Ezekiel 7

The message of the LORD came to me. He said:

1Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

NoteEzekiel was one of the Judeans deported to Babylon in 597 BC, and he speaks from there about events back home in Judah. "The LORD" in small capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew letters usually written YHWH, which Jewish readers did not pronounce aloud; English versions substitute "the LORD" in this special type to show the name is underneath.

2"Son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says to the land of Israel: An end! The end has come on the four corners of the land.

2Also, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD unto the land of Israel; An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land.

Note"Son of man" is Hebrew idiom for "human being, mortal" (it is simply how God addresses Ezekiel throughout the book, over ninety times, and carries no title or rank. "The four corners of the land" means the whole territory from edge to edge; the Hebrew literally says "the four wings." "Lord GOD" renders a double name, Adonai YHWH) "Master" plus the divine name.

3The end is now on you. I will let loose my anger against you. I will judge you for the way you have lived, and pay you back for all the disgusting things you have done.

3Now is the end come upon thee, and I will send mine anger upon thee, and will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense upon thee all thine abominations.

Note"Disgusting things" (KJV "abominations") translates a Hebrew word for what is repellent or taboo. In Ezekiel it usually points to idol worship and the rites that went with it, though it also covers social crimes.

4I will not look at you with pity, and I will not spare you. I will pay you back for your ways, and punish you for the disgusting things done right among you. Then you will know that I am the LORD."

4And mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity: but I will recompense thy ways upon thee, and thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

Note"Then you will know that I am the LORD" is a stock formula repeated about seventy times in Ezekiel. It marks the point of an event: what happens is meant to be recognized as coming from God and not from chance.

5This is what the Lord GOD says: "Disaster! A disaster like no other before it, look, it is coming.

5Thus saith the Lord GOD; An evil, an only evil, behold, is come.

NoteThe Hebrew here is compressed and unusual, literally something like "a disaster, a single disaster." Some ancient copies read it as "disaster after disaster," others as "a disaster unlike any other."

6An end has come. The end has come. It has woken up and is watching for you. Look, it is here.

6An end is come, the end is come: it watcheth for thee; behold, it is come.

7Doom has come to you, you who live in the land. The time has come. The day of trouble is near. On the mountains there is panic, not shouts of joy.

7The morning is come unto thee, O thou that dwellest in the land: the time is come, the day of trouble is near, and not the sounding again of the mountains.

NoteThe word rendered "doom" is rare and its meaning is uncertain; the King James translators guessed "morning," other readings are "crown," "turn of events," or "doom." The second half is also disputed: the mountains were where grape and grain harvests were celebrated with shouting, so the line contrasts joyful harvest cries with cries of panic, the King James "sounding again of the mountains" is an attempt at the same obscure phrase.

8Very soon now I will pour out my fury on you and spend my anger on you. I will judge you for the way you have lived, and pay you back for all the disgusting things you have done.

8Now will I shortly pour out my fury upon thee, and accomplish mine anger upon thee: and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense thee for all thine abominations.

9I will not look at you with pity, and I will not spare you. I will pay you back for your ways and for the disgusting things done among you. Then you will know that I am the LORD, the one who strikes the blow.

9And mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will recompense thee according to thy ways and thine abominations that are in the midst of thee; and ye shall know that I am the LORD that smiteth.

10Look at the day. Look, it has come. Doom has gone out. The rod has blossomed. Pride has put out buds.

10Behold the day, behold, it is come: the morning is gone forth; the rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded.

NoteA "rod" is a wooden staff, used both as a ruler's symbol of authority and as an instrument for beating. The image of a dead stick sprouting buds and flowers is being used ironically: what has grown ripe is arrogance, and the stick that has come to full strength is the one about to be used for the beating.

11Violence has grown into a rod that punishes wickedness. None of them will be left, not the crowd of people, not their wealth, nothing of theirs at all. No one will even mourn for them.

11Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness: none of them shall remain, nor of their multitude, nor of any of theirs: neither shall there be wailing for them.

NoteThe Hebrew of the last part of this verse is broken and hard to construe; translations differ over whether the vanished things are people, wealth, or noise, and whether the final word means "wailing," "eminence," or "rest." The word rendered "crowd" here and in verses 12–14 can mean a mass of people, an uproar, or a hoard of riches, and the prophet may be playing on more than one sense.

12The time has come; the day is near. The buyer should not be glad, and the seller should not be sad, because anger is coming on the whole crowd.

12The time is come, the day draweth near: let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn: for wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.

NoteUnder Israelite land law, land could not be sold permanently: a plot passed to a buyer was supposed to return to the seller's family in the fiftieth, or jubilee, year, and a relative could buy it back sooner. So a seller normally grieved only temporarily and a buyer's gain was only temporary. Verse 13 says that calculation no longer applies, the invasion will sweep away buyer and seller alike, so neither the bargain nor the future return of the land matters.

13The seller will not get back what he sold, even if both of them are still alive, because the vision about the whole crowd will not be taken back. Because of their sin, not one of them will hold on to his life.

