He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see
greater abominations that they do. Then he brought me to the door of
the gate of the Lord's house which was toward the north; and,
behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. Then said he unto me,
Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Turn thee yet again, and thou
shalt see greater abominations than these (verses 13-15).
Tammuz, the Babylonian "Dumuzi," was the god of spring vegetation, who
dies, going down to Hades, and revives again with each returning summer.
The worship of this god became identified with Phoenicia, and from there
this wicked cult came to Greece, where Tammuz was known under the name
of Adonis. The weeping woman celebrated the death of the god, an emblem
of the decay of earth's productive powers. With it were connected some
of the vilest, immoral ceremonies and licentious habits. Thus we see how
false worship and immorality are closely, yea, inseparably, linked
together. In our days the increase of licentiousness is but the result
of having rejected the Truth of God.