Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 7:16
But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.
16. Read: and when (if) they that escape of them shall escape, they shall be upon the mountains.
mourning ] This refers to the doves: the fugitives shall be on the mountains (seeking refuge) like doves of the valleys, all of which mourn. Isa 59:11, We moan all like bears, and mourn sore like doves; Eze 38:14, Like a swallow so did I chatter, I did mourn as a dove. The Arabic poets often refer to the mourning of the dove or ring-dove (umr) as being like their own. See the citations of Ahlwardt, Chalef el Amar p. 102 seq. Similarly in the Babylonian Penitential Psalms (Zimmern), Ps. 1:10, Like doves do I mourn; on sighs I feed myself; Psa 6:4; Psa 7:10.
for his iniquity ] Or, in; in the consciousness of it and its consequences.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
As doves whose natural abode is the valleys moan lamentably when driven by fear into the mountains, so shall the remnant, who have escaped actual death, moan in the land of their exile.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 16. They – shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys] Rather, like mourning doves haggeayoth, chased from their dove-cotes, and separated from their mates.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
As we read the words they are a prediction, some shall escape, and a promise of some mercy in the escape. But if we read them as we may, And
flee ye that are escaped of them, in the imperative, they are a command to, or direction for, such as would escape, like that Jer 21:9.
On the mountains; wandering out of their proper place, and uneasy, like doves that are frighted out of their nests, and fly among the wilder sort of doves, which give them trouble and danger, such will be the state of escaped ones among savage idolaters.
Mourning; bemoaning themselves, and making a mournful noise, Nah 2:7.
For his iniquity; either for the punishment of their iniquity, so the worst of those that escape; or for their iniquity, cause of their punishment, so the best among them; or for both together: the mourning, though on different motives, yet should be universal, every one weeping.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16. (Eze6:6).
like doveswhich,though usually frequenting the valleys, mount up to the mountainswhen fearing the bird-catcher (Ps11:1). So Israel, once dwelling in its peaceful valleys, shallflee from the foe to the mountains, which, as being the scene of itsidolatries, were justly to be made the scene of its flight and shame.The plaintive note of the dove (Isa59:11) represents the mournful repentance of Israel hereafter(Zec 12:10-12).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But they that escape of them shall escape,…. Some few should escape the pestilence, famine, and sword, and flee to the mountains, where they should live a very miserable and uncomfortable life; so that this is no contradiction to the wrath of God being upon the whole multitude, Eze 7:12; as it follows:
and shall be on the mountains; whither they shall flee, when the city is broken up and taken; and so the Syriac version reads it, in connection with the preceding words, “and they that escape of them shall escape to the mountains”; barren and desert places, where they shall find no subsistence, nor have any agreeable company and conversation, but live in solitude and distress:
like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, everyone for his iniquity: like doves that live in valleys, or gather together there, and hide themselves in the holes of the rocks, on the sides of the valleys, from birds of prey; or are so called, to distinguish them from wild doves, which, when they have lost their mates, make a very mournful noise, though not loud and clamorous. So those Jews that escaped, being in such an uncomfortable condition, turned out of house and home, and deprived of their substance, should lament their fate; not in loud cries, lest they should be heard by the enemy and taken, but in secret sighs, and in a mournful tone; acknowledging to God, and to one another, their sins; they now became sensible of, which brought these calamities upon them. So God’s people, the remnant according to the election of grace, who “escape” the general ruin sin has brought on mankind, are for the most part “upon the mountains”, in an afflicted and persecuted state; they are like “doves” for their harmlessness, amiableness, cleanness, modesty chastity, sociableness, and timorous disposition; and like doves “of the valleys”, in a low estate, through corruption, temptation, desertion, affliction, and persecution; and “mourn” over their own “iniquity”, the sin of their nature, their unbelief and various transgressions being committed against a God of love, contrary to his grace, grieving to his Spirit, and dishonourable to his Gospel; and being what break their bereave them of comfort, and deprive them of communion with God.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| The Desolation of Israel. | B. C. 594. |
16 But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity. 17 All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water. 18 They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads. 19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumbling-block of their iniquity. 20 As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty: but they made the images of their abominations and of their detestable things therein: therefore have I set it far from them. 21 And I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall pollute it. 22 My face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute my secret place: for the robbers shall enter into it, and defile it.
We have attended the fate of those that are cut off, and are now to attend the flight of those that have an opportunity of escaping the danger; some of them shall escape (v. 16), but what the better? As good die once as, in a miserable life, die a thousand deaths, and escape only like Cain to be fugitives and vagabonds, and afraid of being slain by every one they meet; so shall these be.
