Old/New Testament

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.

How we can live for God

13 Continue to love each other like brothers and sisters. ² Always remember to be kind to strangers. Let them stay in your homes. In this way, some people have received angels as visitors, and they did not know that they were angels.^[a]

³ Remember to help those believers who are in prison. Think about what that would be like, if you were there with them. Remember those believers who are receiving trouble from people. Think about them as if you were receiving the same pain in your own body.^[b]

⁴ When a man and a woman have married each other, they must each respect the marriage. Husbands and wives must only have sex with each other. God will punish anyone who has sex with another person's husband or wife. He will punish anyone who has sex in a wrong way.

⁵ In the way that you live, do not want lots of money. Be happy with the things that you have. Be happy, because God has said this:

⁶ Because of that, we can bravely say this:^[c]

⁷ Remember your leaders, who taught God's message to you. Think about the way in which they have lived and the good things that they have done. They have trusted God, so you should have faith like they have.

⁸ Jesus Christ is always the same, yesterday, today and for ever. ⁹ Some people teach all kinds of strange new things.^[d] Do not let them lead you away from God's true message. It is good that God is very kind to us. That is what makes us strong inside ourselves. Rules about what foods we should eat do not make us strong like that. Those rules have never helped the people who tried to obey them.

¹⁰ Jesus Christ is the sacrifice that saves us. Jewish priests do not have the authority to receive anything from his sacrifice. ¹¹ In the old agreement, the leader of the priests brings the blood from the animal sacrifices into the Most Holy Place. He does that so that God will forgive the sins of the people. But they take the bodies of those animals away from there. They burn them outside the town.^{[e] 12} In the same way, Jesus also died outside the city.^[f] He died as a sacrifice on our behalf. His blood has made his people clean from their sins. ¹³ Jesus died like that in a place where people insulted him. So we must go out to that place too. We must be ready for people to insult us, as they insulted him. ¹⁴ Here on earth, we who are believers do not have a city that will always be our home. But we are waiting for God's city that will come.

¹⁵ So we should always praise God, because of what Jesus has done for us. We should say clearly that we trust Jesus. That is like our sacrifice which we offer to God all the time. ¹⁶ Remember to be kind to other people. Share with them the things that you have. God is happy with sacrifices like that.

¹⁷ Respect your leaders and obey them. They watch over your lives on God's behalf. God will check to see if they have done their work well. So respect them, and then they will be happy as they serve God. Do not say bad things against them, because that will never help you.

¹⁸ Pray to God for us. We are sure in our minds that we have done nothing wrong. We always want to do only what is right. ¹⁹ The most important thing is this: Pray that I may come back to you soon.

²⁰ I pray that God will help you. He is the one who gives us peace in our minds. He caused our Lord Jesus Christ to become alive again after death. God forgives us because of the blood of Jesus' death on the cross. That is God's new agreement with his people that will be true for ever. Jesus is our great shepherd. He takes care of us like his sheep. ²¹ I pray that God will give you every good thing that you need to serve him. Then you can do everything that he wants. I pray that God will help us to serve him in a way that will make him happy. He will do that because we belong to Jesus Christ. Jesus is very great, and we should praise him always and for ever! Amen. This is true.

²² My Christian friends, please listen patiently to my message. This is only a short letter and I want to help you to be strong. ²³ I want to tell you about Timothy, who is like a brother to us. They have let him go out of prison, so that he is free now. If he arrives here soon, he will come with me when I travel to see you.

²⁴ Say ‘hello’ on my behalf to your leaders and to all God's people. The Christians who have come here from Italy say ‘hello’ to you too. ²⁵ I pray that God will be very kind to all of you.