14<\/strong>. The women bewailing Tammuz<\/p>\n 14<\/strong>. gate of the Lord’s house<\/em> ] i.e. outside the whole temple buildings to the north gate of the outer court; cf. ch. Eze 10:19<\/span>, Eze 11:1<\/span>. The term “house” embraces all the temple buildings (Jer 35:4<\/span>). The women may have been seen sitting outside the gate, or they may have been in some of the chambers of the outer gateway. Of course the temple building in Ezekiel’s time did not quite correspond to his ideal sketch in ch. 40 seq., but there were no doubt chambers at that time connected with both gateways (Jer 35:2<\/span>; Jer 35:4<\/span>; Jer 36:10<\/span>; Jer 36:12<\/span>; Jer 36:20-21<\/span>; cf. Jer 26:10<\/span>; 2Ki 23:11<\/span>). Tammuz is identical with Adonis. The latter name, Adon<\/em>, “Lord,” is not a proper name, being applicable to any great god, but when the myth found its way to Greece, the word became a proper name. The name Tammuz is Babylonian Dumu-zi, Dzi, said to signify “son of life,” and to indicate the eternal youth of the sun-god (cf. Fried. Del. in Baer’s Ezek<\/em>.; Schrader, KAT<\/em>. on Eze 8:14<\/span>; Sayce, Hibbert Lect<\/em>. IV). The story of the death of Tammuz is said to be a solar myth, having reference to the death of the sun-god. The explanations given by Assyrian scholars are not very clear. Sometimes the death is said to be that which he undergoes each night, sometimes that which he undergoes when he expires before the touch of winter, and sometimes the death is that of the lusty, life-giving vernal god, who perishes along with all life on earth amidst the summer fires which he himself has kindled. The town of Gebal or Byblos, eight miles north of Beirut, was the great seat of the Adonis worship in Phenicia. It is possible that the cult passed westward from Babylonia, but it may be that in Syria the rites had an independent origin and a different meaning, and that it was not till later that they were interpreted in the sense of the Babylonian myth (W. R. Smith, Religion of the Semites<\/em>, index under Adonis). It was probably from Phenicia that the worship entered Juda. Milton’s interpretation of the rites may not quite exhaust their meaning:<\/p>\n the love tale<\/p>\n Infected Zion’s daughters with like heat;<\/p>\n Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch<\/p>\n Ezekiel saw.<\/p>\n Such myths may originally be only beautiful nature poetry, but we are so allied to nature that we see our feelings reflected in her, as on the other hand her moods repeat themselves in us. Particularly in times of decay and loss the sadder aspects of nature intensify our own feeling by presenting to our minds a universal decay in which we and all things are involved. It is only the sorrowful side of the Tammuz rite that the prophet refers to.<\/p>\n The seer is now brought back to the same gate as in Eze 8:3<\/span>.<\/P> It is not certain that this verse refers to any special act of Tammuz-worship. The month in which the vision was seen, the sixth month (September), was not the month of the Tammuz-rites. But that such rites had been performed in Jerusalem there can be little doubt. Women are mentioned as employed in the service of idols in Jer 7:18<\/span>. There is some reason for believing that the weeping of women for Tammuz passed into Syria and Palestine from Babylonia, Tammuz being identified with Duv-zi, whose loss was lamented by the goddess Istar. The festival was identical with the Greek Adoniacs. The worship of Adonis had its headquarters at Byblos, where at certain periods of the year the stream, becoming stained by mountain floods, was popularly said to be red with the blood of Adonis. From Byblos it spread widely over the east and was thence carried to Greece. The contact of Zedekiah with pagan nations Jer 32:3<\/span> may very well have led to the introduction of an idolatry which at this time was especially popular among the eastern nations.<\/P> This solemnity was of a twofold character, first, that of mourning, in which the death of Adonis was bewailed with extravagant sorrow; and then, after a few days, the mourning gave place to wild rejoicings for his restoration to life. This was a revival of nature-worship under another form – the death of Adonis symbolized the suspension of the productive powers of nature, which were in due time revived. Accordingly, the time of this festival was the summer solstice, when in the east nature seems to wither and die under the scorching heat of the sun, to burst forth again into life at the due season. At the same time there was a connection between this and the sun-worship, in that the decline of the sun and the decline of nature might be alike represented by the death of Adonis. The excitement attendant upon these extravagances of alternate wailing and exultation were in complete accordance with the character of nature-worship, which for this reason was so popular in the east, especially with women, and led by inevitable consequence to unbridled license and excess. Such was in Ezekiels day one of the most detestable forms of idolatry.