Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 7:23
Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.
23. Make a chain ] the chain. The chain could only be for binding the captives to carry them into exile. In Isa 40:19 a similar word is used for the silver chains with which the idols were fastened to the wall lest they should totter or fall; and in Nah 3:10 the verb is rendered “were bound” with chains (another word, Jer 40:1). If the reading be correct the sense is not doubtful. It must be confessed, however, that nothing in the text suggests any reference to chains. LXX. connects with the preceding (so Syr.) and reads: and they shall work disorder (defilement). Corn. suggests two inf. abs. (after Eze 23:46), viz. raze and empty out! (cf. Psa 137:7; Isa 24:1). Curiously neither of the words is used by Ezekiel. The present reading is scarcely original.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Make a chain – Forge the chain, the chain of imprisonment determined for them.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Eze 7:23
Make a chain.
The chain of influences
At school and in college, in announcing the mechanical powers, we glorified the lever, the pulley, the inclined plane, the screw, the axle and the wheel, but my text calls us to study the philosophy of the chain. These links of metal, one with another, attracted the old Bible authors, and we hear the chain rattle, and see its coil all the way through from Genesis to Revelation, flashing as an adornment, or restraining as in captivity, or holding in conjunction as in case of machinery. What I wish to impress upon you is the strength, in right and wrong directions, of consecutive forces, the superior power of a chain of influences above one influence, the great advantage of a congeries of links above one link. Make a chain! That which contains the greatest importance, that which encloses the most tremendous opportunities, that which of earthly things is most watched by other worlds, that which has beating against its two sides all the eternities, is the cradle. The grave is nothing in importance compared with it, for that is only a gully that we step across in a second, but the cradle has within it a new eternity, just born and never to cease. Now, what shall be done with this new life recently launched? Let it be constant instruction, constant prayer, constant application of good influences, a long line of consecutive impressions, reaching from his first year to his fifth, and from his fifth year to his tenth, and from his tenth year to his twentieth. Make a chain! Spasmodic education, paroxysmal discipline, occasional fidelity, amount to nothing. You can as easily hold an anchor by one link as hold a child to the right by isolated and intermittent faithfulness. The example must connect with the instruction. The conversation must combine with the actions. There is such a thing as impressing children so powerfully with good, that sixty years will have no more power to efface it than sixty minutes. What a rough time that young man has in doing wrong, carefully nurtured as he was! His father and mother have been dead for years, or over in Scotland, or England, or Ireland; but they have stood in the doorway of every dram shop that he entered, and under the chandelier of every house of dissipation, saying, My son, this is no place for you. Have you forgotten the old folks? By the God to whom we consecrated you, by the cradle in which we rocked you, by the grass-worn graves in the old country churchyard, by the heaven where we hope yet to meet you, Go home! And some Sunday you will be surprised to find that young man suddenly asking for the prayers of the church. Oh, the almighty pull of the long chain of early gracious influences! But all people between thirty and forty years of age, yes, between forty and fifty–aye, between fifty and sixty years–and all septuagenarians as well, need a surrounding conjunction of good influences. In all the great prisons are men and women who went wrong in mid-life and old age. We need around us a cordon of good influences. We forget to apply the well-known rule that a chain is no stronger than at its weakest link. If the chain be made up of a thousand links, and nine hundred and ninety-nine are strong, but one is weak, the chain will be in danger of breaking at that one weak link. We may be strong in a thousand excellences, and yet have one weakness which endangers us. That is the reason that we sometimes see men distinguished for a whole round of virtues collapse and go down. The weak link in the otherwise stout chain gave way under the pressure. A musician cannot afford to dwell among discords, nor can a writer afford to peruse books of inferior style, nor an architect walk out among disproportioned structures. And no man or woman was ever so good as to be able to afford to choose evil associations. Therefore, I said, have it a rule of your life to go among those better than yourselves. Cannot find them? Then, what a pink of perfection you must be! When was your character completed? What a misfortune for the saintly and angelic ones of heaven that they are not enjoying the improving influence of your society! Ah, if you cannot find those better than yourself, it is because you are ignorant of yourself. