Jerome — Commentary on Scripture

Ezekiel 3:4-5

Why should I speak of only one people? If I send you to different nations, my authority and power will still overcome every difficulty.

COMMENTARY ON EZEKIEL 1:3.5-6

Ezekiel 3:5

(V. 5) And he said to me: Son of man, go and enter (in Vulg. there is no 'and enter') the house of Israel, and speak my words to them. It is said to him: Go and enter the house of Israel, it is shown that he was not with the sinful people; although he seemed to dwell in the same place along the banks of the river Chebar. For it is written: And I was in the midst of the exile next to the river Chebar. Indeed, the prophet's conversation was separate, and he was offended by the sight of the wicked. Moses also did this (Exod. 33), setting up the tabernacle far away from the camp: and when he entered, the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the entrance of the tabernacle.

Commentary on Ezekiel

Ezekiel 3:5-6

(Verse 5, 6.) For you are not being sent to the people of deep and difficult (unknown in the Vulgate) language, to the house of Israel, nor to many people of unknown language, whose language you cannot understand. And if I were to send you to them, they would listen to you. Because they do not want to come to you, you go to them. For they do not have a need for a healthy doctor, but for ones who are sick (Luke 5:31 ). Nor can you say: I cannot speak to them, because they speak a different language, and we are barbarians to each other, and we cannot understand each other's speech. What shall I speak of one people? If I were to send you to different nations, nevertheless my authority and power would conquer all difficulty. And if only the time were approaching, when I am going to send my apostles to all nations, to give thanks for the languages, so that they may preach and bring the whole world under my yoke with one faith and that the diversity of languages may be subordinate to me; it would be easier for those who are deep and high in speech to hear, and they would have nothing of th…

(Verse 5, 6.) For you are not being sent to the people of deep and difficult (unknown in the Vulgate) language, to the house of Israel, nor to many people of unknown language, whose language you cannot understand. And if I were to send you to them, they would listen to you. Because they do not want to come to you, you go to them. For they do not have a need for a healthy doctor, but for ones who are sick (Luke 5:31 ). Nor can you say: I cannot speak to them, because they speak a different language, and we are barbarians to each other, and we cannot understand each other's speech. What shall I speak of one people? If I were to send you to different nations, nevertheless my authority and power would conquer all difficulty. And if only the time were approaching, when I am going to send my apostles to all nations, to give thanks for the languages, so that they may preach and bring the whole world under my yoke with one faith and that the diversity of languages may be subordinate to me; it would be easier for those who are deep and high in speech to hear, and they would have nothing of the levity of the Jews, but they enter with a slow and steady step, and although the languages are unknown, the faith is familiar. And it is followed by: And if I were to send you to them, they would listen to you. Finally, he sent and all believed at the same time. Hence Paul and Barnabas speak to the Jews: It was necessary for the word of God to be preached to you, but since you did not want to receive the message, behold, we turn to the Gentiles (Acts 13:46). And concerning the centurion, it is said: I have not found such great faith in Israel (Matthew 8:10).

Commentary on Ezekiel

Ezekiel 3:7

(Verse 7.) But the house of Israel does not want to listen to you, because they do not want to listen to me. For the entire house of Israel is stubborn and hard-hearted. Do not be dismayed, he says, if they do not want to listen to you. For this reason, they will not listen to you: because they will despise listening to me: as the Savior also said: Whoever does not receive you, does not receive me (Ibid., X, 40) . In which it is clearly shown that there is free will. And two reasons are given why they do not listen: because they are perverse in their will, and stubborn-hearted, or, as the Septuagint translates, they are contentious: and it is understood that often, when called to salvation, they did not want to listen.

Commentary on Ezekiel

Ezekiel 3:8

From this we learn now and then that it is a mark of the grace of God to resist shamelessness.

COMMENTARY ON EZEKIEL 1:3.8-10

Ezekiel 3:8-9

(Verse 8, 9.) Behold, I have made your face stronger than their faces, and your forehead harder than their foreheads. I have made your face like diamond and flint. Do not fear them or be afraid of their presence, for they are a rebellious house." And He said to me, "The house of Israel has a stubborn and defiant forehead, and their heart is as hard as scorpions. Therefore, I have given you an extremely firm countenance and a forehead that cannot be ashamed. From this, we learn that sometimes it is a grace of God to resist impudence, and when circumstances demand it, to confront face-to-face. This, however, is attributed so that our modesty and human decency do not fear the snares of adversaries.

Commentary on Ezekiel

Ezekiel 3:8

The Lord says to the prophets that he has made their face a brazen city and a stone of adamant and an iron pillar, so that they will not be afraid of the insults of the people but by their stern composure disarm the effrontery of those who sneer at them. A finely strung mind is more readily overcome by insult than by terror.

