Ezekiel 7:5
in Ezekiel 7This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Disaster! An unprecedented disaster—behold, it is coming!
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: An evil, an only evil; behold, it cometh.
KJV
Thus saith the Lord God; An evil, an only evil, behold, is come.
⋯
This verse in Ezekiel 7
Commentary
5 notes on this verseon Ezekiel 7:5-6
(Verse 5, 6) This is what the Lord God says: A single affliction, behold, is coming: the end is coming, the end is coming. He has awakened against you, behold, he is coming. Constriction is coming upon you, you who dwell in the land. These are not found in the Septuagint, but they have been added in their edition of Theodotion's translation under asterisks. However, we will follow the Hebrew.
This site's exposition
An evil, an only evil
on Ezekiel 7:5-7
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.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
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.
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.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
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.
The words behind it
9 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כֹּ֥ה | koh | thus | H3541 → | 577 times |
| אָמַ֖ר | ʾamar | he says | H559 → | 5305 times |
| אֲדֹנָ֣י | ʾadonai | [the] Lord | H136 → | 440 times |
| יְהוִ֑ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3069 → | 306 times |
| רָעָ֛ה | raah | calamity | H7451 → | 662 times |
| אַחַ֥ת | ʾachat | one | H259 → | 971 times |
| רָעָ֖ה | raah | calamity | H7451 → | 662 times |
| הִנֵּ֥ה | hineh | there! | H2009 → | 843 times |
| בָאָֽה׃ | vaah | [it is] coming | H935 → | 2568 times |
כֹּ֥הthus
kohH3541 →577 times
אָמַ֖רhe says
ʾamarH559 →5305 times
אֲדֹנָ֣י[the] Lord
ʾadonaiH136 →440 times
יְהוִ֑הYahweh
yahwehH3069 →306 times
רָעָ֛הcalamity
raahH7451 →662 times
אַחַ֥תone
ʾachatH259 →971 times
רָעָ֖הcalamity
raahH7451 →662 times
הִנֵּ֥הthere!
hinehH2009 →843 times
בָאָֽה׃[it is] coming
vaahH935 →2568 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Nahum 1:9Whatever you plot against the LORD, He will bring to an end. Affliction will not rise up a second time.
it leads to
- Psalms 21:11
Though they intend You harm, the schemes they devise will not prevail.
- Proverbs 21:30
There is no wisdom, no understanding, no counsel that can prevail against the LORD.
- Psalms 33:10
The LORD frustrates the plans of the nations; He thwarts the devices of the peoples.
- 2 Corinthians 10:5
We tear down arguments and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
- Psalms 2:1–4
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
- Psalms 21:11
Through
Amos 3:2“Only you have I known from all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 7:6
For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of…
- Exodus 19:5–6
Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine.
- Deuteronomy 10:15
Yet the LORD has set His affection on your fathers and loved them. And He has chosen you, their descendants after them, above all the peoples, even to this day.
- Deuteronomy 7:6
About Ezekiel
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.