Ezekiel 5:13 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.

Thus shall mine anger be accomplished,.... Finished, perfected, consummated, by bringing the above judgments upon them, pestilence, famine, and sword, and by scattering them to every wind: what had been threatened long, and only some drops of it were let fall in times past, now was poured forth to the uttermost: and I will cause my fury to rest upon them; to continue and abide upon them, and not move, at least for the space of threescore and ten years; see Zac 1:12; and I will be comforted; by taking vengeance on them; so satisfying his justice, and easing him of his enemies; see Isa 1:24; a speech after the manner of men; who, when they have been affronted, and have avenged themselves, are easy in their minds, and satisfied: and they shall know that I the Lord have spoken it in my zeal; that is, they shall find by experience that what the Lord had spoken by his prophets, and had threatened to bring upon them, was said in earnest, and arose from a jealousy for his own glory; this will be a clear case, and out of question: when I have accomplished my fury in them; by the utter destruction of them; as follows:

(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.

I will cause my fury to rest - My displeasure, and the evidences of it, shall not be transient; they shall be permanent upon you, and among you. And is not this dreadfully true to the present day?

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).

cause my fury to rest upon them--as on its proper and permanent resting-place (Isa 30:32, Margin). I will be comforted--expressed in condescension to man's conceptions; signifying His satisfaction in the vindication of His justice by His righteous judgments (Deu 28:63; Pro 1:26; Isa 1:24). they shall how--by bitter experience.