What Does Ezekiel 5:1 Mean?

(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 neglects to notice the pronoun in the second clause. The thought is plainly that the prophet is to take a sword, on account of its symbolism, and use it instead of a razor. **Upon thine head, and upon thy beard.**—The cutting off the hair was a common mark of mourning (see Job 1:20; Isaiah 22:12; Jeremiah 7:29); but the allusion here seems to be rather to Isaiah 7:20, in which God describes his coming judgments upon Israel as a shaving, “with a razor that is hired . . . by the king of Assyria,” of the head and the beard. The symbolism was the more marked because Ezekiel was a priest, and the priests were expressly forbidden in the law to shave either the head or the beard (Leviticus 21:5). The shaving, therefore, of a priest’s head and beard with a sword betokened a most desolating judgment. **Then take thee balances to weigh** is not a mere detail introduced to give vividness to the symbolism, but seems designed to show the absolute certainty of the impending judgment.