I. They shall have no comfort or satisfaction in their own minds, but be in continual anguish and terror; for, wherever they go, they carry about with them guilty consciences, which make them a burden to themselves. 1. They shall be always solitary and under prevailing melancholy; they shall not be in the cities, or places of concourse, but all alone upon the mountains, not caring for society, but shy of it, as being ashamed of the low circumstances to which they are reduced. 2. They shall be always sorrowful. Those have reason to be so that are under the tokens of God’s displeasure; and God can make those so that have been most jovial and have set sorrow at defiance. Those that once thought themselves as the lions of the mountains, so daring were they, now become as the doves of the valleys, so timid are they, and so dispirited, ready to flee when none pursues and to tremble at the shaking of a leaf. They are all of them mourning (not with a godly sorrow, but with the sorrow of the world, which works death), every one for his iniquity, that is, for those calamities which they now see their iniquity has brought upon them, not only the iniquity of the land, but their own: they shall then be brought to acknowledge what they have each of them contributed to the national guilt. Note, Sooner or later sin will have sorrow of one kind or other; and those that will not repent of their iniquity may justly be left to pine away in it; those that will not mourn for it as it is an offence to God shall be made to mourn for it as it is a shame and ruin to themselves, to mourn at the last, when the flesh and the body are consumed, and to say, How have I hated instruction!Pro 5:11; Pro 5:12. 3. They shall be deprived of all their strength of body and mind (v. 17): All hands shall be feeble, so that they shall not be able to fight, or defend themselves, and all knees shall be weak as water, so that they shall neither be able to flee nor to stand their ground; they shall feel a universal colliquation: their knees shall flow as water, so that they must fall of course. Note, It is folly for the strong man to glory in his strength, for God can soon weaken it. 4. They shall be deprived of all their hopes and shall abandon themselves to despair (v. 18); they shall have nothing to hold up their spirits with; their aspects shall show what are their prospects, all dreadful, for they shall gird themselves with sackcloth, as having no expectation ever to wear better clothing. Horror shall cover them, and shame, and baldness, all the expressions of a desperate sorrow, Isa. xvii. 11. Note, Those that will not be kept from sin by fear and shame shall by fear and shame be punished for it; such is the confusion that sin will end in.
II. They shall have no benefit from their wealth and riches, but shall be perfectly sick of them, v. 19. Those that were reduced to this distress were such as had had abundance of silver and gold, money, and plate, and jewels, and other valuable goods, from which they promised themselves a great deal of advantage in times of public trouble. They thought their wealth would be their strong city, that with it they could bribe enemies and buy friends, that it would be the ransom of their lives, that they could never want bread as long as they had money, and that money would answer all things; but see how it proved. 1. Their wealth had been a great temptation to them in the day of their prosperity; they set their affections upon it, and put their confidence in it. By their eager pursuit of it they were drawn into sin, and by their plentiful enjoyment of it they were hardened in sin; and thus it was the stumbling-block of their iniquity; it occasioned their falling into sin and obstructed their return to God. Note, There are many whose wealth is their snare and ruin. The gaining of the world is the losing of their souls; it makes them proud, secure, covetous, oppressive, voluptuous; and that which, it well used, might have been the servant of their piety, being abused, becomes the stumbling-block of their iniquity. 2. It was no relief to them now in the day of their adversity; for, (1.) Their gold and silver could not protect them from the judgments of God. They shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord; they shall not serve to atone his justice, or turn away his wrath, nor to screen them from the judgments he is bringing upon them. Note, Riches profit not in the day of wrath, Prov. xi. 4. They neither set them so high that god’s judgments cannot reach them nor make them so strong that they cannot conquer them. There is a day of wrath coming, when it will appear that men’s wealth is utterly unable to deliver them or do them any service. What the better was the rich man for his full barns when his soul was required of him, or that other rich man for his purple, and scarlet, and sumptuous fare, when in hell he could not procure a drop of water to cool his tongue? Money is no defence against the arrests of death, nor any alleviation to the miseries of the damned. (2.) Their gold and silver could not give them any content under their calamities. [1.] They could not fill their bowels; when there was no bread left in the city, none to be had for love or money, their silver and gold could not satisfy their hunger, nor serve to make one meal’s meat for them. Note, We could better be without mines of gold than fields of corn; the products of the earth, which may easily be gathered from the surface of it, are much greater blessings to mankind than its treasures, which are with so much difficulty and hazard dug out of its bowels. If God give us daily bread, we have reason to be thankful, and no reason to complain, though silver and gold we have none. [2.] Much less could they satisfy their souls, or yield them any inward comfort. Note, The wealth of this world has not that in it which will answer the desires of the soul, or be any satisfaction to it in a day of distress. He that loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver, much less he that loses it. (3.) Their gold and silver shall be thrown into the streets, either by the hands of the enemy, who shall have more spoil than they care for or can carry away (silver shall be nothing accounted of; they shall cast that in the streets; but the gold, which is more valuable, shall be removed and brought to Babylon); or they themselves shall throw away their silver and gold, because it would be an incumbrance to them and retard their flight, or because it would expose them and be a temptation to the enemy to cut their throats for their money, or in indignation at it, because, after all the care and pains they had taken to scrape it together and hoard it up, they found that it would stand them in no stead, but do them a mischief rather. Note, The world passes away, and the lusts thereof, 1 John ii. 17. The time may come when worldly men will be as weary of their wealth as now they are wedded to it, when those will fare best that have least.
