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Ezekiel 5

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The Symbolic Act of Shaving and Dividing Hair 1–4

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. ​

Jerusalem's Unique Status and Condemnation 5–7

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;

God Declares Unprecedented Judgment 8–12

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. ​

The Fulfillment of Divine Wrath 13–17

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. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Ezekiel 5

Verse 1

a sharp knife… a barber’s razor — ‘Knife’ is chereb, the usual word for a sword and the one rendered ‘sword’ in vv.2, 12 and 17; ‘razor’ is taar. Priests were forbidden to ‘shave off the corner of their beard’ (Lev 21:5), and Isa 7:20 has ‘the Lord shave with a razor that is hired’. The hair is then divided with ‘balances to weigh’.

Verse 2

a third part — Verse 12 explains the portions: one burned ‘in the midst of the city’, one struck ‘with a knife’, one to ‘scatter in the wind’. ‘I will draw out a sword after them’ is the wording of the curse in Lev 26:33, ‘I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you’. The ‘days of the siege’ are those of Ezek 4:8.

Verse 4

a fire come forth — Some of the few hairs kept in the skirts (v.3) are taken back and burned, so that even the saved portion is not past the fire. The word is esh, fire; of Jerusalem it is said, ‘they shall go out from one fire, and another fire shall devour them’ (Ezek 15:7). The fire reaches ‘all the house of Israel’.

Verse 5

in the midst of the nations — Tavek, the midst, is the word of the city’s centre in vv.2, 8, 10 and 12, and here of her place among the nations. Israel had been told its statutes would be its ‘wisdom and… understanding in the sight of the nations’ (Deut 4:6), and her ‘renown went forth among the heathen’ (Ezek 16:14). The charge of vv.6–7 stands against that place.

Verse 6

changed my judgments into wickedness — Marah, to rebel, is here said of the LORD’s mishpatim, his ordinances. ‘Refused’ is maas, the verb of Lev 26:43, ‘they despised my judgments, and… their soul abhorred my statutes’, the curse now come. Manasseh had ‘seduced them to do more evil than did the nations’ (2 Kings 21:9).

Verse 8

I, even I, am against thee — ‘Behold, I am against thee’ is the LORD’s formula of challenge, used also at Jer 21:13 and Ezek 21:3. The ‘judgments’ (mishpatim) he will ‘execute’ are the same word as the ‘judgments’ refused in v.6 and not kept in v.7. He does it ‘in the sight of the nations’, and the waste is seen ‘in the sight of all that pass by’ (v.14).

Verse 9

I will not do any more the like — Daniel says of Jerusalem, ‘under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem’ (Dan 9:12), and Christ of the great tribulation, ‘such as was not since the beginning of the world’ (Matt 24:21). The cause named is ‘all thine abominations’ (toebah), and Lam 4:6 measures the punishment against Sodom’s.

Verse 10

the fathers shall eat the sons — The Law had named this among the curses: ‘the flesh of your sons’ (Lev 26:29) and ‘in the siege, and in the straitness’ (Deut 28:53). It happened in the siege of Samaria (2 Kings 6:28–29) and is lamented for Jerusalem: ‘the pitiful women have sodden their own children’ (Lam 4:10). ‘All the winds’ is the scattering of vv.2 and 12.

Verse 11

defiled my sanctuary — ‘As I live’ is the LORD’s oath. The sanctuary (miqdash) is defiled by ‘detestable things’ (shiqquts) and ‘abominations’, the images named again in 7:20 and seen in the temple in 8:5–6. ‘Diminish’ is gara, to shave off, the same figure as the razor of v.1; ‘neither shall mine eye spare’ recurs at 7:4, 9.

Verse 12

a third part… the pestilence — The three fates match the hair of v.2: the part burned ‘in the midst of the city’ becomes death by ‘pestilence’ (deber) and ‘famine’, the part struck by the knife ‘shall fall by the sword round about thee’, and the third is scattered. Jeremiah gives the same triad, ‘the sword, and… the famine, and… the pestilence’ (Jer 21:9).

Verse 13

I will be comforted — Nacham is the verb of Isa 1:24, ‘I will ease me of mine adversaries’, and of ‘repented’ at Gen 6:6. ‘I will cause my fury to rest’ (nuach) is repeated at Ezek 21:17. The people ‘shall know that I the LORD have spoken it in my zeal’, when the fury is spent.

Verse 15

an instruction and an astonishment — ‘Instruction’ is musar, discipline; ‘astonishment’ is meshammah, a waste that makes onlookers stare. The nations’ question is given in Jer 22:8–9: ‘Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this great city?’ The answer is ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God’.

Verse 16

the evil arrows of famine — The LORD speaks of ‘mine arrows’ of hunger against the disobedient in Deut 32:23–24: ‘They shall be burnt with hunger’. ‘Send’ (shalach) stands twice here and again in v.17, and the ‘staff of bread’ is the figure of Ezek 4:16 and Lev 26:26.

Verse 17

famine and evil beasts — Four judgments are named, as in Ezek 14:21: ‘the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence’. ‘Bereave’ is shakol, the verb of Lev 26:22, where ‘wild beasts’ ‘shall rob you of your children’. The LORD sent lions among settlers in Samaria’s cities who ‘feared not the LORD’ (2 Kings 17:25).