Adam Clarke's Bible Commentary Verse 1. In the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month] This, according to Abp. Usher, was the sixth year of Ezekiel's captivity. The sixth day of the fifth month of the ecclesiastical year, which answers to August A.M. 3410.
This chapter and the three following contain but one vision, of which I judge it necessary, with Calmet, to give a general idea, that the attention of the reader may not be too much divided.
The prophet, in the visions of God, is carried to Jerusalem, to the northern gate of the temple, which leads by the north side to the court of the priests. There he sees the glory of the Lord in the same manner as he did by the river Chebar. At one side he sees the image of jealousy. Going thence to the court of the people, he sees through an opening in the wall seventy elders of the people, who were worshipping all sorts of beasts and reptiles, which were painted on the wall. Being brought thence to the gate of the door of the house, he saw women weeping for Tammuz or Adonis. As he returned to the court of the priests, between the porch and the altar, he saw twenty-five men with their backs to the sanctuary and their faces towards the east, worshipping the rising sun. This is the substance of the vision contained in the eighth chapter.
About the same time he saw six men come from the higher gate with swords in their hands; and among them, one with an ink- horn. Then the Divine Presence left the cherubim, and took post at the entrance of the temple, and gave orders to the man with the ink-horn to put a mark on the foreheads of those who sighed and prayed because of the abominations of the land; and then commanded the men with the swords to go forward, and slay every person who had not this mark. The prophet, being left alone among the dead, fell on his face, and made intercession for the people. The Lord gives him the reason of his conduct; and the man with the ink-horn returns, and reports to the Lord what was done. These are the general contents of the ninth chapter.
The Lord commands the same person to go in between the wheels of the cherubim, and take his hand full of live coals, and scatter them over the city. He went as commanded, and one of the cherubim gave him the coals; at the same time the glory of the Lord, that had removed to the threshold of the house, now returned, and stood over the cherubim. The cherubim, wheels, wings, &c., are here described as in the first chapter. This is the substance of the tenth chapter.
The prophet then finds himself transported to the east gate of the temple, where he saw twenty-five men, and among them Jaazaniah the son of Azur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people, against whom the Lord commands him to prophesy, and to threaten them with the utmost calamities, because of their crimes. Afterwards God himself speaks, and shows that the Jews who should be left in the land should be driven out because of their iniquities, and that those who had been led captive, and who acknowledged their sins and repented of them, should be restored to their own land. Then the glory of the Lord arose out of the city, and rested for a time on one of the mountains on the east of Jerusalem, and the prophet being carried in vision by the Spirit to Chaldea, lost sight of the chariot of the Divine glory, and began to show to the captivity what the Lord had shown to him. This is the substance of the eleventh chapter.
We may see from all this what induced the Lord to abandon his people, his city, and his temple; the abominations of the people in public and in private. But because those carried away captives with Jeconiah acknowledged their sins, and their hearts turned to the Lord, God informs them that they shall be brought back and restored to a happy state both in temporal and spiritual matters, while the others, who had filled up the measure of their iniquities, should be speedily brought into a state of desolation and ruin. This is the sum and intent of the vision in these four chapters.
Matthew Henry Commentary
- The Divine judgments for idolatry. (Ezek. 6:1-7) A remnant shall be saved. (Ezek. 6:8-10) The calamities are to be lamented. (Ezek 6:11-14)
Ezek. 6:1-7. War desolates persons, places, and things esteemed mos sacred. God ruins idolatries even by the hands of idolaters. It is jus 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 thoroughl destroyed from the professedly Christian church as they were from amon the Jews.
Ezek. 6:8-10 A remnant of Israel should be left; at length they shoul remember the Lord, their obligations to him, and rebellion against him True penitents see sin to be that abominable thing which the Lor hates. Those who truly loathe sin, loathe themselves because of sin They give glory to God by their repentance. Whatever brings men to remember Him, and their sins against him, should be regarded as blessing.
Ezek. 6:11-14 It is our duty to be affected, not only with our own sin and sufferings, but to look with compassion upon the miseries wicke people bring upon themselves. Sin is a desolating thing; therefore stand in awe, and sin not. If we know the worth of souls, and the danger to which unbelievers are exposed, we shall deem every sinner wh takes refuge in Jesus from the wrath to come, an abundant recompenc for all contempt or opposition we may meet with _________________________________________________
Original Hebrew ויהי1961 בשׁנה8141 השׁשׁית8345 בשׁשׁי8345 בחמשׁה2568 לחדשׁ2320 אני589 יושׁב3427 בביתי1004 וזקני2205 יהודה3063 יושׁבים3427 לפני6440 ותפל5307 עלי5921 שׁם8033 יד3027 אדני136 יהוה׃3069
