Display
Bible in 90 Days Plan
Lamentations 3,4,5; Ezekiel 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
Lamentations 3
1I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath;
2he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light;
3surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long.
4He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones;
5he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation;
6he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago.
7He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy;
8though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer;
9he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked.
10He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding;
11he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate;
12he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow.
13He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver;
14I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long.
15He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood.
16He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes;
17my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is;
18so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the LORD.”
19Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall!
20My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.
21But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
22The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;
23they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
25The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
26It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
27It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
28Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him;
29let him put his mouth in the dust — there may yet be hope;
30let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults.
31For the Lord will not cast off forever,
32but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
33for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.
34To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth,
35to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High,
36to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve.
37Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?
38Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?
39Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins?
40Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD!
41Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven:
42“We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven.
43“You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us, killing without pity;
44you have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through.
45You have made us scum and garbage among the peoples.
46“All our enemies open their mouths against us;
47panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction;
48my eyes flow with rivers of tears because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49“My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite,
50until the LORD from heaven looks down and sees;
51my eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the daughters of my city.
52“I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause;
53they flung me alive into the pit and cast stones on me;
54water closed over my head; I said, ‘I am lost.’
55“I called on your name, O LORD, from the depths of the pit;
56you heard my plea, ‘Do not close your ear to my cry for help!’
57You came near when I called on you; you said, ‘Do not fear!’
58“You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life.
59You have seen the wrong done to me, O LORD; judge my cause.
60You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me.
61“You have heard their taunts, O LORD, all their plots against me.
62The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all the day long.
63Behold their sitting and their rising; I am the object of their taunts.
64“You will repay them, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
65You will give them dullness of heart; your curse will be on them.
66You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under your heavens, O LORD.”
Lamentations 4
1How the gold has grown dim, how the pure gold is changed! The holy stones lie scattered at the head of every street.
2The precious sons of Zion, worth their weight in fine gold, how they are regarded as earthen pots, the work of a potter's hands!
3Even jackals offer the breast; they nurse their young; but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
4The tongue of the nursing infant sticks to the roof of its mouth for thirst; the children beg for food, but no one gives to them.
5Those who once feasted on delicacies perish in the streets; those who were brought up in purple embrace ash heaps.
6For the chastisement of the daughter of my people has been greater than the punishment of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, and no hands were wrung for her.
7Her princes were purer than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than coral, the beauty of their form was like sapphire.
8Now their face is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as wood.
9Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of hunger, who wasted away, pierced by lack of the fruits of the field.
10The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people.
11The LORD gave full vent to his wrath; he poured out his hot anger, and he kindled a fire in Zion that consumed its foundations.
12The kings of the earth did not believe, nor any of the inhabitants of the world, that foe or enemy could enter the gates of Jerusalem.
13This was for the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed in the midst of her the blood of the righteous.
14They wandered, blind, through the streets; they were so defiled with blood that no one was able to touch their garments.
15“Away! Unclean!” people cried at them. “Away! Away! Do not touch!” So they became fugitives and wanderers; people said among the nations, “They shall stay with us no longer.”
16The LORD himself has scattered them; he will regard them no more; no honor was shown to the priests, no favor to the elders.
17Our eyes failed, ever watching vainly for help; in our watching we watched for a nation which could not save.
18They dogged our steps so that we could not walk in our streets; our end drew near; our days were numbered, for our end had come.
19Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles in the heavens; they chased us on the mountains; they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.
20The breath of our nostrils, the LORD's anointed, was captured in their pits, of whom we said, “Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.”
21Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz; but to you also the cup shall pass; you shall become drunk and strip yourself bare.
22The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter of Zion, is accomplished; he will keep you in exile no longer; but your iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he will punish; he will uncover your sins.
Lamentations 5
1Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us; look, and see our disgrace!
2Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners.
3We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows.
4We must pay for the water we drink; the wood we get must be bought.
5Our pursuers are at our necks; we are weary; we are given no rest.
6We have given the hand to Egypt, and to Assyria, to get bread enough.
7Our fathers sinned, and are no more; and we bear their iniquities.
