Ezekiel 5:7 · Bible study
Ezekiel 5:7 Commentary: Israel's Rebellion Worse Than the Nations
Hebrew · 10 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
A study of Ezekiel 5:7, where God charges Israel with surpassing the nations in wickedness yet failing even their own apostasy standards.
Research Summary
- Meaning: God charges Israel with surpassing the nations in rebellion while failing even to match their pagan fidelity.
- Key words: “Turbulent” or “multiplied”, a Hebrew root suggesting noisy, chaotic revolt (Barnes, Keil); “ordinances”, laws or customs, both divine and human.
- Main debate: Whether the negative particle (“neither have done according to the judgments of the nations”) should be retained or omitted, with MT supporting retention and Syriac supporting omission.
- Theological theme: Covenant privilege intensifies accountability; the worst sin is committed not by the ignorant but by those who know the truth and reject it.
- Best use: A warning text for believers to examine whether their lives reflect greater faithfulness or greater corruption than those without faith.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘You have been more insubordinate than the nations around you; you have not walked in My statutes or kept My ordinances, nor have you even conformed to the ordinances of the nations around you.’
WEB World English Bible 2000
“Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Because you are more turbulent than the nations that are around you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my ordinances, neither have followed the ordinances of the nations that are around you;
KJV King James Version 1769
Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye multiplied more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my judgments, neither have done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you;
ASV American Standard Version 1901
Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because ye are turbulent more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept mine ordinances, neither have done after the ordinances of the nations that are round about you;
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because of your multiplying above the nations that are around you, In My statutes ye have not walked, And My judgments ye have not done, According to the judgments of the nations That are round about you ye have not done.
Darby Darby Bible 1890
Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because ye have been turbulent more than the nations that are round about you, [and] have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept mine ordinances, nor [even] have done according to the ordinances of the nations that are round about you;
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because you have surpassed the Gentiles that are round about you, and have not walked in my commandments, and have not kept my judgments, and have not done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you:
Translations in other languages (10 available)
Por tanto, así ha dicho Jehová: ¿ Por haberos multiplicado más que á las gentes que están alrededor de vosotros, no habéis andado en mis mandamientos, ni habéis guardado mis leyes? Ni aun según las leyes de las gentes que están alrededor de vosotros habéis hecho.
Portanto assim diz o Senhor DEUS: Por haverdes vos rebelado mais que as nações que estão ao redor de vós, não haverdes andado em meus estatutos, nem obedecido minhas leis, nem sequer conforme as leis das nações que estão ao redor de vós,
C’ est pourquoi ainsi parle le Seigneur, l’ Éternel: Parce que vous avez été plus rebelles que les nations qui vous entourent, parce que vous n’ avez pas suivi mes ordonnances et pratiqué mes lois, et que vous n’ avez pas agi selon les lois des nations qui vous entourent;
Darum spricht der Herr also: Weil ihr's mehr macht denn die Heiden, so um euch her sind, und nach meinen Geboten nicht lebt und nach meinen Rechten nicht tut, sondern nach der Heiden Weise tut, die um euch her sind,
Daarom zegt de Heere HEERE alzo: Dewijl gijlieden dies meer gemaakt hebt dan de heidenen, die rondom u zijn, in Mijn inzettingen niet gewandeld hebt, en Mijn rechten niet gedaan hebt, zelfs naar de rechten der heidenen, die rondom u zijn, niet gedaan hebt;
Perciò, così parla il Signore, l’Eterno: Poiché voi siete stati più insubordinati delle nazioni che vi circondano, in quanto non avete camminato seguendo le mie prescrizioni e non avete messo ad effetto le mie leggi e non avete neppure agito seguendo le leggi delle nazioni che vi circondano,
Przetoż tak mówi panujący Pan: Dlatego, żeście pogaństwo grzechami przewyższyli, które jest około was, a w ustawach moich nie chodziliście, i sądów moich nie zachowaliście, nawet ani tak jako poganie, którzy są około was, sąduście nie czynili;
Посему так говорит Господь Бог: за то, что вы умножили беззакония ваши более, нежели язычники, которые вокруг вас, по уставам Моим не поступаете и постановлений Моих не исполняете, и даже не поступаете и по постановлениям язычников, которые вокруг вас, -
所以 主 耶和華 如此 說：因為 你們紛爭 過於 四圍的 列國，也不 遵行 我的律例，不 謹守 我的典章，並以遵從 四圍 列國 的惡規 尚不滿意，
For this cause the Lord has said: Because you have been more uncontrolled than the nations round about you, and have not been guided by my rules or kept my orders, but have kept the orders of the nations round about you;
Verse in Context
Scholars' Consensus
The commentators agree on the core accusation: Israel has been more turbulent, more rebellious, than the nations surrounding her. Barnes notes the verb suggests a raging or tumultuous revolt. Keil and Delitzsch translate it as “ye have raged more than the nations,” seeing it as active insurrection against God's covenant. Gill specifies that this “multiplication” refers not to population or wealth but to an excess of sin, the people had “sinned more than the people that are round about you.”
