Ezekiel 6:4

4 And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken; and I will cast down your slain men 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 thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them

3 and say: `Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD. Thus saith the Lord GOD to the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys: Behold I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.

4 And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken; and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.

5 And I will lay the dead carcasses of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars.

6 In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate, that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.