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EZEKIEL 6

PARAGRAPH DIVISIONS OF MODERN TRANSLATIONS

NASB NKJV NRSV TEV NJB
Idolatrous Worship Denounced Judgment on Idolatrous Israel Oracle Against the Mountains The Lord Condemns Idolatry Against the Mountains of Israel
6:1-7 6:1-7 6:1-7 6:1-7 6:1-7
6:8-10 6:8-10 6:8-10 6:8-10 6:8-10
The Sins of Israel
6:11-14 6:11-14 6:11-14 6:11-14 6:11-14

READING CYCLE THREE (see "Bible Interpretation Seminar")

FOLLOWING THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR'S INTENT AT PARAGRAPH LEVEL

This is a study guide commentary, which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.

Read the chapter in one sitting. Identify the subjects (reading cycle #3). Compare your subject divisions with the five translations above. Paragraphing is not inspired, but it is the key to following the original author's intent, which is the heart of interpretation. Every paragraph has one and only one subject.

WORD AND PHRASE STUDY

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: EZEKIEL 6:1-7
 1And the word of the Lord came to me saying, 2"Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them 3and say, 'Mountains of Israel, listen to the word of the Lord God! Thus says the Lord God to the mountains, the hills, the ravines and the valleys: "Behold, I Myself am going to bring a sword on you, and I will destroy your high places. 4So your altars will become desolate and your incense altars will be smashed; and I will make your slain fall in front of your idols. 5I will also lay the dead bodies of the sons of Israel in front of their idols; and I will scatter your bones around your altars. 6In all your dwellings, cities will become waste and the high places will be desolate, that your altars may become waste and desolate, your idols may be broken and brought to an end, your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be blotted out. 7The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the Lord.'"

6:1 These prophecies and symbolic actions were not from Ezekiel, but from YHWH. Ezekiel is but a mouthpiece for God (cf. Ezek. 1:3; 3:16; 7:1).

6:2 "Son of man" This is a Hebrew idiom for "human person." See full note at Ezek. 2:1.

Ezekiel is instructed to

  1. "set his face towards the mountain," BDB 962, KB 1321, Qal IMPERATIVE (a standard phrase of judgment oracles, cf. Ezek. 13:17; 20:46; 21:2; 25:2; 29:2; 35:2; 38:2)
  2. "prophesy against them," BDB 612, KB 659, Niphal IMPERATIVE

SPECIAL TOPIC: SON OF MAN

▣ "the mountains" This had a multiple connotations.

  1. the most permanent physical feature
  2. part of God's promised land
  3. a place of refuge
  4. places of fertility worship (cf. Ezek. 6:13)

In context #4 fits best. The mountains are personified and commanded to hear the word of the Lord (here, Adon, cf. Ezek. 6:2,11; 5:5,7,8,11; 7:2,5).

6:3 "listen to the word of the Lord God" The VERB (BDB 1033, KB 1570, Qal IMPERATIVE ) is often used in a legal sense of testimony in a trial. Israel is responsible for the words they hear! The prophets often used a court scene as a literary mechanism to communicate their message of covenant negation (i.e., divorce case).

▣ "the Lord God" This is literally Adon YHWH.

SPECIAL TOPIC: LORD (adon and kurios)

SPECIAL TOPIC: NAMES FOR DEITY, D.

▣ "I Myself" This is reminiscent of Ezek. 5:13. It is God Himself who acts through the human instrumentality of Babylon (as He did Assyria, cf. Isa. 10:5). Later, God will call and use Cyrus (cf. Isa. 44:28; 45:1) to return the exiles to Palestine. History is in YHWH's hands, for His purposes!

▣ "your high places" This man-made, raised altar (the one at Megiddo was 6' tall by 24' x 30') was used for the worship of the Canaanite fertility gods (i.e., Ba'al and Asherah, cf. Ezek. 6:13).

YHWH hates the false worship of idolatry (see Roland deVaux, Ancient Israel, vol. 2, pp. 284-288).

