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Ezekiel

About this book
Chapter 7

1 The Lord’s message came to me: 2 “You, son of man—this is what the Sovereign Lord says to the land of Israel: An end! The end is coming on the four corners of the land!⁠ 3 The end is now upon you, and I will release my anger against you. I will judge you according to your behavior; I will hold you accountable for all your abominable practices. 4 My eye will not pity you; I will not spare you. For I will hold you responsible for your behavior, and you will suffer the consequences of your abominable practices. Then you will know that I am the Lord! 5 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: A disaster—a one-of-a-kind disaster—is coming! 6 An end comes—the end comes! It has awakened against you! Look, it is coming! 7 Doom is coming upon you who live in the land! The time is coming, the day is near. There are sounds of tumult, not shouts of joy, on the mountains. 8 Soon now I will pour out my rage on you; I will fully vent my anger against you. I will judge you according to your behavior. I will hold you accountable for all your abominable practices. 9 My eye will not pity you; I will not spare you. For your behavior I will hold you accountable, and you will suffer the consequences of your abominable practices. Then you will know that it is I, the Lord, who is striking you. 10 “Look, the day! Look, it is coming! Doom has gone out! The staff has budded, pride has blossomed!⁠ 11 Violence has grown into a staff that supports wickedness. Not one of them will be left—not from their crowd, not from their wealth, not from their prominence. 12 The time has come; the day has struck! The customer should not rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for divine wrath comes against their whole crowd. 13 The customer will no longer pay the seller while both parties are alive, for the vision against their whole crowd will not be revoked. Each person, for his iniquity, will fail to preserve his life. 14 “They have blown the trumpet and everyone is ready, but no one goes to battle, because my anger is against their whole crowd. 15 The sword is outside; pestilence and famine are inside the house.⁠ Whoever is in the open field will die by the sword, and famine and pestilence will consume everyone in the city. 16 Their survivors will escape to the mountains and become like doves of the valleys; all of them will moan—each one for his iniquity. 17 All their hands will hang limp; their knees will be wet with urine. 18 They will wear sackcloth, terror will cover them; shame will be on all their faces, and all their heads will be shaved bald. 19 They will discard their silver in the streets, and their gold will be treated like filth. Their silver and gold will not be able to deliver them on the day of the Lord’s fury.⁠ They will not satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs because their wealth was the obstacle leading to their iniquity. 20 They rendered the beauty of his ornaments into pride, and with it they made their abominable images—their detestable idols. Therefore I will render it filthy to them. 21 I will give it to foreigners as loot, to the world’s wicked ones as plunder, and they will desecrate it. 22 I will turn my face away from them, and they will desecrate my treasured place. Vandals will enter it and desecrate it. 23 (Make the chain, because the land is full of murder and the city is full of violence.) 24 I will bring the most wicked of the nations, and they will take possession of their houses. I will put an end to the arrogance of the strong, and their sanctuaries will be desecrated. 25 Terror is coming! They will seek peace, but find none. 26 Disaster after disaster will come, and one rumor after another. They will seek a vision from a prophet; priestly instruction will disappear, along with counsel from the elders. 27 The king will mourn and the prince will be clothed with shuddering; the hands of the people of the land will tremble. Based on their behavior I will deal with them, and by their standard of justice I will judge them. Then they will know that I am the Lord!”

Texts in conversation

Compare Lamentation Over the Destruction of Sumer and Ur 400 and Ezekiel 7:15 and Lamentations 1:20

Ancient Near East, Sumerian · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

The Sumerian Lament over the Destruction of Sumer and Ur says death comes by famine inside the city and by weapons outside. Lamentations, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel follow this pattern, showing how biblical writers used ancient Near Eastern traditions.

Passages

Lamentation Over the Destruction of Sumer and Ur 400

Ancient Near East, Sumerian
398 How long until we are finished off by this catastrophe? 399 Ur-inside it there is death, outside it there is death, 400 Inside it we are being finished off by famine, 401 Outside it we are being finished off by Elamite weapons. 402 In Ur the enemy has oppressed us, oh, we are finished!” 403 They take refuge behind it the city walls, they were united in their fear.

Ezekiel 7:15

Hebrew Bible
14 “They have blown the trumpet and everyone is ready, but no one goes to battle, because my anger is against their whole crowd. 15 The sword is outside; pestilence and famine are inside the house. Whoever is in the open field will die by the sword, and famine and pestilence will consume everyone in the city. 16 Their survivors will escape to the mountains and become like doves of the valleys; all of them will moan—each one for his iniquity.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Ezekiel

Lamentations 1:20

Hebrew Bible
19 ק (Qof) I called for my lovers, but they had deceived me. My priests and my elders perished in the city. Truly they had searched for food to keep themselves alive. 20 ר (Resh) Look, O Lord! I am distressed; my stomach is in knots! My heart is pounding inside me. Yes, I was terribly rebellious! Out in the street the sword bereaves a mother of her children; inside the house famine* is present. 21 ש (Sin/Shin) They have heard that I groan, yet there is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have brought it about. Bring about the day of judgment that you promised so that they may end up like me!
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Lamentations

References

"... There are additional textual resemblances between the other Sumerian Laments and the Book of Lamentations. An example pointed out by Hillers is the similarity between the Lamentation over the Destruction of Sumer and Ur (399-401) ‘Ur – inside it there is death, outside it there is death, inside it we are being finished off by famine, outside it we are being finished off by Elamite weapons,’ and Lamentations 1:20, Outside the sword killed my children; inside, it was famine. He adds that this phrasing is found in other books of the Bible as well. For example, Ezekiel 7:15, The sword outside, and pestilence and famine inside; he who is in the field shall die by the sword, and he who is in the city – famine and pestilence shall devour him; Jeremiah 14:18, If I go out to the field, there are those slain by the sword, and if I go into the city, there are the diseases of famine; and Deuteronomy 32:25, In the street the sword will make them childless; in their homes terror will reign. According to Hillers, these examples “are meant to illustrate the persistence of ancient literary motifs into late biblical literature, and not to prove a specific connection of Lamentations to Sumerian Laments” ..."
Wered Filarski, “Lamentations: A Comparison Between Mesopotamia and Judea,” JBQ 45.2 (2017): 87–98.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Lamentation Over the Destruction of Sumer and Ur 400 and Ezekiel 7:15 and Lamentations 1:20

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