Ezek — Capítulo 7

7:1-27 Ezekiel 7 contains three messages of doom (7:3-4, 5-9, 10-27). They reminded Judah that their forthcoming destruction was not a random twist of fate but an act of the Lord’s judgment. 7:1-2 As the prophet unfolded his message, the scope of the threatened judgment kept increasing, like ripples spreading outward from a stone dropped into a pond. Now the judgment he announced was not just for Israel, as in ch 6, but against the whole land, east, west, north, or south. This global judgment upon God’s people would be tantamount to the end of the world. Judgment was no longer imminent, as in the previous oracles; it had arrived.

7:3-4 There was no hope that God would change his mind. • Then you will know that I am the Lord: When they received exactly what they deserved, the people would recognize the Lord’s power and holiness.

7:5-9 A second message reiterates the personal nature of the coming judgment. The people would not simply know that God is the Lord, as in 7:4. The Lord, who once showed himself to his people as “the Lord who heals you” (Exod 15:26), had now become “the Lord who strikes you.” The day of the Lord had come (Joel 1:15; Amos 5:18-20).

7:10 blossomed to full flower: In their wickedness and pride, the people of Israel were ripe to be plucked (cp. Amos 8:1-2).

7:11 Their violence has grown into a rod that will beat them: God would use their own violence to punish them by giving them over to internal strife and conflict (cp. Prov 6:27). Wealth and prestige could not save them against the coming torrent of destruction.

7:12-27 Comprehensive judgment is depicted in two parallel panels, 7:12-18 and 7:19-27. Each begins with the futility of material gain in view of this impending judgment and moves through the arrival of war and its associated horrors to a declaration of universal ineffectiveness, terror, and mourning. 7:12-13 Commercial transactions would lose their meaning. There would be no such thing as a good deal or a bad deal; buyers and sellers alike would face God’s terrible anger.

7:14 When Israel sounded the trumpet in holy war, the troops would not rally and the enemy would not be terrified, as in the past (see Num 10:9; Josh 6:4-20; Judg 6:34; 7:16-22; Neh 4:18-20).

7:19 Even silver and gold, the traditional last resorts in times of crisis, would be unable to save or satisfy their owners. They would dispose of them like worthless trash (literally impurity), something hateful and disgusting that they could not wait to be rid of.

7:20-22 Their formerly precious objects were contaminated and contaminating because they were used to make detestable idols and vile images. • God would hand over his treasured land, the home of his sanctuary (Deut 12:5, 11), to brutal and ruthless pagans. Since Israel had repeatedly failed to distinguish between true and false places of worship, continued in pagan worship at the high places, and even brought idols into the Temple (Ezek 8), God would destroy the pagan centers of worship in the land and even in the Temple in Jerusalem. In the past God had defended Jerusalem against overwhelming odds (see 2 Kgs 18:1–19:37), but now he would abandon her to her well-deserved fate.

7:23-27 Neither religious authorities (prophets and priests) nor civil leaders (king or prince) could bring the peace the people were looking for. High-born and low-born alike would be helpless in facing their judgment. In the complete absence of guidance and direction, no hope would be left for the people.