Bible Strands
Ezekiel 7:26
Disaster upon disaster will come, and rumor after rumor. Then they will seek a vision from a prophet, but instruction from the priests will perish, as will counsel from the elders.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God delivers this oracle through Ezekiel to the exiled community during a period of imminent national collapse. The declaration follows the announcement of unavoidable anguish and precedes the description of Israel's leaders mourning in despair.
The words — The Hebrew הֹוָה (ho.Vah) means disaster and appears twice to mark a relentless sequence, while שְׁמוּעָה (she.mu.'Ah) denotes report or rumor that multiplies amid the crisis. The text literally states that calamity will arrive upon calamity and information will follow information.
The thread — This motif of escalating catastrophe and failed guidance runs through Jeremiah 4:20, which proclaims disaster after disaster across a devastated land, and Psalm 74:9, which notes the disappearance of prophets and divine signs. The loss of priestly instruction and elder counsel contrasts with the earlier practice recorded in Ezekiel 14:1, where elders regularly sought the prophet.
Why it lands — The passage requires acknowledgment that societal breakdown leaves people without reliable spiritual or civil direction. It confronts the reader with the reality that divine judgment removes the institutions that normally preserve truth and order.
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
Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumour shall be upon rumour; then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 4:20 Disaster after disaster is proclaimed, for the whole land is laid waste. My tents are destroyed in an instant, my curtains in a moment.
- Psalms 74:9 There are no signs for us to see. There is no longer any prophet. And none of us knows how long this will last.
- Ezekiel 14:1 Then some of the elders of Israel came and sat down before me.
- Micah 3:6 Therefore night will come over you without visions, and darkness without divination. The sun will set on these prophets, and the daylight will turn black over them.
- Jeremiah 18:18 Then some said, “Come, let us make plans against Jeremiah, for the law will never be lost to the priest, nor counsel to the wise, nor an oracle to the prophet. Come, let us denounce him and pay no heed to any of his words.”
- Jeremiah 21:2 “Please inquire of the LORD on our behalf, since Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is waging war against us. Perhaps the LORD will perform for us something like all His past wonders, so that Nebuchadnezzar will withdraw from us.”
- Jeremiah 37:17 Later, King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah and received him in his palace, where he asked him privately, “Is there a word from the LORD?” “There is,” Jeremiah replied. “You will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.”
- Lamentations 2:9 Her gates have sunk into the ground; He has destroyed and shattered their bars. Her king and her princes are exiled among the nations, the law is no more, and even her prophets find no vision from the LORD.
- Ezekiel 20:1 In the seventh year, on the tenth day of the fifth month, some of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the LORD, and they sat down before me.
- Leviticus 26:18 And if after all this you will not obey Me, I will proceed to punish you sevenfold for your sins.