Ezekiel 7)
1 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
2 "Also, you son of man, thus says the Lord GOD to the soil of Israel; 'An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land.
3 Now is the end come upon you, and I will send My anger upon you, and will judge you according to your ways, and will recompense upon you all your abominations.
4 And my eye shall not spare you, neither will I have pity: but I will recompense your ways upon you, and your abominations shall be in the midst of you: and you shall know that I am the LORD.'
5 Thus says the Lord GOD; 'A calamity, a calamity after calamity, behold, is come.
6 An end is come, the end is come: it watches for you; behold, she is come. (Note the change in gender, referring to "the morning", of v.7.)
7 The morning is come (= the turn [or circle] has come round) to you, O you that dwell in the land: the time is come, the day of trouble is near, and not the sounding again of the mountains.
8 Now will I shortly pour out My fury upon you, and accomplish My anger upon You: and I will judge You according to your ways, and will recompense you for all your abominations.
9 And My eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will recompense you according to your ways and your abominations that are in the midst of you; and you shall know that I am the LORD that smites.
10 Behold the day, behold, it is come: the morning is gone forth; the rod has blossomed (i.e. Nebuchadnezzar's scepter is ready), pride has budded.
11 Violence is risen up into a rod of lawlessness (i.e. a rod to punish the lawlessness): none of them shall remain, nor of their multitude, nor of any of theirs: neither shall there be wailing for them.
12 The time is come, the day draw near: let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn: for wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.
13 For the seller shall not return to that (i.e. to the possession) which is sold, although they were yet alive (i.e. at the time of redemption, when, at the jubilee, the property sold would come back to the seller. Cp. Lev. 25): for the vision (or indignation) is touching the whole multitude thereof, which shall not return; neither shall no man by his iniquity shall strengthen his life.
14 They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready; but none goes to the battle: for My wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.
15 The sword (put for war) is outside (cp. Deut. 32:25), and the pestilence and the famine within: he that is in the field shall die with the sword; and he that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.
16 But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity. (Put for the judgment which was the consequence of it.)
17 All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water.
18 They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads. (A sign of mourning.)
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to rescue them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls (= cravings of their animal nature), neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumbling-block of their iniquity.
20 As for the beauty of His ornament, He set it (i.e. His sanctuary, or His holy city Jerusalem) in majesty: but they made the images of their abominations and of their detestable things therein: therefore have I set it far from them.
21 And I will give it into the hands of the foreigners for a prey, and to the lawless of the earth for a spoil; and they shall profane it.
22 My face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute My secret place: for the robbers shall enter into it, and defile it.
23 Make a chain: (The sign of captivity, answering to the other sign in v.11-.)
for the land is full of crimes of bloodshed (i.e. capital crimes), and the city is full of violence.
24 Wherefore I will bring the worst of the nations, and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be defiled.
25 Destruction (or, Cutting off) comes; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none.
26 Calamity shall come upon calamity (cp. Deut. 32:23), and hearing shall be after hearing; then shall they seek (but in vain) a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest (this was the special province of the priests [Deut. 17:3-13; 33:10], as the vision was that of the prophet, and counsel that of elders. Cp. Jer. 18:18), and counsel from the elders.
27 The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation (put for torn garments, which were the outward expression of inward grief), and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do to them after their way, and according to their judgments will I judge them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.' " (See 6;10.)