came to me, saying, 13Son of man, when a land sins against me by committing a trespass, and I stretch out my hand upon it, and break the staff of the bread thereof, and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast, 14though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, says lord LORD. 15If I cause evil beasts to pass through the land, and they ravage it, and it be made desolate, so that no man may pass through because of the beasts, 16though these three men were in it, as I live, says lord LORD, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, they only would be delivered, but the land would be desolate. 17Or if I bring a sword upon that land, and say, Sword, go through the land, so that I cut off from it man and beast, 18though these three men were in it, as I live, says lord LORD, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only would be delivered themselves. 19Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out my wrath upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast, 20though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, says lord LORD, they would deliver neither son nor daughter, they would but deliver their own souls by their righteousness. 21For thus says lord LORD: How much more when I send my four severe judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the evil beasts, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast! 22Yet, behold, there shall be left a remnant in it that shall be carried forth, both sons and daughters. Behold, they shall come forth to you, and ye shall see their way and their doings. And ye shall be comforted concerning the evil 23And they shall comfort you when ye see their way and their doings. And ye shall know that I have not done all that I have done in it, without cause, says lord LORD.