Ezekiel 8:16-18
Christian Standard Bible
16 So he brought me to the inner court of the Lord’s house, and there were about twenty-five men at the entrance of the Lord’s temple, between the portico and the altar,(A) with their backs to the Lord’s temple and their faces turned to the east.(B) They were bowing to the east in worship of the sun.(C) 17 And he said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? Is it not enough for the house of Judah to commit the detestable acts they are doing here, that they must also fill the land with violence(D) and repeatedly anger me,(E) even putting the branch to their nose?[a] 18 Therefore I will respond with wrath.(F) I will not show pity or spare them.(G) Though they call loudly in my hearing,(H) I will not listen to them.”
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 8:17 Alt Hb tradition reads my nose
Ezekiel 8:16-18
New English Translation
16 Then he brought me to the inner court of the Lord’s house. Right there[a] at the entrance to the Lord’s temple, between the porch and the altar,[b] were about twenty-five[c] men with their backs to the Lord’s temple,[d] facing east—they were worshiping the sun[e] toward the east!
17 He said to me, “Do you see, son of man? Is it a trivial thing that the house of Judah commits these abominations they are practicing here? For they have filled the land with violence and provoked me to anger still further. Look, they are putting the branch to their nose![f] 18 Therefore I will act with fury! My eye will not pity them nor will I spare[g] them. When they have shouted in my ears, I will not listen to them.”
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Ezekiel 8:16 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something.
- Ezekiel 8:16 sn The priests prayed to God between the porch and the altar on fast days (Joel 2:17). This is the location where Zechariah was murdered (Matt 23:35).
- Ezekiel 8:16 tc The LXX reads “twenty” instead of “twenty-five,” perhaps because of the association of the number twenty with the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash. tn Or “exactly twenty-five.”
- Ezekiel 8:16 sn The temple faced east.
- Ezekiel 8:16 tn Or “the sun god.” sn The worship of astral entities may have begun during the reign of Manasseh (2 Kgs 21:5).
- Ezekiel 8:17 tn It is not clear what the practice of “holding a branch to the nose” indicates. A possible parallel is the Syrian relief of a king holding a flower to his nose as he worships the stars (ANEP 281). See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 1:145-46. The LXX glosses the expression as “Behold, they are like mockers.”
- Ezekiel 8:18 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term is primarily emotional: “to pity,” which in context implies an action, as in being moved by pity in order to spare them from the horror of their punishment.
The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.
NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.