Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 5:5
Thus saith the Lord GOD; This [is] Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries [that are] round about her.
5. This is Jerusalem ] Or, this Jerusalem I set it! (Exo 32:1; Eze 40:45). Jerusalem is placed emphatically at the head of the sentence; the thoughts which the name suggests are then developed in the succeeding clauses.
countries that are round ] Rather: nations; and countries are round about her. The geographical position of Jerusalem in the midst of the nations, distinct from them all, was but the external side of the exclusive favours bestowed on her by God. She should have been distinguished above the nations in righteousness, but her corruption was become deeper than theirs. Comp. on the idea of the central position of Jerusalem and Canaan, ch. Eze 38:12 “the navel of the earth.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
5 17. Explanation of the four preceding symbols
Jerusalem, set in the midst of the nations and favoured of God above them all, has even exceeded them in wickedness ( Eze 5:5-6). Therefore God’s judgments upon her shall be unparalleled in severity, first in the horrors of the siege, and secondly in the terrible miseries of pestilence, famine and blood that shall follow it ( Eze 5:7-17).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I have set it in the midst of the nations – It was not unusual for nations to regard the sanctuary, which they most revered, as the center of the earth. In the case of the holy land this was both natural and appropriate. Egypt to the south, Syria to the north, Assyria to the east and the Isles of the Gentiles in the Great Sea to the west, were to the Jew proofs of the central position of his land in the midst of the nations (compare Jer 3:19). The habitation assigned to the chosen people was suitable at the first for separating them from the nations; then for the seat of the vast dominion and commerce of Solomon; then, when they learned from their neighbors idol-worship, their central position was the source of their punishment. Midway between the mighty empires of Egypt and Assyria the holy land became a battlefield for the two powers, and suffered alternately from each as for the time the one or the other became predominant.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Eze 5:5
This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations.
Jerusalem in the midst of the nations
Jerusalem was designed to have a good influence upon the nations and countries round about, and was set in the midst of them as a candle upon a candlestick to spread the light of Divine revelation, which she was blessed with, to all the dark corners of the neighbouring nations, that from them it might diffuse itself further, even to the ends of the earth. Jerusalem was set in the midst of the nations, to be as the heart in the body, to invigorate this dead world with a Divine life, to be an example of everything that is good. (M. Henry.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 5. This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations] I have made this city the most eminent and the most illustrious in the world. Some think that these words refer to its geographical situation, as being equally in the centre of the habitable world. But any point on a globe is its centre, no matter where laid down; and it would not be difficult to show that even this literal sense is tolerably correct. But the point which is the centre of the greatest portion of land that can be exhibited on one hemisphere is the capital of the British empire. See my Sermon on the universal spread of the Gospel.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Thus saith the Lord God: this solemn declaration in Gods name the prophet useth by express order, Eze 3:11.
This portrayed citys typically Jerusalem, and her inhabitants.
I have placed her in a most delightful situation, chosen out the best part of the known world for her; in a neighbourhood to most rich and plenteous countries, with whom she might have conversed and spread forth my name, and which are round about her, either as servants about a mistress, or as meaner houses about the palace or manor of a lord, or as traders about an emporium, much to advantage of Jerusalem.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5, 6. Explanation of thesymbols:
Jerusalemnot the merecity, but the people of Israel generally, of which it was the centerand representative.
in . . . midstJerusalemis regarded in God’s point of view as center of the whole earth,designed to radiate the true light over the nations in alldirections. Compare Margin (“navel”), Eze 38:12;Psa 48:2; Jer 3:17.No center in the ancient heathen world could have been selected morefitted than Canaan to be a vantage ground, whence the people of Godmight have acted with success upon the heathenism of the world. Itlay midway between the oldest and most civilized states, Egypt andEthiopia on one side, and Babylon, Nineveh, and India on the other,and afterwards Persia, Greece, and Rome. The Phoelignician marinerswere close by, through whom they might have transmitted the truereligion to the remotest lands; and all around the Ishmaelites, thegreat inland traders in South Asia and North Africa. Israelwas thus placed, not for its own selfish good, but to be thespiritual benefactor of the whole world. Compare Ps67:1-7 throughout. Failing in this, and falling into idolatry,its guilt was far worse than that of the heathen; not that Israelliterally went beyond the heathen in abominable idolatries.But “corruptio optimi pessima“; the perversion ofthat which in itself is the best is worse than the perversion of thatwhich is less perfect: is in fact the worst of all kinds ofperversion. Therefore their punishment was the severest. So theposition of the Christian professing Church now, if it be not a lightto the heathen world, its condemnation will be sorer than theirs(Mat 5:13; Mat 11:21-24;Heb 10:28; Heb 10:29).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Thus saith the Lord God, this [is] Jerusalem,…. A type or sign of it; it may refer to both the former and latter type. It is the city of Jerusalem that is designed by the city portrayed upon the tile; and the same is signified by the head of the prophet that was to be shaved; that being not only the chief city of Judea, but of the whole world, as follows:
I have set it in the midst of the nations; as the chief of them; and distinguished it from them by peculiar favours and blessings, natural and spiritual; being seated in a land flowing with milk and honey; and having the house and worship of God in it; and where were the symbols of his presence, and his word and ordinances; and therefore should have excelled them in true religion, devotion, and holiness, and set an example to them. The Jews generally understand this of the natural situation of Jerusalem. Jarchi interprets it of the middle of the world; as if it was mathematically placed in the centre of the earth. Kimchi says it was in the midst of the continent; and so its air was better than others; and these sort of writers n often speak of the land of Israel being in the navel or centre of the earth; they say o that the sanhedrim sat in the middle of the world; and therefore is compared to the navel, So 7:2; because it sat in the temple, which was in the middle of the world; but the former sense is best; though Jerom gives in to the latter:
and countries [that are] round about her: this is a proposition of itself; fire former clause being distinguished from it by the accent “athnach”; and should be rendered thus, “and the countries [are]”, or “[were], round about her” p; on the east was Asia, on the west Europe on the south Africa and Libya, and on the north Babylon, Scythia, Armenia, Persia, and Pontus; and was mere conspicuous, eminent, and honourable than them all, having greater privileges, prerogatives, and excellencies; and therefore should have exceeded them in its regard to the laws and statutes of God, which she did not; hence this is said, in order to upbraid her for her ingratitude, as appears by the following words.
n Kimchi in Ezek. xxxviii. 12. o T. Bab. Sanhedrin. fol. 37. 1. & Gloss. in ib. p “et circa eam [erant] terrae”, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Divine Word which Explains the Symbolical Signs, in which the judgment that is announced is laid down as to its cause (5-9) and as to its nature (10-17). – Eze 5:5. Thus says the Lord Jehovah: This Jerusalem have I placed in the midst of the nations, and raised about her the countries. Eze 5:6 . But in wickedness she resisted my laws more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries which are round about her; for they rejected my laws, and did not walk in my statutes. Eze 5:7 . Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah: Because ye have raged more than the nations round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, and have not obeyed my laws, and have not done even according to the laws of the nations which are round about you; Eze 5:8 . Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Lo, I, even I, shall be against thee, and will perform judgments in thy midst before the eyes of the nations. Eze 5:9 . And I will do unto thee what I have never done, nor will again do in like manner, on account of all thine abominations.
