Idolaters Condemned
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Some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat down in front of me.
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Then the word of the LORD came to me:
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"Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts
and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces.
Should I let them inquire of me at all?
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Therfore speak to them and tell them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says:
When any Israelite sets up idols in his heart and puts a wicked stumbling block
before his face and then goes to a prophet, I the LORD will answer him myself
in keeping with his great idolatry.
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I will do this to recapture the hearts of the people of Israel,
who have all deserted me for their idols.'
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"Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says:
Repent! Turn from your idols and renounce all your detestable practices!
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" 'When any Israelite or any alien living in Israel separates himself from me
and sets up idols in his heart and puts a stumbling block before his face
and then goes to a prophet to inquire of me, I the LORD will answer him myself.
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I will set my face against that man and make him an example and byword.
I will cut him off from my people. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
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" 'And if the prophet is enticed to utter a prophecy,
I the LORD have enticed that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand
against him and destroy him from among my people Israel.
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They will hear their guilt - the prophet will be as guilty as the one
who consults him.
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Then the people of Israel will no longer stray from me,
nor will they defile themselves anymore with all their sins.
They will be my people, and I will be their God, declares the Sovereign LORD.' "
Judgment Inescapable
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The word of the LORD came to me:
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"Son of man, if a country sins against me by being unfaithful
and I stretched out my hand against it to cut off its food supply
and send famine upon it and kill its men and their animals,
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even if these three men - Noah, Daniel and Job - were in it,
they could save only themselves by their righteousness,
decalres the Sovereign LORD.
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"Or if I send wild beasts through that country and they leave it childless
and it becomes desolate so that no one can pass through it
because of the beasts,
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as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, even if these three men were in it,
they could not save their own sons or daughters.
They alone would be saved, but the land would be desolate.
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"Or if I bring a sword against the country and say,
'Let the sword pass throughout the land,'
and I kill its men and their animals,
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as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD,
even if these three men were in it,
they could not save their own sons or daughters.
They alone would be saved.
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"Or if I send a plague into that land and pour out my wrath upon it
through bloodshed, killing its men and their animals,
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as surely as I live, declares the Sovreign LORD,
even if Noah, Daniel and Job were in it.
they could save neither son nor daughter.
They would save only themselves by their righteousness.
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"For this is what the Sovereign LORD says:
How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem my four dreadful
judgments - sword and famine and wild beasts and plague -
to kill its men and their animals!
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Yet there will be some survivors - sons and daughters who will be brought out of it.
They will come to you, and when you see their conduct and their actions,
you will be consoled regarding the disaster I have brought upon Jertusalem -
every disaster I have brought upon it.
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You will be consoled when you see their conduct and their actions,
for you will know that I have done nothing in it without cause,
declares the Sovereign LORD."
