11 The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the house of the Lord, which faces east. And behold, at the entrance of the gateway there were twenty-five men. And I saw among them Jaazaniah the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people. 2 And he said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity and who give wicked counsel in this city; 3 who say, ‘The time is not near to build houses. This city is the cauldron, and we are the meat.’ 4 Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man.”
5 And the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and he said to me, “Say, Thus says the Lord: So you think, O house of Israel. For I know the things that come into your mind. 6 You have multiplied your slain in this city and have filled its streets with the slain. 7 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Your slain whom you have laid in the midst of it, they are the meat, and this city is the cauldron, but you shall be brought out of the midst of it. 8 You have feared the sword, and I will bring the sword upon you, declares the Lord God. 9 And I will bring you out of the midst of it, and give you into the hands of foreigners, and execute judgements upon you. 10 You shall fall by the sword. I will judge you at the border of Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord.11 This city shall not be your cauldron, nor shall you be the meat in the midst of it. I will judge you at the border of Israel, 12 and you shall know that I am the Lord. For you have not walked in my statutes, nor obeyed my rules, but have acted according to the rules of the nations that are around you.”
13 And it came to pass, while I was prophesying, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then I fell down on my face and cried out with a loud voice and said, “Ah, Lord God! Will you make a full end of the remnant of Israel?”
This chapter divides into two sections, 1-13 and 14-25, the first a message of judgment for the Jerusalem sinners, the second a word of hope for the Babylonian exiles, The first section (1-13) culminates in the death of Pelatiah, reference to which has already been made (see Note on page 33). Ezekiel sees a group of twenty-five men 'at the door of the gate' (1). These have no connection with the other group of twenty-five in 8:16, but are a political pressure group who are advocating policies harmful to Jerusalem. Their wicked counsel is described in 3. There are several possible interpretations of the reference to 'building houses'. If the AV is followed, the meaning would be: 'The time of judgment is not near; let us build ...', i.e. an expression of confidence that all will be well, and therefore the threat of further Babylonian invasion can safely be ignored. Another possibility is to render the words thus: 'Is not the time near to build houses?' i.e. 'we are quite safe now, let us therefore carry on our usual occupations'. The RSV rendering, however, is more probably the right one: 'The time is not near to build houses' i.e. it is inappropriate to be building for peace when danger threatens. The only right policy is to prepare for war, in the assurance that the city's defences will remain impregnable. The inhabitants of the city will be as safe from the fires of war as meat is in the cauldron that protects it from the flames. In other words, this reveals the measure of their false and misplaced complacency, and Ezekiel was commanded to condemn it as utter folly. For it ignored and contradicted Jeremiah's earlier warning (cf Jeremiah 21:8-10) that resistance to Babylon would bring greater disaster than submission to it. There is a further evidence of their complacency, however, to be noted, and this will occupy our thoughts in the next reading.