Ezekiel 8:18

Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(18) Will I not hear them.—The time for prayer was past. They had rejected God. and when His wrath came upon them it was too late to turn to Him. (See Proverbs 1:24-28; Matthew 7:22-23.) The possibility of sinning beyond the term of the day of grace is one of the most important lessons of this chapter.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:13-18 The yearly lamenting for Tammuz was attended with infamous practices; and the worshippers of the sun here described, are supposed to have been priests. The Lord appeals to the prophet concerning the heinousness of the crime; and lo, they put the branch to their nose, denoting some custom used by idolaters in honour of the idols they served. The more we examine human nature and our own hearts, the more abominations we shall discover; and the longer the believer searches himself, the more he will humble himself before God, and the more will he value the fountain open for sin, and seek to wash therein.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

"Violence" represents sin against man, "abominations" sins against God. These went hand in hand in Jerusalem.

And have returned - After the reformation effected for a time by Josiah's zeal, they have gone back to their old state.

They put the branch to their nose - An allusion to a then familiar practice, of which we find no clear traces elsewhere. Ezekiel is describing the attitude usual in such devotions, the branch held before the mouth, but wishing to represent it in contemptuous and derogatory terms, he substitutes the word "nose" for "mouth."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

18. though they cry … yet will I not hear—(Pr 1:28; Isa 1:15).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

What I will do is greater than to be expressed; they with a furious heat for their idols provoked me, and I will with a just indignation provoke them, nay, destroy them.

Mine eye shall not spare: see Ezekiel 7:4,8,9.

Though they cry: the prophet doth not give it the name of praying, but it is a cry, a loud cry, after the manner of other idolaters, who think to be heard for the noise they make.

I will not hear them; yet doth not this at all prejudice the truth or the mercy of God to those that pray, nor may it discourage from the duty, but it should awaken us that we pray with heart, and not only cry loud with voice.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Therefore will I also deal in fury,.... Being provoked by such abominable idolatries, and such horrid insolence, and most contemptuous treatment:

mine eye shall not spare: neither will I have pity: see Ezekiel 5:11;

and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice; very pressingly and earnestly for help, being in great distress:

yet will I not hear them; as they turned their backs on him, he will turn a deaf ear to them, and not regard their cries. The Targum is,

"they shall pray before me, with a great voice, and I will not receive their prayer.''

Geneva Study Bible

Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

18. These abominations will assuredly bring down the unsparing chastisements of heaven. The phrase “shall not spare nor pity” is common in the prophet, ch. Ezekiel 5:11, Ezekiel 7:4; Ezekiel 7:9, Ezekiel 9:5; Ezekiel 9:10.

cry … with a loud voice] Comp. ch. Ezekiel 11:13, and for the general idea of vain appeal to heaven, Isaiah 1:15; Jeremiah 11:11; Proverbs 1:28.

This passage contains much that is difficult to estimate. The fact that the things described were seen in the “visions of God,” the symbolical form in which Jehovah appeared, and the analogy of ch. 9, 10, lead to the conclusion that there is at least an ideal and symbolical element in the representation of the idolatries practised in the temple. The view of Hitz., Kuen. (Onders. ii. 278) that the idolatrous practices are to be taken literally but referred to the time of Manasseh is not natural. The prophet would hardly be shewn things once but no longer in existence, though of course he might take a continuous view of Israel’s practice, as he often does. The tense in Ezekiel 8:17 “which they have committed here” is scarcely evidence for a former generation. It is not easy to say how far the representation that the idolatrous usages were practised in the temple is to be taken literally. Such practices are not referred to by Jeremiah nor other prophets of the time. It is possible that the chambers and cells about the gateways, which appear in some cases to have belonged to private persons, may have been used for illegitimate purposes, but that sun-worship was actually practised between the temple and the altar has little probability. And the scene in the chamber of imagery is obviously ideal. The prophet certainly desires to shew that idolatry both public and in private was practised by all classes, the elders representing the nation, the women, and perhaps also the priests; and that at these idolatries were not only the old native ones of Israel, but new imports at this period from all the nations around. The representation, however, that such things were done in the temple may rather be ideal. The temple was the dwelling-place of Jehovah, and every impurity done not only there but in the land and in the houses of the people was felt in the place of his abode, which it defiled, causing him to withdraw from it (Ezekiel 8:6, cf. Leviticus 15:31; Leviticus 20:3; Numbers 19:13; Numbers 19:20; and the elaborate precautions to guard against defilement adopted in ch. 40–48). On the other hand those privileged to dwell in the land or have access to the temple are spoken of as dwelling in the house, Psalm 23:6; Psalm 27:4; Psalm 84:5 &c. See preliminary remarks to the chapter.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 18. - The verse serves as a transition to ch. 9. The unpitying aspect of the Divine judgments is again prominent. Such sins deserved, and could only be expiated by, the judgments to which we now pass.