<\/P> <\/p>\n Verse 14<\/span>. There sat women weeping for Tammuz.<\/B><\/I>] This was Adonis<\/I>, as we have already seen; and so the Vulgate here translates. My old MS. Bible reads, There saten women, mornynge a mawmete of<\/I> lecherye that is cleped Adonydes<\/I>. He is fabled to have been a beautiful youth beloved by Venus, and killed by a wild boar in Mount Lebanon, whence springs the river Adonis<\/I>, which was fabled to run blood<\/I> at his festival in August. The women of Phoenicia, Assyria, and Judea worshipped him as dead<\/I>, with deep lamentation, wearing priapi<\/I> and other obscene images all the while, and they prostituted themselves in honour of this idol. Having for some time mourned him as dead<\/I>, they then supposed him revivified and broke out into the most extravagant rejoicings. Of the appearance of the river at this season, Mr. Maundrell<\/I> thus speaks: “We had the good fortune to see what is the foundation of the opinion which Lucian<\/I> relates, viz., that this stream at certain seasons of the year, especially about the feast of Adonis, is of a bloody<\/I> colour<\/I>, proceeding from a kind of sympathy, as the heathens imagined, for the death of Adonis, who was killed by a wild boar in the mountain out of which this stream issues. Something like this we saw actually come to pass, for the water was stained to a surprising redness; and, as we observed in travelling, had stained the sea a great way into a reddish hue.” This was no doubt occasioned by a red ochre, over which the river ran with violence at this time of its increase. Milton<\/I> works all this up in these fine lines: – <\/P> “Thammuz came next behind,<\/P> Whose annual wound<\/I> in Lebanon allured<\/P> The Syrian damsels to lament his fate,<\/P> In amorous ditties all a summer’s day;<\/P> While smooth Adonis, from his native rock,<\/P> Ran purple<\/I> to the sea, suffused with blood<\/I><\/P> Of Thammuz, yearly wounded. The love tale<\/P> Infected Sion’s daughters<\/I> with like heat:<\/P> Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch<\/P> Ezekiel saw, when by the vision led,<\/P> His eye surveyed the dark idolatries<\/P> Of alienated Judah.”<\/P> Par. Lost<\/I>, b. i. 446.<\/P> Tammuz<\/I> signifies hidden<\/I> or obscure<\/I>, and hence the worship of his image was in some secret place<\/I>.<\/P> <\/p>\n He brought me, <\/B>not by real and corporal change of place, but in vision and by representation. <\/P> Of the gate<\/B> of the outer court, or court of the women, so called because they were allowed to come into it, as were all the laity of the Jews: but it is more likely the gate of the inner court, the court of the priests, next to the house of God, whither none save priests might come; but in this very great corruption of the state others were admitted into it, which makes this sin the greater. <\/P> Towards the north; <\/B>he enters at first by the north gate, and so passeth on to what places were next to the temple on that side. <\/P> There sat women:<\/B> contrary to the law were they come thither, led by their blindest, because the vilest and most impudent, superstition, and waiting (expressed by <\/P> sitting<\/B>) ready to commit most lewd wickednesses, as part of their obscene and beastly rites. Weeping: this is the only part which is specified of their irreligious religion, commemorating with tears an infamously lustful and unclean whoremonger, or votary of Venus, snatched from her by an unhappy wound of a boar, say some; this weeping implieth all the beastly rites of that idol. <\/P> Tammuz; <\/B>a magician, say some; a handsome young man, but notorious for love of women, say others; an adulterer (say some) slain by his brother, king of Egypt, and mangled in pieces, whose torn members were thrown into the river, but gathered up by the fond adulteresses, and rites of worship fitted to so lewd an idol; whose adulteries, lascivious practices, and immodest gestures these she priests acted over before the idol with men of like lewdness, of whom what they received, as rewards of their prostituting themselves, was offered to Venus. By this means Gods temple was turned into a lewd stews. <\/P> <\/p>\n 14.<\/B> From the secret<\/I>abominations of the chambers of imagery, the prophet’s eye is turnedto the outer<\/I> court at the north door; within<\/I> the outercourt women were not admitted, but only to the door.<\/I> <\/P> sat<\/B>the attitude ofmourners (Job 2:13<\/span>; Isa 3:26<\/span>).