Ezekiel 6:4

4 and your altars will be desolate, and your incense altars will be broken, and I will throw down your slain ones {before} your idols,

Ezekiel 6:4 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 6:4

And your altars shall be desolate
Being pulled down; or because the priests and worshippers would now be slain, and there would be none to attend them: and your images shall be broken;
the "images of the sun" ^F2. The word for images has its derivation from heat; and were so called, either from the heat of the sun, to whose worship they were devoted, or from the heat of the love and affections of their worshippers: and I will cast down your slain [men] before your idols;
before your dung, or your "dunghill gods" ^F3; for the word used has the signification of dung, ( Ezekiel 4:12 ) . The Targum renders it,

``before the carcass of your idols;''

where they committed idolatry, there they should be slain; which points at the cause of their punishment.

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 (Mkynmx) "simulacra vestra solis", Pagninus; "solaria vestra", Vatablus; "subdiales statuae vestrae", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Polanus.
F3 (Mkylwlg ynpl) "coram stercoreis diis vestris", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Polanus; "coram stercoribus vestris", Cocceius.

Ezekiel 6:4 In-Context

2 "Son of man, set your face to the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them,

3 and you must say, 'Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh, thus says the Lord Yahweh to the mountains and to the hills, to the ravines and to the valleys: "Look, I [am] bringing upon you [the] sword, and I will destroy your high places,

4 and your altars will be desolate, and your incense altars will be broken, and I will throw down your slain ones {before} your idols,

5 and I will place the corpses of the children of Israel {before} their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars.

6 In all of your dwellings, the cities will be desolate and the high places will be ruined, so that your altars will be desolate and will suffer punishment. Your idols will be broken and will come to an end, and your incense altars will be cut down, and your works will be destroyed,

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "to the face of"