8
Now 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, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord Jehovah fell there upon me. And I looked, and lo, a form having the appearance of fire; from the appearance of his loins downward, of fire; and from his loins upward, of a bright light, like the splendor of shining brass. And he put forth the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my head. And the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me, in the visions of God, to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate, that looketh toward the north, where stood the idol of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy. And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision which I saw in the plain. Then said he to me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes toward the north! And I lifted up my eyes toward the north, and behold, northward from the gate of the altar was this idol of jealousy, at the entrance. And he said to me: Son of man, seest thou what they do? Great are the abominations which the house of Israel commit here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary. But thou shalt yet again see great abominations. And he brought me to the door of the court, and I looked, and behold, a hole in the wall. And he said to me, Son of man, break now through the wall. And when I had broken through the wall, behold, a door. And he said to me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations which they practise here. 10 So I went in and saw, and behold, every form of creeping things, and of abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about. 11 And there stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, Jaazaniah, the son of Shaphan, standing in the midst of them, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up. 12 Then said he to me: Son of man, seest thou what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, each one in his image-chamber? For they say, “Jehovah seeth us not; Jehovah hath forsaken the land.” 13 And he said to me, Thou shalt yet again see the great abominations which they practise. 14 Then he brought me to the entrance of the gate of the house of Jehovah, which was toward the north, and behold, there sat women, weeping for Thammuz. 15 And he said to me, Seest thou this, O son of man? Thou shalt yet again see greater abominations than these. 16 And he brought me into the inner court of the house of Jehovah, and behold, at the entrance of the temple of Jehovah, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of Jehovah, and their faces toward the east; and they bowed themselves eastward toward the sun. 17 And he said to me: Seest thou, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah, that they commit the abominations which they commit here, that they fill the land with violence, and continually provoke me to anger? And behold, they put the blanch to their nostrils. 18 Therefore will I also deal with them in fury; mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.