| Easton's Bible Dictionary Only in the phrase "chambers of his imagery" (Ezek. 8:12). (see CHAMBER.) Noah Webster's Dictionary 1. (n.) The work of one who makes images or visible representation of objects; imitation work; images in general, or in mass. 2. (n.) Fig.: Unreal show; imitation; appearance. 3. (n.) The work of the imagination or fancy; false ideas; imaginary phantasms. 4. (n.) Rhetorical decoration in writing or speaking; vivid descriptions presenting or suggesting images of sensible objects; figures in discourse. Int. Standard Bible Encyclopedia CHAMBERS OF IMAGERY im'-aj-ri, im'-a-jer-i (maskith): The reference (Ezekiel 8:12) is to chambers in the temple where the elders of Israel were wont to assemble and practice rites of an idolatrous character. What the imagery consisted of, we may gather from 8:10: symbolic representations of beasts and reptiles and "detestable things." It is thought that these symbols were of a zodiacal character. The worship of the planets was in vogue at the time of the prophet among the degenerate Israelites. IMAGERY im'-aj-ri (maskith, "carved figure"): Only in Ezekiel 8:12, "every man in his chambers of imagery," i.e. dark chambers on whose walls were pictures in relief representing all kinds of reptiles and vermin, worshipped by elders of Israel. Some maintain that the cult was of foreign origin, either Egyptian (Bertholet, Commentary on Ezekiel), or Babylonian (Redpath, Westminster Commentary on Ezekiel); others that it was the revival of ancient superstitions of a totemistic kind which had survived in obscure circles in Israel (W.R. Smith, Lectures on the Religion of the Semites, revised edition, 357). The word here rendered "imagery" is elsewhere in the King James Version translated "image" (of stone) (Leviticus 26:1, the Revised Version (British and American) "figured stone"), "pictures" (Numbers 33:52, the Revised Version (British and American) "figured stones"; Proverbs 25:11, the Revised Version (British and American) "network"); twice it means imagination, conceit, i.e. a mental picture (Psalm 73:20 Proverbs 18:11). "Imagery" occurs once in Apocrypha (Sirach 38:27 the King James Version, eis homoiosai zographian, the Revised Version (British and American) "to preserve likeness in his portraiture").
D. Miall Edwards |  | Multi-Version Concordance Imagery (5 Occurrences) Leviticus 26:1 Ye do not make to yourselves idols; and graven image or standing image ye do not set up to yourselves; and a stone of imagery ye do not put in your land, to bow yourselves to it; for I 'am' Jehovah your God. (YLT) Numbers 33:52 then ye have dispossessed all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and have destroyed all their imagery, yea, all their molten images ye destroy, and all their high places ye lay waste, (YLT) Proverbs 25:11 Apples of gold in imagery of silver, 'Is' the word spoken at its fit times. (YLT) Isaiah 2:16 For all the ships of Tarshish, and for all pleasant imagery. (WEB JPS ASV) Ezekiel 8:12 Then said he to me, Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his chambers of imagery? for they say, Yahweh doesn't see us; Yahweh has forsaken the land. (WEB KJV JPS ASV DBY WBS YLT) |
