Study Desk

In 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.

The descendants also are impudent and stubborn: I send you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God .'

And 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."

But 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.

Then 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."

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

Therefore 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,

therefore 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.

Therefore, 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.

and 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.

Thus 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.

"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.

"Thus says the Lord God : Disaster after disaster! Behold, it comes.

In 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.

He 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.

And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the valley.

Now 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.

And 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?"

And 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.

And 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.