Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 6:9
And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall loathe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.
9. because I am broken ] R.V. how that I have been broken with their whorish heart. Such a sense as “been broken with” is altogether impossible; and the middle sense “break for myself” is equally to be rejected. The natural sense is: they shall remember (think of) me when I have broken. Their idolatrous heart shall be broken with their calamities, and then shall they return unto the Lord; Hos 2:7, “I will return unto my first husband, for then was it better with me than now.” The present reading has probably arisen from the similar word “carried captive” being in the copyist’s mind.
and with their eyes ] Read: when I have broken their whorish heart and their eyes. The harshness of the zeugma, “and their eyes,” is relieved by the distance from “break” and the metaphorical nature of the expression. Cf. the phrase “lifted up his eyes towards the idols,” ch. Eze 18:6; Eze 18:12; Eze 18:15, Eze 20:24, Eze 33:25.
lothe themselves ] Lit. their faces; a use of “face” for self, not uncommon in the later language, ch. Eze 20:43, Eze 36:31; Job 23:17.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I am broken … – Translate: because I have broken their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and their eyes etc. Since Ezekiel is addressing the Church of God through Israel, we are to note here that the general principle of the divine administration is laid down. Sin leads to judgment, judgment to repentance, repentance to forgiveness, forgiveness to reconciliation, reconciliation to a knowledge of communion with God.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Eze 6:9
They shall loathe themselves.
Self-loathing after sin
We never realise what sin is till its passion is over, and we have time quietly to remember. Oh, the terror of those hours of remembrance and remorse! Sitting in the captivity of its prison, or serving in the heavy bondage of its fetters, the soul has time to review the bitter path by which it has come to such a pass, and the way it has broken the hearts of those who loved and trusted. But the most terrible element in remorse will be the personal one: Shall remember Me. One of our great writers depicts a heartless, thoughtless husband standing beside the newly covered-in grave of his wife, and saying, Ah, Milly, Milly; dost thou hear me? I was not tender enough to thee; but it is too late to alter it now. The child who has given way to fits of ungovernable passion, which have broken up the home, and brought down grey hairs with sorrow to the grave, will loathe itself. Similarly, as we review our past life, and see how we must have grieved the tender Spirit of God, we fall at the feet of Jesus and cover them with tears and kisses. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Eze 6:9
And ye shall know that I am the Lord that smiteth.
Gods hand in judgment
You look at second causes, and think it is Nebuchadnezzar that smites you, but you shall be made to know he is but the staff; it is the hand of the Lord that smiteth you, and who knows the weight of His hand? (M. Henry.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 9. They that escape of you shall remember me] Those that escape the sword, the pestilence, and the famine, and shall be led into captivity, shall plainly see that it is God who has done this, and shall humble themselves on account of their abominations, leave their idolatry, and worship me alone. And this they have done from the Babylonish captivity to the present day.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
They that escape; some of them, not every one of them, for several of the escaped did not bethink themselves, as appears, Jer 47; 48; 49;.
Shall remember me; my precepts which they violated, my mercies which they abused, my threats which they despised, my promises which they refused, my prophets whom they persecuted, my judgments which have executed; and shall consider and return, and seek me in their affliction.
Among the nations: in their own land they forgot and sinned, in a strange land they shall remember and weep; so the remnant is bettered by afflictions. At liberty they were captives to sin and idols; when in captivity they shall shake off that bondage, and become my servants.
Because I am broken, & c. Here we meet very different reading. The Chaldee paraphrase and Syriac version read it actively, so does the Latin Vulgate, because, or when, I have broken, &c.; and if this vary from the grammatical construction, yet it carrieth very good sense, and agreeable to the foregoing words. Their whorish hearts would still have forgotten God, if he had not broken their hearts with judgments; but they remembered when broken, and this breaking was the occasion or cause of their remembering God. Others read this passively, as our version, and as the Hebrew form most usually beareth, I am broken. It is an allusion to a misused husband whom a treacherous wife hath broken; either,
1. His peace and content.
2. His love and tenderness.
3. His patience and forbearance.
4. His purposes.
5. His offers and promises. So that, as overcome with grief and anger, he doth, contrary to his natural disposition, lay aside his courting her love, and in his jealousy takes revenge, and then she bethinks herself. So here.
Their whorish heart; their heart of whoredom, i.e. idolatrous heart, which was full of that sin, addicted to it, delighted in it, and wedded to it.
Hath departed from me: idolatrous hearts do actually depart from God, as an adulterous wife actually departs from her husband.
With their eyes: as it vexeth a husband to see his wife fixing her eyes with delight on the adulterer, and turning them with scorn from him, as this breaks the husbands patience; so in this case, Israels eyes were to idols, and delighted in them, expected help from them, were ready to serve them; all which broke their Husbands, i.e. Gods, patience, and provoked his severe revenges.
Loathe themselves; with a mixture of grief towards God offended, of indignation against themselves offending, of abhorrence of the offence, and shame before all for it, shall they show their repentance.
For the evils; wickednesses, or, as Psa 32:5,
iniquities of sin; the deepest and darkest part of sin, the complicated evils that were in each act.
In all their abominations: it is a hypocrites repentance which is but for some; this of the reserved remnant shall be sound, it is for all abominations, for all kinds of their abominations.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. they that escape of you shallremember meThe object of God’s chastisements shall at last beeffected by working in them true contrition. This partially tookplace in the complete eradication of idolatry from the Jews eversince the Babylonian captivity. But they have yet to repent of theircrowning sin, the crucifixion of Messiah; their full repentance istherefore future, after the ordeal of trials for many centuries,ending with that foretold in Zec 10:9;Zec 13:8; Zec 13:9;Zec 14:1-4; Zec 14:11.”They shall remember me in far countries” (Eze 7:16;Deu 30:1-8).
I am broken with theirwhorish heartFAIRBAIRNtranslates, actively, “I will break” their whorish heart;English Version is better. In their exile they shall rememberhow long I bore with them, but was at last compelled to punish, afterI was “broken” (My long-suffering wearied out) by theirdesperate (Nu 15:39) spiritualwhorishness [CALVIN],(Psa 78:40; Isa 7:13;Isa 43:24; Isa 63:10).
loathe themselves(Lev 26:39-45; Job 42:6).They shall not wait for men to condemn them but shall condemnthemselves (Eze 20:43; Eze 36:31;Job 42:6; 1Co 11:31).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And they that escape of you shall remember me,…. Either my grace and mercy to them, as Jarchi; or the fear of me, as the Targum; and so return by repentance, and worship the Lord their God, being influenced by his kindness and goodness to them: even when
among the nations, whither they shall be carried captive; so that their afflictions should be sanctified and made useful to them: in prosperity men are apt to forget God; in adversity they are brought to a sense of themselves and duty; and happy it is when chastening dispensations are teaching ones, and bring to God, and not drive from him:
because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me: by committing spiritual adultery, which is idolatry. The sense is, either that he was grieved at heart with their idolatry, which was the reason of their being carried captive, which, when they were sensible of, wrought repentance in them; or that he was full of compassion towards them; his heart was tender and pitiful towards them, though they departed from him in such a dreadful manner, justly to be resented by him. The Targum is,
“I have broken their foolish heart;”
and so the Syriac and Vulgate Latin versions, “I have broken their whorish heart”; by afflictive providences humbled them, and brought them to repentance:
and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols; they committed fornication with their heart and eyes in a spiritual sense, as wicked men do in a natural sense; see 2Pe 2:14;
and they shall loathe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations; abominable idolatry, 1Pe 4:3; when men remember God, against whom they have sinned, and consider how grieving sin is to him; and when they are broken for it themselves, they then loathe their sins, and themselves for it; and where all this is there is true repentance.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
I see that I cannot finish, and I think the time is advancing.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(9) Because I am broken.The verb in the Hebrew is passive in form, but it is better to take it, with most modern commentators, as a middle, in a transitive sense, Because I have broken their whorish heart . . . and their eyes, the eyes being mentioned as the means by which their hearts had been enticed to evil. Here, as constantly in all parts of Scripture, apostacy from God is described under the figure of unfaithfulness in the marriage relation. They shall loathe themselves indicates a true repentance; they shall loathe the sin and themselves for having committed it. Thus their sin has drawn down punishment; punishment has destroyed many, but brought a remnant to repentance; and repentance leads to a true knowledge of God, and communion with Him. The Divine word and act has not been in vain.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. “And they shall remember me when I have broken for myself their whorish heart.” Havernick and Keil. This seems a better reading than that of the R.V., “I have been broken.” Israel went into Babylonian captivity a nation prone to fall constantly into idolatry. It came out of that fiery furnace a purified people with the whorish heart broken and every polytheistic tendency burned out of it. Up to this point their whole history had been a series of national or tribal apostasies from the true God; from this point onward there is not a single instance of this. From the time of this awful punishment down to the present, the whole nation has heartily sung, in every age:
Thou art One, the first great cause of all;
Thou art One, and none can penetrate,
Not even the wise in heart, the mystery
Of thy unfathomable unity,
Thou art One, the infinitely great.
