Ezekiel 8-10

Ezekiel 8

¹And it came to in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me.

²Then I beheld, and, lo, a likeness as the appearance of fire; from the appearance of his loins and downward, fire: and from his loins and upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the colour of amber.

³And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the gate of the inner court that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy.

⁴And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the appearance that I saw in the plain.

⁵Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold northward of the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry.

⁶And he said unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel do commit here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but thou shalt again see yet other great abominations.

⁷And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall.

⁸Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.

⁹And he said unto me, Go in, and see the wicked abominations that they do here.

¹⁰So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about.

¹¹And there stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and the odour of the cloud of incense went up.

¹²Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his chambers of imagery? for they say, the LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth.

¹³He said also unto me, Thou shalt again see yet other great abominations which they do.

¹⁴Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD’S house which was toward the north; and behold, there sat the women weeping for Tammuz.

¹⁵Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? thou shalt again see yet greater abominations than these.

¹⁶And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD’S house, and behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.

¹⁷Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have turned again to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose.

¹⁸Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.

Ezekiel 9

¹Then he cried in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause ye them that have charge over the city to draw near, every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.

²And behold, six men came from the way of the upper gate, which lieth toward the north, every man with his slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man in the midst of them clothed in linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side. And they went in, and stood beside the brasen altar.

³And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon it was, to the threshold of the house: and he called to the man clothed in linen, which had the writer’s inkhorn by his side.

⁴And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.

⁵And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye through the city after him, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity:

⁶slay utterly the old man, the young man and the maiden, and little children and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.

⁷And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and smote in the city.

⁸And it came to pass, while they were smiting, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord GOD! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem?

⁹Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of wresting of judgment: for they say, The LORD hath forsaken the earth, and the LORD seeth not.

¹⁰And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will bring their way upon their head.

¹¹And behold, the man clothed in linen, which had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou hast commanded me.

Ezekiel 10

¹Then I looked, and behold, in the firmament that was over the head of the cherubim, there appeared above them as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne.

²And he spake unto the man clothed in linen, and said, Go in between the whirling wheels, even under the cherub, and fill both thine hands with coals of fire from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city. And he went in in my sight.

³Now the cherubim stood on the right side of the house, when the man went in; and the cloud filled the inner court.

⁴And the glory of the LORD mounted up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the LORD’S glory.

⁵And the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard even to the outer court, as the voice of God Almighty when he speaketh.

⁶And it came to pass, when he commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, Take fire from between the whirling wheels, from between the cherubim, that he went in, and stood beside a wheel.

⁷And the cherub stretched forth his hand from between the cherubim unto the fire that was between the cherubim, and took thereof, and put it into the hands of him that was clothed in linen, who took it and went out.

⁸And there appeared in the cherubim the form of a man’s hand under their wings.

⁹And I looked, and behold, four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside one cherub, and another wheel beside another cherub: and the appearance of the wheels was as the colour of a beryl stone.

¹⁰And as for their appearance, they four had one likeness, as if a wheel had been within a wheel.

¹¹When they went, they went upon their four sides: they turned not as they went, but to the place whither the head looked they followed it; they turned not as they went.

¹²And their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes round about, even the wheels that they four had.

¹³As for the wheels, they were called in my hearing, the whirling wheels.

¹⁴And every one had four faces: the first face was the face of the cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.

¹⁵And the cherubim mounted up: this is the living creature that I saw by the river Chebar.

¹⁶And when the cherubim went, the wheels went beside them: and when the cherubim lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the wheels also turned not from beside them.

¹⁷When they stood, these stood; and when they mounted up, these mounted up with them: for the spirit of the living creature was in them.

¹⁸And the glory of the LORD went forth from over the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim.

¹⁹And the cherubim lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in my sight when they went forth, and the wheels beside them: and they stood at the door of the east gate of the LORD’S house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.

²⁰This is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river Chebar; and I knew that they were cherubim.

²¹Every one had four faces apiece, and every one four wings; and the likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings.

²²And as for the likeness of their faces, they were the faces which I saw by the river Chebar, their appearances and themselves; they went every one straight forward.