Ezekiel · chapter 8 of 48
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Ezekiel 8 tells how, in the sixth year, a fiery figure lifts Ezekiel in a vision and carries him to Jerusalem. In the temple he sees four growing abominations: an idol of jealousy by the gate, animal images painted in a secret chamber before seventy elders, women weeping for Tammuz and twenty-five men worshiping the sun with their backs to the sanctuary.
After more than a year of sign-acts and messages, Ezekiel receives a vision that explains the reasons for the judgment. It is the sixth year of the exile (c. 592 BC), about six years before the fall of Jerusalem. Chapters 8 to 11 form a unit: the prophet sees why the glory of the Lord will leave the temple.
In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day, Ezekiel is sitting in his house with the elders of Judah sitting before him when the hand of the Lord falls on him. He sees a figure like a man, fire from his waist downward and a brightness like glowing metal above. The figure takes him by a lock of his hair and the Spirit carries him in visions to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the idol of jealousy stands. The glory of the God of Israel is also there.
First abomination: the idol of jealousy, by the gate. Second: through a hole in the wall, Ezekiel discovers a chamber with every form of creeping thing and loathsome beast and all the idols of Israel portrayed around the walls. Seventy elders, among them Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, offer incense, and they say that the Lord does not see them and has forsaken the land.
Third: at the entrance of the north gate, women sitting and weeping for Tammuz. Fourth: in the inner court, between the porch and the altar, about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple bow to the east, to the sun. The Lord asks whether it is a small thing for Judah to do all this, besides filling the land with violence. So he will act in wrath, without pity, and will not hear them though they cry out.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The Spirit lifts Ezekiel between earth and heaven and takes him in a vision to Jerusalem. The prophet, who lives hundreds of miles away, sees precisely what is happening inside the temple and understands why God will judge.
The elders say in secret that the Lord does not see them and has forsaken the land. The excuse for their idolatry was thinking that God was absent, and the chapter shows precisely the opposite: he sees everything.
Women sit weeping for Tammuz, a fertility god of Mesopotamian religion associated with the cycle of the seasons. That these rites took place at the gate of the house of the Lord shows how far the religious mixture had gone.
Twenty-five men, with their backs to the temple, worship the sun toward the east. It is the opposite of true worship: turning one's back on the place of the Lord to look at a creature.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: The elders of Judah. — Ezekiel 8:1
Answer: A hand takes him by a lock of his hair and the Spirit lifts him between earth and heaven, in visions of God. — Ezekiel 8:3
Answer: The idol of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy. — Ezekiel 8:5
Answer: That the Lord does not see them and has forsaken the land. — Ezekiel 8:12
Answer: They were weeping for Tammuz. — Ezekiel 8:14
Answer: With their backs to the temple, they bowed to the east toward the sun. — Ezekiel 8:16
The elders of Ezekiel 8 did in secret what they dared not do in the light, convinced that God did not see them. The chapter invites us to examine the hidden rooms of our own lives: thoughts, habits or loyalties we would not show to the congregation.
It also teaches that one can be close to the temple, the church and religious activity, and still turn one's back on God. In the group, ask which Christian practices may have become routine while the heart looks the other way, and how to ask the Lord to bring us back sincerely.
Ezekiel 8 shows what was happening inside the temple and why judgment was unavoidable. In chapter 9 the Lord will call the executors of that judgment, but first he will mark those who grieve over all these abominations.
The text does not describe its form. It is so called because it provokes the Lord's jealousy, since he claims exclusive devotion. Some think it could be an image of a Canaanite deity such as Asherah, but the passage does not say so, and it is best not to go beyond the text.
A god of Mesopotamian religion connected with vegetation and the cycle of the seasons, whose mourning was observed at certain times of the year. Ezekiel 8:14 is the only place in the Bible that mentions him by name, and it presents him as one of the abominations of the temple.
Because after the first deportation of 597 BC many believed the Lord had abandoned the land. That idea served as an excuse for seeking other gods. The chapter contradicts it by showing that God sees every corner of the temple, even the hidden chambers.