Ezekiel 7:11

11. “Violence” must be that in Israel, not that of the enemy. This violence has risen up so as to be, or to bring down a rod of wickedness, i.e. a rod due to wickedness or in chastisement of it (Eze_7:23). All this, however, is language very unnatural.

The rest of Eze_7:11 is very obscure, and the text certainly corrupt. The general sense conveyed when the words shall remain (A.V.) are inserted is that Israel and her multitude and her possessions shall be wholly swept away.

nor of any of theirs] Ges. conjectured: nor of their wealth, so R.V.

wailing for them] Ges. conjectured: magnificence, so R.V. neither shall there be eminency among them. Both words rendered “wealth” and “eminency” are entirely unknown; the former is probably no word at all but a false repetition of the previous expression “none of them;” if it be a word the natural rendering is that of Ew., moaning or sighing (Eze_7:16 of doves), or unquietness. For the word “eminency” recourse is had to the Arab., generally a precarious proceeding. LXX. renders no account of either of the words. In his reconstruction of the text Corn. follows LXX. generally to the end of Eze_7:9; Eze_7:10-11 he emends thus: “Behold the crown (as Isa_28:5) is come forth, the sceptre blossoms; but the crown shall wither 11 and the sceptre fade; what are they, and what their multitude?” The crown and sceptre are those of Israel. The emendation may be left to itself.

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 7:11 Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness: none of them [shall remain], nor of their multitude, nor of any of theirs: neither [shall there be] wailing for them.

Ver. 11. Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness.] Their oppressions speak them most wicked, and will make them most wretched.

Nor of their multitude.] Or, Their tumultuous persons, their Thrasos, saith Tremellius, quantumvis circumstrepant famulitio numeroso, with all their train and retinue, that keep a clutter.

Neither shall there be wailing for them.] Their dearest friends shall not dare to lament the loss of them, for fear of the enemies who are present would punish it. We read in the Roman history of one Vitia, who was put to death by the command of Tiberius, for that she had lamented Geminus her son executed as a friend to Sejanus. {a}

{a} Tacit.

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.

7:11 Their violence has grown into a rod that will beat them: God would use their own violence to punish them by giving them over to internal strife and conflict (cp. Prov 6:27). Wealth and prestige could not save them against the coming torrent of destruction.

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

This cruel enemy shall be a sharp scourge for their wickedness.

Their own affliction shall be so great, that they shall have no regard to lament for others.

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

Violence (that is, the violent foe) is risen up as a rod of (that is, to punish the Jews') wickedness (Zac 5:8).

theirs--their possessions, or all that belongs to them, whether children or goods. GROTIUS translates from a different Hebrew root, "their nobles," literally, "their tumultuous trains" (Margin) which usually escorted the nobles. Thus "nobles" will form a contrast to the general "multitude."

neither . . . wailing-- (Jer 16:4-7; Jer 25:33). GESENIUS translates, "nor shall there be left any beauty among them." English Version is supported by the old Jewish interpreters. So general shall be the slaughter, none shall be left to mourn the dead.

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 11. Violence is risen, up into a rod of wickedness] The prophet continues his metaphor: "Pride has budded." - And what has it brought forth? Violence and iniquity. To meet these, the rod of God cometh. There is such a vast rapidity of succession in the ideas of the prophet that he cannot wait to find language to clothe each. Hence we have broken sentences; and, consequently, obscurity. Something must be supplied to get the sense, and most critics alter words in the text. Houbigant, who rarely acknowledges himself to be puzzled, appears here completely nonplussed. He has given a meaning; it is this: "Violence hath burst forth from the rod; salvation shall not proceed from them, nor from their riches, nor from their turbulence: there shall be no respite for them." Calmet has given no less than five interpretations to this verse. The simple meaning seems to be, that such and so great is their wickedness that it must be punished; and from this punishment, neither their multitude nor struggles shall set them free. They may strive to evade the threatened stroke; but they shall not succeed, nor shall they have any respite. Our Version is to be understood as saying, - None of the people shall be left; all shall be slain, or carried into captivity: nor shall any of theirs, their princes, priests, wives, or children, escape. And so deserved shall their desolation appear, that none shall lament them. This may be as good a sense as any, and it is nearest to the letter.

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

This is an explanation of the words, that pride had budded: now he adds violence to pride, which is its fruit: for contempt of God always begets cruelty and savagery, and rapine, and all injustice. But he speaks, as I have said, concerning the Israelites. He says that violence had risen up into a rod of wickedness Thus he confirms what he had touched upon, that the rod of God’s vengeance was not to be sought elsewhere than among the Israelites. God indeed had stirred up the king of Babylon to punish them: but the rod had grown up from the root of their wickedness by which the Israelites had provoked God’s anger: and so he adds, that nothing should be left of them: nothing, says he, should remain safe, either of themselves or of their opulence: for so I interpret המון, hemon: then, of their noise or multitude; either will do moderately well; and there shall not be wailing for them Jerome reads, נה, neh, and hence translates — there shall not be rest among them: but the Prophet means that there shall be neither sorrow nor lament, because the slaughter of all would be promiscuous. And we saw the same in Jeremiah: when one family has perished, friends and acquaintances assemble, and celebrate the funeral of the deceased; but when a pestilence pervades the whole city, and no house is free from death: nay when fathers are mingled with sons, so that their carcases can scarcely be drawn out for multitude, all sorrow ceases. With this intention then the Prophet says, there shall be no grief nor lamentation. For נהה, neheh, means lamentation. But we have already explained its meaning, namely, that all the Israelites were so destined to destruction that there should be, no survivors to lament the dead, and even should there be any, they should be so astonished amidst the multitude of the dead, that every duty of humanity towards them would perish. Now 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.

