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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(11) Neither shall there be wailing for them.—The word for wailing is another of those words occurring only in this passage which have been variously understood. It is now generally taken for that which is glorious or beautiful. Israel has run its circle; prosperity has developed pride, and pride has culminated in all wickedness; now the end has come, they and their tumult (marg., for multitude) disappear together, and of their glory there shall be nothing left.

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

Rod - Used here for tribe Exodus 31:2. The people of Judah have blossomed into proud luxuriance. In Ezekiel 7:11 it means the rod to punish wickedness. The meaning of the passage is obscure, owing to the brief and enigmatic form of the utterance. We may adopt the following explanation. The Jews had ever exulted in their national privileges - everything great and noble was to be from them and from theirs; but now Yahweh raises up the rod of the oppressor to confound and punish the rod of His people. The furious Chaldaean has become an instrument of God's wrath, endued with power emanating not from the Jews or from the multitude of the Jews, or from any of their children or people; nay, the destruction shall be so complete that none shall be left to make lamentation over them.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

11. Violence (that is, the violent foe) is risen up as a rod of (that is, to punish the Jews') wickedness (Zec 5:8).

theirs—their possessions, or all that belongs to them, whether children or goods. Grotius translates from a different Hebrew root, "their nobles," literally, "their tumultuous trains" (Margin) which usually escorted the nobles. Thus "nobles" will form a contrast to the general "multitude."

neither … wailing—(Jer 16:4-7; 25:33). Gesenius translates, "nor shall there be left any beauty among them." English Version is supported by the old Jewish interpreters. So general shall be the slaughter, none shall be left to mourn the dead.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Violence; with fierceness, which is their natural temper, a bitter and hasty nation, Habakkuk 1:6; with eagerness and impetuous vigour executing, and with injustice and violence oppressing all.

Is risen up; is grown up to be, though a rod to punish bad men, yet to be worse than those it punisheth; in brief, you may expect the very worst from the power, pride, and violence of those I am now letting in upon you. Or,

2. It may refer to Israel; thus your tribe (or rod, the same word) blossometh, but it is in sin, and that in pride and violence, so grown that it is a most wicked rod of injustice and oppression to your neighbours, brethren, servants, &c., as Jeremiah, Moses, and other prophets as well as Ezekiel complained; and now, your sins thus ripe, your sorrows must be very near, as it is not many months between the budding of the tree, and the ripening and gathering of the fruit.

None of them: this also is fairly applicable to both Chaldeans and Jews; the Jews should be utterly wasted first for their sins, which God will punish by this violent, proud, mighty enemy, and afterwards he will destroy root and branch of that mighty oppressor; and so sad shall the sufferings of both be, that the living shall not bewail their dead friends, because they shall judge the dead in better case than the living. And though the words may have this double aspect, yet I take them to refer principally and first to the Jews, and their near approaching sorrows.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness,.... Some understand this of the Chaldeans, who came with great violence against the Jews, and were a rod in the hand of the Lord, to scourge them for their wickedness; and this seems to be the sense of the Targum,

"spoilers are risen up to visit the wicked;''

but rather the violence, oppression, and rapine of the Jews are meant, and mentioned as the cause of their punishment; for this their oppression of the poor and needy, the widow and the fatherless, among them, God suffered the king of Babylon, a wicked prince, to come and chastise them:

none of them shall remain, nor of their multitude, nor of any of theirs; meaning not the Chaldean army, as if they came not of themselves, but of God, and much less were cut off, for they returned to their own land again; but the Jews, who either should die in the siege with the famine and pestilence, or be put to death by the sword, or be carried into captivity:

neither shall there be wailing for them; the destruction should be so general, that there would be but few left to mourn; and those that were left would be struck with such a stupor and amazement at the calamity, that they would not be capable of mourning; or with such a dread of the enemy, that there would be no place for lamentation over their dead friends and relations.

Geneva Study Bible

{g} Violence hath risen 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.

(g) This cruel enemy will be a sharp scourge for their wickedness.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11. “Violence” must be that in Israel, not that of the enemy. This violence has risen up so as to be, or to bring down a rod of wickedness, i.e. a rod due to wickedness or in chastisement of it (Ezekiel 7:23). All this, however, is language very unnatural.