8Slaves rule over us; there is none to deliver us from their hand.
9We get our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword in the wilderness.
10Our skin is hot as an oven with the burning heat of famine.
11Women are raped in Zion, young women in the towns of Judah.
12Princes are hung up by their hands; no respect is shown to the elders.
13Young men are compelled to grind at the mill, and boys stagger under loads of wood.
14The old men have left the city gate, the young men their music.
15The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned to mourning.
16The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned!
17For this our heart has become sick, for these things our eyes have grown dim,
18for Mount Zion which lies desolate; jackals prowl over it.
19But you, O LORD, reign forever; your throne endures to all generations.
20Why do you forget us forever, why do you forsake us for so many days?
21Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old —
22unless you have utterly rejected us, and you remain exceedingly angry with us.
Ezekiel 1
1In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as 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 the exile of King Jehoiachin),
3the word of the LORD came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar canal, and the hand of the LORD was upon him there.
4As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming metal.
5And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had a human likeness,
6but each had four faces, and each of them had four wings.
7Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf's foot. And they sparkled like burnished bronze.
8Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. And the four had their faces and their wings thus:
9their wings touched one another. Each one of them went straight forward, without turning as they went.
10As for the likeness of their faces, each had a human face. The four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had the face of an eagle.
11Such were their faces. And their wings were spread out above. Each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wing of another, while two covered their bodies.
12And each went straight forward. Wherever the spirit would go, they went, without turning as they went.
13As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches moving to and fro among the living creatures. And the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.
14And the living creatures darted to and fro, like the appearance of a flash of lightning.
15Now as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them.
16As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction: their appearance was like the gleaming of beryl. And the four had the same likeness, their appearance and construction being as it were a wheel within a wheel.
17When they went, they went in any of their four directions without turning as they went.
18And their rims were tall and awesome, and the rims of all four were full of eyes all around.
19And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose.
20Wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went, and the wheels rose along with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.
21When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those rose from the earth, the wheels rose along with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.
22Over the heads of the living creatures there was the likeness of an expanse, shining like awe-inspiring crystal, spread out above their heads.
23And under the expanse their wings were stretched out straight, one toward another. And each creature had two wings covering its body.
24And when they went, I heard the sound of their wings like the sound of many waters, like the sound of the Almighty, a sound of tumult like the sound of an army. When they stood still, they let down their wings.
25And there came a voice from above the expanse over their heads. When they stood still, they let down their wings.
26And above the expanse over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance.
27And upward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around. And downward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him.
28Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking.
Ezekiel 2
1And he said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.”
2And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.
3And he said to me, “Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day.
4The descendants also are impudent and stubborn: I send you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD.’
5And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them.
6And you, son of man, be not afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you and you sit on scorpions. Be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.
7And you shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house.
8“But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Be not rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.”
9And when I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me, and behold, a scroll of a book was in it.
10And he spread it before me. And it had writing on the front and on the back, and there were written on it words of lamentation and mourning and woe.
Ezekiel 3
1And he said to me, “Son of man, eat whatever you find here. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.”
2So I opened my mouth, and he gave me this scroll to eat.
3And he said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly with this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it.” Then I ate it, and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey.
4And he said to me, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them.
5For you are not sent to a people of foreign speech and a hard language, but to the house of Israel —
6not to many peoples of foreign speech and a hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to such, they would listen to you.
7But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me: because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart.
8Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads.
9Like emery harder than flint have I made your forehead. Fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.”
10Moreover, he said to me, “Son of man, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart, and hear with your ears.
11And go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ whether they hear or refuse to hear.”
12Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the voice of a great earthquake: “Blessed be the glory of the LORD from its place!”
13It was the sound of the wings of the living creatures as they touched one another, and the sound of the wheels beside them, and the sound of a great earthquake.
14The Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit, the hand of the LORD being strong upon me.
15And I came to the exiles at Tel-abib, who were dwelling by the Chebar canal, and I sat where they were dwelling. And I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days.
16And at the end of seven days, the word of the LORD came to me:
17“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.
18If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.
19But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.
20Again, if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds that he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood I will require at your hand.
