Bible Commentary

Ezekiel 6:4

The Pulpit Commentary on Ezekiel 6:4

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

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 (), coupled with the "groves," or Asherim (; ), and with the "high places" in .

I will cast down your slain men before your idols. As in the prophecy against Bethel (), and in Josiah's action (), 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 (Le 26:30; ), 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 verse 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.

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commentaryMatthew Henry on Ezekiel 6:1-7War desolates persons, places, and things esteemed most sacred. God ruins idolatries even by the hands of idolaters. It is just with God to make that a desolation, which we make an idol. The superstitions to which many…Matthew HenrycommentaryThe Destruction of Idolatry. (b. c. 594.)THE DESTRUCTION OF IDOLATRY. (B. C. 594.) Here, I. The prophecy is directed to the mountains of Israel (Ezekiel 6:1-2); the prophet must set his face towards them. If he could see so far off as the land of Israel, the m…Matthew HenrycommentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Ezekiel 6:1-7The land involved in man's punishment. We have here a dramatic appeal to the stony hills of Palestine. Canaan is emphatically a mountainous country; and Ezekiel, speaking as the mouthpiece of God, addresses himself to t…Joseph S. Exell and contributorscommentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Ezekiel 6:1-7The impotence of idols. "And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy thee toward the mountains of Israel," etc. The former prophecies related chiefly to the city of Jerusalem and the laud of Judah…Joseph S. Exell and contributorscommentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Ezekiel 6:1-14EXPOSITION Ezekiel 6:2, Ezekiel 6:3 Set thy face toward the mountains, etc. The formula is eminently characteristic of Ezekiel. We have had it with a different verb in the Hebrew, in Ezekiel 4:3. It will meet us again i…Joseph S. Exell and contributorscommentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Ezekiel 6:1-6The idolatry of the land avenged. Turning from the city of Jerusalem to the land generally, the Prophet Ezekiel addresses himself to Israel, the nation whom God had chosen, and who had rejected God. By a striking figure…Joseph S. Exell and contributors