8:1 And it came about in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth of the month,¹ as I was sitting in my house and the elders of Judah were sitting before me, the hand of the Lord GOD fell upon me there. 8:2 I saw a form which had the appearance of a man² from his loins downward it had the appearance of fire, and from his loins upward it had the appearance of brightness like a glowing substance.³ 8:3 The form⁴ of a hand stretched out and took me by a lock of my hair;⁵ the spirit lifted me between the earth and the heavens and brought me to Jerusalem in visions of God to the door of the inner gate which faces north, where the seat of the statue which provokes to jealously was. 8:4 And there was the glory of the God of Israel, like the appearance which I saw in the valley. 8:5 And he said to me, “Son of man, lift up your eyes toward⁶ the north.” And I lifted up my eyes toward the north, and at the entrance, north of the altar gate, was this image of jealously. 8:6 He said to me, “Son of man do you see what they are doing, great abominations which the house of Israel are committing here to drive me far from my sanctuary? And yet you will see greater abominations.” 8:7 He brought me to the entrance of the court; and there I saw a hole in the wall. 8:8 He said to me, “Son of man, dig into the wall.” I dug into the wall, and there was an entrance. 8:9 He said to me, “Go and see the evil abominations which they are committing here.” 8:10 I went in and saw that there were every form of creeping thing, and beast, and detestable thing, and all of the idols of the house of Israel engraved on the wall all around,⁷ 8:11 and seventy men from the elders of the house of Israel,⁸ and Jaazaniah son of Shapan were standing in their midst before them. Each had a censer in his hand, the smell⁹ of the cloud of incense¹⁰ was ascending. 8:12 He said to me, “Do you see, Son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in darkness, each in the rooms of the images?¹¹ For they say, ‘The LORD does not see us. The LORD has abandoned the land.’“ 8:13 He said to me, “ You will yet see greater abominations which they are committing.” 8:14 Then he brought me to the entrance of the gate of the house of Judah which is on the north, and there were woman sitting there weeping for Tammuz.¹² 8:15 He said to me, “Do you see, Son of man? You will see greater abominations than these.” 8:16 He brought me to the inner court of the house of Judah; there at the entrance of the temple between the porch and the altar¹³ were about twenty-five¹⁴ men, with their backs to the temple of the LORD,¹⁵ whose faces turned east and they were worshipping the sun¹⁶ toward the east. 8:17 He said to me, “Do you see, Son of man? Is it trifling that the house of Israel does these abominations which they are committing here? For they fill the land with violence and provoke me to anger still further. See, they are putting the twig to their nose!¹⁷ 8:18 Therefore I will act¹⁸ in wrath, my eye will not pity, I will not spare. Though they cry with a great sound in my ears, I will not hear them.