Bible Commentaries

3. The Two Discourses of Rebuke (Ch6,7).

Ezekiel 6:1. And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying: Son of man, set 2 thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy to them. And say, 3Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Jehovah. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah to the mountains and to the hills, to the brook-channels and to the valleys: Behold, I, even I, cause a sword to come upon you, and I destroy your high places 4 And your altars are desolated, and your sun-pillars are broken in pieces; and I make your slain to fall before your dung-idols 5 And I lay the carcases of the children of Israel before their dung-idols, and scatter your bones round about your altars 6 In all your dwelling-places shall the cities be laid waste, and the high places become desolate, in order that your altars may be laid waste and broken in pieces, and your dung-idols be laid waste and done away with, and your sun-pillars be thrown down, and your handiworks be rooted out 7 And the slain falls in your midst, and ye know that I Amos 8 Jehovah. And I leave a remnant, inasmuch as there are to you some that have escaped the sword among the heathen nations, when ye are scattered in the 9 countries. And your escaped ones remember me among the heathen nations, whither they are carried captive, when I have broken their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and their eyes, which go a whoring after their dung-idols; and they feel loathing in their faces for the evil things which they have done in 10 respect of all their abominations. And they know that I am Jehovah; not in vain have I said that I would do this evil unto them 11 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Strike into thy hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Woe to all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, who shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence 12 He that is far off shall die by the pestilence; and he that is near shall fall by the sword; and he that remained over, and he that is preserved, shall die by the famine; and I accomplish My fury upon [in] 13them. And ye know that I am Jehovah, when their slain are in the midst of their dung-idols round about their altars, at every high hill, upon all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick terebinth, on 14 whatever place they did offer sweet savour to all their dung-idols. And I stretch out My hand upon them, and make the land a desert and waste more than the wilderness of Diblath, in all their dwelling-places; and they know that I am Jehovah.

Ezekiel 6:3 Vulg.: … rupibus et vallibus—(Anoth. read.: אני;הנה is wanting in some.)

Ezekiel 6:5. Anoth. read.: לפני גלוליכם. Vulg.: simulacrorum vestrorum.

Eze 6:6. ... ἐν παση τ κατοικια ὑμων. Αἱ πολεις—

Ezekiel 6:9. Sept.: ... ὁτι ὀμωμοκα τη καρδια αὐτων—

Ezekiel 6:12. ̔Ο ἐγγυς ἐν ῥομφαια...ὁ δε μακραν ἐν θανατω τελευτησει, κ. ὁ... κ.ὁ περιεχομενος ἐν λιμω—relictus … et obsessus—

Eze 6:13. ... ὑμων

EXEGETICAL REMARKS

The first discourse is not exactly a continuation, or even a farther elucidation of what precedes, but a word by itself, although with reference to what went before. Its resemblance to Jeremiah will be shown by manifold points of contact with the style of Jeremiah. According to Calv, Ezekiel turns now from Judah to Israel (?).

Eze 6:1. Comp. Eze 1:3; Eze 3:16.

Ezekiel 6:2. שים פניך expresses the direction, and that simply: toward; the translation of אל by: “against,” is stronger than is necessary.—The mountains of Israel remove, of course, the horizon of the prophet from Jerusalem, which was hitherto mainly the subject of discourse, to a greater distance; but the expression is used, not so much in order to characterize the whole land according to its peculiarity, as a land of mountains in the sense of Deuteronomy 11:11 (Hengst.), which in the connection here would be quite superfluous; but the mountains come into consideration, as the sequel shows, as Israel’s well-known, favourite places of sacrifice ( Jeremiah 3:6). According to J. D. Mich.: “a prophecy against the remnant of the ten tribes in Palestine, which took part even in Hezekiah’s and Josiah’s passover.” As in the case of words of speaking, אליהם might also mean: “to prophesy of them;” but they are

Ezekiel 6:3—formally addressed. Comp. 1 Kings 13:2.—אָפִיק may be a narrow valley, a defile, and equally well a river-bed, a brook-channel.—For וְלַנֵּיאָוֹת we have in the Qeri: וְלַגֵּאָיוֹת. Not for the purpose of depicting the whole land, but in order graphically to set forth the mountains; or because defiles and valleys, on account of the growth of trees, are distinctively for idolatrous services (e. g. the valley of Hinnom, Jeremiah 7:31; Jeremiah 32:35). In the latter respect, the sword comes and destroys the high places, as high places of worship, self-chosen; hence your.—הנני אני energetically expressive. The sword-tone from Ezekiel 5 begins again to make itself heard.

