MPV Commentary

The dealings of judgment and mercy to be adopted towards the impenitent and penitent Israelites respectively (Eze 9:1-11:25). The exiles looked hopefully towards Jerusalem and expected a return in peace; while those left in Jerusalem eyed the exiles with contempt, as if cast away from the Lord. This vision of what affected those in Jerusalem immediately was a seasonable communication to the exiles away from it.

The door of the inner gate, facing north, opened into the inner court where stood the altar of burnt offering. The inner court was that of the priests; the outer court (Eze 10:5) was that of the people, where they assembled.

On this pedestal sat an image of jealousy, Astarte or Asheera, set up by Manasseh as a rival to Jehovah in His temple. It was the Syrian Venus, worshipped with licentious rites; the "queen of heaven," wife of Phoenician Baal. Havernick thinks all the scenes of idolatry in this chapter are successive portions of the festival held in honor of Tammuz or Adonis (Eze 8:14). Probably, however, the scenes are separate proofs of Jewish idolatry.

This image provokes to jealousy, calling for a visitation in wrath of the "jealous God," who will not give His honor to another. Jerome refers this verse to a statue of Baal, which Josiah had overthrown and his successors had replaced.

The Shekinah cloud of Jehovah's glory still remains in the temple, like that which Ezekiel saw "in the plain" (Eze 3:22, 23). Not till Eze 10:4, 18 did it leave the temple at Jerusalem, showing the long-suffering of God.

The gate of the altar was the principal avenue to the altar of burnt offering. Ahaz had removed the brazen altar from the front of the Lord's house to the north of the altar he had himself erected. The locality of the idol before God's own altar enhances the heinousness of the sin.

That I should go far off from my sanctuary is a precursor of its destruction (Eze 10:18). The door of the court was that of the inner court, where others were admitted in violation of the law. A hole in the wall allowed him to see into the various apartments, wherein was the idolatrous shrine.

The vision is not of an actual scene but an ideal pictorial representation of the Egyptian idolatries into which the covenant-people had relapsed (Joh 3:20). They worshipped creeping things and beasts, still found portrayed on their chamber walls. On every side they surrounded themselves with incentives to superstition.

Seventy men, representing the Sanhedrim or great council of the nation, stood with their backs turned on the temple, making obeisance to the rising sun (contrast 1Ki 8:44). Sun-worship came from the Persians and existed as early as Job. Josiah could only suspend it for the time of his reign; it revived under his successors.

Jaazaniah, perhaps chief of the seventy, son of Shaphan, the scribe who read to Josiah the book of the law, was guilty of spiritual privileges increased by his sin. The offering of incense belonged not to the elders but to the priests; this usurpation added to their guilt.

Every man in the chambers of imagery represents the people generally addicted to secret idolatry, led on by their elders. They infer God's forsaking them because He has left them to their miseries without succoring them, so that they seek help from other gods.

From the secret abominations of the chambers of imagery, the prophet's eye is turned to the outer court at the north door; within the outer court women were not admitted. Women sat there, mourning for Tammuz, instead of weeping for national sins. Tammuz was a Phoenician idol, killed by a wild boar and permitted to spend half the year on earth.

The next are "greater abominations," not in respect to the idolatry but in respect to the place and persons committing it. Twenty-five men, representing the whole priesthood, stood with their backs turned on the temple, making obeisance to the rising sun. They worshipped the sun, a corruption of worship that existed as early as Job.

They put a branch to their nose, a sign of insolent security (Septuagint). Not content with outraging the second table of the law, they returned to provoke God by violations of the first table. Rather, they held up a branch or bundle of tamarisk to their nose at daybreak while singing hymns to the rising sun.

Though they cry out for help, yet will I not hear (Pr 1:28; Isa 1:15).