¹⁵ I came to the exiles at Tel-abib, who lived by the River Chebar.^[a] And I sat there among them, stunned, for seven days.^(A)

¹⁶ At the end of seven days, the word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁷ Mortal, I have made you a sentinel for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.^{(B) 18} When I say to the wicked, “You shall surely die,” and you give them no warning and do not speak to warn the wicked from their wicked way in order to save their lives, those wicked persons shall die for their iniquity, but their blood I will require at your hand.^{(C) 19} But if you warn the wicked and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their wicked way, they shall die for their iniquity, but you will have saved your life.^{(D) 20} Again, if the righteous turn from their righteousness and commit iniquity and I lay a stumbling block before them, they shall die; because you have not warned them, they shall die for their sin, and their righteous deeds that they have done shall not be remembered, but their blood I will require at your hand.^{(E) 21} If, however, you warn the righteous not to sin and they do not sin, they shall surely live because they took warning, and you will have saved your life.^(F)

Ezekiel Isolated and Silenced

²² Then the hand of the Lord was upon me there, and he said to me, “Rise up, go out into the valley, and there I will speak with you.”^{(G) 23} So I rose up and went out into the valley, and the glory of the Lord stood there, like the glory that I had seen by the River Chebar, and I fell on my face.^{(H) 24} The spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and he spoke with me and said to me: “Go, shut yourself inside your house.^{(I) 25} As for you, mortal, cords shall be placed on you, and you shall be bound with them so that you cannot go out among the people,^{(J) 26} and I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth so that you shall be speechless and unable to reprove them, for they are a rebellious house.^{(K) 27} But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God’; let those who will hear, hear, and let those who refuse to hear, refuse, for they are a rebellious house.^(L)

Warnings against False Teachers

²⁰ If with Christ you died to the elemental principles^[a] of the world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations,^{(A) 21} “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? ²² All these regulations refer to things that perish with use; they are simply human commands and teachings.^{(B) 23} These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-imposed piety, humility, and severe treatment of the body, but they are of no value in checking self-indulgence.^[b]

The New Life in Christ

3 So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.^{(C) 2} Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth, ³ for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.^{(D) 4} When Christ who is your^[c] life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.^(E)

⁵ Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry).^{(F) 6} On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient.^{[d](G) 7} These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life.^{[e] 8} But now you must get rid of all such things: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive^[f] language from your mouth.^{(H) 9} Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices ¹⁰ and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.^{(I) 11} In that renewal^[g] there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, enslaved and free, but Christ is all and in all!^(J)

Abominations in the Temple

8 In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house with the elders of Judah sitting before me, the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there.^{(A) 2} I looked, and there was a figure that looked like a man;^[a] below what appeared to be its loins the figure was fire, and above the loins it was like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming amber.^{(B) 3} It 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 heaven and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, to the seat of the image of jealousy that provokes to jealousy.^{(C) 4} And the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I had seen in the valley.^(D)

⁵ Then God^[b] said to me, “O mortal, lift up your eyes now in the direction of the north.” So I lifted up my eyes toward the north, and there, north of the altar gate, in the entrance, was this image of jealousy.^{(E) 6} He said to me, “Mortal, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here, to drive me far from my sanctuary? Yet you will see still greater abominations.”^(F)

⁷ And he brought me to the entrance of the court; I looked, and there was a hole in the wall. ⁸ Then he said to me, “Mortal, dig through the wall,” and when I dug through the wall, there was an entrance. ⁹ He said to me, “Go in and see the vile abominations that they are committing here.” ¹⁰ So I went in and looked; there, portrayed on the wall all around, were all kinds of creeping things and loathsome animals and all the idols of the house of Israel.^{(G) 11} Before them stood seventy of the elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had his censer in his hand, and the fragrant cloud of incense was ascending.^{(H) 12} Then he said to me, “Mortal, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of images? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us; the Lord has forsaken the land.’ ” ¹³ He said also to me, “You will see still greater abominations that they are committing.”^(I)

¹⁴ Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord; women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.^{(J) 15} Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O mortal? You will see still greater abominations than these.”

¹⁶ And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord; there, at the entrance of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, prostrating themselves to the sun toward the east.^{(K) 17} Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O mortal? Is it not bad enough that the house of Judah commits the abominations done here? Must they fill the land with violence and provoke my anger still further? See, they are putting the branch to their nose!^{(L) 18} Therefore I will act in wrath; my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity, and though they cry in my hearing with a loud voice, I will not listen to them.”^(M)

16 “I have said these things to you to keep you from falling away.^{[a](A) 2} They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, an hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God.^{(B) 3} And they will do this because they have not known the Father or me.^{(C) 4} But I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you about them.

The Work of the Spirit

“I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. ⁵ But now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’^{(D) 6} But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. ⁷ Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate^[b] will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you. ⁸ And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about^[c] sin and righteousness and judgment: ⁹ about sin, because they do not believe in me; ¹⁰ about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, and you will see me no longer; ¹¹ about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.^(E)

¹² “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.^{(F) 13} When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.^{(G) 14} He will glorify me because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. ¹⁵ All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.^(H)

Sorrow Will Turn into Joy

¹⁶ “A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me.”^{(I) 17} Then some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying to us, ‘A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me,’ and ‘because I am going to the Father’?” ¹⁸ They said, “What does he mean by this ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.” ¹⁹ Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Are you discussing among yourselves what I meant when I said, ‘A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’? ²⁰ Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy. ²¹ When a woman is in labor, she has pain because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world.^{(J) 22} So you have pain now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.^{(K) 23} On that day you will ask nothing of me.^[d] Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.^{[e] 24} Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.^(L)

Peace for the Disciples

²⁵ “I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures but will tell you plainly of the Father. ²⁶ On that day you will ask in my name. I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf, ²⁷ for the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.^{[f](M) 28} I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and am going to the Father.”^(N)

²⁹ His disciples said, “Yes, now you are speaking plainly, not in any figure of speech! ³⁰ Now we know that you know all things and do not need to have anyone question you; by this we believe that you came from God.”^{(O) 31} Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? ³² The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me.^{(P) 33} I have said this to you so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution, but take courage: I have conquered the world!”^(Q)