Ezekiel 8:1-4

Chapter Six

VISIONS OF JERUSALEM'S JUDGMENT
8:1-11:25

In Chapter s 8-11 Ezekiel recounts a new series of visions. The purpose of these visions is to show that the divine judgments against Judah were completely justified. A year and two months have elapsed since the call vision (cf. Ezekiel 1:3 and Ezekiel 8:1), At the time this series of visions was received Ezekiel was in the 413th day of his symbolic siege of Jerusalem,[197] He was at this time lying on his right side depicting the judgment for Judah's iniquity. These visions of Jerusalem's judgment were most appropriate at this time. This section of the book can be divided into three major units: (1) the degradation of Jerusalem (Ezekiel 8:1-18); (2) the destruction by the Lord (Ezekiel 9:1 to Ezekiel 10:22); and (3) the declarations by the prophet (Ezekiel 11:1-25).

[197] The assumption here is that the year which elapsed was an ordinary year of twelve months and not a leap year of thirteen months. If a leap year was involved, then Ezekiel had this visionary experience twelve days after he ended his symbolic siege of Jerusalem.

I. THE DEGRADATION OF JERUSALEM 8:1-18

After describing his visionary transmigration to Jerusalem (Ezekiel 8:1-4), Ezekiel relates the terrible abominations which were being practiced in the Holy City (Ezekiel 8:5-16). He concludes this section with a brief announcement of judgment (Ezekiel 8:17-18).

A. The Ascent of the Prophet 8:1-4

TRANSLATION

(1) And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month when I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell upon me there. (2) And I saw, and behold the likeness of the appearance of a fire;[198] from the appearance of His loins and downward fire; and from His loins and upward like the appearance of brightness, like the luster of glowing metal. (3) And He stretched forth the form of a hand, and took hold of me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me between earth and heaven, and brought me to Jerusalem in divine visions unto the entrance of the gate of the inner court which faces north where the seat of the image of jealousy which causes jealousy was located. (4) And behold the Glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision which I saw in the plain.

[198] Some ancient versions read man here.

COMMENTS

At the time Ezekiel received these visions a company of elders of Judah was sitting before him. Apparently these leaders had retained their rank and prestige in the exilic community.[199] They were sitting before Ezekiel as his students. Perhaps they had come specifically to enquire about the state of affairs in the homeland. The initial rejection with which Ezekiel met seems now to have given way to respect, at least among these elders. His antics of the previous year were fascinating, and auditors were drawn as by a magnet to Ezekiel's house. Perhaps these men had been coming for months. During the course of the prophetic lesson, the hand of the Lord fell upon Ezekiel (Ezekiel 8:1).

[199] Plumptre (PC, p. 143) suggests that these elders were actually visitors from Judah.

In his trance-like state Ezekiel saw again the divine personage who had appeared to him initially atop the heavenly throne-chariot. In the earlier account Ezekiel described the one he saw as having a likeness as the appearance of a man (Ezekiel 1:26). The upper part of the body of the figure had the brilliance of chashmal, the lower the appearance of fire (Ezekiel 1:27). In the present passage Ezekiel has taken a step back from anthropormorphism by focusing only on the dazzling appearance of fire and chashmal which characterized the lower and upper parts of the visionary body (Ezekiel 8:2). The glory of the Lord is seen now in the glow of fire, without the milder, more hopeful brightness of the rainbow mentioned in Ezekiel 1:28. The absence of the cherubim in the present passage should also be noted. What he sees is but a likeness of the ineffable glory, an image of the Unseen.

Carefully avoiding anthropomorphism, the prophet describes how the divine figure put forth the form of a hand out of that blazing glory. Ezekiel felt as though he were being lifted up by a lock of his hair. At the same time he felt the Spirit gently lifting him from the earth to mid air. Both the hand and the Spirit are metaphors for Him who can neither be imagined nor described.[200] The actions of the hand serve to underscore the reality of Ezekiel's feeling of physical removal from his home.[201]

[200] Blackwood. EPH, p 72.

[201] A conscious imitation of the present passage can be found in t h e apocryphal story of Bel and the Dragon, verse 36.

