Historical

Chapter 8

¹ In the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month,^[a] as I was sitting in my house, with the elders of Judah sitting before me, the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there.^{(A) 2} I looked up and there was a figure that looked like a man.^[b] Downward from what looked like his waist, there was fire; from his waist upward, like the brilliance of polished bronze.^(B)

Vision of Abominations in the Temple. ³ He stretched out the form of a hand and seized me by the hair of my head. The spirit lifted me up^[c] between earth and heaven and brought me in divine vision to Jerusalem^(C) to the entrance of the inner gate facing north where the statue of jealousy that provokes jealousy stood. ⁴ There I saw the glory of the God of Israel, like the vision I had seen in the plain.^{(D) 5} He said to me: Son of man, lift your eyes to the north! I looked to the north and there in the entry north of the altar gate was this statue of jealousy.^{(E) 6} He asked, Son of man, do you see what they are doing? Do you see the great abominations that the house of Israel is practicing here, so that I must depart from my sanctuary? You shall see even greater abominations!^(F)

⁷ Then he brought me to the entrance of the courtyard, and there I saw a hole in the wall. ⁸ Son of man, he ordered, dig through the wall. I dug through the wall—there was a doorway. ⁹ Go in, he said to me, and see the evil abominations they are doing here. ¹⁰ I went in and looked—figures of all kinds of creeping things and loathsome beasts,^[d] all the idols of the house of Israel,^(G) pictured around the wall. ¹¹ Before them stood seventy of the elders of the house of Israel. Among them stood Jaazaniah, son of Shaphan, each with censer in hand; a cloud of incense drifted upward.^{(H) 12} Then he said to me: Do you see, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his idol chamber? They think: “The Lord cannot see us; the Lord has forsaken the land.”^{(I) 13} He said: You will see them practicing even greater abominations.

¹⁴ Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord. There women sat and wept for Tammuz.^{[e](J) 15} He said to me: Do you see this, son of man? You will see other abominations, greater than these!

¹⁶ Then he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord. There at the door of the Lord’s temple, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the Lord’s temple and their faces toward the east; they were bowing eastward^[f] to the sun.^{(K) 17} He said: Do you see, son of man? Are the abominable things the house of Judah has done here so slight that they should also fill the land with violence, provoking me again and again? Now they are putting the branch to my nose!^{[g] 18} Therefore I in turn will act furiously: my eye will not spare, nor will I take pity. Even if they cry out in a loud voice for me to hear, I shall not listen to them.

Chapter 9

Slaughter of the Idolaters. ¹ Then he cried aloud for me to hear: Come, you scourges of the city! ² And there were six men coming from the direction of the upper gate which faces north, each with a weapon of destruction in his hand. In their midst was a man dressed in linen, with a scribe’s case at his waist. They entered and stood beside the bronze altar.^{(L) 3} Then the glory of the God of Israel moved off the cherub and went up to the threshold of the temple. He called to the man dressed in linen with the scribe’s case at his waist,^{(M) 4 (N)}and the Lord said to him:^[h] Pass through the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and mark an X on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the abominations practiced within it. ⁵ To the others he said in my hearing: Pass through the city after him and strike! Do not let your eyes spare; do not take pity. ⁶ Old and young, male and female, women and children—wipe them out! But do not touch anyone marked with the X. Begin at my sanctuary. So they began with the elders who were in front of the temple.^{(O) 7} Defile the temple, he said to them, fill its courts with the slain. Then go out and strike in the city.

⁸ As they were striking, I was left alone. I fell on my face, crying out, “Alas, Lord God! Will you destroy all that is left of Israel when you pour out your fury on Jerusalem?” ⁹ He answered me: The guilt of the house of Israel and the house of Judah is too great to measure; the land is filled with bloodshed, the city with lawlessness. They think that the Lord has abandoned the land, that he does not see them. ¹⁰ My eye, however, will not spare, nor shall I take pity, but I will bring their conduct down upon their heads.

¹¹ Just then the man dressed in linen with the scribe’s case at his waist made his report: “I have done as you commanded!”

Chapter 10

¹ Then I looked and there above the firmament over the heads of the cherubim was something like a sapphire, something that looked like a throne.^{(P) 2 [i]}And he said to the man dressed in linen: Go within the wheelwork under the cherubim; fill both your hands with burning coals from the place among the cherubim, then scatter them over the city. As I watched, he entered.^{(Q) 3} Now the cherubim were standing to the south of the temple when the man went in and a cloud filled the inner court. ⁴ The glory of the Lord had moved off the cherubim to the threshold of the temple; the temple was filled with the cloud, the whole court brilliant with the glory of the Lord. ⁵ The sound of the wings of the cherubim could be heard as far as the outer court; it was like the voice of God Almighty speaking.^{(R) 6} He commanded the man dressed in linen: Take fire from within the wheelwork among the cherubim. The man entered and stood by one of the wheels. ⁷ Thereupon a cherub stretched out a hand from among the cherubim toward the fire in the midst of the cherubim, took some, and put it in the hands of the one dressed in linen. He took it and came out. ⁸ Something like a human hand was visible under the wings of the cherubim. ⁹ I also saw four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside each cherub, and the wheels appeared to have the sparkle of yellow topaz. ¹⁰ And the appearance of the four all seemed alike, as though one wheel were inside the other. ¹¹ When they moved, they went in any of the four directions without veering as they moved; in whatever direction the first cherub faced, the others followed without veering as they went. ¹² Their entire bodies—backs, hands, and wings—and wheels were covered with eyes all around like the four wheels.^{(S) 13} I heard the wheels called “wheelwork.” ¹⁴ Each living creature had four faces: the first a cherub, the second a human being, the third a lion, the fourth an eagle.^{(T) 15 [j]}When the cherubim rose up, they were indeed the living creatures I had seen by the river Chebar.^{(U) 16} When the cherubim moved, the wheels went beside them; when the cherubim lifted up their wings to rise from the earth, even then the wheels did not leave their sides. ¹⁷ When they stood still, the wheels stood still; when they rose up, the wheels rose up with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in them. ¹⁸ Then the glory of the Lord left the threshold of the temple and took its place upon the cherubim. ¹⁹ The cherubim lifted their wings and rose up from the earth before my eyes as they departed with the wheels beside them. They stopped at the entrance of the eastern gate of the Lord’s house, and the glory of the God of Israel was up above them.^{(V) 20 [k]}These were the living creatures I had seen beneath the God of Israel by the river Chebar. Now I knew they were cherubim.^{(W) 21} Each of them had four faces and four wings, and something like human hands under their wings. ²² Their faces looked just like the faces I had seen by the river Chebar; and each one went straight ahead.