Ezekiel 32:27

27. they shall not lie] LXX. Syr. omit the neg.: and they are laid with the giants. Ew. would retain the neg., reading as an interrogation with an affirmative sense: and shall they not lie with …?, which is not very natural.

fallen of the uncircumcised] LXX. fallen of old. This reading has considerable probability, although the other reading might stand. Some scholars would also alter “fallen” (nophelim) into Nephilim (cf. R. V. Gen_6:4); an unnecessary change. For “hell” read Sheòl.

they have laid their swords] they laid (indeterminate subj.)—equivalent to the passive: and their swords were laid.

but their … shall be] and their iniquities were. The reference is still to the “mighty;” to change the subject spoken of, making the clause refer to Meshech and Tubal, is most unnatural.

though they were the terror] because the terror of the mighty was in the land. The clause explains the preceding, as for ex. why their iniquities were upon their bones, and would certainly be easier if the reading had been: because the terror of their might was, as the Syr. reads, precisely as in Eze_32:29-30. So Hitz. Corn. (Possibly geburam should be read; cf. Hos_13:2, and often with fem. nouns.)

Eze_32:27 is difficult. The reading “they shall not lie with the mighty” suggests the idea that the mighty who fell of old, and went down to Sheòl in full armour, and had their swords laid under their heads, occupy a more honourable place in Sheòl than such a rout as Meshech and Tubal, who are counted unworthy to lie beside them. This idea is not probable in itself, and cannot be reconciled with other parts of the verse. The last clause “because the terror of the mighty (or, of their might) was in the land of the living” ascribes the same sin to these mighty as is charged against Asshur and the rest (Eze_32:23-24, &c.), and for which they bear their shame. Again, the phrase “their iniquities were upon their bones” can have no other meaning than that their evil and violence were interred with their bones, and continued to cleave to them—that they went down unhouselled, disappointed, unaneled, cut off in the blossom of their sin. The conjecture of Corn. “their shields were upon their bones” is altogether destitute of probability. LXX. renders “giants,” as it does Gen_6:4, and possibly it thought of the antediluvian race. The prophet may have had this race in his mind, but more probably his reference is a wider one (cf. Eze_32:12, Eze_39:18; Eze_39:20). Even if he referred to the giants before the Flood, it is anything but likely, with Genesis 6 before him and with his moral temper, that he would assign an honourable place in Sheòl to those violent desperadoes. The weird touch “went down to Sheòl in their weapons of war, and had their swords laid under their heads,” probably means that the manner of their death and burial was in keeping with the violence and bloodshed which was the occupation of their life. The usages and sentiments of chivalry were not yet known to Ezekiel. The clause should, therefore, probably be read positively.

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.

Eze 32:27 And they shall not lie with the mighty [that are] fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell with their weapons of war: and they have laid their swords under their heads, but their iniquities shall be upon their bones, though [they were] the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.

Ver. 27. Which are gone down to hell with their weapons of war.] They died not gloriously as conquerors, nor were buried triumphantly with their arms under their heads, as valiant warriors were wont to be; sed ingloria vita recessit, but they died like dogs and were basely buried, and yet that was not the worst of it either.

But their iniquities shall be upon their bones.] They shall rue for their cruelty and bloodshed. These shall be as a murdering weapon in their bones {Psa 42:10} throughout all eternity.

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.

Eze_32:27

Gone down to hell with their weapons of war.

Teaching from ancient tombs

I. The utter helplessness of mortality.

1. What might is there that call withstand death! From armies, thrones, castles, courts, and empires, death hath plucked his prey.

2. The universality of deaths empire.

(1) We walk not an untrodden path; It is the way of all flesh.

(2) Though it is the way of all flesh, yet we must each walk that path alone, and yet not alone (Psa_23:4).

3. What a picture is here drawn of all enmity against God! Rebellion against God is madness (Psa_2:1-12).

4. What a contrast the grave of the Saviour presents to these! Victorious death in that bright Easter morn was subdued and crushed. Ours is the triumph also. Though mortality be helpless, and must bow to the dust, yet humanity is triumphant, and shall rise again.

II. The fond tenacity of memory. Memory surrounds the living with relics of the dead and mementoes of the past. Even the dead are surrounded with tokens of their circumstances, character, and career. Above the grave stands the grey tombstone, with the simple inscription, To the memory. What memories are you preparing for your deathbed and the grave? Our moral actions, mental emotions, and impressions we cannot bury in everlasting oblivion. Our character is our true epitaph cut deeply into our tomb. (R. S. Latimer.)

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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Which died not by cruel death, but by the course of nature, and are honorably buried with their coat armor, and signs of honor.

