Ezekiel 5:4

_THOU SHALT ALSO TAKE THEREOF A FEW IN NUMBER, AND BIND THEM IN THY SKIRTS._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

We just saw that there were many reprobate in that small number. Hence, therefore, it is easily gathered how desperate was the impiety of the whole people. _After this, he _says, _take: _this adverb is used that those who survived after the slaughter of the city should not think that all their punishments were over: _after this, _says he, that is, when they shall fancy all their difficulties over, _thou shalt take from that part which thou hast preserved, and shalt cast it into the fire. Thence, _he says, a_fire shall go forth through the whole house of Israel _He signifies by these words, as we have seen before, that the vision was not illusory, just as many fictitious things are represented in a theater. Hence God says, what he shows by vision to his servant would happen, as the event itself at length proved. But he goes further _that the whole house of Israel shall burn in this burnin...

1-4 The prophet must shave off the hair of his head and beard, which signifies God's utter rejecting and abandoning that people. One part must be burned in the midst of the city, denoting the multitudes that should perish by famine and pestilence. Another part was to be cut in pieces, representing the many who were slain by the sword. Another part was to be scattered in the wind, denoting the carrying away of some into the land of the conqueror, and the flight of others into the neighbouring countries for shelter. A small quantity of the third portion was to be bound in his shirts, as that of which he is very careful. But few were reserved. To whatever refuge sinners flee, the fire and sword of God's wrath will consume them....

Verse Ezekiel 5:4. Ezekiel 5:1....

Of the third part a few are yet to be taken and kept in the fold of the garment (representing those still to remain in their native land), and yet even of those few some are to be cast into the fire. Such was the fate of those left behind after the destruction of Jerusalem Jeremiah 40; Jeremiah 41. The whole prophecy is one of denunciation. Ezekiel 5:4 THEREOF - Or, from thence, out of the midst of the fire. Omit “For.”...

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

THEN TAKE OF THEM AGAIN,.... Of that small number preserved: AND CAST THEM INTO THE MIDST OF THE FIRE, AND BURN THEM IN THE FIRE: this was fulfilled in Gedaliah and the Jews that were with him, over whom the king of Babylon had made him governor, who were slain by Ishmael, Jeremiah 41:1; [FOR] THEREOF SHALL A FIRE COME FORTH INTO ALL THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL; from this barbarous murder of Gedaliah and his men, judgment came upon all the house of Israel; a war commenced between Ishmael and Johanan the son of Kareah; and afterwards Nebuzaradan carried captive great numbers of them that were left in the land. The Syriac and Arabic versions render it, "from these shall a fire come forth", c. which Jarchi interprets of these intimations given the prophet, from whence judgments should come upon all the house of Israel. It may be understood of those that were lef

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...

(D) THE FATE OF THE BESIEGED. Yet the last symbol is perhaps the most terrible of all; it suggests the all but irretrievable completeness of the destruction. Ezekiel is commanded to take a sharp sword, and use it, like a razor, upon his head and beard suggesting how clean the city will be swept of its population. The hair removed is to be scrupulously weighed there is a deadly accuracy in the Divine justice and divided into three portions, destined to be burned, smitten, and scattered respectively, symbolic (as we learn from Ezekiel 5:12) of the fate of those within the city (the fire stands for pestilence and famine), of those caught near it, cruelly cut down in their efforts to escape, and of those who will be swept away to exile. Of these last a few, symbolised by a little hair caught in the folds of Ezekiel's garment, shall escape, but even this remnant is to be decimated by further...

THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL. As in Ezekiel 4:3....