Ezekiel 7:1-27

CHAPTER 7.

LAMENTATION OVER THE GUILT AND FALL OF ISRAEL.

THIS chapter does not contain anything properly new. It simply describes the mournful feelings and reflections which the preceding revelations of guilt and judgment had awakened in the mind of the prophet; and it hence naturally takes the form of a poetical dirge or lamentation over the unhappy case of his infatuated country. Some particular words and allusions require explanation; but otherwise the sentiments uttered are so simple and appropriate, that no comment is needed to exhibit their import.

Ezekiel 7:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

Ezekiel 7:2. And thou, son of man, thus saith the Lord Jehovah to the land of Israel: An end! the end is come upon the four corners of the land!

Ezekiel 7:3. Even now the end is upon thee; and I send forth mine anger against thee; and I judge thee according to thy ways; and I lay upon thee all thine abominations.

Ezekiel 7:4. And mine eye shall not have compassion upon thee, nor shall I pity; for I lay thy ways upon thee, and thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.

5. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Evil, alone evil, (It might be rendered singular, or remarkable evil, for in that sense אַחַת is here plainly taken, as of a thing by itself, sui generis. So also at Job 23:12; Song of Solomon 6:9.) behold it cometh.

Ezekiel 7:6. An end cometh come is the end: it waketh for thee, lo! it cometh.

Ezekiel 7:7. The morning has come to thee, (The morning, צְפּירָה; this is a word of very doubtful import and derivation, and there is great diversity among commentators as to the proper way of rendering it. The most probable sense, however, is that adopted by our translators, aurora, the morning a sense which has been preserved both ill the Syriac and the Chaldee. Gesenius renders, The turn comes to thee, which makes a suitable meaning.) inhabitant of the land; the time has come; the day is near, the day of distress, and there is no brightness upon the mountains. (No brightness upon the mountains: taking הֵר, with Hävernick, for an unusual form of הוֹד, splendour, brightness. This also was the rendering of Jerome, who supports himself by the authority of Theodotion. The whole passage bears a close resemblance to Joel 2:2: “A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains.”)

Ezekiel 7:8. Already am I about to pour out my fury upon thee; and I accomplish mine anger upon thee, and I judge thee according to thy ways, and I lay upon thee all thy abominations.

Ezekiel 7:9. And mine eye spares not, nor pities; according to thy ways I lay upon thee; and thy abominations shall be in the midst of thee; and ye shall know that it is I Jehovah that smiteth.

Ezekiel 7:10. Behold the day! Behold it cometh! The morning goeth forth; the rod sprouts; pride blossoms.

Ezekiel 7:11. Violence is risen up for a rod of the wicked; there is no more of them (the wicked), nor of their store, nor of their anxiety, nor is there any beauty in them. (What is meant here by the “rod that sprouts,” “the pride, or proud one, that blossoms,” and “the violence that rises into a rod of the wicked,” is not the evil proceeding to its utmost length within Israel, but the evil without ripening into an instrument of vengeance for Israel, the Babylonish power. It is God's rod of chastisement for punishing the wicked, and now, under His superintending providence, fast assuming that appearance of towering pride and conquering energy which would speedily put in execution the judgments written. The חָמוֹן in Ezekiel 7:11, which we render store rather than multitude, originally signifies noise or tumult, but is used also of a multitude of persons, or of heaps of riches that are gotten by noisy, bustling activity. It is in this latter sense that it appears to be used by the prophet in this and the two following verses. The word store, which suggests something of care and trouble with what is possessed, expresses the meaning more nearly, perhaps, than any other word in our language. The next and closely related word, הֵמֵחֶם, is best understood as a derivative from הָמָה֧ to make a noise or tumult; hence, restless application, careful solicitude or anxiety. The last word, נֹהַּ, is now commonly taken in the sense of attraction or beauty. (Sec Ges. Lex.))

Ezekiel 7:12. The time is come, the day is at hand; let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn, for wrath is upon all its (the land s) store.

Ezekiel 7:13. For the seller shall not return to the sold possession, although he should still live among the living, for the vision is upon all its store: he shall not return, and no one by his iniquity shall invigorate his life. (The idea expressed in Ezekiel 7:12-13 can only be understood by keeping in view the law respecting the year of jubilee, as recorded in Lev.

