“And it shall be, when they say unto thee, Wherefore sighest thou? that thou shalt answer, For the tidings; because it cometh: and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it cometh, and shall be brought to pass, saith the Lord GOD.”
My Notes
What Does Ezekiel 21:7 Mean?
God prepares Ezekiel for the community's question: "when they say unto thee, Wherefore sighest thou?" — when people notice the prophet's visible grief and ask why — Ezekiel is to answer: "For the tidings; because it cometh." The news of Jerusalem's fall is approaching. The prophet's grief anticipates the grief the community hasn't yet felt. Ezekiel mourns what hasn't happened yet because he knows what's coming.
The sighing (anach — to groan, to sigh deeply, to express internal anguish through audible breath) is the grief's external expression: the prophet's body communicates what his mouth hasn't yet been authorized to explain in full. The groaning precedes the explanation. The community sees the effect (sighing) before they understand the cause (Jerusalem's destruction).
The physical effects — "every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water" — describe what will happen when the tidings arrive: total psychophysical collapse. Hearts dissolve. Hands fail. Spirits faint. Knees liquefy. The body's response to the news matches the news's devastation.
Reflection Questions
- 1.How does the prophet's advance grief (sighing before the news arrives) model carrying knowledge others don't yet have?
- 2.What does the four-fold physical collapse (heart, hands, spirit, knees) teach about news devastating the whole body?
- 3.When have you carried grief that nobody around you understood because they hadn't heard the news yet?
- 4.What 'tidings' are approaching in your context that will explain the sighing you already feel?
Devotional
Why are you sighing? Because the news is coming. And when it arrives, every heart will melt. Every hand will go limp. Every spirit will faint. Every knee will turn to water. The prophet grieves in advance for what the community will grieve when they finally hear.
The sighing is the advance grief: Ezekiel knows what's coming before the community does. The destruction of Jerusalem — which the exiles in Babylon haven't yet heard about — is approaching as news. The prophet's body processes the coming grief before the community's ears receive it. The groaning is the preview. The news is the feature.
The community's question ('why are you sighing?') reveals that they can see the grief but can't understand it: the prophet is visibly distressed and nobody knows why. The explanation ('for the tidings; because it cometh') connects the visible distress to the invisible news: I'm sighing because I know what you're about to hear. The information that will destroy your composure has already destroyed mine.
The four-fold physical collapse (heart melts, hands fail, spirit faints, knees liquefy) describes what the news will do to the human body: the heart (the interior — emotional center) dissolves. The hands (the instruments of action — the ability to respond) go limp. The spirit (the animating force — what makes you alive and active) faints. The knees (the structural support — what holds you upright) become water. Every physical system fails simultaneously.
The advance grief of the prophet is the pastoral model for carrying knowledge that others don't yet have: the pastor who knows the diagnosis before the patient. The leader who sees the crisis before the community. The person who carries the weight of what's coming while everyone around them asks 'why are you sighing?' The grief of foreknowledge is the loneliest grief.
What are you sighing about that nobody around you understands yet?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Again, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying. Either this is a new prophecy of another sword, distinct and different…
Wherefore sighest thou? - The prophet was a sign unto them.
His sighing and mourning showed them how they should…
The prophet had faithfully delivered the message he was entrusted with, in the close of the foregoing chapter, in the…
it cometh i.e. the overwhelming disaster. The words, "and … to pass" are wanting in LXX.
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture