Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A song to praise God

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.’

Philip meets a man from Ethiopia

²⁶ Then an angel of the Lord God came to Philip. He said, ‘Philip, go south to the road between Jerusalem and Gaza which goes through the wilderness.’^[a]

²⁷ So Philip started on his journey. While he was going along this road, he met an important officer from Ethiopia. This man had authority over the queen of Ethiopia's money. The queen was called Candace. The officer was travelling home from Jerusalem. He had been there to worship God.^[b]

²⁸ Now the man was travelling home again in his chariot. He was reading something from the book that God's prophet Isaiah wrote. ²⁹ The Holy Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go to that chariot and walk beside it.’

³⁰ So Philip ran to the cart as it went along. The officer was reading aloud from the prophet Isaiah's book and Philip heard him. So Philip asked the man, ‘Do you understand the things that you are reading about?’

³¹ The man answered, ‘I cannot understand it. I need someone to explain it to me.’ Then he said to Philip, ‘Come up here and sit with me in the cart.’

³² The officer was reading these words from the book of Isaiah:

³³ People did not respect him at all.

³⁴ The officer said to Philip, ‘Please tell me who the prophet Isaiah wrote about. Was he writing about himself or about another person?’ ³⁵ Then Philip explained to the man the words that Isaiah had written. Then he went on to tell him the good news about Jesus. ³⁶ As they were travelling along the road, they came to a place with some water. The man said to Philip, ‘Look! There is some water here. Please will you baptize me? Is there anything to stop you?’

[³⁷ Philip said to him, ‘I can baptize you if you really believe in Jesus.’ The man said to Philip, ‘I do believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’]^[d]

³⁸ The officer said to the man who was driving the chariot, ‘Stop the chariot!’ Then he went down with Philip into the water, and Philip baptized him. ³⁹ They both came up out of the water again. Immediately the Lord's Holy Spirit took Philip away from that place. The officer did not see Philip again. He continued his journey and he was very happy.

⁴⁰ Philip saw that he was now in Azotus.^[e] From there, he visited many towns and he told people the good news about Jesus. He did this as he went all the way to Caesarea.^[f]