1 Visions of Abominations in the Sanctuary Now it happened in the sixth year, on the fifthdayof the sixth month, as I was sitting in my house with the elders of Judah sitting before me, that the hand of Lord Yahweh fell on me there.
2 Then I looked, and behold, a likeness as the appearance of 8:2 Lit fire; Gr a man one onfire; from His loins and downwardthere wasthe appearance of fire, and from His loins and upward the appearance of brightness, like the gleam of 8:2 Or electrum glowing metal.
3 He sent forth the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the 8:3Lit facing north north gate of the innercourt, where the seat of the figure of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy, waslocated.
4 And behold, the glory of the God of Israelwasthere, like the appearance which I saw in the plain.
5 Then He said to me, “Son of man, raise your eyes now toward the north.” So I raised my eyes toward the north, and behold, to the north of the altar gatewasthis figure of jealousy at the entrance.
6 And He said to me, “Son of man, are you seeing what they are doing, the great abominations which the house of Israel is doing here, so that I would be far from My sanctuary? But yet you will see still greater abominations.”
7 Then He brought me to the entrance of the court, and when I looked, behold, a hole in the wall.
8 He said to me, “Son of man, now dig through the wall.” So I dug through the wall, and behold, an entrance.
9 And He said to me, “Go in and see the evil abominations that they are doing here.”
10 So I entered and looked, and behold, every form of creeping things and beastsanddetestable things, with all the idols of the house of Israel, were carved on the wall all around.
11 Standing in front of them were seventy elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them, each man with his censer in his hand and the fragrance of the cloud of incense rising.
12 Then He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each man in the room of his carved images? For they say, ‘Yahweh does not see us; Yahweh has forsaken the land.’ ”
13 And He said to me, “Yet you will see still greater abominations which they are doing.”
14 Then He brought me to the entrance of the gate of the house of Yahweh whichwastoward the north; and behold, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.
15 He said to me, “Do you seethis, son of man? Yet you will see still greater abominations than these.”
16 Then He brought me into the inner court of the house of Yahweh. And behold, at the entrance to the temple of Yahweh, between the porch and the altar,wereabout twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of Yahweh and their faces toward the east; and they were 8:16Or worshiping prostrating themselves eastward toward the sun.
17 He said to me, “Do you seethis, son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to do the abominations which they have done here, that they have filled the land with violence and provoked Me to anger still more? For behold, they are sending forth the twig to their nose.
18 Therefore, I also will dothisin wrath: My eye will have no pity, nor will I spare; and they will cry in My ears with a loud voice, yet I will not listen to them.”