17 Then say, This is what the Lord has said: I will get you together from the peoples, and make you come out of the countries where you have been sent in flight, and I will give you the land of Israel.
This is what the Lord has said: When I have got together the children of Israel from the peoples among whom they are wandering, and have been made holy among them before the eyes of the nations, then they will have rest in the land which is theirs, which I gave to my servant Jacob
In those days the family of Judah will go with the family of Israel, and they will come together out of the land of the north into the land which I gave for a heritage to your fathers.
And I will take them out from among the peoples, and get them together from the countries, and will take them into their land; and I will give them food on the mountains of Israel by the water-streams and wherever men are living in the country.
And in that day the hand of the Lord will be stretched out the second time to get back the rest of his people, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the sea-lands. And he will put up a flag as a sign to the nations, and he will get together those of Israel who had been sent away, and the wandering ones of Judah, from the four ends of the earth. And the envy of Ephraim will be gone, and those who make trouble for Judah will come to an end: Ephraim will have no more envy of Judah, and there will be an end of Judah's hate for Ephraim. And they will be united in attacking the Philistines on the west, and together they will take the goods of the children of the east: their hand will be on Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon will be under their rule. And the Lord will make the tongue of the Egyptian sea completely dry; and with his burning wind his hand will be stretched out over the River, and it will be parted into seven streams, so that men may go over it with dry feet. And there will be a highway for the rest of his people from Assyria; as there was for Israel in the day when he came up out of the land of Egypt.
For I will take you out from among the nations, and get you together from all the countries, and take you into your land.
So have no fear, O Jacob, my servant, says the Lord; and do not be troubled, O Israel: for see, I will make you come back from far away, and your seed from the land where they are prisoners; and Jacob will come back, and will be quiet and at peace, and no one will give him cause for fear. For I am with you, says the Lord, to be your saviour: for I will put an end to all the nations where I have sent you wandering, but I will not put an end to you completely: though with wise purpose I will put right your errors, and will not let you go quite without punishment.
See, I will take them from the north country, and get them from the inmost parts of the earth, and with them the blind and the feeble-footed, the woman with child and her who is in birth-pains together: a very great army, they will come back here. They will come with weeping, and going before them I will be their guide: guiding them by streams of water in a straight way where there is no falling: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is the first of my sons. Give ear to the word of the Lord, O you nations, and give news of it in the sea-lands far away, and say, He who has sent Israel wandering will get him together and will keep him as a keeper does his flock.
See, I will get them together from all the countries where I have sent them in my wrath and in the heat of my passion and in my bitter feeling; and I will let them come back into this place where they may take their rest safely. And they will be my people, and I will be their God: And I will give them one heart and one way, so that they may go on in the worship of me for ever, for their good and the good of their children after them: And I will make an eternal agreement with them, that I will never give them up, but ever do them good; and I will put the fear of me in their hearts, so that they will not go away from me. And truly, I will take pleasure in doing them good, and all my heart and soul will be given to planting them in this land in good faith.
And say to them, These are the words of the Lord: See, I am taking the children of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and will get them together on every side, and take them into their land: And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king over them all: and they will no longer be two nations, and will no longer be parted into two kingdoms: And they will no longer make themselves unclean with their images or with their hated things or with any of their sins: but I will give them salvation from all their turning away in which they have done evil, and will make them clean; and they will be to me a people, and I will be to them a God. And my servant David will be king over them; and they will all have one keeper: and they will be guided by my orders and will keep my rules and do them. And they will be living in the land which I gave to Jacob, my servant, in which your fathers were living; and they will go on living there, they and their children and their children's children, for ever: and David, my servant, will be their ruler for ever. And I will make an agreement of peace with them: it will be an eternal agreement with them: and I will have mercy on them and make their numbers great, and will put my holy place among them for ever. And my House will be over them; and I will be to them a God, and they will be to me a people. And the nations will be certain that I who make Israel holy am the Lord, when my holy place is among them for ever.
