Ezekiel 5:7

7 "Therefore here is what Adonai ELOHIM, says: 'Because you have outdone the nations around you by not living according to my laws or following my rulings or even following the rules of the nations around you,'

Ezekiel 5:7 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 5:7

Therefore thus saith the Lord God
Having observed their sins, and which are still enlarged upon, the Lord proceeds to denounce his judgments against them: because ye multiplied more than the nations that [are] round about you;
not in numbers, nor in wealth and riches, or in blessings and privileges, and therefore grew wanton and forgetful; though this was true: but in sins and wickedness, which abounded among them, and in which they exceeded the nations round about them; and so the Targum paraphrases it,

``because that ye have sinned more than the people that are round about you:''

[and] have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my judgments;
which as repeated to show the certainty of fact, and how much the Lord resented it: neither have done according to the judgments of the nations that [are]
round about you.
The Syriac version leaves out the negative particle and renders the words thus, "but ye have done the judgments of the nations which are round about you"; and it may be observed, that it is omitted in parallel text, ( Ezekiel 11:12 ) ; and this is what the Jews are often reproved for, that they followed the laws and customs of the Gentiles, and worshipped their gods; and the opposition to the preceding clause seems to require this sense; but the retaining the negative particle is confirmed by the Targum, Masora, and the Septuagint and Arabic versions; and also by the Talmud ^F20, which reconciles the passage with the parallel text before mentioned, thus,

``according to those things which are right among them (the Gentiles) ye have not done; [but] according to what are corrupt among them ye have done;''

and the meaning is, either that they did not walk according to the law and light of nature, which the Gentiles had, and attended to, ( Romans 2:14 Romans 2:15 ) ; or that they did not follow them in their conduct and behaviour; they were not so zealous for the true God as the Heathens were for their idols; they were not so tenacious of the laws and worship the true God of Israel as the Gentiles were of their superstitious rites and ceremonies; the Gentiles did not change their gods, and manner of worship, but retained what, they received from their ancestors time immemorial; but the Jews changed their glory for that which did not profit, ( Jeremiah 2:11 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F20 T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 39, 9.

Ezekiel 5:7 In-Context

5 "Here is what Adonai ELOHIM, says: 'This is Yerushalayim! I have placed her in the middle of the nations; countries can be found all around her.

6 But she has rebelled against my rulings and committed wickedness more than the nations, against my laws more than the countries around her; because they have rejected my rulings and not lived according to my laws.'

7 "Therefore here is what Adonai ELOHIM, says: 'Because you have outdone the nations around you by not living according to my laws or following my rulings or even following the rules of the nations around you,'

8 therefore here is what Adonai ELOHIM, says: 'I too am against you, yes, I; and I will execute judgments among you while all the nations look on.

9 Moreover, because of all your disgusting practices, I will do things to you that I have never done before; and I will never do such things again.