Judgment on Israel Is Near

7 Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ² “And you, son of man, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel:

⁵ “Thus says the Lord God:

Abominations in the Temple

8 And 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 with ^(Z)the elders of Judah sitting before me, that ^(AA)the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there. ^2 (AB)Then I looked, and there was a likeness, like the appearance of fire—from the appearance of His waist and downward, fire; and from His waist and upward, like the appearance of brightness, ^(AC)like the color of amber. ³ He ^(AD)stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my hair; and ^(AE)the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and ^(AF)brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the north gate of the inner court, ^(AG)where the seat of the image of jealousy was, which ^(AH)provokes^[d] to jealousy. ⁴ And behold, the ^(AI)glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I ^(AJ)saw in the plain.

⁵ Then He said to me, “Son of man, lift your eyes now toward the north.” So I lifted my eyes toward the north, and there, north of the altar gate, was this image of jealousy in the entrance.

⁶ Furthermore He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great ^(AK)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 ^(AL)sort of ^(AM)creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, ^[e]portrayed all around on the walls. ¹¹ And there stood before them ^(AN)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, ^(AO)‘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 ^[f]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, ^(AP)between the porch and the altar, ^(AQ)were about twenty-five men ^(AR)with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping ^(AS)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 ^(AT)filled the land with violence; then they have returned to provoke Me to anger. Indeed they put the branch to their nose. ^18 (AU)Therefore I also will act in fury. My ^(AV)eye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they ^(AW)cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”

The Wicked Are Slain

9 Then He called out in my hearing with a loud voice, saying, “Let those who have charge over the city draw near, each with a ^[g]deadly weapon in his hand.” ² And suddenly six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his ^[h]battle-ax in his hand. ^(AX)One man among them was clothed with linen and had a writer’s inkhorn ^[i]at his side. They went in and stood beside the bronze altar.

³ Now ^(AY)the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, where it had been, to the threshold of the ^[j]temple. And He called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn at his side; ⁴ and the Lord said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put ^(AZ)a mark on the foreheads of the men ^(BA)who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.”

⁵ To the others He said in my ^[k]hearing, “Go after him through the city and ^(BB)kill;^{[l] (BC)}do not let your eye spare, nor have any pity. ^6 (BD)Utterly^[m] slay old and young men, maidens and little children and women; but ^(BE)do not come near anyone on whom is the mark; and ^(BF)begin at My sanctuary.” ^(BG)So they began with the elders who were before the ^[n]temple. ⁷ Then He said to them, “Defile the ^[o]temple, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out!” And they went out and killed in the city.

⁸ So it was, that while they were killing them, I was left alone; and I ^(BH)fell on my face and cried out, and said, ^(BI)“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 ^(BJ)the land is full of bloodshed, and the city full of perversity; for they say, ^(BK)‘The Lord has forsaken the land, and ^(BL)the Lord does not see!’ ¹⁰ And as for Me also, My ^(BM)eye will neither spare, nor will I have pity, but ^(BN)I will recompense their deeds on their own head.”

¹¹ Just then, the man clothed with linen, who had the inkhorn at his side, reported back and said, “I have done as You commanded me.”

Qualifications for High Priesthood

5 For every high priest taken from among men ^(A)is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. ² He can ^[a]have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to ^(B)weakness. ³ Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for ^(C)himself, to offer sacrifices for sins. ⁴ And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as ^(D)Aaron was.

A Priest Forever

^5 (E)So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him:

⁶ As He also says in another place:

⁷ who, in the days of His flesh, when He had ^(H)offered up prayers and supplications, ^(I)with vehement cries and tears to Him ^(J)who was able to save Him from death, and was heard ^(K)because of His godly fear, ⁸ though He was a Son, yet He learned ^(L)obedience by the things which He suffered. ⁹ And ^(M)having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, ¹⁰ called by God as High Priest ^(N)“according to the order of Melchizedek,” ¹¹ of whom ^(O)we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become ^(P)dull of hearing.

Spiritual Immaturity

¹² For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the ^[b]oracles of God; and you have come to need ^(Q)milk and not solid food. ¹³ For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is ^(R)a babe. ¹⁴ But solid food belongs to those who are ^[c]of full age, that is, those who by reason of ^[d]use have their senses exercised ^(S)to discern both good and evil.

The Eternal Faithfulness of the Lord^(A)