Ezekiel 23:14

And that she increased her whoredoms,.... Added to the number of her idols, increased her idols, and even was guilty of more than her sister:

for when she saw men portrayed on the wall; of the temple, as idols were, Ezekiel 8:10 or upon the wall of a private house, where they were worshipped as household gods:

the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion: the images of their heroes, who after death were deified; and these, being drawn upon the wall with vermilion, which, being mixed with ceruse, made a flesh colour, were worshipped; as Bel, Nebo, Merodach, which are names of their idols, Isaiah 46:1 or these were graven on the walls, or etched out upon them with minium or red lead; or rather were "painted" r, as some render the word, with minium, vermilion, or cinnabar, which are the same; Jeremiah 22:14, and it may be observed, that it was usual with the Heathens to paint the images and statues of their gods with these. Thus Virgil s represents Pan, the god of Arcadia, coloured red with minium or vermilion; and Pausanius t speaks of the statue of Bacchus being besmeared with cinnabar: and Pliny u says the face of the image of Jupiter used to be anointed with minium or vermilion on festival days; and observes, that the nobles of Ethiopia used to colour themselves all over with it; this being the colour of the images of their gods, which they reckoned more august, majestic, and sacred. Hence the Romans, in their triumphs, used to paint themselves with vermilion; particularly it is said of Augustus Caesar, that he did this to make himself the more conspicuous and respectable, after the example of the Assyrians and Medes w: and the triumphers chose to be rubbed all over with a red colour, that they might, according to Isidore x, resemble the divine fire.

r חקקים בששר "depictas sinopide", Pagninus; "pictas minio", Piscator. s "Pan deus Arcadiae venit, quem vidimus ipsi Sanguineis ebuli baccis, minioque rubentern." Bucolic. Eclog. 10. t Achaica, sive l. 7. p. 452. Arcadica, sive l. 8. p. 520. u Nat. Hist. l. 33. c. 7. w Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 6. c. 6. p. 332. x Originum, l. 18. c. 2.