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Ezekiel 7:16

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The survivors will escape and live in the mountains, moaning like doves of the valley, each for his own iniquity.

Commentaries

Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.

Matthew Henry Bible Commentaryv. 16

We have attended the fate of those that are cut off, and are now to attend the flight of those that have an opportunity of escaping the danger; some of them shall escape (Eze 7:16), but what the better? As good die once as, in a miserable life, die a thousand deaths, and escape only like Cain to be fugitives and vagabonds, and afraid of being slain by every one they meet; so shall these be. I. They shall have no comfort or satisfaction in their own minds, but be in continual anguish and terror; for, wherever they go, they carry about with them guilty consciences, which make them a burden to themselves. 1. They shall be always solitary and under prevailing melancholy; they shall not be in the cities, or places of concourse, but all alone upon the mountains, not caring for society, but shy of it, as being ashamed of the low circumstances to which they are reduced. 2. They shall be always sorrowful. Those have reason to be so that are under the tokens of God's displeasure; and God can make those so that have been most jovial and have set sorrow at defiance. Those that once thought themselves as the lions of the mountains, so daring were they, now become as the doves of the valleys, so timid are they, and so dispirited, ready to flee when none pursues and to tremble at the shaking of a leaf. They are all of them mourning (not with a godly sorrow, but with the sorrow of the world, which works death), every one for his iniquity, that is, for those calamities which they now see their iniquity has brought upon them, not only the iniquity of the land, but their own: they shall then be brought to acknowledge what they have each of them contributed to the national guilt. Note, Sooner or later sin will have sorrow of one kind or other; and those that will not repent of their iniqui…

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Cross-references

Other passages the community most often connects to this one. Tap to read.

Ezra 9:15rank 5

O LORD, God of Israel, You are righteous! For we remain this day as a remnant. Here we are before You in our guilt, though because of it no one can stand before You.”

Isaiah 38:14rank 5

I chirp like a swallow or crane; I moan like a dove. My eyes grow weak as I look upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; be my security.”

Isaiah 59:11rank 5

We all growl like bears and moan like doves. We hope for justice, but find none, for salvation, but it is far from us.

Isaiah 37:31rank 4

And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root below and bear fruit above.

Ezekiel 36:31rank 3

Then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and abominations.

Jeremiah 44:28rank 2

Those who escape the sword will return from Egypt to Judah, few in number, and the whole remnant of Judah who went to dwell in the land of Egypt will know whose word will stand, Mine or theirs!

Jeremiah 31:9rank 2

They will come with weeping, and by their supplication I will lead them; I will make them walk beside streams of waters, on a level path where they will not stumble. For I am Israel’s Father, and Ephraim is My firstborn.”

Jeremiah 44:14rank 2

so that none of the remnant of Judah who have gone to reside in Egypt will escape or survive to return to the land of Judah, where they long to return and live; for none will return except a few fugitives.”

Isaiah 1:9rank 2

Unless the LORD of Hosts had left us a few survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have resembled Gomorrah.

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