Study Desk

Calamity shall come upon calamity, and rumor shall be upon rumor; then they shall seek a vision from the prophets; but the law shall perish from the priests, and counsel from the elders.

The king shall sit in mourning and the prince shall be clothed with desolation and the hands of the people of the land shall tremble; I will do to them according to their evil way, and according to their own judgments will I judge them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

And he said to me, Son of man, do you see what they are doing, even the great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here, for they have gone far off from my sanctuary? But turn round again, and you shall see greater abominations which they are doing.

And he said to me, Go in and see the abominations and wicked things that they do here.

And there stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, and they were standing before him every man his censer in his hand; and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up.

He said also to me, Turn round again, and you shall see greater abominations that they are doing.

And he brought me into the inner court of the LORDS house, and behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, there stood about twenty-five men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.

Then he said to me, Do you see this, O Son of man? Is it a little thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with iniquity, and have returned to provoke me to anger; and they sneer at me.

Therefore I will also deal in my fury; my eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet I will not listen to them.

And behold, six men came from the way of the upper gate, which looks toward the north, and every man had his destroying weapons in his hand; and there was a man among them clothed with linen, and his loins were girded with girdles of sapphire; and they went in and stood beside the bronze altar.

Slay utterly old and young, both virgins and little children and women; but touch not any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. So they began with the elders who stood in front of the house.

And it came to pass, when they had slain them, I was left; and I fell upon my face and cried with a loud voice mournfully, and said, Ah LORD God, wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel? Wilt thou pour out thy fury upon Jerusalem?

Then he said to me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, the land is full of blood and the city full of treachery; for they said, The LORD has forsaken the earth and the LORD does not see us.

And their whole body and their backs and their hands and their wings and the wheels were full of eyes when they turned on their sides.

When they stood, these stood; and when they were lifted up, these were lifted up also; when the cherubim lifted their wings, the wheels also lifted up with them; for the spirit of life was in them.

And the cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight; when they went out, the wheels also were beside them, and they stood at the door of the east gate of the LORDS house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them.

These were the living creatures that I saw under the God of Israel by the river Chebar; and I knew that they were the cherubim.

And as for the likeness of their faces, they were like the same faces that I saw by the river Chebar, and their appearance was the same; they went every one straight forward.

Therefore thus says the LORD God: Your slain whom you have laid in the midst of it, they are the meat, and this city is the caldron; but I will bring you forth out of the midst of it.

Therefore say, Thus says the LORD God: I will cast them far off among the Gentiles, and I will scatter them among the countries, nevertheless I will be to them a little sanctuary in the countries where they have gone.