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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
E Z E K I E L.
CHAP. XXI.
In this chapter we have,
I. An explication of the prophecy in the close of the foregoing chapter
concerning the fire in the forest, which the people complained they
could not understand
(ver. 1-5),
with directions to the prophet to show himself deeply affected with it,
II. A further prediction of the sword that was coming upon the land, by
which all should be laid waste; and this expressed very emphatically,
III. A prospect given of the king of Babylon’s approach to Jerusalem,
to which he was determined by divination,
IV. Sentence passed upon Zedekiah king of Judah,
V. The destruction of the Ammonites by the sword foretold,
Thus is this chapter all threatenings.
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1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy
word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of
Israel,
3 And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I
am against thee, and will draw forth my sword out of his
sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked.
4 Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteous and
the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of his sheath
against all flesh from the south to the north:
5 That all flesh may know that I the LORD have drawn forth my
sword out of his sheath: it shall not return any more.
6 Sigh therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking of thy
loins; and with bitterness sigh before their eyes.
7 And it shall be, when they say unto thee, Wherefore sighest
thou? that thou shalt answer, For the tidings; because it cometh:
and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and
every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water:
behold, it cometh, and shall be brought to pass, saith the Lord
GOD.
The prophet had faithfully delivered the message he was entrusted with,
in the close of the foregoing chapter, in the terms wherein he received
it, not daring to add his own comment upon it; but, when he complained
that the people found fault with him for speaking parables, the word of
the Lord came to him again, and gave him a key to that figurative
discourse, that with it he might let the people into the meaning of it
and so silence that objection. For all men shall be rendered
inexcusable at God’s bar and every mouth shall be stopped. Note, He
that speaks with tongues should pray that he may
interpret,
1 Cor. xiv. 13.
When we speak to people about their souls we should study plainness,
and express ourselves as we may be the best understood. Christ
expounded his parables to his disciples,
Mark iv. 34.
1. The prophet is here more plainly directed against whom to level the
arrow of this prophecy. He must drop his word towards the holy
places
(v. 2),
towards Canaan the holy land, Jerusalem the holy city, the temple the
holy house. These were highly dignified above other places; but, when
they polluted them, that word which used to drop in the holy places
shall now drop against them: Prophesy against the land of
Israel. It was the honour of Israel that it had prophets and
prophecy; but these, being despised by them, are turned against them.
And justly is Zion battered with her own artillery, which used to be
employed against her adversaries, seeing she knew not how to value it.
2. He is instructed, and is to instruct the people, in the meaning of
the fire that was threatened to consume the forest of the south: it
signified a sword drawn, the sword of war which should make the land
desolate
(v. 3):
Behold, I am against thee, O land of Israel! There needs no more
to make a people miserable than to have God against them; for as, if he
be for us, we need not fear, whoever are against us, so, if he be
against us, we cannot hope, whoever are for us. And God’s professing
people, when they revolt from him, set him against them, who used to be
for them. Was the fire there of God’s kindling? The sword here is his
sword, which he has prepared, and which he will give commission to; it
is he that will draw it out of its sheath, where it had laid
quiet and threatened no harm. Note, When the sword is unsheathed among
the nations God’s hand must be eyed and owned in it. Did the fire
devour every green tree and every dry tree? The sword in
like manner shall cut off the righteous and the wicked. Good and
bad were involved in the common calamities of the nation; the righteous
were cut off from the land of Israel when they were sent
captives in Babylon, though perhaps few or none of them were cut off
from the land of the living; and it was a threatening omen to the land
of Israel that in the beginning of its troubles such excellent men as
Daniel and his fellows, and Ezekiel, were cut off from it and conveyed
to Babylon. But though the sword cut off the righteous and the
wicked (for it devours one as well as another,
2 Sam. xi. 25),
yet far be it from us to think that the righteous are as the
wicked,
Gen. xviii. 25.
No; God’s graces and comforts make a great difference when his
providence seems to make none. The good figs are sent into
Babylon for their good,
Jer. xxiv. 5, 6.
It is only in outward appearance that there is one event to the
righteous and to the wicked,
Eccl. ix. 2.
