Bible in 90 Days Plan

¹I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath.

²He has driven me away and forced me to walk in darkness instead of light.

³Yes, he repeatedly turns his hand against me all day long.

⁴He has worn away my flesh and skin; he has broken my bones.

⁵He has laid siege against me, encircling me with bitterness and hardship.

⁶He has made me dwell in darkness like those who have been dead for ages.

⁷He has walled me in so I cannot get out; he has weighed me down with chains.

⁸Even when I cry out and plead for help, he blocks out my prayer.

⁹He has walled in my ways with blocks of stone; he has made my paths crooked.

¹⁰He is a bear waiting in ambush, a lion in hiding.

¹¹He forced me off my way and tore me to pieces; he left me desolate.

¹²He strung his bow and set me as the target for his arrow.

¹³He pierced my kidneys with shafts from his quiver.

¹⁴I am a laughingstock to all my people, mocked by their songs all day long.

¹⁵He filled me with bitterness, satiated me with wormwood.

¹⁶He ground my teeth with gravel and made me cower in the dust.

¹⁷I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.

¹⁸Then I thought, “My future is lost, as well as my hope from the LORD.”

¹⁹Remember my affliction and my homelessness, the wormwood and the poison.

²⁰I continually remember them and have become depressed.

²¹Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope:

²²Because of the LORD’s faithful love we do not perish, for his mercies never end.

²³They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness!

²⁴I say, “The LORD is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in him.”

²⁵The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the person who seeks him.

²⁶It is good to wait quietly for salvation from the LORD.

²⁷It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is still young.

²⁸Let him sit alone and be silent, for God has disciplined him.

²⁹Let him put his mouth in the dust  — perhaps there is still hope.

³⁰Let him offer his cheek to the one who would strike him; let him be filled with disgrace.

³¹For the Lord will not reject us forever.

³²Even if he causes suffering, he will show compassion according to the abundance of his faithful love.

³³For he does not enjoy bringing affliction or suffering on mankind.

³⁴Crushing all the prisoners of the land beneath one’s feet,

³⁵denying justice to a man in the presence of the Most High,

³⁶or subverting a person in his lawsuit  — the Lord does not approve of these things.

³⁷Who is there who speaks and it happens, unless the Lord has ordained it?

³⁸Do not both adversity and good come from the mouth of the Most High?

³⁹Why should any living person complain, any man, because of the punishment for his sins?

⁴⁰Let us examine and probe our ways, and turn back to the LORD.

⁴¹Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven:

⁴²“We have sinned and rebelled; you have not forgiven.

⁴³“You have covered yourself in anger and pursued us; you have killed without compassion.

⁴⁴You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can get through.

⁴⁵You have made us disgusting filth among the peoples.

⁴⁶“All our enemies open their mouths against us.

⁴⁷We have experienced panic and pitfall, devastation and destruction.”

⁴⁸My eyes flow with streams of tears because of the destruction of my dear people.

⁴⁹My eyes overflow unceasingly, without end,

⁵⁰until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees.

⁵¹My eyes bring me grief because of the fate of all the women in my city.

⁵²For no reason, my enemies hunted me like a bird.

⁵³They smothered my life in a pit and threw stones on me.

⁵⁴Water flooded over my head, and I thought, “I’m going to die!”

⁵⁵I called on your name, LORD, from the depths of the pit.

⁵⁶You heard my plea: Do not ignore my cry for relief.

⁵⁷You came near whenever I called you; you said, “Do not be afraid.”

⁵⁸You championed my cause, Lord; you redeemed my life.

⁵⁹LORD, you saw the wrong done to me; judge my case.

⁶⁰You saw all their vengefulness, all their plots against me.

⁶¹LORD, you heard their insults, all their plots against me.

⁶²The slander and murmuring of my opponents attack me all day long.

⁶³When they sit and when they rise, look, I am mocked by their songs.

⁶⁴You will pay them back what they deserve, LORD, according to the work of their hands.

⁶⁵You will give them a heart filled with anguish. May your curse be on them!

⁶⁶You will pursue them in anger and destroy them under your heavens.

¹How the gold has become tarnished, the fine gold become dull! The stones of the temple lie scattered at the head of every street.

