Ezekiel 19:7
◄  Ezekiel 19:7  ►
New International Version (©2011)
He broke down their strongholds and devastated their towns. The land and all who were in it were terrified by his roaring.

New Living Translation (©2007)
He demolished fortresses and destroyed their towns and cities. Their farms were desolated, and their crops were destroyed. The land and its people trembled in fear when they heard him roar.

English Standard Version (©2001)
and seized their widows. He laid waste their cities, and the land was appalled and all who were in it at the sound of his roaring.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
'He destroyed their fortified towers And laid waste their cities; And the land and its fullness were appalled Because of the sound of his roaring.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, by the noise of his roaring.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
He devastated their strongholds and destroyed their cities. The land and everything in it shuddered at the sound of his roaring.

International Standard Version (©2012)
He raped the women, devastating their towns. The land was made desolate, and all the while the land was filled with the sound of his roaring.

NET Bible (©2006)
He broke down their strongholds and devastated their cities. The land and everything in it was frightened at the sound of his roaring.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
He destroyed fortresses and turned cities into wastelands. The land and everyone living in it were terrified by the sound of his roar.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fullness thereof, by the noise of his roaring.

American King James Version
And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fullness thereof, by the noise of his roaring.

American Standard Version
And he knew their palaces, and laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, because of the noise of his roaring.

Douay-Rheims Bible
He learned to make widows, and to lay waste their cities: and the land became desolate, and the fulness thereof by the noise of his roaring.

Darby Bible Translation
And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste their cities, so that the land was desolate, and all it contained, by the noise of his roaring.

English Revised Version
And he knew their palaces, and laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, because of the noise of his roaring.

Webster's Bible Translation
And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fullness of it, by the noise of his roaring.

World English Bible
He knew their palaces, and laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and its fullness, because of the noise of his roaring.

Young's Literal Translation
And it knoweth his forsaken habitations, And their cities it hath laid waste, And desolate is the land and its fulness, Because of the voice of his roaring.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

19:1-9 Ezekiel is to compare the kingdom of Judah to a lioness. He must compare the kings of Judah to a lion's whelps; they were cruel and oppressive to their own subjects. The righteousness of God is to be acknowledged, when those who have terrified and enslaved others, are themselves terrified and enslaved. When professors of religion form connexions with ungodly persons, their children usually grow up following after the maxims and fashions of a wicked world. Advancement to authority discovers the ambition and selfishness of men's hearts; and those who spend their lives in mischief, generally end them by violence.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - He knew their desolate palaces; literally, widows; but the word is used figuratively in Isaiah 13:22, in the sense of "desolate houses" (comp. Isaiah 47:8). So the Vulgate gives didicit viduas facere; and Keil adopts that meaning here, "he knew, i.e. outraged, the widows of Israel." The Revised Version admits it in the margin. The two words for "widows" and "palaces" differ in a single letter only, and there may have been an error in transcription. On the whole, I adhere to the Authorized Version and Revised Version (text). Currey explains, "He knew (i.e. eyed with satisfaction) his palaces," from which he had ejected their former owners, as his father Jeboiakim had done (Jeremiah 22:15, 16). Ewald follows the Targum in a various reading of the verb, and gets the meaning, "he destroyed its palaces." Interpreting the parable, we have Jehoiachin described as alarming Nebuchadnezzar and the neighbouring nations by his activity, and therefore carried off to Babylon as Jehoahaz lad been to Egypt. The young lion was to roar in chains, not on the "mountains of Israel."

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And he knew their desolate palaces,.... He took notice of the palaces or seats of the richest men of the nation, and pillaged them of their treasure and wealth, and so they became desolate: it may be rendered, he "knew their widows" (x): or, "his own widows"; whom he made so; he slew the men to get their substance into his hands, and then defiled their widows:

and he laid waste their cities; by putting the inhabitants to death; or obliging them to leave them, and retire elsewhere, not being able to pay the taxes he imposed upon them, partly to support his own grandeur and luxury, and partly to pay the tribute to the king of Egypt:

and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, by the noise of his roaring; by his menaces and threatenings, edicts and exactions, he so terrified the inhabitants of the land, that though it was full of men and riches, it became in a great measure destitute of both; the people left their houses, both in city and country, and fled elsewhere with the remainder of their substance that had not fallen into his hands: his menacing demands being signified by roaring agrees with his character as a lion, to which he is compared, Proverbs 19:12.

(x) "et cognovit viduas ejus", Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius; "viduas eorum", Vatablus, Starckius; so R. Joseph Kimchi. Which sense is approved by Gussetius, Ebr. Comment. p. 312. R. Jonah interprets it, "he broke their palaces"; so Calvin, and some in Vatablus, and R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 96. 1.

Wesley's Notes on the Bible

19:7 He knew - By taking them, he came to know their places, which are here called, what he made them, desolate. Roaring - By the perpetual violent threats of this cruel king.

Ezekiel 19:7 Parallel Commentaries
Bible Hub: Online Parallel Bible


Kingly Power Abused
…6And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey, and devoured men. 7And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fullness thereof, by the noise of his roaring. 8Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net over him: he was taken in their pit. …

Ezekiel 19:6 He prowled among the lions, for he was now a strong lion. He learned to tear the prey and he became a man-eater.
Ezekiel 19:8 Then the nations came against him, those from regions round about. They spread their net for him, and he was trapped in their pit.
Ezekiel 45:8 This land will be his possession in Israel. And my princes will no longer oppress my people but will allow the people of Israel to possess the land according to their tribes.