Ezekiel 12:1

CHAPTER XII

The prophet proceeds, by a variety of types and parables, to

convince those of the captivity that their brethren who were

left behind to sustain the miseries of a seige and the insults

of a conqueror, would be in a much worse condition than they

who were already settled in a foreign land. In the beginning of

this chapter he foretells the approaching captivity of Judah by

action instead of words, 1-7.

He predicts particularly the flight, capture, captivity, and

sufferings of Zedekiah and his followers, 8-16,

compared with Jeremiah 52:11.

He is to eat his food with trembling and signs of terror, as an

emblem of the consternation of the Jews when surrounded by

their enemies, 17-20;

and then he answers the objections and bywords of scoffers and

infidels, who either disbelieved his threatening or supposed

the accomplishment of them very distant, 21-28.

Josephus (Antiq. xi. 10) tells us that Zedekiah thought the

prophecy of Ezekiel in the thirteenth verse inconsistent with

that of Jeremiah, (Jeremiah 34:3,)

and resolved to believe neither. Both, however, were literary

fulfilled; and the event convinced him that they were not

irreconcilable. Thus, blinded by infidelity, sinners rush on to

that detruction against which they are sufficiently warned.

NOTES ON CHAP. XII