²Zion’s precious children — once worth their weight in pure gold  — how they are regarded as clay jars, the work of a potter’s hands!

³Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but my dear people have become cruel like ostriches in the wilderness.

⁴The nursing baby’s tongue clings to the roof of his mouth from thirst. Infants beg for food, but no one gives them any.

⁵Those who used to eat delicacies are destitute in the streets; those who were reared in purple garments huddle in trash heaps.

⁶The punishment of my dear people is greater than that of Sodom, which was overthrown in an instant without a hand laid on it.

⁷Her dignitaries were brighter than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than coral, their appearance like lapis lazuli.

⁸Now they appear darker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become dry like wood.

⁹Those slain by the sword are better off than those slain by hunger, who waste away, pierced with pain because the fields lack produce.

¹⁰The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children; they became their food during the destruction of my dear people.

¹¹The LORD has exhausted his wrath, poured out his burning anger; he has ignited a fire in Zion, and it has consumed her foundations.

¹²The kings of the earth and all the world’s inhabitants did not believe that an enemy or adversary could enter Jerusalem’s gates.

¹³Yet it happened because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed the blood of the righteous within her.

¹⁴Blind, they stumbled in the streets, defiled by this blood, so that no one dared to touch their garments.

¹⁵“Stay away! Unclean!” people shouted at them. “Away, away! Don’t touch us!” So they wandered aimlessly. It was said among the nations, “They can stay here no longer.”

¹⁶The LORD himself has scattered them; he no longer watches over them. The priests are not respected; the elders find no favor.

¹⁷All the while our eyes were failing as we looked in vain for help; we watched from our towers for a nation that would not save us.

¹⁸Our steps were closely followed so that we could not walk in our streets. Our end approached; our time ran out. Our end had come!

¹⁹Those who chased us were swifter than eagles in the sky; they relentlessly pursued us over the mountains and ambushed us in the wilderness.

²⁰The LORD’s anointed, the breath of our life, was captured in their traps. We had said about him, “We will live under his protection among the nations.”

²¹So rejoice and be glad, Daughter Edom, you resident of the land of Uz! Yet the cup will pass to you as well; you will get drunk and expose yourself.

²²Daughter Zion, your punishment is complete; he will not lengthen your exile. But he will punish your iniquity, Daughter Edom, and will expose your sins.

¹LORD, remember what has happened to us. Look, and see our disgrace!

²Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.

³We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are widows.

⁴We must pay for the water we drink; our wood comes at a price.

⁵We are closely pursued; we are tired, and no one offers us rest.

⁶We made a treaty with Egypt and with Assyria, to get enough food.

⁷Our fathers sinned; they no longer exist, but we bear their punishment.

⁸Slaves rule over us; no one rescues us from them.

⁹We secure our food at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the wilderness.

¹⁰Our skin is as hot as an oven from the ravages of hunger.

¹¹Women have been raped in Zion, virgins in the cities of Judah.

¹²Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders are shown no respect.

¹³Young men labor at millstones; boys stumble under loads of wood.

¹⁴The elders have left the city gate, the young men, their music.

¹⁵Joy has left our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.

¹⁶The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned.

¹⁷Because of this, our heart is sick; because of these, our eyes grow dim:

¹⁸because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate and has jackals prowling in it.

¹⁹You, LORD, are enthroned forever; your throne endures from generation to generation.

²⁰Why do you continually forget us, abandon us for our entire lives?

²¹LORD, bring us back to yourself, so we may return; renew our days as in former times,

²²unless you have completely rejected us and are intensely angry with us.

¹In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, while I was among the exiles by the Chebar Canal, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.

²On the fifth day of the month — it was the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s exile  —

³the word of the LORD came directly to the priest Ezekiel son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar Canal. The LORD’s hand was on him there.

⁴I looked, and there was a whirlwind coming from the north, a huge cloud with fire flashing back and forth and brilliant light all around it. In the center of the fire, there was a gleam like amber.

⁵The likeness of four living creatures came from it, and this was their appearance: They looked something like a human,

⁶but each of them had four faces and four wings.

⁷Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the hooves of a calf, sparkling like the gleam of polished bronze.

⁸They had human hands under their wings on their four sides. All four of them had faces and wings.

