Ezekiel 5:12 Komentář

In this chapter we have a further, and no less terrible, denunciation of the judgments of God, which were coming with all speed and force upon the Jewish nation, which would utterly ruin it; for when God judges he will overcome. This destruction of Judah and Jerusalem is here, I. Represented by a sign, the cutting, and burning, and scattering of hair (Eze 5:1-4). II. That sign is expounded, and applied to Jerusalem. 1. Sin is charged upon Jerusalem as the cause of this desolation - contempt of God's law (Eze 5:5-7) and profanation of his sanctuary (Eze 5:11). 2 Wrath is threatened, great wrath (Eze 5:8-10), a variety of miseries (Eze 5:12, Eze 5:16, Eze 5:17), such as should be their reproach and ruin (Eze 5:13-15).

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 5 This chapter is of the same argument with the former; and contains a type of Jerusalem's destruction; an explanation of that type; what were the reasons of God's judgments on that city; and the nature, rise, and end of them. The type is in Eze 5:1; the explanation of that type is in Eze 5:5; the reasons of the severe judgments threatened are changing the statutes of the Lord, and not walking in them, and defiling the sanctuary with their abominations, Eze 5:6; an account of the judgments of God, answerable to each of the parts in the type, Eze 5:12; the ends of these judgments are, with respect to God, the accomplishment of his anger, and the satisfaction of his justice; with respect to the Jews, bringing them to an acknowledgment that he had spoken in his zeal; and, with respect to the nations, their instruction and astonishment, Eze 5:13; and the chapter is concluded with an assurance that these judgments would be sent, Eze 5:16.

A third part of them shall die with the pestilence,.... This, with what follows, explains the division of the hair into the three parts, and what was done with them; and shows that the burning of one third part denotes their being destroyed by the pestilence, mentioned along with burning coals, Hab 3:5; and by famine, as follows: and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee; and though there is no account of the former, yet there is of the latter; and no doubt but the pestilence raged, as well as the famine, at the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; signified by the third part of the hair, smitten with a knife; and intends such as perished by the sword of the Chaldeans at the taking of the city, and when they fled out of it; and so are properly said to fall round about it: and I will scatter a third part into all the winds; the greatest part of which were carried into Babylon, and others into other parts; See Gill on Eze 5:2; and I will draw out a sword after them; particularly after them that went into Egypt. The Septuagint and Arabic versions read a "fourth part" in each clause, as before; and make it out thus, "a fourth part of thee shall be consumed with death (the pestilence); and a fourth part of thee shall be consumed with famine in the midst of thee; and a fourth part of thee I will scatter to every wind; and a fourth part of thee shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I will draw out the sword after them".

(Verse 12, 13.) A third part of you will die by pestilence and be consumed by famine in your midst, and a third part will fall by the sword all around you. I will scatter your third part to every wind, and I will unsheathe the sword after them. And I will pour out my fury and make my anger rest upon them, and I will comfort myself. And they will know that I, the Lord, have spoken in my zeal, when I have accomplished my anger upon them. Because they had divided the Septuagint into four parts, they approved that only the prophetic discourse about the fire, sword, and dispersion were superfluous, so that the first part of the fire would be divided into two parts in this place as well, they also divided the same first part into two, saying: The fourth part of you will be crushed by death, and the fourth part of you will be consumed by famine in your midst, and the fourth part of you will fall around you, and I will scatter the fourth part of you to every wind; although what we have added: And the fourth part of you will fall by the sword, is added from Theodotion's edition under asterisks. It is clear, however, that the Hebrew truth contains three parts. Of the first of these, it is said: 'And a third part of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed by famine in your midst.' It would have been much better to translate what is written than to seek support for a poorly translated matter. And we do not say that this was done by those to whom antiquity gave authority, but it was corrupted by the fault of many centuries of scribes and readers. Although both Aristeus and Josephus, and the entire school of the Jews, claim that only five books of Moses were translated by the Seventy. The chapter we mentioned above now seems to be omitted. I will only add this, which is necessary in what he says: And I will pour out my wrath and make my indignation rest upon them, and I will comfort them, and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have poured out my indignation upon them; how the wrath, indignation, and zeal of God are to be understood, we have often explained, that God speaks with human emotions: not because he is angry himself, but so that we may perceive God as angry through punishments and torments. But zeal is to be understood under the metaphor of a husband and wife, who as long as he loves his wife, is jealous; if he neglects her, he says what we are going to say in the following: My jealousy will depart from you, and I will no longer be angry with you (Below, LXI, 42). And it is joined: And they shall know that I the Lord have spoken in my jealousy, not to those who have perished by famine and pestilence, nor to those who have fallen by the sword around the city, but to those who will be scattered to every wind, they will feel the anger of God for the deaths of others and their own miseries, whom they did not want to perceive as merciful.

In this chapter the prophet shows, under the type of hair, the judgments which God was about to execute on the inhabitants of Jerusalem by famine, sword, and dispersion, Eze 5:14. The type or allegory is then dropped, and God is introduced declaring in plain terms the vengeance that was coming on the whole nation which had proved so unworthy of those mercies with which they had hitherto been distinguished, Eze 5:5-17.

A third part of thee - See the note on Eze 5:1-4 (note).

VISION OF CUTTING THE HAIRS, AND THE CALAMITIES FORESHADOWED THEREBY. (Eze. 5:1-17) knife . . . razor--the sword of the foe (compare Isa 7:20). This vision implies even severer judgments than the Egyptian afflictions foreshadowed in the former, for their guilt was greater than that of their forefathers. thine head--as representative of the Jews. The whole hair being shaven off was significant of severe and humiliating (Sa2 10:4-5) treatment. Especially in the case of a priest; for priests (Lev 21:5) were forbidden "to make baldness on their head," their hair being the token of consecration; hereby it was intimated that the ceremonial must give place to the moral. balances--implying the just discrimination with which Jehovah weighs out the portion of punishment "divided," that is, allotted to each: the "hairs" are the Jews: the divine scales do not allow even one hair to escape accurate weighing (compare Mat 10:30).

Statement in plain terms of what was intended by the symbols (Eze 5:2; see Eze 6:12; Jer 15:2; Jer 21:9). draw out . . . sword after them-- (Lev 26:33). Skeptics object; no such thing happened under Zedekiah, as is here foretold; namely, that a third part of the nation should die by pestilence, a third part by the sword, and a third be scattered unto all winds, and a sword sent after them. But the prophecy is not restricted to Zedekiah's time. It includes all that Israel suffered, or was still to suffer, for their sins, especially those committed at that period (Eze 17:21). It only received its primary fulfilment under Zedekiah: numbers then died by the pestilence and by the sword; and numbers were scattered in all quarters and not carried to Babylonia alone, as the objectors assert (compare Ezr 1:4; Est 3:8; Oba 1:14). pestilence . . . and famine--signified by the symbol "fire" (Eze 5:2). Compare Isa 13:8; Lam 5:10; plague and famine burning and withering the countenance, as fire does.