(11) Neither shall there be wailing for them.—The word for wailing is another of those words occurring only in this passage which have been variously understood. It is now generally taken for that which is glorious or beautiful. Israel has run its circle; prosperity has developed pride, and pride has culminated in all wickedness; now the end has come, they and their tumult (marg., for multitude) disappear together, and of their glory there shall be nothing left.

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

The time is come, the day draweth near,.... According to the Targum, the time of the recompence of iniquities, and the day of punishment of sins; of the sins of the Jews, by the Chaldean army, which no doubt is true; but it seems chiefly to refer to what follows: and the sense is, the time was coming on, in which

let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn; it is usual for the buyer of houses or lands to rejoice, because an addition is made to his estate, and especially when he has made, as he thinks, a good purchase; and the seller, he mourns because he is obliged to part with his estate to pay his debts, and so is reduced in his circumstances; but now the time was coming when the one would have no occasion to rejoice, nor the other to mourn; not the buyer rejoice, because, being carried captive, he cannot enjoy his possessions; nor the seller mourn, because, if he had not sold his house or field, he must have left it:

for wrath is upon all the multitude thereof; upon the whole body of the Jewish nation, high and low, rich and poor, bond and free, buyer and seller; those that are in good circumstances, and those that are in bad ones; so that hereby they were all upon a level, in the same case and condition.

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

Iniquity. What other fruit could be expected from wickedness? It draws on chastisement. --- Noise, or grandees. None will repent, and therefore none shall escape, from the highest to the lowest.

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).

Violence; with fierceness, which is their natural temper, a bitter and hasty nation, Hab 1:6; with eagerness and impetuous vigour executing, and with injustice and violence oppressing all.

Is risen up; is grown up to be, though a rod to punish bad men, yet to be worse than those it punisheth; in brief, you may expect the very worst from the power, pride, and violence of those I am now letting in upon you. Or,

2. It may refer to Israel; thus your tribe (or rod, the same word) blossometh, but it is in sin, and that in pride and violence, so grown that it is a most wicked rod of injustice and oppression to your neighbours, brethren, servants, &c., as Jeremiah, Moses, and other prophets as well as Ezekiel complained; and now, your sins thus ripe, your sorrows must be very near, as it is not many months between the budding of the tree, and the ripening and gathering of the fruit.

None of them: this also is fairly applicable to both Chaldeans and Jews; the Jews should be utterly wasted first for their sins, which God will punish by this violent, proud, mighty enemy, and afterwards he will destroy root and branch of that mighty oppressor; and so sad shall the sufferings of both be, that the living shall not bewail their dead friends, because they shall judge the dead in better case than the living. And though the words may have this double aspect, yet I take them to refer principally and first to the Jews, and their near approaching sorrows.

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

11. A rod of wickedness — Rather, a rod for wickedness. Their own violence (see Eze_7:22; Jer_6:7) has become the rod with which they are scourged. This refers to a little-appreciated historic fact. The history of that era shows that when Jerusalem was quiet and peaceful, Egypt and Babylon hurled their armies at each other, along the Palestinian and Syrian highways, without paying any attention to the Israelitish capital hidden in the hills; but when Jerusalem became proud and boastful and aggressive, and took sides with either party, then her own warlike spirit brought upon her speedily a scourge of punishment. This verse is so mutilated that it is impossible to do more than translate a single word here and there. The general sense points to the complete destruction of the national pride and the carrying away of the tumultuous population of the capital city.

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

Violence is risen up, etc. The "violence" admits of the same twofold interpretation as the "pride" of ver. 10. None of them shall remain. The interpolated verb, though grammatically necessary, weakens the force of the Hebrew. "None of them; none of their multitude; none of their wealth." Neither shall there be wailing for them. The noun is not found elsewhere. Taken, as the Authorized Version takes it, the thought, like that of Eze_24:16 and Jer_16:4, is that the usual rites of burial would be neglected, and that there would be "no widows to make lamentation". (Psa_78:64) The Revised Version "eminency" implies the loss of all that constituted greatness. Cornill and the LXX ("beauty" or "gaiety") practically agree with this. The Vulgate gives requies, and Furst "a gathering, or tumult of the people." Probably the text is corrupt.

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

None - They shall be utterly wasted for their sins. Wailing - The living shall not bewail their dead friends, because they shall judge the dead in a better case than the living.

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

The violence has arisen, etc. The violence in your hands has risen upon you as a staff of wickedness to destroy you.

neither from them So said the Holy One, blessed be He, to the Destroyer: You are not required to spare a soul [from the wicked of Israel], for no good will come from them or from their children or from their multitude.

and no one among them longs No one among them longs or gives thought to Me, as in (I Sam. 7:2): “and all the house of Israel longed (וַיִנָהוּ) for the Lord.” This is an Aramaism: “And they longed (וְאִתְנְהִיאוּ) for My worship,” an expression of desire and longing. Menachem (p. 69) associated it with יללה, an expression of wailing, and the word retains only the ‘hey’ as a radical.

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.