Ezekielchapter 7
27 verses · KJVEzekiel book hub →
Key verse
Thus saith the Lord God; An evil, an only evil, behold, is come.
It stands in scene A of the chapter, verses 1 to 9.
The chapter
Chapter summary
A dirge of finality: 'An end: the end is come upon the four corners of the land.' The time is come, the day of tumult is near, and Jehovah's eye will not spare. The chapter's most memorable image is the sudden worthlessness of wealth in the day of wrath, silver cast into the streets, gold treated as an unclean thing, unable to satisfy the soul or fill the belly, because it was the stumblingblock of their iniquity. The sword is without, pestilence and famine within; the king mourns, the prince is clothed with desolation. Make the chain: the land is full of bloody crimes and the city full of violence.
Context
Prophecy · Ezekiel · Ezekiel overview
Where the chapter sits
Ezekiel 7 falls in Symbolic acts and judgment on Jerusalem (chapters 4–24). Lying on his side for 430 days; shaving the head with a sword; eating food in anxiety; the glory departs in stages (8–11); the prophet survives his wife's death without mourning (24).
Before it: Call and wheels-vision, chapters 1–3. After it: Oracles against the nations, chapters 25–32.
The whole shape of Ezekiel→The world behind this chapter
Ezekiel 7The history
The chapter is built out of a market crash. Land in Israel was tribal and did not really leave the family; the law of jubilee meant a sale was closer to a long lease, so the seller expected the field back and the buyer expected to use it. When the invader takes everything, neither man gets what he paid for. The seller will not return to what he sold, and the buyer should not rejoice.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
Silver and gold thrown into the streets is an economic detail, not a moral flourish. Money in that world was weighed metal, not coins, Judah had not begun minting yet. Metal is only wealth when there is a market. In a starving city, nobody trades bread for silver, and the metal becomes literal dead weight you drop while running.
The mourning rituals named are the standard ones: sackcloth, a coarse dark goat-hair cloth worn next to the skin; shaved heads; hands hanging limp; knees weak as water. These were public, recognizable signs, the way a whole community said out loud that something had died.
The trumpet is the alarm horn. Everyone hears it; nobody goes to the muster. That is the picture of a nation whose fight has already gone out of it before the enemy arrives.
What it meant to them
The word that hammers through the chapter is the end. Not a setback, not a bad season, the end, it has come, it is upon you. For hearers who kept doing the arithmetic of how long until things went back to normal, this shuts the arithmetic down.
There is a second sting for the religious. When the crisis hits they will look for a vision from the prophet, instruction from the priest, counsel from the elders, and find none of them. The institutions that had assured them nothing could go wrong will have nothing left to say.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel
A. The end has come upon the four corners
1. (vv. 1-4)
a.the word of the Lord came unto me: The word turns from the throne vision to a dated sentence: an end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land, the totalizing language the prophets use when a judgment is no longer partial. Verse 4 states the ground of it plainly, I will recompense upon thee all thine abominations, and closes with the book's recognition formula in its first landing of the chapter, ye shall know that I am the Lord. Henry reads the fourfold repetition of end across these verses as the poem's own hammer, a word struck four times so the hearer cannot mistake delay for reprieve.
Ezekiel 7:1, 1 voiceWhat preachers and commentators have said about these verses, in their own words.
Ezekiel 7:1
“A dirge. Supposing the date of the prophecy to be the same as that of the preceding, there were now but four, or perhaps three, years to the final overthrow of the kingdom of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar.”
Ezekiel 7:2, 2 voices
Ezekiel 7:2
“Also, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God unto the land of Israel,.... The inhabitants of it; not the ten tribes, who were already carried captive; but the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and those that were with them, who dwelt in the land.”
