1 In the sixth year, in the sixth month on the fifth day, while I was sitting in my house and the elders of Judah were sitting before me, the hand of the Sovereign Lord came upon me there.
2 I looked, and I saw a figure like that of a man. From what appeared to be his waist down he was like fire, and from there up his appearance was as bright as glowing metal.
3 He stretched out what looked like a hand and took me by the hair of my head. The Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and in visions of God he took me to Jerusalem, to the entrance to the north gate of the inner court, where the idol that provokes to jealousy stood.
4 And there before me was the glory of the God of Israel, as in the vision I had seen in the plain.
5 Then he said to me, "Son of man, look toward the north." So I looked, and in the entrance north of the gate of the altar I saw this idol of jealousy.
6 And he said to me, "Son of man, do you see what they are doing — the utterly detestable things the house of Israel is doing here, things that will drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see things that are even more detestable."
7 Then he brought me to the entrance to the court. I looked, and I saw a hole in the wall.
8 He said to me, "Son of man, now dig into the wall." So I dug into the wall and saw a doorway there. 9 And he said to me, "Go in and see the wicked and detestable things they are doing here."
10 So I went in and looked, and I saw portrayed all over the walls all kinds of crawling things and detestable animals and all the idols of the house of Israel.
11 In front of them stood seventy elders of the house of Israel, and Jaazaniah son of Shaphan was standing among them. Each had a censer in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising.
12 He said to me, "Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? They say, ‘The Lord does not see us; the Lord has forsaken the land.’" 13 Again, he said, "You will see them doing things that are even more detestable."
14 Then he brought me to the entrance to the north gate of the house of the Lord, and I saw women sitting there, mourning for Tammuz.
16 He then brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord, and there at the entrance to the temple, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men. With their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, they were bowing down to the sun in the east.
17 He said to me, "Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a trivial matter for the house of Judah to do the detestable things they are doing here? Must they also fill the land with violence and continually provoke me to anger? Look at them putting the branch to their nose!
18 Therefore I will deal with them in anger; I will not look on them with pity or spare them. Although they shout in my ears, I will not listen to them."
The date being given specifically, it seems that no difference of opinion would be allowed for. Yet, Bible scholars disagree about the date in which Ezekiel’s vision occurred. The Pulpit Commentary states: “We begin with a fresh date. One year and one month had passed since the vision of Chebar, and had been occupied partly by the acted, partly by the spoken, prophecies of the preceding chapters.”
The Wycliffe Bible Commentary states: “This vision is dated fourteen months later than that of Ezekiel’s call
about August-September, 591 B.C.”
The Keil and Delitzsch Commentary, giving the most detailed explanation, states: “Between Ezek 1:1-2 (the
fifth day of the fourth month in the fifth year) and Ezek 8:1 (the fifth day of the sixth month in the sixth year) we have one year and two months, that is to say (reckoning the year as a lunar year at 354 days, and the two months at 59 days), 413 days; whereas the two events recorded in Ezek 1-7 require at least 437 days, namely 7 days for Ezek 3:15, and 390 + 40 = 430 days for ch. 4:5-6. Consequently the new theophany would fall within the 40 days, during which Ezekiel was to lie upon the right side for Judah. To get rid of this difficulty, Hitzig conjectures that the fifth year of Jehoiachin (Ezek 1:2) was a leap year of 13 months or 385 days, by which he obtains an interval of 444 days after adding 59 for the two months-a period sufficient not only to include the 7 days (Ezek 3:15) and 390 + 40 days (Ezek 4:5-6), but to leave 7 days for the time that elapsed between ch. 7 and 8. But however attractive this reckoning may appear, the assumption that the fifth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin was a leap year is purely conjectural; and there is nothing whatever to give it probability. Consequently the only thing that could lead us to adopt such a solution, would be the impossibility of reconciling the conclusion to be drawn from the chronological data, as to the time of the two theophanies, with the substance of these divine revelations.”
The Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary observes: “In the sixth year - namely, of the captivity of
Jehoiachin, as in Ezek 1:2 the ‘fifth year’ is specified. The lying on his sides 390 and 40 days (Ezek 4:5-6) had by this time been completed at least in vision. That event was naturally a memorable epoch to the exiles; and the computation of years from it was to humble the Jews, as well as to show their perversity in not having repented, though so long and severely chastened.”
Ezekiel is very specific about the circumstances in which this vision began. He was sitting in his house, talking with some of his fellow captives, which he calls “the elders of Judah.” Some believe that these could be people who visited from Judah. That seems rather unlikely to me. Even if people were free to travel back and forth in an empire that believed in maintaining peace by dislocating the people it conquered, it seems highly doubtful that faithful Jews would want to visit, by their own volition, places that could be their future imprisonment. No further details about the reason for the visit or topics discussed are given.
