Ezekiel 7

Ezekiel 7:1-17

In this chapter the approaching ruin of the land of Israel is most particularly forelief, in affecting expections often repeated, that if possible they might be awakened by repentance to prevent it. The prophet must tell them, 1. That it will be a complete destruction, viz. 1—No. 2. That it is now, even at the door, viz. 7—10. 3. That it is unavoidable, viz. 10—15. 4. That their strength and wealth should be no fours against it, viz. 16—19. 5. That the temple, in which they erupted, should itself be ruined, viz. 20—22. 6. That it should be an universal ruin, the sin that brought it having been universal, viz. 23—25.

1. Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 2. Also thou son of man, thus faith the LORD God unto the land of Israel, ‘An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land. 3. Now is the end came upon thee, and I will send mine anger upon thee, and ‘will judge thee according to thy ways, and will ‘recompense upon thee all thine abominations. 4. And ‘mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity: but I will recompense thy ways upon thee, and thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee, and ‘ye shall know that I am the LORD. 5. Thus faith the LORD God, An evil, an only evil, behold, is come. 6. An end is come, the end is come; it ‘I watcheth for thee, behold, it is come. 7. ‘The morning is come upon thee, O thou that dwelleth in the land: ‘The time is come, the day of trouble is near, and not the sounding again of the mountains. 8. Now will I shortly ‘pour out my fury upon thee, and accomplish mine anger upon thee: and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense thee for all thine abominations. 9. ‘And mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will recompense thee according to thy ways, and thine abominations that are in the midst of thee, and ‘ye shall know that I am the LORD that immett. 10. Behold, the day, behold, it is come, the morning is gone forth, the rod hath blubbered, pride hath budded. 11. ‘Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness: none of them shall remain, nor of their multitude, nor of any of theirs, ’neither shall there be waiting for them. 12. The time is come, the day drawn near, ’let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn: for the earth is upon all the multitude thereof. 13. For ’the seller shall not mourn to that which is told, although they were yet alive: for the vinson is touching the

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whole multitude thereof, which shall not return: neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life. 14. They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready, but none goeth to the battle: for my wrath is upon all the multitude thereof. 15. The sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine within: he that is in the field shall die with the sword; and he that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.

Before Chall 196. I do whale life is in his iniquity.

Fair warning is here given to a careless people; and with great earnestness the prophet speaks, if so be he might awaken them from their lethargy.

1. Their time of judgment is come, their end at hand, their destruction impending; and this is urged with a great variety of expressions, to throw the certainty, nearerely, and terribly of the calamity. The whole land is doomed to ruin, v. 2. An evil, such as was never heard of before approached, v. 3. Their desolations watched for them, v. 6. The dawn of their calamity was already broke upon them, the day of trouble swiftly advanced; not a mere found, like the diffuses echo of a man’s voice between the mountains, but a terrible shout of the Chaldean hoffs already at the walls of the city, v. 7. Note, (1.) The end of all things is at hand, Are we ready? (2.) Tho’ God’s patience bears long with sinners, he will surely visit them at the appointed time, and the evil of eternal vengeance will overtake them.

2. Their destruction is from God’s wrath, v. 8. Their provocations had awakened his fury, and now in full visits he will pour it out on their devoted heads, and accomplish his anger, giving it full scope, v. 8. and no pity or mercy shall mitigate the judgment, v. 4, 9. and we to those against whom God thus ritech up as an enemy.

3. God herein acts with strictest justice. The sentence passed on them would be in consequence of an impartial trial, and the righteous recompense of their great abominations, v. 5. There being found in the midst of them unrepented of, wrath to the utterance of the same, v. 6. The rod hath blubbered, the rod of universal wickedness, and they gleeed in it; pride hath budded, that sin peculiarly hateful to God, and violence is risen up, a scene of oppression and injustice appears, and the rod of upright government is turned into a rod of wickedness; to invite the innocent. Though some understand these expressions as ifgingly the Chaldean monarch, the rod of God’s anger swelling with pride, and ready to break in violently upon them as a flood, to punish them for their iniquity.