But it speaks the greatness of God’s displeasure against the land of
Israel. Well might it be said, His eye shall not spare, when it
shall not spare, no, not the righteous in it. Since there are
not righteous men sufficient to save the land, to make the justice of
God the more illustrious the few that there are shall suffer with it,
and God’s mercy shall make it up to them some other way. Did the fire
burn up all faces from the south to the north? The sword shall
go forth against all flesh from the south to the north, shall go
forth, as God’s sword, with a commission that cannot be contested, with
a force that cannot be resisted. Were all flesh made to know that God
kindled the fire? They shall be made to know that he has drawn forth
the sword,
v. 5.
And, lastly, Shall the fire that is kindled never be
quenched? So when this sword of the Lord is drawn against Judah and
Jerusalem the scabbard is thrown away, and it shall never be sheathed:
It shall not return any more, till it has made a full end.
3. The prophet is ordered, by expressions of his own grief and concern
for these calamities that were coming on, to try to make impressions of
the like upon the people. When he has delivered his message he must
sigh
(v. 6),
must fetch many deep sighs, with the breaking of his loins; he
must sign as if his heart would burst, sigh with bitterness,
with other expressions of bitter sorrow, and this publicly, in the
sight of those to whom he delivered the foregoing message, that
this might be a sermon to their eyes as that was to their ears; and it
was well if both would work upon them. The prophet must sign, though it
was painful to himself and made his breast sore, and though it is
probable that the profane among the people would ridicule him for it
and call him a whining canting preacher. But, if we be beside
ourselves it is to God; and, if this be to be vile, we will be
yet more so. Note, Ministers, if they would affect others with the
things they speak of, must show that they are themselves in the
greatest sincerity affected with them, and must submit to that which
may create uneasiness to themselves, so that it will promote the ends
of their ministry. The people, observing the prophet to sigh so much
and seeing no visible occasion for it, would ask, “Wherefore sighest
thou? These sighs have some mystical meaning; let us know what it
is.” And he must answer them
(v. 7):
“It is for the tidings, the heavy tidings, that we shall hear
shortly; the tidings come (the judgments come which we hear the
tidings of), they come apace, and then you will all sigh; nay, that
will not serve. every heart shall melt and every spirit
fail; your courage will all be gone and you will have no animating
considerations to support yourselves with. And, when heart and
spirit fail, it will follow of course that all hands will be
feeble and unable to fight, and all knees will be weak as
water and unable to flee or to stand their ground.” Those who have
God for them when flesh and heart fail have him to be the strength
of their heart; but those who have God against them have no cordial
for a fainting spirit, but are as Belshazzar when his thoughts
troubled him,
Dan. v. 6.
But some people are worse frightened than hurt; may not the case be so
here and the event prove better than likely? No: Behold it
cometh, and shall be brought to pass. It is not a bugbear
that they are frightened with, but according to the fear so is the
wrath, and more grievous than is feared.
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8 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
9 Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the LORD; Say, A
sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished:
10 It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished
that it may glitter: should we then make mirth? it contemneth the
rod of my son, as every tree.
11 And he hath given it to be furbished, that it may be
handled: this sword is sharpened, and it is furbished, to give it
into the hand of the slayer.
12 Cry and howl, son of man: for it shall be upon my people, it
shall be upon all the princes of Israel: terrors by reason of
the sword shall be upon my people: smite therefore upon thy
thigh.
13 Because it is a trial, and what if the sword contemn
even the rod? it shall be no more, saith the Lord GOD.
14 Thou therefore, son of man, prophesy, and smite thine
hands together, and let the sword be doubled the third time, the
sword of the slain: it is the sword of the great men that are
slain, which entereth into their privy chambers.
15 I have set the point of the sword against all their gates,
that their heart may faint, and their ruins be multiplied:
ah! it is made bright, it is wrapped up for the slaughter.
16 Go thee one way or other, either on the right hand, or
on the left, whithersoever thy face is set.
17 I will also smite mine hands together, and I will cause my
fury to rest: I the LORD have said it.
Here is another prophecy of the sword, which is delivered in a very
affecting manner; the expressions here used are somewhat intricate, and
perplex interpreters. The sword was unsheathed in the
here it is fitted up to do execution, which the prophet is commanded to
lament. Observe,
I. How the sword is here described.
1. It is sharpened, that it may cut and wound, and make a
sore slaughter. The wrath of God will put an edge upon it; and,
whatever instruments God shall please to make use of in executing his
judgments, he will fill them with strength, courage, and fury,
according to the service they are employed in. Out of the mouth of
Christ goes a sharp sword,
Rev. xix. 15.
