Ezekiel 6

Doom for the Mountains of Israel

1 The word of the LORD came to me:
2 “Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel; prophesy against them
3 and say: ‘You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Sovereign LORD. This is what the Sovereign LORD says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys: I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.
4 Your altars will be demolished and your incense altars will be smashed; and I will slay your people in front of your idols.
5 I will lay the dead bodies of the Israelites in front of their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars.
6 Wherever you live, the towns will be laid waste and the high places demolished, so that your altars will be laid waste and devastated, your idols smashed and ruined, your incense altars broken down, and what you have made wiped out.
7 Your people will fall slain among you, and you will know that I am the LORD.
8 “ ‘But I will spare some, for some of you will escape the sword when you are scattered among the lands and nations.
9 Then in the nations where they have been carried captive, those who escape will remember me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts, which have turned away from me, and by their eyes, which have lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their detestable practices.
10 And they will know that I am the LORD; I did not threaten in vain to bring this calamity on them.
11 “ ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Strike your hands together and stamp your feet and cry out “Alas!” because of all the wicked and detestable practices of the people of Israel, for they will fall by the sword, famine and plague.
12 One who is far away will die of the plague, and one who is near will fall by the sword, and anyone who survives and is spared will die of famine. So will I pour out my wrath on them.
13 And they will know that I am the LORD, when their people lie slain among their idols around their altars, on every high hill and on all the mountaintops, under every spreading tree and every leafy oak—places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols.
14 And I will stretch out my hand against them and make the land a desolate waste from the desert to Diblah[a] —wherever they live. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’ ”

Ezekiel 6 Commentary

Chapter 6

The Divine judgments for idolatry. (1-7) A remnant shall be saved. (8-10) The calamities are to be lamented. (11-14)

1-7. War desolates persons, places, and things esteemed most sacred. God ruins idolatries even by the hands of idolaters. It is just with God to make that a desolation, which we make an idol. The superstitions to which many trust for safety, often cause their ruin. And the day is at hand, when idols and idolatry will be as thoroughly destroyed from the professedly Christian church as they were from among the Jews.

Verses 8-10 A remnant of Israel should be left; at length they should remember the Lord, their obligations to him, and rebellion against him. True penitents see sin to be that abominable thing which the Lord hates. Those who truly loathe sin, loathe themselves because of sin. They give glory to God by their repentance. Whatever brings men to remember Him, and their sins against him, should be regarded as a blessing.

Verses 11-14 It is our duty to be affected, not only with our own sins and sufferings, but to look with compassion upon the miseries wicked people bring upon themselves. Sin is a desolating thing; therefore, stand in awe, and sin not. If we know the worth of souls, and the danger to which unbelievers are exposed, we shall deem every sinner who takes refuge in Jesus from the wrath to come, an abundant recompence for all contempt or opposition we may meet with.

Cross References 33

  • 1. S Ezekiel 4:7
  • 2. Ezekiel 18:6; Micah 6:1; Ezekiel 36:1
  • 3. ver 13
  • 4. Ezekiel 36:4
  • 5. S Leviticus 26:30
  • 6. S 2 Chronicles 14:5
  • 7. Ezekiel 9:6; Ezekiel 14:3; Ezekiel 20:16
  • 8. S Numbers 19:16; S Psalms 53:5; Jeremiah 8:1-2
  • 9. ver 13; S Leviticus 26:30
  • 10. S Exodus 12:20
  • 11. Hosea 10:8
  • 12. Ezekiel 30:13; Micah 1:7; Zechariah 13:2
  • 13. S Leviticus 26:30
  • 14. S 1 Samuel 5:4; Isaiah 6:11; S Ezekiel 5:14
  • 15. Ezekiel 9:7
  • 16. ver 10,13,14; Ezekiel 11:10-12
  • 17. S Psalms 68:20; S Jeremiah 44:28
  • 18. S Genesis 11:4; S Psalms 44:11; Isaiah 6:13; S Jeremiah 44:14; Ezekiel 7:16; Ezekiel 12:16; Ezekiel 14:22
  • 19. S Psalms 137:6; Zechariah 10:9
  • 20. Psalms 78:40; S Isaiah 7:13; S Jeremiah 8:21
  • 21. S Exodus 22:20; Ezekiel 20:7,24; Micah 5:13
  • 22. S Exodus 32:22
  • 23. S Job 42:6; Ezekiel 20:43; Ezekiel 23:14-16; Ezekiel 36:31
  • 24. S ver 7
  • 25. S Deuteronomy 28:52; Jeremiah 40:2
  • 26. S Jeremiah 42:22; Ezekiel 5:12; Ezekiel 21:14,17; Ezekiel 22:13; Ezekiel 25:6
  • 27. S Job 20:23
  • 28. S Ezekiel 5:12; Ezekiel 7:15
  • 29. S Leviticus 26:30
  • 30. S Isaiah 1:29; Isaiah 57:5
  • 31. S 1 Kings 14:23; S Jeremiah 2:20; Ezekiel 18:6; Ezekiel 20:28; Hosea 4:13
  • 32. S Exodus 7:5; S Job 30:21; S Jeremiah 6:12; Jeremiah 51:25; Ezekiel 20:34; Isaiah 5:25
  • 33. Ezekiel 12:19; Ezekiel 14:13

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Most Hebrew manuscripts; a few Hebrew manuscripts "Riblah"

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 6

This chapter contains a prophecy of the desolation of the whole land of Israel, and a promise that a remnant should escape, with a lamentation for the sad destruction, signified by some gestures of the prophet. The order to the prophet to deliver out the prophecy is in Eze 6:1,2; the several parts of the land of Israel or Judea, to which the prophecy is directed, are signified by mountains, hills, rivers, and valleys, on which the sword should be brought, Eze 6:3; the desolation is described, and the cause of it suggested, the idolatry of the people, Eze 6:4-7; the promise of a remnant that should escape, who should remember the Lord, loath themselves for their sins, acknowledge him, and that his word was not in vain, is in Eze 6:8-10; the lamentation, signified by the prophet's smiting with his hand, and stamping with his foot, for the sins of the people, and the judgments that should come upon them, is in Eze 6:11; a particular enumeration of these judgments follows, and of the places where they should be executed, Eze 6:12; the end of them was to bring them to the knowledge and acknowledgment of the Lord, against whom they had sinned and offended by their idolatry, as the places where their slain fell would show, Eze 6:13; and the chapter is concluded with a resolution to bring this desolation on them, Eze 6:14.

Ezekiel 6 Commentaries

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