Ezekiel 7:20-22

“As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty. But they made the images of their abominations, and their detestable things in it. Therefore have I made it to them as an unclean thing. And I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil, and they will profane it. My face also will I turn from them, and they will profane my secret place, and robbers will enter it and profane it.”

There are two ways of seeing this passage. One is to translate as above and see ‘the beauty of His ornament, set in majesty', as the Temple or the Holy City (see Isaiah 52:1), and ‘My secret (or hidden) place' as the inner room, the Holiest of All, where none may enter except in thought. The former were often thought of in terms of beauty. We can compare ‘our holy and our beautiful house' (Isaiah 64:11; compare Haggai 2:3), ‘beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion' (Psalms 48:2; compare Lamentations 2:15) and ‘Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shone' (Psalms 50:2). For the latter compare ‘the secret place of the Most High' (Psalms 91:1) where the thought may well be of one who meditated on God on His throne above the Ark of the covenant in the Holiest of All, and thus ‘dwelt there'. See also Psalms 27:5, “For in the day of trouble He will keep me secretly in His pavilion, in the covert of His tabernacle will He hide me.'

We are told later of the detestable and abominable things that they set up or did in the Temple (Ezekiel 8:5; Ezekiel 8:14; Ezekiel 8:16). Thus God would be saying that His Temple (or His Holy City) was now an unclean thing. That is why He would give it into the hands of aliens as a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil for them to profane it, and His secret place too would be profaned and He would allow robbers to enter it and steal all that was there (see 2 Chronicles 36:18). This was the explanation of why He would not protect it. But later, in the restoration, He would call on it to again put on its beautiful garments (Isaiah 52:1).

Alternately we may translate as RSV, ‘their beautiful ornament they used for vainglory, and they made their abominable images and their detestable things of it, therefore will I make it an unclean thing to them. And I will give it into the hands of foreigners for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil, and they will profane it. I will turn my face from them, that they may profane my precious place. Robbers will enter and profane it, and make a desolation.' This was the way that the LXX translators saw it, ‘As for their choice ornaments, they employed them for pride, and they made of them images of their abominations: therefore have I made them uncleanness to them.'

Here Ezekiel would be thinking of their taking their silver and gold (the beauty of their ornament) and using it to make idolatrous images and other paraphernalia, and that would explain why their silver and gold became unclean. Then he would be adding the thought that that too was why God allowed the profanation of the Temple, His ‘precious place'. So the thought is the same in the end, but with differing emphasis. However in our view the first translation fits more exactly the pattern of the context.