Ch. 6. Prophecy against the mountains of Israel, the seats of her idolatry

Ch. 4, 5. were directed chiefly against Jerusalem, because she had rebelled against the statutes of the Lord (ch. Ezekiel 5:6) and because she had polluted his sanctuary with her abominations (ch. Ezekiel 5:11). Therefore the arrows of Jehovah’s judgments shall come upon her, famine, pestilence and sword. For the same reason his judgments must overtake the land, especially the mountains, on which the high places were situated, where the idolatries and false worship were practised.

(1) Ezekiel 6:1-7. The high places, altars and sun-images shall be utterly destroyed; the carcases of the worshippers shall fall before the idols, and their bones be scattered about them.

(2) Ezekiel 6:8-10. A remnant shall escape and shall remember the Lord among the nations whither they are scattered, and shall loathe themselves for all the evils which they have done; and they shall know that he who spake to them was Jehovah, God alone.

(3) Ezekiel 6:11-14. Renewal of the threat of destruction with every expression of scorn and hatred on the prophet’s part for the people’s doings. They shall know when their slain fall down and lie around their altars that Jehovah has done it.

2. Song of Solomon of man] See on ch. Ezekiel 2:1.

mountains of Israel] i.e. the mountain-land of Israel, but with special reference to the mountains as the seats of idolatrous worship.

3. to the rivers] the ravines; the gorges where there were streams and thick trees, and where idolatrous worship was practised (ch. Ezekiel 35:8, Ezekiel 36:4; Ezekiel 36:6), cf. Isaiah 57:5, “that slay the children in the valleys (a different word) under the clefts of the rocks; among the smooth stones of the valley is thy portion; they, they are thy lot; even to them hast thou poured a drink offering, thou hast offered an oblation” (Jeremiah 2:23).

your high places] The word properly means a height or hill (ch. Ezekiel 36:2), then a sanctuary situated on such a height (1 Samuel 9:13), and finally any sanctuary (Isaiah 16:12, and so in Moabitish, Moabstone, 50:3), particularly in Israel the rural sanctuaries. These sanctuaries had probably been mainly Canaanitish (Deuteronomy 12:2; Leviticus 26:30), but had been adopted by Israel and devoted to the service of Jehovah (ch. Ezekiel 20:28). Along with the sanctuaries themselves no doubt much of the native religious practice was also adopted. After a long struggle these rural high places were abolished by Josiah, and public service of Jehovah confined to the temple at Jerusalem, though they grew up again under Manasseh. Even the worship of Jehovah at such sanctuaries would be very corrupt, and in the last years of the kingdom the worship of other deities was no doubt also practised. This prophet condemns all worship at the high places as “abominations.” This does not appear to be with him a question of mere locality or number of sanctuaries; he considers the high places to be Canaanitish and the service at them no worship of Jehovah.

4. your images] As marg., sun-images, i.e. symbols of the sun-god, probably in the shape of a pyramid or obelisk. They stood beside the altars. So again Ezekiel 6:6.

your idols] The term used is an opprobrious or contemptuous epithet, applied to idols, though its precise meaning is doubtful. Most probably it means block-gods; though others connect it with the word dung (ch. Ezekiel 4:12) and render dung-gods, which is less probable. The term occurs in Ez. nearly 40 times, otherwise Leviticus 26:30; Deuteronomy 29:17; Jeremiah 50:2; 1 Kings 15:12; 1 Kings 21:26; 2 Kings 17:12; 2 Kings 21:11; 2 Kings 21:21; 2 Kings 23:24. These idols were probably of Jehovah for the most part.

5. The same had already been threatened by Jeremiah 8:1-2.

6. your works] the works of your hands, the idols. All the cumulative phrases in the verse are wanting in LXX. viz. “and made desolate,” “and cease,” “and your works may be abolished.” The term “abolished” is lit. “blotted out.” The rendering “made desolate” is probably right, though as spelled the word might mean “suffer” or “be punished,” R.V. marg., “bear their guilt.” The apparatus of worship in the prophet’s time comprehended (1) the high place, the general name for the sanctuary, which might be a building of various degrees of simplicity or splendour, or perhaps a mere tent; (2) the altar, an essential of course of every high place; (3) the obelisk or sun-pillar, and (4) the idol, with which probably most of the rural high places were provided, as Isaiah 2:8 says, Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands. Cf. Jeremiah 2:27-28, who complains that their gods (which he describes as “stocks” and “stones”) were as numerous as their cities. With this religious inventory may be compared that given by Hosea 3:5. Ezekiel does not mention the Ashera, except in the form of the “evergreen tree” (ch. Ezekiel 6:13).

