Ezekiel 5 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Ezekiel 5

Jerusalem Will Be Destroyed

5:1 “And you, O son of man, take a sharp sword. Use it as a barber’s razor and pass it over your head and your beard. Then take balances for weighing and divide the hair. 2 A third part you shall burn in the fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are completed. And a third part you shall take and strike with the sword all around the city. And a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will unsheathe the sword after them. 3 And you shall take from these a small number and bind them in the skirts of your robe. 4 And of these again you shall take some and cast them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will come out into all the house of Israel.

5 “Thus says the Lord GOD: This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. 6 And she has rebelled against my rules by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries all around her; for they have rejected my rules and have not walked in my statutes. 7 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you are more turbulent than the nations that are all around you, and have not walked in my statutes or obeyed my rules, and have not¹ even acted according to the rules of the nations that are all around you, 8 therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, even I, am against you. And I will execute judgments² in your midst in the sight of the nations. 9 And because of all your abominations I will do with you what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again. 10 Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers. And I will execute judgments on you, and any of you who survive I will scatter to all the winds. 11 Therefore, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will withdraw.³ My eye will not spare, and I will have no pity. 12 A third part of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed with famine in your midst; a third part shall fall by the sword all around you; and a third part I will scatter to all the winds and will unsheathe the sword after them.

13 “Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. And they shall know that I am the LORD—that I have spoken in my jealousy—when I spend my fury upon them. 14 Moreover, I will make you a desolation and an object of reproach among the nations all around you and in the sight of all who pass by. 15 You shall be⁴ a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror, to the nations all around you, when I execute judgments on you in anger and fury, and with furious rebukes—I am the LORD; I have spoken—16 when I send against you⁵ the deadly arrows of famine, arrows for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, and when I bring more and more famine upon you and break your supply⁶ of bread. 17 I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will rob you of your children. Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I am the LORD; I have spoken.”

Footnotes

[1] 5:7 Some Hebrew manuscripts and Syriac lack not
[2] 5:8 The same Hebrew expression can mean obey rules, or execute judgments, depending on the context
[3] 5:11 Some Hebrew manuscripts I will cut you down
[4] 5:15 Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, Targum; Masoretic Text And it shall be
[5] 5:16 Hebrew them
[6] 5:16 Hebrew staff

Commentary

The language of this chapter is both serious and shocking. As Ezekiel spoke these words to people, they must have been quite shocked.

v1-4: The third sign to Israel, the sword against Jerusalem. The use of scales means that the three-part division is quite accurate, see v12. There were only a small number bound in his belt, and even these would endure fire. The fire spread from the few to the whole nation.

v5: The Sovereign Lord had set Jerusalem in the midst of the nations, as a beacon and testimony. The image is striking, as Ezekiel has his hair cut off. This image did not make the judgment happen, but is a prophecy of what God was to do. In contrast, the surrounding nations used ‘sympathetic magic,’ in which the prophecy was thought to trigger the events being prophesied.

v6-7: Jerusalem was more than disobedient, she multiplied her sins, and even more than the nations. She did not even meet the Gentiles' standards of behaviour, compare 1 Cor 5.1. How sad when the people of God fall below the world's standards.

v8: Jerusalem's public sins led to public punishment and shame.

v9-10: The judgments are so severe, as never to be repeated.

v11: The specific sin of idolatry, by which they defiled God's sanctuary; compare 1 Cor 3.16. The Lord will have no pity; see 7.3-9.

v12: Linking with the image of the hair divided into three parts.

v13: God reveals how His anger is demonstrated; further, His anger is spent; there is an end to His judgment upon Israel, for mercy triumphs over judgment. There is no offer of repentance, for the people are already experiencing judgment.

v14-17: "I the Lord have spoken." Here, God's power and holiness are demonstrated, judgments previously predicted are now fulfilled; and we are left in no doubt that God appointed the disasters which befell His people.