<\/P> Tammuz<\/B>from a Hebrew<\/I>root, “to melt down.” Instead of weeping for the nationalsins, they wept for the idol. Tammuz (the Syrian<\/I> for Adonis<\/I>),the paramour of Venus, and of the same name as the river flowing fromLebanon; killed by a wild boar, and, according to the fable,permitted to spend half the year on earth, and obliged to spend theother half in the lower world. An annual feast was celebrated to himin June (hence called Tammuz in the Jewish calendar) at Byblos, whenthe Syrian women, in wild grief, tore off their hair and yieldedtheir persons to prostitution, consecrating the hire of their infamyto Venus; next followed days of rejoicing for his return to theearth; the former feast being called “the disappearance ofAdonis,” the latter, “the finding of Adonis.” ThisPhoelignician feast answered to the similar Egyptian one in honor ofOsiris. The idea thus fabled was that of the waters of the river andthe beauties of spring destroyed by the summer heat. Or else, theearth being clothed with beauty, during the half year when the sun isin the upper hemisphere, and losing it when he departs to the lower.The name Adonis<\/I> is not here used, as Adon<\/I> is theappropriated title of Jehovah.<\/P><\/p>\n Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord’s house, which [was] towards the north<\/strong>,…. By “the Lord’s house” no doubt is meant the temple, which the Targum here calls the house of the sanctuary of the Lord; that gate of the temple (for the temple had several gates) which was to the north was the gate called Teri or Tedi, and was very little used y. In this part of the temple were the sacrifices offered; and therefore it was the greater abomination to commit idolatry where the Lord was more solemnly worshipped:<\/p>\n and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz<\/strong>: they were not in the court of the women, where they should have been; but at the northern gate, near the place of sacrifice; and they were sitting there, which none but the kings of the house of Judah, and of the family of David, were allowed in the temple z; but, what was the greatest abomination, they were weeping for Tammuz. Jarchi says this was an image, which they heated inwardly, and its eyes were of lead; and these being melted with the heat, it seemed to weep; wherefore (the women) said, it asks for an offering: but not the idol, but the women, wept. Kimchi relates various interpretations of it;<\/p>\n “some (he says) expound it by an antiphrasis, “making Tammuz glad”; in the month of Tammuz they made a feast to the idol, and the women came to make him glad: others say, that with great diligence they brought water to the eyes of the idol called Tammuz, and it wept; signifying that it desired they would worship it: others interpret the word Tammuz as signifying “burnt”; (from the words in Da 3:19<\/span>; , “to heat the furnace”;) as if should say, they wept for him, because he was for they burnt their sons and daughters in the fire, and the women wept for them. He further observes, that Maimonides a writes, that he found written in one of the books of the ancient idolaters, that there was a man of the idolatrous prophets, whose name was Tammuz; who called to a certain king, and commanded him to worship the seven stars, and the twelve signs of the zodiac, for which the king put him to a violent death; and, the same night he died, all the images from the ends of the earth gathered together to the temple of Babylon, to a golden image which was the image of the sun; and this image was hanging between the heavens and the earth, and it fell into the midst of the temple, and so all the images round about it; and it declared unto them what had happened to Tammuz the prophet; and all the images wept and lamented all that night; and when it was morning, they all fled to their temples at the ends of the earth; and this became an everlasting statute to them, that at the beginning of the first day of the month Tammuz, every year, they lament and weeps for Tammuz; and there are others that expound Tammuz the name of a beast which they worship;”<\/p>\n but, leaving these interpretations, Tammuz was either the Adonis of the Grecians; and so the Vulgate Latin version renders it Adonis; who was a young man beloved by Venus, and, being killed by a boar, his death was lamented by her; and, in respect to the goddess, an anniversary solemnity was kept by men and women lamenting his death, especially by women. So Pausanias, speaking of a certain place, there (says he) the women of the Argives (a people in Greece) mourn for Adonis b. Lucian c gives a particular account of this ceremony, as performed at Byblus, a city in Phoenicia, not far from Judea; from whence the Jews might have borrowed this custom.