⁹Their wings were touching. The creatures did not turn as they moved; each one went straight ahead.

¹⁰Their faces looked something like the face of a human, and each of the four had the face of a lion on the right, the face of an ox on the left, and the face of an eagle.

¹¹That is what their faces were like. Their wings were spread upward; each had two wings touching that of another and two wings covering its body.

¹²Each creature went straight ahead. Wherever the Spirit wanted to go, they went without turning as they moved.

¹³The likeness of the living creatures was like the appearance of blazing coals of fire or like torches. Fire was moving back and forth between the living creatures; it was bright, with lightning coming out of it.

¹⁴The creatures were darting back and forth like flashes of lightning.

¹⁵When I looked at the living creatures, there was one wheel on the ground beside each of the four-faced creatures.

¹⁶The appearance of the wheels and their craftsmanship was like the gleam of beryl, and all four had the same likeness. Their appearance and craftsmanship was like a wheel within a wheel.

¹⁷When they moved, they went in any of the four directions, without turning as they moved.

¹⁸Their rims were tall and awe-inspiring. Each of their four rims were full of eyes all around.

¹⁹When the living creatures moved, the wheels moved beside them, and when the creatures rose from the earth, the wheels also rose.

²⁰Wherever the Spirit wanted to go, the creatures went in the direction the Spirit was moving. The wheels rose alongside them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

²¹When the creatures moved, the wheels moved; when the creatures stopped, the wheels stopped; and when the creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose alongside them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

²²Over the heads of the living creatures the likeness of an expanse was spread out. It gleamed like awe-inspiring crystal,

²³and under the expanse their wings extended one toward another. They each also had two wings covering their bodies.

²⁴When they moved, I heard the sound of their wings like the roar of a huge torrent, like the voice of the Almighty, and a sound of tumult like the noise of an army. When they stopped, they lowered their wings.

²⁵A voice came from above the expanse over their heads; when they stopped, they lowered their wings.

²⁶Something like a throne with the appearance of lapis lazuli was above the expanse over their heads. On the throne, high above, was someone who looked like a human.

²⁷From what seemed to be his waist up, I saw a gleam like amber, with what looked like fire enclosing it all around. From what seemed to be his waist down, I also saw what looked like fire. There was a brilliant light all around him.

²⁸The appearance of the brilliant light all around was like that of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day. This was the appearance of the likeness of the LORD’s glory. When I saw it, I fell facedown and heard a voice speaking.

¹He said to me, “Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak with you.”

²As he spoke to me, the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet, and I listened to the one who was speaking to me.

³He said to me, “Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to the rebellious pagans who have rebelled against me. The Israelites and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this day.

⁴The descendants are obstinate and hardhearted. I am sending you to them, and you must say to them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says.’

⁵Whether they listen or refuse to listen  — for they are a rebellious house — they will know that a prophet has been among them.

⁶“But you, son of man, do not be afraid of them and do not be afraid of their words, even though briers and thorns are beside you and you live among scorpions. Don’t be afraid of their words or discouraged by the look on their faces, for they are a rebellious house.

⁷Speak my words to them whether they listen or refuse to listen, for they are rebellious.

⁸“And you, son of man, listen to what I tell you: Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I am giving you.”

⁹So I looked and saw a hand reaching out to me, and there was a written scroll in it.

¹⁰When he unrolled it before me, it was written on the front and back; words of lamentation, mourning, and woe were written on it.

¹He said to me: “Son of man, eat what you find here. Eat this scroll, then go and speak to the house of Israel.”

²So I opened my mouth, and he fed me the scroll.

³“Son of man,” he said to me, “feed your stomach and fill your belly with this scroll I am giving you.” So I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.

⁴Then he said to me: “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak my words to them.

⁵For you are not being sent to a people of unintelligible speech or a difficult language but to the house of Israel —

⁶not to the many peoples of unintelligible speech or a difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. No doubt, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you.

⁷But the house of Israel will not want to listen to you because they do not want to listen to me. For the whole house of Israel is hardheaded and hardhearted.

⁸Look, I have made your face as hard as their faces and your forehead as hard as their foreheads.

⁹I have made your forehead like a diamond, harder than flint. Don’t be afraid of them or discouraged by the look on their faces, though they are a rebellious house.”

