Bible Commentaries

Ezekiel 7:1 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

Ver. 1. Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me.] Five or six years afore it happened. God loveth to foresignify, to forewarn, or ere he punish. Let us, upon whom the ends of the world are come, take warning, and think we hear the trump of God sounding as here, "An end is come, is come, is come; it watcheth for thee, behold it is come." [Ezekiel 7:2-3; Ezekiel 7:6]

Ezekiel 7:2 Also, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD unto the land of Israel; An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land.

Ver. 2. An end, the end is come.] Exitium et excidium. Great kingdoms have their times and their turns, their rise and their ruin. The wicked’s happiness will take its end, surely and swiftly.

Upon the four corners of the land.] Heb., The four wings, called also the "four winds." [Matthew 24:31] They had defiled the land from corner to corner; {as Ezra 9:11} God therefore now would sweep it all over with the besom of utter destruction.

Ezekiel 7:3 Now [is] the end [come] upon thee, and I will send mine anger upon thee, and will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense upon thee all thine abominations.

Ver. 3. Now is the end come upon thee.] Even upon thee, O Israel. Who would ever have thought it [Lamentations 4:12]

And I will send mine anger upon thee.] Reveal it from heaven. {as Romans 1:18}

And will judge thee according to thy ways,] i.e., I will punish thee for thy ways. {as Hosea 4:9 Obadiah 1:15}

And will recompense upon thee.] Heb., I will give or put upon thee all thine abominations - q.d., Thou hast hitherto put them upon me, but I will have a writ of removal, and set them upon their own base. {as Zechariah 5:11}

Ezekiel 7:4 And mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity: but I will recompense thy ways upon thee, and thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and ye shall know that I [am] the LORD.

Ver. 4. And mine eye shall not spare thee.] Ezekiel 5:11. See on Jeremiah 13:14.

And thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee.] Ut quae antea latuerant, in aperture prodeant.

And ye shall know that I am the Lord.] That smiteth you. [Ezekiel 7:9]

An evil, an only evil,] viz., Without mixture of mercy, or that shall smite thee down at one only blow. {as 1 Samuel 26:8 Nahum 1:9} The Vulgate, after the Chaldee, rendereth it, An evil after an evil - q.d., Lighter and lesser judgments have done no good upon thee. Now I will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness. [Romans 9:28] Ruinam praecedunt stillicidia. Drops precede disaster.

Ezekiel 7:6 An end is come, the end is come: it watcheth for thee; behold, it is come.

Ver. 6. An end is come, the end is come.] Still the prophet ringeth this doleful knell in their ears, whom sin and Satan had cast into such a dead lethargy, that they could not easily be aroused. Battologia est, sed necessaria verborum redundantia, saith Pintus.

It watcheth for thee.] Which hitherto lay at the door, [Genesis 4:7] sleeping dog sleep, as we say. In the Hebrew there is an elegant alliteration between hakets, "an end," and hekits, "watcheth." See 2 Peter 3:3.

Ezekiel 7:7 The morning is come unto thee, O thou that dwellest in the land: the time is come, the day of trouble [is] near, and not the sounding again of the mountains.

Ver. 7. The morning is come unto thee.] ^(a) The morning of execution (as Jeremiah 21:12, Psalms 101:8 cf. Hosea 10:15, Genesis 19:23-24), worse than the Sicilian Vespers or the French massacre. Thine utter destruction, bene mane in te irruet, shall be upon thee early, as it was upon Sodom, and as the morning light breaketh in upon those that are fast asleep. Sicut decoctores multa sibi promittunt, interim pereunt. So it befalleth the wicked. ^(b)

The day of trouble is near.] Hajom mehumah. "Day" in Hebrew is thought to have its name from the stir and noise that is made in it, the humming noise and bustle of business. A troublesome and tumultuous day is here forethreatened, such as that in Isaiah 22:5, Zephaniah 1:14-17.

Not the sounding again of the mountains.] Not an empty sound, or an echo - resonabilis echo ^(c) - but a worse matter, that shall do more than beat the air.

