24 For this cause the Lord has said: Because you have made your evil-doing come to mind by the uncovering of your wrongdoing, causing your sins to be seen in all your evil-doings; because you have come to mind, you will be taken in them.
And it will be, when they say to you, Where are we to go? then you are to say to them, The Lord has said, Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are to be in need of food, to need of food; and such as are to be taken away prisoners, to be taken away.
They are building up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with evil-doing. Its heads take rewards for judging, and the priests take payment for teaching, and the prophets get silver for reading the future: but still, supporting themselves on the Lord, they say, Is not the Lord among us? no evil will overtake us. For this reason, Zion will be ploughed like a field because of you, and Jerusalem will become a mass of broken walls, and the mountain of the house like a high place in the woods.
I saw the Lord stationed by the side of the altar, giving blows to the tops of the pillars so that the doorsteps were shaking: and he said, I will let all of them be broken with earth-shocks; I will put the last of them to the sword: if any one of them goes in flight he will not get away, not one of them will be safe. Even if they go deep into the underworld, my hand will take them up from there; if they go up to heaven, I will get them down: Though they take cover on the top of Carmel, I will go in search of them and get them out; though they keep themselves from my eyes in the bed of the sea, I will give orders to the great snake there and he will give them a bite:
There is cursing and broken faith, violent death and attacks on property, men are untrue in married life, houses are broken into, and there is blood touching blood.
For her blood is in her; she has put it on the open rock not draining it on to the earth so that it might be covered with dust;
And Oholah was untrue to me when she was mine; she was full of desire for her lovers, even for the Assyrians, her neighbours, Who were clothed in blue, captains and rulers, all of them young men to be desired, horsemen seated on horses. And she gave her unclean love to them, all of them the noblest men of Assyria: and she made herself unclean with the images of all who were desired by her. And she has not given up her loose ways from the time when she was in Egypt; for when she was young they were her lovers, and by them her young breasts were crushed, and they let loose on her their unclean desire. For this cause I gave her up into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the Assyrians on whom her desire was fixed. By these her shame was uncovered: they took her sons and daughters and put her to death with the sword: and she became a cause of wonder to women; for they gave her the punishment which was right. And her sister Oholibah saw this, but her desire was even more unmeasured, and her loose behaviour was worse than that of her sister. She was full of desire for the Assyrians, captains and rulers, her neighbours, clothed in blue, horsemen going on horses, all of them young men to be desired. And I saw that she had become unclean; the two of them went the same way. And her loose behaviour became worse; for she saw men pictured on a wall, pictures of the Chaldaeans painted in bright red, With bands round their bodies and with head-dresses hanging round their heads, all of them looking like rulers, like the Babylonians, the land of whose birth is Chaldaea. And when she saw them she was full of desire for them, and sent servants to them in Chaldaea. And the Babylonians came to her, into the bed of love, and made her unclean with their loose desire, and she became unclean with them, and her soul was turned from them. So her loose behaviour was clearly seen and her shame uncovered: then my soul was turned from her as it had been turned from her sister. But still she went on the more with her loose behaviour, keeping in mind the early days when she had been a loose woman in the land of Egypt. And she was full of desire for her lovers, whose flesh is like the flesh of asses and whose seed is like the seed of horses. And she made the memory of the loose ways of her early years come back to mind, when her young breasts were crushed by the Egyptians.
Son of man, say to her, You are a land on which no rain or thunderstorm has come in the day of wrath. Her rulers in her are like a loud-voiced lion violently taking his food; they have made a meal of souls; they have taken wealth and valued property; they have made great the number of widows in her. Her priests have been acting violently against my law; they have made my holy things unclean: they have made no division between what is holy and what is common, and they have not made it clear that the unclean is different from the clean, and their eyes have been shut to my Sabbaths, and I am not honoured among them. Her rulers in her are like wolves violently taking their food; putting men to death and causing the destruction of souls, so that they may get their profit. And her prophets have been using whitewash, seeing foolish visions and making false use of secret arts, saying, This is what the Lord has said, when the Lord has said nothing. The people of the land have been acting cruelly, taking men's goods by force; they have been hard on the poor and those in need, and have done wrong to the man from a strange land. And I was looking for a man among them who would make up the wall and take his station in the broken place before me for the land, so that I might not send destruction on it: but there was no one. And I let loose my passion on them, and have put an end to them in the fire of my wrath: I have made the punishment of their ways come on their heads, says the Lord.