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

they shall not lie with the mighty--that is, they shall not have separate tombs such as mighty conquerors have: but shall all be heaped together in one pit, as is the case with the vanquished [GROTIUS]. HAVERNICK reads it interrogatively, "Shall they not lie with the mighty that are fallen?" But English Version is supported by the parallel (Isa 14:18-19), to which Ezekiel refers, and which represents them as not lying as mighty kings lie in a grave, but cast out of one, as a carcass trodden under foot.

with . . . weapons of war--alluding to the custom of burying warriors with their arms (1 Maccabees 13:29). Though honored by the laying of "their swords under their heads," yet the punishment of "their iniquities shall be upon their bones." Their swords shall thus attest their shame, not their glory (Mat 26:52), being the instruments of their violence, the penalty of which they are paying.

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 27. Gone down to hell with their weapons of war] Are buried in their armour and with their weapons lying by their sides. It was a very ancient practice, in different nations, to bury a warrior's weapons in the same grave with himself.

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

(27) And they shall not lie.—If this be the correct translation, then a distinction is implied between these nations and the others. The others have been honourably buried “with their weapons of war,” while these come to a more disgraceful end. It is better, however, to take it as a question (which the Hebrew fully admits): “Shall they not?” &c.

Their iniquities shall be upon their bones—i.e., they shall die in their iniquity. As we say in English, their sins shall be upon their heads.

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

And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised,.... That is, shall not lie in such state, or be buried with such pomp and magnificence, and have such sepulchral monuments erected to their memory, as other heroes among the Heathens have had; such as the mighty kings of Assyria and Persia before mentioned:

which are gone down to hell, or "the grave",

with their weapons of war; which were never taken from them, and which they held in their hands to the last, being never conquered, and died at last a natural death, and not by the sword; or which were carried in state before their hearse at the time of interment, as is the custom to this day so to do at the funeral of great warriors, generals, and officers:

and they have laid their swords under their heads; as a sign and token, as Jarchi says, that the sword did not rule over them, that they did not fall by it; either their statues and sepulchral monuments were adorned with these, and other instruments of war, as was the grave of Misenus by Aeneas (d); and as is still the custom where the heads of such mighty ones are laid, to engrave them on them: or, literally, their swords and other weapons of war were put in their graves under their heads; as it was usual, in former times, in some places to put swords, shields, and other armour, in the graves of military men, as were in the grave of Theseus, on the bier of Alexander the great, and others, as reported by Plutarch, Diodorus Siculus, and Sophocles (e): now the Scythians were not buried: after this grand and pompous manner:

but their iniquities shall be upon their bones; or the punishment of their sin should be, that their bones should lie unburied and scattered about, or be dug up and broke to pieces, and treated with inhumanity and contempt, as a just reward for their savageness, and cruelty:

though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living: not only the terror of the common people, but even of the most powerful kings and mighty warriors.

(d) Vid. Virgil. Aeneid. l. 6. & Seneca, l. 4. controvers. 4. (e) Vid. Lydium de Re Militari, l. 6. c. 7. p. 250, 251. & Kirchman, de Funer. Roman. l. 3. c. 18.

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

And they shall not lie - Better, “Shall they not lie?” or, “Are they not laid?” The custom of burying warriors with their swords, shields, or helmets, raider their heads is well known, and common to most warlike nations.

But their iniquities ... - They, rested in all the glories of a warrior’s sepulture, but their sins followed them to the grave.

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

Not. Some copies of Septuagint omit the negation. Others render the Hebrew, "Have they not slept?" &c. These nations were deprived of military honours, dying like cowards; and therefore their swords were not placed with them in the grave. (Calmet) --- It was customary to inter such things as the deceased had like the most. (Serv. in Virgil’s Æneid x. Arma quibus lætatus habe tus, &c. Simon (1 Machabees xiii. 29.) placed arms and representations of ships on the pillars at Modin, in honour of his kindred. If Elam, &c., had not received such distinction, why should the Egyptian repine? Were they any better? (Calmet) --- The country and king of the Elamites, Assyrians, and other infidels, shall be destroyed. (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).

They shall not lie with the mighty; the leaders of these Scythians were not buried with a pomp like that of Asshur or Elam, but, surprised by the fraud of Halyattes and Cyaxares, were cut off with all their multitude, and tumbled into pits with the rabble. With their weapons; a ceremony observed in pompous funerals of great captains, to have their weapons and their armour carried before the hearse.

Laid their swords under their heads; either when carried out to be buried, or laid under their head in their graves; or perhaps under the statues of them placed on the tops of their tombs: these barbarous Scythians were not so buried.

