Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 6:14
So will I stretch out my hand upon them, and make the land desolate, yea, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblath, in all their habitations: and they shall know that I [am] the LORD.
14. desolate, yea, more desolate ] Rather: desolate and waste (ch. Eze 33:28-29, Eze 35:3) more than the wilderness of Diblah. The comparative “more than,” however, is not probable. Moreover a wilderness of Diblah is unknown; Diblathaim besides being in Moab could not be called desert. The construction is difficult, but probably the reading should be: from the wilderness to Riblah, i.e. from south to north. Riblah was situated on the northern border of the country (Num 34:11); it is said to be in “the land of Hamath,” Jer 52:9; Jer 52:27 (where by the converse substitution of d for r, LXX. reads Diblah). A few MSS. read Riblah. It must be acknowledged that this way of designating the whole extent of the land from S. to N. is nowhere else employed, the northern limit being usually expressed by “the entering in of Hamath.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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 Nu 33:46, Almon-Diblathaim; and in Jer 48:22, Beth-Diblathaim. It was a part of that horrible wilderness mentioned by Moses, De 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 daleth and the resh, which in MSS. is often scarcely discernible; and hence vast multitudes of various readings. Five, probably six, of Kennicott’s MSS. have riblathah, as likewise two of my oldest MSS.; though in the margin of one a later hand directs the word to be read 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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Stretch out my hand: this noteth the greatness of the blow, God striketh hard when he stretcheth out his hand, and therefore you find a mighty hand joined with outstretched arm.
Desolate; a desolation, (a Hebraism,) for most desolate.
Yea, more desolate; and a desolation greater or above the desolation of that most horrid wilderness of Moab, which is here called
Diblah, mentioned in a dual form, Num 33:46; Jer 48:22, as some think; and described by Moses, Deu 8:15. It was that wherein the fiery serpents so much annoyed Israel. Or, I will lay their habitations waste and desolate, from Jerusalem unto Diblath, the borders of Moab, and the land all along shall be as desolate as that very wilderness. So the Lord will turn a most fruitful land into barrenness for the sins of the people.
They shall have; some instructed and bettered shall own me and fear me, the rest convinced and astonished shall confess that God hath done this great thing against them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. Diblathanother form ofDiblathaim, a city in Moab (Num 33:46;Jer 48:22), near which, east andsouth of the Dead Sea, was the wilderness of Arabia-Deserta.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
So will I stretch out mine hand upon them,…. Not unto them, in a way of mercy; but upon, or against them, in a way of judgment. The Targum paraphrases it,
“and I will lift up the stroke of my power upon them;”
his mighty hand of vengeance:
and make the land desolate; by destroying the inhabitants of it:
yea, more desolate than the wilderness towards Diblath, in all their habitations; so the Syriac version renders it, “and I will make this land more desolate than the land of Diblath”; but other versions, “I will make the land desolate from the wilderness of Diblath”; to which the Targum agrees; or, “from the wilderness to Diblath”: Kimchi and Ben Melech think this is the same with Riblath; as Deuel is put for Reuel in Nu 1:14; which was in the land of Hamath, and which, Jerom says, was in his times called Epiphania in Syria; here it was that Nebuchadnezzar brought Zedekiah, and slew his sons before him,
Jer 39:5; this, though in Hamath in Syria, was on the borders of the land of Israel, Nu 34:8; so that “hence from the desert of Diblath”, as the Arabic version renders it, “even to Jerusalem”, as may be supplied, takes in the whole land, and shows that it should be utterly desolate. There is a Bethdiblathaim mentioned in Jer 48:22; as in Moab; and there is also Almondiblathaim, which was one of the stations of the Israelites; and seems to be in Moab, or on its borders,
Nu 33:46; and appears, by the places named with it, to be the same as that in Jeremiah; and so was part of that terrible wilderness through which the Israelites passed; and to which the desolation of the land of Israel by the Chaldeans is compared; and which serves to confirm our version, which makes the desolation to be greater than that:
