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Ezekiel 6:4

in Ezekiel 6

Your altars will be demolished and your incense altars will be smashed; and I will cast down your slain before your idols.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And your altars shall become desolate, and your sun-images shall be broken; and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.

KJV

And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.

This verse in Ezekiel 6

Commentary

7 notes on this verse
And your altars shall be desolate,.... Being pulled down; or because the priests and worshippers would now be slain, and there would be none to attend them: and your images shall be broken; the "images of the sun" (b).

This site's exposition

Your altars will be demolished

on Ezekiel 6:4-7

The Lord will “lay the corpses of the Israelites before their idols,” as Leviticus 26:30 warned. Clarke notes that the cities and high places fall together: “the cities will be laid waste.” The unit ends with the chapter’s first “you will know that I am the LORD.”

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Ezekiel · Written before 420.

proposed

(Vers. 4, 5.) Behold, I will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places. And I will overthrow your altars, and break your images, and cast down your slain before your idols. And I will give the dead bodies of the children of Israel before the face of their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars in all your dwellingplaces.

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

(3.) It is just with God to make that a desolation which we make an idol of; for he is a jealous God and will not bear a rival. (4.) If men do not, as they ought, destroy idolatry, God will, first or last, find out a way to do it.

The Nineteenth Century3 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

images--called so from a Hebrew root, "to wax hot," implying the mad ardor of Israel after idolatry [CALVIN]. Others translate it, "sun images"; and so in Eze 6:6 (see 2Ki 23:11;

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase+unbalanced-parens

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

Your images shall be broken - Literally, your sun images; representations of the sun, which they worshipped. See the margin.
Images - See the margin and margin reference, and the Eze 8:16 note. Idols - The Phoenicians were in the habit of setting up “heaps” or “pillars” of stone in honor of their gods, which renders the use of the word more appropriate.

The words behind it

8 Hebrew words

Every 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.

  • וְנָשַׁ֙מּוּ֙and they will be made desolate

    venashamuH8074 →86 times

  • מִזְבְּח֣וֹתֵיכֶ֔םaltars your

    mizbechoteikhemH4196 →401 times

  • וְנִשְׁבְּר֖וּand they will be shattered

    venishberuH7665 →147 times

  • חַמָּֽנֵיכֶ֑םincense altars your

    chamaneikhemH2553 →

  • וְהִפַּלְתִּי֙and I will make fall

    vehipaltiH5307 →435 times

  • חַלְלֵיכֶ֔םslain [ones] your

    chaleikhemH2491 →94 times

  • לִפְנֵ֖י<to> before

    lifneiH6440 →2123 times

  • גִּלּוּלֵיכֶֽם׃idols your

    giluleikhemH1544 →48 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each 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

    Ezekiel 6:13

    Then you will know that I am the LORD, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, and under every green tree and leafy…

    it leads to

    • Ezekiel 20:28

      When I brought them into the land that I swore to give them and they saw any high hill or leafy tree, there they offered their sacrifices, presented offerings that provoked Me, sent up…

    • Hosea 4:13

      They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is pleasant. And so your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery.

    • 1 Kings 14:23

      They also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.

    • Jeremiah 2:20

      “For long ago you broke your yoke and tore off your chains, saying, ‘I will not serve!’ Indeed, on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down as a prostitute.

  • Through

    2 Chronicles 14:5

    He also removed the high places and incense altars from all the cities of Judah, and under him the kingdom was at peace.

    it leads to

    • 2 Chronicles 34:4

      Then in his presence the altars of the Baals were torn down, and he cut to pieces the incense altars that were above them. He shattered the Asherah poles, the carved idols, and the…

    • 2 Chronicles 34:7

      He tore down the altars and Asherah poles, crushed the idols to powder, and cut to pieces all the incense altars throughout the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

  • Through

    Leviticus 26:30

    I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and heap your lifeless bodies on the lifeless remains of your idols; and My soul will despise you.

    it leads to

    • 2 Kings 23:20

      On the altars he slaughtered all the priests of the high places, and he burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

    • Ezekiel 6:13

      Then you will know that I am the LORD, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, and under every green tree and leafy…

About Ezekiel

Ezekiel’s Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Ezekiel’s Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; 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; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.