Historical

Disgusting things in God's temple

8 On the fifth day of the sixth month of the sixth year, I was sitting in my house. The leaders of Judah were sitting in front of me.^[a] While I sat there, the Almighty Lord took hold of me with great power.^[b]

² I looked up and I saw something that looked like a man. The lower part of his body looked like fire. Above that, his body looked like bright metal. ³ He put out something in the shape of a hand. He took hold of the hair on my head. Then the Spirit lifted me up, high in the sky, and took me to Jerusalem.^[c] This happened in the vision which God gave to me. I came to the north gate of the temple's inside yard. In that place there was a disgusting idol that made God very angry. ⁴ Then I saw that the bright glory of Israel's God was there. It was like the glory that I had seen beside the River Kebar.

⁵ Then the Lord said to me, ‘Son of man, look up towards the north.’ When I looked, I saw the disgusting idol. It stood at the entrance, on the north side of the altar gate.

⁶ He said to me, ‘Son of man, look at what they are doing! Israel's people are doing very disgusting things here. They are chasing me far away from my holy temple. But you will see even worse things than these.’

⁷ Then the Lord took me to the entrance of the temple's yard. As I looked, I saw a hole in the wall. ⁸ He said to me, ‘Son of man, make a hole through the wall here.’ So I dug into the wall. I found a door in it.

⁹ He said to me, ‘Go in there. Look at the wicked things that they are doing in this place.’ ¹⁰ So I went in and I looked. I saw pictures of many things on the walls all around. There were pictures of snakes and other disgusting animals. There were also images of the things that Israel's people were worshipping. ¹¹ 70 of Israel's leaders were there. Shaphan's son Jaazaniah, was also among them. Each of them held a pot to burn incense. The smell of the incense rose up above them.

¹² The Lord said, ‘Son of man, look at the wicked things that Israel's leaders are doing! They are doing them secretly in the dark. Each of them has a room where they worship their images of idols. They say, “The Lord does not see us! The Lord has gone away from our land!” ’

¹³ The Lord said to me, ‘You will see even worse things that they are doing.’

¹⁴ Then he took me to entrance at the north gate of the temple. I saw some women who were sitting there. They were weeping because the god Tammuz was dead.^{[d] 15} He said to me, ‘Son of man, look at that! But you will see even worse things than these.’

¹⁶ Then the Lord took me to the inside yard of his temple. I could see about 25 men who were standing between the altar and the front of the temple. Their backs were turned towards the Lord's temple. Their faces looked towards the east. They were bending down low to worship the sun that was rising in the east!^[e]

¹⁷ The Lord said to me, ‘Son of man, look at that! The people of Judah are doing these disgusting things here in my temple! That is a terrible thing! And they are also doing violent things everywhere in their land. They continue to make me angry all the time. Look at them! They insult me as much as they can! ¹⁸ So now I will punish them in my great anger. I will not be sorry for them. I will not be kind to them. They may shout at me for help, but I will not listen to them.’

The death of people who worship idols

9 I heard the Lord shout loudly, ‘Bring here the men who will punish the people of this city! Tell the guards to bring their weapons with them.’ ² Then I looked and I saw six men. They were coming from the higher gate that is on the north side of the temple. Each man carried his weapon and he was ready to kill. A man who was wearing white linen clothes was among them. At his side he had a small box with pens in it. They came in and they stood next to the bronze altar.^[f]

³ The bright glory of Israel's God then moved up from above the cherubs where it had been. It moved to the entrance of the temple. Then the Lord called to the man who was wearing linen clothes. ⁴ He said, ‘Go everywhere in the city of Jerusalem. Find the people who are very sad because of the disgusting things that people are doing in the city. Use your pens to put a mark on those people. Put the mark on the front of their heads.’

⁵ While I listened, the Lord said to the other men, ‘Follow that man through the city. Kill people who do not have his mark on their heads. Do not be sorry for them. Do not be kind to them. ⁶ Kill the old men, young men and girls. Kill the women and the children. Destroy them all! But do not touch anyone who has the mark on their head.’