¹⁰Next he said to me: “Son of man, listen carefully to all my words that I speak to you and take them to heart.

¹¹Go to your people, the exiles, and speak to them. Tell them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says,’ whether they listen or refuse to listen.”

¹²The Spirit then lifted me up, and I heard a loud rumbling sound behind me — bless the glory of the LORD in his place! —

¹³with the sound of the living creatures’ wings brushing against each other and the sound of the wheels beside them, a loud rumbling sound.

¹⁴The Spirit lifted me up and took me away. I left in bitterness and in an angry spirit, and the LORD’s hand was on me powerfully.

¹⁵I came to the exiles at Tel-abib, who were living by the Chebar Canal, and I sat there among them stunned for seven days.

¹⁶Now at the end of seven days the word of the LORD came to me:

¹⁷“Son of man, I have made you a watchman over the house of Israel. When you hear a word from my mouth, give them a warning from me.

¹⁸If I say to the wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ but you do not warn him — you don’t speak out to warn him about his wicked way in order to save his life — that wicked person will die for his iniquity. Yet I will hold you responsible for his blood.

¹⁹But if you warn a wicked person and he does not turn from his wickedness or his wicked way, he will die for his iniquity, but you will have rescued yourself.

²⁰Now if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and acts unjustly, and I put a stumbling block in front of him, he will die. If you did not warn him, he will die because of his sin, and the righteous acts he did will not be remembered. Yet I will hold you responsible for his blood.

²¹But if you warn the righteous person that he should not sin, and he does not sin, he will indeed live because he listened to your warning, and you will have rescued yourself.”

²²The hand of the LORD was on me there, and he said to me, “Get up, go out to the plain, and I will speak with you there.”

²³So I got up and went out to the plain. The LORD’s glory was present there, like the glory I had seen by the Chebar Canal, and I fell facedown.

²⁴The Spirit entered me and set me on my feet. He spoke with me and said: “Go, shut yourself inside your house.

²⁵As for you, son of man, they will put ropes on you and bind you with them so you cannot go out among them.

²⁶I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, and you will be mute and unable to be a mediator for them, for they are a rebellious house.

²⁷But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you will say to them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says.’ Let the one who listens, listen, and let the one who refuses, refuse — for they are a rebellious house.

¹“Now you, son of man, take a brick, set it in front of you, and draw the city of Jerusalem on it.

²Then lay siege against it: Construct a siege wall, build a ramp, pitch military camps, and place battering rams against it on all sides.

³Take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city. Face it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a sign for the house of Israel.

⁴“Then lie down on your left side and place the iniquity of the house of Israel on it. You will bear their iniquity for the number of days you lie on your side.

⁵For I have assigned you the years of their iniquity according to the number of days you lie down, 390 days; so you will bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

⁶When you have completed these days, lie down again, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah. I have assigned you forty days, a day for each year.

⁷Face the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared, and prophesy against it.

⁸Be aware that I will put cords on you so you cannot turn from side to side until you have finished the days of your siege.

⁹“Also take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt. Put them in a single container and make them into bread for yourself. You are to eat it during the number of days you lie on your side, 390 days.

¹⁰The food you eat each day will weigh eight ounces; you will eat it at set times.

¹¹You will also drink a ration of water, a sixth of a gallon, which you will drink at set times.

¹²You will eat it as you would a barley cake and bake it over dried human excrement in their sight.”

¹³The LORD said, “This is how the Israelites will eat their bread — ceremonially unclean — among the nations where I will banish them.”

¹⁴But I said, “Oh, Lord GOD, I have never been defiled. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything that died naturally or was mauled by wild beasts. And impure meat has never entered my mouth.”

¹⁵He replied to me, “Look, I will let you use cow dung instead of human excrement, and you can make your bread over that.”

¹⁶He said to me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of bread in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat food they have weighed out and in dread drink rationed water

¹⁷for lack of bread and water. Everyone will be devastated and waste away because of their iniquity.

¹“Now you, son of man, take a sharp sword, use it as you would a barber’s razor, and shave your head and beard. Then take a set of scales and divide the hair.

