Bible in 90 Days Plan

¹I am the one who has seen the afflictions that come from the rod of the LORD’s anger.

²He has led me into darkness, shutting out all light.

³He has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long.

⁴He has made my skin and flesh grow old. He has broken my bones.

⁵He has besieged and surrounded me with anguish and distress.

⁶He has buried me in a dark place, like those long dead.

⁷He has walled me in, and I cannot escape. He has bound me in heavy chains.

⁸And though I cry and shout, he has shut out my prayers.

⁹He has blocked my way with a high stone wall; he has made my road crooked.

¹⁰He has hidden like a bear or a lion, waiting to attack me.

¹¹He has dragged me off the path and torn me in pieces, leaving me helpless and devastated.

¹²He has drawn his bow and made me the target for his arrows.

¹³He shot his arrows deep into my heart.

¹⁴My own people laugh at me. All day long they sing their mocking songs.

¹⁵He has filled me with bitterness and given me a bitter cup of sorrow to drink.

¹⁶He has made me chew on gravel. He has rolled me in the dust.

¹⁷Peace has been stripped away, and I have forgotten what prosperity is.

¹⁸I cry out, “My splendor is gone! Everything I had hoped for from the LORD is lost!”

¹⁹The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words.

²⁰I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss.

²¹Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this:

²²The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease.

²³Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.

²⁴I say to myself, “The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!”

²⁵The LORD is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him.

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

²⁷And it is good for people to submit at an early age to the yoke of his discipline:

²⁸Let them sit alone in silence beneath the LORD’s demands.

²⁹Let them lie face down in the dust, for there may be hope at last.

³⁰Let them turn the other cheek to those who strike them and accept the insults of their enemies.

³¹For no one is abandoned by the Lord forever.

³²Though he brings grief, he also shows compassion because of the greatness of his unfailing love.

³³For he does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow.

³⁴If people crush underfoot all the prisoners of the land,

³⁵if they deprive others of their rights in defiance of the Most High,

³⁶if they twist justice in the courts — doesn’t the Lord see all these things?

³⁷Who can command things to happen without the Lord’s permission?

³⁸Does not the Most High send both calamity and good?

³⁹Then why should we, mere humans, complain when we are punished for our sins?

⁴⁰Instead, let us test and examine our ways. Let us turn back to the LORD.

⁴¹Let us lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven and say,

⁴²“We have sinned and rebelled, and you have not forgiven us.

⁴³“You have engulfed us with your anger, chased us down, and slaughtered us without mercy.

⁴⁴You have hidden yourself in a cloud so our prayers cannot reach you.

⁴⁵You have discarded us as refuse and garbage among the nations.

⁴⁶“All our enemies have spoken out against us.

⁴⁷We are filled with fear, for we are trapped, devastated, and ruined.”

⁴⁸Tears stream from my eyes because of the destruction of my people!

⁴⁹My tears flow endlessly; they will not stop

⁵⁰until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees.

⁵¹My heart is breaking over the fate of all the women of Jerusalem.

⁵²My enemies, whom I have never harmed, hunted me down like a bird.

⁵³They threw me into a pit and dropped stones on me.

⁵⁴The water rose over my head, and I cried out, “This is the end!”

⁵⁵But I called on your name, LORD, from deep within the pit.

⁵⁶You heard me when I cried, “Listen to my pleading! Hear my cry for help!”

⁵⁷Yes, you came when I called; you told me, “Do not fear.”

⁵⁸Lord, you have come to my defense; you have redeemed my life.

⁵⁹You have seen the wrong they have done to me, LORD. Be my judge, and prove me right.

⁶⁰You have seen the vengeful plots my enemies have laid against me.

⁶¹LORD, you have heard the vile names they call me. You know all about the plans they have made.

⁶²My enemies whisper and mutter as they plot against me all day long.

⁶³Look at them! Whether they sit or stand, I am the object of their mocking songs.

