Bible Strands
Ezekiel 7:12
The time has come; the day has arrived. Let the buyer not rejoice and the seller not mourn, for wrath is upon the whole multitude.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God speaks through Ezekiel to the exiled Israelites during a prophetic oracle of imminent national collapse. The message targets the entire population at the precise moment of impending judgment.
The words — The Hebrew בָּא (ba') and הִגִּיעַ (hi.Gi.a') both mean "it has come" and "it has arrived," marking the sudden fulfillment of the appointed time. The terms הַקּוֹנֶה (ha.ko.Neh) and הַמוֹכֵר (ha.mo.Kher) name the buyer and seller whose commercial dealings are abruptly nullified.
The thread — The motif of a decisive, unrepeatable moment appears in Isaiah 5:13 and Isaiah 24:1, where God's judgment brings exile and desolation. Paul later echoes this urgency in 1 Corinthians 7:29 by declaring that the time is short and earthly attachments must be held loosely.
Why it lands — The text states that economic activity must halt because divine wrath has fallen on the whole multitude. It requires the reader to acknowledge that God's judgment overrides human security and renders worldly transactions meaningless.
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
The time is come, the day draweth near: let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn: for wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 5:13 Therefore My people will go into exile for their lack of understanding; their dignitaries are starving and their masses are parched with thirst.
- 1 Corinthians 7:29 What I am saying, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none;
- Isaiah 24:1 Behold, the LORD lays waste the earth and leaves it in ruins. He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants—
- Jeremiah 32:7 Behold! Hanamel, the son of your uncle Shallum, is coming to you to say, ‘Buy for yourself my field in Anathoth, for you have the right of redemption to buy it.’
- 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.
- Ezekiel 7:5 This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Disaster! An unprecedented disaster—behold, it is coming!
- Ezekiel 7:10 Behold, the day is here! It has come! Doom has gone out, the rod has budded, arrogance has bloomed.
- James 5:8 You, too, be patient and strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.
- Jeremiah 32:24 See how the siege ramps are mounted against the city to capture it. And by sword and famine and plague, the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What You have spoken has happened, as You now see!
- Ezekiel 7:13 The seller will surely not recover what he sold while both remain alive. For the vision concerning the whole multitude will not be revoked, and because of their iniquity, not one of them will preserve his life.