25. According to that law, all buying and selling of possessions in Israel was bounded by this ever-recurring season of release; for then every one returned to his proper possession, though he might in the interval have been obliged to part with it. But now, says the prophet, there is to be a suspension of all such transactions: neither may the purchaser rejoice in what he has got, nor the distressed debtor mourn over what he has been constrained to sell; the vision of coming wrath stretches over all that can be made matter of merchandise; and even though the seller may live to see the year of jubilee, yet he shall not be able to return to his sold possession, for one Sabbath of rest alone remains for the land, that which it is to enjoy in the absence of all its inhabitants (Leviticus 26:34, etc.; 2 Chronicles 36:21). “And no one,” adds this prophet, in words that have seldom been correctly rendered, from the allusion not having been distinctly apprehended, “no one by his iniquity shall invigorate (or strengthen) his life.” The Sabbaths of the Lord generally, and in particular the Sabbath of the year of jubilee, brought a kind of revivification to the whole commonwealth of Israel; the disorders and troubles that from time to time crept in were then rectified, and the enervated or diseased state of the body politic sprung up again into renewed health and vigour. But what the Lord thus provided for being done by His own beneficent arrangements, let no one think he can himself do by his iniquity; from such a source no such strengthening or invigoration of life can be derived; on the contrary, it is this very iniquity which is bringing all to desolation and ruin.)

Ezekiel 7:14. Let them blow with the trumpet, (“Let them blow with the trumpet,” etc. The meaning is: when the moment of danger arrives that is now at hand, they may set themselves to meet it with warlike preparation; let them do so if they please, it will be of no avail; for the face of the Lord is set against them, and He will strike terror into the hearts of their men of war, and render all their efforts fruitless. The coming desolation was inevitable, and it would be the part of wisdom to consult for safety by flight, not by resistance; even that a few only would be able to accomplish, and in the midst of deep lamentations rand manifold distresses.) and get all in readiness; yet there is none to go forth to battle, for my wrath is upon all its store.

Ezekiel 7:15. The sword without, and the famine and pestilence within; he that is in the field shall die by the sword, and he that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.

Ezekiel 7:16. And let those escape that do escape, and they shall be upon the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them sighing, each one for his iniquity.

Ezekiel 7:17. All hands shall be faint and all knees shall become water.

Ezekiel 7:18. And they shall gird on sackcloth, and horror shall be a covering for them; and to all faces there shall be shame, and upon all heads baldness.

Ezekiel 7:19. Their silver they shall cast into the streets, and their gold shall be for filth; their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's anger, shall not satisfy their souls, nor fill their bowels, for it is the stumbling-block of their iniquity.

Ezekiel 7:20. And his beautiful ornament he has used for pride, and the images of their abominations, their detestable things, they have made in it; therefore do I give it to them for filth.

Ezekiel 7:21. And I give it into the hands of strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil, and they shall profane it.

Ezekiel 7:22. And I turn away my face from them, and they profane my secret place (my sanctuary), and robbers come into it and profane it.

Ezekiel 7:23. Make a chain, for the land is full of murderous judgment, and the city full of violence.

Ezekiel 7:24. And I cause wicked nations to come, and they possess their houses; and I make the loftiness of the strong to cease, and their sanctuaries shall be profaned. (In Ezekiel 7:19-24, a threefold example is given of the Divine lex talionis. But we must first explain, in regard to the צְבִי עֶדְיֹו in Ezekiel 7:20, his beautiful ornament, that we differ from Häv. and Hitzig, and indeed the majority of recent commentators, and agree with some earlier ones and Hengstenberg (on Daniel 9:27), who understand it of the temple. The gold and riches generally of the people might doubtless have had such an expression applied to them; but, as used here, it seems plainly to point to something that, by way of eminence, was the glory and ornament of the nation, and which, undoubtedly, was the temple. This, it is said here, they used לְנָאוֹן for the nourishment of pride; and much the same thing is again said in Ezekiel 24:21, where the temple is expressly called “the pride of their strength.” What is said here, too, that “in it they made (or did) their abominations,” exactly applies to the temple; while the threatened retaliation of profaning it, at the close of Ezekiel 24:21, alone suits the temple. In itself it was their beautiful ornament; but they had first turned it into an occasion of carnal glorying, and then had defiled it with their impurities, whence God must outwardly desecrate it. The retaliation then proceeds thus: The people have abused their wealth, by making idols of gold and silver, and all manner of ornaments for vainglorious display, so that it has become “the stumbling-block of their iniquity;” now, it was to be seized as a spoil by the enemy, and, in respect to their deliverance, should be found worthless as the mire of the streets. They have carried their abominations into God's sanctuary, and defiled the secret place of the Most High; now, the whole is to be laid open to the unhallowed feet of the stranger, and robbers are to be sent to walk at liberty where saints only should have been permitted to enter. They, by their daring wickedness, have made the land full of violence and blood; therefore shall they themselves be bound with a chain by the ungodly heathen, and their best possessions be turned into the prey of the lawless and the profane. “Their holy places shall be defiled,” as they have already defiled mine. So truly was God to do to them according to their ways, and judge them according to their judgments.)

Ezekiel 7:25. A close comes, and they seek for peace, and there is none.

Ezekiel 7:26. Woe upon woe shall come, and rumour shall be upon rumour, and they shall seek a prophet's vision; and the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients.

Ezekiel 7:27. The king shall mourn, and the prince be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled; after their ways will I do unto them, and according to their judgments will I judge them, and they shall know that I am the Lord.