and they shall know that I [am] the Lord; the true God; the one and only Lord God; who never changes his purposes; fulfils his promises and threatenings; and there is no escaping his mighty hand.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Ezekiel pursues the same sentiment, but it is necessary to persist with more words in confirmation of his prophecy, because it was somewhat difficult of belief, especially among men so secure, and who had been hardened against God by long habit. This is the reason, then, why he uses so many words about a thing in itself by no means obscure. Now he speaks concerning the extension of God’s hand, which is a Scriptural form of speech sufficiently familiar; for it is said that God extends his hand when he puts forth manifest examples of his wrath. But the phrase is taken from men, who, if they wish to accomplish anything great extend their arm. We know that God accomplishes all things by his nod alone, but because through our sluggishness we do not comprehend his judgment, the Scripture, in compassion to our rudeness represents his hand as extended. But he says, that he will place the land in devastation and stupor The two words, שממה, shemmeh, and שמה, shemeh, are different, though derived from the same root. שמה , shemeh, signifies to destroy and lay waste; also to wonder at: so that the explanation of some is not bad — I will place the land for a desolation and an astonishment. But because the comparison of a desert follows immediately, I willingly subscribe to the opinion of those who translate desolation or solitude, and vacancy or waste: for although these: two words are synonymous, as they say, yet the Prophet properly adds vacancy or solitude to waste, because he does not. inculcate the same thing too often, for the sake of explanation, but only that he may confirm what he otherwise knew would not be attended to by the Israelites. Some translate from the desert even to Diblathah; and there are some who think Riblatha should be read instead of Diblathah — and it may happen that an error has crept in, on account of the similarity of the letters ד and ר. But I do not think any change is needed: and besides, I reject as absurd, the explanation from the desert even to Diblathah or Riblatha. But מ is rather a mark of comparison: the land of Israel shall be reduced to desolation more than the desert of Diblathah. For how could the Prophet have said — from the desert even to Diblathah? The threat is against the land of Israel, but Diblathah was in Syria beyond the land, for they think it was Antioch: hence the true sense, according to the Prophet’s intention, could not be elicited from this. But it is most suitable that the desert should be placed before the eyes of the Israelites, because it was not far from their country: Syria was between them and it, but since there was frequent intercourse, that desert was sufficiently known to them. Already had they passed through the desert when they passed into exile, and the difference in the aspect of the country would rather waken up their senses: for the whole of Syria is fertile, and Antioch has an excellent site, as geographers relate. Since, therefore, the Israelites had traversed a pleasant land, and one filled with all opulence, when they came to a desert vast and sorrowful, that appearance, as I have said, would stir them up the more. This, therefore, appears to me the reason why the Prophet says that the desert Diblathah was not so waste, or solitary, or dry, or squalid, as the land of Israel should become.
He says, in all their habitations, that they may know that there would be no corner free from that devastation which he predicts: for it will often happen that some land is partially seized and spoiled, but here the Prophet comprehends all habitations. And they shall know, he says, that I am Jehovah: that is, they shall know that I have spoken by my Prophets. But God announces this with displeasure, because the Prophet’s authority ought to have been sacred and established among the people. For his calling was so marked out that they could not contend against him without being opposed to God. Hence Ezekiel is omitted here, and God comes forward, as if he had spoken himself. They shall know, therefore, he says, both my faithfulness and power. Besides this knowledge is extended to the reprobate who do not profit by God’s chastisements. Although, therefore, experience compels them to acknowledge God as a judge, yet they remain obstinate, as we shall soon see again and again. It follows —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(14) More desolate than the wilderness toward Diblath.The name Diblath does not occur elsewhere; but Diblathaim, the dual form, is mentioned in Num. 33:46-47, Jer. 48:22, as a double city on the eastern border of Moab, beyond which lay the great desert which stretches thence eastward, nearly to the Euphrates. It was customary to call any wilderness by the name of the nearest town. (See 1Sa. 23:14-15; 1Sa. 23:24-25; 1Sa. 25:2, &c.) That wilderness appears from this passage to have been proverbial for its desolation.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. This punishment comes from the same Hand that in former times was lifted up against their enemies. The “spoiler of Moab” (Jer 48:18-22) has now become the destroyer of his own chosen people (Eze 33:28). It is seen from the Moabite stone that Diblath and Diblathaim may be used interchangeably. “Yea, desolate from the wilderness unto Riblah,” is a reading favored by some, but without sufficient reason.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Eze 6:14. Wilderness towards Diblath Wilderness of Diblath. Diblath was in the land of Moab (Num 33:46; Num 33:56.), and was part of that terrible wilderness mentioned by Moses, Deu 8:15.
