Ezekiel 11:6

Ye have multiplied your slain in this city, and ye have filled the streets thereof with the slain. YE HAVE MULTIPLIED YOUR SLAIN - those on whom you have brought ruin by your wicked counsels. Bloody crimes within the city brought on it a bloody foe from without (Ezekiel 7:23). They had made it a caldron in which to boil the flesh of God's people, and eat it by unrighteous oppression (Micah 3:1); therefore God will make it a caldron in a different sense-one not wherein they may be safe in their guilt, but "out of the midst of" which they shall be "brought forth," See, for the fulfillment of the prophecy, Jeremiah 39:4....

Now Ezekiel attacks, as it were, in close combat, the buffoons who trifled with God by their jests, and brings forward that; sense which I have just before touched on, and of which the _prophecy _of Jeremiah was full, in a different manner to that. which they imagined. _Ye, _says he, _have slain many; _the city was full of many slaughters: therefore the pot was full of flesh; this flesh was cooked: there is no longer any room in the vessel. You must therefore of necessity be cast forth as froth, or as foul flesh, for which no vessel is found for cooking it. We see, then, that the Prophet here treats them wittily, and plays off jests in answer to them; meanwhile he strikes a deadly wound, when he shows that they joked so petulantly to their own destruction, and boasted that Jeremiah was their adversary. Hence he confirms the prophecy of Jeremiah, and yet he does not interpret it, because...

1-13 Where Satan cannot persuade men to look upon the judgment to come as uncertain, he gains his point by persuading them to look upon it as at a distance. These wretched rulers dare to say, We are as safe in this city as flesh in a boiling pot; the walls of the city shall be to us as walls of brass, we shall receive no more damage from the besiegers than the caldron does from the fire. When sinners flatter themselves to their own ruin, it is time to tell them they shall have no peace if they go on. None shall remain in possession of the city but those who are buried in it. Those are least safe who are most secure. God is often pleased to single out some sinners for warning to others. Whether Pelatiah died at that time in Jerusalem, or when the fulfilment of the prophecy drew near, is uncertain. Like Ezekiel, we ought to be much affected with the sudden death of others, and we should st...

EXPOSITION EZEKIEL 11:1 MOREOVER THE SPIRIT LIFTED ME UP, etc. It is noticeable that the position to which Ezekiel was thus transported in his vision from his place in the inner court (Ezekiel 8:14), was identical with that which he had just seen occupied by the cherub chariot before its departure (Ezekiel 10:19). What he is about to see will throw light on the significance of their departure. The gate is probably, here as there, that of the court of the temple. FIVE AND TWENTY MEN. The number at first reminds us of the worshippers of the sun, in Ezekiel 8:16; but tha

YE HAVE MULTIPLIED YOUR SLAIN IN THIS CITY,.... Had killed many of the prophets of the Lord that had been sent unto them, and had shed much innocent blood; and not only had unjustly condemned many to die, and had put them to death without a cause; but also the death of all those that were slain while the city was besieging, and when it was taken, were owing to their advice and counsel, in encouraging them to hold out, and not deliver up the city; fancying they should be able to defend it, contrary to the declarations of the Lord by the prophet; wherefore their death is laid to such advisers, and they are called their slain: AND YE HAVE FILLED THE STREETS THEREOF WITH THE SLAIN; such numbers of innocent persons being put to death, as in the times of Manasseh, 2 Kings 21:16; or so many dying of the famine, pestilence, and sword, during the siege, and at the t

Ezekiel 11:1. The priests and the leaders of the nation were steeped in wickedness, defied God and the judgments His prophets had announced. They devised mischief (or iniquity) and gave wicked counsel. Their wicked counsel consisted in disobedience against Jehovah and His Word. In regard to the judgment they said, “It is not the time to build houses; this is the cauldron and we are the flesh.” They knew of Jeremiah's letter which he had sent to the elders who were carried away captives. In that letter, Jeremiah, believing God's Word concerning the long duration of the captivity, gave the advice, “Build ye houses and dwell in them” Jeremiah 29:1. They ridiculed that divinely given advice. They still thought themselves safe in Jerusalem. The phrase “this is the cauldron” means the city of Jerusalem; and we are

EZEKIEL 11. THE DEPARTURE OF YAHWEH. Ezekiel 11:1. Another Guilty Group. The doom has been executed with grim thoroughness, the guilty are all slain (Ezekiel 11:9); it is therefore surprising to come here upon another guilty group. Clearly this passage presupposes a slightly different time, but it admirably serves to strengthen the reasons for Yahweh's departure from the city. Besides the idolatry already described (Ezekiel 11:8), another type of guilt is illustrated by this group of twenty-five (probably twenty-four and a president) who give wicked counsel in the city. Apparently these were statesmen who favoured the policy (condemned by Jeremiah) of revolt from Babylon. In proverbial language they compare the city

MIND. spirit. Hebrew. _ruach_. App-9....

Comp. ch. Ezekiel 22:25; Ezekiel 7:23. Those opposed to the schemes of the ruling party, or suspected of opposition, were openly or on various pretexts cut off....

YE HAVE MULTIPLIED YOUR SLAIN— _Ye have multiplied your soldiers in this city, you have filled the streets thereof;_ Ezekiel 11:7. _Therefore thus saith the Lord God, The soldiers whom ye have placed in the midst of you shall be the flesh, and this city the caldron: But I will cast you forth,_ &c. _as a boiling caldron casts forth the flesh._ God adds in the 10th and 11th verses, _I will judge you in the borders,_ that is to say, after I have cast you out of the boiling caldron. This respects Zedekiah more particularly, his sons and relations, upon whom Nebuchadnezzar exercised judgment at Riblah, in the borders of Judaea. See Jeremiah 51:4; Jeremiah 51:47;...