Ezekiel 6:14

So will I stretch out my hand upon them, and make the land desolate, yea, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblath, in all their habitations: and they shall know that I am the LORD. DIBLATH - another form of Diblathaim, a city in Moab (, "Almon-diblathaim;" , "Beth-diblathaim"), near which, at the east and south of the Dead sea, was the wilderness of Arabia Deserta. Remarks: (1) God marks the retributive justice of His judgments by making the mountains and "the high places," which had been the scene of Israel's sin, to become the scene of her punishment (Ezekiel 6:2). God justly makes that a desolation ()...

Ezekiel pursues the same sentiment, but it is necessary to persist with more words in confirmation of his prophecy, because it was somewhat difficult of belief, especially among men so secure, and who had been hardened against God by long habit. This is the reason, then, why he uses so many words about a thing in itself by no means obscure. Now he speaks concerning _the extension of God’s hand, _which is a Scriptural form of speech sufficiently familiar; for it is said that God extends his hand when he puts forth manifest examples of his wrath. But the phrase is taken from men, who, if they wish to accomplish anything great extend their arm. We know that God accomplishes all things by his nod alone, but because through our sluggishness we do not comprehend his judgment, the Scripture, in compassion to our rudeness represents his hand as extended. But he says, _that he will place the land...

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....

Verse Ezekiel 6:14. _AND MAKE THE LAND-MORE DESOLATE THAN THE WILDERNESS_ _TOWARD DIBLATH_] _Diblath_ or _Diblathayim_ is situated in the land of Moab. It is mentioned Numbers 33:46, _Almon-Diblathaim_; and in Jeremiah 48:22, _Beth-Diblathaim_. It was a part of that horrible wilderness mentioned by Moses, Deuteronomy 8:15, "wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought." The precise reason why it is mentioned here is not very evident. Some think it is the same as _Riblah_, where Nebuchadnezzar slew the princes of Israel, and put out Zedekiah's eyes; the principal differ...

The gleam of hope is but transitory. Darkness again gathers round, for as yet the prophet is predicting judgment. Ezekiel 6:11 SMITE ... STAMP - Well-known modes of expressing grief. Ezekiel 6:13 SWEET SAVOR - Compare Genesis 8:21. Words, applied to the smell of sacrifices accepted by God, applied here to idol-sacrifices in irony. Ezekiel 6:14 TOWARD DIBLATH - Or, “Diblathaim,” the “Diblathan” of the Moabite stone, one of the double cities of Moab (see...

EXPOSITION EZEKIEL 6:2, EZEKIEL 6:3 SET THY FACE TOWARD THE MOUNTAINS, etc. The formula is eminently characteristic of Ezekiel. We have had it with a different verb in the Hebrew, in Ezekiel 4:3. It will meet us again in Ezekiel 20:46; Ezekiel 21:2; Ezekiel 25:2; Ezekiel 28:21;...

SO WILL I STRETCH OUT MINE HAND UPON THEM,.... Not unto them, in a way of mercy; but upon, or against them, in a way of judgment. The Targum paraphrases it, "and I will lift up the stroke of my power upon them;'' his mighty hand of vengeance: AND MAKE THE LAND DESOLATE; by destroying the inhabitants of it: YEA, MORE DESOLATE THAN THE WILDERNESS TOWARDS DIBLATH, IN ALL THEIR HABITATIONS; so the Syriac version renders it, "and I will make this land more desolate than the land of Diblath"; but other versions, "I will make the land desolate from the wilderness of Diblath"; to which the Targum agrees; or, "from the wilderness to Diblath": Kimchi and Ben Melech think this is the same with Riblath; as Deuel is put for Reuel in Numbers 1:14; which was in the land of Hamath, and which, Jerom says, was in his times called Epiphania in Syr

Ezekiel 6:1. The mountains of Israel are mentioned first, because they were the places where the people practiced idolatry; they were the high places so often mentioned in the historical books. (Read Leviticus 26:30 .) Hundreds of years before, Moses wrote these words; and now they were all to be fulfilled. But the Lord also promised that a remnant should be left. That remnant would acknowledge the evil they had done. “They shall loathe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.” The words “because I am broken with their whorish heart” means literally translated, “When I shall have broken their whorish heart which has departed from Me.” No judgment which has ever come upon Israel made a complete end of the nation. A remnant always remained and returned to the Lord. (See...

The prospect of the awful destruction of the idolaters by sword, famine, and pestilence, moves Ezekiel to give vent to his feelings in gestures of triumphant scorn; far from pitying his sinful fellow-countrymen in the hour of their sore distress, rather does he rejoice in Yahweh's victory over them. (For _alas,_ Ezekiel 6:11, read _ha!_) And again comes the scornful reference to the impotent idols who could save neither the worshippers nor the sanctuaries nor the land from destruction, but desolation would reign across it all from the wilderness in the south to Riblah (as we should read for Diblah) on the Orontes in the far north, where, after the sack of Jerusalem, king Zedekiah was taken and blinded (2 Kings 25:7)....

SO WILL I: or, And. will. STRETCH OUT MY HAND. Reference to Pentateuch (Exodus 7:6, &c.) DIBLATH. Diblathaim (Numbers 33:46; Jeremiah 48:22).. Massoretic note records the fact that some MSS, read Riblah"; but many codices, with ten early printed editions, Aramaean, Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, read "Diblah"....