Ezekiel 8:5–16

⁵Then 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. ⁶And 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.”

⁷And he brought me to the entrance of the court, and when I looked, behold, there was a hole in the wall. ⁸Then he said to me, “Son of man, ^ydig in the wall.” So I dug in the wall, and behold, there was an entrance. ⁹And he said to me, “Go in, and see ^zthe vile abominations that they are committing here.” ¹⁰So 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. ¹¹And 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. ¹²Then 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.’ ” ¹³He said also to me, ^k“You will see still greater abominations that they commit.”

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

¹⁶And 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.