And he set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever.
Also all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the nations. And they polluted the house of Jehovah which He had made holy in Jerusalem.
And among the sons of the priests, these were found who had taken strange women: From the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak and his brothers were Maaseiah, and Eliezer, and Jarib, and Gedaliah.
What is to My beloved in My house, since she has committed her many evils? And has the holy flesh caused your evil to pass from you? How then do you exult?
So Jehovah of Hosts says this concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them wormwood, and make them drink poisonous water; for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has gone forth into all the land.
My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have caused them to go astray; they have turned them away on the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place.
For the sons of Judah have done evil in My sight, says Jehovah. They have set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, in order to defile it.
Therefore I will give their wives to others, and their fields to those who shall inherit them, for everyone from the least even to the greatest cuts off a profit. From the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely.
Behold, O Jehovah, and consider to whom You have done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, children of tender care? Shall the priest and the prophet be killed in the holy place of the Lord?
And when they had slain their sons to their idols, then they came into My sanctuary in that day to profane it. And lo, this they have done in the midst of My house.
But the Levites who have gone far away from Me, when Israel went astray; those who went astray from Me after their idols; they shall even bear their iniquity.
And the beauty of His ornament, He set it in majesty. But they made the images of their abominations and of their hateful things in it; therefore I have put it to them as an impure thing.
And seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, standing among them, these were before them, and each man with his censor in his hand. And the odor of the cloud of incense was rising.
And He brought me into the inner court of Jehovah's house, and behold, at the opening of the temple of Jehovah, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of Jehovah and their faces toward the east; and they bowed themselves eastward to the sun.