“Behold the day, behold it comes. Your doom is gone forth. The rod has blossomed. Pride has budded. Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness, none of them will remain, nor of their abundance (multitude of possessions), nor of their wealth. Neither will there be eminency among them.”
Once again emphasis is laid on the coming of a ‘day' of God, previously expressed in terms of the coming of ‘the end', of evil coming, of doom coming, of ‘the time' coming. The inevitability of it is made apparent. And it is the day of tumult not of joyful shouting (Ezekiel 7:7).
The picture here is full of irony and is taken from that of Aaron's rod that budded which was ‘a token against the children of rebellion' (Numbers 17:10). ‘The day', the day of God's anger, is coming and it will be like that. It will be like a crown of doom coming on them from God. In the days of Aaron the rods represented the leaders of the people (Numbers 17:2-3). They represented their authority. But they did not blossom. They were not God's chosen one (Numbers 17:5). Now, however, their rod will blossom, God has chosen them, but He has chosen them for judgment. Their pride will produce its fruit. And that fruit will be violence, which will be a rod for the wicked, a rod which will destroy so that none of them remain, all the abundance of their possessions will be destroyed and their wealth will be taken away. Nothing will remain. They will no longer be eminent for eminency will no longer be among them. It will be the end of Judah as it is known, many will die and those who survive will have lost everything, possessions, wealth and status.