8 In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, with the elders of Judah sitting before me, the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there. 2 Then I looked, and behold, a form that had the appearance of a man. Below what appeared to be his waist was fire, and above his waist was something like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming metal. 3 He put out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head, and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy. 4 And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the valley.
5 Then he said to me, “Son of man, lift up your eyes now towards the north.” So I lifted up my eyes towards the north, and behold, north of the altar gate, in the entrance, was this image of jealousy. 6 And he said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here, to drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see still greater abominations.”
7 And he brought me to the entrance of the court, and when I looked, behold, there was a hole in the wall. 8 Then he said to me, “Son of man, dig in the wall.” So I dug in the wall, and behold, there was an entrance. 9 And he said to me, “Go in, and see the vile abominations that they are committing here.” 10 So I went in and saw. And there, engraved on the wall all round, was every form of creeping things and loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel. 11 And before them stood seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had his censer in his hand, and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up. 12 Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.’” 13 He said also to me, “You will see still greater abominations that they commit.”
14 Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord, and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. 15 Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? You will see still greater abominations than these.”
16 And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord. And behold, at the entrance of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men, with their backs to the temple of the Lord, and their faces towards the east, worshipping the sun towards the east. 17 Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations that they commit here, that they should fill the land with violence and provoke me still further to anger? Behold, they put the branch to their nose. 18 Therefore I will act in wrath. My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. And though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”
This chapter begins a new section of the prophecy which we have entitled in the analysis 'The Moral Necessity for Judgment' (chs 8-11). It unfolds a vision which concerns the national shrine of the Jews, the Temple in Jerusalem, and we are shown terrible idolatries and blasphemies that corrupted and polluted the whole people. One point of significance must be noted at the outset. We see from the dating in 1 that some 14 months had elapsed since the beginning of Ezekiel's ministry, and the elders of Judah are now sitting at Ezekiel's feet. This man, whom they thought at first was on the lunatic fringe and not to be taken seriously, has prophesied and spoken with such an impressive holy unction upon him that, doom and judgment though his message may have been, there has been a ring about it that the elders of Judah have recognised, however unwillingly, to be of God. And they are now sitting at his feet, waiting for him to speak. This is very striking and impressive, and it says this to us: let a man but speak the Word of God faithfully, without fear or favour, and the time will come when men will at last recognise that he speaks from God, and will listen to him, however unwilling they be to admit that his message is from God. Here, then, they were waiting, perhaps shaken in their placid and complacent confidence that the exile would be over in a few months, no longer savouring the false prophets' ministry quite so much as they had done before, and thinking that perhaps there was more to this man Ezekiel than they had at first thought. They came to him, and said in effect, 'Ezekiel, is there any word from the Lord?' It is in answer to this implied question that the vision in this chapter is given.