God asked me, "Mortal man, do you see what the Israelite leaders are doing in secret? They are all worshiping in a room full of images. Their excuse is: 'The LORD doesn't see us! He has abandoned the country.' "

The LORD said to me, "Mortal man, do you see that? These people of Judah are not satisfied with merely doing all the disgusting things you have seen here and with spreading violence throughout the country. No, they must come and do them right here in the Temple and make me even more angry. Look how they insult me in the most offensive way possible!

When Josiah was king, the LORD said to me, "Have you seen what Israel, that unfaithful woman, has done? She has turned away from me, and on every high hill and under every green tree she has acted like a prostitute.

Don't you see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

He told me, "Go in and look at the evil, disgusting things they are doing there."

The LORD said to me, "Mortal man, do you see that? These people of Judah are not satisfied with merely doing all the disgusting things you have seen here and with spreading violence throughout the country. No, they must come and do them right here in the Temple and make me even more angry. Look how they insult me in the most offensive way possible!

"Therefore, as I am the living God---this is the word of the Sovereign LORD ---because you defiled my Temple with all the evil, disgusting things you did, I will cut you down without mercy.

Once they were proud of their beautiful jewels, but they used them to make disgusting idols. That is why the LORD has made their wealth repulsive to them.

I will not interfere when my treasured Temple is profaned, when robbers break into it and defile it.

And that is not all they did. They profaned my Temple and broke the Sabbath, which I had established.

The very day that they killed my children as sacrifices to idols, they came to my Temple and profaned it!

Then Josiah ordered the High Priest Hilkiah, his assistant priests, and the guards on duty at the entrance to the Temple to bring out of the Temple all the objects used in the worship of Baal, of the goddess Asherah, and of the stars. The king burned all these objects outside the city near Kidron Valley and then had the ashes taken to Bethel.

He removed from the Temple the symbol of the goddess Asherah, took it out of the city to Kidron Valley, burned it, pounded its ashes to dust, and scattered it over the public burying ground.

And suddenly I found myself publicly disgraced."

"The people of Judah have done an evil thing. They have placed their idols, which I hate, in my Temple and have defiled it.

The LORD says, "The prophets and the priests are godless; I have caught them doing evil in the Temple itself.

They even placed their disgusting idols in the Temple built for my worship, and they have defiled it.

They spread their wings and flew up from the earth while I was watching, and the wheels went with them. They paused at the east gate of the Temple, and the dazzling light was over them.

The living creatures began to fly, and the wheels went with them. The dazzling light of the presence of the God of Israel was over them.

The LORD said to Moses, "You will soon die, and after your death the people will become unfaithful to me and break the covenant that I made with them. They will abandon me and worship the pagan gods of the land they are about to enter.

And I will refuse to help them then, because they have done evil and worshiped other gods.

In addition, the leaders of Judah, the priests, and the people followed the sinful example of the nations around them in worshiping idols, and so they defiled the Temple, which the LORD himself had made holy.

But they made fun of God's messengers, ignoring his words and laughing at his prophets, until at last the LORD's anger against his people was so great that there was no escape.

He abandoned his tent in Shiloh, the home where he had lived among us.

If you continue to disobey, then I will do to this Temple what I did to Shiloh, and all the nations of the world will use the name of this city as a curse."

He smashed to pieces the Temple where we worshiped him; He has put an end to holy days and Sabbaths. King and priest alike have felt the force of his anger.

The Lord rejected his altar and deserted his holy Temple; He allowed the enemy to tear down its walls. They shouted in victory where once we had worshiped in joy.

Seventy Israelite leaders were there, including Jaazaniah son of Shaphan. Each one was holding an incense burner, and smoke was rising from the incense.

So he took me to the north gate of the Temple and showed me women weeping over the death of the god Tammuz.

So he took me to the inner courtyard of the Temple. There near the entrance of the sanctuary, between the altar and the porch, were about twenty-five men. They had turned their backs to the sanctuary and were bowing low toward the east, worshiping the rising sun.