⁶⁴Pay them back, LORD, for all the evil they have done.

⁶⁵Give them hard and stubborn hearts, and then let your curse fall on them!

⁶⁶Chase them down in your anger, destroying them beneath the LORD’s heavens.

¹How the gold has lost its luster! Even the finest gold has become dull. The sacred gemstones lie scattered in the streets!

²See how the precious children of Jerusalem, worth their weight in fine gold, are now treated like pots of clay made by a common potter.

³Even the jackals feed their young, but not my people Israel. They ignore their children’s cries, like ostriches in the desert.

⁴The parched tongues of their little ones stick to the roofs of their mouths in thirst. The children cry for bread, but no one has any to give them.

⁵The people who once ate the richest foods now beg in the streets for anything they can get. Those who once wore the finest clothes now search the garbage dumps for food.

⁶The guilt of my people is greater than that of Sodom, where utter disaster struck in a moment and no hand offered help.

⁷Our princes once glowed with health — brighter than snow, whiter than milk. Their faces were as ruddy as rubies, their appearance like fine jewels.

⁸But now their faces are blacker than soot. No one recognizes them in the streets. Their skin sticks to their bones; it is as dry and hard as wood.

⁹Those killed by the sword are better off than those who die of hunger. Starving, they waste away for lack of food from the fields.

¹⁰Tenderhearted women have cooked their own children. They have eaten them to survive the siege.

¹¹But now the anger of the LORD is satisfied. His fierce anger has been poured out. He started a fire in Jerusalem that burned the city to its foundations.

¹²Not a king in all the earth — no one in all the world — would have believed that an enemy could march through the gates of Jerusalem.

¹³Yet it happened because of the sins of her prophets and the sins of her priests, who defiled the city by shedding innocent blood.

¹⁴They wandered blindly through the streets, so defiled by blood that no one dared touch them.

¹⁵“Get away!” the people shouted at them. “You’re defiled! Don’t touch us!” So they fled to distant lands and wandered among foreign nations, but none would let them stay.

¹⁶The LORD himself has scattered them, and he no longer helps them. People show no respect for the priests and no longer honor the leaders.

¹⁷We looked in vain for our allies to come and save us, but we were looking to nations that could not help us.

¹⁸We couldn’t go into the streets without danger to our lives. Our end was near; our days were numbered. We were doomed!

¹⁹Our enemies were swifter than eagles in flight. If we fled to the mountains, they found us. If we hid in the wilderness, they were waiting for us there.

²⁰Our king — the LORD’s anointed, the very life of our nation — was caught in their snares. We had thought that his shadow would protect us against any nation on earth!

²¹Are you rejoicing in the land of Uz, O people of Edom? But you, too, must drink from the cup of the LORD’s anger. You, too, will be stripped naked in your drunkenness.

²²O beautiful Jerusalem, your punishment will end; you will soon return from exile. But Edom, your punishment is just beginning; soon your many sins will be exposed.

¹LORD, remember what has happened to us. See how we have been disgraced!

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

³We are orphaned and fatherless. Our mothers are widowed.

⁴We have to pay for water to drink, and even firewood is expensive.

⁵Those who pursue us are at our heels; we are exhausted but are given no rest.

⁶We submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough food to survive.

⁷Our ancestors sinned, but they have died — and we are suffering the punishment they deserved!

⁸Slaves have now become our masters; there is no one left to rescue us.

⁹We hunt for food at the risk of our lives, for violence rules the countryside.

¹⁰The famine has blackened our skin as though baked in an oven.

¹¹Our enemies rape the women in Jerusalem and the young girls in all the towns of Judah.

¹²Our princes are being hanged by their thumbs, and our elders are treated with contempt.

¹³Young men are led away to work at millstones, and boys stagger under heavy loads of wood.

¹⁴The elders no longer sit in the city gates; the young men no longer dance and sing.

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

¹⁶The garlands have fallen from our heads. Weep for us because we have sinned.