21But if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning, and you will have delivered your soul.”
22And the hand of the LORD was upon me there. And he said to me, “Arise, go out into the valley, and there I will speak with you.”
23So I arose and went out into the valley, and behold, the glory of the LORD stood there, like the glory that I had seen by the Chebar canal, and I fell on my face.
24But the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and he spoke with me and said to me, “Go, shut yourself within your house.
25And you, O son of man, behold, cords will be placed upon you, and you shall be bound with them, so that you cannot go out among the people.
26And I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth, so that you shall be mute and unable to reprove them, for they are a rebellious house.
27But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD.’ He who will hear, let him hear; and he who will refuse to hear, let him refuse, for they are a rebellious house.
Ezekiel 4
1“And you, son of man, take a brick and lay it before you, and engrave on it a city, even Jerusalem.
2And put siegeworks against it, and build a siege wall against it, and cast up a mound against it. Set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it all around.
3And you, take an iron griddle, and place it as an iron wall between you and the city; and set your face toward it, and let it be in a state of siege, and press the siege against it. This is a sign for the house of Israel.
4“Then lie on your left side, and place the punishment of the house of Israel upon it. For the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their punishment.
5For I assign to you a number of days, 390 days, equal to the number of the years of their punishment. So long shall you bear the punishment of the house of Israel.
6And when you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the punishment of the house of Judah. Forty days I assign you, a day for each year.
7And you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm bared, and you shall prophesy against the city.
8And behold, I will place cords upon you, so that you cannot turn from one side to the other, till you have completed the days of your siege.
9“And you, take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and emmer, and put them into a single vessel and make your bread from them. During the number of days that you lie on your side, 390 days, you shall eat it.
10And your food that you eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; from day to day you shall eat it.
11And water you shall drink by measure, the sixth part of a hin; from day to day you shall drink.
12And you shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it in their sight on human dung.”
13And the LORD said, “Thus shall the people of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.”
14Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I have never defiled myself. From my youth up till now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has tainted meat come into my mouth.”
15Then he said to me, “See, I assign to you cow's dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread.”
16Moreover, he said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the supply of bread in Jerusalem. They shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and they shall drink water by measure and in dismay.
17I will do this that they may lack bread and water, and look at one another in dismay, and rot away because of their punishment.
Ezekiel 5
1“And you, O son of man, take a sharp sword. Use it as a barber's razor and pass it over your head and your beard. Then take balances for weighing and divide the hair.
2A third part you shall burn in the fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are completed. And a third part you shall take and strike with the sword all around the city. And a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will unsheathe the sword after them.
3And you shall take from these a small number and bind them in the skirts of your robe.
4And of these again you shall take some and cast them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will come out into all the house of Israel.
5“Thus says the Lord GOD: This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.
6And she has rebelled against my rules by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries all around her; for they have rejected my rules and have not walked in my statutes.
7Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you are more turbulent than the nations that are all around you, and have not walked in my statutes or obeyed my rules, and have not even acted according to the rules of the nations that are all around you,
8therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, even I, am against you. And I will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations.
9And because of all your abominations I will do with you what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again.
10Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers. And I will execute judgments on you, and any of you who survive I will scatter to all the winds.
11Therefore, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will withdraw. My eye will not spare, and I will have no pity.
12A third part of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed with famine in your midst; a third part shall fall by the sword all around you; and a third part I will scatter to all the winds and will unsheathe the sword after them.
13“Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. And they shall know that I am the LORD — that I have spoken in my jealousy — when I spend my fury upon them.
14Moreover, I will make you a desolation and an object of reproach among the nations all around you and in the sight of all who pass by.
15You shall be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror, to the nations all around you, when I execute judgments on you in anger and fury, and with furious rebukes — I am the LORD; I have spoken —
16when I send against you the deadly arrows of famine, arrows for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, and when I bring more and more famine upon you and break your supply of bread.
17I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will rob you of your children. Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I am the LORD; I have spoken.”
Ezekiel 6
1The word of the LORD came to me:
2“Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,
3and say, You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD! Thus says the Lord GOD to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.
4Your altars shall become desolate, and your incense altars shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain before your idols.