At the same time, the verse adds a puzzling indictment: Israel also failed to “do according to the judgments of the nations.” Gill and Jamieson-Fausset-Brown explain that the surrounding nations, though pagan, were consistent in their loyalty to their own gods (cf. Jeremiah 2:11). Israel did not even manage that level of fidelity. They changed their God for idols, while the nations never changed theirs. The negative particle in the Masoretic Text is retained by the vast majority of commentators, the Syriac omission is a minority view. Matthew Henry summarises: Israel “changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations” and so stands condemned on both counts: excess of evil and deficiency of consistency. The shared conclusion is that covenant privilege deepens guilt.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Medium
Main views:
- The 'raging rebellion' reading: Translates the difficult Hebrew verb as 'to rage' or 'be turbulent' (Keil, Barnes), emphasising active, chaotic revolt against God.
- The 'multiplication in evil' reading: Reads the verb as 'multiplied' in the sense of exceeding in wickedness (Calvin, Gill, Wesley), focusing on the quantity of sin.
- The negative particle reading (MT vs. Syriac): Retains (majority) or omits (Syriac) the negative, affecting whether Israel is charged with failing to follow pagan customs or with actually following them.
What is clear: Regardless of lexical or textual debates, Israel is charged with surpassing the surrounding nations in sin, incurring a judgment of unprecedented severity.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning of 'multiplied' / 'turbulent' | The word (Hebrew hamon/hemah) indicates a state of agitation, noise, or excess; all commentators agree it describes rebellion. | Some (e.g., Calvin, Gill) take it as multiplication of sin and evil deeds; others (Barnes, Keil) emphasise the sense of raging or tumultuous revolt. A few early interpreters (noted by Calvin) linked it to being multiplied in wealth and growing wanton. |
| Negative particle in 'neither have done according to the judgments of the nations' | The Masoretic Text, Targum, Septuagint, and most versions include the negative, and the majority of commentators follow this reading. | The Syriac version omits the negative, yielding the opposite meaning: 'but have done according to the ordinances of the nations.' Gill and Jamieson-Fausset-Brown discuss the possibility that both readings capture an aspect of the truth, they followed pagan ways in what was bad, but not in what was good (consistency). |
| The paradox of condemning Israel for not following pagan ordinances | Israel is charged with failing to match the loyalty of pagan nations to their own gods (Jeremiah 2:11). This highlights the depth of their apostasy. | Some see this as a comparison that shames Israel for being less faithful than pagans; others (Gill) also note that it means they did not follow the light of nature that even Gentiles obeyed (Romans 2:14). The precise referent of 'ordinances of the nations' is debated, their civil laws, their religious customs, or their natural moral sense. |
| Identity of the 'nations round about' | The nations refer to the historical neighbours of Judah and Israel in the ancient Near East (Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, etc.). | Some (Keil) see them as representative of the broader Gentile world; others limit them to the specific peoples mentioned in Ezekiel's oracles against the nations. |
| Proportionality of judgment to sin | All commentators agree the judgment (verses 8-17) is unusually severe and directly tied to the exceptional nature of Israel's sin. | The debate lies in whether the judgment is described as literally unprecedented (Keil, Matthew Henry) or rhetorically intensified (Calvin). The point of comparison, whether no nation ever suffered this kind of siege, is contextually clear but not historiographically precise. |
Historical & Cultural Context
Ezekiel 5:7 comes in the middle of a sign-act. The prophet has shaved his head and beard, dividing the hair into thirds, one to burn, one to strike with the sword, one to scatter to the wind (Ezekiel 5:1-2). This visual sermon depicts the fate of Jerusalem under siege. In verse 5 God declares, “This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the middle of the nations, and countries are around her.” The city was meant to be the centre of God's redeeming work, a light to the nations. Instead, it became a centre of rebellion.
