E
Z E K I E L
CHAP. V.
In
this chapter we have a further, and no less terrible, denunciation of the
judgments of God, which were coming with all speed and force upon the Jewish
nation, which would utterly ruin it; for when God judges he will overcome.
This destruction of Judah and
Jerusalem
is here, I. Represented by a sign, the
cutting, and burning, and scattering of hair, ver. 1-4. II. That sign is
expounded, and applied to
Jerusalem. 1. Sin is charged upon
Jerusalem
as the cause of this desolation--contempt of
God's law (ver. 5-7) and profanation of his sanctuary, ver. 11. 2. Wrath is
threatened, great wrath (ver. 8-10), a variety of miseries (ver. 12, 16, 17),
such as should be their reproach and ruin, ver. 13-15.
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The
Representation of Jerusalem's Ruin.
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B.
C. 594.
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1 And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp
knife, take thee a barber's razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head
and upon thy beard: then take thee balances to weigh, and divide the hair.
2 Thou shalt burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city, when the
days of the siege are fulfilled: and thou shalt take a third part, and
smite about it with a knife: and a third part thou shalt scatter in the wind;
and I will draw out a sword after them. 3 Thou shalt also take
thereof a few in number, and bind them in thy skirts. 4 Then take
of them again, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the
fire; for thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel.
We have here the sign by which the utter destruction of Jerusalem is set
forth; and here, as before, the prophet is himself the sign, that the people
might see how much he affected himself with, and interested himself in, the
case of Jerusalem, and how it lay to his heart, even when he foretold the
desolations of it. He was so much concerned about it as to take what was done
to it as done to himself, so far was he from desiring the woeful day.
I. He must shave off the hair of his head and beard (v. 1),
which signified God's utter rejecting and abandoning that people, as a useless
worthless generation, such as could well be spared, nay, such as it would be
his honour to part with; his judgments, and all the instruments he made use of
in cutting them off, were this sharp knife and this razor, that
were proper to be made use of, and would do execution. Jerusalem had been the
head, but, having degenerated, had become as the hair, which, when it
grows thick and long, is but a burden which a man wishes to get clear of, as
God of the sinners in Zion. Ah! I will ease me of my adversaries, Isa.
i. 24. Ezekiel must not cut off that hair only which was superfluous, but cut
it all off, denoting the full end that God would make of Jerusalem. The
hair that would not be trimmed and kept neat and clean by the admonitions of
the prophets must be all shaved off by utter destruction. Those will be ruined
that will not be reformed.
II. He must weigh the hair and divide it into three parts. This
intimates the very exact directing of God's judgments according to equity (by
him men and their actions are weighed in the unerring balance of truth
and righteousness) and the proportion which divine justice observes in
punishing some by one judgment and others by another; one way or other, they
shall all be met with. Some make the shaving of the hair to denote the loss of
their liberty and of their honour: it was looked upon as a mark of ignominy,
as in the disgrace Hanun put on David's ambassadors. It denotes also the loss
of their joy, for they shaved their heads upon occasion of great mourning; I
may add the loss of their Nazariteship, for the shaving of the head was a
period to that vow (Num. vi. 18), and Jerusalem was now no longer looked upon
as a holy city.
III. He must dispose of the hair so that it might all be destroyed or
dispersed, v. 2. 1. One third part must be burnt in the midst
of the city, denoting the multitudes that should perish by famine and
pestilence, and perhaps many in the conflagration of the city, when the
days of the siege were fulfilled. Or the laying of that glorious city in
ashes might well be looked upon as a third part of the destruction threatened.
2. Another third part was to be cut in pieces with a knife,
representing the many who, during the siege, were slain by the sword, in their
sallies out upon the besiegers, and especially when the city was taken by
storm, the Chaldeans being then most furious and the Jews most feeble. 3.
Another third part was to be scattered in the wind, denoting the
carrying away of some into the land of the conqueror and the flight of others
into the neighbouring countries for shelter; so that they were hurried, some
one way and some another, like loose hairs in the wind. But, lest they should
think that this dispersion would be their escape, God adds, I will draw out
a sword after them, so that wherever they go evil shall pursue them. Note,
God has variety of judgments wherewith to accomplish the destruction of a
sinful people and to make an end when he begins.
