Study Desk

'As for the beauty of [gold for] ornaments, they turned it to pride and from it made the images of their repulsive things (idols) and of their vile things. Therefore I will make it an unclean thing to them.

'I will give it into the hands of strangers (Babylonians) as plunder and to the wicked of the earth as spoil, and they shall profane it.

'I will also turn My face away from them, and they will desecrate My secret treasure (the Jerusalem temple); and robbers will enter [irreverently] into it (the Holy of Holies) and violate it.

'Therefore, I will bring the worst of the [Gentile] nations, and they will take possession of their houses [those of the people of Judah]; I will also silence their pride, and their holy places will be profaned.

'Disaster will come upon disaster and rumor will be heaped on rumor; they will seek a vision from a prophet, but the law and guidance will be lost from the priest and [wise] counsel [will cease] from the elders.

'The king [of Judah] will mourn and the prince (Zedekiah) will be clothed with [garments of] despair and anguish, and the hands of the people of the land shall tremble [in terror]. I will deal with them in accordance with their conduct, and by their judgments I will judge them. And they will know [without any doubt] that I am the LORD.'"

And He said to me, "Go in and see the wicked, repulsive acts that they are committing here."

Standing before these [images] were seventy elders of the house of Israel, and among them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan [the scribe], each man with his censer in his hand and a thick and fragrant cloud of incense was rising [as they prayed to these gods].

So He brought me to the inner court of the LORD'S house. And behold, at the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the porch (vestibule, portico) and the [bronze] altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east; and they were bowing down toward the east and worshiping the sun.

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

"Therefore, I indeed will deal in wrath. My eye will have no pity nor will I spare [them]; and though they cry loudly in My ears, yet I will not listen to them."

Behold, six men [angelic beings] came from the direction of the Upper Gate, which faces north, each with his battle-axe in his hand; and among them was a certain man clothed in linen, with a scribe's writing case at his side. They entered and stood beside the bronze altar.

"Utterly slay old men, young men, maidens, little children, and women; but do not touch or go near anyone on whom is the mark. Begin at My sanctuary." So they began with the old men who were in front of the temple [who did not have the LORD'S mark on their foreheads].

And He said to the executioners, "Defile the temple and fill its courtyards with the dead. Go out!" So they went out and struck down the people in the city.

As they were executing them and I alone was left, I fell face downward and cried out, "Alas, Lord GOD! Will You destroy all that is left of Israel [the whole remnant] by pouring out Your wrath and indignation on Jerusalem?"

Then He said to me, "The wickedness (guilt) of the house of Israel and Judah is extremely great; the land is full of blood and the city is full of perversion and injustice; for they say, 'The LORD has abandoned the land; the LORD does not see [what we are doing].'

When the cherubim stood still, the wheels would stand still; and when they rose upward, the wheels would rise with them, for the spirit of the living beings was in these [wheels].

As I looked at them, the cherubim lifted up their wings and rose up from the earth, they departed with the wheels beside them; and they stood still at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the LORD, and the glory and brilliance of the God of Israel hovered over them.

These are the living beings that I saw beneath the God of Israel by the River Chebar; and I knew that they were cherubim.

"Therefore say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Though I had removed Israel far away among the nations and though I had scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary for them for a little while in the countries to which they had gone."'