Bible Commentaries
Ezekiel 7

Verses 1-27

The second denunciation dealt with the completeness of judgment. Its keynote was expressed in the words, "an end." The prophet declared that an end on the land and the people had been determined on, emphasizing that this final judgment would be accomplished by the act of God in order that they might know Him.

The prophet then proceeded to describe that end. Its first manifestation would be the paralysis of the people, so that when the trumpet was blown for the battle, and all was ready, none would move forward, being overcome by terror and grief. Such a method of judgment would be a clear demonstration of the activity of Jehovah. For a people armed and ready for battle to be suddenly smitten with a nameless terror and an overwhelming consciousness of weakness would be, to use the terms of our own day, phenomenal and supernatural. This paralysis of courage would issue in an overwhelming sense of poverty, not in the absolute lack of silver and gold, but in a wild casting away of silver in the streets and a sense of the uncleanness of gold, because these material riches would be useless as means of deliverance from Jehovah's wrath. All this would finally produce the confession of overwhelming perplexity, and no interpreter would be found. This second denunciation ended as did the first, by indicating the purpose of the vengeance. "They shall know that I am the Lord."