Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Ezekiel 6:13

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

The idolatry of Israel (6:1-14)

From the time of the judges (the period that followed Israel’s settlement of Canaan) the people of Israel had copied Canaanite religious practices. Canaanite gods, collectively known as Baalim (plural of Baal) were gods of nature, and Israelites used the Canaanite shrines throughout the countryside as places to offer worship to Yahweh. These shrines were called ‘high places’ because they were usually built on the tops of hills and mountains. Israel’s false worship at these high places was largely the reason for the nation’s unfaithfulness to God and its consequent punishment. Ezekiel, in keeping with the preaching of earlier prophets, announced God’s judgment on the idolatrous shrines (6:1-4). The idol-worshipping Israelites would be slaughtered in the coming judgment, and their corpses would lie scattered over these pagan hilltop sites along with the remains of the demolished altars and broken idols (5-7).
Of those taken captive to foreign countries, some would realize that God had been just in punishing them for their idolatry. In shame at their former waywardness they would turn again to God (8-10). God’s triumph over all the wicked would be celebrated by the clapping of hands and the stamping of feet. Throughout Israel, from south to north, the rebels would be punished and God’s honour restored. Then all would know that Yahweh was the one true God (11-14).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

"Thus saith the Lord, Jehovah: smite with thy hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas. Because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel; for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. He that is far off shall die by the pestilence; and he that is near shall fall by the sword; and he that remaineth and is besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish my wrath upon them. And ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the places where they offered sweet savor to all their idols. And I will stretch out my hand upon them, and make the land desolate and waste, from the wilderness toward Diblah, throughout all their habitations; and they shall know that I am Jehovah."

"Smite with thy hand" This refers to what is called "clapping the hands." Cook states that it was a well known method of expressing grief.B, p. 319. Some understand the hand clapping and stamping here as expressions of Joy on the part of the prophet for God's punishment of Israel, but we prefer the view that they express grief, concern, and sorrow over the impending destruction. Plumptre notes that they appear to have been used to express both emotions.E. H. Plumptre in the Pulpit Commentary, pp. 102,103.

"Every high hill… every green tree… every thick oak" "This verse refers to the fertility goddess of Hosea 4:13."Anton T. Pearson in Wycliffe Bible Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1962), p. 716. This is exactly what Jeremiah was speaking of in Jeremiah 2:20; Jeremiah 3:6; Jeremiah 3:13.

Ezekiel 6:14 carries God's prophecy of destruction for the total land of the Chosen People.

"Diblah" This place is unknown, and scholars have attempted to substitute the word Riblah for it; but actually there is no accurate knowledge of where this place was located. It really makes no difference anyway, for the place is usually held to mean that God would destroy Israel "from one end of the country to the other." Some have compared what is said here to the expression, "From Dan to Beersheba." The meaning is clear enough as is.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

The gleam of hope is but transitory. Darkness again gathers round, for as yet the prophet is predicting judgment.

Ezekiel 6:11

Smite ... stamp - Well-known modes of expressing grief.

Ezekiel 6:13

Sweet savor - Compare Genesis 8:21. Words, applied to the smell of sacrifices accepted by God, applied here to idol-sacrifices in irony.

Ezekiel 6:14

Toward Diblath - Or, “Diblathaim,” the “Diblathan” of the Moabite stone, one of the double cities of Moab (see Ezekiel 25:9) to the east of which lay the great desert of Arabia. Some read: “unto Riblah” Jeremiah 52:9 and take the margin rendering.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

