Punishment of wickedness – sword, plague, famine, enemies
7
Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 📚“Also, son of man, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel: An end! The end is coming on the four corners of the land.7:1-2 This whole chapter, like chapter 6, is taken up with judgments against the whole land of Israel. The language of verses 2,6,7,10,12 indicates how near and how certain was the threatened disaster.⚜
3 📚Now the end is coming on you, and I will send my anger on you, and will judge you 📖 according to your ways, and will repay you for all your abominations. 4 📚And my eye will not spare you, nor will I have pity, but on you I will repay you for your ways, and for your abominations which are among you; and you will know that I am the LORD.
5 📚“Thus says the Lord God: A disaster, a unique disaster! See, it has come. 6 📚An end has come! The end has come! It is aroused for you. See, it has come! 7 📚Doom has come to you, O you who live in the land. The time has come, the day of trouble is near, and not the sounds of joy again on the mountains. 8 📚Now I will shortly pour out my fury 📖 on you, and spend my anger on you, and judge you according to your ways, and repay you for all your abominations. 9 📚And my eye will not spare, and I will not have pity; I will repay you for your ways and your abominations that are among you; and you will know that I, the LORD, give the blows 📖.
10 📚“See the day! See, it has come. Doom has set out. The rod has blossomed, pride has budded. 11 📚Violence has grown into a rod of wickedness. None of them will remain, none of their crowd, nothing they have; and there will be no wailing for them. 12 📚The time has come! The day has drawn near! Do not let the buyer rejoice, or the seller grieve; for wrath is on its whole multitude. 13 📚For the seller will not return to what was sold, as long as they are alive; for the vision concerns its whole multitude, which will not return, and no one will strengthen his life by his iniquity.
7:10-13 These verses point out other reasons for God’s anger. The people were proud (vs 20,24), violent (v 23), greedy (v 19), and totally occupied with their own affairs. This will be the condition of many at the end of this age – Matt 24:37-38; 2 Tim 3:1-5.⚜
14 📚They have blown the trumpet to prepare everyone, but no one goes to the battle; for my wrath is on its whole multitude.
7:14 They would not be able to resist the coming armies of Babylon.⚜
15 📚“The sword is outside, and the plague and famine inside. He who is in the field will die by the sword, and famine and plague will devour the one who is in the city. 16 📚But those among the ones who escape will escape and be on the mountains, all of them mourning like doves of the valleys, each one for his guilt 📖. 17 📚All hands will be feeble, and all knees will be as weak as water. 18 📚They will also tie sackcloth around themselves, and horror will cover them, and shame will be on every face, and every head will be shaved. 19 📚They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will be abhorred. Their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD; they will not satisfy their souls, or fill their stomach, because it has been their stumbling block of wickedness.
7:19 Too late they would learn what little value their wealth had. Compare Ps 49:5-10; Luke 12:14-21.⚜
20 📚As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty; but they made the images of their abominations and of their detestable things out of it, so I will make it abhorrent to them. 21 📚And I will give it into the hands of foreigners as prey, and to the wicked of the earth as plunder, and they will defile it.
7:21 What we do not use in a proper way for God’s glory may be taken from us at any moment.⚜
22 📚I will also turn my face 📖 from them, and they will defile my secret place; 📖 for robbers will enter it, and defile it.
23 📚“Make a chain 📖. For the land is full of crimes of bloodshed, and the city is full of violence. 24 📚Therefore I will bring the worst of the nations 📖, and they will possess their houses. I will also put a stop to the pomp of the strong, and their holy places will be defiled. 25 📚Destruction is coming! And they will seek peace, and there will be none. 26 📚Disaster will follow disaster, and rumour will follow rumour. Then they will seek a vision from the prophet; but the law will perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders.
7:26 When God withdraws His guidance it is a calamity worse than mere physical ones.⚜
27 📚The king will mourn, and the prince will be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land will tremble. I will do to them as their ways deserve 📖, and judge them according to their own standards 📖, and they will know that I am the Lord”.