10<\/strong>. The construction is difficult: lit. “and behold every likeness ( Eze 8:3<\/em><\/span>; Deu 4:17-18<\/span>) of creeping things and beasts (cattle), abomination, and all,” &c., the term “abomination” being descriptive both of creeping things and beasts. The term “beasts” is employed of the larger domestic animals, though also of the beasts of prey; it seems nowhere used of the smaller vermin. On the other hand the word “abomination” is chiefly used in regard to the smaller creatures that swarm, whether in the waters or on the land, in the latter case winged and creeping things being included (Leviticus 11<\/span>), and nowhere of the animals called “beasts.” LXX. omits “likeness of creeping things and beasts,” and it is possible that these words are a marginal gloss explanatory of “abomination.” It has usually been supposed that the reference is to the debased forms of Egyptian superstition. This is possible, for the other practices mentioned, the lamentation for Tammuz and the sun-worship came from abroad. Israel appears to have fallen into the idolatries of the nations about her when she came under their influence, particularly when they became paramount over her, and their gods were thought to be stronger than her own God. The Egyptian influence had been powerful from the days of Isaiah downwards, and even after the battle of Carchemish (b.c. 604) the hope of Egyptian support induced Jehoiakim in his last years and Zedekiah toward the close of his reign to renounce their allegiance to Babylon. On the other hand the practices here mentioned may be rather a revival of ancient superstitions which, during the prosperity of the kingdom and amidst the vigour of the national religion, had fallen into disuse or maintained themselves only as a secret cult, but which, amidst the disasters of the time, when Jehovah appeared to have forsaken the land and men looked to every quarter for aid, again became prevalent (see W. R. Smith, Religion of the Semites<\/em>, p. 338). If the LXX. reading be followed the passage may have less significance than has been attributed to it.<\/p>\n and all the idols<\/em> ] the block-gods, see ch. Eze 6:4<\/span>. The fact that the “idols,” which according to ch. 6 ( Eze 8:4<\/em><\/span> ; Eze 8:6<\/em><\/span><\/em> ; Eze 8:9<\/em><\/span><\/em> ; Eze 8:13<\/em><\/span><\/em>) are to be found over all the mountains of Israel, are represented as portrayed upon the wall is peculiar, and suggests that the whole is symbolical. In ch. Eze 23:14<\/span> Jerusalem sees images of the Chaldeans portrayed upon the wall and falls in love with them, but such portraits can hardly have been a reality.<\/p>\n There is clearly a reference to the idolatry of Egypt. Many subterranean chambers in rocks upon the shores of the Nile exhibit ornamentation and hieroglyphical characters, some of which are representative of the objects of idolatrous worship. Such chambers fitted them for the scene of the ideal picture by which Ezekiel represented Egyptian idolatry. The Egyptian worship of animals is well known.<\/P><\/p>\n Verse 10<\/span>. And saw – every form of creeping things<\/B><\/I>] It is very likely that these images pourtrayed on the wall were the objects of Egyptian adoration: the ox<\/I>, the ape<\/I>, the dog<\/I>, the crocodile,<\/I> the ibis<\/I>, the scarabaeus<\/I> or beetle<\/I>, and various other things. It appears that these were privately worshipped by the sanhedrin or great Jewish council, consisting of seventy<\/I> or seventy-two<\/I> persons, six<\/I> chosen out of every tribe, as representatives of the people. The images were pourtrayed upon the wall, as we find those ancient idols are on the walls of the tombs of the kings and<\/I> nobles of Egypt<\/I>. See the plates to Belzoni’s<\/I> Travels, the Isaic<\/I> Tomb<\/I> in the Bodleian Library, and the Egyptian hieroglyphics<\/I> in general. Virgil<\/I> speaks of these, AEn<\/I>. lib. viii.: – <\/P> Omnigenumque Deum monstra, et latrator Anubis.<\/P> <\/P> “All kinds of gods, monsters, and barking dogs.” <\/P> <\/p>\n So I went in, <\/B>according to the vision. <\/P> Of creeping things; <\/B>of such creatures as the Egyptians, or any others with whom the Jews had acquaintance, did worship. <\/P> Abominable beasts; <\/B>the beasts are here called abominable, because idolaters had abused them to unlawful uses, making idols of them. <\/P> The idols of the house of Israel; <\/B>the Jews had multiplied to themselves idols of their own, besides those borrowed from their neighbours. Or they are called <\/P> the idols of the house of Israel, <\/B>because they had adopted them, and because Israels idolatry was so much more brutish and provoking than that of the other nations, who had not the law of God given to them as to the Jews. <\/P> Portrayed upon the wall:<\/B> possibly they did thus picture their idols on the wall, vainly thinking. this was not a breach of the law, which forbade graven images, and molten images; but every likeness of any thing made for to worship is forbidden, and such pictures are to be destroyed, Num 33:52<\/span>. Possibly they had the same set of idols, by different givers, and by different painters, drawn on the walls of the chamber or house of idols. <\/P> <\/p>\n 10. creeping things . . .beasts<\/B>worshipped in Egypt; still found portrayed on theirchamber walls; so among the Troglodyt. <\/P> round about<\/B>On everyside they surrounded themselves with incentives to superstition.