Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Ezekiel 6:6

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

The idolatry of Israel (6:1-14)

From the time of the judges (the period that followed Israel’s settlement of Canaan) the people of Israel had copied Canaanite religious practices. Canaanite gods, collectively known as Baalim (plural of Baal) were gods of nature, and Israelites used the Canaanite shrines throughout the countryside as places to offer worship to Yahweh. These shrines were called ‘high places’ because they were usually built on the tops of hills and mountains. Israel’s false worship at these high places was largely the reason for the nation’s unfaithfulness to God and its consequent punishment. Ezekiel, in keeping with the preaching of earlier prophets, announced God’s judgment on the idolatrous shrines (6:1-4). The idol-worshipping Israelites would be slaughtered in the coming judgment, and their corpses would lie scattered over these pagan hilltop sites along with the remains of the demolished altars and broken idols (5-7).
Of those taken captive to foreign countries, some would realize that God had been just in punishing them for their idolatry. In shame at their former waywardness they would turn again to God (8-10). God’s triumph over all the wicked would be celebrated by the clapping of hands and the stamping of feet. Throughout Israel, from south to north, the rebels would be punished and God’s honour restored. Then all would know that Yahweh was the one true God (11-14).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

“And your altars shall become desolate, and your sun-images shall be broken; and I will cast down your slain men before your idols. And I will lay down the dead bodies of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars. In all your dwelling-places, the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate, that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your sun-images may be hewn down, and your works may be abolished. And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.”

Here is a prophecy of God’s total destruction of the system of worship into which apostate Israel had fallen.

“Your slain men before your idols” Bruce tells us that the Hebrew word here rendered as idols, “Is a derogatory term frequently found in Ezekiel, meaning something like `dungheaps.’“F. F. Bruce in the New Layman’s Bible Commentary, p. 868. Feinberg thought that Ezekiel might have coined this word; “He used it 39 times.”Charles Lee Feinberg in Ezekiel (Moody Press), PP. 41.

“Your sun-images” “These were pillars or obelisks connected with the worship of Baal, the sun god, and they were found standing near his altars.”E. H. Plumptre in the Pulpit Commentary, p. 102. Some scholars have identified them as phallic symbols.

“These high places were connected with Canaanite fertility rites, an orgiastic worship embodying drunkenness and cultic prostitution. Associated with such high places were idols, sacred stones, pillars, sacred trees, etc.”John T. Bunn in the Broadman Bible Commentary (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1871), p. 249.

The presence of dead bodies and bones around the altars and idols of the high places had two purposes, “(1) It defiled the idols with corpses; and (2) it showed the helplessness of the idols.”International Critical Commentary, p. 69.

“And ye shall know that I am Jehovah” This expression is found some sixty times in Ezekiel and was the customary way of concluding an oracle or a section of an oracle throughout the prophecy.Moshe Greenberg, p. 133. One finds it in Exodus 7:5; Exodus 14:4; Exodus 14:18, again demonstrating the familiarity of Ezekiel with the Book of Moses. “The motive for most of God’s actions was to bring about the acknowledgment by the nations of his sole power and deity.”G. R. Beasley-Murray in the New Bible Commentary, Revised, p. 669.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

In other words, the Prophet signifies that God would take vengeance on the superstitions of the ten tribes in all places; whence it is clear, that no corner was free from corruption. For, while he names all habitations, he means that they had defiled every habitable place. Wheresoever they dwelt they had erected their altars and strange worship, as another Prophet reproves them; according to the number of your cities were your Gods. (Jeremiah 2:28; Jeremiah 11:13.) He addresses the Jews there, but the meaning is the same. Hence the Prophet signifies, that it was not a single part only that was polluted with their idolatries, but their filth was spread abroad through the whole land wherever there were any inhabitants. In all your habitations, therefore, the cities shall be deserted When he threatens destruction and desolation to the cities, he means what I have just said, that those places were corrupted by impious superstitions. He adds, and thy high places shall be destroyed or made desolate. Here he explains himself more clearly, that the cities should be reduced to solitude, because their religion was corrupt, and the inhabitants were given up to their own fictions and idolatries. He adds therefore high places to cities, that he may point out the reason of the cities perishing. He adds, that they may be desolate or reduced to a desert: it is again the word חרב , chereb, and your altars may perish. He confirms the same doctrine, namely, that he was so hostile to the cities of Israel because they were all polluted with profane and strange altars. For, as we have said, God had chosen that land to himself, and so all its cities were dedicated to his glory. This, then, might move us to wonder why he threatened them with destruction; for we might readily answer this by saying his counsel was changed. But the Prophet shows, that although the cities themselves were pleasing to God, yet they were hated by him through the corruptions by which they were polluted. Hence he joins high places to altars. Hence a probable conjecture is elicited, that the Israelites did not sacrifice wherever they had erected high places. They had then their own high places when they worshipped false gods, and also their own altars. And since the worship of God was vitiated in both ways, the Prophet, as I have said, here joins them both.