¹⁷Our hearts are sick and weary, and our eyes grow dim with tears.

¹⁸For Jerusalem is empty and desolate, a place haunted by jackals.

¹⁹But LORD, you remain the same forever! Your throne continues from generation to generation.

²⁰Why do you continue to forget us? Why have you abandoned us for so long?

²¹Restore us, O LORD, and bring us back to you again! Give us back the joys we once had!

²²Or have you utterly rejected us? Are you angry with us still?

¹On July 31 of my thirtieth year, while I was with the Judean exiles beside the Kebar River in Babylon, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.

²This happened during the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity.

³(The LORD gave this message to Ezekiel son of Buzi, a priest, beside the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians, and he felt the hand of the LORD take hold of him.)

⁴As I looked, I saw a great storm coming from the north, driving before it a huge cloud that flashed with lightning and shone with brilliant light. There was fire inside the cloud, and in the middle of the fire glowed something like gleaming amber.

⁵From the center of the cloud came four living beings that looked human,

⁶except that each had four faces and four wings.

⁷Their legs were straight, and their feet had hooves like those of a calf and shone like burnished bronze.

⁸Under each of their four wings I could see human hands. So each of the four beings had four faces and four wings.

⁹The wings of each living being touched the wings of the beings beside it. Each one moved straight forward in any direction without turning around.

¹⁰Each had a human face in the front, the face of a lion on the right side, the face of an ox on the left side, and the face of an eagle at the back.

¹¹Each had two pairs of outstretched wings — one pair stretched out to touch the wings of the living beings on either side of it, and the other pair covered its body.

¹²They went in whatever direction the spirit chose, and they moved straight forward in any direction without turning around.

¹³The living beings looked like bright coals of fire or brilliant torches, and lightning seemed to flash back and forth among them.

¹⁴And the living beings darted to and fro like flashes of lightning.

¹⁵As I looked at these beings, I saw four wheels touching the ground beside them, one wheel belonging to each.

¹⁶The wheels sparkled as if made of beryl. All four wheels looked alike and were made the same; each wheel had a second wheel turning crosswise within it.

¹⁷The beings could move in any of the four directions they faced, without turning as they moved.

¹⁸The rims of the four wheels were tall and frightening, and they were covered with eyes all around.

¹⁹When the living beings moved, the wheels moved with them. When they flew upward, the wheels went up, too.

²⁰The spirit of the living beings was in the wheels. So wherever the spirit went, the wheels and the living beings also went.

²¹When the beings moved, the wheels moved. When the beings stopped, the wheels stopped. When the beings flew upward, the wheels rose up, for the spirit of the living beings was in the wheels.

²²Spread out above them was a surface like the sky, glittering like crystal.

²³Beneath this surface the wings of each living being stretched out to touch the others’ wings, and each had two wings covering its body.

²⁴As they flew, their wings sounded to me like waves crashing against the shore or like the voice of the Almighty or like the shouting of a mighty army. When they stopped, they let down their wings.

²⁵As they stood with wings lowered, a voice spoke from beyond the crystal surface above them.

²⁶Above this surface was something that looked like a throne made of blue lapis lazuli. And on this throne high above was a figure whose appearance resembled a man.

²⁷From what appeared to be his waist up, he looked like gleaming amber, flickering like a fire. And from his waist down, he looked like a burning flame, shining with splendor.

²⁸All around him was a glowing halo, like a rainbow shining in the clouds on a rainy day. This is what the glory of the LORD looked like to me. When I saw it, I fell face down on the ground, and I heard someone’s voice speaking to me.

¹“Stand up, son of man,” said the voice. “I want to speak with you.”

²The Spirit came into me as he spoke, and he set me on my feet. I listened carefully to his words.

³“Son of man,” he said, “I am sending you to the nation of Israel, a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me. They and their ancestors have been rebelling against me to this very day.

