Ezekiel 30:2

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Wail, Alas for the day!

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

1 hapax legomenon — only here in the Hebrew Bible
1 first appearance in the Hebrew Bible

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Word by word

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הָ֥הּ

hâhh

H1929

“alas”

Particle, Interjection

Appears 1× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears here

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a shortened form of H162

TWOT: 478

alas!

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

11: words
10: distinct lemmas
Prophets: section

Notable vocabulary

1 hapax legomenon — a word that appears only here in the entire Hebrew Bible:

הָ֥הּ alas H1929

First appearance in Scripture

This word makes its first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:

הָ֥הּ alas H1929

Shared distinctive vocabulary

הֵילִ֖ילוּ to howl H3213 occurs in 28 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

4 verbs
5 nouns
1 adverb
1 particle

Verb forms

הִנָּבֵא֙ Niphal · Imperative
וְאָ֣מַרְתָּ֔ Qal · Sequential Perfect
אָמַ֖ר Qal · Perfect
הֵילִ֖ילוּ Hiphil · Imperative

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

וְאָ֣מַרְתָּ֔ to say H559 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 16 words from the Hebrew and 15 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 11 Hebrew tokens and 12 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Ezekiel 30:2 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Isaiah 13:6 Wail; for the day of Yahweh is at hand; as destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
Isaiah 15:2 They are gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep: Moab wails over Nebo, and over Medeba; on all their heads is baldness, every beard is cut off.
Ezekiel 21:12 Cry and wail, son of man; for it is on my people, it is on all the princes of Israel: they are delivered over to the sword with my people; strike therefore on your thigh.
Joel 1:5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; For it is cut off from your mouth.
Joel 1:11 Be confounded, you farmers! Wail, you vineyard keepers; For the wheat and for the barley; For the harvest of the field has perished.
Isaiah 14:31 Howl, gate; cry, city; you are melted away, Philistia, all of you; for there comes a smoke out of the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks.
Isaiah 16:7 Therefore shall Moab wail for Moab, everyone shall wail: for the raisin-cakes of Kir Hareseth shall you mourn, utterly stricken.
Isaiah 23:1 The burden of Tyre. Howl, you ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Kittim it is revealed to them.

Isaiah 23:6 Pass over to Tarshish; wail, you inhabitants of the coast.
Isaiah 65:14 behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall wail for vexation of spirit.
Jeremiah 4:8 For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of Yahweh hasn't turned back from us.
Jeremiah 47:2 Thus says Yahweh: Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and shall become an overflowing stream, and shall overflow the land and all that is therein, the city and those who dwell therein; and the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall wail.
Zephaniah 1:11 Wail, you inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the people of Canaan are undone! All those who were loaded with silver are cut off.
Zechariah 11:2 Wail, fir tree, for the cedar has fallen, Because the stately ones are destroyed. Wail, you oaks of Bashan, For the strong forest has come down.
James 5:1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you.
Revelation 18:10 standing far away for the fear of her torment, saying, 'Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For your judgment has come in one hour.'

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Ezekiel 30:2 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

בֶּן אָדָ֕ם הִנָּבֵא֙ וְאָ֣מַרְתָּ֔ כֹּ֥ה אָמַ֖ר אֲדֹנָ֣י יְהוִ֑ה הֵילִ֖ילוּ הָ֥הּ לַיּֽוֹם

Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Wail, Alas for the day!

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Ezekiel 30:2 Septuagint · lemma form

υἱός ἄνθρωπος προφητεύω καί εἶπον ὅδε λέγω κύριος ὦ ὦ ὁ ἡμέρα

Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord; Woe, woe worth the day!

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

בַּר אָדָם אִתְנַבֵּי וְתֵימַר כִּדְנַן אֲמַר יְיָ אֱלֹהִים אַיְלִילוּ וַאֲמָרוּ וַי מִן קֳדָם יוֹמָא:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Ezekiel 30:2 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Eze 30:2 Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Howl ye, Woe worth the day!

Ver. 2. Woe worth the day.] Ah! de die ista. This shall be the voice much more of reprobates at that last "day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." {Rom 2:5} Enoch foretold this dreadful day before Noah predicted the deluge. That day is longer before it comes, but shall be more terrible when it is come.

