The Father Shows Ezekiel the Temple's Betrayal
Carried to Jerusalem by a lock of his hair, Ezekiel is shown by our Father what fills the temple: an image of jealousy at the gate, seventy elders burning incense to carved beasts in a hidden room, women weeping for Tammuz, men bowing eastward.
8 1In the sixth year, sixth month, on the fifth day, as I sat in my house with the elders of Judah before me, the hand of the Sovereign Father fell on me there. 2I looked and saw a figure like fire: from what looked like his waist downward, fire; from his waist upward, a brightness like gleaming metal. 3He reached out what looked like a hand and seized me by a lock of my head, and the Spirit of our Father lifted me between earth and heaven and brought me, in visions from our Father, to Jerusalem—to the entrance of the inner gate facing north, where the image of jealousy stood, which provokes jealousy. 4The glory of our Father was there, like the vision I saw in the valley.
5Then he said, "Son of man, look toward the north." So I looked, and there north of the altar gate, at the entrance, was this image of jealousy.
6He said to me, "Son of man, do you see what they are doing—the great detestable things the house of Israel commits here, driving me far from my sanctuary? But you will again see greater detestable things."
7He brought me to the court entrance; I looked, and there was a hole in the wall.
8He said to me, "Son of man, dig through the wall." So I dug through the wall, and there was a doorway.
9He said to me, "Go in and see the wicked detestable things they are doing here."
10So I went in and looked, and there on the wall all around were carvings of every crawling thing and detestable beast, and all Israel's idols. 11Seventy elders of the house of Israel stood before them, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan among them, each holding his censer, and a fragrant cloud of incense rising.
12He said to me, "Son of man, have you seen what the elders of Israel's house do in the dark, each at the shrine of his carved image? For they say, 'God does not see us; God has forsaken the land.'" a a v12 These are the words of unfaithful Israel—claiming our Father neither sees nor cares. It is the oldest lie, that the Father is distant and absent. He sees everything; that is why he grieves. 13He said to me, "Turn again, and you will see even greater detestable things they are doing."
14He brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of our Father, where women sat weeping for Tammuz. b b v14 Tammuz was a Babylonian god whose followers mourned his mythical seasonal death. The women carried out this pagan ritual at the very gate of our Father's temple.
15He said to me, "Have you seen this, son of man? Turn again; you will see detestable things greater than these."
16He brought me to the inner court of our Father's house; at the temple entrance, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men, backs to the temple, faces east, bowing to the sun in the east.
17He said to me, "Have you seen this, son of man? Is it too small a thing for the house of Judah to do the detestable things they do here, that they also fill the land with violence and provoke me to anger again and again? Look, they put the branch to their nose. c c v17 Putting the branch to the nose likely refers to a pagan worship gesture; its exact meaning is uncertain. 18So I too will act in wrath. My eye will not spare, nor will I show pity. Though they cry out loudly in my ears, I will not listen to them."
