---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible -  Ezekiel 8"
description: "CHAPTER 8   :-. This eighth chapter begins a new
stage of Ezekiel"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/ezekiel/8"
---

CHAPTER 8

.
This eighth chapter begins a new
stage of Ezekiel's prophecies and continues to the end of the
eleventh chapter. The connected visions at comprehended Judah and Israel; but the visions () refer immediately to Jerusalem and the remnant of
Judah under Zedekiah, as distinguished from the Babylonian exiles.

**1. sixth year**—namely, of the
captivity of Jehoiachin, as in , the "fifth year" is specified. The lying on his
sides three hundred ninety and forty days ([Ezekiel 4:5](../../../kjv/ezekiel/4/5);
[Ezekiel 4:6](../../../kjv/ezekiel/4/6)) 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 chastised.
**elders**—namely, those
carried away with Jehoiachin, and now at the Chebar.
**sat before me**—to hear
the word of God from me, in the absence of the temple and other
public places of Sabbath worship, during the exile ([Ezekiel 33:30](../../../kjv/ezekiel/33/30);
[Ezekiel 33:31](../../../kjv/ezekiel/33/31)). It was so ordered
that they were present at the giving of the prophecy, and so left
without excuse.
**hand of . . . Lord God fell .
. . upon me**—God's mighty operation *fell,* like a
thunderbolt, *upon me* (in [Ezekiel 33:31](../../../kjv/ezekiel/33/31), it is less forcible, "was upon him"); whatever,
therefore, he is to utter is not his own, for he has put off the mere
man, while the power of God reigns in him [CALVIN].

**2. likeness**—understand, "of
a man," that is, of Messiah, the Angel of the covenant, in the
person of whom alone God manifests Himself ([Ezekiel 1:26](../../../kjv/ezekiel/1/26);
[John 1:18](../../../kjv/john/1/18)). The "fire,"
from "His loins downward," betokens the vengeance of God
kindled against the wicked Jews, while searching and purifying the
remnant to be spared. The "brightness . . . upward"
betokens His unapproachable majesty ([John 1:18](../../../kjv/john/1/18)). For *Hebrew, eesh,* "fire," the *Septuagint,*
&c., read *ish,* "a man."
**colour of amber**—the
glitter of chasmal [FAIRBAIRN],
(see on [Ezekiel 1:4](../../../kjv/ezekiel/1/4), "polished
brass").

**3.** Instead of prompting him to
address directly the elders before him, the Spirit carried him away
*in vision* (not in person bodily) to the temple at Jerusalem;
he proceeds to report to them what he witnessed: his message thus
falls into two parts: (1) The abominations reported in . (2) The dealings of judgment and mercy to be adopted
towards the impenitent and penitent Israelites respectively (). The exiles looked hopefully towards Jerusalem and, so
far from believing things there to be on the verge of ruin, expected
a return in peace; while those left in Jerusalem eyed the exiles with
contempt, as if cast away from the Lord, whereas they themselves were
near God and ensured in the possessions of the land (). Hence the vision here of what affected those in Jerusalem
immediately was a seasonable communication to the exiles away from
it.
**door of the inner gate**—facing
the north, the direction in which he came from Chebar, called the
"altar-gate" ([Ezekiel 8:5](../../../kjv/ezekiel/8/5));
it opened into the inner court, wherein stood the altar of burnt
offering; the inner court ([Ezekiel 8:5](../../../kjv/ezekiel/8/5)) was that of the priests; the outer court ([Ezekiel 8:5](../../../kjv/ezekiel/8/5)), that of the people, where they assembled.
**seat**—the *pedestal*
of the image.
**image of jealousy**—Astarte,
or Asheera (as the *Hebrew* for "grove" ought to be
translated, [2 Kings 21:3](../../../kjv/2-kings/21/3); [2 Kings 21:7](../../../kjv/2-kings/21/7);
[2 Kings 23:4](../../../kjv/2-kings/23/4); [2 Kings 23:7](../../../kjv/2-kings/23/7)),
set up by Manasseh as a rival to Jehovah in His temple, and arresting
the attention of all worshippers as they entered; it was the Syrian
Venus, worshipped with licentious rites; the "queen of heaven,"
wife of Phoelignician Baal. HAVERNICK
thinks all the scenes of idolatry in the chapter are successive
portions of the festival held in honor of Tammuz or Adonis ([2 Kings 23:7](../../../kjv/2-kings/23/7)). Probably, however, the scenes are separate proofs of
Jewish idolatry, rather than restricted to one idol.
**provoketh to jealousy**—calleth
for a visitation in wrath of the "jealous God," who will
not give His honor to another (compare the second commandment, [2 Kings 23:7](../../../kjv/2-kings/23/7)). JEROME refers
this verse to a statue of Baal, which Josiah had overthrown and his
successors had replaced.

