Ezekiel 15:7

Eze 15:7 And I will set my face against them; they shall go out from [one] fire, and [another] fire shall devour them; and ye shall know that I [am] the LORD, when I set my face against them.

Ver. 7. And I will set my face aguinst them.] See Eze 14:8 Lev 17:10.

They shall go out from one fire.] And then think themselves safe and happy; but this is but gaucdium lachrymosum; their preservation is but only a reservation; for

Another fire shall devour them.] A man pulleth a brand out of the fire sometimes, and then presently casteth it in again. He gathereth up the stick ends, but it is to cast them into the middle of the fire. So dealeth God often with the wicked; to whom also whatsoever they suffer here is but a typical Tophet. See Amo 5:19 Jer 48:43.

And ye shall know that I am the Lord,] i.e., True of my word, and terrible in mine executions. The prophets could not get you to believe that your sins were so heinous, that my wrath was so hot, that your judgments were so heavy, &c.; but now ye shall surely feel what you would not then believe, and cry out, Nos insensati, &c. Oh we fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken unto us.

When I set my face against them.] As being fully resolved to have my full blow at them, and to pay them home.

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.

15:7 Anyone who escaped from one fire of God’s judgment (probably a reference to the defeat of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BC; 2 Kgs 21:1-4) would simply fall into another (the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Though they escape one danger, yet another will take them.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

And I will set my face against them--(See on Lev 17:10).

from one fire . . . another--(Compare Isa 24:18). "Fire" means here every kind of calamity (Psa 66:12). The Jewish fugitives shall escape from the ruin of Jerusalem, only to fall into some other calamity.

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 7. They shall go out from one fire, and another fire shall devour them] If they escape the sword, they shall perish by the famine; if they escape the famine, they shall be led away captives. To escape will be impossible. It will be to them according to the proverb: -

Incidit in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim.

"Out of the scald, into the flame."

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

He confirms what had been said in the last verse, and at the same time explains it: as if the citizens of Jerusalem retained some form, because they were not reduced to dust; but the fire had burnt all round them, as if the flame was licking a bundle of twigs. While the royal seat remained to them, the name of a people remained, and hence an opportunity for their obstinacy. For they were not to be subdued, since they were not entirely consumed: and now another madness is added; for as soon as they had escaped from any misfortune, they thought themselves quite safe, — “O now we shall rest,” said they; if the enemy had departed from the city, or if new forces had not arrived against them, or if provisions failed the enemy’s troops, they immediately regained their courage, and not only breathed again, but proudly laughed at God and his prophets, as if they were beyond all danger. For this reason he now says, I have set my face against them. To set, or, if any one prefers it, to establish one’s face, is to persist constantly, so as not only to do anything on passing, but to remain there until we have accomplished our intention; so that those are not bad expounders of the Prophet who say, “I have set my face firmly:” they do not translate verbally, but according to God’s meaning. For he often chastises a whole nation or city, and yet he does not set his face, that is, he does not stay there, but chastises them lightly, and but for a short time, as if passing in another direction. But he means something else here — that he would set his face; that is, never desist until the people’s name, as well as their city, was utterly abolished. For we have said that the prophets speak of the present state of the people when they threaten such destruction. I will set my face, therefore, against them: they shall escape from one fire, and another shall devour them. Here the Prophet strikes down that foolish opinion by which the Jews deceived themselves. For if they escaped from one danger, they thought it the last, and hence their security, and even obstinacy. But the Prophet says here, after they had escaped from one fire, that a new fire to consume them was lighted up: he means, that there were different means in God’s hand by which he destroys and extinguishes a people: as he had previously said, that he was armed with pestilence and the sword, and famine and wild beasts; so now under the name of fire he comprehends various scourges. If, therefore, men have escaped the sword, a new attack shall inter them, since God will press them with famine, or urge them with pestilence, or in other ways: and then, they shall know, says he, that I am Jehovah, when I shall set my face against it. By these words he signifies that his glory could not otherwise remain safe, since impunity blinded the Jews — nay, hardened them till they became like the brutes. If, therefore, God had spared them, his glory would have been as it were buried, and through so long a connivance he had been no longer acknowledged as God. There was a real necessity for so much rigor: since he would never show himself to be God otherwise than by destroying the impious who were so stupefied by their sins as long as he bore with them. At length he adds, I will lay the land waste since they have prevaricated by prevarication. Here, also, God expresses how terrible, yet just, was that judgment, because the Jews were no trifling offenders, but perfidiously departed from his worship, and from the whole teaching of the law, and were obstinate in their ingratitude. Since they were so abandoned, we gather that God was not too severe when he put forth his hand to destroy them utterly.

