Ezekiel 8

Ezekiel 8 is the first chapter of the temple vision that spans chapters 8–11. Through chapter 7, judgment had been announced against Jerusalem and the land of Israel; this chapter reveals in a vision the reason for that judgment: idolatry within the temple.

Outline

• Verses 1–4 On the fifth day of the sixth month of the sixth year, while the elders of Judah are sitting before Ezekiel, a figure with an appearance like fire and glowing metal appears. The Spirit of the Lord takes Ezekiel by a lock of his hair, lifts him up, and brings him to the north-facing gate of the inner court of the temple in Jerusalem. There stands "the image of jealousy," and there also is the glory of God that Ezekiel had seen in the plain.
• Verses 5–6 The image of jealousy stands north of the altar gate. God says that such things drive him far from his sanctuary.
• Verses 7–13 Ezekiel digs through the wall at a hole and enters, finding creeping things, beasts, and idols portrayed on the walls all around. Seventy elders, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan among them, stand holding censers and say, "The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth."
• Verses 14–15 At the north gate of the temple, women sit weeping for Tammuz.
• Verses 16–18 Between the porch and the altar, about twenty-five men stand with their backs to the temple and worship the sun toward the east. God declares that he will neither spare nor have pity.

Key Verses

• Ezekiel 8:6 "that I should go far off from my sanctuary" — This anticipates the scenes in chapter 10 and chapter 11 in which the glory of God departs from the temple.
• Ezekiel 8:12 "The LORD seeth us not" — This exposes sin committed in secret and the thinking that underlies it.
• Ezekiel 8:16 "with their backs toward the temple of the LORD … and they worshipped the sun toward the east" — This is presented as the greatest abomination of the four scenes.

People and Places

• Ezekiel: A prophet of priestly descent who lived among the exiles in Babylon.
• Jaazaniah: The son of Shaphan, the one elder identified by name among those standing before the idols. Some identify Shaphan with the scribe of Josiah's time (2 Kings 22), though the text does not say so.
• Tammuz: A deity worshiped in Mesopotamia, known as a vegetation god who dies and rises again.
• Temple in Jerusalem: The setting of every scene in this chapter.

Points for Reflection

• Verse 3 states that these events took place "in the visions of God." Accordingly, the passage is generally understood as something Ezekiel saw in a vision rather than as a physical transport. Interpreters differ on whether the four scenes depict actual practices as they occurred or gather various sins together in a symbolic presentation.
• The identity of "the image of jealousy" is not given in the text. On the basis of 2 Chronicles 33, where the same Hebrew word appears, some interpreters connect it with the image of Asherah that Manasseh set up in the temple.
• The meaning of "they put the branch to their nose" in verse 17 is unclear, and it has been interpreted in various ways, including as a gesture in a pagan ritual.
• The title "son of man," by which God addresses Ezekiel, means "human being" in this book. Although it is the same expression Jesus used of himself in the New Testament, the two usages should be read as distinct.