**4.** The Shekinah cloud of
Jehovah's glory, notwithstanding the provocation of the idol, still
remains in the temple, like that which Ezekiel saw "in the
plain" ([Ezekiel 3:22](../../../kjv/ezekiel/3/22); [Ezekiel 3:23](../../../kjv/ezekiel/3/23));
not till [Ezekiel 10:4](../../../kjv/ezekiel/10/4); [Ezekiel 10:18](../../../kjv/ezekiel/10/18)
did it leave the temple at Jerusalem, showing the long-suffering of
God, which ought to move the Jews to repentance.

**5. gate of . . . altar**—the
principal avenue to the altar of burnt offering; as to the *northern*
position, see [2 Kings 16:14](../../../kjv/2-kings/16/14). Ahaz
had removed the brazen altar from the front of the Lord's house to
the north of the altar which he had himself erected. The locality of
the idol before God's own altar enhances the heinousness of the sin.

**6. that I should go far off from my
sanctuary**—"that I should (be compelled by their sin to) go
far off from my sanctuary"— (); the sure precursor of its destruction.

**7. door of the court**—that is,
of the inner court ([Ezekiel 8:3](../../../kjv/ezekiel/8/3));
the court of the priests and Levites, into which now others were
admitted in violation of the law [GROTIUS].
**hole in . . . wall**—that
is, an aperture or window in the wall of the priests' chambers,
through which he could see into the various apartments, wherein was
the idolatrous shrine.

**8. dig**—for it had been blocked
up during Josiah's reformation. Or rather, the vision is not of an
actual scene, but an ideal pictorial representation of the Egyptian
idolatries into which the covenant-people had relapsed, practising
them in secret places where they shrank from the light of day
[FAIRBAIRN], (). But compare, as to the *literal* introduction of
idolatries into the temple, [Ezekiel 5:11](../../../kjv/ezekiel/5/11);
[Jeremiah 7:30](../../../kjv/jeremiah/7/30); [Jeremiah 32:34](../../../kjv/jeremiah/32/34).

**10. creeping things . . .
beasts**—worshipped in Egypt; still found portrayed on their
chamber walls; so among the Troglodytæ.
**round about**—On every
side they surrounded themselves with incentives to superstition.

**11. seventy men**—the seventy
members composing the Sanhedrim, or great council of the nation, the
origination of which we find in the seventy elders, representatives
of the congregation, who went up with Moses to the mount to behold
the glory of Jehovah, and to witness the secret transactions relating
to the establishment of the covenant; also, in the seventy elders
appointed to share the burden of the people with Moses. How awfully
it aggravates the national sin, that the seventy, once admitted to
the Lord's secret council (), should now, "in the dark," enter "the
secret" of the wicked (), those judicially bound to suppress idolatry being the
ringleaders of it!
**Jaazaniah**—perhaps chief
of the seventy: son of Shaphan, the scribe who read to Josiah the
book of the law; the spiritual privileges of the son () increased his guilt. The very name means, "Jehovah
hears," giving the lie to the unbelief which virtually said (), "The Lord seeth us not," c. (compare [Psalms 10:11](../../../kjv/psalms/10/11)
[Psalms 10:14](../../../kjv/psalms/10/14); [Psalms 50:21](../../../kjv/psalms/50/21);
[Psalms 94:7](../../../kjv/psalms/94/7); [Psalms 94:9](../../../kjv/psalms/94/9)).
The offering of incense belonged not to the elders, but to the
priests; this usurpation added to the guilt of the former.
**cloud of incense**—They
spared no expense for their idols. Oh, that there were the same
liberality toward the cause of God!

