Ezekiel 8:1

And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth [month], in the fifth [day] of the month,.... This was the sixth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin; the sixth month was the month Elul, which

And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER 8 Ezekiel is brought in a vision of God to Jerusalem, , and showed the image of jealousy set up in the temple, ,6, the worship of the ancients in their chambers of imagery, , the mourners for Tammuz, ,14, and the worshippers of the sun, ,16. God’ s wrath for their idolatry, ,18. In the sixth year of Jeconiah’ s captivity. In the sixth month; they had been almost seven years in captivity, it was Elul, or our August. In the fifth day of the month; the sabbath day, as . As I sat in my house; abode in my house, probably he lay on his side, the three hundred and ninety days not yet expired. The elders of Judah, the chief of those that were now in captivity, sat before me; they were come either to spend the sabbath in religious exercises, such as the present state of affairs permitted, to hear somewhat from the prophet’ s mouth, expounding the law or declaring their duty, or to inquire what would become of their brethren in Jerusalem, whether they should be subdued and captivated, or whether there were any good news for them from heaven, and how they should behave themselves in these sad times. The hand of the Lord; the Spirit of prophecy exerted itself with a mighty Divine power, which enlightened me at that very time, and in that very place: see .

Ezekiel 8:1 And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth [month], in the fifth [day] of the month, [as] I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me.Ver. 1. In the sixth year.] Of Jeconiah’ s captivity. In the sixth month.] Elul, answerable to our August. In the fifth day.] Which was Sabbath day, saith Junius. As I sat in mine house.] In Mesopotamia, among the captives. And the elders of Judah sat before me.] As their wont was, upon the Sabbath day. These Jews were ever learning, but never came to the knowledge of the truth. Yet God still bore with them, and taught them better. That the hand of the Lord God fell there upon me,] i.e., The Spirit (the spirit of prophecy, saith the Chaldee), to whom the absolving and perfecting of God’ s work is congruously attributed. He is fitly said to brood the waters, to overshadow the Virgin Mary, to seal the elect, to add ultimam manum; for God the Father doth all by the Son, through the Holy Ghost. Ezekiel had here a mighty impulse of the Spirit, which fell upon him quasi fulgur efficax et penetrans, as lightning. Sedentes et quiescentes apti sunt ad percipiendam S. S. gratiam. Hinc apparet μακροθυμια Dei. - Lavat.

(1) The elders of Judah sat before me.—It is plain from this that Ezekiel, as a priest, and now already known as a prophet, was held in consideration among the captives. It also appears that he lived in his own house. Judah is not used in contradistinction to Israel; but as the captives were chiefly of the tribe of Judah, so their elders were known as “the elders of Judah.”

CHAPTER VIII Here begins a section of prophecy extending to the twelfth chapter. In this chapter the prophet is carried in vision to Jerusalem, 1-4; and there shown the idolatries committed by the rulers of the Jews, even within the temple. In the beginning of this vision, by the noblest stretch of an inspired imagination, idolatry itself is personified, and made an idol; and the image sublimely called, from the provocation it gave God, the IMAGE OF JEALOUSY, 5. The prophet then proceeds to describe the three principal superstitions of this unhappy people: the Egyptian, 6-12, the Phoenician, 13, 14, and the Persian, 15, 16; giving the striking features of each, and concluding with a declaration of the heinousness of their sins in the sight of God, and the consequent greatness of their punishment, 17, 18. NOTES ON CHAP. VIII Verse 1. In the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month] This, according to Abp. Usher, was the sixth year of Ezekiel's captivity. The sixth day of the fifth month of the ecclesiastical year, which answers to August A.M. 3410. This chapter and the three following contain but one vision, of which I judge it necessary, with Calmet, to give a general idea, that the attention of the reader may not be too much divided. The prophet, in the visions of God, is carried to Jerusalem, to the northern gate of the temple, which leads by the north side to the court of the priests. There he sees the glory of the Lord in the same manner as he did by the river Chebar. At one side he sees the image of jealousy. Going thence to the court of the people, he sees through an opening in the wall seventy elders of the people, who were worshipping all sorts of beasts and reptiles, which were painted on the wall. Being brought thence to the gate of the door of the house, he saw women weeping for Tammuz or Adonis. As he returned to the court of the priests, between the porch and the altar, he saw twenty-five men with their backs to the sanctuary and their faces towards the east, worshipping the rising sun. This is the substance of the vision contained in the eighth chapter. About the same time he saw six men come from the higher gate with swords in their hands; and among them, one with an ink-horn. Then the Divine Presence left the cherubim, and took post at the entrance of the temple, and gave orders to the man with the ink-horn to put a mark on the foreheads of those who sighed and prayed because of the abominations of the land; and then commanded the men with the swords to go forward, and slay every person who had not this mark. The prophet, being left alone among the dead, fell on his face, and made intercession for the people.

1–3. The trance in presence of the elders. The prophet, abiding in his house (ch. Ezekiel 3:25), was visited by the elders of the captivity among whom he dwelt. They probably came to consult him regarding the affairs at home and the prospects of the city. Thrown into a state of excitation by their words or by their presence he fell into a trance. The vision of the God of Israel again appeared to him, for this thought of Jehovah chiefly occupied his mind and led to all his other thoughts, and he was carried away in the spirit to Jerusalem; and there the manifold idolatries of the people were shewn him. Two chief thoughts appear expressed by the symbolism; first, by making the “glory” of Jehovah appear in Jerusalem the prophet points the contrast between the glorious God whom the people had abandoned and the debased forms of worship to which they had addicted themselves, and also implies that this worship was done in the face of Jehovah, “to provoke the eyes of his glory” (Isaiah 3:8); and secondly, when Jehovah himself shews the idolatrous practices of the people, we see, what is characteristic of the prophet, the effort to throw himself into the consciousness, so to speak, of Jehovah, and look out at things from his mind, he being who he is. It would be a mistake to regard the details here given as due entirely to literary artifice; there is no doubt a foundation of reality under them, though when in after years the prophet reflected on the facts and recorded them he gave them great expansion and embellishment.

The elders of Judah - The prophet’s fellow-exiles are no longer unwilling to hear him Ezekiel 2:1-10. They sat as mourners.

1. The hand of the Lord God fell there upon me — This is not only Ezekiel’s ordinary name for the prophetic ecstasy, but it involves the thought of divine control and compulsion.