<\/p>\n “I have seen (says he), in Byblus, a large temple of Venus Byblia, where they performed the rites unto Adonis, and I was a spectator of them. The Byblians say the affair relating to Adonis (or his death) by a boar happened in their country; and, in memory of it, every year they beat themselves, lament and offer sacrifice, and great mourning goes through the whole country; and when they beat themselves and mourn, they sacrifice to Adonis as dead; but the day following they pretend he is alive; and they shave their heads, as the Egyptians do at the death of Apis;”<\/p>\n and indeed it is thought by some that this Tammuz is the Osiris of the Egyptians; the same with Mizraim, the first king of Egypt, who, being slain in battle, his wife his ordered that he should be worshipped as a god, and a yearly lamentation made for him; and indeed Osiris and Adonis seem to be one and the same, only in different nations called by different names. Mention is made in Plato d of Thamus, a king that reigned at Thebes over all Egypt, and was the god called Ammon; no doubt the same with this Tammuz; and who is here called, in the Syriac and Arabic versions, Thamuz or Tamuz; he seems to be the same with Ham; and Egypt was called, the land of Ham, Ps 105:27<\/span>; and it is most probable the Jews borrowed this piece of idolatry from the Egyptians their neighbours; with whom they were now very familiar, and from whom they expected help against the Chaldeans; but as there were such shocking obscenities used in this idolatrous service, it is most amazing that the Jewish women, who had been instructed in the law and worship of God, should ever go into it. Gussetius e thinks that Bacchus, the god of wine, is meant; and gives several reasons for it; and among the rest observes, that in the fourth month, called Tammuz from him, the vine was forming in ripe grapes; near the beginning of a fifth month, it was pressed out, and tunned up; and by the next month, having done fermenting, it was stopped up, which represented him buried; and for which the weeping was in this month.<\/p>\n y Misn. Middot, c. 5. sect. 3. z Maimon. Hilchot Melachim, c. 2. sect. 4. a Moreh Nevochim, par. 3. c. 29, p. 426. b Corinthiaca, sive l. 2. p. 121. c De Dea Syria. Vid. Theocriti, , Idyll. 15. d Phaedrus, tom. 3. p. 974, Ed. Serran. e Ebr. Comment. p. 903. So Luther apud Dieteric. Antiqu. Bibl. par. 2. p. 132.<\/p>\n (14) Women weeping for Tammuz.<\/strong>The prophet is now taken to the north gate of the outer enclosure of the Temple courts, and there sees a new and exceedingly corrupt form of idolatry. Tammuz is nowhere else mentioned in Scripture, but is identified by ancient tradition (incorporated into the Vulg.) with the Greek Adonis, the beloved of Venus. The name Adonis <\/em>could not well have been used, because in its Hebrew form it means Lord, <\/em>and is frequently used of God. His worship is first heard of in Phoenicia, and was wide-spread throughout Syria and the adjacent countries. As the creature worship before mentioned was undoubtedly connected with political reasons, while aid was being sought from Egypt, so the worship of Adonis may have been affected by the league which Zedekiah attempted to form (Jer. 27:1-11<\/span>) with the Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, and Philistines against Nebuchadnezzar. The annual feast of Adonis consisted of a mourning by the women for his death, followed by a rejoicing over his return to life, and was accompanied by great abominations and licentiousness. The myth of Adonis was also closely associated with the worship of nature. This festival did not fall in the sixth month, but the description is not necessarily of what was actually occurring at the moment; there is brought before the prophets vision a representation of the wickedness practised at various times in Jerusalem. Women engaged in the service of idolatry near the Temple are mentioned in 2Ki. 23:7<\/span>. (Comp. Jer. 7:18<\/span>.)<\/p>\n Thus far, the prophet has seen in the different courts of the Temple the general image worship of the people, then the creature worship of their elders, and now the corrupt and debasing rites of their women.<\/p>\n 14<\/strong>. <\/strong> Women weeping for Tammuz <\/strong> Women were very prominent in idolatrous worship (2Ki 23:7<\/span>; Jer 44:9<\/span>; Jer 44:15-19<\/span>). Perhaps it was for this reason that women, in later Hebrew history, were ritualistically repressed (Peritz, Women in the Ancient Hebrew Cult, <\/em> and Jastrow, Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, <\/em> pp. 312, 313). Tammuz was the youthful sun god who perished after a brief season of illicit love with the amorous and wanton goddess Ishtar, but who received life again through the tears of his paramour. It is but another form of a sun myth common among many ancient peoples, symbolizing the yearly marriage of earth and heaven. “The earth is thrilled by the breath of the spring and abandons herself without shame to the caresses of heaven; she welcomes him to her arms, is fructified by him and pours forth the abundance of her flowers and fruits. Then comes summer and kills the spring; earth is burned up and withers, she strips herself of her raiment and her fruitfulness departs, till the gloom and icy numbness of winter have passed away, and spring brings the resurrection of the buried life.” (See Maspero, Dawn of Civilization, <\/em> pp. 639, 640; Struggle of Nations, <\/em> p. 174, etc.) The distinguishing and most common names for Tammuz in the cuneiform texts are “shepherd” and “lord” ( adoni<\/em>). An old Akkadian hymn speaks of him ( W.A.I., <\/em> 4:271): <\/p>\n Shepherd, lord Tammuz, spouse of heaven’s queen!