⁴They are a stubborn and hard-hearted people. But I am sending you to say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says!’

⁵And whether they listen or refuse to listen — for remember, they are rebels — at least they will know they have had a prophet among them.

⁶“Son of man, do not fear them or their words. Don’t be afraid even though their threats surround you like nettles and briers and stinging scorpions. Do not be dismayed by their dark scowls, even though they are rebels.

⁷You must give them my messages whether they listen or not. But they won’t listen, for they are completely rebellious!

⁸Son of man, listen to what I say to you. Do not join them in their rebellion. Open your mouth, and eat what I give you.”

⁹Then I looked and saw a hand reaching out to me. It held a scroll,

¹⁰which he unrolled. And I saw that both sides were covered with funeral songs, words of sorrow, and pronouncements of doom.

¹The voice said to me, “Son of man, eat what I am giving you — eat this scroll! Then go and give its message to the people of Israel.”

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

³“Fill your stomach with this,” he said. And when I ate it, it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.

⁴Then he said, “Son of man, go to the people of Israel and give them my messages.

⁵I am not sending you to a foreign people whose language you cannot understand.

⁶No, I am not sending you to people with strange and difficult speech. If I did, they would listen!

⁷But the people of Israel won’t listen to you any more than they listen to me! For the whole lot of them are hard-hearted and stubborn.

⁸But look, I have made you as obstinate and hard-hearted as they are.

⁹I have made your forehead as hard as the hardest rock! So don’t be afraid of them or fear their angry looks, even though they are rebels.”

¹⁰Then he added, “Son of man, let all my words sink deep into your own heart first. Listen to them carefully for yourself.

¹¹Then go to your people in exile and say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says!’ Do this whether they listen to you or not.”

¹²Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard a loud rumbling sound behind me. (May the glory of the LORD be praised in his place!)

¹³It was the sound of the wings of the living beings as they brushed against each other and the rumbling of their wheels beneath them.

¹⁴The Spirit lifted me up and took me away. I went in bitterness and turmoil, but the LORD’s hold on me was strong.

¹⁵Then I came to the colony of Judean exiles in Tel-abib, beside the Kebar River. I was overwhelmed and sat among them for seven days.

¹⁶After seven days the LORD gave me a message. He said,

¹⁷“Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for Israel. Whenever you receive a message from me, warn people immediately.

¹⁸If I warn the wicked, saying, ‘You are under the penalty of death,’ but you fail to deliver the warning, they will die in their sins. And I will hold you responsible for their deaths.

¹⁹If you warn them and they refuse to repent and keep on sinning, they will die in their sins. But you will have saved yourself because you obeyed me.

²⁰“If righteous people turn away from their righteous behavior and ignore the obstacles I put in their way, they will die. And if you do not warn them, they will die in their sins. None of their righteous acts will be remembered, and I will hold you responsible for their deaths.

²¹But if you warn righteous people not to sin and they listen to you and do not sin, they will live, and you will have saved yourself, too.”

²²Then the LORD took hold of me and said, “Get up and go out into the valley, and I will speak to you there.”

²³So I got up and went, and there I saw the glory of the LORD, just as I had seen in my first vision by the Kebar River. And I fell face down on the ground.

²⁴Then the Spirit came into me and set me on my feet. He spoke to me and said, “Go to your house and shut yourself in.

²⁵There, son of man, you will be tied with ropes so you cannot go out among the people.

²⁶And I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be speechless and unable to rebuke them, for they are rebels.

²⁷But when I give you a message, I will loosen your tongue and let you speak. Then you will say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says!’ Those who choose to listen will listen, but those who refuse will refuse, for they are rebels.

¹“And now, son of man, take a large clay brick and set it down in front of you. Then draw a map of the city of Jerusalem on it.

²Show the city under siege. Build a wall around it so no one can escape. Set up the enemy camp, and surround the city with siege ramps and battering rams.

