“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? For they are saying, ‘The LORD does not see us; the LORD has forsaken the land.’”
God questions me so I may judge my own people and make their unworthiness of pardon plain. These elders especially deserve reproach, for they ought to lead others rightly, yet they drag the whole nation into impiety with them. They work in darkness, remote chambers within the Temple, keeping their rites secret as the heathen do their mysteries, admitting none but the initiated.
AI summary
These priests built a wall to hide their shame because he that does evil hates the light. They meant to conceal what contradicted their public worship, but a hole in the wall betrayed them. Hypocrites who screen wickedness behind external profession always leave some opening that exposes them to those who look carefully.
AI summary
Commenting on Ezekiel 8:7-12
Consider what these ancients commit in darkness, deeds too shameful to bear light, imagining the Lord sees nothing. In secret chambers of the Temple they perform hidden rites after heathen fashion, mysteries of Osiris, Ceres, Bona Dea, because they wrongly conclude God has abandoned them and turned away His help.
AI summary