Scriptures

New Living Translation (NLT)

Ezekiel 8
¹⁴ He brought me to the north gate of the LORD’s Temple, and some women were sitting there, weeping for the god Tammuz.
¹⁵ “Have you seen this?” he asked. “But I will show you even more detestable sins than these!”
¹⁶ Then he brought me into the inner courtyard of the LORD’s Temple. At the entrance to the sanctuary, between the entry room and the bronze altar, there were about twenty-five men with their backs to the sanctuary of the LORD. They were facing east, bowing low to the ground, worshiping the sun!
¹⁷ “Have you seen this, son of man?” he asked. “Is it nothing to the people of Judah that they commit these detestable sins, leading the whole nation into violence, thumbing their noses at me, and provoking my anger?
¹⁸ Therefore, I will respond in fury. I will neither pity nor spare them. And though they cry for mercy, I will not listen.”
Ezekiel 9
¹ Then the LORD thundered, “Bring on the men appointed to punish the city! Tell them to bring their weapons with them!”
² Six men soon appeared from the upper gate that faces north, each carrying a deadly weapon in his hand. With them was a man dressed in linen, who carried a writer’s case at his side. They all went into the Temple courtyard and stood beside the bronze altar.
³ Then the glory of the God of Israel rose up from between the cherubim, where it had rested, and moved to the entrance of the Temple. And the LORD called to the man dressed in linen who was carrying the writer’s case.
⁴ He said to him, “Walk through the streets of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of all who weep and sigh because of the detestable sins being committed in their city.”
⁵ Then I heard the LORD say to the other men, “Follow him through the city and kill everyone whose forehead is not marked. Show no mercy; have no pity!
⁶ Kill them all—old and young, girls and women and little children. But do not touch anyone with the mark. Begin right here at the Temple.” So they began by killing the seventy leaders.