King James Version
Ezekiel 5
17 verses with commentary
God's Razor of Judgment
And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber's razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard: then take thee balances to weigh, and divide the hair.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber's razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard: then take thee balances to weigh, and divide the hair.</strong> Ezekiel receives another shocking prophetic command—to shave his head and beard with a sword (<em>cherev chaddah</em>, חֶרֶב חַדָּה, "sharp sword") functioning as a barber's razor. For an Israelit...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(1) **Take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber’s razor.**—Rather, *take thee a sharp sword, as a barber’s razor shalt thou take it to thee. *The word *knife *is the same as that used twice in Ezekiel 5:2, and translated once by *knife *and once by *sword. *It is occasionally used for any sharp-cutting instrument, but is most commonly taken, as here, for a sword. The English version also neglect...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 5
The Jewish nation supplicating the Divine favour.
**Verses 1-16** Is any afflicted? Let him pray; and let him in prayer pour out his complaint to God. The people of God do so here; they complain not of evils feared, but of evils felt. If penitent and patient under what we suffer for the sins of our fathers, we may expect that He who punishes, will return in mercy to us. They acknow...
Read full commentary →Thou shalt burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled: and thou shalt take a third part, and smite about it with a knife: and a third part thou shalt scatter in the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Thou shalt burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled: and thou shalt take a third part, and smite about it with a knife: and a third part thou shalt scatter in the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them.</strong> God commands Ezekiel to divide his shaved hair into precise thirds, each representing Jerusalem's population fate. The f...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(2) **Burn with fire a third art in the midst of the city.**—It is better to suppose this done only in description than to imagine that the prophet carried it out in act upon the tile on which the city (Jerusalem) was portrayed. The meaning of this verse is explained in Ezekiel 5:12, and is made plainer by translating the same word uniformly “sword,” instead of changing to “knife.” The third, whic...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**14. in an earthen vessel--**that the documents might not be injured by the moisture of the surrounding earth; at the same time, being buried, they could not be stolen, but would remain as a pledge of the Jews' deliverance until God's time should come.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 5
The Jewish nation supplicating the Divine favour.
**Verses 1-16** Is any afflicted? Let him pray; and let him in prayer pour out his complaint to God. The people of God do so here; they complain not of evils feared, but of evils felt. If penitent and patient under what we suffer for the sins of our fathers, we may expect that He who punishes, will return in mercy to us. They acknow...
Read full commentary →Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number, and bind them in thy skirts. skirts: Heb. wings
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number, and bind them in thy skirts.</strong> Within the comprehensive judgment, grace appears—"a few in number" (<em>me'at be-mispar</em>, מְעַט בְּמִסְפָּר) will be preserved. The Hebrew <em>me'at</em> emphasizes smallness, yet the phrase "in number" (<em>be-mispar</em>) indicates precise counting—God knows exactly how many will survive. "Bind them i...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(3) **A few in number, and bind them in thy skirts.**—A small remnant of the people was still left in the land after the great captivity (2Kings 25:22); but even of these some were to perish by violence (“cast them into the midst of the fire”) in the disorders which arose, and from this “shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel.” (See Jeremiah 40, 41) The ultimate result was the expatr...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
15. (Compare Jr 32:24, 25, 37, 43, 44).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 5
The Jewish nation supplicating the Divine favour.
**Verses 1-16** Is any afflicted? Let him pray; and let him in prayer pour out his complaint to God. The people of God do so here; they complain not of evils feared, but of evils felt. If penitent and patient under what we suffer for the sins of our fathers, we may expect that He who punishes, will return in mercy to us. They acknow...
Read full commentary →Then take of them again, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; for thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Then take of them again, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; for thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel.</strong> Shockingly, even the preserved remnant faces further testing—some of those bound in Ezekiel's skirts must be cast into fire. This illustrates that preservation from initial judgment doesn't guarantee final safety without co...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
16. Jeremiah, not comprehending how God's threat of destroying Judah could be reconciled with God's commanding him to purchase land in it as if in a free country, has recourse to his grand remedy against perplexities, prayer.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 5
The Jewish nation supplicating the Divine favour.
**Verses 1-16** Is any afflicted? Let him pray; and let him in prayer pour out his complaint to God. The people of God do so here; they complain not of evils feared, but of evils felt. If penitent and patient under what we suffer for the sins of our fathers, we may expect that He who punishes, will return in mercy to us. They acknow...
