Ezekiel 6:9

Eze 6:9 And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.

Ver. 9. And they that escape of you shall remember me.] Here beginneth that true repentance never to be repented of. {Psa 22:27; Psa 20:7}

Because I am broken off from their whorish heart,] i.e., I am troubled, saith Piscator. I am tired out, saith Zegedine, and made to break off the course of my kindness. I am broken off from their whorish heart - so Polanus rendereth it; that is, saith he, I leave them, though loath to do it: the breach is merely on their part; for they have an impetus, a spirit of whoredoms in them, that causeth them to err, and go whoring from under their God. {Hos 4:12; Hos 9:1}

And with their eyes.] Those windows of wickedness through which the devil (who is ειδωλοχαρης, as saith Synesius) doth oft wind himself into the soul.

And they shall loathe themselves.] {a} They shall displease themselves, saith the Vulgate; but that is not enough. Pudefient in faciebus suis, say others. They shall bleed inwardly, and blush outwardly, deeply detesting their former abominations, and not waiting till others condemn them, they shall condemn themselves.

{a} κοψονται. - Sept.

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_6:9

They shall loathe themselves.

Self-loathing after sin

We never realise what sin is till its passion is over, and we have time quietly to remember. Oh, the terror of those hours of remembrance and remorse! Sitting in the captivity of its prison, or serving in the heavy bondage of its fetters, the soul has time to review the bitter path by which it has come to such a pass, and the way it has broken the hearts of those who loved and trusted. But the most terrible element in remorse will be the personal one: Shall remember Me. One of our great writers depicts a heartless, thoughtless husband standing beside the newly covered-in grave of his wife, and saying, Ah, Milly, Milly; dost thou hear me? I was not tender enough to thee; but it is too late to alter it now. The child who has given way to fits of ungovernable passion, which have broken up the home, and brought down grey hairs with sorrow to the grave, will loathe itself. Similarly, as we review our past life, and see how we must have grieved the tender Spirit of God, we fall at the feet of Jesus and cover them with tears and kisses. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)

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Eze_6:9

And ye shall know that I am the Lord that smiteth.

Gods hand in judgment

You look at second causes, and think it is Nebuchadnezzar that smites you, but you shall be made to know he is but the staff; it is the hand of the Lord that smiteth you, and who knows the weight of His hand? (M. Henry.)

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

They shall be ashamed to see that their hope in idols was but vain, and so shall repent.

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

they that escape of you shall remember me--The object of God's chastisements shall at last be effected by working in them true contrition. This partially took place in the complete eradication of idolatry from the Jews ever since the Babylonian captivity. But they have yet to repent of their crowning sin, the crucifixion of Messiah; their full repentance is therefore future, after the ordeal of trials for many centuries, ending with that foretold in Zac 10:9; Zac 13:8-9; Zac 14:1-4, Zac 14:11. "They shall remember me in far countries" (Eze 7:16; Deu 30:1-8).

I am broken with their whorish heart--FAIRBAIRN translates, actively, "I will break" their whorish heart; English Version is better. In their exile they shall remember how long I bore with them, but was at last compelled to punish, after I was "broken" (My long-suffering wearied out) by their desperate (Num 15:39) spiritual whorishness [CALVIN], (Psa 78:40; Isa 7:13; Isa 43:24; Isa 63:10).

loathe themselves-- (Lev 26:39-45; Job 42:6). They shall not wait for men to condemn them but shall condemn themselves (Eze 20:43; Eze 36:31; Job 42:6; Co1 11:31).

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 9. They that escape of you shall remember me] Those that escape the sword, the pestilence, and the famine, and shall be led into captivity, shall plainly see that it is God who has done this, and shall humble themselves on account of their abominations, leave their idolatry, and worship me alone. And this they have done from the Babylonish captivity to the present day.

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

I see that I cannot finish, and I think the time is advancing.

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.

(9) Because I am broken.—The verb in the Hebrew is passive in form, but it is better to take it, with most modern commentators, as a middle, in a transitive sense, “Because I have broken their whorish heart . . . and their eyes,” the eyes being mentioned as the means by which their hearts had been enticed to evil. Here, as constantly in all parts of Scripture, apostacy from God is described under the figure of unfaithfulness in the marriage relation. “They shall loathe themselves” indicates a true repentance; they shall loathe the sin and themselves for having committed it. Thus their sin has drawn down punishment; punishment has destroyed many, but brought a “remnant” to repentance; and repentance leads to a true knowledge of God, and communion with Him. The Divine word and act has not been “in vain.”

