Ezekiel 8:16

The Lord next took Ezekiel to the main entrance into the temple, to a place between the altar of burnt offerings and the temple porch. There Ezekiel saw about 25 men bowing down to the ground with their backs to the temple facing east worshipping the sun. The Mosaic Law forbade sun worship (Deuteronomy 4:19), but King Manasseh had promoted it in Judah (2 Kings 21:5). [Note: See H. G. May, "Some Aspects of Solar Worship at Jerusalem," Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 55 (1937):269-81.] Many interpreters assume that these men were priests, perhaps the high priest and a representative of each of the 24 courses of priests (1 Chronicles 23), because of their number and where they were standing. Normally only priests went into the inner court of the temple (2 Chronicles 4:9; Joel 2:17). This seems likely.

"Worship of the sun was widespread in the ancient Near East and was deeply rooted in Canaan. In Israelite thought the sun was a member of the ’host of heaven,’ which was viewed as the Lord’s heavenly assembly (compare Deuteronomy 4:19; Deuteronomy 17:3; 2 Kings 23:5 with 1 Kings 22:19). This may explain why these men could worship the sun in the Lord’s temple." [Note: Chisholm, p. 240. See also Helmer Ringgren, Religions of the Ancient Near East, pp. 64-66; Greenberg, p. 171; and Block, The Book . . ., pp. 294-96.]

"The sun would thus have to be considered part of the host of heaven, subordinate to Yahweh. As such one might argue that the worship of the sun in Yahweh’s temple would have been seen by those who participated in it as, so to speak, all ’part of the package’, just as Catholics would regard veneration (not worship) of Mary as not being incompatible with worship of Christ." [Note: John Day, Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan, p. 158.]