Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 9:9
Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah [is] exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The LORD hath forsaken the earth, and the LORD seeth not.
9. full of perverseness ] As marg., wresting of judgment, or turning the innocent out of the way (Amo 2:7). The Divine answer is inexorable. Two evils are stated, and the deeper cause of them: violence unto bloodshed, and the perversion of justice, the cause of both being the feeling that Jehovah had forsaken the land. The language shews the strange length to which the hard fate of Israel had brought men Jehovah had abandoned his land. Possibly these persons concluded that he had retired, being overcome by deities stronger than himself; even the godly were driven to conclude that he had ceased to interest himself in his people (Isa 40:27; Isa 49:14). And with the departure of Jehovah, the righteous God, all moral restraints were relaxed. The persons who here speak had probably been obstinate opponents of the prophets, but the passage shews that the prophetic preaching of Jehovah’s righteousness, even when to appearance unheeded, had lodged itself in the consciences of men.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Eze 9:9
The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great.
The evil and its remedy
(with 1Jn 1:7):–We can learn nothing of the Gospel except by feeling its truths,–no one truth of the Gospel is ever truly known and really learned until we have tested and tried and proved it, and its power has been exercised upon us. No man can know the greatness of sin till he has felt it, for there is no measuring rod for sin except its condemnation in our own conscience, when the law of God speaks to us with a terror that may be felt. And as for the richness of the blood of Christ and its ability to wash us, of that also we can know nothing till we have ourselves been washed, and have ourselves proved that the blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God hath cleansed us from all sin.
1. I shall begin, then, with the first doctrine–The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great. Some imagine that the Gospel was devised, in some way or other, to soften down the harshness of God towards sin. Ah! how mistaken the idea! There is no more harsh condemnation of sin anywhere than in the Gospel. Nor does the Gospel in any way whatever give man a hope that the claims of the law will be in any way loosened. Christ hath not put out the furnace; He rather seemeth to heat it seven times hotter. Before Christ came sin seemed unto me to be but little; but when He came sin became exceeding sinful, and all its dread heinousness started out before the light. But, says one, surely the Gospel does in some degree remove the greatness of our sin. Does it not soften the punishment of sin? Ah, no! Stand at the feet of Jesus when He tells you of the punishment of sin, and the effect of iniquity, and you may tremble there far more than you would have done if Moses had been the preacher, and if Sinai had been in the background to conclude the sermon. And now let us endeavour to deal with hearts and consciences a moment. There are some here who have never felt this truth. But come, let me reason with you for a moment. Your sin is great, although you think it small. Follow me in these few thoughts, and perhaps thou wilt better understand it. How great a thing is one sin when, according to the Word of God, one sin could suffice to damn the soul. One sin, remember, destroyed the whole human race. Again, what an imprudent and impertinent thing sin is. Behold! there is one God who filleth all in all, and He is the Infinite Creator. He makes me, and I am nothing more in His sight than an animated grain of dust; and I, that animated grain of dust, with a mere ephemeral existence, have the impertinence and imprudence to set up my will against His will! I dare to proclaim war against the Infinite Majesty of heaven. Again, how great does your sin and mine seem, if we will but think of the ingratitude which has marked it. Oh, if we set our secret sins in the light of His mercy, if our transgressions are set side by side with His favours, we must each of us say, our sins, indeed, are exceeding great! And again, I repeat it, this is a doctrine that no man can rightly know and receive until he has felt it. Hast thou ever felt this doctrine to be true–my sin is exceeding great?
2. Well, cries one, turning on his heel, there is very little comfort in that. It is enough to drive one to despair, if not to madness itself. Ah, friend! such is the very design of this text. We turn therefore from that terrible text to the second one The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. There lies the blackness; here stands the Lord Jesus Christ. What will He do with it? Will He go and speak to it, and say, This is no great evil, this blackness is but a little spot? Oh, no; He looks at it, and He says, This is terrible blackness, darkness that may be felt; this is an exceeding great evil. Will He cover it up, then? Will He weave a mantle of excuse, and then wrap it round about the iniquity? Ah, no; whatever covering there may have been He lifts it off, and He declares that when the Spirit of truth is come He will convince the world of sin, and lay the sinners conscience bare, and probe the wound to the bottom. What then will He do? He will do a far better thing than make an excuse or than to pretend in any way to speak lightly of it. He will cleanse it all away, remove it entirely by the power and meritorious virtue of His own blood, which is able to save unto the uttermost. The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. Dwell on the word all for a moment. Great as are thy sins, the blood of Christ is greater still. Thy sins are like great mountains, but the blood of Christ is like Noahs flood; twenty cubits upwards shall this blood prevail, and the top of the mountains of thy sin shall be covered. Just take the word all in another sense, not only as taking in all sorts of sin, but as comprehending the great aggregate mass of sin. Couldst thou bear to read thine own diary if thou hadst written there all thy acts? No; for though thou be the purest of mankind, thy thoughts, if they could have been recorded, would now, if thou couldst read them, make thee startle and wonder that thou art demon enough to have had such imaginations within thy soul. But put them all here, and all these sins the blood of Christ can wash away. Nay, more than that. Come hither, ye thousands who are gathered together to listen to the Word of God; what is the aggregate of your guilt? Could ye put it so that mortal observation could comprehend the whole within its ken, it were as a mountain with a base, broad as eternity, and a summit lofty almost as the throne of the great archangel. But, remember, the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth from all sin. Yet, once more, in the praise of this blood we must notice one further feature. There be some of you here who are saying, Ah! that shall be my hope when I come to die, that in the last hour of my extremity the blood of Christ will take my sins away; it is now my comfort to think that the blood of Christ shall wash, and purge, and purify the transgressions of life. But, mark! my text saith not so; it does not say the blood of Christ shall cleanse–that were a truth–but it says something greater than that–it says, The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth–cleanseth now. Come, soul, this moment come to Him that hung upon the Cross of Calvary! come now and be washed. But what meanest thou by coming? I mean this, come thou and put thy trust in Christ, and thou shalt be saved. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The land is full of blood.—
Crime
I. The utter want of moral training in thousands of homes is one cause of the prevalence of crime. What cares the fashionable mother or the father deeply immersed in business for the moral culture of their children? Hence they grow up in ignorance of all those moral and virtuous principles which are the great safeguards against crime. Then, in thousands of homes the overworked mother has no heart for the duties which she owes to her poor neglected children.