4. The ruin coming upon them would be universal. None of them shall remain, the whole nation utterly wafted by famine, pestilence, and the sword; princes and people shall fall together unlamented, none surviving to bemoan them, or the few who were left, wholly engrossed with care about themselves, v. 11. The buyer should not rejoice, nor the seller mourn, because both now would be do a level, alike captives, and removed from their own land, v. 12. and no year of justice cause the possessions to revert to their former owners, though they were yet alive, viz. 13. the whole multitude being doomed to a lavatory years servitude in Babylon. In vain on the approach of the enemy they have the prompt to oppote them, but now push to the battle; their courage is lost, the wrath of God upon them dispirits the branch, and they fall an only prey, v. 14. The sword confumes without, the famine and pestilence within, and neither the city nor country can afford the least protection from their desolating judgments, v. 15. and they who thought to strengthen themselves in their iniquity, and out-brave the threatened vengeance, now find themselves terribly disappointed, v. 15. Note, (1.) Multitudes are no protection from the wrath of God; sinners shall no more escape because they are many, than because they are mighty. (2.) They who strengthen themselves in wickedness, will find their rebel arm impotent and broken when God awakes to judgment.

5. God’s hand will be visible in their sufferings. And ye shall know that I am the Lord that immett. Though the Chaldean army be employed, they shall be convinced God’s arm is made bare against them, and in their sufferings read his fearful indignation.

6. ¶ But they that escape of them, shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them ‘mounting, every one for his iniquity. 17. ‘All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water. 18. They shall also ‘gold themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them, and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads. 19. They shall cast their sliver in the fessors, and their gold shall be ‘removed: their’ sliver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumbling-block of their iniquity. 20. ¶ As for ’the beauty of his ornament, he

3 D Prov. v. Before Christ 194. 1. Jer. 6: 30. 2. On made 3. from them 4. on whom 5. on long- 6. here.

set it in majesty: ‘but they made the images of their abominations, and of their detestable things therein: therefore have I § set it far from them. 21. And I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil, and they shall pollute it. 22. My face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute my Secret place: for the robbers shall enter into it and defile it.

Ezekiel 7:15-34

4. ¶ But thou didst truth in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and poured out thy fornications on every one that passed by: his it was. 16. And * of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so. 17. Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madeest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them. 18. And toukest thy broidered garments, and coveredest them: and thou hast let mine oil and mine incense before them. 19. My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even fit it before them for ye a sweet favour: and thou it was, saith the LORD God. 20. Moreover, thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast born unto me, and thiee thou hast sacrificed unto them, to be devoured: is thou of thy whoredoms a small matter, 21. That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them? 22. And in all thy abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, and * wast polluted in thy blood. 23. And it came to pass after all thy wickedness (wo, wo unto thee, saith the LORD God) 24. That * thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place, and * hast made thee an high place in every street. 25. Thou hast built thy high place at every head of the way, and hast made thy beauty to be abhorred, and hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredoms. 26. Thou hast also committed fornication * with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh, and * hast increased thy whoredoms, to provoke me to anger. 27. Behold therefore, I have stretched out my hand over thee, and have diminished thine ordinary food, and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the Philistines which are ashamed of thy lewd way. 28. Thou hast played the whore with the Affyrians, because thou wast unsttable: yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldst not be satisfied. 29. Thou hast moreover multiplied thy fornication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea, and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith. 30. How weak is thine heart, saith the LORD God, seeing thou dost all these things, the work of an imperious whorlth woman? 31. In that * thou buildest thine eminent place in the head of every way, and makest thine high place in every street, and hast not been as an harlot (in that thou scornest thee). 32. But as a wife that committed adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband. 33. They give gifts to all whores, but * thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and kures them that they may come unto thee on every side for thy whoredom. 34. And the contrary is in thee from other women in thy whoredoms, whereas none followeth thee to commit whoredoms: and in that thou givest a reward, and no reward is given unto thee; therefore thou art contrary.

The peculiar favours which the Jewish people had received, exceedingly aggravated the guilt of their spo-

1. They grew proud of their distinguished mercies, forgot their original meanness, v. 22. stuffed on their beauty, and forsook the rock of their salvation to play the harlot with dumb idols, v. 15. Note, (1.) The pride of beauty hath when proved the bane of its possessor. (2.) Forgetfulness of God and ourselves, is at the bottom of all our sinful departure from him.