At length he adds, and your idols shall be broken up and cease, or be abolished. Again he uses that reproachful word which I have said is taken from the stench of dung. (Luke 16:15.) But it signifies that which is highly esteemed among men is abominated by God, especially when it is worshipped. And your idols, says he, shall be cut off. I have said that this word is derived from heat. It means, that the idols were the cause of their madness, since the Israelites were so corrupted with impure love that they deserted God and looked only at the idols: but he compares the zeal with which idolaters are maddened to impure and brutal lust. At length he adds, your works shall be destroyed. Here he uses a general name, and significantly points out the difference between the pure worship of God and all corruptions. There is no need of a long discussion if we desire to know how God is to be worshipped. For he rejects and excludes our works. If, therefore, we do not obtrude our works, but only follow what God demands, our worship will be pure, but if we add anything of our own, it is an abomination. We see, therefore, that useful instruction can be collected from one word, namely, that all worship is perverse and disapproved by God when men bring anything forward of themselves. For by works he does not here understand idols made of either wood, or stone, or brass, or gold, or silver, but it comprehends likewise whatever men have fashioned, and whatever can be ascribed to them, because they have not taken them from the mouth of God and the commands of his law.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Shall we turn in our Bibles to Ezekiel the sixth chapter.

Ezekiel here addresses himself to the mountains of Israel. The people of Israel had built places of worship on the tops of the mountains, but not worship to Jehovah God, but to Baal, to Molech, Mammon. And because the mountains were the places for these altars and groves and places of pagan worship, he addresses the prophesy against the mountain telling of the desolation that is going to come. How that they are going to be wasted without inhabitant.

Now, as we get to the thirty-fourth chapter, thirty-fifth chapter, he again addresses himself to the mountains of Israel which have been desolate for so long. And he tells them that they are going to be inhabited again. So, it is interesting to make a contrast between this prophesy against the mountains of Israel where so much false worship had gone on, and later on, after the period that God has brought His judgment against the people and they are brought back into the land, how again he speaks to the mountains and how the blessing of the Lord will be there as the nation is inhabited again.

So, it is the word of the LORD that came unto me, saying, Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them, And say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD; thus saith the Lord GOD to the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and will destroy your high places ( Ezekiel 6:1-3 ).

That is, the places of worship which were called the high places, the groves and all.

And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols. And I will lay the dead carcasses of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars. In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished. And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the LORD ( Ezekiel 6:4-7 ).

So, he predicts this slaughter that is going to come and the places where they have worshipped these false gods to be destroyed, the idols to be broken, and the pieces of the idols scattered with the bones of the people who had been turning away from God in this sacrilege and the worshipping of these idols in these high places.

Now, we get this interesting phrase in verse Ezekiel 6:7 , and it is used some sixty-two times in Ezekiel, where the Lord declares, "And ye shall know that I am the Lord." You see, they had been worshipping these false gods and God is declaring, "I am going to destroy them and they that worship them, and you will know that I am the Lord."

It is interesting when we get to the thirty-eighth chapter of Ezekiel and God there tells us of the destruction that He is going to bring against that massive Russian invasion, with all of the various allies that they will be bringing. And when God utterly destroys them He said, "And then the nations of the world will know that I am the Lord." He is now seeking to teach them this fact. They've been turning from Him; they've been worshipping these other gods. So over and over He said, "I'm going to bring these judgments, and when I do, when this happens, you will know that I am the Lord."

You've been worshipping false gods.