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.

8. that ye may have] R.V. in that ye shall have some is better. The original reads very awkwardly, and in LXX. the words: “yet will I leave a remnant” are wanting. Ezekiel 6:9 seems the apodosis of Ezekiel 6:8, and when ye shall have them that escape the sword … 9 then shall they that escape of you remember.

8–10. A remnant shall be preserved, and shall remember the Lord among the nations whither they are scattered

9. because I am broken] R.V. how that I have been broken with their whorish heart. Such a sense as “been broken with” is altogether impossible; and the middle sense “break for myself” is equally to be rejected. The natural sense is: they shall remember (think of) me … when I have broken. Their idolatrous heart shall be broken with their calamities, and then shall they return unto the Lord; Hosea 2:7, “I will return unto my first husband, for then was it better with me than now.” The present reading has probably arisen from the similar word “carried captive” being in the copyist’s mind.

and with their eyes] Read: when I have broken their whorish heart … and their eyes. The harshness of the zeugma, “and their eyes,” is relieved by the distance from “break” and the metaphorical nature of the expression. Cf. the phrase “lifted up his eyes towards the idols,” ch. Ezekiel 18:6; Ezekiel 18:12; Ezekiel 18:15, Ezekiel 20:24, Ezekiel 33:25.

lothe themselves] Lit. their faces; a use of “face” for self, not uncommon in the later language, ch. Ezekiel 20:43, Ezekiel 36:31; Job 23:17.

11. Smite with thine hand] Ch. Ezekiel 25:6, “Because thou (Ammon) hast clapped thine hands and stamped with the feet, and rejoiced with all the despite of thy soul against the land of Israel.” The gestures are those of scorn and ill-will, and of rejoicing over another’s misfortune; ch. Ezekiel 22:13; Job 27:23. In ch. Ezekiel 21:17 the same gesture is attributed to Jehovah.

Alas for all] Rather: Ha! for all. The interjection seems a shorter form of that used elsewhere, as ch. Ezekiel 25:3, “Because thou (Ammon) saidst, Aha! for my sanctuary, when it was destroyed, and for the land of Israel, when it was desolate.” The prophet hates and scorns the evil practices of Israel so deeply, that he rejoices at the vengeance about to overtake them. The grammatical anomaly in “evil abominations of” is obviated in LXX. by omission of “evil.”

11–14. Renewal of the threat of destruction because of idolatry

12. and is besieged] and he that is besieged. In LXX. the previous “he that remaineth” is wanting. With this omission “he that is besieged” might stand, cf. ch. Ezekiel 7:15, “he that is in the city, famine shall devour him.” Otherwise the sense seems rather as in R.V. marg. preserved, as Isaiah 49:6.

13. Comp. Ezekiel 6:7 on the effect of these judgments on the minds of the people. On “idols,” cf. Ezekiel 6:4. The cumulative phrases “in all the tops of the mountains,” and “under every thick oak” are wanting in LXX.; and so “he that remaineth” Ezekiel 6:12. For oak rather terebinth.

sweet savour] Is said of the smoke or steam of the sacrificial fat burnt upon the altar, ch. Ezekiel 16:19, Ezekiel 20:28; Ezekiel 20:41, and often in the ritual laws of the Pentateuch.

14. desolate, yea, more desolate] Rather: desolate and waste (ch. Ezekiel 33:28-29, Ezekiel 35:3) more than the wilderness of Diblah. The comparative “more than,” however, is not probable. Moreover a wilderness of Diblah is unknown; Diblathaim besides being in Moab could not be called desert. The construction is difficult, but probably the reading should be: from the wilderness to Riblah, i.e. from south to north. Riblah was situated on the northern border of the country (Numbers 34:11); it is said to be in “the land of Hamath,” Jeremiah 52:9; Jeremiah 52:27 (where by the converse substitution of d for r, LXX. reads Diblah). A few MSS. read Riblah. It must be acknowledged that this way of designating the whole extent of the land from S. to N. is nowhere else employed, the northern limit being usually expressed by “the entering in of Hamath.”