<\/P><\/p>\n So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things<\/strong>,…. As beetles and others, worshipped for gods:<\/p>\n and abominable beasts<\/strong>; unclean ones; not only oxen, but dogs and cats, and other impure creatures; for such were the gods of the Egyptians, from whom the Jews took their deities:<\/p>\n and all the idols of the house of Israel<\/strong>; which were many, even as numerous as their cities:<\/p>\n portrayed upon the wall round about<\/strong>; the pictures of them were drawn and placed around the wall of the room or chamber; and where they were worshipped by the priests and Levites, and members of the sanhedrim; and this was not in one chamber only, but in many, as appears from Eze 8:12<\/span>.<\/p>\n (10) Every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts.<\/strong>The description of the idolatrous rites here practised clearly indicates their Egyptian origin. Creature worship was indeed practised among other nations, and the painting of idolatrous objects upon walls is expressly mentioned in Eze. 23:14-16<\/span>, as introduced by the Jews from Chalda; yet the combination is so thoroughly Egyptian, and the political relations of the time also point so strongly in the same direction, that the origin seems settled. It was during this period that Jeremiah was obliged to contend strenuously against the desire of a considerable part of the court to enter into an alliance with Egypt against Chalda. The party among the Jews who sought an Egyptian alliance, as abundantly appears from Jeremiah, was also the party most unwilling to submit to the Divine commandments. They were the persons who engaged in this creature-worship; and they are here represented as constituting the leaders of the nation. As if this were not enough, all the idols of the house of Israel, gathered from every quarter, were also portrayed upon the walls.<\/p>\n 10<\/strong>. <\/strong> Every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts <\/strong> Literally, every likeness of creeping things and beasts, abominations <\/em> (Davidson). (Compare Eze 8:3<\/span>; Deu 14:19<\/span>; Lev 11:10-11<\/span>.) This certainly does not refer, as Professor W.R. Smith supposed (followed by Toy, etc.), to an ignorant and debased form of vermin worship which had lingered in the obscure depths of society for centuries, and now comes to the surface in days of skepticism and despair ( The Old Testament in the Jewish Church, <\/em> p. 366; The Religion of the Semites, <\/em> pp. 272, 338). The worship of vermin was an ancient cult which had been banished for centuries from respectable heathen worship. It is inconceivable that the highest class of Israelites, distinguished by birth and education and office (Exodus 24<\/span>; Numbers 11<\/span>), could have fallen to these depths; and, if they had so done, it is inconceivable that Tammuz and sun worship should have been considered so much worse than this (Eze 8:13<\/span>; Eze 8:15<\/span>). The fact that there were pictures upon the wall indicates some culture and refinement of worship, and points to the Egyptian or Greek mysteries as the most probable explanation of this secret gathering. These mysteries were often held in caverns. Belzoni discovered one in Egypt to which there was no entrance except through a narrow hole. The inner chambers of Egyptian temples had no windows, and the walls were covered with figures which a Hebrew prophet would have described just as Ezekiel describes this secret chamber. More than this, it is now known that the Greek mysteries which even Herodotus acknowledges came from Egypt experienced a revival 600-500 B.C., and it was probably this revival which was making itself felt in Jerusalem; for the Greeks, as well as the Egyptians, had great influence in Palestine just at this era. (Introduction to Daniel, III, 4, and Duruy, 2:374.) The mysteries, when compared with Tammuz worship, etc., agree perfectly with the prophet’s statement (Eze 8:13<\/span>; Eze 8:15<\/span>). There was no kind of ancient heathenism less objectionable than the mysteries in their purest form. This was the esoteric religion of the most cultured people. It encouraged reverence and self-restraint. It taught that there was an eternal unity pervading all things; a “golden chain” connecting heaven and earth. It sought to explain the deep secrets of life and death, and plainly taught that there was a life beyond the grave. Noble sentiments and sublime truths were mixed with the follies contained in the mysteries, as even the early Christian fathers were constrained to acknowledge, and it seems that St. Paul himself may have referred to these with no sign of disrespect. ( Bibliotheca Sacra, <\/em> vol. 50:613.)