Ezekiel 8:17 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ezekiel 8:17
Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose.
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
seen
הֲרָאִ֣יתָha.ra.'I.ta
H7200
to see · interrogative particle + verb, qal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
son
בֶןven-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
man
אָדָם֒'a.Dam
H120
ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species · noun, common masculine singular absolute
thing
הֲנָקֵל֙ha.na.Kel
H7043
to be (causatively · interrogative particle + verb, niphal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
house
לְבֵ֣יתle.Veit
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
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
Ezekiel 9:9 Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of…
Ezekiel 7:23 Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.
Jeremiah 6:7 As a fountain casteth out her waters, so she casteth out her wickedness: violence and spoil is heard in her; before me continually is grief…
Micah 2:2 And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his he…
Zephaniah 1:9 In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit.
Genesis 6:13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will dest…
2 Kings 21:16 Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; beside his sin wherewith he made Juda…
2 Kings 24:4 And also for the innocent blood that he shed: for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; which the LORD would not pardon.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 8:13–end
Here we have,
I. More and greater abominations discovered to the prophet. He thought that what he had seen was bad enough and yet (Eze 8:13): Turn thyself again, and thou shalt see yet greater abominations, and greater still, Eze 8:15, as before, Eze 8:6. There are those who live in retirement who do no think what wickedness there is in this world; and the more we converse with it, and the further we go abroad into it, the more corrupt we see it. When we have seen that which is bad we may have our wonder at it made to cease by the discovery of that which, upon some account or other, is a great deal worse. We shall find it so in examining our own hearts and searching into them; there is a wor…
put . . . branch to . . . nose--proverbial, for "they turn up the nose in scorn," expressing their insolent security [Septuagint]. Not content with outraging "with their violence" the second table of the law, namely, that of duty towards one's neighbor, "they have returned" (that is, they turn back afresh) to provoke Me by violations of the first table [CALVIN]. Rather, they held up a branch or bundle of tamarisk (called barsom) to their nose at daybreak, while singing hymns to the rising sun [STRABO, 1.15, p. 733]. Sacred trees were frequent symbols in idol-worship. CALVIN translates, "to their own ruin," literally, "to their nose," that is, with the effect of rousing My anger (of which the…
They put the branch to their nose - This is supposed to mean some branch or branches, which they carried in succession in honor of the idol, and with which they covered their faces, or from which they inhaled a pleasant smell, the branches being odoriferous. That the heathens carried branches of trees in their sacred ceremonies is well known to all persons acquainted with classic antiquity; and it is probable that the heathen borrowed those from the use of such branches in the Jewish feast of tabernacles. There are many strange, and some filthy, interpretations given of this clause; but the former are not worth repeating, and I abominate the latter too much to submit to defile my paper with…
The Church Fathers
91 (Ver. 17.) And he said to me: Surely you have seen, O son of man: Is it a light thing to the house of Judah, that they commit the abominations which they have committed here, because they have filled the land with wickedness and turned to provoke me? And behold, they put the branch to their nose. For we have said: And behold, they put the branch to their nose, the LXX translated: and behold, they are like mockers, to whom Theodotion added: They stretch out the branch; so that it is all together: And behold, they stretch out the branch as if mocking. About this, Symmachus interprets it as if they emit a sound like a song through their nostrils. However, it signifies twenty-five men who are positioned firmly in a square formation and, through their five senses, create a square shape. They not only have a temple behind them, but they also attach a branch to their nostrils, resembling idols. Undoubtedly, this signifies that they worship idols, which in Greek are called βαΐα. Finally, Job says among the other virtues that he has also had this, that he has never looked at the sky and the sun, and the moon, and the shining stars, and kissed his hand (Job. XXXI), that is, worshipped creatures. However, Symmachus' interpretation means a foul and hoarse sound coming from the nostrils in contempt of God. And all heretics, who have filled the earth with injustice, and turned to the knowledge of false names, in order to provoke the Lord to anger, are to be regarded: when they wanted to praise God, they would blaspheme with an ugly sound, or consider the God of the Old Testament of little importance, mock, and despise Him.
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
Prayer, Answers To · Denied to those who: Are idolaters — Denied to those who: Are idolaters
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).
Judah
יְהוּדָ֔הye.hu.Dah
H3063
Jehudah (or Judah) · proper noun, a place name
commit
מֵעֲשׂ֕וֹתme.'a.Sot
H6213
to do or make · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
abominations
הַתּוֹעֵב֖וֹתha.to.'e.Vot
H8441
properly · definite article + noun, common feminine plural absolute
commit
עָֽשׂוּ'a.su-
H6213
to do or make · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
filled
מָלְא֨וּmal.'U
H4390
to fill or (intransitively) be full of · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
land
הָאָ֜רֶץha.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
violence
חָמָ֗סcha.Mas
H2555
violence · noun, common masculine singular absolute
returned
וַיָּשֻׁ֙בוּ֙vai.ya.Shu.vu
H7725
to turn back (hence · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
Then he said unto me, hast thou seen this, O son of man?.... Took notice of and considered this piece of idolatry, worshipping the sun toward the east:
is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? could these things, which are such dreadful abominations, committed here in the temple, be reckoned light things by them, as surely they cannot? yet these are not all that they have done:
for they have filled the land with violence; with rapine and oppression; doing injury to the poor and needy, the widow and the fatherless, in all places:
and have returned to provoke me to anger; by other instances of idolatry:
and, lo, they put the branch…
Ezekiel 8:17
17. Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose.
17. Et dixit mihi, Vidisti-ne fili hominis? an leve est domui Iehudah, ut faciat abominationes istas quas feterunt illic? quia repleverant terrain violentia: et conversi sunt ad me provocandum: et ecce ipsi emittunt ramum [187] ad nasum suum. [188]
God complains as formerly of the wickedness of the people, especially of their perfidious and wicked revolt, because they so defiled the temple…
Fourth Abomination: Worship of the Sun by the Priests
Eze 8:16. And He took me into the inner court of the house of Jehovah, and behold, at the entrance into the temple of Jehovah, between the porch and the altar, as it were five and twenty men,with their backs towards the temple of Jehovah and their faces towards the east; they were worshipping the sun towards the east. Eze 8:17. And He said to me, Seest thou this, son of Man? Is it too little for the house of Judah to perform the abominations which they are performing here, that they also fill the land with violence, and provoke me to anger again and again? For behold they stretch out the vine-branch to their nose. Eze 8:18. But I also wil…
The abominations that the Israelites were committing in the Temple complex were tantamount to thumbing (literally putting the twig [or branch] to) their noses at the Lord. This gesture was at least defiant, and possibly vulgar.
Rashi on Ezekiel 8:17
Was it [too] trivial to the house of Judah Is it trivial and light in their eyes, the other sins that they have committed?
to prevent them from performing the abominations that they should refrain from doing all the abominations that they have done in My house here?
for they have [already] filled the land with violence and that that iniquity is trivial in their eyes, and they repeatedly provoke Me within My house with these abominations.
and behold they send disgrace into their nose Behold they send to their nose the foul odor of this “song,” which they “sing” with the wind emerging from their anus; i.e., this disgrace of theirs will come back to their faces. Menachem (p. 79) explained: “…
