Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I will deal with you? I, Yahweh, have spoken it, and will do it.
Parallel Translations
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Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I will deal with you? I, Yahweh, have spoken it, and will do it.
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Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I the LORD have spoken it, and will do it.
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Can thy heart endure, or can thy hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I the LORD have spoken it, and will do it.
Cross-references (13)
Passages linked to Ezekiel 22:14 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Ezekiel 21:7 It shall be, when they ask you, ‘Why do you sigh?’ that you shall say, ‘Because of the news, for it comes! Every heart will melt, all hands will be feeble, every spirit will faint, and all knees will be weak as water. Behold, it comes, and it shall be done, says the Lord Yahweh.’ ”
- Ezekiel 17:24 All the trees of the field will know that I, Yahweh, have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree flourish. “ ‘I, Yahweh, have spoken and have done it.’ ”
- Ezekiel 24:14 I, Yahweh, have spoken it. It will happen, and I will do it. I won’t go back. I won’t spare. I won’t repent. According to your ways, and according to your doings, they will judge you,” says the Lord Yahweh.’ ”
- 1 Samuel 15:29 Also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent; for he is not a man, that he should repent.”
- Job 40:9 Or do you have an arm like God? Can you thunder with a voice like him?
- Isaiah 31:3 Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When Yahweh stretches out his hand, both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall, and they all shall be consumed together.
- Isaiah 45:9 Woe to him who strives with his Maker— a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth! Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’ or your work, ‘He has no hands?’
- Jeremiah 13:21 What will you say, when he sets over you as head those whom you have yourself taught to be friends to you? Won’t sorrows take hold of you, as of a woman in travail?
- Ezekiel 28:9 Will you yet say before him who kills you, ‘I am God’? But you are man, and not God, in the hand of him who wounds you.
- Mark 13:31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
- 1 Corinthians 10:22 Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
- Hebrews 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
- Ezekiel 5:13 “ ‘Thus my anger will be accomplished, and I will cause my wrath toward them to rest, and I will be comforted. They will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in my zeal, when I have accomplished my wrath on them.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (8 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain That is, able to defend thyself.
That is, able to defend thyself.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Eze 22:14 Can thine heart endure, or can thine…
Eze 22:14 Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I the LORD have spoken [it], and will do [it].
Ver. 14. Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong?] Interrogatio continens latentem ironiam - q.d., Misella superbula, erisne ferendo mala futura? Thou pour, proud thing of nought, canst thou make thy party good with me? Canst thou either in mind or body bear my wrath? will not thine heart soon fall into thy heels, and thine hands be enfeebled when I shall grapple with thee, and take thee to do?
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And will do it.] Thou thinkest, likely, that all these are but terrible words, devised on purpose to frighten silly people, but I will do it.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Can thine heart endure? this question is a vehement…
Can thine heart endure? this question is a vehement negation, thou canst by no means endure, withstand and repel the evils that are coming, or bear them when come. Will thy courage hold out, and conquer? Nay, it will be with thee as Eze 21:7, your hearts shall melt.
Can thine hands be strong, to hold the sword, and manage the warlike provisions against Nebuchadnezzar and his army? Your hands shall be exceeding feeble, Eze 21:7, your weapons fall out of your hands, your hearts first melting with fear.
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The days; the times of long and multiplied sorrows, and furious indignation.
That I shall deal with thee; the Babylonians are but men, but I the Lord your God, whom you have provoked, am with them; they are my weapons of war and I strike by them, and thou shalt never be able to subsist under it. Flatter not thyself, the Lord will do it as he hath spoken it.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Can thine heart endure,.... Or "stand" (d): surely it…
Can thine heart endure,.... Or "stand" (d): surely it must fall within thee; become like water, and melt as wax, be it ever so hard and adamantine:
or can thine hands be strong in the days that I shall deal with thee? surely they must become weak, and drop, and not be able to hold a weapon for defence: and, if this would be the case, when God should deal with the Jews for their sins, by sending the Chaldean army to besiege their city, and take it; how will it be with sinners at the day of judgment, and to all eternity, when the awful sentence shall be pronounced, "go ye cursed"; when the wrath of God shall be poured out upon them; when they shall be cast into hell, where the worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched? this will be intolerable by the most stout hearted sinner; no heart will be strong enough to stand up under it, or hands to keep it off:
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I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it; he who is the mighty God, the eternal and unchangeable Jehovah; he has said it, that he will deal with impenitent sinners in a way of wrath, and he will be as good as his word; he will certainly accomplish it; it is in vain for men to flatter themselves to the contrary; or to put away the evil day far from them; it shall surely be. The Targum is,
"I have decreed by my word, and I will establish it.''
