The Lord shows Ezekiel what the people are doing
1I was sitting in my house and the leaders_of_Judah sat before me. It was the 5th day of the 6th month of the 6th year after we had become prisoners in Babylon. I felt the Lord, who is God, put his hand on me. 2I saw someone who looked like fire. There was something that looked like his hips and under his hips was also fire. Above his hips it looked like metal that was shining very brightly. 3It looked as if the person put out his hand and touched my hair. The Spirit lifted me up between heaven and earth and He took me to Jerusalem. These were the things that God showed me. He took me to the North Gate of the inner courtyard of the temple where the image that made the Lord very angry was standing. 4Then I saw the glory of the King, the God of Israel. It was the same as the vision that I saw in the valley.
5The Lord said to me: ‘Son of man, look towards the north.’
I looked towards the north and then I saw the image that made God so angry at the altar. It was at the northern side of the gate where people went into the temple.
6The Lord said to me: ‘Son of man, do you see what they are doing? Do you see what bad things the Israelites do that make Me go far away from my temple? But you will see even worse things.’
7Then He took me to the door of the courtyard and there was a hole in the wall. 8The Lord said to me: ‘Son of man, you must make the hole bigger so that you can go through the hole.’
I did and then I saw a door. 9The Lord said to me: ‘Go and look at all the bad things they are doing there.’
10I went and I saw that people had drawn a lot of pictures all over the walls and they had written things on it. They were drawings of ugly animals, small animals and big animals and drawings of all the idols of the Israelites. 11There were 70 leaders_of_Israel standing in front of the drawings and Jaazaniah, son of Shaphan, was standing among them. Each leader had an incense pan in his hand and the smoke of the incense went up from the pans.
12Then the Lord said to me: ‘Son of man, what do you see the leaders_of_Israel doing in the dark, each one of them in his room full of idols? They think I can not see them. They think the Lord has gone away and left the land.’
13But then the Lord said to me: ‘You will see worse things than they are doing.’
14Then the Lord took me to the door at the northern gate of the temple and I saw women sitting and crying for the idol Tammuz. 15The Lord said to me: ‘Son of man, do you see what they are doing? You will see worse things than these.’
16And He took me into the inner courtyard of the temple. There were about 25 men standing with their backs to the temple. They were looking to the east and they bowed down to the sun in the east. They were at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar.
17Then the Lord said to me: ‘Son of man, do you see what they are doing? The people of Judah are doing very bad things here, but they are doing even worse things at other places. They have also done bad things to people all over the land. And then they come and they make Me angry. They put rings in their noses and make Me even more angry. 18Now I will do something to them. I am angry and I will not forgive them. I will not feel sorry for them. They will shout_loudly and ask Me for help, but I will not do what they ask.’
