Ezekiel 12
DOYLYEzekiel 12:3
- — prepare thee stuff for removing.] Instruments, furniture, goods, whatever is fitting for a long journey. Abp. Newcome.
— by day] Do this openly, and at noonday, that they may all see and take notice of it. W. Lowth. See the note on chap. iv. 1. There appears no reason for thinking that the Prophet might not really perform all that is mentioned in this chapter, without forfeiting either his discretion or gravity. The manner and circumstances of the whole narrative plead strongly for the strict and literal interpretation. It is no less than seven times repeated, that the Prophet was to do, or did, thus and thus, “in the sight” of the people: and he did it in the “evening,” in the “twilight,” ver. 7: and “in the morning” after, ver. 8, 9, God came to ask him whether the house of Israel had taken notice of such his uncommon behaviour, and had enquired what it meant.
The captivity of Zedekiah foreshewn. Before CHRIST 594. going forth of captivity. for thee. for me.
Ezekiel 12:4
- — thou shalt go forth at even in their sight, &c.] This is as they do in the caravans: they carry out their baggage in the daytime, and the caravan loads in the evening; for in the morning it is too hot to set out in a journey for that day, and they cannot well see in the night. Sir J. Chardin. 6. — thou shalt cover thy face. The actions of the Prophet were intended for prophetic instruction, and sometimes conveyed it with more force and efficacy than words. Covering the face was a token of shame and grief. Persons condemned to death had their faces covered. David had his head covered when he fled from Absalom, 2 Sam. xv. 30. Calmet. — for I have set thee for a sign.] Language by signs is common in the East: so that when the Prophets in the Old Testament were divinely directed to act a portion of the information which they were to communicate to the people, they did little or nothing more than what was done every day in the countries where they resided. When Isaiah says, he and his children were for signs; when Jeremiah found his girdle marred as a sign; when Ezekiel was a sign to the people in not mourning for the dead, chap. xxiv, and in his removing into captivity, and digging through the wall; these and similar actions were not only well understood, but they were one customary manner of conveying information, and they had the advantage of being in daily use among the people to whom they were addressed. Fragments to Calmet. 9. — hath not the house of Israel,—said! The meaning is, I know that they have said. As, “Are they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon, &c.” Houbigant. the house of Israel that are among them.
Ezekiel 12:10
- — This burden concerneth the prince &c.] Or, “This prophecy is against the prince, against Jerusalem, and against all, &c.” Houbigant. By “the prince,” king Zedekiah is meant. Abp. Newcome, W. Lowth. — among them.] In the midst of Jerusalem. Michaelis.
Ezekiel 12:11
- Say, I am your sign: &c.] Say, God hath appointed to prefigure and foresignify in me what He means to do unto you. Bp. Holt.
Ezekiel 12:12
- — they shall dig] For the fact, see Jer. xxxix. 4; lii. 7; 2 Kings xxv. 4. In the passages referred to, the king and his party are said to have escaped through the gate between two walls, by the way of the garden. They might have fled through a breach made by themselves in the wall, or, as Michaelis suggests, the gate through which they fled might have been walled up during the siege, and broken down in their flight. Abp. Newcome.
Ezekiel 12:13
- My net also will I spread upon him.] His enemies shall encompass him and stop his flight, as when a wild beast is entangled in a net. W. Lowth. The expression is familiar to the Prophet. See chap. xvii. 20; xxix. 8. Calmet. — yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there.] Having his eyes put out before he came thither. Josephus tells us, that Zedekiah thought this prophecy inconsistent with that of Jeremiah, chap. xxxiv. 3, that Zedekiah’s “eyes should behold the eyes of the king of Babylon:” and therefore believed neither: but they both actually came to pass, as the sacred story assures us. W. Lowth. See note at 2 Kings xxv. 7. Before CHRIST 594. removing go into captivity. aChap. 17. 20. The Jews’ presumptuous proverb is reproved. Before CHRIST 594. them from the sword, from the famine, and from the pestilence; that they may declare all their abominations among the heathen whither they come; and they shall know that I am the LORD.
Ezekiel 12:16
- — that they may declare] Confessing that they were justly punished for their idolatries and immoralities. Abp. Newcome.
Ezekiel 12:18
- — eat thy bread with quaking, &c.] By this action the Prophet is directed to represent the state of terrour, want, and misery, to which the Israelites would be reduced by the siege. Calmet. See ver. 19.
Ezekiel 12:19
- — of the land of Israel;] See chap. vii. 2: and note. 22. — The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth? Words of the same import with those at ver. 27; and chap. xi. 3. Both of them the words of infidels, who turn the grace of God to wantonness, and take encouragement from his patience and long-suffering to despise his threatenings, as if they would never be fulfilled. Compare Isa. v. 19: Amos v. 18: (W. Louth, Dr. Waterland:) and to deride his Prophets, as if they had prophesied in vain. Calmet.
Ezekiel 12:23
- — and the effect of every vision.] The word or matter of every vision draweth near. Perhaps, “and every vision shall be fact:” and so, perhaps, ver. 25 should be translated, “When I the Lord speak, what I speak shall be fact, and it shall be done: it shall no more be prolonged.” Abp. Secker.
Ezekiel 12:24
- For there shall be no more any vain vision] The false prophets, who foretold peace and safety, shall see their prophecies so confuted by the events quite contrary to what they foretold, that they will never pretend any more to publish new prophecies. Compare chap. xiii. 23. W. Louth. Chap. XIII. ver. 2. — that prophesy.] The true Prophets often denounce God’s judgments against the false ones; laying to their charge many misdemeanours in their private conversation, and upbraiding them for unfaithfulness in the office they undertook, of guiding and directing men’s consciences, chap. xxii. 25—26; Jer. vi. 14; xxiii. 11; Mic. iii. 5. W. Louth. — out of their own hearts.] Without being inspired or called to the office of prophecy. The fickle and credulous people of the Jews always found persons who were ready to flatter them in their disorders, and who deceived and misled them by false prophecies. Calmet.