What does Ezechiel Chapter 7 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Repeated end declarations announce judgment. Commerce and wealth accompany crisis. Sanctuary violation and lost counsel precede mourning.

Chapter breakdown

Ezechiel 7 announces the end upon Israel's four quarters. Wrath and judgment follow the people's ways and abominations without sparing or pity. Repeated declarations of approaching affliction and slaughter contrast with mountain joy. Blossomed rod and budded pride accompany iniquity's rod and lack of rest. Buyers must not rejoice and sellers must not mourn: the seller will not return to what was sold, even while alive, and the vision will not turn back. Trumpet readiness finds nobody going to battle; the text does not provide their private reason or say all commerce has ceased.

Sword strikes the field while famine and pestilence devour the city. Escaping fugitives tremble in mountains like valley doves, each for iniquity. Feeble hands, knees running with water, haircloth, fear, shame and baldness accompany the disaster. Silver is cast forth and gold becomes a dunghill; neither delivers in wrath or fills hungry bellies. Jewel ornaments become pride and idol images, then uncleanness and strangers' spoil. Street disposal and a money-for-food transaction are not specified.

The Lord turns away his face and robbers defile his secret place, identified separately by the edition as the holy of holies. A shutting up is commanded because of blood judgment and iniquity; the edition glosses a Hebrew chain for imprisonment and captivity. The worst nations take houses and sanctuary, mighty pride ceases and peace is sought in vain. Trouble and rumor multiply; a prophetic vision is sought while priestly law and elders' counsel perish. King, prince and people mourn and receive judgment according to their ways. Vision's complete disappearance and a universal institutional-collapse mechanism are not added.

The story inside

Opening: Repeated end declarations announce judgment. Development: Commerce and wealth accompany crisis. Conclusion: Sanctuary violation and lost counsel precede mourning.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Repeated end declarations announce judgment.
2
Commerce and wealth accompany crisis.
3
Sanctuary violation and lost counsel precede mourning.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 91773–91783
7:2. And thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God to the land of Israel: The end is come, the end is come upon the four quarters of the land. 7:3. Now is an end come upon thee, and I will send my wrath upon thee, and I will judge thee according to thy ways: and I will set all thy abominations against thee. 7:4. And my eye shall not spare thee, and I will shew thee no pity: but I will lay thy ways upon thee, and thy abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and you shall know that I am the Lord.
Lines 91802–91815
7:10. Behold the day, behold it is come: destruction is gone forth, the rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded. 7:11. Iniquity is risen up into a rod of impiety: nothing of them shall remain, nor of their people, nor of the noise of them: and there shall be no rest among them. 7:12. The time is come, the day is at hand: let not the buyer rejoice: nor the seller mourn: for wrath is upon all the people thereof. 7:13. For the seller shall not return to that which he hath sold, although their life be yet among the living. For the vision which regardeth all the multitude thereof, shall not go back: neither shall man be strengthened in the iniquity of his life.
Lines 91820–91829
7:15. The sword without: and the pestilence, and the famine within: he that is in the field shall die by the sword: and they that are in the city, shall be devoured by the pestilence, and the famine. 7:16. And such of them as shall flee shall escape: and they shall be in the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them trembling, every one for his iniquity. 7:17. All hands shall be made feeble, and all knees shall run with water.
Lines 91835–91843
7:19. Their silver shall be cast forth, and their gold shall become a dunghill. 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 soul, and their bellies shall not be filled: because it hath been the stumblingblock of their iniquity. 7:20. And they have turned the ornament of their jewels into pride, and have made of it the images of their abominations, and idols: therefore I have made it an uncleanness to them.
Lines 91848–91857
7:22. And I will turn away my face from them, and they shall violate my secret place: and robbers shall enter into it, and defile it. Secret place, etc.... Viz., the inward sanctuary, the holy of holies. 7:23. Make a shutting up: for the land is full of the judgment of blood, and the city is full of iniquity. Make a shutting up.... In Hebrew, a chain, viz., for imprisonment and captivity.
Lines 91866–91873
7:26. Trouble shall come upon trouble, and rumour upon rumour, and they shall seek a vision of the prophet, and the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients. 7:27. The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with sorrow, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled. I will do to them according to their way, and will judge them according to their judgments: and they shall know that I am the Lord.