Ezekiel 8 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day — I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting right there with me — when the hand of Yahweh, the Sovereign One, fell on me.

I looked — and there, a figure that blazed like fire. From what appeared to be his waist downward: fire. From his waist upward: something like the glow of white-hot metal.

He stretched out what looked like a hand and seized me by the hair of my head. Then the Breath of God lifted me up between earth and sky and carried me — in these visions from God — to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the inner gate that faces north. And there stood the idol that provokes jealousy, the one that stokes fury.

And there — the glory of the God of Israel, just as I had seen it in the valley vision.

And he said to me, "Son of man — look north." So I looked north, and there at the entrance to the altar gate: this idol of jealousy, right there at the way in.

He said, "Son of man, do you see what they're doing? The terrible things the house of Israel is doing here — driving me far from my own sacred place? But wait. You'll see things even more terrible than this."

Then he brought me to the entrance of the courtyard, and I looked — there, a hole in the wall.

He said, "Son of man, dig through the wall." So I dug through the wall, and there — an opening.

He said, "Go in. See the vile, terrible things they are doing here."

So I went in and looked — and there, carved all over the walls: every kind of crawling creature and detestable animal, and every idol of the house of Israel.

Standing in front of them: seventy elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them. Each one held a censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense rose up.

He said to me, "Do you see, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark — each in his own room of carved images? They tell themselves, 'Yahweh doesn't see us. Yahweh has abandoned the land.'"

Then he said, "You will see even more terrible things they are doing."

He brought me to the entrance of the north gate of Yahweh's house — and there, women sitting, weeping for Tammuz.

He said, "Do you see this, son of man? You will see things even more terrible than these."

He brought me into the inner courtyard of Yahweh's house — and there, at the entrance to the temple of Yahweh, between the porch and the altar: about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of Yahweh and their faces toward the east, bowing down to the sun.

He said, "Do you see this, son of man? Is it not enough for the house of Judah to commit the vile things they've done here — they also fill the land with violence and provoke me again and again? Look — they even thrust the branch to their nose."

So I will act in fury. My eye will not spare them, and I will show no compassion. Even when they cry out in my ears at full volume — I will not listen to them.