‘ not “this is Jerusalem,” i.e., this is the destiny of Jerusalem (Hvernick), but “this Jerusalem” (Hitzig); is placed before the noun in the sense of iste, as in Exo 32:1; cf. Ewald, 293 b. To place the culpability of Jerusalem in its proper prominence, the censure of her sinful conduct opens with the mention of the exalted position which God had assigned her upon earth. Jerusalem is described in Eze 5:5 as forming the central point of the earth: this is done, however, neither in an external, geographical (Hitzig), nor in a purely typical sense, as the city that is blessed more than any other (Calvin, Hvernick), but in a historical sense, in so far as “God’s people and city actually stand in the central point of the God-directed world-development and its movements” (Kliefoth); or, in relation to the history of salvation, as the city in which God hath set up His throne of grace, from which shall go forth the law and the statutes for all nations, in order that the salvation of the whole world may be accomplished (Isa 2:2.; Mic 4:1.). But instead of keeping the laws and statutes of the Lord, Jerusalem has, on the contrary, turned to do wickedness more than the heathen nations in all the lands round about ( , cum accusat. object ., “to act rebelliously towards”). Here we may not quote Rom 2:12, Rom 2:14 against this, as if the heathen, who did not know the law of God, did not also transgress the same, but sinned ; for the sinning , of which the apostle speaks, is really a transgression of the law written on the heart of the heathen. With , in Eze 5:7, the penal threatening is introduced; but before the punishment is laid down, the correspondence between guilt and punishment is brought forward more prominently by repeatedly placing in juxtaposition the godless conduct of the rebellious city. is infinitive, from , a secondary form , in the sense of , “to rage,” i.e., to rebel against God; cf. Psa 2:1. The last clause of Eze 5:7 contains a climax: “And ye have not even acted according to the laws of the heathen.” This is not in any real contradiction to Eze 11:12 (where it is made a subject of reproach to the Israelites that they have acted according to the laws of the heathen), so that we would be obliged, with Ewald and Hitzig, to expunge the in the verse before us, because wanting in the Peshito and several Hebrew manuscripts. Even in these latter, it has only been omitted to avoid the supposed contradiction with Eze 11:12. The solution of the apparent contradiction lies in the double meaning of the . The heathen had laws which were opposed to those of God, but also such as were rooted in the law of God written upon their hearts. Obedience to the latter was good and praiseworthy; to the former, wicked and objectionable. Israel, which hated the law of God, followed the wicked and sinful laws of the heathen, and neglected to observe their good laws. The passage before us is to be judged by Jer 2:10-11, to which Raschi had already made reference.
(Note: Coccejus had already well remarked on Eze 11:12: ”Haec probe concordant. Imitabantur Judaei gentiles vel fovendo opiniones gentiles, vel etiam assumendo ritus et sacra gentilium. Sed non faciebant ut gentes, quae integre diis suis serviebant. Nam Israelitae nomine Dei abutebantur et ipsius populus videri volebant.” )
In Eze 5:8 the announcement of the punishment, interrupted by the repeated mention of the cause, is again resumed with the words ‘ . Since Jerusalem has acted worse than the heathen, God will execute His judgments upon her before the eyes of the heathen. or (Eze 5:10, Eze 5:15; Eze 11:9; Eze 16:41, etc.), “to accomplish or execute judgments,” is used in Exo 12:12 and Num 33:4 of the judgments which God suspended over Egypt. The punishment to be suspended shall be so great and heavy, that the like has never happened before, nor will ever happen again. These words do not require us either to refer the threatening, with Coccejus, to the last destruction of Jerusalem, which was marked by greater severity than the earlier one, or to suppose, with Hvernick, that the prophet’s look is directed to both the periods of Israel’s punishment – the times of the Babylonian and Roman calamity together. Both suppositions are irreconcilable with the words, as these can only be referred to the first impending penal judgment of the destruction of Jerusalem. This was, so far, more severe than any previous or subsequent one, inasmuch as by it the existence of the people of God was for a time suspended, while that Jerusalem and Israel, which were destroyed and annihilated by the Romans, were no longer the people of God, inasmuch as the latter consisted at that time of the Christian community, which was not affected by that catastrophe (Kliefoth).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Guilt of Jerusalem; The Punishment of Jerusalem. | B. C. 594. |
5 Thus saith the Lord GOD; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her. 6 And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that are round about her: for they have refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them. 7 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye 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; 8 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, am against thee, and will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations. 9 And I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all thine abominations. 10 Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds. 11 Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD; Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity. 12 A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them. 13 Thus shall mine 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. 14 Moreover I will make thee waste, and a reproach among the nations that are round about thee, in the sight of all that pass by. 15 So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment unto the nations that are round about thee, when I shall execute judgments in thee in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I the LORD have spoken it. 16 When 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: 17 So will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee; and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee; and I will bring the sword upon thee. I the LORD have spoken it.
We have here the explanation of the foregoing similitude: This is Jerusalem. Thus it is usual in scripture language to give the name of the thing signified to the sign; as when Christ said, This is my body. The prophet’s head, which was to be shaved, signified Jerusalem, which by the judgments of God was now to be stripped of all its ornaments, to be emptied of all its inhabitants, and to be set naked and bare, to be shaved with a razor that is hired, Isa. vii. 20. The head of one that was a priest, a prophet, a holy person, was fittest to represent Jerusalem the holy city. Now the contents of these verses are much the same with what we have often met with, and still shall, in the writings of the prophets. Here we have,
I. The privileges Jerusalem was honoured with (v. 5): I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her, and those famous nations and very considerable. Jerusalem was not situated in a remote obscure corner of the world, far from neighbours, but in the midst of kingdoms that were populous, polite, and civilized, famed for learning, arts, and sciences, and which then made the greatest figure in the world. But there seems to be more in it than this. 1. Jerusalem was dignified and preferred above the neighbouring nations and their cities. it was set in the midst of them as excelling them all. This holy mountain was exalted above all the hills, Isa. ii. 2. Why leap you, you high hills? This is the hill which God desires to dwell in, Ps. lxviii. 16. Jerusalem was a city upon a hill, conspicuous and illustrious, and which all the neighbouring nations had an eye upon, some for good-will, some for ill-will. 2. Jerusalem was designed to have a good influence upon the nations and countries round about, was set in the midst of them as a candle upon a candlestick, to spread the light of divine revelation, which she was blessed with, to all the dark corners of the neighbouring nations, that from them it might diffuse itself further, even to the ends of the earth. Jerusalem was set in the midst of the nations, to be as the heart in the body, to invigorate this dead world with a divine life as well as to enlighten this dark world with a divine light, to be an example of every thing that was good. The nations that observed what excellent statutes and judgments they had concluded them to be a wise and understanding people (Deut. iv. 6), fit to be consulted as an oracle, as they were in Solomon’s time, 1 Kings iv. 34. And, had they preserved this reputation and made a right use of it, what a blessing would Jerusalem have been to all the nations about! But, failing to be so, the accomplishment of this intention was reserved for its latter days, when out of Zion went forth the gospel law and the word of the Lord Jesus from Jerusalem, and there repentance and remission began to be preached, and thence the preachers of them went forth into all nations. And, when that was done, Jerusalem was levelled with the ground. Note, When places and persons are made great, it is with design that they may do good and that those about them may be the better for them, that their light may shine before men.