<\/p>\n ‘So I went in and saw, and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, engraved on the wall round about. And there stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah, the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand. And the odour of the cloud of incense went up.’<\/p>\n The depictions were not specifically of animals and creatures unclean in themselves. ‘Creeping things’ (things that slither or scuttle along the ground) were simply in contrast with domestic animals, wild beasts, birds and fish (compare Rom 1:23<\/span>). It would include snakes, scorpions, dung beetles (scarabs) and vermin. Possibly mostly in mind here were the serpent deities, sacred dung beetles and other hideous creatures of religions well known in Egypt, Canaan and Mesopotamia cults. The abomination was mainly in the fact that they were depicted and worshipped, likening the heavenly to the earthly, degrading the idea of God. They were graven images, seemingly graven on the walls for the purpose of worship.<\/p>\n The ‘seventy elders’ were probably intended to indicate the rulership of Israel. That is not to say that they necessarily in person comprised all the actual seventy leading elders holding that position at the time – compare Num 11:16<\/span> – only that they represented them in vision).<\/p>\n Indeed Jaazaniah, the son of Shaphan, may well have been the son of the Shaphan who helped Josiah in his reforms and was his ‘scribe’ (2Ki 22:3<\/span>), and whose brother supported Jeremiah (Jer 26:24<\/span>). These men were therefore important people who had ‘gone wrong’, for they came to offer incense to their graven images in the dark, and symbolised the total deterioration of Israel’s leadership. Seven indicates perfection in the divine sphere and thus ‘seventy’ (seven intensified) worshipping elders may be intended to represent the whole of the leadership engaged in idolatry.<\/p>\n ‘And the odour of the cloud of incense went up.’ Possibly in the mention of this there is the thought that it not only went up, but that it ‘went up’ and was noted in heaven and that Yahweh was aware of it, and was angry.<\/p>\n Eze 8:10 So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about.<\/p>\n Ver. 10. And behold every form of creeping things.<\/strong> ] These, belike, were their dii minorum gentium,<\/em> their petty deities, their common idols, whereof as there was great number, so not so great respect given unto them. This piece of idolatry the Jews had learned of the Egyptians, who madly worshipped oxen, asses, goats, dogs, cats, serpents, crocodiles, the bird ibis, &c. Procter impietatem ingens stultitiae exuperantia ostenditur,<\/em> saith Theodoret on this text; Besides their impiety, were these men in their wits, think we? And what shall we say of Popish superstition? Do not they religiously worship Agnus Dei’s,<\/em> relics of saints, painted doves resembling the Holy Ghost, the ass whereon Christ rode, they say, on Palm Sunday? The tail of that ass they show still at Genoa, and require low obeisance to be done thereunto. a<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n a<\/em> Wolph. Mem. Lect.<\/p>\n abominable. Reference to Pentateuch (Lev 7 and Lev 11). Elsewhere only in Isa 66:17. App-92. <\/p>\n beasts. This animal = worship was part of Egyptian idolatry. <\/p>\n idols = manufactured gods. <\/p>\n and behold: These images portrayed on the wall were no doubt the objects of Egyptian idolatry, the ox, ape, crocodile, ibis, beetle, etc., as we find those idols were painted on the walls of the tombs of kings and nobles. <\/p>\n every: Exo 20:4, Lev 11:10-12, Lev 11:29-31, Lev 11:42-44, Deu 4:18, Deu 14:3, Deu 14:7, Deu 14:8, Isa 57:6-10, Jer 2:26, Jer 2:27, Jer 3:9, Jer 16:18, Rom 1:23 <\/p>\n Reciprocal: 2Ch 15:8 – abominable idols Jer 44:4 – this Eze 11:12 – but Eze 16:26 – with the Eze 23:14 – portrayed Rev 13:14 – they<\/p>\n Eze 8:10, The aforesaid abominations consisted of pictures or drawings on the walls of the apartment. These portrayals were general and included living creatures which were worshiped, as well as the other idols of the house of Israel.<\/p>\n 8:10 So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping animals, and {k} abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed around upon the wall.<\/p>\n (k) Which were forbidden in the law, Lev 11:4 .<\/p>\n So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about. 10. The construction is difficult: lit. “and behold every likeness ( Eze 8:3; Deu 4:17-18) of creeping things and beasts (cattle), abomination, and all,” … Continue reading “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 8:10”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"