Chapter 8
Idolatry in the Temple.[a] 1 In the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, as I was sitting in my house, with the elders of Judah sitting beside me, suddenly the hand of the Lord fell upon me there.
2 As I looked, I beheld a figure that had the form of a man. From the area of his waist downward, he appeared to be like fire, and upward from his waist, he seemed to have a brilliance like gleaming amber. 3 He stretched forth what appeared to be a hand and grasped me by a lock of my hair. A Spirit then lifted me up between earth and heaven, and in divine visions he brought me to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the inner north gate, where stood the idol that arouses one to jealousy.[b] 4 The glory of the God of Israel was present before me, like the vision I had seen in the valley.
5 Then the Lord said to me, “Son of man, look toward the north.” I raised my eyes toward the north, and there, north of the temple gate, a statue of jealousy stood at the entrance. 6 He asked, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing? Behold the loathsome abominations that the house of Israel is engaging in here in their determination to drive me out of my sanctuary. And you will see still greater abominations.”
7 Then he brought me to the entrance of the court, where I perceived a hole in the wall. 8 He then ordered, “Son of man, dig through the wall.” After I dug through the wall, I beheld a door. 9 He said to me, “Enter and behold the vile abominations in which they are engaged there.”
10 I entered and looked around. Upon the wall were depicted the carved figures of every kind of creeping thing and loathsome animals and all the idols of the house of Israel.[c] 11 Before them stood seventy of the elders of the house of Israel, including Jaazaniah, the son of Shaphan. Each of them held a censer in his hand, and all the fragrance of the incense ascended upward.
12 Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each one at the shrine of his own idol? They think that the Lord has forsaken the land and that he does not see them.” 13 He also said to me, “You will see even greater abominations practiced by them.”
14 Next he took me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord, where women were sitting, weeping for Tammuz. 15 Then he said to me, “Son of man, do you see this? You will see even greater abominations than these.”
16 He then brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord. There, at the entrance of 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, prostrating themselves toward the east before the rising sun.
17 Then he said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? Is it not bad enough for the house of Judah to do the loathsome things they have done here? They have filled the land with violence and provoked me to anger time after time. Observe how they put the branch to their nose.[d] 18 Therefore, I will turn against them in fury. I will not pity them or spare them. No matter how loudly they may cry out to me, I will not listen to them.”
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 8:1 When some elders of Judah, fellow deportees, come to consult Ezekiel, the prophet falls unexpectedly into an ecstasy. He sees himself transported to the temple in Jerusalem.
- Ezekiel 8:3 The idol that arouses one to jealousy: a mysterious object that excites the wrath of God, whose love for Israel has been betrayed. Tammuz (v. 14), the Adonis of the Greeks, was the god of the first flowering and the spring vegetation in Mesopotamia.
- Ezekiel 8:10 The creeping things and the animals seem to refer to cults of Egyptian origin.
- Ezekiel 8:17 The end of the verse probably refers to a practice in the worship of the sun. It consisted in covering the nostrils with sacred twigs in order not to contaminate the air at sunrise.