Ezekiel 8:16

"And he brought me into the inner court of Jehovah's house; and behold, at the door of the temple of Jehovah, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of Jehovah, and their faces toward the east; and they were worshipping the sun toward the east. Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O Son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abomination which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have turned again to provoke me to anger: and lo, they put the branch to their nose. Therefore will I also deal in wrath; mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them."

WORSHIP OF THE SUN BY THE PRIESTS

Here is the climax of the abominations witnessed by Ezekiel in the vision. The heads of the twenty-four courses of the sacred priesthood, led by the High priest, making up the "twenty five men" mentioned here, were not only worshipping the sun, but they were doing so in the very temple of God, with their backs turned upon the sacred temple of Jehovah! Keil pointed out that this was not the worship of Adonis, or any other sun-god, but, "The worship of the heavenly bodies, against which Moses had warned the people (Deuteronomy 4:19; 17:3)."[17]

"They put the branch to the nose ..." (Ezekiel 8:17). "Assyrian reliefs identify this gesture as an act of reverence and worship."[18] "Sun worshippers held branches or bundles of twigs from certain trees to their mouth, that they might not contaminate the sun with their breath."[19] From this, it appears that the fallen Israelites had adopted sun-worship with all of its variations and embellishments. Cook understood Ezekiel's use of "nose" instead of "mouth" here as designed to represent the practice, "In contemptuous and derogatory terms."[20] "Many scholars favor the translation of this place as, `They send a stench to my nostrils.'"[21]