2. It is furbished, that it may glitter, to the terror of
those against whom it is drawn. It shall be a kind of flaming
sword. If it have rusted in the scabbard for want of use, it shall
be rubbed and brightened; for though the glory of God’s justice may
seem to have been eclipsed for a while, during the day of his patience
and the delay of his judgments, yet it will shine out again and be made
to glitter.
3. It is a victorious sword, nothing shall stand before it
(v. 10):
It contemneth the rod of my son as every tree. Israel, said God
once, is my son, my first-born. The government of that people
was called a rod, a strong rod; we read
of the strong rods they had for sceptres. But when the
sword of God’s justice is drawn it contemns this rod, makes
nothing of it; though it be a strong rod, and the rod of his
son, it is no more than any other tree. When God’s
professing people have revolted from him, and are in rebellion against
him, his sword despises them. What are they to him more than
another people? The marginal reading gives another notion of this
sword: It is the rod of my son; and we know of whom God has said
(Ps. ii. 7),
Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee, and
(v. 9)
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. This sword is that
rod of iron which contemns every tree and will bear it down.
Or, This sword is the rod of my son, a correcting rod, for the
chastening of the transgression of God’s people
not to cut them off from being a people. It is a sword to others, a rod
to my son.
II. How the sword is here put into the hand of the executioners: “It is
the rod of my Son, and he has given it that it may be
handled
(v. 11),
that it may be made use of for the end for which it was drawn. It is
given into the hand, not of the fencer to be played with, but of
the slayer to do execution with. The sword of war my Son makes use
of as a sword of justice, and to him all judgment is committed.
It is made bright
(v. 15),
it is wrapped up, that it may be kept safe, and clean, and sharp
for the slaughter, not as Goliath’s sword was wrapped up in a
cloth only for a memorial,”
III. How the sword is directed, and against whom it is sent
(v. 12):
It shall be upon my people; they shall fall by this sword. It is
repeated again, as that which is scarcely credible, that the
sword of the heathen shall be upon God’s own people; nay, it shall
be upon all the princes of Israel; their dignity and power as
princes shall be no more their security than their profession of
religion as princes of Israel. But, if the sword be at any time upon
God’s people, have they not comfort within sufficient to arm them
against every thing in it that is frightful? Yes, they have, while they
conduct themselves as becomes his people; but these had not done so,
and therefore terrors, by reason of the sword, shall be upon
those that call themselves my people. Note, While good men are
quiet, not only from evil, but from the fear of it, wicked men are
disturbed not only with the sword, but with the terrors of it, arising
from a consciousness of their own guilt. This sword is directed
particularly against the great men, for they had been the
greatest sinners among them; they had altogether broken the yoke and
burst the bonds
(Jer. v. 5),
and therefore with them in a special manner God’s controversy is, who
had been the ringleaders in sin. The sword of the slain is
the sword of the great men that are slain,
v. 14.
Though they have furnished themselves with places of retirement, places
of concealment, where they flatter themselves with hopes that they
shall be safe, they will find that the sword will enter into their
privy chambers, and find them out there, as the frogs, when
they were one of Egypt’s plagues, found admission into the chambers
of their kings. The sword, the point of this sword, is
directed against their gates, against all their gates
(v. 15),
against all those things with which they thought to keep it out and
fortify themselves against it. Note, The strongest gates, though they
be gates of brass, ever so well barred, ever so well guarded,
are no fence against the point of the sword of God’s judgments. But
when that is pointed against sinners,
1. They are ready to fear the worst; their hearts faint, so
that they are not able to make any resistance.
2. The worst comes; whatever resistance they make, it is to no purpose,
but they are ruined, and their ruins are multiplied. But what
need have we to observe the particular directions of this sword when it
has a general commission, is sent with a running warrant?
