Ezekiel 6:7

6:6 In all your dwellingplaces the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.

And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

KJV

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The slain shall fall among you, and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

And the slain shall fall in the middle of you, and you shall know that I am the LORD. ¶

And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.

6:8 Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries.

What does Ezekiel 6:7 mean?

Ezekiel 6:7 is a verse in the book of Ezekiel, in the Old Testament. In the original Hebrew, key words include חָלָל (châlâl), נָפַל (nâphal), תָּוֶךְ (tâvek). It connects to 40 cross-referenced passages elsewhere in Scripture.

Hebrew interlinear

And

the

slainחָלָלchâlâl/khaw-lawl'/H2491pierced (especially to death); figuratively, polluted

shall

fallנָפַלnâphal/naw-fal'/H5307to fall, in a great variety of applications (intransitive or causative, literal or figurative)

the

midstתָּוֶךְtâvek/taw'-vek/H8432a bisection, i.e. (by implication) the centre

you,

and

shall

knowיָדַעyâdaʻ/yaw-dah'/H3045to know (properly, to ascertain by seeing); used in a great variety of senses, figuratively, literally, euphemistically and inferentially (including observation, care, recognition; and causatively, instruction, designation, punishment, etc.)

that

the

LORD.יְהֹוָהYᵉhôvâh/yeh-ho-vaw'/H3068Jehovah, Jewish national name of God

Commentary on Ezekiel 6:7

CLARKE · whole chapter

In this chapter, which forms a distinct section, the prophet denounces the judgments of God against the Jews for their idolatry, Eze 6:1-7; but tells them that a remnant shall be saved, and brought to a sense of their sins by their severe afflictions, Eze 6:8-14. Verse 2 Set thy face toward the mountains of Israel - This is a new prophecy, and was most probably given after the four hundred and thirty days of his lying on his left and right side were accomplished. By Israel here, Judea is simply meant; not the ten tribes, who had long before been carried into captivity. Ezekiel uses this term in reference to the Jews only. The mountains may be addressed here particularly, because it was on them the chief scenes of idolatry were exhibited. Verse 4 Your images shall be broken - Literally, your sun images; representations of the sun, which they worshipped. See the margin. Verse 5 Will scatter your bones round about your altars - This was literally fulfilled by the Chaldeans. According to Baruch, 2:24, 25, they opened the sepulchres of the principal people, and threw the bones about on every side. Verse 9 They that escape of you shall remember me - Those that escape the sword, the pestilence, and the famine, and shall be led into captivity, shall plainly see that it is God who has done this, and shall humble themselves on account of their abominations, leave their idolatry, and worship me alone. And this they have done from the Babylonish captivity to the present day. Verse 11 Smite with thine hand, and stamp with thy foot - Show the utmost marks of thy astonishment and indignation, and dread of the evils that are coming upon them. Some have contended for the propriety of clapping and stamping in public worship from these words! It is scarcely a breach of charity to think that such persons are themselves incapable either of attending on or conducting the worship of God. To be consistent, they should copy the prophet in his other typical actions as well as these; and then we shall hear of their lying on their left side for three hundred and ninety days, and on their right side for forty days; shaving their heads, burning their hair, baking their bread with dung, etc. Now all these things, because they were typical and commanded, were proper in the prophet: in such persons as the above they would be evidences of insanity. Such extravagant acts are no part of God's worship. Verse 14 And make the land - more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblath - Diblath or Diblathayim is situated in the land of Moab. It is mentioned Num 33:46, Almon-Diblathaim; and in Jer 48:22, Beth-Diblathaim. It was a part of that horrible wilderness mentioned by Moses, Deu 8:15, "wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought." The precise reason why it is mentioned here is not very evident. Some think it is the same as Riblah, where Nebuchadnezzar slew the princes of Israel, and put out Zedekiah's eyes; the principal difference lying between the ד daleth and the ר resh, which in MSS. is often scarcely discernible; and hence vast multitudes of various readings. Five, probably six, of Kennicott's MSS. have רבלתה riblathah, as likewise two of my oldest MSS.; though in the margin of one a later hand directs the word to be read בדלת bedaleth, with daleth. But all the Versions read the word with a D. This may appear a matter of little importance, but we should take pains to recover even one lost letter of the word of God.

