13 In your filthiness is lewdness: because I have cleansed you and you weren't cleansed, you shall not be cleansed from your filthiness any more, until I have caused my wrath toward you to rest.
They are all grievous rebels, going about with slanders; they are brass and iron: they all of them deal corruptly. The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed of the fire: in vain do they go on refining; for the wicked are not plucked away. Refuse silver shall men them, because Yahweh has rejected them.
but to those who are self-seeking, and don't obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will be wrath and indignation, oppression and anguish, on every soul of man who works evil, on the Jew first, and also on the Greek.
He said to the vine dresser, 'Behold, these three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and found none. Cut it down. Why does it waste the soil?' He answered, 'Lord, leave it alone this year also, until I dig around it, and fertilize it. If it bears fruit, fine; but if not, after that, you can cut it down.'"
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is left to you desolate.
Moreover all the chiefs of the priests, and the people, trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted the house of Yahweh which he had made holy in Jerusalem. Yahweh, the God of their fathers, sent to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending, because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling-place: but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the wrath of Yahweh arose against his people, until there was no remedy.
"I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, And lack of bread in every town; Yet you haven't returned to me," says Yahweh. "I also have withheld the rain from you, When there were yet three months to the harvest; And I caused it to rain on one city, And caused it not to rain on another city. One place was rained on, And the piece where it didn't rain withered. So two or three cities staggered to one city to drink water, And were not satisfied: Yet you haven't returned to me," says Yahweh. I struck you with blight and mildew many times in your gardens and your vineyards; And your fig trees and your olive trees have the swarming locust devoured: Yet you haven't returned to me," says Yahweh. I sent plagues among you like I did Egypt. I have slain your young men with the sword, And have carried away your horses; And I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camp Yet you haven't returned to me," says Yahweh. "I have overthrown some of you, As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, And you were like a burning stick plucked out of the fire; Yet you haven't returned to me," says Yahweh. "Therefore thus will I do to you, Israel; Because I will do this to you, Prepare to meet your God, Israel.
Strangers have devoured his strength, And he doesn't realize it. Indeed, gray hairs are here and there on him, And he doesn't realize it. The pride of Israel testifies to his face; Yet they haven't returned to Yahweh their God, Nor sought him, for all this. "Ephraim is like an easily deceived dove, without understanding. They call to Egypt. They go to Assyria. When they go, I will spread my net on them. I will bring them down like the birds of the sky. I will chastise them, as their congregation has heard. Woe to them! For they have wandered from me. Destruction to them! For they have trespassed against me. Though I would redeem them, Yet they have spoken lies against me. They haven't cried to me with their heart, But they howl on their beds. They assemble themselves for grain and new wine. They turn away from me. Though I have taught and strengthened their arms, Yet they plot evil against me. They return, but not to the Most High. They are like a faulty bow. Their princes will fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue. This will be their derision in the land of Egypt.
Yahweh said moreover to me: Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? then declare to them their abominations. For they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands; and with their idols have they committed adultery; and they have also caused their sons, whom they bore to me, to pass through [the fire] to them to be devoured. Moreover this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my Sabbaths. For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and, behold, thus have they done in the midst of my house. Furthermore you have sent for men who come from far, to whom a messenger was sent, and, behold, they came; for whom you did wash yourself, paint your eyes, and deck yourself with ornaments, and sit on a stately bed, with a table prepared before it, whereupon you did set my incense and my oil. The voice of a multitude being at ease was with her: and with men of the common sort were brought drunkards from the wilderness; and they put bracelets on the hands of them [twain], and beautiful crowns on their heads. Then said I of her who was old in adulteries, Now will they play the prostitute with her, and she [with them]. They went in to her, as they go in to a prostitute: so went they in to Oholah and to Oholibah, the lewd women. Righteous men, they shall judge them with the judgment of adulteresses, and with the judgment of women who shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands. For thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will bring up a company against them, and will give them to be tossed back and forth and robbed. The company shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords; they shall kill their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire. Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.
From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, these twenty-three years, the word of Yahweh has come to me, and I have spoken to you, rising up early and speaking; but you have not listened. Yahweh has sent to you all his servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, (but you have not listened, nor inclined your ear to hear), saying, Return you now everyone from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that Yahweh has given to you and to your fathers, from of old and even forevermore; and don't go after other gods to serve them or worship them, and don't provoke me to anger with the work of your hands; and I will do you no harm. Yet you have not listened to me, says Yahweh; that you may provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own hurt.
Yet the people have not turned to him who struck them, neither have they sought Yahweh of Hosts. Therefore Yahweh will cut off from Israel head and tail, palm-branch and rush, in one day. The elder and the honorable man, he is the head; and the prophet who teaches lies, he is the tail. For those who lead this people cause them to err; and those who are led of them are destroyed. Therefore the Lord will not rejoice over their young men, neither will he have compassion on their fatherless and widows; for everyone is profane and an evil-doer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes? Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up. I will break down its wall of it, and it will be trampled down. I will lay it a wasteland. It won't be pruned nor hoed, But it will grow briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it."