Now he again announces that they shall know what they have long neglected. But here a different knowledge from the former seems to be marked; for he has lately said that they should so remember as to be ashamed, and acknowledge that the slaughters predicted by the Prophets had not been in vain: but here he mentions nothing of this kind, but only speaks of that experimental knowledge which is common to the ungodly. And, in truth, this doctrine seems to be extended promiscuously to all the commonalty. For although for the most part they did not profit by it, yet all perceived that God was a judge, because so clear and conspicuous was the proof of his vengeance, that they were compelled to feel, whether they would or not, that their punishment was just. We may perceive, then, that the Prophet intends the phrase — then ye shall know, etc., in a wide sense, because he addresses all the Israelites without exception, even those who should perish. For, we said, such was the character of that knowledge, that it only frightened them, and did not bend them to humility. And, truly, the words which follow show only the terrible vengeance of God, when they shall be slain, says he, that is, shall fall, near their idols But we have said that they would more clearly acknowledge the vengeance of God from this — that he rendered their false gods an object of ridicule. But, as I have said before, the Prophet uses an opprobrious name when speaking of idols. Since, therefore, they so fell near their idols, under the confidence and protection of which they thought that they would always be safe; and although the idols themselves were thus involved in the condemnation, this made God’s vengeance more manifest. And this is the reason, as I have before suggested, why the Prophet enters into these details. What follows is to the same purpose — by the circuit of all their altars This, then, was profanation of all altars, to be defiled by carcases being drawn over them, and then sprinkled with human blood. But he also points out the places where they worshipped false gods; for we have said that lofty places were chosen for them, but here he puts lofty hills, and then the tops of the mountains But as idol-worshippers heaped to themselves various and numerous games, when they were satiated with their high places, they had shady valleys, for their altars were under trees, where they offered incense. The Prophet therefore pronounces that there was no place which God did not condemn with infamy. When, therefore, he says that the incense had a pleasing smell, the opposite is doubtless intended, since this incense was foul before God: as when an immodest woman desires to please an adulterer, it moves the wrath of her husband, so here God silently complains that he was provoked by that foul incense with which the Israelites wished and desired to gratify their idols.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Shall we turn in our Bibles to Ezekiel the sixth chapter.

Ezekiel here addresses himself to the mountains of Israel. The people of Israel had built places of worship on the tops of the mountains, but not worship to Jehovah God, but to Baal, to Molech, Mammon. And because the mountains were the places for these altars and groves and places of pagan worship, he addresses the prophesy against the mountain telling of the desolation that is going to come. How that they are going to be wasted without inhabitant.

Now, as we get to the thirty-fourth chapter, thirty-fifth chapter, he again addresses himself to the mountains of Israel which have been desolate for so long. And he tells them that they are going to be inhabited again. So, it is interesting to make a contrast between this prophesy against the mountains of Israel where so much false worship had gone on, and later on, after the period that God has brought His judgment against the people and they are brought back into the land, how again he speaks to the mountains and how the blessing of the Lord will be there as the nation is inhabited again.

So, it is the word of the LORD that came unto me, saying, Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them, And say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD; thus saith the Lord GOD to the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and will destroy your high places ( Ezekiel 6:1-3 ).

That is, the places of worship which were called the high places, the groves and all.

And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols. And I will lay the dead carcasses of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars. In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished. And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the LORD ( Ezekiel 6:4-7 ).

So, he predicts this slaughter that is going to come and the places where they have worshipped these false gods to be destroyed, the idols to be broken, and the pieces of the idols scattered with the bones of the people who had been turning away from God in this sacrilege and the worshipping of these idols in these high places.

Now, we get this interesting phrase in verse Ezekiel 6:7 , and it is used some sixty-two times in Ezekiel, where the Lord declares, "And ye shall know that I am the Lord." You see, they had been worshipping these false gods and God is declaring, "I am going to destroy them and they that worship them, and you will know that I am the Lord."

It is interesting when we get to the thirty-eighth chapter of Ezekiel and God there tells us of the destruction that He is going to bring against that massive Russian invasion, with all of the various allies that they will be bringing. And when God utterly destroys them He said, "And then the nations of the world will know that I am the Lord." He is now seeking to teach them this fact. They've been turning from Him; they've been worshipping these other gods. So over and over He said, "I'm going to bring these judgments, and when I do, when this happens, you will know that I am the Lord."

You've been worshipping false gods.

Yet [the Lord said] I will leave a remnant, that ye may have some that will escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries ( Ezekiel 6:8 ).