LETTER 66.6

Ezekiel 3:10-11

We must note that the teaching of God must first be fashioned in our heart and heard and understood carefully, and only then can it be laid before the people.

COMMENTARY ON EZEKIEL 1:3.10

Ezekiel 3:10

(Ver. 10.) Son of man, take all my words that I speak to you, and assume them in your heart, and listen with your ears. This is the food of the book, and these are the words by which it speaks to different listeners, either with lamentations, or with a song, or with a woe to mankind. And yet it should be noted that before the words of God are to be composed, heard, and understood in our hearts more diligently, and thus proclaimed to the people.

Commentary on Ezekiel

Ezekiel 3:11

(Verse 11.) Go, enter into the exile (or captivity), to the sons of your people, and speak to them, and say to them: Thus says the Lord God: perhaps they will listen and be still. And our Lord came to the people of the Jews, sent by the Father, to proclaim remission to the captives, and to fulfill what is written: Ascending on high, he led captivity captive: he gave gifts to men (Psalm 67:19).

Commentary on Ezekiel

Ezekiel 3:12

For the place of God is everywhere in which he finds hospitality, for surely the Son is the place of the Father as much as the Father is the place of the Son.

COMMENTARY ON EZEKIEL 1:3.12

Ezekiel 3:12

(Verse 12). And the spirit took me, and I heard behind me a voice of a great commotion: Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place. The God of whom it is written: The Lord lifts up the meek (Psalm 146:6), he Himself lifted up the prophet, who was not in the flesh but in the spirit, and walking in the spirit, he did not fulfill the works of the flesh; for the Spirit of God was in him. Therefore, despising earthly things, he is caught up by the spirit and hears behind him the voice of a great commotion, forgetting the past and extending himself into the future, leaving the snares of his enemies behind him. We read about this in Exodus (Exod. XXIV) when Pharaoh and all his army pursued Israel, and the angel in the pillar of cloud left the front of the camp; and he came behind them, and stood all night between Israel and the Egyptians: so as to frighten the enemies, and the Israelites might hear: Blessed be the glory of the Lord who came from his place. But the place of the Lord is wherever he finds hospitality. Or rather, the Son is the place of the Father, just as the Father is th…

(Verse 12). And the spirit took me, and I heard behind me a voice of a great commotion: Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place. The God of whom it is written: The Lord lifts up the meek (Psalm 146:6), he Himself lifted up the prophet, who was not in the flesh but in the spirit, and walking in the spirit, he did not fulfill the works of the flesh; for the Spirit of God was in him. Therefore, despising earthly things, he is caught up by the spirit and hears behind him the voice of a great commotion, forgetting the past and extending himself into the future, leaving the snares of his enemies behind him. We read about this in Exodus (Exod. XXIV) when Pharaoh and all his army pursued Israel, and the angel in the pillar of cloud left the front of the camp; and he came behind them, and stood all night between Israel and the Egyptians: so as to frighten the enemies, and the Israelites might hear: Blessed be the glory of the Lord who came from his place. But the place of the Lord is wherever he finds hospitality. Or rather, the Son is the place of the Father, just as the Father is the place of the Son, as the Lord and Savior says: I am in the Father, and the Father is in me (Joan. XIV, 11). This same thing also signifies Michael: Behold, the Lord shall come forth out of his place, and will come down upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains shall be melted under him, and the valleys shall be as wax melting before the fire, and as waters that run down into a steep place (Mich. I, 3, 4). For when the Lord, the Savior, came down and set forth from the Father, the high places of the earth and the mountains were moved, and the lower parts of the valleys were melted. The place can be the glory of the Lord and the inaccessible light, of which the Apostle speaks: Who alone has immortality and inhabits unapproachable light (I Tim. VI, 16). When we recall the past judgments of the Lord, we hear the voice of a great upheaval from behind. When we ponder the future in our hearts, a voice is heard from what came before, and from what is to come.

Commentary on Ezekiel

Ezekiel 3:13

(Verse 13.) And the sound of the wings of the living creatures striking against one another, and the sound of the wheels following the creatures, and the sound of a great commotion. Because it is understood, 'I heard behind me the sound of a great commotion, and I heard the sound of the wings of the living creatures, and the sound of the wheels,' the Septuagint added: 'And I saw the sound of the wings of the living creatures striking against one another,' and the rest according to what is written in Exodus: 'And all the people saw the voice of God' (Exodus 20:18): so that the prophet may have heard the voice that was coming from behind, and seen what was before him. But it is better and truer to have understood a heard voice rather than a seen one, as well as the striking of wings against each other and the sound of wheels, which we mentioned above, and the great commotion which showed that God's wrath was going to come upon the people of Israel.

