RT Article
T1 A Marzēaḥ in Ezekiel 8:7–13?
JF Harvard theological review
VO 82
IS 3
SP 267
OP 282
A1 Ackerman, Susan
LA English
PB Cambridge Univ. Press
YR 1989
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1784648671
AB In 592 bce, at the midpoint between the two Babylonian invasions of 597 bce and 587 bce, Ezekiel, who was exiled to Babylon after the first invasion, finds himself transported back to Jerusalem in a divine vision (Ezekiel 8–11). In the first part of this vision, Ezekiel 8, Ezekiel sees Jerusalem in a state of religious collapse, as God shows the prophet four strange cultic abominations: the image of jealousy (8:3–6), elders burning incense in a room of reliefs (8:7–13), women wailing over Tammuz (8:14–15), and men worshiping the sun (8:16–18). Of these four cultic abominations, the character of the last two, the mourning over Tammuz and the worship of the sun, is clear. Less certain is the nature of the first cultic abomination, the image of jealousy. Still, there has recently emerged in the literature a consensus that the image (semel) in question is an ʾăšērâ, the wooden cult object associated with the goddess Asherah. However, there has been no agreement among scholars concerning the cult act referred to in Ezek 8:7–13, where elders burn incense in a room of reliefs.
DO 10.1017/S0017816000016205