HENRY_FULL · Ezekiel 6:1–7

The Destruction of Idolatry. ( b. c. 594.) 1 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 2 Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, 3 And say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God ; Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places. 4 And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols. 5 And I will lay the dead carcases of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars. 6 In all your dwelling-places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished. 7 And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the Lord . Here, I. The prophecy is directed to the mountains of Israel ( v. 1, 2 ); the prophet must set his face towards them. If he could see so far off as the land of Israel, the mountains of that land would be first and furthest seen; towards them therefore he must look, and look boldly and stedfastly, as the judge looks at the prisoner, and directs his speech to him, when he passes sentence upon him. Though the mountains of Israel be ever so high and ever so strong, he must set his face against them, as having judgments to denounce that should shake their foundation. The mountains of Israel had been holy mountains, but now that they had polluted them with their high places God set his face against them and therefore the prophet must. Israel is here put, not, as sometimes, for the ten tribes, but for the whole land. The mountains are called upon to hear the word of the Lord, to shame the inhabitants that would not hear. The prophets might as soon gain attention from the mountains as from that rebellious and gainsaying people, to whom they all day long stretched out their hands in vain. Hear, O mountains! the Lord's controversy ( Mic. vi. 1, 2 ), for God's cause will have a hearing, whether we hear it or no. But from the mountains the word of the Lord echoes to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys; for to them also the Lord God speaks, intimating that the whole land is concerned in what is now to be delivered and shall be witnesses against this people that they had fair warning given them of the judgments coming, but they would not take it; nay, they contradicted the message and persecuted the messengers, so that God's prophets might more safely and comfortably speak to the hills and mountains than to them. II. That which is threatened in this prophecy is the utter destruction of the idols and the idolaters, and both by the sword of war. God himself is commander-in-chief of this expedition against the mountains of Israel. It is he that says, Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you ( v. 3 ); the sword of the Chaldeans is at God's command, goes where he sends it, comes where he brings it, and lights as he directs it. In the desolations of that war, 1. The idols and all their appurtenances should be destroyed. The high places, which were on the tops of mountains ( v. 3 ), shall be levelled and made desolate ( v. 6 ); they shall not be beautified, shall not be frequented as they had been. The altars, on which they offered sacrifice and burnt incense to strange gods, shall be broken to pieces and laid waste; the images and idols shall be defaced, shall be broken and cease, and be cut down, and all the fine costly works about them shall be abolished, v. 4 , 6 . Observe here, (1.) That war makes woeful desolations, which those persons, places, and things that were esteemed most sacred cannot escape; for the sword devours one as well as another. (2.) That God sometimes ruins idolatries even by the hands of idolaters, for such the Chaldeans themselves were; but, as if the deity were a local thing, the greatest admirers of the gods of their own country were the greatest despisers of the gods of other countries. (3.) It is just with God to make that a desolation which we make an idol of; for he is a jealous God and will not bear a rival. (4.) If men do not, as they ought, destroy idolatry, God will, first or last, find out a way to do it. When Josiah had destroyed the high places, altars, and images, with the sword of justice, they set them up again; but God will now destroy them with the sword of war, and let us see who dares re-establish them. 2. The worshippers of idols and all their adherents should be destroyed likewise. As all their high places shall be laid waste, so shall all their dwelling-places too, even all their cities, v. 6 . Those that profane God's dwelling-place as they had done can expect no other than that he should abandon theirs, ch. v. 11 . If any man defile the temple of God, him will God destroy, 1 Cor. iii. 17 . It is here threatened that their slain shall fall in the midst of them ( v. 7 ); there shall be abundance slain, even in those places which were thought most safe; but it is added as a remarkable circumstance that they shall fall before their idols ( v. 4 ), that their dead carcases should be laid, and their bones scattered, about their altars, v. 5 . (1.) Thus their idols should be polluted, and those places profaned by the dead bodies which they had had in veneration. If they will not defile the covering of their graven images, God will, Isa. xxx. 22 . The throwing of the carcases among them, as upon the dunghill, intimates that they were but dunghill-deities. (2.) Thus it was intimated that they were but dead things, unfit to be rivals with the living God; for the carcases of dead men, that, like them, have eyes and see not, ears and hear not, were the fittest company for them. (3.) Thus the idols were upbraided with their inability to help their worshippers, and idolaters were upbraided with the folly of trusting in them; for, it should seem, they fell by the sword of the enemy when they were actually before their idols imploring their aid and putting themselves under their protection. Sennacherib was slain by his sons when he was worshipping in the house of his god. (4.) The sin might be read in this circumstance of the punishment; the slain men are cast before the idols, to show that therefore they are slain, because they worshipped those idols; see Jer. viii. 1, 2 . Let the survivors observe it, and take warning not to worship images; let them see it, and know that God is the Lord, that the Lord he is God and he alone.

