Ezekiel 8–11

Abominations in the Temple

8And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house with ^athe elders of Judah sitting before me, that ^bthe hand of the Lord God fell upon me there. ^2cThen I looked, and there was a likeness, like the appearance of fire—from the appearance of His waist and downward, fire; and from His waist and upward, like the appearance of brightness, ^dlike the color of amber. ³He ^estretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my hair; and ^fthe Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and ^gbrought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the north gate of the inner court, ^hwhere the seat of the image of jealousy was, which ⁱprovokes ¹to jealousy. ⁴And behold, the ^jglory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I ^ksaw in the plain.

⁵Then He said to me, “Son of man, lift your eyes now toward the north.” So I lifted my eyes toward the north, and there, north of the altar gate, was this image of jealousy in the entrance.

⁶Furthermore He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great ^labominations that the house of Israel commits here, to make Me go far away from My sanctuary? Now turn again, you will see greater abominations.” ⁷So He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, there was a hole in the wall. ⁸Then He said to me, “Son of man, dig into the wall”; and when I dug into the wall, there was a door.

⁹And He said to me, “Go in, and see the wicked abominations which they are doing there.” ¹⁰So I went in and saw, and there—every ^msort of ⁿcreeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, ²portrayed all around on the walls. ¹¹And there stood before them ^oseventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and in their midst stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan. Each man had a censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense went up. ¹²Then He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the room of his idols? For they say, ^p‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.’ ”

¹³And He said to me, “Turn again, and you will see greater abominations that they are doing.” ¹⁴So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the Lord’s house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for ³Tammuz.

¹⁵Then He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn again, you will see greater abominations than these.” ¹⁶So He brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house; and there, at the door of the temple of the Lord, ^qbetween the porch and the altar, ^rwere about twenty-five men ^swith their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping ^tthe sun toward the east.

¹⁷And He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have ^ufilled the land with violence; then they have returned to provoke Me to anger. Indeed they put the branch to their nose. ^18vTherefore I also will act in fury. My ^weye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they ^xcry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”

The Wicked are Slain

9Then He called out in my hearing with a loud voice, saying, “Let those who have charge over the city draw near, each with a ¹deadly weapon in his hand.” ²And suddenly six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his ²battle-ax in his hand. ^aOne man among them was clothed with linen and had a writer’s inkhorn ³at his side. They went in and stood beside the bronze altar.

³Now ^bthe glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, where it had been, to the threshold of the ⁴temple. And He called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn at his side; ⁴and the Lord said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put ^ca mark on the foreheads of the men ^dwho sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.”

⁵To the others He said in my ⁵hearing, “Go after him through the city and ^ekill; ^6fdo not let your eye spare, nor have any pity. ^6gUtterly ⁷slay old and young men, maidens and little children and women; but ^hdo not come near anyone on whom is the mark; and ⁱbegin at My sanctuary.” ^jSo they began with the elders who were before the ⁸temple. ⁷Then He said to them, “Defile the ⁹temple, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out!” And they went out and killed in the city.

⁸So it was, that while they were killing them, I was left alone; and I ^kfell on my face and cried out, and said, ^l“Ah, Lord God! Will You destroy all the remnant of Israel in pouring out Your fury on Jerusalem?”

⁹Then He said to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and ^mthe land is full of bloodshed, and the city full of perversity; for they say, ⁿ‘The Lord has forsaken the land, and ^othe Lord does not see!’ ¹⁰And as for Me also, My ^peye will neither spare, nor will I have pity, but ^qI will recompense their deeds on their own head.”

¹¹Just then, the man clothed with linen, who had the inkhorn at his side, reported back and said, “I have done as You commanded me.”

The Glory Departs from the Temple

10And I looked, and there in the ^afirmament ¹that was above the head of the cherubim, there appeared something like a sapphire stone, having the appearance of the likeness of a throne. ^2bThen He spoke to the man clothed with linen, and said, “Go in among the wheels, under the cherub, fill your hands with ^ccoals of fire from among the cherubim, and ^dscatter them over the city.” And he went in as I watched.

³Now the cherubim were standing on the ²south side of the ³temple when the man went in, and the ^ecloud filled the inner court. ^4fThen the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, and paused over the threshold of the ⁴temple; and ^gthe house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord’s ^hglory. ⁵And the ⁱsound of the wings of the cherubim was heard even in the outer court, like ^jthe voice of Almighty God when He speaks.

⁶Then it happened, when He commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, “Take fire from among the wheels, from among the cherubim,” that he went in and stood beside the wheels. ⁷And the cherub stretched out his hand from among the cherubim to the fire that was among the cherubim, and took some of it and put it into the hands of the man clothed with linen, who took it and went out. ^8kThe cherubim appeared to have the form of a man’s hand under their wings.

^9lAnd when I looked, there were four wheels by the cherubim, one wheel by one cherub and another wheel by each other cherub; the wheels appeared to have the color of a ^mberyl stone. ¹⁰As for their appearance, all four looked alike—as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel. ¹¹ⁿWhen they went, they went toward any of their four directions; they did not turn aside when they went, but followed in the direction the head was facing. They did not turn aside when they went. ¹²And their whole body, with their back, their hands, their wings, and the wheels that the four had, were ^ofull of eyes all around. ¹³As for the wheels, they were called in my ⁵hearing, “Wheel.”

^14pEach one had four faces: the first face was the face of a cherub, the second face the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle. ¹⁵And the cherubim were lifted up. This was ^qthe living creature I saw by the River Chebar. ^16rWhen the cherubim went, the wheels went beside them; and when the cherubim lifted their wings to mount up from the earth, the same wheels also did not turn from beside them. ^17sWhen ⁶the cherubim stood still, the wheels stood still, and when ⁷one was lifted up, ⁸the other lifted itself up, for the spirit of the living creature was in them.

¹⁸Then ^tthe glory of the Lord ^udeparted from the threshold of the ⁹temple and stood over the cherubim. ¹⁹And ^vthe cherubim lifted their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight. When they went out, the wheels were beside them; and they stood at the door of the ^weast gate of the Lord’s house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.

^20xThis is the living creature I saw under the God of Israel ^yby the River Chebar, and I knew they were cherubim. ^21zEach one had four faces and each one four wings, and the likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings. ²²And ^athe likeness of their faces was the same as the faces which I had seen by the River Chebar, their appearance and their persons. ^bThey each went straight forward.

Judgment on Wicked Counselors

11Then ^athe Spirit lifted me up and brought me to ^bthe East Gate of the Lord’s house, which faces eastward; and there ^cat the door of the gate were twenty-five men, among whom I saw Jaazaniah the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people. ²And He said to me: “Son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity and give wicked ¹counsel in this city, ³who say, ‘The time is not ^dnear to build houses; ^ethis city is the ²caldron, and we are the meat.’ ⁴Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man!”

⁵Then ^fthe Spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and said to me, “Speak! ‘Thus says the Lord: “Thus you have said, O house of Israel; for ^gI know the things that come into your mind. ^6hYou have multiplied your slain in this city, and you have filled its streets with the slain.” ⁷Therefore thus says the Lord God: ⁱ“Your slain whom you have laid in its midst, they are the meat, and this city is the caldron; ^jbut I shall bring you out of the midst of it. ⁸You have ^kfeared the sword; and I will bring a sword upon you,” says the Lord God. ⁹“And I will bring you out of its midst, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and ^lexecute judgments on you. ^10mYou shall fall by the sword. I will judge you at ⁿthe border of Israel. ^oThen you shall know that…