**12. every man in . . . chambers of .
. . imagery**—The elders ("ancients") are here the
representatives of the people, rather than to be regarded literally.
Mostly, the *leaders* of heathen superstitions laughed at them
secretly, while publicly professing them in order to keep the people
in subjection. Here what is meant is that the *people* generally
addicted themselves to secret idolatry, led on by their elders; there
is no doubt, also, allusion to *the mysteries,* as in the
worship of Isis in Egypt, the Eleusinian in Greece, &c., to which
the initiated alone were admitted. "The chambers of imagery"
are their own *perverse imaginations,* answering to the *priests'
chambers* in the vision, whereon the pictures were portrayed ().
**Lord . . . forsaken . . .
earth**—They infer this because God has left them to their
miseries, without succoring them, so that they seek help from other
gods. Instead of repenting, as they ought, they bite the curb
[CALVIN].

**14.** From the *secret*
abominations of the chambers of imagery, the prophet's eye is turned
to the *outer* court at the *north door; within* the outer
court women were not admitted, but only to the *door.*
**sat**—the attitude of
mourners ([Job 2:13](../../../kjv/job/2/13); [Isaiah 3:26](../../../kjv/isaiah/3/26)).
**Tammuz**—from a *Hebrew*
root, "to melt down." Instead of weeping for the national
sins, they wept for the idol. Tammuz (the *Syrian* for *Adonis*),
the paramour of Venus, and of the same name as the river flowing from
Lebanon; killed by a wild boar, and, according to the fable,
permitted to spend half the year on earth, and obliged to spend the
other half in the lower world. An annual feast was celebrated to him
in June (hence called Tammuz in the Jewish calendar) at Byblos, when
the Syrian women, in wild grief, tore off their hair and yielded
their persons to prostitution, consecrating the hire of their infamy
to Venus; next followed days of rejoicing for his return to the
earth; the former feast being called "the disappearance of
Adonis," the latter, "the finding of Adonis." This
Phoelignician feast answered to the similar Egyptian one in honor of
Osiris. The idea thus fabled was that of the waters of the river and
the beauties of spring destroyed by the summer heat. Or else, the
earth being clothed with beauty, during the half year when the sun is
in the upper hemisphere, and losing it when he departs to the lower.
The name *Adonis* is not here used, as *Adon* is the
appropriated title of Jehovah.

**15, 16.** The next are "*greater*
abominations," not in respect to the idolatry, but in respect to
the place and persons committing it. In "the inner court,"
immediately before the door of the temple of Jehovah, between the
porch and the altar, where the priests advanced only on extraordinary
occasions ([Joel 2:17](../../../kjv/joel/2/17)),
twenty-five men (the leaders of the twenty-four courses or orders of
the priests, [1 Chronicles 24:18](../../../kjv/1-chronicles/24/18); [1 Chronicles 24:19](../../../kjv/1-chronicles/24/19),
with the high priest, "the princes of the sanctuary," [1 Chronicles 24:19](../../../kjv/1-chronicles/24/19)), representing the whole priesthood, as the seventy elders
represented the people, stood with their backs turned on the temple,
and their faces towards the east, making obeisance to the rising sun
(contrast [1 Kings 8:44](../../../kjv/1-kings/8/44)).
Sun-worship came from the Persians, who made the sun the eye of their
god Ormuzd. It existed as early as Job ([1 Kings 8:44](../../../kjv/1-kings/8/44); compare [Deuteronomy 4:19](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/4/19)).
Josiah could only suspend it for the time of his reign ([2 Kings 23:5](../../../kjv/2-kings/23/5);
[2 Kings 23:11](../../../kjv/2-kings/23/11)); it revived under his
successors.

**16. worshipped**—In the *Hebrew*
a corrupt form is used to express Ezekiel's sense of the foul
corruption of such worship.

**17. put . . . branch to . . .
nose**—proverbial, for "they turn up the nose in scorn,"
expressing their insolent security [*Septuagint*]. Not content
with outraging "with their violence" the second table of
the law, namely, that of duty towards one's neighbor, "they have
returned" (that is, they turn back afresh) to provoke Me by
violations of the first table [CALVIN].
Rather, they held up a branch or bundle of tamarisk (called *barsom*)
to their nose at daybreak, while singing hymns to the rising sun
[STRABO, 1.15, p. 733].
Sacred trees were frequent symbols in idol-worship. CALVIN
translates, "to their own ruin," literally, "to their
nose," that is, with the effect of rousing *My anger* (of
which the *Hebrew* is "nose") to their ruin.

**18. though they cry . . . yet will I
not hear**— ([Proverbs 1:28](../../../kjv/proverbs/1/28);
[Isaiah 1:15](../../../kjv/isaiah/1/15)).

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