Ibn Gebirol.
Their eyes
Loathe themselves Literally, loathe their own faces. (Compare Eze 20:43; Eze 36:31.)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Eze 6:9. Because I am broken, &c. Because I have broken their adulterous heart, which hath departed from me, and their adulterous eyes, which followed after their idols, &c. Houbigant.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Perhaps there is not a more blessed account of gospel grace, and of that whichever was and ever must be gospel, than what is contained in these and the foregoing verses. In the former we have the whole cause of mercy; namely, Jehovah’s sovereign will and pleasure. In these latter, we have the gracious effects of it. Jehovah in his threefold person and character, is the sole cause of all: and his glory the first and ultimate end and design of all: And the con sequence of it, as it concerns the happiness of his people; in grace here and glory hereafter, is linked in the same chain. And Reader! do not fail to remark the sweet properties of his grace, in the hearts of that remnant whom the Lord leaves. They shall remember the Lord; they shall loath themselves; and they shall know Jehovah in his Covenant relation; and they shall most freely and frankly confess, the Lord’s justice in all the Lord’s dispensations. Reader! here learn the truest evidences of a regenerated heart. Self-loathing, self-abhorring; God-glorifying, God-exalting, these were in Ezekiel’s days, as truly as they are in ours, the surest tokens of the soul’s real conversion towards God. The Lord give them both to him that writes, and to him that reads! Amen.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Eze 6:9 And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.
Ver. 9. And they that escape of you shall remember me. ] Here beginneth that true repentance never to be repented of. Psa 22:27 ; Psa 20:7
Because I am broken off from their whorish heart,
And with their eyes.
And they shall loathe themselves.
a . – Sept.
I am broken with. Aramaean, Syriac, and Vulgate read “I have broken”.
whorish: i.e. idolatrous.
evils. Hebrew. nI’s’. App-44.
remember: Lev 26:40, Lev 26:41, Deu 4:29-31, Deu 30:1-3, Psa 137:1, Jer 51:50, Dan 9:2, Dan 9:3, Zec 10:9
I am: Eze 5:13, Eze 16:43, Psa 78:40, Psa 78:40, Isa 7:13, Isa 43:24, Isa 63:10, Jer 3:6, Jer 3:13, Amo 2:13
their eyes: Eze 14:4-7, Eze 20:7, Eze 20:24, Eze 20:28, Eze 23:14-16, Num 15:39, 2Ki 16:10, 2Pe 2:14
they shall: They shall humble themselves on account of their abominations, forsake their idolatry, and worship ME alone, and this they have done from the Babylonish captivity to the present day. Eze 7:16, Eze 12:16, Eze 16:63, Eze 20:43, Eze 36:31, Eze 36:32, Lev 26:39, Job 42:6, Isa 64:6, Jer 30:18, Jer 30:19
Reciprocal: Lev 20:6 – go Ezr 9:8 – a remnant Neh 1:2 – that had escaped Job 31:7 – mine heart Pro 13:5 – is Isa 59:13 – departing Jer 17:5 – whose Jer 31:19 – I was ashamed Eze 14:3 – these men Eze 14:22 – ye shall see Eze 23:30 – thou hast Dan 9:5 – departing Hos 1:2 – for Hos 5:15 – till Mic 5:13 – graven
Eze 6:9. Shall remember me among the nations was sadly fulfilled by the children of Israel after they got into the land of Babylon. Their dejected frame of mind is forcefully described by a prophecy of David in Psalms 137. I am broken. Strong defines the original for the last word, A primitive root; to burst (literally or figuratively).’1 Of course it is used figuratively here and means the Lord was deeply disappointed over the conduct of his people. Whorish heart means their lusting after false gods, as religious unfaithfulness is commonly compared to moral corruption in the Bible, Shall loathe themselves refers to the complete cure from idolatry that was accomplished by the cap-tivity. (See the notes at Isa 1:25.)
6:9 And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations to which they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their adulterous heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which play the harlot with their idols: and they {e} shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.
(e) They will be ashamed to see that their hope in idols was in vain, and so will repent.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes