Ezekiel 8

Ezekiel 8:17

17.—the branch to their nose.] The text seems plainly to allude to the Magian fire-worshippers, who, as Strabo tells us, when they were praying before the sacred fire, held a little bunch of twigs in their hand. Dr. Hyde, in his History of the Religion of the Ancient Persians, gives a more particular account of this Magian rite; and presents us with a print of a Mage, or priest, standing before the fire altar, and holding the twigs in his left hand. The idolaters mentioned by Ezekiel had their backs turned toward the temple of Jehovah, and “worshipped the sun toward the east, and lo:” while thus worshipping, “they put the branch (or twig) to their nose.” Parkhurst.

Chap. IX. ver. 1.—them that have charge over the city] The angels who had the charge of executing God’s judgments upon the city, 2 Kings x. 24. W. Lowth. This is prophetic of the slaughter the Babylonians were to make. Abp. Newcome.