Ezekiel 11:13

"And it came to pass when I prophesied, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then fell I down upon my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah Lord Jehovah! wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?"

DEATH OF PELATIAH

Eichrodt has the following perceptive paragraph regarding this startling event.

Ezekiel still in his vision-journey to Jerusalem, and still uttering his inspired prophecy of the doom of the city and of the destruction of its evil leaders, suddenly saw in his vision Pelatiah fall down dead! The simplicity of the wording makes it plain that both the death and the despairing cry that it wrung from the prophet were part of the vision that Ezekiel experienced. It is equally impossible to deny that there would have been no sense in writing an account like this if it had not been verified, not long afterward, when the news came to Tel Abib of Pelatiah's sudden death in Jerusalem, giving staggering proof that the prophet's words were already being fulfilled.[11]

"The narrative here gives us to understand that the death of Pelatiah in Jerusalem occurred at the very moment when Ezekiel (in his vision) saw it happen in Babylon."[12]

"Wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel ..." (Ezekiel 11:13)? The same dreadful thought came to Ezekiel here that had once before come to him in chapter 9:8. Apparently, Ezekiel was still laboring under the delusion that, in spite of all God had already told him, the "righteous remnant" would be found, partially at least, in the city of Jerusalem. Not so. Ezekiel's words here suggest that, "He had forgotten all the grounds of hope, still thinking, perhaps, that the "real Israel" somehow, just had to be in Jerusalem."[13]

Upon this second occasion of Ezekiel's fear that the remnant might perish, "He received comforting assurance that the exiles would be spared and restored, while the people in Jerusalem who had despised them would perish."[14] It should be remembered that the elders of the exiled Israel in Babylon were hearing every word of this.