So the men started to kill. The first people that they killed were the city's leaders who were in front of the temple.

⁷ The Lord said to them, ‘Fill the yards of the temple with dead bodies! Make the temple an unclean place! Go and do it now!’ So they went out and they started to kill people everywhere in the city. ⁸ I was alone while they were doing this. I bent down low with my face towards the ground. I called out, ‘Almighty Lord! Will you destroy all Israel's people who are still alive? Are you so angry with the people of Jerusalem that you will do that?’

⁹ He answered me, ‘The sins of the people of Israel and Judah are very great. They murder people everywhere in the land. In the city, nobody does what is right. They say, “The Lord has gone away from our land! The Lord does not see what we are doing!”  ¹⁰ So I will not be sorry for them. I will not be kind to them. Now I will punish them as they deserve for the things that they have done.’

¹¹ Then I saw again the man who was wearing linen clothes, with the box of pens. He brought this message to the Lord: ‘I have done what you commanded me to do.’

God's glory leaves the temple

10 In the vision, I saw something that looked like a throne. It was made from a blue jewel called sapphire. It was above the roof and it was high over the heads of the cherubs. ² The Lord said to the man who was wearing linen clothes, ‘Go between the wheels that are under the cherubs. Pick up some of the hot coals that are burning among the cherubs. Fill your hands with them. Then throw them everywhere over the city.’ Then the man did this, as I watched him.

³ The cherubs stood at the south side of the temple when the man went in among them. A cloud filled the inside yard of the temple.^{[g] 4} Then the Lord's bright glory rose up. It went up from above the cherubs. It moved to the entrance of the temple. The cloud filled the temple. The bright glory of the Lord's shone everywhere in the yard. ⁵ The noise of the cherubs' wings was very loud. It reached as far as the outside yard. The noise was like the voice of Almighty God when he speaks.

⁶ The Lord gave a command to the man who was wearing linen clothes. He said, ‘Go in among the cherubs. Take coals of fire from between the wheels.’ So the man went in and he stood beside one of the wheels.

⁷ Then one of the cherubs put his hand towards the fire which was among the cherubs. He took some coals from the fire. He put them into the hands of the man who was wearing linen clothes. The man took the coals and he went out. ⁸ (Under the wings of the cherubs I could see something that looked like human hands.)

⁹ In the vision, I saw four wheels beside the cherubs. There was one wheel at the side of each cherub. The wheels shone like bright jewels. ¹⁰ All the four wheels looked the same. Each wheel had another wheel that went across the middle of it. ¹¹ When the cherubs moved, they could go forward in any of the four directions. They did not have to turn as they moved. When the head turned in a certain direction, they would move that way. They did not need to turn. ¹² Eyes completely covered their bodies. This included their backs, their hands and their wings. Eyes also covered the edges of all the wheels. ¹³ I heard someone call the wheels, ‘wheels that turn very fast’.^[h]

¹⁴ Each of the cherubs had four faces. One face was the face of a bull. The second face was the face of a man. The third face was a lion's face. And the fourth face was an eagle's face.

¹⁵ The cherubs rose up into the air. They were the same as the living things that I had seen beside the River Kebar. ¹⁶ When they moved, the wheels that were beside them also moved. When the cherubs lifted up their wings to fly into the air, the wheels moved beside them. ¹⁷ When the cherubs stood still, the wheels also stood still. And when the cherubs rose in the air, the wheels also rose with them. This was because the spirit of the living things was in the wheels.

¹⁸ Then the glory of the Lord moved away from the entrance of the temple. It stopped at a place above the cherubs. ¹⁹ Then the cherubs lifted up their wings and they rose up from the ground. The wheels also moved with them. I watched them do this. They stopped by the east gate of the Lord's temple. The glory of Israel's God stayed above them.^[i]

²⁰ They were the same living things that I had seen beside the Kebar River when they were under Israel's God. I realized that they were cherubs. ²¹ Each of them had four faces and four wings. They had something with the shape of human hands under their wings. ²² They had the same four faces that I had seen beside the River Kebar. Each of them moved forward and they did not turn.