REFLECTIONS.1st, We have here repeated denunciations of vengeance against a rebellious people.
1. The prophet is commanded to set his face towards the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, against the whole land, and the inhabitants thereof; against the greatest among them, particularly those who had been the ringleaders in wickedness: or the mountains are addressed, as if the rocks thereof were less obdurate, and the inanimate earth more ready to hear, than that stupid people; and he is to set his face against the hills, the rivers, and the valleys also, the especial scenes of their idolatry; or as descriptive of the whole country, against which judgment is denounced.
2. Utter destruction is threatened from God both against the idols and their worshippers; for though the executioners of his wrath were the Chaldeans, the sword in their hands was his. So far from being able to protect their votaries, these mock deities would be unable to defend themselves; their high places should be destroyed, their altars desolate, their images broken, and these dunghill gods cast into the dust: their worshippers should share their fate; slain before their idols, their dead corpses should be laid at their feet, and their bones scattered around these hateful altars: universal desolations should spread through the land, the cities be destroyed, every dwelling-place ruined; and those high places and altars, defiled by their abominations, be now more defiled with the blood and carcases of the slain: and ye shall know that I am the Lord; by terrible experience convinced of the difference between those senseless idols which they served, and that only living and true God whom they had slighted.
2nd, When God executes judgment, he still remembers mercy. Though none should be spared in Jerusalem, a remnant of the dispersed shall yet be rescued from the devouring sword.
1. They shall remember me. Either, [1.] The wrath of God, visible now in their sufferings, among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, would drive them to him, afflictions being often the most salutary means of recovering the backsliding soul: or, [2.] They would be drawn by the tender mercies of God, whom they had slighted, who still yearned over them, though so highly provoked by their ungrateful departures from him, and who was broken with their whorish heart, grieved to behold their spiritual adulteries and attachment to their idols. Note; Nothing wounds the awakened sinner’s conscience more deeply, than a sense of his base ingratitude, and his grieving the holy spirit of God.
2. This will produce self-loathing and genuine repentance. They shall loath themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations; they will be brought, by remembering God, to a knowledge of their own abominations; and will discover the malignity of their sins, and the multitude of evils that they had overlooked; and this will produce self-abhorrence and self-loathing; even though God hath forgiven them, they never can forgive themselves.
3. They will then give glory to God. They shall know that I am the Lord, acknowledging the truth of his word, the justice of their punishment, and the wonders of his grace; and this will be the case with every truly penitent soul.
3rdly, Since the Jews in general were too unaffected both with their sufferings and sins, the prophet is ordered,
1. To express the strongest sensations of grief and anguish for them, if it might contribute to awaken them from their insensibility, when they saw him so deeply affected on their account: Smite with thine hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas! for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel; their sins were grievous, and their judgment would be terrible; devoted to famine, pestilence, and the sword. Note; God’s faithful ministers have the tenderest sensibility towards miserable sinners, and often weep over those who never shed a tear for themselves.
