Ezekiel 8

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.”