Ezekiel 7:2
“An end, the end is come - Instead of קץ בא הקץ kets ba hakkets, one MS. of Kennicott’s, one of De Rossi’s, and one of my own, read קץ בא בא הקץ kets ba, ba hakkets,”The end cometh, come is the end.” This reading is supported by all the ancient Versions, and is undoubtedly genuine. The end Cometh: the termination of the Jewish state is coming, and while I am speaking, it is come. The destruction is at the door.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 7:4, 1 voice
Ezekiel 7:4
“And mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity,.... Though the punishment will be heavy, and the lamentation will be great; see Eze 5:11; but I will recompense thy ways upon thee; the evil of punishment for the evil of sin, the righteous demerit of their actions: and thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee; not taken away, unatoned for, and indeed not repented of.”
2. (vv. 5-7)
a.An evil, an only evil: The oracle restates itself in a second wave, an evil, an only evil, behold, is come, the doubling a Hebrew idiom for a disaster with no companion or comparison. The morning is come, the time is come, the day of trouble is near closes the unit with a line the KJV renders as not the sounding again of the mountains, which Gill takes as the end of the ordinary shout of harvest and feast heard from the hills, silenced by what is coming instead. Keil reads the massed short clauses as deliberately breathless, poetry built to leave no room for the hearer to object.
Ezekiel 7:5, 3 voices
Ezekiel 7:5
“Thus saith the Lord God,.... Here should be a stop, a colon, requiring attention to what follows, it being something awful and terrible: an evil, an only evil, behold, it cometh; meaning the destruction of the city and temple; which, though but one, was such an one as was never known before nor was there any like it. The Targum is, "evil after evil, lo, it cometh;'' one evil after another; when one evil is gone, another comes, as in Eze 7:26. The Syriac version is, "behold, evil for evil comes"; the evil of punishment for the evil of sin.”
Ezekiel 7:5
“An evil, an only evil - The great, the sovereign, the last exterminating evil, is come: the sword, the pestilence, the famine, and the captivity. Many MSS. read אחר achar, after. So evil cometh after evil; one instantly succeeds another.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 7:5
“It is to the impenitent an evil, an only evil; it hardens their hearts and irritates their corruptions, whereas there were those to whom it was sanctified by the grace of God and made a means of much good; they were sent into Babylon for their good, Jer. xxiv. The wicked have the dregs of that cup to drink which to the righteous is full of mixtures of mercy, Ps. lxxv.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 7:6, 1 voice
Ezekiel 7:6
“An end is come, the end is come: it watcheth for thee - This is similar to the second verse; but there is a paronomasia, or play upon letters and words, which is worthy of note. קץ בא בא הקץ הקץ אליך kets ba, ba hakkets, hekits elayich. קצה katsah signifies to make an end or extremity, by cutting off something, and יקץ yakats signifies to awake from sleep: hence קיץ kits, the summer, as the earth and its productions seem then to awake from the sleep of winter.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 7:7, 2 voices
Ezekiel 7:7
“The morning - Rather, “The conclusion:” a whole series (literally circle) of events is being brought to a close. Others render it: Fate. The day of trouble ... - Or, The day is near; a tumult Zec 14:13, and not the echo of (or, shouting on) the mountains. The contrast is between the wild tumult of war and the joyous shouts of such as keep holiday. Eze 7:10 Rod - Used here for tribe Exo 31:2. The people of Judah have blossomed into proud luxuriance. In Eze 7:11 it means the rod to punish wickedness.”
Ezekiel 7:7
“GESENIUS, less probably, translates, "the order of fate"; thy turn to be punished. not the sounding again--not an empty echo, such as is produced by the reverberation of sounds in "the mountains," but a real cry of tumult is coming [CALVIN].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
3. (vv. 8-9)
a.Now will I shortly pour out my fury: Verses 8-9 repeat verses 3-4 almost word for word, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, with one addition at the close, I will recompense thee according to thy ways... and ye shall know that I am the Lord that smiteth. Henry notes the added title, the Lord that smiteth, as the poem naming the hand behind the coming disaster rather than leaving it to chance or to Babylon's own ambition. The repetition across the chapter is itself the argument: a warning given twice in nearly the same words is a warning meant to be believed the first time and is not.
