7 Your doom has come to you, inhabitant of the land: the time has come, the day is near, (a day of) tumult, and not (of) joyful shouting, on the mountains.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Now he uses another word. He says, the morning is come, though some translate kingdom, but erroneously. For although tsphyrh, tzephireh, is a turban sometimes, or a royal diadem, yet the Prophet's language is distorted when they say that the kingdom was transferred, or taken over to the Babylonians. But the sentence flows best -- the morning cometh By "the morning" he implies what he had said before, namely, the hastening of God's vengeance. As, therefore, he said the end was watching, since God was hastening to take vengeance, so also he says, the morning is come to them, and then rouses them from that drowsiness in which they had grown torpid. We know that hypocrites commit all their sins as if no eye were upon them; as long as God is silent and at rest they revel without shame or fear. But the chosen remain faithful even in secret; but God's word always shines before them, as Peter says -- ye do well when ye attend to the Prophetic word, as a lamp shining in darkness. (2-Peter 1:19.) Although the faithful may be surrounded by darkness, yet they direct their eye to the light of celestial doctrine, so that they are watchful, and are not children of the night and of darkness, as Paul says. (1-Thessalonians 5:4,5.) But the impious are, as it were, immersed in darkness, and think they shall enjoy perpetual night. As the rising morning dispels the darkness of night, so also God's judgment, on its sudden appearance, strikes the reprobate with unexpected terror, but too late. For this reason, then, the Prophet says, that morning is come to the Israelites, because they had promised themselves perpetual night, as if they were never to be called upon to render an account of their conduct. We see, therefore, that he alludes suitably to that torpor which was the cause of their obstinacy, when they thought themselves safe in their hiding-places. Hence he laughs at their perverse confidence, who promise themselves impunity because they are in night. For the morning, he says, will immediately seize upon you; hence morning is coming upon thee, O inhabitant of the land; afterwards, the time is come: t, gneth, properly signifies all appointed or determined time. Hence the Prophet meant that the time had come which God had fixed beforehand for his judgment, and thus he takes away from the impious the material for pride, for they always suppose that God is as it were asleep when he does not attack them at the very first moment. He speaks, therefore, of an appointed time, as in other places the Prophets usually do, and frequently of the year of visitation. He signifies the same thing when he says, the day of tumult, or noise, is at hand. This member of the sentence answers to the former. He had said the end was watching; he had said that the judgment was hastening on: now simply and without figure he says, the day is at hand, qrvv, krob, a day, I say, of noise, and not the echo of the mountains, says he; that is, it shall not be an empty resounding, as when a. sound is produced among the mountains a concussion arises, and since the sounds which are uttered there, when taken up by the neighboring mountains, return to their own place, and thus a greater resounding occurs, called echo. The Prophet therefore says, that the clamor of which he speaks should not be an echo, that is, an empty resounding, because all should seriously cry out. Some think hd, hed, means "acclamations," which is properly hydd, hided; it is, indeed, from the same root, but hr, her, is used in the same sense. But if this explanation seems better, the Prophet will allude to mountains, not lofty, but vine-bearing, as many were in the land of Israel. But the other explanation is preferable, namely, there shall be the sound of a tumult, not on account of the reverberation, as they say, but because every one should cry out, until sorrow and crying should abound on every side. It follows --
The morning - Rather, "The conclusion:" a whole series (literally circle) of events is being brought to a close. Others render it: Fate.
The day of trouble - Or, The day is near; a tumult Zac 14:13, and not the echo of (or, shouting on) the mountains. The contrast is between the wild tumult of war and the joyous shouts of such as keep holiday.
The morning is come unto thee - Every note of time is used in order to show the certainty of the thing. The morning that the executioner has watched for is come; the time of that morning, in which it should take place, and the day to which that time, precise hour of that morning, belongs in which judgment shall be executed. All, all is come.
And not the sounding again of the mountains - The hostile troops are advancing! Ye hear a sound, a tumultuous noise; do not suppose that this proceeds from festivals upon the mountains; from the joy of harvestmen, or the treaders of the wine-press. It is the noise of those by whom ye and your country are to fall. ולא הד הרים veto hed harim, and not the reverberation of sound, or reflected sound, or reechoing from the mountains. "Now will I shortly pour out," Ezekiel 7:8. Here they come!
The (c) morning is come upon thee, O thou that dwellest in the land: the time is come, the day of trouble [is] near, and not the joyful (d) shouting upon the mountains.
(c) The beginning of his punishments is already come.
(d) Which was a voice of joy and mirth.
The morning is come upon thee, O thou that dwellest in the land,.... That is, early ruin was come, or was coming, upon the inhabitants of Judea, which before is said to be awake, and to watch for them; and now the day being broke, the morning come, it hastened to them. Some, because this word (g) is used in Isaiah 18:5; for a crown or diadem, think a crowned head, a king, is here meant; particularly Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the instrument of the destruction of Jerusalem. So the Targum,
"the kingdom is revealed upon or against thee, O inhabitant of the land.''
Jarchi interprets it of the morning setting as the sun does, its light and glory disappearing; and so denotes a dark and gloomy day;
the time is come; the appointed time of Jerusalem's ruin, the time of her visitation;
the day of trouble, or "noise" (h),
is near; either of the Chaldean army, its chariots and horses, and of their armour; or of the howling and lamentation of the Jews:
and not the sounding again of the mountains; not like the echo of a man's voice between the mountains, which is only imaginary, but this is real; so Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it: or this was not like the shoutings of the vintage, which were joyful ones, Isaiah 16:9; but this the voice of lamentation and sorrow, doleful sounds. Jarchi says the word signifies the cry of the voice, proclaiming or calling on persons to fly to the tops of the mountains, which now should not be; and so the Targum,
"and there is no fleeing or escaping to the tops of the mountains.''
(g) "corona", Tigurine version, so some is Vatablus; "cidaris matutina", Montanus. (h) "tumultus", Montanus, Piscator, Starckius; "strepitus", Calvin; "clamoris", Vatablus.
The morning--so Chaldean and Syriac versions (compare Joel 2:2). Ezekiel wishes to awaken them from their lethargy, whereby they were promising to themselves an uninterrupted night (1-Thessalonians 5:5-7), as if they were never to be called to account [CALVIN]. The expression, "morning," refers to the fact that this was the usual time for magistrates giving sentence against offenders (compare Ezekiel 7:10, below; Psalm 101:8; Jeremiah 21:12). GESENIUS, less probably, translates, "the order of fate"; thy turn to be punished.
not the sounding again--not an empty echo, such as is produced by the reverberation of sounds in "the mountains," but a real cry of tumult is coming [CALVIN]. Perhaps it alludes to the joyous cries of the grape-gatherers at vintage on the hills [GROTIUS], or of the idolaters in their dances on their festivals in honor of their false gods [TIRINUS]. HAVERNICK translates, "no brightness."
The morning - The fatal morning, the day of destruction. Sounding - Not a mere echo, not a fancy, but a real thing.
*More commentary available at chapter level.