Ezequiel 8

BLIVRE · Chapter 8/48

1E sucedeu no sexto ano, no sexto [mês] , aos cinco do mês, estando eu sentado em minha casa, e os anciãos de Judá estavam sentados diante de mim, que ali a mão do Senhor DEUS caiu sobre mim .

2E olhei, e eis uma semelhança, com aparência de fogo; desde a aparência de sua cintura para baixo, era fogo; e desde sua cintura para cima, com a aparência de um resplendor, como a cor de âmbar.

3E estendeu a forma de uma mão, e tomou-me pelos cabelos de minha cabeça; e o espírito me levantou entre a terra e o céu, e me trouxe a Jerusalém em visões de Deus, até a entrada da porta de dentro que está voltada ao norte, onde estava o lugar da imagem do ciúme, que provoca ciúme.

4E eis que a a glória do Deus de Israel estava ali, conforme a visão que eu tinha visto no vale.

5E disse-me: Filho do homem, levanta agora teus olhos para o norte. E levantei meus olhos para o norte, e eis que a imagem do ciúme estava ao lado norte, junto à porta do altar, na entrada.

6Então me disse: Filho do homem, vês tu o que eles estão fazendo? As grandes abominações que a casa de Israel faz aqui, para me afastar de meu santuário? Porém ainda voltarás a ver abominações maiores.

7E levou-me à porta do pátio; então olhei, e eis que havia um buraco na parede.

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

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

10E entrei, e olhei, e eis toda figura de répteis, e animais abomináveis, e todos os ídolos da casa de Israel, que estavam pintados na parede ao redor.

11E diante deles estavam setenta homens dos anciãos da casa de Israel, com Jazanias filho de Safã, que estava no meio deles, cada um com seu incensário em sua mão; e uma espessa nuvem de perfume subia.

12Então me disse: Filho do homem, viste as coisas que os anciãos da casa de Israel fazem nas trevas, cada um em suas câmaras pintadas? Pois eles dizem: O SENHOR não nos vê; o SENHOR abandonou a terra.

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

14E me levou à entrada da porta da casa do SENHOR, que está ao lado norte; e eis ali mulheres que estavam sentadas, chorando a Tamuz.

15Então me disse: Viste [isto] , filho do homem? Ainda voltarás a ver abominações maiores que estas.

16E ele me levou ao pátio de dentro da casa do SENHOR; e eis que estavam à entrada do templo do SENHOR, entre o pórtico e o altar, cerca de vinte e cinco homens, com suas costas voltadas ao templo do SENHOR e seus rostos ao oriente, e eles se prostravam ao oriente, para o sol.

17Então me disse: Viste [isto] ,filho do homem? Por acaso é pouco para a casa de Judá fazer as abominações que fazem aqui? Pois eles têm enchido a terra de violência, e voltam a irritar-me, porque eis que põem o ramo em suas narinas.

18Por isso eu também os tratarei com furor; meu olho não poupará, nem terei compaixão; e ainda que gritem em meus ouvidos com alta voz, mesmo assim 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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