Ezekiel 8:14-16
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
14 Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord. There women sat and wept for Tammuz.[a](A) 15 He said to me: Do you see this, son of man? You will see other abominations, greater than these!
16 Then he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord. There at the door of the Lord’s temple, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the Lord’s temple and their faces toward the east; they were bowing eastward[b] to the sun.(B)
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- 8:14 Wept for Tammuz: the withering of trees and plants that began in late spring was attributed to the descent of Tammuz, the Mesopotamian god of fertility, to the world of the dead beneath the earth. During the fourth month of the year, female worshipers of Tammuz would wail and mourn the god’s disappearance.
- 8:16 Bowing eastward: sun worship was perhaps introduced as a condition of alliance with other nations. While Josiah removed some elements of this worship (2 Kgs 23:11), Manasseh, for example, built altars to all the “hosts of heaven” in two Temple courtyards (2 Kgs 21:5).
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