← Back to the beginning of Ezekiel 7
Ver. 12. The time is come, the day draweth near.] Advenit illud tempus, pertigit ilia dies. Let this voice ever sound in the ears of those negligent spirits who cry Cras Domine, tomorrow Lord, wiling away their time as she in Revelation 2:21, and so fooling away their own salvation, as those virgins. (Matthew 25:1-12) Let not the buyer rejoice.] He shall have no such great joy of his purchase, since the enemy shall shortly take all, et qui latifundia habuerunt, ne latum pedem retinebunt, and those who have large estates will not keep back enough for a foot, and no man shall be master of his own, nay, not of a molehill. For wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.] Or, Upon all the wealth thereof. To like purpose the apostle in 1 Corinthians 7:29; “This, then, I say, brethren, The time is short,” or trussed up, contracted. “Let them that have wives be as though they had none, they that weep as though they wept not, they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not, and they that buy as though they possessed not,” &c. Rebus non me trado sed commodo, said the wise heathen. Hang loose to all things here below, and labour after that undefiled and unfadable inheritance. (1 Peter 1:4-7) Sen.
Ver. 13. For the seller shall not return,] scil., At the year of jubilee, by reason of the land’s desolation. Which shall not return.] Or rather, It shall not return, scil., void and ineffectual, but shall be accomplished. Neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life.] That is but an ill defence. “The spirit of power and of a sound mind” are fitly set together. (2 Timothy 1:7) Men’s iniquity will be their ruin. Munster rendereth the text thus: For that whenas the vision was to the whole multitude thereof, no man returned, neque ullus propter iniquitatem suam pro anima sua se roberabat; neither did any one (by reason of his iniquity) strengthen himself for his own soul, i.e., use means to escape the just punishment of it.
Ver. 14. They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready.] But all to no purpose, since God hath dispirited them (as he did the old Canaanites, the Saxons and Piers in that Victoria Halleluiatica, the Germans against the Hussites in Bohemia, &c.), and struck them with a panic terror, with utter despondency, so that they were feeble and fainthearted, and the strong were become as tow. (Isaiah 1:31)
Ver. 15. The sword is without, and the pestilence, &c.] No safety can be to such as are pursued by the divine vengeance, called therefore by the Greeks Αδραστεια, because there is no outrunning of it. Of these three judgments (seldom separated) see Ezekiel 4 2,3,16,17 Ηξει Δωριακος πολεμος και λιμος επ αυτω. Αδραστεια, οτι ουκ αν τις αυτην αποδρασαιτο. or λοιμος
Ver. 16. But they that escaped of them.] Here we have the mournful repentance of them that escaped, Fere autem fit ut, malo demure accepto, oculos aperiamus, saith Lavater here. All of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.] Thus Hezekiah “mourned as a dove.” (Isaiah 38:14) And we mourn sore like doves, saith the Church; (Isaiah 59:11) happy if it be every man for his iniquity, and not for the punishment of it only or mainly. See that it be a “sorrow according to God,” a sorrow to a “transmentation.” (2 Corinthians 7:10,11) תמה eiulantes, ut pueri solent qui virgis coercentur.
Ver. 17. All hands shall be feeble.] As after some grievous disease, or as in extreme cold weather, ye shall not be able to handle your arms, wherein ye so trust. God strengtheneth or weakeneth the arms of either party. (Ezekiel 30:24) And all knees shall be weak as water.] Fluent aquis: puta sudore ex gravi angustia, vel potius urina, ex pavore. Not to those that wait upon God. (Isaiah 40:30,31) Let wicked Thrasos think on this. Vulg., Jerome, Septuag.
Ver. 18. They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth.] They shall be a miserable mourning people for a long while. Horror shall cover them.] Such heartquake as is in earthquakes— horripilatio. Shame shall be upon all faces.] Pudor a rebus putidis, -Ashamed they shall be of their doings, ashamed of their disappointments. And baldness upon all their heads.] A sign of sorrow among the Jews. The Romans (contrariwise), in times of sorrow, suffered their hair to grow, saith Plutarch; so did Mephibosheth in David’s days. Scal.