Ezekiel 7:8, 1 voice
Ezekiel 7:8-9
“Two sins are particularly specified as provoking God to bring these judgments upon them--pride and oppression. God will humble them by his judgments, for they have magnified themselves. The rod of affliction has blossomed, but it was pride that budded,”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 7:9, 1 voice
Ezekiel 7:9
“Those shall have judgment without mercy who made light of mercy when it was offered them. All this is the just punishment of their sins, and it is what they have by their own folly brought upon themselves.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
B. The rod has budded and the buyer has no joy
1. (vv. 10-12)
a.the rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded: The image turns botanical: the rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded, a picture of ripeness rather than decay, the nation's own arrogance grown to the point of harvest. Verse 11 adds violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness, the same word rod now bearing the opposite weight, an instrument of punishment rather than a budding plant, and verse 12 turns to daily commerce, let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn. Fairbairn reads the market language as the ordinary transactions of Jerusalem's last days rendered pointless, since neither buyer nor seller will keep what changes hands in a city about to fall.
Ezekiel 7:10, 1 voice
Ezekiel 7:10
“The morning discovers that which was hidden; they thought their secret sins would never come to light, but now they will be brought to light. They used to try and execute malefactors in the morning, and such a morning of judgment and execution is now coming upon them, a day of trouble to sinners, the year of their visitation.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 7:11, 3 voices
Ezekiel 7:11
“Violence is risen, up into a rod of wickedness - The prophet continues his metaphor: “Pride has budded.” - And what has it brought forth? Violence and iniquity. To meet these, the rod of God cometh. There is such a vast rapidity of succession in the ideas of the prophet that he cannot wait to find language to clothe each. Hence we have broken sentences; and, consequently, obscurity. Something must be supplied to get the sense, and most critics alter words in the text. Houbigant, who rarely acknowledges himself to be puzzled, appears here completely nonplussed.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 7:11
“Violence (that is, the violent foe) is risen up as a rod of (that is, to punish the Jews') wickedness (Zec 5:8). theirs--their possessions, or all that belongs to them, whether children or goods. GROTIUS translates from a different Hebrew root, "their nobles," literally, "their tumultuous trains" (Margin) which usually escorted the nobles.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 7:11
“None - They shall be utterly wasted for their sins. Wailing - The living shall not bewail their dead friends, because they shall judge the dead in a better case than the living.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 7:12, 2 voices
Ezekiel 7:12
“Let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn - Such is now the state of public affairs, that he who through want has been obliged to sell his inheritance, need not mourn on the account; as of this the enemy would soon have deprived him. And he who has bought it need not rejoice in his bargain, as he shall soon be stripped of his purchase, and either fall by the sword, or be glad to flee for his life.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 7:12
“Spiritually this holds good now, seeing that "the time is short"; "they that rejoice should be as though they rejoiced not, and they that buy as though they possessed not": Paul (1Co 7:30) seems to allude to Ezekiel here. Jer 32:15, 37, 43, seems to contradict Ezekiel here. But Ezekiel is speaking of the parents, and of the present;”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2. (v. 13)
Ezekiel 7:13-14
a.the seller shall not return: The market picture closes with a legal detail: the seller shall not return to that which is sold, although they were yet alive, overturning the ordinary right of redemption a seller kept under the law (Lev 25:14 and following) because the coming exile removes buyer and seller alike from the land entirely. Verse 14 turns to the trumpet blown for battle that no one answers, they have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready; but none goeth to the battle, wrath having drained the will to resist along with the means. Gill reads the unanswered trumpet as the clearest single picture in the chapter of a people past the point where courage could still matter.
