a message from the LORD came directly to Buzi's son Ezekiel, the priest, by the Chebar River in the land of the Chaldeans. The hand of the LORD rested upon him there.

"Son of Man, what's this proverb you have concerning Israel's land that says, "The days pass slowly and every vision ends in nothing.'?

"If I were to make wild animals pass throughout the land, so that they kill its residents and it were to become desolate because no one will travel through it due to those wild animals,

"Or if I were to bring war to that land and say, "Hey, sword! Pass throughout the land so I can destroy both man and beasts in it,'

I made them unclean because of their offerings, so they made all their firstborn to pass through the fire, so that I could make them astonished. Then they'll know that I am the LORD."

When you present your gifts and make your sons pass through the fire, you continue to defile yourselves with your idols to this day. Should I be inquired of by you, you house of Israel? As I live," declares the LORD, "I certainly won't be inquired of by you."

"I'll cause you to pass under the rod until I will have brought you into the bond of the covenant.

because they've committed adultery, and blood covers their hands. They've also committed adultery with their idols, making their sons born to me to pass through the fire as an offering to them.

"Now the coastland inhabitants will tremble on the day that you fall. The coastland inhabitants, who make their living from the sea, will be terrified when you pass away!'

The altar was made of wood, three cubits high and two cubits long. Its corners, base, and sides were of wood. He told me, "This table stands in the LORD's presence."

"Here are the measurements of the altar in cubits that were a cubit and a handbreadth long: its base is a cubit long and a cubit wide, and its border around the edge at one handbreadth is to be the height of the altar.

From the base on the ground to its lower edge is to be two cubits, with its width to be one cubit. From the lesser ledge to the larger edge is to be four cubits. Its width is to be one cubit.

It is to have a ledge fourteen cubits long by fourteen cubits wide around the four sides. Its border is to be half a cubit and its base is to be a cubit all around, with its steps facing east."