Image of Jealousy
It is not uncommon to come across items, phrases, or concepts in the Bible that are a mystery to us and are likely to always be so. I know that all mysteries will one day be revealed to us, and I must be satisfied with the revelation that God has currently provided. However, I enjoy looking into these little Biblical mysteries.
During my study of Ezekiel 8, I came across the “image of jealousy” (Ezekiel 8:3-6). Of course, I wanted to know exactly what this “image of jealousy” is, so I looked it up. It turns out that no one knows for sure what the image was that Ezekiel saw.
Ezekiel is a priest and prophet living among the Jewish captives in Babylon. He was taken captive during one of the first two sieges of Jerusalem by Babylon. But, there is one more siege left that Jerusalem was to endure which would be the worst one yet by far. It would result in many killed by famine, pestilence, and the sword. Only a few would survive. The captives in Babylon at the time of Ezekiel 8’s prophecy had been taken during a previous invasion of Judah and hoped that Jerusalem would not be fully destroyed and they would soon return to their homeland of Judah. However, God tells them by the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel (and others) that Jerusalem and even God’s temple will be destroyed and their captivity would last 70 years. This destruction was a consequence the years of Judah’s sins and idolatry.
To illustrate this point, Ezekiel is given a vision in chapters 8-11 that ultimately results in God’s presence leaving the temple in Jerusalem before this siege is to come. In this vision, Ezekiel is shown why God’s presence leaves which allows the judgement of God to befall Jerusalem just as prophesied.
In chapter 8 specifically, Ezekiel is taken by the spirit (likely means in a vision) to Jerusalem. He is shuttled a couple of places and shown examples of Judah’s many sins that God hates. One of those places is the north inner gate of the temple in Jerusalem. It was here that Ezekiel sees the “image of jealousy”.
First, let me say that at the end of the day, exactly what the “image of jealousy” is doesn’t matter. What we do know is that it was an idol in the temple that provoked God to jealousy. Not only did Judah practice idolatry, but they had the audacity to do so in God’s house! That is how low Judah had sunk in their sin. We can apply this to our lives. We don’t have a physical temple anymore to place a physical idol, however, our bodies are the temple. Our idols are not necessarily made of gold or wood or stone, but they may be anything that isn’t God. When we place money, people, or ourselves as the center of our person, than we commit idolatry too.
So what could this “image of jealousy” be? Was it something specific? I would like to suggest one possibility: Asherah.
Asherah was west Semitic goodness associated with motherhood and fertility. She is commonly associated with trees in the Bible. In fact, the name Asherah is always translated as “grove” in the Bible and her worship is related to trees in that idols were put under the trees, were pillars made out of trees, or sacred trees. Also, archeological evidence suggests that Israelites worshipped Asherah in addition to or along with Yahweh. The worship of Asherah was one of the idolatrous sins of Israel mentioned repeatedly in the Bible. It is possible that this is the same deity that Jeremiah referred to as the “Queen of Heaven” in his admonishment of her worship (although some scholars think this refers to Ashteroth/Astarte). It would also be reasonable to assume that Jews who participated in her worship would have viewed her as the female counterpart to Jehovah. Male and female counterparts were very common in the surrounding nation’s religions.
The Hebrew word used for “image” in Ezekiel 8:3-5 is unique in the Bible being used in only two other places. It is the Hebrew word “cemel” which simply means “a likeness” or “figure/idol”. The other two instances in which the word is used is in Deuteronomy 4:16 and 2 Chronicles 33:7,15.
Deuteronomy 4:16
“Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the lines of male or female,”
This verse comes from a passage where Moses is explaining to Israel that they must obey God’s commandments and follow Him alone in order to continue in the Promised Land. They are to remember everything that God has done for them up until this point as well as not commit idolatry. If they were to disobey, they will be destroyed and scattered among the nations. Coincidentally, this destruction is exactly what Ezekiel is prophesying and what occurs when Babylon destroys Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 33:7
“And he set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God…”
2 Chronicles 33:15
“And he took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the Lord, and all the alters that he had built in the mount of the house of the Lord, and in Jerusalem and cast them out of the city.”
This passage in 2 Chronicles is documenting the life and actions of Manasseh, king of Judah. He was an evil king despite his righteous father, Hezekiah. He built alters to Ba’al, images to Asherah (groves), worshipped the “host of heaven” (2 Chronicles 33:3), and practiced witchcraft. Manasseh was so evil, he actually sacrificed his own child to Molech. Additionally, he built a “carved image” in the temple of God in Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles doesn’t tell us exactly what this image is, but 2 Kings 21 does tell us.