II. The provocations Jerusalem was guilty of. A very high charge is here drawn up against that city, and proved beyond contradiction sufficient to justify God in seizing its privileges and putting it under military execution. 1. She has not walked in God’s statutes, nor kept his judgments (v. 7); nay, the inhabitants of Jerusalem had refused his judgments and his statutes (v. 6); they did not do their duty, nay, they would not, they said that they would not. Those statutes and judgments which their neighbours admired they despised, which they should have set before their face they cast behind their back. Note, A contempt of the word and law of God opens a door to all manner of iniquity. God’s statutes are the terms on which he deals with men; those that refuse his terms cannot expect his favours. 2. She had changed God’s judgments into wickedness (v. 6), a very high expression of profaneness, that the people had not only broken God’s laws, but had so perverted and abused them that they had made them the excuse and colour of their wickedness. They introduced the abominable customs and usages of the heathen, instead of God’s institutions; this was changing the truth of God into a lie (Rom. i. 25) and the glory of God into shame, Ps. iv. 2. Note, Those that have been well educated, if they live ill, put the highest affront imaginable upon God, as if he were the patron of sin and his judgments were turned into wickedness. 3. She had been worse than the neighbouring nations, to whom she should have set a good example: She has changed my judgments, by idolatries and false worship, more than the nations (v. 6), and she has multiplied (that is, multiplied idols and altars, gods and temples, multiplied those things the unity of which was their praise) more than the nations that were round about. Israel’s God is one, and his name one, his altar one; but they, not content with this one God, multiplied their gods to such a degree that according to the number of their cities so were their gods, and their altars were as heaps in the furrows of the field; so that they exceeded all their neighbours in having gods many and lords many. They corrupted revealed religion more than the Gentiles had corrupted natural religion. Note, If those who have made a profession of religion, and have had a pious education, apostatize from it, they are commonly more profane and vicious than those who never made any profession; they have seven other spirits more wicked. 4. She had not done according to the judgments of the nations, v. 7. Israel had not acted towards their God, as the nations had acted towards their gods, though they were false gods; they had not been so observant of him nor so constant to him. Has a nation changed its gods, or slighted them, so as they have? Jer. ii. 11. Or it may refer to their morals; instead of reforming their neighbors, they came short of them; and many who were of the uncircumcision kept the righteousness of the law better than those who were of the circumcision,Rom 2:26; Rom 2:27. Those who had the light of scripture did not according to the judgments of many who had only the light of nature. Note, There are those who are called Christians who will in the great day be condemned by the better tempers and better lives of sober heathens. 5. The particular crime charged upon Jerusalem is profaning the holy things, which she had been both entrusted and honoured with (v. 11): Thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, with thy idols and idolatries. The images of their pretended deities, and the groves erected in honour of them, were brought into the temple; and the ceremonies used by idolaters were brought into the worship of God. Thus every thing that is sacred was polluted. Note, Idols are detestable things any where, but more especially so in the sanctuary.
III. The punishments that Jerusalem should fall under for these provocations: Shall not God visit for these things? No doubt he shall. The matter of the sentence here passed upon Jerusalem is very dreadful, and the manner of expression makes it yet more so; the judgments are various, and the threatenings of them varied, reiterated, inculcated, that one may well say, Who is able to stand in God’s sight when once he is angry?
1. God will take this work of punishing Jerusalem into his own hands; and who knows the power of his anger and what a fearful thing it is to fall into his hands? Observe what a strong emphasis is laid upon it (v. 8): I, even I, am against thee. God had been for Jerusalem, to defend and save it; but miserable is its case when he has turned to be its enemy and fights against it. If God be against us, the whole creation is at war with us, and nothing can be for us so as to stand us in any stead: “You think it is only the Chaldean army that is against you, but they are God’s hand, or rather the staff in his hand; it is I, even I, that am against thee, not only to speak against thee by prophets, but to act against thee by providence. I will execute judgments in thee (v. 10), in the midst of thee (v. 8), not only in the suburbs, but in the heart of the city, not only in the borders, but in the bowels of the country.” Note, Those who will not observe the judgments of God’s mouth shall not escape the judgments of his hand; and God’s judgments, when they come with commission, will penetrate into the midst of a people, will enter into the soul, into the bowels like water and like oil into the bones. I will execute judgments. Note, God himself undertakes to execute his own judgments, according to the true and full intent of them; whatever are the instruments, he is the principal agent.
2. These punishments shall come from his displeasure. As to the body of the people, it shall not be a correction in love, but he will execute judgments in anger, and in fury, and in furious rebukes (v. 15), strange expressions to come from a God who has said, Fury is not in me, and who has declared himself gracious, and merciful, and slow to anger. But they are designed to show the malignity of sin, and the offence it gives to the just and holy God. That must needs be a very evil thing which provokes him to such resentments, and against his own people too, that had been so high in his favour, and expressed with so much satisfaction (v. 13): “My anger, which has long been withheld, shall now be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them; it shall not only light upon them, but lie upon them, and fill them as vessels of wrath fitted by their own wickedness to destruction; and, justice being hereby glorified, I will be comforted, I will be entirely satisfied in what I have done.” As, when God is dishonoured by the sins of men, he is said to be grieved (Ps. xcv. 10), so when he is honoured by their destruction he is said to be comforted. The struggle between mercy and judgment is over, and in this case judgment triumphs, triumphs indeed; for mercy that has been so long abused is now silent and gives up the cause, has not a word more to say on the behalf of such an ungrateful incorrigible people: My eye shall not spare, neither will I have any pity, v. 11. Divine compassion defers the punishment, or mitigates it, or supports under it, or shortens it; but here is judgment without mercy, wrath without any mixture or allay of pity. These expressions are thus sharpened and heightened perhaps with design to look further, to the vengeance of eternal fire, which some of the destructions we read of in the Old Testament were typical of, and particularly that of Jerusalem; for surely it is nowhere on this side hell that this word has its full accomplishment, My eye shall not spare, but I will cause my fury to rest. Note, Those who live and die impenitent will perish for ever unpitied; there is a day coming when the Lord will not spare.
3. Punishments shall be public and open: I will execute these judgments in the sight of the nations (v. 8); the judgments themselves shall be so remarkable that all the nations far and near shall take notice of them; they shall be all the talk of that part of the world, and the more for the conspicuousness of the place and people on which they are inflicted. Note, Public sins, as they call for public reproofs (those that sin rebuke before all), so, if those prevail not, they call for public judgments. He strikes them as wicked men in the open sight of others (Job xxxiv. 26), that he may maintain and vindicate the honour of his government, for (as Grotius descants upon it here) why should he suffer it to be said, See what wicked lives those lead who profess to be the worshippers of the only true God! And, as the publicity of the judgments will redound to the honour of God, so it will serve, (1.) To aggravate the punishment, and to make it lie the more heavily. Jerusalem, being made waste, becomes a reproach among the nations in the sight of all that pass by, v. 14. The more conspicuous and the more peculiar any have been in the day of their prosperity the greater disgrace attends their fall; and that was Jerusalem’s case. The more Jerusalem had been a praise in the earth the more it is now a reproach and a taunt, v. 15. This she was warned of as much as any thing when her glory commenced (1 Kings ix. 8), and this was lamented as much as any thing when it was laid in the dust, Lam. ii. 15. (2.) To teach the nations to fear before the God of Israel, when they see what a jealous God he is, and how severely he punishes sin even in those that are nearest to him: It shall be an instruction to the nations, v. 15. Jerusalem should have taught her neighbours the fear of God by her piety and virtue, but, she not doing that, God will teach it to them by her ruin; for they have reason to say, If this be done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry? If judgment begin at the house of God, where will it end? If those be thus punished who only had some idolaters among them, what will become of us who are all idolaters? Note, The destruction of some is designed for the instruction of others. Malefactors are publicly punished in terrorem—that others may take warning.
4. These punishments, in the kind of them, shall be very severe and grievous. (1.) They shall be such as have no precedent or parallel. Their sins being more provoking than those of others, the judgments executed upon them should be uncommon (v. 9): “I will do in thee that which I have not done in thee before, though thou hast long since deserved it; nay, that which I have not done in any other city.” This punishment of Jerusalem is said to be greater than that of Sodom (Lam. iv. 6), which was more grievous than all that went before it; nay, it is such as “I will not do any more the like, all the circumstances taken in, to any other city, till the like come to be done again to this city, in the final overthrow by the Romans.” This is a rhetorical expression of the most grievous judgments, like that character of Hezekiah, that there was none like him, before or after him. (2.) They shall be such as will force them to break the strongest bonds of natural affection to one another, which will be a just punishment of them for their wilfully breaking the bonds of their duty to God (v. 10): The fathers shall eat the sons, and the sons shall eat the fathers, through the extremity of the famine, or shall be compelled to do it by their barbarous conquerors. (3.) There shall be a complication of judgments, any one of them terrible enough, and desolating; but what then would they be when they came all together and in perfection? Some shall be taken away by the plague (v. 12); the pestilence shall pass through thee (v. 17), sweeping all before it, as the destroying angel; others shall be consumed with famine, shall gradually waste away as men in a consumption (v. 12); this is again insisted on (v. 16): I will send upon them the evil arrows of famine; hunger shall make them pine, and shall pierce them to the heart, as if arrows, evil arrows, poisoned darts, were shot into them. God has many arrows, evil arrows, in his quiver; when some are discharged, he has still more in reserve. I will increase the famine upon you. A famine in a bereaved country may decrease as fruits spring forth; but a famine in a besieged city will increase of course; yet god speaks of it as his act: “I will increase it, and will break your staff of bread, will take away the necessary supports of life, will disappoint you of all that which you depend upon, so that there is no remedy, but you must fall to the ground.” Life is frail, is weak, is burdened, so that, if it have not daily bread for its staff to lean upon, it cannot but sink, and is soon gone if that staff be broken. Others shall fall by the sword round about Jerusalem, when they sally out upon the besiegers; it is a sword which God will bring, v. 17. The sword of the Lord, that used to be drawn for Jerusalem’s defence, is now drawn for its destruction. Others are devoured by evil beasts, which will make a prey of those that fly for shelter to the deserts and mountains. They shall meet their ruin where they expected refuge, for there is no escaping the judgments of God, v. 17. And, lastly, those who escape shall be scattered into all parts of the world, into all the winds (so it is expressed, Eze 5:10; Eze 5:12), intimating that they should not only be dispersed, but hurried, and tossed, and driven to and fro, as chaff before the wind. Nay, and Cain’s curse (to be fugitives and vagabonds) is not the worst of it neither; their restless life shall be cut off by a bloody death: “I will draw out a sword after them, which shall follow them wherever they go.” Evil pursues sinners; and the curse shall come upon them and overtake them.
5. These punishments will prove their ruin by degrees. They shall be diminished (v. 11); their strength and glory shall grow less and less. They shall be bereaved (v. 17), emptied of all that which was their joy and confidence. God sends these judgments on purpose to destroy them, v. 16. The arrows are not sent (as those which Jonathan shot) for their direction, but for their destruction; for god will accomplish his fury upon them (v. 13); the day of God’s patience is over, and the ruin is remediless. Though this prophecy was to have its accomplishment now quickly, in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, yet the executioners not being named here, but the criminal only (this is Jerusalem), we may well suppose that it looks further, to the final destruction of that great city by the Romans when God made a full end of the Jewish nation, and caused his fury to rest upon them.
