Ezekiel 8:18 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ezekiel 8:18
Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.
to do or make · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
fury
בְחֵמָ֔הve.che.Mah
H2534
heat · preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
eye
עֵינִ֖י'ei.Ni
H5869
an eye (literally or figuratively) · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix
spare
תָח֥וֹסta.Chos
H2347
properly · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
pity
אֶחְמֹ֑ל'ech.Mol
H2550
to commiserate · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
cry
וְקָרְא֤וּve.ka.re.'U
H7121
to call out to (i.e. properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person common plural
ears
בְאָזְנַי֙ve.'a.ze.Nai
H241
broadness. i.e. (concrete) the ear (from its form in ma… · preposition + noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix
loud
גָּד֔וֹלga.Dol
H1419
great (in any sense) · adjective, masculine singular absolute
voice
ק֣וֹלKol
H6963
a voice or sound · noun, common masculine singular absolute
hear
אֶשְׁמַ֖ע'esh.Ma'
H8085
to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
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
Micah 3:4 Then shall they cry unto the LORD, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themse…
Isaiah 1:15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of…
Jeremiah 11:11 Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto m…
Zechariah 7:13 Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the LORD of hosts:
Judges 10:13-14 Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more.
Proverbs 1:28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
Ezekiel 7:4-9 And mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity: but I will recompense thy ways upon thee, and thine abominations shall be in th…
Ezekiel 9:10 And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 8:13–end
Here we have,
I. More and greater abominations discovered to the prophet. He thought that what he had seen was bad enough and yet (Eze 8:13): Turn thyself again, and thou shalt see yet greater abominations, and greater still, Eze 8:15, as before, Eze 8:6. There are those who live in retirement who do no think what wickedness there is in this world; and the more we converse with it, and the further we go abroad into it, the more corrupt we see it. When we have seen that which is bad we may have our wonder at it made to cease by the discovery of that which, upon some account or other, is a great deal worse. We shall find it so in examining our own hearts and searching into them; there is a wor…
though they cry . . . yet will I not hear-- (Pro 1:28; Isa 1:15).
Next: Ezekiel Chapter 9
Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 8:17
They put the branch to their nose - This is supposed to mean some branch or branches, which they carried in succession in honor of the idol, and with which they covered their faces, or from which they inhaled a pleasant smell, the branches being odoriferous. That the heathens carried branches of trees in their sacred ceremonies is well known to all persons acquainted with classic antiquity; and it is probable that the heathen borrowed those from the use of such branches in the Jewish feast of tabernacles. There are many strange, and some filthy, interpretations given of this clause; but the former are not worth repeating, and I abominate the latter too much to submit to defile my paper with…
Therefore will I also deal in fury,.... Being provoked by such abominable idolatries, and such horrid insolence, and most contemptuous treatment:
mine eye shall not spare: neither will I have pity: see Ezekiel 5:11;
and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice; very pressingly and earnestly for help, being in great distress:
yet will I not hear them; as they turned their backs on him, he will turn a deaf ear to them, and not regard their cries. The Targum is,
"they shall pray before me, with a great voice, and I will not receive their prayer.''
The Church Fathers
(Verse 18.) Therefore, I will also act in fury: My eye will not spare, nor will I have compassion. And when they cry out to my ears with a loud voice, I will not listen to them. Moreover, the following phrase, 'And when they cry out to my ears with a loud voice, I will not listen to them,' is not found in the Septuagint. For all the things they have done, I will act in fury and my eye will not spare, nor will I have compassion,' says the Lord. When the ancient heretics heard this, they falsely accused the Creator of being cruel and bloodthirsty; and they did not consider the Apostle Paul, who is certainly an apostle of the good God (as they claim), writing to the Corinthians, 'If I come again, I will not spare' (2 Corinthians 12:2), in order to discipline the wrongdoers with a rod and bring the wanderers back to salvation. For those who do not understand what is beneficial for themselves, and frequently pray for the opposite, it is expedient that they are not heard by the Lord. Hence, in the Lord's Prayer, we say: Thy will be done (Matt. VI, 10). Not our own will, which is accustomed to err: but Thy will, which knows the future. And sometimes it is of great happiness to not deserve mercy in the present. Therefore, the Lord will not spare those who are from the house of Judah and have departed from the confession of the Church. And when they cry out with a loud voice, about which the Lord has said: Their cry has come to me (Genesis XVIII): yet the Lord will not hear them, so that, being compelled by their evils, they may understand what they have done.
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
Prayer, Answers To · Denied to those who: Are idolaters — Denied to those who: Are idolaters
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 Calvin on Ezekiel 8:18–end
Ezekiel 8:18
18. Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.
18. Ego etiam [189] vicissim faciam in iracundia mea: non parcet oculus meus et non miserebor: et cum elamaverint ad aurem meam voce magna, non audiam ipsos.
This seems to me a confirmation of the last clause. For he had said, that they sent forth their boughs or east them forth, but yet to their destruction. He now repeats the same thing in other words. Therefore I will also act in, my turn -- that is, as they now boldly increase their superstitions, and so continually provoke me, at length I will act, says…
Fourth Abomination: Worship of the Sun by the Priests
Eze 8:16. And He took me into the inner court of the house of Jehovah, and behold, at the entrance into the temple of Jehovah, between the porch and the altar, as it were five and twenty men,with their backs towards the temple of Jehovah and their faces towards the east; they were worshipping the sun towards the east. Eze 8:17. And He said to me, Seest thou this, son of Man? Is it too little for the house of Judah to perform the abominations which they are performing here, that they also fill the land with violence, and provoke me to anger again and again? For behold they stretch out the vine-branch to their nose. Eze 8:18. But I also wil…
The abominations that the Israelites were committing in the Temple complex were tantamount to thumbing (literally putting the twig [or branch] to) their noses at the Lord. This gesture was at least defiant, and possibly vulgar.
Rashi on Ezekiel 8:17
Was it [too] trivial to the house of Judah Is it trivial and light in their eyes, the other sins that they have committed?
to prevent them from performing the abominations that they should refrain from doing all the abominations that they have done in My house here?
for they have [already] filled the land with violence and that that iniquity is trivial in their eyes, and they repeatedly provoke Me within My house with these abominations.
and behold they send disgrace into their nose Behold they send to their nose the foul odor of this “song,” which they “sing” with the wind emerging from their anus; i.e., this disgrace of theirs will come back to their faces. Menachem (p. 79) explained: “…
