8:1ffThis prophecy’s date corresponds to 592 B.C. The message of chapters 8-11 is directed specifically toward Jerusalem and its leaders. Chapter 8 records Ezekiel being taken in a vision from Babylon to the Temple in Jerusalem to see the great wickedness being practiced there. The people and their religious leaders were thoroughly corrupt. While Ezekiel’s first vision (chapters 1-3) showed that judgment was from God, this vision showed that their sin was the reason for judgment.
Life Application Study BibleEzekielChapter 8
Ezekiel 8
New Living Translation · Life Application Study Bible · Original pages: 1317, 1318
A few verse numbers on this page were hard to read in the scan and are marked with a dotted underline — compare with the original page image if in doubt.
8Ezekiel 8
Idolatry in the Temple
18 Then on September 17,* during the sixth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, while the leaders of Judah were in my home, the Sovereign LORD took hold of me. 2I saw a figure that appeared to be a man. From what appeared to be his waist down, he looked like a burning flame. From the waist up he looked like gleaming amber.* 3He reached out what seemed to be ahand and took me by the hair. Then the Spirit lifted me up into the sky and transported me to Jerusalem in a vision from God. I was taken to the north gate of the inner courtyard of the Temple, where there isa large idol that has made the LORD very jealous. ‘Suddenly, the glory of the God of Israel was there, just as I had seen it before in the valley. 5Then the LORD said to me, “Son of man, look toward the north.” So I looked, and there to the north, beside the entrance to the gate near the altar, stood the idol that had made the LORD so jealous. 6“Son of man,” he said, “do you see what they are doing? Do you see the detestable sins the people of Israel are committing to drive me from my Temple? But come, and you will see even more detestable sins than these!” 7Then he brought me to the door of the Temple courtyard, where I could see a hole in the wall. 8He said to me, “Now, son of man, dig into the wall.” So I dug into the wall and found a hidden doorway. 9”Go in,” he said, “and see the wicked and detestabie sins they are committing in there!” 10So I went in and saw the walls engraved with all kinds of crawling animals and detestable creatures. I also saw the various idols* worshiped by the people of Israel. 11Seventy leaders of Israel were standing there with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan in the center. Each of them held an incense bumer, from which a cloud of incense rose above their heads. 12Then the LORD said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the leaders of Israel are doing with their idols in dark rooms? They are saying, ‘The LORD doesn't see us, he has deserted our land!’” 13Then the LORD added, “Come, and I will show you even more detestable sins than these!” 14He brought me to the north gate of the LORD’s Temple, and some women were sitting there, weeping for the god Tammuz. *5“Have you seen this?” he asked. “But I will show you even more detestable sins than these!” 16Then he brought me into the inner courtyard of the LORD’s Temple. At the entrance to the sanctuary, between the entry room and the bronze altar, there were about twenty-five men with their backs to the sanctuary of the LORD. They were facing east, bowing low to the ground, worshiping the sun! 17“Have you seen this, son of man?” he asked. “Is it nothing to the people of Judah that they commit these detestable sins, leading the whole nation into violence, thumbing their noses at me, and provoking my anger? '®Therefore, I will respond in fury. I will neither pity nor spare them. And though they cry for mercy, I will not listen.”
Textual footnotes
- September 17, 592 B.c.; also see note on 1:1.
- 8:1 Hebrew on the fifth day of the sixth month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. This event occurred on
- 8:2 Or like burnished metal.
- 8:10 The Hebrew term (literally round things) probably alludes to dung.
Life Application Notes 5 notes
8:2This figure could have been an angel or a manifestation of God himself. In Ezekiel’s previous vision, a man with a similar appearance was pictured as God on his throne (1:26-28).
8:3-5This “idol that has made the LORD very jealous” could be an image of Asherah, the Canaanite goddess of fertility, whose character encouraged sexual immorality and seif-gratification. King Manasseh had placed such an idol in the Temple (2 Kings 21:7). King Josiah had burned the Asherah pole (2 Kings 23:6), but there were certainly many other idols around.
8:6ffIn scene after scene, God revealed to Ezekiel the extent to which the people had embraced idolatry and wickedness. God's Spirit works within us in a similar way, revealing sin that lurks in our life. How comfortable would you feel if God held an open house in your life today?
8:14Tammuz was the Babylonian god of spring. He was the husband or lover of the goddess Ishtar. The followers of this cult believed that the green vegetation shriveled and died in the hot summer because Tammuz had died and descended into the underworld. Thus, the worshipers wept and mourned his death. In the springtime, when the new vegetation appeared, they rejoiced, believing that Tammuz had come back to life. God was showing Ezekiel that many people were no longer worshiping the true God of life and vegetation. We must also be careful not to spend so much time thinking about the benefits of creation that we lose sight of the Creator.