Immerse: Prophets - Flipbook - Page 341
9:6–10:12
E ze k iel
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city and kill everyone whose forehead is not marked. Show no mercy; have
no pity! 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.
“Defile the Temple!” the Lord commanded. “Fill its courtyards with
corpses. Go!” So they went and began killing throughout the city.
While they were out killing, I was all alone. I fell face down on the
ground and cried out, “O Sovereign Lord! Will your fury against Jerusa
lem wipe out everyone left in Israel?”
Then he said to me, “The sins of the people of Israel and Judah are very,
very great. The entire land is full of murder; the city is filled with injustice.
They are saying, ‘The Lord doesn’t see it! The Lord has abandoned the
land!’ So I will not spare them or have any pity on them. I will fully repay
them for all they have done.”
Then the man in linen clothing, who carried the writer’s case, reported
back and said, “I have done as you commanded.”
In my vision I saw what appeared to be a throne of blue lapis lazuli above
the crystal surface over the heads of the cherubim. Then the Lord spoke
to the man in linen clothing and said, “Go between the whirling wheels
beneath the cherubim, and take a handful of burning coals and scatter
them over the city.” He did this as I watched.
The cherubim were standing at the south end of the Temple when the
man went in, and the cloud of glory filled the inner courtyard. Then the
glory of the Lord rose up from above the cherubim and went over to
the entrance of the Temple. The Temple was filled with this cloud of glory,
and the courtyard glowed brightly with the glory of the Lord. The mov
ing wings of the cherubim sounded like the voice of God Almighty and
could be heard even in the outer courtyard.
The Lord said to the man in linen clothing, “Go between the cherubim
and take some burning coals from between the wheels.” So the man went
in and stood beside one of the wheels. Then one of the cherubim reached
out his hand and took some live coals from the fire burning among them.
He put the coals into the hands of the man in linen clothing, and the man
took them and went out. (All the cherubim had what looked like human
hands under their wings.)
I looked, and each of the four cherubim had a wheel beside him, and
the wheels sparkled like beryl. All four wheels looked alike and were made
the same; each wheel had a second wheel turning crosswise within it. The
cherubim could move in any of the four directions they faced, without
turning as they moved. They went straight in the direction they faced,
never turning aside. Both the cherubim and the wheels were covered with
