2<\/strong>. give wicked counsel<\/em> ] lit. who counsel evil counsel<\/em>. The evil counsel probably refers to the revolutionary enterprizes of these men against the authority of Babylon, which the prophet severely condemns (ch. 17). The city was divided into factions, one part holding with Babylon and another with Egypt, while some were for peace on any terms. The consequence of these divisions was much bloodshed within the city ( Eze 11:6<\/em><\/span>). It is probable that the schemes of these plotters were only being hatched ( Eze 11:5<\/em><\/span>); it was not till some time later that the steps now meditated were actually taken.<\/p>\n So soon as the prophet had seen and observed how many and who they were, the Lord, sitting on the cherub, spoke unto him, Eze 10:4<\/span>. <\/P> The men; <\/B>not the only men, but indeed the most notorious. <\/P> Devise; <\/B>frame and contrive with craft and false reasonings. <\/P> Mischief; <\/B>vanity; so the thing was, and mischief the fruit of it. They persuade the people that the city shall not be burnt, but that they may safely build, and long dwell in their houses; this vain hope exhausts that money with which they might have provided for themselves, and this proves a mischief. <\/P> Give wicked counsel:<\/B> this may be an explication of that he last spake. Or possibly it may note their activity and diligence, going about the city and counselling their acquaintance to put off the evil day. Or perhaps they teach a compliance and coalition with the Chaldean superstitions to save themselves; it is not impossible they might give counsel to unhappy Zedekiah. The Chaldee paraphrast here useth a word whose first notation is to reign or be a king, the second sense to give counsel: whose counsellors soever they were, their counsel tended to shame and loss. <\/P> <\/p>\n 2. he<\/B>the Lord sitting on thecherubim (Eze 10:2<\/span>). <\/P> wicked counsel<\/B>inopposition to the prophets of God (Eze11:3<\/span>).<\/P><\/p>\n Then said he unto me, son of man<\/strong>,…. That is, the Lord, or, the Spirit of the Lord, that lifted him up:<\/p>\n these [are] the men that devise mischief<\/strong>; or “vanity” d; this is to be understood not of the two only that are named, though it may of them chiefly; but of all the twenty five, who formed schemes for the holding out of the siege, and for the security of the city, and of themselves in it, which was all folly and vanity:<\/p>\n and give wicked counsel in this city<\/strong>; either in ecclesiastical affairs, to forsake the worship of God, and cleave to the idols of the nations; or in civil things, as follows:<\/p>\n d “vanitatem”, Calvin, Vatablus, Junius Tremellius “vanum”, Cocceius, Starckius.<\/p>\n ‘And he said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who scheme iniquity and who give wicked counsel to this city. Who say, ‘the time is not near to build houses. This city is the cauldron and we are the flesh’.” ’<\/p>\n These men met together as counsellors to advise the city. But in Yahweh’s eyes what they schemed was iniquitous and wicked, and their counsel was evil. Their counsel was probably similar to that proscribed in Mic 2:1-2<\/span>, resulting from the fact that ‘they covet fields and seize them, and houses and take them away. And they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage’ (see Eze 11:12<\/span>). Compare also Jer 22:13<\/span>, ‘who uses his neighbour’s service without wages and does not give him his hire’. The leading men were using their position to enrich themselves.<\/p>\n Their particular advice is stated as, ‘the time is not near to build houses’. They may have been arguing against building houses because of their own mercenary interest. Perhaps they wanted to keep the number of houses low to increase rents, or to keep the land free where houses had been destroyed in the previous invasion, so that they could buy it cheaply. They may even have cited the example of the Rechabites as an example to follow (Jer 35:7<\/span>), but with evil motive.<\/p>\n Alternately that advice possibly meant that this was no time to build houses because they should be building fortifications ready for rebellion against Nebuchanezzar, probably with the help of Egypt. They would hardly go it alone and the ‘Lachish letters’, ostraca discovered on the site of Lachish, confirm military contact with Egypt. So they were possibly advocating rebellion and resistance. This would suggest that they were not only greedy for other people’s property but also for status, advancement and power. (The false prophets were at this time predicting the fall of Nebuchadnezzar and freedom from his yoke – Jer 28:1-4<\/span> – which in itself would be a spur to rebellion).<\/p>\n This interpretation fits well with the illustration, ‘this city is the cauldron and we are the flesh’. Here they were likening Jerusalem to a protective cauldron which kept them (the flesh) out of the fire (of judgment) while they were being made into a delicious meal, something delightful and desirable. Thus they were arguing that its walls would protect them from Nebuchadnezzar, as the sides of the cauldron protected the flesh inside.<\/p>\n So they oozed sinful self confidence, while they were disobedient to the commands of Yahweh through His prophets (Eze 11:12<\/span>; Mic 2:1-2<\/span>; Jer 21:8-10<\/span>). They were being presumptious and relying, in spite of their own sinfulness and idolatry, on the well established idea that Yahweh would not allow the city and temple to be destroyed. If they were also relying on Egypt it compounded their sin. But there was no way in which it was through genuine trust in Yahweh.