Ezekiel 8:12

12. Chambers of his imagery Has this reference to the pictures on the wall (Ezekiel 8:11), or does it intimate that all this is merely a symbolic picture representing the hearts of the leaders of Israel? It is hard to believe that all these forms of worship were actually being carried forward in Jehovah’s temple. Ezekiel may possibly only mean that in his heart every man in his “chambers of imagery” is an idol worshiper.

The Lord hath forsaken the earth Or, land. Jehovah is here placed in the thought of these chief men on a level with the heathen gods, who were only powerful over a limited territory, and who, if they left the land for any cause, lost sight of what was transpiring there. (Compare Ezekiel 9:9; 1 Kings 18:27.) As Jerusalem and Israel were losing pre-eminence, the faith in the power of the local God became fainter and fainter. “Though the name of the leader of the band might have warned them that the Lord was listening, they boasted in their blindness that Jehovah did not see them; he had forsaken the temple and gone elsewhere.” Plumptre.