II. The almost universal desecration of the holy Sabbath is another fruitful source of crime. This is Gods day, and man has no right to appropriate it to pleasure or to business.
III. Intemperance is constantly adding to the long list of criminals. It is itself a crime, and the prolific source of every form of iniquity.
IV. The laxity with which the laws are enforced invites to their violation.
V. Another source of crime is the low, vicious literature.
VI. With shame we utter the truth, that many of the crimes of this age may be traced to the pulpit. It is too tender of crime. It is afraid or ashamed to denounce sin. (R. H. Rivers, D. D.)
And the city full of perverseness.—
Temptations peculiar to Christians in great cities
As this is a state of moral probation, it is the design of God to allow us to be surrounded by temptations while we live in this world. Sometimes these come from our intercourse with our fellow men, sometimes from our own corrupted hearts within us, and sometimes from the wiles of the great tempter. There are also certain periods or situations in life when we are exposed to particular kinds of temptations. Those which beset the young man, those which beset the middle-aged man, and those which beset the old man, may be unlike, and yet each is adapted to the particular period of life. There are also particular places in which temptations are heavier than in others.
I. Christians in great cities are peculiarly tempted to overlook the guilt of sin. We all know that familiarity with anything has a wonderful effect upon our feelings; and that it is a principle in human nature, that what is in itself revolting will, by familiarity, cease to disgust. The first time the medical student enters the dissecting room he has a feeling excited very nearly allied to that of shuddering. The mangled dead are strewn around, and those who hold the dissecting knife are there, silent as the dead, as if that were no place for cheerfulness. The images which he sees haunt him after leaving the room. But in a few years this same man can shut himself up there for days, and have scarcely a feeling of revolt, or an unpleasant image remain upon his mind. The young soldier, who first joins his company, has never voluntarily inflicted a wound upon any human being. He has never seen human blood flow, and has never beheld distress created by design. The first oath of his comrade startles him. At the beat of the drum, which, for the first time, calls him to face the enemy, he turns pale. But he need be in the army but a very few years, and he can witness the falling of men around him–see the mangled remains of his fellow–hear the groans of death, and see all the cruelties of the battlefield, and even close with the enemy, bayonet to bayonet, and slay his foes man by man, and yet, at the close of the day, take his meal, and lie down to sleep with as much indifference as if he had been engaged in reaping the harvest of wheat. This is almost literally getting hardened to misery and woe, and is a clear illustration of the principle. Now, in great cities it is nearly impossible not to have the mind in almost constant contact with sin and crime. There the Sabbath is trampled upon, fearlessly, constantly, and shamelessly, by the high and the low. And do you need proof that this familiarity with Sabbath breaking destroys something of the sacredness of that day? In great cities, too, the temptation to feel no responsibility to God how money is spent is very great and very distressing. Familiarity with sin, too, begins early in large cities; and if God, in His providence, should take off the veil which covers all, we should be astonished at the crimes which the children of Christian parents practise in early life, and at what practices are allowed, with hardly a trembling for the consequences.
II. Christians in large cities are peculiarly tempted to engage in worldly amusements. By worldly amusements I mean such as are the greatest delight of people who profess to live only for this world. If I specify cards, balls, and theatres I shall be sufficiently definite to be understood. Now, when the doors are wide open–when the world around–the great mass of mankind–say there is no harm in those exciting amusements, though they know that they are most thronged by those who live farthest from God; when they are so fashionable that you can hardly mingle with genteel society, unless you fall in with them; when they are precisely adapted to our natural and strong desire for excitement, is there anything strange that the Christian should feel it hard that his Bible warns, touch not, taste not, handle not? Is it wonderful that some think it is a little sin–a sin, to be sure, but so small that God will not notice it–that many feel that they may pluck the fruit this once; that many think they are not known to do it, and think it is all buried from the eye of their fellow Christians?