The rest of Ezekiel 7:11 is very obscure, and the text certainly corrupt. The general sense conveyed when the words shall remain (A.V.) are inserted is that Israel and her multitude and her possessions shall be wholly swept away.

nor of any of theirs] Ges. conjectured: nor of their wealth, so R.V.

wailing for them] Ges. conjectured: magnificence, so R.V. neither shall there be eminency among them. Both words rendered “wealth” and “eminency” are entirely unknown; the former is probably no word at all but a false repetition of the previous expression “none of them;” if it be a word the natural rendering is that of Ew., moaning or sighing (Ezekiel 7:16 of doves), or unquietness. For the word “eminency” recourse is had to the Arab., generally a precarious proceeding. LXX. renders no account of either of the words. In his reconstruction of the text Corn. follows LXX. generally to the end of Ezekiel 7:9; Ezekiel 7:10-11 he emends thus: “Behold the crown (as Isaiah 28:5) is come forth, the sceptre blossoms; but the crown shall wither 11 and the sceptre fade; what are they, and what their multitude?” The crown and sceptre are those of Israel. The emendation may be left to itself.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11. - Violence is risen up, etc. The "violence" admits of the same twofold interpretation as the "pride" of ver. 10. None of them shall remain. The interpolated verb, though grammatically necessary, weakens the force of the Hebrew. "None of them; none of their multitude; none of their wealth." Neither shall there be wailing for them. The noun is not found elsewhere. Taken, as the Authorized Version takes it, the thought, like that of Ezekiel 24:16 and Jeremiah 16:4, is that the usual rites of burial would be neglected, and that there would be "no widows to make lamentation" (Psalm 78:64). The Revised Version "eminency" implies the loss of all that constituted greatness. Cornill and the LXX. ("beauty" or "gaiety") practically agree with this. The Vulgate gives requies, and Furst "a gathering, or tumult of the people." Probably the text is corrupt. Ezekiel 7:11

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Second Strophe

Ezekiel 7:10. Behold the day, behold, it cometh; the fate springeth up; the rod sprouteth; the pride blossometh. Ezekiel 7:11. The violence riseth up as the rod of evil: nothing of them, nothing of their multitude, nothing of their crowd, and nothing glorious upon them. Ezekiel 7:12. The time cometh, the day approacheth: let not the buyer rejoice, and let not the seller trouble himself; for wrath cometh upon the whole multitude thereof. Ezekiel 7:13. For the seller will not return to that which was sold, even though his life were still among the living: for the prophecy against its whole multitude will not turn back; and no one will strengthen himself as to his life through his iniquity. Ezekiel 7:14. They blow the trumpet and make everything ready; but no one goeth into the battle: for my wrath cometh upon all their multitude. - The rod is already prepared; nothing will be left of the ungodly. This is the leading thought of the strophe. The three clauses of Ezekiel 7:10 are synonymous; but there is a gradation in the thought. The approaching fate springs up out of the earth (יצא, applied to the springing up of plants, as in 1 Kings 5:13; Isaiah 11:1, etc.); it sprouts as a rod, and flowers as pride. Matteh, the rod as an instrument of chastisement (Isaiah 10:5). This rod is then called za equals dho4n, pride, inasmuch as God makes use of a proud and violent people, namely the Chaldeans (Habakkuk 1:6.; Jeremiah 50:31 seq.), to inflict the punishment. Sprouting and blossoming, which are generally used as figurative representations of fresh and joyous prosperity, denote here the vigorous growth of that power which is destined to inflict the punishment. Both châmâs (violence) and zâdhōn (pride) refer to the enemy who is to chastise Israel. The violence which he employs rises up into the chastening rod of "evil," i.e., of ungodly Israel. In Ezekiel 7:11 the effect of the blow is described in short, broken sentences. The emotion apparent in the frequent repetition of לא is intensified by the omission of the verb, which gives to the several clauses the character of exclamations. So far as the meaning is concerned, we have to insert יהיה in thought, and to take מן ekat o in a partitive sense: there will not be anything of them, i.e., nothing will be left of them (the Israelites, or the inhabitants of the land). מהם (of them) is explained by the nouns which follow. המון and the ἁπ. λεγ. לחולםÅ¡, plural of הם or המה, both derivatives of המה, are so combined that המון signifies the tumultuous multitude of people, המה the multitude of possessions (like המון, Isaiah 60:2; Psalm 37:16, etc.). The meaning which Hvernick assigns to hâmeh, viz., anxiety or trouble, is unsupported and inappropriate. The ἁπ λεγ. נהּ is not to be derived from נהה, to lament, as the Rabbins affirm; or interpreted, as Kimchi - who adopts this derivation - maintains, on the ground of Jeremiah 16:4., as signifying that, on account of the multitude of the dying, there will be no more lamentation for the dead. This leaves the Mappik in ה unexplained. נהּ is a derivative of a root נוהּ; in Arabic, na equals ha, elata fuit res, eminuit, magnificus fuit; hence ,נהּres magnifica. When everything disappears in such a way as this, the joy occasioned by the acquisition of property, and the sorrow caused by its loss, will also pass away (Ezekiel 7:12). The buyer will not rejoice in the property he has bought, for he will not be able to enjoy it; and the seller will not mourn that he has been obliged to part with his possession, for he would have lost it in any case.

