Ezekiel 6:1–38:23

Idolatrous Worship and Idolatrous Objects Denounced

6And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, ²“Son of man,^a set your face to the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them, ³and you must say, ‘Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh, thus says the Lord Yahweh to the mountains and to the hills, to the ravines and to the valleys: “Look, I am bringing upon you the sword, and I will destroy your high places, ⁴and your altars will be desolate, and your incense altars will be broken, and I will throw down your slain ones before^b your idols, ⁵and I will place^c the corpses of the children of Israel before^d their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars. ⁶In all of your dwellings, the cities will be desolate and the high places will be ruined, so that your altars will be desolate and will suffer punishment. Your idols will be broken and will come to an end, and your incense altars will be cut down, and your works will be destroyed, ⁷and the slain one will fall in the midst of you, and then you will know that I am Yahweh. ⁸But^e I will spare some, so there will be^f for you fugitives from the sword among the nations when you are scattered^g in the countries. ⁹And your fugitives will remember me among the nations to which they were taken captive, that I was shattered by their adulterous heart^h which departed from me, and by their adulterous eyesⁱ which went after their idols, and they will feel loathing for themselves,^j for the evil that they did, for all of their detestable things. ¹⁰And they will know that I am Yahweh; not in vain^k I spoke to bring to them this evil.” ’ ¹¹Thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘Clap your hand and stamp with your foot, and say, “Alas, for all of the detestable things of the evil of the house of Israel, because of which^l they will fall with the sword, with the famine, and with the plague. ¹²The one who is far away will die by the plague, and the one who is near will fall by the sword, and the one who is being left behind and being spared will die by the famine, and I will complete my rage on^m them. ¹³And you will know that I am Yahweh when their slain ones are in the midst of their idolsⁿ around their altars at every high hill, on the tops of all the mountains and under every green tree and under every leafy oak—the place at which they gave a pleasing scent for all of their idols. ¹⁴And I will stretch out my hand against them, and I will make the land a desolation and a wasteland from the desert to Riblah in all of their dwellings, and they will know that I am Yahweh.” ’ ”

Punishment for Abominations Throughout the Land

7And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, ²“And you, son of man,^a thus says the Lord Yahweh to the land of Israel: ‘The end comes, the end on the four corners of the land. ³Now the end is on you, and I will send my anger on you, and I will judge you according to your ways, and I will bring on you all your detestable things. ⁴And my eye will not take pity on you, and I will not show compassion for your ways; on you I will bring your detestable things; they will be in the midst of you, and you will know that I am Yahweh.’ ⁵Thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘Look! Disaster after disaster is coming! ⁶The end comes, comes the end! It has awakened against you! Look! It comes! ⁷Doom is coming against you, the dweller^b of the land; the time comes, the day is near, panic and not joy is on the mountains. ⁸Soon^c I will pour out my rage on you, and I will fully vent my anger on you, and I will judge you according to your ways, and I will bring on you all of your detestable things. ⁹And my eye will not take pity, and I will not show compassion. According to your ways I will deal with you,^d and your detestable things will be in the midst of you, and you will know that I am Yahweh who strikes.^{e 10}Look! The day is coming; doom goes out, the staff blossoms, pride sprouts. ¹¹Violence has grown to become a staff of wickedness; none^f from them will remain, and none^g from their abundance nor from their wealth;^h and prominence will not be among them. ¹²The time has come, the day has arrived; let not the buyer rejoice, and let the seller not mourn, for anger is on all their multitude. ¹³For the seller will not return to the merchandise while they are still alive,ⁱ for the vision is about all of its multitude; it will not change, and a man because of his guilt will not be able to hold onto his life. ¹⁴They shall blow on the trumpet and prepare everything,^j but there is no one going to the battle, for my anger is on all of their multitude. ¹⁵The sword is outside,^k and the plague and the famine are inside;^l the one who is in the field will die by the sword, and the one who is in the city, famine and plague will devour him. ¹⁶And if their survivors will escape, they will be on the mountains, like the doves of the valley, all of them groaning, each because of his guilt. ¹⁷All of the hands will hang limp, and all of the knees will be wet with urine.^{m 18}And they will wear sackcloth, and horror will cover them, and on all of the faces will be shame, and baldness on all of their heads. ¹⁹Their silver they will discard on the streets, and filth will be their gold; their silver and their gold will not be able to rescue them on the day of the wrath of Yahweh. They will not satisfy their hungerⁿ and their stomachs they will not fill, for their guilt will be their^o stumbling block.

