Ezekiel 6:1–38:23

Idolatrous Worship Denounced

¹And the word of the Lord came to me saying,

²“Son of man, set your face toward the ^amountains of Israel, and prophesy against them

³and say, ‘Mountains of Israel, listen to the word of the Lord ¹God! Thus says the Lord God to the mountains, the hills, the ravines and the valleys: “Behold, I Myself am going to bring a sword on you, and ^aI will destroy your high places.

⁴“So your ^aaltars will become desolate and your incense altars will be smashed; and I will make your slain fall in front of your idols.

⁵“I will also lay the dead bodies of the sons of Israel in front of their idols; and I will scatter your ^abones around your altars.

⁶“In all your dwellings, ^acities will become waste and the high places will be desolate, that your altars may become waste and ¹desolate, your ^bidols may be broken and brought to an end, your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be blotted out.

⁷“The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the Lord.

⁸“However, I will leave a ^aremnant, for you will have those who ^bescaped the sword among the nations when you are scattered among the countries.

⁹“Then those of you who escape will ^aremember Me among the nations to which they will be carried captive, how I have ^1bbeen hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me, and by their eyes which played the harlot after their idols; and they will ^cloathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed, for all their abominations.

¹⁰“Then they will know that I am the Lord; I have not said in vain ¹that I would inflict this disaster on them.” ’

¹¹“Thus says the Lord ¹God, ‘Clap your hand, ^astamp your foot and say, “^bAlas, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, which will fall by ^csword, famine and plague!

¹²“He who is ^afar off will die by the plague, and he who is near will fall by the sword, and he who remains and is besieged will die by the famine. Thus will I ^bspend My wrath on them.

¹³“Then you will know that I am the Lord, when their ^aslain are among their idols around their altars, on ^bevery high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every green tree and under every leafy oak—the places where they offered soothing aroma to all their idols.

¹⁴“So throughout all their habitations I will ^astretch out My hand against them and make the land more desolate and waste than the wilderness toward Diblah; thus they will know that I am the Lord.” ’ ”

Chapter 7

Punishment for Wickedness Foretold

¹Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me saying,

²“And you, son of man, thus says the Lord ¹God to the land of Israel, ‘An ^aend! The end is coming on the four corners of the land.

³‘Now the end is upon you, and I will send My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways and bring all your abominations upon you.

⁴‘For My eye will have no pity on you, nor will I spare you, but I will ^abring your ways upon you, and your abominations will be among you; then you will ^bknow that I am the Lord!’

⁵“Thus says the Lord ¹God, ‘A ^adisaster, unique disaster, behold it is coming!

⁶‘An end is coming; the end has come! It has ^aawakened against you; behold, it has come!

⁷‘Your doom has come to you, O inhabitant of the land. The ^atime has come, the ^bday is near—tumult rather than joyful shouting on the mountains.

⁸‘Now I will shortly ^apour out My wrath on you and spend My anger against you; ^bjudge you according to your ways and bring on you all your abominations.

⁹‘My eye will show no pity nor will I spare. I will ¹repay you according to your ways, while your abominations are in your midst; then you will know that I, the Lord, do the smiting.

¹⁰‘Behold, the day! Behold, it is coming! Your doom has gone forth; the ^arod has budded, arrogance has blossomed.

¹¹‘Violence ¹has grown into a rod of ^awickedness. None of them shall remain, none of their people, none of their ^bwealth, nor anything eminent among them.

¹²‘The ^atime has come, the day has arrived. Let not the ^bbuyer rejoice nor the seller mourn; for ^cwrath is against all their multitude.

¹³‘Indeed, the seller will not ^1aregain ²what he sold as long as ³they both live; for the vision regarding all their multitude will not ⁴be averted, nor will any of them maintain his life by his iniquity.

¹⁴‘They have ^ablown the trumpet and made everything ready, but no one is going to the battle, for My wrath is against all ¹their multitude.

¹⁵‘The ^asword is outside and the plague and the famine are within. He who is in the field will die by the sword; famine and the plague will also consume those in the city.

