¹Men from the elders of Israel came to me, and they sat down in front of me.

²And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

³Son of man, these men have brought up their idols onto their heart, and have put the stumbling-block of their guilt in front of their faces. Shall I really let myself be consulted by them?

⁴Therefore speak with them, and say to them, Like this says the Adonai Yahweh: Any man at all of the house of Israel who brings up his idols onto his heart and sets the stumbling-block of his guilt in front of his face, and comes to the prophet — I, Yahweh, will answer him who comes, by the multitude of his idols,

⁵so as to seize the house of Israel in their heart, who have become estranged from me through their idols, all of them.

⁶Therefore say to the house of Israel, Like this says the Adonai Yahweh: Return, and turn back from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations.

⁷For any man at all of the house of Israel, or of the sojourner who sojourns in Israel, who separates himself from following me, and brings up his idols onto his heart, and sets the stumbling-block of his guilt in front of his face, and comes to the prophet to consult him about me — I, Yahweh, will answer him myself.

⁸And I will set my face against that man, and make him a sign and a proverb, and cut him off from the middle of my people; and you will know that I am Yahweh.

⁹And the prophet, if he is deceived and speaks a word, I, Yahweh, I have deceived that prophet; and I will stretch out my hand against him, and destroy him from the middle of my people Israel.

¹⁰And they will bear their guilt; as the guilt of the one who inquires, so the guilt of the prophet will be,

¹¹so that the house of Israel will not wander any more from following me, and will not make themselves unclean any more with all their transgressions; and they will become a people for me; and I will be God to them, the utterance of the Adonai Yahweh.

¹²And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

¹³Son of man, a land, when it sins against me by committing an act of unfaithfulness, and I stretch out my hand against it, and break the staff of bread for it, and send famine into it, and cut off from it man and beast,

¹⁴And these three men were in her midst, Noah, Daniel, and Job; they by their righteousness would deliver their own being, the utterance of the Adonai Yahweh.

¹⁵If I make evil animals pass through the land, and they bereave it, and it becomes a wasteland, with no one passing by from the face of the animals,

¹⁶These three men in her midst—as I live, the utterance of the Adonai Yahweh—would not deliver sons or daughters; they alone would be delivered, but the land would become a wasteland.

¹⁷Or if I bring a sword upon that land, and I say: Sword, pass through the land!—and I cut off from it humankind and livestock,

¹⁸And these three men in her midst—as I live, the utterance of the Adonai Yahweh—would not deliver sons or daughters; for they alone would be delivered.

¹⁹Or if I send a pestilence against that land, and I pour out my burning anger upon it in blood, to cut off from it humankind and livestock,

²⁰And Noah, Daniel, and Job in her midst—as I live, the utterance of the Adonai Yahweh—they would not deliver a son or a daughter; they by their righteousness would deliver their own being.

²¹For thus says the Adonai Yahweh: How much more, when I have sent my four evil judgments against Jerusalem—sword, famine, evil animals, and pestilence—to cut off from it humankind and livestock!

²²And look, an escaped remnant is left in it, those brought out, sons and daughters; look, they are going out to you, and you will see their way and their deeds, and you will be comforted about the evil that I brought upon Jerusalem, all that I brought upon it.

²³And they will comfort you when you see their way and their deeds, and you will know that it was not for nothing that I did all that I did in it, the utterance of the Adonai Yahweh.