The Lord commanded Ezekiel to announce prophetic messages to the Jews in captivity after his time of imposed silence ended (cf. 3:26-27). In these messages the prophet elaborated some of the symbols he introduced in chapter 5. The first message dealt with the causeof the judgment, namely, idolatry (ch. 6), and the second with the natureof the judgment (ch. 7).
". . . the focus of chap. 6 is on the individual responsibility of the people and prepares the way for the subsequent spoken messages."121
6:1-2 The Lord directed Ezekiel to pronounce an oracle of judgment against "the mountains of Israel."This phrase occurs 16 times in Ezekiel and nowhere else in the Old Testament.122The mountains of Israel on the one hand represent the whole land of Israel, especially Jerusalem. By contrast, Babylonia was very flat. On the other hand, the mountains of Israel also stand for the centers of pagan worship where the Israelites practiced idolatry. The expression "set your face toward"always means to turn toward something with hostile intentions in all 14 of its occurrences in Ezekiel.
"If the practice of turning to Jerusalem for prayer was already catching on among the exiles (cf. Dn. 6:10), there would be particular irony in his [Ezekiel's] doing this in an act of condemnation."123
6:3-7 Ezekiel was to announce to his audience of exiles that God would bring warriors against Israel's mountains, hills, ravines, and valleys, namely, the places where the people worshipped at pagan shrines (cf. 2 Kings 23:10). The object of His judgment would be the high places of worship that stood throughout the land.124God would destroy the altars, and the people who worshipped before them would fall slain around them. The idols would not be able to defend their worshippers. The Lord would defile these altars with the bones of the Israelites who died before them (cf. Lev. 26:30; 2 Kings 23:20; Ps. 53:5; 141:7; Jer. 8:1-2). Scattered animal bones often marked these places of sacrifice, but human bones would pollute them in the future. Pagan altars of all types that the people had built would be broken down throughout the country along with the cities. Many people would die, and God's people would know that He had judged them.
"Judgment is a pervasive theme of all the prophets of Israel, but none exceeds Ezekiel in the abundance and intensity of his messages of divine retribution. Moreover, none reiterates as much as Ezekiel the pedagogical purposes of the visitations of the Lord: that they [Israel and the nations] might know Yahweh.' Judgment, then, is not only retributive but redemptive. God's purpose in judgment is not to destroy the peoples He has created but to bring them back into harmony with His creation purposes for them."125
6:8-10 The Lord would leave a remnant alive, however, when He brought this judgment and scattered His people in captivity. They would despise themselves when they remembered how their adulterous hearts and lustful eyes had hurt their Lord. The Hebrew word gillulim, translated "idols,"literally means "dung-gods."126They would remember that the Lord's promised judgments for their sins were not vain (cf. v. 7).
"What idolatry most reveals about the people who practice it is not merely another faith, but also an actual lack of faith. Modern idolatry, like the ancient Israelite-Near Eastern kind, is essentially materialistic (1 John 2:15-17; 5:21). Instead of full reliance on God, while we may not deny His existence, we don't trust Him to take care of us materially. Thus we do everything we can to gain worldly possessions, to secure our future, to have a comfortable' retirement, to succeed in a competitive world. With this comes the danger of losing our own souls' because we cannot serve God and money (Matt. 6:24). When we fail to trust God for our needs, we go far beyond the bounds of providing for our basic requirements and can thus trap ourselves in modern idolatry, which is nothing other than materialism (1 Tim. 6:6-10)."127
6:11-14 The people and Ezekiel were to express derision that the sword, famine, and plague (cf. 5:1-3, 12; Rev. 6:4-8) would come and judge these evil abominations (cf. 21:14-17; 22:13; 25:6; Lam. 2:15; Nah. 3:19). These three instruments of judgment, summarizing the full range of divine punishment (cf. 2 Sam. 24:13; Jer. 27:13; 29:17), would affect various parts of the people and touch them all. The people would recognize Yahweh at work in judgment when they observed so many Judahites slain beside their pagan places of worship. He would make the land of Judah more desolate than the wilderness near Diblah.128The purpose of God's judgment was to restore the people to their proper relationship with Him (vv. 7, 10, 13, 14).129
"In every generation God's judgment and discipline is misunderstood by most people. God's chief desire is to bring people to himself--or back to himself. When mankind willfully refuses to turn to him, God mercifully uses discipline and judgment to cause the people to recognize that he is the only true God, always faithful to what he has said in his word!"130
This chapter, like the previous one, probably contains several separate oracles. Together they make up a lamentation. Here the nature of the coming judgment of Jerusalem and Judah receives primary emphasis.