<\/p>\n King of Aralu, king of Dusibba!<\/p>\n Willow that in a garden bed hath not drunk water, <\/p>\n Whose buds have borne no shoot (or bloom) in a field! etc.<\/p>\n <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Society Biblical Archaeology, Eze 16:7<\/strong><\/span><\/strong> .<\/p>\n <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n We know the very hymns sung in this most voluptuous and popular drama and the musical instruments which were in most common use. One hymn says: <\/p>\n On the day of Tammuz, play for me on the flute of lapis lazuli.<\/p>\n Together with the lyre of pearl, play for me.<\/p>\n Together let the professional dirge singers, male and female play for me, <\/p>\n That the dead may arise and inhale the incense of offerings.<\/p>\n <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n (See Jastrow, Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, <\/em> p. 575; also, for the obscurity of the worship, pp. 475, 485, and for the influence of the festival, even to modern times, p. 682.)<\/p>\n The fourth Assyrian month (June-July) was named Tammuz (Duzu), the fifth month, which may have been the very month in which this vision came (LXX., Eze 8:1<\/span>), was sacred to Ishtar, and the sixth month was designated as the “mission of Ishtar,” and in this month the Tammuz festival was celebrated in Babylonia.<\/p>\n If this actually represents a scene which occurred in the temple in the month Tammuz, there had been abundance of time in the two months past (or one month LXX., Eze 8:1<\/span>) for all the details of the sacrilegious festival to reach the ears of the exiles. It might well be that such news as this would bring the elders to the prophet’s house (Eze 8:1<\/span>). Indeed these “elders” might possibly have been visitors from Jerusalem (Dean Plumptre) to whom the seer now proves that he knows what is passing in the city from which they came.<\/p>\n ‘Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the house of Yahweh which was towards the north, and behold there sat there the women weeping for Tammuz.’<\/p>\n This may have been the gate of the outer court. Here were gathered, probably regularly, women ‘weeping for Tammuz’. Little is actually known about the Mesopotamian cult of Tammuz and any detailed suggestions are merely suppositions. Tammuz was originally a prediluvian Sumerian shepherd (Dumuzi) and ruler who married the goddess Ishtar (Inanna). When he died she followed him into the underworld to seek his release and all fertility ceased on earth. But she did not succeed and returned alone, on which fertility was renewed. What, however, she does seem to have achieved was that Tammuz, and others, were permitted visitations to earth as ‘shades’ to smell incense offered to them. The weeping for Tammuz appears thus to be connected with his death and non-return and possibly with the worship of, or contact with, through offering incense, ‘shades’, shadows from the underworld.<\/p>\n Eze 8:14<\/span><\/em><\/strong>. <\/strong>Behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz<\/em><\/strong><\/strong> The prophet here refers to the Phoenician or Syrian superstition. Tammuz <\/em>was an idol of Chaldee extraction, as is plain from his name; which also is used for the tenth month, <\/em>reckoning from the autumnal equinox, that is to say, the month of June; and Tammuz, <\/em>as the object of worship, expresses the solar light <\/em>in its perfection, as it is at the summer solstice in the month of June, dispensing heat and its effects, not only to the earth and plants, but also to the bodies of animals. The Vulgate renders Tammuz <\/em>by Adonis; <\/em>and there is no question but Adonis, according to the physical theology of the heathens, was the same as the sun. Macrobius, indeed, expressly affirms it. Saturnal lib. i. c. 21. He says, that the tradition of Adonis’s being killed by a boar, means the diminution of the sun’s light and heat by winter. See Orpheus’s Hymn to Adonis. This departure of Adonis, or the sun, was lamented by the Phoenician and Assyrian women in the most frantic ceremonies of grief, and by most improper and criminal