CHAPTER 11
. 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 (), 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 . The leading priests were usually called "princes
of the sanctuary" (Isaiah 43:28)
and "chiefs of the priests" (Isaiah 43:28); 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 (Isaiah 43:28). Already the wrath of God had visited the people
represented by the elders (Isaiah 43:28); 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
(Ezekiel 8:12; Ezekiel 8:16)
after the sin of the elders.
Jaazaniah—signifying
"God hears."
son of Azur—different
from Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan (Ezekiel 8:16). 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
(Ezekiel 8:11; Ezekiel 8:12),
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 (Ezekiel 10:2).
wicked counsel—in
opposition to the prophets of God (Ezekiel 10:2).
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 (). "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 (Jeremiah 25:11;
Jeremiah 25:12; Jeremiah 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
Ezekiel 12:22; Ezekiel 12:27;
2 Peter 3:4).
this city . . . caldron . . .
we . . . flesh—sneering at 2 Peter 3:4, 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 (2 Peter 3:4), "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 2 Peter 3:4, "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
Ezekiel 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" (Ezekiel 2:2;
Ezekiel 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— (Ezekiel 3:24). 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 (Ezekiel 7:23;
Ezekiel 7:24). They had made it a
caldron in which to boil the flesh of God's people (Ezekiel 7:24), 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" (Jeremiah 34:4;
Jeremiah 34:5).
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.
13. Pelaliah—probably the
ringleader of the scorners (); his being stricken dead (like Ananias, ) 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 Ezekiel 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 (Leviticus 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 (Deuteronomy 33:9),
the type of Messiah (Deuteronomy 33:9) 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 (Luke 16:15;
1 Corinthians 1:26-28). "No door
of hope but in the valley of Achor" ("trouble," 1 Corinthians 1:26-46), [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
(Psalms 90:1; Psalms 91:9;
Isaiah 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 (Isaiah 57:15;
Isaiah 66:1; Malachi 1:11;
John 4:21-24; Acts 7:48;
Acts 7:49). 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 (Isaiah 2:2-4;
Jeremiah 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 (Jeremiah 3:16-24).
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 (Jeremiah 3:16-24).
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 (); 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 , 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 (Jeremiah 32:39;
Zephaniah 3:9) [HENGSTENBERG].
Or, "content with one God," not distracted with "the
many detestable things" (Ezekiel 11:18;
1 Kings 18:21; Hosea 10:2)
[CALVIN].
new spirit— (Psalms 51:10;
Jeremiah 31:33). Realized fully in the
"new creature" of the New Testament (Jeremiah 31:33); having new motives, new rules, new aims.
stony heart—like
"adamant" (Zechariah 7:12);
the natural heart of every man.
heart of flesh—impressible
to what is good, tender.
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 (Psalms 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 (Psalms 115:8).
23. The Shekinah glory now moves
from the east gate (Ezekiel 10:4;
Ezekiel 10:19) 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 (Ezekiel 10:19). It is also to be the scene of His return in person to
deliver His people (Zechariah 14:4),
when He shall come by the same way as He went, "the way of the
east" (Ezekiel 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 () 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].
CHAPTER 11
. 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 (), 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 . The leading priests were usually called "princes of the sanctuary" (Isaiah 43:28) and "chiefs of the priests" (Isaiah 43:28); 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 (Isaiah 43:28). Already the wrath of God had visited the people represented by the elders (Isaiah 43:28); 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 (Ezekiel 8:12; Ezekiel 8:16) after the sin of the elders.
Jaazaniah—signifying "God hears."
son of Azur—different from Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan (Ezekiel 8:16). 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 (Ezekiel 8:11; Ezekiel 8:12), 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 (Ezekiel 10:2).
wicked counsel—in opposition to the prophets of God (Ezekiel 10:2).
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 (). "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 (Jeremiah 25:11; Jeremiah 25:12; Jeremiah 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 Ezekiel 12:22; Ezekiel 12:27; 2 Peter 3:4).
this city . . . caldron . . . we . . . flesh—sneering at 2 Peter 3:4, 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 (2 Peter 3:4), "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 2 Peter 3:4, "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 Ezekiel 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" (Ezekiel 2:2; Ezekiel 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— (Ezekiel 3:24). 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 (Ezekiel 7:23; Ezekiel 7:24). They had made it a caldron in which to boil the flesh of God's people (Ezekiel 7:24), 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" (Jeremiah 34:4; Jeremiah 34:5).
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 2 Kings 25:19-21; 1 Kings 8:65).
ye shall know that I am the Lord—by the judgments I inflict (1 Kings 8:65).
11. (See on ).
12. (Deuteronomy 12:30; Deuteronomy 12:31).
13. Pelaliah—probably the ringleader of the scorners (); his being stricken dead (like Ananias, ) 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 Ezekiel 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 (Leviticus 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 (Deuteronomy 33:9), the type of Messiah (Deuteronomy 33:9) 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 (Luke 16:15; 1 Corinthians 1:26-28). "No door of hope but in the valley of Achor" ("trouble," 1 Corinthians 1:26-46), [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 (Psalms 90:1; Psalms 91:9; Isaiah 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 (Isaiah 57:15; Isaiah 66:1; Malachi 1:11; John 4:21-24; Acts 7:48; Acts 7:49). 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 (Isaiah 2:2-4; Jeremiah 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 (Jeremiah 3:16-24).
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 (Jeremiah 3:16-24).
17. (Ezekiel 28:25; Ezekiel 34:13; Ezekiel 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 (); 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 , 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 (Jeremiah 32:39; Zephaniah 3:9) [HENGSTENBERG]. Or, "content with one God," not distracted with "the many detestable things" (Ezekiel 11:18; 1 Kings 18:21; Hosea 10:2) [CALVIN].
new spirit— (Psalms 51:10; Jeremiah 31:33). Realized fully in the "new creature" of the New Testament (Jeremiah 31:33); having new motives, new rules, new aims.
stony heart—like "adamant" (Zechariah 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 (Galatians 5:22; Galatians 5:25).
they . . . my people, . . . I . . . their God— (Ezekiel 14:11; Ezekiel 36:28; Ezekiel 37:27; Jeremiah 24:7). In its fullest sense still future (Zechariah 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 (Psalms 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 (Psalms 115:8).
23. The Shekinah glory now moves from the east gate (Ezekiel 10:4; Ezekiel 10:19) 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 (Ezekiel 10:19). It is also to be the scene of His return in person to deliver His people (Zechariah 14:4), when He shall come by the same way as He went, "the way of the east" (Ezekiel 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 () 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].