The Vision of Idolatry in the Temple

In the sixth year, while Ezekiel sits in his house with the elders of Judah before him, the hand of the Lord GOD falls upon him. He sees a radiant, fiery human-like figure who stretches out a hand, seizes him by the hair, and lifts him in visions to Jerusalem. At the north gate of the inner court the prophet sees both the idol that provokes jealousy and the glory of the God of Israel, and he is told that these abominations are driving the LORD far from His sanctuary, though greater ones are still to come.

I¹n the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting before me; and there the hand of the Lord GOD fell upon me. ²Then I looked and saw a figure like that of a man. From His waist down His appearance was like fire, and from His waist up He was as bright as the gleam of amber. ³He stretched out what looked like a hand and took me by the hair of my head. Then the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and carried me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the idol that provokes jealousy was seated. ⁴And there I saw the glory of the God of Israel, like the vision I had seen in the plain. ⁵“Son of man,” He said to me, “now lift up your eyes to the north.” ⁶“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what they are doing — the great abominations that the house of Israel is committing — to drive Me far from My sanctuary? Yet you will see even greater abominations.”

Ezekiel is brought to the court entrance, told to dig through a wall, and shown secret chambers filled with engraved creatures, beasts, and idols. There seventy elders of Israel, with Jaazaniah among them, offer incense in the darkness before these images. The LORD exposes both their hidden worship and their theology of abandonment: they say the LORD does not see and has forsaken the land, yet the prophet is told still worse abominations remain.

⁷Then He brought me to the entrance to the court, and I looked and saw a hole in the wall. ⁸“Son of man,” He told me, “dig through the wall.” ⁹Then He said to me, “Go in and see the wicked abominations they are committing here.” ¹⁰So I went in and looked, and engraved all around the wall was every kind of crawling creature and detestable beast, along with all the idols of the house of Israel. ¹¹Before them stood seventy elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had a censer in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising. ¹²“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? For they are saying, ‘The LORD does not see us; the LORD has forsaken the land.’” ¹³Again, He told me, “You will see them committing even greater abominations.”

At the north gate Ezekiel sees women weeping for Tammuz, and then in the inner court, between portico and altar, about twenty-five men stand with their backs to the temple and worship the sun toward the east. The LORD asks whether such abominations are not enough, since Judah has also filled the land with violence and continually provoked Him. Because they have profaned both sanctuary and society, He declares that He will act in wrath, without pity, and will not listen even when they cry loudly to Him.

¹⁴Then He brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the LORD, and I saw women sitting there, weeping for Tammuz. ¹⁵“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see this? Yet you will see even greater abominations than these.” ¹⁶So He brought me to the inner court of the house of the LORD, and there at the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east; and they were bowing to the east in worship of the sun. ¹⁷“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see this? Is it not enough for the house of Judah to commit the abominations they are practicing here, that they must also fill the land with violence and continually provoke Me to anger? Look, they are even putting the branch to their nose! ¹⁸Therefore I will respond with wrath. I will not look on them with pity, nor will I spare them. Although they shout loudly in My ears, I will not listen to them.”