Ezekiel 7:13 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ezekiel 7:13
For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, although they were yet alive: for the vision is touching the whole multitude thereof, which shall not return; neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life.
to sell · definite article + verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
return
יָשׁ֔וּבya.Shuv
H7725
to turn back (hence · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
sold
הַמִּמְכָּר֙ha.mi.Kar
H4465
merchandise · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
alive
בַּחַיִּ֖יםba.chai.Yim
H2416
alive · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
vision
חָז֤וֹןcha.Zon
H2377
a sight (mentally) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
multitude
הֲמוֹנָהּ֙ha.mo.Nah
H1995
a noise · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
return
יָשׁ֔וּבya.Shuv
H7725
to turn back (hence · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
any
וְאִ֧ישׁve.'Ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
strengthen
יִתְחַזָּֽקוּyit.cha.Za.ku
H2388
to fasten upon · verb, hithpael imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
iniquity
בַּעֲוֹנ֛וֹba.'a.vo.No
H5771
perversity · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
life
חַיָּתָ֑םchai.ya.Tam
H2416
alive · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd 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
Leviticus 25:24-28 And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.
Leviticus 25:31 But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and…
Job 15:25 For he stretcheth out his hand against God, and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty.
Psalms 52:7 Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.
Ecclesiastes 8:8 There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge i…
Ezekiel 13:22 Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he s…
Ezekiel 33:26-27 Ye stand upon your sword, ye work abomination, and ye defile every one his neighbour’s wife: and shall ye possess the land?
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 7:1-15
We have here fair warning given of the destruction of the land of Israel, which was now hastening on apace. God, by the prophet, not only sends notice of it, but will have it inculcated in the same expressions, to show that the thing is certain, that it is near, that the prophet is himself affected with it and desires they should be so too, but finds them deaf, and stupid, and unaffected. When the town is on fire men do no seek for fine words and quaint expressions in which to give an account of it, but cry about the streets, with a loud and lamentable voice, "Fire! fire!" So the prophet here proclaims, An end! an end! it has come, it has come; behold, it has come. He that hath ears to hear…
although they were yet alive--although they should live to the year of jubilee.
multitude thereof--namely, of the Jews.
which shall not return--answering to "the seller shall not return"; not only he, but the whole multitude, shall not return. CALVIN omits "is" and "which": "the vision touching the whole multitude shall not return" void (Isa 55:11).
neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life--No hardening of one's self in iniquity will avail against God's threat of punishment. FAIRBAIRN translates, "no one by his iniquity shall invigorate his life"; referring to the jubilee, which was regarded as a revivification of the whole commonwealth, when, its disorders bein…
For the seller shall not return - In the sale of all heritages among the Jews, it was always understood that the heritage must return to the family on the year of jubilee, which was every fiftieth year; but in this case the seller should not return to possess it, as it was not likely that he should be alive when the next jubilee should come, and if he were even to live till that time, he could not possess it, as he would then be in captivity. And the reason is particularly given; for the vision - the prophetic declaration of a seventy years' captivity, regards the whole multitude of the people; and it shall not return, i.e., it will be found to be strictly true, without any abatement.
The Church Fathers
(Verse 13). The one who buys should not rejoice, and the one who sells should not mourn. It is natural to rejoice in the purchase of possessions and mourn in their sale. However, when slavery and captivity are imminent, both joy and sorrow are in vain. Hence, the Apostle says: Time is shortened. Henceforth, those who have wives should live as if they did not have them, those who weep as if they did not weep, those who rejoice as if they did not rejoice, those who buy as if they did not possess, and those who use this world as if they did not make full use of it (I Cor. VII, 29 seqq.). For just as the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. (Matthew 24) Because his anger is upon all his people. This is found in the Septuagint. For the word 'people' can also be understood as 'multitude' and 'crowd' according to the Hebrew, for it signifies 'Amona.' And the reason is clear: that the one who buys should not rejoice, and the one who sells should cease mourning, because the anger of God will soon come upon all the multitude of the land of Judah, or Jerusalem. For it is understood from the preceding text, in which it is written: Thus says the Lord God of the land of Israel, etc.
