1And you, son of man, take a sharp knife, a barber's razor, take it to yourself and pass it over your head and your beard; then take scales to weigh and divide the hair. 2You shall burn with fire one-third in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are finished; then you shall take one-third and strike around it with the sword, and one-third you shall scatter into the wind: and I will draw out a sword after them. 3You shall also take a small number of them and bind them in the edge of your garment. 4Then take some of them again and throw them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will go out into all the house of Israel. 5Thus says the Lord Jehovah: This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the midst of the nations and the lands all around her. 6And she has rebelled against My judgments by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the lands that are all around her; for they have rejected My judgments, and they have not walked in My statutes. 7Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah: Because you have multiplied disobedience more than the nations that are all around you, have not walked in My statutes nor kept My judgments, nor even done according to the judgments of the nations that are all around you; 8therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah: Behold I, even I, am against you and will execute judgments in your midst in the eyes of the nations. 9And I will do in you what I have never done, and the likes of which I will never do again, because of all your abominations. 10Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in you, and all of you who remain I will scatter to all the winds. 11Therefore, as I live, says the Lord Jehovah, surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you; My eye will not spare, nor will I have any pity. 12A third of you shall die of the pestilence, and be consumed with famine in your midst; and a third shall fall by the sword all around you; and I will scatter the other third to all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them. 13Thus shall My anger be spent, and I will cause My fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted; and they shall know that I, Jehovah, have spoken in My zeal, when I have spent My fury upon them. 14Moreover I will make you a waste and a reproach among the nations that are all around you, in the eyes of all who pass by. 15So it shall be a reproach, a taunt, a chastening, and a horror to the nations that are all around you, when I execute judgments against you in anger and in fury and in furious punishment. I, Jehovah, have spoken. 16When I send against them the terrible arrows of famine which shall be for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, I will increase the famine upon you and cut off your food supply. 17Thus I will send against you famine and evil beasts, and they will bereave you. Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, Jehovah, have spoken.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 VISION OF CUTTING THE HAIRS, AND THE CALAMITIES FORESHADOWED THEREBY. (Eze. 5:1-17)
knife . . . razor--the sword of the foe (compare
Isa 7:20). This vision implies even severer judgments than the Egyptian afflictions foreshadowed in the former, for their guilt was greater than that of their forefathers.
thine head--as representative of the Jews. The whole hair being shaven off was significant of severe and humiliating (
2Sam 10:4-5) treatment. Especially in the case of a priest; for priests (
Lev 21:5) were forbidden "to make baldness on their head," their hair being the token of consecration; hereby it was intimated that the ceremonial must give place to the moral.
balances--implying the just discrimination with which Jehovah weighs out the portion of punishment "divided," that is, allotted to each: the "hairs" are the Jews: the divine scales do not allow even one hair to escape accurate weighing (compare
Matt 10:30).
2 Three classes are described. The sword was to destroy one third of the people; famine and plague another third ("fire" in
Ezek 5:2 being explained in
Ezek 5:12 to mean pestilence and famine); that which remained was to be scattered among the nations. A few only of the last portion were to escape, symbolized by the hairs bound in Ezekiel's skirts (
Ezek 5:3;
Jer 40:6;
Jer 52:16). Even of these some were to be thrown into the fiery ordeal again (
Ezek 5:4;
Jer 41:1-
Jer 41:2, &c.;
Jer 44:14, &c.). The "skirts" being able to contain but few express that extreme limit to which God's goodness can reach.
5 Explanation of the symbols:
Jerusalem--not the mere city, but the people of Israel generally, of which it was the center and representative.
in . . . midst--Jerusalem is regarded in God's point of view as center of the whole earth, designed to radiate the true light over the nations in all directions. Compare Margin ("navel"),
Ezek 38:12;
Ps 48:2;
Jer 3:17. No center in the ancient heathen world could have been selected more fitted than Canaan to be a vantage ground, whence the people of God might have acted with success upon the heathenism of the world. It lay midway between the oldest and most civilized states, Egypt and Ethiopia on one side, and Babylon, Nineveh, and India on the other, and afterwards Persia, Greece, and Rome. The Phśnician mariners were close by, through whom they might have transmitted the true religion to the remotest lands; and all around the Ishmaelites, the great inland traders in South Asia and North Africa. Israel was thus placed, not for its own selfish good, but to be the spiritual benefactor of the whole world. Compare
Ps 67:1-
Ps 67:7 throughout. Failing in this, and falling into idolatry, its guilt was far worse than that of the heathen; not that Israel literally went beyond the heathen in abominable idolatries. But "corruptio optimi pessima"; the perversion of that which in itself is the best is worse than the perversion of that which is less perfect: is in fact the worst of all kinds of perversion. Therefore their punishment was the severest. So the position of the Christian professing Church now, if it be not a light to the heathen world, its condemnation will be sorer than theirs (
Matt 5:13;
Matt 11:21-
Matt 11:24;
Heb 10:28-
Heb 10:29).
6 changed . . . into--rather, "hath resisted My judgments wickedly"; "hath rebelled against My ordinances for wickedness" [BUXTORF]. But see on
Ezek 5:7, end.
