Ezekiel 32:8

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

All the bright lights of the sky will I make dark over you, and set darkness on your land, says the Lord Yahweh.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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אַקְדִּירֵ֖ם

qâdar

H6937

“to mourn · them”

Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural

Appears 17× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at 1 Kings 18:45

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 1989

to mourn, be dark - (Qal) to be dark - (Hiphil) - to darken - to cause to mourn - (Hithpael) to grow dark

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 →

13: words
12: distinct lemmas
Prophets: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is אַקְדִּירֵ֖ם to mourn H6937 — appearing just 17 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

אַקְדִּירֵ֖ם to mourn H6937 occurs in 17 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
9 nouns
2 prepositions

Verb forms

אַקְדִּירֵ֖ם Hiphil · Imperfect
וְנָתַ֤תִּי Qal · Sequential Perfect

Repetition

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

עָלֶ֑יךָ upon H5921 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 23 words from the Hebrew and 26 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 13 Hebrew tokens and 20 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 32:8 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Genesis 1:14 God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of sky to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years;
Proverbs 20:20 Whoever curses his father or his mother, His lamp shall be put out in blackness of darkness.

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 32:8 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

כָּל מְא֤וֹרֵי אוֹר֙ בַּשָּׁמַ֔יִם אַקְדִּירֵ֖ם עָלֶ֑יךָ וְנָתַ֤תִּי חֹ֨שֶׁךְ֙ עַֽל אַרְצְךָ֔ נְאֻ֖ם אֲדֹנָ֥י יְהוִֽה

All the bright lights of the sky will I make dark over you, and set darkness on your land, says the Lord Yahweh.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Ezekiel 32:8 Septuagint · lemma form

πᾶς ὁ φαίνω φῶς ἐν ὁ οὐρανός συνσκοτάζω ἐπί σύ καί δίδωμι σκότος ἐπί ὁ γῆ σύ λέγω κύριος κύριος

All the bodies that give light in the sky, shall be darkened over you, and I will bring darkness upon the earth, says the Lord God.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

On this verse, The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges discusses the Septuagint’s reading. Read the note in Commentary ↓

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)

כָּל שְׁבִילֵי אוֹרְחָתִיךְ דִמְתַקְנִין וּנְטִירָן בְּגַוִיךְ הָא כִּמְנַהֲרֵי זַהֲרַיָא בִשְׁמַיָא אֲקַלְקְלִינוּן עֲלָךְ וְתַחֲפֵי עָקָא כְּקִבְלָא יַת אַרְעָךְ אֲמַר יְיָ אֱלֹהִים:

(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 32:8 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 32:8 All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord GOD.

Ver. 8. All the bright lights of heaven.] See Eze 32:7. All this shall befall the world really and without a hyperbole at the last day {Mat 24:29}

“ Impiaque aeternam patientur saecula noctem. ”

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.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

By this manner of speech is meant the great sorrow that shall be for the slaughter of the king and his people.

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

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 8. And set darkness upon thy land] As I did when a former king refused to let my people go to the wilderness to worship me. I will involve thee, and thy house, and thy people, and the whole land, in desolation and wo.

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

8. bright lights] Lit. luminaries of light.

upon thy land] Possibly with LXX.: upon the earth. The extinction of the lights in heaven referred to in the previous clause suggests a more general darkness than one over Pharaoh’s own land.

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

All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee,.... Or, "all the lights of the light" (a); the rest of the luminaries of heaven; the other five planets, as Kimchi, besides the sun and moon:

and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord God; as there must needs be, the sun, moon, and stars, and all the lights of heaven, being darkened above: there seems to be an allusion to the thick darkness that was formerly over the land of Egypt; and this is a figure and representation of that darkness that shall be in the kingdom of the beast, or spiritual Egypt, yet to come; see Exo 10:21. The Targum is,

"tribulation as darkness shall cover thy land.''

(a) "omnia luminaria lucis", Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius.

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

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

These two foregoing verses contain the same thing four times with a little variation, repeated to affect the hearers, and to impress it the more deeply on their minds.

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

The Pulpit Commentary

Lights darkened.

I MAN CANNOT DISPENSE WITH LIGHTS OF HEAVEN. He may never look up. Yet he cannot live without the light that comes from over his head. In spiritual experience there are men who ignore the light above and the very existence of the heavenly world. Yet they are not the less largely dependent on those higher influences. If the sun were blotted out, all life on our globe would perish in darkness and cold the world reduced to a block of silent frozen matter. If God were to withdraw, all being would come to an end.

II THE LIGHTS OF HEAVEN ARE DARKENED BY SIN. Sin eclipses the soul"s sun. It spreads black clouds between the offender and the heavenly regions. It shuts a man out from fellowship with God. This is its worst effect, though men may treat it lightly at first. The process is twofold.

1. Man is blinded. Though the sun shines in noonday splendor the blind man walks in midnight darkness. Now, sin puts out the eyes of the soul. It is like a red-hot iron that burns away the vision of spiritual things; then the bright lights of heaven are made black.

2. God withdraws his brightness. We pray that God may lift up the light of his countenance upon us. But he may do the reverse, and turn his face from us. He will not forever display his graciousness to heedless, rebellious souls.

III THE DARKENING ON THE LIGHTS OF HEAVEN BRINGS MANY GRIEVOUS CONSEQUENCES.

1. Knowledge is obscured. We cannot see truth when God"s light is withdrawn or when our souls are blinded to the perception of it. "In thy light we shall see light". (Psa_36:9) "Judicial blindness" must be a fearful fate.

2. Joy is extinguished. A gloomy day is depressing. Darkness brings sadness. When heaven is dark all sunshine vanishes from the Soul.

3. Life is threatened. The soul"s higher life Trows sickly and threatens to pass away in the darkness of separation from God.

IV THERE IS A DARKENING OF THE BRIGHT LIGHTS OF HEAVEN WHICH MAY COME IN THE COURSE OF THE SOUL"S DISCIPLINE. There was darkness round the cross when Jesus was dying. Then in mysterious spiritual gloom he cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?". (Mat_27:46) Earnest souls may have times of darkness, during which the vision of heaven is obscured, seasons of deep depression, when all that once seemed most real melts into the blackness of a great doubt.

V CHRIST BRINGS A NEW LIGHT TO BENIGHTED SOULS. If we are dark now we need not remain in gloom forever. "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light". (Isa_9:2) Christ came as "the Light that shineth in darkness," as "the Light of the world." Though the bright lights of heaven be made dark over us, they are not annihilated; they are but beclouded or at worst eclipsed. For all dim, bewildered, sorrow-laden souls there is the hope of light in Christ. But as sin brings on the deepest night of darkness, so it is by repentance and after-forgiveness that we can hope to see the darkness clear away and a new light from heaven arise to shine into our Souls.

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

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

All the bright lights in the heavens the heavenly princes, your intercessors.

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 13 words (12 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is qâdar (“to mourn”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “to mourn” (qâdar) contribute to the verse as a whole?
1 Kings 18:45 shares the word «to mourn» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“upon” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
The verb «אַקְדִּירֵ֖ם» is Hiphil Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Geneva Bible (1599) read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 13 Hebrew ↔ 20 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 19 words in this verse.
“upon” occurs 2× in this single verse.
12 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 13 words in this verse.