"There are six parts to this summary message. First, God's determination to bring judgment is announced (7:1-4). Second is the repeated call for judgment to come (7:5-9). Third, the imminence and certainty of judgment is announced (7:10-13). Fourth, the total destruction of the nation is announced (7:14-18). Fifth, the uselessness of all physical resources is declared (7:19-22). Sixth, the fall of Jerusalem is announced (7:23-27)."131
7:1 The Lord's word came to Ezekiel again (cf. 6:1). This verse serves as a heading for the oracles that make up the rest of the chapter.
7:2-4 Yahweh announced that He was bringing an end on the whole land of Israel and that it was coming soon. This judgment would come because the Lord was angry with His people for their abominable sins. He would not restrain His punishment but would bring the consequences of their sins on them. They would go into a land where the abominations they had lusted after would make them sick. Then they would know that Yahweh was the true God (cf. vv. 9, 27; 6:7, 10, 13, 14). The recurrence of several identical words emphasizes the certainty of this coming judgment as well as its extent and basis.
"The fact that the message needed so much reiteration can only be understood against the background of popular belief in the inviolability of Jerusalem. Its destruction was inconceivable to the Israelite mind. As long as God was God, God's Temple and God's city would stand. This had been the message of Isaiah when kings of Judah had feared for the city's safety and were toying with the idea of turning to heathen armies for assistance. But now the situation was different. Isaiah's confidence could no longer be justified after 150 years of increasing apostasy. The people were living in the past, but God was judging the present. His verdict was that the end was imminent."132
7:5-9 The Lord again revealed that a unique disaster was coming. It would be an end for the Israelites, and it was near. Their doom would soon arrive as a tumult on the mountains, not as a joyful sound. The Lord was about to judge His people for all their abominations. He would show no pity. They would then know that He was the Lord. This oracle stresses the horror and surprise of the coming judgment as well as the person judging. The last phrase is a new name for God: Yahweh makkeh, "the Lord who strikes."
"To hearers and readers who were used to names of God like Jehovah-jireh' and Jehovah-nissi' (Gn. 22:14; Ex. 17:15), it must have come home with tremendous force to have Him described as Jehovah-makkeh'. The Lord who had provided and protected was about to strike."133
7:10-13 The Lord announced that the day of Israel's doom was coming. Judgment was about to break forth as buds on a branch (cf. Num. 17:8; Jer. 1:11-12). The people's violence had grown from a small shoot into a stout branch of wickedness. Nebuchadnezzar would prove to be the rod of God's judgment. No eminent individuals and nothing of much value would remain. The time of judgment was so near that both buyers and sellers should refrain from their usual pursuits.
"The buyer who normally rejoiced over a good business deal should not be happy because he would not be able to possess the land he had purchased. And one forced to sell his land should not grieve because he would have lost it anyway."134
It would be impossible for sellers to regain (by redemption or in a sabbatical or jubilee year) what they sold because everything would be swept away before a change could be made (cf. 1 Cor. 7:29-31). Even iniquity would not change the prospect of coming judgment.
"Hardening oneself in sin would not accomplish immunity from punishment."135
This pericope may be one or two oracles (vv. 10-11, 12-13). The first two verses stress the imminency, comprehensiveness, and readiness of the judgment, and the last two its permanence and suddenness.
"It is amazing how easily messages of judgment are forgotten. These messages constantly must be reinforced."136
The last half of this chapter emphasizes the Judeans' reactions to the coming judgment.
7:14-18 The Israelites had prepared to fight the Babylonians, but they would not be successful because the Lord Himself would fight against His people. The sword would devour those outside Jerusalem, and plague and famine would consume those within. Even the few survivors who escaped would mourn their desperate condition. Everyone would lose heart, and traditional signs of mourning would be everywhere. Ancient Near Easterners wore rough camel's hair clothing (sackcloth) to make themselves miserable and so keep thoughts of selfish enjoyment aside.
7:19-22 Valuables and food would mean very little then because all that would concern the people would be remaining alive. Money cannot buy food when food is not there. The people had become proud over the glorious splendor of Jerusalem and the temple and had used some of the temple treasures to make idols. Therefore the Lord would make the temple an abhorrent thing to them and would turn it over to their enemies who would profane it (cf. Dan. 5:3-4).
"Since Israel had already profaned the temple of God, He saw no further purpose in keeping it from the desecration of the enemy."137
The Lord would turn away from His people then.
7:23-27 It was time to make the chain that would bind the Israelites and carry them off to captivity because Judah and Jerusalem had become places of violent crime.138The Lord would bring the worst of nations against His people, and they would take over the Judahites' homes (cf. Lev. 26:31-32). The pride of the powerful Judahites would end, and their enemies would profane their holy places. They would not be able to escape anguish, and things would go from bad to worse for them. No one would be able to obtain guidance from the Lord--the prophets by receiving revelations, the priests by studying the law, or the elders by appealing to history. Everyone from king to common citizen would shake with terror. The Lord would punish His people in keeping with how they had sinned, and they would know that He was the Lord.