2 Kings 21:7
“And he set a graven image of the grove that he had made int he house…”
Remember, like I said above, Asherah was commonly connected to trees and in the Bible, her name is commonly translated as “grove”. So, we see that the idol Manasseh placed in the temple was some sort of item for Asherah: perhaps a tree, a wooden pole, or a wooden carving.
Now that we know Manasseh placed the idol of Asherah into the temple, let us follow the trail. Manasseh eventually repents of his sin as 2 Chronicles 33 tells us. After doing so, he took “…the idol out of the house of the Lord…” and “…cast them out of the city…” (2 Chronicles 33:15). Note that the verse does NOT say that he destroyed the idol.
After Manasseh died, his son Amon reigned 2 years over Judah. He was evil like his father, but never repented. He served all the same images as his father did. The passage here doesn’t say specifically that the grove (Asherah) was worshiped or that it was placed in the temple again, but it is reasonable to assume so since he worshipped like his father did. Also, we see that the next king removed the grove from the temple, so at some point, someone had replaced the grove after Manasseh had thrown it out.
Josiah reigned next, and he was a righteous king. He cleans house! He removes all of the idolatry from Judah. Specifically, he removes the grove from the temple.
2 Kings 23:6
“And he brought out the grove from the house of the Lord, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people.”
The rest of the kings of Judah after Josiah were evil and continued in idolatry. Looking at this timeline with the kings, we can see that the grove (Asherah) was a deity that the Jews continued to place in the temple of God.
This pattern didn’t start with Manasseh, of course, kings before him worshipped Asherah both in Judah and the Northern Kingdom of Israel. In fact, way back in Deuteronomy, we see that the Jews tended to place Asherah near the alter of God resulting in God commanding them not to.
Deuteronomy 16:21
“Thou shalt not plant thee a grove or any trees near unto the alter of the Lord thy God, which thou shalt make thee.”
Inscriptions found at archeological sites also indicate the tendency of associating Asherah with Yahweh possibly as a wife figure. These inscriptions are blessings that say “Yahweh and his Asherah” and are found in both Jerusalem (the capital city of Judah, the Southern Kingdom) and Samaria (the capital city of Israel, the Northern Kingdom). These archeological findings confirm the Biblical accounts that the Asherah idols were placed in Judah and Samaria (2 Kgs 13:6, 17:16, 18:4, 21:3, 21:7 etc.). Additionally, Judges 6:25 describes the grove as built next to an alter to Ba’al indicating here too she was placed close to the alter of a god and is possibly thought to be a wife figure to that god.
I believe that the archeological evidence and Biblical accounts suggest that the Jews viewed Asherah as a type of ‘wife’ to God. She was his counterpart. Asherah was worshipped in the region of the promised land long before the Israelites obtained it as God told them to. Despite being warned by God on numerous occasions not to follow the religions/gods of the nations they ousted from the land, the Bible tells us that they incorporated these pagan religions into Judaism. It would make sense that Jews who were looking to commit idolatry would have seen Asherah, the mother goddess, as the mother of life consort to the father God (Yahweh). They may have even linked her to Eve and the image of the tree to the garden of Eden. This theory would explain why Asherah was typically placed near the alter of God and in His temple.
Let’s go back to Ezekiel 8, which, remember, is describing the abominations of Judah that caused God’s presence to leave the temple. After the presence of God leaves the temple, the people of Judah and Jerusalem would experience God’s judgement for these abominations which is the final siege of Jerusalem by Babylon which would cause death and captivity. This judgement is often linked directly to Manasseh and his sin and the sin he caused the people to commit, and it was Manasseh who placed Asherah in the temple of God (2 Kings 23:26-27 & 24:2-4; Jeremiah 15:4). Also, the north gate of the temple would be the gate the king would use to enter the temple. So, it seems that this image is possibly linked to the king. Understanding the tendency that the Jews had of worshipping Asherah alongside Yahweh, it is reasonable to say that Asherah May be the image in Ezekiel 8.
Clearly, an idol/tree/pillar to Asherah placed in the temple of God would provoke God’s righteous jealousy and wrath. God was clear that there should be NO ONE before Him. God is clear that there is ONE God.
As I mentioned at the beginning, I cannot prove that the “image of jealousy” is definitely Asherah, but the Biblical account leads me to believe that it is. Regardless, an idol can be anything that replaces God in any way.
Today, we too can place an “image of jealousy” in our lives. Our presence in the promised land is conditional just as it was for the Jews in the land of Canaan. Without full obedience and devotion to the ONE true God, we will not obtain our place in heaven. Instead, we will face judgement and the wrath of God (hell) just as the Jews faced destruction and captivity. Let this be a lesson to us that God’s presence in our life cannot be shared with anything else.
Matthew 6:24
“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”