Ezekiel 8
Summary for Ezek 8:1-11:25: 8:1–11:25 a This section depicts the defilement of the Jerusalem Temple (ch 8 b), which led to its being abandoned by the Lord and subsequently destroyed (9:1–11:13 c). This abandonment was actually good news for those already in exile, for the Lord was coming to dwell with them, identifying them as the ones who bore hope for the future of God’s people.Summary for Ezek 8:1-18: 8:1-18 d In visionary form, the prophet Ezekiel was shown four ways in which the people were engaged in practices that defiled their land. This vision explains why the presence of the Lord left his sanctuary. 8:1 e We are in the sixth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity (see study note on 1:2), and fourteen months have elapsed since the opening vision of the book. During most of the intervening time, the prophet had been performing the sign acts of ch 4 f. Chapters 8–9 g depict in visions the same defilement and consequent judgment of Jerusalem that ch 7 h lays out in oracles. In this case, the prophet directed the message to the leaders (literally elders) of Judah, who had gathered at Ezekiel’s home. They were probably seeking a word of encouragement and comfort from the Lord (see also 14:1 i; 20:1 j), but what they received was a denunciation of the sins of the communities they represented.
Summary for Ezek 8:2-3: 8:2-3 k While the leaders were gathered, Ezekiel saw in a vision what appeared to be a man. The description is similar to the description in 1:26-27 l. This time, however, Ezekiel was lifted ... up into the sky and transported ... to Jerusalem.
• appeared to be ... looked like ... seemed to be: What Ezekiel saw defied human description (see study note on 1:4-28).
Summary for Ezek 8:3-16: 8:3-16 m God showed Ezekiel four scenes of increasing abomination from the false worship that the people of Israel were performing in the Lord’s Temple. The comprehensiveness of Jerusalem’s defilement may be seen from the varied locations of their acts of idolatry, the kinds of people involved, the deities worshiped, and the varied cultures from which these deities had been imported. It was the ultimate eclectic worship service, with abomination piled upon abomination.
Summary for Ezek 8:3-6: 8:3-6 n In the first abomination, the large idol was probably an image of the Canaanite goddess Asherah that had been placed at this gate to guard the city from attack. Most of Jerusalem’s historic enemies came against her from the north, which would explain the idol’s location at the north gate. This idol had made the Lord very jealous because the Lord deserved all honor and worship as Israel’s protector (Ps 121:1-4 o). The Lord was offended by this idol that purported to protect the Lord’s chosen city.
Summary for Ezek 8:7-8: 8:7-8 p The first abomination was very public, and the second was very private. In order to witness it in his vision, the prophet had to dig into the wall to access a hidden doorway.
8:10 q The practice of worshiping deities shaped like crawling animals and detestable creatures most likely came from Egypt.
8:11 r These seventy leaders are a shocking contrast to the seventy leaders of Moses’ day who were given the unique privilege of seeing God (Exod 24:1-11 s) and were given the same Spirit as Moses (Num 11:16-30 t). Jaazaniah, the leader of this group, was, ironically, the son of Shaphan, a godly leader who was prominently involved in Josiah’s reforms (2 Kgs 22:3-14 u).
• The incense, intended to ward off dangers from demonic spirits, helped instead to bring God’s judgment upon the land.
Summary for Ezek 8:12-13: 8:12-13 v The Lord could see what the leaders of Israel were doing, and he revealed these things to his prophet (cp. Luke 12:3 w).
Summary for Ezek 8:14-15: 8:14-15 x The third abomination was that women were ... weeping for the god Tammuz at the north gate of the Lord’s Temple. This Babylonian ritual marked the death and descent into the underworld of the god Dumuzi (Tammuz). Every year, this deity was thought to lose his power and then regain it in a cycle that paralleled the annual rhythms of nature. Ritual mourning for Tammuz was intended to hasten the return of fertility to the natural order. Ritual lamentation for a false, dead god had thus been substituted for praise and worship of the true and living God.
8:16 y The fourth and crowning act of idolatry took place in the very heart of the Temple complex, in the inner courtyard of the Lord’s Temple, as close as anyone could approach to the Temple building without actually entering it.
• The twenty-five men ... worshiping the sun were possibly priests, as none but priests should have had access to this area, though they might have been non-priests flaunting the rules of access. Though physically closer to the Lord’s presence than anyone else, they had turned their backs to the sanctuary of their Creator. Instead of worshiping him, they worshiped what he had created (cp. Rom 1:25 z).
Summary for Ezek 8:17-18: 8:17-18 aa The abominations that the Israelites were committing in the Temple complex were tantamount to thumbing (literally putting the twig [or branch] to) their noses at the Lord. This gesture was at least defiant, and possibly vulgar.
Ezekiel 9
Summary for Ezek 9:1-2: 9:1-2 ab The prophet did not have to wait long for judgment to come. The Lord summoned his angelic warriors to punish the city, and seven men appeared in response. Six men each carried a deadly weapon, while the seventh was dressed in linen and carried a writer’s case. They stood ready for action in the Temple courtyard, next to the bronze altar where sacrifices were normally offered.9:3 ac The glory of the God of Israel, the visible manifestation of his presence, now began to depart from the defiled Temple. First, it rose up from between the cherubim, that is, from above the Ark in the Most Holy Place, where it normally rested. From there, it moved to the entrance to the Temple, ready to leave its former throne.
Summary for Ezek 9:4-6: 9:4-6 ad Just as the man dressed in linen (9:2-3 ae) reenacted the marking of those kept safe at the first Passover (Exod 12:7-13 af), the angels of destruction reenacted comprehensive judgment (Exod 12:28-30 ag), this time on old and young, girls and women and little children. Not just the firstborn males, as in Egypt, but everyone who did not have the mark that identified them as those who mourned over the sins of the city (cp. Rev 7:1-8 ah) were destroyed.
