Ezekiel 6:4

Eze 6:4 And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain [men] before your idols.

Ver. 4. Your images shall be broken down.] Heb., Your sun images, whence also Jupiter Hammon had his name, which Macrobius {a} saith was the same with the sun. See 2Ch 23:5.

And I will cast down your slain men.] Cruentatos vulneratos, vel interfectos vestros; such as when wounded, fly to their idols for safety.

Before your idols.] Heb., Your dii stercorei, dunghill deities, more loathsome than any excrements.

{a} Lib. i. Sat., cap. 23.

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.

6:4-7 The corpses and bones of the dead worshipers scattered around an altar would defile the altar and make it unfit for use. • idols: The Hebrew term for idols (literally round things) probably alludes to dung; when used in this way, it is a term of strong derision.

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

Read 2 Kings 23:11.

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

images--called so from a Hebrew root, "to wax hot," implying the mad ardor of Israel after idolatry [CALVIN]. Others translate it, "sun images"; and so in Eze 6:6 (see Kg2 23:11; Ch2 34:4; Isa 17:8, Margin).

cast your slain men before your idols--The foolish objects of their trust in the day of evil should witness their ruin.

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 4. Your images shall be broken] Literally, your sun images; representations of the sun, which they worshipped. See the margin.

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

Hence it appears how greatly obedience pleases God, and how true it is that it is better than sacrifices. (1 Samuel 15:22; I Kings 12.) For it is certain that the Israelites extolled their own fictions exorbitantly, as if they were worshipping God correctly In the beginning, indeed, Jeroboam cunningly devised those new rites, that he might alienate the ten tribes from the family of David, and at length the error spread, so that they thought that God approved that impious worship. But we see that God abominates them. We should always hold this principle, that although men think that they obey God when they thrust in their own fictions, yet they produce no other effect than to provoke the wrath of God against them. This vengeance, therefore, had not been taken against altars, unless God had been greatly offended with the impious mixture. Your altars, therefore, shall come to ruin and destruction, and then your idols shall be destroyed. Here some understand the idols of the sun, as the noun is taken from heat, which is afterwards repeated: but this divination seems to be too contracted Hence I do not doubt that the idols are so called on account of the mad love with which the worshippers were seized: for throughout the Prophets they are said to be like adulterers, and our Prophet also uses the same language. Idols therefore may very properly derive their name from heat, because their superstitious worshippers inflame themselves with love, and like adulterers run after harlots, as we shall again see. He afterwards uses another word, when he says, I will lay prostrate your slain before your idols: for they call idols גלולים, gelolim, on account of their foulness, nay even filth. We see then in the first place that the fury with which the Israelites were inflamed is condemned by the Prophet, since they perverted the pure and lawful worship of God: then he reproves their enormity because they willingly remained in filth and defilement. But here also we are taught how mightily God is angry with all superstitions, when he not only cites mankind to his tribunal because they profane true piety, but is angry with external instruments — as stones and wood, and, as it were, involves these instruments of idolatry with their authors. 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.

(4) Your images.—The original word indicates, as is shown in the margin, that these were images used in connection with the worship of the sun. The whole verse is taken from Lev_26:30. The same woes were there foretold by Moses in the contingency of the people’s disobedience; that contingency had now come to pass, the promised judgments had already begun, and Ezekiel declares that the fulfilment of them was close at hand.

Your slain men before your idols.—Their idols should be worshipped no longer by the living, but by the prostrate bodies of their dead worshippers. In this and the following verse a kind of poetic justice is described. There was nothing so utterly defiling under the Mosaic law as the touch of a dead body. (See Num_9:6-10; 2Ki_23:14; 2Ki_23:16.) The Israelites had defiled the land with idols, now the idols themselves should be defiled with their dead bodies.

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

4. your images] As marg., sun-images, i.e. symbols of the sun-god, probably in the shape of a pyramid or obelisk. They stood beside the altars. So again Eze_6:6.

your idols] The term used is an opprobrious or contemptuous epithet, applied to idols, though its precise meaning is doubtful. Most probably it means block-gods; though others connect it with the word dung (ch. Eze_4:12) and render dung-gods, which is less probable. The term occurs in Ez. nearly 40 times, otherwise Lev_26:30; Deu_29:17; Jer_50:2; 1Ki_15:12; 1Ki_21:26; 2Ki_17:12; 2Ki_21:11; 2Ki_21:21; 2Ki_23:24. These idols were probably of Jehovah for the most part.

