Study Desk

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

They are obstinate and hardhearted children. I am sending you to them, and you are to say to them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says.'

Go to your people, the exiles; speak to them and tell them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says,' whether they listen or refuse to listen."

But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you are to tell them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says.' Whoever listens, let him listen; and whoever refuses, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.

"Ah, Lord GOD," I said, "I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth."

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

Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: 'You have been more insubordinate than the nations around you; you have not walked in My statutes or kept My ordinances; nor have you even conformed to the ordinances of the nations around you.'

Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: 'Behold, I Myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations.

Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and abominations, I Myself will withdraw My favor; I will not look upon you with pity, nor will I spare you.

You are to say: 'O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD! This is what the Lord GOD says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and 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, stomp your feet, and cry "Alas!" because of all the wicked abominations of the house of Israel, who will fall by sword, famine, and plague.

"O son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says to the land of Israel: 'The end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land.

This is what the Lord GOD says: 'Disaster! An unprecedented disaster-behold, it is coming!

In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day, I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting before me; and there the hand of the Lord GOD fell upon me.

He stretched out what looked like 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 north gate of the inner court, where the idol that provokes jealousy was located.

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

Then the glory of the God of Israel rose from above the cherubim, where it had been, and moved to the threshold of the temple. And He called to the man clothed in linen who had the writing kit at his side.

While they were killing, I was left alone. And I fell facedown and cried out, "Oh, Lord GOD, when You pour out Your wrath on Jerusalem, will You destroy the entire remnant of Israel?"

The sound of the wings of the cherubim could be heard as far as the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when He speaks.

As I watched, the cherubim lifted their wings and rose up from the ground, with the wheels beside them as they went. And they stopped at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the LORD, with the glory of the God of Israel above them.