The Pulpit Commentary
Your images, etc. The "sun images" of the Revised Version shows why these are mentioned as distinct from the "idols." The chammanim were pillars or obelisks identified with the worship of Baal as the sun god, standing on his altars (2Ch_34:4), coupled with the "groves," or Asherim (Isa_17:8; Isa_27:9), and with the "high places" in 2Ch_14:5. I will cast down your slain men before your idols. As in the prophecy against Bethel (1Ki_13:2), and in Josiah's action (2 Kings 33:16), this was the ne plus ultra of desecration. Where throe had been the sweet savour of incense there should be the sickening odour of the carcases of the slain. The word for "idols" (gillulim), though found elsewhere, notably in Ezekiel's favourite textbooks (Le 26:30; Deu_29:17), is more prominent in his writings (where it occurs thirty-six times) then in any other book of the Old Testament, and means, primarily, a cairn or heap of stones, which, like the "sun images," came to be associated with Baal. Ezekiel repeats both words in verse 6, with all the emphasis of scorn. He predicts the coming of a time when the work of destruction should be done more thoroughly than even Josiah lind done it. When that time came, the familiar formula, "Ye shall know that I am the Lord," should receive yet another fulfilment.

The Pulpit Commentary
Yet will I leave a remnant, ere. The thought, though not the word, is that of Isa_1:9; Isa_10:20; Zep_2:7; Zep_3:13; Jer_43:5. For these, at least, the punishment would, in greater or less measure, do its work; and, in remembering Jehovah, they would find the beginning of conversion.

The Pulpit Commentary
Because I am broken with their whorish heart. The words have been very differently rendered.

(1) The Revised Version mainly follows the Authorized Version, but gives, they shall remember … how I have been broken, etc. So taken, the words are boldly anthropomorphic, and ascribe to Jehovah the word which implies the strongest form of human distress. The "whorish heart" of the people has made Jehovah himself "broken-hearted."

(2) Most recent critics, however, follow the rendering of the Vulgate (contrivi), and take the verb, which is passive in form, as being like a Greek verb in the middle voice, transitive in form, with an implied reflex force. So we get, as in the margin of the Revised Version, "I have broken their whorish heart." So taken, thought and words are both connected with Psa_51:17, and the self-loathing that follows has its counterpart in Job_42:6. The thought is eminently characteristic of Ezekiel (Eze_20:43; Eze_36:31), and, we may add also, of Leviticus (Le Lev_26:39-42).

The Pulpit Commentary
I have not said in vain, etc. The thought of that self-loathing and repentance reconciles Ezekiel to his work. To "labour in vain" is the great misery of all workers for God. A time will come when he shall see that God has not sent him to such a work "in vain." What before was dark will be made clear unto him (comp. Eze_14:23). Ezekiel's words, "not in vain," are echoed frequently by St. Paul (1Co_15:14, 1Co_15:58; 2Co_6:1; Php_2:16, et al.). The corresponding phrase, "I have broken their eyes," sounds strange to us; but, after all, the heart is not literally broken more than the eyes, and figuratively the same words may be applied to either, so that there is no need for supposing, with some critics, that a more appropriate verb has been dropped out. Eyes and heart were alike involved in the sin (Eze_20:7, Eze_20:8, Eze_20:24; Num_15:39), and both came under the same chastisement that was to lead them to repentance.

The Pulpit Commentary
Smite with thine hand, etc. The outward gestures were to give a dramatic emphasis to the mingled indignation and sorrow with which the prophet was to utter his woe. A like action meets us in Eze_21:12. Instances of its use for other feelings meet us in Eze_22:13; Num_24:10 (anger); Jer_31:19 (shame).

The Pulpit Commentary
He that is far off, etc. The three forms of judgment named in Eze_6:11 have each their special victims. Pestilence comes chiefly on those who are outside the city, exposed to the weather changes and the taint of unburied corpses (Eze_6:5); the sword of the Chaldeans on those who venture on a sally, or try to escape from the city; famine presses heaviest on those who are besieged within it. None can escape the judgment. The word besieged is the same as in Isa_1:8; but it may have the sense, as in Isa_49:6, of "kept," or "preserved," for the worst evil of the three.

The Pulpit Commentary
The thought is the same as in Eze_6:6, but the localities are given in greater detail. The "hills" and "mountains" were naturally the scenes of the worship of the "high places," and these were commonly associated with groves of trees, as in Jer_2:20; Jer_3:6; Isa_57:5. In Hos_4:13, oaks (or terebinths), poplars, and elms are specifically named (comp. Deu_12:2; 2Ki_16:4). Where they did offer sweet savour, etc. The phrase is eminently characteristic of Ezekiel as a priest (Eze_16:19; Eze_20:28, Eze_20:41), and is specially prominent in the books which he must have studied. It meets us three times in Exodus, seventeen in Leviticus, seventeen in Numbers, and seldom elsewhere. The crowning sin, from the prophet's point of view, was that the incense which was due to Jehovah had been lavished on the false gods of the nations.

The Pulpit Commentary
More desolate than the wilderness towards Diblath; better, with the Authorized Version, from the wilderness. The name does not appear elsewhere, and has not been identified. Assuming the Authorized Version rendering, we must think of Ezekiel as naming, as Dante haines the Valdichiana ('Inf.,' 29.47), some specially horrible and desolate region. For such a region the name of Diblah (a cake of figs) does not seem appropriate. Taking the Revised Version translation ("from the wilderness toward Diblah"), we have a phrase analogous to "from Dan to Beersheba," as denoting the extent of the desolation. The "wilderness" is usually applied to the nomad region south of Palestine, and this would lead us to look for Diblah in the north, and so to look elsewhere than to the two places Beth-diblathaim (Jer_48:22) and Almon-diblathaim (Num_33:46), both of which are in Moab. The difficulty was solved by Jerome by the conjectural emendation of Riblah, the two Hebrew letters for d and r being often written by copyists for each other. Riblah (it is a suggestive fact that the two chief manuscripts of the LXX. the Alexandrian and the Vatican, have Deblatha, or Deblaa, in 2Ki_23:33; 2Ki_25:6) was a fortified town on the north road from Palestine to Babylon, where the Babylonian kings used to take up their position during their invasions of the former. Within a short time after Ezekiel wrote this chapter, it became memorable in its connection with Zedekiah's sufferings. Its probable site is fixed on the banks of the Orontes. The evidence, on the whole, is, I think, in favour of this interpretation. It is adopted by Ewald, Cornill, Smend, Gesenius, and most recent critics. An additional fact in its favour is that Hamath, in the same region, appears as an ideal northern boundary in Eze_47:16.