Ezekiel 8

The Vision of Idolatry in the Temple

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 Yahweh fell upon me.

• EZK 8:1[MIRACLE]The Spirit lifts Ezekiel and brings him to Jerusalem in visions
• EZK 8:1[NOTE]THE SIXTH YEAR. September 592 BC. The elders of Judah sat in Ezekiel's house, and God showed him what was really going on back home.

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. 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.

• EZK 8:3[DEMONIC]The idol of jealousy stands at the temple gate
• EZK 8:3[NOTE]THE IDOL OF JEALOUSY. An idol at the temple gate that stirred God to jealousy, the jealousy of a faithful husband. King Manasseh had once put an Asherah pole in the temple, 2 Kings 21:7.

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.”

⁷Then He brought me to the entrance to the court, and I looked and saw a hole in the wall.

• EZK 8:7[DEMONIC]Seventy elders burn incense to idols in secret

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.

• EZK 8:11[NOTE]JAAZANIAH SON OF SHAPHAN. If this is the same family, it was known for doing right: Shaphan read the found scroll to Josiah, 2 Kings 22:10, and Ahikam son of Shaphan protected Jeremiah, Jeremiah 26:24. Even a good family can have a son who wanders.

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, ‘Yahweh does not see us; Yahweh has forsaken the land.’”

¹³Again, He told me, “You will see them committing even greater abominations.”

¹⁴Then He brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of Yahweh, and I saw women sitting there, weeping for Tammuz.

• EZK 8:14[DEMONIC]Women weep for the god Tammuz at the temple gate
• EZK 8:14[NOTE]TAMMUZ. A Mesopotamian god of shepherds and spring growth, said to die and be mourned every summer. See Tammuz, the Dying God.

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 Yahweh, and there at the entrance to the temple of Yahweh, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of Yahweh and their faces toward the east; and they were bowing to the east in worship of the sun.

• EZK 8:16[DEMONIC]Men turn their backs on the temple to worship the sun
• EZK 8:16[NOTE]BACKS TO THE TEMPLE. Twenty five men bow to the sun in the east, with their backs to God's house. People coming to worship faced west, toward the Most Holy Place.

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.”

• EZK 8:17[NOTE]THE BRANCH TO THEIR NOSE. No one is sure what this was. Some think it was part of sun worship, others a rude gesture. Either way, it insulted God.