Yet [the Lord said] I will leave a remnant, that ye may have some that will escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries ( Ezekiel 6:8 ).

Now, though God has brought His judgment against Israel and an extremely severe judgment, and people might question, "Why was God so fierce in His judgment against His people?" But the Bible says, "Unto whom much is given, much is required" ( Luke 12:48 ). So, these people were extremely blessed of God. In fact, they were the most blessed people on the face of the earth.

"What advantage," Paul said, "does the Jew have?" And he answered his question by saying, "Much, and in every way, for unto them were committed the oracles of God, the commandments, the statutes the ordinances" ( Romans 3:1-2 ). God had given them so very, very much, and because He had given them so much, He in turn requires much from them.

Now that should be a warning to us, for God has given us so much. The knowledge and the understanding of His Word, and thus God requires much from us.

So, God brought His judgment against them. It was fierce and it has been a continuing judgment, but always, always though many of them became apostate, turned from God, yet God always had His faithful remnant among them. And this has always been the case. There have always been those who were true to God and faithful to God.

Now, at the time of national apostasy when Israel had been led to worship Baal by Jezebel and her husband Ahab, and Elijah had had this contest with the prophets of Baal there on Mount Carmel. And after God sent the fire and he had the popular movement of the people going with him for a moment, he took advantage of it and he took the prophets of Baal, four hundred of them, down to the river and killed them all. Jezebel was out of town at the time. When she came back, heard what Elijah had done to her four hundred priests, she said, "God do so to me if by tomorrow night I don't have that fellow's head." And Elijah took it on the run, and he ran all the way down to the area of Mount Sinai. And there he hid in a cave. And the Lord said, " Come on out to the entrance of the cave." And he came out and the Lord said, "Elijah, what are you doing here?" And Elijah said, "I have been jealous for God, for all of Israel has turned against God and I, I only am left. I am the only true servant You've got in the land, Lord, and they are trying to kill me. They are looking for me to kill me. Lord, You're going to be without anybody pretty soon. As soon as they catch me, Lord, You're not going to have anyone on Your side." And the Lord answered Elijah and said, "Elijah, I have seven thousand among them who have not bowed their knee to Baal."

God had His faithful remnant. Though it is true the majority of the nation had become apostate, yet God still had His faithful remnant among them who He knew. "Always I will leave a remnant; they will never be utterly destroyed." God always keeps that remnant and from that remnant God will bring forth yet a people to praise Him and to bring glory unto Him.

Now, though Israel has seen among the people of the world some of the greatest tribulation, some of the hardest experiences, yet they have not seen the worst, for the worst is yet to come. Even worse than the holocaust. That period that is coming described in the Bible, especially in the book of Revelation, a great tribulation when they will be deceived by this leader that is going to arise in Europe. And many of them will hail him as their savior, because he is going to make a covenant and help them rebuild their temple. Yet, when he turns upon them and he comes to the temple that they have built and stands in the holy place and declares that he is God and demands that he be worshipped as God. When they at that point turn against him, he is going to turn upon them with all of his wrath and fury.

But God is going to save a remnant who will flee down to the area of the rock city of Petra, where God will preserve them for three and a half years. But this man will then seek to exterminate the Jews. And because he will have worldwide power, especially through economics, the Jews around the world will suffer once more heavy persecution.

It is interesting, tragically, the anti-Semitism that does exist in the hearts of sinful men. I know people who absolutely hate the Jews, bitter against them without any real reason to be. It's just something that is in the heart of sinful man. And the Jews, unfortunately, have suffered from the hands of man for so long. But, yet, God will have His faithful remnant. And in the Kingdom Age, when Jesus comes again and establishes the kingdom, then shall they flourish and be blessed once more above all the nations of the earth, as the Lord sets up His millennial reign.

So, it's a very sad and tragic thing, the judgment that has come, the judgment that shall come. But through it all, even in the whole thing, God always has His faithful remnant. As Paul speaks to the Romans, in his epistle to the Romans, eleventh chapter, of God's faithful remnant. "So, I will leave a remnant that ye may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations when you'll be scattered through all the countries." He's not going to destroy them completely. And it is interesting that the Jew today maintains his national identity wherever he is.