Ezekiel 6:4. ונשמו perf. Niph. of שָׁמֵם, comp. Ezekiel 4:17; here of being rendered silent by devastation: to lay waste.—The altars where sacrifices are offered.—חַמָּנִים only in the plural, statues, images of the Phenician sun-god (Baal-Hamman); Raschi: “sun-pillars.”—גִּלּוּלִים likewise only in the plural, certainly not: “stocks,” from גָּלַל, “to roll” (?), but undoubtedly connected with גָּלֶל and גֵּלֶל, “dung,” unless: the “abominable,” “horrible,” from the original meaning: “to separate,” “to divide.” Häv.: stone monuments (contemptuously: loose stones), dead masses of stone. (Perhaps: “your excrements.”)—לפני, “in face of,” lying before the face. Dust to dung.

Ezekiel 6:5. פגר is: something fallen, a dead body; comp. Leviticus 26:30.—עצם is “what is strong,” hence: a bone. (Lav. remarks here, that perhaps also they made themselves be buried beside their idols, and that now the bones of the dead were to be brought out and scattered by their enemies seeking after the ornaments of the dead.) The discourse is addressed to the mountains; but as it is spoken of the children of Israel, so also in reality it is spoken to them.

In Ezekiel 6:6 the place of execution is extended by means of בכל מושבותיכם to the inhabited land, more specially to the cities ( Jeremiah 2:28).—תחרבנה, with significant allusion to חֶרֶב (sword).—למעןּ the extermination of the idolatrous worship therefore is the object.—וישמו. Hengst.: “and become guilty,” be convicted as guilty by means of the destruction. אשם is “to demolish,” “to break in pieces,” and from that morally: to commit a fault, and consequently to become guilty, finally: to suffer punishment. Guilt appears a strange thought for our context here.

Ezekiel 6:7. Slain [sing.]; the individual instead of all who are like him, one here, another there.—Because the discourse reaches a pause, after the personal element (as in Ezekiel 6:4-5) has been added to the material, there is mentioned as the result the experimental knowledge of Jehovah,—not so much of His being God alone, as of His eternity; here in contrast with the idols which pass away. With such knowledge taken into view as the effect of later experience, the way is paved at the same time for Ezekiel 6:8. (Ew. converts והותרתי, which is to him “incapable of explanation” (! !), into דִּבַּרְתִּי, which he attaches to Ezekiel 6:7.)—The remnant are such as have escaped so far as the sword is concerned, etc.; comp. Ezekiel 5:2; Ezekiel 5:12; Ezekiel 5:3 ( Romans 9:27; Romans 11:5).—בהזרותֵיכם, inf. Niph. with plur. suffix, for בְּהִןָּרוֹתְכֶם.

Ezekiel 6:9. Comp. Luke 15:17 sqq. ( Leviticus 26:41).—אשר: if, or when.—נשברתי Ges. understands in a middle sense: “I break for myself.” Hengst.: “The passivity passes over, as it were, from those whose heart is broken to Him by whom, and in whose interest, it has been broken. I was broken, instead of: I have broken for myself.” [Others: By whose whorish heart I am broken (with pain, Genesis 6:6). Hitz.: their heart and eyes, which could not be satisfied with whoredom ( Ezekiel 16:28-29), God will then “satisfy” with bitter feelings (הִשְׂבַּעְתִּי instead of נשברתי). Ew. reads, instead of אשר נשברתי, “more simply,” וְנַשְׁבְּרוּ. The LXX. have read נשׁבעתי.] Is there an allusion to David in Psalm 51:17 ( 2 Samuel 11:2), as Hengst. supposes?—זנה is found properly only of the woman, as here also in the application to the marriage relationship of Israel to Jehovah. The word means properly: to incline; but whether is it towards or away from? In the latter sense ( Hosea 9:1) we have it interpreted by means of אשר־סר מעלי; in the former by means of אחרי־.—ונקטוֹ (קוט) with Dag. euphon. in the last.—בפניהם, not of the idols לפני=, Ezekiel 6:4-5, but of the escaped, who feel loathing in their own faces (“not reciprocally,” Hitz.). (Hengst.: to become a loathing to themselves. Rosenm.: so that their face shows the loathing.) Ezekiel 20:43; Ezekiel 36:31.—אל־הרעות: “in reference to,” as respecting, etc. Comp. besides, Jeremiah 22:22; Hosea 4:19.—לְכל, like אל, of which it is an abbreviation.