When I have taken them back from among the peoples and got them together out of the lands of their haters, and have made myself holy in them before the eyes of a great number of nations. And they will be certain that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them away as prisoners among the nations, and have taken them together back to their land; and I have not let one of them be there any longer. And my face will no longer be covered from them: for I have sent the out-flowing of my spirit on the children of Israel, says the Lord.
But still the number of the children of Israel will be like the sand of the sea, which may not be measured or numbered; and in place of its being said to them, You are not my people, it will be said to them, You are the sons of the living God And the children of Israel and the children of Judah will come together and take for themselves one head, and will go up from the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.
And I will let the fate of my people Israel be changed, and they will be building up again the waste towns and living in them; they will again be planting vine-gardens and taking the wine for their drink; and they will make gardens and get the fruit of them. And I will have them planted in their land, and never again will they be uprooted from their land which I have given them, says the Lord your God.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Ezekiel 11
Commentary on Ezekiel 11 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 11
Eze 11:1-25. Prophecy of the Destruction of the Corrupt "Princes of the People;" Pelatiah Dies; Promise of Grace to the Believing Remnant; Departure of the Glory of God from the City; Ezekiel's Return to the Captives.
1. east gate—to which the glory of God had moved itself (Eze 10:19), the chief entrance of the sanctuary; the portico or porch of Solomon. The Spirit moves the prophet thither, to witness, in the presence of the divine glory, a new scene of destruction.
five and twenty men—The same as the twenty-five (that is, twenty-four heads of courses, and the high priest) sun-worshippers seen in Eze 8:16. The leading priests were usually called "princes of the sanctuary" (Isa 43:28) and "chiefs of the priests" (2Ch 36:14); but here two of them are called "princes of the people," with irony, as using their priestly influence to be ringleaders of the people in sin (Eze 11:2). Already the wrath of God had visited the people represented by the elders (Eze 9:6); also the glory of the Lord had left its place in the holy of holies, and, like the cherubim and flaming sword in Eden, had occupied the gate into the deserted sanctuary. The judgment on the representatives of the priesthood naturally follows here, just as the sin of the priests had followed in the description (Eze 8:12, 16) after the sin of the elders.
Jaazaniah—signifying "God hears."
son of Azur—different from Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan (Eze 8:11). Azur means "help." He and Pelatiah ("God delivers"), son of Benaiah ("God builds"), are singled out as Jaazaniah, son of Shaphan, in the case of the seventy elders (Eze 8:11, 12), because their names ought to have reminded them that "God" would have "heard" had they sought His "help" to "deliver" and "build" them up. But, neglecting this, they incurred the heavier judgment by the very relation in which they stood to God [Fairbairn].
2. he—the Lord sitting on the cherubim (Eze 10:2).
wicked counsel—in opposition to the prophets of God (Eze 11:3).
3. It is not near—namely, the destruction of the city; therefore "let us build houses," as if there was no fear. But the Hebrew opposes English Version, which would require the infinitive absolute. Rather, "Not at hand is the building of houses." They sneer at Jeremiah's letter to the captives, among whom Ezekiel lived (Jer 29:5). "Build ye houses, and dwell in them," that is, do not fancy, as many persuade you, that your sojourn in Babylon is to be short; it will be for seventy years (Jer 25:11, 12; 29:10); therefore build houses and settle quietly there. The scorners in Jerusalem reply, Those far off in exile may build if they please, but it is too remote a concern for us to trouble ourselves about [Fairbairn], (Compare Eze 12:22, 27; 2Pe 3:4).
this city … caldron … we … flesh—sneering at Jer 1:13, when he compared the city to a caldron with its mouth towards the north. "Let Jerusalem be so if you will, and we the flesh, exposed to the raging foe from the north, still its fortifications will secure us from the flame of war outside; the city must stand for our sakes, just as the pot exists for the safety of the flesh in it." In opposition to this God says (Eze 11:11), "This city shall not be your caldron, to defend you in it from the foe outside: nay, ye shall be driven out of your imaginary sanctuary and slain in the border of the land." "But," says God, in Eze 11:7, "your slain are the flesh, and this city the caldron; but (not as you fancy, shall ye be kept safe inside) I will bring you forth out of the midst of it"; and again, in Eze 24:3, "Though not a caldron in your sense, Jerusalem shall be so in the sense of its being exposed to a consuming foe, and you yourselves in it and with it."
