Illuminated Coptic sanctuary banner

Ezekiel 8-9 - Hidden abominations and the mark of those who grieve

15 min read

Jump to chapter (40)
EzekielSelect a chapter to jump directly
Intro12:13:1645678101214161718192021222324252627282931333435:136:16373840414344454748

Ezekiel is brought into the temple and shown what its worshipers think is hidden. The glory is still there, but incense, grief, and bodily reverence have been offered to other gods. The lie beneath it all is simple: the Lord does not see.

Judgment begins at the sanctuary because false holiness is more dangerous than obvious paganism. Yet mercy distinguishes those who groan over the iniquity. The vision first teaches us to grieve, then to pray; it never gives us permission to make the vulnerable pay for our zeal.

Previous: Ezekiel 7 · Next: Ezekiel 10-11

Historical and Scriptural Context

The vision is dated in the sixth year, fifth month, and fifth day, while Ezekiel sits in his house and the elders of Judah sit before him. Jerusalem still stands, but its fall is coming. The exiles can still imagine that the temple guarantees the city’s safety, and the Jerusalem leaders can still speak as if they own the land and the promise. Ezekiel is carried in a vision to Jerusalem so that the Lord Himself may show why such confidence is false.

The unit follows chapters 6-7, where judgment widened from high places to the whole land, and it precedes the exile signs and false-prophet indictments of chapters 12-14. In the book’s larger movement, Ezekiel 8-11 explains why the temple can be judged without God being defeated. The problem is not that Babylon is stronger than the Lord. The problem is that the house bearing the Lord’s name has become a theater of idolatry, denial, violence, and self-protection.

This is the first half of one vision extending through chapter 11. Ezekiel sees hidden abominations in chapter 8 and judgment beginning at the sanctuary in chapter 9. In the next movement, the glory will leave the house and stand outside the city, while God promises a new heart. The movement is slow enough to teach that the Lord is patient; it is final enough to teach that holiness will not be mocked.

Geographical Significance ⛰️

The geographical movement matters. Ezekiel is physically among the exiles in the land of the Chaldeans, but in the vision the Spirit lifts him between earth and heaven and brings him to Jerusalem. The reader is forced to hold two places together: the exile settlement by Chobar and the temple city. God sees both. The exiles are not forgotten, and Jerusalem is not hidden.

Inside Jerusalem, the vision moves through temple spaces: the north gate, the porch of the court, the entrance of the house of the Lord, the inner court between porch and altar, the threshold, and the east-facing gate. These are not neutral locations. They are supposed to be places of holy approach. Instead, Ezekiel sees idolatry in hidden rooms, lament for Thammuz at the temple porch, worship of the sun with backs turned toward the temple, and leaders giving deadly counsel at the gate.

Hidden abominations in the temple (Ezekiel 8:1-18)

Text note: Brenton dates 8:1 to the fifth month; the NKJV follows the Hebrew in naming the sixth. In 8:3 Brenton has “the pillar of the Purchaser” where the NKJV has the image of jealousy. Brenton 8:16 has about twenty men, while the Hebrew-based text has about twenty-five. The different wording is left visible rather than blended.

1 And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the fifth month, on the fifth day of the month, I was sitting in the house, and the elders of Juda were sitting before me: and the hand of the Lord came upon me. 2 And I looked, and, behold, the likeness of a man: from his loins and downwards there was fire, and from his loins upwards there was as the appearance of amber. 3 And he stretched forth the likeness of a hand, and took me up by the crown of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and sky, and brought me to Jerusalem in a vision of God, to the porch of the gate that looks to the north, where was the pillar of the Purchaser. 4 And, behold, the glory of the Lord God of Israel was there, according to the vision which I saw in the plain. 5 And he said to me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes toward the north, and, behold, I looked from the north toward the eastern gate. 6 And he said to me, Son of man, hast thou seen what these do? They commit great abominations here so that I should keep away from my sanctuary: and thou shalt see yet greater iniquities. 7 And he brought me to the porch of the court. 8 And he said to me, Son of man, dig: so I dug, and behold a door. 9 And he said to me, Go in, and behold the iniquities which they practise here. 10 So I went in and looked; and beheld vain abominations, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon them round about. 11 And seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and Jechonias the son of Saphan stood in their presence in the midst of them, and each one held his censer in his hand; and the smoke of the incense went up. 12 And he said to me, Thou hast seen, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel do, each one of them in their secret chamber: because they have said, The Lord sees not; The Lord has forsaken the earth. 13 And he said to me, Thou shalt see yet greater iniquities which these do. 14 And he brought me in to the porch of the house of the Lord that looks to the north; and, behold, there were women sitting there lamenting for Thammuz. 15 And he said to me, Son of man, thou hast seen; but thou shalt yet see evil practices greater than these. 16 And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord, and at the entrance of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty men, with their back parts toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces turned the opposite way; and these were worshipping the sun. 17 And he said to me, Son of man, thou hast seen this. Is it a little thing to the house of Juda to practise the iniquities which they have practised here? for they have filled the land with iniquity: and, behold, these are as scorners. 18 Therefore will I deal with them in wrath: mine eye shall not spare, nor will I have any mercy.