III. Christians in great cities are peculiarly tempted to neglect the religion of the heart. It requires much more labour to roll a stone up a steep hill than up a hill whose angle of ascent is less; and if the stone be a very smooth one, and the ground very slippery, the labour is still more increased. Who that has lived in the great city only a few years need be reminded that all good impressions fade away almost as soon as made? Perhaps the very habits of business, so essential to your prosperity in the city, have an unhappy influence upon the religion of the heart. You rise at a stated time in the morning; open your store at a given moment; know to a moment when the mail arrives and closes; must meet your accounts at a given moment; and thus you are in the habit of being punctual and exact. When the moment arrives for you to do this or that, you do it, and then throw it off the mind. And is there not a temptation to treat the duties of the closet in the same way? And thus we may have the name of religion and the form of religion, while the heart is a stranger to its power; and when we place religion on the cold level with business, we may be sure that it will have too slight hold of us either to subdue the soul or console it. It is to my purpose here to remark, how very seldom personal, experimental religion is made the subject of conversation between Christians. The fact will not be questioned. How can it be accounted for? Is it because there are so many other topics floating, that we are never at a loss to hear or tell some new thing? But why is not religious experience one of the first topics of conversation? Or, if not among the first, why is it wholly banished? Do we need it less here than elsewhere? Or is it because we are very prone to neglect the heart, and find it more agreeable to tread upon the surface, than to go as deep as the heart? Then as to reading, how much stronger is the temptation to lay the hand on the fresh morning paper, and spend some time over that, than over the Book of God! To keep along with the tide of human events, and yet not have eternal things weigh upon us! The temptation to neglect the heart, too, from the fact that our time is so completely absorbed, is very great. This makes superficial Christians–Christians who cannot stand against temptation; and who, when temptations come, inquire not what God will now have them do, and how He would have them meet them, but how they can shift off responsibility, and make everything turn to their own advantage.
IV. Christians in great cities are peculiarly tempted to be uncharitable towards one another. Character, strained, and in full action, is ever before you, and you see all its defects. The joints of the harness are constantly opening, and any man can throw in an arrow, though he draw the bow at venture. Character is the easiest thing in the world to talk about. We know, and we must know each other most fully, situated as we are in large cities; but this, instead of making us uncharitable, censorious, and severe towards each other, ought to lead us to remember that every man lives in a glass house, and that therefore we ought to be very watchful and very careful.
V. Christians in great cities are peculiarly tempted to be jealous of one another. No Christian is sanctified but in part; and very few are so sanctified that they can bear to be overlooked or unnoticed. Hence, when they see that one of their number is, by any means, attracting attention–is considerably noticed, and they are left behind, the feeling of jealousy is very likely to be awakened. Does such a one give more liberally than others–does he pray or speak more acceptably in public–does he, on any account, receive more notice than others–does he exercise any acquired influence–the feeling of jealousy is awakened, and, almost unconsciously to himself, the complaining Christian takes the sharpest of all weapons by which to remove the envied one, and that weapon is the tongue. (John Todd, D. D.)
Duties peculiar to Christians in great cities
I. Christians, in the large city, should constantly bear in mind that they are continually surrounded by great temptations. Some may prefer to remain in ignorance of their dangers, because responsibility and duty come with knowledge. But is this wise or safe? A father sends a son to a distant city on business. When the young man reaches it he finds the plague is there. It is all around him, and daily, in every street, death is doing his work. What is safe for this young man? to remain in ignorance of his danger, or to know it all, and, by care, abstinence, and medicine, do all in his power to preserve his life and health? A valuable ship, freighted with a rich cargo, is just passing through a winding channel, amid rocks and shoals, islands and reefs. Would you have her captain sleep in his berth, or would you have him, though accompanied with painful anxieties, on the watch, eyeing and shunning these dangers? In all such cases, the answer is plain enough. If God has made it the duty of a man to live in a large city, He will shield him and protect him, if faithful to his God. But even the Son of God must not tempt His Father, by throwing Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple, and then claiming the promise that He would give His angels charge over Him. The mercy of God may follow a man who throws himself in the way of danger, and may pluck him out; but no man has a right to rely upon this. And what shall we do, say you–and how shall we be safe? Ah! it would be comparatively easy to answer this question, could I first make you sensible of the fact that the temptations of the crowded city are great in number, and powerful to resist. Oh! could you see the spots where Christians have fallen, all marked with blood, you would be almost afraid to walk the streets.
II. Christians in great cities should feel that they are peculiarly bound to act from principle, and not from impulse, fashion, or popularity. That man only has a correct standard of action and of life who makes the revealed will of God his standard. In all places and circumstances, all other standards will vary, and especially is this the case in the large city. Here new things are constantly coming up, and what is in vogue and popular today may be the very reverse tomorrow. What comes in on the flood tide today may be left on the sand when the tide comes to ebb, and nobody will think it worth picking up. It is painfully amusing to notice how things, men, and measures, which are popular beyond description today, and of which it seems as if we could never tire, will, in a few days, have passed away and be forgotten. The reason is, that which decides a thing to be good or bad, desirable or otherwise, is public opinion; and that is as variable as the wind. Men, and communities of men, are governed, moved, and guided by it, and even the Christian is in great danger of allowing himself to be guided by it too. To do this or that, because public sentiment says so, and make this a rule of action, will save much reflection, much thought, and much prayer for direction. But this is not that standard which God has revealed, and which never varies. How much easier, too, to act from impulse, and to go forward in a certain course as long as the impulse sets us that way, and then to go backward if a counteracting impulse sets us the other way, than to do right, and go right at all times, without waiting for impulses, and without being driven out of our proper orbit by them!
1. Be familiar with the Bible. The book of God is so full of biography–it places men in such a variety of situations, and all under the strong light of inspiration, that it is almost, if not literally, impossible to find a situation in which a man can be placed where all his relations to God and to man are to be drawn out, for which a parallel may not be found in the Word of God.
2. Habituate yourself to read sound and thorough works in practical theology, and by this means strengthen the mind and heart, and the purposes of the soul, in what is correct and right.
3. Make every decision of moral conduct the subject of individual and fervent prayer. A conscience intuitively knowing what is right and what is wrong is what God gives only in answer to prayer.
