The Babylonian Exile

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

He said to me, "Human being, dig into the wall." After digging in the wall, I saw a door.

"Go in," he said, "and see the wicked practices they are engaged in here."

So I went in and looked, and there, carved on the walls all around, were every kind of reptile and repulsive animal, along with all the idols of the house of Isra'el.

Standing in front of them were seventy of the leading men of the house of Isra'el - in the center stood Ya'azanyahu the son of Shafan. Each man had his incense-burner in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense went up.

Then he said to me, "Human being, did you see what the leaders of the house of Isra'el are doing in the dark, each one in the room of his own carved image, because they say, 'ADONAI can't see us; ADONAI has left the land.'?"

He also said to me, "You will see even worse abominations that they are doing."

He brought me to the entrance of the north gate to ADONAI's house; and there before me were women weeping for Tammuz.

"Human being," he asked me, "have you seen this? You will see practices even more disgusting than these."

He brought me into the inner courtyard of ADONAI's house; and there, at the entrance to the temple of ADONAI, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of ADONAI and their faces toward the east; and they were worshipping the sun toward the east.

He asked me, "Human being, have you seen this? Does the house of Y'hudah consider it a casual matter that they commit the disgusting practices they are committing here, thus filling the land with violence, provoking me still more? Look! They are even putting the branch to their nose!

Therefore I will act in fury, my eye will not spare, I will have no pity. Even if they cry loudly right in my ears, I will not listen to them."

Then he cried loudly right in my ears: "Summon the commanders of the city, each holding his weapon of destruction."

At once, six men approached on the path from the upper gate, to the north, each man holding his weapon of destruction. Among them was a man clothed in linen, with a scribe's writing equipment at his waist. They entered and stood by the bronze altar.

Then the glory of the God of Isra'el was made to go up from over the keruv, where it had been, to the threshold of the house. He called to the man clothed in linen, who had the scribe's writing equipment at his waist.

ADONAI said to him, "Go throughout the city, through all Yerushalayim, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who are sighing and crying over all the disgusting practices that are being committed in it."

To the others I heard him say, "Go through the city after him and strike! Don't let your eye spare; have no pity!

Kill old men, young men, girls, little children, women - slaughter them all! But don't go near anyone with the mark. Begin at my sanctuary." They began with the leaders in front of the house.

Then he said to them, "Defile the house! Fill the courtyards with corpses! Get going!" So they went out, spreading death in the city.

While the killing was going on, I was left alone. I fell on my face, cried, and said, "Oh, Adonai ELOHIM! In pouring out your fury on Yerushalayim, are you going to destroy everyone left in Isra'el?"

Then he said to me, "The wickedness of the house of Isra'el and Y'hudah is enormous, the land is full of blood, and the city is full of justice denied; because they say, 'ADONAI has left the land, ADONAI doesn't see.'

But as far as I am concerned, my eye will not spare, and I will have no pity, but I will bring [the consequences of] their ways on their own heads."

At this point the man clothed in linen with the writing equipment at his waist returned and reported, "I have done everything you ordered me to do."

Then I looked, and suddenly, on the dome over the heads of the k'ruvim, there appeared above them something like sapphire that seemed to take the form of a throne.

He spoke to the man clothed in linen; he said, "Go in between the wheels under the k'ruvim, fill both your hands with fiery coals from between the k'ruvim, and throw them on the city." As I watched, he went.