(v. 16):
“Go thee, one way or other, which way thou wilt, turn to the
right hand or to the left, thou wilt find those that are obnoxious,
for there are none free from guilt; and thou hast authority against
them, for there are none exempt from punishment; and therefore,
whithersoever thy face is set, that way do thou proceed, and,
like Jonathan’s sword, from the blood of the slain, from the fat of
the mighty, thou shalt never return empty,”
Note, So full is the world of wicked people that, which way soever
God’s judgments go forth, they will find work, will find matter to work
upon. That fire will never go out on this earth for want of fuel. And
such various methods God has of meeting with sinners that the sword of
his justice is still as it was at first when it flamed in the hand of
the cherubim: it turns every way,
Gen. iii. 24.
IV. What is the nature of this sword, and what are the intentions and
limitations of it as to the people of God,
It is a correction; it is designed to be so; the sword to others is a
rod to them. This is a comfortable word which comes in in the midst of
these terrible ones, though it be expressed somewhat obscurely.
1. The people of God begin to be afraid that the sword will contemn
even the rod, that the sword will go on with such fury that it will
despise its commission to be a rod only, will forget its bounds and
become a sword indeed, even to God’s own people. They fear lest the
Chaldeans’ sword, which is the rod of God’s anger, contemn its being
called a rod, and become as the axe that boasts itself
against him that heweth therewith or the staff that lifts up
itself as if it were no wood,
Isa. x. 15.
Or, “What if the sword contemn even the rod? that is, what if
this sword make the former rods, as that or Sennacherib, to be
contemned as nothing to this? What if this should prove not a
correcting rod, but a destroying sword, to make a full end of our
church and nation?” This is that which the thinking, but timorous, few
are apprehensive of. Note, When threatening judgments are abroad it is
good to suppose the worst that may be the consequences of them, that we
may provide accordingly. What if the sword contemn the tribe or
sceptre? namely, that of Judah and the house of David (so some
think Shebet here signifies); what if it should aim at the ruin
of our government? If it do, the Lord is righteous and will
be gracious notwithstanding. But,
2. These fears are silenced with an assurance that it is not so; the
sword shall not forget itself, nor the errand on which it is sent:
It is a trial, and it is no more than a trial. He that
sends it makes what use of it, and sets what bounds to it, he pleases.
Here shall its proud waves be stayed. Note, It is matter of comfort to
the people of God, when his judgments are abroad, and they are ready to
tremble for fear of them, that, whatever they are to others, to them
they are but trials; and, when they are tried, they shall come forth
as gold, and the proving of their faith shall be the improving of
it.
V. Here the prophet and the people must show themselves affected with
these judgments threatened.
1. The prophet must be very serious in denouncing these judgments. He
must say, A sword! a sword!
v. 9.
Let him not study for fine words, and a variety of quaint expressions;
when the town is on fire people do not so give notice of it, but cry,
with a frightful doleful voice, Fire! fire! So must the prophet
cry, A sword! a sword! and
(v. 14),
Let the sword be doubled the third time in thy preaching.
God speaks once, yea, twice, yea, thrice; it were well if men, after
all, would perceive and regard it. It shall be doubled the third
time in God’s providence; for it was Nebuchadnezzar’s third descent
upon Jerusalem that made a full end of it. Ruin comes gradually,
but at last comes effectually, upon a provoking people. Yet this is not
all: the prophet is not only as a herald at arms to proclaim war, and
to cry, A sword! a sword! once and again, and a third time, but,
as a person nearly concerned, he must cry and howl
(v. 12),
must sadly lament the desolations that the sword would make, as one
that did himself not only sympathize with the sufferers, but feel from
the sufferings. Again
(v. 14),
Prophesy, and smite thy hands together, wring thy hands,
as lamenting the desolation, or clap thy hands, as by thy prophecy
instigating and encouraging those that were to be the instruments of
it, or as one standing amazed at the suddenness and severity of the
judgment. The prophet must smite his hands together; for (says
God) I will also smite my hands together,
v. 17.
God is in earnest in pronouncing this sentence upon them, and therefore
the prophet must show himself in earnest in publishing it. God’s
smiting his hands together, as well as the prophet’s smiting, is
in token of a holy indignation at their wickedness, which was really
very astonishing. When Balak’s anger was kindled against Balaam he
smote his hands together,
Num. xxiv. 10.
Note, God and his ministers are justly angry at those who might be
saved and yet will be ruined. Some make it an expression of triumph and
exultation, agreeing with that
(Isa. i. 24),
Ah! I will ease me of my adversaries; and that
(Prov. i. 26),
I also will laugh at their calamity. And so it follows here,
I will cause my fury to rest, not only it shall be perfected,
but it shall be pleased. And observe with what solemnity, with what
authority, this sentence is ratified: “I the Lord have said it,
who can and will make good what I have said. I have said it, and will
never unsay it. I have said it, and who can gainsay it?”
2. The people must be very serious in the prospect of these judgments.
An intimation of this comes in in a parenthesis
(v. 10):
Should we then make mirth? Seeing God has drawn the sword, and
the prophet sighs and cries, Should we then make mirth? The
prophet seems to give this as a reason why he sighs; as
Why should not my countenance be sad, when Jerusalem lies waste?
Note, Before we allow ourselves to be merry, we ought to consider
whether we should be merry or no. Should we make mirth, we who are
sentenced to the sword, who lie under the wrath and curse of God? Shall
we make mirth as other people, who have gone a whoring from
our God?
Hos. ix. 1.
Should we now make mirth, when the hand of God has gone out against us,
when God’s judgments are abroad in the land and he by them calls to
weeping and mourning?
Isa. xxii. 11, 13.
Shall we now make mirth as the king and Haman, when the church is in
perplexity
when we should be grieving for the affliction of Joseph?
Amos vi. 6.
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18 The word of the LORD came unto me again, saying,
19 Also, thou son of man, appoint thee two ways, that the sword
of the king of Babylon may come: both twain shall come forth out
of one land: and choose thou a place, choose it at the head of
the way to the city.
20 Appoint a way, that the sword may come to Rabbath of the
Ammonites, and to Judah in Jerusalem the defenced.
21 For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at
the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his arrows
bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver.
22 At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to
appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up
the voice with shouting, to appoint battering rams against the
gates, to cast a mount, and to build a fort.
23 And it shall be unto them as a false divination in their
sight, to them that have sworn oaths: but he will call to
remembrance the iniquity, that they may be taken.
24 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye have made your
iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are
discovered, so that in all your doings your sins do appear;
because, I say, that ye are come to remembrance, ye shall be
taken with the hand.
25 And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is
come, when iniquity shall have an end,
26 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Remove the diadem, and take off the
crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low,
and abase him that is high.
27 I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no
more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it
him.
The prophet, in the verses before, had shown them the sword coming; he
here shows them that sword coming against them, that they might not
flatter themselves that by some means or other it should be diverted a
contrary way.
I. He must see and show the Chaldean army coming against Jerusalem and
determined by a supreme power so to do. The prophet must appoint him
two ways, that is, he must upon a paper draw out two roads
(v. 19),
as sometimes is done in maps; and he must bring the king of Babylon’s
army to the place where the roads part, for there they will make a
stand. They both come out of the same land; but when they come
to the place where one road leads to Rabbath, the head city of the
Ammonites, and the other to Jerusalem, he makes a pause; for, though he
is resolved to be the ruin of both, yet he is not determined which to
attack first; here his politics and his politicians leave him at a
loss. The sword must go either to Rabbath or to Judah in
Jerusalem. Many of the inhabitants of Judah had now taken shelter
in Jerusalem, and all the interests of the country were bound up in the
safety of the city, and therefore it is called Judah in Jerusalem
the defenced; so strongly fortified was it, both by nature and art,
that it was thought impregnable,
The prophet must describe this dilemma that the king of Babylon is at
(v. 21);
for the king of Babylon stood (that is, he shall stand
considering what course to take) at the head of the two ways.
Though he was a prince of great foresight and great resolution, yet, it
seems, he knew neither his own interest nor his own mind. Let not the
wise man then glory in his wisdom nor the mighty man in his arbitrary
power, for even those that may do what they will seldom know what to do
for the best. Now observe,
1. The method he took to come to a resolution; he used
divination, applied to a higher and invisible power, perhaps to the
determination of Providence by a lot, in order to which he made his
arrows bright, that were to be drawn for the lots, in honour of the
solemnity. Perhaps Jerusalem was written on one arrow and
Rabbath on the other, and that which was first drawn out of the
quiver he determined to attack first. Or he applied to the direction of
some pretended oracle: he consulted with images or
teraphim, expecting to receive audible answers from them. Or to
the observations which the augurs made upon the entrails of the
sacrifices: he looked in the liver, whether the position of that
portended good or ill luck. Note, It is a mortification to the pride
of the wise men of the earth that in difficult cases they have been
glad to make their court to heaven for direction; as it is an instance
of their folly that they have taken such ridiculous ways of doing it,
when in cases proper for an appeal to Providence it is sufficient that
the lot be cast into the lap, with that prayer, Give a
perfect lot, and a firm belief that the disposal thereof is
not fortuitous, but of the Lord,
Prov. xvi. 33.