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 23. Make a chain] Point out the captivity; show them that it shall come, and show them the reason: “Because the land is full of bloody crimes,” &c.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
A chain; either to signify that like criminals they should be brought in chains before God their Judge; or, as guilty and condemned, should be led away in chains; or else, as captives in chains, carried away in triumph, because murders and oppressions abounded in them, or because the
crimes which deserved death abounded among them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
23. chainsymbol of thecaptivity (compare Jer 27:2).As they enchained the land with violence, so shall they be chainedthemselves. It was customary to lead away captives in a row with achain passed from the neck of one to the other. Therefore translateas the Hebrew requires, “the chain,” namely,that usually employed on such occasions. CALVINexplains it, that the Jews should be dragged, whether they would orno, before God’s tribunal to be tried as culprits in chains. The nextwords favor this: “bloody crimes,” rather, “judgmentof bloods,” that is, with blood sheddings deserving the extremejudicial penalty. Compare Jer 51:9:”Her judgment reacheth unto heaven.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Make a chain,…. To bind them; not the robbers, the Chaldeans, but the Jews; in order either to bring them to the bar to be tried for capital crimes hereafter mentioned, or to be led bound in chains into captivity; see Ne 3:10;
for the land is full of bloody crimes; or, “judgment of bloods” m; capital crimes, such as are deserving of death, particularly murder, or shedding of innocent blood; so the Targum interprets it of sins of murder:
and the city is full of violence; rapine, oppression, and injury done to the poor, the widow, and the fatherless; meaning the city of Jerusalem, where was the great court of judicature, and where justice ought to have been administered.
m “judicio sanguiuum”, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Calvin, Polanus, Starckius; “criminibus capitalibus”, Piscator; “sanguianariis judiciis”, Castalio.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Fourth Strophe
Still worse is coming, namely, the captivity of the people, and overthrow of the kingdom. – Eze 7:23. Make the chain, for the land is full of capital crime, and the city full of outrage. Eze 7:24. I shall bring evil ones of the nations, that they may take possession of their houses; and I shall put an end to the pride of the strong, that their sanctuaries may be defiled. Eze 7:25. Ruin has come; they seek salvation, but there is none. Eze 7:26. Destruction upon destruction cometh, and report upon report ariseth; they seek visions from prophets, but the law will vanish away from the priest, and counsel from the elders. Eze 7:27. The king will mourn, and the prince will clothe himself in horror, and the hands of the common people will tremble. I will deal with them according to their way, and according to their judgments will I judge them, that they may learn that I am Jehovah. – Those who have escaped death by sword or famine at the conquest of Jerusalem have captivity and exile awaiting them. This is the meaning of the command to make the chain, i.e., the fetters needed to lead the people into exile. This punishment is necessary, because the land is full of mishpat damim , judgment of blood. This cannot mean, there is a judgment upon the shedding of blood, i.e., upon murder, which is conducted by Jehovah, as Hvernick supposes. Such a thought is irreconcilable with , and with the parallel . is to be explained after the same manner as (a matter for sentence of death, a capital crime) in Deu 19:6, Deu 19:21 -22, as signifying a matter for sentence of bloodshed, i.e., a crime of blood, or capital crime, as the Chaldee has already rendered it. Because the land is filled with capital crime, the city (Jerusalem) with violence, the Lord will bring , evil ones of the heathen, i.e., the worst of the heathen, to put an end to the pride of the Israelites. is not “pride of the insolents;” for does not stand for (Deu 28:50, etc.). The expression is rather to be explained from , pride of strength, in Eze 24:21; Eze 30:6, Eze 30:18 (cf. Lev 26:19), and embraces everything on which a man (or a nation) bases his power and rests his confidence. The Israelites are called , because they thought themselves strong, or, according to Eze 24:21, based their strength upon the possession of the temple and the holy land. This is indicated by which follows. , Niphal of and , not a participle Piel, from , with the Dagesh dropped, but an unusual form, from for (vid., Ew. 215 a). – The . , with the tone drawn back on account of the tone-syllable which follows (cf. Ges. 29, 3. 