Ezekiel 7:2

Also, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD unto the land of Israel; An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(2) The four corners.—A frequent Scriptural phrase for every part. (Comp. Isaiah 11:12; Revelation 7:1.) The origin of the expression is to be sought, not in any supposed popular belief that the earth was square, but in the fact that so many common things had just four sides or four corners (see Exodus 25:12; Exodus 27:2; Job 1:19; Acts 10:11, &c), that the phrase came naturally to be a common expression of universality. “An end, the end,” is a repetition for the sake of emphasis. It occurs again in Ezekiel 7:6, and, in varied words, also in Ezekiel 7:10; Ezekiel 7:12; Ezekiel 7:26.

Ezekiel 7:3-4 are repeated almost exactly in Ezekiel 7:8-9. The frequent repetitions of this chapter are designed, and give great force to the denunciation of woe. “Thine abominations are in the midst of thee,” in the sense of calling down punishment upon them, as appears from the parallel in Ezekiel 7:9.

Benson Commentary

Ezekiel 7:2-4. Thus saith the Lord unto the land of Israel — Unto the inhabitants of the land. Israel is often put for Judah, after the captivity of the ten tribes; those that were left of these tribes joining themselves to the tribe of Judah. The whole country of Judea is here comprehended. An end — An end of God’s patience, of the peace and welfare of the people, and of the plenty, beauty, and desirableness of the land itself; is come — Or is near at hand; even that dreadful end threatened by Moses and the prophets, as the certain punishment of idolatry and other violations of God’s law: upon the four corners of the land — Upon all parts of it. Now is the end come upon thee — There shall be no more delays. I will judge thee according to thy ways — I will punish thee according to thy deserts. Thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee — The punishment of thy sins shall be upon thee everywhere throughout thy land.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:1-15 The abruptness of this prophecy, and the many repetitions, show that the prophet was deeply affected by the prospect of these calamities. Such will the destruction of sinners be; for none can avoid it. Oh that the wickedness of the wicked might end before it bring them to an end! Trouble is to the impenitent only an evil, it hardens their hearts, and stirs up their corruptions; but there are those to whom it is sanctified by the grace of God, and made a means of much good. The day of real trouble is near, not a mere echo or rumour of troubles. Whatever are the fruits of God's judgments, our sin is the root of them. These judgments shall be universal. And God will be glorified in all. Now is the day of the Lord's patience and mercy, but the time of the sinner's trouble is at hand.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A dirge. Supposing the date of the prophecy to be the same as that of the preceding, there were now but four, or perhaps three, years to the final overthrow of the kingdom of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2. An end, the end—The indefinite "an" expresses the general fact of God bringing His long-suffering towards the whole of Judea to an end; "the," following, marks it as more definitely fixed (Am 8:2).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Unto the land; the inhabitants who had sinned, and also to the land wherein they sinned.

An end, end of God’s patience, of the peace and welfare of the people, and of the plenty, beauty, and desirableness of the land itself, is come, or is near at hand.

The end; that dreadful end I threatened against you, and which you will find in the execution of the menaces pronounced against you by the former and latter prophets.

Upon the four corners; it is an overflowing misery, that spreads over all the land.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Also, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God unto the land of Israel,.... The inhabitants of it; not the ten tribes, who were already carried captive; but the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and those that were with them, who dwelt in the land. The mountains, hills, rivers, and valleys, were before addressed; now the land itself: what the Lord by the prophet said unto the land, or the people of it, follows:

an end: for here a colon is to be placed; that is, the end of God's patience and forbearance; he would bear with them no longer, at least but a very little while; the time of vengeance was coming upon them, and an utter consumption should be made of them; see Lamentations 4:18;

the end is come upon the four corners of the earth, or "land"; for not the whole world, and the end of that, as in Matthew 24:3, are meant; but the land of Judea and the destruction of it, which should be general; upon the four wings of it, as in the Hebrew text; that is, in all parts of it, east, west, north, and south. The Targum is,

"the punishment of the end, or the punishment determined to come upon the four winds of the earth;''

see Revelation 7:1; and this punishment was just going to be inflicted on them; for this prophecy was in the sixth year of King Zedekiah; and in the ninth year of his reign Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem; and in the eleventh year took it, 2 Kings 25:1.

Geneva Study Bible

Also, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD unto the land of Israel; An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. Ezekiel 7:2 might read: unto the land of Israel an end! the end is come upon, &c. Cf. Amos 8:2.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - An end, etc. The iteration of the word once more gives emphasis. The words read like an echo of Amos 8:2. The four corners (Hebrew, "wings") were probably, as with us, the north, east, south, and west. The phrase had been used before in Isaiah 11:12, and the thought meets us again, in the form of the "four winds," in Daniel 11:4; Zechariah 2:6; Matthew 24:31; Mark 13:27. The "end" in this case is either that of the siege of Jerusalem, or that of the existence of Israel as a nation. It was now drawing nigh - was, as we say, within measurable distance. Ezekiel 7:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The End Cometh

Ezekiel 7:1. And the word of Jehovah came to me thus: Ezekiel 7:2. And thou, son of man, thus saith the Lord Jehovah: An end to the land of Israel! the end cometh upon the four borders of the land. Ezekiel 7:3. Now (cometh) the end upon thee, and I shall send my wrath upon thee, and judge thee according to thy ways, and bring upon thee all thine abominations. Ezekiel 7:4. And my eye shall not look with pity upon thee, and I shall not spare, but bring thy ways upon thee; and thy abominations shall be in the midst of thee, that ye may know that I am Jehovah. - ואתּה - .havoheJ ma I, with the copula, connects this word of God with the preceding one, and shows it to be a continuation. It commences with an emphatic utterance of the thought, that the end is coming to the land of Israel, i.e., to the kingdom of Judah, with its capital Jerusalem. Desecrated as it has been by the abominations of its inhabitants, it will cease to be the land of God's people Israel. 'לאדמת ישׂ (to the land of Israel) is not to be taken with כּה אמר (thus saith the Lord) in opposition to the accents, but is connected with qeets קץ (an end), as in the Targ. and Vulgate, and is placed first for the sake of greater emphasis. In the construction, compare Job 6:14. ארבּעת כּנפות הארץ is limited by the parallelism to the four extremities of the land of Israel. It is used elsewhere for the whole earth (Isaiah 11:12). The Chetib ארבּעת is placed, in opposition to the ordinary rule, before a noun in the feminine gender. The Keri gives the regular construction (vid., Ewald, 267c). In Ezekiel 7:3 the end is explained to be a wrathful judgment. "Give (נתן) thine abominations upon thee;" i.e., send the consequences, inflict punishment for them. The same thought is expressed in the phrase, "thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee;" in other words, they would discern them in the punishments which the abominations would bring in their train. For Ezekiel 7:4 compare Ezekiel 5:11.