5 Then said he to me, Son of man, lift up your eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up my eyes the way toward the north, and see, northward of the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry.
He put forth the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and the sky, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the gate of the inner [court] that looks toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy.
Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see; where have you not been lain with? By the ways have you sat for them, as an Arabian in the wilderness; and you have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness.
For they provoked him to anger with their high places, And moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.
But they set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it.
Then the angel who talked with me came forward, and said to me, "Lift up now your eyes, and see what is this that is appearing." I said, "What is it?" He said, "This is the ephah{ An ephah is a measure of volume of about 22 litres, 5.8 U. S. gallons, 4.8 imperial gallons, or a bit more than half a bushel. } basket that is appearing." He said moreover, "This is their appearance in all the land (and, behold, a talent{A talent is a weight of about 34 kilograms or 75 pounds.} of lead was lifted up); and this is a woman sitting in the midst of the ephah basket." He said, "This is Wickedness;" and he threw her down into the midst of the ephah basket; and he threw the weight of lead on its mouth. Then lifted I up my eyes, and saw, and, behold, there were two women, and the wind was in their wings. Now they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah basket between earth and the sky. Then said I to the angel who talked with me, "Where are these carrying the ephah basket?" He said to me, "To build her a house in the land of Shinar. When it is prepared, she will be set there in her own place."
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Ezekiel 8
Commentary on Ezekiel 8 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 8
God, having given the prophet a clear foresight of the people's miseries that were hastening on, here gives him a clear insight into the people's wickedness, by which God was provoked to bring these miseries upon them, that he might justify God in all his judgments, might the more particularly reprove the sins of the people, and with the more satisfaction foretel their ruin. Here God, in vision, brings him to Jerusalem, to show him the sins that were committed there, though God had begun to contend with them (v. 1-4), and there he sees,
Eze 8:1-6
Ezekiel was now in Babylon; but the messages of wrath he had delivered in the foregoing chapters related to Jerusalem, for in the peace or trouble thereof the captives looked upon themselves to have peace or trouble, and therefore here he has a vision of what was done at Jerusalem, and this vision is continued to the close of the 11th chapter.
Eze 8:7-12
We have here a further discovery of the abominations that were committed at Jerusalem, and within the confines of the temple, too. Now observe,
Eze 8:13-18
Here we have,