2. They ran into the grossed idolatry. Thus poured out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was: as a common strumpet profitions herself to every passenger, so many were they to embrace every new deity that offered, multiplying their whereabouts, ver. 25, beyond all other nations. Luvish up these wretched paramours, their high places, like the harlot’s bed, were decked with showy colours, and the jewels God had given them employed to fashion and adorn their idols. The like things shall not come, neither shall it be so, no such scandalous idolatry ever was, or shall be practised again, v. 16, 17. Before the images, the work of their own hands, they lavished their incense and offerings, counting nothing too much to spend in the gratification of their hills, v. 18. That it was, from the Lord God, open, avowed, and notorious, v. 19. And as if all the rest had not been enough, their very children, there deserved gifts of God, shocking to relate, they had sacrificed to these hated deities: inhuman, barbarous, unnatural; and robbing God of the property he claimed in them. They are my children, saith he, v. 21. not only as he had given them life and being, but as having adopted them in a peculiar covenant to be his people. Is this of thy whereabouts a small matter? ver. 20. Some, perhaps, affected to treat them so forth, though so heinous and terrible; or the sense in their other wickedness was great; but this the summit of iniquity. With open effrontery, as a hardened whore, whose forehead is brash, and knows no shame, so had they built an eminent place, or a beaufel, had set up their idol temples and altars in every street, and in the highway, sitting there as the harlot exposed, v. 25. to inflame the public’s by, and draw them in to commit adultery and idolatry; making their beauty abhorred of God and all good men; yea, of the very heathen, as a strumpet despicable and hard by those to whom she hath profited hereth; And her weakness herein aggravated great as her wickedness, v. 30. therefore a fearful wo is denounced against her, v. 23. the dreadful effects of which will be seen in time and in eternity. Note, (1.) Our gold and silver are not our own, but God’s, and to him we are accountable for the use we make of them. (2.) The lavishness of idolaters should shame the niggardness of the worshippers of the true God. (3.) They who bring up their children in pride and vanity, and by their ill examples encourage them in sin, are more grievously guilty than even these idolaters: the one only murdered their bodies; the others also murder their souls, and sacrifice them to devils. (4.) Many make light of sin now as a small matter, but the punishment of it will be found insupportably heavy. (5.) Wickedness and weakness are inseparably connected. None but fools could barter the momentary pleasures of sin for the eternal moments of hell.

3. There were peculiar circumstances attending their sins, which rendered them exceedingly aggravated.

(1.) Their indoluble hell after new gods, v. 28. ever doting on the idols of those nations from whom they had suffered most grievously. They committed fornication with the Egyptians, Affyrians, and Canaanites; and nothing seemed too far fetched, or too clearly bought, so great was their rage for idolatry; and after all they could not be jamshed, but still craved for more. Note, (1.) Lawless lust is ever tormenting, craving, infatuate. (2.) They who forsake God can never find abiding satisfaction in any thing beside.

(2.) Their unscumbled obstinacy under the rebukes God had given them, v. 27. His heavy hand had been again and again laid on them: he would have brought them to repentance under his chastisements. The famine wafted them; the Philistines ravaged their country, a Chas. xxviii. 18, 19. and even these idolaters were ashamed of the inconstancy of the Jewish people in so often changing their gods: yet every correction lust thou still hardened, and they sinned yet more and more. Note, When neither mercies draw, nor corrections bend, the case seems utterly desperate.

(3.) Their diversity from all other people, v. 31—32. Other harlots profited themselves for hire, and gained something by their wickedness; but they, as a shameless adulteress, not for want, but merely for heaviest false, not only courted but hired their lovers at a vast expence, contracting alliances with the Affyrians and Egyptians, a King’s evil. I. No. xxx. 5, 7. soliciting their friendship, and hiring their gods for protection.

35. ¶ Wherefore, O’ harlot, hear the word of the LORD. 36. Thus saith the LORD God, Because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, and with all the idols of thy abominations, and by the blood

Ezekiel 7:16-22

We have here the miserable condition of the few who survive the ruin of their country.

