374 Tova Ganzel already in the Priestly Sources (Lev 18,21-30 and 20,33), which form the basis for Ezekiel’s viewing this act as a cause of defilement (26). Here in Ezekiel, the prophet combines the defilement of the Temple with its desecration, thereby emphasizing the severity of the people’s wrongdoing and thus justifying the impending destruction of the Temple. Thus, Ezekiel perceives the defilement of the Temple as the result of loathsome (μyxwqyç) and abominable things (twb[wt), murderous acts in the Temple courtyards, and the sacrifice of children to idolatry both within and outside the Temple. II. “Desecration” (lwlyj) Ezekiel makes reference to the “desecration” of the Temple in five contexts: chapters 7, 23, 24, 25, and 44 (27). On one level, Ezekiel’s description of this phenomenon closely resembles that of the Temple’s defilement, in that it results from various forms of idolatry (“images of their abominable, loathsome things” — 7,20) and the sacrificial offering of children (23,39). However, in the context of the Temple’s desecration, as opposed to its defilement, Ezekiel emphasizes that this is effectuated through the arrival of foreigners in the Temple. Even if the cause of the desecration is the people’s sins, the means by which this occurs is the presence of foreigners. Thus, for example, Ezekiel 7,20-22 states, “Their beautiful adornment in which they took pride — out of it they made images of their abominable, loathsome things; therefore I will turn it into an unclean thing for them (28). I will hand it over to strangers as booty, to the wicked of the earth as spoil, and they shall desecrate it (whwlL]jiw“). I will avert my face from them and they shall desecrate (wlL]jiw“) my treasure; violent men shall enter it and desecrate it” (29). However, as opposed to the verses describing the Temple’s defilement, which depict the Israelites’ misconduct as both the cause and the means to this end, Ezekiel here attributes the desecration of the Temple to the presence of aliens. The it is this proximity between the idolatry and entry into the Temple that causes the desecration. (26) MILGROM, Leviticus 17–22, 1384-1385 notes that the prevailing view in the eighth century BCE was that only Molech worship defiled the Temple, whereas in the seventh century, Jeremiah and Ezekiel prophesied that idolatry in all its forms defiles the sinners, the Temple, and the land. (27) It should be noted that some of these verses combine the desecration of the Temple with that of Jerusalem. (28) The term hdn (unclean thing) generally refers to a menstruating woman. Here and in Ezek 36,17 it serves as a description of the people’s moral sins. The only other instance of this usage of the word is in Ezra 9,11. See C.E. FONROBERT, Menstrual Purity (Stanford 2000) 18, n. 12. (29) It is also possible that Ezek 7,24-25 makes specific reference to the sins that caused the people’s desecration: “Forge the chain! For the land is full of bloody judgments and the city is full of lawlessness. So I will bring the worst of the nations and they shall take possession of their houses; And I will put an end to the pride of the fierce, and their sanctuaries shall be desecrated (μhyçd]q'm] wljnw).” The punctuation of the word μhyçd]q'm] evidently refers to the people, and it means that those in charge of preserving the sanctity of Temple — the people — have been desecrated, even though contextually the subject of the sentence is the Temple. See GREENBERG, Ezekiel 1–20, 155.