What They Do in the Dark
1 In the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, the Lord Yahweh’s hand fell on me there. 2 Then I saw, and behold, a likeness as the appearance of fire—from the appearance of his waist and downward, fire, and from his waist and upward, as the appearance of brightness, as it were glowing metal. 3 He stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and the sky, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the gate of the inner court that looks toward the north, where there was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy. 4 Behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the appearance that I saw in the plain. 5 Then he said to me, “Son of man, lift up your eyes now the way toward the north.” So I lifted up my eyes the way toward the north, and saw, northward of the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry. 6 He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they do? Even the great abominations that the house of Israel commit here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? But you will again see yet other great abominations.” 7 He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold, a hole in the wall. 8 Then he said to me, “Son of man, dig now in the wall.” When I had dug in the wall, I saw a door. 9 He said to me, “Go in, and see the wicked abominations that they do here.” 10 So I went in and looked, and saw every form of creeping things, abominable animals, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed around on the wall. 11 Seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel stood before them. In the middle of them Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan stood, every man with his censer in his hand; and the smell 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 do in the dark, every man in his rooms of imagery? For they say, ‘Yahweh doesn’t see us. Yahweh has forsaken the land.’” 13 He said also to me, “You will again see more of the great abominations which they do.” 14 Then he brought me to the door of the gate of Yahweh’s house which was toward the north; and I saw the women sit there weeping for Tammuz. 15 Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? You will again see yet greater abominations than these.” 16 He brought me into the inner court of Yahweh’s house; and I saw at the door of Yahweh’s temple, between the porch and the altar, there were about twenty-five men with their backs toward Yahweh’s temple and their faces toward the east. They were worshiping the sun toward the east. 17 Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence, and have turned again to provoke me to anger. Behold, they put the branch to their nose. 18 Therefore I will also deal in wrath. My eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity. Though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them.”
Carried in vision to a temple he cannot reach, Ezekiel is shown four abominations in ascending order, and the last is performed with its back to the sanctuary.
The scene begins in Babylon with the elders of Judah sitting in the prophet's house, and it is worth pausing on that. There is a community here, with leaders who come to inquire. While they sit in front of him, he is taken by a lock of his hair and carried in the visions of God to Jerusalem. The men in the room see nothing. What he is shown is a temple still standing and still in use, nine hundred miles away, and the whole tour is conducted for the benefit of people who believed that building was their guarantee.
The four sights escalate, and each is introduced by the same formula: you will again see yet greater abominations than these. First, at the north gate of the inner court, an image of jealousy. It stands in the entry, where everyone coming in had to pass it. Second, and this one requires digging: a hole in the wall, a door behind it, and a room whose walls are painted with creeping things and abominable animals. Seventy elders stand in it with censers, one of them named — Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, from the family that elsewhere protected prophets.
What those elders say is the reason the room is painted. Yahweh doesn't see us. Yahweh has forsaken the land. They are not atheists. They are men who have concluded that God has gone away, and who have arranged private worship in a sealed chamber. The irony is complete and the book leaves it uncommented. They are being watched, in the dark, by the prophet they cannot see, in a vision given by the God they think has left.
Third, at the north gate, women weeping for Tammuz — a seasonal mourning ritual for a dying vegetation god, held inside the courts of the God who gives the rain. Fourth and worst, between the porch and the altar, in the holiest ground a layman could stand on, about twenty-five men with their backs toward Yahweh's temple and their faces toward the east... worshiping the sun. Position is the whole indictment. To face the sunrise from that spot a man must turn his back on the sanctuary. The escalation the chapter has been building ends there — not in a stranger practice, but in the same practice performed with the exact posture of contempt.
settled What this mark means