Ezechiele 5:7

7 Perciò, così ha detto il Signore Iddio: Perciocchè voi avete sopravanzate le genti ch’erano d’intorno a voi, e non siete camminati ne’ miei statuti, e non avete messe ad effetto le mie leggi; anzi non pure avete fatto secondo le usanze delle genti ch’erano d’intorno a voi;

Ezechiele 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.

Ezechiele 5:7 In-Context

5 Così ha detto il Signore Iddio: Questa è Gerusalemme; io l’avea posta in mezzo delle nazioni, e vi erano diversi paesi d’intorno a lei.

6 Ma ella ha trasgredite le mie leggi, per darsi all’empietà, più che le nazioni; ed ha trasgrediti i miei statuti, più che i paesi ch’erano d’intorno a lei; perciocchè han rigettate le mie leggi, e non son camminati ne’ miei statuti.

7 Perciò, così ha detto il Signore Iddio: Perciocchè voi avete sopravanzate le genti ch’erano d’intorno a voi, e non siete camminati ne’ miei statuti, e non avete messe ad effetto le mie leggi; anzi non pure avete fatto secondo le usanze delle genti ch’erano d’intorno a voi;

8 perciò, così ha detto il Signore Iddio: Eccomi altresì contro a te; ed io eseguirò i miei giudicii in mezzo di te, nel cospetto delle genti;

9 e farò in te ciò che mai non ho fatto, e non farò giammai più, per cagion di tutte le tue abbominazioni.