5And I will lay the dead bodies of the people of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars.
6Wherever you dwell, the cities shall be waste and the high places ruined, so that your altars will be waste and ruined, your idols broken and destroyed, your incense altars cut down, and your works wiped out.
7And the slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am the LORD.
8“Yet I will leave some of you alive. When you have among the nations some who escape the sword, and when you are scattered through the countries,
9then those of you who escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I have been broken over their whoring heart that has departed from me and over their eyes that go whoring after their idols. And they will be loathsome in their own sight for the evils that they have committed, for all their abominations.
10And they shall know that I am the LORD. I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them.”
11Thus says the Lord GOD: “Clap your hands and stamp your foot and say, Alas, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, for they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.
12He who is far off shall die of pestilence, and he who is near shall fall by the sword, and he who is left and is preserved shall die of famine. Thus I will spend my fury upon them.
13And you shall know that I am the LORD, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and under every leafy oak, wherever they offered pleasing aroma to all their idols.
14And I will stretch out my hand against them and make the land desolate and waste, in all their dwelling places, from the wilderness to Riblah. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”
Ezekiel 7
1The word of the LORD came to me:
2“And you, O son of man, thus says the Lord GOD to the land of Israel: An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land.
3Now the end is upon you, and I will send my anger upon you; I will judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations.
4And my eye will not spare you, nor will I have pity, but I will punish you for your ways, while your abominations are in your midst. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
5“Thus says the Lord GOD: Disaster after disaster! Behold, it comes.
6An end has come; the end has come; it has awakened against you. Behold, it comes.
7Your doom has come to you, O inhabitant of the land. The time has come; the day is near, a day of tumult, and not of joyful shouting on the mountains.
8Now I will soon pour out my wrath upon you, and spend my anger against you, and judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations.
9And my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. I will punish you according to your ways, while your abominations are in your midst. Then you will know that I am the LORD, who strikes.
10“Behold, the day! Behold, it comes! Your doom has come; the rod has blossomed; pride has budded.
11Violence has grown up into a rod of wickedness. None of them shall remain, nor their abundance, nor their wealth; neither shall there be preeminence among them.
12The time has come; the day has arrived. Let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn, for wrath is upon all their multitude.
13For the seller shall not return to what he has sold, while they live. For the vision concerns all their multitude; it shall not turn back; and because of his iniquity, none can maintain his life.
14“They have blown the trumpet and made everything ready, but none goes to battle, for my wrath is upon all their multitude.
15The sword is without; pestilence and famine are within. He who is in the field dies by the sword, and him who is in the city famine and pestilence devour.
16And if any survivors escape, they will be on the mountains, like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, each one over his iniquity.
17All hands are feeble, and all knees turn to water.
18They put on sackcloth, and horror covers them. Shame is on all faces, and baldness on all their heads.
19They cast their silver into the streets, and their gold is like an unclean thing. Their silver and gold are not able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD. They cannot satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it. For it was the stumbling block of their iniquity.
20His beautiful ornament they used for pride, and they made their abominable images and their detestable things of it. Therefore I make it an unclean thing to them.
21And I will give it into the hands of foreigners for prey, and to the wicked of the earth for spoil, and they shall profane it.
22I will turn my face from them, and they shall profane my treasured place. Robbers shall enter and profane it.
23“Forge a chain! For the land is full of bloody crimes and the city is full of violence.
24I will bring the worst of the nations to take possession of their houses. I will put an end to the pride of the strong, and their holy places shall be profaned.
25When anguish comes, they will seek peace, but there shall be none.
26Disaster comes upon disaster; rumor follows rumor. They seek a vision from the prophet, while the law perishes from the priest and counsel from the elders.
27The king mourns, the prince is wrapped in despair, and the hands of the people of the land are paralyzed by terror. According to their way I will do to them, and according to their judgments I will judge them, and they shall know that I am the LORD.”
Ezekiel 8
1In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, with the elders of Judah sitting before me, the hand of the Lord GOD fell upon me there.
2Then I looked, and behold, a form that had the appearance of a man. Below what appeared to be his waist was fire, and above his waist was something like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming metal.
