Ezekiel 8:6

6. Turn thee yet again, and thou shall see greater abominations Or, thou shalt see again greater abominations. The gradation of crime indicated here is a help in determining the location and nature of the worship now to be described. The increased desecration is seen, if our exegesis is correct, first, in the place where the worship is offered; second, in the character of the worshipers; and, third, in the nature of the worship. The image was set up “at the gate” (of the outer court, Ezekiel 8:5); the “chambers of imagery” were in the gate, or in an adjoining chamber at the very entrance to the inner court; the women “weeping for Tammuz” were at “the door of the gate of the Lord’s house,” which we suppose to be a special title designating the door of the holy place, just as the priests’ court seems to be called “the court of the Lord’s house” (Jeremiah 19:14; Jeremiah 26:2). The sun worshipers were “at the door of the temple of the Lord,” which evidently locates them on the steps of the court leading to the holy of holies; for it is distinctly stated, as if to increase the enormity of the offense, that they were “between the porch and the altar” (Ezekiel 8:16), and the Mishna also declares that this particular space was especially holy (Chelim, 1-9). The priests would naturally speak of the priests’ court as the court, and of the gate of the inner court as the gate (2 Chronicles 20:5; Jeremiah 19:14; Jeremiah 26:2, and Ezekiel passim). The character of the worshipers and the kind of worship, if our explanation is correct, show a growth in shamelessness: elders (Ezekiel 8:11), women prostitutes (Ezekiel 8:14, compare Deuteronomy 23:17); men prostitutes (Ezekiel 8:16); the Egyptian Mysteries (Ezekiel 8:10); the Tammuz Festival (Ezekiel 8:14); the worship of the sun with special reference to its fructifying influence (Ezekiel 8:16-17).

That I should go far off from my sanctuary These abominations drive Jehovah from his temple. Jerusalem and the temple have always been called sacred to Jehovah, and the comrades of Ezekiel in exile thought it blasphemy for anyone to suggest that the temple could be captured and profaned by the heathen; but in the vision it is made plain that the temple is already profaned. The elders, the common people, and even the priests the chief ministers of the temple have already brought into it the worst forms of heathen worship. It is already polluted. The Chaldean army can do no worse. Let the siege begin! It is Jehovah’s temple no longer, and he will no longer protect it. This is a syncretism which even the heathen have not been guilty of (Jeremiah 2:10).