Yehezkiel 8:3

8:3 He stretched out the form ¹  of a hand and grabbed me by a lock of hair on my head. Then a wind ²  lifted me up between the earth and sky and brought me to Jerusalem ³  by means of divine visions, to the door of the inner gate which faces north where the statue ⁴  which provokes to jealousy was located.

Yehezkiel 8:16

8:16 Then he brought me to the inner court of the Lord’s house. Right there ⁵  at the entrance to the Lord’s temple, between the porch and the altar, ⁶  were about twenty-five ⁷  men with their backs to the Lord’s temple, ⁸  facing east – they were worshiping the sun ⁹  toward the east!

Yehezkiel 22:26

22:26 Her priests abuse my law and have desecrated my holy things. They do not distinguish between the holy and the profane, ¹⁰  or recognize any distinction between the unclean and the clean. They ignore ¹¹  my Sabbaths and I am profaned in their midst.

[8:3]  ¹ tn The Hebrew term is normally used as an architectural term in describing the pattern of the tabernacle or temple or a representation of it (see Exod 25:8; 1 Chr 28:11).

[8:3]  ² tn Or “spirit.” See note on “wind” in 2:2.

[8:3]  ³ map For the location of Jerusalem see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[8:3]  ⁴ tn Or “image.”

[8:16]  ⁵ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something.

[8:16]  ⁶ sn The priests prayed to God between the porch and the altar on fast days (Joel 2:17). This is the location where Zechariah was murdered (Matt 23:35).

[8:16]  ⁷ tc The LXX reads “twenty” instead of twenty-five, perhaps because of the association of the number twenty with the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash.

[8:16]  tn Or “exactly twenty-five.”

[8:16]  ⁸ sn The temple faced east.

[8:16]  ⁹ tn Or “the sun god.”

[8:16]  sn The worship of astral entities may have begun during the reign of Manasseh (2 Kgs 21:5).

[22:26]  ¹⁰ tn Or “between the consecrated and the common.”

[22:26]  ¹¹ tn Heb “hide their eyes from.” The idiom means to disregard or ignore something or someone (see Lev 20:4; 1 Sam 12:3; Prov 28:27; Isa 1:15).