6), signifies excidium , destruction (according to the Rabbins), from , to shrink or roll up (Isa 38:12). is a prophetic perfect. In Eze 7:25 the ruin of the kingdom is declared to be certain, and in Eze 7:26 and Eze 7:27 the occurrence of it is more minutely depicted. Stroke upon stroke does the ruin come; and it is intensified by reports, alarming accounts, which crowd together and increase the terror, and also by the desperation of the spiritual and temporal leaders of the nation – the prophets, priests, and elders – whom God deprives of revelation, knowledge, and counsel; so that all ranks (king and princes and the common people) sink into mourning, alarm, and horror. That it is to no purpose that visions or prophecies are sought from the prophets (Eze 7:26), is evident from the antithetical statement concerning the priests and elders which immediately follows. The three statements serve as complements of one another. They seek for predictions from prophets, but the prophets receive no vision, no revelation. They seek instruction from priests, but instruction is withdrawn from the priests; and so forth. Torah signifies instruction out of the law, which the priests were to give to the people (Mal 2:7). In Eze 7:27, the three classes into which the people were divided are mentioned – viz. king, prince (i.e., tribe-princes and heads of families), and, in contradistinction to both, , the common people, the people of the land, in distinction from the civil rulers, as in 2Ki 21:24; 2Ki 23:30. , literally from their way, their mode of action, will I do to them: i.e., my action will be derived from theirs, and regulated accordingly. for , as in Eze 3:22, etc. (See the comm. on Eze 16:59.)
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Desolation of Israel. | B. C. 594. |
23 Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence. 24 Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be defiled. 25 Destruction cometh; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none. 26 Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumour shall be upon rumour; then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients. 27 The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do unto them after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.
Here is, I. The prisoner arraigned: Make a chain, in which to drag the criminal to the bar, and set him before the tribunal of divine justice; let him stand in fetters (as a notorious malefactor), stand pinioned to receive his doom. Note, Those that break the bands of God’s law asunder, and cast away those cords from them, will find themselves bound and held by the chains of his judgments, which they cannot break nor cast from them. The chain signified the siege of Jerusalem, or the slavery of those that were carried into captivity, or that they were all bound over to the righteous judgment of God, reserved in chains.
II. The indictment drawn up against the prisoner: The land is full of bloody crimes, full of the judgments of blood (so the word is), that is, of the guilt of blood which they had shed under colour of justice and by forms of law, with the solemnity of a judgment. The innocent blood which Manasseh shed, probably thus shed, by the judgment of the blood, was the measure-filling sin of Jerusalem, 2 Kings xxiv. 4. Or, It is full of such crimes as by the law were to be punished with death, the judgment of blood. Idolatry, blasphemy, witchcraft, Sodomy, and the like, were bloody crimes, for which particular sinners were to die; and therefore, when they had become national, there was no remedy but the nation must be cut off. Note, Bloody crimes will be punished with bloody judgments. The city, the city of David, the holy city, that should have been the pattern of righteousness, the protector of it, and the punisher of wrong, is now full of violence; the rulers of that city, having greater power and reputation, are greater oppressors than any others. This was sadly to be lamented. How has the faithful city become a harlot!