4. prophesy … prophesy—The repetition marks emphatic earnestness.
5. Spirit … fell upon me—stronger than "entered into me" (Eze 2:2; 3:24), implying the zeal of the Spirit of God roused to immediate indignation at the contempt of God shown by the scorners.
I know—(Ps 139:1-4). Your scornful jests at My word escape not My notice.
6. your slain—those on whom you have brought ruin by your wicked counsels. Bloody crimes within the city brought on it a bloody foe from without (Eze 7:23, 24). They had made it a caldron in which to boil the flesh of God's people (Mic 3:1-3), and eat it by unrighteous oppression; therefore God will make it a caldron in a different sense, one not wherein they may be safe in their guilt, but "out of the midst of" which they shall be "brought forth" (Jer 34:4, 5).
7. The city is a caldron to them, but it shall not be so to you. Ye shall meet your doom on the frontier.
8. The Chaldean sword, to escape which ye abandoned your God, shall be brought on you by God because of that very abandonment of Him.
9. out of the midst thereof—that is, of the city, as captives led into the open plain for judgment.
10. in the border of Israel—on the frontier: at Riblah, in the land of Hamath (compare 2Ki 25:19-21, with 1Ki 8:65).
ye shall know that I am the Lord—by the judgments I inflict (Ps 9:16).
11. (See on Eze 11:3).
12. (De 12:30, 31).
13. Pelaliah—probably the ringleader of the scorners (Eze 11:1); his being stricken dead (like Ananias, Acts 5. 5) was an earnest of the destruction of the rest of the twenty-five, as Ezekiel had foretold, as also of the general ruin.
fell … upon … face—(See on Eze 9:8).
wilt thou make a full end of the remnant—Is Pelatiah's destruction to be the token of the destruction of all, even of the remnant? The people regarded Pelatiah as a mainstay of the city. His name (derived from a Hebrew root, "a remnant," or else "God delivers") suggested hope. Is that hope, asks Ezekiel, to be disappointed?
15. thy brethren … brethren—The repetition implies, "Thy real brethren" are no longer the priests at Jerusalem with whom thou art connected by the natural ties of blood and common temple service, but thy fellow exiles on the Chebar, and the house of Israel whosoever of them belong to the remnant to be spared.
men of thy kindred—literally, "of thy redemption," that is, the nearest relatives, whose duty it was to do the part of Goel, or vindicator and redeemer of a forfeited inheritance (Le 25:25). Ezekiel, seeing the priesthood doomed to destruction, as a priest, felt anxious to vindicate their cause, as if they were his nearest kinsmen and he their Goel. But he is told to look for his true kinsmen in those, his fellow exiles, whom his natural kinsmen at Jerusalem despised, and he is to be their vindicator. Spiritual ties, as in the case of Levi (De 33:9), the type of Messiah (Mt 12:47-50) are to supersede natural ones where the two clash. The hope of better days was to rise from the despised exiles. The gospel principle is shadowed forth here, that the despised of men are often the chosen of God and the highly esteemed among men are often an abomination before Him (Lu 16:15; 1Co 1:26-28). "No door of hope but in the valley of Achor" ("trouble," Ho 2:15), [Fairbairn].
Get you far … unto us is this land—the contemptuous words of those left still in the city at the carrying away of Jeconiah to the exiles, "However far ye be outcasts from the Lord and His temple, we are secure in our possession of the land."
