Ezekiel 8-11

World English Bible

8 In the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, the Lord Yahweh’s hand fell on me there. ² Then I saw, and behold, a likeness as the appearance of fire; from the appearance of his waist and downward, fire; and from his waist and upward, as the appearance of brightness, as it were glowing metal. ³ He 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 the sky, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the gate of the inner court that looks toward the north; where there was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy. ⁴ Behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the appearance that I saw in the plain.

⁵ Then he said to me, “Son of man, lift up your eyes now the way toward the north.”

So I lifted up my eyes the way toward the north, and saw, northward of the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry.

⁶ He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they do? Even the great abominations that the house of Israel commit here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? But you will again see yet other great abominations.”

⁷ He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold, a hole in the wall. ⁸ Then he said to me, “Son of man, dig now in the wall.”

When I had dug in the wall, I saw a door.

⁹ He said to me, “Go in, and see the wicked abominations that they do here.”

¹⁰ So I went in and looked, and saw every form of creeping things, abominable animals, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed around on the wall. ¹¹ Seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel stood before them. In the middle of them Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan stood, every man with his censer in his hand; and the smell of the 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 his rooms of imagery? For they say, ‘Yahweh doesn’t see us. Yahweh has forsaken the land.’” ¹³ He said also to me, “You will again see more of the great abominations which they do.”

¹⁴ Then he brought me to the door of the gate of Yahweh’s house which was toward the north; and I saw the women sit there weeping for Tammuz. ¹⁵ Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? You will again see yet greater abominations than these.”

¹⁶ He brought me into the inner court of Yahweh’s house; and I saw at the door of Yahweh’s temple, between the porch and the altar, there were about twenty-five men, with their backs toward Yahweh’s temple, and their faces toward the east. They were worshiping the sun toward the east.

¹⁷ Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence, and have turned again to provoke me to anger. Behold, they put the branch to their nose. ¹⁸ Therefore I will also deal in wrath. My eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity. Though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them.”

9 Then he cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying, “Cause those who are in charge of the city to draw near, each man with his destroying weapon in his hand.” ² Behold, six men came from the way of the upper gate, which lies toward the north, every man with his slaughter weapon in his hand. One man in the middle of them was clothed in linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side. They went in, and stood beside the bronze altar.

³ The glory of the God of Israel went up from the cherub, whereupon it was, to the threshold of the house; and he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn by his side. ⁴ Yahweh said to him, “Go through the middle of the city, through the middle of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry over all the abominations that are done within it.”

⁵ To the others he said in my hearing, “Go through the city after him, and strike. Don’t let your eye spare, neither have pity. ⁶ Kill utterly the old man, the young man, the virgin, little children and women; but don’t come near any man on whom is the mark. Begin at my sanctuary.”

Then they began at the old men who were before the house.

⁷ He said to them, “Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out!”

They went out, and struck in the city. ⁸ While they were killing, and I was left, I fell on my face, and cried, and said, “Ah Lord Yahweh! Will you destroy all the residue of Israel in your pouring out of your wrath on Jerusalem?”

⁹ Then he said to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perversion; for they say, ‘Yahweh has forsaken the land, and Yahweh doesn’t see.’ ¹⁰ As for me also, my eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity, but I will bring their way on their head.”

¹¹ Behold, the man clothed in linen, who had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, “I have done as you have commanded me.”

10 Then I looked, and see, in the expanse that was over the head of the cherubim there appeared above them as it were a sapphire^[a] stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne. ² He spoke to the man clothed in linen, and said, “Go in between the whirling wheels, even under the cherub, and fill both your hands with coals of fire from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city.”

He went in as I watched. ³ Now the cherubim stood on the right side of the house, when the man went in; and the cloud filled the inner court. ⁴ Yahweh’s glory mounted up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of Yahweh’s glory. ⁵ The sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard even to the outer court, as the voice of God Almighty when he speaks.

⁶ It came to pass, when he commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, “Take fire from between the whirling wheels, from between the cherubim,” that he went in, and stood beside a wheel. ⁷ The cherub stretched out his hand from between the cherubim to the fire that was between the cherubim, and took some of it, and put it into the hands of him who was clothed in linen, who took it and went out. ⁸ The form of a man’s hand appeared here in the cherubim under their wings.

