Ezekiel 5:7

7 Therefore the Lord God saith these things, For ye have passed heathen men that be in your compass, and ye went not in my commandments, and ye did not my dooms, and ye wrought not by the dooms of heathen men that be in your compass; (And so the Lord God saith these things, For ye have surpassed the heathen who be all around you, and ye did not obey my commandments, and ye did not follow my laws, and ye did not even follow the laws of the heathen who be all 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 The Lord God saith these things, This is Jerusalem; I have set it in the midst of heathen men, and lands in the compass thereof. (The Lord God saith these things, This is Jerusalem; I have set it in the midst of the heathen, and the other lands all around it.)

6 And it despised my dooms, that it was more wicked than heathen men; and it despised my commandments more than lands that be in the compass thereof. For they have cast away my dooms, and they went not in my commandments. (And it despised my laws, or my judgements, so that it was more wicked than the heathen; and it despised my commandments more than the lands that be all around it. For they have throw away my laws, or my judgements, and they did not obey my commandments.)

7 Therefore the Lord God saith these things, For ye have passed heathen men that be in your compass, and ye went not in my commandments, and ye did not my dooms, and ye wrought not by the dooms of heathen men that be in your compass; (And so the Lord God saith these things, For ye have surpassed the heathen who be all around you, and ye did not obey my commandments, and ye did not follow my laws, and ye did not even follow the laws of the heathen who be all around you;)

8 therefore the Lord God saith these things, Lo! I to thee, and I myself shall make dooms in the midst of thee, before the eyes of heathen men; (and so the Lord God saith these things, Lo! I am against thee, and I myself shall bring in judgements in the midst of thee, before the eyes of the heathen;)

9 and I shall do things in thee which I did not, and to which I shall no more make like things, for all thine abominations. (and I shall do things in thee which I have not done before, and which I shall never do again, for all thy abominations.)