Ezekiel 24:23

23 And your turban [must be] on your heads, and your sandals [must be] on your feet. You shall not mourn, and you shall not weep, but you shall waste away because of your iniquities, and you shall groan {to one another}.

Ezekiel 24:23 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 24:23

And your tires shall be upon your heads, and your shoes upon
your feet.
&c.] As will be necessary while travelling, and when carrying captive to a foreign country, as now will be their case: ye shall not mourn nor weep;
shall not dare to do it, because of their enemies; and, moreover, so great should be their miseries and calamities, that they should be struck dumb, and quite astonished and stupefied with them; that they should not be able to vent their sorrow by an outward act of mourning: but ye shall pine away for your iniquities;
without any true sense of them, or godly sorrow for them, but in wretched hardness of heart, and black despair: and mourn one towards another;
not to God, confessing their sins, being contrite and penitent; but to one another, fretting, murmuring, and complaining at the hand of God upon them: this seems to denote the private way of mourning they should use for fear of the enemy, when they could get together by themselves, as well as their disregard to God, against whom they had sinned.

Ezekiel 24:23 In-Context

21 "Say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Look! I [will be] profaning my sanctuary, the pride of your strength [and] the delight of your eyes and the object of your own affection; and your sons and your daughters whom you left behind will fall by the sword,
22 and you shall do {just as} I did: You shall not cover your [upper] lip, and you shall not eat [the] bread of {mourners}.
23 And your turban [must be] on your heads, and your sandals [must be] on your feet. You shall not mourn, and you shall not weep, but you shall waste away because of your iniquities, and you shall groan {to one another}.
24 And Ezekiel will be to you as a sign; {everything that he did} you shall do; and when it comes you will know that I [am] the Lord Yahweh.
25 "And you, son of man, [will it] not [be that] on the day {when I take from them} their stronghold, the joy of their glory, the delight of their eyes, and the longing of their inner self, their sons and daughters--

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Literally "a man to his brother"
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.