³Then take an iron griddle and place it between you and the city. Turn toward the city and demonstrate how harsh the siege will be against Jerusalem. This will be a warning to the people of Israel.

⁴“Now lie on your left side and place the sins of Israel on yourself. You are to bear their sins for the number of days you lie there on your side.

⁵I am requiring you to bear Israel’s sins for 390 days — one day for each year of their sin.

⁶After that, turn over and lie on your right side for 40 days — one day for each year of Judah’s sin.

⁷“Meanwhile, keep staring at the siege of Jerusalem. Lie there with your arm bared and prophesy her destruction.

⁸I will tie you up with ropes so you won’t be able to turn from side to side until the days of your siege have been completed.

⁹“Now go and get some wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and emmer wheat, and mix them together in a storage jar. Use them to make bread for yourself during the 390 days you will be lying on your side.

¹⁰Ration this out to yourself, eight ounces of food for each day, and eat it at set times.

¹¹Then measure out a jar of water for each day, and drink it at set times.

¹²Prepare and eat this food as you would barley cakes. While all the people are watching, bake it over a fire using dried human dung as fuel and then eat the bread.”

¹³Then the LORD said, “This is how Israel will eat defiled bread in the Gentile lands to which I will banish them!”

¹⁴Then I said, “O Sovereign LORD, must I be defiled by using human dung? For I have never been defiled before. From the time I was a child until now I have never eaten any animal that died of sickness or was killed by other animals. I have never eaten any meat forbidden by the law.”

¹⁵“All right,” the LORD said. “You may bake your bread with cow dung instead of human dung.”

¹⁶Then he told me, “Son of man, I will make food very scarce in Jerusalem. It will be weighed out with great care and eaten fearfully. The water will be rationed out drop by drop, and the people will drink it with dismay.

¹⁷Lacking food and water, people will look at one another in terror, and they will waste away under their punishment.

¹“Son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a razor to shave your head and beard. Use a scale to weigh the hair into three equal parts.

²Place a third of it at the center of your map of Jerusalem. After acting out the siege, burn it there. Scatter another third across your map and chop it with a sword. Scatter the last third to the wind, for I will scatter my people with the sword.

³Keep just a bit of the hair and tie it up in your robe.

⁴Then take some of these hairs out and throw them into the fire, burning them up. A fire will then spread from this remnant and destroy all of Israel.

⁵“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: This is an illustration of what will happen to Jerusalem. I placed her at the center of the nations,

⁶but she has rebelled against my regulations and decrees and has been even more wicked than the surrounding nations. She has refused to obey the regulations and decrees I gave her to follow.

⁷“Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: You people have behaved worse than your neighbors and have refused to obey my decrees and regulations. You have not even lived up to the standards of the nations around you.

⁸Therefore, I myself, the Sovereign LORD, am now your enemy. I will punish you publicly while all the nations watch.

⁹Because of your detestable idols, I will punish you like I have never punished anyone before or ever will again.

¹⁰Parents will eat their own children, and children will eat their parents. I will punish you and scatter to the winds the few who survive.

¹¹“As surely as I live, says the Sovereign LORD, I will cut you off completely. I will show you no pity at all because you have defiled my Temple with your vile images and detestable sins.

¹²A third of your people will die in the city from disease and famine. A third of them will be slaughtered by the enemy outside the city walls. And I will scatter a third to the winds, chasing them with my sword.

¹³Then at last my anger will be spent, and I will be satisfied. And when my fury against them has subsided, all Israel will know that I, the LORD, have spoken to them in my jealous anger.

¹⁴“So I will turn you into a ruin, a mockery in the eyes of the surrounding nations and to all who pass by.

¹⁵You will become an object of mockery and taunting and horror. You will be a warning to all the nations around you. They will see what happens when the LORD punishes a nation in anger and rebukes it, says the LORD.

¹⁶“I will shower you with the deadly arrows of famine to destroy you. The famine will become more and more severe until every crumb of food is gone.

