Ezekiel 12:2

The word of the LORD also came unto me, saying, A REBELLIOUS HOUSE, WHICH HAVE EYES TO SEE, AND SEE NOT ... EARS TO HEAR, AND HEAR NOT - fulfilling the prophecy of , "Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day," here quoted by Ezekiel (cf. ; ). Ezekiel needed often to be reminded of the people's perversity, lest he should be discouraged by the little effect produced by his prophecies. Their "not seeing" is the result of perversity, not incapacity. They are willfully blind. The persons most interested in this prophecy were those dwelling at Jerusalem; and it is among them that Ezekiel was transported in spirit, and performed in vision, not outwardly, the...

1-16 By the preparation for removal, and his breaking through the wall of his house at evening, as one desirous to escape from the enemy, the prophet signified the conduct and fate of Zedekiah. When God has delivered us, we must glorify him and edify others, by acknowledging our sins. Those who by afflictions are brought to this, are made to know that God is the Lord, and may help to bring others to know him....

Verse Ezekiel 12:2. _WHICH HAVE EYES TO SEE, AND SEE NOT_] It is not want of _grace_ that brings them to destruction. _They have eyes to see_, but they will not _use_ them. No man is lost because he had not _sufficient grace to save him_, but because he abused that grace....

Compare Deuteronomy 1:26; margin reference; Romans 10:21. The repetition of such words from age to age, shows that the prophet’s words are intended to reach beyond the generation in which he lived....

EXPOSITION EZEKIEL 12:1 THE WORD OF THE LORD, etc. This formula, so familiar in Isaiah and Jeremiah, appears for the first time in Ezekiel, but occurs repeatedly afterwards, especially in this chapter (verses 8, 17, 21, 26. and again Ezekiel 13:1; Ezekiel 14:2, _et al._)_. _The teaching by "the visions of God" ceases, and that of direct message or symbolic acts is resumed. In each case the point aimed at was the same. The people who heard the one or saw the other were to be taught how utterly groundless was the hope that Jerusalem could hold out against its enemies. The interval between the two was probably a short one, and the new teaching, we may conjectu

SON OF MAN, THOU DWELLEST IN THE MIDST OF A REBELLIOUS HOUSE,.... The captives in Babylon, who murmured at their present condition and circumstances, and looked upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem to be in happy ones, and believed they would continue in them, as the false prophets persuaded them; not believing the prophets of the Lord; and encouraged them to stand out against the king of Babylon, repenting that they had surrendered to him, and hoped they should by their means be delivered see the same character of them, Ezekiel 2:3; WHICH HAVE EYES TO SEE, AND SEE NOT: THEY HAVE EARS TO HEAR, AND HEAR NOT; they had natural sense and understanding, and means and opportunities of being better informed, and of knowing the true state of things, and how they were, and would be; but they wilfully shut their eyes against all light and evidence, and stopped their ears, and would not he

CHAPTER S 12-19 Signs, Messages, and Parables _ 1. Signs given through the prophet (Ezekiel 12:1) _ 2. The message of speedy judgment (Ezekiel 12:21) 3. The message against false prophets and prophetesses. (Ezekiel 13:1) 4. The message against the elders (Ezekiel 14:1) 5. The parable of the vine given to the fire (Ezekiel 15:1) 6. The parable of the abandoned child and Israel's whoredom (Ezekiel 16:1)

EZEKIEL 12. EXILE FORESHADOWED. Ezekiel 12:1. Flight from the Beleaguered City. Ezekiel's message of doom has surely been made plain enough, but the rebellious house will not listen; for one thing, their confidence in the indestructibility of the monarchy and the throne made such a message incredible. Well then, if they will not hear, they must be made to see; and again, as before (4) Ezekiel incarnates his message. By his conduct, he becomes a prophetic sign. In the daytime, before the eyes of the people, he packs a few belongings together, such as an exile might take with him to the land for which he was destined; then, having thus stimulated their curiosity, he carries them on his shoulder in the dead of night through a hole which he had dug in the wall (apparently of his house). In the morning, in answer to their astonished queries, he tells them plainly that it is a prophetic sy

SON OF MAN. See note on Ezekiel 2:1. REBELLIOUS. perverse. See note on Ezekiel 2:3....

The people of Israel among whom the prophet dwells is a rebellious house (ch. Ezekiel 2:3; Ezekiel 2:6-8; Ezekiel 3:26-27). His former signs meet with no belief from them. They have eyes but see not: they behold events and history with their bodily eyes, but fail to discern the moral meaning in them. Events are just events to them, the nature of the God who animates the events remains undiscovered by them (Isaiah 6:9; Isaiah 42:20; Jeremiah 5:21;...