2. To repeat the same awful warnings as he had done before, that they may have line upon line, and be assured of the certainty of the impending judgments. In vain is flight when God pursues; he that is far off shall die of the pestilence; in vain is resistance, when the war is of the Lord: he that is near, and stands on his defence, shall fall by the sword, or perish by the famine in the straitness of the siege. Since God’s fury is provoked, he will accomplish their destruction. Before those hated idols, in every place where they had offered incense unto them, shall their putrid corpses lie unburied, a manifest token of God’s righteous vengeance. More desolate than the great and terrible wilderness towards Diblath, Deu 8:15 shall the whole land be made. And since they refuse to fly to him, and prove his mercy, God will force them to know him as the sin-avenging God, in the terrible judgments which he will inflict upon them.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
REFLECTIONS
READER! amidst numberless subjects, which arise everywhere and in every part of the word of God, some there are, which from their vast importance, arrest the mind more earnestly, and call up the warmest attention. Such in an eminent degree, is what is here said, of the remnant the Lord would leave among his people in the worst of times. It was so in the Church of God in the Prophet’s days: and the same is so in ours. Never, I believe, did the waters of the sanctuary run at a lower ebb, than in the present period of the Gospel; but yet, even now the Lord hath not left himself without witness. He hath a seed that serve him: a people near to himself, that dwell alone, and are not reckoned among the nations. And indeed, we may well exclaim with the Prophet, and say, Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah!
Shall not you and I be anxious to know whether we are of this happy number? Surely it is a momentous concern. Behold here then, in this Chapter, are their characters faithfully and clearly drawn by Jehovah himself. The Lord saith, that they are a remnant among a multitude, and such as have escaped. They are brought into an acquaintance with themselves, and know the plague of their own heart; and from this conviction, they loath themselves for all the evils which they have committed, and for all their abominations. They are brought to remember the Lord also, and are made acquainted with his salvation. And from the grace of Jehovah manifested to them, and the conscious state of their own undeservings; they discover, that their mercy all flows from Jehovah’s covenant relations, and in that discovery they learn to know the Lord. My brother! say, hath the Lord thus wrought for his great name’s sake in your soul? Oh! the blessedness of God the Holy Ghost’s teaching, in convincing of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. It is thus that all the Lord’s remnant are taught of God as his children, and great then is the peace of his children!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Eze 6:14 So will I stretch out my hand upon them, and make the land desolate, yea, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblath, in all their habitations: and they shall know that I [am] the LORD.
Ver. 14. Than the wilderness toward Diblath. ] Which was horriditate nobile, bordering upon that terrible howling wilderness mentioned by Moses. Deu 8:15 Jer 48:22
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
So will I: or, And I will.
stretch out My hand. Reference to Pentateuch (Exo 7:6, &c.)
Diblath = Diblathaim (Num 33:46. Jer 48:22). A Massoretic note records the fact that some MSS, read Riblah”; but many codices, with ten early printed editions, Aramaean, Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, read “Diblah”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
will I: Eze 16:27, Eze 20:33, Eze 20:34, Isa 5:25, Isa 9:12, Isa 9:17, Isa 9:21, Isa 10:4, Isa 26:11
more desolate than the wilderness: or, desolate from the wilderness
Diblath: Num 33:46, Almon-diblathaim, Jer 48:22, Beth-diblathaim, Diblath was a city of Moab and appears from parallel passages to have been situated between Dibon and Abarim or Nebo.
Reciprocal: 1Ki 20:28 – ye shall know Isa 14:17 – made Jer 4:27 – The Jer 18:16 – make Eze 7:4 – and ye Eze 12:15 – General Eze 12:19 – that her Eze 15:8 – I will Eze 33:28 – I will lay Eze 35:3 – and I will stretch Eze 36:4 – desolate Eze 36:34 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 6:14. Concerning Diblath, the Funk and Wagnalls Bible Dictionary says the following; No such place is known and the true reading may be ‘to Riblah’ in the extreme north of the Lebanon region, making the whole expression mean: ‘from south to north, i,e from one end of the land to the other.” The significance to us is that God threatened a widespread desolation over the land as a punishment for their idolatry
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
6:14 So will I stretch out my hand upon them, and make the land desolate, even, more desolate {h} than the wilderness toward Diblath, in all their habitations: and they shall know that I [am] the LORD.
(h) Which was in Syria and bordered on Israel, or from the wilderness which was south, to Diblath which was north: meaning the while country.