Ezekiel 5:17

So will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee; and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee; and I will bring the sword upon thee. I the LORD have spoken it. SO WILL I SEND UPON YOU ... BEASTS - perhaps meaning destructive conquerors (as Nebuchadnezzar, compared to a "lion" with "eagle's wings," ). Rather, literal "beasts," which infest desolated regions, such as Judea was to become (cf. ; Exo. 33:29; , "I will ... send the teeth of beasts upon them." So "lions" were sent among the pagan settlers planted by Assyria in Samaria; ). The same threat repeated in manifold forms, to awaken the careless....

Here God speaks generally concerning certain adversities — _I will send evil upon them, _he says, but immediately afterwards he adds the kind of evil, of which he had not yet spoken. Hence, under the name of evil he embraces all adversities, as if he had said that he intended to exact the penalty from the wicked, not in one or two ways only, but by those numberless troubles which surround us, and to which we are subject; so that there would be no bounds to his wrath, unless men should cease to provoke his anger. This is the reason, then, why he now speaks generally concerning evil; but as I have said he adds the kind of evil — _An evil beast shall come upon thee, and so I will bereave thee _Although only one form of evil is expressed, yet it is by no means doubtful that for the sake of example God mentions this, that they might understand that all injuries are in his hand. And these are...

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....

Verse Ezekiel 5:17. _SO WILL I SEND UPON YOU FAMINE AND EVIL BEASTS, AND_ _THEY SHALL BEREAVE THEE_] Wild beasts always multiply in depopulated countries. In England, _wolves_ abounded when the country was thinly peopled, it is now full of inhabitants, and there is not one wolf in the land. Nebuchadnezzar and his Chaldeans may be called here _evil beasts_. He is often compared to a _lion_, Jeremiah 4:7; Daniel 7:14; on account of the ravages made by him and his Chaldean armies....

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

SO WILL I SEND UPON YOU FAMINE, AND EVIL BEASTS,.... Famine is repeated for the further confirmation of it; and "evil beasts" are added, by whom are meant, not the Chaldeans, comparable to such; but literally lions, wolves, hears, c. which are threatened the Jews, in case of disobedience, Leviticus 26:22 and which sometimes were sent, 2 Kings 17:24; AND THEY SHALL BEREAVE THEE; that is, of her children, whom the evil beasts should destroy; they not being able to defend themselves against them, as men can: AND PESTILENCE AND BLOOD SHALL PASS THROUGH THEE, AND I WILL BRING THE SWORD UPON THEE; the pestilence, famine, sword, which is meant by blood, and evil beasts, are the Lord's four sore judgments; see...

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

SO WILL. SEND, Sc, Reference to Pentateuch (Leviticus 26:22.Deuteronomy 32:24; Deuteronomy 32:24), I WILL BRING THE SWORD, Re. Reference to Pentateuch (Leviticus 26:25). App-92. Compare Ezekiel 6:3; Ezekiel 11:8; Ezekiel 11:14; Ezekiel 11:17;...

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