²You are to burn a third of it in the city when the days of the siege have ended; you are to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind, for I will draw a sword to chase after them.

³But you are to take a few strands from the hair and secure them in the folds of your robe.

⁴Take some more of them, throw them into the fire, and burn them in it. A fire will spread from it to the whole house of Israel.

⁵“This is what the Lord GOD says: I have set this Jerusalem in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.

⁶She has rebelled against my ordinances with more wickedness than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries that surround her. For her people have rejected my ordinances and have not walked in my statutes.

⁷“Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: Because you have been more insubordinate than the nations around you  — you have not walked in my statutes or kept my ordinances; you have not even kept the ordinances of the nations around you —

⁸therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: See, I myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will execute judgments within you in the sight of the nations.

⁹Because of all your detestable practices, I will do to you what I have never done before and what I will never do again.

¹⁰As a result, fathers will eat their sons within Jerusalem, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your survivors to every direction of the wind.

¹¹“Therefore, as I live” — this is the declaration of the Lord GOD  — “I will withdraw and show you no pity, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your abhorrent acts and detestable practices. Yes, I will not spare you.

¹²A third of your people will die by plague and be consumed by famine within you; a third will fall by the sword all around you; and I will scatter a third to every direction of the wind, and I will draw a sword to chase after them.

¹³When my anger is spent and I have vented my wrath on them, I will be appeased. Then after I have spent my wrath on them, they will know that I, the LORD, have spoken in my jealousy.

¹⁴“I will make you a ruin and a disgrace among the nations around you, in the sight of everyone who passes by.

¹⁵So you will be a disgrace and a taunt, a warning and a horror, to the nations around you when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and furious rebukes. I, the LORD, have spoken.

¹⁶When I shoot deadly arrows of famine at them, arrows for destruction that I will send to destroy you, inhabitants of Jerusalem, I will intensify the famine against you and cut off your supply of bread.

¹⁷I will send famine and dangerous animals against you. They will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, the LORD, have spoken.”

¹The word of the LORD came to me:

²“Son of man, face the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.

³You are to say: Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD! This is what the Lord GOD says to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.

⁴Your altars will be desolated and your shrines smashed. I will throw down your slain in front of your idols.

⁵I will lay the corpses of the Israelites in front of their idols and scatter your bones around your altars.

⁶Wherever you live the cities will be in ruins and the high places will be desolate, so that your altars will lie in ruins and be desecrated, your idols smashed and obliterated, your shrines cut down, and what you have made wiped out.

⁷The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the LORD.

⁸“Yet I will leave a remnant when you are scattered among the nations, for throughout the countries there will be some of you who will escape the sword.

⁹Then your survivors will remember me among the nations where they are taken captive, how I was crushed by their promiscuous hearts that turned away from me and by their eyes that lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves because of the evil things they did, their detestable actions of every kind.

¹⁰And they will know that I am the LORD; I did not threaten to bring this disaster on them without a reason.

¹¹“This is what the Lord GOD says: Clap your hands, stamp your feet, and cry out over all the evil and detestable practices of the house of Israel, who will fall by the sword, famine, and plague.

¹²The one who is far off will die by plague; the one who is near will fall by the sword; and the one who remains and is spared will die of famine. In this way I will exhaust my wrath on them.

¹³You will all know that I am the LORD when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, and under every green tree and every leafy oak — the places where they offered pleasing aromas to all their idols.

¹⁴I will stretch out my hand against them, and wherever they live I will make the land a desolate waste, from the wilderness to Diblah. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”

¹The word of the LORD came to me:

²“Son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says to the land of Israel: An end! The end has come on the four corners of the earth.

³The end is now upon you; I will send my anger against you and judge you according to your ways. I will punish you for all your detestable practices.

⁴I will not look on you with pity or spare you, but I will punish you for your ways and for your detestable practices within you. Then you will know that I am the LORD.”

⁵This is what the Lord GOD says: Look, one disaster after another is coming!

⁶An end has come; the end has come! It has awakened against you. Look, it is coming!

⁷Doom has come on you, inhabitants of the land. The time has come; the day is near. There will be panic on the mountains and not celebration.

⁸I will pour out my wrath on you very soon; I will exhaust my anger against you and judge you according to your ways. I will punish you for all your detestable practices.

