¹⁷ He brought up against them the king of the Babylonians,^[a](A) who killed their young men with the sword in the sanctuary, and did not spare young men^(B) or young women, the elderly or the infirm.^(C) God gave them all into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.^(D)

²⁹ See, I am beginning to bring disaster^(A) on the city that bears my Name,^(B) and will you indeed go unpunished?^(C) You will not go unpunished, for I am calling down a sword^(D) on all^(E) who live on the earth,^(F) declares the Lord Almighty.’

¹¹ In front of them stood seventy elders^(A) of Israel, and Jaazaniah son of Shaphan was standing among them. Each had a censer^(B) in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense^(C) was rising.^(D)

¹² He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of Israel are doing in the darkness,^(A) each at the shrine of his own idol? They say, ‘The Lord does not see^(B) us; the Lord has forsaken the land.’”

¹⁶ He then brought me into the inner court^(A) of the house of the Lord, and there at the entrance to the temple, between the portico and the altar,^(B) were about twenty-five men. With their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, they were bowing down to the sun^(C) in the east.^(D)

⁴ They were told not to harm^(A) the grass of the earth or any plant or tree,^(B) but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.^(C)