Ezekiel — Chapter 8
In a vision Ezekiel is transported to Jerusalem and shown the four abominations in the Temple: the image of jealousy at the north gate, the seventy elders worshipping crawling things in a hidden chamber, women weeping for Tammuz, and men with their backs to the Temple worshipping the sun. Lapide reads these four abominations as four classes of heresy and vice still found in the Church.
Verse 3
The 'image of jealousy' (simulacrum aemulationis) at the Temple gate: Lapide identifies this with Astarte/Asherah, following Jerome's commentary, and explains that God is called 'jealous' (zelotes) because He cannot endure worship given to another — just as a husband cannot endure an adulterous wife. The application to idolaters within the Church is explicit.
Verse 10
The seventy elders worshipping animals in the dark ('in tenebris'): Lapide reads the darkness as the darkness of sin and heresy, where vices are practiced that cannot bear the light of reason or faith. He notes that sin is always essentially a denial of God's omniscience — 'Non videt Dominus, dereliquit Dominus terram' (v. 12).
Verse 14
Women weeping for Tammuz (Adonis): Lapide gives a learned digression on the cult of Adonis/Tammuz, following Jerome's commentary on this verse, explaining its Phoenician origins. He interprets the weeping women allegorically as souls who mourn carnal pleasures lost through penance, a disordered grief that prevents full conversion.
Verse 16
Twenty-five men worshipping the sun with their backs to the Temple: Lapide reads this as a type of all who pursue natural knowledge (astronomy, philosophy) while turning their backs on revealed truth. He applies this to the Averroists of his own time and others who exalt reason above faith.