Ezekiel 22:14

14 Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong at the days [in] which I [am] dealing with you? I, Yahweh, I have spoken, and I will act!

Ezekiel 22:14 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 22:14

Can thine heart endure
Or "stand" ^F4: surely it must fall within thee; become like water, and melt as wax, be it ever so hard and adamantine: or can thine hands be strong in the days that I shall deal with thee?
surely they must become weak, and drop, and not be able to hold a weapon for defence: and, if this would be the case, when God should deal with the Jews for their sins, by sending the Chaldean army to besiege their city, and take it; how will it be with sinners at the day of judgment, and to all eternity, when the awful sentence shall be pronounced, "go ye cursed"; when the wrath of God shall be poured out upon them; when they shall be cast into hell, where the worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched? this will be intolerable by the most stout hearted sinner; no heart will be strong enough to stand up under it, or hands to keep it off: I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it;
he who is the mighty God, the eternal and unchangeable Jehovah; he has said it, that he will deal with impenitent sinners in a way of wrath, and he will be as good as his word; he will certainly accomplish it; it is in vain for men to flatter themselves to the contrary; or to put away the evil day far from them; it shall surely be. The Targum is,

``I have decreed by my word, and I will establish it.''

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FOOTNOTES:

F4 (dmeyh) "num quid stabit cor tuum?" Paginus, Montanus; "consistet" Munster, Vatablus, Piscator; "perstabit", Junius and Tremellius, Polanus; "constabit", Coeccius, Starckius.

Ezekiel 22:14 In-Context

12 They take a bribe among you in order to shed blood; and you take usury, and you make gain [from] your neighbors by extortion, and [so] you have forgotten me, {declares} the Lord Yahweh.

13 And look! I strike my hand for your ill-gotten gain that you [have] made and at your blood that was in the midst of you.

14 Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong at the days [in] which I [am] dealing with you? I, Yahweh, I have spoken, and I will act!

15 I will scatter you among the nations, and I will disperse you through the countries, and I will purge your uncleanness from you.

16 And I will be profaned by you before [the] eyes of [the] nations, and you will know that I [am] Yahweh." '"

Footnotes

• [a] Or "hold up"