Then he thrust out the representation of a hand and took me by a tuft of hair of my head, and a spirit carried me between the earth and the heavens and brought me to Jerusalem in the visions of God, to the entrance of the inner gate that is facing northward, where the dwelling place is of the symbol of jealousy that is inciting to jealousy.

Ezekiel was lifted up by the hair of the head and carried by the spirit of inspiration to see, in this visionary way, what was going on hundreds of miles to the west in Jerusalem.

Ezekiel was set down at the gate of the inner courtyard of the temple, at a north gate. (The temple itself faced eastward.) It was a gate leading to the altar of sacrifice. At this place he saw something shocking: a lifeless, motionless “symbol of jealousy.” This was some kind of idolatrous image. It may have been an “asherah” or sacred pole representing the false goddess​—a filthy sex goddess—​who was the wife of the Canaanite god Baal.