Study Desk

'They will fling their silver into the streets, and their gold will become an abhorrent thing; their silver and their gold will not be able to save them on the day of the wrath of the LORD. They cannot satisfy their appetite, nor can they fill their stomachs, because their wrongdoing has become a cause of stumbling.

'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.

Then I looked, and behold, something like the appearance of a man; from His waist and downward there was the appearance of fire, and from His waist and upward like the appearance of a glow, like gleaming metal.

And He extended the form of a hand and took me by the hair of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner courtyard, where the seat of the idol of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy, was located.

Then He brought me to the entrance of the courtyard, and when I looked, behold, a hole in the wall.

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."

Then He cried out in my presence with a loud voice, saying, "Come forward, you executioners of the city, each with his weapon of destruction in his hand."

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.

And the LORD said to him, "Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and make a mark on the foreheads of the people who groan and sigh over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst."

Then I looked, and behold, in the expanse that was over the heads of the cherubim something like a sapphire stone, in appearance resembling a throne, appeared above them.

And it came about when He commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, "Take fire from between the whirling wheels, from between the cherubim," he entered and stood beside a wheel.

The cherubim appeared to have something like a human hand under their wings.

Then I looked, and behold, four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside each cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was like the gleam of a Tarshish stone.

And each one had four faces. The first face was the face of a cherub, the second face was the face of a human, the third, the face of a lion, and the fourth, the face of an eagle.

"You have feared a sword; so I will bring a sword upon you," the Lord GOD declares.

"This city will not be a pot for you, nor will you be meat in the midst of it; I will judge you to the border of Israel.

Now it came about, as I prophesied, that Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. Then I fell on my face and cried out with a loud voice, and said, "Oh, Lord GOD! Will You bring the remnant of Israel to a complete destruction?"

"Son of man, your brothers, your relatives, your fellow exiles, and the entire house of Israel, all of them, are those to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, 'Keep far from the LORD; this land has been given to us as a possession.'

"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."'