Ezekiel 6:11

This is what the Lord GOD says: Clap your hands, stomp your feet, and cry out “Alas!” because of all the wicked abominations of the house of Israel, who will fall by sword and famine and plague.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — The Lord God commands the prophet to perform a public gesture of judgment over the house of Israel. This declaration occurs as a guarantee that the coming calamity will definitively reveal His identity.

The words — הַכֵּ֨ה (ha.Keh) means strike or clap, and וּ/רְקַ֤ע (u./re.Ka') means to stamp or stomp. These verbs instruct the prophet to enact a physical sign of mourning and condemnation.

The thread — The triad of sword, famine, and plague recurs as a standard formula for divine judgment in Ezekiel 5:12 and Jeremiah 24:10. Jeremiah 30:7 frames this period as a time of unprecedented distress.

Why it lands — The text demands recognition that Israel's abominations trigger a fixed sequence of lethal punishments. It requires the reader to accept that physical judgment is the direct consequence of covenant rebellion.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

King James Version

Thus saith the Lord God; Smite with thine hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.

Cross-references

Ezekiel 5:12 A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them.
Jeremiah 24:10 And I will send against them sword and famine and plague, until they have perished from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.’”
Jeremiah 30:7 How awful that day will be! None will be like it! It is the time of Jacob’s distress, but he will be saved out of it.
Ezekiel 9:4 “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem,” said the LORD, “and put a mark on the foreheads of the men sighing and groaning over all the abominations committed there.”
Ezekiel 14:21 For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem My four dire judgments—sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague—in order to cut off from it both man and beast?
Ezekiel 21:14 ‘So then, son of man, prophesy and strike your hands together. Let the sword strike two times, even three. It is a sword that slays, a sword of great slaughter closing in on every side!
Ezekiel 25:6 For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you clapped your hands and stomped your feet and rejoiced over the land of Israel with a heart full of contempt,
Joel 1:15 Alas for the day! For the Day of the LORD is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
Numbers 24:10 Then Balak’s anger burned against Balaam, and he struck his hands together and said to Balaam, “I summoned you to curse my enemies, but behold, you have persisted in blessing them these three times.
Isaiah 58:1 “Cry aloud, do not hold back! Raise your voice like a ram’s horn. Declare to My people their transgression and to the house of Jacob their sins.