Read full commentary →Thus saith the Lord GOD; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Thus saith the Lord GOD; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her.</strong> God now explicitly identifies the sign-act's subject—Jerusalem, the holy city. The declaration "I have set it" (<em>samtiha</em>, שַׂמְתִּיהָ) emphasizes divine agency; God sovereignly positioned Jerusalem "in the midst of the nations" (<em>betokh ha-goyim<...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(5) **I have set **it **in the midst of the nations.—**This was eminently true of Jerusalem, and of Israel as represented by Jerusalem, in all the ages of its history. It constituted one of the great opportunities of Israel had they been faithful to their calling, while it became a chief source of their disasters when they went astray from God. On the south were Egypt and Ethiopia; on the north, a...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**17. hast made ... heaven--**Jeremiah extols God's creative power, as a ground of humility on his part as man: It is not my part to call Thee, the mighty God, to account for Thy ways (compare Jr 12:1).
**too hard--**In Jr 32:27 God's reply exactly accords with Jeremiah's prayer (Ge 18:14; Zec 8:6; Lu 1:37).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 5-17** The sentence passed upon Jerusalem is very dreadful, the manner of expression makes it still more so. Who is able to stand in God's sight when he is angry? Those who live and die impenitent, will perish for ever unpitied; there is a day coming when the Lord will not spare. Let not persons or churches, who change the Lord's statutes, expect to escape the doom of Jerusalem. Let us en...
Read full commentary →And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that are round about her: for they have refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that are round about her: for they have refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them.</strong><br><br>This devastating indictment reveals Jerusalem's unique guilt: she has not merely failed to follow God's law but has actively <em>changed</em> (<em>marah</e...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(6) **Changed my judgments into wickedness.—**Better, *hath wickedly resisted my judgments, *the sense adopted by most modern expositors.
**More than the nations.**—Not, of course, absolutely, but in proportion to the knowledge and the privileges given them. It would be an exaggeration to say that the Israelites were actually more evil in their life than the surrounding heathen; for they were, no ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
18. (Ex 34:7; Is 65:6). This is taken from the decalogue (Ex 20:5, 6). This is a second consideration to check hasty judgments as to God's ways: Thou art the gracious and righteous Judge of the world.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 5-17** The sentence passed upon Jerusalem is very dreadful, the manner of expression makes it still more so. Who is able to stand in God's sight when he is angry? Those who live and die impenitent, will perish for ever unpitied; there is a day coming when the Lord will not spare. Let not persons or churches, who change the Lord's statutes, expect to escape the doom of Jerusalem. Let us en...
Read full commentary →Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye multiplied more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my judgments, neither have done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you;
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye multiplied more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my judgments, neither have done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you;</strong> This shocking indictment declares Israel worse than pagan nations—they failed to keep even the basic moral standards surroun...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(7) **Because ye multiplied.**—Rather, *Because ye have raged, *as the same word is translated in Psalm 2:1, and as its meaning is given in the lexicons. The meaning is, because they had shown more self-will and opposition to God.
**Neither have done according to the judgments of the nations.**—These words admit of either of two senses: “neither have kept those natural laws observed by the heathen...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**19. counsel ... work--**devising ... executing (Is 28:29).
**eyes ... open upon all--**(Job 34:21; Pr 5:21).
**to give ... according to ... ways--**(Jr 17:10).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 5-17** The sentence passed upon Jerusalem is very dreadful, the manner of expression makes it still more so. Who is able to stand in God's sight when he is angry? Those who live and die impenitent, will perish for ever unpitied; there is a day coming when the Lord will not spare. Let not persons or churches, who change the Lord's statutes, expect to escape the doom of Jerusalem. Let us en...
Read full commentary →Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, am against thee, and will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, am against thee, and will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations.</strong> The most terrifying words in Scripture: God Himself becomes Israel's enemy. The emphatic Hebrew <em>hineni ani</em> (הִנְנִי אֲנִי, "Behold, I, even I") intensifies personal divine opposition. The repeated pronoun removes any doubt—the...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(8) **In the sight of the nations.**—The conspicuousness of Israel’s position (see under Ezekiel 5:5) made it necessary that the punishment for their failure to keep God’s law should be as public as their sin. All had seen their unfaithfulness; all must see the consequent judgment.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**20. even unto this day--**Thou hast given "signs" of Thy power from the day when Thou didst deliver Israel out of Egypt by mighty miracles, down to the present time [Maurer]. Calvin explains it, "memorable even unto this day."
