Ezekiel 33:30 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ezekiel 33:30
Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the LORD.
a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
brother
אָחִיו֙'a.Chiv
H251
a brother (used in the widest sense of literal relation… · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
saying
לֵאמֹ֔רle.Mor
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
Come
בֹּֽאוּbo.'u-
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
hear
וְשִׁמְע֔וּve.shim.'U
H8085
to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · conjunction + verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
word
הַדָּבָ֔רha.da.Var
H1697
a word · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
forth
הַיּוֹצֵ֖אhai.yo.Tze'
H3318
to go (causatively · definite article + verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
LORD
יְהוָֽהYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
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 29:13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their he…
Isaiah 58:2 Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they as…
Jeremiah 23:35 Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, What hath the LORD answered? and, What hath the LORD spoken?
Matthew 15:8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
Matthew 22:16-17 And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in tr…
Jeremiah 11:18-19 And the LORD hath given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then thou shewedst me their doings.
Jeremiah 18:18 Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, n…
Jeremiah 42:1-6 Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 33:30–end
The foregoing verses spoke conviction to the Jews who remained in the land of Israel, who were monuments of sparing mercy and yet returned not to the Lord; in these verses those are reproved who were now in captivity in Babylon, under divine rebukes, and yet were not reformed by them. They are not indeed charged with the same gross enormities that the others are charged with. They made some show of religion and devotion; but their hearts were not right with God. The thing they are here accused of is mocking the messengers of the lord, one of their measure-filling sins, which brought this ruin upon them, and yet they were not cured of it. Two ways they mocked the prophet Ezekiel: -
I. By inv…
Not only the remnant in Judea, but those at the Chebar, though less flagrantly, betrayed the same unbelieving spirit.
talking against thee--Though going to the prophet to hear the word of the Lord, they criticised, in an unfriendly spirit, his peculiarities of manner and his enigmatical style (Eze 20:49); making these the excuse for their impenitence. Their talking was not directly "against" Ezekiel, for they professed to like his ministrations; but God's word speaks of things as they really are, not as they appear.
by the walls--in the public haunts. In the East groups assemble under the walls of their houses in winter for conversation.
in the doors--privately.
what is the word--The…
The people still are talking against thee - בך bach should be rather translated, "concerning thee," than "against thee;" for the following verses show that the prophet was much respected. The Vulgate translates, de te; the Septuagint, περι σου, "concerning thee," both right.
Talking by the walls and in the doors of the houses is not a custom peculiar to the Copts, mentioned by Bp. Pococke, it is a practice among idle people, and among those who are resting from their work, in every country, when the weather permits. Gossiping in the inside of the house is not less frequent, and much more blamable.
The Church Fathers
(Verse 30 onwards) And you, son of man, the children of your people speak of you beside the walls and in the doors of the houses, and they say to one another, each to his brother, 'Come, and hear what is the word that comes forth from the Lord.' And they come to you as the people usually come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them, for they show my words of their mouth in song, and their heart follows their covetousness. Indeed, you are to them like a very lovely song that is sung with a beautiful and sweet sound, and they hear your words but do not do them. And when this comes to pass, behold, it comes; they shall know that a prophet has been among them. It follows: On the same day and at the same time, that is, in the twelfth year, the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month, when he who had fled from Jerusalem came and when the prophet spoke to those who were in the land of Judah, and they promised themselves the hope of eternal possession, and the prophet commands him to say to the people who reside in Babylon and live with him, and to accuse them of deceitful plots who desire to hear the words of the prophet, not for the salvation of their souls, but for the pleasure of their ears. These people were sitting near the walls and at the doorways of houses, not at all desiring to enter into the understanding of the prophets; but they encourage one another and say: Come, let us hear what word is coming forth from the Lord; and thus they come as a people who enter the Church of God, and sit before you, my people, who claim to be mine, and do not want to do what they have heard. They seem to me to be like those who are entertained by theatrical songs: they listen to either tragedies or comedies, and there they revel with delight: so that when they have gone out from you, they repeat and sing them, and deceive themselves with sweet sounds. And they will listen, he says, to your words and not do them. Such are many in the Churches today, who say: Come let us hear him and him, rolling his words with marvelous eloquence of his preaching: they stir up applause, and shout, and wave their hands, and those things which they had neglected in their actions, once they realize that he has come (for it is necessary that what the prophet of God pronounces in his word should come to pass), then they will begin to approve…
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…
Hearers · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Hypocrisy · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Infidelity · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
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).
John Gill on Ezekiel 33:30
Also, thou son of man,.... I have something to say to thee, and inform thee of, not only concerning the Jews in Judea, what they say, and what will befall them; but concerning those that are with thee, and what they say of thee, and what will be the issue of it:
the children of thy people still are talking against thee; not the Lord's people, but his own people, which was the more cutting to him to hear of, and the more ungrateful in them; though indeed they were but children, who acted a weak part, and the less to be regarded; these spake against the prophet: they could not say he was no prophet, he had his credentials and commission from the Lord, which were well known, and many of his pr…
Preaching of Repentance after the Fall of Jerusalem
The first word of God, which Ezekiel received after the arrival of the fugitive with the intelligence of the destruction of Jerusalem, was not of a consolatory, but of a rebuking nature, and directed against those who, while boasting in an impenitent state of mind of the promise given to the patriarchs of the everlasting possession of the Holy Land, fancied that they could still remain in possession of the promised land even after the destruction of Jerusalem and of the kingdom of Judah. This delusion the prophet overthrows by the announcement that the unrighteous are to have no share in the possession of the land of Israel, but are to peri…
The situation was not significantly better among the exiles in Babylon. Ezekiel’s presentations were now the topic of widespread discussion among the exiles, yet their hearts remained as untouched as the hearts of those in Judah. They would sit before Ezekiel pretending to be sincere, but with no intention of doing what the Lord told them. They found his messages entertaining, but the Lord warned them that time would demonstrate the power behind the words of a true prophet.