Ezekiel 8:6–18

⁶He said to me, “Mortal, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here, to drive me far from my sanctuary? Yet you will see still greater abominations.”^*

⁷And he brought me to the entrance of the court; I looked, and there was a hole in the wall. ⁸Then he said to me, “Mortal, dig through the wall,” and when I dug through the wall, there was an entrance. ⁹He said to me, “Go in and see the vile abominations that they are committing here.” ¹⁰So I went in and looked; there, portrayed on the wall all around, were all kinds of creeping things and loathsome animals and all the idols of the house of Israel.^{* 11}Before them stood seventy of the elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had his censer in his hand, and the fragrant cloud of incense was ascending.^{* 12}Then he said to me, “Mortal, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of images? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us; the Lord has forsaken the land.’ ” ¹³He said also to me, “You will see still greater abominations that they are committing.”^*

¹⁴Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord; women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.^{* 15}Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O mortal? You will see still greater abominations than these.”

¹⁶And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord; there, at the entrance of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, prostrating themselves to the sun toward the east.^{* 17}Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O mortal? Is it not bad enough that the house of Judah commits the abominations done here? Must they fill the land with violence and provoke my anger still further? See, they are putting the branch to their nose!^{* 18}Therefore I will act in wrath; my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity, and though they cry in my hearing with a loud voice, I will not listen to them.”^*