Each moved in straight directions. Wherever they decided to go, they went without turning themselves.

Whatever direction these spirits went, the wheels would be lifted up along with them, because the wheels were alive.

Then the Spirit lifted me up and carried me away. I went bitterly with an angry attitude as the hand of the LORD rested on me.

So I got up, went to the valley, and there was the glory of the LORD, standing there just like I had seen at the Chebar River. So I fell on my face.

All of a sudden, I noticed six men approaching from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north. Each of them held a destructive weapon in his hand. Among them there was one man, clothed in linen, who was equipped with a writing set at his side. They went in and presented themselves beside the bronze altar.

"Desecrate my Temple," he told them, "and fill its courtyard with the dead!" So they went out and began striking down people throughout the city.

He issued this order to the man who was clothed in white linen: "Take fire from within the whirling wheels, among the cherubim." So he went and stood beside the wheels.

When the cherubim moved, the wheels went alongside them. But when the cherubim started to ascend, beating their wings to rise above the earth, the wheels beside them didn't turn.

The cherubim lifted their wings and rose above the earth while I watched. They went out, along with their wheels, and stood at the entrance to the east gate of the LORD's Temple as the glory of Israel's God remained above, covering them.

The glory of the LORD went up from the middle of the city and stood on the mountain, east of the city.

Tell the Ammonites: "Listen to a message from the Lord GOD! This is what the Lord GOD says: "Because you have said, "Aha!' about my sanctuary when it was desecrated, about the land of Israel when it became desolate, and about the households of Judah when they went into exile,

Your merchandise went out over the oceans to satisfy many nations; with the abundance of your wealth you enriched the kings of the earth.

They also went down with it into Sheol, to those who had been killed violently and to those who had trusted in its strength by living in its shadow among the nations.

They won't be buried with dead warriors from ancient times, who went straight to Sheol, buried with their war weapons, with their swords placed under their heads and their shields laid on top of their bones, since they spread terror throughout the land of the living.

A message came to me from the LORD and it went like this:

The nations will also learn that because of Israel's sin the house of Israel went into captivity, since they were unfaithful in their behavior toward me. As a result, I hid my presence from them, turned them over to the control of their enemies, and they died by violence.

Then he went over to the gate that faced toward the east, ascended its steps, and measured its thresholds. One threshold measured one reed and the other one measured one reed.

Then he went inside and measured the door jambs at two cubits wide and the doorway at six cubits high. The doorway was seven cubits wide.

But the descendants of Levi, who went far away from me when Israel abandoned me, who left me to follow their idols, are to bear the punishment of their iniquity.

As the man went out toward the east, he carried a measuring line in his hand. He measured out 1,000 cubits as he led me through water that was ankle-deep.

It is to be for use by priests from the descendants of Zadok, who have observed the things with which I charged them and who did not wander astray when the Israelis went astray, just as the descendants of Levi wandered astray.