Ezekiel describes the experience in the same words he had used before “the hand of the Sovereign Lord came upon me.”1 What follows, however, is most unusual and difficult to understand. The vision begins with the appearance of a man, whom the prophet describes in terms that the Ezekiel Commentary of John B. Taylor calls “reverential vagueness.” Ezekiel uses words as “a figure like that of a man,” “what appeared to be his waist down,” etc. The picture drawn is much like the one the Apostle John gives of the Lord Jesus Christ in the opening chapter of
Revelation.2 It is therefore quite probable that Ezekiel saw the Second Person of the Trinity.
1. See Ezek. 1:3; 3:14,22. 2. Rev. 1:12-18
He feels himself transported to Jerusalem by the hair of his head and deposited to the inner court of the temple. Although the hand of the Lord took him by the hair, it was “the Spirit” that lifted him up and moved him. It seems that these words mean more than that Ezekiel had a spiritual experience of being moved, although that was undoubtedly the case, but that he knew that he had an encounter with the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Although it would not have been impossible for God to physically move Ezekiel back and forth from Tel-Abib to Jerusalem, it is more likely that the prophet remained where he was but saw what happened in the temple of Jerusalem while in a trance. The addition of the words “in visions of God” would otherwise have no meaning.
The description of Ezekiel’s trip through space is amazing. He felt himself being lifted up between earth and heaven. The fact that the hand had taken a hold of a lock of his hair did not mean that he was dangling that way during the journey. There is no hint that he felt any physical pain or was in any way uncomfortable. The change of venue, however, was not instantaneous. Some time elapsed between Ezekiel’s awareness of being in Tel-Abib and being in Jerusalem. But the way the vision is described is as if he were really in Jerusalem.
The place of landing is the entrance to the north gate of the inner court of the temple. John B. Taylor, in
Ezekiel, explains: “The northern gateway was one of three which gave access from the outer court of the Temple to
the inner court (the other two facing east and south respectively). Ezekiel sees two realities that could not be farther apart: an idol statue, which he calls “the idol that provokes to jealousy” and “the glory of the God of Israel,” which is called “the Shekinah.” It is most amazing that the two are found in the same place. When in the earlier history of Israel the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant and placed it in their temple in front of the statue of Dagon, the idol was broken to pieces.1 That was how God revealed Himself in a heathen temple, but here God was in His own house and the people of Judah had introduced this abomination. The tension must have been unbelievably high. What is even more amazing is that God would remove Himself from the idol’s presence as if in defeat, as we will see in the chapters following this one.
John B. Taylor, in Ezekiel, remarks appropriately: “It is remarkable that, despite all the corruptions that existed, Ezekiel should say that the glory of the God of Israel was there (4). It was as if he wanted to throw into sharp relief the difference between the God who belonged there and the deviations which were practiced there, so making the crimes all the more heinous. Perhaps he was also trying to say that God would stay with His people until the very last moment of their rejection of Him.” In New Testament terms “The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”2
It is difficult to determine which is the idol represented in the vision. The Pulpit Commentary observes: “The words that follow probably give his explanation of the strange phrase, not found elsewhere, though it might naturally be suggested by … Deuteronomy 32:16, 21; … Psalm 78:58. What this image was we can only conjecture. The word for ‘image’ is a rare one, and is found only here and in … Deuteronomy 4:16; … 2 Chronicles 33:7,15. It may have been the Asherah (the ‘grove’ of the … Authorized Version), or conical stone, such as Manasseh had made and placed, with an altar dedicated to it, in the house of the Lord (… 2 Kings 21:3; … 2 Chronicles 33:3), or one of Baal, or of Ashtaroth, or even of Tammuz (see ver. 14). As the word ‘grove’ does not occur in Ezekiel, it may be sufficient to state that the Ashera was a pillar symbolical either of a goddess of the same name, or, as some think, of the Phoenician Astarte. The worship seems to have first become popular under Jezebel (… 1 Kings 18:19), and took deep root both in Israel and Judah. The cultus, as in … 2 Kings 23:7, seems to have been connected with the foulest license, like that of the Babylonian Mylitta … The work of Josiah had clearly had but a temporary success, and the people had gone back to the confluent polytheism of the reign of Manasseh. In such a state of things the worst was possible.”
V.6 does not describe any particular action. It was the very fact that there was an idol statue on the temple grounds that made it so detestable. It was a taunt to God as if the people wanted to challenge God by their idolatry.