III. God’s temple shall stand them in no stead, v. 20-22. This they had prided themselves in, and promised themselves security from (Jer 7:4; Mic 3:11); but this confidence of theirs shall fail them. Observe, 1. The great honour God had done to that people in setting up his sanctuary among them (v. 20): As for the beauty of his ornament, that holy and beautiful house, where they and their fathers praised God (Isa. lxiv. 11), which was therefore beautiful because holy (it was called the beauty of holiness, and holiness is the beauty of its ornament; it was also adorned with gold and gifts)–as for this, he set it in majesty; every thing was contrived to make it magnificent, that it might help to make the people of Israel the more illustrious among their neighbours. He built his sanctuary like high palaces, Ps. lxxviii. 69. It was a glorious high throne from the beginning, Jer. xvii. 12. But, 2. Here is the great dishonour they had done to God in profaning his sanctuary; they made the images of their counterfeit deities, which they set up in rivalship with God, and which are here called their abominations and their detestable things (for so they were to God, and so they should have been to them), and these they set up in God’s temple, than which a greater affront could not be put upon him. And therefore, 3. It is here threatened that they shall be deprived of the temple, and it shall be no succour to them: Therefore have I set it far from them, that is, sent them far from it, so that it is out of the reach of their services and they are out of the reach of its influences. Note, God’s ordinances, and the privileges of a profession of religion, will justly be taken away from those that despise and profane them. Nay, they shall not only be kept at a distance from the temple, but the temple itself shall be involved in the common desolation (v. 21); the Chaldeans, who are strangers, and therefore have no veneration for it, who are the wicked of the earth, and therefore have an antipathy to it, shall have it for a prey and for a spoil; all the ornaments and treasures of it shall fall into their hands, who will make no difference between that and other plunder. This was a grief to the saints in Zion, who complained of nothing so much as of that which the enemy did wickedly in the sanctuary (Ps. lxxiv. 3); but it was the punishment of the sinners in Zion, who, by profaning the temple with strange gods, provoked God to suffer it to be profaned by strange nations, and to turn his face from those that did it as if he had not seen them and their crimes and from those that deprecated it as not regarding them and their prayers. Let the soldiers do as they will; let them enter into the secret place, into the holy of holies, as robbers; let them strip it, let them pollute it; its defence has departed, and then farewell all its glory. Note, Those are unworthy to be honoured with the form of godliness who will not be governed by the power of godliness.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
The Prophet seems here to be at variance with himself, because he formerly pronounced them all devoted to destruction. How, then, does he now say that some should come hither and thither, to seek hiding-places in the mountains? But what seem at, variance easily agree, because by these words he means that the life of those who escaped should be more miserable than if they had perished by the sword, or had been consumed by pestilence and famine. And why so? They shall be, says he, in the mountains. By mountains he doubtless understands dry and desert places. But he who seeks hiding-places in the mountains is only anxious about preserving his life, since he expects not to live. So, therefore, the Prophet means, nothing can be more miserable than the exile of those who had escaped, because they would be in dry and desert places, like doves of the valleys, there they will not dare to cry out. He means, also, that they would be so timorous, that even in anxiety, want, and squalidness, and despair of all things, finally, in the heap of their miseries, they would groan as doves, and as doves of the valleys, that is, which hide themselves through fear, and dare not show themselves; unless, perhaps, the contrast increases the evil, as if he had said that they should be much more astonished, because the unaccustomed aspect of the place should strike them with greater fear. Now, therefore, we understand the Prophet’s meaning — if any should escape from the people, yet nothing else would happen through their flight, than that they should miserably protract their life in the greatest anxiety. For we know that this is the last solace in evils, when men complain freely, and unburden themselves by weeping and groaning. But when the wretched one dares not complain, he becomes as it were twice dead among the living. It follows —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(16) Like doves of the valleys.To this general destruction there will be exceptions, as generally in war there are fugitives and captives; but these, like doves whose home is in the valleys driven by fear to the mountains, shall mourn in their exile. In the mourning every one for his iniquity, iniquity is to be understood in the sense of the punishment for iniquity; the thought of repentance is not here brought forward. Their utter discouragement and feebleness and grief are further described in Eze. 7:17-18.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16. They that escape of them shall escape, and shall be Rather, they that escape of them, if they escape, shall be. The sentence is conditional. If there are any who seem to escape from the threefold destruction (Eze 7:15), they shall escape only to mourn with an anguish worse titan death (Eze 7:17).
