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Matthew Henry |
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,
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,
2. Wrath is threatened, great wrath
(ver. 8-10),
a variety of miseries
such as should be their reproach and ruin,
| The Representation of Jerusalem’s Ruin. | 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.
| 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,
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
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?
Or it may refer to their morals; instead of reforming their neighbors,
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
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
and this was lamented as much as any thing when it was laid in the
dust,
(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,
And, lastly, those who escape shall be scattered into all
parts of the world, into all the winds (so it is expressed,
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,
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
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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