Ézéchiel 8

The image of jealousy

¹On the fifth day of the sixth month, in the sixth year, as I sat in my house with the elders of Judah seated before me, the hand of the Lord GOD fell on me there. ²I looked, and I saw something that looked like fire. From what appeared to be his waist down there was fire, and from his waist up there was something like a radiance, shining like gleaming metal.^{a 3}He reached out something that looked like a hand and took hold of me by a lock of my hair. The Spirit lifted me up between earth and sky and, in visions from God, brought me to Jerusalem, to the doorway of the inner court’s north gate, where the image of jealousy stood, the image that provokes jealousy. ⁴And there was the glory of the God of Israel, just as I had seen it in the vision in the plain. ⁵He said to me, “Son of man, look toward the north.” So I looked toward the north, and there, north of the altar gate, in the entrance itself, was this image of jealousy. ⁶He said to me, “Son of man, do you see the things they are doing, the terrible detestable practices that the house of Israel is committing here, which will drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see even greater detestable practices.”^b

The elders in the dark

⁷Then he brought me to the entrance of the court, and when I looked, I saw a hole in the wall. ⁸He said to me, “Son of man, dig through the wall.” So I dug through the wall, and there was a doorway. ⁹He said to me, “Go in and see the wicked detestable practices they are committing here.” ¹⁰So I went in and looked, and there, carved all around on the wall, were all kinds of creeping things and beasts, detestable things, and all the idols of the house of Israel. ¹¹In front of them stood seventy of the elders of the house of Israel, and Jaazaniah son of Shaphan stood in the middle of them. Every man held his censer, and a fragrant cloud of incense rose up. ¹²He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel practice in darkness, each in the room of his own carved image? They say, ‘The LORD does not see us; the LORD has abandoned the land.’” ¹³He said to me, “You will see them committing even greater detestable practices.” ¹⁴Next he brought me to the doorway of the north gate of the house of the LORD. Women were sitting there, weeping for Tammuz.^c

Bowing to the sun

¹⁵He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? You will see even greater detestable practices than these.” ¹⁶Then he brought me into the inner court of the house of the LORD. There, at the doorway of the LORD’s temple, between the porch and the altar, stood about twenty-five men. They had turned their backs on the temple of the LORD and were facing east, bowing down to the sun in the east. ¹⁷He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? Is it not enough that the house of Judah commits the detestable practices it has committed here? Must they also fill the land with violence and provoke me to anger again and again? Look, they are putting the branch to their nose!^{d 18}So I too will act in wrath. I will not look on them with pity or spare them. Though they cry out in my ears with a loud voice, I will not listen to them.”