9:7 ai Defile the Temple! Unlike Queen Athaliah, who was dragged out of the Temple before she was executed so that her blood would not defile the holy site (2 Kgs 11:15-16 aj), these idolaters were to be killed in the Temple, which was already so defiled by their idolatry that nothing sacred was left there. Without God’s holy presence, concern for the sanctity of the building was an empty gesture.
9:8 ak Ezekiel feared that he might be the only person left after the Lord expressed his fury.
Summary for Ezek 9:9-10: 9:9-10 al The Lord replied that he would fully repay Israel’s sins (but see 9:3-4 am, 11 an).
9:11 ao I have done as you commanded: The remnant had been successfully marked to save them from the wrath to come (9:3-4 ap).
Ezekiel 10
Summary for Ezek 10:1-22: 10:1-22 aq The Temple provided an earthly residence where the Lord’s glory could dwell among his people. This central blessing of the covenant could only be maintained if the people were holy. In the face of their defilement, the Lord abandoned his house, leaving it and the surrounding city vulnerable to the impending assault of the Babylonians.Summary for Ezek 10:1-2: 10:1-2 ar Almost the same vision of fearsome glory that Ezekiel had seen earlier in Babylonia (ch 1 as) now appeared to him in the Jerusalem Temple. In a building filled with heavenly symbols, Ezekiel clearly perceived that the living creatures he had seen earlier were cherubim, the enforcers of divine judgment (Gen 3:24 at).
• The burning coals that the priestly figure was instructed to gather showed that the defiled Jerusalem was to be burned by fire, as the city of Sodom had been (see 16:46-50 au). The implication of the Lord’s abandoning his city was later worked out in history: Several years after this vision, Nebuchadnezzar burned the city of Jerusalem and filled it with corpses.
Summary for Ezek 10:3-22: 10:3-22 av As if reluctant to leave, the glory of the Lord (10:4 aw) moved slowly and haltingly, by stages. From above the cherubim in the Most Holy Place, it moved to the entrance of the Temple, paused, then hovered above the cherubim (10:18 ax) and moved to the east gate of the courtyard (10:19 ay), where it again paused. The glory of the Lord later left the city altogether (11:23 az).
10:12 ba covered with eyes: The elders’ earlier statement that “the Lord doesn’t see us” (8:12 bb) was foolish and false.
Summary for Ezek 10:19-22: 10:19-22 bc From this point on, the city was doomed; God, whose threatening judgment appeared in such fearsome majesty in the opening chapter of Ezekiel, had abandoned it.
Ezekiel 11
Summary for Ezek 11:1-11: 11:1-11 bd Having given Ezekiel a glimpse of the divine perspective on Jerusalem, the Spirit brought him back to overhear the words of the city’s inhabitants. The wicked counselors asserted that though the assault by the Babylonians (the fire) was troublesome (hot), the defenses of the city (the iron pot) were sufficient to protect them (the meat). These counselors were telling people to build houses—on stolen land (see 11:15 be, 17 bf)—in which they could live safely. God, however, was determined to judge the wicked.Summary for Ezek 11:8-10: 11:8-10 bg God had once rescued his people from foreigners in Egypt, but now he would hand them over to foreigners for judgment.
11:13 bh The judgment that the Lord pronounced occurred immediately.
• O Sovereign Lord, are you going to kill everyone in Israel? If those who still remained in the land were destined for such comprehensive destruction, who would be God’s people?
Summary for Ezek 11:15-16: 11:15-16 bi Those who remained in the land regarded the exiles as far away from the Lord, with no one to protect their interests in their family land holdings. Relatives (literally men of your redemption) would normally have redeemed Ezekiel’s family property if he fell into debt or other trouble. Since the exiles had been transported as family groups, there was no one left in Judah to guard their inherited properties.
• he has given their land to us! Those remaining in the land considered the exiles to be under God’s judgment and their ancestral lands to have been forfeited. The very opposite was true. The future of Israel lay with the far-off exiles, as the Lord had gone into exile with them and would be a sanctuary to them during their time in exile (see 11:22-23 bj).
11:17 bk The exile in Babylon would last only until God had exercised his judgment. After this, there would be a new exodus of God’s people from the nations where they had been scattered back to the land of Israel. Their land, which was currently being stolen from them by those who remained in Judah, would be restored to them.
11:19 bl The external change in the fortunes of God’s people would be matched by an internal change; their singleness of heart would mark undivided loyalty to the Lord and replace their wayward affections of the past. A tender, responsive heart (literally a heart of flesh) would replace their stony, stubborn heart (literally the heart of stone), and in place of the old idolatrous spirit they would receive a new spirit (see 36:26-27 bm).
11:20 bn Their changed hearts and spirits would enable the Lord’s people to obey his decrees and regulations so that the goal of the covenant relationship—people living with their God in their midst—might at last be achieved. The new heart and new spirit promised here to God’s people has become a reality (Heb 8:8-13 bo). Through the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost, God’s people have become a new creation (2 Cor 5:17 bp).
11:21 bq Those who remained in the land would reap what they had sown. God would repay them fully for their sins, especially those involving vile images and detestable idols.
Summary for Ezek 11:22-23: 11:22-23 br Ezekiel’s vision of the Temple (chs 8–11 bs) concludes with the chariot bearing the glory of ... God away from the Temple. The glory of the Lord would depart from defiled Jerusalem, go east to Babylon with the exiles, and identify with their suffering (11:16 bt). God’s glory halted temporarily above the mountain to the east of Jerusalem, the Mount of Olives, as if waiting to see the judgment descend upon the rebellious city. Having departed to the east, it would also return from the east to the renewed Temple (ch 43 bu).
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