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I might just be asking the obvious.

Some parts Ezekiel 8 could certainly be describing how Israel actually fell into outwardly expressive explicit idolatry where they adopted the religious customs of their foreign neighbors by setting up physically tangible idols representative of false gods like Baal, Asherah, etc. as mentioned in Ezekiel 8:5

(Ezekiel 8:5)

Then He said to me, “Son of man, raise your eyes now toward the north.” So I raised my eyes toward the north, and behold, to the north of the altar gate was this idol of jealousy at the entrance.

However, there are other parts of Ezekiel 8 like Ezekiel 8:8-12 which seem to suggest the Israelites personal spiritual, emotional & mental symbolic/metaphorical idolatrous behaviour that is uniquely different among different individual Israelites, & is possibly private to their hearts & minds (e.g., romantic infatuation with some other person, greed for money, career-obsessed workaholism, narcissism, etc. ) And possibly overlappingly includes some sort of outward expressions of idolatry similar to what is described in Ezekiel 8:5

Ezekiel 8:8-12

8 He said to me, “Son of man, now dig through the wall.” So I dug through the wall, and behold, an entrance. 9 And He said to me, “Go in and see the wicked abominations that they are committing here.” 10 So I entered and looked, and behold, every form of creeping things and beasts and detestable things, with all the idols of the house of Israel, were carved on the wall all around. 11 Standing in front of them were seventy elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them, each man with his censer in his hand and the fragrance of the cloud of incense rising. 12 Then He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are committing in the dark, each man in the room of his carved images? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us; the Lord has forsaken the land.’”

The reason why I interpret Ezekiel 8:8-12 as being a description of the individual Israelites personal & private spiritual, emotional & mental symbolic/metaphorical idolatrous state is because in the Ezekiel 8:8-9 bible verses, Ezekiel is instructed to "dig through the wall", and "Go in" which all suggests delving into the personal & private hearts and minds of the Israelites

Ezekiel 8:8-9

He said to me, “Son of man, now dig through the wall.” So I dug through the wall, and behold, an entrance. 9 And He said to me, “Go in and see the wicked abominations that they are committing here.”

Furthermore, when Ezekiel 8:12 mentions "house of Israel are committing in the dark, each man in the room of his carved images", it seems to suggest the Israelites personal spiritual, emotional & mental symbolic/metaphorical idolatrous behaviour that is uniquely different among different individual Israelites because it says "each man in the room of his carved images":

Ezekiel 8:12

Then He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are committing in the dark, each man in the room of his carved images? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us; the Lord has forsaken the land.’"

Would the aforementioned exegesis of Ezekiel 8 be correct?

----------I just wanted to elaborate on my own subtle & nuanced view of parts of Ezekiel 8------------------------------------------------

Yes, Ezekiel 8 explicitly mentions sinful literal physically tangible idol false god worship.

However, when I read "dig through the wall", & "Go in" in Ezekiel 8:8-9, "committing in the dark" & "each man in the room of his carved images" in Ezekiel 8:12 and "For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us; the Lord has forsaken the land.’" in  Ezekiel 8:12, it just makes me think of a nuanced & complex general narrative.

Lets think about a hypothetical narrative example of a typical Christian protestant nuclear family in predominantly Christian protestant developed regions of the world (e.g., North America, parts of Western Europe, Australasia, etc. ).

Said Christian protestant nuclear family could be like nominal Christians who attend a Protestant church every Sunday, & seem quite normal & Christian through physical eyes of people around said family.  In other words, in said hypothetical narrative, there is No literal physically tangible idol false god worship.  However, there are definitely sins "committing in the dark" & privately & personally "each man" has "his carved images" "in the room".

To elaborate, the husband of said family could be privately idolizing about family finances, being greedy for money & job promotions at work while he attends & pretends to worship at church.

The wife of the family could be privately idolizing about being married to a neighbor's husband while she attends & pretends to worship at church who seems to be a better husband in her eyes than the husband that she currently has.

The teenage children have their own false idols like thinking about playing sports, playing video games, infatuating about some schoolmate as they attend and pretend to worship at church.

Therefore, some parts of Ezekiel 8 like Ezekiel 8:8-9 & Ezekiel 8:12 refer to / suggest / hint about the aforementioned more subtle & nuanced private & personal false idol worshipping.

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First, let's clarify that this statue was not devoted to jealousy, but provoked it. Thus KJ21 and many others speak along the lines of

the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy.

Also, Ezekiel makes a distinction between the "house of Israel" and the "house of Judah" in these prophecies. In the beginning of the chapter, he describes himself as sitting with the "elders of the house Judah" (presumably in Babylon). He describes a vision of the Temple of Jerusalem, but is instructed to "look to the north" where he sees "the abominations that the house of Israel is practicing here, so that I must depart from my sanctuary."

