Ezekiel 7

Ezekiel 7:7

The beginning of desolation is come upon you who remain in Judea; and ye shall quickly meet with real and terrible trouble, and not mere fears and ill-grounded fancies of it

Ezekiel 7:10-15

Since pride and violence have come to such intolerable heights among all ranks, the haughty and cruel Chaldeans are in readiness to punish you; and all orders shall be equally involved in your misery: such as sell fields shall not return to them in the year of jubilee, being captives in Babylon; Yea, after their seventy years’ captivity, it will be impossible for many to find their own inheritances. This prediction of the desolation of the country, and of its inhabitants, shall not fail of exact accomplishment: nor shall any be able to secure themselves from those judgments threatened, so long as they continue in their evil courses. They may blow the trumpets, to call them together for war, but, deprived of all courage and resolution, by my wrath upon them, none shall dare to assemble

Ezekiel 7:16-22

The few appointed for escape shall indeed be preserved, and scattered here and there for their safety; and they shall bitterly bewail their calamities and sins. All shall be quite dispirited, and incapable of helping themselves: and shall be quite overwhelmed with grief, terror, and shame. Their wealth shall be altogether unprofitable to them; nay, they shall be glad to be rid of it, or shall have it seized by the enemy; or, in the famine, it shall be unable to procure them sufficient food,—since they have made it the occasion of manifold wickedness, and have employed it in the service of idols. And as for my magnificent and beautiful temple, which has long been the glory of their nation, and which they have defiled with their idols and the service of them, I will quickly drive them far from it into Chaldea, and will give it into the hands of the most infamous heathens, to be defiled, plundered, and destroyed

Ezekiel 7:23-27

Prepare for imprisonment, captivity, and bondage, for your land is full of capital crimes, oppression, rapine, and injustice. Therefore shall the barbarous Chaldeans seize upon your whole property, of which ye so proudly boasted; nor shall your huim-96 blest entreaties be able to procure any respite, but one mischief shall follow another. Neither prophet nor priest shall be able, or allowed, to teach you: nor shall the most prudent and experienced know how to advise you. Both magistrates and people shall be utterly infatuated and dispirited

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. VII.—God gives to sinners fair warning of their approaching rum: and with composure and unblemished equity he destroys them. But fearful and various are the plagues which men’s diversified iniquities entail upon them. And nothing can avail for their defence when God rises up to judgment. Sins and sorrows are inseparable. But happy then are they who mourn after a godly sort! Blessed are they that weep now, for they shall be comforted! Money is a dangerous snare to such as inordinately love it, and altogether unprofitable in the day of God’s wrath, or in the eternal state. Justly are God’s ordinances taken from those who despised and profaned them. If men will not be governed by the laws, and experience the power, of godliness, it is not meet that they should long be honoured by the form of it. And, if all ranks will add sin to sin, it is but just that God should make all of them to share in miseries, one after another. 9 G II