III. It is peculiarly the duty of Christians in large cities to set their faces against extravagance. But do not such and such families, who profess to be Christian, do so and so? Yes; but do they show that the Gospel of Christ, and the glory of God, is the ruling passion of their lives? If not, are they safe models for us? But my neighbour does thus and thus. Very likely; and your neighbour may be better able than you are, or he may be doing what he ought not to do, and what he cannot do long. But, say you, can you draw the limits, and go into the particulars, and say whether this and that is wrong? No; nor have I any wish to do it. But am I not safe in saying, that so long as Christians are so extravagant that they are not known from the world–so long as, in consequence of extravagance, they fail in business as often as the world, in proportion to their numbers, there must be something wrong in their slavery to fashion?
IV. Christians in great cities are peculiarly bound to become attached to the cause of Christ. The soul, without any doubt, was formed for strong attachments. We love those who are bound to us by the ties of relationship; and the last ties which the hand of death shall sever are those which bind us to the beings whom we love. But this is not all. In most situations we become attached to inanimate objects. The man who spent his childhood in the country loves his native hills–he loves the fields which lie in sight of his fathers door. Every tree and shrub is connected with some pleasant recollection of childhood. Now, in a great city there are no such attachments. You live in a street, or in a particular house, for years, and you leave it without regret and without sorrow. You go into another without reluctance, and without emotion. The unceasing hurry and perpetual pressure for time prevent our forming those deep attachments which we do in country life. Our attachments, so to speak, are to things in general–to the general excitement which surrounds us. The waves roll too rapidly to allow us to love anyone very strongly. And the danger is, that these same feelings and associations be applied to the cause of Christ; that the habits of mind and of situation lead us to place the cause of God just where we do everything else; and that we feel an attachment to that no stronger than we do to other things. Now we reach the point at which I am aiming, and I say that though you are so situated in Providence that you form no very strong attachment to your dwelling, to your street, to your business, to the family pew in the church, to the changing mass of human beings around you, yet it ought to be a matter of deep interest, of study, and of great effort, to have one set of attachments that are strong, permanent, and which make a part of your very existence–and these should be your attachments to the cause of Jesus Christ. You will ask how you can thus become attached to the cause of Christ, and exercise towards that a set of feelings so entirely different from what you do towards other things? My reply is, Be in the habit of doing something for the cause of Christ every day, and you will soon find that you love that cause above all other things. What makes you love the flower that stands in your parlour, meekly curling its graceful form towards the window, to drink in the beams of light? Not because it is helpless or beautiful. The china vase may be all that; but because you every day do something for it. You give it water–you remove it, when it requires more heat or more air–you watch its budding–you study its nature and its wants. What makes the stranger, who takes the helpless infant to her home, so soon attached to it? Because she is every hour doing something for it; and God has made it impossible for us not to love anything which we aid–an unanswerable argument for the benevolence of Him who formed the human heart! Let the Christian be in the daily habit of making sacrifices, in order to be punctual in his closet–to be daily growing in a knowledge of his Bible–to be prompt and faithful in attending the meetings for prayer, keeping his heart warm and solemn–to give of his property to build up the cause of Christ cheerfully; let him aim to do something that shall be a self-denial, every day, in order to aid the cause of Christ, and he will love that cause; and, while mingling in the tide of men that is passing away, and where everything is changing, he will have his heart and hopes bound to the throne of God, and his soul will have an anchor that is sure and steadfast. Perhaps the very fact that his attachments to other things are loose may render these the stronger.
V. It is peculiarly the duty of Christians, in great cities, to feel a high responsibility. By the talents which Christ puts into the hands of His servants we understand all the opportunities which we have of doing good to ourselves, or to others; and if, at the great day, our responsibilities are to be commensurate with our opportunities, in those respects, they will be great indeed. (John Todd, D. D.)
Dangers peculiar to worldly men engaged in business in great cities
I. Success in business in the great city requires close attention, severe application, and engrossing watchfulness; and this tends to shut eternal things from the mind and to endanger the soul. But perhaps you will say, this very devotedness of heart and mind is necessary in order to success in business here, and any diversion of the attention will endanger success; and therefore, if a man have his attention so diverted and engrossed that he becomes a religious man, he will be less likely to succeed in business. I reply, that does not follow; for if he did, God could not assure us that godliness is profitable for the life that now is, as well as for the life to come. It does not follow, also for three very plain reasons; namely–
1. If you become really a religious man, your weary spirit will be periodically bathed, cooled, and refreshed, by turning off your thoughts, and having them come in contact with the Bible, with the Sabbath, and with Gods Spirit.
2. The community will have confidence in a conscientious, holy man, and will do much to aid, to sustain, and to encourage him.
3. The blessing of God will more surely attend him; and His blessing can make rich.
II. The object for which the worldly man comes to a great city, and for which he stays there, is to acquire property–and this tends to lead him to shut God away from his thoughts. Suppose a man were to go into some distant part of the world, for the express purpose of making money; and if he found that spot very unfavourable to meditation, to prayer, to finding eternal life, what would he say? Would he not be apt to say, I cannot here attend to religion–it is a poor place for that; but I will give my whole time and attention and soul and mind to the business which brought me here, and as soon as possible I will return to my home, where I shall have time and opportunity and everything favourable to my finding eternal life. I will therefore give it no thought at present. And is not the man of the world, in the great city, tempted to do this very thing? Is he not in danger of feeling that the great, the absorbing object for which he is here is to acquire property; and till this end is gained he has no time, no heart, to give to his soul? In all that he does he wishes to keep that plan uppermost–to be sure that every sun that shines, and every breeze that blows, has something to do in promoting that great plan–that one plan.
