Discovery BoxEzekiel 8:8-12 
Context8:8 He said to me, “Son of man, dig into the wall.” So I dug into the wall and discovered a doorway.
8:9 He said to me, “Go in and see the evil abominations they are practicing here.” 8:10 So I went in and looked. I noticed every figure 1 of creeping thing and beast – detestable images 2 – and every idol of the house of Israel, engraved on the wall all around. 3 8:11 Seventy men from the elders of the house of Israel 4 (with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them) were standing in front of them, each with a censer in his hand, and fragrant 5 vapors from a cloud of incense were swirling upward.
8:12 He said to me, “Do you see, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in the chamber of his idolatrous images? 6 For they think, ‘The Lord does not see us! The Lord has abandoned the land!’”
1 tn Or “pattern.”
2 tn Heb “detestable.” The word is often used to describe the figures of foreign gods.
3 sn These engravings were prohibited in the Mosaic law (Deut 4:16-18).
4 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).
5 tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT.
6 tn Heb “the room of his images.” The adjective “idolatrous” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
sn This type of image is explicitly prohibited in the Mosaic law (Lev 26:1).
