It came about in the 1sixth year of the captivity of King Jehoiachin, on the fifth day of the sixth month, as I sat in my house near Babylon with the elders of Judah sitting before me, that the hand of the Lord 2GOD fell on me there.September 592 B.C.Heb YHWH. 2 Then I looked, and behold, a likeness of a man with the aappearance of fire; from His 1loins downward He was like fire, and from His loins upward He had the appearance of brightness, like bgleaming metal .The midsection of the body from the lower ribs to the hips.Ezek 1:27Ezek 1:4, 27 3 He stretched out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of hair on my head; and the aSpirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner courtyard, where the seat of the idol of 1jealousy, which bprovokes to jealousy, was located. 2+@Kin 16:10-16; 21:4, 5God does not tolerate the transfer of the honor and worship that is due Him to any other being or object.Ezek 3:12; 11:1Ex 20:4; Deut 32:16 4 And behold, the aglory and brilliance of the God of Israel who had loved and chosen them was there, like the vision which I saw in the plain. Ezek 1:28; 3:22, 23Ezek 1:28; 3:22, 23
5 Then He said to me, “Son of man, now araise your eyes toward the north.” So I looked toward the north, and behold, to the north of the altar gate was this bidol of jealousy at the entrance.Jer 3:2; Zech 5:5Ps 78:58; Jer 7:30; 32:34; Ezek 8:3 6 Furthermore, He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great arepulsive acts which the house of Israel is committing here, to drive Me far away from My sanctuary? But you will again see greater repulsive acts.”2 Kin 23:4, 5; Ezek 5:11; 8:9, 17
7 Then He brought me to the entrance of the courtyard; and when I looked, behold, there was a hole in the wall. 8 He said to me, “Son of man, now adig into the wall.” And when I had dug into the wall, behold, there was an entrance.Is 29:15 9 And He said to me, “Go in and see the wicked, repulsive acts that they are committing here.” 10 So I entered and looked, and saw every kind of creeping things and beasts and loathsome things, and all the idols of the house of Israel, carved all around on the wall. 11 Standing before these images were aseventy belders of the house of Israel, and among them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan the scribe, each man with his ccenser in his hand and a thick and fragrant cloud of incense was rising as they prayed to these gods.Num 11:16, 25; Luke 10:1Jer 19:1Num 16:17, 35 12 Then He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, each man in his secret room of carved images? For they say, ‘aThe LORD does not see us; the LORD has babandoned the land.’”Ps 14:1; Is 29:15; Ezek 9:9Ps 10:11 13 He also said to me, “Yet again you will see even greater repulsive acts which they are committing.”
14 Then He brought me to the entrance of the north agate of the LORD’S house; and behold, women were sitting there weeping for 1Tammuz.A Babylonian god whose supposed death each summer caused the vegetation to wilt and die. In the spring he returned from the underworld bringing rain and new growth. His worship also involved fertility rituals.Ezek 44:4; 46:9 15 He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? Yet you will see still greater repulsive acts than these that they are committing.”
16 So He brought me to the inner court of the LORD’S house. And behold, at the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the bronze altar, were about twenty-five men with their abacks to the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east; and bthey were bowing down toward the east and worshiping the sun.2 Chr 29:6; Jer 2:27; Ezek 23:39Deut 4:19; 17:3; Job 31:26-28; Jer 44:17 17 He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? Is it too slight a thing for the house of Judah to commit the repulsive acts which they have committed here, that they have afilled the land with violence and repeatedly bprovoked Me to anger? And behold, they are putting the 1branch to their nose.The pagan object of worship is uncertain, but the act was contemptuous to God.Ezek 7:11, 23; 9:9; Amos 3:10; Mic 2:2Jer 7:18, 19; Ezek 16:26 18 Therefore, I indeed will deal in wrath. My eye will have no pity nor will I spare them; and athough they cry loudly in My ears, yet I will not listen to them.” Prov 1:28; Is 1:15; Jer 11:11; 14:12; Mic 3:4; Zech 7:13Is 1:15; Jer 11:11; Mic 3:4; Zech 7:13