Now, though God has brought His judgment against Israel and an extremely severe judgment, and people might question, "Why was God so fierce in His judgment against His people?" But the Bible says, "Unto whom much is given, much is required" ( Luke 12:48 ). So, these people were extremely blessed of God. In fact, they were the most blessed people on the face of the earth.

"What advantage," Paul said, "does the Jew have?" And he answered his question by saying, "Much, and in every way, for unto them were committed the oracles of God, the commandments, the statutes the ordinances" ( Romans 3:1-2 ). God had given them so very, very much, and because He had given them so much, He in turn requires much from them.

Now that should be a warning to us, for God has given us so much. The knowledge and the understanding of His Word, and thus God requires much from us.

So, God brought His judgment against them. It was fierce and it has been a continuing judgment, but always, always though many of them became apostate, turned from God, yet God always had His faithful remnant among them. And this has always been the case. There have always been those who were true to God and faithful to God.

Now, at the time of national apostasy when Israel had been led to worship Baal by Jezebel and her husband Ahab, and Elijah had had this contest with the prophets of Baal there on Mount Carmel. And after God sent the fire and he had the popular movement of the people going with him for a moment, he took advantage of it and he took the prophets of Baal, four hundred of them, down to the river and killed them all. Jezebel was out of town at the time. When she came back, heard what Elijah had done to her four hundred priests, she said, "God do so to me if by tomorrow night I don't have that fellow's head." And Elijah took it on the run, and he ran all the way down to the area of Mount Sinai. And there he hid in a cave. And the Lord said, " Come on out to the entrance of the cave." And he came out and the Lord said, "Elijah, what are you doing here?" And Elijah said, "I have been jealous for God, for all of Israel has turned against God and I, I only am left. I am the only true servant You've got in the land, Lord, and they are trying to kill me. They are looking for me to kill me. Lord, You're going to be without anybody pretty soon. As soon as they catch me, Lord, You're not going to have anyone on Your side." And the Lord answered Elijah and said, "Elijah, I have seven thousand among them who have not bowed their knee to Baal."

God had His faithful remnant. Though it is true the majority of the nation had become apostate, yet God still had His faithful remnant among them who He knew. "Always I will leave a remnant; they will never be utterly destroyed." God always keeps that remnant and from that remnant God will bring forth yet a people to praise Him and to bring glory unto Him.

Now, though Israel has seen among the people of the world some of the greatest tribulation, some of the hardest experiences, yet they have not seen the worst, for the worst is yet to come. Even worse than the holocaust. That period that is coming described in the Bible, especially in the book of Revelation, a great tribulation when they will be deceived by this leader that is going to arise in Europe. And many of them will hail him as their savior, because he is going to make a covenant and help them rebuild their temple. Yet, when he turns upon them and he comes to the temple that they have built and stands in the holy place and declares that he is God and demands that he be worshipped as God. When they at that point turn against him, he is going to turn upon them with all of his wrath and fury.

But God is going to save a remnant who will flee down to the area of the rock city of Petra, where God will preserve them for three and a half years. But this man will then seek to exterminate the Jews. And because he will have worldwide power, especially through economics, the Jews around the world will suffer once more heavy persecution.

It is interesting, tragically, the anti-Semitism that does exist in the hearts of sinful men. I know people who absolutely hate the Jews, bitter against them without any real reason to be. It's just something that is in the heart of sinful man. And the Jews, unfortunately, have suffered from the hands of man for so long. But, yet, God will have His faithful remnant. And in the Kingdom Age, when Jesus comes again and establishes the kingdom, then shall they flourish and be blessed once more above all the nations of the earth, as the Lord sets up His millennial reign.

So, it's a very sad and tragic thing, the judgment that has come, the judgment that shall come. But through it all, even in the whole thing, God always has His faithful remnant. As Paul speaks to the Romans, in his epistle to the Romans, eleventh chapter, of God's faithful remnant. "So, I will leave a remnant that ye may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations when you'll be scattered through all the countries." He's not going to destroy them completely. And it is interesting that the Jew today maintains his national identity wherever he is.