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

9. because I am broken] R.V. how that I have been broken with their whorish heart. Such a sense as “been broken with” is altogether impossible; and the middle sense “break for myself” is equally to be rejected. The natural sense is: they shall remember (think of) me … when I have broken. Their idolatrous heart shall be broken with their calamities, and then shall they return unto the Lord; Hos_2:7, “I will return unto my first husband, for then was it better with me than now.” The present reading has probably arisen from the similar word “carried captive” being in the copyist’s mind.

and with their eyes] Read: when I have broken their whorish heart … and their eyes. The harshness of the zeugma, “and their eyes,” is relieved by the distance from “break” and the metaphorical nature of the expression. Cf. the phrase “lifted up his eyes towards the idols,” ch. Eze_18:6; Eze_18:12; Eze_18:15, Eze_20:24, Eze_33:25.

lothe themselves] Lit. their faces; a use of “face” for self, not uncommon in the later language, ch. Eze_20:43, Eze_36:31; Job_23:17.

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 they shall know that I am the Lord,.... As in Eze 6:7;

and that I have not said in vain; either within himself, in his own purposes and decrees; so the Targum,

"I have not in vain decreed in my word;''

or by the mouth of the prophets:

that I would do this evil unto them; in carrying them captive, and dispersing them in other lands; for this is not the evil of sin, but the evil of punishment, or of affliction.

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

I am broken ... - Translate: “because” I have broken “their whorish heart, which hath departed from me,” and their eyes etc. Since Ezekiel is addressing the Church of God through Israel, we are to note here that the general principle of the divine administration is laid down. Sin leads to judgment, judgment to repentance, repentance to forgiveness, forgiveness to reconciliation, reconciliation to a knowledge of communion with God.

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

Broken. Adversity has made them repent.

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 that escape; some of them, not every one of them, for several of the escaped did not bethink themselves, as appears, Jer 47; 48; 49;.

Shall remember me; my precepts which they violated, my mercies which they abused, my threats which they despised, my promises which they refused, my prophets whom they persecuted, my judgments which have executed; and shall consider and return, and seek me in their affliction.

Among the nations: in their own land they forgot and sinned, in a strange land they shall remember and weep; so the remnant is bettered by afflictions. At liberty they were captives to sin and idols; when in captivity they shall shake off that bondage, and become my servants.

Because I am broken, & c. Here we meet very different reading. The Chaldee paraphrase and Syriac version read it actively, so does the Latin Vulgate, because, or when, I have broken, &c.; and if this vary from the grammatical construction, yet it carrieth very good sense, and agreeable to the foregoing words. Their whorish hearts would still have forgotten God, if he had not broken their hearts with judgments; but they remembered when broken, and this breaking was the occasion or cause of their remembering God. Others read this passively, as our version, and as the Hebrew form most usually beareth, I am broken. It is an allusion to a misused husband whom a treacherous wife hath broken; either,

1. His peace and content.

2. His love and tenderness.

3. His patience and forbearance.

4. His purposes.

5. His offers and promises. So that, as overcome with grief and anger, he doth, contrary to his natural disposition, lay aside his courting her love, and in his jealousy takes revenge, and then she bethinks herself. So here.

Their whorish heart; their heart of whoredom, i.e. idolatrous heart, which was full of that sin, addicted to it, delighted in it, and wedded to it.

Hath departed from me: idolatrous hearts do actually depart from God, as an adulterous wife actually departs from her husband.

With their eyes: as it vexeth a husband to see his wife fixing her eyes with delight on the adulterer, and turning them with scorn from him, as this breaks the husband’s patience; so in this case, Israel’s eyes were to idols, and delighted in them, expected help from them, were ready to serve them; all which broke their Husband’s, i.e. God’s, patience, and provoked his severe revenges.

Loathe themselves; with a mixture of grief towards God offended, of indignation against themselves offending, of abhorrence of the offence, and shame before all for it, shall they show their repentance.

For the evils; wickednesses, or, as Psa 32:5,

iniquities of sin; the deepest and darkest part of sin, the complicated evils that were in each act.

In all their abominations: it is a hypocrite’s repentance which is but for some; this of the reserved remnant shall be sound, it is for all abominations, for all kinds of their abominations.

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

9. “And they… shall remember me… when I have broken for myself their whorish heart.” — Havernick and Keil. This seems a better reading than that of the R.V., “I have been broken.” Israel went into Babylonian captivity a nation prone to fall constantly into idolatry. It came out of that fiery furnace a purified people with the whorish heart broken and every polytheistic tendency burned out of it. Up to this point their whole history had been a series of national or tribal apostasies from the true God; from this point onward there is not a single instance of this. From the time of this awful punishment down to the present, the whole nation has heartily sung, in every age: —

Thou art One, the first great cause of all;

Thou art One, and none can penetrate,

Not even the wise in heart, the mystery

Of thy unfathomable unity,

Thou art One, the infinitely great.

— Ibn Gebirol.

Their eyes — “The eyes that hung wantonly on their idols.” — Kautzsch. “Ears and hearts were both involved in the sin (Eze_20:7-8; Eze_20:24; Num_15:39), and both came under the same chastisement that was to lead them to repentance.” — Plumptre.

Loathe themselves — Literally, loathe their own faces. (Compare Eze_20:43; Eze_36:31.)

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

Because I am broken with their whorish heart. The words have been very differently rendered.