The first shock is that the glory is still there. Ezekiel sees the glory of the Lord at the temple according to the vision he saw in the plain. The Lord shows the prophet the sanctuary before the departure so that no one will mistake judgment for divine weakness or impatience.

The phrase “so that I should keep away from my sanctuary” is central. The abominations are driving the Lord’s presence away. Secret idolatry is not secret before God. The elders burn incense before images and say, “The Lord sees not; The Lord has forsaken the earth.” That sentence is the theology of every concealed sin.

The corruption is layered: hidden images, false ritual grief for Thammuz, and men in the inner court turning their backs on the temple to worship the sun. This is not harmless religious variety. It is leadership training the people to give their bodies, grief, and hope to another lord. Read toward Christ, the warning becomes sharper: if the Word has truly tabernacled among us, then Christian worship must be truthful in heart, not only correct in form.

Facing a holy direction does not make worship holy. These men turn their backs to the temple and worship the sun. St Basil explains Christian eastward prayer as desire for the Paradise God planted in the east: “we all look to the East at our prayers”.1 The direction is offered to the Creator, not to the light He made. Ezekiel exposes a bodily gesture emptied of its true Lord.

The marked remnant and the slaughter vision (Ezekiel 9:1-11)

1 And he cried in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, The judgment of the city has drawn nigh; and each had the weapons of destruction in his hand. 2 And, behold, six men came from the way of the high gate that looks toward the north, and each one’s axe was in his hand; and there was one man in the midst of them clothed with a long robe down to the feet, and a sapphire girdle was on his loins: and they came in and stood near the brazen altar. 3 And the glory of the God of Israel, that was upon them, went up from the cherubs to the porch of the house. And he called the man that was clothed with the long robe, who had the girdle on his loins; 4 and said to him, Go through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men that groan and that grieve for all the iniquities that are done in the midst of them. 5 And he said to the first in my hearing, Go after him into the city, and smite: and let not your eyes spare, and have no mercy. 6 Slay utterly old man and youth, and virgin, and infants, and women: but go ye not nigh any on whom is the mark: begin at my sanctuary. So they began with the elder men who were within in the house. 7 And he said to them, Defile the house, and go out and fill the ways with dead bodies, and smite. 8 And it came to pass as they were smiting, that I fell upon my face, and cried out, and said, Alas, O Lord! wilt thou destroy the remnant of Israel, in pouring out thy wrath upon Jerusalem? 9 Then said he to me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Juda is become very exceedingly great: for the land is filled with many nations, and the city is filled with iniquity and uncleanness: because they have said, The Lord has forsaken the earth, The Lord looks not upon it. 10 Therefore mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have any mercy: I have recompensed their ways upon their heads. 11 And, behold, the man clothed with the long robe, and girt with the girdle about his loins, answered and said, I have done as thou didst command me.

This is one of the hardest scenes in Ezekiel. The man clothed with the long robe marks those who groan and grieve over the iniquities, and then judgment begins at the sanctuary. Holy proximity increases responsibility. The same order appears in 1 Peter 4:17: judgment begins with the house of God. The Church hears that warning within 1 Peter 4:12-19 at the Liturgy for Toba 26, when she commemorates the Forty-Nine Elders of Scetis.2 The elders within the house are judged first because they have used holy nearness to hide unholiness.

