The Day of the Wrath of the Lord

7 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “And you, aO son of man, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel: bAn end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land.1 3 Now bthe end is upon you, and cI will send my anger upon you; dI will judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations. 4 eAnd my eye will not spare you, nor will I have pity, but fI will punish you for your ways, while your abominations are in your midst. gThen you will know that I am the Lord.

5 “Thus says the Lord God: Disaster hafter disaster!2 Behold, it comes. 6 bAn end has come; the end has come; it has awakened against you. Behold, it comes. 7 iYour doom3 has come to you, O inhabitant of the land. jThe time has come; the day is near, a day of tumult, and not kof joyful shouting on the mountains. 8 Now I will soon lpour out my wrath upon you, and mspend my anger against you, dand judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations. 9 eAnd my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. I will punish you according to your ways, while your abominations are in your midst. nThen you will know that I am the Lord, who strikes.

10 o“Behold, the day! Behold, it comes! pYour doom has come; qthe rod has blossomed; pride has budded. 11 rViolence has grown up into qa rod of wickedness. sNone of them shall remain, nor their abundance, nor their wealth; neither shall there be preeminence among them.4 12 jThe time has come; the day has arrived. Let not tthe buyer rejoice, nor tthe seller mourn, ufor wrath is upon all their multitude.5 13 For vthe seller shall not return to what he has sold, while they live. wFor the vision concerns all their multitude; it shall not turn back; and because of his iniquity, none can maintain his life.6

14 “They have blown the trumpet and made everything ready, but none goes to battle, xfor my wrath is upon all their multitude. 15 yThe sword is without; pestilence and famine are within. zHe who is in the field dies by the sword, zand him who is in the city famine and pestilence devour. 16 aAnd if any survivors escape, they will be on the mountains, like bdoves of the valleys, all of them moaning, each one over his iniquity. 17 cAll hands are feeble, and all knees turn to water. 18 dThey put on sackcloth, and ehorror covers them. Shame is on all faces, and fbaldness on all their heads. 19 They cast their silver into the streets, and their gold is like an unclean thing. gTheir silver and gold are not able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They cannot satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it. hFor it was ithe stumbling block of their iniquity. 20 jHis beautiful ornament they used for pride, and kthey made their abominable images and their detestable things of it. Therefore lI make it an unclean thing to them. 21 And I will give it into the hands of mforeigners for prey, nand to the wicked of the earth for spoil, and lthey shall profane it. 22 I will turn my face from them, and lthey shall profane my treasured7 place. Robbers shall enter land profane it.

23 o“Forge a chain!8 pFor the land is full of bloody crimes qand the city is full of violence. 24 I will bring rthe worst of the nations to take possession of their houses. sI will put an end to the pride of the strong, tand their holy places9 shall be profaned. 25 uWhen anguish comes, vthey will seek peace, but there shall be none. 26 wDisaster comes upon disaster; xrumor follows rumor. yThey seek a vision from the prophet, while zthe law10 perishes from the priest and acounsel from the elders. 27 The king mourns, the prince is wrapped in despair, and the hands of the people of the land are paralyzed by terror. According to their way bI will do to them, and according to their judgments I will judge them, cand they shall know that I am the Lord.”

Abominations in the Temple

8 dIn the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, eas I sat in my house, with fthe elders of Judah sitting before me, gthe hand of the Lord God fell upon me there. 2 Then I looked, and behold, ha form that had the appearance of a man.1 hBelow what appeared to be his waist was fire, and above his waist was something like the appearance of brightness, like igleaming metal.2 3 He jput out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head, and the Spirit lifted me up kbetween earth and heaven and lbrought me in mvisions of God to Jerusalem, nto the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, owhere was the seat of the pimage of jealousy, qwhich provokes to jealousy. 4 And behold, rthe glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw sin the valley.

5 Then he said to me, t“Son of man, lift up your eyes now toward the north.” So I lifted up my eyes toward the north, and behold, north of uthe altar gate, in the entrance, was this pimage of jealousy. 6 And he said to me, “Son of man, vdo you see what they are doing, wthe great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here, xto drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see still greater abominations.”

7 And he brought me to the entrance of the court, and when I looked, behold, there was a hole in the wall. 8 Then he said to me, “Son of man, ydig in the wall.” So I dug in the wall, and behold, there was an entrance. 9 And he said to me, “Go in, and see zthe vile abominations that they are committing here.” 10 So I went in and saw. And there, aengraved on the wall all around, was bevery form of ccreeping things and loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel. 11 And before them stood dseventy men of ethe elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of fShaphan standing among them. Each had his censer in his hand, and gthe smoke of the 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 are doing hin the dark, each iin his room of pictures? For they say, j‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.’ ” 13 He said also to me, k“You will see still greater abominations that they commit.”

14 Then he brought me to lthe entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord, and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. 15 Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O tson of man? kYou will see still greater abominations than these.”

16 And he brought me into mthe inner court of the house of the Lord. And behold, at the entrance of the temple of the Lord, nbetween the oporch and pthe altar, were about twenty-five men, qwith their backs to the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east, worshiping rthe sun toward the east. 17 Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O sson of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit tthe abominations that they commit here, that uthey should fill the land with violence and vprovoke me still further to anger? Behold, they put the branch to their3 nose. 18 Therefore wI will act in wrath. xMy eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. yAnd though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”

Idolaters Killed

9 Then he cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying, “Bring near the executioners of the city, zeach with his destroying weapon in his hand.” 2 And behold, six men came from the direction of athe upper gate, which faces north, each with his weapon for slaughter in his hand, and with them was ba man clothed in linen, with a writing case at his waist. And they went in and stood beside cthe bronze altar.

3 Now dthe glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub on which it rested to ethe threshold of the house. And he called to bthe man clothed in linen, who had the writing case at his waist. 4 And the Lord said to him, “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and fput a mark on the foreheads of the men who gsigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.” 5 And to hthe others he said in my hearing, “Pass through the city after him, and strike. iYour eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity. 6 jKill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but ktouch no one on whom is the mark. And lbegin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were before the house. 7 Then he said to them, m“Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out.” So they went out and struck in the city. 8 And while they were striking, and I was left alone, nI fell upon my face, and cried, o“Ah, Lord God! pWill you destroy all the remnant of Israel qin the outpouring of your wrath on Jerusalem?”

9 Then he said to me, r“The guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. sThe land is full of blood, and the city full of injustice. For tthey say, ‘The Lord has forsaken the land, and the Lord does not see.’ 10 As for me, umy eye will not spare, nor will I have pity; vI will bring their deeds upon their heads.”

11 And behold, wthe man clothed in linen, with the writing case at his waist, brought back word, saying, “I have done as you commanded me.”