IV. He must preserve a small quantity of the third sort that were to be scattered
in the wind, and bind them in his skirts, as one would bind that
which he is very mindful and careful of, v. 3. This signified perhaps
that little handful of people which were left under the government of Gedaliah,
who, it was hoped, would keep possession of the land when the body of the
people was carried into captivity. Thus God would have done well for them if
they would have done well for themselves. But these few that were reserved
must be taken and cast into the fire, v. 4. When Gedaliah and
his friends were slain the people that put themselves under his protection
were scattered, some gone into Egypt, others carried off by the Chaldeans, and
in short the land totally cleared of them; then this was fulfilled, for out of
those combustions a fire came forth into all the house of Israel, who,
as fuel upon the fire, kindled and consumed one another. Note, It is ill with
a people when those are taken away in wrath that seemed to be marked for
monuments of mercy; for then there is no remnant or escaping, none shut up or
left.
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The
Guilt of Jerusalem; The Punishment of Jerusalem.
B. C. 594.
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5 Thus saith the Lord GOD;
This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and
countries that are round about her. 6 And she hath changed
my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than
the countries that are round about her: for they have refused my
judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them. 7
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD;
Because ye multiplied more than the nations that are round about you, and
have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my judgments, neither have
done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about
you; 8 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD;
Behold, I, even I, am against thee, and will execute judgments in the
midst of thee in the sight of the nations. 9 And I will do in thee
that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like,
because of all thine abominations. 10 Therefore the fathers shall
eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I
will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter
into all the winds. 11 Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord
GOD;
Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things,
and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee;
neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity. 12 A
third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they
be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword
round about thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I
will draw out a sword after them. 13 Thus shall mine anger be
accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be
comforted: and they shall know that I the LORD
have spoken it in my zeal, when I have accomplished my fury in
them. 14 Moreover I will make thee waste, and a reproach among the
nations that are round about thee, in the sight of all that pass
by. 15 So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and
an astonishment unto the nations that are round about thee, when I
shall execute judgments in thee in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I
the LORD
have spoken it. 16 When I shall send upon them the evil
arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and
which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine upon you, and
will break your staff of bread: 17 So will I send upon you famine
and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee; and pestilence and blood shall
pass through thee; and I will bring the sword upon thee. I the LORD
have spoken it.
We have here the explanation of the foregoing similitude: This is
Jerusalem. Thus it is usual in scripture language to give the name of the
thing signified to the sign; as when Christ said, This is my body. The
prophet's head, which was to be shaved, signified Jerusalem, which by the
judgments of God was now to be stripped of all its ornaments, to be emptied of
all its inhabitants, and to be set naked and bare, to be shaved with
a razor that is hired, Isa. vii. 20. The head of one that was a priest, a
prophet, a holy person, was fittest to represent Jerusalem the holy city. Now
the contents of these verses are much the same with what we have often met
with, and still shall, in the writings of the prophets. Here we have,
I. The privileges Jerusalem was honoured with (v. 5): I have set it
in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her, and
those famous nations and very considerable. Jerusalem was not situated in a
remote obscure corner of the world, far from neighbours, but in the midst of
kingdoms that were populous, polite, and civilized, famed for learning, arts,
and sciences, and which then made the greatest figure in the world. But there
seems to be more in it than this. 1. Jerusalem was dignified and preferred
above the neighbouring nations and their cities. it was set in the midst
of them as excelling them all. This holy mountain was exalted above all the
hills, Isa. ii. 2. Why leap you, you high hills? This is the hill which
God desires to dwell in, Ps. lxviii. 16. Jerusalem was a city upon a hill,
conspicuous and illustrious, and which all the neighbouring nations had an eye
upon, some for good-will, some for ill-will. 2. Jerusalem was designed to have
a good influence upon the nations and countries round about, was set in
the midst of them as a candle upon a candlestick, to spread the light of
divine revelation, which she was blessed with, to all the dark corners of the
neighbouring nations, that from them it might diffuse itself further, even to
the ends of the earth. Jerusalem was set in the midst of the nations,
to be as the heart in the body, to invigorate this dead world with a divine
life as well as to enlighten this dark world with a divine light, to be an
example of every thing that was good. The nations that observed what excellent
statutes and judgments they had concluded them to be a wise and
understanding people (Deut. iv. 6), fit to be consulted as an oracle, as
they were in Solomon's time, 1 Kings iv. 34. And, had they preserved this
reputation and made a right use of it, what a blessing would Jerusalem have
been to all the nations about! But, failing to be so, the accomplishment of
this intention was reserved for its latter days, when out of Zion went
forth the gospel law and the word of the Lord Jesus from
Jerusalem, and there repentance and remission began to be preached,
and thence the preachers of them went forth into all nations. And, when
that was done, Jerusalem was levelled with the ground. Note, When places and
persons are made great, it is with design that they may do good and that those
about them may be the better for them, that their light may shine before
men.
