The Prophet Ezekiel

⭑ Literal Standard Version :: World English Bible Catholic ⭑

- Chapter 8 -

And it comes to pass, in the sixth year, in the sixth [month], on the fifth of the month, I am sitting in my house, and [the] elderly of Judah are sitting before me, and there a hand of Lord YHWH falls on me,

and I look, and behold, a likeness as the appearance of fire, from the appearance of His loins and downward—fire, and from His loins and upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the color of electrum.

And He puts forth a form of a hand, and takes me by a lock of my head, and [the] Spirit lifts me up between the earth and the heavens, and brings me to Jerusalem in visions of God, to the opening of the inner gate that is facing the north, where the seat of the figure of jealousy [is] that is making jealous,

and behold, there the glory of the God of Israel [is] as the appearance that I saw in the valley.

And He says to me, “Son of man, now lift up your eyes [toward] the way of the north.” And I lift up my eyes [toward] the way of the north, and behold, on the north of the gate of the altar [is] this figure of jealousy, at the entrance.

And He says to me, “Son of man, are you seeing what they are doing? The great abominations that the house of Israel is doing here, to keep far off from My sanctuary; and turn again, [and] see great abominations.”

And He brings me to an opening of the court, and I look, and behold, a hole in the wall;

and He says to me, “Son of man, now dig through the wall”; and I dig through the wall, and behold, an opening.

And He says to me, “Go in, and see the evil abominations that they are doing here.”

And I go in, and look, and behold, every form of creeping thing, and detestable beast—and all the idols of the house of Israel—carved on the wall, all around,

and seventy men from [the] elderly of the house of Israel—and Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing in their midst—are standing before them, and each [with] his censer in his hand, and [the] abundance of [the] cloud of the incense is going up.

And He says to me, “Have you seen, son of man, that which elderly of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each in [the] inner chambers of his imagery, for they are saying, YHWH is not seeing us, YHWH has forsaken the land?”

And He says to me, “Turn again, [and] see [the] great abominations that they are doing.”

And He brings me to the opening of the gate of the house of YHWH that [is] at the north, and behold, there the women are sitting, weeping for Tammuz.

And He says to me, “Have you seen, son of man? Turn again, [and] see greater abominations than these.”

And He brings me into the inner court of the house of YHWH, and behold, at the opening of the temple of YHWH, between the porch and the altar, about twenty-five men, their backs toward the temple of YHWH, and their faces eastward, and they are bowing themselves eastward to the sun.

And He says to me, “Have you seen, son of man? Has it been a light thing to the house of Judah to do the abomination that they have done here, that they have filled the land with violence, and turn back to provoke Me to anger? And behold, they are putting forth the branch to their nose!

And I also deal in fury, My eye does not pity, nor do I spare, and they have cried [with] a loud voice in My ears and I do not hear them.”

In the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, the Lord GOD’s hand fell on me there.

Then I saw, and behold, a likeness as the appearance of fire—from the appearance of his waist and downward, fire, and from his waist and upward, as the appearance of brightness, as it were glowing metal.

He stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and the sky, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the gate of the inner court that looks toward the north, where there was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy.

Behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the appearance that I saw in the plain.

Then he said to me, “Son of man, lift up your eyes now the way toward the north.” So I lifted up my eyes the way toward the north, and saw, northward of the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry.

He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they do? Even the great abominations that the house of Israel commit here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? But you will again see yet other great abominations.”

He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold, a hole in the wall.

Then he said to me, “Son of man, dig now in the wall.” When I had dug in the wall, I saw a door.

He said to me, “Go in, and see the wicked abominations that they do here.”

So I went in and looked, and saw every form of creeping things, abominable animals, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed around on the wall.

Seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel stood before them. In the middle of them Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan stood, every man with his censer in his hand; and the smell of the cloud of incense went up.

Then 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 his rooms of imagery? For they say, ‘The LORD doesn’t see us. The LORD has forsaken the land.’”

He said also to me, “You will again see more of the great abominations which they do.”

Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD’s house which was toward the north; and I saw the women sit there weeping for Tammuz.

Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? You will again see yet greater abominations than these.”

He brought me into the inner court of the LORD’s house; and I saw at the door of the LORD’s temple, between the porch and the altar, there were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the LORD’s temple and their faces toward the east. They were worshiping the sun toward the east.

Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence, and have turned again to provoke me to anger. Behold, they put the branch to their nose.

Therefore I will also deal in wrath. My eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity. Though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them.”