John Calvin Commentary Ezekiel 8:13-14

"He said also unto me, Thou shalt again see yet other great abominations which they do. Then he brought me to the door of the gate of Jehovah`s house which was toward the north; and behold, there sat the women weeping for Tammuz." — Ezekiel 8:13-14 (ASV)

He now mentions the third kind of idolatry by which the Jews polluted the temple, for this was a kind of sin peculiar to females; and we know that they were always more prone to such wickedness. Satan, indeed, fascinates men always more than enough, but in women recklessness reigned more than superstition.

They had, therefore, a female form of worship in mourning for Tammuz. Who Tammuz was is uncertain. Jerome translates it as Adonis, and Adonis was beloved by Venus, as the poets fancifully relate. When torn to pieces by a boar, he was turned into a flower of the sweetest fragrance; and in honor of Venus, women yearly commemorated the death of that beautiful youth with lamentations.

However, it is not probable that this rite prevailed in Judea. We do not read that this lamentation was practiced in the neighboring regions, but rather in Greece and Asia Minor. I attribute it instead to Osiris, for, as we said before, the Jews were neighbors to the Egyptians—therefore, they adopted various rites from them.

We know that Osiris was yearly wept for by the Egyptians, and that great pollution occurred. For instance, they carried the male organ on a pole in procession and called it Phallus; women also exposed their private parts to the idol, as if offering themselves for debauchery. This was a most disgraceful spectacle.

But I conjecture that the Jews had adopted this rite when the women mourned for Tammuz. Here we also perceive that when once Satan has prevailed and cast people into deep depravity, they despise all moderation and are, indeed, reduced to more than brutal stupor.

Who would think this could happen, that women should be reduced to such a depth of defilement, when they had been taught the doctrine of the law from their early childhood? But when God’s temple was open to such pollutions, we see the Jews so blinded by madness that God was already showing signs of his extreme vengeance, since he had endured them until then.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, since You have delivered to us a sure rule of worship, which cannot deceive us, and since Your Son became for us a perfect master of all wisdom and of solid piety, that we may obediently follow whatever he prescribes for us, and turn neither to the right hand nor to the left; but, being content with that simplicity which we have learned from his Gospel, may go on in the course of our holy calling, until at length, that pursuit being finished, we may arrive at the perfect state of Your glory, and may so enjoy it that we may be transformed into it, as You have promised us by the same Jesus Christ our Lord. — Amen.