Ezekiel 14:12-23

A Divine Principle and an apparent Exception

As a rule when God punishes a land for its wickedness by such judgments as famine, wild beasts, sword, or pestilence, the presence in it of the most eminently righteous men will not save the wicked, not even the members of their own families. They will only escape themselves. Jerusalem will be a seeming exception to this principle, since a remnant of its wicked sons and daughters will be spared when the city is taken, and will escape into exile. But this is in order that the earlier exiles, seeing the abandoned conduct of the later, may realise how thoroughly Jerusalem has deserved its punishment, and may cease to regret its fate.