Then he said to me, “Son of man, dig in the wall.” So I dug in the wall, and behold, there was an entrance.
God shows the prophet a wall in the temple courts and tells him to dig through it. What was hidden behind that wall — and why God made a man break through it instead of just describing it — is the heart of this verse.
Idolatry that had to be dug out
The chapter records evil that no one could see from outside:
Morrish Bible DictionaryEzekiel 8 speaks of the idolatry connected with the temple, though much of it was secret and had to be dug out.
What the opened door revealed
The door opened on a room. One writer names the images inside it and the men bowing to them:
William KellyThis is an even more intimate and degrading idolatry, a repeat of the shameful practices of Egypt. And the people bowing down to these images were not the lowest of the nation but its rulers! Long ago God appointed seventy judges, and one of their most important duties was to deal with idol-worship. Here the same number are caught, we may say, in the very act of priest-like worship of images of serpents, unclean beasts, and filthy idols. Shaphan was the scribe who read the book of the law to the tender-hearted Josiah. What a dark change in Judah! Now Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan stood among the seventy idolatrous elders.
Why it was walled up at all
The wall itself is evidence. Men do not hide what they think is fine:
Numerical Bible NotesThe second proof of Israel's condition is that they had openly taken up beast-worship. If we can call it open: after all, the secrecy and darkness around it show they knew how morally ugly it was.
The belief that made a dark room feel safe
Further on, the men in the room give their own reason for working behind a wall. It is not shame alone — it is a settled conclusion about God. (These writers use "Jehovah" where the ESV has "the LORD.")
William KellyThey had stopped even holding the truth in unrighteousness, bad as that may be. They had sunk to a lower depth still. They denied the attributes God must have, falling into Jewish apostasy and saying, "Jehovah does not see us, Jehovah has forsaken the earth."
Another writer puts the order the other way round. Unbelief comes first, and the darkness follows:
A. PridhamThe cause of moral darkness is unbelief. It is when men say in their hearts, "The Lord does not see us; the Lord has forsaken the earth," that they retire to the chambers of their imagery (Ezek. 8:12).
Why God staged the search
The tour has a purpose. Before God gives up His house, He shows one man everything inside it:
J. N. DarbyA year earlier God spoke through the prophet and threatened Israel that He would give up His sanctuary to the profane (chap. 7:20-22). Here Jehovah shows in detail the cause of this judgment. The glory of Jehovah appeared to the prophet. In the visions of God he was carried to Jerusalem. There, in the courts, the chambers and the gates, he saw every form of hateful and defiling idolatry that the elders and others of Israel practised in Jehovah's own house.
A warning that outlives the ruins
The digging is not only ancient history. God's word does the same work in people who profess religion:
The Bible TreasuryWhere people profess religion, pretence creeps in and is accepted... Sometimes in the Old Testament, and in the New too, the word of the Lord probes and enlightens the conscience. It exposes evil no one suspected before, hidden under the most blameless outward conduct. God's word sets the results of such probing before us so that we may learn and be humbled about the presence of the flesh... and so judge ourselves that the Lord may have no occasion to judge or chasten us.
Summary
- Dig — the worst evil in the temple stayed out of sight. God made the prophet break through a wall to reach it.
- Door — behind the wall stood Egypt's beast-worship. The worshippers were seventy elders whose own job was to stamp idolatry out.
- Dark — the secrecy was itself a confession. Men hide what their own conscience already condemns.
- Denial — one sentence built the room: "The LORD does not see us." Unbelief about God's sight furnishes every hidden chamber.
- Departure — God exposes the cause before He gives up His house. The same word still probes us today, so that we judge ourselves before He must.