Ezekiel 33:10 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ezekiel 33:10
Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
man
אָדָ֗ם'a.Dam
H120
ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species · noun, common masculine singular absolute
speak
אֱמֹר֙'e.Mor
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
house
בֵּ֣יתbeit
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · noun, common masculine singular construct
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵ֔לYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
speak
אֲמַרְתֶּם֙'a.mar.Tem
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person masculine plural
saying
לֵאמֹ֔רle.Mor
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
transgressions
פְשָׁעֵ֥ינוּfe.sha.'Ei.nu
H6588
a revolt (national · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
sins
וְחַטֹּאתֵ֖ינוּve.cha.to.Tei.nu
H2403
an offence (sometimes habitual sinfulness) · conjunction + noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix
away
נְמַקִּ֖יםne.ma.Kim
H4743
to melt · verb, niphal active participle, masculine plural absolute
live
נִֽחְיֶֽהNich.Yeh
H2421
to live · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 49:14 But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.
Ezekiel 37:11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we…
Leviticus 26:39 And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall th…
Ezekiel 4:17 That they may want bread and water, and be astonied one with another, and consume away for their iniquity.
Ezekiel 24:23 And your tires shall be upon your heads, and your shoes upon your feet: ye shall not mourn nor weep; but ye shall pine away for your iniquit…
Psalms 130:7 Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.
Isaiah 51:20 Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke o…
Jeremiah 2:25 Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst: but thou saidst, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and afte…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 33:10-20
These verses are the substance of what we had before (Eze 18:20, etc.) and they are so full and express a declaration of the terms on which people stand with God (as the former were of the terms on which ministers stand) that it is no wonder that they are here repeated, as those were, though we had the substance of them before. Observe here,
I. The cavils of the people against God's proceedings with them. God was now in his providence contending with them, but their uncircumcised hearts were not as yet humbled, for they were industrious to justify themselves, though thereby they reflected on God. Two things they insisted upon, in their reproaches of God, and in both they added iniquity to th…
be upon us--that is, their guilt remain on us.
pine away in them--if we suffer the penalty threatened for them in Eze 24:23, according to the law (Lev 26:39).
how should we . . . live?--as Thou dost promise in Eze 33:5 (compare Eze 37:11; Isa 49:14).
Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 33:10
If our transgressions and our sins be upon us - They are upon us, as a grievous burden, too weighty for us to bear: how then can we live under such a load?
We pine away in them - In such circumstances how consoling is that word: "Come unto me, all ye who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest!"
John Gill on Ezekiel 33:10
Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel,.... Such of them as were with him in the captivity: thus ye speak, saying; reasoning and arguing within and among themselves; which the Lord heard, and made known to the prophet, who is bid to repeat it to them in order to give an answer:
if our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them; as the prophet said they should, Ezekiel 24:23, with which he had concluded his prophecies to them; and now they take it up, and argue against themselves, and against him; if our sins and transgressions are laid upon us, and we must answer for them; if the guilt of them is charged on us, and they are unexpiated and unatoned…
The Church Fathers
(Versed 10ff.) Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel and say to them: 'Our transgressions and sins are upon us, and we waste away because of them. How then can we live?' Say to them: 'As surely as I live, declares the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?' And you, son of man, say to your people: 'The righteousness of the righteous man will not save him when he disobeys, and the wickedness of the wicked man will not cause him to stumble when he turns from it. The righteous man cannot live by his righteousness when he sins.' Even if I say to the just, that he shall surely live; and relying on his justice he commits iniquity, all his justices shall be forgotten, and in his iniquity which he has wrought, he shall die. But if I shall say to the wicked: Thou shalt surely die; and he does penance for his sin, and does judgment and justice, and if he restore the pledge, and render what he had robbed, and walk in the commandments of life, and do no unjust thing, he shall surely live, and shall not die. All sins ((Vulg. adds of him)), which he has committed, shall not be imputed to him: for judgment and justice he has done, he shall live: And the children of your people have said: The way of the Lord is not equal, whereas their way is unjust. When the just turns himself away from his justice, and commits iniquity, he shall die therein: in the same manner, when the wicked turns himself away from his wickedness, and does judgment and justice, he shall live therein. And you say: The way of the Lord is not right. Each one I will judge according to his ways, o house of Israel. If we read negligentl, the same prophecy seems to us which is said above, in which it is said: Do I desire the death of the wicked, saith the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live? (Ezek. XVIII, 23). And in the end of the same prophecy: Return ye, and turn yourselves from all your impieties, and there shall not be iniquity that may be your ruin (Ibid., 8). For there, indeed, a conversation is had with those who desire to do penance and to expiate their sins with justice, so that they may convert with confidence and perform penance with a full heart. But here, He speaks to those who, due to the magnitude of…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Ezekiel, Book of — Consists mainly of three groups of prophecies. After an account of his call to the prophetical office (1-3:21), Ezekiel (1) utters words of denunciation against the Jews (3:22-24), warning them of…
Condescension Of God · Expostulates with backsliding Israel — Expostulates with backsliding Israel
Conviction · OF SIN — OF SIN
Opportunity · THE MEASURE OF RESPONSIBILITY — THE MEASURE OF RESPONSIBILITY
Penitent · PROMISES TO — PROMISES TO
Remorse · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Responsibility · ACCORDING TO PRIVILEGE — ACCORDING TO PRIVILEGE
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
As watchman over Israel, Ezekiel is to announce to those who are despairing of the mercy of God, that the Lord will preserve from destruction those who turn from their sin, and lead them into life. - Eze 33:10. Thou then, son of man, say to the house of Israel, Ye rightly say, Our transgressions and our sins lie upon us, and in them we vanish away; how, then, can we live? Eze 33:11. Say to them, As truly as I live, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah, I have no pleasure in the death of the sinner; but when the sinner turneth from his way, he shall live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways! for why will ye die, O house of Israel? Eze 33:12. And thou, son of man, say to the sons of thy people,…
Our sins are heavy upon us . . . How can we survive? Now that the people of Israel were finally taking the prophet’s warnings seriously, there was danger of despair rather than a response of repentance and faith. Unlike deterministic fate, God’s judgment leaves room for forgiveness. The sovereign Lord takes no pleasure in the death of wicked people. Even wicked people . . . can live if they repent and turn from their wickedness.
Rashi on Ezekiel 33:10
So have you spoken Therefore, you do not wish to repent, because you believe that repentance will not avail you.
