Ezekiel 14:8

And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the LORD. AND WILL MAKE HIM A SIGN - literally, 'I will destroy him [ wahªsimotiyhuw (H8074)] so as to become a sign;' it will be no ordinary destruction, but such as will make him to be an object pointed at with wonder by all-a signal warning to others, as Korah and his company were made (Numbers 26:10; Deuteronomy 28:37). Rosenmuller reads, as in Bomberg's edition of 1525, and as the old versions and the English version, 'I will put (or make) him a sign' [from suwm ...

Here God adds, that the execution of his wrath would be ready when the prophet had denounced it. For profane men always fabricate for themselves empty treaties, and when God threatens they say that it is only thunder without lightning. Since the prophetic threats moved the reprobate either nothing or but little, so God now shows that he would not only answer what they did not wish to hear, but they should perceive by its effect how truly he had spoken. And this ought to be understood from the last sentence; for when God answers by himself, he neither is nor strikes the air with threatening words, but denounces what he determined to fulfill and accomplish in his own time. For God never answers in himself without joining the effect with the prophecy. But hypocrites are too stupid to acknowledge this, unless a clearer explanation was afforded. This then is the reason why the Prophet brings...

1-11 No outward form or reformation can be acceptable to God, so long as any idol possesses the heart; yet how many prefer their own devices and their own righteousness, to the way of salvation! Men's corruptions are idols in their hearts, and are of their own setting up; God will let them take their course. Sin renders the sinner odious in the eyes of the pure and holy God; and in his own eyes also, whenever conscience is awakened. Let us seek to be cleansed from the guilt and pollution of sins, in that fountain which the Lord has opened....

WILL MAKE HIM - Or, I will make him amazed Ezekiel 32:10; or, astonished, so as to be a sign and a proverb....

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:

AND I WILL SET MY FACE AGAINST THAT MAN,.... And look him out of countenance, notwithstanding all his daring impudence and presumption in coming to a prophet of the Lord, and inquiring of him by him, when guilty of gross idolatry; which mast needs be the case, when the face of God is set against a man. The Targum renders it, "my fury", or "wrath"; and indeed that is what is meant; when God sets his face against a man, he pours out his wrath, or inflicts punishment on him; see Psalms 34:16. Jarchi's note is, "as a man that says I am at leisure from all business, and I will attend to this;'' laying aside all other business, wholly giving himself up to one thing, on which he is set. Dreadful is a man's case, when the Lord thus sets himself against him! AND WILL MAKE HIM A SIGN AND A PROVERB; a spectacle of horror to look at, because of his misery; a

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....

INSINCERITY OF THOSE WHO CONSULT THE PROPHETS. Like prophet, like people. The prophets, as _we_ have just seen (Ezekiel 13), were greatly to blame; but no less were the people partly because of their scepticism (Ezekiel 12:21), and partly, as we now see, because of their insincerity. This is illustrated by a question put by certain elders on the occasion of a visit to Ezekiel a question which neither deserved nor received an answer; for they are idolaters, certainly at _heart and_ probably in fact; they worship Yahweh with divided heart, and are therefore inevitably excluded from a knowledge of His purpose and will. No answer can be given to such, but the answer of the Divine judgment; and if they continue their policy of impenitent compromise, their fate will be nothing less than terrible (Ezek

I WILL SET MY FACE, &c. Reference to Pentateuch (Leviticus 17:10; Leviticus 26:17). App-92. MAN. Hebrew. _'ish_. App-14. WILL MAKE HIM, &c. Reference to Pentateuch (Numbers 26:10; Deuteronomy 28:37). Some codices, with eight early printed editions, read "will make him desolate, for. sign and. proverb". I WILL CUT HIM OFF, &c. Reference to Pentateuch (Genesis 17:14.Exodus 12:15;...

Jehovah's answer to the idolatrous inquirer: he will make him a sign and a proverb, and cut him off from his people. _make him a sign_ This is the traditional reading (Baer's _Ezek_. hiph. of _sîm_, cf. Ezekiel 21:16; Job 4:20). R.V. follows a different text. On "sign" &c. cf. Numbers 26:10; Deuteronomy 28:37....