III. Judgment given upon this indictment. God will reckon with them not only for the profaning of his sanctuary, but for the perverting of justice between man and man; for, as holiness becomes his house, so the righteous Lord loves righteousness and is the avenger of unrighteousness. Now the judgment given is, 1. That since they had walked in the way of the heathen, and done worse than they, God would bring the worst of the heathen upon them to destroy them and lay them waste, the most barbarous and outrageous, that have the least compassion to mankind and the greatest antipathy to the Jews. Note, Of the heathen some are worse than others, and God sometimes picks out the worst to be a scourge to his own people, because he intends them for the fire when the work is done. 2. That since they had filled their houses with goods unjustly gotten, and used their pomp and power for the crushing and oppressing of the weak, God would give their houses to be possessed and all the furniture of them to be enjoyed by strangers, and make the pomp of the strong to cease, so that their great men should not dazzle the eyes of the weak-sighted with their pomp, nor with their might at any time prevail against right, as they had done. 3. That, since they had defiled the holy places with their idolatries, God would defile them with his judgments, since they had set up the images of other gods in the temple, God would remove thence the tokens of the presence of their own God. When the holy places are deserted by their God they will soon be defiled by their enemies. 4. Since they had followed one sin with another, God would pursue them with one judgment upon another: “Destruction comes, utter destruction (v. 25); for there shall come mischief upon mischief to ruin you, and rumour upon rumour to frighten you, like the waves in a storm, one upon the neck of another.” Note, Sinners that are marked for ruin shall be prosecuted to it; for God will overcome when he judges. 5. Since they had disappointed God’s expectations from them, he would disappoint their expectations from him; for, (1.) They shall not have the deliverance out of their troubles that they expect. They shall seek peace; they shall desire it and pray for it; they shall aim at and expect it: but there shall be none; their attempts both to court their enemies and to conquer them shall be in vain, and their troubles shall grow worse and worse. (2.) They shall not have the direction in the trouble that they expect (v. 26): They shall seek a vision of the prophet, shall desire, for their support under their troubles, to be assured of a happy issue out of them. They did not desire a vision to reprove them for sin, nor to warn them of danger, but to promise them deliverance. Such messages they longed to hear. But the law shall perish from the priest; he shall have no words either of counsel or comfort to say to them. They would not hear what God had to say to them by ways of conviction, and therefore he has nothing to say to them by way of encouragement. Counsel shall perish from the ancients; the elders of the people, that should advise them what to do in this difficult juncture, shall be infatuated and at their wits’ end. It is bad with a people when those that should be their counsellors know not how to consider within themselves, consult with one another, or counsel them. 6. Since they had animated and encouraged one another to sin, God would dispirit and dishearten them all, so that they should not be able to make head against the judgments of God that were breaking in upon them. All orders and degrees of men shall lie down by consent under the load (v. 27): The king, that should inspire life into them, and the prince, that should lead them onto attack the enemy, shall mourn and be clothed with desolation; their heads and hearts shall fail, their politics and their courage; and then no wonder if the hands of the people of the land, that should fight for them, be troubled. None of the men of might shall find their hands. What can men contrive or do for themselves when God has departed from them and appears against them? All must needs be in tears, all in trouble, when God comes to judge them according to their deserts, and so make then know, to their cost, that he is the Lord, the God to whom vengeance belongs.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Interpreters refer the Prophet’s being ordered to make a chain to the captivity; for we know that captives are accustomed to be bound with chains and fetters, or manacles. Hence they explain it that God threatens the people with exile. But the Spirit seems rather to allude to criminals, who plead their cause in chains. For the Jews had long reveled in their vices, and the absence of punishment had rendered them very audacious. Now the Prophet says, the time had come in which they were to be brought to the tribunal of God, and there to be dealt with most justly as criminals. Since, therefore, they bound criminals with chains, that they might plead their cause ignominiously — criminals, I say, who were already, as it were, half condemned; hence the Prophet is ordered to make a chain, so that not only the people should be called upon to render all account of their wickedness, but