Commentary on Ezekiel

Ezekiel 3:13

It is better and truer to have understood the voice that one has heard than one that one has seen.

COMMENTARY ON EZEKIEL 1:3.13

Ezekiel 3:14

Ver. 14. The Spirit also lifted me up, and took me away, and I went embittered in the indignation of my spirit. LXX: And the spirit lifted me up, and took me, and I went up in the impetuosity of my spirit. After being lifted up by the spirit, and taken by it, then he went in the indignation and bitterness of his spirit, understanding the indignation of God, and what the vision signified, pondering in his mind. Whether he was carried up on the heights by the impetuosity of his own spirit, desiring to go where the Lord commanded. But by 'his spirit' we understand not the Holy Spirit, but the spirit of man, of which it is said in many places, as in Isaiah: At night my spirit rises within me, O God (Isa. XXVI, 9). And the prophet is transported (not, as some think, in spirit, but) in his own body, as we read of Habakkuk according to Theodotion (Dan. XIV).

Commentary on Ezekiel

Ezekiel 3:14

For the hand of the Lord was on the prophet, strengthening him, so that he could take the name of a sentinel and teach what he taught.

COMMENTARY ON EZEKIEL 1:3.14-15

Ezekiel 3:15

(Verse 15) For the hand of the Lord was with me, strengthening me. And I came to the exile at the heap of new fruits, to those who lived by the river Chebar. And I sat where they sat, and I stayed there for seven days mourning among them. LXX: And the hand of the Lord became strong upon me, and I entered into captivity exalted. And I went around the inhabitants of the river Chebar who were there, and I sat there for seven days dwelling among them. For the sense in which we translate, the translators Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion used the Hebrew words Thel Abib (): which the Seventy translated as sublime and I went around; believing it better to say something than to impose something that would cause the reader to question. However, we have learned from the Hebrews that Thel abib means, when new grains or barley are gathered, and after hunger and scarcity, before they are ground in the barn, they promise some hope of food. So too is Israel small and humble, who dwelt on the banks of the river Chobar, like one revived and rising from the earth, promising the seed of the Jewish peop…

(Verse 15) For the hand of the Lord was with me, strengthening me. And I came to the exile at the heap of new fruits, to those who lived by the river Chebar. And I sat where they sat, and I stayed there for seven days mourning among them. LXX: And the hand of the Lord became strong upon me, and I entered into captivity exalted. And I went around the inhabitants of the river Chebar who were there, and I sat there for seven days dwelling among them. For the sense in which we translate, the translators Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion used the Hebrew words Thel Abib (): which the Seventy translated as sublime and I went around; believing it better to say something than to impose something that would cause the reader to question. However, we have learned from the Hebrews that Thel abib means, when new grains or barley are gathered, and after hunger and scarcity, before they are ground in the barn, they promise some hope of food. So too is Israel small and humble, who dwelt on the banks of the river Chobar, like one revived and rising from the earth, promising the seed of the Jewish people. But the hand of the Lord is upon the prophet, strengthening him, so that he may receive the name of a watchman, and teach what he has learned. And for seven days he moves among them, seeing all that they do, so that afterwards he may know what he should reprove. Yet he mourns, or dwells among them, seeing their wickedness, and the just judgment of God for the iniquity of their sins. For because we have said, grieving, and it is written in Hebrew Masmim (), Theodotion translated, marveling, in order to express the astonishment of the Prophets who saw their iniquities. But the second edition of Aquila, which the Hebrews call 'according to accuracy,' translated: being calm, that is, quiet, and being separate, to show that he was indeed among the captives, but separated from them in mind.

Commentary on Ezekiel

Ezekiel 3:16-17

(Verse 16, 17.) But after seven days, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel, and you will hear a word from my mouth and will declare it to them from me. The watchman, who is to be the messenger of God's words to the people, must rest for a long time and be sorrowful for the things he sees. And he must have no personal guilt for the sins he will rebuke in others.

Commentary on Ezekiel

Ezekiel 3:16

He who was to be a sentinel and to tell the words of God to the people had to be quiet for some time, and to grieve at the things he saw and have nothing in his consciousness in respect of which he would be reproved in other things.

COMMENTARY ON EZEKIEL 1:3.16-17

Ezekiel 3:18

A threat is not made against people but against sins, nor is it made against those who are converted from their imperfections but against those who remain in their sin.

COMMENTARY ON EZEKIEL 1:3.18-19