C. The trumpet blows and nobody goes to battle
2. (vv. 15-16)
a.The sword is without: Three instruments close in from every direction, the sword without, the pestilence and the famine within, so that whichever way a person turns, siege or open field, one of the three finds him. Verse 16 allows a remnant to escape to the mountains, but only to grieve there, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity, which Henry reads as the chapter's own answer to any hope that escape means acquittal: the survivors mourn because they know the cause was their own, not merely Babylon's army.
Ezekiel 7:15, 1 voice
Ezekiel 7:15
“Sin had abounded both in city and country, Iliacos intra muros peccator et extra--Trojans and Greeks offend alike; and therefore among both desolations are made. None of those that are marked for death shall escape: There shall none of them remain.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 7:16, 1 voice
Ezekiel 7:16
“They - shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys - Rather, like mourning doves הגאיות haggeayoth, chased from their dove-cotes, and separated from their mates.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3. (vv. 17-18)
Ezekiel 7:17-19
a.All hands shall be feeble: The body's collapse under terror is drawn in physical detail, all hands shall be feeble, all knees shall be weak as water, sackcloth and shame and baldness the outward marks of a grief too total for words. Verse 19 turns to silver and gold thrown into the streets, unable to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord, the very wealth that had become their stumblingblock now proven worthless at the one moment it might have mattered. Fairbairn reads the thrown treasure as the poem's sharpest irony, riches trusted as security becoming litter underfoot the day security was actually needed.
Ezekiel 7:17, 1 voice
Ezekiel 7:17
“All hands shall be feeble,.... No strength in them, to lay hold on weapons of war to defend themselves, or fight the enemy; no heart nor courage in them, to go forth and meet him; and even afraid to lift up their voice in mourning, lest they should be heard, and pursued, and taken: and all knees shall be weak as water; tremble and beat one against another, for fear of the enemy; or, "shall flow with water,'' as the Targum; either with sweat or urine, which are sometimes both caused by fear.”
Ezekiel 7:18, 1 voice
Ezekiel 7:18
“Various signs of mourning common in eastern countries. Baldness was forbidden to the Israelites Deu 14:1. They seem, however, in later times to have adopted the custom of foreign nations in this matter, not without permission. Compare Isa 22:12.”
D. Silver thrown in the streets, the treasure profaned
1. (v. 19)
Ezekiel 7:19, 2 voices
Ezekiel 7:19
“Shall be removed - literally, “shall be an unclean thing” Lev 20:21; their gold shall be unclean and abominable in their eyes. The stumblingblock of their iniquity - See Eze 3:20. Their gold and silver used in making images was the occasion of their sin.”
Ezekiel 7:19
“By their eager pursuit of it they were drawn into sin, and by their plentiful enjoyment of it they were hardened in sin; and thus it was the stumbling-block of their iniquity; it occasioned their falling into sin and obstructed their return to God. Note, There are many whose wealth is their snare and ruin.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2. (vv. 20-22)
a.the beauty of his ornament: The charge narrows to the temple's own furnishings, the beauty of his ornament set in majesty turned instead into the material for images of their abominations, so God gives the desecrated treasure into the hands of strangers for a prey. Verse 22 states the withdrawal directly, my face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute my secret place, the inner sanctuary left open to robbers because the presence that had guarded it has turned away. Keil sets this beside the glory's literal departure narrated in chapters 8-11, the withdrawal announced here in judgment-speech and shown there as vision.
Ezekiel 7:20, 2 voices
Ezekiel 7:20
As for the beauty of his ornament - Their beautiful temple was their highest ornament, and God made it majestic by his presence. But they have even taken its riches to make their idols, which they have brought into the very courts of the Lord’s house; and therefore God hath set it - the temple, from him - given it up to pillage. Some say it means, “They took their ornaments, which were their pride, and made them into images to worship.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 7:20
“The Margin translates, "Made it unto them an unclean thing" (compare Margin on Eze 7:19, "removed"); what I designed for their glory they turned to their shame, therefore I will make it turn to their ignominy and ruin.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 7:22, 1 voice
Ezekiel 7:22
“The robbers shall enter into it - The Chaldeans shall not only destroy the city; but they shall enter the temple, deface it, plunder it, and burn it to the ground.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
E. Make the chain: king mourns, prophet fails
1. (vv. 23-24)
a.the land is full of bloody crimes: Make a chain, a command for a captive's fetter, ties the coming exile to a single named cause, the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence, bloodguilt rather than mere idolatry as the immediate charge in this unit. Verse 24 brings in the worst of the heathen to possess their houses and defile their holy places, the same Babylon that will later stand under its own judgment (chapters 26-32) here serving as the rod in God's hand against Jerusalem, an instrument rather than an innocent party.