actions: and thus the Jewish women are described by our prophet weeping for Tammuz on the fifth day of the sixth month, that is, of August; at which time his descent to hell, and his death by the winter boar, were drawing on apace. Tammuz was supposed to have been killed in mount Lebanon; whence flows the river Adonis, whereof Mr. Maundrel speaks thus: “We came to a fair large river, doubtless the ancient river Adonis, <\/em>so famous for the idolatrous rites performed here in lamentation of Adonis. We had the fortune to see, what may be supposed to be the foundation of that opinion which Lucian relates; namely, that this stream, at certain seasons of the year, especially about the feast of Adonis, is of a bloody colour, which the heathens looked upon as proceeding from a kind of sympathy in the river for the death of Adonis, who was killed by a wild boar in the mountains out of which this stream rises. Something like this we saw actually come to pass; for the water was stained to a surprising redness, and, as we observed in travelling, had discoloured the sea a great way into a reddish hue, occasioned doubtless by a sort of minium, <\/em>or red earth, washed into the river by the violence of the rain.” Milton has finely touched upon each of these particulars in the following elegant and melodious lines: <\/p>\n Thammuz came next behind, Whose annual wound in Lebanon allur’d The Syrian damsels to lament his fate, In amorous ditties all a summer’s day; While smooth Adonis, from his native rock, Ran purple to the sea, suppos’d with blood Of Thammuz yearly wounded: The love-tale Infected Sion’s daughters with like heat, Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch Ezekiel saw, when, by the vision led, His eye survey’d the dark idolatries of alienated Judah. PARADISE LOST, b. i. v. 446, &c. Eze 8:14 Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD’S house which [was] toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.<\/p>\n Ver. 14. And, behold, there sat women.<\/strong> ] These were priests of Isis, whose impious and most impudent kind of worship is largely described by Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Plutarch, and Eusebius, as celebrated with very unseemly ceremonies, worse, if it might be, than those of Priapus. But who would ever have looked for such immodest doings among God’s professed people? See 1Co 5:1<\/span> . <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Weeping for Tammuz,<\/strong> ] i.e., <\/em> For Osiris, king of Egypt, and idolatrously adoring his image, which his wife Isis had advanced.<\/p>\n NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Eze 8:14-15<\/p>\n 14Then He brought me to the entrance of the gate of the LORD’S house which was toward the north; and behold, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz. 15He said to me, Do you see this, son of man? Yet you will see still greater abominations than these.<\/p>\n Eze 8:14 women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz See a good, brief article in James M. Freeman, Manners and Customs of the Bible, pp. 299-300. This reflects the Babylonian idolatry of the Sumerian agricultural god who died and rose every year. Obviously he became the fertility god of the Babylonians. He is known in Babylon as Dumuzi, Consort of Ishtar (cf. Isa 17:10-11). He is known in Greece as Adonis, which is very similar to the Egyptian Osiris. This was the male lover of Aphrodite who was killed by wild boars and sent to the underworld each year for six months. The women wept to identify with Aphrodite, who wept at the loss of her lover during the winter. August to September (cf. Eze 8:1) would have started this cycle. Possibly the worship of Babylonian gods shows that it had already conquered Israel spiritually!<\/p>\n Tammuz. With Art. An idol personifying vegetable and animal life, worshipped in Phoenicia and Babylonia. <\/p>\n Eze 8:14-15<\/p>\n Eze 8:14-15<\/p>\n “Then he brought me to the door of Jehovah’s house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat the women weeping for Tammuz. Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O Son of man? thou shalt again see yet greater abominations than these.”<\/p>\n THE WORSHIP OF TAMMUZ<\/p>\n TAMMUZ<\/p>\n “Behold, there sat the women weeping for Tammuz …” (Eze 8:14). The worship of this ancient god reaches back into antiquity as far as 3,000 B.C.; and it featured numerous combinations, contradictions and uncertainties. The cult apparently had its variations in several nations. Among the Greeks it was the worship of Adonis and Aphrodite; among the Egyptians it was known as the religion of Osiris and Isis; and in Babylon, it went under the names of Ishtar and Tammuz.