¹⁷And along with the famine, wild animals will attack you and rob you of your children. Disease and war will stalk your land, and I will bring the sword of the enemy against you. I, the LORD, have spoken!”

¹Again a message came to me from the LORD:

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

³Proclaim this message from the Sovereign LORD against the mountains of Israel. This is what the Sovereign LORD says to the mountains and hills and to the ravines and valleys: I am about to bring war upon you, and I will smash your pagan shrines.

⁴All your altars will be demolished, and your places of worship will be destroyed. I will kill your people in front of your idols.

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

⁶Wherever you live there will be desolation, and I will destroy your pagan shrines. Your altars will be demolished, your idols will be smashed, your places of worship will be torn down, and all the religious objects you have made will be destroyed.

⁷The place will be littered with corpses, and you will know that I alone am the LORD.

⁸“But I will let a few of my people escape destruction, and they will be scattered among the nations of the world.

⁹Then when they are exiled among the nations, they will remember me. They will recognize how hurt I am by their unfaithful hearts and lustful eyes that long for their idols. Then at last they will hate themselves for all their detestable sins.

¹⁰They will know that I alone am the LORD and that I was serious when I said I would bring this calamity on them.

¹¹“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Clap your hands in horror, and stamp your feet. Cry out because of all the detestable sins the people of Israel have committed. Now they are going to die from war and famine and disease.

¹²Disease will strike down those who are far away in exile. War will destroy those who are nearby. And anyone who survives will be killed by famine. So at last I will spend my fury on them.

¹³They will know that I am the LORD when their dead lie scattered among their idols and altars on every hill and mountain and under every green tree and every great shade tree — the places where they offered sacrifices to their idols.

¹⁴I will crush them and make their cities desolate from the wilderness in the south to Riblah in the north. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”

¹Then this message came to me from the LORD:

²“Son of man, this is what the Sovereign LORD says to Israel: “The end is here! Wherever you look — east, west, north, or south — your land is finished.

³No hope remains, for I will unleash my anger against you. I will call you to account for all your detestable sins.

⁴I will turn my eyes away and show no pity. I will repay you for all your detestable sins. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

⁵“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Disaster after disaster is coming your way!

⁶The end has come. It has finally arrived. Your final doom is waiting!

⁷O people of Israel, the day of your destruction is dawning. The time has come; the day of trouble is near. Shouts of anguish will be heard on the mountains, not shouts of joy.

⁸Soon I will pour out my fury on you and unleash my anger against you. I will call you to account for all your detestable sins.

⁹I will turn my eyes away and show no pity. I will repay you for all your detestable sins. Then you will know that it is I, the LORD, who is striking the blow.

¹⁰“The day of judgment is here; your destruction awaits! The people’s wickedness and pride have blossomed to full flower.

¹¹Their violence has grown into a rod that will beat them for their wickedness. None of these proud and wicked people will survive. All their wealth and prestige will be swept away.

¹²Yes, the time has come; the day is here! Buyers should not rejoice over bargains, nor sellers grieve over losses, for all of them will fall under my terrible anger.

¹³Even if the merchants survive, they will never return to their business. For what God has said applies to everyone — it will not be changed! Not one person whose life is twisted by sin will ever recover.

¹⁴“The trumpet calls Israel’s army to mobilize, but no one listens, for my fury is against them all.

¹⁵There is war outside the city and disease and famine within. Those outside the city walls will be killed by enemy swords. Those inside the city will die of famine and disease.

¹⁶The survivors who escape to the mountains will moan like doves, weeping for their sins.

¹⁷Their hands will hang limp, their knees will be weak as water.

¹⁸They will dress themselves in burlap; horror and shame will cover them. They will shave their heads in sorrow and remorse.

¹⁹“They will throw their money in the streets, tossing it out like worthless trash. Their silver and gold won’t save them on that day of the LORD’s anger. It will neither satisfy nor feed them, for their greed can only trip them up.

