אֵת

They will put on sackcloth, and terror will overwhelm them. Shame will cover all their faces, and all their heads will be shaved.

I will turn My face away from them, and they will defile My treasured place. Violent men will enter it, and they will defile it.

So I will bring the most wicked of nations to take possession of their houses. I will end the pride of the mighty, and their holy places will be profaned.

The king will mourn, the prince will be clothed with despair, and the hands of the people of the land will tremble. I will deal with them according to their conduct, and I will judge them by their own standards. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’”

He stretched out what looked like a hand and took me by the hair of my head. Then the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and carried me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the idol that provokes jealousy was seated.

Then He brought me to the entrance to the court, and I looked and saw a hole in the wall.

Then He said to me, “Go in and see the wicked abominations they are committing here.”

“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? For they are saying, ‘The LORD does not see us; the LORD has forsaken the land.’”

Then He brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the LORD, and I saw women sitting there, weeping for Tammuz.

So He brought me to the inner court of the house of the LORD, and there at the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east; and they were bowing to the east in worship of the sun.

“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see this? Is it not enough for the house of Judah to commit the abominations they are practicing here, that they must also fill the land with violence and continually provoke Me to anger? Look, they are even putting the branch to their nose!

Therefore I will respond with wrath. I will not look on them with pity, nor will I spare them. Although they shout loudly in My ears, I will not listen to them.”

Then He told them, “Defile the temple and fill the courts with the slain. Go forth!” So they went out and began killing throughout the city.

While they were killing, I was left alone. And I fell facedown and cried out, “Oh, Lord GOD, when You pour out Your wrath on Jerusalem, will You destroy the entire remnant of Israel?”

He replied, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of bloodshed, and the city is full of perversity. For they say, ‘The LORD has forsaken the land; the LORD does not see.’

Now when the man went in, the cherubim were standing on the south side of the temple, and a cloud filled the inner court.

Then the glory of the LORD rose from above the cherubim and stood over the threshold of the temple. The temple was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the LORD.

When the LORD commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, “Take fire from within the wheelwork, from among the cherubim,” the man went in and stood beside a wheel.

Then one of the cherubim reached out his hand and took some of the fire that was among them. And he put it into the hands of the man clothed in linen, who received it and went out.

When the cherubim moved, the wheels moved beside them, and even when they spread their wings to rise from the ground, the wheels did not veer away from their side.

As I watched, the cherubim lifted their wings and rose up from the ground, with the wheels beside them as they went. And they stopped at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the LORD, with the glory of the God of Israel above them.

Their faces looked like the faces I had seen by the River Kebar. Each creature went straight ahead.

Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the gate of the house of the LORD that faces east. And there at the entrance of the gate were twenty-five men. Among them I saw Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, who were leaders of the people.

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: The slain you have laid within this city are the meat, and the city is the pot; but I will remove you from it.

I will bring you out of the city and deliver you into the hands of foreigners, and I will execute judgments against you.

You will fall by the sword, and I will judge you even to the borders of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

The city will not be a pot for you, nor will you be the meat within it. I will judge you even to the borders of Israel.

Therefore declare that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you from the countries to which you have been scattered, and I will give back to you the land of Israel.’

When they return to it, they will remove all its detestable things and all its abominations.

…so that they may follow My statutes, keep My ordinances, and practice them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God.

Then the cherubim, with the wheels beside them, spread their wings, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.

I told the exiles everything the LORD had shown me.

And as they watch, lift your bags to your shoulder and take them out at dusk; cover your face so that you cannot see the land. For I have made you a sign to the house of Israel.”

And at dusk the prince among them will lift his bags to his shoulder and go out. They will dig through the wall to bring him out. He will cover his face so he cannot see the land.