16. Although—anticipating the objection of the priests at Jerusalem, that the exiles were "cast far off." Though this be so, and they are far from the outer temple at Jerusalem, I will be their asylum or sanctuary instead (Ps 90:1; 91:9; Isa 8:14). My shrine is the humble heart: a preparation for gospel catholicity when the local and material temple should give place to the spiritual (Isa 57:15; 66:1; Mal 1:11; Joh 4:21-24; Ac 7:48, 49). The trying discipline of the exile was to chasten the outcasts so as to be meet recipients of God's grace, for which the carnal confidence of the priests disqualified them. The dispersion served the end of spiritualizing and enlarging the views even of the better Jews, so as to be able to worship God everywhere without a material temple; and, at the same time, it diffused some knowledge of God among the greatest Gentile nations, thus providing materials for the gathering in of the Christian Church among the Gentiles; so marvellously did God overrule a present evil for an ultimate good. Still more does all this hold good in the present much longer dispersion which is preparing for a more perfect and universal restoration (Isa 2:2-4; Jer 3:16-18). Their long privation of the temple will prepare them for appreciating the more, but without Jewish narrowness, the temple that is to be (Eze 40:1-44:31).
a little—rather, "for a little season"; No matter how long the captivity may be, the seventy years will be but as a little season, compared with their long subsequent settlement in their land. This holds true only partially in the case of the first restoration; but as in a few centuries they were dispersed again, the full and permanent restoration is yet future (Jer 24:6).
17. (Eze 28:25; 34:13; 36:24).
18. They have eschewed every vestige of idolatry ever since their return from Babylon. But still the Shekinah glory had departed, the ark was not restored, nor was the second temple strictly inhabited by God until He came who made it more glorious than the first temple (Hag 2:9); even then His stay was short, and ended in His being rejected; so that the full realization of the promise must still be future.
19. I will give them—lest they should claim to themselves the praise given them in Eze 11:18, God declares it is to be the free gift of His Spirit.
one heart—not singleness, that is, uprightness, but oneness of heart in all, unanimously seeking Him in contrast to their state at that time, when only single scattered individuals sought God (Jer 32:39; Zep 3:9) [Hengstenberg]. Or, "content with one God," not distracted with "the many detestable things" (Eze 11:18; 1Ki 18:21; Ho 10:2) [Calvin].
new spirit—(Ps 51:10; Jer 31:33). Realized fully in the "new creature" of the New Testament (2Co 5:17); having new motives, new rules, new aims.
stony heart—like "adamant" (Zec 7:12); the natural heart of every man.
heart of flesh—impressible to what is good, tender.
20. walk in my statutes—Regeneration shows itself by its fruits (Ga 5:22, 25).
they … my people, … I … their God—(Eze 14:11; 36:28; 37:27; Jer 24:7). In its fullest sense still future (Zec 13:9).
21. whose heart … after … heart of … detestable things—The repetition of "heart" is emphatic, signifying that the heart of those who so obstinately clung to idols, impelled itself to fresh superstitions in one continuous tenor [Calvin]. Perhaps it is implied that they and their idols are much alike in character (Ps 115:8). The heart walks astray first, the feet follow.
recompense … way upon … heads—They have abandoned Me, so will I abandon them; they profaned My temple, so will I profane it by the Chaldeans (Eze 9:10).
23. The Shekinah glory now moves from the east gate (Eze 10:4, 19) to the Mount of Olives, altogether abandoning the temple. The mount was chosen as being the height whence the missiles of the foe were about to descend on the city. So it was from it that Jesus ascended to heaven when about to send His judgments on the Jews; and from it He predicted its overthrow before His crucifixion (Mt 24:3). It is also to be the scene of His return in person to deliver His people (Zec 14:4), when He shall come by the same way as He went, "the way of the east" (Eze 43:2).
24. brought me in a vision—not in actual fact, but in ecstatic vision. He had been as to the outward world all the time before the elders (Eze 8:3) in Chaldea; he now reports what he had witnessed with the inner eye.
25. things … showed me—literally, "words"; an appropriate expression; for the word communicated to him was not simply a word, but one clothed with outward symbols "shown" to him as in the sacrament, which Augustine terms "the visible word" [Calvin].