Ezekiel 24:10

Heap on wood, kindle the fire, consume the flesh, and spice it well, and let the bones be burned. SPICE IT WELL - that the meat may be the more palatable; i:e., I will make the foe delight in its destruction as much as one delights in well-seasoned savoury meat. Grotius, needlessly departing from the obvious sense, translates, 'let it be boiled down to a compound.'...

1-14 The pot on the fire represented Jerusalem besieged by the Chaldeans: all orders and ranks were within the walls, prepared as a prey for the enemy. They ought to have put away their transgressions, as the scum, which rises by the heat of the fire, is taken from the top of the pot. But they grew worse, and their miseries increased. Jerusalem was to be levelled with the ground. The time appointed for the punishment of wicked men may seem to come slowly, but it will come surely. It is sad to think how many there are, on whom ordinances and providences are all lost....

Verse Ezekiel 24:10. _HEAP ON WOOD_] Let the siege be _severe_, the carnage great, and the ruin and catastrophe complete....

CONSUME ... SPICE IT WELL - i. e., “dress the flesh, and make it froth and bubble, that the bones and the flesh may be all boiled up together.”...

EXPOSITION EZEKIEL 24:1 IN THE NINTH YEAR. We pass from the date of Ezekiel 20:1 to B.C. 590, and the very day is identified with that on which the army of Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem (Jeremiah 39:1; 2 Kings 25:1). To the prophet's vision all that was passing there was as plain as though he saw it with his own eyes. The siege lasted for about two years. The punishments threatened in Ezekiel 23:1, had at last come near. We may probably infer that a considerable interval of silence had follo

HEAP ON WOOD, KINDLE THE FIRE,.... This is said either to the prophet, to do this in an emblematic way; or to the Chaldean army, to prepare for the siege, encompass the city, begin their attacks, and throw in their stones out of their slings and engines, and arrows from their bows: CONSUME THE FLESH; not entirely, since it is afterwards to be spiced; but thoroughly boil it; denoting the severe sufferings the inhabitants should undergo before their utter ruin: SPICE IT WELL; pepper them off; batter their walls, beat down their houses, distress them by all manner of ways and means; signifying that this would be grateful to the Lord, as his justice would be glorified in the destruction of this people; and as the plunder of them would be like a spiced and sweet morsel to the enemy; whose appetites would hereby be sharpened and become keen, and to whom the sacking and plundering the city wo...

Ezekiel 24:1. The exact date is given by the prophet. It was the tenth day of the tenth month in the ninth year. What happened also on that date we find recorded in 2 Kings 25:1: “And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, came, he and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about.” How did Ezekiel know about all this? It was the Lord who gave him this information and led him to record the date. This is the statement of the second verse: “Son of man, write thee the name of the day, even of this selfsame day, the king of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem this same day.” What does higher criticism have to say to this? We quote a recent commentator: “These verses

EZEKIEL 24. THE LAST MESSAGE BEFORE THE FALL OF THE CITY. Ezekiel 24:1. The Rusty Caldron. We now reach the last message delivered by Ezekiel before the fall of the city; and, curiously enough, it was delivered on the opening day of the siege (2 Kings 25:1) an event of which Ezekiel must have known by his gift of second sight. In a probably acted parable, the city is compared to a pot filled with pieces of flesh (=the inhabitants), including choice pieces (= the leaders). But beneath the pot a huge fire is blazing, symbolic of the siege. Then, after boiling, the pieces are taken out in any order, symbolic of indiscriminate dispersion; but, as the pot is rusty, it is set again empty upon the furious fire, to be cleansed of its rust by the flames. The rust is symbolic of the blood, shed in injustice an

The rusted caldron set on the fire (1) Ezekiel 24:1. A caldron is to be set on the fire, filled with water, pieces of flesh cast into it and fuel piled under it that it may boil furiously. The caldron is Jerusalem; the pieces of flesh the inhabitants; the fire and boiling the siege with its terrible severities. The pieces of flesh shall be pulled out of the caldron indiscriminately, symbol of the universal dispersion when the siege is over. (2) Ezekiel 24:6. Explanation: these sufferings are judgments for the sins of the city, its bloodshed and uncleanness, which are public and open. This blood and filthiness cleaves to it like rust to a caldron. (3) Ezekiel 24:9. Rising anew into tones of menace the divine voic

AND SPICE IT WELL, &C.— _Dissolve its pieces._ Houbigant. The Chaldee, explaining the metaphor, renders it thus: _Multiply kings, gather together an army, join auxiliaries, and prepare against her the soldiers; and her brave men shall grow mad._...