⁹I will not look on you with pity or spare you. I will punish you for your ways and for your detestable practices within you. Then you will know that it is I, the LORD, who strikes.

¹⁰Here is the day! Here it comes! Doom is on its way. The rod has blossomed; arrogance has bloomed.

¹¹Violence has grown into a rod of wickedness. None of them will remain: none of that crowd, none of their wealth, and none of the eminent among them.

¹²The time has come; the day has arrived. Let the buyer not rejoice and the seller not mourn, for wrath is on her whole crowd.

¹³The seller will certainly not return to what was sold as long as he and the buyer remain alive. For the vision concerning her whole crowd will not be revoked, and because of the iniquity of each one, none will preserve his life.

¹⁴They have blown the trumpet and prepared everything, but no one goes to war, for my wrath is on her whole crowd.

¹⁵The sword is on the outside; plague and famine are on the inside. Whoever is in the field will die by the sword, and famine and plague will devour whoever is in the city.

¹⁶The survivors among them will escape and live on the mountains. Like doves of the valley, all of them will moan, each over his own iniquity.

¹⁷All their hands will become weak, and all their knees will run with urine.

¹⁸They will put on sackcloth, and horror will overwhelm them. Shame will cover all their faces, and all their heads will be bald.

¹⁹They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will seem like something filthy. Their silver and gold will be unable to save them in the day of the LORD’s wrath. They will not satisfy their appetites or fill their stomachs, for these were the stumbling blocks that brought about their iniquity.

²⁰He appointed his beautiful ornaments for majesty, but they made their detestable images from them, their abhorrent things. Therefore, I have made these into something filthy to them.

²¹I will hand these things over to foreigners as plunder and to the wicked of the earth as spoil, and they will profane them.

²²I will turn my face from them as they profane my treasured place. Violent men will enter it and profane it.

²³Forge the chain, for the land is filled with crimes of bloodshed, and the city is filled with violence.

²⁴So I will bring the most evil of nations to take possession of their houses. I will put an end to the pride of the strong, and their sacred places will be profaned.

²⁵Anguish is coming! They will look for peace, but there will be none.

²⁶Disaster after disaster will come, and there will be rumor after rumor. Then they will look for a vision from a prophet, but instruction will perish from the priests and counsel from the elders.

²⁷The king will mourn; the prince will be clothed in grief; and the hands of the people of the land will tremble. I will deal with them according to their own conduct, and I will judge them by their own standards. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

¹In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, I was sitting in my house and the elders of Judah were sitting in front of me, and there the hand of the Lord GOD came down on me.

²I looked, and there was someone who looked like a man. From what seemed to be his waist down was fire, and from his waist up was something that looked bright, like the gleam of amber.

³He stretched out what appeared to be a hand and took me by the hair of my head. Then the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and carried me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the inner gate that faces north, where the offensive statue that provokes jealousy was located.

⁴I saw the glory of the God of Israel there, like the vision I had seen in the plain.

⁵The LORD said to me, “Son of man, look toward the north.” I looked to the north, and there was this offensive statue north of the Altar Gate, at the entrance.

⁶He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing here — more detestable acts that the house of Israel is committing  — so that I must depart from my sanctuary? You will see even more detestable acts.”

⁷Then he brought me to the entrance of the court, and when I looked there was a hole in the wall.

⁸He said to me, “Son of man, dig through the wall.” So I dug through the wall and discovered a doorway.

⁹He said to me, “Go in and see the detestable, wicked acts they are committing here.”

¹⁰I went in and looked, and there engraved all around the wall was every kind of abhorrent thing — crawling creatures and beasts — as well as all the idols of the house of Israel.

¹¹Seventy elders from the house of Israel were standing before them, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had a firepan in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising up.

¹²He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his idol? For they are saying, ‘The LORD does not see us. The LORD has abandoned the land.’”

¹³Again he said to me, “You will see even more detestable acts that they are committing.”

¹⁴Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the LORD’s house, and I saw women sitting there weeping for Tammuz.

¹⁵And he said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? You will see even more detestable acts than these.”

¹⁶So he brought me to the inner court of the LORD’s house, and there were about twenty-five men at the entrance of the LORD’s temple, between the portico and the altar, with their backs to the LORD’s temple and their faces turned to the east. They were bowing to the east in worship of the sun.

