Ezekiel 24

24: 1 AGAIN, in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, write thee the name of the day, even of this selfsame day: the king of Babylon drew close unto Jerusalem this selfsame day. And utter a parable unto the rebellious house, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, Set on the caldron, set it on, and also pour water into it: gather the pieces thereof into it, even every good piece, the thigh, and the shoulder; fill it with the choice bones. Take the choice of the flock, and pile also the bones under it: make it boil well; yea, let the bones thereof be seethed in the midst of it. Wherefore thus saith the Lord God: Woe to the bloody city, to the caldron whose rust is therein, and whose rust is not gone out of it! bring it out piece by piece; no lot is fallen upon it. For her blood is in the midst of her; she set it upon the bare rock; she poured it not upon the ground, to cover it with dust; that it might cause fury to come up to take vengeance, I have set her blood upon the bare rock, that it should not be covered. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Woe to the bloody city! I also will make the pile great. Heap on the wood, make the fire hot, boil well the flesh, and make thick the broth, and let the bones be burned. Then set it empty upon the coals thereof, that it may be hot, and the brass thereof may burn, and that the filthiness of it may be molten in it, that the rust of it may be consumed. She hath wearied herself with toil: yet her great rust goeth not forth out of her; her rust goeth not forth by fire. In thy filthiness is lewdness; because I have purged thee and thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I have satisfied my fury upon thee. I the LORD have spoken it: it shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent; according to thy ways, and according to thy doings, shall they judge thee, saith the Lord God. Also the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke: yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down. Sigh, but not aloud; make no mourning for the dead, bind thy headtire upon thee, and put thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men. So I spake unto the people in the morning; and at even my wife died: and I did in the morning as I was commanded. And the people said unto me, Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us, that thou doest so? Then I said unto them, The word of the

21. LORD came unto me, saying, Speak unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God : Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul pitieth ; and your sons and your daughters whom ye have left behind shall fall by the sword. And ye shall do as I have done : ye shall not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men. And your tires shall be upon your heads, and your shoes upon your feet : ye shall not mourn nor weep ; but ye shall pine away in your iniquities, and moan one toward another. Thus shall Ezekiel be unto you a sign ; according to all that he hath done shall ye do : when this cometh, then shall ye know that I am the Lord God. 25 And thou, son of man, shall it not be in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and that whereupon they set their heart, their sons and their daughters, that in that day he that escapeth shall come unto thee, to cause thee to hear it with thine ears ? In that day shall thy mouth be opened to him which is escaped, and thou shalt speak, and be no more dumb : so shalt thou be a sign unto them ; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

Chap. 24. This chapter bears a new date—viz., the very day in which Nebuchadnezzar commenced the siege of Jerusalem, and two years and five months later than the last preceding date (20 : 1). It is in two parts—the first part (verses 3–14) presenting the confirmed wickedness of Jerusalem and God’s efforts to cleanse it out, under the figure of a pot foul with rust, yet not cleansed by use, and incapable of being cleansed till it is set empty upon a hot fire and the very brass itself thoroughly heated and burned. In the second part (verses 15–27) the prophet’s wife suddenly dies ; he is forbidden to manifest his grief in the usual modes, showing the people thus that the calamities of their nation will be too great to admit of the common public manifestations of mourning. H. C.

Ezekiel is commissioned to announce to his fellow-exiles that the destruction of Jerusalem, which he had so long foretold, was now in course of execution, that the siege had actually begun. This he is to declare (1) by a parable—of the boiling pot (verses 1–14), (2) by a symbolical act—the abstaining from the usual outward mourning for his wife’s death.

1. The day mentioned here was the very day on which Nebuchadnezzar completed his arrangements for the siege, and closed in the city (2 K. 25 : 1 ; Jer. 52 : 4). After the captivity this day was regularly observed as a fast day—the fast of the tenth month (Zech. 8 : 19). B. C.

The precise day on which the siege of Jerusalem commenced is on record 2 K. 25 : 1 and Jer. 52 : 4 ; precisely as here. Omitting only the day of the month, the same date appears in Jer. 39 : 1. Of course this was one of the ever-memorable days of Jewish history, long observed as a day of fasting. (See Zech. 8 : 19.) It was an impressive fact to the exiles. They must have seen in it new proof of the failure of their long-cherished hopes. H. C.

