Ezekiel 12

20. I will be their God.** That God should give us some blessings as His creatures, though we be fallen creatures, may seem reasonable from what we know of His abundant mercy; that He should give us even many and great spiritual blessings through Christ may seem to be but the due reward of His sufferings and obedience in our behalf; but that He should give us Himself—that He should be what He is and have what He has and do what He does for us—that we should have the same benefit of His infinite perfections, so to speak, as if they were our own, so that we may call them ours—all that He has ours as respects the use and benefit of it—this is a vastness of Divine bounty which exceeds our utmost thoughts. We shrink from appropriating it; we try to live on something less for happiness. But He who knows the souls that He has made knows that nothing beneath Himself can ever fill their boundless desires and capacities for enjoyment. No gifts of nature, no, nor even the highest and largest gifts of grace itself, can supply the place of Him who is the Author of them all. Goode.

21. Some will repel the Divine mercy, and will still walk after their detestable idols. All such must receive the terribly fearful but just retribution of God upon their guilty heads. It was of the utmost importance for its moral bearings that this statement should be made, fastening on every man his own responsibility for his own moral conduct. Even this great baptism of regenerating mercy and power does not shut off the personal agency of the people. Those who thrust God away and will “always resist the Holy Ghost,” giving their heart still to their abominations, must perish in their sins. H. C.

23. The glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city.** This vision is no mean proof of the long suffering of God. He did not abandon this people all at once, He departed by little and little. He left the Temple. He stopped a little at the gate of the city. He departed entirely from the city and went to the Mount of Olives, which lay on the east side of the city. Having tarried there for some time to see if they would repent and turn to Him, He departed to heaven. The vision being now concluded, the prophet is taken away by the Spirit of God into Chaldea; and there announces to the captive Israelites what God had showed him in the preceding visions, and the good that He had spoken concerning them. A. C.

12:1, 2 THE word of the LORD also came unto me, saying, Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of the rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not, which have ears to hear, and hear not; for they are a rebellious house. Therefore, thou son of man, prepare thee stuff for removing, and remove by day in their sight; and thou shalt remove from thy place to another place in their sight: it may be they will consider, though they be a rebellious house. And thou shalt bring forth thy stuff by day in their sight, as stuff for removing: and thou shalt go forth thyself at even in their sight, as when men go forth into exile. Dig thou through the wall in their sight, and carry out thereby. In their sight shalt thou bear it upon thy shoulder, and carry it forth in the dark; thou shalt cover thy face, that thou see not the ground: for I have set thee for a sign unto the house of Israel. And I did so as I was commanded: I brought forth my stuff by day, as stuff for removing, and in the even I digged through the wall with mine hand; I brought it forth in the dark, and bare it upon my shoulder in their sight. And in the morning came the word of the LORD unto me, saying, Son of man, hath not the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said unto thee, What doest thou? Say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord God: This burden concerneth the prince in Jerusalem, and all the house of Israel among whom they are. Say, I am your sign: like as I have done, so shall it be done unto them: they shall go into exile, into captivity. And the prince that is among them shall bear upon his shoulder in the dark, and shall go forth : they shall dig through the wall to carry out thereby : he shall cover his face, because he shall not see the ground with his eyes. My net also will I spread upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare : and I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans ; yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there. And I will scatter toward every wind all that are round about him to help him, and all his bands ; and I will draw out the sword after them. And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall disperse them among the nations, and scatter them through the countries. But I will leave a few men of them from the sword, from the famine, and from the pestilence ; that they may declare all their abominations among the nations whither they come ; and they shall know that I am the LORD. 17, 18 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Son of man, eat thy bread with quaking, and drink thy water with trembling and with carefulness ; and say unto the people of the land, Thus saith the Lord God concerning the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the land of Israel : they shall eat their bread with carefulness, and drink their water with astonishment, that her land may be desolate from all that is therein, because of the violence of all them that dwell therein. And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be a desolation ; and ye shall know that I am the LORD. 21, 22 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, what is this proverb that ye have in the land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth ? 23 Tell them therefore, Thus saith the Lord God : I will make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel ; but say unto them, The days are at hand, and the effect of every vision. For there shall be no more any vain vision nor flattering divination within the house of Israel. For I am the LORD ; I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall be performed ; it shall be no more deferred : for in your days, O rebellious house, will I speak the word, and will perform it, saith the Lord God. 26, 27 Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of times that are far off. Therefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God : There shall none of my words be deferred any more, but the word which I shall speak shall be performed, saith the Lord God.