²⁰They were proud of their beautiful jewelry and used it to make detestable idols and vile images. Therefore, I will make all their wealth disgusting to them.

²¹I will give it as plunder to foreigners, to the most wicked of nations, and they will defile it.

²²I will turn my eyes from them as these robbers invade and defile my treasured land.

²³“Prepare chains for my people, for the land is bloodied by terrible crimes. Jerusalem is filled with violence.

²⁴I will bring the most ruthless of nations to occupy their homes. I will break down their proud fortresses and defile their sanctuaries.

²⁵Terror and trembling will overcome my people. They will look for peace but not find it.

²⁶Calamity will follow calamity; rumor will follow rumor. They will look in vain for a vision from the prophets. They will receive no teaching from the priests and no counsel from the leaders.

²⁷The king and the prince will stand helpless, weeping in despair, and the people’s hands will tremble with fear. I will bring on them the evil they have done to others, and they will receive the punishment they so richly deserve. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”

¹Then on September 17, during the sixth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, while the leaders of Judah were in my home, the Sovereign LORD took hold of me.

²I saw a figure that appeared to be a man. From what appeared to be his waist down, he looked like a burning flame. From the waist up he looked like gleaming amber.

³He reached out what seemed to be a hand and took me by the hair. Then the Spirit lifted me up into the sky and transported me to Jerusalem in a vision from God. I was taken to the north gate of the inner courtyard of the Temple, where there is a large idol that has made the LORD very jealous.

⁴Suddenly, the glory of the God of Israel was there, just as I had seen it before in the valley.

⁵Then the LORD said to me, “Son of man, look toward the north.” So I looked, and there to the north, beside the entrance to the gate near the altar, stood the idol that had made the LORD so jealous.

⁶“Son of man,” he said, “do you see what they are doing? Do you see the detestable sins the people of Israel are committing to drive me from my Temple? But come, and you will see even more detestable sins than these!”

⁷Then he brought me to the door of the Temple courtyard, where I could see a hole in the wall.

⁸He said to me, “Now, son of man, dig into the wall.” So I dug into the wall and found a hidden doorway.

⁹“Go in,” he said, “and see the wicked and detestable sins they are committing in there!”

¹⁰So I went in and saw the walls covered with engravings of all kinds of crawling animals and detestable creatures. I also saw the various idols worshiped by the people of Israel.

¹¹Seventy leaders of Israel were standing there with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan in the center. Each of them held an incense burner, from which a cloud of incense rose above their heads.

¹²Then the LORD said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the leaders of Israel are doing with their idols in dark rooms? They are saying, ‘The LORD doesn’t see us; he has deserted our land!’”

¹³Then the LORD added, “Come, and I will show you even more detestable sins than these!”

¹⁴He brought me to the north gate of the LORD’s Temple, and some women were sitting there, weeping for the god Tammuz.

¹⁵“Have you seen this?” he asked. “But I will show you even more detestable sins than these!”

¹⁶Then he brought me into the inner courtyard of the LORD’s Temple. At the entrance to the sanctuary, between the entry room and the bronze altar, there were about twenty-five men with their backs to the sanctuary of the LORD. They were facing east, bowing low to the ground, worshiping the sun!

¹⁷“Have you seen this, son of man?” he asked. “Is it nothing to the people of Judah that they commit these detestable sins, leading the whole nation into violence, thumbing their noses at me, and provoking my anger?

¹⁸Therefore, I will respond in fury. I will neither pity nor spare them. And though they cry for mercy, I will not listen.”

¹Then the LORD thundered, “Bring on the men appointed to punish the city! Tell them to bring their weapons with them!”

²Six men soon appeared from the upper gate that faces north, each carrying a deadly weapon in his hand. With them was a man dressed in linen, who carried a writer’s case at his side. They all went into the Temple courtyard and stood beside the bronze altar.