Ezekiel 6:10. Like Ezekiel 6:7, a pause in the discourse, a repetition of the object in view. He remains what He is, but they must change, must away back to Him. In this experimental way they come to know Jehovah.—חנם (חֵן), gratis, frustra, in complete form אל־חנם. That the deed proves the word is not the special point of this second pause in the discourse, but (according to the accents) the eternity of Jehovah, as in Ezekiel 6:7, in contrast with the idols that pass away, so now in contrast with those who change in Israel.—The words “Not in vain have I said,” etc. (comp. on Ezekiel 14:23), show in general how it is possible, by means of the fulfilment of what has been said, that they can acquire from experience the knowledge of Jehovah; and they form, besides, the transition to Ezekiel 6:11 : כה־אמר. Pain and displeasure, in general lively emotion ( Numbers 24:10; Ezekiel 21:19, 17], Ezekiel 22:13). Not like Ezekiel 25:6 or 2 Samuel 22:43. But comp, as to the first gesture, Ezekiel 6:14. Either: with the hand upon the thigh ( Jeremiah 31:19), or: one hand into the other. The gesture with the foot Hengst. takes in the sense of impatience, which cannot wait for the suffering following upon the sinful action. The prophet symbolizes in his own person the indignation of Jehovah.—אשר, according to Keil, a conjunction: that.

Ezekiel 6:12. Since the “house of Israel” ( Ezekiel 6:11) as a whole is interpreted by means of אשר in the plural, and since, in fact, more exactly it is those who fall by the sword, etc, the specification of our verse refers to the same parties. He that is far off, who may reckon himself far off from the sword, which is first named in Ezekiel 6:11, dies by that which is last named in Ezekiel 6:11, and hence relatively farthest off: pestilence. He that is near, who is near the death by famine, the second named, does not, however, perish by it, but falls by what is still nearer to him (according to Ezekiel 6:11), the first named sword. He that remaineth over, viz. from the pestilence, and he that is preserved, viz. from the sword, dies nevertheless, as it were of himself, by the famine. The prevailing reference here, according to Ezekiel 4, 5, is to the siege of Jerusalem; but הנצור is not on that account: he that is besieged (Hitz.). Comp. besides, Ezekiel 5:13.

Ezekiel 6:13. A third pause in the discourse; comp. Ezekiel 6:7; Ezekiel 6:10. The point in hand is the eternity of Jehovah—the beginning being at the same time resumed in a supplementary way now at the close and termination of the discourse—in contrast with the land, consequently with what has been promised and given by Jehovah Himself! Thus the accomplishment of the divine fury just threatened ( Ezekiel 6:12) is brought about. Perhaps also the hearers of the prophet are addressed, who may be conceived of as acquiring such knowledge. Comp. besides, Ezekiel 6:4-5; 1 Kings 14:23; 2 Kings 17:10; Deuteronomy 12:2; Isaiah 57:5 sqq.; Hosea 4:13; Jeremiah 2:20; Jeremiah 3:6.—Heights of hills and tops of mountains, as being nearer heaven, the heavenly powers, as it were like natural altars of the earth, adapted also for matching the progress of the sacrifice, of the sacrificial smoke mentioned in what follows.—Not forests, groves, but single green trees found in the brook-channels and ravines.—אלה like אַלּוֹן, from its strength, a tree similar to the oak, ever-green, rich in shade, with fruit in clusters, capable of reaching a great age, hence also used for monuments, Landmarks, and the like (Kimchi: our elms). In arboriculture the tree most preferred, perhaps as being sacred to Astarte. מקום אשר, loco quo = ubi.—The standing formula in the law of the offering in general, and in particular of the burnt-offering which is wholly consumed, ריח ניחח, “savour of rest,” is a bitter criticism, where God must pronounce it of the worship of idols. (“The idea of rest is, like that of peace, synonymous with acceptability, pleasantness, so that the formula is intended to assert that the offering, when it rises up, is acceptable, well-pleasing to God,” Bähr.) Comp. Genesis 8:21; Ezekiel 8:11; Ezekiel 16:18; Hosea 2:13.

Ezekiel 6:14. The exceedingly expressive gesture ( Ezekiel 14:9; Ezekiel 14:13) explains itself, in contrast with the foregoing spread of idolatry (ונתתי over against נתנו־שם in Ezekiel 6:13).—שממה ומשׁמח is: a waste and desolation, the greatest waste. Comp. Ezekiel 5:14; Jeremiah 6:8.—A wilderness of Diblah is not known elsewhere, hence many have read Riblah, a city which lay on the northern boundary of Palestine (?), with ה local attached to it, in this sense: “from the wilderness (in the south and east) as far as Riblah.” Besides the fact that the change of reading is without support from the ancient translators, there is so much against it in a linguistic and geographical point of view (comp. Deuteronomy 34:11 and 2 Kings 23:33; Jeremiah 39:5; Jeremiah 52:10), that certainly the simpler plan recommends itself, to take מ comparatively (מן) and “Diblathah” = Diblathaim ( Jeremiah 48:22; Numbers 33:46), which is also in the inscription recently discovered at Dhiban, on the other side of the Dead Sea Comp. Schlottmann’s Osterprogramm, 1870; Nöldeke, Die Inschrift des Königs Mesa von Moab, Kiel, 1870), the Moabite city on the margin of the great wilderness of Arabia Deserta. Comp. Keil on the passage. [Häv. takes “Diblathah” as a proper name formed by Ezekiel, whose appellative meaning (the form like תִּמְנָתָה, side by side with תִּמְנָה) is perhaps: “wilderness of ruin, of destruction” ( Joel 2:3; Jeremiah 51:26), analogously to “Babylon.”]

Additional Note on Ch5, 6

[In the vision of the siege and the iniquity-bearing, a heavy burden of troubles, partly in progress, and partly still impending, had been announced by the prophet as determined against the covenant people. The afflictions of Egypt and the trials of the wilderness were, in a manner, to pass over them again. But even that was not enough; for as their guilt exceeded the guilt of their forefathers, so the chastisement now to be received from the hand of God was to surpass all that had been experienced in the history of the past. This more severe message is unfolded in the next vision, that recorded in these chapters.

The judgments themselves are distributed into three classes, according to the threefold division of the hair: the sword was to devour one-third of the people; famine and pestilence another; and that which remained was to be scattered among the nations. The strongest language is employed to describe the calamities indicated under these various heads, and everything is introduced that might have the effect of conveying the most appalling idea of the coming future. Amid the horrors to be produced by famine and pestilence, the dreadful words of Moses, that “their fathers should eat their sons in the midst of them,” are reiterated, with the addition of the still darker feature, that “the sons should also eat their fathers” ( Ezekiel 6:10). The wild beasts of the field, too, were to embitter by their ravages the calamities produced by the evil arrows of famine; and the sword was to pass through the land in such fury, that none should be able to escape, rendering all a desolate wilderness ( Ezekiel 6:14), destroying also their idols, and scattering around them the dead carcases of the people, so that the things in which they had foolishly trusted should only in the day of evil prove the witnesses and companions of their ruin ( Ezekiel 6:3-6). Finally, in respect to those who should escape the more immediate evils, not only should they be scattered far and wide among the nations, but should there also meet with taunting and reproaches; nay, a sword should be drawn out after them, as had already been predicted by Moses ( Ezekiel 5:12; Leviticus 26:33); they, too, were to be for burning (so also Isaiah 6:13); for the anger of the Lord was still to pursue after them with “furious rebukes,” until He had completely broken their rebellious hearts, and wrought in them a spirit of true contrition for sin and perfect reconciliation of heart with God ( Ezekiel 6:9).

Nothing of a definite nature is mentioned as to time and place in this dark outline of revealed judgments. That the doom of evil was by no means to be exhausted by the troubles connected with the Chaldean conquest is manifest; for that portion of the people who were to go into exile and be dispersed among the nations were appointed to other and still future tribulations. There was to be a germinating evil in their destiny, because there would be, as the Lord clearly foresaw, a germinating evil in their character; and so long as this root of bitterness should still be springing up into acts of rebellion against God, it should never cease to be recoiling upon them with strokes of chastisement in providence. In this there was nothing absolutely singular as to the principle on which the divine government proceeded—only, as God had connected himself with Israel in a manner He never had done with any nation before, nor would with any other again, there should be a certain singularity in their case as to the actual experience of suffering on account of sin. In their history as a people, the footsteps of God’s righteous judgment would leave impressions behind it of unexampled severity, according to the word here uttered: “And I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all thine abominations.”

But there is no caprice in the dealings of God. When He afflicts with the rod of chastisement and rebuke, it is only because the righteous principles of His government demand it; and the fearful burden of evils here suspended over the heads of ancient Israel sounds also, a warning-note of judgment to all nations and all ages of the world. There have been, it is true, such changes introduced into the outward administration of God’s kingdom, as render it, for the most part, impossible to trace the execution of His judgments with the same ease and certainty with which we can mark their course in the history of ancient Israel. But it is not the less certain that the principles which produced such marked effects then are in active operation still; and wherever Israel’s guilt is incurred anew, there will infallibly be experienced a renewal of Israel’s doom. For the gospel has brought no suspension of God’s justice any more than of His mercy. It contains the most glorious exhibition of His grace to sinners; but along with this it contains the most affecting and awful display of His righteous indignation against sin. Both features, indeed, of the divine character have reached under the gospel a higher stage of development; and so far has the introduction of the new covenant been from laying an arrest on the severity of God, that not till it appeared did the Jews themselves experience the heaviest portion of the evils threatened against them; then only did the wrath begin to fall upon them to the uttermost, and the days of darkness and tribulation come, such as had not hitherto been known. This vision of woe, therefore, extends alike over both dispensations, and speaks to men of every age and clime; it is a mirror, in which the justice of God reflects itself for the world at large, with no further alteration for gospel times than such as is implied in the words of the apostle: “Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?”—Fairbairn’s Ezekiel, pp64, 65–67.—W. F.]

DOCTRINAL REFLECTIONS

1. But what has Israel sought with all its idolatry? It has sought a strange righteousness instead of that offered to it in the law of God, viz. the heathen righteousness, which is that of the natural man in his self-will. Therefore God’s righteousness in judgment breaks in pieces this self-righteousness in all its manifold forms.

2. It is therefore the first petition in the prayer which the Messiah has taught us: Hallowed be Thy name, of which the first step is thus expressed in the Heidelberg Catechism: Grant that we may rightly know Thee, a point to which this chapter also returns over and over again. And to glorify and praise God in all His works, as the catechism farther teaches, is exactly the opposite of the works of our own hands in Ezekiel 6:6.

3. Without a remnant, the eternity of the divine covenant, and with it the eternity of Jehovah Himself, the essence of His name, would fall to the ground. The continuity of the Church of God is the defence of the divine covenant-faithfulness, the proof of the divine providence (government), the triumph of grace over all judgment. He who Judges, sifts.

4. “But first must heart and eye be broken, and fallen man must feel a loathing of himself on account of his wickedness, before he turns to Him who has not spoken in vain. This is the only way to the knowledge of the living and true God; and we all must first with Israel learn to seek and find with broken whorish hearts and eyes the light of the gospel in the shame of captivity among the blind heathen” (Umbr.).

5. “One may certainly feel that he has to do with God, but not humble himself; just as Cain ( Genesis 4:6) was compelled to tremble before God, but always remained the same. So it usually happens with the lost. It is certainly a part of repentance to recognise God’s judgment, but the half merely. To be displeased with oneself is the other half” (Calv.).

6. By consenting to God’s judgment, by approving of it and of His righteousness with our whole heart, as the prophet is to smite with his hands and to stamp with his foot, let us judge ourselves, and then we shall not be judged. Our justification of God leads to our justification by God, in the way shown, e.g., in Psalm 51.

7. It is a specialty of the prophecy of Ezekiel, on the one hand, the prominence given to Jehovah, who speaks and will act accordingly ( Ezekiel 5.), and, on the other, the emphasis laid on knowledge as the result of experience. Because Jehovah speaks in accordance with His nature, will, decree, He will be what He is, when what He has said comes to pass. In such knowledge of Jehovah, reached through experience of what comes to pass, there lies an eschatological, New Testament element. There is a reference to the fulness of the times, alike in the judgment on Israel, and as regards the salvation of the whole world. The judgment on the heathen element in Israel is, besides, the judgment on heathenism in general. Jehovah is the holy monogram of all the future, the divine motto for the appearing of eternity in time, the manifestation of God in flesh. (Comp. Hosea 2:19 sqq.)

