Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 21:6

Sigh therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking of [thy] loins; and with bitterness sigh before their eyes.

6, 7. Agitation of the prophet at the tidings of the coming calamity. This agitation of his is only a symbol of the dismay and paralysis that shall overtake all when the calamity comes. On the figures in Eze 21:7 cf. Eze 7:17.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

The prophet was directed to let the people see him sighing and prostrate, as a sign of the sorrow and weakness about to come upon the people.

The breaking of thy loins – The prostration of strength; the loins being the seat of strength.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Eze 21:6-7

Wherefore sighest thou?

. . .For the tidings.

Sighing because of sorrowful tidings

The tidings were, in the first place, of dishonour done to God, and, in the second place, of ruin which the transgressors were bringing upon themselves; and we think to show you that the tidings were such as might well justify the prophet as he looked upon his nation in sighing with bitterness before their eyes.

1. If you know anything of the relationship subsisting between the Creator and the creature, you must know that we lie absolutely at the disposal of God, depending for every thing upon His bounty, and bound to live wholly to His glory. Gods laws are binding without exception and without limitation; and if He only issue an announcement of His will, it should be received with the deepest reverence and obeyed with unhesitating compliance throughout every department of His unbounded empire. And if this obedience be withheld, who can fail to see that the very greatest insult is at once offered by the finite to the Infinite? Now, consider what effect this insult will have–or at least ought to have–upon a man who loves God, and whose prime effort it is to obey His every word. If a man of warm loyalty were living amongst traitors, it would wound him to the quick to hear the king whom he honoured continually reviled. If a man of warm friendship were with the enemies of his love, it would sorely grieve him to observe how his friend was hated and despised. And what are such feelings in comparison of those which should rise in the man of real piety, when he beholds on all sides dishonour done to his God? Oh! as such a man thinks on the unlimited right which God has to the services of His creatures, and yet more as he thinks how God draws those creatures to Himself by every motive of interest and attraction, supplying their wants, offering them happiness, bearing with their perverseness; and then, when there come to him tidings of the return which God receives–His authority defied, His promises despised, His threatenings laughed to scorn, so that it almost seems the universal object to expel Him from His own world, and set up some usurper in His stead–as the man, we say, of real piety observes all this, and meditates on all this, would there be any cause of wonder were he to exclaim, For the tidings! for the tidings when asked to explain a manifestation of grief which should be similar to that of the prophet–Sigh, therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking of thy loins, and with bitterness sigh before their eyes?

2. But let us go on to consider the ruin which transgressors are bringing on themselves; for here at least we shall find tidings which, in the judgment of you all, might vindicate Ezekiels mighty manifestation of anguish. It is not the moment of absolute shipwreck; but it cometh–it cometh. The tidings make him as certain of the shipwreck of thousands as though already were the sea strewed with the fragments of the stranded navy. It is with him no matter of conjecture or speculation whether a life of wickedness will terminate in an eternity of misery; he so surely anticipates the future that he is as though he beheld the casting of the wicked into a lake of fire, and could not be more assured of their terrible doom if the last day were come, and the dead were raised, and the books were opened. And who are these victims of Divine justice? Are they not his fellow men–his brethren after the flesh–those for whom he would bitterly sorrow, if he knew them exposed to some temporal calamity? Shall he–can he–be unmoved by their everlasting wretchedness? (H. Melvill, B. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 6. Sigh – with the breaking of thy loins] Let thy mourning for this sore calamity be like that of a woman in the pains of travail.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Sigh; thereby express to them deepest sorrows for what is present, and most piercing fears of what is to come.

With the breaking of thy loins; like a woman in travail, or as one whose griefs are ready to break his heart, Isa 21:3.

With bitterness; with all sorts of the most bitter cries and tears.

Before their eyes who were now with him in Babylon, and who, as they easily could, so surely would, send word to them in Jerusalem and Judea.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

6. with the breaking of thy loinsasone afflicted with pleurisy; or as a woman, in labor-throes, claspsher loins in pain, and heaves and sighs till the girdle of theloins is broken by the violent action of the body (Jer30:6).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Sigh, therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking of thy loins,…. As if thy loins were broke, and go as if they were, and sigh as thou goest; or as a woman in travail, having her hands upon her loins as ready to break, and in the utmost distress; or heave, and groan, and sigh, till the girdle of the loins is broke, and by these motions and gesture show the miserable state of this people, and how much thou art affected with it:

and with bitterness sigh before their eyes; in the sight and hearing of the captives at Babylon; who would take care, by some means or other, to inform their brethren at Jerusalem of it, how the prophet sighed and groaned, under an apprehension and assurance of a dreadful calamity coming upon them; using along with his sobs and sighs, and brinish tears, doleful words and bitter lamentations.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(6) With the breaking of thy loins.The loins were regarded as the seat of strength (Job. 40:16); and the breaking of these, therefore, expresses entire prostration. Comp. Psa. 66:11; Psa. 69:23; Isa. 21:3; Nah. 2:10. The prophet was to do this before their eyes, i.e., was in some way to express before them a sense of extreme dejection and prostration, such as should call forth the question and reply of the following verse. With the expression Every heart shall melt comp. Luk. 21:26.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

6. Sigh with the breaking of thy loins This expression of speechless grief, which seems as if it will tear the body asunder, is the picture prophecy of the anguish which all shall feel when the news of the downfall of the holy city which Ezekiel has so long been prophesying shall be brought to the captives at Tel-abib.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

“Sigh, therefore, you son of man. You will sigh with the breaking of your loins and with bitterness before their eyes. And it will be when they say to you, ‘Why do you sigh?’, that you will say, ‘Because of the tidings, for it comes.’ And every heart will melt, and all hands will be feeble, and every spirit will faint, and all knees will be weak as water. Behold it comes and it will be done, says the Lord Yahweh.”

So Ezekiel was to audibly sigh. The ‘breaking of the loins’ represents deep emotions and fear (Psa 69:23; Nah 2:10). The ‘bitterness’ reveals his heartbreaking concern. This will then raise questions in his hearers (by now anything that Ezekiel did raised questions), and when they ask for its reason he will reply that it is because of the coming bad tidings, tidings which result in great dismay and regret, so that even the strong are made weak, and all suffer emotional collapse. The hands will be feeble, every spirit will be faint, the legs will be weak as water. They could hardly doubt that he was referring to the final destruction of Jerusalem and the collapse of all their hopes.

‘Behold it comes and it will be done, says the Lord Yahweh.’ God wants them to know that it will all happen at His will. There is nothing accidental about it. In our modern day we can so emphasise that God is love that we forget this side of Him, that God is also light and hates sin totally.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Eze 21:6. With the breaking of thy loins With trembling or shivering of loins. The allusion seems to be to the pangs of a woman in child-birth. See Isa 21:3. Jer 30:6.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Eze 21:6 Sigh therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking of [thy] loins; and with bitterness sigh before their eyes.

Ver. 6. Sigh therefore, with the breaking of thy loins. ] Gemituque et gestu dolorem referas; show greatest grief, such as is deep and downright; sigh till thy buttons fly; or as a travailing woman. Non ut praeficae in funeribus solent.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)