2. The resolution he was hereby brought to. Even by these sinful
practices God served his own purposes and directed him to go to
Jerusalem,
The divination for Jerusalem happened to be at his right
hand, which, according to the rules of divination, determined him
that way. Note, What services God designs men for he will be
sure in his providence to lead them to, though perhaps they themselves
are not aware what guidance they are under. Well, Jerusalem being the
mark set up, the campaign is presently opened with the siege of that
important place. Captains are appointed for the command of the
forces to be employed in the siege, who must open the mouth in the
slaughter, must give directions to the soldiers what to do and make
speeches to animate them. Orders are given to provide every thing
necessary for carrying on the siege with vigour; battering rams
must be prepared and forts built. O what pains, what cost, are
men at to destroy one another!
II. He must show both the people and the prince that they bring this
destruction upon themselves by their own sin.
1. The people do so,
They slight the notices that are given them of the judgment coming.
Ezekiel’s prophecy is to them a false divination; they are not
moved or awakened to repentance by it. When they hear that
Nebuchadnezzar by his divination is directed to Jerusalem, and assured
of success in that enterprise, they laugh at it and continue
secure, calling it a false divination; because they
have sworn oaths, that is, they have joined in a solemn league with
the Egyptians, and they depend upon the promise they have made them to
raise the siege, or upon the assurances which the false prophets
have given them that it shall be raised. Or it may refer to the oaths
of allegiance they had sworn to the king of Babylon, but had violated,
for which treachery of theirs God had given them up to a judicial
blindness, so that the fairest warnings given them were slighted by
them as false divinations. Note, It is not strange if those who make a
jest of the most sacred oaths can make a jest likewise of the most
sacred oracles; for where will a profane mind stop? But shall their
unbelief invalidate the counsel of God? Are they safe because they are
secure? By no means; nay, the contempt they put upon divine warnings is
a sin that brings to remembrance their other sins, and they may thank
themselves if they be now remembered against them.
(1.) Their present wickedness is discovered. Now that God is contending
with them so perverse and obstinate are they that whatever they offer
in their own defence does but add to their offence; they never
conducted themselves so ill as they did now that they had the loudest
call given them to repent and reform: “So that in all your doings
your sins do appear. Turn yourselves which way you will, you show a
black side.” This is too true of every one of us; for not only there is
none that lives and sins not, but there is not a must man
upon earth that does good and sins not. Our best services have such
allays of weakness, and folly, and imperfection, and so much
evil is present with us even when we would do
good, that we may say, with sorrow and shame, In all our
doings, and in all our sayings too, our sins do appear, and
witness against us, so that if we were under the law we were undone.
(2.) This brings to mind their former wickedness: “You have made
your iniquity to be remembered, not by yourselves that it might be
repented of, but by the justice of God that it might be reckoned for.
Your own sins make the sins of your fathers to be remembered against
you, which otherwise you should never have smarted for.” Note, God
remembers former iniquities against those only who by the present
discoveries of their wickedness show that they do not repent of them.
(3.) That they may suffer for all together, they are turned over to the
destroyed, that they may be taken
(v. 23):
“You shall be taken with the hand that God had appointed to
seize you and to hold you and out of which you cannot escape.” Men are
said to be God’s hand when they are made use of as the ministers
of his justice,
Note, Those who will not be taken with the word of God’s grace shall at
last be taken by the hand of his wrath.
2. The prince likewise brings his ruin upon himself. Zedekiah is the
prince of Israel, to whom the prophet here, in God’s name,
addresses himself; and, if he had not spoken in God’s name, he would
not have spoken so boldly, so bluntly; for is it fit to say to a
king, Thou art wicked?
