Ezekiel 12 7

Ezekiel 12:7 kjv

And I did so as I was commanded: I brought forth my stuff by day, as stuff for captivity, and in the even I digged through the wall with mine hand; I brought it forth in the twilight, and I bare it upon my shoulder in their sight.

Ezekiel 12:7 nkjv

So I did as I was commanded. I brought out my belongings by day, as though going into captivity, and at evening I dug through the wall with my hand. I brought them out at twilight, and I bore them on my shoulder in their sight.

Ezekiel 12:7 niv

So I did as I was commanded. During the day I brought out my things packed for exile. Then in the evening I dug through the wall with my hands. I took my belongings out at dusk, carrying them on my shoulders while they watched.

Ezekiel 12:7 esv

And I did as I was commanded. I brought out my baggage by day, as baggage for exile, and in the evening I dug through the wall with my own hands. I brought out my baggage at dusk, carrying it on my shoulder in their sight.

Ezekiel 12:7 nlt

So I did as I was told. In broad daylight I brought my pack outside, filled with the things I might carry into exile. Then in the evening while the people looked on, I dug through the wall with my hands and went out into the night with my pack on my shoulder.

Ezekiel 12 verses

Ezekiel 12 7 Meaning

Ezekiel 12:7 records the prophet's direct obedience to God's command to perform a detailed sign-act before the exiled community in Babylon. This prophetic action vividly portrays the impending siege, desperate flight, and ultimate capture and exile of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, particularly the king, Zedekiah. It dramatizes the futility of their attempts to escape divine judgment, showing a covert escape by night followed by deportation, confirming the certainty of Jerusalem's fall.

Ezekiel 12 7 Context

Ezekiel 12 records a series of sign-acts performed by the prophet in exile. The people in Jerusalem, holding onto a false sense of security, were delaying the fulfillment of prophetic warnings, saying "The days are prolonged, and every vision comes to nothing" (Eze 12:22). This chapter directly confronts their complacency and illustrates the imminence and nature of Jerusalem's fall and the king's fate. Ezekiel's actions, from preparing exile baggage in daylight to secretly digging through a wall and carrying the burden in the dark, were a living prophecy for the exiles (who would relay it back) and a visual confirmation of what awaited their brethren in Jerusalem, especially King Zedekiah. The historical setting is shortly before the final Babylonian siege of Jerusalem (588-586 BC), during the reign of Zedekiah.

Ezekiel 12 7 Word analysis

• So I did as I was commanded.
  • So I did: Emphasizes Ezekiel's direct, unhesitating obedience to the divine imperative, a hallmark of prophetic ministry (cf. Eze 2:7). This obedience confirms the divine origin and certainty of the message.
  • as I was commanded (צֻוֵּיתִי, tsuvvey-tee): This passive form signifies that God himself issued the command, making the prophet merely the instrument of divine will. It underlines the irresistible force behind the prophecy.
• I brought out my baggage by day, as baggage for exile,
  • I brought out my baggage: Signifies preparing for an urgent journey or relocation, common for those leaving a besieged city or going into exile.
  • by day: This action was performed visibly and publicly, making the prophecy clear and undeniable to the onlookers. It was not a secret action yet, but a public preparation.
  • as baggage for exile (כְּלֵי גּוֹלָה, kley golah): This explicit phrase removes all ambiguity, clearly stating the nature of the "baggage" as items for deportation. It directly speaks to the experience the audience knew or would soon know.
• and in the evening I dug through the wall with my hands.
  • and in the evening: Marks a distinct temporal shift, moving from public preparation to a more clandestine action, typical of an attempt to escape under the cover of darkness (Jer 39:4; 52:7).
  • I dug through the wall (חָתַרְתִּי, ḥāthartī - Piel form for "dug through" or "burrowed"): This indicates a laborious, desperate, and stealthy action to create an escape route through a barrier, likely a house wall leading to outside the city, circumventing established gates. It portrays the besieged city's dire circumstances.
  • with my hands: Highlights the physical exertion and the individual, manual nature of the desperate act, signifying no official or prepared escape route.
• I brought it out in the dark, carrying it on my shoulder in their sight.
  • I brought it out in the dark: Emphasizes the secretive, shameful nature of the flight, underscoring the king's furtive escape under cover of night.
  • carrying it on my shoulder: This posture symbolizes carrying a heavy burden, a common sight for exiles, fugitives, and refugees who carry their meager possessions. It reflects hardship, vulnerability, and impending deportation. (See Num 7:9 for an instance of carrying on shoulders for sacred objects, though the context here is of loss).
  • in their sight: Despite the attempts at stealth ("in the dark"), the overarching prophetic sign-act was visible to the intended audience (Eze 12:3), underscoring God's ultimate oversight and the inescapable reality of the judgment. It implies the performance aspect to observers.

Ezekiel 12 7 Bonus section

The visual prophecy of Ezekiel 12 was particularly impactful because the prophet was an exile himself. His reenactment of an even deeper stage of exile (a desperate, furtive flight) within the land of exile served to confirm to his audience that the Babylonians were indeed instruments of God's judgment. The "digging through the wall with hands" not only symbolized Zedekiah's escape but also represented the breaching of Jerusalem's physical and psychological defenses. It suggested that no barrier, natural or man-made, would prevent the divine decree from being fulfilled. The sign-act foreshadowed Zedekiah's attempted flight and eventual capture in the Jordan valley (near Jericho), and the final removal of the last vestiges of the Davidic monarchy from the land. This theatrical prophecy would have left an indelible impression, making the abstract idea of divine judgment concrete and undeniable to its immediate viewers and subsequent generations.

Ezekiel 12 7 Commentary

Ezekiel 12:7 encapsulates the desperate plight awaiting Jerusalem and its leadership. It moves from visible, clear instruction to the prophet to specific, highly symbolic actions that depict the grim reality of exile. The initial daytime preparations, explicitly labeled "baggage for exile," left no doubt about the prophecy's message. The subsequent actions – the arduous, personal act of digging through a wall at night and furtively carrying the burden on one's shoulder in the dark – dramatized the king's doomed escape from the besieged city. Zedekiah would attempt to flee Jerusalem in a similar clandestine manner when the walls were breached, only to be captured, blinded, and exiled. The entire sequence, performed "in their sight," served as an inescapable, living visual sermon, powerfully reinforcing the message that judgment was not merely coming, but was a certain, imminent, and humiliating reality for the rebellious people of Jerusalem. This sign-act countered the widespread disbelief by bringing the future into the present with striking realism.