<\/p>\n Tammuz, a very attractive and beautiful shepherd was killed by a wild boar; and he was featured as the spouse of Ishtar, the sister of Ishtar, the son of Ishtar, or the lover of Ishtar. Upon his death, Ishtar (or Aphrodite, or whoever) went to the underworld to reclaim him from death. The period of mourning, usually forty days, ended with Tammuz’ triumphant return to life. The mythological basis of this tale was the death of vegetation in winter and its return in spring. The time of celebrating his return was usually observed at the time of the summer solstice (June 21). Because of this the fourth Babvlonian month was named Tammuz, the name that was adopted into the Jewish calendar for their fourth month (June-July).<\/p>\n Plumptre has commented upon the prominent part women had, especially in the corrupted worship of the Jews. They wove hangings for the worship of Ashera (2Ki 23:7), and they also burned incense to the Queen of Heaven (Jer 44:9; Jeremiah 15-19). “This goddess was probably Ashteroth.<\/p>\n The mourning period, whether long or short, was always followed by the most uninhibited, wildest celebration, amounting to as vulgar an orgy as could be imagined. “Human sacrifice, castration, sexual indulgence, etc. formed part of the rites. The weeping women, gazing upon the naked statue of Tammuz (or Adonis), in time worked themselves into a frenzy of passionate desire. John Milton penned these lines regarding it.<\/p>\n The love-tale infected Zion’s daughters with like heat,<\/p>\n Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch<\/p>\n Ezekiel saw, when, by the vision led,<\/p>\n His eyes surveyed the dark idolatries<\/p>\n Of alienated Judah. – Paradise Lost, 1:446.<\/p>\n Canon Cook stated that “The great popularity of this ancient cult rested in the fact that it inevitably led to unbridled license and excess. Feinberg added that, “The worship of this god was connected with the basest immoralities. With the greatest abandon, women gave themselves up to the most shameful practices. Immorality and idolatry are inseparable twins throughout the history of the world.<\/p>\n One might have wondered if Ezekiel could have seen anything else more shameful than this group of women weeping for Tammuz; but Eze 8:15 at once warned Ezekiel that “greater abominations than these” he would yet behold.<\/p>\n (Note: we have not cited our source for every statement in this glimpse at the worship Tammuz; but we have given a composite of the opinions of F. C. Cook, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, C. L. Feinberg, Anton T. Pearson, G. A. Cooke, E. H. Plumptre, and others).<\/p>\n Tammuz <\/p>\n i.e. the Greek Adonis. <\/p>\n toward: Eze 44:4, Eze 46:9 <\/p>\n Reciprocal: 2Ki 23:7 – where Eze 8:6 – greater Eze 11:12 – but Eze 16:26 – with the<\/p>\n Eze 8:14. This verse presents another form of idolatry to which reference was made in the comments on verse 5, that of invisible gods. Ezekiel was taken to another spot where he saw women weeping: for Tammuz. Strongs definition of the last word is, “Of uncertain derivation; Tammuz, a Phoenician deity, A marginal comment is some Bibles says, In a lewd and idolatrous manner, lamenting the death of Tammuz or Adonis, supposed to be Baalpeor. This comment is supported by various works of reference that I have consulted among Which is Smiths Bible Dictionary, from which I shall make the following quotation: “Jerome identifies Tammuz with Adonis, of Grecian mythology, who was fabled to have lost his life while hunting, by a wound from the tusk of a wild boar. He was greatly beloved by the goddess Venus, who was inconsolable at his loss. . . A festival in honor of Adonis was celebrated at Byblus in Phoenicia and in most of the Grecian cities, and even by the Jews when they degenerated into idolatry. It took place in July, and was accompanied by obscene rites. Much of the information on this point is drawn from mythology but. It is evident that the verse deals with the case of idolatry designated at the beginning of this paragraph.<\/p>\n Eze 8:14. Then he brought me to the door which was toward the north Dr. Lightfoot distinguishes this door from that mentioned Eze 8:5; this, he says, was the upper north gate, and that the lower; this being just over against the temple itself; whereas that was opposite the altar. Behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz The prophet here refers to a Phnician or Syrian superstition. Tammuz was an idol of Chaldee extraction, as is plain from his name; which also is used for the tenth month, reckoning from the autumnal equinox, that is, the month of June; and Tammuz, as the object of worship, expresses the solar light in its perfection, as in the summer solstice. The Vulgate renders Tammuz, by Adonis; and that Adonis, according to the physical theology of the heathen, was the same as the sun, there is no question. Macrobius expressly affirms it, Saturnal., lib. 1. cap. 21, and says, that