Ezekiel 2:7

And thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear: for they are most rebellious.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:6-10 Those who will do any thing to purpose in the service of God, must not fear men. Wicked men are as briers and thorns; but they are nigh unto cursing, and their end is to be burned. The prophet must be faithful to the souls of those to whom he was sent. All who speak from God to others, must obey his voice. The discoveries of sin, and the warnings of wrath, should be matter of lamentation. And those acquainted with the word of God, will clearly perceive it is filled with woe to impenitent sinners; and that all the precious promises of the gospel are for the repenting, believing servants of the Lord.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A rebellious house - A phrase employed continually by Ezekiel in bitter irony, in the place of house of Israel, as much as to say, "House no longer of Israel, but of rebellion." Compare Isaiah 30:9.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. most rebellious—literally, "rebellion" itself: its very essence.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Thou shalt speak my words unto them; declaring what I shall show thee, and in words which I will put into thy mouth.

Whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear: see Ezekiel 2:5.

For they are most rebellious; Heb. rebellion in the abstract, by which the Hebrew (as some other languages do) expresseth the superlative degree, as we have it rightly translated.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And thou shall speak my words unto them,.... Not his own words, but those the Lord should put into his mouth. The Targum is,

"and thou shall prophesy the words of my prophecy unto them:''

whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear; See Gill on Ezekiel 2:5;

for they are most rebellious; or "rebellion" (c) itself; as the carnal mind is said to be "enmity" itself against God, Romans 8:7; which aggravates their character and state.

(c) "rebellio ipsi", Montanus, Polanus, Starckius; "inobedientia sunt", Cocceius.

Geneva Study Bible

And thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear: for they are most rebellious.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - Thou shalt speak my words, etc. The words conveyed

(1) a ground of encouragement in the fact that the words would be given by Jehovah (romp. Jeremiah 1:7, 17; Matthew 10:19, 20); and

(2) a warning against the intermingling of lower thoughts and a self-originated message (Ezekiel 13:7; Ezekiel 22:28). They are most rebellious; literally, the Hebrew being a noun, they are rebellion, or stubbornness, itself. Ezekiel 2:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The calling of the prophet begins with the Lord describing to Ezekiel the people to whom He is sending him, in order to make him acquainted with the difficulties of his vocation, and to encourage him for the discharge of the same. Ezekiel 2:3. And He said to me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to the rebels who have rebelled against me: they and their fathers have fallen away from me, even until this very day. Ezekiel 2:4. And the children are of hard face, and hardened heart. To them I send thee; and to them shalt thou speak: Thus says the Lord Jehovah. Ezekiel 2:5. And they - they may hear thee or fail (to do so); for they are a stiff-necked race - they shall experience that a prophet has been in their midst. Ezekiel 2:6. But thou, son of man, fear not before them, and be not afraid of their words, if thistles and thorns are found about thee, and thou sittest upon scorpions; fear not before their words, and tremble not before their face; for they are a stiff-necked race. Ezekiel 2:7. And speak my words to them, whether they may hear or fail (to do so); for they are stiff-necked.

The children of Israel have become heathen, no longer a people of God, not even a heathen nation (גּוי, Isaiah 1:4), but גּוים, "heathens," that is, as being rebels against God. המּורדים (with the article) is not to be joined as an adjective to גּוים, which is without the article, but is employed substantively in the form of an apposition. They have rebelled against God in this, that they, like their fathers, have separated themselves from Jehovah down to this day (as regards פּשׁע בּ, see on Isaiah 1:2; and עצם היּום הזּה, as in the Pentateuch; cf. Leviticus 23:14; Genesis 7:13; Genesis 17:23, etc.). Like their fathers, the sons are rebellious, and, in addition, they are קשׁי פנים, of hard countenance" equals חזקי, "of hard brow" (Ezekiel 3:7), i.e., impudent, without hiding the face, or lowering the look for shame. This shamelessness springs from hardness of heart. To these hardened sinners Ezekiel is to announce the word of the Lord. Whether they hear it or not (אם־ואם, sive-sive, as in Joshua 24:15; Ecclesiastes 11:3; Ecclesiastes 12:14), they shall in any case experience that a prophet has been amongst them. That they will neglect to hear is very probable, because they are a stiff-necked race (בּית, "house" equals family). The Vau before ידעוּ (Ezekiel 2:5) introduces the apodosis. היה is perfect, not present. This is demanded by the usus loquendi and the connection of the thought. The meaning is not: they shall now from his testimony that a prophet is there; but they shall experience from the result, viz., when the word announced by him will have been fulfilled, that a prophet has been amongst them. Ezekiel, therefore, is not to be prevented by fear of them and their words from delivering a testimony against their sins. The ἁπάξ λεγόμενα, סרבים and סלּונים, are not, with the older expositors, to be explained adjectively: "rebelles et renuentes," but are substantives. As regards סלּון, the signification "thorn" is placed beyond doubt by סלּון in Ezekiel 28:24, and סרב in Aramaic does indeed denote "refractarius;" but this signification is a derived one, and inappropriate here. סרב is related to צרב, "to burn, to singe," and means "urtica," "stinging-nettle, thistle," as Donasch in Raschi has already explained it. אותך is, according to the later usage, for אתּך, expressing the "by and with of association," and occurs frequently in Ezekiel. Thistles and thorns are emblems of dangerous, hostile men. The thought is strengthened by the words "to sit on (אל for על) scorpions," as these animals inflict a painful and dangerous wound. For the similitude of dangerous men to scorpions, cf. Sir. 26:10, and other proof passages in Bochart, Hierozoic. III. p. 551f., ed. Rosenmll.