Ezekiel 5:11

11 Therefore {as surely as I live}, {declares} the Lord Yahweh, {Surely} because you have defiled my sanctuary with all of your vile idols and with all of your detestable things, {now indeed I} will reduce, and my eye will not take pity, and surely I will show no compassion.

Ezekiel 5:11 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 5:11

Wherefore, [as] I live, saith the Lord God
This is a form of an oath, and shows that what is after said should certainly be done; God would not repent of it, nor revoke it: surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary, with all thy detestable
things, and with all thine abominations:
that is, with their idols and idolatrous worship, which were detestable and abominable to the Lord; so Manasseh not only built altars for Baal in the house of the Lord, but set up in it a graven image of the grove, ( 2 Kings 21:3 2 Kings 21:4 2 Kings 21:7 ) ; therefore will I also diminish [thee];
as they lessened his glory by such abominable actions, so he threatens that he would lessen their privileges and blessings; as they took away from him the worship and honour that were due to him, so he would take away from them their civil and church state, his sanctuary, word, and ordinances, and deprive them of everything that was valuable and excellent. The Targum paraphrases it,

``I will cut off the strength of thine arm;''

weaken her power: neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity;
when in the greatest misery and distress. The Targum is,

``my Word shall not spare''

Ezekiel 5:11 In-Context

9 and I will do with you [that] which I have not done, and which I will not do again, because of all of your detestable things.

10 Therefore parents will eat children in the midst of you, and children will eat their parents, and I will execute judgment in you, and I will scatter your entire remnant to every wind.

11 Therefore {as surely as I live}, {declares} the Lord Yahweh, {Surely} because you have defiled my sanctuary with all of your vile idols and with all of your detestable things, {now indeed I} will reduce, and my eye will not take pity, and surely I will show no compassion.

12 A third of you will die because of the plague, and because of the famine they will perish in the midst of you, and a third will fall through the sword around you, and a third I will scatter to every direction of the wind, and I will draw [the] sword behind them.

13 And my anger will come to an end, and I will place my rage on them, and I will relent, and they will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in my passion {when I fully vent my rage against them}.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "alive I [am]"
• [b]. Literally "declaration of"
• [c]. Literally "If not"
• [d]. Literally "and also I"