VIII. Here begins a fresh series of prophecies, extending through Ezekiel 19. This is introduced as before, by a remarkable vision which with its accompanying messages, occupies Ezekiel 8-11. The date (Ezekiel 8:1) shows that this series began just a year and two months after Ezekiel’s call to the p... [ Continue Reading ]
THE ELDERS OF JUDAH SAT BEFORE ME. — It is plain from this that Ezekiel, as a priest, and now already known as a prophet, was held in consideration among the captives. It also appears that he lived in his own house. Judah is not used in contradistinction to Israel; but as the captives were chiefly o... [ Continue Reading ]
A LIKENESS AS THE APPEARANCE OF FIRE. — This is not, as often supposed, a reappearance of the vision of Ezekiel 1. That vision bursts again on the prophet after he has been carried in the spirit to the Temple at Jerusalem (Ezekiel 8:4). This is not expressly described as a human form, but from the m... [ Continue Reading ]
TOOK ME BY A LOCK OF MINE HEAD. — Not, of course, literally, in the body, but in vision. Ezekiel did not actually leave Chaldæa at all, as is shown by Ezekiel 11:24. THE DOOR OF THE INNER GATE. — This is one of the gates which led from the court of the people to the court of the priests which was o... [ Continue Reading ]
THE GLORY OF THE GOD OF ISRAEL WAS THERE. — Not the glory of the Lord filling the temple as in the days of old, but the glory “according to the vision that I saw in the plain” — _i.e.,_ the same vision which had before appeared to the prophet now in his vision — a vision within a vision — appeared t... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WAY TOWARD THE NORTH. — This shows that Ezekiel in his vision was within the court of the priests, as otherwise he could not have looked _toward_ the north to see the idol in the north gate. He had already seen this; but now his attention is directed to it particularly. It was not enough that he... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT I SHOULD GO FAR OFF FROM MY SANCTUARY. — In the original this is simply an infinitive, without any subject expressed, “for the removing far off,” and may therefore be understood either of the removing of the people or of the Divine abandonment of the sanctuary. The latter sense, however, which... [ Continue Reading ]
TO THE DOOR OF THE COURT. — This is clearly a different place from that in which the prophet had hitherto been in his vision, and yet is not so described that its locality can be certainly fixed. He had been inside the inner court near its north gate; in Ezekiel 8:14 he is taken to the north gate of... [ Continue Reading ]
EVERY FORM OF CREEPING THINGS, AND ABOMINABLE BEASTS. — The description of the idolatrous rites here practised clearly indicates their Egyptian origin. Creature worship was indeed practised among other nations, and the painting of idolatrous objects upon walls is expressly mentioned in Ezekiel 23:14... [ Continue Reading ]
SEVENTY MEN OF THE ANCIENTS OF THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL. — There may have been no enclosed chamber about the courts of the temple capable of actually containing so large a number; but again we are to remember that as this is in vision and for purposes of instruction, it is not necessary that all the deta... [ Continue Reading ]
DO IN THE DARK, _i.e.,_ in secret. Hence the difficulty of access to the place of their worship. The ordinary idolatries of Israel, as of most heathen, consisted in the worship of the true, or of a supposed spiritual Deity, by means of sensible images (comp. Exodus 32:8). This was open and public en... [ Continue Reading ]
WOMEN WEEPING FOR TAMMUZ. — The prophet is now taken to the north gate of the outer enclosure of the Temple courts, and there sees a new and exceedingly corrupt form of idolatry. Tammuz is nowhere else mentioned in Scripture, but is identified by ancient tradition (incorporated into the Vulg.) with... [ Continue Reading ]
BETWEEN THE PORCH AND THE ALTAR. — Ezekiel now returns to the court of the priests, and there sees — not _about,_ but _as it were_ (referring to the nature of the vision) — “twenty-five men.” These are probably the high priest and the heads of the twenty-four courses, representing the whole body of... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THEY HAVE FILLED THE LAND WITH VIOLENCE. — Corruption in religion here, as always, bore its proper fruit in moral deterioration. A people who go astray from their duty to God are always found to neglect also their duty to man. Israel had before fallen into great and grievous sins. Within the mem... [ Continue Reading ]
WILL I NOT HEAR THEM. — The time for prayer was past. They had rejected God. and when His wrath came upon them it was too late to turn to Him. (See Proverbs 1:24; Matthew 7:22.) The possibility of sinning beyond the term of the day of grace is one of the most important lessons of this chapter.... [ Continue Reading ]