2. “Jerusalem this same day.” It was many miles, it was many days’ journey from Jerusalem to Babylon ; perhaps the last intelligence they had from the army was that the design was upon Rabbath of the children of Ammon, and that the campaign was to be opened with the siege of that city. But God knew, and could tell the prophet, This day, at this time, Jerusalem is invested, and the Chaldean army is set down before it. As all times, so all places, even the most remote, are present with God and under His view. He tells it the prophet that the prophet might tell it the people, that so when it proved to be punctually true, as they would find by the public intelligence in a little time, it might be a confirmation of the prophet’s mission, and they might infer that, since he was right in his news, he was so in his predictions, for he owed both to the same correspondence he had with heaven. H.

That Ezekiel on the banks of the Chebar knew what was taking place at Jerusalem on the very day of its occurrence may be a difficulty to those expositors who deny that God can make any prophetical communication, but need not incline us to discover with them in this passage a prediction after the event. Kliefoth.

3. Set on a pot. This figure bears allusion to the sacred rites of the Temple, and therefore nothing low or mean was associated with it in the ideas of the Jews, to whom the prophecy was directed. Bp. Lowth.—Under the same image of a boiling pot, Jeremiah had represented the siege of Jerusalem (1 : 13). Ezekiel was a priest ; the action of boiling pots was familiar to him, as these things were much in use in the Temple service. A. C.

3–5. Inasmuch as this is distinctly declared to be a parable, we cannot suppose it to have been a real symbolic transaction performed before the eyes of the people, nor yet a vision shown to the prophet by the Divine Spirit. It is rather a supposed transaction, designed to represent certain analogous points in the case of the city of Jerusalem, its people and its pollutions. The pot of brass represents the city; its contents of flesh and bones are the inhabitants; and the rust (“scum”) and foulness of the pot stand for the abominations of the city, the deep pollutions of society which had hardened and become incrusted upon the inner surface of the pot, and could be removed by no ordinary process. The first step in the operation is described in these verses. Fill it with water, flesh and bones; set it over a hot fire, and boil it thoroughly. See what discipline will do toward reform.

6-10. Verses 6 and 11 intimate that after the failure of this effort the pot is entirely emptied of its flesh and bones—i.e., the city is emptied of its people, and then the city itself (the pot) is subjected to intense heat, to burn off its pollutions.

11-14. Verse 12 should be read, “It,” the pot, has wearied itself, not with “lies,” but with its great “labor”—i.e., to cleanse itself of its rust and filth; “but its great filth will not go forth from it, not even by the fire.” This verse aims to say that this long protracted and varied effort of God in His providence to reform the people and cleanse the city had been in vain. So verse 13 teaches. In thy filthiness is purposed wickedness (so the Hebrew implies)—the deep, persistent, malign purpose to push madly on in rebellion. Because I have sought to purge thee, yet with no success, I shall make no further effort till I pour out My wrath on thee to abide upon thee, through a long captivity. God has spoken and will do it! This is the outcome of the “parable.” The Lord despairs of cleansing the city from its fixed incrustations of corruption—the residuum of crime hardened on at the bottom of society, and consequently leavening the whole mass with its pollution; and withal adhering so tenaciously that no ordinary heat and no other possible appliances will remove it and cleanse the vessel. So the city must be emptied of all its inhabitants and then be thoroughly burned to the ground. H. C.

15-27. These verses conclude what we have been upon all along from the beginning of this book, to wit, Ezekiel’s prophecies of the destruction of Jerusalem; for, after this, though he prophesied much concerning other nations, yet he said no more concerning Jerusalem, till he heard of the destruction of it, almost three years after (chap. 33: 21). He had assured them, in the former part of this chapter, that there was no hope at all of the preventing of the trouble; here he assures them that they should not have the ease of weeping for it. H.

16-27. The death of Ezekiel’s wife took place in the evening of the same day that he delivered the foregoing prophecy. This event was to signify to the people that the Lord would take from them all that was most dear to them—temple, home, friends and possessions. The behavior of the prophet was to show his fellow exiles that the condition of the people would be such as to give no room for the common expression of mourning. Compare Jer. 16: 5, they shall not lament or bemoan the dead; they would grieve for their sins and their punishment, but the times that were coming were so extraordinary as to leave no room for the quiet lamentation for the dead according to the usual forms of mourning. B. C.

16,17. This beautiful descriptive epithet, “the desire of thine eyes,” is shown (verse 18) to mean his wife—an object ever grateful to the eye and dear to the heart. The Lord says, I am about to take her away at one stroke, and you must refrain from all the usual manifestations of grief. The shock of a sore calamity is sometimes too great for tears, too overwhelming to allow one thought upon the forms and manifestations of sorrow. When men die by tens of thousands on the field of battle, who finds time or thought for sighs or for the drapery of woe! So, in the destruction of the Temple and the fall of the great city of their fathers’ sepulchres, in the slaughter by thousands of their own fathers, brothers, sisters—they might well spare the habiliments of grief and omit all its usual symbols. Such seems to have been the lesson intended in this startling, appalling scene. Verse 17 defines and forbids the usual indications of public mourning. H. C.

