The Lord told him, “I have heard your prayer and your request to me. I have dedicated this Temple you have built by placing my name on it forever; I will always watch over it and take care of it.
He took a pagan idol he had made and set it up in God's Temple, about which God had told David and his son Solomon, “I will be honored forever in this Temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel.
A little while ago you decided to do what's right, which made me happy. You all announced that you would free your slaves. You made an agreement before me in my Temple.
Have you forgotten the evil of your forefathers and the evil of the kings of Judah and the evil of their wives, as well as your own evil and the evil your wives, all practiced in the country of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
For the people of Judah have done what is evil in my sight, declares the Lord. They have placed their offensive idols in my own Temple, making it unclean.
This is what the Lord God says to you, you people of Israel: All of you, go ahead and worship your idols. But after that if you don't listen to me you won't continue to disgrace me with your pagan offerings and idols.
They will treat you with hatred. They will take away everything you've worked for, leaving you stark naked with nothing, so that the indecent acts of your prostitution will be exposed. Your immorality and prostitution
For they have committed adultery, and they are guilty of murder. They have committed adultery with their idols, and have even offered their children, whom they had for me, as sacrifices to their idols.
On the very day that they killed their children for their idols, they went into my sanctuary and made it unclean. Look at what they did right inside my Temple!
So tell them that this is what the Lord God says: You eat meat with the blood still in it. You go and worship your idols. You commit murder. Do you really think the country should belong to you?
So my people come and visit you like they usually do. They sit and listen to the message you share, but they don't do anything about it. Even though they talk about love, all they're thinking about is how to cheat others.
As I live, declares the Lord God, because you have made my sanctuary unclean with all your offensive idols and disgusting practices, I will stop treating you well. I won't be kind to you—I won't show you any pity.
Please listen carefully and open your eyes and see the terrible state we are in, and the city that bears your name. We're not making these requests to you for this because of our goodness, but because of your great mercy.
Burn a thank offering of bread made with yeast, and announce what you're giving as freewill offerings so everyone will know. This is what you love to do! declares the Lord God.
I will destroy those who go up to the rooftops to bow down before the sun, moon, and stars. They also bow down and swear allegiance to the Lord, but then they do the same to Milcom.
But what a disaster is coming on you religious teachers and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You slam shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. You yourselves don't go in, yet you don't let anyone in who is trying to enter.
Early in the morning they took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. The Jewish leaders didn't enter the palace because if they did they would become ceremonially unclean and they wanted to be able to eat the Passover meal.