This refers to idolatrous practices that have been brought from the north, causing God to depart from his temple. The "statue of jealousy" thus refers to Yahweh's jealousy that any other gods that he would be worshiped. (Deuteronomy 5:9) Some commentators believe it was an actual statue of Asherah or Baal, or at least objects devoted to them. (see 2 Kings 23:4) The text itself does not say, but it does speak of:

...figures of all kinds of creeping things and loathsome beasts, all the idols of the house of Israel, pictured around the wall (of the temple courtyard).

This indicates that northern icons had been drawn or erected on the walls of the temple court. A few lines later, the vision describes:

The entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord. There women sat and wept for Tammuz.

Tammuz was a Mesopotamian deity who died during the winter and rose again in spring. Women mourned his demise with weeping, prayed for his resurrection, and rejoiced when spring came again. Finally, Ezekiel says:

16 ...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 to the sun.

All of these practices - worshiping other gods such as Asherah and Baal so as to make Yahweh jealous, drawing graffiti of various deities on the walls of the courtyard, weeping for Tammuz, and conducting sunrise services in honor of the sun-god - were real events. It is plausible that they might also be analogous to mental or spiritual attitudes as mentioned in the OP. But it is more likely that these attitudes were only part of the problem. For example, romantic infatuation might lead to worship of a love goddess, greed for money might lead to devotion to Tammuz to insure a bountiful harvest, narcissism might lead to belief that one could turn his back on the temple to worship the sun, etc. However, each of the idolatrous practices mentioned by Ezekiel was also literal and well documented in historical sources.

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  • +1 Thanks. It's very insightful & interesting that you mentioned "look to the north" from the bible scripture in question because it indicates how the Northern Kingdom of Israel's blasphemous & corrupt practices in worship spread to the Southern Kingdom of Judah. +1 Commented Nov 8 at 22:23
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The explanation of the meaning of Eze 8:12 is given in the same verse. Here is my translation:

And He said to me, "Have you seen, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the room of his idols? For they say, Yahweh does not see us - Yahweh has forsaken the land.

Now, whether these idols are individualized or common to the culture is not specifically stated; but, it would be very unlikely that they are unique to each person - such was extremely rare in those times.

The point here is that the Jews were practicing idolatry "in the dark" in the (rather stupid) hope God did not see them. Dan 2:22 teaches that God sees what is done in darkness, which the Jews should have known. See appendix below.

Thus, Eze 8 is almost certainly referring to literal idols and private practices of idolatry where the Jews did this in their private room/shrine, in darkness to try and hide it from God. In fact, this vary practice was ironic - it was tantamount to admission of God's omnipresence.

APPENDIX - God Knows what is done in Secret

  • Dan 2:22 - He reveals the deep and hidden things; He knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with Him.
  • Ps 139:12 - even the darkness is not dark to You, but the night shines like the day, for darkness is as light to You.
  • Isa 29:15 - Woe to those who dig deep to hide their plans from the LORD. In darkness they do their works and say, “Who sees us, and who will know?” [ie, God will surely know because He is omniscient.]
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  • Thanks. Yes, you are correct to say that Ezekiel 8 explicitly mentions sinful literal physically tangible idol false god worship. However, when I read "dig through the wall", & "Go in" in Ezekiel 8:8-9, "committing in the dark" & "each man in the room of his carved images" in Ezekiel 8:12 and "For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us; the Lord has forsaken the land.’" in Ezekiel 8:12, it just makes me think of a nuanced & complex general narrative. Commented Nov 8 at 23:19
  • Said Christian protestant nuclear family could be like nominal Christians who attend a Protestant church every Sunday, & seem quite normal & Christian through physical eyes of people around said family. In other words, in said hypothetical narrative, there is No literal physically tangible idol false god worship. However, there are definitely sins "committing in the dark" & privately & personally "each man" has "his carved images" "in the room". Commented Nov 8 at 23:19
  • To elaborate, the husband of said family could be idolizing about family finances, being greedy for money & job promotions at work while he attends & pretends to worship at church. The wife of the family could be idolizing about being married to a neighbor's husband while she attends & pretends to worship at church who seems to be a better husband in her eyes than the husband that she currently has. Commented Nov 8 at 23:19
  • The teenage children have their own false idols like thinking about playing sports, playing video games, infatuating about some schoolmate as they attend and pretend to worship at church. Therefore, some parts of Ezekiel 8 like Ezekiel 8:8-9 & Ezekiel 8:12 refer to / suggest / hint about the aforementioned more subtle & nuanced private & personal false idol worshipping. Commented Nov 8 at 23:19

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