III. The sympathies of all around him tend to carry his feelings in the channels of earth–and these endanger the soul of the worldly man in the great city. You speak with perhaps fifty men during the day, and five hundred during the week, and among them all you hear not a word about the interests of the soul. And you will say, we must not only he men of business, but we must talk and think about business, about commerce and politics, the light and the grave news of the day, to show that we are men of business. All this may be true, and I mention it because it is true, and because the great impression which this great crowd of immortal beings makes upon each other is adverse to their finding eternal life. Oh! if you lived in a world where everything, from the fresh daily paper that you find in the morning on your table, to the late partings at evening, tended to remind you of God, and to call forth your sympathies towards Him, it would be very different. But the living mass around you, so alive, and so awake to everything relating to this world–so eager for something new–so delighted with anything that can excite–so anxious to live in the swollen tide of human sympathies, seek to turn all this tide in a channel that leads from God.
IV. Dangers attend the man of the world, in his business, before and after the question of his success is settled. Is it not so, that a man in the full tide of business–while straining every nerve to reach the point of certain success and entire safety, so chases the world all the week–so courts it, in all possible ways, that when the Sabbath arrives he is so exhausted that he has no energy of body, no energy of soul, no elasticity of spirit, to meet the duties of that holy day? Is it not so, that he can hardly rise on the Sabbath morning in season to find the house of God; and when he does go there, does he not too often come much like an exhausted machine, and has no power to gird up his mind to sober thought, to deep reflection, to manly discussion, or to close and thorough reasoning? But suppose he has passed the point alluded to, and is sure to succeed in business, and to become an independent man. The dangers to his soul may now be increased tenfold. There may now be some relaxation to that keen, intense, anxious pursuit of business; hut his very relaxations become dangerous, inasmuch as they tend to animalism. How often do we see a man, as soon as it is decided that he will be successful in business, commence a course of stimulating his system, till it becomes overburdened, and is destroyed by its own fulness. What creates that riot in the blood, which cuts off such men at a stroke, and with a suddenness that would be painfully surprising were it not so common? All this animalism, which leads the man to yield to good eating and good drinking continually, is certain to drive God from the heart, while it destroys the powers of the body; and experience will testify that, as a general thing, such men are the very last that are brought into the kingdom of God. Then there is that loftiness and pride of feeling which is almost inseparable from success in business, and which makes us look down upon those beneath us with feelings allied to scorn, and upon ourselves as great and wise, or we could not have succeeded. How few who are successful in business are willing to ascribe it all to Gods good providence which favoured them!
V. The man of the world, in the great city, is in fearful danger of having his soul ruined by the money spirit of this age. Wherever you turn you will see proofs of the universal presence of this spirit. You have heard it in the murmurs of the street–you have seen it written on the golden splendours of those who have not fallen–you have seen it upon the tarnished glories of the fallen and falling–in the blasted hopes of thousands–and you will read it on the anxious brow of your acquaintance. You have heard the proof of it sighed from the massy prison; it is read in the glance of the fugitive from justice;–it is summed up in startling numbers at the bottom of the daily expense book. Now, what have been the inevitable consequences of this race in the fashions of earth? One very plain one is, that everybody must be in debt! It is the order of the age that all must make as much show as possible; and money is desired only for this end. Of course, every man will calculate to live up, fully up, to his income. Then others, and many, too, will go beyond their income–beyond what they can earn. The next result is, that those who are honest cannot get all their honest income, because all by which a dishonest man exceeds his income must come out of the honest: And as very few calculate to live under their supposed income, and as many will live over theirs, the consequence must be that everybody runs in debt. This must be the result to all who do not live as much within their income as will make up for what others exceed theirs. Now, the very spirit of the age tempts the man of business to graduate his expenses, not by what he has in his hand, but by what he ought to have. A man in business this year makes sales, the profits of which are some five thousand dollars. He sells to some fifty different people, and at the end of the year he is to receive the profits. Now, what is the temptation? Is it not to consider the five thousand dollars as already his own, to graduate his expenses accordingly, and to forget that he has virtually been insuring on the honesty and success of the fifty men to whom he has made sales? And when at length he finds that he is disappointed–that instead of obtaining profits, he has lost fully to that amount–what does he do, or rather what is he tempted to do? To contract and curtail expenses? Or is he now tempted to become reckless, and to plunge headlong into almost any speculation which promises relief? Hence we have an evil arising from the spirit of the age worse than any and all yet mentioned; and that is, men are tempted to use dishonest means and reckless measures to obtain money to keep up in the race which all around them are running.
