Ezekiel 7:5

Thus saith the Lord GOD; An evil, an only evil, behold, is come. AN EVIL, AN ONLY EVIL, BEHOLD, IS COME. A special calamity, such as was never before, unparalleled. The abruptness of the style, and the repetitions, express the agitation of the prophet's mind in foreseeing these calamities....

If we read אחת _, acheth, _or אחר, _acher, _the sense seems to me the same, _an evil, another evil is come: _that is, one evil is come from another, or one evil is come and an evil: that is, when one evil is come another will soon follow. Some explain it in way which seems to me harsh and unsatisfactory: one evil is come; this is so severe that at its first impulse it suffices for complete slaughter, so subtilely do they explain it. But it seems to me that the sense of the Prophet flows best thus, _one evil shall come upon another _— that is, there will be no cessation in God’s heaping evils upon evils until the very name of the whole people shall become extinct. And this appears to me to be said, that the Israelites should not after their manner suppose themselves safe, if God gives them a short respite. For when a slight intermission happens, the impious erect their crests, and keep up...

1-15 The abruptness of this prophecy, and the many repetitions, show that the prophet was deeply affected by the prospect of these calamities. Such will the destruction of sinners be; for none can avoid it. Oh that the wickedness of the wicked might end before it bring them to an end! Trouble is to the impenitent only an evil, it hardens their hearts, and stirs up their corruptions; but there are those to whom it is sanctified by the grace of God, and made a means of much good. The day of real trouble is near, not a mere echo or rumour of troubles. Whatever are the fruits of God's judgments, our sin is the root of them. These judgments shall be universal. And God will be glorified in all. Now is the day of the Lord's patience and mercy, but the time of the sinner's trouble is at hand....

Verse Ezekiel 7:5. _AN EVIL, AN ONLY EVIL_] The great, the sovereign, the last exterminating evil, is come: the sword, the pestilence, the famine, and the captivity. Many MSS. read אחר _achar, after_. So evil cometh after evil; one instantly succeeds another....

AN ONLY EVIL - An evil singular and remarkable above all others....

EXPOSITION EZEKIEL 7:1 The absence of any fresh date, and the fact that it is simply tacked on to the previous chapter by the copulative conjunction, shows that what follows belongs to the same group. The use of the phrase, THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME UNTO ME, shows, however, that there was an interval of silence, perhaps of meditation, followed by a fresh influx of inspiration; and, so far as we may judge from the more lyrical character of the chapter, a more intense emotion. EZEKIEL 7:2 AN END, etc. The iteration of the word once more gives emphasis. The words read like an echo of Amos 8:2. The FOUR CORNERS (Hebrew, "wings...

THUS SAITH THE LORD GOD,.... Here should be a stop, a colon, requiring attention to what follows, it being something awful and terrible: AN EVIL, AN ONLY EVIL, BEHOLD, IT COMETH; meaning the destruction of the city and temple; which, though but one, was such an one as was never known before nor was there any like it. The Targum is, "evil after evil, lo, it cometh;'' one evil after another; when one evil is gone, another comes, as in Ezekiel 7:26. The Syriac version is, "behold, evil for evil comes"; the evil of punishment for the evil of sin....

Ezekiel 7:1. This chapter closes the first great message of Ezekiel. This great judgment message is written in beautiful language, which, in the Authorized Version, is marred by numerous incorrect renderings. The reader will find a reliable metrical translation in our larger commentary on Ezekiel. First, the end is announced to come upon the entire land; it could no longer be averted. There is another day coming in which the Lord will deal in fearful judgments with this earth. Now is the day of salvation in which God speaks in love through His Son, When wickedness and apostasy has reached its climax, the day of salvation will end and “the day of vengeance of our God” will begin. Then He will speak in His wrath and vex them in His sore displeasure Psalms 2:5. Then will they say to the mountains and rocks, “Fal

EZEKIEL 7. THE END IS NIGH. Ezekiel 7:1. The visions of doom, so vividly described in the three preceding Chapter s, reach their climax in this chapter, charged with emotion and palpitating with the sense of the approaching end. That end was yet more than four years off, but already Ezekiel sees it in all its horror that day of the pitiless anger of Yahweh, who by His terrors would teach His wicked and idolatrous people who and what He was....

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