Ezekiel 8
Irwin1 the elders of Judah sat before me. The posture of reverent attention. Their hostility to the prophet (see ii. 5-8) had now evidently ceased.
3. He put forth, etc. A vision, or figurative language.
the image of jealousy. An idol: see Exod. xx. 5. Skinner (Ezekiel in Expositor’s Bible) thinks it was the ashenh set up by Manasseh in the Temple (ep. 2 Chron. xxxiii. 7 and 2 Kings xxi. 7).
6 that I should go far off from My sanctuary. Where idols are admitted Jehovah cannot dwell: ep. 2 Cor. xiv. 14-18.
10 behold every form of creeping things, etc. This description applied exactly to the Babylonian and Egyptian temples, the walls of which were covered with representations of gods in the forms of animals and men, and monstrous combinations of both.
11 seventy men of the ancients (elders). Seventy had on more than one occasion been the number chosen to represent the whole people: see Exod. xxiv. 1; Numb. xi. 16.
12 in the chambers of his imagery. That is, in his image-painted chambers: see ver. 10.
14 women weeping for Tammuz. The Babylonian legend and festival of Tammuz resembled those of the Grecian Adonis; whose death was first lamented, and his restoration to life afterwards celebrated with licentious rejoicings. See Milton, Paradise Lost, i. 446-457; Budge, Babylonian Life and History (1925), pp. 106, 138. These fables represented the diminution and increase of the sun’s vital heat in winter and spring.
16 between the porch and the altar. The place where the Jewish priests on special occasions invoked the mercy of Jehovah for the people: see Joel ii. 17.
five and twenty men. The chiefs of the twenty-four classes of priests (1 Chron. xxiv. 4-18), with the high priest at their head.
they worshipped the sun. This sun-worship is expressly mentioned, 2 Kings xxiii. 5, 11.
17 they put the branch to their nose. Referring to the practice of holding before the face a branch of myrtle or some other tree. See J. G. Prazer’s Adonis, etc., and Moulton’s Early Zoroastrianism, both quoted by Peake (Commentary).