**among other men--**not in Israel only, but among foreign peoples also. Compare for "other" understood, Psa 73:5.
**made thee a name--**(Ex 9:16; 1Ch 17:21; Is 63:12)...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 5-17** The sentence passed upon Jerusalem is very dreadful, the manner of expression makes it still more so. Who is able to stand in God's sight when he is angry? Those who live and die impenitent, will perish for ever unpitied; there is a day coming when the Lord will not spare. Let not persons or churches, who change the Lord's statutes, expect to escape the doom of Jerusalem. Let us en...
Read full commentary →And I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all thine abominations.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all thine abominations.</strong> God declares unprecedented judgment—something never done before and never to be repeated. The Hebrew <em>asher lo-asiti</em> (אֲשֶׁר לֹא־עָשִׂיתִי, "which I have not done") emphasizes absolute uniqueness. Jerusalem's judgment would exceed even the flo...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(9) **That which I have not done, and where-unto I will not do any more the like.**—Our Lord uses similar language (Matthew 24:21) in foretelling the final destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. But all question whether Ezekiel here looks forward to that calamity, and all comparison between that and the destruction under Nebuchadnezzar, are out of place. What the prophet here intends is not a com...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
21. (Psa 136:11, 12).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 5-17** The sentence passed upon Jerusalem is very dreadful, the manner of expression makes it still more so. Who is able to stand in God's sight when he is angry? Those who live and die impenitent, will perish for ever unpitied; there is a day coming when the Lord will not spare. Let not persons or churches, who change the Lord's statutes, expect to escape the doom of Jerusalem. Let us en...
Read full commentary →Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds.</strong> The prophecy reaches horrific climax—cannibalism within families, the ultimate collapse of natural order and human society. "Fathers shall eat the sons" reverses the natural paren...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**22. given ... didst swear--**God gave it by a gratuitous covenant, not for their deserts.
**a land flowing with milk and honey--**(See on Nu 14:8).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 5-17** The sentence passed upon Jerusalem is very dreadful, the manner of expression makes it still more so. Who is able to stand in God's sight when he is angry? Those who live and die impenitent, will perish for ever unpitied; there is a day coming when the Lord will not spare. Let not persons or churches, who change the Lord's statutes, expect to escape the doom of Jerusalem. Let us en...
Read full commentary →Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD; Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD; Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity.</strong> God takes an oath by His own life—"as I live" (<em>chai-ani</em>, חַי־אָנִי)—the strongest possible guarantee. When God swears by Hi...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(11) **Because thou . . . therefore will I.**—The parallel between Israel’s conduct and God’s judgments is here, as everywhere, brought into strong light. God would inflict no evil upon them which they had not themselves called down by their obdurate and infatuated persistence in rebellion against Him.
**Also diminish thee.—**The word *diminish *is hardly an adequate translation of the original, a...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**23. all ... thou commandedst ... all this evil--**Their punishment was thus exactly commensurate with their sin. It was not fortuitous.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 5-17** The sentence passed upon Jerusalem is very dreadful, the manner of expression makes it still more so. Who is able to stand in God's sight when he is angry? Those who live and die impenitent, will perish for ever unpitied; there is a day coming when the Lord will not spare. Let not persons or churches, who change the Lord's statutes, expect to escape the doom of Jerusalem. Let us en...
Read full commentary →A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.</strong> This verse explains the hair-dividing symbolism from verse 2—precise divine apportionment of judgment. One-third dies b...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**24. mounts--**mounds of earth raised as breastworks by the besieging army, behind which they employed their engines, and which they gradually pushed forward to the walls of the city.
**behold, thou seest it--**connected with Jr 32:25. Thou seest all this with Thine own eyes, and yet (what seems inconsistent with it) Thou commandest me to buy a field.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 5-17** The sentence passed upon Jerusalem is very dreadful, the manner of expression makes it still more so. Who is able to stand in God's sight when he is angry? Those who live and die impenitent, will perish for ever unpitied; there is a day coming when the Lord will not spare. Let not persons or churches, who change the Lord's statutes, expect to escape the doom of Jerusalem. Let us en...
