Ezekiel 7-9

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

Impending Disaster

7 The word of the Lord came to me: ² You, O mortal, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel:

Then you shall know that I am the Lord.

⁵ Thus says the Lord God:

Then you shall know that it is I the Lord who strike.

¹³ For the sellers shall not return to what has been sold as long as they remain alive. For the vision concerns all their multitude; it shall not be revoked. Because of their iniquity, they cannot maintain their lives.^[d]

Their silver and gold cannot save them on the day of the wrath of the Lord. They shall not satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it. For it was the stumbling-block of their iniquity. ²⁰ From their^[e] beautiful ornament, in which they took pride, they made their abominable images, their detestable things; therefore I will make of it an unclean thing to them.

And they shall know that I am the Lord.

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. ² I looked, and there was a figure that looked like a human being;^[h] below what appeared to be its loins it was fire, and above the loins it was like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming amber. 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, which provokes to jealousy. ⁴ And the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I had seen in the valley.

⁵ Then God^[i] said to me, ‘O mortal, lift up your eyes now in the direction of the north.’ So I lifted up my eyes towards the north, and there, north of the altar gate, in the entrance, was this image of jealousy. 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.’

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 round, were all kinds of creeping things, and loathsome animals, and all the idols of the house of Israel. 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. 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.’

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. 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 towards the east, prostrating themselves to the sun towards the east. 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! 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.’

The Slaughter of the Idolaters

9 Then he cried in my hearing with a loud voice, saying, ‘Draw near, you executioners of the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand.’ ² And six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his weapon for slaughter in his hand; among them was a man clothed in linen, with a writing-case at his side. They went in and stood beside the bronze altar.

³ Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up, from the cherub on which it rested, to the threshold of the house. The Lord called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writing-case at his side, ⁴ and said to him, ‘Go through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of those who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.’ ⁵ To the others he said in my hearing, ‘Pass through the city after him, and kill; your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity. ⁶ Cut down old men, young men and young women, little children and women, but touch no one who has the mark. And begin at my sanctuary.’ So they began with the elders who were in front of the house. ⁷ Then he said to them, ‘Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go!’ So they went out and killed in the city. ⁸ While they were killing, and I was left alone, I fell prostrate on my face and cried out, ‘Ah Lord God! will you destroy all who remain of Israel as you pour out your wrath upon Jerusalem?’ ⁹ He said to me, ‘The guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great; the land is full of bloodshed and the city full of perversity; for they say, “The Lord has forsaken the land, and the Lord does not see.” ¹⁰ As for me, my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity, but I will bring down their deeds upon their heads.’

¹¹ Then the man clothed in linen, with the writing-case at his side, brought back word, saying, ‘I have done as you commanded me.’