1 It was in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth of the month: I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting in front of me, when the hand of the Lord GOD fell on me there.
2 I looked, and behold, a form that looked like fire. From what looked like his waist down there was fire, and from his waist up something like a radiance, like the shine of amber.
3 He reached out what looked like a hand and seized me by a lock of my hair; the Spirit lifted me up between earth and sky and brought me, in visions of God, to Jerusalem, to the doorway of the inner gate that faces north, where stood the seat of the image of jealousy that stirs up jealousy.
4 And there was the glory of the God of Israel, just like the vision I had seen in the valley.
5 He said to me, "Son of man, raise your eyes toward the north." I raised my eyes toward the north, and there, to the north of the altar gate, at the entry, was this image of jealousy.
6 He said to me, "Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations the house of Israel is committing here, so that I must go far from my sanctuary? Yet you will see greater abominations still."
7 Then he brought me to the doorway of the court, and when I looked, there was a hole in the wall.
8 He said to me, "Son of man, dig through the wall." I dug through the wall, and there was a doorway.
9 He said to me, "Go in and see the evil abominations they are committing here."
10 So I went in and looked, and there, engraved on the wall all around, was every kind of creeping thing and loathsome animal, and all the idols of the house of Israel.
11 Seventy men from the elders of the house of Israel were standing in front of them, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing in their midst, each with his censer in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising.
12 He said to me, "Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each in the room of his carved images? For they say, 'The LORD does not see us; the LORD has abandoned the land.'"
13 And he told me, "You will see them committing greater abominations still."
14 Then he brought me to the doorway of the gate of the LORD's house on the north side, and there sat women weeping for Tammuz.
15 He said to me, "Do you see this, Son of man? You will see greater abominations than these still."
16 Then he brought me into the inner court of the LORD's house, and there, at the doorway of the temple of the LORD, between the vestibule and the altar, were about twenty-five men, their backs to the temple of the LORD and their faces to the east, bowing eastward to the sun.
17 He said to me, "Do you see this, Son of man? Is it a small matter to the house of Judah to commit the abominations they are committing here, that they must also fill the land with violence and provoke me again and again? See, they are putting the branch to their nose.
18 So I too will deal with them in wrath. My eye will not spare and I will show no pity; they may shout in my ears with a loud voice, but I will not listen to them."