¹⁷And he said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? Is it not enough for the house of Judah to commit the detestable acts they are doing here, that they must also fill the land with violence and repeatedly anger me, even putting the branch to their nose?

¹⁸Therefore I will respond with wrath. I will not show pity or spare them. Though they call loudly in my hearing, I will not listen to them.”

¹Then he called loudly in my hearing, “Come near, executioners of the city, each of you with a destructive weapon in his hand.”

²And I saw six men coming from the direction of the Upper Gate, which faces north, each with a war club in his hand. There was another man among them, clothed in linen, carrying writing equipment. They came and stood beside the bronze altar.

³Then the glory of the God of Israel rose from above the cherub where it had been, to the threshold of the temple. He called to the man clothed in linen and carrying writing equipment.

⁴“Pass throughout the city of Jerusalem,” the LORD said to him, “and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the detestable practices committed in it.”

⁵He spoke to the others in my hearing: “Pass through the city after him and start killing; do not show pity or spare them!

⁶Slaughter the old men, the young men and women, as well as the children and older women, but do not come near anyone who has the mark. Begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were in front of the temple.

⁷Then he said to them, “Defile the temple and fill the courts with the slain. Go!” So they went out killing people in the city.

⁸While they were killing, I was left alone. And I fell facedown and cried out, “Oh, Lord GOD! Are you going to destroy the entire remnant of Israel when you pour out your wrath on Jerusalem?”

⁹He answered me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is extremely great; the land is full of bloodshed, and the city full of perversity. For they say, ‘The LORD has abandoned the land; he does not see.’

¹⁰But as for me, I will not show pity or spare them. I will bring their conduct down on their own heads.”

¹¹Then the man clothed in linen and carrying writing equipment reported back, “I have done all that you commanded me.”

¹Then I looked, and there above the expanse over the heads of the cherubim was something like a throne with the appearance of lapis lazuli.

²The LORD spoke to the man clothed in linen and said, “Go inside the wheelwork beneath the cherubim. Fill your hands with blazing coals from among the cherubim and scatter them over the city.” So he went in as I watched.

³Now the cherubim were standing to the south of the temple when the man went in, and the cloud filled the inner court.

⁴Then the glory of the LORD rose from above the cherub to the threshold of the temple. The temple was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the LORD’s glory.

⁵The sound of the cherubim’s wings could be heard as far as the outer court; it was like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks.

⁶After the LORD commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, “Take fire from inside the wheelwork, from among the cherubim,” the man went in and stood beside a wheel.

⁷Then the cherub reached out his hand to the fire that was among them. He took some and put it into the hands of the man clothed in linen, who took it and went out.

⁸The cherubim appeared to have the form of human hands under their wings.

⁹I looked, and there were four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside each cherub. The luster of the wheels was like the gleam of beryl.

¹⁰In appearance, all four looked alike, like a wheel within a wheel.

¹¹When they moved, they would go in any of the four directions, without pivoting as they moved. But wherever the head faced, they would go in that direction, without pivoting as they went.

¹²Their entire bodies, including their backs, hands, wings, and the wheels that the four of them had, were full of eyes all around.

¹³As I listened the wheels were called “the wheelwork.”

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

¹⁵The cherubim ascended; these were the living creatures I had seen by the Chebar Canal.

¹⁶When the cherubim moved, the wheels moved beside them, and when they lifted their wings to rise from the earth, even then the wheels did not veer away from them.

¹⁷When the cherubim stopped, the wheels stood still, and when they ascended, the wheels ascended with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in them.

¹⁸Then the glory of the LORD moved away from the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim.

¹⁹The cherubim lifted their wings and ascended from the earth right before my eyes; the wheels were beside them as they went. The glory of the God of Israel was above them, and it stopped at the entrance to the eastern gate of the LORD’s house.

²⁰These were the living creatures I had seen beneath the God of Israel by the Chebar Canal, and I recognized that they were cherubim.

²¹Each had four faces and each had four wings, with what looked something like human hands under their wings.

²²Their faces looked like the same faces I had seen by the Chebar Canal. Each creature went straight ahead.