Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the LORD: God took Ezekiel to see the next disgusting thing. For the verb brought, see the comments on Ezek 8.7. As there, it is better rendered “carried” or “took” (Good News Translation). He took him to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the LORD, that is, the inner door of the north gateway, which opened directly into the inner courtyard of the Temple. Translators may render this phrase as “the entrance of the north gate of the Temple [or, house of Yahweh].”

And behold introduces another surprising thing for Ezekiel (see the comments on Ezek 8.4). Here it may be translated “When I looked, I saw.”

There sat women weeping for Tammuz: Tammuz was the Babylonian god of fertility and growth in nature. People believed that he died at the end of summer every year and, as a result, the summer plants began to die and the growing season came to an end. The people, especially the women, mourned his death and sat in the Temple’s inner courtyard. They wept and prayed for him to come back to life again. Good News Translation makes this explicit by saying “women weeping over the death of the god Tammuz.” Good News Translation also adds a helpful footnote.

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .