The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel
Ezekiel 6
Chapter VI · Vol. III, pp. 1317–1319
1 The judgment of Israel for their idolatry. 8 A remnant shall be saved. 11 The prophet is directed to lament their calamities.
2 Son of man, bset thy face toward the cmountains of 1Israel,2 and prophesy against them,
b ch.4.7; 20.46; 13.17; 21.2; 25.2; 38.2.
c Judea, Jos.11.21; 20.7. ch.19.9; 33.28; 34.14; 35.12; 36.1; 37.22. Is.65.9. Mi.6.1,2.
1 The mountains are specially addressed as being the principal scenes of idolatrous worship. See ver.4.—C.
2 The idea seems rather to be that the mountains are addressed as the leading features, and consequently the representatives of the whole land. Just as we find in some cases the princes addressed as representatives of the whole nation.—P.
3 And say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD; Thus saith the Lord GOD dto the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys,3 Behold I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your ehigh places;
d ch.16.16,24. Je.2.20; 3.6,23. Is.57.5. Je.7.31.
3 This prophecy is most comprehensive. It embraces, 1st. The physical divisions of the country—mountains, hills, rivers and valleys. 2d. The works and monuments of man—high places, altars, cities, and houses. 3d. The people of the land. Upon the first utter desolation is the doom pronounced; upon the second complete destruction; upon the third the sword, famine, and exile. All are now fulfilled.—P.
e Le.26.30. 1 Ki.12.31; 14.23.
4 And your altars shall be desolate, and your images4 shall be broken; and gI will cast down your slain men before your idols.5
4 Or, sun images, ver.6.
g Le.26.30. ver.5,13. 2 Ki.23.16. Je.8.2.
5 Heb. dungy gods, ch.8.10; 14.3,5; 23.7,30.
5 And I will lay6 the dead carcases of the children of Israel before their idols;7 and I will scatter your hbones round about your altars.
6 Heb. give.
7 Before their idols—to which they had ignorantly and superstitiously fled for refuge.—C.
6 Ini all your dwelling-places the cities shall be laid waste,8 and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works9 may be abolished.
i ch.5.14; 7.2,15. Is.64.10,11. La.1.4. See ver.3,4,14. Ho.10.5. Je.9.11.
8 For the fulfilment of this prophecy, and the awful permanence of the judgment threatened, see Wylie's Modern Judea, ch.x.—C.
9 Idols, images, and temples, Ps.115.4-8; 135.15-18. Is.44.9-20. Je.10.3-9,14,15.
8 Yet will I leave ka remnant, that ye may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries.
k ch.5.2,12; 14.22. Je.44.14,28. Is.1.9; 4.2; 6.13. Hab.3.2. Ro.9.15,29.
9 And they that escape of you shall lremember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because nI am broken1 with their owhorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their peyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall qloathe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.
l Da.9.2,3. Le.26.40,41. De.30.1,2. Ho.5.15. Ps.22.27; 137.1. Je.31.18,19.
A.M. cir. 3410. B.C. cir. 594.
n ch.5.13; 16.43. Am.2.13. Ps.78.40; 106.40,43. Is.7.13; 63.10; 43.24. De.32.17,19.
1 Because I am broken. 'When I have broken their heart, which, straying, departed from me.'—Boothroyd.
o Je.3.6,13.
p ch.14.4-7; 20.7,24. Nu.15.39. 2 Ki.16.10. 2 Pe.2.14.
q Job 42.6. ch.7.16; 12.16; 16.63; 20.43; 36.31,32. Je.31.18,19; 3.13; 50.4. Ho.14.8. Le.26.40,41.
10 Andr they shall know that I am the LORD, and that I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them.2
r See ver.7. Zec.1.6. ch.14.22. Da.9.7,12.
2 The final object of all these judgments is here indicated—it was to bring Israel to a knowledge, not theoretical merely, but experimental, of God. Promises, warnings, threatenings, and favours had all been vain. Judgments alone, terrible & long-continued, would serve to bring the people to a sense of their duty. These are not yet exhausted; but the time will yet come when Israel shall know and worship God.—P.
11 Thus saith the Lord GOD, sSmite with thine hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! for tthey shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.
s ch.21.12,14,17; 9.4. Am.5.16. Je.9.1,10,20,21. Nu.24.10.
t ver.12; ch.5.2,12,13; 14.21. Je.12.12; 15.2,3; 16.4; 19.7. De.32.22-25. Am.2.14,15; 9.1-4.
12 He that is far off shall die of the pestilence; and he that is near shall fall by the sword; and he that remaineth and is besieged, shall die by the famine: thus will I uaccomplish my fury upon them.
u See ch.5.13.
13 Thenv shall ye know that I am the LORD, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon xevery high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols.
Notes
Ver. 3. Rivers and valleys are also specially addressed; because it is probable that, like the heathen whom they imitated and surpassed, ch. 5. 7, they had learned to deify the rivers, and people them with the Naiades; and it is certain that in the valley of Hinnom their most cruel rites of idolatry were practised. C.
Ver. 11. Smite with thine hand, &c. Eastern people employ much more action while speaking than Europeans; and some European nations much more than the British; which circumstance requires to be taken into account in the order 'to smite and to stamp;' actions which, to an eastern people, might be eminently expressive of the deepest indignation and sorrow. C.
Ver. 12. The threefold division of judgment, ch. 5. 12, seems, most probably, to have been adapted to three political factions into which the people were divided. (1) Those that were for fleeing 'far off,' and leaving Jerusalem to her fate, and taking refuge in Egypt or among the Ammonites, &c. (2) Those who encouraged, or perhaps compelled, Zedekiah to rebel. And (3) those who, when the rebellion was suppressed in the open country, refused to hear Jeremiah, and madly held out in Jerusalem. A terrible example of the existence and wickedness of such Jewish factions may be seen in Josephus' History of the Jewish War. C.
Reflections.—Terrible are the desolations which guilt and war make in nations. And no place, no idol, no station, can protect from God's wrath. If men will not destroy idols, he will find a way, even by idolaters, to destroy both together. His persevering patience, as well as both mercies and judgments, encourage and excite to a cordial and thorough repentance. And loathsome and abominable is the most beloved sin to a person truly penitent. Yea, hopeful is the case when sinners begin to remember God, and the base affronts which they have given him. And nothing more deeply wounds awakened consciences than a sense of their base ingratitude, and of grieving the Holy Spirit of God. God will make all men, either by their ruin, or especially by their hearty repentance, effectually to acknowledge his perfections, to feel the equity and veracity of his Word, and justify him in the accomplishment of it. The sins and judgments of others should affect us as well as our own. And ministers must often weep over them who never shed a tear for themselves.