(Verse 13.) Because the one who sells will not return to that which he sold. He speaks according to the Hebrew custom. For every sale was returned to the seller in the fiftieth year of remission, which among them is called the Jubilee. Therefore, before the year of remission comes, when possessions return to their previous owners, captivity will come upon them, which will take away all the city's customs. Moreover, what the Seventy translated as: Because the buyer will not return to the seller, although it does not completely agree with the historical account, according to allegory, it can have this meaning: that we can say that the one who was deceived by a heretical error, when he understands the deceit of the teacher, will by no means return to the seller, that is, to the teacher; but will despise and reject him. And yet in the lives of those still living, because the vision will not return to the entire multitude. Just as possession does not return to the previous owner with the imminent destruction of a city, so the prophetic vision and warning, which is directed to the entire multitude of the city, will by no means return and will become invalid; but it will be fulfilled in the remaining days, to those to whom the prophetic message is directed. However, he says this in order to show the impending captivity, lest they should say according to custom: This vision will be for a long time, and will be fulfilled after many years. We can say this, that after the prophetic vision has departed from the Jews, the Law and the Prophets do not return to them, nor do they deserve to have prophets anymore after the killing of the Savior. And significantly, he says that the vision will not return to any multitude. Therefore, it will return to those who believed in the Lord, namely the apostles and the remnant of the Jewish people who have been saved from Israel. But these two verses are not found in the Septuagint edition. And a man in the wickedness of his life will not be strengthened. LXX: And a man in the eyes of his life will not obtain. And the meaning according to the Hebrew: His wickedness will not benefit a man, nor will it provide him with any strength. According to the Septuagint: And a man, who desired what he thought to be precious in the world, will not obtain it; but with freedom perishing, everything that is beautiful will be lost. However, the…
Dictionary and topics
Jubilee — A joyful shout or clangour of trumpets, the name of the great semi-centennial festival of the Hebrews. It lasted for a year. During this year the land was to be fallow, and the Israelites were only…
Commerce · Denunciations connected with abuses of — Denunciations connected with abuses of
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 7:13
For the seller shall not return to that which is sold,.... In the year of jubilee, because he shall be in captivity: according to the law in Leviticus 25:13, when a man had sold his possession, he returned to it again, if alive, in the year of jubilee; let it come sooner or later, within thirty, or twenty, or ten years after the sale, be it as it will: now the Babylonish captivity being seventy years, in that time there must be a jubilee; and yet those that had sold their estates, being captives in another land, could not return to them:
although they were yet alive: either though what they have sold is in being, and in good condition; or rather, though they that have sold them are in the l…
Ezekiel 7:13
13. For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, although they were yet alive: for the vision is touching the whole multitude thereof, which shall not return; neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life.
13. Quia vendens ad venditionem [153] non revertetur: et adhuc inter vivos vita ipsorum: [154] quia visio super omnem multitudinem ejus: non revertetur, et vir in sua iniquitate animam suam non roborabit. [155]
This verse is interpreted variously, but the Prophet's meaning is by no means obscure: at the beginning he says, that those who sold had no cause of sorrow on account of their not returning to their lands. But this does not seem suitable.…
Second Strophe
Eze 7:10. Behold the day, behold, it cometh; the fate springeth up; the rod sprouteth; the pride blossometh. Eze 7:11. The violence riseth up as the rod of evil: nothing of them, nothing of their multitude, nothing of their crowd, and nothing glorious upon them. Eze 7:12. The time cometh, the day approacheth: let not the buyer rejoice, and let not the seller trouble himself; for wrath cometh upon the whole multitude thereof. Eze 7:13. For the seller will not return to that which was sold, even though his life were still among the living: for the prophecy against its whole multitude will not turn back; and no one will strengthen himself as to his life through his iniquity. Eze…
Comprehensive judgment is depicted in two parallel panels, 7:12-18 and 7:19-27. Each begins with the futility of material gain in view of this impending judgment and moves through the arrival of war and its associated horrors to a declaration of universal ineffectiveness, terror, and mourning.
7:12-13 Commercial transactions would lose their meaning. There would be no such thing as a good deal or a bad deal; buyers and sellers alike would face God’s terrible anger.
Rashi on Ezekiel 7:13
For the seller will not return to that which was sold Once he goes into exile, he will not return and will no longer see the field that he had sold; so why should he mourn?
as long as they are alive All the days of their lives they will not return to their place.
for when the prophecy was [directed] to all her multitude, etc. For the prophets prophesy concerning all their multitude to repent, but they do not repent.
and each man’s soul is in his iniquity The life and soul of every one of them is attached to his iniquity.
they do not strengthen themselves They do not strengthen their heart over their evil inclination, to return to their Torah.