1. I Sam. 5:1-5
It appears that the Spirit guided Ezekiel out of the temple court to the outside of the wall that surrounded the whole of the temple area. He sees there a hole in the wall, which he is told to enlarge by digging through it. This scene is in contrast with the first one, where the idol image was erected in public. What happened on the other side of the hole was done in secret, suggesting even greater abomination. It was literally something that could not stand the light of the day. There are sins of which the ones who commit them are so ashamed that they would not want anyone else to know about them. The Apostle Paul refers to those in his Epistle to the Ephesians, saying: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.”1
Ezekiel sees seventy elders, led by a person whom he recognizes as Jaazaniah son of Shaphan, standing in front of a wall covered with images of crawling beasts and other idols. Most Bible versions use the word “portrayed” for the way these images appeared, but the Hebrew word chaqah actually means “to carve.” It is the word used for the carved decorations of cherubs Solomon had made on the olive wood doors that led to the inner sanctuary of the temple. 2 The seventy elders were worshipping the carvings, using censors filled with incense, which symbolizes prayer. John B. Taylor, in Ezekiel, states about the creatures portrayed: “They are not by definition all unclean, as the AV of Leviticus 11:41 would suggest, for the word translated ‘creeping things’ in that context is the Hebrew šereº. They do, however, include many reptiles and small verminous creatures that scurry and slither over the ground, from snakes to scorpions, and these certainly were unclean. The Babylonian serpent-deities known from Egyptian, Canaanite and Babylonian religions give grounds for supposing that this incident reflects the widespread influence of foreign cults on Israelite worship, cultivated no doubt from political, more than purely religious motives.”
We do not know who Jaazaniah son of Shaphan was. There was a Shaphan who served King Josiah. The
Wycliffe Bible Commentary observes: “If this man was the son of Shaphan, who had assisted in Josiah’s reform (2
Kings 22:3-10; Jer 26:24; 29:3; 36:10-12; 39:14), he had greatly corrupted the faith of his family.” The Jamieson,
Fausset, and Brown Commentary adds: “The very name means ‘Yahweh hears,’ giving the lie to the unbelief which
virtually said (Ezek 9:9), ‘The Lord sees us not.’” Ezekiel does not mention what were the “things that are even more detestable” done by these men besides swaying their censors in front of the images. That must have been the things about which Paul said that they are “shameful even to mention.”
The next scene brings Ezekiel back to the north gate, where he sees a group of women “mourning for Tammuz.” The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia writes about Tammuz that he was a Phoenician deity, known by the Greeks as Adonis. “He was originally a Sumerian or Babylonian sun-god, called Dumuzu, the husband of Ishtar, who corresponds to Aphrodite of the Greeks. The worship of these deities was introduced into Syria in very early times under the designation of Tammuz and Astarte, and appears among the Greeks in the myth of Adonis and Aphrodite, who are identified with Osiris and Isis of the Egyptian pantheon, showing how widespread the cult became. The Babylonian myth represents Dumuzu, or Tammuz, as a beautiful shepherd slain by a wild boar, the symbol of winter. Ishtar long mourned for him and descended into the underworld to deliver him from the embrace of death … This mourning for Tammuz was celebrated in Babylonia by women on the 2nd day of the 4th month, which thus acquired the name of Tammuz … The women of Gebal used to repair to this temple in midsummer to celebrate the death of Adonis or Tammuz, and there arose in connection with this celebration those licentious rites which rendered the cult so infamous that it was suppressed by Constantine the Great … Considering the disgraceful and licentious rites with which the cult was celebrated, it is no wonder that Ezekiel should have taken the vision of the women weeping for Tammuz in the temple as one of the greatest abominations that could defile the Holy House.”
The final scene brings Ezekiel back to the temple court where he sees a group of about twenty-five man, worshipping the rising sun, their backs turned to the place of God’s revelation. John B. Taylor, in Ezekiel, writes about this: “The crowning abomination was to take place at the very door of the temple of the Lord (16). There, in the place where they ought to have been weeping and calling upon God to spare His people (Joel 2:17), the priests were
1.
Eph. 5:8-12deliberately turning their backs on Him. By its east-west orientation, the Temple lent itself to solar worship, and the fact that Josiah in his reformation had to destroy ‘horses dedicated to the sun’ and ‘the chariots of the sun’ (2 Ki. 23:11) indicates that some kings of Judah had exploited the possibilities. The number given, about twenty-five men, suggests that not a large number of priests had succumbed to this particular form of worship. Nevertheless, they were senior men (9:6 calls them ‘elders’) and they were publicly misusing the Temple for a practice which was an outright denial of the holy purpose for which it was dedicated.”
V.17 is proof of the fact that we all act out in daily life what we believe. Our doctrine determines our actions. Idol worship means not only turning from the living God to dead statues or to nature, but it brings us into the camp of