Ezekiel 8:18

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Fourth Abomination: Worship of the Sun by the Priests

Ezekiel 8:16. And He took me into the inner court of the house of Jehovah, and behold, at the entrance into the temple of Jehovah, between the porch and the altar, as it were five and twenty men,with their backs towards the temple of Jehovah and their faces towards the east; they were worshipping the sun towards the east. Ezekiel 8:17. And He said to me, Seest thou this, son of Man? Is it too little for the house of Judah to perform the abominations which they are performing here, that they also fill the land with violence, and provoke me to anger again and again? For behold they stretch out the vine-branch to their nose. Ezekiel 8:18. But I also will act in fury; my eye shall not look compassionately, and I will not spare; and if they cry with a loud voice in my ears, I will not hear them. - After Ezekiel has seen the idolatrous abominations in the outer court, or place for the people, he is taken back into the inner court, or court of the priests, to see still greater abominations there. Between the porch of the temple and the altar of burnt-offering, the most sacred spot therefore in the inner court, which the priests alone were permitted to tread (Joel 2:17), he sees as if twenty-five men, with their backs toward the temple, were worshipping the sun in the east. כּ before עשׂרים is not a preposition, circa, about, but a particle of comparison (an appearance): as if twenty-five men; after the analogy of כּ before an accusative (vid., Ewald, 282d). For the number here is not an approximative one; but twenty-five is the exact number, namely, the twenty-four leaders of the classes of priests (1 Chronicles 24:5.; 2 Chronicles 36:14; Ezra 10:5), with the high priest at the head (see Lightfoot's Chronol. of O.T., Opp. I. 124). As the whole nation was seen in the seventy elders, so is the entire priesthood represented here in the twenty-five leaders as deeply sunk in disgraceful idolatry. Their apostasy from the Lord is shown in the fact that they turn their back upon the temple, and therefore upon Jehovah, who was enthroned in the temple, and worship the sun, with their faces turned towards the east. The worship of the sun does not refer to the worship of Adonis, as Hvernick supposes, although Adonis was a sun-god; but generally to the worship of the heavenly bodies, against which Moses had warned the people (Deuteronomy 4:19; Deuteronomy 17:3), and which found its way in the time of Manasseh into the courts of the temple, whence it was afterwards expelled by Josiah (2 Kings 23:5, 2 Kings 23:11). The form משׁתתּויתם must be a copyist's error for משׁתּחוים; as the supposition that it is an unusual form, with a play upon השׁחית,

(Note: "An extraordinary form, invented for the purpose of more effectually expressing their extraordinary abomination." - Lightfoot.)

is precluded by the fact that it would in that case be a 2nd per. plur. perf., and such a construction is rendered impossible by the המּה which immediately precedes it (cf. Ewald, 118a).

To these idolatrous abominations Judah has added other sins, as if these abominations were not bad enough in themselves. This is the meaning of the question in Ezekiel 8:17, 'הנּקל וגו: is it too little for the house of Judah, etc.? נקל with מן, as in Isaiah 49:6. To indicate the fulness of the measure of guilt, reference is again briefly made to the moral corruption of Judah. חמס embraces all the injuries inflicted upon men; תּועבות, impiety towards God, i.e., idolatry. By violent deeds they provoke God repeatedly to anger (שׁוּב, followed by an infinitive, expresses the repetition of an action). The last clause of Ezekiel 8:17 ('והנּם שׁלחים וגו) is very obscure. The usual explanation, which has been adopted by J. D. Michaelis and Gesenius: "they hold the twig to their nose," namely, the sacred twig Barsom, which the Parsees held in their hands when praying (vid., Hyde, de relig. vet. Pars. p. 350, ed. 2; and Kleuker, Zend-Avesta, III. p. 204), suits neither the context nor the words. According to the position of the clause in the context, we do not expect an allusion to a new idolatrous rite, but an explanation of the way in which Judah had excited the wrath of God by its violent deeds. Moreover, זמורה is not a suitable word to apply to the Barsom - Zemōrâh is a shoot or tendril of the vine (cf. Ezekiel 15:2; Isaiah 17:10; Numbers 13:23). The Barsom, on the other hand, consisted of bunches of twigs of the tree Gez or Hom, or of branches of the pomegranate, the tamarisk, or the date (cf. Kleuker l.c., and Strabo, XV. 733), and was not held to the nose, but kept in front of the mouth as a magical mode of driving demons away (vid., Hyde, l.c.). Lastly, שׁלח אל does not mean to hold anything, but to stretch out towards, to prepare to strike, to use violence. Of the other explanations given, only two deserve any consideration - namely, first, the supposition that it is a proverbial expression, "to apply the twig to anger," in the sense of adding fuel to the fire, which Doederlein (ad Grotii adnott.) applies in this way, "by these things they supply food, as it were, to my wrath, which burns against themselves," i.e., they bring fuel to the fire of my wrath. Lightfoot gives a similar explanation in his Hor. hebr. ad John 15:6. The second is that of Hitzig: "they apply the sickle to their nose," i.e., by seeking to injure me, they injure themselves. In this case זמורה must be taken in the sense of מזמּרה, a sickle or pruning-knife, and pointed זמורה. The saying does appear to be a proverbial one, but the origin and meaning of the proverb have not yet been satisfactorily explained. - Ezekiel 8:18. Therefore will the Lord punish unsparingly (cf. Ezekiel 7:4, Ezekiel 7:9; Ezekiel 5:11). This judgment he shows to the prophet in the two following chapters.