Ezekiel 14:20

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...

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:

THOUGH NOAH, DANIEL, AND JOB, [WERE] IN IT,.... Who are again mentioned by name, as in Ezekiel 14:14; and are the three men referred to in Ezekiel 14:16; [AS] I LIVE, SAITH THE LORD GOD, THEY SHALL DELIVER NEITHER SON NOR DAUGHTER; not so much as an only son, or an only daughter, no, not even a single child: the plural number is used before, as in Ezekiel 14:16; here the singular, to show how resolutely determined the Lord was upon the destruction of the land; that even the prayers of the best of men among them should not prevail with him to save a single person, no, not a single infant: they SHALL [BUT] DELIVER THEIR OWN SOULS BY THEIR RIGHTEOUSNESS;...

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

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

B. Presence of Righteous Men 14:12-23 TRANSLATION (12) And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, (13) Son of man, when a land sins against Me by trespassing grievously, and I stretch out My hand against it, and break its staff of bread, and send against it a famine, and cut off from it man and beast; (14) though these three men Noah, Daniel, and Job were in its midst, they would deliver only their own life through their righteousness (oracles of the Lord GOD). (15) If I cause a wild beast to pass through the land, and they bereave it, and it becomes so desolate that no man passes through her because of the beasts; (16) though these three men were in its midst, as I live (oracle of the Lord GOD), they would not deliver sons nor daughters; they alone would be delivered, but the land would become a desolation. (17) Or if I bring a sword against that land, and I say, Let a sword pass t...

A DIVINE PRINCIPLE AND AN APPARENT EXCEPTION As a rule when God punishes a land for its wickedness by such judgments as famine, wild beasts, sword, or pestilence, the presence in it of the most eminently righteous men will not save the wicked, not even the members of their own families. They will only escape themselves. Jerusalem will be a seeming exception to this principle, since a remnant of its wicked sons and daughters will be spared when the city is taken, and will escape into exile. But this is in order that the earlier exiles, seeing the abandoned conduct of the later, may realise how thoroughly Jerusalem has deserved its punishment, and may cease to regret its fate....