(Note: "It is a natural thing to rejoice in the purchase of property, and to mourn over its sale. But when slavery and captivity stare you in the face, rejoicing and mourning are equally absurd." - Jerome.)

The wrath of God is kindled against their whole multitude; that is to say, the judgment falls equally upon them all. The suffix in המונהּ refers, as Jerome has correctly shown, to the "land of Israel" (admath, Yisrâeel) in Ezekiel 7:2, i.e., to the inhabitants of the land. The words, "the seller will not return to what he has sold," are to be explained from the legal regulations concerning the year of Jubilee in Leviticus 25, according to which all landed property that had been sold was to revert to its original owner (or his heir), without compensation, in the year of jubilee; so that he would then return to his mimkâr (Leviticus 25:14, Leviticus 25:27-28). Henceforth, however, this will take place no more, even if היּתם, their (the sellers') life, should be still alive (sc., at the time when the return to his property would take place, according to the regulations of the year of jubilee), because Israel will be banished from the land. The clause 'ועוד בּחיּים ה is a conditional circumstantial clause. The seller will not return (לא ישׁוּב) to his possession, because the prophecy concerning the whole multitude of the people will not return (לא), i.e., will not turn back (for this meaning of שׁוּב, compare Isaiah 45:23; Isaiah 55:11). As לא ישׁוּב corresponds to the previous לא ישׁוּב, so does חזון את־כּל המונהּ to חרון אל־כּל־המונהּ in Ezekiel 7:12. In the last clause of Ezekiel 7:13, חיּתו is not to be taken with בּעונו in the sense of "in the iniquity of his life," which makes the suffix in בּעונו superfluous, but with יתחזּקוּ, the Hithpael being construed with the accusative, "strengthen himself in his life." Whether these words also refer to the year of jubilee, as Hvernick supposes, inasmuch as the regulation that every one was to recover his property was founded upon the idea of the restitution and re-creation of the theocracy, we may leave undecided; since the thought is evidently simply this: ungodly Israel shall be deprived of its possession, because the wicked shall not obtain the strengthening of his life through his sin. This thought leads on to Ezekiel 7:14, in which we have a description of the utter inability to offer any successful resistance to the enemy employed in executing the judgment. There is some difficulty connected with the word בּתּקוע, since the infin. absolute, which the form תּקוע seems to indicate, cannot be construed with either a preposition or the article. Even if the expression ּבתּקוע תּקעוּ in Jeremiah 6:1 was floating before the mind of Ezekiel, and led to his employing the bold phrase ּבתּקוע, this would not justify the use of the infinitive absolute with a preposition and the article. תּקוע must be a substantive form, and denote not clangour, but the instrument used to sound an alarm, viz., the shōphâr (Ezekiel 33:3). הכין, an unusual form of the inf. abs. (see Joshua 7:7), used in the place of the finite tense, and signifying to equip for war, as in Nahum 2:4. הכּל, everything requisite for waging war. And no one goes into the battle, because the wrath of God turns against them (Leviticus 26:17), and smites them with despair (Deuteronomy 32:30).