Bible Commentaries

A Prophecy against the Mountain Land of Israel

The coming judgment is here announced to the land of Israel, which is identified with the people. Ezekiel 6:8-9, following up the hint in Ezekiel 5:3-4, speak of a remnant of the nation which will be led to repentance in exile.

2, 3. The physical features of the land are described, not only because their variety was in strong contrast to the monotony of the Babylonian plains where Ezekiel lived, but also, and chiefly, because they were associated with different forms of idolatrous and impure worship. The mountains and hills were the sites of the 'high places'—shrines of Canaanite origin (Deuteronomy 12:2). The ravines and valleys were the scenes of Baal-worship (Jeremiah 2:23) and of child-sacrifice (Isaiah 57:5): see also Ezekiel 6:13.

4, 6. Images] RV 'sun-images,' probably obelisks representing the sun-god.

7. Ye shall know that I am the Lord] Ezekiel's favourite expression for the result of God's dealings with men in prophecy and in history. It means the recognition now of one, now of another, aspect of the character of the true God. Here it is the conviction that His warnings are not empty threats: see Ezekiel 6:10, Ezekiel 6:14.

8. A remnant] already hinted at in Ezekiel 5:8.

9. Because I am broken with, etc.] RM 'how that' (better, 'when') 'I have broken their.. heart.. and their eyes.' The metaphor of breaking is extended to 'eyes,' though it strictly applies only to 'heart.' Idolatry was accompanied by licentiousness, and this is one reason why the prophets so often described it under the figure of a breach of the marriage vow: see especially Ezekiel 16, 23.

11. Smite (i.e. 'clap').. and stamp] emphatic gestures of satisfaction in the calamities that are announced. Ezekiel was called to be in complete sympathy with God's attitude towards Israel: see Ezekiel 21:14, Ezekiel 21:17; Ezekiel 25:6. Alas 1] rather, 'Aha!': see Ezekiel 25:3.

12. He that is far off, etc.] The judgment would fall on idolatrous Israelites not only in Jerusalem, but wherever they might be.

14. More desolate than] RV 'waste, from.' The wilderness toward Diblath] RV 'Diblah.' Diblath, or Diblathaim, was in Moab, beyond the Dead Sea (Numbers 33:46; Jeremiah 48:22). The phrase in AV would mean the wilderness of Judæa, which lay in that direction (eastwards) from Jerusalem. Another and more probable reading is 'Riblah 'instead of 'Diblah.' Riblah was a city of Hamath in the far north (2 Kings 25:21). 'From the wilderness to Riblah' would mean 'from one end of the land to the other.'