Ezekiel 6:14

14 I will stretch out My hand against them, and wherever they live I will make the land a desolate waste, from the wilderness to Diblah.^[a] Then they will know that I am Yahweh."

Ezekiel 6:14 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 6:14

So will I stretch out mine hand upon them
Not unto them, in a way of mercy; but upon, or against them, in a way of judgment. The Targum paraphrases it,

``and I will lift up the stroke of my power upon them;''

his mighty hand of vengeance: and make the land desolate;
by destroying the inhabitants of it: yea, more desolate than the wilderness towards Diblath, in all their
habitations;
so the Syriac version renders it, "and I will make this land more desolate than the land of Diblath"; but other versions, "I will make the land desolate from the wilderness of Diblath"; to which the Targum agrees; or, "from the wilderness to Diblath": Kimchi and Ben Melech think this is the same with Riblath; as Deuel is put for Reuel in ( Numbers 1:14 ) ( 2:14 ) ; which was in the land of Hamath, and which, Jerom says, was in his times called Epiphania in Syria; here it was that Nebuchadnezzar brought Zedekiah, and slew his sons before him, ( Jeremiah 39:5 Jeremiah 39:6 ) ; this, though in Hamath in Syria, was on the borders of the land of Israel, ( Numbers 34:8 Numbers 34:11 ) ; so that "hence from the desert of Diblath", as the Arabic version renders it, "even to Jerusalem", as may be supplied, takes in the whole land, and shows that it should be utterly desolate. There is a Bethdiblathaim mentioned in ( Jeremiah 48:22 ) ; as in Moab; and there is also Almondiblathaim, which was one of the stations of the Israelites; and seems to be in Moab, or on its borders, ( Numbers 33:46 Numbers 33:47 ) ; and appears, by the places named with it, to be the same as that in Jeremiah; and so was part of that terrible wilderness through which the Israelites passed; and to which the desolation of the land of Israel by the Chaldeans is compared; and which serves to confirm our version, which makes the desolation to be greater than that: and they shall know that I [am] the Lord;
the true God; the one and only Lord God; who never changes his purposes; fulfils his promises and threatenings; and there is no escaping his mighty hand.

Ezekiel 6:14 In-Context

12 The one who is far off will die by plague; the one who is near will fall by the sword; and the one who remains and is spared will die of famine. In this way I will exhaust My wrath on them.

13 You will [all] know that I am the Lord when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, and under every green tree and every leafy oak-the places where they offered pleasing aromas to all their idols.

14 I will stretch out My hand against them, and wherever they live I will make the land a desolate waste, from the wilderness to Diblah. Then they will know that I am Yahweh."

Footnotes

• [a] Some Hb mss, some LXX mss read Riblah; 2 Kg 23:33; Jr 39:5