should also be drawn, whether they wished it or not, to God’s judgment-seat. And he explains himself when he says, since the land is full of the judgment of bloods The Hebrews call judgment of bloods the material of death, when the cause is capital, and the criminal is so convicted that he cannot escape final punishment; so any capital conviction is called a judgment of blood. He says, therefore, the earth is full of a judgment of bloods, that is, is guilty of so many crimes, that it cannot escape the final vengeance. And afterwards he adds the city, which, in the general corruption of the land, ought to retain something of its purity; but he says, the city also is so full of violence, under which word are doubtless embraced all unjust oppressions — rapines, pillage, unlawful gains, robberies, and whatever opposes justice and equity. The result is, that the people’s impiety and wickedness had come to such a pitch, that they were no longer endurable by God; and hence God ascends his tribunal to exact punishment from them; and this is the chain of which he speaks. It follows —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
4. The political disorder (7:2327)
TRANSLATION
(23) Make the chain; for the land is full of bloodshed, and the city is full of violence. (24) Therefore I have brought the worst of nations, and they shall possess their houses, and I shall make to cease the pride of the strong and their sanctuaries shall be profaned. (25) Horror is coming! and they shall seek peace and there is none. (26) Calamity upon calamity shall come, and rumor shall be upon rumor; and they shall seek a vision from the prophet, and instruction shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders, (27) The king shall mourn and the prince shall be clothed with astonishment, and the hands of the people of the land shall become feeble; according to their way I will deal with them, and according to their judgments I will judge them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.
COMMENTS
Apparently here Ezekiel performed yet another symbolic act. He made a chain[193] which symbolized the coming exile (Eze. 7:23).[194] This punishment is necessary because Judah was full of bloodshed and violence[195] (Eze. 7:23).
[193] The translation is uncertain. The Greek version reads they shall make confusion: the Syriac, they shall pass through the bricks.
[194] Cf. Jer. 27:2; Nah. 3:10.
[195] The Hebrew reads literally, judgment of bloods, which may mean capital crimes.
God would employ the worst of nations against Judah. This is one of the rare instances when Ezekiel speaks derogatorily of the Babylonians. In Eze. 28:7 and Eze. 30:11 he refers to the Babylonians as the terrible of the nations. But his language here is not so much intended to abuse the invaders as to show how low Israel had fallen. The people of God must indeed be wretched for God to send against them men who make no pretense of maintaining just and right behavior. The ruthless invaders would possess their houses. By means of this invader God would make to cease the pride of the strong, i.e., He would humble the proud rulers of Judah, especially the monarchy and priesthood. The sanctuaries of Judah, both the pagan and the proper, would be profaned by these invaders (Eze. 7:24).
Efforts to placate the foe and arrange some peaceful accommodation would fail. There would be no escape from this horrible fate (Eze. 7:25). The false prophets had assured them that peace was possible. They would now discover that those optimistic predictions were unfounded. The future judgment would become progressively worse. Calamity upon calamity and rumor upon rumor (Eze. 7:26). News of one blow will immediately be followed by news of another.
In their desperation people would turn at last to their spiritual leaders for guidance, but will find none (cf. Lam. 2:9). The false prophets who had for so long misled the people with their made-to order visions would have nothing to say in that hour when their optimistic prognostications would prove to be false. The priests would have no instruction, the elders no useful political counsel in that day (Eze. 7:26). The crisis would leave them without direction from their religious and national leaders (cf. Jer. 18:18). If the reference in Eze. 7:26 is to faithful spiritual leaders, then the idea is this. They had for so long rejected the words of Gods spokesman. Now in the hour of judgment God would no longer communicate with them through these godly men.
The political as well as the spiritual leaders would be unable to cope with that day. The king would only be able to mourn as he saw his people suffering and his crown slipping from his grasp. Other members of the ruling class the prince would be clothed with astonishment; i.e., they would be dumbfounded in the face of what would transpire.
Without guidance from spiritual leaders and leadership from the royal family the people of the land[196] would be incapacitated by fear. They would be helpless to defend themselves, for their hands would become feeble (Eze. 7:27). The judgment would be a just recompense. God would deal with His people as they had dealt with others. He would judge them as unmercifully as they had judged one another.
