Ezekiel 11 explained: A Pot, a Death, a New Heart

Leaders at the gate (vv. 1-4)

Ezekiel lives among exiles in Babylon, but in a vision he is taken to Jerusalem and sees twenty-five city leaders giving harmful advice. They compare the city to a cooking pot and themselves to the meat inside, which seems to mean the walls will keep them safe; the line about houses before it is hard to translate, so versions differ.

The pot image turned around (vv. 5-12)

God says the only ones who will stay in the city, like meat left in the pot, are the people these leaders have killed, through unjust rule and perhaps by pushing a hopeless fight against Babylon. The leaders themselves will be driven out and judged at Israel's border, which matches what later happened at Riblah, where Babylon's king executed Jerusalem's officials.

Pelatiah dies (v. 13)

While Ezekiel is still speaking, Pelatiah, one of the two leaders named, suddenly dies. Ezekiel does not gloat; he falls on his face and cries out, asking whether God will wipe out everyone who is left.

God with the exiles (vv. 14-17)

The people still in Jerusalem looked down on the exiles as far from God and claimed the land for themselves. God answers that he has been a sanctuary, a place of his presence, for the exiles even in a foreign country, and promises to bring them home.

A new heart (vv. 18-21)

The returning people will clear out idols, and God promises to take away a heart as hard as stone, give them a soft, living heart instead, and put a new spirit in them. Those who stay devoted to idols, though, will face the results of what they have done.

The glory departs (vv. 22-25)

God's glory, carried by the cherubim (winged heavenly creatures), rises out of Jerusalem and stops on the mountain to its east, usually identified as the Mount of Olives. The vision ends, and Ezekiel tells the exiles everything he saw.

Key verse: Ezekiel 11:19

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether the promise of return and a new heart was fulfilled in the return from Babylon, in the church through Jesus and the Spirit, or still awaits a future restoration of Israel.

Something to think about

What do you think it would take for a heart that has grown hard to become soft again?