(1.) He gives him his character,
Thou profane and wicked prince of Israel! He was not so bad as
some of his predecessors, and yet bad enough to merit his character. He
was himself profane, lost to every thing that is virtuous and sacred.
And he was wicked, as he promoted sin among his people; he sinned, and
made Israel to sin. Note, Profaneness and wickedness are bad in
any, but worst of all in a prince, a prince of Israel, who as an
Israelite should know better himself, and as a prince should set a
better example and have a better influence on those about him.
(2.) He reads him his doom. His iniquity has an end; the measure
of it is full, and therefore his day has come, the day of his
punishment, the day of divine vengeance. Note, Though those who are
wicked and profane may flourish awhile, yet their day will come
to fall. The sentence here passed is,
[1.] That Zedekiah shall be deposed. He has forfeited his crown, and he
shall no longer wear it; he has by his profaneness profaned his crown,
and it shall be cast to the ground
(v. 26):
Remove the diadem. Crowns and diadems are losable things; it is
only in the other world that there is a crown of glory that fades not
away, a kingdom that cannot be moved. The Chaldee paraphrase
expounds it thus: Take away the diadem from Seraiah the chief
priest, and I will take away the crown from Zedekiah the king; neither
this nor that shall abide in his place, but shall be removed. This
shall not be the same, not the same that he has been; this not
this (so the word is); profane and wicked perhaps he is as he has
been. Note, Men lose their dignity by their iniquity. Their profaneness
and wickedness remove their diadem, and take off their crown, and make
them the reverse of what they were.
[2.] That great confusion and disorder in the state shall follow
hereupon. Every thing shall be turned upside down. The conqueror shall
take a pride in exalting him that is low and abasing him that
is high, preferring some and degrading others, at his pleasure,
without any regard either to right or merit.
[3.] Attempts to re-establish the government shall be blasted and come
to nothing, Gedaliah’s particularly, and Ishmael’s who was of the
seed-royal (to which the Chaldee paraphrase refers this); neither
of them shall be able to make any thing of it. I will overturn,
overturn, overturn, first one project and then another; for who can
build up what God will throw down?
[4.] This monarchy shall never be restored till it is fixed for
perpetuity in the hands of the Messiah. There shall be no more
kings of the house of David after Zedekiah, till Christ comes, whose
right the kingdom is, who is that seed of David in whom the promise
was to have its full accomplishment, and I will give it to him.
He shall have the throne of his father David,
Luke i. 32.
Immediately before the coming of Christ there was a long eclipse of the
royal dignity, as there was also a failing of the spirit of prophecy,
that his shining forth in the fulness of time both as king and prophet
might appear the more illustrious. Note, Christ has an incontestable
title to the dominion and sovereignty both in the church and in the
world; the kingdom is his right. And, having the right, he shall in due
time have the possession: I will give it to him; and there shall
be a general overturning of all rather than he shall come short of his
right, and a certain overturning of all the opposition that stands in
his way to make room for him,
This is mentioned here for the comfort of those who feared that the
promise made in David would fail for evermore. “No,” says God, “that
promise is sure, for the Messiah’s kingdom shall last for ever.”
| The Destruction of the Ammonites. | B. C. 592. |
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28 And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord
GOD concerning the Ammonites, and concerning their reproach; even
say thou, The sword, the sword is drawn: for the slaughter it
is furbished, to consume because of the glittering:
29 Whiles they see vanity unto thee, whiles they divine a lie
unto thee, to bring thee upon the necks of them that are slain,
of the wicked, whose day is come, when their iniquity shall
have an end.
30 Shall I cause it to return into his sheath? I will judge
thee in the place where thou wast created, in the land of thy
nativity.
31 And I will pour out mine indignation upon thee, I will blow
against thee in the fire of my wrath, and deliver thee into the
hand of brutish men, and skilful to destroy.
32 Thou shalt be for fuel to the fire; thy blood shall be in
the midst of the land; thou shalt be no more remembered: for I
the LORD have spoken it.
