Ezekiel 14:17

If I cause noisome beasts to pass through the land, and they spoil it, so that it be desolate, that no man may pass through because of the beasts: The argument is cumulative. He first puts the case of the land sinning, so as to fall under the judgment of a "famine" (); then () "noisome beasts" (); then "the sword" (); then, worst of all, "pestilence" (): the three most righteous of men should deliver only themselves in these several four cases. In he concentrates the whole in one mass of condemnation. If Noa...

The Prophet now descends to the third kind of punishment. Hence God says, _if he send a sword upon a land, he cannot be entreated so as not to consume it utterly_, neither will he admit any man’s intercession, although the most holy dwell there, namely, Job, Noah, and Daniel. But the phrase used must be marked: _if I shall say to the sword, pass through to exterminate and blot out the whole land_, or cut off from it, _both man and beast_, because we here gather the great power of God’s secret government. For we think that wars are stirred up at random: and as men are in agitation, so also we imagine war to be nothing but confusion and turbulence. But God governs even wars by his inestimable wisdom, and also men and their swords: men are enraged, their swords fly about in their hands, and they seem to go hither and thither at random by blind impulse. But God here announces that he permits...

12-23 National sins bring national judgments. Though sinners escape one judgment, another is waiting for them. When God's professing people rebel against him, they may justly expect all his judgments. The faith, obedience, and prayers of Noah prevailed to the saving of his house, but not of the old world. Job's sacrifice and prayer in behalf of his friends were accepted, and Daniel had prevailed for the saving his companions and the wise men of Babylon. But a people that had filled the measure of their sins, was not to expect to escape for the sake of any righteous men living among them; not even of the most eminent saints, who could be accepted in their own case only through the sufferings and righteousness of Christ. Yet even when God makes the greatest desolations by his judgments, he saves some to be monuments of his mercy. In firm belief that we shall approve the whole of God's dea...

Jeremiah 14; Jeremiah 15 is a remarkable parallel to this prophecy. Here, as elsewhere, Ezekiel is commissioned to deliver to the exiles the same message which Jeremiah conveys to the inhabitants of Judaea. The answer discovers the nature of the questions which had been expressed or implied. (1) Can God cast out a people who are holy unto Himself? (2) Is it just to punish them with utter desolation? The prophet answers: (1) That when a people is so corrupt as to call down national judgment, individual piety shall save none but the individuals themselves....

EXPOSITION EZEKIEL 14:1 As the result, probably, of the previous utterances, certain ELDERS OF ISRAEL, _i_._e_. of the exiles in Tel-Abib, came to consult Ezekiel, wishing to know what counsels or what predictions he had for them. In Ezekiel 8:1 we have "the elders of Judah," and it is possible that there were two groups in the Population of the town, and that these represented Israel as distinct from Judah—a deputation, as it were, from the earlier exiles. The term appears again in Ezekiel 20:1. More probably, however, the terms are used interchangeably. Ezekiel 14:

OR [IF] I BRING A SWORD UPON THAT LAND,.... The land which had grievously sinned; the same land into which a famine should come, and through which evil beasts should pass; to which, if the Lord should add, as he would, a third judgment, the sword; suffer a foreign enemy to come in among them, and destroy them. So the Targum, "or if those that slay with the sword I should bring upon that land;'' the Chaldean army, as he did; the sword has its commission from God; war is not by chance; the invasion of a foreign enemy is from the Lord; and all the mischiefs and ravages of a tumultuous army are all by divine order: AND SAY, SWORD, GO THROUGH THE LAND; not only enter the borders of it, or proceed far in it, but even go through it; which is terrible indeed! but if the Lord bids it go, it must go, and does; it is a servant of his, and punctually obeys his commands; that is, such are those th...

Ezekiel 14:1. These inquiring elders, with wickedness in their hearts, give another illustration of the depth of degradation in which the people had sunk. He who searches the hearts knew what was in them. They came with pious, religious pretensions. It sounded well to inquire of the Lord and seek the prophet-priest for that purpose. Their hearts were full of evil. While their lips spoke of asking the Lord, their hearts were full of idolatry. They liked idolatry. Their hearts were in it and this stumbling-block of their iniquity they had put before their faces, which means they openly defied the Lord God of Israel by their doings. “Should I be inquired of at all by them?” To seek the Lord and inquire of Him in such a condition reveals a brazen spirit and the deepest depravity. Yet this also belongs to the conditions in which the professing people of God are when judgment overtakes them....

THE RIGHTEOUS CANNOT SAVE THE CITY, BUT ONLY THEMSELVES. In spite of all Ezekiel's visions and warnings, the people still cherish the illusion that Jerusalem will be spared if for no other reason, at least for the sake of the righteous to be found in it, on the principle of solidarity. Why might it not, like Sodom (Genesis 18:32), be spared for ten's sake? In this very interesting and rhetorical passage, where Ezekiel develops the broad doctrine of individual responsibility, at which he has just hinted (Ezekiel 14:10) and which he had touched upon before (Ezekiel 3:16), he strikes away this illusion. When the judgment comes, he tells them be it in the form of famine, wild beasts, or pestilence the most godly men, for

IF. BRING. SWORD, &c. Reference to Pentateuch (Leviticus 26:25). See Ezekiel 5:17....

The presence of righteous men among a sinful people will not save the sinners The passage may be in answer to thoughts which the prophet felt might rise in the minds of those to whom he spoke. He threatened destruction to people and prophets alike, a destruction indiscriminate and universal. Were not these threats exaggeration? Were they in harmony with God's former ways of dealing with his people? Would he slay the righteous with the wicked? would he not rather spare the wicked on the intercession of the righteous and for their sake, as often in former times? (Genesis 18:23; Numbers 14:15). To this the prophet replies after Jeremiah 15 that righteous men among the people shall not avert God's judgment, they shall only save t