The Vision of Idolatry in the Temple
This section depicts the defilement of the Jerusalem...
This section depicts the defilement of the Jerusalem Temple (ch 8), which led to its being abandoned by the Lord and subsequently destroyed (9:1–11:13). This abandonment was actually good news for those already in exile, for the Lord was coming to dwell with them, identifying them as the ones who bore hope for the future of God’s people.
In visionary form, the prophet Ezekiel was shown...
In visionary form, the prophet Ezekiel was shown four ways in which the people were engaged in practices that defiled their land. This vision explains why the presence of the Lord left his sanctuary.
1In the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting before me; and there the hand of the Lord GOD fell upon me.
While the leaders were gathered, Ezekiel saw in...
- While the leaders were gathered, Ezekiel saw in a vision what appeared to be a man. The description is similar to the description in 1:26–27. This time, however, Ezekiel was lifted . . . up into the sky and transported . . . to Jerusalem.
- appeared to be . . . looked like . . . seemed to be: What Ezekiel saw defied human description (see study note on 1:4–28).
2Then I looked and saw a figure like that of a man. From His waist down His appearance was like fire, and from His waist up He was as bright as the gleam of amber.†
God showed Ezekiel four scenes of increasing abomination...
God showed Ezekiel four scenes of increasing abomination from the false worship that the people of Israel were performing in the Lord’s Temple. The comprehensiveness of Jerusalem’s defilement may be seen from the varied locations of their acts of idolatry, the kinds of people involved, the deities worshiped, and the varied cultures from which these deities had been imported. It was the ultimate eclectic worship service, with abomination piled upon abomination.
In the first abomination, the large idol was...
In the first abomination, the large idol was probably an image of the Canaanite goddess Asherah that had been placed at this gate to guard the city from attack. Most of Jerusalem’s historic enemies came against her from the north, which would explain the idol’s location at the north gate. This idol had made the Lord very jealous because the Lord deserved all honor and worship as Israel’s protector (Ps 121:1–4). The Lord was offended by this idol that purported to protect the Lord’s chosen city.
3He stretched out what looked like a hand and took me by the hair of my head. Then the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and carried me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the idol that provokes jealousy was seated.
4And there I saw the glory of the God of Israel, like the vision I had seen in the plain. 5“Son of man,” He said to me, “now lift up your eyes to the north.” So I lifted up my eyes to the north, and in the entrance north of the Altar Gate† I saw this idol of jealousy.
6“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what they are doing—the great abominations that the house of Israel is committing—to drive Me far from My sanctuary? Yet you will see even greater abominations.”
The first abomination was very public, and the...
The first abomination was very public, and the second was very private. In order to witness it in his vision, the prophet had to dig into the wall to access a hidden doorway.
7Then He brought me to the entrance to the court, and I looked and saw a hole in the wall.
8“Son of man,” He told me, “dig through the wall.” So I dug through the wall and discovered a doorway.
9Then He said to me, “Go in and see the wicked abominations they are committing here.”
10So I went in and looked, and engraved all around the wall was every kind of crawling creature and detestable beast, along with all the idols of the house of Israel. 11Before them stood seventy elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had a censer in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising.
The Lord could see what the leaders of...
The Lord could see what the leaders of Israel were doing, and he revealed these things to his prophet (cp. Luke 12:3).
12“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? For they are saying, ‘The LORD does not see us; the LORD has forsaken the land.’”
13Again, He told me, “You will see them committing even greater abominations.”
The third abomination was that women were... weeping...
The third abomination was that women were . . . weeping for the god Tammuz at the north gate of the Lord’s Temple. This Babylonian ritual marked the death and descent into the underworld of the god Dumuzi (Tammuz). Every year, this deity was thought to lose his power and then regain it in a cycle that paralleled the annual rhythms of nature. Ritual mourning for Tammuz was intended to hasten the return of fertility to the natural order. Ritual lamentation for a false, dead god had thus been substituted for praise and worship of the true and living God.
14Then He brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the LORD, and I saw women sitting there, weeping for Tammuz.†
15“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see this? Yet you will see even greater abominations than these.”
16So He brought me to the inner court of the house of the LORD, and there at the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east; and they were bowing to the east in worship of the sun.
The abominations that the Israelites were committing in...
The abominations that the Israelites were committing in the Temple complex were tantamount to thumbing (literally putting the twig [or branch] to) their noses at the Lord. This gesture was at least defiant, and possibly vulgar.
17“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see this? Is it not enough for the house of Judah to commit the abominations they are practicing here, that they must also fill the land with violence and continually provoke Me to anger? Look, they are even putting the branch to their nose! 18Therefore I will respond with wrath. I will not look on them with pity, nor will I spare them. Although they shout loudly in My ears, I will not listen to them.”