And you are to say, This is what the Lord has said: A town causing blood to be drained out in her streets so that her time may come, and making images in her to make her unclean! You are responsible for the blood drained out by you, and you are unclean through the images which you have made; and you have made your day come near, and the time of your judging has come; for this cause I have made you a name of shame to the nations and a cause of laughing to all countries. Those who are near and those who are far from you will make sport of you; your name is unclean, you are full of sounds of fear. See, the rulers of Israel, every one in his family, have been causing death in you. In you they have had no respect for father and mother; in you they have been cruel to the man from a strange land; in you they have done wrong to the child without a father and to the widow. You have made little of my holy things, and have made my Sabbaths unclean. In you there are men who say evil of others, causing death; in you they have taken the flesh with the blood for food; in your streets they have put evil designs into effect. In you they have let the shame of their fathers be seen; in you they have done wrong to a woman at the time when she was unclean. And in you one man has done what was disgusting with his neighbour's wife; and another has made his daughter-in-law unclean; and another has done wrong to his sister, his father's daughter. In you they have taken rewards as the price of blood; you have taken interest and great profits, and you have taken away your neighbours' goods by force, and have not kept me in mind, says the Lord.
And you took your robes and made high places for yourself ornamented with every colour, acting like a loose woman on them, without shame or fear. And you took the fair jewels, my silver and gold which I had given to you, and made for yourself male images, acting like a loose woman with them; And you took your robes of needlework for their clothing, and put my oil and my perfume before them. And my bread which I gave you, the best meal and oil and honey which I gave you for your food, you put it before them for a sweet smell, says the Lord. And you took your sons and your daughters whom I had by you, offering even these to them to be their food. Was your loose behaviour so small a thing, That you put my children to death and gave them up to go through the fire to them? And in all your disgusting and false behaviour you had no memory of your early days, when you were uncovered and without clothing, stretched out in your blood.
Their respect for a man's position is a witness against them; and their sin is open to the view of all; like that of Sodom, it is not covered. A curse on their soul! for the measure of their sin is full.
If only I had in the waste land a night's resting-place for travellers, so that I might go away, far from my people! for they are all untrue, a band of false men. Their tongues are bent like a bow to send out false words: they have become strong in the land, but not for good faith: they go on from evil to evil, and they have no knowledge of me, says the Lord. Let everyone keep watch on his neighbour, and put no faith in any brother: for every brother will certainly be tricking his brother, and every neighbour will go about saying evil. Everyone will make sport of his neighbour with deceit, not saying what is true: their tongues have been trained to say false words; they are twisted, hating to come back. There is wrong on wrong, deceit on deceit; they have given up the knowledge of me, says the Lord. So the Lord of armies has said, See, I will make them soft in the fire and put them to the test; this I will do because of their evil-doing.
Let them be put to shame because they have done disgusting things. They had no shame, they were not able to become red with shame: so they will come down with those who are falling: when my punishment comes on them, they will be made low, says the Lord.
As the fowl-house is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: for this reason they have become great and have got wealth. They have become fat and strong: they have gone far in works of evil: they give no support to the cause of the child without a father, so that they may do well; they do not see that the poor man gets his rights.
Let your eyes be lifted up to the open hilltops, and see; where have you not been taken by your lovers? You have been seated waiting for them by the wayside like an Arabian in the waste land; you have made the land unclean with your loose ways and your evil-doing.
And in the skirts of your robe may be seen the life-blood of those who have done no wrong: ...
See, O strong man, the Lord will send you violently away, gripping you with force, Twisting you round and round like a ball he will send you out into a wide country: there you will come to your end, and there will be the carriages of your pride, O shame of your lord's house!
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Ezekiel 21
Commentary on Ezekiel 21 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 21
In this chapter we have,
Thus is this chapter all threatenings.
Eze 21:1-7
The prophet had faithfully delivered the message he was entrusted with, in the close of the foregoing chapter, in the terms wherein he received it, not daring to add his own comment upon it; but, when he complained that the people found fault with him for speaking parables, the word of the Lord came to him again, and gave him a key to that figurative discourse, that with it he might let the people into the meaning of it and so silence that objection. For all men shall be rendered inexcusable at God's bar and every mouth shall be stopped. Note, He that speaks with tongues should pray that he may interpret, 1 Co. 14:13. When we speak to people about their souls we should study plainness, and express ourselves as we may be the best understood. Christ expounded his parables to his disciples, Mk. 4:34.
Eze 21:8-17
Here is another prophecy of the sword, which is delivered in a very affecting manner; the expressions here used are somewhat intricate, and perplex interpreters. The sword was unsheathed in the foregoing verses; here it is fitted up to do execution, which the prophet is commanded to lament. Observe,
Eze 21:18-27
The prophet, in the verses before, had shown them the sword coming; he here shows them that sword coming against them, that they might not flatter themselves that by some means or other it should be diverted a contrary way.
Eze 21:28-32
The prediction of the destruction of the Ammonites, which was effected by Nebuchadnezzar about five years after the destruction of Jerusalem, seems to come in here upon occasion of the king of Babylon's diverting his design against Rabbath, when he turned it upon Jerusalem. Upon this the Ammonites grew very insolent, and triumphed over Jerusalem; but the prophet must let them know that forbearance is no acquittance; the reprieve is not a pardon; their day also is at hand; their turn comes next, and it will be but a poor satisfaction to them that they are to be devoured last, to be last executed.