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Venerdi, 29 marzo 2024 - Santi Simplicio e Costantino ( Letture di oggi)

Ezekiel 8


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1In the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, I was sitting at home and the elders of Judah weresitting with me, when suddenly the hand of the Lord Yahweh fel on me there.2I looked, and there was a form with the appearance of a human being. Downwards from what seemedto be the waist there was fire; and upwards from the waist there was a bril iance like the glitter of amber.3Something like a hand was stretched out and it took me by a lock of my hair; and the spirit lifted mebetween heaven and earth and, in visions from God, took me to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the inner northgate, where stands the idol that provokes jealousy.4There was the glory of the God of Israel; it looked like what I had seen in the val ey.5He said, 'Son of man, raise your eyes to the north.' I raised my eyes to the north, and there, to the northof the altar gate, stood this statue of jealousy at the entrance.6He said, 'Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the monstrous, loathsome things that the Houseof Israel is practising here, to drive me out of my sanctuary? And you wil see practices more loathsome still.'7He next took me to the entrance to the court. I looked; there was a hole in the wal .8He said, 'Son of man, bore through the wal .' I bored through the wall, until I had made an opening.9He said, 'Go in and look at the loathsome things they are doing inside.'10I went in and looked and there was every kind of reptile and repulsive animal, and al the foul idols ofthe House of Israel, carved al round the walls.11Seventy elders of the House of Israel were worshipping the idols -- among them Jaazaniah son ofShaphan -- each one with his censer in his hand, from which rose a fragrant cloud of incense.12He said, 'Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the House of Israel do in the dark, each in hispersonal image-shrine? They say, "Yahweh cannot see us; Yahweh has abandoned the country." '13He said, 'You wil see them at practices more loathsome stil .'14He next took me to the entrance of the north gate of the Temple of Yahweh where women were sitting,weeping for Tammuz.15He said, 'Son of man, do you see that? You will see even more loathsome things than that.'16He then led me to the inner court of the Temple of Yahweh. And there, at the entrance to Yahweh'ssanctuary, between the portico and the altar, there were about twenty-five men, with their backs to Yahweh'ssanctuary and their faces turned towards the east. They were prostrating themselves to the east, before therising sun.17He said to me, 'Son of man, do you see that? Is it not bad enough for the House of Judah to be doingthe loathsome things they are doing here? But they fil the country with violence and provoke my anger further;look at them now putting that branch to their nostrils.18And so I shal react in fury; I shal show neither pity nor mercy. They may cry as loudly as they like to me; I wil not listen.'