³Then the glory of the God of Israel rose up from between the cherubim, where it had rested, and moved to the entrance of the Temple. And the LORD called to the man dressed in linen who was carrying the writer’s case.

⁴He said to him, “Walk through the streets of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of all who weep and sigh because of the detestable sins being committed in their city.”

⁵Then I heard the LORD say to the other men, “Follow him through the city and kill everyone whose forehead is not marked. Show no mercy; have no pity!

⁶Kill them all — old and young, girls and women and little children. But do not touch anyone with the mark. Begin right here at the Temple.” So they began by killing the seventy leaders.

⁷“Defile the Temple!” the LORD commanded. “Fill its courtyards with corpses. Go!” So they went and began killing throughout the city.

⁸While they were out killing, I was all alone. I fell face down on the ground and cried out, “O Sovereign LORD! Will your fury against Jerusalem wipe out everyone left in Israel?”

⁹Then he said to me, “The sins of the people of Israel and Judah are very, very great. The entire land is full of murder; the city is filled with injustice. They are saying, ‘The LORD doesn’t see it! The LORD has abandoned the land!’

¹⁰So I will not spare them or have any pity on them. I will fully repay them for all they have done.”

¹¹Then the man in linen clothing, who carried the writer’s case, reported back and said, “I have done as you commanded.”

¹In my vision I saw what appeared to be a throne of blue lapis lazuli above the crystal surface over the heads of the cherubim.

²Then the LORD spoke to the man in linen clothing and said, “Go between the whirling wheels beneath the cherubim, and take a handful of burning coals and scatter them over the city.” He did this as I watched.

³The cherubim were standing at the south end of the Temple when the man went in, and the cloud of glory filled the inner courtyard.

⁴Then the glory of the LORD rose up from above the cherubim and went over to the entrance of the Temple. The Temple was filled with this cloud of glory, and the courtyard glowed brightly with the glory of the LORD.

⁵The moving wings of the cherubim sounded like the voice of God Almighty and could be heard even in the outer courtyard.

⁶The LORD said to the man in linen clothing, “Go between the cherubim and take some burning coals from between the wheels.” So the man went in and stood beside one of the wheels.

⁷Then one of the cherubim reached out his hand and took some live coals from the fire burning among them. He put the coals into the hands of the man in linen clothing, and the man took them and went out.

⁸(All the cherubim had what looked like human hands under their wings.)

⁹I looked, and each of the four cherubim had a wheel beside him, and the wheels sparkled like beryl.

¹⁰All four wheels looked alike and were made the same; each wheel had a second wheel turning crosswise within it.

¹¹The cherubim could move in any of the four directions they faced, without turning as they moved. They went straight in the direction they faced, never turning aside.

¹²Both the cherubim and the wheels were covered with eyes. The cherubim had eyes all over their bodies, including their hands, their backs, and their wings.

¹³I heard someone refer to the wheels as “the whirling wheels.”

¹⁴Each of the four cherubim had four faces: the first was the face of an ox, the second was a human face, the third was the face of a lion, and the fourth was the face of an eagle.

¹⁵Then the cherubim rose upward. These were the same living beings I had seen beside the Kebar River.

¹⁶When the cherubim moved, the wheels moved with them. When they lifted their wings to fly, the wheels stayed beside them.

¹⁷When the cherubim stopped, the wheels stopped. When they flew upward, the wheels rose up, for the spirit of the living beings was in the wheels.

¹⁸Then the glory of the LORD moved out from the entrance of the Temple and hovered above the cherubim.

¹⁹And as I watched, the cherubim flew with their wheels to the east gate of the LORD’s Temple. And the glory of the God of Israel hovered above them.

²⁰These were the same living beings I had seen beneath the God of Israel when I was by the Kebar River. I knew they were cherubim,

²¹for each had four faces and four wings and what looked like human hands under their wings.

²²And their faces were just like the faces of the beings I had seen at the Kebar, and they traveled straight ahead, just as the others had.