ezekiel 11 and 12

Read Ezekiel 11 and 12 at Bible Gateway.

The Hebrew paragraph divisions:

Eze 10:1-11:1 {p} Fire set in Jerusalem/ Glory of God ascends upon the cherubim from the threshold
Eze 11:2-3 {s} The men who devise iniquity and give wicked counsel to the Jerusalem
Eze 11:4-6 {p} Prophesy against them: You have multiplied + filled the streets with your slain
Eze 11:7-13 {p} You have feared the sword/ I will bring a sword upon you, for you have not walked in My Law
Eze 11:14-15 {s} The inhabitants of Jerusalem have rejected the house of Israel, sent them far away from YHVH
Eze 11:16 {s} Though YHVH has cast them o the Gentiles, He shall be little sanctuary for them where they have gone
Eze 11:17-25 {p} Israel regathered, with a new heart + spirit to walk in YHVH’s Law/ His glory departed Jerusalem
Eze 12:1-7 {s} The object lesson: bearing Ezekiel’s belongings to a new place of exile
Eze 12:8-16 {p} As Ezekiel has done, so will the prince in Jerusalem do, he will come captive to Babylon
Eze 12:17-20 {p} Eat your bread + drink your water with quaking, so shall the inhabitants of Jerusalem do
Eze 12:21-25 {p} The vision shall not be postponed, for in your days YHVH will speak, and it will come to pass
Eze 12:26-28 {p} MY word will not be postponed, but the word I speak will come to pass

The chiastic structure of Eze 11 (partial):

1a) Eze 11:12, You shall know that I am YHVH: you have not walked in My statutes + judgments;

1b) Eze 11:13 {p} Ezekiel’s plea: “Ah, Lord God! Will You make a complete end of the remnant of Israel?”

1c) Eze 11:14-15 {s} Jerusalem told the house of Israel: Get far away from YHVH; this land is our possession;

central axis) Eze 11:16a, “Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: Although I have cast them far off among the Gentiles, and although I have scattered them among the countries;’

2c) Eze 11:16b {s} ‘Yet I shall be a little sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone;’

2b) Eze 11:17, ‘I will gather + assemble [the remnant] from the peoples + countries/ give you the land of Israel;’

2a) Eze 11:18-21, You will walk in My statutes + judgments, and I will be your God;

1a) Eze 11:18, They will go there/ take away its detestable things + abominations from there;
central axis) Eze 11:19-20, “Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God;”
2a) Eze 11:21, But those who desire their detestable things + abominations, I will recompense it on their heads.

This is only the partial structure, because the rest of chapter 11 forms a greater structure going back to Eze 8:1 and the beginning of the vision of Jerusalem. Chapter 11 finishes that single vision.

Concerning the C pair: the sense I get from the prophecy, is that Judah and Jerusalem rejected the remnant of Israel from coming to Jerusalem to worship YHVH at His temple in Jerusalem at some point. It could not have been during the reign of Josiah, for he gathered the remnant of Israel that was left, who worshiped YHVH, and opened Jerusalem and the temple to them. It must have been during the reign of his sons. And perhaps by then, since it was Josiah’s sons who filled the temple with abominations, after Josiah had done so much to restore the pure worship of YHVH (how heartbreaking!), it had ceased to be a religious matter with them, and became merely a political matter: considering the remnant of Israel as foreigners and shutting their city to them. The unintended consequence, then, was that the remnant could no longer worship at the temple, any who were inclined to do so.

YHVH’s remedy, is that even though the remnant of Israel had been driven to the nations of the Gentiles, YHVH Himself will be a “little sanctuary” (i.e., temple, or place of His presence) for them in the land of their exile, until the day comes when He will regather them. ♥