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 ( Ezekiel 6:9 ),

Literally, "I will break their whorish hearts." That is, the heart that turned from God, from the love of God, and sought false lovers, these false gods.

which have departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall loath themselves for the evils which they have committed in all of their abominations. And they shall know that I am the LORD ( Ezekiel 6:9-10 ).

Again, He repeats that.

and that I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them ( Ezekiel 6:10 ).

They'll know that I wasn't just kidding, that I wasn't just talking vanity when I said I was going to do these things.

Thus saith the Lord GOD; Smite with your hand and stamp with your foot ( Ezekiel 6:11 ),

Ezekiel was a very colorful man in his prophecies. As you'll remember last week lying on his left side for three hundred and ninety days, drawing on tiles, and now he's stomping with his foot and clapping his hands in front of the people, stomping his foot and he's saying unto them,

Alas for all of the evil abominations of the house of Israel! for they shall fall by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence. He that is far off shall die of the pestilence; and he that is near shall fall by the sword; and he that remaineth and is besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish my fury upon them. Then shall you know that I am the LORD ( Ezekiel 6:11-13 ),

Third time in this one chapter.

when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, and in the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer their sweet savor to all of their idols. So will I stretch out my hand upon them, and make the land desolate, yea, more desolate than the wilderness towards Diblath, in all of their habitations: and they shall know that I am the LORD ( Ezekiel 6:13-14 ).

In all of this God is seeking, really, to establish in their hearts the fact that He is God.

"

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The people and Ezekiel were to express derision that the sword, famine, and plague (cf. Ezekiel 5:1-3; Ezekiel 5:12; Revelation 6:4-8) would come and judge these evil abominations (cf. Ezekiel 21:14-17; Ezekiel 22:13; Ezekiel 25:6; Lamentations 2:15; Nahum 3:19). These three instruments of judgment, summarizing the full range of divine punishment (cf. 2 Samuel 24:13; Jeremiah 27:13; Jeremiah 29:17), would affect various parts of the people and touch them all. The people would recognize Yahweh at work in judgment when they observed so many Judahites slain beside their pagan places of worship. He would make the land of Judah more desolate than the wilderness near Diblah. "Diblah" appears only here in the Old Testament. It may be a variation of "Riblah," the border town near Hamath where the Babylonian soldiers took King Zedekiah (2 Kings 25:5-7; Jeremiah 39:6-7; Jeremiah 52:8-11; Jeremiah 52:26-27). The Hebrew letters for "d" and "r" are very similar in shape. The purpose of God’s judgment was to restore the people to their proper relationship with Him (Ezekiel 6:7; Ezekiel 6:10; Ezekiel 6:13-14). The expression "they will know that I am Yahweh" appears about 65 times in Ezekiel and was one of the major purposes of God for His apostate people.

"In every generation God’s judgment and discipline is misunderstood by most people. God’s chief desire is to bring people to himself-or back to himself. When mankind willfully refuses to turn to him, God mercifully uses discipline and judgment to cause the people to recognize that he is the only true God, always faithful to what he has said in his word!" [Note: Alexander, "Ezekiel," p. 775.]

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Then shall ye know that I [am] the Lord,.... Whom they had denied, by serving other gods; but now by those punishments their eyes would be opened to see, and be obliged to acknowledge, that there was no God but the Lord:

when their slain [men] shall be among their idols round about their altars; as is threatened, Ezekiel 6:5; by which it will appear that the idols whom they worshipped could not save them; since they should fall just by them, round about the altars on which they sacrificed unto them; which idols were placed, and altars for their worship built,

upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains: mountains and high hills were usual places of idolatry among the Heathens, in which the Jews imitated them, and particularly Herodotus e says of the Persians, that, going up to the highest parts of mountains, they offered sacrifice to Jupiter; so they called the whole circle of the heavens:

and under every green tree, and under every thick oak; see

1 Kings 14:23; here their slain were to fall, where they committed their idolatry: even in

the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols; or dunghill gods; yet, though they were such, sweet savour or incense was offered to them; wherefore, in righteous judgment, here their carcasses should fill and lie, and rot and stink.

