Ezekiel 13:11

Therefore thus saith the Lord God,.... Confirming what he had before bid the prophet say, Eze 13:11;

I will even rend it with a stormy wind in my fury; stormy winds sometimes rend rocks asunder, Kg1 19:11; and much more feeble tottering walls; what is before ascribed to the stormy wind is said to be done here by the Lord himself, making use of that as an instrument; stormy winds fulfil his word, Psa 148:8; the cause of which is his wrath, which made the dispensation, or the invasion of the Chaldean army, the more terrible; and this is mentioned in all the following clauses:

and there shall be an overflowing shower in mine anger, and great hailstones in my fury to consume it; which, coming from the Lord, and attended with his wrath and fury, must needs bring on utter ruin and destruction. The whole is paraphrased by the Targum thus,

"and I will bring a mighty king with the force of tempests; and a destroying people as a prevailing rain in my fury shall come; and kings, who were powerful as hailstones, in wrath to consume.''

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Eze 13:11 Say unto them which daub [it] with untempered [morter], that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend [it].

Ver. 11. Say unto them.] Tell them so from me, and they may trust to it. Dei dicere est facere. For God, to say is to do.

That it shall fall.] And the fall of it shall be great, as Mat 7:27, where our Saviour seemeth to allude to this text.

There shall be an overflowing shower.] The Chaldean army. {Isa 59:19; Isa 8:7-8}

Great hailstones.] Sept., λιθους πετροβολους, catapults, battering rams, to make breaches in stone walls. The Hebrew is Elgabiah, i.e, grandis grandinis lapides, huge hailstones of God’s own hurling. {a}

{a} Alloquitur grandinem velut imperator suos milites. - Lavat.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11. It shall fall — They make a great show, but their whitewashed bulwarks shall be beaten down by the hail, and holes shall be blown through them by the wind (Eze_13:11; Eze_13:13; Mat_7:25; Mat_7:27).

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

overflowing--inundating; such as will at once wash away the mere clay mortar. The three most destructive agents shall co-operate against the wall--wind, rain, and hailstones. These last in the East are more out of the regular course of nature and are therefore often particularly specified as the instruments of God's displeasure against His foes (Exo 9:18; Jos 10:11; Job 38:22; Psa 18:12-13; Isa 28:2; Isa 30:30; Rev 16:21). The Hebrew here is, literally, "stones of ice." They fall in Palestine at times an inch thick with a destructive velocity. The personification heightens the vivid effect, "O ye hail stones." The Chaldeans will be the violent agency whereby God will unmask and refute them, overthrowing their edifice of lies.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 11. There shall be an overflowing shower] That shall wash off this bad mortar; sweep away the ground on which the wall stands, and level it with the earth. In the eastern countries, where the walls are built with unbaked bricks, desolations of this kind are often occasioned by tempestuous rains. Of this sort of materials were the walls of ancient cities made, and hence the reason why no vestige of them remains. Witness Babylon, which was thus built. See Clarke on Eze 4:1.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

How, then, can it happen that we can be at rest while God is opposed to us? Thou shalt say, therefore, to those who daub with untempered mortar, it shall fall. Here the Spirit signifies that the false prophets should be subject to the greatest ridicule, when they shall be convicted by the event, and their is shall be proved by clear proof. Hence, also, we may gather the utility of the doctrine which Paul teaches, that we must stand bravely when God gives the reins to impostors to disturb or disperse the Church. They shall not proceed any further, says he. (2 Timothy 3:9.) He says elsewhere in the same epistle, (2 Timothy 3:13,) They shall wax worse and worse; that is, as far as God pleases to be patient with them. But meanwhile the end is at hand, when the Lord shall shame all the impious false prophets, and detect their ignorance, rashness, and audacity, because they dared to use his name in offering peace to the reprobate. Thou shalt say, therefore, the wall shall fall. He speaks here of doctrine. There shall be an overflowing shower, says he — a desolating rain. Here the Spirit signifies that there shall be a violent concussion which shall disperse all the artifices of the false prophets, and detect their frauds, when the Lord should bring on the Chaldaeans, and deliver the city to them. Hence the same meaning is intended by the shower, by stones, by the rush of a whirlwind, but it was necessary to express the same thing in many ways, because the Israelites had grown torpid through their fallacies, and willingly seized upon what the false prophets said — that God would be propitious to them. After he had mentioned the shower, he goes on to hailstones. The more probable reading is, Ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; unless perhaps it is better to take the verb תפלנה, thephelneh, transitively, as I am inclined to do, ye shall make fall. This apostrophe is emphatic, because God addresses the stones themselves, and thereby obliquely reproves the sloth of those who thought to escape in safety through their blandishments. When God, therefore, addresses the stones, he doubtless reproaches the Israelites for hardening themselves so completely. He adds the violence of whirlwinds, or of tempests, in the same sense. The violence of the whirlwinds, then, shall break down or overthrow the wall. In conclusion, Ezekiel teaches that the doctrine of the false prophets had no need of any other refutation, that the arrival of the Chaldaeans, and their boasting, is like a storm and whirlwind to devastate the whole land: and thus he derides those praters who used their tongues so audaciously: he says that those strangers should come to refute these lies, not by words only, but by a violent attack. It follows —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(11) Great hailstones.—Hail is unusual in Palestine, but its destructive effects were well known. The figure of this prophecy may be compared with the parable of Mat_7:27.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11. and ye, O great hailstones] The apostrophe to the hailstones is rather unnatural. A different pointing gives the sense, and I will cause great hailstones to fall, but the construction is altogether improbable. Jer_8:13, is not in point.

wind shall rent it] Or, a strong wind shall break forth.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Hailstones. Literally, "stones," like those which fell on the enemies of Josue, (x. 11.; Haydock) or thunderbolts. (Grotius) (Calmet) --- Such will be the fate of all the buildings of the wicked, Matthew vii. 27. (Haydock) --- None can resist the judgments of God, who will employ the Chaldeans. (Menochius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Unto them; the meaner and less noted, who follow the arch false prophets, and are as under-workers in this wall.

