Yehezkiel 8:16

8:16 Then he brought me to the inner court of the Lord’s house. Right there ¹  at the entrance to the Lord’s temple, between the porch and the altar, ²  were about twenty-five ³  men with their backs to the Lord’s temple, ⁴  facing east – they were worshiping the sun ⁵  toward the east!

Yehezkiel 10:19

10:19 The cherubim spread ⁶  their wings, and they rose up from the earth ⁷  while I watched (when they went the wheels went alongside them). They stopped at the entrance to the east gate of the Lord’s temple as the glory of the God of Israel hovered above them.

Yehezkiel 43:4-5

43:4 The glory of the Lord came into the temple by way of the gate that faces east. 43:5 Then a wind ⁸  lifted me up and brought me to the inner court; I watched ⁹  the glory of the Lord filling the temple. ¹⁰ 

¹ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something.

² sn The priests prayed to God between the porch and the altar on fast days (Joel 2:17). This is the location where Zechariah was murdered (Matt 23:35).

³ tc The LXX reads “twenty” instead of twenty-five, perhaps because of the association of the number twenty with the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash.

tn Or “exactly twenty-five.”

⁴ sn The temple faced east.

⁵ tn Or “the sun god.”

sn The worship of astral entities may have begun during the reign of Manasseh (2 Kgs 21:5).

⁶ tn Heb “lifted.”

⁷ tn Or “the ground” (NIV, NCV).

⁸ tn See note on “wind” in 2:2.

⁹ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

¹⁰ sn In 1 Kgs 8:10-11 we find a similar event with regard to Solomon’s temple. See also Exod 40:34-35. and Isa 6:4.