Ezekiel 44:6 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ezekiel 44:6
And thou shalt say to the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; O ye house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations,
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
rebellious
מֶ֙רִי֙me.ri
H4805
bitterness · noun, common masculine singular absolute
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
saith
אָמַ֖ר'a.Mar
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Lord
אֲדֹנָ֣י'a.do.Nai
H136
the Lord (used as a proper name of God only) · proper noun, a title
GOD
יְהוִ֑הYah.weh
H3069
YHWH · proper noun, a title
house
בֵּ֥יתbeit
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · noun, common masculine singular construct
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵֽלYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
suffice
רַבrav-
H7227
abundant (in quantity · adjective, masculine singular absolute
abominations
תּוֹעֲבֽוֹתֵיכֶ֖םto.'a.vo.tei.Khem
H8441
properly · noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine 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
Ezekiel 3:9 As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious hou…
Ezekiel 45:9 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice, take away you…
1 Peter 4:3 For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wi…
Ezekiel 2:5-8 And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there hath been a pro…
Ezekiel 3:26-27 And I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be to them a reprover: for they are a reb…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 44:4-9
This is much to the same purport with what we had in the beginning of ch. 43. As the prophet must look again upon what he had before seen, so he must be told again what he had before heard. Here, as before, he sees the house filled with the glory of the Lord, which strikes an awe upon him, so that he falls prostrate at the sight, the humblest posture of adoration and the expression of a holy awe: I fell upon my face, Eze 44:4. Note, The more we see of the glory of God the more low we shall lie in our own eyes. Now here,
I. God charges the prophet to take a very particular notice of all he saw, and all that was said to him (Eze 44:5): "Behold with thy eyes what is shown thee, particularly the…
Directions as to the priests. Their acts of desecration are attributed to "the house of Israel" (Eze 44:6-7), as the sins of the priesthood and of the people acted and reacted on one another; "like people, like priest" (Jer 5:31; Hos 4:9).
Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 44:5
Mark well, and behold - Take notice of every thing; register all so fully that thou shalt be able to give the most minute information to the children of Israel.
John Gill on Ezekiel 44:6
And thou shalt say to the rebellious, even to the house of Israel,.... This is a character of literal Israel from the beginning, Deuteronomy 9:24, and frequently given it in this prophecy, Ezekiel 2:2, Ezekiel 3:9 and well agrees with these declining churches in the latter day, and even in our times; it represents them as rebellious, because of their disregard to the ordinances of God's house, and to the laws and rules of it; and are not only called "rebellious", but "rebellion" (g) itself; expressive of the greatness of their sin, and the aggravations of it:
thus saith the Lord God, O ye house of Israel, let it suite you of all your abominations; that is, let the abominations you have comm…
(V. 6 seqq.) And you shall say to the rebellious house of Israel: Thus says the Lord God: Sufficient for you are all your sins, O house of Israel, because you bring in foreign sons (or foreigners) uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary and to defile my temple, and you offer my bread, fat, and blood, and you have broken (or transgressed) my covenant in all your sins; and you have not kept the precepts of my sanctuary and you have set the ministers of my observances in my sanctuary for yourselves. When he says, let all your crimes and iniquities be sufficient for you, he exhorts you to repentance for your former sins, so that we do not increase sins by sins, and prepare material for future burning; but let us hear what Isaiah speaks: Woe to those who draw sins like a long rope, and iniquities like the yoke of a calf's leather strap (Isa. 5:18). And the first sin is that they bring in alien sons, or uncircumcised foreigners in heart and in flesh, so that they may be in the sanctuary of God and defile the house of God. For a little leaven corrupts the whole lump (1 Cor. 5:6); and in some versions of Proverbs it is written: Do not bring the wicked into the dwelling of the righteous. The Jews and Ebionites press us on this matter, who receive the circumcision of the flesh: how can we explain this passage to those uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh? Indeed, after spiritual understanding, should we also undergo the circumcision of the flesh. But we who read what Paul says: Now I testify to every man who is circumcised that if you are circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you (Gal. V, 2). And that of Jeremiah: Behold, your ears are uncircumcised and you refuse to listen (Jer. VI, 10). And in Exodus, Moses spoke before the Lord, saying: Behold, the Israelites have not listened to me; how then will Pharaoh listen to me? But I am slow of speech (Exod. VI, 12), for which the Seventy translated: Am I not unreasoning? which is better rendered in Hebrew: But I have uncircumcised lips. Let us ask them, or rather compel them, to circumcise their ears and desecrate their lips, so that they may seem to fulfill the Scripture. But if they begin to interpret the circumcision of the ears, when we endure nothing shameful or dishonorable to hear, and the circumcision of the lips, when we speak nothing indecent: let us say to…
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
Rebellion Against God · Ministers: Should testify against — Ministers: Should testify against
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).
Keil & Delitzsch on Ezekiel 44:4-16
The Position of Foreigners, Levites, and Priests in Relation to the Temple and the Temple Service. - The further precepts concerning the approach to the sanctuary, and the worship to be presented there, are introduced with a fresh exhortation to observe with exactness all the statutes and laws, in order that the desecration of the sanctuary which had formerly taken place might not be repeated, and are delivered to the prophet at the north gate in front of the manifestation of the glory of God (Eze 44:4-8). - Eze 44:4. And he brought me by the way of the north gate to the front of the house; and I looked, and behold the glory of Jehovah filled the house of Jehovah, and I fell down upon my fac…
The people of Israel were called rebels because they had failed to control access to the sanctuary in the past; they had hired uncircumcised foreigners to come into the sanctuary and probably employed them as Temple guards and gatekeepers. This task should not have been delegated to foreigners; it should have been performed by the Levites, whom the Lord had assigned to perform it (cp. 44:10).
Rashi on Ezekiel 44:3
The prince [I permit]; he is a prince, etc. The prince I give permission. He is a prince, and is esteemed, and it is not fitting for him to sit and eat with the rest of the priests in the chambers.
he shall sit therein in its space.
by way of the hall of the gate he shall come When he enters the Inner Court in order to enter this small gate to eat therein, he shall enter by way of the hall of the Court’s eastern gate and leave the same way. Now since it states below (46:9), concerning: “But when the people of the land come before the Lord on the Festivals, he who enters by way of, etc.” Scripture commanded making the Court a shortcut since that entry was [made] for the sake of appearing [b…