VI. The man of the world, in the great city, is tempted to undervalue truth. The buyer pretends that he is quite indifferent whether he purchases or not; and the seller is quite indifferent whether he sells or not; and so these two indifferent men will contrive to meet every few hours, and throw out baits to each other, and yet both professing not to desire the trade! The purchaser decries the goods–he has seen better, has had cheaper offered him–can do better elsewhere; and yet, when he cannot cheapen them any further, to oblige the seller, he takes them! It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer, and straightway goeth away and boasteth. It is not for us to say how much news is manufactured for particular purposes–how many letters are conveniently forgotten to be delivered, till too late to take advantage of the news–how many letters are received which were never written; but it is for us to say that the man of business, in the great city, is awfully tempted to exaggerate good qualities, to point them out where they do not exist, to conceal defects, and to gloss over imperfections, without recollecting that the eye of God is upon him. If he says it is difficult to get along without doing so, I reply, that this very difficulty constitutes his danger–that it will be more difficult to bear the indignation of God forever; that lying lips are an abomination to the Lord; and that no apology will be accepted by Him. (John Todd, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 9. For they say, The Lords hath forsaken the earth] eth haarets, “this land.” He has no more place in Israel; he has quite abandoned it; he neither sees nor cares, and he can be no longer the object of worship to any man in Israel. This seems to be the meaning; and God highly resents it, because it was bringing him on a level with idols and provincial deities, who had, according to supposition, regency only in some one place.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Then said he; God gives him a speedy answer.
Of the house of Israel; of those who either joined themselves to the house of David when the ten tribes fell off, or those that escaped when Shalmaneser carried them captive.
Judah; the two tribes; though only one is expressed the other is included.
Exceeding great; grown beyond all measure, that my justice cannot, and my mercy must not, longer forbear. Full of blood; very much innocent blood is spilt, or there are many bloodshedders among them.
Full of perverseness; all judgment is perverted; in judges, to injustice; in priests, to idolatry; in all, to scepticism, or atheism.
They say; they argue and dispute against my concerning myself in the government of the world and the church.
The Lord hath cast off the care of his people, and so they spoil him of his dominion, deny his omniscience, and make him as idols for ignorance, just as Psa 10:11; 94:7.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. exceedingliterally, “very,very”; doubled.
perverseness“apostasy”[GROTIUS]; or, “wrestingaside of justice.”
Lord . . . forsaken . . .earth . . . seeth notThe order is reversed from Eze8:12. There they speak of His neglect of His people in theirmisery; here they go farther and deny His providence (Ps10:11), so that they may sin fearlessly. God, in answer toEzekiel’s question (Eze 9:8),leaves the difficulty unsolved; He merely vindicates His justice byshowing it did not exceed their sin: He would have us humblyacquiesce in His judgments, and wait and trust.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then he said unto me,…. In order to satisfy the prophet, and make him easy, and show the equity and justice of the divine proceedings:
the iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah [is] exceeding great; it cannot be well conceived or expressed how great it is; it abounded and superabounded: this is the answer in general, but in particular it follows:
and the land is full of blood; of murders, as the Targum interprets it; of shedding of innocent blood; and even of all atrocious and capital crimes:
and the city full of perverseness; or of perversion of judgment, as the Targum; the city of Jerusalem, where was the highest court of judicature, where the sanhedrim of seventy one sat to do justice and judgment, have nothing but perversion and injustice:
for they say, the Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not; does not concern himself with human affairs, and takes no notice of what is done below; and, having imbibed such atheistical principles, were hardened in sin, and gave themselves over to all iniquity; having no restraints upon them from the consideration of the providence of God, and his government of the world: or else the sense is, that the Lord had withheld his mercy and favours from them; and therefore they showed no regard to him, and looked upon all their evils and calamities as fortuitous events, and not as ordered by him as punishments for their sins.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Here God so answers his Prophet, that he restrains too much fervor, and at the same time asserts his own justice — for the Prophet might be impelled this way and that — he might even doubt whether God would be true to his word. God might also shake his confidence in another manner, as by raging too much against the innocent; since therefore he might be agitated amidst those waves of trial, what God now does ought to set him at rest. Therefore, as I have already said, he mitigates the feelings of his Prophet, and at the same time asserts the equity of his judgment against all false opinions which are apt to creep over us when God’s judgments do not answer to our will. Meanwhile it must be remarked, how the Prophet complains suppliantly of the slaughter of the city, and although he seemed to expostulate with God, yet he submitted all his senses to his command, and on that account an answer is given which can calm him. Whenever, therefore, God does not seem to work as our carnal reason dictates to us, we may learn, by the Prophet’s example, how to restrain ourselves, and to subject our reason to God’s will, so that it may suffice us that he wills a thing so, because his will is the most perfect rule of all justice. We see that Prophets sometimes complain, and seem also to permit themselves too much liberty when they expostulate with God, as we saw a memorable example in Jeremiah. (Jer 12:0 and Jer 20:0.) Then we read also a similar one in Habakkuk. (Hab 1:2.) How so? Do the Prophets contend with God himself? yea, they directly return to themselves, and collect into order all those wandering opinions by which they perceive that they were greatly disturbed. So also our Prophet, on the one hand, wonders at the slaughter of the city, and exclaims vehemently; at the same time he falls upon his face, and in this way testifies that he would be obedient, as soon as God answered him. This is the reason, then, why God also desires to appease his servant; nor is it doubtful that we shall experience the same thing, if we modestly and soberly learn to enquire when God’s judgments do not answer our opinions. If, therefore, we approach God in this way, he will doubtless show us that what he does is right, and thus supply us with material for rest. Hence, also, God’s inestimable indulgence toward his people is collected, because he so deigns to render a reason, as if he wished to satisfy them. It is certain that men are carried forward into too much rashness, as often as they ask questions of God; for who will dare to oppose himself to his judgments? and who will reply to him? so Paul says. (Rom 9:20.) But God in his amazing goodness, descends even thus far, so as to render a reason of his deeds to his servants, to settle their minds, as I have said.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
9. Then said he unto me Out of the glory upon the threshold of the holy place the answer comes, and Jehovah defends himself.