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 ( Ezekiel 6:9 ),

Literally, "I will break their whorish hearts." That is, the heart that turned from God, from the love of God, and sought false lovers, these false gods.

which have departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall loath themselves for the evils which they have committed in all of their abominations. And they shall know that I am the LORD ( Ezekiel 6:9-10 ).

Again, He repeats that.

and that I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them ( Ezekiel 6:10 ).

They'll know that I wasn't just kidding, that I wasn't just talking vanity when I said I was going to do these things.

Thus saith the Lord GOD; Smite with your hand and stamp with your foot ( Ezekiel 6:11 ),

Ezekiel was a very colorful man in his prophecies. As you'll remember last week lying on his left side for three hundred and ninety days, drawing on tiles, and now he's stomping with his foot and clapping his hands in front of the people, stomping his foot and he's saying unto them,

Alas for all of the evil abominations of the house of Israel! for they shall fall by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence. He that is far off shall die of the pestilence; and he that is near shall fall by the sword; and he that remaineth and is besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish my fury upon them. Then shall you know that I am the LORD ( Ezekiel 6:11-13 ),

Third time in this one chapter.

when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, and in the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer their sweet savor to all of their idols. So will I stretch out my hand upon them, and make the land desolate, yea, more desolate than the wilderness towards Diblath, in all of their habitations: and they shall know that I am the LORD ( Ezekiel 6:13-14 ).

In all of this God is seeking, really, to establish in their hearts the fact that He is God.

"

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Ezekiel was to announce to his audience of exiles that God would bring warriors against Israel’s mountains, hills, ravines, and valleys, namely, the places where the people worshipped at pagan shrines (cf. 2 Kings 23:10). The object of His judgment would be the high places of worship that stood throughout the land. [Note: See Dyer, "Ezekiel," p. 1238, for a brief history of the high places in Canaan.] God would destroy the altars, and the people who worshipped before them would fall slain around them. The idols would not be able to defend their worshippers. The Lord would defile these altars with the bones of the Israelites who died before them (cf. Leviticus 26:30; 2 Kings 23:20; Psalms 53:5; Psalms 141:7; Jeremiah 8:1-2). Scattered animal bones often marked these places of sacrifice, but human bones would pollute them in the future. Pagan altars of all types that the people had built would be broken down throughout the country along with the cities. Many people would die, and God’s people would know that He had judged them.

"Judgment is a pervasive theme of all the prophets of Israel, but none exceeds Ezekiel in the abundance and intensity of his messages of divine retribution. Moreover, none reiterates as much as Ezekiel the pedagogical purposes of the visitations of the Lord: ’that they [Israel and the nations] might know Yahweh.’ Judgment, then, is not only retributive but redemptive. God’s purpose in judgment is not to destroy the peoples He has created but to bring them back into harmony with His creation purposes for them." [Note: Merrill, p. 372.]

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

In all your dwelling places your cities shall be laid waste,.... Which denotes that the desolation should be general, wherever they had cities and places to dwell in; the idolatry being universal, as is said in Jeremiah 2:28;

and the high places shall be desolate; meaning such as were in cities; as, before, such as were built upon mountains and hills; see 2 Kings 23:5;

that your altars may be laid waste and desolate; as they must be, the cities being destroyed in which they were set up:

and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down; such as were made of gold and silver, or of wood and stone; the same words are used for them as in Ezekiel 6:4;

and your works may be abolished; not only the works of their hands, but of their brain; whatever they had devised, and was contrary to the pure word and worship of God.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,   2 Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,   3 And say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD; Thus saith the Lord GOD to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.   4 And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.   5 And I will lay the dead carcases of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars.   6 In all your dwelling-places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.   7 And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