II. The provocations Jerusalem was guilty of. A very high charge is here drawn
up against that city, and proved beyond contradiction sufficient to justify
God in seizing its privileges and putting it under military execution. 1. She
has not walked in God's statutes, nor kept his judgments (v.
7); nay, the inhabitants of Jerusalem had refused his judgments and his
statutes (v. 6); they did not do their duty, nay, they would
not, they said that they would not. Those statutes and judgments
which their neighbours admired they despised, which they should have set
before their face they cast behind their back. Note, A contempt of the word
and law of God opens a door to all manner of iniquity. God's statutes are the
terms on which he deals with men; those that refuse his terms cannot expect
his favours. 2. She had changed God's judgments into wickedness (v.
6), a very high expression of profaneness, that the people had not only broken
God's laws, but had so perverted and abused them that they had made them the
excuse and colour of their wickedness. They introduced the abominable customs
and usages of the heathen, instead of God's institutions; this was changing the
truth of God into a lie (Rom. i. 25) and the glory of God into shame,
Ps. iv. 2. Note, Those that have been well educated, if they live ill, put the
highest affront imaginable upon God, as if he were the patron of sin and his
judgments were turned into wickedness. 3. She had been worse than
the neighbouring nations, to whom she should have set a good example: She
has changed my judgments, by idolatries and false worship, more than
the nations (v. 6), and she has multiplied (that is,
multiplied idols and altars, gods and temples, multiplied those things the
unity of which was their praise) more than the nations that were round
about. Israel's God is one, and his name one, his altar one; but they, not
content with this one God, multiplied their gods to such a degree that according
to the number of their cities so were their gods, and their altars were as
heaps in the furrows of the field; so that they exceeded all their
neighbours in having gods many and lords many. They corrupted revealed
religion more than the Gentiles had corrupted natural religion. Note, If those
who have made a profession of religion, and have had a pious education,
apostatize from it, they are commonly more profane and vicious than those who
never made any profession; they have seven other spirits more wicked.
4. She had not done according to the judgments of the nations, v.
7. Israel had not acted towards their God, as the nations had acted towards
their gods, though they were false gods; they had not been so observant of him
nor so constant to him. Has a nation changed its gods, or slighted
them, so as they have? Jer. ii. 11. Or it may refer to their morals; instead
of reforming their neighbours, they came short of them; and many who were of
the uncircumcision kept the righteousness of the law better than those
who were of the circumcision, Rom. ii. 26, 27. Those who had the light
of scripture did not according to the judgments of many who had only
the light of nature. Note, There are those who are called Christians
who will in the great day be condemned by the better tempers and better lives
of sober heathens. 5. The particular crime charged upon Jerusalem is profaning
the holy things, which she had been both entrusted and honoured with (v.
11): Thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things,
with thy idols and idolatries. The images of their pretended deities, and the
groves erected in honour of them, were brought into the temple; and the
ceremonies used by idolaters were brought into the worship of God. Thus every
thing that is sacred was polluted. Note, Idols are detestable things any
where, but more especially so in the sanctuary.
III. The punishments that Jerusalem should fall under for these provocations: Shall
not God visit for these things? No doubt he shall. The matter of the
sentence here passed upon Jerusalem is very dreadful, and the manner of
expression makes it yet more so; the judgments are various, and the
threatenings of them varied, reiterated, inculcated, that one may well say, Who
is able to stand in God's sight when once he is angry?
1. God will take this work of punishing Jerusalem into his own hands; and who
knows the power of his anger and what a fearful thing it is to fall
into his hands? Observe what a strong emphasis is laid upon it (v.
8): I, even I, am against thee. God had been for Jerusalem, to defend
and save it; but miserable is its case when he has turned to be its enemy and
fights against it. If God be against us, the whole creation is at war with us,
and nothing can be for us so as to stand us in any stead: "You think it
is only the Chaldean army that is against you, but they are God's hand, or
rather the staff in his hand; it is I, even I, that am against thee,
not only to speak against thee by prophets, but to act against thee by
providence. I will execute judgments in thee (v. 10), in the
midst of thee (v. 8), not only in the suburbs, but in the heart of
the city, not only in the borders, but in the bowels of the country."
