Ezekiel 5:7

Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye multiplied more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my judgments, neither have done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you; BECAUSE YE MULTIPLIED MORE THAN THE NATIONS, [ hªmaanªkem (H1995)] - rather, 'have been more abundantly outrageous;' literally, to tumultuate [ haamah (H1993)], to have an extravagant rage for idols. NEITHER HAVE DONE ACCORDING TO THE JUDGMENTS OF THE NATIONS - have not been as tenacious of the true religion as the nations have been of the false. The pagan "changed" not their gods, but the Jews changed Yahweh for idols (see E...

This verse is variously expounded on account of the word המנכם _, hemenekem: _for some read it jointly in one context, as if through being multiplied they did not worship God; as if he meant that they were luxurious through their opulence, as horses are restive through too much food and fatness. That passage of Moses has been marked: Israel, when highly fed, kicked; therefore they think that this place is like it, and so they combine it together: because thou hast been multiplied beyond. all Gentiles which were around thee, thou hast despised my judgments, for thou hast become blind and drunken by prosperity. (Deuteronomy 32:15.) But I do not approve of this sense, for it is clearly too forced. Others derive it from המה, _hemeh, _which signifies to be agitated or disturbed, and elicit this sense, because _ye _are tumultuous beyond all nati

5-17 The sentence passed upon Jerusalem is very dreadful, the manner of expression makes it still more so. Who is able to stand in God's sight when he is angry? Those who live and die impenitent, will perish for ever unpitied; there is a day coming when the Lord will not spare. Let not persons or churches, who change the Lord's statutes, expect to escape the doom of Jerusalem. Let us endeavour to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. Sooner or later God's word will prove itself true....

BECAUSE YE MULTIPLIED - Some prefer: Because ye have raged tumultuously.” NEITHER HAVE DONE ACCORDING TO THE JUDGMENTS - (or, ordinances) of the nations The reproach is that the Israelites have not even been as faithful to their one true God as the nations have been to their false gods (compare 2 Kings 17:33)....

EXPOSITION EZEKIEL 5:1 TAKE THEE A BARBER'S RAZOR, etc. The series of symbolic acts is carried further. Recollections of Isaiah and Leviticus mingle strangely in the prophet's mind. The former had made the "razor" the symbol of the devastation wrought by an invading army (Isaiah 7:20). The latter had forbidden its use for the head and beard of the priests (Le Leviticus 19:27; Leviticus 21:5). Once again Ezekiel is commanded to do a forbidden thing as a symbolic act. He is, for the moment, the representative of the people of Jerusalem, and there is to be, as of old, a great destructio

THEREFORE THUS SAITH THE LORD GOD,.... Having observed their sins, and which are still enlarged upon, the Lord proceeds to denounce his judgments against them: BECAUSE YE MULTIPLIED MORE THAN THE NATIONS THAT [ARE] ROUND ABOUT YOU; not in numbers, nor in wealth and riches, or in blessings and privileges, and therefore grew wanton and forgetful; though this was true: but in sins and wickedness, which abounded among them, and in which they exceeded the nations round about them; and so the Targum paraphrases it, "because that ye have sinned more than the people that are round about you:'' [AND] HAVE NOT WALKED IN MY STATUTES, NEITHER HAVE KEPT MY JUDGMENTS; which as repeated to show the certainty of fact, and how much the Lord resented it: NEITHER HAVE DONE ACCORDING TO THE JUDGMENTS OF THE NATIONS THAT [ARE] ROUND ABOUT YOU. The Syriac version leaves out the negative particle and rende...

Ezekiel 5:1. The sharp knife is the symbol of the king of Babylon. (See Isaiah 7:20 .) He was God's instrument in the execution of His wrath; the people are represented by the hair. The third part of the hair burned with fire pictures the fate of a part of the people during the siege. The pestilence and the famine were also to consume them. Only a few in number, a small remnant, were to be preserved, as indicated when Ezekiel took a few hairs and bound them in his skirt. Ezekiel 5:5. These solemn words should be carefully read. In connection with them there ought to be read Jeremiah's lamentations, for Jeremiah's outburst of sorrow shows the literal fulfillment of this message. (See...

EXPLANATION OF THE SYMBOLS. By the four preceding symbolical actions the doom has been made too terribly clear: the reason for it is now given. Jerusalem is the centre of the world, conspicuous alike for her position and her privileges, especially for her possession of a unique religious law, the gift of her own unique God. But so far was she from gratefully conforming her life to it, that she fell disgracefully below even heathen standards (_cf._ Jeremiah 2:11); and so, conspicuous in her doom as in her privileges, she must be punished before all the world a fate from which Israel had always shrunk with special horror (Ezekiel 5:8). Her punishment was to be unparalleled (Ezekiel 5:9) parents would literally devour their own

MULTIPLIED. rebelled. STATUTES. See notes on Genesis 26:5.Deuteronomy 4:1. NEITHER HAVE KEPT. and have not kept. NEITHER HAVE DONE, &c.: or, "and according to the statutes of the nations which are round about you have not done". Some codices, with two early printed editions and Syriac, omit this "not". Compare Ezekiel 11:12....

Second Section. Ch. Ezekiel 3:22 to Ezekiel 7:27 The second section of the Book contains these parts: (1) Ch. Ezekiel 3:22-27. A preface in which the prophet is commanded to confine himself to his own house, and abandon for a time his public ministry. (2) Ch. Ezekiel 4:1-4. A series of symbols representing the siege of Jerusalem, the scarcity during it, the pollution of the people in exile among the nations, and the terrible fate of the inhabitants on the capture of the city. (3) Ch. Ezekiel 5:5-17. Exposition of these s