Judgment for the Profanation of the Temple and Sanctuary

²⁰“ ‘And the beauty of its^p ornament he made into a prideful thing^q and made with it their detestable things and their vile idols; therefore I will make it into an impure thing for them. ²¹And I will give it into the hand of strangers as plunder and to the wicked people of the earth as spoil, and they will defile it. ²²And I will turn my face from them, and they will defile my treasured place, and violent ones will enter and defile it. ²³Make a chain for the land; it is full of bloody crimes^r and the city is full of violence. ²⁴And I will bring the worst of the nations, and they will take possession of their houses, and I will put to an end the pride of the mighty ones, and their sanctuaries will be defiled. ²⁵Anguish comes, and they will seek peace, and there will be none. ²⁶Calamity upon calamity will come, and rumor will be upon rumor. And they will seek a vision from a prophet, but instruction will perish from the priest and counsel from the elders. ²⁷The king will mourn, and the prince will be dressed with despair, and the hands of the people of the land will tremble. According to their way I will do to^s them, and according to their judgments I will judge them, and they will know that I am Yahweh.’ ”

Abominations in the Temple and in Jerusalem

8And then^a in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting before me.^b And the hand of the Lord Yahweh fell on me there, ²and I saw,^c and look! A figure like the appearance of a man;^d from the appearance of his waist and below was fire, and from his waist and upward^e was like the appearance of brightness,^f like the outward appearance of^g amber. ³And he sent out the form of a hand, and he took me by a lock of hair of my head, and the Spirit lifted me between earth and heaven, and it brought me to Jerusalem in visions of God to the doorway of the inner gate that faced north,^h at which there was the seat of the image of jealousy, which was making jealous. ⁴And look! There was the glory of the God of Israel like the vision that I saw in the valley. ⁵And he said to me, “Son of man,ⁱ lift up now^j your eyes toward the north.”^k And I lifted up my eyes toward the north,^l and, look, there was to the north of the gate of the altar this image of jealousy at the entrance. ⁶And he said to me, “Son of man,^m “Do you seeⁿ what they are doing—great detestable things that the house of Israel is committing^o here so as to drive me from^p my sanctuary, and yet you will see again^q greater^r detestable things.” ⁷And he brought me to the doorway of the courtyard, and I saw, and look! A hole in the wall. ⁸And he said to me, “Son of man,^s dig now^t through the wall.” And I dug through the wall, and look! There was a doorway. ⁹And he said to me, “Come and see the detestable things, the evil that they are doing^u here. ¹⁰And I came, and I saw, and look, all kinds of creatures^v and detestable beasts;^w and all of the idols of the house of Israel were carved on the wall all around.^{x 11}And seventy men from the elders of the house of Israel, and Jaazaniah, the son of Shaphan, was standing in the midst of them, and they were standing before them.^y Each one had his censer in his hand, and the fragrance of the cloud of the incense was going up. ¹²And he said to me, “Have you seen, son of man,^z what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in the inner rooms of his idol, for they are saying, ‘Yahweh is not seeing us; Yahweh has abandoned the land.’ ” ¹³And he said to me, “Still you will see again^a greater detestable things that they are doing.” ¹⁴And he brought me to the doorway of the gate of the house of Yahweh that is toward the north, and look! There were the women sitting weeping for Tammuz. ¹⁵And he said to me, “Have you seen, son of man?^b Still you will see again^c greater detestable things than these.” ¹⁶And he brought me to the inner courtyard of the house of Yahweh, and look, at the doorway of the temple of Yahweh, between the portico and the altar, there were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of Yahweh and their faces toward the east, and they were bowing down toward the east before the sun. ¹⁷And he said to me, “Have you seen, son of man?^d Was it too small a thing^e for the house of Judah to do^f the detestable things that they did here? For they filled up the land with violence, and they provoked me to anger again,^g and look! They are putting the branch to their nose. ^…