Ezekiel 8:5

Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) The way toward the north.—This shows that Ezekiel in his vision was within the court of the priests, as otherwise he could not have looked toward the north to see the idol in the north gate. He had already seen this; but now his attention is directed to it particularly. It was not enough that he should see it; it was to be especially pointed out as a part of the reason for the Divine judgments. The expression, “Gate of the altar,” may find an additional explanation in the fact mentioned in 2Kings 16:14, that Ahaz removed the altar towards the north, and thus would have placed it very near this gate.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:1-6 The glorious personage Ezekiel beheld in vision, seemed to take hold upon him, and he was conveyed in spirit to Jerusalem. There, in the inner court of the temple, was prepared a place for some base idol. The whole was presented in vision to the prophet. If it should please God to give any man a clear view of his glory and majesty, and of all the abominations committing in any one city, he would then admit the justice of the severest punishments God should inflict thereon.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The glory of the Lord having departed from His seat between the cherubims in the holy of holies (see Ezekiel 9:3) rests in the threshold of the temple, to execute vengeance before it quits the house altogether Ezekiel 10:18. The "there" in the inner court, which was "full of the brightness of the Lord'S glory" Ezekiel 10:4, and at the gate of which Ezekiel stands.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5. gate of … altar—the principal avenue to the altar of burnt offering; as to the northern position, see 2Ki 16:14. Ahaz had removed the brazen altar from the front of the Lord's house to the north of the altar which he had himself erected. The locality of the idol before God's own altar enhances the heinousness of the sin.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Then; when he had in vision brought me hither.

Lift up thine eyes; observe diligently and exactly every thing which thou mayst see northward first.

The gate of the altar; so called, because Ahaz had removed it from the middle of the court, where by God’s command it was placed by Solomon; but now Ahaz setting it near this north gate, it gave name to the gate or possibly because of an altar erected there to some idol by Manasseh.

Image of jealousy: see Ezekiel 8:3, &c.

In the entry; in the very midst of the court, in the very passage to the temple, to affront the worship of God.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Then said he unto me, son of man,.... That is, the glorious Person described above in this vision, the glorious God of Israel, seen by the prophet in the temple, he spoke unto him, calling him son of man; a name by which he often goes in this prophecy:

lift up thine eyes now toward the north; of the mountain of the house without the court, as Jarchi interprets it:

so I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north: being obedient to the heavenly vision:

and behold northward at the gate of the altar; at the northern gate of the inner court, where was the altar of burnt offering, brought by Ahaz; to the north of the altar he built in imitation of that at Damascus, 2 Kings 16:10; and here stood

this image of jealousy in the entry; or the image of this jealousy; the image before mentioned, which provoked the Lord to jealousy; this stood at the entry of the northern gate, which led into the inner court, and to the altar.

Geneva Study Bible

Then said he to me, Son of man, lift up thy eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up my eyes the way toward the north, and behold northward at the gate of the {h} altar this image of jealousy in the entrance.

(h) That is, in the court where the people had made an altar to Baal.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. gate of the altar] Is probably the northern inner gate. The northern entrance was the most frequented, partly because the royal palace and buildings lay to the south and east, and the west was closed by the buildings of the temple itself. In Leviticus 1:4 the sacrificial victims are commanded to be slaughtered on the north side of the altar.

in the entry] The image was situated on the north of the altar gate, and the words in or at the entry are to be taken somewhat generally. The words are wanting in LXX.

Ezekiel 8:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

First Abomination-Picture

Ezekiel 8:5. And He said to me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now towards the north. And I lifted up my eyes towards the north, and, behold, to the north of the gate of the altar was this image of jealousy at the entrance. Ezekiel 8:6. And He said to me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? great abominations, which the house of Israel doeth here, that I may go far away from my sanctuary; and thou shalt yet again see greater abominations still. - As Ezekiel had taken his stand in the inner court at the entrance of the north gate, and when looking thence towards the north saw the image of jealousy to the north of the altar gate, the image must have stood on the outer side of the entrance, so that the prophet saw it as he looked through the open doorway. The altar gate is the same as the northern gate of the inner court mentioned in Ezekiel 3. But it is impossible to state with certainty how it came to be called the altar gate. Possibly from the circumstance that the sacrificial animals were taken through this gate to the altar, to be slaughtered on the northern side of the altar, according to Leviticus 1:4; Leviticus 5:11, etc. מהם, contracted from מה־הם, like מזּה from מה זה in Exodus 4:2. The words "what they are doing here" do not force us to assume that at that very time they were worshipping the idol. They simply describe what was generally practised there. The setting up of the image involved the worship of it. The subject to לרחקה is not the house of Israel, but Jehovah. They perform great abominations, so that Jehovah is compelled to go to a distance from His sanctuary, i.e., to forsake it (cf. Ezekiel 11:23), because they make it an idol-temple.