(7) The morning is come unto thee.--The word here used is not the usual one for morning. This word occurs elsewhere only in Ezekiel 7:10 and Isaiah 28:5, where it is translated crown. There is much difference of opinion both as to its derivation and its meaning. The most probable sense is circuit--"the circuit of thy sins is finished, and the end is come upon thee."

The sounding again of the mountains.--This is again a peculiar word, occurring only here; but it is nearly like and probably has the same meaning as the word in Isaiah 16:10, Jeremiah 25:10, denoting the joyous sounds of the people, especially at harvest-time, filling the land and echoing back from the mountains. Instead of this shall be the tumult (rather the trouble) of the day of war. (See the opposite contrast in Exodus 32:17-18.)

Verse 7. - The morning is come unto thee, etc. In the only other passage in which the Hebrew noun occurs (Isaiah 28:5), it is translated "diadem," the meaning being strictly a circular ornament. Here the LXX. gives πλοκὴ, something twirled, out of which may come the meaning of the changes of fortune. Possibly, as in the familiar "wheel of fortune," that thought was involved in the circular form by itself. In the Tahnud it appears as the name of the goddess of fate at Ascalon (Furst). On the whole, I follow the Revised Version, Keil, and Ewald, in giving "thy doom." The "morning" of the Authorized Version probably rises from the thought that the dawn is, as it were, the glory and diadem of the day. The Vulgate gives contritio. The day of trouble; better, with the Revised Version, of tumult. The word is specially used of the noise of war (Isaiah 22:5; Amos 3:9; Zechariah 14:3). Not the sounding again upon the mountains. The first noun is not found in the Old Testament, but a closely allied form appears in Isaiah 16:9; Jeremiah 25:30; Jeremiah 48:33, for the song of the vintage. Not that, the prophet says, shall be heard on the mountains, but in its place the cry of battle and the noise of war. The LXX. "not with travail-pangs," and the Vulgate non gloriae montium, show that the word was in both cases a puzzle to the translators.

7:1-15 The abruptness of this prophecy, and the many repetitions, show that the prophet was deeply affected by the prospect of these calamities. Such will the destruction of sinners be; for none can avoid it. Oh that the wickedness of the wicked might end before it bring them to an end! Trouble is to the impenitent only an evil, it hardens their hearts, and stirs up their corruptions; but there are those to whom it is sanctified by the grace of God, and made a means of much good. The day of real trouble is near, not a mere echo or rumour of troubles. Whatever are the fruits of God's judgments, our sin is the root of them. These judgments shall be universal. And God will be glorified in all. Now is the day of the Lord's patience and mercy, but the time of the sinner's trouble is at hand.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.