Ezekiel 8:15-18

Here is a picture, which holds forth the most finished representation of all. Here are about five and twenty men, with an uncovered front, got absolutely between the Porch and the Altar; that sacred spot, where the priests, the ministers of the Lord, presented themselves before the Lord, on the days of humiliation: (See Joel 2:17.) and as if it were not enough to withhold worship from the Lord, they turn their backs toward the temple, and their faces toward the east, to bow down to the creature of the Lord, even the sun, while standing with an unbent knee before the Creator, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. As these five and twenty men are said to be between the Porch and the Altar, there can be but little question but that they were the priests. So awful, so tremendously awful, was this abomination! And now the Lord makes an appeal to the Prophet, and shows the justice of his cause, in the vengeance that follows. And who but must acknowledge it, when he beholds all Israel, with the elders, and the women; the priests, and the people; all given to idolatry!