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Ezekiel 24
Commentary on Ezekiel 24 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
On the day on which the king of Babylon commenced the siege and blockade of Jerusalem, this event was revealed by God to Ezekiel on the Chaboras (Ezekiel 24:1 and Ezekiel 24:2); and he was commanded to predict to the people through the medium of a parable the fate of the city and its inhabitants (Ezekiel 24:3-14). God then foretold to him the death of his own wife, and commanded him to show no sign of mourning on account of it. His wife died the following evening, and he did as he was commanded. When he was asked by the people the reason of this, he explained to them, that what he was doing was symbolical of the way in which they were to act when Jerusalem fell (Ezekiel 24:15-24). The fall would be announced to the prophet by a fugitive, and then he would no longer remain mute, but would speak to the people again (Ezekiel 24:25-27). - Apart, therefore, from the last three verses, this chapter contains two words of God, the first of which unfolds in a parable the approaching calamities, and the result of the siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans (Ezekiel 24:1-14); whilst the second typifies by means of a sign the pain and mourning of Israel, namely, of the exiles at the destruction of the city with its sanctuary and its inhabitants. These two words of God, being connected together by their contents, were addressed to the prophet on the same day, and that, as the introduction (Ezekiel 24:1 and Ezekiel 24:2) expressly observes, the day on which the siege of Jerusalem by the king of Babylon began.
And the word of Jehovah came to me in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, saying, Ezekiel 24:2. Son of man, write for thyself the name of the day, this same day! The king of Babylon has fallen upon Jerusalem this same day. - The date given, namely, the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year after the carrying away of Jehoiachin (Ezekiel 1:2), or what is the same thing, of the reign of Zedekiah, who was appointed king in his stead, is mentioned in Jeremiah 52:4; Jeremiah 39:1, and 2 Kings 25:1, as the day on which Nebuchadnezzar blockaded the city of Jerusalem by throwing up a rampart; and after the captivity this day was still kept as a fast-day in consequence (Zechariah 8:19). What was thus taking place at Jerusalem was revealed to Ezekiel on the Chaboras the very same day; and he was instructed to announce it to the exiles, “that they and the besieged might learn both from the time and the result, that the destruction of the city was not to be ascribed to chance or to the power of the Babylonians, but to the will of Him who had long ago foretold that, on account of the wickedness of the inhabitants, the city would be burned with fire; and that Ezekiel was a true prophet, because even when in Babylon, which was at so great a distance, he had known and had publicly announced the state of Jerusalem.” The definite character of this prediction cannot be changed into a vaticinium post eventum , either by arbitrary explanations of the words, or by the unfounded hypothesis proposed by Hitzig, that the day was not set down in this definite form till after the event. - Writing the name of the day is equivalent to making a note of the day. The reason for this is given in Ezekiel 24:2 , namely, because Nebuchadnezzar had fallen upon Jerusalem on that very day. סמך signifies to support, hold up (his hand); and hence both here and in Psalms 88:8 the meaning to press violently upon anything. The rendering “to draw near,” which has been forced upon the word from the Syriac (Ges., Winer, and others), cannot be sustained.
Parable of the Pot with the Boiling Pieces
Ezekiel 24:3. And relate a parable to the rebellious house, and say to them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Set on the pot, set on and also pour water into it. Ezekiel 24:4. Gather its pieces of flesh into it, all the good pieces, haunch and shoulder, fill it with choice bones. Ezekiel 24:5. Take the choice of the flock, and also a pile of wood underneath for the bones; make it boil well, also cook its bones therein. Ezekiel 24:6. Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Woe! O city of murders! O pot in which is rust, and whose rust doth not depart from it; piece by piece fetch it out, the lot hath not fallen upon it. Ezekiel 24:7. For her blood is in the midst of her; she hath placed it upon the naked rock; she hath not poured it upon the ground, that they might cover it with dust. Ezekiel 24:8. To bring up fury, to take vengeance, I have made her blood come upon the naked rock, that it might not be covered. Ezekiel 24:9. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Woe to the city of murders! I also will make the pile of wood great. Ezekiel 24:10. Heap up the wood, stir the fire, do the flesh thoroughly, make the broth boil, that the bones may also be cooked away. Ezekiel 24:11. And set it empty upon the coals thereof, that its brass may become hot and glowing, that the uncleanness thereof may melt within it, its rust pass away. Ezekiel 24:12. He hath exhausted the pains, and her great rust doth not go from her; into the fire with her rust! Ezekiel 24:13. In thine uncleanness is abomination; because I have cleansed thee, and thou hast not become clean, thou wilt no more become clean from thy uncleanness, till I quiet my fury upon thee. Ezekiel 24:14. I Jehovah have spoken it; it cometh, and I will do it; I will not cease, nor spare, nor let it repent me. According to thy ways, and according to thy deeds, shall they judge thee, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah.