Ezekiel 5:6

Eze 5:6 And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that [are] round about her: for they have refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them.

Ver. 6. And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness.] This was a foul change; this was to do evil as she could; {Jer 3:5} this was ingratitude of the worst sort, such as Socrates called ειλικρινη αδικιαν, manifest injustice. Such a wretched change is complained of, Jer 2:11 Rom 1:23; Rom 1:25 Jdg 1:4, but nowhere in so high an expression as this, as one observeth.

More than the nations.] Because the Jews had better laws but worse dispositions than they.

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.

My word and law into idolatry and superstitions.

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

changed . . . into--rather, "hath resisted My judgments wickedly"; "hath rebelled against My ordinances for wickedness" [BUXTORF]. But see on Eze 5:7, end.

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 6. She hath changed my judgments] God shows the reason why he deals with Jerusalem in greater severity than with the surrounding nations; because she was more wicked than they. Bad and idolatrous as they were, they had a greater degree of morality among them than the Jews had. Having fallen from the true God, they became more abominable than others in proportion to the height, eminence, and glory from which they had fallen. This is the common case of backsliders; they frequently, in their fall, become tenfold more the children of wrath than they were before.

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

He now adds, My judgments are changed concerning the word מרה, mereh, I said that it signifies sometimes to change, but oftener to transgress or to reject, and there the sense suits very well, because the Jews were rebellious against the judgments of God even to impiety. But he enlarges upon their wickedness when he says, my statutes have been despised since they so addicted themselves to impiety. For if there had been any pretext of virtue, their fault might have been extenuated, but when they cast themselves into gross impiety, and thus despise God’s commandments, this is inexcusable. Let us learn from this passage, that unless we use God’s blessings with purity the charge of ingratitude will always lie against us: for whatever God bestows upon us, he sanctifies as well to our salvation as to the glory of his name. We are then sacrilegious when we corrupt those things which were destined for his glory; then are we utterly perverse when we convert to our destruction what God has appointed for our salvation. Now we must consider the ingratitude of Jerusalem as flagrant, because they rejected the commandments of God. When therefore God deposits among us the treasure of celestial doctrine, we must diligently take care that we do not turn aside to impiety, because there is no excuse for error when once we have been taught what is right, and that from the mouth of God himself. Then he declares the same sentiment in other words, and says, beyond all nations and all lands which were round about; by which sentence he signifies that the Jews; were worse than all the rest, because knowingly and willingly they had shaken off God’s yoke. Other nations had not conducted themselves better, for we know that the worship of God was then everywhere vitiated: but the impiety of the elect people was fouler, for they turned light into darkness, while the Gentiles wandered in darkness for they were blind, but the conduct of this people was different whom God had familiarly instructed. Since therefore the teaching of the law was conspicuous among the Jews, the Prophet deservedly says, that they were impious beyond all nations and countries Then he explains how they had either changed the judgment of God, or were themselves rebellious, because they had despised, says he, my judgments, and had not walked in my statutes First, he says, they had not fallen through ignorance but through pride and contempt; for when the will of God is made known to us, there is no place for ignorance. We do not sin lightly therefore, but our minds are necessarily infected with pride and contempt of God. Now he adds, that they did not walk in his precepts, by which words he signifies that the contempt just mentioned appeared openly, because in truth the fruit showed itself in their whole life. 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.

(6) Changed my judgments into wickedness.—Better, hath wickedly resisted my judgments, the sense adopted by most modern expositors.

More than the nations.—Not, of course, absolutely, but in proportion to the knowledge and the privileges given them. It would be an exaggeration to say that the Israelites were actually more evil in their life than the surrounding heathen; for they were, no doubt, far better. Even of those cities which our Lord, at a later day, so strongly upbraided, it would be absurd to suppose that they equalled Sodom and Gomorrah in their iniquity. God’s judgments are always relative and proportioned to the opportunities He has granted to men. The point is that the Israelites had resisted His judgments more than the heathen; they had sinned against greater light. The pronoun they in the last clause refers, of course, to the Israelites, not to the heathen.

