Ezekiel 5

Chap. V. Ver. 1—17. Under the type of hair clipped and burned, is farther shown the awful judgments of Jerusalem.— The city (ver. 2) intends the portraiture he had drawn of it on a tile ((Ezekiel 4:1)); the balance was an emblem of the divine justice; the razor, or knife, and the fire, signified the divine wrath. The hairs which the prophet cut off from his head and beard represented the Jews; and the dividing of the hair the fate or punishment of individuals: the hair scattered by the wind prefigure those who fled into Egypt; the few bound up in the skirt of his garment intend the small remnant that should be left in the land; and those which he burnt (ver. 4) allude to the fate of these few, after the murder of Gedaliah.

(See melee) The type or allegory is then dropped, and God is introduced declaring, in express terms, the awful judgments which he was about to bring on this nation, which had proved so unworthy of the many mercies by which it had hitherto been distinguished. The most transient view of the calamities inflicted on the Jewish nation, first by the Chaldeans, and afterwards by the Romans, and the miseries and dispersions consequent on both, may show how fully those predictions have had their accomplishment.—“Ask every wind of heaven, ask every nation of the earth, and they will show their scattered monuments: preserved, as it were, on purpose to evince the fulfilling of these awful prophecies.”

Notes on the verses

Chap. V. Ver. 1. A sharp knife.—Newcome, “Tool, or instrument.”—[{In this expressive emblem, the prophet represents the Jewish nation; his hair, the people; the razor, the Chaldeans; the cutting of the hair, the calamities and disgrace coming upon them; the balances, the exact distribution of the Divine judgments; the third part of the hair burnt, those destroyed in the city; the third part smitten with a knife, those slain in attempting to escape; the third part scattered to the winds, those who escaped to other countries: the few hairs in his skirt, those left with Gedaliah; and the burning of these, their destruction in Egypt.}—Bagster.] Ver. 2. I will draw out a sword after them.—This may refer to those who fled into Egypt.

See (Jeremiah 42:16); xliii. 11; xliv. 12, 27. Ver. 2 Skirts.— “Wings;” namely, the borders of his outer garment. Ver. 5. Set it.—Newcome, “Her.” Ver. 6. Changed my judgments—That is, the Pagans adhered more closely to their superstitions than the Jews to their religion. Ver. 7. Because ye multiplied.—Newcome reads, by conjecture, “changed;” but we think this alteration unnecessary. The word in the present text signifies to be turbulent, noisy, outrageous, like the waves of the sea, ((Psalms 46)