Chap. 12. In this chapter the prophet by Divine direction makes himself a suggestive sign of the people going into captivity (verses 1-16) ; eats his bread with trembling to denote the terror of the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Israel (verses 17-20) ; and rebukes their presumption in assuming that the predictions of judgments borne to them by the prophets referred only to some far distant time. H. C.

The whole account of this transaction marks it as a real act. The prophet was to be a sign to his countrymen, and the exiles as well as those that remained in Judea had need to be taught this lesson, for though themselves far away, they looked to Jerusalem as their home, and were scarcely less eager for its safety than the inhabitants themselves. All the particulars which Ezekiel here foretold then actually occurred, but at this time Zedekiah seemed to be prosperous, and the Jews at Jerusalem expected, it is clear, a long continuance of his prosperity. The prophetic character of the passage is undoubted (the prophet is declared to be a sign)—the genuineness of the book and of the passage, and the position of the passage in the book, are beyond dispute ; in the historical event we have an exact fulfilment. The only legitimate inference is that the prophet received his knowledge from above. B. C.

1,2. This propensity to self blindness is adduced here as a reason for one more effort to put the near impending captivity of Judah and Jerusalem palpably before the eyes of the exiles in Chaldea, in the hope that so they will be made to see and apprehend it as true. It is well here to note definitely how the subject matter of this chapter stands related on the one hand to the exiles among whom Ezekiel was living, and on the other to the people yet remaining in Judah and Jerusalem to whom those prophecies referred more or less directly. We must assume the closest sympathy between the exiles and their brethren yet in their native land. The exiles clung to the belief that the city and the nation were safe, and that they themselves were soon to return. Now there was practically no hope of their being brought to repentance till these illusions were dispelled. Hence these varied and persistent efforts of the Lord through Ezekiel to impress the exiles with a sense of the incorrigible wickedness, the damning guilt, and the certain and near impending doom of the holy city and of the people of Judah. Here “the rebellious house”

(verse 2) is primarily the body of the exiles among whom the prophet then lived. This significant symbol of removing into captivity was placed before them in order to make a strong impression on their mind. The captivity referred to was that of Zedekiah, then king of Judah. In like manner the prophet (verses 17-20) eats his bread with trembling to give the exiles a more impressive sense of the condition of the people of Jerusalem in the approaching siege. The proverb referred to (verse 22) was in vogue “in the land of Israel;” but its rebuke and refutation were immensely needed for the exiles in Chaldea. These points are important toward a clear apprehension of the scope of this chapter.

3-7. This is a thing done in fact. The prophet is commanded to do it in sight of the people; and he testifies that he did do it. Its symbolic import was to represent the going forth of the prince and people of Jerusalem from their city into captivity. The special points of the representation were: 1. Providing for himself the requisite apparatus for carrying a few indispensable things—his knapsack or travelling-bag—for this is the meaning of the Hebrew word rendered “stuff,” which is not his baggage, but his bag—that in which he carried his baggage. 2. He was to go out of his house, not through the door, but through a hole which he dug in the wall. This represented the mode of Zedekiah’s escape from the city as given by Jeremiah (chap. 39:4); “And when Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them (the Chaldean officers) and all the men of war (i.e., saw them to be really within the city), then they fled and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the king’s garden, between the two walls (a private exit), and he went out the way of the plain.” This corresponded to digging through the wall of one’s house instead of going out at the door. (Cf. also Jer. 52:7 and 2 K. 25:4-6.) 3. He was to go out by night, bearing his valuables on his shoulder. This corresponds also with the time of Zedekiah’s flight. 4. He covered his face so as not to see the ground, to indicate the bitter grief of the king and of his people when at last their hopes were crushed and they were compelled to leave—he his throne and they their city and homes—for the doubtful chances of escape, and the probable doom of death or captivity. So David, fleeing from Absalom, “went weeping and with his head covered” (2 Sam. 15:30).

