3 Son of man, these men have taken their false gods into their hearts and put before their faces the sin which is the cause of their fall: am I to give ear when they come to me for directions?
They will put out their silver into the streets, and their gold will be as an unclean thing; their silver and their gold will not be able to keep them safe in the day of the wrath of the Lord; they will not get their desire or have food for their need: because it has been the cause of their falling into sin.
Son of man, say to the responsible men of Israel, This is what the Lord has said: Have you come to get directions from me? By my life, says the Lord, you will get no directions from me.
When any one of the men of Israel, or of those from other lands who are living in Israel, who has become strange to me, and takes his false gods into his heart, and puts before his face the sin which is the cause of his fall, comes to the prophet to get directions from me; I the Lord will give him an answer by myself:
And when your hands are stretched out to me, my eyes will be turned away from you: even though you go on making prayers, I will not give ear: your hands are full of blood.
Because they were turned away from my orders, and were not guided by my rules, and had no respect for my Sabbaths: for their hearts went after their images.
So the Lord has said, I will send evil on them, which they will not be able to get away from; and they will send up a cry for help to me, but I will not give ear to them.
For this cause say to them, These are the words of the Lord: Every man of Israel who has taken his false god into his heart, and put before his face the sin which is the cause of his fall, and comes to the prophet; I the Lord will give him an answer by myself in agreement with the number of his false gods;
And when you give your offerings, causing your sons to go through the fire, you make yourselves unclean with all your images to this day; and will you come to me for directions, O children of Israel? By my life, says the Lord, you will get no direction from me.
Because they did this work for them before their images, and became a cause of sin to the children of Israel; for this cause my hand has been lifted up against them, says the Lord, and their punishment will be on them.
I will take away man and beast; I will take away the birds of the heaven and the fishes of the sea; causing the downfall of the evil-doers, and cutting man off from the face of the earth, says the Lord.
But I have some things against you, because you have with you those who keep the teaching of Balaam, by whose suggestion Balak made the children of Israel go out of the right way, taking food which was offered to false gods, and going after the desires of the flesh.
And, A stone of falling, a rock of trouble; the word is the cause of their fall, because they go against it, and this was the purpose of God.
And Jesus said, And I will not make clear to you by what authority I do these things.
And it came about that as they would not give ear to his voice, so I would not give ear to their voice, says the Lord of armies:
But as for those whose heart goes after their hated and disgusting things, I will send on their heads the punishment of their ways, says the Lord.
And those of you who are kept safe will have me in mind among the nations where they have been taken away as prisoners, how I sent punishment on their hearts which were untrue to me, and on their eyes which were turned to their false gods: and they will be full of hate for themselves because of the evil things which they have done in all their disgusting ways.
Again, when an upright man, turning away from his righteousness, does evil, and I put a cause of falling in his way, death will overtake him: because you have given him no word of his danger, death will overtake him in his evil-doing, and there will be no memory of the upright acts which he has done; but I will make you responsible for his blood.
As for the word which you have said to us in the name of the Lord, we will not give ear to you. But we will certainly do every word which has gone out of our mouths, burning perfumes to the queen of heaven and draining out drink offerings to her as we did, we and our fathers and our kings and our rulers, in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then we had food enough and did well and saw no evil. But from the time when we gave up burning perfumes to the queen of heaven and draining out drink offerings to her, we have been in need of all things, and have been wasted by the sword and by need of food.
For you have been acting with deceit in your hearts; for you sent me to the Lord your God, saying, Make prayer for us to the Lord our God, and give us word of everything he may say, and we will do it. And this day I have made it clear to you, and you have not given ear to the voice of the Lord your God in anything for which he has sent me to you.
The sin of Judah is recorded with a pen of iron, and with the sharp point of a jewel it is cut on their hearts of stone, and on the horns of their altars for a sign to them: Their altars and their wood pillars under every branching tree, on the high hills and the mountains in the field.
See, you put your faith in false words which are of no profit. Will you take the goods of others, put men to death, and be untrue to your wives, and take false oaths, and have perfumes burned to the Baal, and go after other gods which are strange to you; And come and take your place before me in this house, which is named by my name, and say, We have been made safe; so that you may do all these disgusting things? Has this house, which is named by my name, become a hole of thieves to you? Truly I, even I, have seen it, says the Lord.
As for the man whose ear is turned away from hearing the law, even his prayer is disgusting.
The offering of evil-doers is disgusting: how much more when they give it with an evil purpose!
The offering of the evil-doer is disgusting to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright man is his delight.
I will not put any evil thing before my eyes; I am against all turning to one side; I will not have it near me.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Ezekiel 14
Commentary on Ezekiel 14 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 14
Hearing the word, and prayer, are two great ordinances of God, in which we are to give honour to him and may hope to find favour and acceptance with him; and yet in this chapter, to our great surprise, we find some waiting upon God in the one and some in the other and yet not meeting with success as they expected.
Eze 14:1-11
Here is,
Eze 14:12-23
The scope of these verses is to show,