17. Bind the tire of thine head upon thee. The tire was the mitre worn by the priest. One of the signs of mourning was to cover the head (2 Sam. 15: 30; Jer. 14: 3); another was to sprinkle ashes upon the head (27: 30; 1 Sam. 4: 12; 2 Sam. 15: 32). It was forbidden to the high-priest to uncover his head (Lev. 21: 10), because the anointing oil had been upon him—that is, he was not to defile his head with ashes sprinkled upon it. The covering of the head adopted by mourners must have been different from the usual dress, and so in either case the ordinary covering was removed, to be replaced either by ashes or by a mourning veil. Although the high-priest was to abstain from outward signs of mourning, and in a particular case a similar course was prescribed to the priests Eleazar and Ithamar (Lev. 10 : 6), the priest in general was to mourn for his dead (Lev. 21 : 1 foll.), and so Ezekiel was to be an exception to the rule. Another sign of mourning was to go barefoot (2 Sam. 15 : 30), see on Jer. 13 : 22; another to cover the lower part of the face (Micah 3 : 7).

Eat not the bread of men. It was customary at funerals to have food supplied for the comfort of the mourners, and this is the origin of the funeral feasts, so common among all nations. Bread of men—i.e., bread commonly used by men on such occasions. Jerome, “bread of mourners.” From such food Ezekiel is to abstain. Compare Jer. 16 : 7, neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or mother. B. C.

A strange and deep interest belongs to one of the incidents in the personal history of Ezekiel which the course of this prophecy discloses. His wife was very dear to him; for she is called “the desire of his eyes.” He knew that they must one day be parted. He must die; she too must die—which first was known to God only. But there was nothing in his age or state of health, nor anything in hers, to suggest that this hour of calamity was near; and probably Ezekiel, although a prophet, did as most men do in regard to this matter—refused to let his mind rest upon it, or to contemplate it with any steadiness. Doubt not, therefore, that Ezekiel felt as any one of us would feel on receiving the intimation: “Son of man, behold I take away the desire of thine eyes with a stroke.” The very terms in which it is conveyed aggravates the agony it is suited to inflict, by reminding of the value of that which he was thus suddenly to lose. She was described to him as “the desire of his eyes;” and she is to be taken from him—not through the painful but soothing warnings of the sick-bed, by which the mind is gradually prepared to meet the worst, but suddenly “by a stroke,” quick and sharp. Consider what that loss was to him. That she was a good and loving woman is implied throughout. Besides, he was now in captivity among the Babylonians; and his wife was no doubt a sweet companion and comfort to him in the midst of all the reproaches, troubles, and difficulties he met with. And she was to be taken by one of those strokes which wound the survivors so deeply that but for the slight preparation this very intimation offered, it may well be thought that even Ezekiel, being, though a prophet, a man such as we are, might himself also have sunk, heart-smitten by the stroke. Hence there was graciousness to him in this intimation, hard though it were.

Do we not hear the exceeding sharp and bitter cry which this intimation drew from him? Do we not see the hot tears which it wrung from eyes unused to weep, and for that reason more hot and bitter? We hear nothing of this: we see nothing. The desire of his eyes is not only to die, but must die unlamented, save in his heart. He must “make no mourning” for her; he must “bind the tire upon his head” as usual, and not suffer his locks to float wild for her; he must “put on his shoes upon his feet,” and not walk “softly and barefoot for her”—nor for her “cover his lips,” nor “eat the bread of men.” These were acts of mourning from which he was interdicted; and it was hard to omit them. The world might look upon it as a heartless indifference to the memory of one so loved; and the neglect of customary observances of mourning on the part of the living was deemed an insult to the dead. This was hard. But there was something harder yet. “Thou shalt not mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down.” The other inhibitions had been easy to this. Those touched but the outer mourning; these the inner—the mourning of the heart.

And what did the prophet say to all this? He said nothing. It was of the Lord. And what did he do? He knew that this was for a sign; and with this doom over the wife of his youth, so soon to be accomplished, he girded up the loins of his mind to his public duty, and told the people of this strange and solemn matter, which it is needful they should understand. And what then? “In the evening my wife died.” And what more? “And I did in the morning as I was commanded.”

