Ezekiel 7:22

“Therefore I will scatter them, as the stubble that passes away, by the wind of the wilderness.

Yahweh said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.

An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into Yahweh’s assembly; even to the tenth generation shall no one belonging to them enter into Yahweh’s assembly forever,

You say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness?

The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No eye will see me.’ He disguises his face.

Why do you stand far off, Yahweh? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

To you, Yahweh, I call. My rock, don’t be deaf to me, lest, if you are silent to me, I would become like those who go down into the pit.

who tell wood, ‘You are my father,’ and a stone, ‘You have given birth to me,’ for they have turned their back to me, and not their face; but in the time of their trouble they will say, ‘Arise, and save us!’

“We are confounded, because we have heard reproach. Confusion has covered our faces, for strangers have come into the sanctuaries of Yahweh’s house.”

‘Speak to the house of Israel, “The Lord Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul pities; and your sons and your daughters whom you have left behind will fall by the sword.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

The east wind carries him away, and he departs. It sweeps him out of his place.

With the east wind, you break the ships of Tarshish.

Behold, they spew with their mouth. Swords are in their lips, “For”, they say, “who hears us?”

God, don’t keep silent. Don’t keep silent, and don’t be still, God.

“For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight,” says Yahweh. “They have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it.

Listen to those who flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of Yahweh our God, the vengeance of his temple.

Moreover this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my Sabbaths.

Though he is fruitful among his brothers, an east wind will come, the breath of Yahweh coming up from the wilderness; and his spring will become dry, and his fountain will be dried up. He will plunder the storehouse of treasure.

I will lay your cities waste, and will bring your sanctuaries to desolation. I will not take delight in the sweet fragrance of your offerings.

On that day they read in the book of Moses in the hearing of the people; and it was found written in it that an Ammonite and a Moabite should not enter into the assembly of God forever,

Don’t be far from me, for trouble is near. For there is no one to help.

Don’t forsake me, Yahweh. My God, don’t be far from me.

God, don’t be far from me. My God, hurry to help me.

They say, “How does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”

They say, “Yah will not see, neither will Jacob’s God consider.”

Our holy and our beautiful house where our fathers praised you is burned with fire. All our pleasant places are laid waste.

I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy. I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.

Moreover I will give all the riches of this city, and all its gains, and all its precious things, yes, I will give all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies. They will make them captives, take them, and carry them to Babylon.

Can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I can’t see him?” says Yahweh. “Don’t I fill heaven and earth?” says Yahweh.

They have turned their backs to me, and not their faces. Although I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not listened to receive instruction.

Also her hired men in the middle of her are like calves of the stall; for they also are turned back. They have fled away together. They didn’t stand, for the day of their calamity has come on them, the time of their visitation.

Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that were from the days of old; when her people fell into the hand of the adversary, and no one helped her. The adversaries saw her. They mocked at her desolations.

Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his rooms of imagery? For they say, ‘Yahweh doesn’t see us. Yahweh has forsaken the land.’ ”

He said to them, “Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out!” They went out, and struck in the city.

Then he said to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perversion; for they say, ‘Yahweh has forsaken the land, and Yahweh doesn’t see.’

“ ‘They will come there, and they will take away all its detestable things and all its abominations from there.

Your rowers have brought you into great waters. The east wind has broken you in the heart of the seas.

“This is the law of the house. On the top of the mountain the whole limit around it shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.

Yahweh has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “Surely I will never forget any of their works.

You who have purer eyes than to see evil, and who cannot look on perversity, why do you tolerate those who deal treacherously, and keep silent when the wicked swallows up the man who is more righteous than he,

Her prophets are arrogant and treacherous people. Her priests have profaned the sanctuary. They have done violence to the law.

If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, which you are.

He was afraid, and said, “How awesome this place is! This is none other than God’s house, and this is the gate of heaven.”

He said, “Don’t come close. Take off your sandals, for the place you are standing on is holy ground.”

“ ‘Thus you shall separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness, so they will not die in their uncleanness when they defile my tabernacle that is among them.’ ”

I also will set my face against that person, and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given of his offspring to Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name.

But the man who shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from among the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of Yahweh. The water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him. He is unclean.

He who is emasculated by crushing or cutting shall not enter into Yahweh’s assembly.

but I will send my servants to you tomorrow about this time, and they will search your house, and the houses of your servants; whatever is pleasant in your eyes, they will put it in their hand, and take it away.” ’ ”

He built altars in Yahweh’s house, of which Yahweh said, “I will put my name in Jerusalem.”

I will cast off the remnant of my inheritance, and deliver them into the hands of their enemies. They will become a prey and a plunder to all their enemies,

He burned Yahweh’s house, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, he burned with fire.

The Chaldeans broke up the pillars of bronze that were in Yahweh’s house and the bases and the bronze sea that were in Yahweh’s house, and carried the bronze pieces to Babylon.

In addition, because I have set my affection on the house of my God, since I have a treasure of my own of gold and silver, I give it to the house of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house,

So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem and took away the treasures of Yahweh’s house and the treasures of the king’s house. He took it all away. He also took away the shields of gold which Solomon had made.

But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ households, the old men who had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice. Many also shouted aloud for joy,

and I came to Jerusalem, and understood the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, in preparing him a room in the courts of God’s house.

He says in his heart, “God has forgotten. He hides his face. He will never see it.”

They came on me in the day of my calamity, but Yahweh was my support.

You have seen it, Yahweh. Don’t keep silent. Lord, don’t be far from me.

Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines out.

They encourage themselves in evil plans. They talk about laying snares secretly. They say, “Who will see them?”

Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins, all the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary.

God, the nations have come into your inheritance. They have defiled your holy temple. They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.

Your statutes stand firm. Holiness adorns your house, Yahweh, forever more.

Exalt Yahweh, our God. Worship at his holy hill, for Yahweh, our God, is holy!

Your holy people possessed it but a little while. Our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary.

therefore I will do to the house which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.

Do not abhor us, for your name’s sake. Do not disgrace the throne of your glory. Remember, and don’t break your covenant with us.

My mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures for a plunder, and your high places, because of sin, throughout all your borders.

while men come to fight with the Chaldeans, and to fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I have killed in my anger and in my wrath, and for all whose wickedness I have hidden my face from this city:

The Chaldeans burned the king’s house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem.

The Chaldeans broke the pillars of bronze that were in Yahweh’s house, and the bases and the bronze sea that were in Yahweh’s house in pieces, and carried all of their bronze to Babylon.

The adversary has spread out his hand on all her pleasant things; for she has seen that the nations have entered into her sanctuary, concerning whom you commanded that they should not enter into your assembly.

How has the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger! He has cast the beauty of Israel down from heaven to the earth, and hasn’t remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.

The Lord has cast off his altar. He has abhorred his sanctuary. He has given the walls of her palaces into the hand of the enemy. They have made a noise in Yahweh’s house, as in the day of a solemn assembly.

Therefore as I live,’ says the Lord Yahweh, ‘surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things, and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you. My eye won’t spare, and I will have no pity.

As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty; but they made the images of their abominations and their detestable things therein. Therefore I have made it to them as an unclean thing.

Heap on the wood. Make the fire hot. Boil the meat well. Make the broth thick, and let the bones be burned.

“Forces will stand on his part, and they will profane the sanctuary, even the fortress, and will take away the continual burnt offering. Then they will set up the abomination that makes desolate.

‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Isn’t it in your eyes as nothing?

For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city will be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city will go out into captivity, and the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.

But when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not” (let the reader understand), “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains,

Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “This man, if he were a prophet, would have perceived who and what kind of woman this is who touches him, that she is a sinner.”