¹² Then He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the room of his idols? For they say, ^(A)‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.’ ”

¹³ And He said to me, “Turn again, and you will see greater abominations that they are doing.” ¹⁴ So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the Lord’s house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for ^[a]Tammuz.

¹⁵ Then He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn again, you will see greater abominations than these.” ¹⁶ So He brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house; and there, at the door of the temple of the Lord, ^(B)between the porch and the altar, ^(C)were about twenty-five men ^(D)with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping ^(E)the sun toward the east.

¹⁷ And He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have ^(F)filled the land with violence; then they have returned to provoke Me to anger. Indeed they put the branch to their nose. ^18 (G)Therefore I also will act in fury. My ^(H)eye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they ^(I)cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”

The Wicked Are Slain

9 Then He called out in my hearing with a loud voice, saying, “Let those who have charge over the city draw near, each with a ^[b]deadly weapon in his hand.” ² And suddenly six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his ^[c]battle-ax in his hand. ^(J)One man among them was clothed with linen and had a writer’s inkhorn ^[d]at his side. They went in and stood beside the bronze altar.

³ Now ^(K)the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, where it had been, to the threshold of the ^[e]temple. And He called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn at his side; ⁴ and the Lord said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put ^(L)a mark on the foreheads of the men ^(M)who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.”

⁵ To the others He said in my ^[f]hearing, “Go after him through the city and ^(N)kill;^{[g] (O)}do not let your eye spare, nor have any pity. ^6 (P)Utterly^[h] slay old and young men, maidens and little children and women; but ^(Q)do not come near anyone on whom is the mark; and ^(R)begin at My sanctuary.” ^(S)So they began with the elders who were before the ^[i]temple.