Ezekiel 8:11 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ezekiel 8:11
And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients 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 a thick cloud of incense went up.
a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
ancients
מִזִּקְנֵ֣יmi.zik.Nei
H2205
old · preposition + adjective, masculine plural construct
house
בֵֽיתveit-
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · noun, common masculine singular construct
Israel
יִ֠שְׂרָאֵלYis.ra.'el
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
midst
בְּתוֹכָם֙be.to.Kham
H8432
a bisection · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
stood
עֹמְדִ֣ים'o.me.Dim
H5975
to stand · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
Jaazaniah
וְיַאֲזַנְיָ֨הוּve.ya.'a.zan.Ya.hu
H2970
Jaazanjah · conjunction + proper noun, a man's name
son
בֶןven-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
Shaphan
שָׁפָ֜ןsha.Fan
H8227
a species of rockrabbit (from its hiding) · proper noun, a man's name
man
וְאִ֥ישׁve.'Ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
censer
מִקְטַרְתּ֖וֹmik.tar.To
H4730
something to fume (incense) in · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
hand
בְּיָד֑וֹbe.ya.Do
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
thick
וַעֲתַ֥רva.'a.Tar
H6282
incense (as increasing to a volume of smoke) · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct
cloud
עֲנַֽן'a.nan-
H6051
a cloud (as covering the sky) · noun, common masculine singular construct
incense
הַקְּטֹ֖רֶתha.ke.To.ret
H7004
a fumigation · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
up
עֹלֶֽה'o.Leh
H5927
to ascend · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Numbers 11:16 And the LORD said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and offi…
Numbers 16:17 And take every man his censer, and put incense in them, and bring ye before the LORD every man his censer, two hundred and fifty censers; th…
Numbers 16:35 And there came out a fire from the LORD, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense.
Exodus 24:1 And he said unto Moses, Come up unto the LORD, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar o…
Numbers 11:25 And the LORD came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it…
Jeremiah 19:1 Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;
Exodus 24:9 Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel:
2 Kings 22:3 And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the scribe,…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 8:7-12
We have here a further discovery of the abominations that were committed at Jerusalem, and within the confines of the temple, too. Now observe,
I. How this discovery is made. God, in vision, brought Ezekiel to the door of the court, the outer court, along the sides of which the priests' lodgings were. God could have introduced him at first into the chambers of imagery, but he brings him to them by degrees, partly to employ his own industry in searching out these mysteries of iniquity, and partly to make him sensible with what care and caution those idolaters concealed their idolatries. Before the priests' apartments they had run up a wall, to make them the more private, that they might not l…
seventy men--the seventy members composing the Sanhedrim, or great council of the nation, the origination of which we find in the seventy elders, representatives of the congregation, who went up with Moses to the mount to behold the glory of Jehovah, and to witness the secret transactions relating to the establishment of the covenant; also, in the seventy elders appointed to share the burden of the people with Moses. How awfully it aggravates the national sin, that the seventy, once admitted to the Lord's secret council (Psa 25:14), should now, "in the dark," enter "the secret" of the wicked (Gen 49:6), those judicially bound to suppress idolatry being the ringleaders of it!
Jaazaniah--per…
Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan - Shaphan was a scribe, or what some call comptroller of the temple, in the days of Josiah; and Jaazaniah his son probably succeeded him in this office. He was at the head of this band of idolaters.