SPECIAL TOPIC: FERTILITY WORSHIP of the ANE

6:4 "incense altars" This term (BDB 329) is uncertain. Here are the possibilities from Canaanite sites (cf. 2 Kgs. 16:4)

  1. incense altar
  2. sun-pillar (cf. 2 Chr. 34:4 in ASV)
  3. sanctuary of a foreign god (NIDOTTE, vol. 2, p. 903)

The best option is #1 (cf. R. K. Harrison, Introduction to the Old Testament, p. 365, footnote 23).

▣ "idols" This term (BDB 165) is uncertain in etymology. It is used often in Ezekiel to refer to Canaanite idols. Verses 4 and 6 have a series of six Niphal PERFECTS. YHWH's judgment on pagan worship sites and worshipers in Israel is shockingly graphic!

SPECIAL TOPIC: CONSEQUENCES OF IDOLATRY

6:6 "altars" Apparently these man-made worship platforms had several items.

  1. raised stone (massebah, BDB 663) representing Ba'al, the male fertility god
  2. carved or live tree representing Asherah (BDB 81), the female goddess
  3. incense altar (cf. Lev. 26:30; 2 Chr. 14:3; 34:4,7; Isa. 27:9)

6:7 "you will know that I am the Lord" This is a recurrent phrase in Ezekiel which denotes the personal judgment of YHWH (i.e., Ezek. 6:10,13,14 and over 50 more times in the book of Ezekiel).

The phrase first appears as a repeated refrain in Exodus (cf. Exod. 6:7; 7:5; 16:6; 29:46). YHWH acts on Israel's behalf so they will know (BDB 393,KB 390, in personal intimacy) Him, but in Ezekiel they will know Him in covenant justice. He will act according to His word!

SPECIAL TOPIC: KNOW

▣ YHWH will pollute idolatrous worship sites (cf. Lev. 26:30) by

  1. their physical destruction (cf. Ezek. 6:6)
  2. unburied bodies in their locale (cf. Ezek. 6:7)
  3. dead bodies in their locale (cf. Ezek. 6:13)

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: EZEKIEL 6:8-10
 8"However, I will leave a remnant, for you will have those who escaped the sword among the nations when you are scattered among the countries. 9Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations to which they will be carried captive, how I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me, and by their eyes which played the harlot after their idols; and they will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed, for all their abominations. 10Then they will know that I am the Lord; I have not said in vain that I would inflict this disaster on them."

6:8 "I shall leave a remnant" See note and Special Topic: The Remnant, Three Senses.

6:9 There is hope! A remnant will repent by remembering and returning to YHWH (cf. Deut. 30:1-6).

  1. "will remember Me"
  2. how I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me
  3. by their eyes, which played the harlot after their idols
  4. they will loathe themselves in their own sight (cf. Ezek. 16:61,63; 20:43; 36:31)

Notice the personal element of idolatrous sin. YHWH also felt a personal rejection. Sin is a personal violation of the grace of God! Biblical faith is a love relationship.

▣ "their abominations" See SPECIAL TOPIC: ABOMINATION (OT)

6:10 Judgment is an act of love. Mankind's only permanent hope is a personal faith relationship with the one true God. The best way to view divine discipline is in the analogy of a human parent (cf. Heb. 12:5-13).

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: EZEKIEL 6:11-14
 11"Thus says the Lord God, 'Clap your hand, stamp your foot and say, "Alas, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, which will fall by sword, famine and plague! 12He who is far off will die by the plague, and he who is near will fall by the sword, and he who remains and is besieged will die by the famine. Thus will I spend My wrath on them. 13Then you will know that I am the Lord, when their slain are among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every green tree and under every leafy oak—the places where they offered soothing aroma to all their idols. 14So throughout all their habitations I will stretch out My hand against them and make the land more desolate and waste than the wilderness toward Diblah; thus they will know that I am the Lord."'"

