Abominations in Jerusalem

Chapter 8

¹In the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, I was sitting at home, and the elders of Judah were sitting before me, and there the hand of the Lord God fell upon me. ²As I looked, there was a figure that had the appearance of fire:^a from what appeared as his loins down, [he was] fire; and from his loins up, his appearance was resplendent and had the color of amber. ³He stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by the hair of my head. A spirit lifted me up between heaven and earth and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the Penimith Gate that faces north; that was the site of the infuriating image that provokes fury. ⁴And the Presence of the God of Israel appeared there, like the vision that I had seen in the valley.

⁵And He said to me, “O mortal, turn your eyes northward.” I turned my eyes northward, and there, north of the gate of the altar, was that infuriating image on the approach. ⁶And He said to me, “Mortal, do you see what they are doing, the terrible abominations that the House of Israel is practicing here, to drive Me far from My Sanctuary? You shall yet see even greater abominations!”

⁷Then He brought me to the entrance of the court;^b and I looked, and there was a hole in the wall. ⁸He said to me, “Mortal, break through the wall”; so I broke through the wall and found an entrance. ⁹And He said to me, “Enter and see the vile abominations that they are practicing here.” ¹⁰I entered and looked, and there all detestable forms of creeping things and beasts and all the fetishes of the House of Israel were depicted over the entire wall. ¹¹Before them stood seventy men, elders of the House of Israel, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing in their midst. Everyone had a censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense smoke ascended. ¹²Again He spoke to me, “O mortal, have you seen what the elders of the House of Israel are doing in the darkness, everyone in his image-covered chamber? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us; the Lord has abandoned the country.’” ¹³And He said to me, “You shall see even more terrible abominations which they practice.”

¹⁴Next He brought me to the entrance of the north ^c-gate of the House of the Lord;^-cand there sat the women bewailing Tammuz.^{d 15}He said to me, “Have you seen, O mortal? You shall see even more terrible abominations than these.”

¹⁶Then He brought me into the inner court of the House of the Lord, and there, at the entrance to the Temple of the Lord, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men, their backs to the Temple of the Lord and their faces to the east; they were bowing low to the sun in the east. ¹⁷And He said to me, “Do you see, O mortal? Is it not enough for the House of Judah to practice the abominations that they have committed here, that they must fill the country with lawlessness and provoke Me still further and ^e-thrust the branch to their nostrils?^-e18I in turn will act with fury, I will show no pity or compassion; though they cry aloud to Me, I will not listen to them.”

Chapter 9

¹Then He called loudly in my hearing, saying, “Approach, you men in charge of the city, each bearing his weapons of destruction!” ²And six men entered by way of the upper gate that faces north, each with his club in his hand; and among them was another, clothed in linen, with a writing case at his waist. They came forward and stopped at the bronze altar. ³Now the Presence of the God of Israel had moved from the cherub on which it had rested to the platform^f of the House. He called to the man clothed in linen with the writing case at his waist; ⁴and the Lord said to him, “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who moan and groan because of all the abominations that are committed in it.” ⁵To the others He said in my hearing, “Follow him through the city and strike; show no pity or compassion. ⁶Kill off graybeard, youth and maiden, women and children; but do not touch any person who bears the mark. Begin here at My Sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were in front of the House. ⁷And He said to them, “Defile the House and fill the courts with the slain. Then go forth.”