      Here, I. The prophecy is directed to the mountains of Israel (Ezekiel 6:1; Ezekiel 6:2); the prophet must set his face towards them. If he could see so far off as the land of Israel, the mountains of that land would be first and furthest seen; towards them therefore he must look, and look boldly and stedfastly, as the judge looks at the prisoner, and directs his speech to him, when he passes sentence upon him. Though the mountains of Israel be ever so high and ever so strong, he must set his face against them, as having judgments to denounce that should shake their foundation. The mountains of Israel had been holy mountains, but now that they had polluted them with their high places God set his face against them and therefore the prophet must. Israel is here put, not, as sometimes, for the ten tribes, but for the whole land. The mountains are called upon to hear the word of the Lord, to shame the inhabitants that would not hear. The prophets might as soon gain attention from the mountains as from that rebellious and gainsaying people, to whom they all day long stretched out their hands in vain. Hear, O mountains! the Lord's controversy (Micah 6:1; Micah 6:2), for God's cause will have a hearing, whether we hear it or no. But from the mountains the word of the Lord echoes to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys; for to them also the Lord God speaks, intimating that the whole land is concerned in what is now to be delivered and shall be witnesses against this people that they had fair warning given them of the judgments coming, but they would not take it; nay, they contradicted the message and persecuted the messengers, so that God's prophets might more safely and comfortably speak to the hills and mountains than to them.

      II. That which is threatened in this prophecy is the utter destruction of the idols and the idolaters, and both by the sword of war. God himself is commander-in-chief of this expedition against the mountains of Israel. It is he that says, Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you (Ezekiel 6:3; Ezekiel 6:3); the sword of the Chaldeans is at God's command, goes where he sends it, comes where he brings it, and lights as he directs it. In the desolations of that war,

      1. The idols and all their appurtenances should be destroyed. The high places, which were on the tops of mountains (Ezekiel 6:3; Ezekiel 6:3), shall be levelled and made desolate (Ezekiel 6:6; Ezekiel 6:6); they shall not be beautified, shall not be frequented as they had been. The altars, on which they offered sacrifice and burnt incense to strange gods, shall be broken to pieces and laid waste; the images and idols shall be defaced, shall be broken and cease, and be cut down, and all the fine costly works about them shall be abolished, Ezekiel 6:4; Ezekiel 6:6. Observe here, (1.) That war makes woeful desolations, which those persons, places, and things that were esteemed most sacred cannot escape; for the sword devours one as well as another. (2.) That God sometimes ruins idolatries even by the hands of idolaters, for such the Chaldeans themselves were; but, as if the deity were a local thing, the greatest admirers of the gods of their own country were the greatest despisers of the gods of other countries. (3.) It is just with God to make that a desolation which we make an idol of; for he is a jealous God and will not bear a rival. (4.) If men do not, as they ought, destroy idolatry, God will, first or last, find out a way to do it. When Josiah had destroyed the high places, altars, and images, with the sword of justice, they set them up again; but God will now destroy them with the sword of war, and let us see who dares re-establish them.

      2. The worshippers of idols and all their adherents should be destroyed likewise. As all their high places shall be laid waste, so shall all their dwelling-places too, even all their cities,Ezekiel 6:6; Ezekiel 6:6. Those that profane God's dwelling-place as they had done can expect no other than that he should abandon theirs, Ezekiel 5:11; Ezekiel 5:11. If any man defile the temple of God, him will God destroy,1 Corinthians 3:17. It is here threatened that their slain shall fall in the midst of them (Ezekiel 6:7; Ezekiel 6:7); there shall be abundance slain, even in those places which were thought most safe; but it is added as a remarkable circumstance that they shall fall before their idols (Ezekiel 6:4; Ezekiel 6:4), that their dead carcases should be laid, and their bones scattered, about their altars,Ezekiel 6:5; Ezekiel 6:5. (1.) Thus their idols should be polluted, and those places profaned by the dead bodies which they had had in veneration. If they will not defile the covering of their graven images, God will, Isaiah 30:22. The throwing of the carcases among them, as upon the dunghill, intimates that they were but dunghill-deities. (2.) Thus it was intimated that they were but dead things, unfit to be rivals with the living God; for the carcases of dead men, that, like them, have eyes and see not, ears and hear not, were the fittest company for them. (3.) Thus the idols were upbraided with their inability to help their worshippers, and idolaters were upbraided with the folly of trusting in them; for, it should seem, they fell by the sword of the enemy when they were actually before their idols imploring their aid and putting themselves under their protection. Sennacherib was slain by his sons when he was worshipping in the house of his god. (4.) The sin might be read in this circumstance of the punishment; the slain men are cast before the idols, to show that therefore they are slain, because they worshipped those idols; see Jeremiah 8:1; Jeremiah 8:2. Let the survivors observe it, and take warning not to worship images; let them see it, and know that God is the Lord, that the Lord he is God and he alone.