Ezekiel 8:11

11 Seventy elders from the house of Israel were standing before them, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan^[a] standing among them. Each had an incense burner in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising up.

Ezekiel 8:11 Meaning and Commentary

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 is still a further aggravation of their crime that they should do this in the chambers of the priests and Levites, where they ought not to have been: and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan;
who was either the prince of the sanhedrim, or at least a person of great note and esteem; and shows the corruption to be general, from the least to the greatest: Shaphan was a scribe in Josiah's time, who had a son named Ahikam, perhaps the father of this, ( 2 Kings 22:3 2 Kings 22:12 ) ; in ( Ezekiel 11:2 ) ; he is said to be the son of Azur, and one of the princes of the people: with every man his censer in his hand;
to offer incense to the idols portrayed on the wall; and which they did, for it follows: and a thick cloud of incense went up;
there were many that offered; and perhaps they offered a large quantity, being very liberal and profuse in this kind of devotion to their idols.

Ezekiel 8:11 In-Context

9 He said to me, "Go in and see the terrible abominations they are committing here."

10 I went in and looked, and there engraved all around the wall was every form of detestable thing, crawling creatures and beasts, as well as all the idols of the house of Israel.

11 Seventy elders from the house of Israel were standing before them, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had an incense burner in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising up.

12 Then He said to me, "Son of man, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his idol? For they are saying: The Lord does not see us. The Lord has abandoned the land."

13 Again He said to me, "You will see even greater abominations, which they are committing."

Footnotes

• [a]. 2 Kg 22:3,12; Jr 26:24; 29:3