Ezekiel 8

1In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was sitting in my house with the elders of Judah sitting in front of me, the hand of Lord Yahweh fell on me there.

2I looked, and I saw a figure that looked like fire. From what looked like his waist downward was fire, and from his waist upward was something like a brilliant light, like gleaming amber.

3He stretched out what looked like a hand and took me by a lock of my hair. The Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the inner gate that faces north, where the idol of jealousy that provokes jealousy stood.

4And there was the glory of the God of Israel, like the vision I had seen in the plain.

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

6He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel is committing here, to drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see still greater abominations.”

7Then he brought me to the entrance of the court, and when I looked, I saw a hole in the wall.

8He said to me, “Son of man, dig through the wall.” So I dug through the wall, and there was a doorway.

9He said to me, “Go in and see the wicked abominations that they are committing here.”

10So I went in and looked, and there, carved all around on the wall, were all kinds of crawling things and detestable animals, and all the idols of the house of Israel.

11In front of them stood seventy men from the elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had his censer in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising.

12He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in the room of his carved images? For they say, ‘Yahweh does not see us; Yahweh has abandoned the land.’”

13He also said to me, “You will see still greater abominations that they are committing.”

14Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of Yahweh, and there sat women weeping for Tammuz.

15He said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? You will see still greater abominations than these.”

16Then he brought me into the inner court of the house of Yahweh, and there at the entrance to the temple of Yahweh, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of Yahweh and their faces toward the east. They were bowing down to the sun in the east.

17He said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a trivial thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations they are committing here, that they should also fill the land with violence and provoke me to anger again and again? Look, they are putting the branch to their nose!

18So I too will act in wrath. My eye will not spare, and I will have no pity. Though they shout in my ears with a loud voice, I will not listen to them.”