Study Desk

'Disaster will come upon disaster and rumor will be added to rumor; then they will seek a vision from a prophet, but the Law will be lost from the priest, and counsel from the elders.

'The king will mourn, the prince will be clothed in horror, and the hands of the people of the land will tremble. I will deal with them because of their conduct, and by their judgments I will judge them. And they will know that I am the LORD.'"

And He said to me, "Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations which the house of Israel are committing here, so that I would be far from My sanctuary? But yet you will see still greater abominations!"

Then He said to me, "Go in and see the wicked abominations that they are committing here."

And He said to me, "Yet you will see still greater abominations which they are committing!"

Then He brought me into the inner courtyard of the LORD'S house. And behold, at the entrance to 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 while their faces were toward the east; and they were prostrating themselves eastward toward the sun.

And He said to me, "Do you see this, son of man? Is it a trivial thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they have committed here, that they have filled the land with violence and provoked Me to anger repeatedly? Yet behold, they are putting the twig to their nose!

"Therefore, I indeed will deal in wrath. My eye will have no pity nor will I spare; and though they cry out in My ears with a loud voice, yet I will not listen to them."

And behold, six men came from the direction of the upper gate which faces north, each with his smashing weapon in his hand; and among them was one man clothed in linen with a scribe's kit at his waist. And they came in and stood beside the bronze altar.

"Utterly kill old men, young men, female virgins, little children, and women, but do not touch any person on whom is the mark; and you shall start from My sanctuary." So they started with the elders who were before the temple.

He also said to them, "Defile the temple and fill the courtyards with the dead. Go out!" So they went out and struck and killed the people in the city.

And as they were striking the people and I alone was left, I fell on my face and cried out, saying, "Oh, Lord GOD! Are You going to destroy the entire remnant of Israel by pouring out Your wrath on Jerusalem?"

Then He said to me, "The guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is very, very great, and the land is filled with blood, and the city is full of perversion; for they say, 'The LORD has abandoned the land, and the LORD does not see!'

When the cherubim stood still, the wheels would stand still; and when they rose up, the wheels would rise with them, because the spirit of the living beings was in them.

When the cherubim departed, they lifted their wings and rose up from the ground in my sight with the wheels beside them; and they stood still at the entrance of the east gate of the LORD'S house, and the glory of the God of Israel hovered over them.

"Therefore say, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: "Though I had removed them far away among the nations, and though I had scattered them among the countries, yet I was a sanctuary for them for a little while in the countries where they had gone."'

"When they come there, they will remove all its detestable things and all its abominations from it.

so that they may walk in My statutes, and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God.

"So as for you, son of man, prepare for yourself baggage for exile and go into exile by day in their sight; that is, go into exile from your place to another place in their sight. Perhaps they will understand, though they are a rebellious house.

"The prince who is among them will load his baggage on his shoulder in the dark and go out. They will dig a hole through the wall to bring it out through it. He will cover his face so that he cannot see the land with his eyes.