<\/p>\n Indeed they may well have claimed that Yahweh had removed the old unbelieving leadership in judgment so as to make room for them. ‘We are the flesh’, may be intended to imply that those previous leaders were rejected offal, as they are seen as suggesting later in Eze 11:15<\/span>. (Those who see themselves as ‘chosen’ can often behave and think foolishly). But Yahweh had warned them through Jeremiah that they could not rely on belief in the inviolability of Jerusalem. That superstitious belief would cause Israel great damage now as it would on a number of occasions. But unlike Ezekiel they did not realise that Yahweh had for the time finished with both, for they did not believe the words of His prophets. Had they repented it might have been different, but Yahweh knew that they were too hardened to repent (compare Jeremiah 42-43).<\/p>\n However, the Hebrew says literally ‘who say, ‘not at hand to build houses’<\/em>, and AV, for example, translates, ‘it is not near, let us build houses’, meaning that the coming judgment was far off so that they could settle down in peace and build houses to live in with the future secure (compare Eze 28:26<\/span>). But the infinitive cannot easily be so interpreted as an exhortation, which is against this translation.<\/p>\n But another possibility in line with this is to see the Hebrew as a question, ‘is not the time at hand to build houses?’ which contains the same idea. LXX seemingly read it in a similar way and translated ‘ who say, Have not the houses been newly built? This is the cauldron, and we are the flesh<\/em> ’ which might be seen as supporting something like this (but LXX is not necessarily reliable as a deciding factor). Under this interpretation it would, however, simply be presumption of a different kind, and still be relying on the security of Jerusalem to protect them. They would be advocating building houses and by it denying that Yahweh was about to act against the city.<\/p>\n An alternative idea is that ‘the time is not near to build houses’ had the exiles in mind. The exiles were being exhorted by the prophets to settle down in exile. Perhaps these men were arguing, against Yahweh, that now was not the time to build houses in exile, it was the time for freeing Jerusalem. (The words were in vision and finally intended for the exiles to interpret and understand. They were to see this as wrong advice, and iniquitous).<\/p>\n But the central point is the same in all views. That they were being presumptious, that they were relying on the fallacy of the inviolability of Jerusalem, that they were exalting themselves, and that they were ignoring Yahweh’s words through His prophets. They were frighteningly blind to their own failures and self-satisfied in spite of their iniquitous behaviour.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n Eze 11:2 Then said he unto me, Son of man, these [are] the men that devise mischief, and give wicked counsel in this city:<\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n Ver. 2. These are the men that devise mischief.<\/strong> ] That whet their wits and beat their brains about it; the politicians of the time, who, like children, are ever standing on their heads, and shaking their heels against heaven. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n And give wicked counsel.<\/strong> ] As Balaam and Ahithophel did of old, as Machiavel did at Florence, and Gondamor here did of later times. The prophet here nameth a couple, and taketh the same liberty to reprove them that they took to do amiss.<\/p>\n Son of man. See note on Eze 2:1. <\/p>\n men. Plural of Hebrew. ‘enosh. App-14. <\/p>\n mischief = vanity. Hebrew. ‘amen. App-44. <\/p>\n wicked = evil. Hebrew ra’a’. App-44. <\/p>\n Est 8:3, Psa 2:1, Psa 2:2, Psa 36:4, Psa 52:2, Isa 30:1, Isa 59:4, Jer 5:5, Jer 18:18, Mic 2:1, Mic 2:2 <\/p>\n Reciprocal: Psa 21:11 – imagined Pro 6:14 – he deviseth Luk 6:30 – Give<\/p>\n Eze 11:2. The men not only practiced that which was wrong, hut planned and advised others in it and thus were guilty of conspiracy.<\/p>\n The Lord told Ezekiel that these men were those who were planning wickedness and giving bad advice to the residents of Jerusalem. They were encouraging the people either to feel secure by advising them to build homes and plan on living long in Jerusalem (cf. Eze 28:26) or to prepare for battle rather than submitting to the Babylonians. Either interpretation is possible because the unbelieving leadership of Jerusalem was advising both courses of action. The true prophets, like Jeremiah, however, were telling them to submit to the Babylonians (Jer 21:8-10). Jeremiah wrote the exiles advising them to build homes and settle down in captivity (Jer 29:5). These wicked leaders were comparing the people of Jerusalem to meat in a clay cooking pot. They were saying that the people were as secure in the city, even though they were uncomfortably "hot," as meat inside a kettle is safe from the fire outside it. The walls and fortifications of the city, and God Himself, they said, would amply protect the people from the fiery hostility of the Babylonian army.<\/p>\n Then said he unto me, Son of man, these [are] the men that devise mischief, and give wicked counsel in this city: 2. give wicked counsel ] lit. who counsel evil counsel. The evil counsel probably refers to the revolutionary enterprizes of these men against the authority of Babylon, which the prophet severely condemns (ch. … Continue reading “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 11:2”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20668\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"