John Gill on Ezekiel 8:11
And there stood before them,.... Before the pictures, as the Vulgate Latin version expresses it, praying, sacrificing, and offering incense unto them:
seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel; the whole sanhedrim, or great court of judicature among the Jews, as Kimchi; or at least there is an allusion to that number, which were appointed in Moses' time to be officers over the people, and govern and direct them, Numbers 11:16; which shows how sadly depraved and corrupted the state was, that not the common people only, but the civil magistrates, the chief rulers and governors, were given to idolatry; and those that should have taught the people the right way led them wrong; and it i…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 11.) And seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and Jezoniah the son of Saphan stood among them who were standing before the paintings, and each one had a censer in his hand, and the smoke of incense rose from the censers. When it says that seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel held censers in their hands, it shows that there were many other priests who did not do this, but perhaps were held back by other sins. And it mentions specifically that Jezoniah the son of Saphan stood among them, as if he were the chief of their wickedness and sacrilege, who, having abandoned the religion of God, worshipped idols, and in the temple, did not worship the God whose temple it was, but the paintings on the walls. And it is rightly said: Jezonias, son of Saphan, stood in the midst of the standing elders, as a symbol of his judgment and condemnation, because he, as well as those whom he was the leader of, stood firmly in their sins and did not waver in wickedness; rather, they persisted strongly. And the steam of incense, the fog of confusion, and the whirlwind that rose from the offering of sacrilege demonstrated this. This event happened at that time, according to the letter of the law. Furthermore, we must pray that the elders of the house of Israel, by multiplying the sacred number, which is seven, by seven decades, do not stand in their errors and worship the images of idols, and that the sacrilegious vapor does not rise up against God. When we see the worst people gathered, of whom it is written: 'I hate the assembly of evildoers' (Psalm 26:6); and worse than the people are their leaders, and the leader who is in charge of the people and the elders, let us say that Jezoniah stands before the images and each one holds a censer in their hands, worshiping not the majesty of God, but their own opinions, and not offering a pleasing fragrance to God, but a foul odor to idols.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Censer — The vessel in which incense was presented on “the golden altar” before the Lord in the temple (Ex. 30:1-9). The priest filled the censer with live coal from the sacred fire on the altar of…
Jaaz-aniah — Heard by Jehovah. (1.) The son of Jeremiah, and one of the chief Rechabites (Jer. 35:3). (2.) The son of Shaphan (Ezek. 8:11). (3.) The son of Azur, one of the twenty-five men seen by Ezekiel (11:1)…
Jaazaniah — (whom Jehovah hears).
Censer · Used in idolatrous rites — Used in idolatrous rites
Censers · Often used in idolatrous worship — Often used in idolatrous worship
Incense · Offered in idolatrous worship — Offered in idolatrous worship
Jaazaniah · 3. An idolatrous zealot — 3. An idolatrous zealot
Shaphan · 4. Father of Jaazaniah — 4. Father of Jaazaniah
Visions · Mentioned in scripture: To Ezekiel (See chapters 10, 40-48 of Ezekiel) — Mentioned in scripture: To Ezekiel (See chapters 10, 40-48 of Ezekiel)
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Ezekiel 8:7-11
7. And he brought me to the door of the court; and, when I looked, behold a hole in the wall.
7. Et induxit me in portam Atrii et aspexi, et ecce foramen unum in pariete.
8. Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and, when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.
8. Et dixit ad me, Fill hominis, fode agedum parietem: et fodi in pariete, et ecce porta una.
9. And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here.
9. Et dixit ad me, Ingredere, et vide abominationes malas quas ipsi faciunt.
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, portrayed…
Second Abomination: Worship of Beasts
Eze 8:7. And He brought me to the entrance of the court, and I saw, and behold there was a hole in the wall. Eze 8:8. And He said to me, Son of man, break through the wall: and I broke through the wall, and behold there was a door. Eze 8:9. And He said to me, Come and see the wicked abominations which they are doing here. Eze 8:10. And I came and saw, and behold there were all kinds of figures of reptiles, and beasts, abominations, and all kinds of idols of the house of Israel, drawn on the wall round about. Eze 8:11. And seventy men of the leaders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them, stood in front, every man wi…
These seventy leaders are a shocking contrast to the seventy leaders of Moses’ day who were given the unique privilege of seeing God (Exod 24:1-11) and were given the same Spirit as Moses (Num 11:16-30). Jaazaniah, the leader of this group, was, ironically, the son of Shaphan, a godly leader who was prominently involved in Josiah’s reforms (2 Kgs 22:3-14). • The incense, intended to ward off dangers from demonic spirits, helped instead to bring God’s judgment upon the land.
Rashi on Ezekiel 8:11
and Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan He was of high esteem, and his generation was learning from him; therefore, He took particular offense at him.
and a thick cloud of incense Heb. עֲתַר, thick. The ascent of the smoke of the cloud of the incense [was thick]. The word עַתַר denotes immensity, and so (35:13): “and have magnified (הַעְתַּרְתֶּם) your words against Me,” and so (Prov. 27:6): “whereas kisses of an enemy are burdensome (נַעְתָּרוֹת).” Menachem (p. 140) grouped all three under one heading and they all denote an idea of thickness, but each one is an independent expression.