1. They are men of forrows, and vagabonds in the earth. On the solitary mountains, whether they have fled for refuge, like doves of the valley, they mourn every one for his iniquity; either for the punishment of it only, or with deep anguish bewailing their fins, which were the cause of their sufferings, v. 16. weak as water to resist their enemies, v. 17. and abandoning themselves to despair, in horrors of conscience, or terrified with continual fear; covered with shame and confidence because of their transgressions, or of their present wretched flats; grit with backcloth, and business on their heads, the expedient signs of deep unutterable anguish. Note, (1.) Sin and sorrow are inseparable. (2.) Our afflictions are then gracious, when they lead us to mourn for our iniquity. (3.) The intent’s confidence will end in despair and fruitless everlasting wailings.

2. Their riches profit not in this day of wrath. They had idolized the shining mammon, and it had been the flambling-bled of their iniquity, which they placed that affection and dependence upon their gold which they withdrew from God; but now they are made to know their folly and their sin, compelled to call away their gold and silver as what would retard their flight, and unable with these to satisfy the cravings of hunger, or purchase a moment’s rest or eats to their souls. Some underhanded by the gold and silver their idols made of their precious metals, on which they trusted, but found their expectations from them terribly deceived. Note, (1.) Money is a dangerous future; the inordinate love of it hath been the ruin of thousands. (2.) The greatest wealth can profit as nothing in a day of wrath: it cannot flag the angels of death, or procure in hell a drop of water to cool a flaming tongue.

3. Their temple is destroyed, magnificent and adorned as it had been, not merely by the immense profusion of gold, silver, and precious stones, bestowed on it, but infinitely more by the residence of the king of glory. They had polluted it, and dared within their sacred walls to erect their detested idols; therefore have I set it far from them, removing them as captives into a distant land, and giving up the sanctuary to be trodden under foot by the heathen, to be polluted, profaned, plundered, and burnt, by the Chaldeans first, and afterwards by the Romans. My face also will I turn from them, deserting the Jews in their distress; or not displeased with the ravages of their wicked enemies, but suffering them uncontrolled to spread havoc and desolation on every side. Note, They who forsake God may expect that he will forsake them in the day of their calamity.

a Kings 12: 16. b Or they that fearfully them. 2. Heb. 1. sitting off. 4. Jer. 6: 30. 5. cf. 12: 30. 6. Sam. 6: 30. b. Met. 6: 30. 5. Heb. With their judgments.

23. ¶ Make a chain: for the land is full of * bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence. 24. Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease, and their holy places shall be desited. 25. Destruction cometh, and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none. 26. * Mitchief shall cause upon mischief, and rumour shall be upon rumour; then * shall they seek a vision of the prophet: but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients. 27. The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be cloathed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do unto them after their way, * and § according to their defects will I judge them, and they shall know that I am the LORD.

Ezekiel 7:23-27

We have here,

1. The charge laid against the Jewish people, for which they are brought to God’s bar. Make a chain to bind the prisoner, and bring him before the judge; or to lead them into an ignominious captivity; for their land is full of bloody crimes, or judgments of blood, such crimes as by the law were capital, and called for the blood of the criminal; the city is full of violence, a front of opposition, rapine, and injustice. And when sin is a nation is thus triumphant, her destruction cannot be far distant.

2. The instance pronounced. God threatens to bring upon them the worst of the heathen, the most savage and barbarous of the human species. The noble, the rich, the proud oppressors, with all their pomp, must bow before them, and the fruits of their injustice be for a prey; their holy places shall be desited, or they may testify them, their priests and Levites, Sain, and lying in their blood. Repeated rumours of the approaching money shall terrify them; mischief upon mischief shall overwhelm them, and destruction without remedy false them at last: no peace will

be granted them by their exasperated foes, v. 25. They shall, in their distress, seek a vision of the prophet, whom they before despised and rejected; but none shall be vouchsafed them; for the law shall perish from the priest, he shall neither be able to advise or comfort them; and counsel shall perish from the ancients, given up to infatuation, and become foolish in their imaginations: so that they would be without resource. Their king shall mourn a prisoner, chastened with desolation, blind and in chains; the hands of the people be troubled, weak and unable to resist; God visiting now upon them their iniquities, and making them know his almighty power: and vindictive wrath: for God will make himself known, either in mercy to his people, or in vengeance to his enemies.