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.

7. go out from one fire] Rather: they have come out of the fire, but the fire shall devour them. They are in the condition of a brand that has been plucked for a moment from the fire (Eze_15:4-5), but they shall be plunged again into it to be burnt. Only scathed and charred as yet, they shall be wholly consumed.

I am the Lord] The object of these chastisements is that they may know that he who inflicts them is Jehovah, and what Jehovah is; and this shall be the result of them.

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.

And I will make the land desolate,.... The land of Judea uncultivated, men and beast being cut off; see Eze 14:15;

because they have committed a trespass, saith the Lord God; acted a treacherous and perfidious part; apostatized from God, having committed idolatry, which was the cause of their ruin; and therefore it was not without a cause that the Lord did what he did, in it; see Eze 14:23.

Next: Ezekiel Chapter 16

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

They shall go out ... - Rather, they have gone forth from the fire, and the fire shall devour them. The condition of the people is here depicted. The people of Israel - as a whole and as separate kingdoms - had become worthless. The branch torn from the living stem had truly been cast into the fire, which had devoured both ends of it; what remained was a brand plucked from the burning. Those who had escaped the general calamity were reserved for a like fate. Compare Joh 15:6.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

From fire. If they escape one misery they shall fall into another, as the event shewed. (Calmet) --- They shall be thrown back into the fire. (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).

I will look upon them with an angry and displeased countenance, which is enough to destroy them, or to fill them with terrors. This phrase occurs Eze 14:8, which see. My wrath shall kindle a fire among them.

They shall go out from one fire; either shift themselves, and flee from one evil, which as fire consumed them; or else be cast by others, by their enemies, out of one evil into another; from a less which troubled them to a greater which devours them, 1Ki 19:17; Jer 48:43,44; Am 5:19.

Ye shall know; you that are in Babylon, and hear what mischiefs are heaped on Jerusalem one after another, shall know it is my anger and fury poured out upon them.

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

7. They shall go out from one fire, etc. — Literally, out of the fire are they come forth, but the fire shall devour them. They have only been “singed” (Eze_15:4-5, A.V., “burned”) heretofore by these fires of punishment; but the fire into which they will now be plunged “shall devour them.”

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

General Information:

Yahweh speaks to Ezekiel about the people of Israel.

I will set my face against them

Yahweh speaks of being opposed to them as if he were to set his face against them. AT: "I will be against them" or "I will oppose them" (See: Symbolic Action)

set my face

Here "face" is a metonym for attention or gaze, and "set my face" refers to staring. AT: "stare" (See: Metonymy)

know that I am Yahweh

When Yahweh says that people will know that he is Yahweh, he is implying that they will know that he is the one true God who has supreme authority and power. See how you translated this in Ezekiel 6:7. AT: "understand that I am Yahweh, the one true God" or "realize that I, Yahweh, have supreme power and authority" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

Though they come out from the fire, yet the fire will consume them

Yahweh speaks of the punishment that he will afflict upon the people as if it were a fire that burns them. (See: Metaphor)

the fire will consume them

Yahweh speaks of fire burning things as if the fire consumed them. AT: "the fire will destroy them" (See: Metaphor)

they have committed sin

"the people who live there have committed sin" or "the people who live there have sinned"

this is the Lord Yahweh's declaration

Yahweh speaks of himself by name to express the certainty of what he is declaring. See how you translated this in Ezekiel 5:11. AT: "this is what the Lord Yahweh has declared" or "this is what I, the Lord Yahweh, have declared" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)

translationWords

face

fire

consume

know

Yahweh

waste

sin

Lord Yahweh

declare

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

From the fire they have emerged They transgressed the words of the Torah, which were given from fire, and nations as strong as fire will destroy them.

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.