Like doves mourning The plaintive mourning (literally, moaning) of the dove has been noticed in all ages. The Babylonians as well as the Hebrews use this comparison. (Compare Isa 38:14; Isa 59:11.)
For his iniquity Literally, in his iniquity.
“But those of them who escape, will escape, and will be on the mountains like doves of the valley, all of them mourning, every one in his iniquity.”
Inevitably some will escape and flee to the mountains, but they will be little better off. The mountains will no longer be a place of rejoicing and exulting, of sexual encounters and of throwing off restraint in the name of religion (Eze 6:7). Rather they will mourn like the doves of the valley. Doves are associated with mourning because of their doleful cry (Isa 38:14; Isa 59:11), and they dwell in the rock and make their nest in the side of the hole’s mouth (Jer 48:28). Thus will those who escape be perched on the rocks, living in holes, away from all the joys of life, with little to hope for but eking out a living.
Eze 7:16. Like doves of the valleys There can be no reason, says Houbigant, why it should be rendered, doves of the valleys; the true rendering is, like mourning doves: they shall be in the mountains mourning like doves. Death shall consume them every one in his iniquity.
Eze 7:16 But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.
Ver. 16. But they that escaped of them. ] Here we have the mournful repentance of them that escaped, Fere autem fit ut, malo demure accepto, oculos aperiamus, saith Lavater here.
All of them mourning, a every one for his iniquity.] Thus Hezekiah “mourned as a dove.” Isa 38:14 And we mourn sore like doves, saith the Church; Isa 59:11 happy if it be every man for his iniquity, and not for the punishment of it only or mainly. See that it be a “sorrow according to God,” a sorrow to a “transmentation.” 2Co 7:10-11
a eiulantes, ut pueri solent qui virgis coercentur.
iniquity. As in Eze 7:13 but here is put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Effect), App-6, for the judgment which was the consequence of it.
they: Eze 6:8, Ezr 9:15, Isa 1:9, Isa 37:31, Jer 44:14, Jer 44:28
like: Eze 6:9, Isa 38:14, Isa 59:11
mourning: Eze 36:31, Pro 5:11-14, Jer 31:9, Jer 31:18, Jer 31:19, Jer 50:4, Jer 50:5, Zec 12:10-14
Reciprocal: Gen 8:9 – found Lev 14:22 – two turtle doves Lev 23:29 – that shall Neh 1:2 – that had escaped Son 2:14 – my dove Isa 4:2 – them that are escaped Isa 24:13 – there Jer 3:21 – A voice Jer 6:26 – make thee Jer 9:19 – a voice Eze 7:11 – none Eze 34:6 – wandered Oba 1:17 – deliverance Mat 5:4 – General Mar 14:72 – General Luk 6:21 – ye that weep Luk 22:62 – and wept Act 2:37 – they 2Co 7:10 – repentance Jam 4:9 – afflicted
Eze 7:16. A number would be able to escape, both of those in the city and also of the ones scattered out over the open country. However, to escape the contact with the sword would not mean complete satisfaction.
Eze 7:16-19. They that escape of them shall escape This might be more intelligibly rendered, There are of them who shall escape; that is, Some few shall have the favour of escaping the common calamity, called elsewhere the escaped, or the remnant, from whence is derived the phrase , in the New Testament, such as are, or should be, saved. And shall be on the mountains like doves Fearful and trembling, and bemoaning themselves on account of the calamities their sins have brought on them. All hands shall be feeble, &c. Feebleness in the hands and knees is the consequence of the weakness and failing of the spirit. They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth A general custom in the eastern countries in deep sorrows and distresses. Horror shall cover them Or, has overwhelmed them, as the same phrase is translated Psa 55:5. Shame shall be upon all faces The marks of confusion and misery shall be seen on all faces; and baldness upon all their heads Either by their pulling off their hair amidst their sorrows, or cutting it off in token of mourning: see note on Jer 48:37. They shall cast their silver in the streets Either that they may be lighter to flee, or to engage the enemys attention, and so to give themselves time to escape out of the city. And their gold shall be removed Carried away to Babylon. Their silver and their gold shall not deliver Shall not remove the distresses of the famine, or prevent their being carried into captivity. They shall not satisfy their souls Shall not procure them food to satisfy their hunger, nor afford them any comfort. Because it is the stumbling-block of their iniquity This silver and gold, which they valued too much, coveted immeasurably, abused to the purposes of pride, luxury, oppression, and idolatry; this that they stumbled at, and fell into sin, now they stumble at, and fall into the deepest misery.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
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: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments