8:16 Then he brought me to the inner court of the Lord’s house. Right there 5 at the entrance to the Lord’s temple, between the porch and the altar, 6 were about twenty-five 7 men with their backs to the Lord’s temple, 8 facing east – they were worshiping the sun 9 toward the east!
46:1 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: The gate of the inner court that faces east 10 will be closed six working days, but on the Sabbath day it will be opened and on the day of the new moon it will be opened.
1 tn The Hebrew term is normally used as an architectural term in describing the pattern of the tabernacle or temple or a representation of it (see Exod 25:8; 1 Chr 28:11).
2 tn Or “spirit.” See note on “wind” in 2:2.
3 map For the location of Jerusalem see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
4 tn Or “image.”
5 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something.
6 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).
7 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.”
8 sn The temple faced east.
9 tn Or “the sun god.”
sn The worship of astral entities may have begun during the reign of Manasseh (2 Kgs 21:5).
10 sn The east gate of the outer court was permanently closed (Ezek 44:2).