3He put out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head, and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy.
4And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the valley.
5Then he said to me, “Son of man, lift up your eyes now toward the north.” So I lifted up my eyes toward the north, and behold, north of the altar gate, in the entrance, was this image of jealousy.
6And he said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here, to drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see still greater abominations.”
7And he brought me to the entrance of the court, and when I looked, behold, there was a hole in the wall.
8Then he said to me, “Son of man, dig in the wall.” So I dug in the wall, and behold, there was an entrance.
9And he said to me, “Go in, and see the vile abominations that they are committing here.”
10So I went in and saw. And there, engraved on the wall all around, was every form of creeping things and loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel.
11And before them stood seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had his censer in his hand, and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up.
12Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures? For they say, ‘The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land.’”
13He said also to me, “You will see still greater abominations that they commit.”
14Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the LORD, and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.
15Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? You will see still greater abominations than these.”
16And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the LORD. And behold, at the entrance of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men, with their backs to the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east, worshiping the sun toward the east.
17Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations that they commit here, that they should fill the land with violence and provoke me still further to anger? Behold, they put the branch to their nose.
18Therefore I will act in wrath. My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. And though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”
Ezekiel 9
1Then he cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying, “Bring near the executioners of the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand.”
2And behold, six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his weapon for slaughter in his hand, and with them was a man clothed in linen, with a writing case at his waist. And they went in and stood beside the bronze altar.
3Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub on which it rested to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writing case at his waist.
4And the LORD said to him, “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.”
5And to the others he said in my hearing, “Pass through the city after him, and strike. Your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity.
6Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one on whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were before the house.
7Then he said to them, “Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out.” So they went out and struck in the city.
8And while they were striking, and I was left alone, I fell upon my face, and cried, “Ah, Lord GOD! Will you destroy all the remnant of Israel in the outpouring of your wrath on Jerusalem?”
9Then he said to me, “The guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of blood, and the city full of injustice. For they say, ‘The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD does not see.’
10As for me, my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity; I will bring their deeds upon their heads.”
11And behold, the man clothed in linen, with the writing case at his waist, brought back word, saying, “I have done as you commanded me.”
Ezekiel 10
1Then I looked, and behold, on the expanse that was over the heads of the cherubim there appeared above them something like a sapphire, in appearance like a throne.
2And he said to the man clothed in linen, “Go in among the whirling wheels underneath the cherubim. Fill your hands with burning coals from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city.” And he went in before my eyes.
3Now the cherubim were standing on the south side of the house, when the man went in, and a cloud filled the inner court.
4And the glory of the LORD went up from the cherub to the threshold of the house, and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the LORD.
5And the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard as far as the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks.
6And when he commanded the man clothed in linen, “Take fire from between the whirling wheels, from between the cherubim,” he went in and stood beside a wheel.
7And a cherub stretched out his hand from between the cherubim to the fire that was between the cherubim, and took some of it 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 a human hand under their wings.
9And I looked, and behold, there were four wheels beside the cherubim, one beside each cherub, and the appearance of the wheels was like sparkling beryl.
10And as for their appearance, the four had the same likeness, as if a wheel were within a wheel.
11When they went, they went in any of their four directions without turning as they went, but in whatever direction the front wheel faced, the others followed without turning as they went.
12And their whole body, their rims, and their spokes, their wings, and the wheels were full of eyes all around — the wheels that the four of them 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 a human face, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.
15And the cherubim mounted up. These were the living creatures that I saw by the Chebar canal.
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 did not turn from beside them.
17When they stood still, these stood still, and when they mounted up, these mounted up with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in them.
18Then the glory of the LORD went out from the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim.
19And the cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth before my eyes as they went out, with the wheels beside them. And they stood at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the LORD, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them.
20These were the living creatures that I saw underneath the God of Israel by the Chebar canal; and I knew that they were cherubim.
21Each had four faces, and each four wings, and underneath their wings the likeness of human hands.
22And as for the likeness of their faces, they were the same faces whose appearance I had seen by the Chebar canal. Each one of them went straight forward.