Ezekiel - Chapter 8

¹ In the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, I was sitting at home and the elders of Judah were sitting with me, when suddenly the hand of the Lord Yahweh fell on me there.

² I looked, and there was a form with the appearance of a human being. Downwards from what seemed to be the waist there was fire; and upwards from the waist there was a brilliance like the glitter of amber.

³ Something like a hand was stretched out and it took me by a lock of my hair; and the spirit lifted me between heaven and earth and, in visions from God, took me to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the inner north gate, where stands the idol that provokes jealously.

⁴ There was the glory of the God of Israel; it looked like what I had seen in the valley.

⁵ He said, 'Son of man, raise your eyes to the north.' I raised my eyes to the north, and there, to the north of the altar gate, stood this statue of jealousy at the entrance.

⁶ He said, 'Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the monstrous, loathsome things that the House of Israel is practising here, to drive me out of my sanctuary? And you will see practices more loathsome still.'

⁷ He next took me to the entrance to the court. I looked; there was a hole in the wall.

⁸ He said, 'Son of man, bore through the wall.' I bored through the wall, until I had made an opening.

⁹ He said, 'Go in and look at the loathsome things they are doing inside.'

¹⁰ I went in and looked and there was every kind of reptile and repulsive animal, and all the foul idols of the House of Israel, carved all round the walls.

¹¹ Seventy elders of the House of Israel were worshipping the idols -- among them Jaazaniah son of Shaphan -- each one with his censer in his hand, from which rose a fragrant cloud of incense.

¹² He said, 'Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the House of Israel do in the dark, each in his personal image-shrine? They say, "Yahweh cannot see us; Yahweh has abandoned the country." '

¹³ He said, 'You will see them at practices more loathsome still.'

¹⁴ He next took me to the entrance of the north gate of the Temple of Yahweh where women were sitting, weeping for Tammuz.

¹⁵ He said, 'Son of man, do you see that? You will see even more loathsome things than that.'

¹⁶ He then led me to the inner court of the Temple of Yahweh. And there, at the entrance to Yahweh's sanctuary, between the portico and the altar, there were about twenty-five men, with their backs to Yahweh's sanctuary and their faces turned towards the east, before the rising sun.

¹⁷ He said to me, 'Son of man, do you see that? Is it not bad enough for the House of Judah to be doing the loathsome things they are doing here? But they fill the country with violence and provoke my anger further; look at them now putting that branch to their nostrils.

¹⁸ And so I shall react in fury; I shall show neither pity nor mercy. They may cry as loudly as they like to me; I will not listen.'

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