Cross-references

Related passages from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.

Genesis 6:11

The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

Exodus 7:5

And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.

Exodus 14:4

And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. And they did so.

Exodus 14:18

And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten me honour upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen.

2 Kings 19:19

Now therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only.

Job 8:14

Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider’s web.

Job 8:15

He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand: he shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure.

Psalms 58:2

Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.

Psalms 83:17

Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish:

Jeremiah 6:7

As a fountain casteth out her waters, so she casteth out her wickedness: violence and spoil is heard in her; before me continually is grief and wounds.

Jeremiah 14:18

If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with famine! yea, both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they know not.

Jeremiah 18:21

Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.

Jeremiah 25:33

And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.

Lamentations 2:20

Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

Lamentations 4:9

They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.

Ezekiel 5:7

Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye multiplied more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my judgments, neither have done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you;

Ezekiel 6:13

Then shall ye know that I am the Lord, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols.

Ezekiel 7:4

And mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity: but I will recompense thy ways upon thee, and thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

Ezekiel 7:9

And mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will recompense thee according to thy ways and thine abominations that are in the midst of thee; and ye shall know that I am the Lord that smiteth.

Ezekiel 7:11

Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness: none of them shall remain, nor of their multitude, nor of any of theirs: neither shall there be wailing for them.

Ezekiel 7:23

Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.

Ezekiel 9:7

And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew in the city.

Ezekiel 11:10

Ye shall fall by the sword; I will judge you in the border of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

Ezekiel 11:12

And ye shall know that I am the Lord: for ye have not walked in my statutes, neither executed my judgments, but have done after the manners of the heathen that are round about you.

Ezekiel 12:15

And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall scatter them among the nations, and disperse them in the countries.

Ezekiel 13:9

And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies: they shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord God.

Ezekiel 13:14

So will I break down the wall that ye have daubed with untempered morter, and bring it down to the ground, so that the foundation thereof shall be discovered, and it shall fall, and ye shall be consumed in the midst thereof: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

Ezekiel 13:21

Your kerchiefs also will I tear, and deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand to be hunted; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

Ezekiel 13:23

Therefore ye shall see no more vanity, nor divine divinations: for I will deliver my people out of your hand: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

Ezekiel 14:8

And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

Ezekiel 15:7

And I will set my face against them; they shall go out from one fire, and another fire shall devour them; and ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I set my face against them.

Ezekiel 20:38

And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

Ezekiel 20:42

And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to your fathers.

Ezekiel 20:44

And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have wrought with you for my name’s sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord God.

Ezekiel 23:49

And they shall recompense your lewdness upon you, and ye shall bear the sins of your idols: and ye shall know that I am the Lord God.

Ezekiel 24:24

Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign: according to all that he hath done shall ye do: and when this cometh, ye shall know that I am the Lord God.

Ezekiel 24:27

In that day shall thy mouth be opened to him which is escaped, and thou shalt speak, and be no more dumb: and thou shalt be a sign unto them; and they shall know that I am the Lord.

Ezekiel 25:17

And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them.

Ezekiel 26:6

And her daughters which are in the field shall be slain by the sword; and they shall know that I am the Lord.

Ezekiel 28:18

Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.

Topics

Idolatry

Verses like this

Other verses that share key original-language words with Ezekiel 6:7.

Genesis 2:21

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

Genesis 2:9

And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 3:22

And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

Genesis 3:8

And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.

Genesis 4:1

And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.

Genesis 4:6

And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?

Genesis 4:9

And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?

Frequently asked questions

What does Ezekiel 6:7 say?

Ezekiel 6:7 (King James Version) reads: "And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the Lord."

Is Ezekiel 6:7 in the Old or New Testament?

Ezekiel 6:7 is in the Old Testament of the Bible, in the book of Ezekiel.

Reflect

As you read Ezekiel 6:7, what is one truth here you can carry into today?

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