6:11 There are three symbolic acts of recognition

  1. "clap your hands," BDB 645, KB 697, Hiphil IMPERATIVE
  2. "stamp your feet," BDB 955, KB 1291, Qal IMPERATIVE (usually #1 and 2 refer to rejoicing, cf. Ezek. 25:6)
  3. "say, 'Alas,'" BDB 55, KB 65, Qal IMPERATIVE (cf. Ezek. 9:4, a sign of repentance)

It is difficult to be certain what these three taken together mean. They seem to be a recognition of the appropriateness of YHWH's judgment, but also the tragedy of it.

James M. Freeeman, Manners and Customs of the Bible, notes five different meanings to clapping of the hands (p. 305).

  1. sign of contempt, Job 27:33; Lam. 2:15
  2. sign of anger, Num. 24:10; Ezek. 21:14,17; 22:13
  3. sign of sorrow, Ezek. 6:11
  4. sign of triumph, Ezek. 25:6; Nah. 3:19
  5. sign of a pledge, Gen. 14:22 (if "lift the hand" is related to "clap the hands"); Pro. 11:21 and possibly Ezek. 21:14,17

For a good brief discussion see IVP Biblical Background Commentary (OT), p. 694.

6:12 "He who is far off" This phrasing ("those far off. . .those near. . .") is often used in a positive sense (i.e., Ps. 145:18; Isa. 55:6), but here it is just the opposite. Everyone will experience the judgment of YHWH.

▣ "plague. . .sword. . .famine" These are the three triads of YHWH's judgment (cf. Ezek. 14:12; 24:10; 27:8,13; 29:17,18). Ezekiel 14:21 adds the Levitical and Deuteronomic curse of "wild beasts" (cf. Lev. 26:22; Deut. 32:24).

6:13 "Then you will know that I am the Lord" The phrase is used in both a negative and positive sense, both of which relate to the disobedience or obedience to YHWH's revealed will (i.e., word).

  1. negative, Ezek. 6:13; 7:27; 11:10; 12:16
  2. positive, Ezek. 34:27,30; 37:13,14,28

In Jeremiah it is related to Israel's witness to the surrounding nations (cf. Jer. 22:8-9). This is reaffirmed in Ezek. 37:28.

SPECIAL TOPIC: KNOW

▣ "on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every green tree, and under every leafy oak" These were the physical locations of Canaanite fertility altars (cf. Ezek. 20:28; Deut. 12:2; 1 Kgs. 14:23; 2 Kgs. 16:4; 17:10; 2 Chr. 28:4; Isa. 57:5; Jer. 2:20; 3:6,13; 17:2; Hosea 4:13).

▣ "the places where they offered soothing aroma to all their idols" The phrase "soothing aroma" (BDB 629) was an idiom for an acceptable animal sacrifice (cf. Gen. 8:21; Exod. 29:18,25,41; Lev. 1:9,13,17). As the smoke of the sacrifice rose up, it symbolically left this physical realm and ascended to God. Ezekiel takes this sacrificial idiom and turns it on its head (another idiom) and uses it of pagan sacrifices offered by Jerusalemites and Judeans (cf. Ezek. 6:13; 16:19; 20:28).

SPECIAL TOPIC: A SOOTHING AROMA

6:14 "I shall stretch out My hand" This phrase is characteristic of the book of Ezekiel (cf. Ezek. 14:9,13; 16:27; 25:7; 35:3), but is also found in Jeremiah (cf. Jer. 6:12; 15:6). It denotes YHWH's action.

SPECIAL TOPIC: THE PROBLEMS AND LIMITATIONS OF HUMAN LANGUAGE

NASB, NKJV, JPSOA, Peshitta, Vulgate  "Diblah"
NRSV, TEV, NJB, REB  "Riblah"
LXX  "Deblatha"

Diblah was a city in the Negev, but "Riblah" (cf. 2 Kgs. 23:33; 25:6), is in northern Israel (cf. Num. 34:11). The whole point of the phrase, which probably should be "the wilderness to Riblah" (see UBS Text Project note on p. 14) is to denote the whole Promised Land from south to north. This would be similar to the phrase "from Dan to Beersheba."

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