6. All this is ratified by the divine authority and veracity: I the Lord have spoken it, v. 15 and again v. 17. The sentence is passed by him that is Judge of heaven and earth, whose judgment is according to truth, and the judgments of whose hand are according to the judgments of his mouth. He has spoken it who can do it, for with him nothing is impossible. He has spoken it who will do it, for he is not a man that he should lie. He has spoken it whom we are bound to hear and heed, whose ipse dixit–word commands the most serious attention and submissive assent: And they shall know that I the Lord have spoken it, v. 13. There were those who thought it was only the prophet that spoke it in his delirium; but God will make them know, by the accomplishment of it, that he has spoken it in his zeal. Note, Sooner or later, God’s word will prove itself.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Now God shows the reason why he determined to act so severely and harshly towards that holy city which he had selected as the royal residence. For the greater the benefits with which he had adorned the city, by so much the baser and grosser was their ingratitude. God recounts, therefore, his benefits towards Jerusalem, and that for the sake of reproving it. For if the Jews had embraced the blessing of God, doubtless he would have enriched them more and more with his gifts: but when he saw that they rejected his favors, he was the more angry with their indignity. For contempt of God’s benefits is a kind of profanation and sacrilege. Now, therefore, we understand the intention of the Holy Spirit when he says, that Jerusalem was placed as it were on a lofty platform, that its dignity might be conspicuous on all sides. This is not said in praise of Jerusalem, but rather to its greatest disgrace, because whatever the Lord had conferred upon it ought to be taken into account, since they had so unworthily corrupted themselves and had polluted God’s glory as it were on purpose. As to its being said, that Jerusalem was in the midst of the nations, (Psa 74:12,) I do not take this so precisely as Jerome and most others. For they fancy that Jerusalem was the center of the earth, and he twists other places also into this sense: where God is said to have worked salvation to the midst of the earth, he explains it the very middle, as they say. But that is in my judgment puerile, because the Prophet simply means that Jerusalem was placed in the most celebrated part of the world: it had on all sides the most noble nations and very rich, as is well known, and was not far distant from the Mediterranean Sea: on one side it was opposite to Asia Minor: then it had Egypt for a neighbor, and Babylon on the north. This is the genuine sense of the Prophet, that Jerusalem was endued with remarkable nobility among other nations, as if God had placed it in the highest rank. There is no city which has not nations and lands round it, but God here names lands and nations par excellence, not any whatsoever, but those only which excelled in fruitfulness, in opulence, and all advantages. And the demonstrative pronoun is emphatic when he says, This is Jerusalem: for he extols the city with magnificent praises, that its ingratitude may appear the greater — hence it was placed in the midst of the nations and of countries round about it: because it was surrounded by many opulent regions, and there the grace of God was chiefly displayed, as if it were the most beautiful part of a theater, which attracted all eyes towards it, and moved all minds to admiration.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Chapter Five
PROPHETIC DISCOURSES
5:5-7:27
The three discourses in chapters 57 are related in that they elaborate on the symbolism of Eze. 5:1-4. However, each of these discourses has its own distinctive thrust. The first is characterized by the dual themes of rebellion and retribution (Eze. 5:5-17). The focus is on disobedience and desolation in the second discourse (Eze. 6:1-14). In his third sermon Ezekiel speaks of chaos and calamity (Eze. 7:1-27).
Whether these sermons were delivered during the later part of the time of the symbolic siege of Jerusalem, or whether they were given some time afterwards cannot be determined. In either case, the symbolic actions gained for Ezekiel an attentive audience. It would appear that during the period of these public discourses he was generally treated with respect (cf. Eze. 8:1; Eze. 14:1; Eze. 20:1).
I. REBELLION AND RETRIBUTION 5:517
In Eze. 5:5-17 the four symbols found in Eze. 4:1 Eze. 5:4 are directly and forcefully explained. That these paragraphs are meant as an interpretation of the foregoing is indicated by the direct assertion, This is Jerusalem. After briefly reciting the sin of Jerusalem (Eze. 5:5-6), the prophet enunciates two dreadful threats against the city (Eze. 5:7-12). He then describes the results of the judgment (Eze. 5:13-15), and closes this discourse with yet another direct threat (Eze. 5:16-17). This first discourse describes the privilege, perversity and punishment of Jerusalem.
A. The Sin of Jerusalem 5:56
TRANSLATION
(5) Thus says the Lord GOD: This is Jerusalem! In the midst of the nations I have placed her, and lands are round about her. (6) She has rebelled against My judgments for evil more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the lands which are round about her; for they have refused My judgments, and in My statutes they have not walked.
COMMENTS
Ezekiel through the siege signs of Eze. 4:1 to Eze. 5:4 has made it clear that disaster was going to overtake the inhabitants of this besieged city. It remained only for Ezekiel to make known the identity of the city. The sense of drama is sustained as the prophet tersely announces, This is Jerusalem.
Ezekiels thesis in Eze. 5:5-6 is that Jerusalems sin against God was grievous. He argues his point in four ways.
1. Jerusalems sin was grievous because of the position which she occupied. God had placed Jerusalem in the midst of the nations (Eze. 5:5). This is no manifestation of Jewish pride, but an indication of the basic premise of Old Testament religion, viz., the election of Israel. Geographically, Canaan was in the midst of the great civilizations of the ancient Near East. The habitation assigned to the chosen people was carefully chosen by the Lord. The peoples of God were to be the great witness to mono theism in that ancient world. But Jerusalem was unfaithful to her mission. The ancient Jews thought of God as inexorably connected with physical Jerusalem. The continued physical existence of the walls and buildings known as Jerusalem was not what concerned God, but rather the mission and message of that city. This concept the contemporaries of Ezekiel found hard to accept.
2. Jerusalems sin was grievous in view of the fact that she had received special divine revelation in the form of judgments and statutes. The Rabbis taught that judgments (mishpatim) pertained to a mans duty to his fellowman while statures (chukkim) spelled out his duty to God.[166] Certainly greater light involves greater responsibility before God. An Egyptian and an Israelite may commit the same overt act; but the deed was a far greater crime for the Israelite because Israel had divine law and light.
[166] Carley (BPE, p. 38) sees the distinction being that judgments were conditional laws (casuistic law) and statutes were unconditional commands or prohibitions (apodictic law).
3. The grievousness of Jerusalems sin is indicated by the verbs of Eze. 5:6. She had rebelled (temer) against, and her population had rejected (maasu), the judgments of God. They refused to walk in the statutes of God.
4. The wickedness of Jerusalem was worse than that of heathen nations round about (Eze. 5:6). The judgments of God are always relative to the light and privilege granted to a people. This thought is amplified in the following verses.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(5) I have set it in the midst of the nations.This was eminently true of Jerusalem, and of Israel as represented by Jerusalem, in all the ages of its history. It constituted one of the great opportunities of Israel had they been faithful to their calling, while it became a chief source of their disasters when they went astray from God. On the south were Egypt and Ethiopia; on the north, at first the great nation of the Hittites, and later the Syrians, and also Assyrians (who must reach Palestine from the north); on the coast were the Philistines, at the southern end, and on the northern the Phnicians, the great maritime nation having intercourse with all the isles of the sea; while on the deserts of the east and immediate south were the Ishmaelites, the chief inland traders, who kept up an intercourse by land with all these nations. Even with the great but little-known nations of India, commerce was established by Solomon. Thus centrally situated among the chief kingdoms of antiquity, Israel had the opportunity of presenting to the world the spectacle of a people strong and prosperous in the worship, and under the guardianship, of the one true God, and of becoming the great missionary of monotheism in the ancient world. At the same time they were separated from most of these nations by natural barriers, the deserts on the east and south, the sea on the west, the mountains on the north, which were sufficient to isolate them as a nation, and allow of their free development, without interference, as a God-fearing people. But when, by the unfaithfulness of the Israelites to their religion, the one bond of national unity was weakened, they became a ready prey to the nations around them. During the period of the Judges they fell under the power of one and another of the petty tribes on their confines; and later, when the great empire of Solomon was broken up in consequence of their sins, they were easily overcome by the powerful nations on either side. In all their later history the Israelites were a football between Egypt and Chalda, alternately spoiled by tribute as friends or devastated as enemies by each of them. So, in the Divine ordering of the world, responsibility must always be proportioned to privilege; and the failure to fulfil the responsibility leads, as in this case, not only to a withdrawal of the privilege, but to corresponding condemnation.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5-11. Here begins the divine interpretation of this picture-sermon. Jehovah declares that it is because Jerusalem, which was the most highly favored of all cities, has exceeded all in wickedness, that its punishment is so unparalleled. It is for this reason that it shall be destroyed by famine and pestilence and sword, and shall become a lesson to the nations of God’s just and furious wrath, as it has been a distinguished example of his love and mercy.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
5. In the midst of the nations The mediaeval geographies made Palestine the center of the world, and the exact “navel of the earth” is yet pointed out in Jerusalem. This is foolish, but the fact remains that in ancient times the Holy Land was in a peculiar sense “in the midst of the nations,” with Egypt to the south, Arabia and the Mesopotamian powers to the east, Phoenicia to the north, and the isles of the Greeks to the west.
