the word of the Lord came directly to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar Canal. And the Lord’s hand was on him there.

“Pass throughout the city of Jerusalem,” the Lord said to him, “and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the detestable practices committed in it.”

He spoke as I listened to the others, “Pass through the city after him and start killing; do not show pity or spare them!

But I, Yahweh, will speak whatever message I will speak, and it will be done. It will no longer be delayed. For in your days, rebellious house, I will speak a message and bring it to pass.” This is the declaration of the Lord God.

“If I allow dangerous animals to pass through the land and depopulate it so that it becomes desolate, with no one passing through it for fear of the animals,

“Or if I bring a sword against that land and say: Let a sword pass through it, so that I wipe out both man and animal from it,

“Son of man, pose a riddle and speak a parable to the house of Israel.

“Will you pass judgment against them, will you pass judgment, son of man? Explain the detestable practices of their fathers to them.

When they made every firstborn pass through the fire, I defiled them through their gifts in order to devastate them so they would know that I am Yahweh.

When you offer your gifts, making your children pass through the fire, you continue to defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. So should I be consulted by you, house of Israel? As I live”—this is the declaration of the Lord God—“I will not be consulted by you!

“I will make you pass under the rod and will bring you into the bond of the covenant.

“As for you, son of man, will you pass judgment? Will you pass judgment against the city of blood? Then explain all her detestable practices to her.

Then the Lord said to me: “Son of man, will you pass judgment against Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare their detestable practices to them.

For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands; they have committed adultery with their idols. They have even made the children they bore to Me pass through the fire as food for the idols.

No human foot will pass through it, and no animal foot will pass through it. It will be uninhabited for 40 years.

“They will appoint men on a full-time basis to pass through the land and bury the invaders who remain on the surface of the ground, in order to cleanse it. They will make their search at the end of the seven months.

When they pass through the land and one of them sees a human bone, he will set up a marker next to it until the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-gog.

At the base of these chambers there was an entryway on the east side as one enters them from the outer court.

“These are the measurements of the altar in units of length (each unit being the standard length plus three inches): the gutter is 21 inches deep and 21 inches wide, with a rim of nine inches around its edge. This is the base of the altar.

There was a stone wall around the inside of them, around the four of them, with ovens built at the base of the walls on all sides.