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¹ AND it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting before me, that the hand of the LORD God fell there upon me.² Then I beheld, and 1o, a likeness as of the appearance of fire; from the loins and downward, fire; and from his loins and upward, brightness, as the appearance of God.³ And he put forth the form of a hand, and caught me by a lock of my head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in a vision of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looks toward the north; where stood the image of lust, which provokes to lust.⁴ And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision which I saw in the plain.⁵ Then he said to me, Son of man, lift up your eyes now toward the way of the north. So I lifted up my eyes toward the way of the north, and behold, on the north side of the east gate stood the statue of lust in the entrance.⁶ 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.

⁷ And he brought me in to the door of the court; and I looked, and behold, there was a hole in the wall.⁸ Then he said to me, Son of man, dig in the wall; and when I had digged in the wall, behold, there I found a door.⁹ And he said to me, Go in and see the abominations and wicked things that they do here.¹⁰ So I went in and saw; and behold, every form of creeping things and abominable beasts and all the idols of the house of Israel portrayed upon the wall round about.¹¹ 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.¹² Then he said to me, Son of man, do you see the thing which the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, every man in his secret chamber? For they say, The LORD does not see us; because the LORD has forsaken the earth.

¹³ He said also to me, Turn round again, and you shall see greater abominations that they are doing.¹⁴ Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORDS house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.¹⁵ Then he said to me, Do you see this, O Son of man? Turn round again, and you shall see greater abominations than these.¹⁶ 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.¹⁷ 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.¹⁸ 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.