Ver. 19. They shall cast their silver in the streets.] As burdensome, and not beneficial to them Thus Judas threw away his wages of wickedness; and many, on their deathbeds, detest their cursed hoards of ill gotten goods, saying unto them, as once Charles V did, Abite hinc, abite longe, -Away from me, away, away. Their gold shall be removed.] Shall be for a dunghill, saith the Vulgate; it shall be esteemed, as it is, the guts and garbage of the earth. Their silver and their gold.] See Proverbs 11:4 Zep 1:18 Ec 5:8, [See Trapp on “Pr 11:4”] [See Trapp on “Zep 1:18”] [See Trapp on “Ec 5:8”] They shall not satisfy their souls.] Silver and gold are not eatable, as Midas found, and the great Caliph of Babylon, whom Haabon the great Khan of Tartary starved to death in the midst of his infinite treasures, which though they were in valour great, and with great care laid together, yet served they him not now to suffice nature best contented with a little. Because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.] Their wealth is the occasion of their wickedness, and they are much the worse men for their worldly substance. See Psalms 52:7, with the margin; Jeremiah 5:27,28 Lu 16:9,13. Ne sit ponderi quod prius fuit luxuriae. -Jerome. Plato in Cratylo scribit Tantalum dictum esse quas παλαντατον, i.e., infelicissimum Turkish History, 113.
Ver. 20. As for the beauty of his ornament.] That is mine ark, saith Junius; or my silver and gold, (Ezekiel 7:10) as others. He set it in majesty.] In superbiam posuit, placed it pride, so some render it; they were proud of their abundance—their good and their blood rose together, as the proverb is. Therefore have I set it far from them.] I will—for their ingratitude and abuse my good things—take away mine own and begone, as Hosea 2:8,9.
Ver. 21. And I will give it into the hands.] So he did the pleasant land to be plundered, the sanctuary also to be rifled and ransacked by the Babylonians, Syrians, Romans, &c. See Lamentations 1:10, [See Trapp on “La 1:10”] And to the wicked of the earth.] Sept., To the pests of the earth.
Ver. 22. My face will I turn also from them.] From the Chaldees, that they may spoil at pleasure; or from the Israelites, that they may perish without help. And they shall pollute my secret place.] Even the Holy of holies, whereinto none was to enter but the high priest once a year; yet, besides these Babylonian burglars, Heliodorus and Pompey did; but the one fell mad, and the other never prospered after it. For the robbers shall enter into it.] Effractores; by this name, breach makers, the Jews at this day term our nobles and grandees.
Ver. 23. Make a chain.] Which is an emblem of bondage. For the land is full of bloody crimes,] i.e., Capital crimes, unjust sentences, and other deadly evils.
Ver. 24. Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen.] Velut carnifices; who may plunder you to the life, and take away your lives. (Habakkuk 1:6,7,9) The Jews were bad enough, but the Chaldees were worse, if worse might be; malignants above measure, Poneropolitans, breathing devils. A hard knot must have a harder wedge, as the proverb is. I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease.] I will crush the crests of those potentates, and lay them low. See Isaiah 14:11,12. Their holy places shall be defiled.] Sacella et lararia eorum; their chapels or oratories made in or near unto their houses for divine worship.
Ver. 25. Destruction cometh.] Not εξιλασμος ηκει, Mercy shall come, as the Septuagint ill render it, but utter excision, as when a weaver cutteth the web he hath finished out of the loom. (Isaiah 38:12) They shall seek peace.] Of God, but all too late; of the Chaldees, but all in vain; for they were cockatrices, and would not be charmed. (Jeremiah 8:17,15 12:12 16:5) Note here how Jeremiah and Ezekiel say the same thing, as being acted by the same spirit.
Ver. 26. Mischief shall come upon mischief.] Aliud ex alio malum; I will heap mischiefs upon them. (Deuteronomy 32:23) War is called “evil” or “mischief” by a specialty. (Isaiah 45:7) And rumour shall be upon rumour,] sc., Of Nebuchadnezzar’s advance, acts, and achievements. Then shall they seek a vision of the prophet.] As a drowning man catcheth at the sprig of a tree, which before he slighted. But the law shall perish from the priest.] Not only prophecy, which is an extraordinary gift, shall fail them, but also the ordinary preaching of God’s Word, and all good advice and provision of human wisdom. And yet this foolish people were wont to soothe up themselves and say, The law shall not perish from the priest, nor wisdom from the ancient. (Jeremiah 18:18)
Ver. 27. The king shall mourn.] Πενθησει; with a funeral mourning, as the Septuagint express it; with a continued mourning, as the Hebrew importeth. The prince shall be clothed with desolation.] Opplebitur tristitia ad stuporem. And the hands.] Which they had so often lifted up to vanity. According to their deserts.] See Ezekiel 7:3,4,8,9.