[196] The phrase people of the land has various meanings in the Old Testament. Here the phrase probably refers to the general populace.
When all these predictions had come to pass all the survivors would know that Yahweh had really spoken these ominous words.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(23) Make a chain.In the midst of this plain prophecy the strong tendency of the prophets mind still runs to the symbolic act; but this can be thought of here only as done in word. The chain is to bind captive the guilty people.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
23. Make a chain Various pictures on the monuments show the long string of captives chained together, making a weary march from their native land to Babylon. It is time that the crime of the land be punished, let the captives’ chain be forged (Nah 3:10).
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“Make the chain, for the land is full of the judgment of blood, and the city is full of violence.”
The command comes to ‘make the chain (that which binds)’. This was addressed to their captors who would use it. They would unknowingly be doing Yahweh’s will. This was probably referring to the chain used to restrain the captives as they were led off, for the next verse describes the coming of their conquerors. Because life had become violent, and men sought justice by personal revenge and murder, they could only deserve the end that is coming to them, to be enchained, to be exiled to a foreign land. They were not worthy of Jerusalem. It has become ‘a city of blood’ (Eze 22:2; Eze 24:6; Eze 24:9).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Eze 7:23. Make a chain That is, as emblematical of the approaching captivity, when king and people should be carried in chains to Babylon. See 2Ki 25:7. Jer 40:1.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Eze 7:23 Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.
Ver. 23. Make a chain. ] Which is an emblem of bondage.
For the land is full of bloody crimes,
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Eze 7:23-27
23’Make the chain, for the land is full of bloody crimes and the city is full of violence. 24Therefore, I will bring the worst of the nations, and they will possess their houses. I will also make the pride of the strong ones cease, and their holy places will be profaned. 25When anguish comes, they will seek peace, but there will be none. 26Disaster will come upon disaster and rumor will be added to rumor; then they will seek a vision from a prophet, but the law will be lost from the priest and counsel from the elders. 27The king will mourn, the prince will be clothed with horror, and the hands of the people of the land will tremble. According to their conduct I will deal with them, and by their judgments I will judge them. And they will know that I am the LORD.’
Eze 7:23 Make a chain The VERB (BDB 793, KB 889) is a Qal IMPERATIVE. The term chain (BDB 958) can be understood in two ways.
1. sarcasm related to decorating idols with gold or silver chains (cf. Isa 40:19)
2. related to fetters to drag the people into exile (cf. Jer 27:2)
The violent foreigners came because of the violence of Israel.
1. The land is full of bloody crimes
2. The city is full of violence.
We reap what we sow (cf. Eze 7:3; Eze 7:8).
Eze 7:24 the worst of the nations This refers to the mercenary armies of Babylon (cf. Eze 21:31; Eze 28:7; Jer 6:22-23).
Eze 7:25 anguish This term (BDB 891) appears only here as a NOUN. The VERB appears only in Isa 38:12, where it is translated rolled up, but may refer to a cloth being cut off from the loom (cf. NIDOTTE, vol. 3, p. 953).
Many of the prophets (i.e., false) of Israel relied on YHWH’s earlier promises to Israel, forgetting they were conditional promises/covenants. The benefits of the covenant are only available to the faithful, obedient follower. The consequences of disobedience are severe (cf. Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 27-28). These false proclaimers, in YHWH’s name, preached a covenant protection and peace, but there was no peace (cf. Eze 13:10; Eze 13:16; Isa 48:22; Isa 57:21).
Eze 7:26-27 The leaders of the people (cf. Jer 18:18; Mic 3:11) will be totally helpless.
1. religious leaders
a. prophets
b. priests
2. civil leaders
a. elders
b. king
c. princes
d. military (i.e., the hands of the people of the land will tremble, cf. Eze 7:14; Eze 7:17)
They are the very ones who have caused and allowed the covenant disobedience to start and continue!
people of the land This phrase changes meaning in the OT.
