Lives of Scripture

Pelatiah son of Benaiah appears in one of Ezekiel's visions of Jerusalem, seen while the prophet himself sat among the exiles in Babylon. The Spirit lifted Ezekiel in the vision to the east gate of the temple, where he saw twenty-five leading men of the city, including Pelatiah, giving "wicked advice" and telling themselves Jerusalem was a safe pot and they the choice meat inside it -- confidence that the city's walls made them secure from the judgment Jeremiah and Ezekiel had both warned was coming (Ezekiel 11:1-3). God commanded Ezekiel to prophesy against them, declaring that those they had killed were the real meat in the pot, and that He would drive the leaders out of Jerusalem and judge them at Israel's border (11:4-11). As Ezekiel was still speaking these words, Pelatiah died (11:13). The sudden death within the vision struck Ezekiel so hard that he fell face down and cried out, "Alone, Lord GOD! Are You entirely destroying the remnant of Israel?" (11:13) -- a rare glimpse of the prophet's own anguish over the judgment he was commissioned to announce. God answered him with a promise of future restoration and a new heart for His scattered people (11:14-20). Pelatiah's death within the vision functions as a sign confirming that the leaders' false security, and the judgment against it, were real.