Historically, Judah had every spiritual advantage: the law of Moses, the temple, the prophets, and a line of kings from David. The surrounding nations, Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Phoenicia, Syria, and later Egypt and Babylon, had no such revelation. Yet Israel had absorbed their idolatrous practices and added their own variations. The reigns of Manasseh (2 Kings 21:9, 11) and others had so thoroughly corrupted the nation that they exceeded even the pagan Amorites in wickedness.
But there is a second, ironic layer. Those same pagan nations, for all their false worship, were tenacious in maintaining their own religious traditions. Jeremiah 2:10-11 challenges Israel to check: has any nation changed its gods? No. But God's people exchanged their Glory for a worthless substitute. Israel had neither the obedience of God's true covenant nor the stability of pagan devotion. They were worse than the nations in their sin, and not even as good as the nations in their hypocrisy.
The judgment that follows (verses 8-17) matches the crime. God says He will do things He has never done before, judgment without precedent, because the sin was without precedent. The Babylonians were the instrument, but the Lord Himself is the one “against” them.
Textual Notes
The main textual issue in Ezekiel 5:7 is the presence or absence of the negative particle before “according to the judgments of the nations.” The Masoretic Text (followed by the Targum, Septuagint, and the vast majority of Hebrew manuscripts) includes the negative: “neither have you done according to the judgments of the nations.” The Syriac Peshitta omits the negative, reading “but have done according to the judgments of the nations,” which aligns with Ezekiel 11:12. Gill and Jamieson-Fausset-Brown discuss both possibilities, with most commentators retaining the negative as original. The double meaning may be intentional: Israel neither followed God’s statutes nor (even) the practices of the nations that would have shown some consistency. No other significant variants are noted in the supplied sources.
Reception History
Ezekiel 5:7 has been read across church history as a warning about the dangers of spiritual privilege. Jerome, translating into Latin, struggled with the Hebrew idiom and rendered it “because you have surpassed the nations”, a reading that Calvin later engaged critically, preferring a sense of multiplication in evil. The Reformation commentators (Calvin, Geneva Bible, Matthew Henry) used the verse to argue that knowledge of God without obedience makes one’s guilt greater than that of pagans. In Puritan and Wesleyan traditions, the text was preached to urge self-examination: those who name Christ must not live worse than the world, nor even fall short of the world’s own standards of consistency. In modern Christian ethics, the passage is often cited to challenge believers who excuse their sin by comparing themselves to “worse” sinners, missing that the standard is Christ, not the culture.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- Set in the centre, yet most corrupt. God placed Jerusalem in the midst of nations to be a witness and a channel of blessing. But she exceeded those nations in wickedness (v.5-7). Privilege without obedience compounds guilt.
- Worse than pagans, not even as good as pagans. Israel’s sin was not just that they broke God’s laws, but that they failed to copy even the loyalty pagans show to their false gods (Jeremiah 2:11). They lacked both faithfulness and consistency.
- Unprecedented judgment for unprecedented sin. Because the crime surpassed the nations, the punishment would surpass anything previously seen (v.8-9). God’s response matches the height of the rebellion.
Five-point outline
- The privilege of position (v.5): Jerusalem as the divinely placed centre of the nations.
- The corruption of the covenant-people (v.6): Rebellion against God’s statutes more than the nations.
- The double failure (v.7): Not walking in God’s statutes nor even following the ordinances of the nations.
- The Lord’s personal intervention (v.8): “Behold, I, even I, am against you.”
- The unmatched severity (v.9): A judgment with no precedent and no repeat.
Illustration hooks
- A student caught cheating might be expelled, but a student who cheats and also insults the teacher faces a harsher penalty. Israel not only broke God’s rules, they broke them worse than anyone else.
- A child raised in a home with clear rules who deliberately breaks those rules is held more responsible than a child from a home with no rules at all. Israel knew better, and did worse.
- Consider a company that prides itself on ethics but is found to be more corrupt than its competitors. The betrayal of trust deepens the scandal. That is Jerusalem’s position here.
Questions your congregation is asking
- How could Israel be worse than nations that never even knew God?
- Does this verse mean we should imitate unbelievers in some ways? What does “the ordinances of the nations” refer to?
- What does this passage say about God’s expectations for those who have received more spiritual light?