Ezekiel 7:8 Now will I shortly pour out my fury upon thee, and accomplish mine anger upon thee: and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense thee for all thine abominations.

Ver. 8. Now will I shortly pour out my fury.] See on Ezekiel 5:13.

And I will judge thee, &c.] See on Ezekiel 7:3.

Ezekiel 7:9 And mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will recompense thee according to thy ways and thine abominations [that] are in the midst of thee; and ye shall know that I [am] the LORD that smiteth.

Ver. 9. I will recompense.] The same as before. Nunquam satis dicitur, quod nunquam satis discitur.

That I am the Lord that smiteth.] Think not that I am made all of mercy, or that I will ever serve you for a sinning stock. Ye shall know that I have verbera flogging as well as ubera, plenty and can so set it on as no creature can take it off.

Ezekiel 7:10 Behold the day, behold, it is come: the morning is gone forth; the rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded.

Ver. 10. The morning is gone forth.] Matutina sententia, The decree bringeth forth, {as Zephaniah 2:2} {See Trapp on "Zephaniah 2:2"}

The rod hath blossomed.] You have had your floralia, good times and shall shortly have your funeralia, funeral. Nebuchadnezzar (that rod of my wrath) is at hand.

Pride hath budded.] And will shortly bring forth, viz., the bitter fruit of your bold rebellion. Not much unlike to this was the almond rod seen by Jeremiah. [Ezekiel 1:11]

Ezekiel 7:11 Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness: none of them [shall remain], nor of their multitude, nor of any of theirs: neither [shall there be] wailing for them.

Ver. 11. Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness.] Their oppressions speak them most wicked, and will make them most wretched.

Nor of their multitude.] Or, Their tumultuous persons, their Thrasos, saith Tremellius, quantumvis circumstrepant famulitio numeroso, with all their train and retinue, that keep a clutter.

Neither shall there be wailing for them.] Their dearest friends shall not dare to lament the loss of them, for fear of the enemies who are present would punish it. We read in the Roman history of one Vitia, who was put to death by the command of Tiberius, for that she had lamented Geminus her son executed as a friend to Sejanus. ^(a)

Ezekiel 7:12 The time is come, the day draweth near: let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn: for wrath [is] upon all the multitude thereof.

Ver. 12. The time is come, the day draweth near.] Advenit illud tempus, pertigit ilia dies. Let this voice ever sound in the ears of those negligent spirits who cry Cras Domine, tomorrow Lord, wiling away their time as she in Revelation 2:21, and so fooling away their own salvation, as those virgins. [Matthew 25:1-12]

Let not the buyer rejoice.] He shall have no such great joy of his purchase, since the enemy shall shortly take all, et qui latifundia habuerunt, ne latum pedem retinebunt, and those who have large estates will not keep back enough for a foot, and no man shall be master of his own, nay, not of a molehill.

For wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.] Or, Upon all the wealth thereof. To like purpose the apostle in 1 Corinthians 7:29; "This, then, I say, brethren, The time is short," or trussed up, contracted. "Let them that have wives be as though they had none, they that weep as though they wept not, they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not, and they that buy as though they possessed not," &c. Rebus non me trado sed commodo, said the wise heathen. ^(a) Hang loose to all things here below, and labour after that undefiled and unfadable inheritance. [1 Peter 1:4-7]

Ezekiel 7:13 For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, although they were yet alive: for the vision [is] touching the whole multitude thereof, [which] shall not return; neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life.

Ver. 13. For the seller shall not return,] scil., At the year of jubilee, by reason of the land’s desolation.

Which shall not return.] Or rather, It shall not return, scil., void and ineffectual, but shall be accomplished.

Neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life.] That is but an ill defence. "The spirit of power and of a sound mind" are fitly set together. [2 Timothy 1:7] Men’s iniquity will be their ruin. Munster rendereth the text thus: For that whenas the vision was to the whole multitude thereof, no man returned, neque ullus propter iniquitatem suam pro anima sua se roberabat; neither did any one (by reason of his iniquity) strengthen himself for his own soul, i.e., use means to escape the just punishment of it.

