Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Praise to God in Creation and Redemption

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 ^(A)the elders of Judah sitting before me, that ^(B)the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there. ^2 (C)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, ^(D)like the color of amber. ³ He ^(E)stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my hair; and ^(F)the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and ^(G)brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the north gate of the inner court, ^(H)where the seat of the image of jealousy was, which ^(I)provokes^[a] to jealousy. ⁴ And behold, the ^(J)glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I ^(K)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 ^(L)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 ^(M)sort of ^(N)creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, ^[b]portrayed all around on the walls. ¹¹ And there stood before them ^(O)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, ^(P)‘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 ^[c]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, ^(Q)between the porch and the altar, ^(R)were about twenty-five men ^(S)with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping ^(T)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 ^(U)filled the land with violence; then they have returned to provoke Me to anger. Indeed they put the branch to their nose. ^18 (V)Therefore I also will act in fury. My ^(W)eye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they ^(X)cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”

Christ Is Preached to an Ethiopian^(A)

²⁶ Now an angel of the Lord spoke to ^(B)Philip, saying, “Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is ^[a]desert. ²⁷ So he arose and went. And behold, ^(C)a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and ^(D)had come to Jerusalem to worship, ²⁸ was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. ²⁹ Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and overtake this chariot.”

³⁰ So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

³¹ And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. ³² The place in the Scripture which he read was this:

³⁴ So the eunuch answered Philip and said, “I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?” ³⁵ Then Philip opened his mouth, ^(I)and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him. ³⁶ Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. ^(J)What hinders me from being baptized?”

^37 [b]Then Philip said, ^(K)“If you believe with all your heart, you may.”

And he answered and said, ^(L)“I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

³⁸ So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. ³⁹ Now when they came up out of the water, ^(M)the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ But Philip was found at ^[c]Azotus. And passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to ^(N)Caesarea.