Ezekiel 8:3

He does not even say that it was the divine hand that carried him; spirit carried him, the form of the divine hand was merely symbolical.

the visions of God i.e. shewn him by God, ch. Ezekiel 1:1.

door of the inner gate Rather: door of the gate of the inner court looking toward the north, i.e. the northern gate of the inner court. The word "inner" is wanting in LXX. The general opinion has been that the prophet was set down in the inner court, at the innerdoor of the northern gateway into that court. The term "door," however, seems in usage to mean the outside entrance; and if the prophet had stood in the inner court he would have had to look northward through the gateway in order to see the image of jealousy, which was certainly not in the inner court. It is more natural to suppose him set down in the outer court, in front of the gateway leading into the inner court. In front of this gateway, in the outer court, stood the image of jealousy, near the entrance. Having seen this the prophet is next brought intothe gateway (Ezekiel 8:7), where he enters the chamber of imagery, some one of the cells in the gateway building. From there he is carried outside the sacred enclosure altogether to the north door of the outer court (Ezekiel 8:14), where he finds the women bewailing Tammuz. And finally he is transported into the inner court where he beholds the sun-worship practised in front of the temple-house itself. Previous to this he had not been in the inner court, for when being shewn the idolatries he is always taken to the precise place where they are practised.

image of jealousy Not an image of "jealousy" itself, considered as a deity, but an image which because it provoked to jealousy was named image of jealousy. The "jealousy" of God is a violent emotion or resentment arising from the feeling of being injured (Deuteronomy 32:21). It is uncertain what this image was. The word occurs again, Deuteronomy 4:16, in the sense of similitude or "figure," and in Phenician with the meaning of "statue," e.g. in an inscription from Idalion (Corp. Ins. Sem., vol. i. 88, 3, 7, &c.). According to 2 Kings 21:7 Manasseh put a graven image of Ashera in the house of the Lord, which Josiah brought out and burnt (2 Kings 23:6; 2 Chronicles 33:7; 2 Chronicles 33:15). In earlier times the Ashera (A.V. grove) was a tree or pole planted beside an altar. It is not quite certain whether the pole or stock was a substitute for the evergreen tree, when this could not be had, or whether like the sun-image it was the symbol of a goddess. In later times the term seems used as the name of a goddess. The expression "in the house of the Lord" is hardly to be pressed so far as to imply that Manasseh placed the Ashera in the temple proper, "house" is used of the whole temple buildings, including the courts. The image here may be this Ashera, whether we are to suppose it replaced after Josiah had burnt it, or whether the prophet be here taking a comprehensive view of the idolatries of Israel, including the time of Manasseh. In 2 Kings 23:11 reference is made to the horses of the sun placed "at the entering in of the house of the Lord," but these would scarcely be called an "image."