(d) "num quid stabit cor tuum?" Paginus, Montanus; "consistet" Munster, Vatablus, Piscator; "perstabit", Junius and Tremellius, Polanus; "constabit", Coeccius, Starckius.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Endure - Withstand the evils that are coming, or…
Endure - Withstand the evils that are coming, or bear them when come.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain (Eze 21:7).
(Eze 21:7).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 14. Cf. Eze_21:7, “every heart shall melt, and all…
14. Cf. Eze_21:7, “every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble.”
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Can thine heart endure, etc.? The question implies an…
Can thine heart endure, etc.? The question implies an answer in the negative. Heart would fail and hands wax feeble in the day of the Lord"s judgment. The doom of exile and dispersion must come, with all its horrors; but even here, Judah was not, like Ammon to be forgotten. (Eze_21:32) Her punishment was to do its work, and to consume her filthiness out of her.
A total collapse.
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I DELUSIVE HOPE. Consider what it rests on.
1. A stout heart. The sinner believes in himself. He feels brave and confident. No doubt this temper of mind will help him over a number of difficulties. But will it stand in the awful day of Divine judgment?
2. Strong hands. The sinner is conscious of strength in himself and in his possessions, in his body and mind, and in the resources of his ill-gotten gain. The wicked king owns his army; the bad millionaire holds his money; the sinful man of humbler pretensions relies on his wits, his energy, or at worst on his luck.
3. Present prosperity. The text refers to future days, when God will deal with the sinner. Those days have not yet dawned, and all is fair at present. The natural tendency is to believe that the world will continue as it is now. "For as in the days that were before the Flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark". (Mat_24:38)
II CERTAIN FAILURE. The text is in the form of a question, but it plainly suggests only one dismal answer. The delusive hope must fail. Note the grounds of the certain failure.
1. Human feebleness. It is a case of the strength of man matched against the might of God. Who can doubt the issue? In such a contest the stoutest heart must fail and the strongest arm go down. Man is the lord of creation; but he is a feeble insect before Omnipotence.
2. Divine constancy. "I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it." God is true to his word. He does not mock his children with idle threats. He is too sure to fail.
3. Changed circumstances. "In the days that I shall deal with thee." Those days have not yet arrived. Therefore we cannot comfort ourselves that we shall be safe in the future because we are comfortable enough at present. The coming days will wear a new aspect. We are not fortified against winter storms by the enjoyment of summer sunshine. The ease with which we glide down the stream is no guarantee that the thunder of the falls will never be reached. The delusive hope which shines fair in the old times of Divine waiting will be shattered to fragments in the new days of Divine judgment.
III CONSEQUENT MISERY. The question of the text is not answered; but the doleful silence with which it is received suggests the misery that is to follow. If heart and hand fail, the ruin and wretchedness must be complete. While a good man fighting against adversity is said to be a sight for the admiration of gods as well as men, a bad man crushed by misery is only an object of horror. The stout heart of honest intentions can bear up against unmerited woes and find in its own fortitude a certain solace. But this solace will be wanting in the collapse of the false hope of the sinner. Then will follow the deepest misery, the sense of being confounded, the helplessness of being swept away in a flood of destruction. Pain is not the worst evil. The depth of hell is reached when heart and strength fail, and the sinner loses all power to withstand his fate. Hence the supreme need of a Savior. (Rom_8:1)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.