‘Moreover the Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of Yahweh's house, which looks eastward. And behold at the door of the gate five and twenty men. And I saw in the midst of them Jaazaniah, the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah, the son of Benaiah, princes of the people.'
Ezekiel was now also transported to the east gate by the Spirit Who lifted him up as before and brought him there. The east gate was the main gate of the temple which was sited from east to west. At the door of the gate were twenty five men. These were not the same as the ‘about twenty five' of Ezekiel 8:16 but the repetition of the number must be significant. Five is the number of covenant, and five times five may therefore again signify representatives of the whole covenant community. They include at least two of the princes of the people. Possibly the idea is also that they have replaced the men who were in vision destroyed in the temple as the debased leaders of Israel, or possibly they are the lay version of the twenty five in the inner court, thus demonstrating that both priesthood and laity were defiled.
Among the twenty five were at least two especially prominent men, princes of the people, although in fact they were all prominent men (Ezekiel 11:2). Most would be replacements for those who had been carried off into exile. Thus they were mainly not men of long experience. The gate would be large and have a spacious area where men could gather. It was common for the leaders of a community to meet in such a place (compare Jeremiah 26:10). Space was at a rare commodity in most ancient cities which tended to be an unplanned huddle of houses.
Jaazaniah was a fairly common name. It was found on ostraca (inscribed pieces of broken earthenware) at Lachish and Arad, and the name is also found in 2 Kings 25:23; Jeremiah 35:3. Thus we need not identify this Jaazaniah with that in Ezekiel 8:11. These two men had clearly been prominent in Ezekiel's younger days, and he recognised them.