Ezekiel 14:12-23
New Catholic Bible
12 Individual Responsibility.[a] This word of the Lord came to me: 13 Son of man, if a country sins against me by being unfaithful, and I stretch out my hand against it and cut off its supply of food, inflicting famine on it and removing from its midst all of its inhabitants and its animals, 14 even if the three men, Noah, Daniel,[b] and Job were there, they could save no one but themselves by their own righteousness, says the Lord God.
15 If I were to unleash wild animals throughout the land to ravage it, so that it would become a desolate wasteland through which no one could traverse because of the savage beasts, 16 even if those three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they would save neither sons nor daughters; they alone would survive.
17 Or if I were to bring the sword down on that country, commanding the sword to pass through the land, isolating it from man and beast, 18 even if those three men were in it, says the Lord God, they would be unable to save either their sons or their daughters; they alone would be saved.
19 Or if I were to inflict a pestilence upon that land and pour out my wrath upon it with blood, destroying all people and animals with it, 20 even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they would save neither son nor daughter; they would only save themselves by their righteousness.
21 Thus says the Lord God: Even if I were to inflict upon Jerusalem my four dreadful scourges—sword, famine, wild animals, and pestilence—to cut off from it both men and animals, 22 even so some survivors will be left in it, both men and women. When they come to you and you observe their conduct and their actions, you will be consoled despite the disaster I have inflicted upon Jerusalem.[c] 23 They will be a source of consolation when you reflect upon their conduct and their deeds, and you will come to realize that it was not without good reason that I have done to it what I did.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Ezekiel 14:12 This passage states a basic idea in Ezekiel’s teaching and will be repeated at greater length in other passages (Ezek 18; 33:10-20). The prophet Jeremiah has already said that the Lord will no longer yield to the prayers of the great intercessors unless the people are converted. Ezekiel is even more explicit: the salvation or ruin of individuals depends not on their forebears, or on solidarity with the people, or even on their own past; they are each responsible for themselves individually and according to their dispositions at any moment; they will be repaid each according to their conduct.
- Ezekiel 14:14 Daniel: a famous sage of the ancient East; a Phoenician poem speaks of him. He will also be the chief character of the biblical Book of the same name.
- Ezekiel 14:22 The behavior of these survivors will show how depraved Jerusalem was, and the exiles will recognize that the destruction of the city was a just punishment.
