Study Desk

But 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.”

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

“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—

therefore, 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.

“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.

You 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.

“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.

“Son of man, this is what the Lord God says to the land of Israel:

This is what the Lord God says:

In 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.

He 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.

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

Then 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.

While 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?”

The 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.

The 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.

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

“‘Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: The slain you have put within it are the meat, and the city is the pot, but I will take you out of it.

You fear the sword, so I will bring the sword against you. This is the declaration of the Lord God.

Now while I was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. Then I fell facedown and cried out loudly, “Oh, Lord God! You are bringing the remnant of Israel to an end!”