It shall fall; most certainly its fall shall be the shame and loss of the builders, and those that hoped its duration.

An overflowing shower; abundant, violent, and continued showers shall soak into your wall and dissolve the cement; and this shower is the Babylonish invasion, which all your provision shall be no more able to withstand, than mire in a wall can keep the stones together when drenched with showers. I will summon in the storms of hail, which with mighty stones shall beat upon the ruinous wall.

A stormy wind; a whirlwind, to shake the tumbling stones, which without much shaking would ere long drop down; but, to hasten the downfall, soaking showers, storms of hail and violent winds, shall meet; so shall your crazy state, O deceived Jews, come down to ruin.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

In words which would almost seem to have been in our Lord"s thoughts in Mat_7:25, we have the picture of an Eastern storm, torrents of rain passing into hail (LXX, liqoi petroboloi), accompanied by a tornado of irresistible violence. (compare like pictures in Jos_10:11; Isa_30:30 Isa_28:2, Isa_28:17) And when the disastercomes men will turn to those who professed to be master builders and repairers of the breach, with derision, and ask, "Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed?" And then men shall see that through all this it is Jehovah"s hand that has been working. It is he who "rends" the wall; he who "brings it down to the ground;" he who "accomplishes his wrath" (vers. 13-15). That shall be the end of the false "visions of peace.

Vers. 11-16. Untempered mortar.

The teaching of the false prophets of peace is here compared to a wall built of untempered mortar, which is overthrown in a tern pest.

I A FALSE HOPE IS LIKE A WALL BUILT WITH UNTEMPERED MORTAR.

1. It offers protection. The wall is built, and it endures long enough to invite the threatened people to take shelter behind it. It stands between them and the enemy. So a false hope is planted between men and their danger, like a city wall, and it encourages them to despise the danger.

2. It presents a fair appearance. The wall may be well designed with towers, and bastions, and battlements, and all the latest improvements in plans of fortifications. It has a certain mortar holding the stones together, which may appear to be of the very best quality. So false hopes charm with an appearance of solidity.

3. It contains solid materials. It is not a mere mound of earth. There are good hewn stones in the structure. Hence its deceptive appearance. A lie that is half a truth is the most deadly lie. We may have certain solid truths of the Christian religion. Yet if these are not united by personal faith they hang loosely together, and will not save us.

4. It lacks an essential element. The mortar is rotten. Then all the rest goes for nothing. "One thing thou lackest". (Mar_10:21) Yet that one thing may be so vital that the absence of it may lead to utter failure. Our system of religion, like the teaching of the false prophets, may have every commendable element, beauty, symmetry, fulness, etc., except onetruth. Then, alas! there is nothing to hold it together, and the whole is no better than a heap of rubbish.

II THE TEMPEST OF TRIAL WILL SHATTER A FALSE HOPE. When we see people who are comfortably ensconced in a neat little system of religious conceptions, though we know that that system is only held together by the friable mortar of fancy, not by the Portland cement of truth, at first it might seem cruel to unsettle them. But it should be remembered that they are certain to be unsettled at length, and the only questions are as to when and how this will take place. If the rotten wall is not pulled down, some day it will be thrown down.

1. The tempest of tribal will come. God sends his hailstorm, his hurricane. It came to Jerusalem in Nebuchadnezzar"s invasion. It visits every soul at some time, for "man is born to trouble," etc. If our bark is only made for fair weather, it is doomed to shipwreck, because the storm will break at last on every life. If it dues not come during our earthly course, it will visit us at the close. Death will then come as a howling tempest.

2. The false hope will then crumble away. Hail and hurricane dash down the feeble, pretentious wall. Trouble overthrows false hopes. We may be content to live in the dreamland of illusion during the drowsy summer days of prosperity. But trouble compels us to be real. Then we are forced to ask ourselves in solemn earnestness, "What is truth?" Then the refuge of lies tumbles into a hopeless ruin.

3. The builder of the false hope will suffer in its overthrow. "Ye shall be consumed in the midst thereof." False teachers will suffer with the overthrow of their teachings. They who take refuge in falsehood will be buried in the ruin of their delusions. The greater the hope, the more fearful will be its fall, and the more dreadfully will they be bruised and crushed who take up their abode in it.

4. The false hope is overthrown that we may turn to the true Hope. "Christ our Hope."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

then you Heb. וְאַתֵּנָה, like וְאֶתֵּן [the second person pronoun in the feminine plural].

gigantic hailstones Heb. אַבְנֵי אֶלְגָּבִישּׁ, huge hailstones, and I say that because they shine as do all [crystal] hailstones, he likens them to crystal (גָבִישּׁ), which is a precious stone, as in the way that it is stated (Job 28:18): “Coral and crystal (וְגָבִישּׁ).” Our Sages (Ber. 54b) said: [They are called] אֶלְגָבִישּׁ because they [once] stood in the air over a man עַל גַב אִישּׁ, and this is Moses, our teacher, as it is said (Exod. 9: 33): “and rain did not reach the earth” those that started to fall did not reach the earth.

will fall on the wall.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.