Note, Those who will not observe the judgments of God's mouth shall not escape
the judgments of his hand; and God's judgments, when they come with
commission, will penetrate into the midst of a people, will enter into the
soul, into the bowels like water and like oil into the bones. I will
execute judgments. Note, God himself undertakes to execute his own
judgments, according to the true and full intent of them; whatever are the
instruments, he is the principal agent.
2. These punishments shall come from his displeasure. As to the body of the
people, it shall not be a correction in love, but he will execute judgments
in anger, and in fury, and in furious rebukes (v. 15), strange
expressions to come from a God who has said, Fury is not in me, and who
has declared himself gracious, and merciful, and slow to anger.
But they are designed to show the malignity of sin, and the offence it gives
to the just and holy God. That must needs be a very evil thing which provokes
him to such resentments, and against his own people too, that had been so high
in his favour, and expressed with so much satisfaction (v. 13): "My
anger, which has long been withheld, shall now be accomplished,
and I will cause my fury to rest upon them; it shall not only light upon
them, but lie upon them, and fill them as vessels of wrath fitted by their own
wickedness to destruction; and, justice being hereby glorified, I
will be comforted, I will be entirely satisfied in what I have done."
As, when God is dishonoured by the sins of men, he is said to be grieved
(Ps. xcv. 10), so when he is honoured by their destruction he is said to be
comforted. The struggle between mercy and judgment is over, and in this
case judgment triumphs, triumphs indeed; for mercy that has been so long
abused is now silent and gives up the cause, has not a word more to say on the
behalf of such an ungrateful incorrigible people: My eye shall not spare,
neither will I have any pity, v. 11. Divine compassion defers the
punishment, or mitigates it, or supports under it, or shortens it; but here is
judgment without mercy, wrath without any mixture or allay of pity.
These expressions are thus sharpened and heightened perhaps with design to
look further, to the vengeance of eternal fire, which some of the destructions
we read of in the Old Testament were typical of, and particularly that of
Jerusalem; for surely it is nowhere on this side hell that this word has its
full accomplishment, My eye shall not spare, but I will cause my
fury to rest. Note, Those who live and die impenitent will perish for ever
unpitied; there is a day coming when the Lord will not spare.
3. Punishments shall be public and open: I will execute these judgments
in the sight of the nations (v. 8); the judgments themselves shall
be so remarkable that all the nations far and near shall take notice of them;
they shall be all the talk of that part of the world, and the more for the
conspicuousness of the place and people on which they are inflicted. Note,
Public sins, as they call for public reproofs (those that sin rebuke before
all), so, if those prevail not, they call for public judgments. He
strikes them as wicked men in the open sight of others (Job xxxiv. 26),
that he may maintain and vindicate the honour of his government, for (as
Grotius descants upon it here) why should he suffer it to be said, See what
wicked lives those lead who profess to be the worshippers of the only true
God! And, as the publicity of the judgments will redound to the honour of
God, so it will serve, (1.) To aggravate the punishment, and to make it lie
the more heavily. Jerusalem, being made waste, becomes a reproach
among the nations in the sight of all that pass by, v. 14. The more
conspicuous and the more peculiar any have been in the day of their prosperity
the greater disgrace attends their fall; and that was Jerusalem's case. The
more Jerusalem had been a praise in the earth the more it is now a
reproach and a taunt, v. 15. This she was warned of as much as any
thing when her glory commenced (1 Kings ix. 8), and this was lamented as much
as any thing when it was laid in the dust, Lam. ii. 15. (2.) To teach the
nations to fear before the God of Israel, when they see what a jealous God he
is, and how severely he punishes sin even in those that are nearest to him: It
shall be an instruction to the nations, v. 15. Jerusalem should
have taught her neighbours the fear of God by her piety and virtue, but, she
not doing that, God will teach it to them by her ruin; for they have reason to
say, If this be done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?
If judgment begin at the house of God, where will it end? If those be
thus punished who only had some idolaters among them, what will become of us
who are all idolaters? Note, The destruction of some is designed for the
instruction of others. Malefactors are publicly punished in terrorem--that
others may take warning.