No physical transmigration of Ezekiel to Jerusalem takes place in this passage. God, of course, could have transported Ezekiel to Jerusalem in the body.[202] But the words in divine visions (lit., visions of God)[203] prove that all that follows took place mentally (Ezekiel 8:3). Further indication that these experiences were in the realm of the visional is found in the nature of what he saw in Jerusalem much of this cannot be taken literally and by actions which would hardly have been physically possible (e.g., Ezekiel 8:8). Thus Ezekiel was transported in spirit, not in body to Jerusalem.

[202] Cf. 1 Kings 18:12; 2 Kings 2:16; Acts 8:39.

[203] The word is not the same as that commonly used by Daniel (chazon) and often by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 8:11; Ezekiel 12:22-23 etc). The word here is mareh which implies a more direct act of intuition. See Plumptre. PC, p. 144. The word is again used in Ezekiel 11:24 and Ezekiel 43:3.

To understand the visions of chapter 8 one must be familiar with the geography of the Temple area. Solomon's Temple stood on Mt. Moriah along with the royal palace complex. The Temple had its own courtyard (called the inner court) as did the palace. But the entire complex of buildings on Mt. Moriah was surrounded by a walled courtyard known as the great court or outer court. See the accompanying diagram.
There are two views as to what Ezekiel is seeing in chapter 8. Some think he is seeing what is going on in Jerusalem at that very moment. This would mean that various forms of public idolatry were being tolerated in Jerusalem during the reign of Zedekiah. The problem with this view is that no public apostasy during the reign of Zedekiah is attested in the books of Kings, Chronicles or Jeremiah. In fact, Jeremiah 44:18 seems totally incompatible with the notion that pagan practices had been officially introduced following Josiah's reformation. But whereas the existence in Jerusalem of the various forms of pagan worship here mentioned cannot be confirmed, still the decline after Josiah (Jeremiah 7:1-15) and the political pressures of those desperate days quite conceivably could have led to the adoption of such foreign religious practices.[204]

[204] Carley, BPE p. 5.

Another view is that chapter 8 is a symbolic picture of the false beliefs that held sway in Jerusalem though they may have had only a restricted public expression.[205] The four abominations here mentioned represent what is known to have been the false religious tendencies during the last century or so before the exile. According to this view each of the abominations mentioned represent the religious deviations of a different section of the Jerusalem community.[206] Whichever view regarding the abominations of chapter 8 is correct, this much is certain the Holy City had been desecrated by the most reprehensible pagan abominations

[205] Ellison. EMM p. 41.

[206] The image of jealousy related to the king and people; the animal worship related to the elders; the weeping for Tammuz involved the women and the sun worship had attracted the priests and Levites. See Taylor, TOTC, pp. 96-97.

The fact that Jeremiah did not inveigh so heavily against pagan influences in the Temple should not cause scholars to question the evidence here as does Yehezkel Kaufmann.[207] Ezekiel's account has the ring of sober reality. Robert Pfeiffer, himself a critical scholar, regards the Temple visions as the most genuinely historical part of the book of Ezekiel.[208]

[207] Kaufmann, RI. pp. 426-36.

[208] Pfeiffer. IOT, p. 538.

Ezekiel found himself in the familiar precincts of the Jerusalem Temple after his visionary transmigration. To be more precise, he was set down in the outer court in front of the northern gate[209] which led to the inner court. It was one of the most conspicuous spots about the Temple. Prior to the reforms of King Josiah this had been the seat of the image of jealousy (Ezekiel 8:3).

[209] The door of the gate of the inner court is called the gate of the altar in Ezekiel 8:5. It may be the upper gate of Ezekiel 9:2, the higher gate of Jeremiah 20:2, the upper gate of 2 Kings 15:35, and the new gate of Jeremiah 36:10.

On the very spot where once the image of jealousy had stood, Ezekiel saw the glory of God. This is the same vision of God's presence which he had seen previously in the plain (Ezekiel 3:23) and at the river Chebar (Ezekiel 1:1 ff.). Because of the reforms instituted by Josiah the glory of God had not yet completely abandoned the Temple. When Ezekiel arrived at the Temple in his vision the Lord had already deserted the Holy of Holies, and Ezekiel observes His glorious presence at some unspecified part of the outer court (Ezekiel 8:4).