¹⁶‘Even when their survivors ^aescape, they will be on the mountains like ^bdoves of the valleys, all of them ^1cmourning, each over his own iniquity.

¹⁷‘All ^ahands will hang limp and all knees will ¹become like water.

¹⁸‘They will ^agird themselves with sackcloth and ^bshuddering will overwhelm them; and shame will be on all faces and ^cbaldness on all their heads.

¹⁹‘They will ^afling their silver into the streets and their gold will become an abhorrent thing; their ^bsilver and their gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They cannot satisfy their ¹appetite nor can they fill their stomachs, for their iniquity has become an occasion of stumbling.

The Temple Profaned

²⁰‘They transformed the beauty of His ornaments into pride, and ^athey made the images of their abominations and their detestable things with it; therefore I will make it an abhorrent thing to them.

²¹‘I will give it into the hands of the ^aforeigners as plunder and to the wicked of the earth as spoil, and they will profane it.

²²‘I will also turn My ^aface from them, and they will profane My secret place; then robbers will enter and profane it.

²³‘^aMake the chain, for the land is full of ^1bbloody crimes and the city is ^cfull of violence.

²⁴‘Therefore, I will bring the worst of the ^anations, and they will possess their houses. I will also make the ^bpride of the strong ones cease, and their ^choly places will be profaned.

²⁵‘When anguish comes, they will seek ^apeace, but there will be none.

²⁶‘^aDisaster will come upon disaster and ^brumor will be added to rumor; then they will seek a ^cvision from a prophet, but the ^dlaw will be lost from the priest and ^ecounsel from the elders.

²⁷‘The king will mourn, the prince will be ^aclothed with horror, and the hands of the people of the land will ¹tremble. According to their conduct I will deal with them, and by their judgments I will judge them. And they will know that I am the Lord.’ ”

Chapter 8

Vision of Abominations in Jerusalem

¹It came about in the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, as I was sitting in my house with the elders of Judah sitting before me, that the hand of the Lord ¹God fell on me there.

²Then I looked, and behold, a likeness as the appearance of ¹a man; from His loins and downward there was the ^aappearance of fire, and from His loins and upward the appearance of brightness, like the appearance ^bof ²glowing metal.

³He stretched out the form of a hand and caught me by a lock of my head; and the ^aSpirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the ¹north gate of the inner court, where the seat of the idol of jealousy, which ^bprovokes to jealousy, was located.

⁴And behold, the ^aglory of the God of Israel was there, like the appearance which I saw in the plain.

⁵Then He said to me, “Son of man, ^araise your eyes now toward the north.” So I raised my eyes toward the north, and behold, to the north of the altar gate was this ^bidol of jealousy at the entrance.

⁶And He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great ^aabominations which the house of Israel are committing here, so that I would be far from My sanctuary? But yet you will see still greater abominations.”

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

⁸He said to me, “Son of man, now ^adig through the wall.” So I dug through the wall, and behold, an entrance.

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

¹⁰So I entered and looked, and behold, every form of creeping things and beasts and detestable things, with all the idols of the house of Israel, were carved on the wall all around.

¹¹Standing in front of them were ^aseventy ^belders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them, each man with his ^ccenser in his hand and the fragrance of the cloud of incense rising.

¹²Then He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are committing in the dark, each man in the room of his carved images? For they say, ‘^aThe Lord does not see us; the Lord has ^bforsaken the land.’ ”

¹³And He said to me, “Yet you will see still greater abominations which they are committing.”

¹⁴Then He brought me to the entrance of the ^agate of the Lord’s house which was toward the north; and behold, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.

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

¹⁶Then He brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house. And behold, at the entrance to the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their ^abacks to the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; and ^bthey were ¹prostrating themselves eastward toward the sun.

¹⁷He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they have committed here, that they have ^afilled the land with violence and ^bprovoked Me repeatedly? For behold, they are putting the twig to their nose.

¹⁸“Therefore, I indeed will deal in wrath. My eye will have no pity nor will I spare; and ^athough they cry in My ears with a loud voice, yet I will not listen to them.”

Chapter 9

The Vision of Slaughter

¹Then He cried out in my hearing with a loud ^avoice saying, “Draw…