²³ And they will comfort you, when you see their ways and their doings; and you shall know that I have done nothing ^(A)without cause that I have done in it,” says the Lord God.

⁸ And many nations will pass by this city; and everyone will say to his neighbor, ^(A)‘Why has the Lord done so to this great city?’ ⁹ Then they will answer, ^(B)‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshiped other gods and served them.’ ”

⁵ But in accordance with your hardness and your ^[a]impenitent heart ^(A)you are ^[b]treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,

¹⁴ Therefore the Lord has ^(A)kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for ^(B)the Lord our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice.

⁷ O Lord, ^(A)righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.

⁸ So it was, that while they were killing them, I was left alone; and I ^(A)fell on my face and cried out, and said, ^(B)“Ah, Lord God! Will You destroy all the remnant of Israel in pouring out Your fury on Jerusalem?”

⁹ Then He said to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and ^(C)the land is full of bloodshed, and the city full of perversity; for they say, ^(D)‘The Lord has forsaken the land, and ^(E)the Lord does not see!’

⁶ Furthermore He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great ^(A)abominations that the house of Israel commits here, to make Me go far away from My sanctuary? Now turn again, you will see greater abominations.” ⁷ So He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, there was a hole in the wall. ⁸ Then He said to me, “Son of man, dig into the wall”; and when I dug into the wall, there was a door.

⁹ And He said to me, “Go in, and see the wicked abominations which they are doing there.” ¹⁰ So I went in and saw, and there—every ^(B)sort of ^(C)creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, ^[a]portrayed all around on the walls. ¹¹ And there stood before them ^(D)seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and in their midst stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan. Each man had a censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense went up. ¹² 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 the room of his idols? For they say, ^(E)‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.’ ”

¹³ And He said to me, “Turn again, and you will see greater abominations that they are doing.” ¹⁴ So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the Lord’s house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for ^[b]Tammuz.

¹⁵ Then He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn again, you will see greater abominations than these.” ¹⁶ So He brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house; and there, at the door of the temple of the Lord, ^(F)between the porch and the altar, ^(G)were about twenty-five men ^(H)with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping ^(I)the sun toward the east.

¹⁷ And He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have ^(J)filled the land with violence; then they have returned to provoke Me to anger. Indeed they put the branch to their nose. ^18 (K)Therefore I also will act in fury. My ^(L)eye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they ^(M)cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”