Ezekiel 7:14 They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready; but none goeth to the battle: for my wrath [is] upon all the multitude thereof.

Ver. 14. They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready.] But all to no purpose, since God hath dispirited them (as he did the old Canaanites, the Saxons and Piers in that Victoria Halleluiatica, the Germans against the Hussites in Bohemia, &c.), and struck them with a panic terror, with utter despondency, so that they were feeble and fainthearted, and the strong were become as tow. [Isaiah 1:31]

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

Ver. 15. The sword is without, and the pestilence, &c.] No safety can be to such as are pursued by the divine vengeance, called therefore by the Greeks Aδραστεια, because there is no outrunning of it. ^(a) Of these three judgments (seldom separated) see Ezekiel 42:1-20; Ezekiel 3:1-27; Ezekiel 16:1-63; Ezekiel 17:1-24 Hξει Dωριακος πολεμος και λιμος { β} επ αυτω.

Ezekiel 7:16 But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.

Ver. 16. But they that escaped of them.] Here we have the mournful repentance of them that escaped, Fere autem fit ut, malo demure accepto, oculos aperiamus, saith Lavater here.

All of them mourning, ^(a) every one for his iniquity.] Thus Hezekiah "mourned as a dove." [Isaiah 38:14] And we mourn sore like doves, saith the Church; [Isaiah 59:11] happy if it be every man for his iniquity, and not for the punishment of it only or mainly. See that it be a "sorrow according to God," a sorrow to a "transmentation." [2 Corinthians 7:10-11]

Ezekiel 7:17 All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak [as] water.

Ver. 17. All hands shall be feeble.] As after some grievous disease, or as in extreme cold weather, ye shall not be able to handle your arms, wherein ye so trust. God strengtheneth or weakeneth the arms of either party. [Ezekiel 30:24]

And all knees shall be weak as water.] Fluent aquis: puta sudore ex gravi angustia, vel potius urina, ex pavore. ^(a) Not to those that wait upon God. [Isaiah 40:30-31] Let wicked Thrasos think on this.

Ezekiel 7:18 They shall also gird [themselves] with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame [shall be] upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads.

Ver. 18. They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth.] They shall be a miserable mourning people for a long while.

Horror shall cover them.] Such heartquake as is in earthquakes - horripilatio.

Shame shall be upon all faces.] Pudor a rebus putidis, ^(a) - Ashamed they shall be of their doings, ashamed of their disappointments.

And baldness upon all their heads.] A sign of sorrow among the Jews. The Romans (contrariwise), in times of sorrow, suffered their hair to grow, saith Plutarch; so did Mephibosheth in David’s days.

Ezekiel 7:19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

Ver. 19. They shall cast their silver in the streets.] As burdensome, and not beneficial to them ^(a) Thus Judas threw away his wages of wickedness; and many, on their deathbeds, detest their cursed hoards of ill gotten goods, saying unto them, as once Charles V did, Abite hinc, abite longe, - Away from me, away, away.

Their gold shall be removed.] Shall be for a dunghill, saith the Vulgate; it shall be esteemed, as it is, the guts and garbage of the earth.

Their silver and their gold.] See Proverbs 11:4, Zephaniah 1:18, Ecclesiastes 5:8, {See Trapp on "Proverbs 11:4"} {See Trapp on "Zephaniah 1:18"} {See Trapp on "Ecclesiastes 5:8"}

They shall not satisfy ^(b) their souls.] Silver and gold are not eatable, as Midas found, and the great Caliph of Babylon, whom Haabon the great Khan of Tartary starved to death in the midst of his infinite treasures, which though they were in valour great, and with great care laid together, yet served they him not now to suffice nature best contented with a little. ^(c)

Because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.] Their wealth is the occasion of their wickedness, and they are much the worse men for their worldly substance. See Psalms 52:7, with the margin; Jeremiah 5:27-28, Luke 16:9; Luke 16:13.

Ezekiel 7:20 As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty: but they made the images of their abominations [and] of their detestable things therein: therefore have I set it far from them.