The mark is not a badge of superiority. It is the sign of grief. The protected ones are not those who mastered the crisis, but those whose hearts broke over the abominations. St Cyprian gathers this passage with the blood on the Passover doorposts and the sealed people of Revelation as witnesses to salvation through the sign of the Cross.3 The mark belongs to God’s mercy, not to a group’s right to despise outsiders. Ezekiel himself falls on his face and cries, “Alas, O Lord!”

The slaughter vision is to be read with trembling. It is a prophetic disclosure of divine judgment, not permission for human vengeance. The city is filled with iniquity and uncleanness because its people have lived by the lie that God does not see. Judgment answers that lie, while the mark shows that mercy knows the grieving remnant by name.

The presence of infants in this terrible vision cannot make cruelty to the helpless righteous. The action belongs to divine judgment in a prophetic vision, not to human enforcement of purity. The prophet’s own response is intercession. Reading toward Christ means standing with that grief, not seeking someone against whom to carry a weapon.

Gems from the Fathers 💎

St John Chrysostom recalls those marked for grieving over Jerusalem and asks believers to share the sorrow of people under judgment. Even when punishment is just, God wills that we “condole with them, and not rejoice or insult”.4 This grief is the opposite of gossip. It moves first toward those harmed, then toward truthful action and prayer for the sinner, refusing pleasure in anyone’s ruin.

The Church’s Voice in Worship ⛪

The Church makes the sign of the Cross and brings the body as well as the mind into prayer. St Basil places the Cross, the eastward turn, and the blessing of baptismal water and anointing oil within the Church’s received worship.1 In Coptic Baptism, the anointing with Holy Myron belongs to the life received from Christ; it is not permission to leave the heart unrepentant. A different anointing with oil belongs to the Night of the Apocalypse’s reception of Revelation 7.5

The marked remnant grieves. The Agpeya places Psalm 51 (LXX 50) in the introduction to every hour, so that repentance is not reserved for the moment when someone else’s sin is exposed.6 The fitting answer is truthful repentance joined to protection of those harmed, not pleasure at another’s ruin. Communion with Christ cannot be used to conceal contempt for His members.

Iconography Connection 🖼️

The man in the long robe marks grieving foreheads before judgment begins. The Cross gathers the meaning of that mercy: salvation received from the Lord, not innocence displayed against a neighbor. The temple spaces and the marked faces belong in the same view, for God sees both the hidden room and the heart that laments it.

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

  1. Let God search the hidden room. Ezekiel is told to dig through the wall and look. Every Christian has places of thought, memory, fantasy, resentment, envy, fear, or secret control where the soul says, “The Lord sees not.” A concrete practice is to pray Psalm 51 (LXX 50) daily for a week and ask God to show one hidden chamber without despair.

  2. Grieve without self-righteousness. The marked remnant groans over abominations. They are not marked because they mock others, but because sin wounds them. When the Church sees corruption, scandal, or violence, the first response should be tears, repentance, protection of the vulnerable, and truthful action, not gossip or superiority.

  3. Do not use worship to hide from justice. Ezekiel joins defiled temple worship with violence in the city. If we pray beautifully while excusing cruelty, exploitation, abuse, or indifference to suffering, we are acting out the same lie. Before Liturgy, ask: whom have I harmed, ignored, or refused to forgive? Forgiveness does not require renewed exposure to abuse; truthful protection can itself be obedience.

Footnotes

  1. St Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit 27 §66, newadvent.org. ↩ ↩2

  2. Coptic Synaxarium, Toba 26, the Forty-Nine Elders of Scetis; Coptic Katameros, Toba 26 Liturgy, Catholic Epistle, 1 Peter 4:12-19; published commemoration and reading tables. ↩

  3. St Cyprian of Carthage, Testimonies to Quirinus II.22, newadvent.org. ↩

  4. St John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Statues 18 §9, newadvent.org. ↩

  5. H.G. Bishop Youssef, Night of the Apocalypse, section “The Holy Book of Revelation,” published episcopal explanation. ↩

  6. Fr. Jacob B. Nadian / St Bishoy Coptic Orthodox Church, Book of Agpeya, Introduction to Every Hour, Psalm 50, printed p. 12, prayer book. Bible reference: Psalm 51 (LXX 50). ↩

Reading statusLoading your browser-local progress
Saved only in this browser
Referenced Fathers:

Created: | Updated:

Related Studies & References

Referenced in Other Studies