Ezequiel 8

ARC · Chapter 8/48

1Succedeu pois, no sexto anno, no mez sexto, no quinto dia do mez, estando eu assentado na minha casa, e os anciãos de Judah assentados diante de mim, que ali a mão do Senhor Jehovah caiu sobre mim.

2E olhei, e eis uma similhança como aspecto de fogo; desde o aspecto dos seus lombos, e d'ahi para baixo, era fogo; e dos seus lombos e d'ahi para cima como aspecto de um resplandor como de côr de ambar;

3E estendeu a fórma d'uma mão, e me tomou pelos cabellos da minha cabeça; e o Espirito me levantou entre a terra e o céu, e me trouxe a Jerusalem em visões de Deus, até á entrada da porta do pateo de dentro, que olha para o norte, onde estava o assento da imagem dos ciumes, que provoca a ciumes

4E eis que a gloria do Deus d'Israel estava ali, conforme o aspecto que eu tinha visto no valle.

5E disse-me: Filho do homem, levanta agora os teus olhos para o caminho do norte. E levantei os meus olhos para o caminho do norte, e eis que da banda do norte, á porta do altar, estava esta imagem de ciumes na entrada.

6E disse-me: Filho do homem, vês tu o que elles estão fazendo? as grandes abominações que a casa d'Israel faz aqui, para que me alongue do meu sanctuario? porém ainda tornarás a vêr maiores abominações.

7E levou-me á porta do atrio: então olhei, e eis que havia um buraco na parede.

8E disse-me: Filho do homem, cava agora n'aquella parede. E cavei na parede, e eis que havia uma porta.

9Então me disse: Entra, e vê as malignas abominações que elles fazem aqui.

10E entrei, e olhei, e eis que toda a forma de reptis, e bestas abominaveis, e de todos os idolos da casa d'Israel, estavam pintados na parede em todo o redor.

11E setenta homens dos anciãos da casa de Israel, com Jaazanias, filho de Saphan, que estava no meio d'elles, estavam em pé diante d'elles, e cada um tinha na mão o seu incensario; e subia uma espessa nuvem de incenso.

12Então me disse: Viste, porventura, filho do homem, o que os anciãos da casa de Israel fazem nas trevas, cada um nas suas camaras pintadas de imagens? porque dizem: O Senhor não nos vê; já desamparou o Senhor a terra.

13E disse-me: Ainda tornarás a ver maiores abominações, que estes fazem.

14E levou-me á entrada da porta da casa do Senhor, que está da banda do norte, e eis ali estavam mulheres assentadas chorando a Tammuz.

15E disse-me: Viste porventura isto, filho do homem? ainda tornarás a ver abominações maiores do que estas.

16E levou-me para o atrio interior da casa do Senhor, e eis que estavam á entrada do templo do Senhor, entre o portico e o altar, quasi vinte e cinco homens, voltadas as costas para o templo do Senhor, e virados os rostos para o oriente; e elles adoravam o sol virados para o oriente.

17Então me disse: Viste isto, filho do homem? ha porventura coisa mais leviana para a casa de Judah, do que fazer taes abominações, que fazem aqui? havendo enchido a terra de violencia, tornam a irritar-me; porque eis que elles chegam o ramo ao nariz.

18Pelo que tambem eu usarei com elles de furor; o meu olho não poupará, nem me apiedarei: e, ainda que me gritem aos ouvidos com grande voz, comtudo não os ouvirei.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

In a vision, Ezekiel is carried away to Jerusalem and sees, inside the temple itself, four abominations: idolatrous images on the wall, elders burning incense to idols in secret, women weeping for Tammuz, and men worshiping the sun with their backs to the temple.

Explanation

This vision takes place about a year after the first one (chapter 1) and reveals why the announced judgment was necessary: idolatry had invaded the very center of worship to God. Tammuz was a Mesopotamian fertility deity, and worshiping the sun with one's back to the temple was an extreme symbolic inversion — deliberately turning away from the true God. The escalating severity of the four scenes ('greater abominations,' repeated several times) shows how sin, when tolerated, tends to deepen. The lesson is that genuine faith requires continuous vigilance against compromises that seem small at first.

Fun facts

  • Tammuz was also worshiped in Babylon (as Dumuzi), and his cult involved seasonal mourning rituals for his annual 'death,' tied to the agricultural cycle.
  • The 'image of jealousy' (v.3) likely refers to an Asherah idol placed literally at the entrance of the temple, one of the most shocking acts of desecration recorded in the Bible.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Ezequiel 8:1The chapter opens with a specific date and an everyday scene: Ezekiel receiving elders of Judah in his own house, when suddenly the hand of the LORD takes hold of him again.
  2. Ezequiel 8:2The vision returns to the same radiant figure from chapter 1, with fire and an amber glow — the same kind of appearance that had already marked the book’s opening.
  3. Ezequiel 8:3The “image of jealousy” was probably an idol set up right at the entrance of the temple courtyard — that is, within Jerusalem’s own sacred space. The name comes from the idea that God reacts like a betrayed spouse on seeing another form of worship sharing the space reserved for Him alone.
  4. Ezequiel 8:4The glory of God appears again, matching the vision Ezekiel had already seen before in the plain — confirming it is the same presence, now revealing what is happening inside the temple.
  5. Ezequiel 8:5Looking north, Ezekiel sees right at the entrance to the altar the idol that provokes God’s jealousy — placed directly in the path of anyone coming to worship, impossible to miss.
  6. Ezequiel 8:6God warns that what Ezekiel has seen so far is only the beginning — the vision will reveal ever worse layers of idolatry hidden inside the temple itself.
  7. Ezequiel 8:7The vision continues like a guided tour: it first leads Ezekiel to the court, where he notices a hole in the wall hiding something more.
  8. Ezequiel 8:8Digging into the hole at God’s command reveals a hidden door — a secret entrance suggesting something being done in secret inside the temple.
  9. Ezequiel 8:9God tells Ezekiel to go in and see with his own eyes what is being practiced behind that hidden door.
  10. Ezequiel 8:10Seventy elders burning incense in secret, each in a small chamber decorated with idols, shows that Israel’s leadership practiced secret cults, thinking “the Lord seeth us not” — the scene is about religious hypocrisy behind the scenes of power.
  11. Ezequiel 8:11Seventy elders, the leadership of Israel, appear gathered in secret, each with his censer, producing a thick cloud of incense for the idols painted on the wall.
  12. Ezequiel 8:12The explanation for the secrecy: the leaders thought that, hidden in the dark, God would not see them — the scene exposes the hypocrisy of those who feign devotion in public.
  13. Ezequiel 8:13Once again God warns that the vision is about to get worse — every scene revealed is one more step up in the seriousness of the idolatry hidden in the temple.
  14. Ezequiel 8:14Tammuz was a Mesopotamian fertility god whose seasonal “death” women mourned in a yearly ritual — the scene shows just how far foreign cults had made their way into the temple complex itself in Jerusalem.
  15. Ezequiel 8:15The repeated warning reinforces the vision’s building effect: each stop is presented as worse than the last, leading Ezekiel toward the most serious point of all.
  16. Ezequiel 8:16Men with their backs to the temple and their faces to the sun, worshiping the rising sun, is the strongest image of the sequence: literally turning their backs on God to face another object of worship, inside the temple’s innermost court.
  17. Ezequiel 8:17God asks, with irony, whether the people consider it a small thing, all they have already done — the land is full of violence, and they still add a gesture of worship that only makes the offense worse.
  18. Ezequiel 8:18The chapter ends with a harsh warning: when the judgment arrives, not even cries for help will be heard — the time to ask for mercy has already passed.

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