Ezekiel 8:13-16

(13-14) Women weeping for Tammuz.
And He said to me, “Turn again, and you will see greater abominations that they are doing.” So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the LORD’s house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.

a. You will see greater abominations: Ezekiel saw idolatry outside the temple and corruption among the leaders within. Yet there were greater abominations to see.

i. “We need not then perplex our reader with a long discourse, to show wherein these latter sins are greater than the former mentioned; they are all very great.” (Poole)

b. To my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz: This is the only mention of Tammuz in Ezekiel and the Old Testament. This was another example of pagan worship, and Tammuz was a deity worshipped by many in neighboring nations, often with immoral or impure rites. Ezekiel was dismayed because women were there, in the holy place reserved only for priests, and because of their immoral idolatry.

i. “It is likely that the prophet would have viewed the presence of women in the inner court as a profanation.” (Vawter and Hoppe)

ii. “The worship of Tammuz came from Babylon through the Phoenicians (Canaanites) and then the Greeks. Tammuz, mentioned nowhere else in the Scriptures, was the Babylonian Dumuzi, beloved of Ishtar, and is to be identified with the Greek Adonis.” (Feinberg)

iii. “In the seasonal mythological cycle, he died early in the fall when vegetation withered. His revival by the wailing of Ishtar was marked by the buds of spring and the fertility of the land. Such renewal was encouraged and celebrated by licentious fertility festivals.” (Alexander)

iv. “With the worship of this god in ancient times were connected the basest immoralities. With the greatest of abandon women gave themselves up tomost shameful practices.” (Feinberg)

3. (15-16) Priests worshipping the sun.
Then He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn again, you will see greater abominations than these.” So He brought me into the inner court of the LORD’s house; and there, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping the sun toward the east.

a. You will see greater abominations than these: God continually promised Ezekiel that he would see greater and greater abominations. This time, his vision would display them in the inner court of the LORD’s house.

i. “The idolatry of the seventy elders was hidden in the temple, but these men practiced their idolatry openly!” (Wiersbe)

b. About twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple…and they were worshipping the sun toward the east: These men stood where the priests would normally stand to bless the people. Yet, with the temple behind them and the altar before them (their faces toward the east), they were worshipping the sun toward the east. They didn’t worship Yahweh, even at His own temple – they worshipped the sun, as the other pagan nations did.

i. The number and the location of these men make it likely (though not certain) they were priests. “If they were priests perhaps the number is twenty-five because there was a representative of each of the twenty-four courses of the priests plus the high priest (cf. 1 Chron 23).” (Alexander)

ii. “These worshippers showed their contempt for God by standing in such a way that they had their backs to the Temple while they reverenced the sun (cf. 2 Kings 23.5,11), worshipping the creature rather than the Creator (Rom. 1.25).” (Wright)

iii. Block on the sun cult in Israel: “According to 2 K. 21:5 it appears to have gained royal sponsorship during the reign of Manasseh, who built altars for the entire host of heaven in the courts of the temple. From 2 K. 23:11–12 one may also infer that the horses and chariots of the sun at the entrance of the temple that Josiah demolished had also been erected by Manasseh.”