(Introduction to Daniel, III, 4.)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jerusalem’s Guilt and Future Judgment Is Spelled Out.
‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh, “This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the midst of the nations, and countries are round about her, and she has rebelled against my ordinances in doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statues more than the countries round about her, for they have rejected my ordinances, and as for my statutes they have not walked in them.” ’
‘This is Jerusalem’ was referring to Ezekiel’s model and confirming which city it represented. Because she was Yahweh’s inheritance she was central to all the nations, the one of central importance, with Assyria and Babylon to the north, Egypt and the Sudan to the south, the sea, and the countries beyond the sea from which the Philistines had come, to the west, and Arabia to the east. No wonder she saw herself as the centre of the world (see Eze 38:12 where she is called ‘the navel of the earth’), and God described her in her own terms. But such a privileged position had given her responsibilities. And she had failed in those responsibilities.
The ‘ordinances’ and ‘statutes’ refer to the body of Law that Israel had been given, and probably include some of the prophetic writings. But these had simply made them multiply evil. Their very privilege made their disobedience more heinous. And even by the standards of the surrounding nations they were more sinful than other nations. This was a sign that they had wholeheartedly rejected His ordinances and commandments. They were disobedient rebels.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Interpretation of the Sign
v. 5. Thus saith the Lord God, This is Jerusalem, v. 6. And she hath changed My judgments, v. 7. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Because ye multiplied more than the nations that are round about you, v. 8. therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I, even I, am against thee, v. 9. And I will do in thee that which I have not done, v. 10. Therefore the fathers shall eat the Sons in the midst of thee, v. 11. Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord God, v. 12. A third part of thee, v. 13. Thus shall Mine anger be accomplished, v. 14. Moreover, I will make thee waste, v. 15. So it, v. 16. When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, v. 17. so will I send upon you famine and evil beasts,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Eze 5:5. This is Jerusalem “This Jerusalem, against which thou prophesiest, was placed in the midst of the heathen nations. It made a figure among them on account of my temple, and the tokens of my presence. It was a city set on a hill, that it might be a pattern of religion, holiness, and virtue to them.” There are some who take this expression, In the midst of the nations, literally, and suppose that Jerusalem is in the centre of the world. See Calmet.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
How often the Lord complains of his people in the Old Testament, that in their sins, they were more stupid and senseless than the idolatrous nations around them. Never was it known, that heathens changed their dung-hill gods for others: but the Lord’s people changed their glory for that which could not profit them. Jer 2:10-11 . I appeal to the Reader, if so be he hath been taught of the Lord, and knows anything of the plague of his own heart, whether the same is not but too applicable to the people and Church of God in all ages. Unbelief in a child of God is more heinous, more offensive, than the infidelity of the unawakened. How pathetically the Lord seems to lament the degeneracy in his people, concerning himself. Psa 81:11-12 , etc.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Eze 5:5 Thus saith the Lord GOD; This [is] Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries [that are] round about her.
Ver. 5. This is Jerusalem, ] i.e., This head and beard so to be shaved. Eze 5:1 By the hair of the head some think the wise men of that city are figured out, and by the hair of the beard are the strong men; the razor of God’s severity maketh clean work, leaving no stub or stump behind it.
I have set it in the midst of the nations.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Eze 5:5-12
5Thus says the Lord GOD, ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the center of the nations, with lands around her. 6But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations and against My statutes more than the lands which surround her; for they have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.’ 7Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Because you have more turmoil than the nations which surround you and have not walked in My statutes, nor observed My ordinances, nor observed the ordinances of the nations which surround you,’ 8therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Behold, I, even I, am against you, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. 9And because of all your abominations, I will do among you what I have not done, and the like of which I will never do again. 10Therefore, fathers will eat their sons among you, and sons will eat their fathers; for I will execute judgments on you and scatter all your remnant to every wind. 11So as I live,’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominations, therefore I will also withdraw, and My eye will have no pity and I will not spare. 12One third of you will die by plague or be consumed by famine among you, one third will fall by the sword around you, and one third I will scatter to every wind, and I will unsheathe a sword behind them.’
Eze 5:5 This verse affirms the purposeful plan of God to place His people where they must depend on His care and protection. They were not a large, powerful people (cf. Deu 7:7), but their land was at the crossroads of the major Near Eastern powers of Babylon, Assyria, Anatolia, and Egypt.
God wanted to use His people planted in such a prominent place to educate and draw the surrounding peoples (i.e., the nations) to Himself (cf. Deu 4:6-8, see The Prophecy of Ezekiel by Feinberg, p. 37). Because of Israel’s disobedience, all they (i.e., the nations) saw was the judgment of God (cf. Eze 5:7-9; Eze 36:22-38).
at the center of the nations When this phrase is seen in light of
1. Eze 38:12
2. the use of the imagery of navel in Near Eastern religion (cf. NIDOTTE, vol. 2, pp. 333-334)
it becomes a significant theological statement. YHWH’s people were the revelatory epicenter of the world. His eternal, universal, redemptive plan (see Special Topic: YHWH’s ETERNAL REDEMPTIVE PLAN ) involved them. Their continuing covenant unfaithfulness was a major (1) barrier or (2) revelatory means of revealing His faithful character, which will be expressed in the New Covenant, which is not based on human performance (cf. Jer 31:31-34; Eze 36:22-38).
Eze 5:6-7 statutes. . .ordinances (See Eze 5:6-7).
