Ezekiel 5:14

Moreover I will make thee waste, and a reproach among the nations that are round about thee, in the sight of all that pass by. I WILL MAKE THEE ... A REPROACH AMONG THE NATIONS. They whose idolatries Israel had adopted, instead of comforting, would only exult in their calamities brought on by those idolatries (cf. the similar treatment the prodigal received in his misery from the so-called friends for whom he had forsaken his loving father, , "He went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine")....

He explains what we saw before more at length, whence also we understand that in the next verse God had not softened his anger, but proclaimed the ultimate destruction of the nation. He says therefore, _that the Jews shall be desolate, _as they translate it: it also signifies dryness, and hence is the name for a desert. But it suits this place to say, _the Jews shall be laid waste, and a reproach among the nations: _for they were formerly a celebrated nation: God had ennobled them with remarkable gifts, so that they excelled in dignity in the sight of all the nations. Now he says, _they should be like a vast desert, and in utter ruin, and a reproach; _and not only is this rumor spread abroad, but all travelers through that land are witnesses of this reproach. But in the next verse this is followed out more at length....

5-17 The sentence passed upon Jerusalem is very dreadful, the manner of expression makes it still more so. Who is able to stand in God's sight when he is angry? Those who live and die impenitent, will perish for ever unpitied; there is a day coming when the Lord will not spare. Let not persons or churches, who change the Lord's statutes, expect to escape the doom of Jerusalem. Let us endeavour to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. Sooner or later God's word will prove itself true....

EXPOSITION EZEKIEL 5:1 TAKE THEE A BARBER'S RAZOR, etc. The series of symbolic acts is carried further. Recollections of Isaiah and Leviticus mingle strangely in the prophet's mind. The former had made the "razor" the symbol of the devastation wrought by an invading army (Isaiah 7:20). The latter had forbidden its use for the head and beard of the priests (Le Leviticus 19:27; Leviticus 21:5). Once again Ezekiel is commanded to do a forbidden thing as a symbolic act. He is, for the moment, the representative of the people of Jerusalem, and there is to be, as of old, a great destructio

MOREOVER I WILL MAKE THEE WASTE,.... That is, their land; which, being without inhabitants, lay untilled; and so became barren and unfruitful: AND A REPROACH AMONG THE NATIONS THAT [ARE] ROUND ABOUT THEE, IN THE SIGHT OF ALL THAT PASS BY; who, seeing it in this desolate condition, shall throw out their taunts and jeers upon it, as in Lamentations 2:15....

Ezekiel 5:1. The sharp knife is the symbol of the king of Babylon. (See Isaiah 7:20 .) He was God's instrument in the execution of His wrath; the people are represented by the hair. The third part of the hair burned with fire pictures the fate of a part of the people during the siege. The pestilence and the famine were also to consume them. Only a few in number, a small remnant, were to be preserved, as indicated when Ezekiel took a few hairs and bound them in his skirt. Ezekiel 5:5. These solemn words should be carefully read. In connection with them there ought to be read Jeremiah's lamentations, for Jeremiah's outburst of sorrow shows the literal fulfillment of this message. (See...

EXPLANATION OF THE SYMBOLS. By the four preceding symbolical actions the doom has been made too terribly clear: the reason for it is now given. Jerusalem is the centre of the world, conspicuous alike for her position and her privileges, especially for her possession of a unique religious law, the gift of her own unique God. But so far was she from gratefully conforming her life to it, that she fell disgracefully below even heathen standards (_cf._ Jeremiah 2:11); and so, conspicuous in her doom as in her privileges, she must be punished before all the world a fate from which Israel had always shrunk with special horror (Ezekiel 5:8). Her punishment was to be unparalleled (Ezekiel 5:9) parents would literally devour their own

I WILL MAKE THEE WASTE. Reference to Pentateuch (Leviticus 26:31; Leviticus 26:32). App-92,...

Second Section. Ch. Ezekiel 3:22 to Ezekiel 7:27 The second section of the Book contains these parts: (1) Ch. Ezekiel 3:22-27. A preface in which the prophet is commanded to confine himself to his own house, and abandon for a time his public ministry. (2) Ch. Ezekiel 4:1-4. A series of symbols representing the siege of Jerusalem, the scarcity during it, the pollution of the people in exile among the nations, and the terrible fate of the inhabitants on the capture of the city. (3) Ch. Ezekiel 5:5-17. Exposition of these s

D. The Results of the Judgment 5:13-15 TRANSLATION (13) Then My anger shall end, and MY wrath I shall cause to rest in respect to them and shall be comforted; and they shall know that I the LORD have spoken in My zeal when I have finished My wrath on them. (14) And I shall make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations which are round about you, before every one who passes by. (15) And it shall be a reproach, and a taunt, a lesson and an astonishment to the nations which are round about you when I execute against you judgments in anger and wrath and in furious rebukes; I the LORD have spoken it. COMMENTS Three results of Jerusalem's judgment are mentioned in these verses: 1. Only when Jerusalem was in ruins and her few survivors scattered abroad would God's indignant wrath be assuaged. The strongly anthropomorphic expression, _My wrath I shall cause to rest in respect to them_...