Full of blood full of perverseness: for they say The people, both Israel and Judah, have been guilty of violence even to bloodshed, and of perverseness or “wresting of judgment,” and they have been led to this by their belief that Jehovah has been defeated by strange gods and that moral restraints are therefore binding upon them no longer (Eze 6:11-12; Eze 7:17; Eze 7:21; Eze 22:25). Let the prophet be silent, for even Jehovah has no hope of the possible reformation of such a people!
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Then he said to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of injustice (‘bending’ of justice). For they say, “Yahweh has forsaken the land, and Yahweh sees not.” ’
These men left in Jerusalem and its surrounds had seen the previous judgments of God and the carrying away of the cream of the people, first of Israel and then of Judah. But they had not taken warning. Instead of repenting and turning to God they had increased their sinfulness. Instead of recognising that He had done what He had always promised they had interpreted it as meaning that God had forsaken the land and the people in it. That God no longer noted their behaviour. Thus instead of becoming better they had become worse. Murder was rife. True justice was unobtainable. Might was right. There was only one thing to do. Begin with those who in exile had learned to be humble and to seek God. And that was why Ezekiel was here.
Note in passing that God saw the inhabitants of Jerusalem and its surrounds as representing in fact the whole of Israel, ‘the house of Israel and Judah’. There were no ‘lost tribes’ to Him.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Eze 9:9. Full of perverseness; for they say Full of oppression; because they say.
REFLECTIONS.1st, We have heard the provocations of this people, and we here see that their judgment lingereth not.
1. A charge is given to the destroyers to approach; and instantly six warriors appear armed. Their business is, as ministers of wrath, to destroy the city. They come from the north, where the image of jealousy stood; from which quarter also their destruction advanced: and they went in and stood beside the brazen altar, waiting for orders, or intimating that judgment would begin at the house of God; where the priests ministered, whose hand had been chief in the transgression. A seventh personage differently clad, appears among them, arrayed not as a warrior but as a priest, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side; and this may signify the great high-priest of our profession Christ Jesus, represented here as marking down in his book, who were sincere among the multitude of his enemies. Note; (1.) God never wants ministers of wrath, when he has vengeance to execute against sinners. (2.) They who have profaned the altar by their wickedness, justly fall as sacrifices before it. (3.) The saints of God need not fear, whatever judgments are on the earth; their Lord and Saviour governs the whole, and will protect them from evil.
2. God’s glory, the Shechinah, removes from between the cherubims to the threshold of the house, as ready now to depart from the devoted temple, when he had given the last directions to separate the few precious from the vile. And,
[1.] He called to the man clothed with linen, &c. God’s first care is for his believing people: they were but few, yet precious in his sight. They could not behold these abominations practised by their countrymen without the bitterest concern and anguish, which they terrified publicly, and lamented before God in private. On them, therefore, God commands a distinguishing mark to be set, on the foreheads, that they might be known to belong to God, see Rev 7:3 in allusion to the marks on servants, or to the blood on the lintels and side-posts of the Israelites in Egypt, to guard them from the destroying angel. Note; (1.) God’s people cannot without the deepest concern behold a world lying in wickedness; they remonstrate against the evil, and with tears before God and man lament over perishing souls. (2.) They who distinguish themselves by a concern for God’s glory, shall be distinguished by his care for their safety.
[2.] To the others he said, to the six destroyers, Go ye after him, through the city, and slay with unrelenting severity both young and old, all of every age and sex, beginning at the sanctuary: the priests, who were chief in iniquity, must be the first and chief sufferers; and none must be spared, but those on whom is God’s mark; these they may not touch, nor come near. No sooner is the command issued, than the destroyers obey, beginning with those ancients, the five-and-twenty, or the seventy, which were before mentioned, profaning God’s temple with their idolatries. Nor need they fear to defile God’s house with the blood of the slain, since they have his commission. Because these ancients have polluted it with their abominations, God will more pollute it with their dead carcases: and when they have begun their bloody work in the sanctuary, they must finish it in the city by a general massacre; and it is done. Note; (1.) They who persist in their impenitence will die without mercy. (2.) None in a judgment day will meet so terrible a doom as those who, being appointed to admonish others, have seduced and destroyed the souls to whom they were ordained to minister.
2nd, We have,
1. The prophet an intercessor in behalf of this miserable people. While the execution was performing, and the prophet alone in the temple, all who were there besides being slain, he fell upon his face in great humility, and cried and said, Ah, Lord God, wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel, in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem? he dreaded a total excision, and fain would stay the avenging arm. Note; A gracious soul cannot unmoved behold the miseries coming on the wicked, and fain would avert the dreadful storm by his prayers.
2. God cannot grant his request; their iniquities are such as admit of neither pardon nor reprieve: their sins are most aggravated; their land full of blood; murders the most inhuman, and every atrocious crime prevailing; the city is fall of perverseness; no justice or truth is regarded; and, atheistical in principles as in practice, they blasphemously dared to deny the government of his providence, and flattered themselves with impunity in their iniquity: therefore God threatens with unsparing hand to punish them, to shut up his compassions, and to refuse to be in-treated by them or for them, bringing upon them the wrath which they had so highly provoked and deserved. Note; Though we may never cease to cry to God, there is a time when sinners are past the efficacy of prayer.
3. The man clothed with linen, &c. reports, that the divine orders were accomplished; the genuine people of God marked; the wicked destroyed. Oh, that all might learn from these awful lessons to turn to God, and walk with him in holiness of heart and life!