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.

Joseph Benson's Commentary

Eze 30:2-4. Thus saith the Lord, Howl ye, &c. — The prophet addresses the inhabitants of Egypt. Wo worth the day — Ah! the day: alas! what sad times are approaching. Even the day of the Lord — The time of God’s vengeance, wherein he will manifest his sore displeasure against Egypt and its allies; a cloudy day — A day that shall be dismal with calamities. Times of trouble have often this appellation. It shall be the time of the heathen — Wherein they shall be punished. Great pain shall be upon Ethiopia — Great trouble and distress; when the slain shall fall in Egypt — By the sword of the Chaldeans; and they shall take away her multitude — Shall carry multitudes of them captive to Babylon; and her foundations shall be broken down — Her strong forts and citadels; or her government, laws, and all the supports and defences of her commonwealth.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 2. Howl ye, Wo worth the day!] My Old MS. Bible, - Soule gee, woo woo to the day! הילילו הה ליום heylilu, hah laiyom! "Howl ye, Alas for the day!" The reading in our present text is taken from Coverdale's Bible, 1535. The expressions signify that a most dreadful calamity was about to fall on Egypt and the neighbouring countries, called here the "time of the heathen," or of the nations; the day of calamity to them. They are afterwards specified, Ethiopia, Libya, Lydia, and Chub, and the mingled people, probably persons from different nations, who had followed the ill fortune of Pharaoh-hophra or Pharaoh-apries, when he fled from Amasis, and settled in Upper Egypt.

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

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

2. Howl ye] The day of the. Lord is one of terror and lamentation, Amo_5:20; Isa_13:6; Zep_1:7; Zep_1:14; Joe_2:1 seq.

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.

John Gill's Exposition

Son of man, prophesy and say, thus saith the Lord God,.... Prophesy against Egypt's king and inhabitants, and in the name of the Lord thus speak against them:

howl ye; ye Egyptians, and also ye Ethiopians, and all others after named, which should share in the destruction of Egypt; this is said to give them notice of it, and prepare them for it:

woe worth the day! or, "alas for the day!" (d) O the unhappy day! what a sad dismal day is this! O that we should ever live to see such wretched times!

(d) "bah diei", Munster, Vatablus; "heu diei", Cocceius, Starckius.

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

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Day of vengeance, (Calmet) when the Lord shall judge, (1 Corinthians v. 2.) and Egypt shall fall a prey to the most powerful nation of the Chaldeans. (Worthington)

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).

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

Howl ye, inhabitants of Egypt, and whoso are near enough in friendship and alliances to fall under the like calamities.

Woe worth the day! Ah the day! O sad and miserable times.

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

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

2. Woe worth the day — That is, Woe be to the day. This is not satire; it is real lamentation. There is no nation or people without a heavenly Father’s love and watch care. Just as Jehovah brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, so did he bring up “the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir” (Amo_9:7; see also Psalms 87).

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

The Pulpit Commentary

Howl ye. The words read like an echo of Isa_13:6, and find a parallel also in Joe_1:11, Joe_1:13; Zep_1:7, Zep_1:14. Woe worth the day! It may be well to note that the familiar phrase is a survival of the Anglo-Saxon verb weorthan (German werden) "to become," so that its exact meaning is "Woe be to the day

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

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Ye - Inhabitants of Egypt.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

Ha! Like “Aha!” “Ha!” to the day that is destined to come upon those nations.

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.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Ezekiel, in the Prophets, opens this verse with 11 words (10 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is hâhh (“alas”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word hâhh carries the sense “alas.” How does it shape the verse?
This verse holds 1 word here found nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. What might the rare word draw attention to?
The word “alas” first appears here in Scripture. What is being introduced at this debut?
Isaiah 13:6 shares the word «to howl» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“to say” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
The verb «הִנָּבֵא֙» is Niphal Imperative. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Joseph Benson's Commentary read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

1 word in this verse appears nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible.
1 word makes its first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
This verse counts 11 Hebrew ↔ 12 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 10 words in this verse.
“to say” occurs 2× in this single verse.