Yehezkiel 11:14-20

11:14 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 11:15 “Son of man, your brothers, ¹  your relatives, ²  and the whole house of Israel, all of them are those to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem ³  have said, ‘They have gone ⁴  far away from the Lord; to us this land has been given as a possession.’

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 ⁵  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; ⁶  I will remove the hearts of stone from their bodies ⁷  and I will give them tender hearts, ⁸  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. ⁹ 

[11:15]  ¹ tc The MT reads “your brothers, your brothers” either for empahsis (D. I. Block, Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:341, n. 1; 346) or as a result of dittography.

[11:15]  ² tc The MT reads גְאֻלָּתֶךָ (gÿ’ullatekha, “your redemption-men”), referring to the relatives responsible for deliverance in times of hardship (see Lev 25:25-55). The LXX and Syriac read “your fellow exiles,” assuming an underlying Hebrew text of גָלוּתֶךָ (galutekha) or having read the א (aleph) as an internal mater lectionis for holem.

[11:15]  ³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[11:15]  ⁴ tc The MT has an imperative form (“go far!”), but it may be read with different vowels as a perfect verb (“they have gone far”).

[11:16]  ⁵ tn Or “have been partially a sanctuary”; others take this as temporal (cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV “a little while”).

[11:19]  ⁶ tc The MT reads “you”; many Hebrew mss along with the LXX and other ancient versions read “within them.”

[11:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “their flesh.”

[11:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “heart of flesh.”

[11:20]  ⁹ 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).