²¹ Then the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. ^(A)So Judah went into exile from its land.

¹¹ Standing in front of them were ^(A)seventy ^(B)elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them, each man with his ^(C)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, ‘^(D)Yahweh does not see us; Yahweh has ^(E)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 ^(F)gate of the house of Yahweh which was toward the north; and behold, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz. ¹⁵ He said to me, “Do you see this, 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, were about twenty-five men with their ^(G)backs to the temple of Yahweh and their faces toward the east; and ^(H)they were ^[a]prostrating themselves eastward toward the sun. ¹⁷ He said to me, “Do you see this, 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 ^(I)filled the land with violence and ^(J)provoked Me to anger still more? For behold, they are sending forth the twig to their nose. ¹⁸ Therefore, I also will do this in wrath: My eye will have no pity, nor will I spare; and ^(K)they will cry in My ears with a loud voice, yet I will not listen to them.”