(1) The Revised Version mainly follows the Authorized Version, but gives, they shall remember how I have been broken, etc. So taken, the words are boldly anthropomorphic, and ascribe to Jehovah the word which implies the strongest form of human distress. The "whorish heart" of the people has made Jehovah himself "broken-hearted.

(2) Most recent critics, however, follow the rendering of the Vulgate (contrivi), and take the verb, which is passive in form, as being like a Greek verb in the middle voice, transitive in form, with an implied reflex force. So we get, as in the margin of the Revised Version, "I have broken their whorish heart." So taken, thought and words are both connected with Psa_51:17, and the self-loathing that follows has its counterpart in Job_42:6. The thought is eminently characteristic of Ezekiel, (Eze_20:43 Eze_36:31) and, we may add also, of Leviticus. (Lev_26:39-42)

Self-loathing.

This very strong and very remarkable assertion concerning the remnant of Israel that should be spared amid the destruction and desolation about to overtake the nation and its metropolis, is a proof to every thoughtful reader that the mind of the prophet was occupied not so much with the external and political aspects of history as with the moral. In his view supreme importance is attached to the result of experience upon character. So regarded, calamity may be "blessing in disguise." If the chastisement of God awakens repentance and self-loathing, one purpose at all events, and that a most important purpose, has been answered.

I SELF-LOATHING IS IN CONTRAST WITH FORMER SELFSATISFACTION AND SELF-COMPLACENCY. It is not natural to men to loathe themselves, however they may be tempted to loathe their fellow men, where there has been infliction of injury or want of sympathy and congeniality. It is too common for men to look at their own character and their own conduct in the most favourable and flattering light; and to speak, or at all events to think, of themselves with approval and admiration. In most cases a great change must come over a man"s mind in order that he may regard his character and his life with dissatisfaction, in order that he may hate himself.

II SELF-LOATHING IS AN INDICATION OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE. Those who admire and approve themselves are, in many instances, if not in all, the victims of illusion. It is a rude, and yet it may be a wholesome, awakening, which sets a man face to face with his true self. His fancied excellences and virtues are seen to be faults. The blemishes which he has been accustomed to extenuate appear in their real deformity. He wonders how he could have misinterpreted his actions and misunderstood his character. He learns to know himself, not as he has imagined himself to be but as he really is.

III SELF-LOATHING HAS ABUNDANT JUSTIFICATION IN THE ERRORS AND FOLLIES OF THE PAST. When a man sees himself, in some measure, as God sees him to be, then trivial faults as they were once deemed become, in his apprehension serious and culpable. Sin is the abominable thing which God hates; and it is an evidence of true enlightenment when a man loathes his own offences against the laws of God and the dictates of his own conscience. The unspiritual detest deformities of body, defects of manner or of speech; the spiritually minded are more distressed at what is morally evil than at anything of a more external character.

IV SELF-LOATHING MAY LEAD TO TRUE REPENTANCE, AND SO TO FORGIVENESS AND ACCEPTANCE. To remain in a state of mind in which repugnance to evil absorbs the whole nature is to be abandoned to despondency. Sin is to be loathed in order that it may be forsaken; and that it may be forsaken it must be forgiven. The Scriptures abound in denunciations of sin, but they abound also in invitations to repentance and in promises of forgiveness. "Let the wicked forsake his way," etc. Reconciliation and purity are by the gospel assured to every penitent and believing sinner.

V THUS SELF-LOATHING MAY BE A MEANS TOWARDS THE REMOVAL OF WHAT OCCASIONED IT, AND OF THE SUBSTITUTION OF WHAT CAN BE REGARDED WITH THANKFULNESS AND DELIGHT. It may be said thus to work its own cure. Or, more properly, it may induce the repenting sinner to apply to the great Physician, by whose remedial treatment the unsoundness may be removed, and spiritual health, vigour, and happiness may be restored. T.

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

Shall remember - So as to turn unto me. Broken - I am much grieved. Whorish heart - Idolatrous hearts depart from God, as an adulterous wife departs from her husband. Loath - With a mixture of grief towards God, of indignation against themselves, and abhorrence of the offense.

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

And those of you that escape will remember Me My kindnesses and My compassion, that I had compassion on them when they committed iniquities before Me in their land.

that I yielded to their straying heart That I yielded to them. Although their heart went astray and they turned away from Me, I begged of them, through My prophets, to return to Me, and [promised] that I will [then] do good for them, but they were unwilling.

and they will quarrel with themselves Heb. וְנָקֹטוּ. Menachem associated it with (Ps. 119:158): “I saw traitors, and I quarreled (וָאֶתְקוֹטָטָה).” They will quarrel with themselves for not listening to Me. Jonathan renders: וְידַנְקוּן and they will see, and so does he translate (below 9:4): “those who groan (הַנֶאֶנָקִים),” דְּמִדַנְקִין, and (Mal. 2:13): “weeping...and groaning (וַאֲנָקָה),” דְּמִדַנְקָן, demonir in Old French, to groan.

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.