13For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, although they were yet alive: for the vision is touching the whole multitude thereof, which shall not return; neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life.

14They have blown the trumpet and gotten everything ready, but no one goes out to the battle, because my anger is on the whole crowd.

14They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready; but none goeth to the battle: for my wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.

NoteThe trumpet is the shofar, a ram's horn blown to muster fighting men and to sound alarms. The point is that the summons goes out and nobody musters.

15The sword is outside; disease and hunger are inside. Whoever is out in the fields will die by the sword. Whoever is in the city will be eaten up by hunger and disease.

15The sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine within: he that is in the field shall die with the sword; and he that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.

NoteThis is the standard picture of a besieged country: an enemy army roams the open countryside, so anyone outside the walls is killed, while inside the walls a packed and cut-off population starves and sickens. "Sword, famine and plague" is a fixed trio in Ezekiel and Jeremiah for the whole disaster.

16But those who get away will escape to the mountains. They will be like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, each one over his own sin.

16But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.

NoteThe low cooing of doves was heard by ancient writers as a sound of grief, and the phrase is a set comparison for continuous low moaning.

17Every hand will hang limp, and every knee will be as weak as water.

17All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water.

18They will put on rough cloth to show their grief, and terror will cover them. Shame will be on every face, and every head will be shaved bald.

18They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads.

NoteSackcloth was a coarse dark cloth of goat hair worn next to the skin as a public sign of grief or dread. Shaving the head bald was another recognized mourning rite in the region, done at funerals and after catastrophes; Israelite law elsewhere restricts the practice, but the point here is simply that everyone is visibly in mourning.

19They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will be treated as filth. Their silver and their gold will not be able to save them on the day of the LORD's anger. It will not satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs, because it was the thing that tripped them into sin.

19They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

NoteThe Hebrew says their gold becomes an "unclean thing" (the word is the one used for the ritual impurity of menstruation, meaning something you must keep away from and cannot handle. Precious metal is worthless when there is no food to buy with it, and here it is worse than worthless: it is contaminated. "The thing that tripped them into sin" (KJV "stumblingblock") is a term Ezekiel uses for something that lures a person into wrongdoing) the silver and gold had been made into idols.

20As for their beautiful ornament, it was set up in splendor. But they used it to make their disgusting images and their hateful idols. So I have made it an unclean thing to them.

20As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty: but they made the images of their abominations and of their detestable things therein: therefore have I set it far from them.

NoteThis verse is ambiguous in Hebrew and has been read two ways: either the "beautiful ornament" is the Temple, magnificently built but then filled with idols, or it is jewelry and precious metalwork, worn with pride and then melted down to make images. The rendering keeps the ambiguity. "Hateful idols" translates a word Ezekiel uses repeatedly for idols, related to the word for dung.

21I will hand it over to foreigners as plunder, and to the wicked of the earth as loot, and they will make it unclean.

21And I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall pollute it.

22I will also turn my face away from them, and they will make my treasured place unclean. Robbers will break into it and defile it.

22My face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute my secret place: for the robbers shall enter into it, and defile it.

Note"My treasured place" (KJV "my secret place") is the Temple, and probably its innermost room, which only priests could enter. To "defile" it means to make it ritually unusable simply by intruding on it, the offense is entry and plunder by outsiders, not vandalism as such.

23Make a chain, because the land is full of murder and the city is full of violence.

23Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.

NoteThe chain is the shackle used to bind captives who were marched off into exile; conquering armies chained prisoners together for deportation. The word itself is uncertain, some read it as "forge the chain," others as a chain-like tangle of crime.

24So I will bring the worst of the nations, and they will take over their houses. I will put an end to the pride of the strong, and their holy places will be defiled.

24Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be defiled.

Note"The nations" (KJV "the heathen") simply means the foreign peoples, everyone who is not Israel. "Their holy places" are the sanctuaries and shrines; to defile them is to render them unfit for use.

25Anguish is coming. They will look for peace, but there will be none.

25Destruction cometh; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none.

26Disaster will pile on disaster, and one bad report will follow another. Then they will beg a prophet for a vision, but teaching will be gone from the priest, and advice from the elders.

26Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumour shall be upon rumour; then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients.

NoteIsrael had three recognized channels of guidance, and the verse names all three failing at once: the prophet gave visions, the priest gave torah (authoritative rulings on what was permitted, clean, or owed) and the elders, the senior heads of families who settled disputes at the town gate, gave practical counsel.

27The king will mourn, the prince will be dressed in despair, and the hands of the people of the land will shake with fear. I will deal with them according to how they have lived, and judge them by their own standards. Then they will know that I am the LORD."

27The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do unto them after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

Note"King" and "prince" are different words: the second is Ezekiel's usual term for a ruler of Judah, literally "the one lifted up," and he generally avoids calling the current ruler king. "The people of the land" was a standing term for the landholding citizenry of Judah. "Judge them by their own standards" is ambiguous in Hebrew: it can mean by the legal verdicts they themselves handed down to others, or simply by what they have earned.