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 lay the dead carcasses of the children of Israel before their idols,.... Which is repeated for the confirmation of it:

and I will scatter your bones round about your altars: which were reckoned a pollution of them; see Kg2 23:14.

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

Images - See the margin and margin reference, and the Eze 8:16 note.

Idols - The Phoenicians were in the habit of setting up “heaps” or “pillars” of stone in honor of their gods, which renders the use of the word more appropriate.

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

Idols. Protestant marginal note, "sun-images," as [in] ver. 6. The sun was much worshipped, chap. viii. 16. (Haydock)

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).

Your altars; God’s altar was only at Jerusalem, these were their altars.

Desolate; no priest to attend, no sacrifice offered, nor a votary come to them.

Images; statues, and perhaps the particular images made to the sun, as the Hebrew word including heat may signify. Or the open places on the tops of your houses, where you worshipped the sun, 2Ki 23:5; and Isa 27:9, mentions this piece of idolatry.

Broken; either torn down from their places to be carried captives, which was a part of heathen conquerors’ insolence, or torn in pieces in contempt, and to be destroyed.

I will cast down; my hand shall guide the pursuing enemy, who shall slay your men before the altars of those idols they worshipped formerly, and to whom, as senseless as the idols, they flee for refuge, as perhaps Sennacherib did, Isa 37:38.

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

4. Images — Sun images, dedicated to Baal (2Ch_34:4). These were usually pillars or obelisks which were set up close to the altar or in front of the temple doors.

Idols — Rather, idol blocks or doll images, possibly dung gods. (See also Eze_6:6; Eze_6:9; Eze_6:13.) This is a favorite term with Ezekiel, and it is the most contemptuous epithet possible. The prophet had the utmost scorn of idols and satirized them without mercy. (See Isa_40:19; Isa_44:9-17.) This word for idols is used in “Ezekiel’s favorite text-books” (Lev_26:30; Deu_29:17).

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

Your images, etc. The "sun images" of the Revised Version shows why these are mentioned as distinct from the "idols." The chammanim were pillars or obelisks identified with the worship of Baal as the sun god, standing on his altars, (2Ch_34:4) coupled with the "groves," or Asherim, (Isa_17:8 Isa_27:9) and with the "high places" in 2Ch_14:5. I will cast down your slain men before your idols. As in the prophecy against Bethel, (1Ki_13:2) and in Josiah"s action, (2Ki 33:16) this was the ne plus ultra of desecration. Where throe had been the sweet savour of incense there should be the sickening odour of the carcases of the slain. The word for "idols" (gillulim), though found elsewhere, notably in Ezekiel"s favourite textbooks (Lev_26:30; Deu_29:17) is more prominent in his writings (where it occurs thirty-six times) then in any other book of the Old Testament, and means, primarily, a cairn or heap of stones, which, like the "sun images," came to be associated with Baal. Ezekiel repeats both words in ver. 6, with all the emphasis of scorn. He predicts the coming of a time when the work of destruction should be done more thoroughly than even Josiah lind done it. When that time came, the familiar formula, "Ye shall know that I am the Lord," should receive yet another fulfilment.

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

Cast down - Before the altars of your idols, which you fly to for refuge.

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

General Information:

These are Yahweh's words to the people of Israel.

Then your altars will become desolate and your pillars will be destroyed

This can be translated in active form. AT: "People will no longer worship at your altars and your enemy will destroy your pillars" (See: Active or Passive)

I will throw down ... I will lay ... and scatter

Yahweh was speaking of sending soldiers (Ezekiel 6:3) to do these things. AT: "I will send soldiers to throw down ... They will lay ... and scatter" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

your dead

"your people who have died"

translationWords

altar

desolate

column

false god

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

your sun gods חַמָּנֵיכֶם, a class of pagan idols made on the roofs [dedicated] to the sun.

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.