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Texts -- Ezekiel 8:10-18 (NET)

Context
8:10 So I went in and looked . I noticed every figure of creeping thing and beast – detestable images– and every idol of the house of Israel , engraved on the wall all around . 8:11 Seventy men from the elders of the house of Israel (with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them) were standing in front of them, each with a censer in his hand , and fragrant vapors from a cloud of incense were swirling upward . 8:12 He said to me, “Do you see , son of man , what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark , each in the chamber of his idolatrous images ? For they think , ‘The Lord does not see us! The Lord has abandoned the land !’” 8:13 He said to me, “You will see them practicing even greater abominations !” 8:14 Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the Lord’s house . I noticed women sitting there weeping for Tammuz . 8:15 He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man ? You will see even greater abominations than these !” 8:16 Then he brought me to the inner court of the Lord’s house . Right there at the entrance to the Lord’s temple , between the porch and the altar , were about twenty-five men with their backs to the Lord’s temple , facing east – they were worshiping the sun toward the east ! 8:17 He said to me, “Do you see , son of man ? Is it a trivial thing that the house of Judah commits these abominations they are practicing here ? For they have filled the land with violence and provoked me to anger still further . Look , they are putting the branch to their nose ! 8:18 Therefore I will act with fury ! My eye will not pity them nor will I spare them. When they have shouted in my ears , I will not listen to them.”

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Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