1. Originally it referred to free citizens of Israel (i.e., Lev 4:27).
2. Here (Eze 22:29; Eze 45:22) it may refer to a group of leaders involved in civil government at a federal level, similar to the elders at a local level (cf. 2Ki 16:15).
3. Later it becomes a way of referring to the poorest people of Israel (cf. 2Ki 24:14).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Make a chain. The sign of captivity, answering to the other sign in Eze 7:11 – (“q”).
bloody crimes = crimes of bloodshed i.e. capital crimes.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Eze 7:23-27
Eze 7:23-27
“Make the chain; for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence. Wherefore I will bring the worst of the nations, and they shall possess their houses: because I will also make the pride of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be profaned. Destruction cometh, and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none. Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumor shall be upon rumor; and they shall seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders. The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do unto them after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know that I am Jehovah.”
DISMAY AND DESPAIR SHALL COME TO ALL CLASSES
“Make the chain …” (Eze 7:23). May stated that this clause, “gives little sense”; but to us the message is clear enough. It means get the chains ready, the surviving citizens of Judah are to be deported to Babylon!
“The worst of the nations …” (Eze 7:24). Canon Cook called this a “designation of the Chaldeans. Watts has this comment on the Chaldeans.
Events of our own generation reveal that invading armies produce outrages on persons, the waste of stores of food, the outbreak of epidemic diseases; and the unearthed Assyrian sculptures prove that all such calamities were still more hideously the product of the Chaldean armies. They spared neither age nor sex; they burned up crops, destroyed stores of grain that they could not carry off, leaving behind an impoverished and depressed population, among whom pestilence and famine would tend to further death.
“They shall seek peace, and there shall be none …” (Eze 7:25). We think this is probably a reference to the Israelites seeking favorable terms of surrender to Nebuchadnezzar; but he insisted upon the total rain and destruction of the city. Plumptre suggested this as one of the possible meanings of the verse.
“The prophet … the priest … and the elders …” (Eze 7:26). “There is a threefold division of the people religiously in this verse”; and these give the three sources from whom the people should have been able to receive religious guidance and counsel; but the thought here is that every avenue of spiritual help was closed. “A world which has turned its back upon the source from which it derives its life (as Israel had done) is on the very brink of min.
“The people of the land …” (Eze 7:27) This is an expression often used in the Old Testament for the landed gentry; but Brace tells us that, “Here the phrase is used of the common people as distinguished from the king and the princes, the priests and the prophets, the principal divisions of the `establishment.’ The thought is that all classes of society are depressed and dismayed by the impending disaster.
The End Has Come – Eze 7:1-27
Open It
1. What is one of the most helpless feelings youve ever experienced?
2. What is one thing youd love to have that money cant buy?
Explore It
3. What was the first two-word message that God told Ezekiel to proclaim? (Eze 7:1-3)
4. What did God resolve that He would not do this time, as He had so often in the past? (Eze 7:4)
5. What different words did God use to describe what was about to happen to Israel? (Eze 7:5-7)
6. What was God poised to “repay”? (Eze 7:8-9)
7. What would the people know about the origin of the disaster from the sheer magnitude of the disaster? (Eze 7:9)
8. What human vices did God say would run rampant, causing much misery? (Eze 7:10-11)
9. In what resource had the people come to trust, which would now fail them? (Eze 7:12-13)
10. What other potential defense would be stopped by Gods wrath? (Eze 7:14)
11. What did Ezekiel say about the possibility of escaping from the coming wrath of God? (Eze 7:15-16)
12. What were some of the dramatic evidences of helplessness in Ezekiels prophecy? (Eze 7:17-19)
13. What was God going to allow to happen to the riches and edifices in which Israel took pride? (Eze 7:20-22)
14. For what crimes against their fellow humans did God hold Israel accountable? (Eze 7:23)
15. What did Ezekiel predict that the people would do to try to avert Gods wrath? (Eze 7:24-27)
16. What lesson did God realize Israel would learn from the disaster that was about to come upon them? (Eze 7:27)
Get It
17. If you were going to dramatize this chapter in a contemporary setting, where would your “Ezekiel” be speaking and whom would he be addressing?