SPECIAL TOPIC: TERMS FOR GOD’S REVELATION (using DEUTERONOMY and PSALMS)
Eze 5:7
NASByou have more turmoil
NKJVyou have multiplied disobedience more
NRSVyou are more turbulent
TEVyou have caused more trouble
NJByour disorders are worse
JPSOAyou have outdone
REByou have been more insubordinate
This NOUN form appears only here in the OT (BDB 243, KB 632, Qal INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT). Its basic meaning may be
1. to rebel
2. to raze
3. to be turbulent
4. Some scholars assert that it comes from a different root meaning to disdain or to be weak.
Because of the last phrase of this verse, Eze 5:6; Eze 16:27, this phrase must mean that Israel sinned worse than the surrounding nations! Her idolatries reached new heights!
Eze 5:8 I, even I This is very emphatic! YHWH will act against Israel to maintain the truthfulness of His own revelation. The covenant God acts against the covenant people!
God wanted to reach all nations through Israel. She was the means, not the goal!
I will execute judgment among you in the sight of the nations It must be remembered that Israel was called to be a kingdom of priests (cf. Exo 19:5-6). She will be a testimony, either positively or negatively (cf. Eze 5:15; Eze 36:23-38).
Eze 5:9 God will execute judgment against His own covenant people more severely than other judgments because Israel knew Him, knew His will and yet violated them (cf. Luk 12:48)!
Eze 5:10 the fathers will eat their sons This is one of the horrors of siege warfare. It was foretold in Lev 26:29 and Deu 28:53. The cannibalism is predicted in Jer 19:9 and fulfilled in Lam 2:20; Lam 4:10. Flavius Josephus also tells us of the same horrendous acts occurring in the siege of Jerusalem by Titus in A.D. 70.
scatter all your remnant to every wind The concept of remnant was alluded to in Eze 5:3.
This VERB (BDB 279, KB 280, Piel PERFECT) refers literally to winnowing grain (i.e., separating the husk and grain), but it is often used as a metaphor of judgment (i.e., exile, cf. Eze 20:23). God’s very own people become the husk!
Notice it is YHWH, not the nations, who scatters His people (cf. Eze 5:10; Eze 5:12; Eze 6:8; Eze 12:14-15; Eze 20:23; Eze 22:15; Eze 36:19). It was not the power of the gods of the nations or their military, but the righteous judgment of YHWH that scatters His people for breaking the covenant (cf. Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 27-29).
Eze 5:11 So as I live declares the Lord GOD This is an oath used fourteen times in Ezekiel. It is a play on the word YHWH, which means the only-living, ever-living God. God is true to His word!
because you have defiled My sanctuary This is described in detail in chapter 8 (cf. Eze 9:7; Eze 23:38; Eze 43:6-9).
abominations
SPECIAL TOPIC: ABOMINATIONS
NASBI will also withdraw
NKJVI will also diminish you
NRSV, TEVI will cut you down
NJBI too shall reject you
JPSOAI in turn will shear [you] away
REBI in turn shall destroy you
This refers to (1) Ezekiel’s vision of the glory of YHWH and His Spirit leaving the temple in Jerusalem and moving east to be with the exiles (cf. chapters 8-11) or (2) YHWH shearing Israel (cf. Eze 5:1).
There is some question about what this VERB (BDB 175, KB 203, Qal IMPERFECT) means. The basic meaning is to
1. diminish (cf. Exo 5:8; Exo 5:19; Deu 4:2; Jer 26:2)
2. restrain (cf. Job 15:4; Job 15:8; Niphal Num 9:7)
3. withdraw (cf. Job 36:7; Niphal Num 36:3-4)
The results of YHWH abandoning His own temple is a complete rejection of the inhabitants of Jerusalem as His people. Notice He will
1. have no pity, BDB 299, KB 298, Qal IMPERFECT, cf. Eze 7:9; Eze 8:18; Eze 9:5; Eze 9:10
2. not spare, BDB 328, KB 328, Qal IMPERFECT, cf. Eze 7:9; Eze 8:18; Eze 9:5; Eze 9:10
Instead of the promise of great numbers of Israelites (i.e., stars, sand, dust), YHWH will extensively reduce their numbers until only a remnant is left (cf. Eze 5:3).
My eye This is an anthropomorphic way of referring to God’s personal attention to His covenant people. See Special Topic: God Described As Human (anthropomorphism) .
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
the Lord GOD = Adonai Jehovah, As in Eze 2:4
This is Jerusalem. Compare Eze 4:1.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Eze 5:5-12
Eze 5:5-12
“Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: This is Jerusalem: I have set her in the midst of the nations, and countries are round about her. And she hath rebelled against mine ordinances in doing wickedness more than the nations, and as for my statutes, they have not walked in them. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because ye are turbulent more than the nations round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept mine ordinances, neither have done after the ordinances of the nations that are round about you; therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I, even I, am against thee; and I will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations. And I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all thine abominations. Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments on thee; and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter unto all the winds. Wherefore as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, and I also will have no pity. A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee; and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee, and a third part shall I scatter unto all the winds, and will draw out a sword after them.”
“This is Jerusalem …” (Eze 5:5). The illustration is here explained by God Himself. The doom of Jerusalem is clearly prophesied.
“I have set her in the midst of the nations …” (Eze 5:5) This was true in both ways. It refers to the central location of Palestine in the midst of the three continents, Europe, Asia, and Africa; and the nations were literally in all directions from Jerusalem. But it was also true in the larger context of the information and privileges enjoyed by the Jews. God’s choice of the Abrahamic children as his “Chosen People” was for the purpose of preserving the knowledge of the true God in a world where that knowledge was in danger of falling. They alone received the Mosaic law; they were particularly chosen as the replacement for the reprobate pagans of ancient Palestine; and to them only the great prophets of God brought correction and enlightenment.
“Against my statutes more than the countries that are round about her …” (Eze 5:6). The picture that emerges here is that of a nation abundantly blessed with the ordinances and statutes of God, these repeated words being, absolutely, references to the Mosaic Law. In fact, the references to the Book of Moses are so frequent from this chapter on to the very end of Ezekiel that some of the radical critics (S. R. Driver, for example) have advanced the theory that Ezekiel was the author of Ezekiel 17-26, sometimes called the Holiness Code, in Leviticus.
However, there are so many impossibilities involved in the acceptance of such a false theory that true scholars are unable to allow it. Beasley-Murray stated flatly that, “We may approach this book in confidence that it is what it purports to be, namely the record of Ezekiel’s 25-year ministry to his fellow-exiles in Babylon.”
No, Ezekiel did not invent the regulations, statutes, and ordinances of God which Israel had so long and so thoroughly violated. Those prohibitions are in the Pentateuch, that is, THE BOOK OF MOSES. It should be borne in mind that Moses did not write five books, but one only; and the divisions into five separate books is a foolish device indeed, despite the fact of its serving the convenience of students.
