1   On the fifth day of the sixth month in the sixth year, I was sitting at home and the elders of Judah were with me. Suddenly the hand of the Lord God came upon me, 2   and I saw what looked like a man. He seemed to be all fire from the waist down and to shine and glitter like brass from the waist up. 3   He stretched out what seemed a hand and seized me by the forelock. A spirit ^note lifted me up between heaven and earth, carried me to Jerusalem in a vision of God and put me down at the entrance to the inner gate facing north, where stands the image of Lust to rouse lustful passion. 4   The glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision I had seen in the plain. 5   The Lord said to me, ‘Man, look northwards.’ I did so, and there to the north of the altar gate, at the entrance, was that image of Lust. 6   ‘Man,’ he said, ‘do you see what they are doing? The monstrous abominations which the Israelites practise here are driving me far from my sanctuary, and you will see even more such abominations.’

7   Then he brought me to the entrance of the court, and I looked and found a hole in the wall. 8   ‘Man,’ he said to me, ‘dig through the wall.’ 9   I did so, and it became an opening. ‘Go in,’ he said, ‘and see the vile abominations they practise here.’ 10   So I went in and saw figures of reptiles, beasts, and vermin, and all the idols of the Israelites, carved round the walls. 11   Seventy elders of Israel were standing in front of them, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan in the middle, and each held a censer from which rose the fragrant smoke of incense. 12   ‘Man,’ he said to me, ‘do

Jerusalem's guilt and punishment you see what the elders of Israel are doing in darkness, each at the shrine of his own carved image? They think that the Lord does not see them, or that he has forsaken the country. 13   You will see’, he said, ‘yet more monstrous abominations which they practise.’

14   Then he brought me to that gateway of the Lord's house which faces north; and there I saw women sitting and wailing for Tammuz. 15   ‘Man, do you see that?’ he asked me. ‘But you will see abominations more monstrous than these.’ 16   So he took me to the inner court of the Lord's house, and there, by the entrance to the sanctuary of the Lord, between porch and altar, were some twenty-five men with their backs to the sanctuary and their faces to the east, prostrating themselves to the rising sun. 17   He said to me, ‘Man, do you see that? Is it because they think these abominations a trifle, that the Jews have filled the country with violence? They provoke me further to anger, even while they seek to appease me; ^note 18   I will turn upon them in my rage; I will neither pity nor spare. Loudly as they may cry to me, I will not listen.’

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