Ezekiel 6:7

6:1-7. War desolates persons, places, and things esteemed most sacred. God ruins idolatries even by the hands of idolaters. It is just with God to make that a desolation, which we make an idol. The superstitions to which many trust for safety, often cause their ruin. And the day is at hand, when idols and idolatry will be as thoroughly destroyed from the professedly Christian church as they were from among the Jews.

And the slain shall fall in the midst of you,.... The word for slain is in the singular number, which perhaps is put for the plural; and so the Septuagint renders it; unless it should design some principal person that should be slain; but, as King Zedekiah was not slain when the city was taken, only his sons and his princes, it seems best to understand it of the multitude that were slain in the midst of the land, not only in Jerusalem, but in all the cities of Judea; and denotes how general and public the destruction would be: and ye shall know that I am the Lord; the only true God, and Governor of the world; who only is to be worshipped, feared, and served, and not idols.

(7) And ye shall know. —As this prophecy began in Ezekiel 6:2 with an address to the mountains, many consider that, by a strong poetic figure, they are still referred to by the pronoun ye. It is better, however, to consider that as the discourse has gone on, the figure has gradually been dropped, and the people are spoken to directly. In the same way, the change of the pronoun from the third to the second person, as in Ezekiel 6:5 , is very frequent in Ezekiel.

7 . I am the Lord ] The term Jehovah is used in the later prophets to mean the true and only God. In this prophet the purpose and the effect of all the judgments on Israel is that they may know that he who inflicts them is Jehovah—God alone. The same is the purpose and effect of his judgments on the heathen— these learn also the same truth. But further, the redemption of Israel reveals this truth to the heathen fully. When the idols were cut down to the ground and the bones of their worshippers lay scattered around them, the futility of serving them could not but be perceived; Jeremiah 2:28 , “where are thy gods that thou hast made? let them arise if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble.” Cf. Hosea 2:7 ; Isaiah 57:12-13 . Ezekiel 6:7

When the slain shall fall thus in your sight, you shall know two things you would not regard before. 1. That idols are vanity and snares. 2. That I am the Lord, who do avenge the quarrel of my covenant. Or, may it not be turned, And the profane shall fall, i.e. the idols, and altars; and other implements of idol-worship, made holy by unholy men, shall be profaned and east down, defiled and trod under foot in the sight of the Jews, as God threatens; then they shall know God is the only Lord and God. I conjecture at this by Ezekiel’s being among the Chaldeans some years, who had gotten somewhat of their tongue; and the word here used, which is rendered slain, and I render profane, doth in the Chaldee signify profane, and is so rendered, Ezekiel 21:25 . If so rendered here, it will better suit with the foregoing verse, and more fitly sum up that discourse and close it. See Ezekiel 6:10,12 .

The Desolation of the Land, and Destruction of the Idolaters Ezekiel 6:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Ezekiel 6:2. Son of man, turn thy face towards the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them. Ezekiel 6:3. And say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Jehovah: Thus saith the Lord Jehovah to the mountains, and to the hills, to the valleys, and to the low grounds, Behold, I bring the sword upon you, and destroy your high places. Ezekiel 6:4. Your altars shall be made desolate, and your sun-pillars shall be broken; and I shall make your slain fall in the presence of your idols. Ezekiel 6:5. And I will lay the corpses of the children of Israel before their idols, and will scatter your bones round about your altars. Ezekiel 6:6. In all your dwellings shall the cities be made desolate, and the high places waste; that your altars may be desolate and waste, and your idols broken and destroyed, and your sun-pillars hewn down, and the works of your hands exterminated. Ezekiel 6:7. And the slain will fall in your midst; that you may know that I am Jehovah. - With Ezekiel 6:1 cf. Ezekiel 3:16. The prophet is to prophesy against the mountains of Israel. That the mountains are mentioned (Ezekiel 6:2) as pars pro toto, is seen from Ezekiel 6:3, when to the mountains and hills are added also the valleys and low grounds, as the places where idolatry was specially practised; cf.

Hosea 4:13; Jeremiah 2:20; Jeremiah 3:6; see on Hos. l.c. and Deuteronomy 12:2. אפיקים, in the older writings, denotes the "river channels," "the beds of the stream;" but Ezekiel uses the word as equivalent to valley, i.e., נחל, a valley with a brook or stream, like the Arabic wady. גּיא, properly "deepening," "the deep ground," "the deep valley;" on the form גּאיות, cf. Ewald, 186da. The juxtaposition of mountains and hills, of valleys and low grounds, occurs again in Ezekiel 36:4, Ezekiel 36:6, and Ezekiel 35:8; the opposition between mountains and valleys also, in Ezekiel 32:5-6, and Ezekiel 24:13. The valleys are to be conceived of as furnished with trees and groves, under the shadow of which the worship of Astarte especially was practised; see on v. 15. On the mountains and in the valleys were sanctuaries erected to Baal and Astarte. The announcement of their destruction is appended to the threatening in Leviticus 26:30, which Ezekiel takes up and describes at greater length. Beside the בּמות, the places of sacrifice and worship, and the חמּנים, pillars or statues of Baal, dedicated to him as the sun-god, he names also the altars, which, in Lev. l.c. and other places, are comprehended along with the בּמות eht htiw; see on Leviticus 26:30 and 1 Kings 3:3. With the destruction of the idol temples, altars, and statues, the idol-worshippers are also to be smitten, so as to fall down in the presence of their idols.

Verse 4. - They shall know that I am Jehovah . By this expressive formula Ezekiel intimates the moral effect which should be produced upon the nations of the earth, whether by beholding or by experiencing the Divine judgments ( Ezekiel 6:7, 13 ; Ezekiel 7:4, 9 ; Ezekiel 11:10, 12 ; Ezekiel 13:9, 14, 21, 23 ; Ezekiel 14:8 ; Ezekiel 15:7 , et passim ; cf. Exodus 6:7 ; Exodus 7 :50 17; 29:46; 31:13; all of which passages belong to Wellhausen's grundschrift , which it is supposed had no existence in the time of Ezekiel). Ezekiel 35:4