8-11. Has this symbolic and strange transaction failed to excite the attention of this stupid, self-blinded people? This seems to be the implication in this question (verse 9). But if so, let us still persist in the effort to get this truth into their mind. Go therefore and say unto them, “This burden” (always a prediction of calamity) “refers to the king of Jerusalem” (Zedekiah) “and to all the house of Israel that are among them”—the house of Israel being the people of the city, and the word “them” among whom they were, referring perhaps to the army largely drawn from other parts of the country. It therefore related especially to the king and his army, not excluding the people of the city yet surviving. Ezekiel is accustomed to call the king by this name, “the prince.” (See chaps. 7:27; 21:25.) Say also, “I am your sign.” The Lord directed me to do this thing to represent to you the doom of Jerusalem, and of its king and people. They are destined to go into captivity.

12-15. The symbol was to have its precise fulfilment in Zedekiah, who should in like manner bear away his little parcel of valuables; dig through the wall for a private exit, and go away in the sadness of his grief as one whose face is covered and who sees not the ground. Remarkably Ezekiel makes no mention of Zedekiah’s loss of his eyes, and gives no clue to explain the apparent enigma of his being brought to Babylon and dying there, yet never seeing it. Jeremiah solves this enigma by recording that the king of Babylon put out his eyes at Riblah, and afterward bound him with chains to carry him to Babylon (Jer. 39:7). Ezekiel had no solicitude to make out the truth of his own predictions by showing their fulfilment. To this fact of his not seeing Babylon, the prophet’s going forth with his face so covered that he saw not the ground, seems to have had a somewhat special reference. God did scatter His army widely, first over the country of Judah and ultimately into Egypt and elsewhere. (See Jer. 39:4, 5; 40:7-10; 41:11-18; 42:44.)

16. One purpose in sparing a small remnant was that they might testify among the heathen nations that the destruction of Jerusalem and Judah was a judgment from God for their great sins of idol worship. They might bear this testimony either orally and purposely, or indirectly and without purpose, by what was apparent in their life and in their doom.

17-20. This too was a symbolic act. The prophet was to eat his bread and drink his water with manifest perturbation, as one trembling in dread of some dire calamity. This the Lord Himself applies to the people of Jerusalem and of the land of Israel. It indicated the terror they were doomed to feel. The comprehensive thing here named as the moral cause of this terror is “the violence of all” the people in the land. H. C.

21-28. Various methods had been used to awaken this secure and careless people to an expectation of the judgments coming, that they might be stirred up, by repentance and reformation, to prevent them. The prophecies of their ruin were confirmed by visions and illustrated by signs, and all with such evidence and power that one would think they must needs be wrought upon; but here we are told how they evaded the conviction, and guarded against it—viz., by telling themselves and one another that though these judgments threatened should come at last, yet they would not come of a long time. This suggestion, with which they bolstered themselves up in their security, is here answered and showed to be vain and groundless, in two messages which God sent to them by the prophet at different times, both to the same purport; such care, such pains must the prophet take to undeceive them! H.

21-25. It had passed into a proverb, so persistently was the delusion cherished that the days of predicted evil had been postponed far into the future, and every vision was failing as to any practical application to the generation then living. The prophet is commanded to confront this delusion and assure the people that every prediction would soon be fulfilled.

In verses 26-28 essentially the same thought is repeated with greater emphasis and fulness. H. C.