HOMILETIC HINTS

Ezekiel 6:1-2. So a son of man may be brought by God into such a position as to assail “mountains” even, i.e. those who tower like mountains above the level of the rest of men, princes and kings and the like, with the word ( Psalm 144:5).—“Sin not only pollutes man, but drags the rest of the creatures also into suffering along with him” (a. L.).

Ezekiel 6:3 sqq. Against the sword of God idols are of no avail.—How many a place condemns many a man, and becomes his place of judgment!—There thou seest the manifold ways of men, in which they depart from the One Living God, and make to themselves broken cisterns, Jeremiah 2:13.—In particular, a false worship does not remain unpunished, although it boasts a long time.—The power of strange gods over a heart which is not at home with God, and which follows unceasingly its strange lust: this, namely, that house and heart become desolate places of death.

Ezekiel 6:6. God first smites man repeatedly on the hand; at last He smites in pieces the works of his hands.

Ezekiel 6:7. “If, therefore, sin is committed in our midst, be not silent, laugh not, give no applause” (Stck.).—God is not less to be known in His judgments.

Ezekiel 6:1-7. God and idols: (1) how His word condemns them; (2) how His judgment annihilates them; (3) how those who serve them come to shame, spiritually and corporeally.

Ezekiel 6:8. “The Jews among the heathen nations—an example of the goodness, but also of the severity, of God, both leading us to repentance”(Stck.).—“God has and keeps for Himself at all times a little flock in the world, which can be overpowered by no one”(Cr.).—“Yes, what is there that is not scattered over the earth! Only think of the many graves and gravestones!” (Stck.)

Ezekiel 6:9. “So long as it goes well with the sinner, he is usually deaf and blind amid all admonitions and judgments. What a benefit therefore conferred by God, when he opens his eyes and ears by means of evil days!” (St.)—“Among the heathen” means grace in the strange land, where one was not to expect it.—The blessing of affliction.—In prosperity misery, in adversity salvation!—Remembrance a way to God.—“Affliction is, as it were, a hammer for our strong heart, and is able to force tears from the eyes” (a L.).—“Misery is the best preacher of repentance, when one will not listen to others. The majority are always like horses and mules; they are not to be brought to God otherwise than by bits and bridles, whips and rods” (B. B.).—In idolatry there is a whorish ardour, as the religious history of heathendom characteristically proves.—“For it is chastity of the sprit to serve God purely” (C.).—How must the good God thus go after us men, in order merely to bring back our heart and our eyes even from destruction!—“The sinner has nothing of his own, neither his heart, nor his eyes, nor his feet; everything belongs to the world, and is in the service of the devil” (a L.).—“The true grief for our sin begins in the heart, manifests itself through the eyes, and proves itself in the whole life and walk” (Stck.).—“Sincere repentance never comes too late, but has always access to the grace of God, Revelation 3:17; Revelation 3:19” (W.).—“When it is right in the penitent heart, there is also loathing of ourselves, Luke 18:13” (after St.).

Ezekiel 6:10. “The knowledge of God a fruit of repentance” (C.).—“Men make their boast with empty threatenings; but with God there is earnestness” (B. B.).

Ezekiel 6:11. Ezekiel’s exclamation of woe has, as one may say, hand and foot. The whole man is wholly in it with his heart. Such excitement is not to be blamed in any servant of the Living God. The messengers of peace at least ( Matthew 10.) are to shake the dust off their feet. And He Himself, the Peaceful One, has in Luke 11. uttered one woe after another.—“God has many rods, wherewith He chastises evil-doers, but three especially, in which all the rest are gathered up” (L.).

Ezekiel 6:12. “No man can escape God” (Stck.).—Death overtakes us in all forms; woe to the impenitent!—“There are two kinds of flight from God: one which is of no use, and that by means of true repentance, which avails” (L.).

Ezekiel 6:13. “As is the case with Paul in Philippians, 3, it causes the prophet also no annoyance to say the same thing repeatedly” (Stck.).—How sin can turn what is pleasing to the Most High into exactly the opposite!

Ezekiel 6:14. “When God has held His hand long enough stretched out to allure, to bless, then at length He stretches it out also to punish” (Stck.).—The wilderness shall blossom ( Isaiah 35); but what was blossoming may also become a wilderness, and both from God.—“Jehovah is He who will be what He is; in other words, He who shows His eternity and power, and fulfils His word, and does not change, nor deny Himself” (Cocc.).