These simple intimations reach the utmost sublimity of moral grandeur—nay, more than that, of devout, and therefore absolute submission to Him who doeth all things well. It was in this conviction, in the firm persuasion that the Lord laid this burden upon him not needlessly, but most wisely; not in anger, but with love and pity for the soul. He wounded, that, like another of old, he could say, “I was dumb, I opened not my mouth—because Thou didst it;” and followed the great example of him of whom it is said, “And Aaron held his peace,” when his sons died before his eyes. Nay, more. It is not enough to say that he submitted to this dispensation. He acquiesced in it; because he knew that it was intended for the benefit of his people, as completing by the most signal and impressive of all that series of literal and symbolical warnings by which he had labored to gain the attention of his people, and to stay their downward course to ruin.

Observe well that all commentators perceive an interval of time between this chapter and those that follow—this being the last of the prophecies delivered before the destruction of Jerusalem. He is allowed to rest awhile in his sorrows, public and private; and when he comes forth again, it is to speak in an altered strain, denouncing the doom of the nations which had afflicted Israel, or had exulted in her fall; and to declare the glory and blessedness which the great future had in store.

Now he was to stand as “a sign to them” from the Lord: “According to all that he hath done, shall ye do; and when this cometh, ye shall know that I am the Lord.” They also should lose “the desire of their eyes”—the city and Temple of their fathers should be brought low unto the dust; and their beloved ones should perish by the sword. Yet they should not dare, nor find occasion to satisfy their griefs with customary mournings, though they “might mourn inwardly, and pine away for their iniquities.”

That this deep and sad lesson might be the more effectually taught, the devoted prophet was willing even to yield up “the desire of his eyes.” He knew it would not be lost or fail of its effect. For although it should avail not for anterior warning, it would for subsequent conviction. When these things had befallen them, they would remember these forewarnings, and be constrained to acknowledge that their doom had indeed come from God, and had been most righteously inflicted; and would be among the agencies tending to that reformation that actually took place, which the prophet himself lived to witness, and in which he found the rich reward of his labors and sufferings. For these results, which it is clear he was permitted to contemplate, this great prophet was willing to take up this cross—the heaviest, one may say, that man was ever called to bear.

“Let the Lord’s servants in every age copy after this instructive example. Let them come here from time to time and contemplate one of Heaven’s noblest witnesses, struggling to the last, if haply he might do something to stem the swelling tide of evil; and even at the last, when all has proved ineffectual, still readily offering himself upon the sacrifice and service—not, indeed, of the people’s faith, but still of their highest well-being, which he sought with a fervor and devotion unknown to themselves. With such a lofty spirit of consecration to the work of God, what enterprises of philanthropy might not be undertaken, and what triumphs ultimately won!” (Fairbairn). Kitto.

18. Since it was to be done before the people for a sign to them, the morning of the ensuing day would be the earliest time possible, and the proper time for obeying this Divine command.

19–21. The attention of the people is arrested, and they inquire what all this signifies to themselves. The answer is definite. Remarkably it makes special account of the destruction of the Temple and of the slaughter of their own sons and daughters left behind in their fatherland.

24. “A sign unto you;” a visible, significant symbol of what is to befall you, and of what you must do and also of what you may not do under an infliction of calamity analogous to his. H. C.

25. The great desolation which the siege of Jerusalem should end in. In that day, that terrible day, when the city should be broken up, I will take from them that which they depended on; their strength, their walls, their treasures, their fortifications, their men of war, none shall stand them instead. That which they boasted of; the joy of their glory, that which they looked upon as most their glory, and which they most rejoiced in, the temple of their god, and the palaces of their princes. That which they delighted in; which was the desire of their eyes, and on which they set their minds. Their sons and their daughters were all this, their strength, and joy, and glory; and these shall go into captivity. H.

27. In view of this case of the death of the prophet’s wife, let us not omit to note that the Lord spared no pains and shrunk from no sacrifices to make deep and solemn impressions on the minds of the exiles. H. C.—He was suspended from prophesying against them in the mean time, because, Jerusalem being besieged, his prophecies could not be sent into the city; because, when God was speaking so loud by the rod, there was the less need of speaking by the word, and because then the accomplishments of His prophecies would be the full confirmation of his mission, and would the more effectually clear the way for him to begin again. It being referred to that issue, that issue must be waited for. Thus Christ forbade His disciples to preach openly that He was Christ till after His resurrection, because that

was to be the full proof of it. But then thou shalt speak with the greater assurance, and the more effectually, either to their conviction or to their confusion. H.