Bible Strands
Ezekiel 11:2
And the LORD said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who plot evil and give wicked counsel in this city.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD addresses Ezekiel at the east gate of the temple, immediately after the Spirit transports him to the entrance where twenty-five leaders, including Jaazaniah and Pelatiah, are assembled.
The words — The Hebrew חֹשְׁבִים (cho.shvim) denotes those who actively plan or devise, paired with אָוֶן ('a.ven) for wickedness or evil, describing the leaders' calculated schemes.
The thread — This pattern of unauthorized plotting appears in Isaiah 30:1 regarding rebellious children forming plans apart from God, and in Psalms 2:1 and 52:2 where nations and deceitful workers devise destruction.
Why it lands — It requires the reader to acknowledge that human schemes of political self-preservation are explicitly identified by God as wicked counsel before their outcomes materialize.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Then said he unto me, Son of man, these are the men that devise mischief, and give wicked counsel in this city:
Cross-references
- Isaiah 30:1 “Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine, who form an alliance, but against My will, heaping up sin upon sin.
- Psalms 2:1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
- Psalms 52:2 Your tongue devises destruction like a sharpened razor, O worker of deceit.
- Jeremiah 5:5 I will go to the powerful and speak to them. Surely they know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.” But they too, with one accord, had broken the yoke and torn off the chains.
- Isaiah 59:4 No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case honestly. They rely on empty pleas; they tell lies; they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.
- Esther 8:3 And once again, Esther addressed the king. She fell at his feet weeping and begged him to revoke the evil scheme of Haman the Agagite, which he had devised against the Jews.
- Psalms 36:4 Even on his bed he plots wickedness; he sets himself on a path that is not good; he fails to reject evil.
- Jeremiah 18:18 Then some said, “Come, let us make plans against Jeremiah, for the law will never be lost to the priest, nor counsel to the wise, nor an oracle to the prophet. Come, let us denounce him and pay no heed to any of his words.”
- Micah 2:1 Woe to those who devise iniquity and plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they accomplish it because the power is in their hands.