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

6. Read: And she hath rebelled against my Judgments to do wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes. “Judgments” is ordinances; and “they” refers to the people, who compose Jerusalem.

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 she hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations,.... So they changed their glory for that which did not profit; and the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man; and the truth of God into a lie, Jer 2:11; or, "for wickedness" (q); for judgments and laws that were not good, and which to observe was wickedness. The word rendered "changed" signifies to "rebel against" or to "transgress": and the may be, she, that is, Jerusalem, has "rebelled" against my judgments, and "transgressed" (r) them in a wicked manner, even to a greater degree than the nations of the world. The Targum and Jarchi interpret it changed as we do:

and my statutes more than the countries that are round about her. "Judgments" and "statutes", are the same laws and ordinances of worship, being just and righteous, and firm and unalterable; unless it should rather be thought that "judgments" belong to the moral law, being given forth by the Lord as a judge, and founded upon judgment and righteousness; and "statutes" to the ceremonial law, being of positive institution and appointment, and to last so long as it was the pleasure of the lawgiver:

for they have refused my judgments and my statutes; they refused to comply with them, and to yield an obedience to them, and that with loathing, disdain, and contempt, as the word (s) signifies,

they have not walked in them; they did not make them the role of their walk and conversation; they showed no regard to them; they went out of the way of them, into crooked paths, with the workers of iniquity.

(q) "ut improbe ageret", Cocceius. (r) "transgressa est, vel rebellis fuit", Calvin; "refractaria (s) "Verbum" "significat spernere, reprobare, rejicere, idque ex contemptu et fastidio", Polanus.

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

They - The inhabitants of Jerusalem.

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

She; Jerusalem, the metropolis, where the temple and the solemn feasts and sacrifices were, which in likelihood was forwardest, fullest, and most expensive on other invented modes of worship; she who was most obliged to me.

Hath changed: the Hebrew includes a rebellion and contumacy; and these were cause of her changing, as rebels change the laws of a kingdom.

My judgments; the laws of holy, righteous, and sober living; the exact rules of manners. Into wickedness; improbity and injustice toward each other, and impiety and irreligion against God himself.

More than the nations; there is more honesty, truth, and righteousness among the nations than among the Jews.

My statutes; the precepts and rules of religious observances which I gave them they have less valued, been less constant to, than the nations have been to theirs, received from men, and invented by man. So Jer 2:9-11.

They, the Jews, have refused, with scorn and abhorrence, as what their mind abominated. So vile were they grown, that they loathed the excellent law of God, and were weary of it, as the Hebrew implieth.

My statutes; as for my statutes in matters of religion, they have refused to walk in them, and have modelled religion to their own fancy, built altars, adopted new gods, and appointed new worship, more gay or easy, as their humour was.

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

6. Changed my judgments into wickedness… and my statutes — Literally, rebelled against my judgments in doing wickedness… and against my statutes. “Judgments” are not here Jehovah’s afflictive penalties, but his judicial decrees.

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

She hath changed, etc. To that calling Jerusalem had been unfaithful. Corruptio optimi pessima, and she had sunk to a lower level than the nations round about her. For changed my judgments into wickedness, read, with the Revised Version, hath rebelled against my judgments in doing wickedness. The pronoun refers, not to the nations, but to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and so in the next clause.

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

More - More than the heathen.

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

But she exchanged My judgments Heb. וַתֶּמֶר, she exchanged My judgments.

more than the nations For so it is written concerning Manasseh (II Chron. 33:9): “And Manasseh misled Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do evil more than the nations that the Lord had destroyed from before the children of Israel.” Some interpret this to mean that the nations did not accept His Torah, but they [Israel] did accept it upon themselves, and transgressed it.

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.