The Skeptics Annotated Bible (625 page)

17 All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water.

18 They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and
horror shall cover them
; and shame shall be upon all faces,
and baldness upon all their heads.

(7.18) “Horror shall cover them … and baldness upon all their heads.”

19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

20 As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty: but they made the images of their abominations and of their detestable things therein: therefore have I set it far from them.

21 And
I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall pollute it
.

(7.21) “I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall pollute it.”

22
My face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute my secret place: for the robbers shall enter into it, and defile it.

(7.22)
“My face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute my secret place: for the robbers shall enter into it, and defile it.”

23
Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.

(7.23)
“Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.”

24 Wherefore
I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses
: I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be defiled.

(7.24)
“I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses.”

25
Destruction cometh; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none.

(7.25)
“Destruction cometh; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none.”

26
Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumour shall be upon rumour
; then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients.

(7.26)
“Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumour shall be upon rumour.”

27 The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do unto them after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them;
and they shall know that I am the LORD
.

(7.27)
“And they shall know that I am the LORD.”

8
And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month
, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me.

(8.1)
“And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month.”

2
Then I beheld
, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from
the appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from his loins even upward
, as the appearance of brightness, as the colour of amber.

(8.2) “Then I beheld … the appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from his loins even upward.” Ezekiel gets to see God’s loins again. (See 1.27 for the first time.)
49 Can God be seen?
17 Does God have a body?

3 And
he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven
, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy.

(8.3)
“He put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven.”
God sent down a detached hand that grabbed Ezekiel’s hair and raised him up between heaven and earth.

4 And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain.

5 Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry.

6 He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations.

(8.7-10) God brings Ezekiel to a hole in the wall and tells him to dig. So Ezekiel digs and finds a door. Ezekiel looks through the door and sees all kinds of abominable bugs and animals, along with some pictures of other gods.

7 And
he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall.

(8.7)
“He
[God]
brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall.”

8
Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.

(8.8)
“Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.”

9
And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here.

(8.9)
“And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here.”

10
So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about.

(8.10)
“So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about.”

11 And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up.

12 Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth.

13 He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do.

14 Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD’S house which was toward the north; and, behold,
there sat women weeping for Tammuz
.

15
Then said he unto me
, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and
thou shalt see greater abominations than these.

(8.14-15) “There sat women weeping for Tammuz. Then said he unto me … thou shalt see greater abominations than these.” God shows Ezekiel a group of women weeping for Tammuz. Tammuz was the Sumero-Accadian god of plant life. Each year after the summer solstice there was a period of ritual mourning for the loss of sunlight and the decline of vegetation. God calls it an abomination.