UNROLL
Dusk at the north gateway of a temple court: a plain stone gateway with a flat lintel, its passage dark, a faint thread of incense smoke drifting out, a long flat temple roofline beyond.

The glory departs

Ezekiel 8

What do you do in the dark that you’d never do in the light?

18 verses≈ 5 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

Tap any post to go deeper

Where we are

  1. 1–3Visions of gloryBy the Kebar, about 593 BC: the throne, the scroll, the watchman
  2. 4–7Signs of the siegeA brick, a ration, a razor: the end has come
  3. 8–11The glory departsAbout 592 BC: the temple’s abominations, the mark, the glory goes eastChapter 8
  4. 12–15False hopesExile acted out, false prophets, a useless vine
  5. 16–19Parables and lamentsAn unfaithful bride, two eagles, the one who sins
  6. 20–24The sword drawnRebellion retold; the siege begins, about 588 BC
  7. 25–32The nations judgedAmmon to Egypt: the LORD is Judge of all the earth
  8. 33–36A new heartThe city falls; the Good Shepherd; cleansed and made new
  9. 37–39Dry bones liveOne people raised up, and Gog of Magog defeated
  10. 40–48The LORD is thereAbout 573 BC: the new temple, the river, the land

The Vision of Idolatry in the Temple

Ezekiel
Inside a plain mud-brick room in afternoon light, gray-bearded elders in wool mantles sit on reed mats in a half circle, seen from behind, facing a bearded priest who sits in shadow against the far wall.

In the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting before me; and there the hand of the Lord GOD fell upon me.

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

Ezekiel

Then I looked and saw a figure like that of a man. From His waist down His appearance was like fire, and from His waist up He was as bright as the gleam of amber. He stretched out what looked like a hand and took me by the hair of my head. Then the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and carried me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the idol that provokes jealousy was seated.

Ezekiel

And there I saw the glory of the God of Israel, like the vision I had seen in the plain.

Ezekiel 8:4

Ezekiel
Morning in a temple gateway: a plain carved stone figure robed from neck to feet stands on a stone plinth in the passage, smoke from a great altar rising beyond; no one there.

“Son of man,” He said to me, “now lift up your eyes to the north.” So I lifted up my eyes to the north, and in the entrance north of the Altar Gate I saw this idol of jealousy.

God

“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what they are doing—the great abominations that the house of Israel is committing—to drive Me far from My sanctuary? Yet you will see even greater abominations.”

Question

Quick question

Look again at where this vision begins.

Where was Ezekiel when the hand of the Lord GOD fell on him?

Ezekiel
Close on a plastered stone wall in dim light: a ragged hole dug through it, fallen plaster and earth on the paving below, and through the hole the edge of a hidden wooden door frame in the dark.

Then He brought me to the entrance to the court, and I looked and saw a hole in the wall.

“Son of man,” He told me, “dig through the wall.” So I dug through the wall and discovered a doorway.

Then He said to me, “Go in and see the wicked abominations they are committing here.”

Ezekiel
A dark chamber lit by a few clay lamps, its walls carved in low relief with lizards, snakes, beetles and wild beasts; in the foreground the backs of elderly men in fine fringed robes, each holding a smoking clay censer.

So I went in and looked, and engraved all around the wall was every kind of crawling creature and detestable beast, along with all the idols of the house of Israel. Before them stood seventy elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had a censer in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising.

God

“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? For they are saying, ‘The LORD does not see us; the LORD has forsaken the land.’”

Again, He told me, “You will see them committing even greater abominations.”

Ezekiel

Then He brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the LORD, and I saw women sitting there, weeping for Tammuz.

God

“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see this? Yet you will see even greater abominations than these.”

Ezekiel
First light in a temple court: in the foreground the temple porch and two bronze pillars, and between the porch and the great altar a line of men seen from behind, bowing low toward the glowing eastern sky.

So He brought me to the inner court of the house of the LORD, and there at the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east; and they were bowing to the east in worship of the sun.

God
A temple court empty at dusk, the great doors of the temple standing open on darkness, a haze of incense smoke hanging low over the paving and the altar, one lamp burning in a gateway.

“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see this? Is it not enough for the house of Judah to commit the abominations they are practicing here, that they must also fill the land with violence and continually provoke Me to anger? Look, they are even putting the branch to their nose! Therefore I will respond with wrath. I will not look on them with pity, nor will I spare them. Although they shout loudly in My ears, I will not listen to them.”

0:28

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Pray

Pray

LORD, You see what I do in the dark. Search the rooms of my heart, take away every idol I have hidden there, and let Your glory stay. Amen.

Greater and greater

soThe idol at thegate8:5: the idol ofjealousyThe hidden room8:10–12: elders in thedarkAt the northgate8:14: mourning a falsegodBacks to thetemple8:16: bowing to thesunI will notlisten8:18: the verdict

Whiteboard

Each step goes deeper into the LORD’s house, and each sin is worse than the last. Then comes the verdict.

You’ve experienced

Ezekiel 8

0 of 48 chapters read

A verse to carry with you

And there I saw the glory of the God of Israel, like the vision I had seen in the plain.

Ezekiel 8:4

or swipe left