the tradition of Adonis being killed by a boar, means the diminution of the suns light and heat by winter. This departure of Adonis, or the sun, was lamented in the most frantic ceremonies of grief by the Phnician and Assyrian women, who, on these occasions, used to prostitute themselves in honour of his vivifying power; and thus the Jewish women are described by our prophet, weeping for Tammuz, on the fifth day of the sixth month, that is, of August; at which time his death, by the winter boar, was drawing on apace. Tammuz was supposed to have been killed by a wild boar in mount Lebanon, whence flows the river Adonis, concerning which Lucian relates an opinion prevailing in these parts, that its stream, at certain seasons of the year, is of a bloody colour, which the heathen considered as proceeding from a kind of sympathy in the river for his death: see Parkhurst and Uni. Hist., vol. 1. p. 342. Milton has touched upon each of these particulars in the following elegant lines:<\/p>\n Tammuz came next behind, Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured The Syrian damsels to lament his fate, In amrous ditties all a summers day, While smooth Adonis, from his native rock, Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood Of Tammuz, yearly wounded: the love-tale Infected Sions daughters with like heat, Whose wanton passions, in the sacred porch, Ezekiel saw, when by the vision led His eye surveyd the dark idolatries Of alienated Judah . PARADISE LOST b. 1. 5:446.<\/p>\n Eze 8:14-15. The Worship of Tammuz.Then follows a scene in which the women lament for Tammuza clear allusion to a Babylonian cult. Tammuz (pp. 631 f.), impersonation of the fructifying, gladdening sun, god of the spring vegetation, is represented as later in the year descending to the realm of the dead. Thither he was followed by the goddess Ishtar, and this accounts for the part here taken by the women in the cult. Here we strike upon the danger-point in the old nature religions; they easily developed licentious features. Whether these were practised in Israel in Ezekiels time or not, such a cult constituted a grave menace. (For an illuminating account of Tammuz, who roughly corresponds to Adonis, see J. F. McCurdy, History, Prophecy, and the Monuments, 11861190.)<\/p>\n 8:14 Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD’S house which [was] toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for {o} Tammuz.<\/p>\n (o) The Jews write, that this was a prophet of the idols, who after his death was once a year mourned for in the night.<\/p>\n The idolatry of the women 8:14-15<\/span><\/p>\n The Lord then brought Ezekiel to the north entrance to the inner temple courtyard, in his vision (cf. Eze 8:3; Eze 8:5). There the prophet saw women weeping for Tammuz (cf. Isa 17:10-11). Tammuz was an ancient Sumerian and then Akkadian fertility deity, the husband and brother of Ishtar. The Sumerian and Akkadian civilizations preceded the Babylonian civilization in Mesopotamia. Tammuz had ties to the Canaanite Baal and the Greek Adonis and Aphrodite gods. [Note: See Edwin Yamauchi, "Tammuz and the Bible," Journal of Biblical Literature 84 (1965):283-90.] <\/span> Since Ezekiel saw this vision in September (Eze 8:1), these women may have been weeping for Tammuz because he was thought to die at the end of the summer but to rise again each spring. [Note: See T. Jacobsen, The Treasures of Darkness, pp. 25-73.] <\/span> Another view is that "Tammuz" denotes a special genre of lament. [Note: Block, The Book . . ., pp. 294-96.] <\/span><\/p>\n "After the exile the Hebrew calendar included a month called Tammuz, the fourth month (June-July). This was the time for grapes to be harvested. The preservation of the name Tammuz in the calendar suggests the impact this form of pagan worship had on Jewish life and worship, both during and after the exile." [Note: Cooper, p. 123.] <\/span><\/p>\n Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD’s house which [was] toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. 14. The women bewailing Tammuz 14. gate of the Lord’s house ] i.e. outside the whole temple buildings to the north gate of the outer court; cf. ch. … Continue reading “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 8:14”<\/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-20629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20629","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=20629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20629\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20629"}],"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
<\/P> 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
See Parkhurst on the word tammuz, <\/em>Univ. Hist. vol. 1: p. 342 and Lucian. de Dea Syria. <\/p>\nFuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"