CHAPTER 5

(594 B.C.)

SIGNS OF JERUSALEMS FATE: RAZOR, KNIFE, AND FIRE

¹And you, son of man, take you a sharp knife, take you a barbers razor, and cause it to pass upon your head and upon your beard: then take you balances to weigh, and divide the hair. (Again, the Lord uses symbolism to portray the desired Message. It is the symbol of the barbers razor. In Old Testament times, the head and beard being shaved represented shame, and was symbolic of the leper who was required to shave his head and beard. Therefore, Judah and Jerusalem were classified by the Lord as spiritual lepers.)

²You shall burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled: and you shall take a third part, and smite about it with a knife: and a third part you shall scatter in the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them. (The symbolic action predicted that the fire, i.e., the Wrath of God [in pestilence and famine], should destroy approximately one-third of the nation, with war destroying a second part, and the Exiles representing the third part, which would be scattered in the wind. Many of these also were to perish by sword and famine. In short, the carnage, when it did take place, was terrible, to say the least!)

³You shall also take thereof a few in number, and bind them in your skirts. (This number represented the few who would not fall into the categories of Verse 2. In a population of several million, such would be normal! The next Verse tells what will happen to them.)

⁴Then 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. (The judgment is to be so complete that even those who thought they had escaped, by whatever means, would find the fire of judgment chasing them, of which they could not escape.)

JUDGMENT COMING BECAUSE OF SINS

⁵Thus says the Lord GOD; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her. (The phrase, This is Jerusalem, is strong indeed! She, as representing the all of Israel, was placed in the center of the nations in order to shed upon them the light of the Gospel. But she rebelled against Truth more than the heathen, multiplied idols, and sank morally lower than her neighbors.)

⁶And she has changed My Judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and My Statutes more than the countries that are round about her: for they (the Jews) have refused My Judgments and My Statutes, they have not walked in them. (She has changed My Judgments into wickedness, refers to the Law of Moses, which was not only ignored, but was twisted and changed to mean something else entirely!)

⁷Therefore thus sa ys the Lord GOD; Because you 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 (the idea of this Verse is that the heathen nations were at least true to the gods whom they worshipped, while Jerusalem had rebelled against Jehovah);

⁸Therefore thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, am against you, and will execute Judgments in the midst of you in the sight of the nations. (I, even I, emphasizes the certitude of the Wrath of God, just as Isa. 43:25 emphasizes the certitude of the pardoning Love of God; and it rebukes the unbelief of the natural heart which denies both these activities of the Divine Essence.)

⁹And I will do in you that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all your abominations. (And I will do in you that which I have not done, refers to the soon destruction of Jerusalem. I will not do any more the like, has reference to the present and to the future. It held both Promise and Judgment!)

¹⁰Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of you, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute Judgments in you, and the whole remnant of you will I scatter into all the winds. (This was literally fulfilled during the siege of the city by the Chaldeans, as it had occurred years before in the siege of Samaria [II Ki. 6:28-29], and was to occur afterwards, in connection with the siege by the Romans in A.D. 70.)

¹¹Wherefore, as I live, sa ys the Lord GOD; Surely, because you have defiled My Sanctuary with all your detestable things, and with all your abominations, therefore will I also diminish you; neither shall My eye spare, neither will I have any pity. (The righteous Judgments, consequent upon the abominations of this Verse, which are detailed in Verses 8 through 17, are still in operation, and will reach a crisis under the reign of the Antichrist, when the indignation against Israel will be consummated [Dan. 11:36; 12:1].)

¹²A third part of you shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of you: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about you; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them. (Ezekiel draws this Passage, no doubt, from Lev. 26:33. Verse 12 describes the manner in which the judgment will fall.)

¹³Thus shall My 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. (Righteousness must, from its nature, be restless till evil is judged. Then it is comforted. Such was the effect of the judgment of sin at Calvary; and those who recognize this Gospel fact and take refuge in the great God and Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who was the Participant in it, taste the sweetness of the Divine comfort.)

¹⁴Moreover I will make you waste, and a reproach among the nations that are round about you, in the sight of all who pass by. (Of all the suffering experienced by Judah, perhaps the worst of all was the reproach among the nations, and in the sight of all who pass by.)

¹⁵So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment unto the nations that are round about you, when I shall execute judgments in you in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I the LORD have spoken it. (This is drawn perhaps from Deut. 28:37. The phrase, So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, refers to Jerusalem, which is to be the great object lesson in Gods education of mankind. The idea was that if Jehovah would do this to His Own City and People, He would do at least as much to the heathen. This He did, and this He does! He calls it furious rebukes.)

¹⁶When 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 (as an arrow shot by an expert marksman goes true to its target, so will these arrows unleashed by the Lord; they will be arrows of famine and destruction; they are of necessity called evil arrows.

And will break your staff of bread, refers to the fact that Judah always reaped abundant harvests, and consequently felt that famine was impossible. Nevertheless, the Lord warns them that not only is such possible, but most surely will come, which it did!):

¹⁷So will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave you; and pestilence and blood shall pass through you; and I will bring the sword upon you. I the LORD have spoken it. (The evil beasts speak of the Babylonian horde! The Chapter ends with the words, I the LORD have spoken it, which is the final stroke of all, guaranteeing that even though the words came from Ezekiel, they, of necessity, belong to the Lord. As such, they were guaranteed of fulfillment.)