The prediction of the destruction of the Ammonites, which was effected
by Nebuchadnezzar about five years after the destruction of Jerusalem,
seems to come in here upon occasion of the king of Babylon’s diverting
his design against Rabbath, when he turned it upon Jerusalem. Upon this
the Ammonites grew very insolent, and triumphed over Jerusalem; but the
prophet must let them know that forbearance is no acquittance; the
reprieve is not a pardon; their day also is at hand; their turn comes
next, and it will be but a poor satisfaction to them that they are to
be devoured last, to be last executed.
I. The sin of the Ammonites is here intimated; it is their
reproach,
v. 28.
1. The reproach they put upon themselves when they hearkened to their
false prophets (for such it seems there were among them as well as
among the Jews), who pretended to foretel their perpetual safety in the
midst of the desolations that were made of the countries round about
them: “They see vanity unto thee and divine a lie,
v. 29.
They flatter thee with promises of peace, and thou art such a fool as
to suffer thyself to be imposed upon by them and to encourage them
therein by giving credit to them.” Note, Those that feed themselves
with a self-conceit in the day of their prosperity prepare matter for a
self-reproach in the day of their calamity.
2. The reproach they put upon the Israel of God, when they triumphed in
their afflictions, and thereby added affliction to them, which was very
barbarous and inhuman. Their divines, by puffing them up with a
conceit that they were a better people than Israel, being spared when
they were cut off, and with a confidence that their prosperity should
always continue, made them so very haughty and insolent that they did
even tread on the necks of the Israelites that were slain, slain by
the wicked Chaldeans, who had commission to execute God’s judgments
upon them when their iniquity had an end, that is, when the
measure of it was full. We shall meet with this again,
&c. Note, Those are ripening apace for misery who trample upon the
people of God in their distress, whereas they ought to tremble when
judgment begins at the house of God.
II. The utter destruction of the Ammonites is threatened. For the
reproach cast on the church by her neighbours will be returned into
their own bosom,
Let us see how terrible the threatening is and the destruction will be.
1. It shall come from the wrath of God, who resents the
indignities and injuries done to his people as done to himself
(v. 31):
I will pour out my indignation as a shower of fire and brimstone
upon thee. The least drop of divine indignation and wrath
will create tribulation and anguish enough to the soul of man
that does evil; what then would a full stream of that indignation
and wrath do? “I will blow against thee in the fire of my wrath;
that is, I will blow up the fire of my wrath against thee; it shall
burn with the utmost vehemence.” Thou shalt be for fuel to this
fire,
v. 32.
Note, Wicked men make themselves fuel to the fire of God’s wrath; they
are consumed by it, and it is inflamed by them.
2. It shall be effected by the sword of war; to them he must cry, as
before to Israel, because they had triumphed in Israel’s overthrow:
The sword, the sword is drawn
compare v. 9, 10);
it is drawn to consume because of the glittering, because it is
brandished and glitters, and is fit to be made use of. God’s executions
will answer his preparations. This sword, when it is drawn, shall
not return into its sheath
(v. 30)
till it has done the work for which it was drawn. When the sword is
drawn it does not return till God causes it to return, and he
is in one mind and who can turn him? Who can change his purpose?
3. The persons employed in it are brutish men, and skilful to
destroy. Men of such a bad character as this, who have the wit of
men to do the work of wild beasts–human reason, which makes them
skilful, but no human compassion, which makes them skilful only to
destroy–though they are the scandal of mankind, yet sometimes are made
use of to serve God’s purposes. God delivers the Ammonites into the
hands of such, and justly, for they themselves were brutish, and
delighted in the destruction of God’s Israel. We have reason to pray,
as Paul desired to be prayed for, that we may be delivered from
wicked and unreasonable men
men that seem made for doing mischief.
4. The place where they should thus be reckoned with: “I will judge
thee where thou wast created, where thou wast first formed into a
people, and where thou hast been settled ever since, and therefore
where thou seemest to have taken root; the land of thy nativity
shall be the land of thy destruction.” Note, God can bring ruin upon us
even where we are most secure, and turn us out of that land which we
thought we had a title to not to be disputed and a possession of not to
be disturbed. Thy blood shall be shed not only in thy borders,
but in the midst of thy land. Lastly, I shall be an irreparable
ruin: “Though thou mayest think to recover thyself, it is in vain to
think of it; thou shalt be no more remembered with any respect,”
Justly is their name blotted out who would have Israel’s name for ever
lost.
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