Ezekiel 8:16

8:16 Then he brought me to the inner court of the Lord’s house. Right there ¹  at the entrance to the Lord’s temple, between the porch and the altar, ²  were about twenty-five ³  men with their backs to the Lord’s temple, ⁴  facing east – they were worshiping the sun ⁵  toward the east!

Ezekiel 9:2

9:2 Next, I noticed ⁶  six men ⁷  coming from the direction of the upper gate ⁸  which faces north, each with his war club in his hand. Among them was a man dressed in linen with a writing kit ⁹  at his side. They came and stood beside the bronze altar.

Ezekiel 43:1

The Glory Returns to the Temple

43:1 Then he brought me to the gate that faced toward the east.

¹ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something.

² sn The priests prayed to God between the porch and the altar on fast days (Joel 2:17). This is the location where Zechariah was murdered (Matt 23:35).

³ tc The LXX reads “twenty” instead of twenty-five, perhaps because of the association of the number twenty with the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash.

⁴ sn The temple faced east.

⁵ tn Or “the sun god.”

⁶ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

⁷ sn The six men plus the scribe would equal seven, which was believed by the Babylonians to be the number of planetary deities.

⁸ sn The upper gate was built by Jotham (2 Kgs 15:35).

⁹ tn Or “a scribe’s inkhorn.” The Hebrew term occurs in the OT only in Ezek 9 and is believed to be an Egyptian loanword.