  • 6:9-12 "The same explanation for Enoch's rescue from death (he walked with God') is made the basis for Noah's rescue from death in the Flood: he walked with God' (6:9). Thus in the story of Noah and the Flood, the author is a...
  • 46:4-5 God's presence in Jerusalem was similar to that of a refreshing life-giving river rather than the raging sea (v. 3; cf. Isa. 8:6; 33:21). Old Jerusalem, of course, had no literal river flowing through it (cf. Rev. 22:1...
  • 7:29 The people were to cut off their hair as a sign of grief."The command to cut off the hair' (lit., crown' . . .) is in the feminine in Hebrew, showing that the city (cf. 6:23--'O Daughter of Zion') is meant. The charge st...
  • "The sermon ends (if these verses, still in prose, should be taken with ch. 7) on a note which takes away the last shreds of comfort for those whose hopes or memories are bound up with Jerusalem."1838:1 When the invasion from...
  • Having given a true prophecy about the future, Jeremiah proceeded to announce God's judgment on the false prophets who were misleading His people with false prophecies (cf. v. 1). This section consists of six different messag...
  • Ezekiel ministered to the Jews in exile. He probably wrote this book for the benefit of the exiles and the other Jewish communities of his day and beyond his day. In some of his visions (e.g. chs. 8 and 11) the Lord carried t...
  • There are two major structural peculiarities that set Ezekiel off as distinctive.First, the book is a collection of prophecies arranged in almost consistent chronological order. No other prophetical book is as consistently ch...
  • Ezekiel contains a combination of several types of literature. These include proverbs, visions, parables, symbolic acts, allegories, rhetorical questions, dreams, drama, funeral dirges, history, and apocalyptic revelations."T...
  • Ezekiel began prophesying when he was 30 years old, and he had gone into captivity five years before that. Thus Ezekiel was familiar with Jeremiah's preaching and ministry. Ezekiel shows quite a bit of similarity to Jeremiah ...
  • I. Ezekiel's calling and commission chs. 1-3A. The vision of God's glory ch. 11. The setting of the vision 1:1-32. The vision proper 1:4-28B. The Lord's charge to Ezekiel chs. 2-31. The recipients of Ezekiel's ministry 2:1-52...
  • This pericope contains 10 commands, and it is the center of the chiasm in chapters 1-3."The Lord's charge to Ezekiel emphasized the absolute necessity of hearing, understanding, and assimilating God's message prior to going f...
  • Evidently Ezekiel's verbal explanation of this drama came at the very end of the drama, at the time of the real destruction of Jerusalem. Ezekiel was no longer silent then.5:5-6 The Lord explained that the center of the drama...
  • These chapters all concern one vision that Ezekiel received. Chapter 8 exposes the abominable idolatry of the people of Jerusalem, and chapters 9-11 describe God's judgment on this idolatry."Ezekiel was first confronted with ...
  • This chapter contrasts the glory of God with the idolatry of Judah's leadership and citizens back in Jerusalem."The purpose of the visions of chapter 8 was twofold: to show the Jews in Babylon the righteous judgment of God up...
  • 8:1 The following prophecy came to Ezekiel during September of 592 B.C. as he was sitting in his house with the elders of Israel.141This would have been during the time when he was lying on his right side for part of the day ...
  • 8:7-8 The Lord then brought Ezekiel, in his vision, to some entrance to the temple courtyard. There Ezekiel saw a hole in the wall.143At the Lord's command, Ezekiel dug in the wall and discovered an entrance.8:9-10 Also follo...
  • 8:14 The Lord then brought Ezekiel to the north entrance to the inner temple courtyard, in his vision (cf. vv. 3, 5). There the prophet saw women weeping for Tammuz (cf. Isa. 17:10-11). Tammuz was an ancient Sumerian and then...
  • 8:16 The Lord next took Ezekiel to the main entrance into the temple, to a place between the altar of burnt offerings and the temple porch. There Ezekiel saw about 25 men bowing down to the ground with their backs to the temp...
  • 9:1 In his vision Ezekiel heard the Lord (cf. v. 4) cry out loudly for the executioners (guards), who would punish the people of Jerusalem, to draw near to Him with their weapons in hand. The Lord had predicted that the peopl...
  • Ezekiel's vision of the departure of Yahweh's glory (chs. 8-11) now reached its climactic conclusion.
  • 11:1 The Spirit next lifted Ezekiel up in his vision and transported him to the east (main) gate of the temple courtyards where God's glory had moved (cf. 10:19). There the prophet saw 25 of the governing leaders of the peopl...
  • "The exiles had not grasped the serious consequences of Ezekiel's warnings. They still hoped for an early return to Palestine, for they viewed the continued preservation of Jerusalem and Judah as signs of security. After all,...
  • This section contains three messages from the Lord all of which deal with the inevitability of another deportation of Jews from Jerusalem and Judah (vv. 1-7, 8-16, 17-20). Jerusalem would be overthrown and the Jews still ther...
  • 14:1-2 Some of the elders of the Jewish community in exile came to visit Ezekiel. While these men sat with the prophet, a word from the Lord came to him.14:3 The Lord revealed to His servant that these elders (along with the ...
  • It is appropriate that this section appears at this point in Ezekiel, between the messages announcing judgment on Judah and Jerusalem for sin (chs. 4-24) and the messages announcing future blessings for Israel (chs. 33-48). I...
  • "This last major division of the book focuses on the restoration of Israel's blessing. Israel would be judged for her sin (chaps. 1-24) as would the surrounding nations (chaps. 25-32). But Israel will not remain under judgmen...
  • Since this message is undated, it may have come to Ezekiel about the same time as the previous two in chapter 32, namely, in the last month of 585 B.C. If so, Ezekiel received it about two months after God gave him the six me...
  • This part of Ezekiel's message of warning to the exiles is similar to 3:16-21. Yahweh recommissioned Ezekiel to his prophetic task (cf. chs. 2-3)."Now that Ezekiel's original ministry of judgment was completed, God appointed ...
  • The Book of Ezekiel begins with a vision of God's glory (ch. 1), records the departure of God's glory (chs. 8-11), and ends with another vision of God's glory (chs. 40-48). This is the longest vision outside the Book of Revel...
  • 43:1-2 Ezekiel's guide next led him to the east gate in the outer wall. This was the wall of the millennial temple that he had been seeing and continued to see, not the wall of the Solomonic temple. There the prophet saw the ...
  • 43:6 The prophet heard someone speaking to him from the temple, and there was a man, probably Ezekiel's guide, standing beside him (cf. 1:16).43:7-8 The one speaking from the temple, undoubtedly the Lord, told Ezekiel that th...
  • Ackroyd, Peter R. Exile and Restoration. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1968.Alexander, Ralph H. Ezekiel. Everyman's Bible Commentary series. Chicago: Moody Press, 1976._____. "Ezekiel."In Isaiah-Ezekiel. Vol. 6 of The Expo...

Expositions Of Holy Scripture (Maclaren)

  • Then said He unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery?'--Ezekiel 8:12. THIS is part of a vision which came to the prophet in his cap...
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