Ezekiel 3:1-3
The prophet's inspiration Being commanded to speak God's words to the people, the prophet is next assured by a symbol, a book given him to eat, that God's words shall be given him.... [ Continue Reading ]
The prophet's inspiration Being commanded to speak God's words to the people, the prophet is next assured by a symbol, a book given him to eat, that God's words shall be given him.... [ Continue Reading ]
The prophet shall be strengthened to perform his hard task Having taken in the "words" of the Lord (Ezekiel 3:4) there opens up before the prophet a general view of the mission he is sent upon. It is an arduous one. The difficulties are not of a superficial kind. He is not sent to foreign nations,... [ Continue Reading ]
_a strange speech_ lit. _deep of lip_(or speech) _and heavy of tongue_. The former expression perhaps refers to the inarticulateness with which, to one unacquainted with their language, foreigners appear to speak; and the other to the thickness of their utterance. The first half of the expression oc... [ Continue Reading ]
_many people_ Rather: PEOPLES, i.e. different foreign nations. _Surely, had I sent thee_ More exactly: SURELY IF I SENT THEE … THEY WOULD HEARKEN. There is some difficulty about the construction, but the sense is sufficiently clear. The heathen have a greater susceptibility for the truth than Israel... [ Continue Reading ]
_impudent and hardhearted_ See on ch. Ezekiel 2:4.... [ Continue Reading ]
_harder than flint_ Cf. Jeremiah 5:3, "they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return." _though they_be _a rebellious_ Rather: FOR THEY ARE. See ch. Ezekiel 2:6. What gave the prophet invincible courage in the face of the opposition of the people was in the main the assu... [ Continue Reading ]
The Prophet's Particular Mission to the Exiles at Tel Abib Though Ezekiel's mission, like that of all the prophets, was to the house of Israel as a whole (Ezekiel 3:5), yet immediately his work lay among the captives in the midst of whom he lived. It is remarkable, however, how little reference is... [ Continue Reading ]
_the spirit took me up_ See on Ezekiel 2:2. This "lifting up" by the spirit must be interpreted according to ch. Ezekiel 8:1-3, it was part of the trance. The great theophany or vision of God in ch. 1 was not an external phenomenon which the prophet beheld with his actual eyes, it was a vision which... [ Continue Reading ]
I heard _also the noise_ More fairly: AND THE NOISE. The words seem to state the cause of the great rushing sound in Ezekiel 3:12, it came from the wings of the living creatures touching one another when they flew, and from the wheels. Cf. ch. Ezekiel 1:9; Ezekiel 1:11; Ezekiel 1:23.... [ Continue Reading ]
_in bitterness_ i. e. indignation, or anger, Judges 18:25 (angry fellows), 2 Samuel 17:8. Similarly "heat of spirit" is fury or wrath. The prophet was lifted up into sympathy with God and shared his righteous indignation against Israel. Again Jeremiah is his model: "Therefore I am full of the fury o... [ Continue Reading ]
The name Tel-abib means possibly, Hill of corn-ears, or shortly, Cornhill; but see against this Frd. Del. _Heb. Lang_. p. 16. Names compounded with the word Tel, hill, are very common. The place is not otherwise known. _and I sat where they sat_ This is the Heb. marg. (Ḳri); the text is as R.V., "a... [ Continue Reading ]
More precise definition of the prophet's appointment: he is set to be a watchman So soon as the prophet is face to face with the exiles, and is able to see the sphere and materials of his work, he receives a more precise account of his position he is appointed a watchman or sentinel. The watchman s... [ Continue Reading ]
_When I say unto the wicked_ The watchman spies danger approaching, so the prophet receives intimation from the Lord (Ezekiel 3:17). This intimation given to the prophet is represented as a threat spoken directly to the wicked. If the prophet as a watchman perceive this danger of death to the wicked... [ Continue Reading ]
_I lay a stumbling-block_ i.e. something over which he shall fall and perish; Leviticus 19:14, "Nor put a stumbling-block before the blind." When God prepares such a stumbling-block for the righteous who has sinned, unless he is warned he will fall and be broken, and his blood will be on the prophet... [ Continue Reading ]
The case of the righteous is even more complex and perilous for the watchman than that of the wicked, though it might not be thought so. The wicked has to be warned to turn from his evil, and so has the righteous if he sins. But the righteous has also to be warned, in ways that are suitable, lest he... [ Continue Reading ]
_the hand of the Lord_ A trance or ecstasy from the Lord. It is probable that the prophet's retiring to the "valley" was merely transacted in vision. He felt himself transported away from the presence of men to some lonely retreat, and there the glory of the Lord seemed again to stand before him (cf... [ Continue Reading ]
Ezekiel 3:22-27. The prophet abandons public exercise of his ministry The verses form the preface to ch. 4 24, all the prophecies that bear upon the fate of Jerusalem and its inhabitants, up to its fall. The prophet under the "hand" of God goes out into the "valley," and the same Theophany appears... [ Continue Reading ]
Second Section. Ch. Ezekiel 3:22 to Ezekiel 7:27 The second section of the Book contains these parts: (1) Ch. Ezekiel 3:22-27. A preface in which the prophet is commanded to confine himself to his own house, and abandon for a time his public ministry. (2) Ch. Ezekiel 4:1-4. A series of symbols re... [ Continue Reading ]
_shut thyself within thy house_ The words are not to be pressed to mean more than abstention from the exercise of his ministry in public. Cf. ch. Ezekiel 8:1; Ezekiel 11:25; Ezekiel 14:1 &c.... [ Continue Reading ]
_they shall put bands upon thee_ that is, the exiles, as the words "thou shalt not go out among them" imply. The expression can hardly be merely equivalent to the _pass_., "cords shall be put upon thee" (Sep. Vulg.). The language is a figure for the restraint of opposition (ch. Ezekiel 4:8).... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will make thy tongue cleave_ The restraint imposed by the opposition of the people is acquiesced in by God, it is part of his purpose. His providence will meantime be the best teacher of the people. The prophet's "dumbness," however, is compatible with much speaking at least by signs to those who... [ Continue Reading ]
Eventually the prophet's mouth will be opened, his word will be confirmed, and he will no more have to speak to incredulous ears. (Comp. ch. Ezekiel 29:21). During the existence of the kingdom all the prophets from Amos downward had stood in opposition to the mass of the people. Their teaching wheth... [ Continue Reading ]