Abominations in the Temple

8 And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house with ^(A)the elders of Judah sitting before me, that ^(B)the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there. ^2 (C)Then I looked, and there was a likeness, like the appearance of fire—from the appearance of His waist and downward, fire; and from His waist and upward, like the appearance of brightness, ^(D)like the color of amber. ³ He ^(E)stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my hair; and ^(F)the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and ^(G)brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the north gate of the inner court, ^(H)where the seat of the image of jealousy was, which ^(I)provokes^[a] to jealousy. ⁴ And behold, the ^(J)glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I ^(K)saw in the plain.

⁵ Then He said to me, “Son of man, lift your eyes now toward the north.” So I lifted my eyes toward the north, and there, north of the altar gate, was this image of jealousy in the entrance.

⁶ Furthermore He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great ^(L)abominations that the house of Israel commits here, to make Me go far away from My sanctuary? Now turn again, you will see greater abominations.” ⁷ So He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, there was a hole in the wall. ⁸ Then He said to me, “Son of man, dig into the wall”; and when I dug into the wall, there was a door.

⁹ And He said to me, “Go in, and see the wicked abominations which they are doing there.” ¹⁰ So I went in and saw, and there—every ^(M)sort of ^(N)creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, ^[b]portrayed all around on the walls. ¹¹ And there stood before them ^(O)seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and in their midst stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan. Each man had a censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense went up. 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, ^(P)‘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 ^[c]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, ^(Q)between the porch and the altar, ^(R)were about twenty-five men ^(S)with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping ^(T)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 ^(U)filled the land with violence; then they have returned to provoke Me to anger. Indeed they put the branch to their nose. ^18 (V)Therefore I also will act in fury. My ^(W)eye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they ^(X)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 ^[d]deadly weapon in his hand.” ² And suddenly six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his ^[e]battle-ax in his hand. ^(Y)One man among them was clothed with linen and had a writer’s inkhorn ^[f]at his side. They went in and stood beside the bronze altar.

³ Now ^(Z)the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, where it had been, to the threshold of the ^[g]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 ^(AA)a mark on the foreheads of the men ^(AB)who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.”

⁵ To the others He said in my ^[h]hearing, “Go after him through the city and ^(AC)kill;^{[i] (AD)}do not let your eye spare, nor have any pity. ^6 (AE)Utterly^[j] slay old and young men, maidens and little children and women; but ^(AF)do not come near anyone on whom is the mark; and ^(AG)begin at My sanctuary.” ^(AH)So they began with the elders who were before the ^[k]temple. ⁷ Then He said to them, “Defile the ^[l]temple, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out!” And they went out and killed in the city.

⁸ So it was, that while they were killing them, I was left alone; and I ^(AI)fell on my face and cried out, and said, ^(AJ)“Ah, Lord God! Will You destroy all the remnant of Israel in pouring out Your fury on Jerusalem?”

⁹ Then He said to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and ^(AK)the land is full of bloodshed, and the city full of perversity; for they say, ^(AL)‘The Lord has forsaken the land, and ^(AM)the Lord does not see!’ ¹⁰ And as for Me also, My ^(AN)eye will neither spare, nor will I have pity, but ^(AO)I will recompense their deeds on their own head.”

¹¹ Just then, the man clothed with linen, who had the inkhorn at his side, reported back and said, “I have done as You commanded me.”

The Glory Departs from the Temple

10 And I looked, and there in the ^(AP)firmament^[m] that was above the head of the cherubim, there appeared something like a sapphire stone, having the appearance of the likeness of a throne. ^2 (AQ)Then He spoke to the man clothed with linen, and said, “Go in among the wheels, under the cherub, fill your hands with ^(AR)coals of fire from among the cherubim, and ^(AS)scatter them over the city.” And he went in as I watched.

³ Now the cherubim were standing on the ^[n]south side of the ^[o]temple when the man went in, and the ^(AT)cloud filled the inner court. ^4 (AU)Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, and paused over the threshold of the ^[p]temple; and ^(AV)the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord’s ^(AW)glory. ⁵ And the ^(AX)sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard even in the outer court, like ^(AY)the voice of Almighty God when He speaks.

⁶ Then it happened, when He commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, “Take fire from among the wheels, from among the cherubim,” that he went in and stood beside the wheels. ⁷ And the cherub stretched out his hand from among the cherubim to the fire that was among the cherubim, and took some of it and put it into the hands of the man clothed with linen, who took it and went out. ^8 (AZ)The cherubim appeared to have the form of a man’s hand under their wings.

^9 (BA)And when I looked, there were four wheels by the cherubim, one wheel by one cherub and another wheel by each other cherub; the wheels appeared to have the color of a ^(BB)beryl stone. ¹⁰ As for their appearance, all four looked alike—as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel. ^11 (BC)When they went, they went toward any of their four directions; they did not turn aside when they went, but followed in the direction the head was facing. They did not turn aside when they went. ¹² And their whole body, with their back, their hands, their wings, and the wheels that the four had, were ^(BD)full of eyes all around. ¹³ As for the wheels, they were called in my ^[q]hearing, “Wheel.”

^14 (BE)Each one had four faces: the first face was the face of a cherub, the second face the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle. ¹⁵ And the cherubim were lifted up. This was ^(BF)the living creature I saw by the River Chebar. ^16 (BG)When the cherubim went, the wheels went beside them; and when the cherubim lifted their wings to mount up from the earth, the same wheels also did not turn from beside them. ^17 (BH)When ^[r]the cherubim stood still, the wheels stood still, and when ^[s]one was lifted up, ^[t]the other lifted itself up, for the spirit of the living creature was in them.

¹⁸ Then ^(BI)the glory of the Lord ^(BJ)departed from the threshold of the ^[u]temple and stood over the cherubim. ¹⁹ And ^(BK)the cherubim lifted their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight. When they went out, the wheels were beside them; and they stood at the door of the ^(BL)east gate of the Lord’s house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.

^20 (BM)This is the living creature I saw under the God of Israel ^(BN)by the River Chebar, and I knew they were cherubim. ^21 (BO)Each one had four faces and each one four wings, and the likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings. ²² And ^(BP)the likeness of their faces was the same as the faces which I had seen by the River Chebar, their appearance and their persons. ^(BQ)They each went straight forward.