¹¹In front of them stood 70 elders of Israel. Jaazaniah was standing there among them. He is the son of Shaphan. Each elder was holding a shallow cup. A sweet-smelling cloud of incense was rising from the cups.

¹²The Lord said to me, “Son of man, do you see what the elders of Israel are doing in the dark? Each of them is in his own room worshiping his own god. They say, ‘The Lord doesn’t see us. He has deserted the land.’ ” ¹³He continued, “You will see them doing things I hate even more.”

¹⁴Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the Lord’s house. I saw women sitting there. They were sobbing over the god Tammuz. ¹⁵The Lord said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing? You will see things I hate even more.”

¹⁶Then he brought me into the inner courtyard of the Lord’s house. About 25 men were there. They were at the entrance to the Lord’s temple between the porch and the altar. Their backs were turned toward the temple. Their faces were turned toward the east. And they were bowing down to the sun.

¹⁷He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen all of that? The people of Judah are doing things here that I hate. This is a very serious matter. They are harming one another all through the land. They continue to make me very angry. Just look at them making fun of me! ¹⁸So I am angry with them. I will punish them. I will not spare them or feel sorry for them. They might even shout in my ears. But I will not listen to them.”

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