Ezekiel 7:23, 2 voices
Ezekiel 7:23
“Therefore translate as the Hebrew requires, "the chain," namely, that usually employed on such occasions. CALVIN explains it, that the Jews should be dragged, whether they would or no, before God's tribunal to be tried as culprits in chains. The next words favor this: "bloody crimes," rather, "judgment of bloods," that is, with blood sheddings deserving the extreme judicial penalty.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 7:23
“The indictment drawn up against the prisoner: The land is full of bloody crimes, full of the judgments of blood (so the word is), that is, of the guilt of blood which they had shed under colour of justice and by forms of law, with the solemnity of a judgment.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 7:24, 1 voice
Ezekiel 7:24
The worst of the pagan - The most cruel and terrible of nations - the Chaldaeans. The pomp of the strong - Compare Lev 26:19 “The strong” are those who pride themselves in imaginary strength. Their holy places - What elsewhere is called “God’s Holy place” is here “their holy places,” because God disowns the profaned sanctuary. In the marginal rendering “they” must mean “the worst of the pagan.”
2. (vv. 25-27)
a.they shall seek peace, and there shall be none: The chapter closes on institutional collapse rather than only personal terror: they shall seek a vision of the prophet, but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients, the three ordinary channels of guidance, prophetic word, priestly instruction, and elders' counsel, all failing at once. King and prince are named in their own grief, and the closing line returns the recognition formula a second time in the chapter, they shall know that I am the Lord, so that the oracle's final word, like its first, is God's own self-disclosure rather than Jerusalem's ruin as an end in itself. Gill reads the silence of prophet, priest and elder together as the sign that judgment has moved past the point where ordinary means of grace still function.
Ezekiel 7:25, 2 voices
Ezekiel 7:25
“Destruction cometh,.... Upon the temple, city, nation, and people; the king of Babylon, the destroyer of the Gentiles, and now of the Jews, being on his way, Jer 4:7; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none; that is, the Jews will seek to make peace with the Chaldeans; but the latter will not hearken to them, but go on with the siege, till they have taken the city, put part to the sword, and carried the other captive.”
Ezekiel 7:25
“They shall seek peace - They see now that their ceasing to pay the tribute to the king of Babylon has brought the Chaldeans against them; and now they sue for peace in vain. He will not hear: he is resolved on their destruction.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 7:26, 1 voice
Ezekiel 7:26
Then shall they seek a vision - Vision shall perish from the prophet, the law from the priest, and counsel from the ancients. Previously to great national judgments, God restrains the influences of his Spirit. His word is not accompanied with the usual unction; and the wise men of the land, the senators and celebrated statesmen, devise foolish schemes; and thus, in endeavoring to avert it, they hasten on the national ruin. How true is the saying, Quem Deus vult perdere, prius dementat. “Those whom God designs to destroy, he first infatuates.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 7:27, 1 voice
Ezekiel 7:27
“None of the men of might shall find their hands. What can men contrive or do for themselves when God has departed from them and appears against them? All must needs be in tears, all in trouble, when God comes to judge them according to their deserts, and so make then know, to their cost, that he is the Lord, the God to whom vengeance belongs.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Ezekiel 7. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826); Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765); Matthew Henry and Patrick Fairbairn, An Exposition of Ezekiel.
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