“More than the countries round about her …” (Eze 5:6). This is a reference to one of the fundamental facts often overlooked. The pagan nations surrounding the Chosen People certainly did know many of the portions of God’s will, as Paul testified in Rom 1:18-23; and the text here reveals that the surrounding pagans had done a better job of honoring what part of God’s will they knew than had Israel.
“Turbulent more than the nations that are round about you …” (Eze 5:7). The older versions render “multiplied” here instead of turbulent; and Matthew Henry stated that this was a reference to the multiplication of idols and pagan shrines.[4] In any case, it is a reference to the excessive wickedness of Israel as compared with the surrounding pagans.
“Neither have done after the ordinances of the nations …” (Eze 5:7). Not only had Israel rejected and forsaken the law of God, but they had rejected all laws and regulations, even those of pagan nations, leaving them the status of being essentially lawless.
“Behold, I, even I, am against thee; and I will execute judgments against thee in the sight of the nations …” (Eze 5:8). The justice of God’s impending judgments against Israel was due in part to the fact that their position, by God’s grace, in the midst of the nations as an example and a teacher to all of them, required that their utter failure to discharge their Divine mission be demonstrated to the whole world.
“I will do in thee that which I have not done … the like unto which I will not do any more …” (Eze 5:9). The horrible cannibalism mentioned here indeed occurred during that final siege. The account in Lamentations is the record of the tragic fulfillment of these words.
“Thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy abominations …” (Eze 5:11). This would seem to indicate that God’s terrible judgment against Israel was principally due to this offence; but the sanctuary here was not the only defilement in Jerusalem. The valley of the Sons of Hinnom, from which the word Gehenna was derived, was the scene of the horrible shrine of Moloch, where even the kings of Israel made their sons “pass through the fire” to Molech.
“A third part shall die with the pestilence, and with famine …” (Eze 5:12). Here God Himself gives the meaning of the burning of a third part of Ezekiel’s hair, mentioned back in Eze 5:2. Also, there is the revelation that a third shall die by the sword, and a third shall be scattered to the winds.
“I will … draw out a sword after them …” (Eze 5:12). This means that even of that third who were to be scattered, the sword would also take its toll. Also, this means that, of the hair that was to be bound in the skirts of Ezekiel, thus representing the “righteous remnant,” and which was also a small portion of that final third, that even of those thus represented some would be lost.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
This: Eze 4:1, Jer 6:6, Luk 22:19, Luk 22:20, 1Co 10:4
I have: Eze 16:14, Deu 4:6, Mic 5:7, Mat 5:14
Reciprocal: Mat 26:26 – this
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 5:5. This is Jerusalem explains that whaL Ezekiel was directed to do was to be fulfilled upon Jerusalem as was stated at verse 2. Set if in the midst of nations. God bestowed great honors on Jerusalem by giving her such prominence among the nations.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Eze 5:5-6. Thus saith the Lord, This is Jerusalem Here the explication of the foregoing type is given, namely, that the hair to be shaved off signified Jerusalem, which was to be destroyed. I have set it in the midst of the nations I set Jerusalem in the midst of the heathen nations, that it might be a pattern of religion and virtue to them: that the Egyptians, Syrians, Arabians, &c., might take example from her. Jerusalem was set in the midst of the nations to be as the heart in the human body, to invigorate the dead world with a divine life, as well as to enlighten the dark world with a divine light. And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness Instead of following my judgments, and the precepts I gave her for the conduct of life, she hath given herself up to wickedness. More than the nations She hath sinned against clearer light and stronger convictions of duty than the heathen nations, and therefore has contracted greater guilt, and deserved greater punishment than they. And my statutes more than the countries round about her None of the countries round about had the statutes of Jehovah delivered to them, for he made known his statutes only to Israel: the meaning of this therefore must be, that the nations round about were more observant of the statutes and precepts delivered to them by men than the Israelites were of those delivered to them by God. Thus we find from Jeremiah, that the Rechabites were much more observant of the precepts (though no easy ones) which their father or first founder enjoined them, than the Israelites were of the commandments given them by God.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Eze 5:5-17. Explanation of the Symbols.By the four preceding symbolical actions the doom has been made too terribly clear: the reason for it is now given. Jerusalem is the centre of the world, conspicuous alike for her position and her privileges, especially for her possession of a unique religious law, the gift of her own unique God. But so far was she from gratefully conforming her life to it, that she fell disgracefully below even heathen standards (cf. Jer 2:11); and so, conspicuous in her doom as in her privileges, she must be punished before all the worlda fate from which Israel had always shrunk with special horror (Eze 5:8). Her punishment was to be unparalleled (Eze 5:9)parents would literally devour their own children in the stress of the siege (cf. Lam 4:10)because her sin had been unparalleled; and it is very significant that Ezekiel defines this sin in ritual terms (cf. Eze 4:14). It is because the Temple had been defiled by idolatry in ways to be described in ch. 8 that the pitiless punishment falls. Over and over again it is described in all the detail of its inexorable ruthlessness, and Yahweh pledges Himself to it all in a solemn oath (Eze 5:11). In His fury He will make of guilty Jerusalem a terrible example, which will warn, if not win, the rest of the world. The spirit of this threatthat Yahweh will not rest content until He has wreaked the fury of His vengeance upon themis, of course, not Christian: but neither is it ignoble. He does it out of what is called His zeal (Eze 5:13), i.e. a jealous regard for His honour which He had entrusted to Israels keeping, and which Israel has trampled in the dust. We have here that terrifying sense of the Divine anger against sin so powerfully represented in the preaching of Ezekiel (Ex. B. Ezek. p. 69).
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
The interpretation of these Acts 5:5-17
Evidently Ezekiel’s verbal explanation of this drama came at the very end of the drama, at the time of the real destruction of Jerusalem. Ezekiel was no longer silent then.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The Lord explained that the center of the drama was Jerusalem that He had set at the center of many nations and lands. Some in Ezekiel’s audience undoubtedly hoped that the city under symbolic destruction was Babylon, but it was indeed Jerusalem. It was at the center of civilization geographically and theologically. Some rabbinic writers, early church fathers, and medieval cartographers concluded from this passage that Jerusalem was the "navel of the earth" (cf. Eze 38:12). [Note: See Taylor, p. 86, n. 1.]
"God intended for Israel to be the great monotheistic missionary to the nations of the ancient world . . ." [Note: Feinberg, p. 37.]
But this blessed city had rebelled against Yahweh by being unfaithful to the Mosaic Covenant.
"Although others could freely interchange the name of Zion with Jerusalem, this is impossible for Ezekiel, who avoids the theologically charged designation altogether. As chs. 8-11 demonstrate, for this prophet Jerusalem has ceased to be the residence of God; Zion was no more. The city’s privileged status among the nations had been forfeited." [Note: Block, The Book . . ., p. 198.]