idols and vile images. Therefore I will turn these into an unclean thing for them.
21 I will hand it all over as plunder to foreigners and as loot to the wicked of the earth, and they will defile it.
22 I will turn my face away from them, and they will desecrate my treasured place; robbers will enter it and desecrate it.
23 'Prepare chains, because the land is full of bloodshed and the city is full of violence.
24 I will bring the most wicked of the nations to take possession of their houses; I will put an end to the pride of the mighty, and their sanctuaries will be desecrated.
25 When terror comes, they will seek peace, but there will be none.
26 Calamity upon calamity will come, and rumor upon rumor. They will try to get a vision from the prophet; the teaching of the law by the priest will be lost, as will the counsel of the elders.
27 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 by their own standards I will judge them. Then they will know that I am the LORD .'
8 In the sixth year, in the sixth month on the fifth day, while I was sitting in my house and the elders of Judah were sitting before me, the hand of the Sovereign LORD came upon me there.
2 I looked, and I saw a figure like that of a man. From what appeared to be his waist down he was like fire, and from there up his appearance was as bright as glowing metal.
3 He stretched out what looked like a hand and took me by the hair of my head. The Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and in visions of God he took me to Jerusalem, to the entrance to the north gate of the inner court, where the idol that provokes to jealousy stood.
4 And there before me was the glory of the God of Israel, as in the vision I had seen in the plain.
5 Then he said to me, 'Son of man, look toward the north.' So I looked, and in the entrance north of the gate of the altar I saw this idol of jealousy.
6 And he said to me, 'Son of man, do you see what they are doing-the utterly detestable things the house of Israel is doing here, things that will drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see things that are even more detestable.'
7 Then he brought me to the entrance to the court. I looked, and I saw a hole in the wall.
8 He said to me, 'Son of man, now dig into the wall.' So I dug into the wall and saw a doorway there.
9 And he said to me, 'Go in and see the wicked and detestable things they are doing here.'
10 So I went in and looked, and I saw portrayed all over the walls all kinds of crawling things and detestable animals and all the idols of the house of Israel.
11 In front of them stood seventy elders of the house of Israel, and Jaazaniah son of Shaphan was standing among them. Each had a censer in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising.
12 He said to me, 'Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? They say, 'The LORD does not see us; the LORD has forsaken the land.' '
13 Again, he said, 'You will see them doing things that are even more detestable.'
14 Then he brought me to the entrance to the north gate of the house of the LORD , and I saw women sitting there, mourning for Tammuz.
15 He said to me, 'Do you see this, son of man? You will see things that are even more detestable than this.'
16 He then brought me into the inner court of the house of the LORD , and there at the entrance to the temple, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men. With their backs toward the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east, they were bowing down to the sun in the east.
17 He said to me, 'Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a trivial matter for the house of Judah to do the detestable things they are doing here? Must they also fill the land with violence and continually provoke me to anger? Look at them putting the branch to their nose!
18 Therefore I will deal with them in anger; I will not look on them with pity or spare them. Although they shout in my ears, I will not listen to them.'
9 Then I heard him call out in a loud voice, 'Bring the guards of the city here, each with a weapon in his hand.'
2 And I saw six men coming from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with a deadly weapon in his hand. With them was a man clothed in linen who had a writing kit at his side. They came in and stood beside the bronze altar.
3 Now the glory of the God of Israel went up from above the cherubim, where it had been, and moved to the threshold of the temple. Then the LORD called to the man clothed in linen who had the writing kit at his side
4 and said to him, 'Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.'
5 As I listened, he said to the others, 'Follow him through the city and kill, without