e Clio, sive l. 1. c. 131.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      11 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Smite with thine hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.   12 He that is far off shall die of the pestilence; and he that is near shall fall by the sword; and he that remaineth and is besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish my fury upon them.   13 Then shall ye know that I am the LORD, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols.   14 So will I stretch out my hand upon them, and make the land desolate, yea, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblath, in all their habitations: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

      The same threatenings which we had before in the foregoing chapter, and in the former part of this, are here repeated, with a direction to the prophet to lament them, that those he prophesied to might be the more affected with the foresight of them.

      I. He must by his gestures in preaching express the deep sense he had both of the iniquities and of the calamities of the house of Israel (Ezekiel 6:11; Ezekiel 6:11): Smite with thy hand and stamp with thy foot. Thus he must make it to appear that he was in earnest in what he said to them, that he firmly believed it and laid it to heart. Thus he must signify the just displeasure he had conceived at their sins, and the just dread he was under of the judgments coming upon them. Some would reject this use of these gestures, and call them antic and ridiculous; but God bids him use them because they might help to enforce the word upon some and give it the setting on; and those that know the worth of souls will be content to be laughed at by the wits, so they may but edify the weak. Two things the prophet must thus lament:-- 1. National sins. Alas! for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel. Note, The sins of sinners are the sorrows of God's faithful servants, especially the evil abominations of the house of Israel, whose sins are more abominable and have more evil in them than the sins of others. Alas! What will be in the end hereof? 2. National judgments. To punish them for these abominations they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. Note, It is our duty to be affected not only with our own sins and sufferings, but with the sins and sufferings of others; and to look with compassion upon the miseries that wicked people bring upon themselves; as Christ beheld Jerusalem and wept over it.

      II. He must inculcate what he had said before concerning the destruction that was coming upon them. 1. They shall be run down and ruined by a variety of judgments which shall find them out and follow them wherever they are (Ezekiel 6:12; Ezekiel 6:12): He that is far off, and thinks himself out of danger, because out of the reach of the Chaldeans' arrows, shall find himself not out of the reach of God's arrows, which fly day and night (Psalms 91:5): He shall die of the pestilence. He that is near a place of strength, which he hopes will be to him a place of safety, shall fall by the sword, before he can retreat. He that is so cautious as not to venture out, but remains in the city, shall there die by the famine, the saddest death of all. Thus will God accomplish his fury, that is, do all that against them which he had purposed to do. 2. They shall read their sin in their punishment; for their slain men shall be among their idols, round about their altars, as was threatened before, Ezekiel 6:5-7; Ezekiel 6:5-7. There, where they had prostrated themselves in honour of their idols, God will lay them dead, to their own reproach and the reproach of their idols. They lived among them and shall die among them. They had offered sweet odours to their idols, but there shall their dead carcases send forth an offensive smell, as it were to atone for that misplaced incense. 3. The country shall be all laid waste, as, before, the cities (Ezekiel 6:6; Ezekiel 6:6): I will make the land desolate. That fruitful, pleasant, populous country, that has been as the garden of the Lord, the glory of all lands, shall be desolate, more desolate than the wilderness towards Diblath,Ezekiel 6:14; Ezekiel 6:14. It is called Diblathaim (Numbers 33:46; Jeremiah 48:22), that great and terrible wilderness which is described, Deuteronomy 8:15, wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions. The land of Canaan is at this day one of the most barren desolate countries in the world. City and country are thus depopulated, that the altars may be laid waste and made desolate,Ezekiel 6:6; Ezekiel 6:6. Rather than their idolatrous altars shall be left standing, both town and country shall be laid in ruins. Sin is a desolating thing; therefore stand in awe and sin not.