Read full commentary →Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted: and they shall know that I the LORD have spoken it in my zeal, when I have accomplished my fury in them.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted: and they shall know that I the LORD have spoken it in my zeal, when I have accomplished my fury in them.</strong> God's anger will run its full course—"accomplished" (<em>khalah appi</em>, כָּלָה אַפִּי) means completed, finished, or brought to exhaustion. Divine wrath isn't arbitrar...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(13) **I will be comforted.**—The word employed here is used in two different senses: either that of feeling compassion, and so of repenting of one’s anger, as in Isaiah 12:1; Isaiah 49:13; Isaiah 51:3; Isaiah 51:12; Isaiah 52:9, &c.; or of consoling oneself by taking vengeance, as in Genesis 27:42, Isaiah 1:24 (Authorised Version, *ease myself*)*. *(Comp. also Ezekiel 31:16; Ezekiel 32:31.) The l...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**25. for the city, &c.--**rather, "though," &c.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 5-17** The sentence passed upon Jerusalem is very dreadful, the manner of expression makes it still more so. Who is able to stand in God's sight when he is angry? Those who live and die impenitent, will perish for ever unpitied; there is a day coming when the Lord will not spare. Let not persons or churches, who change the Lord's statutes, expect to escape the doom of Jerusalem. Let us en...
Read full commentary →Moreover I will make thee waste, and a reproach among the nations that are round about thee, in the sight of all that pass by.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Moreover I will make thee waste, and a reproach among the nations that are round about thee, in the sight of all that pass by.</strong> Jerusalem's judgment would be visible to all—"waste" (<em>le-chorbah</em>, לְחָרְבָּה) means desolation, ruin, or rubble heap. The holy city would become "reproach" (<em>cherpah</em>, חֶרְפָּה)—an object of scorn, mockery, and derision. Nations witnessing ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 5-17** The sentence passed upon Jerusalem is very dreadful, the manner of expression makes it still more so. Who is able to stand in God's sight when he is angry? Those who live and die impenitent, will perish for ever unpitied; there is a day coming when the Lord will not spare. Let not persons or churches, who change the Lord's statutes, expect to escape the doom of Jerusalem. Let us en...
Read full commentary →So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment unto the nations that are round about thee, when I shall execute judgments in thee in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I the LORD have spoken it.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment unto the nations that are round about thee, when I shall execute judgments in thee in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I the LORD have spoken it.</strong> This verse intensifies verse 14, piling up descriptions of Jerusalem's role: "reproach" (<em>cherpah</em>, חֶרְפָּה, scorn), "taunt" (<em>gedufah</em>, גְ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
27. Jehovah retorts Jeremiah's own words: I am indeed, as thou sayest (Jr 32:17), the God and Creator of "all flesh," and "nothing is too hard for Me"; thine own words ought to have taught thee that, though Judea and Jerusalem are given up to the Chaldeans now for the sins of the Jews, yet it will not be hard to Me, when I please, to restore the state so that houses and lands therein shall be poss...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 5-17** The sentence passed upon Jerusalem is very dreadful, the manner of expression makes it still more so. Who is able to stand in God's sight when he is angry? Those who live and die impenitent, will perish for ever unpitied; there is a day coming when the Lord will not spare. Let not persons or churches, who change the Lord's statutes, expect to escape the doom of Jerusalem. Let us en...
Read full commentary →When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread:
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread:</strong> Famine is personified as "evil arrows" (<em>chitzei ha-raav ha-raim</em>, חִצֵּי הָרָעָב הָרָעִים)—missiles of destruction that God actively shoots at His people. The imagery ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 5-17** The sentence passed upon Jerusalem is very dreadful, the manner of expression makes it still more so. Who is able to stand in God's sight when he is angry? Those who live and die impenitent, will perish for ever unpitied; there is a day coming when the Lord will not spare. Let not persons or churches, who change the Lord's statutes, expect to escape the doom of Jerusalem. Let us en...
Read full commentary →So will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee; and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee; and I will bring the sword upon thee. I the LORD have spoken it.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>So will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee; and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee; and I will bring the sword upon thee. I the LORD have spoken it.</strong> The chapter concludes by summarizing all judgment forms: famine (economic collapse), evil beasts (wild animals invading depopulated areas, Leviticus 26:22), bereavement (loss of children), pe...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**29. burn ... houses upon whose roofs ... incense unto Baal--**retribution in kind. They burnt incense to Baal, on the houses, so the houses shall be burnt (Jr 19:13). The god of fire was the object of their worship; so fire shall be the instrument of their punishment.
**to provoke me--**indicating the design, not merely the event. They seemed to court God's "anger," and purposely to "provoke" ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 5-17** The sentence passed upon Jerusalem is very dreadful, the manner of expression makes it still more so. Who is able to stand in God's sight when he is angry? Those who live and die impenitent, will perish for ever unpitied; there is a day coming when the Lord will not spare. Let not persons or churches, who change the Lord's statutes, expect to escape the doom of Jerusalem. Let us en...
Read full commentary →