Ezekiel 8, God of Glory and Idol of Jealousy

It is the stock in trade of mysteries, sci-fi movies and the adventure genre. The hero follows some people into an enclosure and when he sneaks to where they are congregated, he sees some weird ceremony going on. Believe it or not, this trope may have had its beginning in Ezekiel.

August/September, 592 B.C.

In the sixth year, in the sixth month on the fifth day, while I was sitting in my house and the elders of Judah were sitting before me, the hand of the Sovereign Yahweh came on me there. 2 I looked, and I saw a figure like that of a man. From what appeared to be his waist down he was like fire, and from there up his appearance was as bright as glowing metal. 3 He stretched out what looked like a hand and took me by the hair of my head. The Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and in visions of God he took me to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the idol that provokes to jealousy stood. 4 And there before me was the glory of the God of Israel, as in the vision I had seen in the plain.

Ezekiel has been staying inside, mostly staying silent, unless God asks him to go outside and enact some aspect of the judgment coming upon Israel (He’s about fourteen months into his symbolic siege of Jerusalem, still lying daily on his right side, bearing the iniquity of Judah, Ezekiel 4:6). Now, for some reason, the elders of Judah who are with him in exile in Bablyon are visiting him. Without warning, he is caught up in a vision that pictures him caught up by the hair and transported to Jerusalem by a strange looking figure that looks like a man but not. He is taken by the Spirit to the inner court of the Temple and sees two things: the idol that provokes to jealousy and the glory of the God of Israel, the same as he had seen in his inaugural vision.

5 Then he said to me, “Son of man, look toward the north.” So I looked, and in the entrance north of the gate of the altar I saw this idol of jealousy.

The Expositor’s Bible Commentary suggests:

The idol’s description is vague; thus it cannot be identified with certainty. Possibly it is a reestablishment of the idol of Asherah, the mother-goddess of the Canaanite pantheon, which Manasseh had erected in the temple (2Ki 21:7; 2Ch 33:7) but later removed (2Ch 33:15). This image certainly had its attraction in Israelite history, for Josiah had also had to remove it in his reformation (2Ki 23:6). Jeremiah’s denunciation of the worship of the Queen of Heaven may also relate to this image (Jer 7:18; 44:17-30).

6 And he said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing—the utterly detestable things the Israelites are doing here, things that will drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see things that are even more detestable.”

7 Then he brought me to the entrance to the court. I looked, and I saw a hole in the wall. 8 He said to me, “Son of man, now dig into the wall.” So I dug into the wall and saw a doorway there.

9 And he said to me, “Go in and see the wicked and detestable things they are doing here.” 10 So I went in and looked, and I saw portrayed all over the walls all kinds of crawling things and unclean animals and all the idols of Israel. 11 In front of them stood seventy elders of Israel, and Jaazaniah son of Shaphan was standing among them. Each had a censer in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising.

12 He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? They say, ‘Yahweh does not see us; Yahweh has forsaken the land.’” 13 Again, he said, “You will see them doing things that are even more detestable.”

Here is the strange ceremony going on in secret being conducted by the elders of Israel (not the ones in exile with Ezekiel), with a specific guy mentioned, Jaazaniah. So this is really happening, but Ezekiel is seeing it in vision. The elders do not understand that Yahweh does indeed see them, and He has not abandoned His land or His people.

14 Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of Yahweh, and I saw women sitting there, mourning the god Tammuz. 15 He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? You will see things that are even more detestable than this.”

Even more detestable than the elders in the Temple, was the mourning of Tammuz’s death. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary again notes that Tammuz was “an ancient Akkadian deity, the husband and brother of Ishtar…who was a god of fertility and rain, similar to Hadad and Baal…and who in the seasonal mythological cycle, died early in the fall when vegetation withered. His revival, by the wailing of Ishtar, was marked by the buds of spring and the fertility of the land. Such renewal was encouraged and celebrated by licentious fertility festivals.” The women Ezekiel sees were mourning his death, meaning the vegetation had withered.

16 He then brought me into the inner court of the house of Yahweh, and there at the entrance to the temple, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men. With their backs toward the temple of Yahweh and their faces toward the east, they were bowing down to the sun in the east.

Even more detestable was the worship of the sun.

17 He said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a trivial matter for the people of Judah to do the detestable things they are doing here? Must they also fill the land with violence and continually arouse my anger? Look at them putting the branch to their nose! 18 Therefore I will deal with them in anger; I will not look on them with pity or spare them. Although they shout in my ears, I will not listen to them.” (Ezekiel 8)

ZIBBCOT notes, “The term zmrh (“branch”) has been variously interpreted as a rod (i.e., a phallic symbol), with the gesture being part of the solar cult; a symbol of immortality; or a gesture of entreaty.” In either case, it shows Israel copying the false religions of their neighbors. There must be a reckoning for this.