7 multiplied--rather, "have been more abundantly outrageous"; literally, "to tumultuate"; to have an extravagant rage for idols.
neither have done according to the judgments of the nations--have not been as tenacious of the true religion as the nations have been of the false. The heathen "changed" not their gods, but the Jews changed Jehovah for idols (see
Ezek 5:6, "changed My judgments into wickedness," that is, idolatry,
Jer 2:11). The Chaldean version and the Masora support the negative. Others omit it (as it is omitted in
Ezek 11:12), and translate, "but have done according to the judgments," &c. However, both
Ezek 11:12 and also this verse are true. They in one sense "did according to the heathen," namely, in all that was bad; in another, namely, in that which was good, zeal for religion, they did not.
Ezek 5:9 also proves the negative to be genuine; because in changing their religion, they have not done as the nations which have not changed theirs, "I (also) will do in thee that which I have not done."
8 I, even I--awfully emphatic. I, even I, whom thou thinkest to be asleep, but who am ever reigning as the Omnipotent Avenger of sin, will vindicate My righteous government before the nations by judgments on thee.
9 See on
Ezek 5:7.
that which I have not done--worse than any former judgments (
Lam 4:6;
Dan 9:12). The prophecy includes the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and the final one by Antichrist (
Zech 13:8-
Zech 13:9;
Zech 14:2), as well as that by Nebuchadnezzar. Their doom of evil was not exhausted by the Chaldean conquest. There was to be a germinating evil in their destiny, because there would be, as the Lord foresaw, a germinating evil in their character. As God connected Himself peculiarly with Israel, so there was to be a peculiar manifestation of God's wrath against sin in their case [FAIRBAIRN]. The higher the privileges the greater the punishment in the case of abuse of them. When God's greatest favor, the gospel, was given, and was abused by them, then "the wrath was to come on them to the uttermost" (
1Thess 2:16).
10 fathers . . . eat . . . sons--alluding to Moses words (
Lev 26:29;
Deut 28:53), with the additional sad feature, that "the sons should eat their fathers" (see
2Kgs 6:28;
Jer 19:9;
Lam 2:20;
Lam 4:10).
11 as I five--the most solemn of oaths, pledging the self-existence of God for the certainty of the event.
defiled my sanctuary--the climax of Jewish guilt: their defiling Jehovah's temple by introducing idols.
diminish--literally "withdraw," namely, Mine "eye" (which presently follows), that is, My favors;
Job 36:7 uses the Hebrew verb in the same way. As the Jews had withdrawn from God's sanctuary its sacredness by "defiling" it, so God withdraws His countenance from them. The significance of the expression lies in the allusion to
Deut 4:2, "Ye shall not diminish aught from the word which I command you"; they had done so, therefore God diminishes them. The reading found in six manuscripts, "I will cut thee off," is not so good.
12 Statement in plain terms of what was intended by the symbols (
Ezek 5:2; see
Ezek 6:12;
Jer 15:2;
Jer 21:9).
draw out . . . sword after them-- (
Lev 26:33). Skeptics object; no such thing happened under Zedekiah, as is here foretold; namely, that a third part of the nation should die by pestilence, a third part by the sword, and a third be scattered unto all winds, and a sword sent after them. But the prophecy is not restricted to Zedekiah's time. It includes all that Israel suffered, or was still to suffer, for their sins, especially those committed at that period (
Ezek 17:21). It only received its primary fulfilment under Zedekiah: numbers then died by the pestilence and by the sword; and numbers were scattered in all quarters and not carried to Babylonia alone, as the objectors assert (compare
Ezra 1:4;
Esth 3:8;
Obad 1:14).
pestilence . . . and famine--signified by the symbol "fire" (
Ezek 5:2). Compare
Isa 13:8;
Lam 5:10; plague and famine burning and withering the countenance, as fire does.
13 cause my fury to rest upon them--as on its proper and permanent resting-place (
Isa 30:32, Margin).
I will be comforted--expressed in condescension to man's conceptions; signifying His satisfaction in the vindication of His justice by His righteous judgments (
Deut 28:63;
Pro 1:26;
Isa 1:24).
they shall how--by bitter experience.
14 reproach among the nations--They whose idolatries Israel had adopted, instead of comforting, would only exult in their calamities brought on by those idolatries (compare
Luke 15:15).
15 instruction--literally, "a corrective chastisement," that is, a striking example to warn all of the fatal consequences of sin. For "it shall be"; all ancient versions have "thou," which the connection favors.
16 arrows of famine--hail, rain, mice, locusts, mildew (see
Deut 32:23-
Deut 32:24).
increase the famine--literally, "congregate" or "collect." When ye think your harvest safe because ye have escaped drought, mildew, &c., I will find other means [CALVIN], which I will congregate as the forces of an invading army, to bring famine on you.
17 beasts--perhaps meaning destructive conquerors (
Dan 7:4). Rather, literal "beasts," which infest desolated regions such as Judea was to become (compare
Ezek 34:28;
Exod 23:29;
Deut 32:24;
2Kgs 17:25). The same threat is repeated in manifold forms to awaken the careless.
sword--civil war.