Discovery BoxEzekiel 8:5-6 
Context8:5 He said to me, “Son of man, look up toward 1 the north.” So I looked up toward the north, and I noticed to the north of the altar gate was this statue of jealousy at the entrance.
8:6 He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing – the great abominations that the people 2 of Israel are practicing here, to drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see greater abominations than these!”
Ezekiel 8:11
Context8:11 Seventy men from the elders of the house of Israel 3 (with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them) were standing in front of them, each with a censer in his hand, and fragrant 4 vapors from a cloud of incense were swirling upward.
Ezekiel 8:16
Context8:16 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!
1 tn Heb “lift your eyes (to) the way of.”
2 tn Heb “house.”
3 sn Note the contrast between these seventy men who represented Israel and the seventy elders who ate the covenant meal before God, inaugurating the covenant relationship (Exod 24:1, 9).
4 tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT.
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).