4. These punishments, in the kind of them, shall be very severe and grievous.
(1.) They shall be such as have no precedent or parallel. Their sins being
more provoking than those of others, the judgments executed upon them should
be uncommon (v. 9): "I will do in thee that which I have not
done in thee before, though thou hast long since deserved it; nay, that
which I have not done in any other city." This punishment of Jerusalem is
said to be greater than that of Sodom (Lam. iv. 6), which was more
grievous than all that went before it; nay, it is such as "I will not
do any more the like, all the circumstances taken in, to any other city,
till the like come to be done again to this city, in the final overthrow by
the Romans." This is a rhetorical expression of the most grievous
judgments, like that character of Hezekiah, that there was none like him,
before or after him. (2.) They shall be such as will force them to break
the strongest bonds of natural affection to one another, which will be a just
punishment of them for their wilfully breaking the bonds of their duty to God
(v. 10): The fathers shall eat the sons, and the sons shall eat the
fathers, through the extremity of the famine, or shall be compelled to do
it by their barbarous conquerors. (3.) There shall be a complication of
judgments, any one of them terrible enough, and desolating; but what then
would they be when they came all together and in perfection? Some shall be
taken away by the plague (v. 12); the pestilence shall pass through
thee (v. 17), sweeping all before it, as the destroying angel;
others shall be consumed with famine, shall gradually waste away as men
in a consumption (v. 12); this is again insisted on (v. 16): I
will send upon them the evil arrows of famine; hunger shall make them
pine, and shall pierce them to the heart, as if arrows, evil arrows,
poisoned darts, were shot into them. God has many arrows, evil arrows,
in his quiver; when some are discharged, he has still more in reserve. I
will increase the famine upon you. A famine in a bereaved country may decrease
as fruits spring forth; but a famine in a besieged city will increase
of course; yet god speaks of it as his act: "I will increase it, and
will break your staff of bread, will take away the necessary supports of
life, will disappoint you of all that which you depend upon, so that there is
no remedy, but you must fall to the ground." Life is frail, is weak, is
burdened, so that, if it have not daily bread for its staff to lean upon, it
cannot but sink, and is soon gone if that staff be broken. Others shall
fall by the sword round about Jerusalem, when they sally out upon the
besiegers; it is a sword which God will bring, v. 17. The
sword of the Lord, that used to be drawn for Jerusalem's defence, is now drawn
for its destruction. Others are devoured by evil beasts, which will
make a prey of those that fly for shelter to the deserts and mountains. They
shall meet their ruin where they expected refuge, for there is no escaping the
judgments of God, v. 17. And, lastly, those who escape shall be scattered
into all parts of the world, into all the winds (so it is
expressed, v. 10, 12), intimating that they should not only be
dispersed, but hurried, and tossed, and driven to and fro, as chaff before
the wind. Nay, and Cain's curse (to be fugitives and vagabonds) is not the
worst of it neither; their restless life shall be cut off by a bloody death:
"I will draw out a sword after them, which shall follow them
wherever they go." Evil pursues sinners; and the curse shall come
upon them and overtake them.
5. These punishments will prove their ruin by degrees. They shall be diminished
(v. 11); their strength and glory shall grow less and less. They shall
be bereaved (v. 17), emptied of all that which was their joy and
confidence. God sends these judgments on purpose to destroy them, v.
16. The arrows are not sent (as those which Jonathan shot) for their
direction, but for their destruction; for god will accomplish his
fury upon them (v. 13); the day of God's patience is over, and the
ruin is remediless. Though this prophecy was to have its accomplishment now
quickly, in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, yet the
executioners not being named here, but the criminal only (this is Jerusalem),
we may well suppose that it looks further, to the final destruction of that
great city by the Romans when God made a full end of the Jewish nation, and caused
his fury to rest upon them.
6. All this is ratified by the divine authority and veracity: I the Lord
have spoken it, v. 15 and again v. 17. The sentence is
passed by him that is Judge of heaven and earth, whose judgment is
according to truth, and the judgments of whose hand are according to the
judgments of his mouth. He has spoken it who can do it, for with him nothing
is impossible. He has spoken it who will do it, for he is not a man that he
should lie. He has spoken it whom we are bound to hear and heed, whose ipse
dixit--word commands the most serious attention and submissive assent: And
they shall know that I the Lord have spoken it, v. 13. There were
those who thought it was only the prophet that spoke it in his delirium; but
God will make them know, by the accomplishment of it, that he has spoken it in
his zeal. Note, Sooner or later, God's word will prove itself.
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