“Then he brought me
Into the inner court.
There were
Two chambers.
On the outside
Of the inner gateway
There were chambers
For the singers
In the inner court.
One was at the side
Of the north gate.
Facing south.
The other at the side
Of the east gate,
facing north.”
Finally, the bronze man took Ezekiel into the inner court itself. There were two chambers in this inner court for the singers or cantors. One was by the north gate facing south, while the other was at the east gate facing north.
“Then he brought me
To the entrance
Of the north gate
Of the house
Of Yahweh.
Women were sitting there,
Weeping
For Tammuz.
Then he said to me.
‘Have you seen this?
O son of man!
You will see
Still greater abominations
Than these.’”
Next Yahweh brought Ezekiel to the north gate of the Temple. Women were sitting there weeping for the god Tammuz, a food or vegetation god common among Assyrians and Babylonians. He was the only god explicitly mentioned in this tour of the abominations in Israel. The weeping for the lost of Tammuz was generally around the summer solstice, when the vegetation began to dry out. Thus Tammuz would descent into hell at this time. These women were weeping and mourning for his loss. Interesting enough, the Church of the Nativity of Jesus in Bethlehem was built on an old shrine to Adonis-Tammuz. Once again, in the same terms, Yahweh warned Ezekiel that he had not seen anything yet. There were still greater abominations to come.
“When Jeremiah reached
The Benjamin Gate,
A sentinel named Irijah
The son of Shelemiah,
The son of Hananiah,
Arrested the prophet Jeremiah.
Saying.
‘You are deserting
To the Chaldeans.’
Jeremiah said.
‘That is a lie.
I am not deserting
To the Chaldeans.’
But Irijah would not listen
To him.
He arrested Jeremiah.
He brought him
To the officials.
The officials were enraged
At Jeremiah.
They beat him.
They imprisoned him
In the house
Of the secretary Jonathan.
It had been made a prison.
Thus Jeremiah was put
In the vaulted dungeon,
In a cistern cell.
He remained there many days.”
This is not a personal account but a 3rd person description of Jeremiah leaving by the north gate of Jerusalem, the Benjamin Gate. As Jeremiah was leaving the city, a sentinel by the name of Irijah stopped him at the gate. This guard had the same father as Jehucal, the representative of King Zedekiah earlier in this chapter, Shelemiah. This Irijah would have been the brother of Jehucal. Irijah thought that Jeremiah might be going to get the Chaldeans to return to besiege the city. He said that Jeremiah was attempting to desert to the enemy camp of the Babylonians. Jeremiah maintained that this was a lie. However, Irijah ignored Jeremiah’s explanation and still arrested him. He brought him to the city officials who were angry at Jeremiah already for his dire predictions about their defeat. Thus they beat him up and put him in a make shift prison in the house of the secretary Jonathan that had a vaulted dungeon like cell, where he remained there for many but unspecified days.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 