⁹ I looked, and behold, there were four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside one cherub, and another wheel beside another cherub. The appearance of the wheels was like a beryl stone. ¹⁰ As for their appearance, the four of them had one likeness, like a wheel within a wheel. ¹¹ When they went, they went in their four directions. They didn’t turn as they went, but to the place where the head looked they followed it. They didn’t turn as they went. ¹² Their whole body, including their backs, their hands, their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes all around, even the wheels that the four of them had. ¹³ As for the wheels, they were called in my hearing, “the whirling wheels”. ¹⁴ Every one them had four faces. The first face was the face of the cherub. The second face was the face of a man. The third face was the face of a lion. The fourth was the face of an eagle.

¹⁵ The cherubim mounted up. This is the living creature that I saw by the river Chebar. ¹⁶ When the cherubim went, the wheels went beside them; and when the cherubim lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the wheels also didn’t turn from beside them. ¹⁷ When they stood, these stood. When they mounted up, these mounted up with them; for the spirit of the living creature was in them.

¹⁸ Yahweh’s glory went out from over the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim. ¹⁹ The cherubim lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in my sight when they went out, with the wheels beside them. Then they stood at the door of the east gate of Yahweh’s house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.

²⁰ This is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river Chebar; and I knew that they were cherubim. ²¹ Every one had four faces, and every one four wings. The likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings. ²² As for the likeness of their faces, they were the faces which I saw by the river Chebar, their appearances and themselves. They each went straight forward.

11 Moreover the Spirit lifted me up, and brought me to the east gate of Yahweh’s house, which looks eastward. Behold, twenty-five men were at the door of the gate; and I saw among them Jaazaniah the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people. ² He said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity, and who give wicked counsel in this city; ³ who say, ‘The time is not near to build houses. This is the cauldron, and we are the meat.’ ⁴ Therefore prophesy against them. Prophesy, son of man.”

⁵ Yahweh’s Spirit fell on me, and he said to me, “Speak, ‘Yahweh says: “Thus you have said, house of Israel; for I know the things that come into your mind. ⁶ You have multiplied your slain in this city, and you have filled its streets with the slain.”

⁷ “‘Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: “Your slain whom you have laid in the middle of it, they are the meat, and this is the cauldron; but you will be brought out of the middle of it. ⁸ You have feared the sword; and I will bring the sword on you,” says the Lord Yahweh. ⁹ “I will bring you out of the middle of it, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and will execute judgments among you. ¹⁰ You will fall by the sword. I will judge you in the border of Israel. Then you will know that I am Yahweh. ¹¹ This will not be your cauldron, neither will you be the meat in the middle of it. I will judge you in the border of Israel. ¹² You will know that I am Yahweh, for you have not walked in my statutes, You have not executed my ordinances, but have done after the ordinances of the nations that are around you.”’”

¹³ When I prophesied, Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then I fell down on my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, “Ah Lord Yahweh! Will you make a full end of the remnant of Israel?”

¹⁴ Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, ¹⁵ “Son of man, your brothers, even your brothers, the men of your relatives, and all the house of Israel, all of them, are they to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘Go far away from Yahweh. This land has been given to us for a possession.’

¹⁶ “Therefore say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Whereas I have removed them far off among the nations, and whereas I have scattered them among the countries, yet I will be to them a sanctuary for a little while in the countries where they have come.”’

¹⁷ “Therefore say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “I will gather you from the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.”

¹⁸ “‘They will come there, and they will take away all its detestable things and all its abominations from there. ¹⁹ I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh; ²⁰ that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them. They will be my people, and I will be their God. ²¹ But as for them whose heart walks after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their way on their own heads,’ says the Lord Yahweh.”

²² Then the cherubim lifted up their wings, and the wheels were beside them. The glory of the God of Israel was over them above. ²³ Yahweh’s glory went up from the middle of the city, and stood on the mountain which is on the east side of the city. ²⁴ The Spirit lifted me up, and brought me in the vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to the captives.

So the vision that I had seen went up from me. ²⁵ Then I spoke to the captives all the things that Yahweh had shown me.