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Eze 9:9 Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah [is] exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The LORD hath forsaken the earth, and the LORD seeth not.
Ver. 9. The iniquity of Israel is exceeding great. ] Nimls veldt. Still there is a cause, to be sure; and God’s judgments are sometimes secret, ever just; and as swift rivers, when they once fall into lakes or seas, are at rest, so are our restless minds, when once they fall into the depth of the Divine justice, duly considered.
And the city full of perverseness.
For they say, The Lord hath forsaken the earth.
a One who writes explanatory notes upon an author; esp. an ancient commentator upon a classical writer. D
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Eze 9:9-10
9Then He said to me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is very, very great, and the land is filled with blood and the city is full of perversion; for they say, ‘The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD does not see!’ 10But as for Me, My eye will have no pity nor will I spare, but I will bring their conduct upon their heads.
Eze 9:9 This decree of guilt (BDB 730) is expressed by three words in the Hebrew text.
1. great, BDB 152
2. exceedingly, BDB 547 (twice)
3. is full, BDB 569, KB 583, Niphal IMPERFECT and it is repeated in Qal PERFECT, full of perversion (BDB 642)
perversion This term (BDB 642) occurs only here in the OT. It may be from the root bend or twist (BDB 62, initial n instead of m). If so, the root concept of sin as a perversion of the standard would make sense.
they say This reflects the idolaters’ statement of Eze 8:12 (cf. Isa 29:15; Isa 47:10).
Eze 9:10 The Jerusalemite idolaters say YHWH does not see. In one sense, they are right. He will refuse to see (i.e., My eye) when calamity comes, cf. Eze 8:18.
I shall bring their conduct upon their heads This phrase is used several times (cf. Eze 7:3-4; Eze 7:8-9; Eze 9:11; Eze 11:21; Eze 16:43; Eze 17:19; Eze 22:31; 1Ki 8:22). See note at Eze 7:4.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
iniquity. Hebrew `avnh, App-44.
exceeding great. Figure of speech Epizeuxis. App-6. Hebrew = “great, by degree, degree”,
Hath forsaken. See Eze 8:12.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
The iniquity: Eze 7:23, Eze 22:2-12, Eze 22:25-31, Deu 31:29, Deu 32:5, Deu 32:15-22, 2Ki 17:7-23, 2Ch 36:14-16, Isa 1:4, Isa 59:2-8, Isa 59:12-15, Jer 5:1-9, Jer 7:8, Jer 7:9, Mic 3:9-12, Zep 3:1-4
and the land: Eze 8:17, 2Ki 21:16, 2Ki 24:4, Jer 2:34, Jer 22:17, Lam 4:13, Lam 4:14, Mat 23:35-37, Luk 11:50
full of: Heb. filled with
perverseness: or, wresting of judgment, Eze 22:27-29, Mic 3:1-3, Mic 7:3, Mic 7:4
The Lord hath: Eze 8:12, Job 22:13, Psa 10:11, Psa 94:7, Isa 29:15
Reciprocal: Exo 23:2 – to decline Job 18:4 – shall the Job 24:15 – No eye Psa 86:14 – and have Isa 3:8 – because Isa 47:10 – thou hast said Isa 59:3 – your hands Isa 59:7 – and they Jer 16:17 – General Jer 23:24 – hide Jer 44:3 – of their Jer 51:5 – though Lam 1:5 – for Eze 11:6 – General Eze 14:13 – when Eze 14:23 – that I have not Eze 33:25 – and shed Hab 1:4 – wrong Zep 1:12 – The Lord Mal 2:17 – Where
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 9:9. The Lord explained his great fury for the information of the prophet. Just at that time Israel (the 10 tribes) was in exile and had been for more than a century, yet her stns came up for remembrance now in connection with those of Judah, some of whose men were still in Jerusalem.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Eze 9:9-10. Then said he, The iniquity of the house of Israel, &c., is exceeding great Here we have Gods denial of the prophets request for a mitigation of the judgment, and the justification of himself in that denial. 1st, Nothing could be said in extenuation of their guilt. God was as willing to show mercy as the prophet could desire, but here the case would not admit of it: it was such that mercy could not be granted without injuring justice; and it was not fit that one attribute of God should be glorified at the expense of another. Their crimes were so flagrant, that to grant them a reprieve would be a connivance at their sins. The land is full of blood
Blood unjustly shed, which always cries for vengeance. And the city full of perverseness All judgment was perverted; in judges, to injustice; in priests, to idolatry; in all, to skepticism, or atheism. For they say, The Lord hath forsaken the earth And hath left us to do what we will in it, and whatever wrong we do, he either knows it not, or will not take cognizance of it. Now how can those expect benefit from the mercy of God who thus bid defiance to his justice? Therefore, 2d, Nothing can be done to mitigate the sentence. Mine eye shall not spare, &c. I have borne with them as long as it was fit such impudent sinners should be borne with, and therefore I will now recompense their way on their head.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
9:9 Then said he to me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah [is] exceeding great, and the land is full of {k} blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The LORD hath forsaken the earth, and the LORD seeth not.
(k) That is, with all kinds of wickedness. See Geneva “Isa 1:15”
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The Lord replied that the wickedness of the Israelites was extremely great (cf. Exo 23:2). Bloodshed and perversion filled the land because the people had concluded that the Lord had abandoned them and would not see and take action regardless of what they did. Awareness that God sees us restrains people from sinning, but belief that He does not see us leads to flagrant sinning.