Leading a Discussion
Ezekiel 5:7 confronts a deep awkwardness: Israel is condemned not only for disobeying God but also for failing to imitate the consistency of pagan nations. This forces readers to ask what privilege demands. The passage does not leave room for complacency, it probes how those who know God actually live.
Discussion questions
- Read Ezekiel 5:5-6. Why is it significant that God “set” Jerusalem in the middle of the nations? What was that position supposed to accomplish?
- According to verse 7, what two things is Israel guilty of? How do these two charges relate to each other?
- The Hebrew word translated “turbulent” (WEB, ASV) or “multiplied” (KJV) is difficult. How do the different English translations shape your understanding of Israel’s sin?
- Look at Jeremiah 2:10-11. In what way did the nations show more faithfulness to their false gods than Israel showed to the true God? Why does this comparison make Israel’s sin worse?
- Verse 7 includes the phrase “neither have you done according to the ordinances of the nations that are around you.” Why is this a problem? What does it reveal about the nature of their rebellion?
- The judgment that follows (verses 8-17) is described as unprecedented. Why is the punishment so severe? Is it proportional to the sin?
- What does this passage teach about the dangers of spiritual privilege? How can we guard against taking our knowledge of God for granted?
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| II Kings 21:9 | But they didn’t listen, and Manasseh seduced them to do that which is evil more than the nations did whom Yahweh destroyed before the children of Israel. |
| II Kings 21:11 | “Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, and has done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has also made Judah to sin with his idols; |
| II Chronicles 33:9 | Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that they did more evil than did the nations whom Yahweh destroyed before the children of Israel. |
| Jeremiah 2:10 | For pass over to the islands of Kittim, and see. Send to Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there has been such a thing. |
| Jeremiah 2:11 | Has a nation changed its gods, which really are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which doesn’t profit. |
| Ezekiel 5:11 | Therefore as I live,’ says the Lord Yahweh, ‘surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things, and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you. My eye won’t spare, and I will have no pity. |
| Ezekiel 16:47 | Yet you have not walked in their ways, nor done their abominations; but soon you were more corrupt than they in all your ways. |
| Ezekiel 16:48 | As I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “Sodom your sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters. |
Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
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What the Commentators Say
8 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Calvin's Commentaries Reformed 1564
Calvin reads the Hebrew word here as active: the people have "multiplied" not in numbers or wealth but in evil, surpassing every other nation in their wanton superstitions. He rejects common interpretations that connect it to prosperity or population, insisting the sense is about their surpassing wickedness.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
The Cambridge Bible suggests the traditional rendering of "because ye multiplied" or "are turbulent" rests on an improbable verb. It favors an alternative reading, "because ye rebelled," which better resumes the charge that Israel surpassed the nations in wickedness.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Because your multitude is greater then the nations that are rounde about you, and ye haue not walked in my statutes, neither haue ye kept my iudgements: no, ye haue not done according to the iudgements of the nations, that are rounde about you,
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill examines a textual puzzle: Israel did not follow God's laws, yet the Hebrew says they also failed to follow the laws of the surrounding nations. He resolves this by noting they rejected what was right among the pagans while embracing whatever was corrupt, making them worse than the heathen.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary Protestant 1871
JFB emphasizes that Israel sinned worse than surrounding nations not by doing all the evil the pagans did, but by failing to match their consistency. The heathen clung tenaciously to false gods, yet Israel abandoned the true God, showing less devotion to true religion than pagans showed to idols.
Keil & Delitzsch OT Commentary Protestant 1876
Keil-Delitzsch stress that Jerusalem's central position among the nations was not geographical but historical and salvific, meant to spread God's law to all peoples. Its rebellion, worse than the heathen, earned a unique judgment — a destruction so severe that Israel's existence as God's people was temporarily suspended, unmatched before or since.
Lange's Commentary Reformed 1857
Lange emphasizes that the weighing balances in this passage symbolize God's exact justice distributing punishment in three equal portions. The fire consuming even the few preserved in the skirt represents God's wrathful judgment annihilating the whole house of Israel, not a purifying flame. The remnant appears as a bare minimum left solely by unconditional grace.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes Methodist/Wesleyan 1754
Wesley notes a striking reversal: Israel actually surpassed the surrounding nations in idolatry and superstition, not falling behind them. Yet at the same time they fell short of those same nations in basic moral virtues. For Wesley their religious sins were greater, not lesser, than their pagans neighbors'.