Their iniquity, the exemplary punishment of their iniquity,

shall be upon their bones; shall be seen upon their bones unburied, and cast out on the earth by the just judgment of God.

Though they were the terror; because they were Cruel, bloody, ravenous, and mischievously tyrannical while they lived.

The mighty; Cyaxares and the Persians, that durst not again attempt Nineveh, till the Scythians were fallen.

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

And they shall not lie with the mighty. The words seem at first to contradict Ver. 26. The LXX meets the difficulty by omitting the negative; Ewald and Havernick, by taking it as an interrogative, "Shall they not lie," etc.? Probably the explanation is laying stress on the word "mighty." Meshech and Tubal have a lower place in Hades; they are buried without the honors of war. Their swords are not placed beneath their heads (for the practice thus referred to, see Died. Sic., 18:26; Arrian, 1:5; Virg., "AEn.," 6:233). For the Scythians, who worshipped the sword (Herod., L 62), this would be the extremest ignominy. In this way their iniquities should be upon their bones as they lay dishonored.

Ver. 27 ("Their iniquities shall be upon their bones"). Indelible sin.

The idea seems to be that the guilty Egyptians shall not have honorable burial like that of the kings and princes who have been laid in the tombs with their weapons of war by their side a token that they may yet roam as great fighting heroes through the dim regions of the nether world. The Egyptians are forbidden this prospect. They who of all people cared for the preservation of the bodies of the dead, by embalming and burying in huge pyramids, are to have their bones flung in a heap like a confused mass of corpses hurriedly gathered together from a battle-field. This is a punishment of sin.

I SIN ONCE COMMITTED REMAINS WITH THE SINNER. Our own deeds are our lasting possession. We may lose all else and still not lose them. In the exciting moment of temptation the foolish fancy is entertained that the sin may be quickly committed and then left behind. The sinner will flee from his guilt and leave it in the dark depths of some distant forest. Alas! this is impossible. The awful thing pursues its maker into the wilderness, into the city, into the sacred sanctuary of the home.

II SIN ENTERS DEEPLY INTO THE NATURE OF THE SINNER. It is not merely a deed of the hand. If it were that only it would have no moral character. But it springs from the inner being, and it comes home to roost. Though the flesh be scraped from the bones, still the sin remains, as though cleaving to the very skeleton it is so close a companion, its seat is so terribly centered within.

III SIN PURSUES THE SINNER AFTER DEATH. The sinner does not carry his wealth with him, but he carries his wickedness. His estate must be left behind, his iniquity will accompany him. His body he must cast off, but he cannot cast off his sin. The man and his sin will enter into the dread world of the dead together, there to be judged by God, there to reap the consequences of their fearful partnership.

IV NO HUMAN EXPERIENCE CAN REMOVE SIN. Iniquities lying on the very bones of the dead! Who shall tear them off and fling them away? Tears will not wash them out, for tears cannot undo the past. Amendment will not destroy them, for even if that be possible, it is wholly a thing of the future, it does not touch the record of the past.

V CHRIST BLOTS OUT SIN THAT IS OTHERWISE INDELIBLE. He cannot deny history, turn back the wheels of time and unknit the web of the past. But he can and he does offer pardon. When sin is forgiven God will remember it no more against the sinner. (Jer_31:34) With pardon Christ also brings a new heart and life. The new inner life has had nothing to do with the old sin. It makes a fresh start unhampered with the ugly burden of the past. This great result is brought about on Christ"s side by his death and resurrection, (Rom_4:25) and on our side through penitence and faith. (Act_3:19)

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

They - The leaders of these Scythians were not buried with a pomp like that of Ashur, or Elan, but surprised by Halyattes and Cyaxares, were cut off with all their multitude, and tumbled into pits with the rabble. With their weapons - A ceremony observed in pompous funerals of great captains, to have their weapons, and their armour carried before the hearse. Laid their swords - In their graves, as if they could sleep the sweeter there, when they laid their heads on such a pillow: These barbarous Scythians were not so buried. Their iniquity - The exemplary punishment of their iniquity shall be seen upon their bones unburied.

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

But they will not lie These who were mentioned [will not lie] with the mighty who died a natural death, for they will be inferior to and worse than the uncircumcised who died a natural death and descended with their weapons into the Grave.

and they laid i.e., those who buried them [laid]...their swords under their heads as a sign to make it known that the sword did not prevail over them.

and their iniquities were upon their bones Nothing was lacking from their iniquity, for the slaying sword did not expiate it, because they were not slain. Now what is the iniquity? That the destruction wrought by these mighty men was in the land of the living.

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.