18. How hard or easy do you think it was for Ezekiels listeners to visualize a time when the temple would be desecrated and they would view their gold as “unclean”?
19. What was the most important thing that God wanted to get across to His people through the coming disasters?
20. What is your first reaction when you hear of someone predicting economic or social collapse, or even the “end of the world”?
21. What evidences do you see that people today are trusting in affluence, military might, and cultural accomplishments?
22. Why do you think people will look to God in times of calamity but scoff at Him in times of prosperity?
Apply It
23. When can you set aside an hour to ask God to help you take an honest inventory of the things and people in whom you put your trust?
24. What friend or acquaintance should you encourage to fear God while there is still time to experience His mercy?
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
a chain: Eze 19:3-6, Jer 27:2, Jer 40:1, Lam 3:7, Nah 3:10
for: Eze 9:9, Eze 11:6, Eze 22:3-6, Eze 22:9, Eze 22:13, Eze 22:27, 2Ki 21:16, 2Ki 24:4, Isa 1:15, Isa 59:3, Isa 59:7, Jer 2:34, Jer 7:6, Jer 22:17, Hos 4:2, Mic 2:2, Mic 7:2, Zep 3:3, Zep 3:4
Reciprocal: Psa 106:38 – the land Isa 59:6 – their works Isa 59:12 – our transgressions Jer 6:7 – violence Lam 1:17 – commanded Eze 7:11 – Violence Eze 8:17 – for Eze 12:19 – because Eze 18:7 – hath spoiled
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 7:23. Make a chain was a prediction of the enslavement of the people by a foreign nation. It. would be as a punishment for the violence and other crimes committed in the land and city.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Eze 7:23-24. Make a chain To foreshow the approaching captivity, when both king and people should be carried in chains to Babylon. For the land is full of bloody crimes The innocent blood that has been shed in it cries aloud for vengeance. See the margin. Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen The most violent, proud, and bloody men, namely, the Chaldeans, who were at that time the great oppressors of the world, and a terror to all the countries round about them; and they shall possess their houses Not only dwell in them, but by right of conquest account them their own, and as descending to their heirs after them. I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease The excellence, magnificence, and glory of the mighty men shall be brought to nothing: Jerusalem itself, which they trust in, and think too well fortified by nature and art, and the divine presence, to be ever overthrown, shall be levelled with the ground. And their holy places The temple and all its courts, shall be defiled. God calls them their holy places, because, having been polluted by their idolatries, he no longer considered them as his.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
7:23 Make a {s} chain: for the land is full of {t} bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.
(s) Signifying that they would be bound and led away captives.
(t) That is, of sins that deserve death.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
It was time to make the chain that would bind the Israelites and carry them off to captivity because Judah and Jerusalem had become places of violent crime. Some interpreters believed God commanded Ezekiel to make a literal chain and that this was another symbolic act. [Note: Ibid.] The Lord would bring the worst of nations against His people, and they would take over the Judahites’ homes (cf. Lev 26:31-32; Deu 28:49-57). The pride of the powerful Judahites would end, and their enemies would profane their holy places. They would not be able to escape anguish, and things would go from bad to worse for them. No one would be able to obtain guidance from the Lord-the prophets by receiving revelations, the priests by studying the law, or the elders by appealing to history. Everyone from king to common citizen would shake with terror. The Lord would punish His people in keeping with how they had sinned, and they would know that He was the Lord.
"This is a frightening chapter. It consists of a group of poetic oracles intended to convince Ezekiel’s fellow hostages in the Babylonian heartland that their hopes of returning soon to their homes and families in far-off Judah would not materialize." [Note: Allen, p. 112.]