Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 14:16

[Though] these three men [were] in it, [as] I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters; they only shall be delivered, but the land shall be desolate.

16. neither sons nor daughters ] There is no support in the words for the idea of Hvernick that the three names, Noah, Daniel and Job form a climax, inasmuch as Noah saved his children, Daniel only his three fellow-exiles, while Job could deliver neither son nor daughter, though every week he interceded and made atonement for them. This idea is false to the sense of the Book of Job, for Job’s children are nowhere represented by the author of the book as having been cut off for their sins, though naturally Job’s “friends” put this construction upon their death (ch. Eze 8:4). The prophet does not appear to have in view any historical details in the lives of these three men; he refers to the men themselves as great saints famous in the traditions of his people.

Eze 14:17-18. Sword and war. Lev 26:25.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

As I live; a form of speech in which God by oath confirms what he speaketh, and it is such an oath as becomes him only, who is life, and cannot die.

Neither sons nor daughters; neither sons that should perpetuate their families, and are the support of houses, nor daughters, the tenderness of whose sex and age does make and keep parents affections fervent towards them. No near relation should escape on their account.

Desolate, i.e. most desolate, as the Hebrew use by an abstract to express the superlative degree, Isa 1:7; 64:10.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

[Though] these three men [were] in it,…. Above named, Noah, Daniel, and Job; as they were not, two of them not being in the land of the living, and the other in Babylon; but if all three had been in a land so threatened, and used all the interest they had with God, by fervent prayer and supplication, to have called in the wild beasts, and chained them up, and to preserve the people from being destroyed by them, it would have been all in vain; the Lord was determined upon the destruction of them, and by means of these, as one of his sore judgments:

[as] I live, saith the Lord God; or by my life; for it is an oath with which God swears by himself, who has life in himself, and is the author and giver of life to others, and can take it away when, and in what manner, he pleases; and this oath is used, to show the unalterableness of the judgment threatened, it being decreed and sworn to: God’s word or decree, and his oath, are two immutable things, in which he cannot lie, and from which he never departs:

they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters; meaning not adult persons, but little ones, infant sons and daughters; such as had not been guilty of the actual sins and transgressions their parents were charged with; even these they should not deliver by their prayers and supplications from being destroyed by noisome beasts, God punishing the iniquities of the fathers upon the children; and much less should they deliver those that were adult, and had committed the same idolatries and other sins their parents had; no, not even their own sons and daughters; for no exception is made but of themselves, as follows:

they only shall be delivered: as Noah with his family was in the ark, when amidst wild beasts; and Daniel in the lions den; and Job, with whom the beasts of the field were at peace, Job 5:23;

but the land shall be desolate; see Eze 12:20.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

16. Neither sons nor daughters Noah was granted this answer to prayer, and Daniel saved his fellow-exiles, and Job his three friends (compare Jas 5:16; Mat 18:20); but the wickedness of the holy land is so great, because of God’s special favors, that even the united prayer of all three would not be granted in behalf of these hardened impenitents.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Eze 14:16 [Though] these three men [were] in it, [as] I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters; they only shall be delivered, but the land shall be desolate.

Ver. 16. Though these three men were in it. ] All alive, and lustily tugging; yet it would not do. In common calamities heathens had their supplications and sacrifices. Papists have their litanies and processions, though to small purpose. Let us, in the like ease, up and be doing, that the Lord may be with us.

They shall deliver neither sons. ] Heb., If they deliver sons, &c.; q.d., then never trust me more. Formula iurandi elliptica.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)