Ver. 20. As for the beauty of his ornament.] That is mine ark, saith Junius; or my silver and gold, [Ezekiel 7:10] as others.

He set it in majesty.] In superbiam posuit, placed it pride, so some render it; they were proud of their abundance - their good and their blood rose together, as the proverb is.

Therefore have I set it far from them.] I will - for their ingratitude and abuse my good things - take away mine own and begone, as Hosea 2:8-9.

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

Ver. 21. And I will give it into the hands.] So he did the pleasant land to be plundered, the sanctuary also to be rifled and ransacked by the Babylonians, Syrians, Romans, &c. See Lamentations 1:10, {See Trapp on "Lamentations 1:10"}

And to the wicked of the earth.] Sept., To the pests of the earth.

Ezekiel 7:22 My face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute my secret [place]: for the robbers shall enter into it, and defile it.

Ver. 22. My face will I turn also from them.] From the Chaldees, that they may spoil at pleasure; or from the Israelites, that they may perish without help.

And they shall pollute my secret place.] Even the Holy of holies, whereinto none was to enter but the high priest once a year; yet, besides these Babylonian burglars, Heliodorus and Pompey did; but the one fell mad, and the other never prospered after it.

For the robbers shall enter into it.] Effractores; by this name, breach makers, the Jews at this day term our nobles and grandees.

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

Ver. 23. Make a chain.] Which is an emblem of bondage.

For the land is full of bloody crimes,] i.e., Capital crimes, unjust sentences, and other deadly evils.

Ezekiel 7:24 Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be defiled.

Ver. 24. Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen.] Velut carnifices; who may plunder you to the life, and take away your lives. [Habakkuk 1:6-7; Habakkuk 1:9] The Jews were bad enough, but the Chaldees were worse, if worse might be; malignants above measure, Poneropolitans, breathing devils. A hard knot must have a harder wedge, as the proverb is.

I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease.] I will crush the crests of those potentates, and lay them low. See Isaiah 14:11-12.

Their holy places shall be defiled.] Sacella et lararia eorum; their chapels or oratories made in or near unto their houses for divine worship.

Ezekiel 7:25 Destruction cometh; and they shall seek peace, and [there shall be] none.

Ver. 25. Destruction cometh.] Not εξιλασμος ηκει, Mercy shall come, as the Septuagint ill render it, but utter excision, as when a weaver cutteth the web he hath finished out of the loom. [Isaiah 38:12]

They shall seek peace.] Of God, but all too late; of the Chaldees, but all in vain; for they were cockatrices, and would not be charmed. [Jeremiah 8:17; Jeremiah 8:15; Jeremiah 12:12; Jeremiah 16:5] Note here how Jeremiah and Ezekiel say the same thing, as being acted by the same spirit.

Ezekiel 7:26 Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumour shall be upon rumour; then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients.

Ver. 26. Mischief shall come upon mischief.] Aliud ex alio malum; I will heap mischiefs upon them. [Deuteronomy 32:23] War is called "evil" or "mischief" by a specialty. [Isaiah 45:7]

And rumour shall be upon rumour,] sc., Of Nebuchadnezzar’s advance, acts, and achievements.

Then shall they seek a vision of the prophet.] As a drowning man catcheth at the sprig of a tree, which before he slighted.

But the law shall perish from the priest.] Not only prophecy, which is an extraordinary gift, shall fail them, but also the ordinary preaching of God’s Word, and all good advice and provision of human wisdom. And yet this foolish people were wont to soothe up themselves and say, The law shall not perish from the priest, nor wisdom from the ancient. [Jeremiah 18:18]

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

Ver. 27. The king shall mourn.] Pενθησει; with a funeral mourning, as the Septuagint express it; with a continued mourning, as the Hebrew importeth.

The prince shall be clothed with desolation.] Opplebitur tristitia ad stuporem.

And the hands.] Which they had so often lifted up to vanity.

According to their deserts.] See Ezekiel 7:3-4; Ezekiel 7:8-9.