Ezekiel 5:8 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.

Therefore thus saith the Lord God, behold, even I, am against thee,.... Or, "behold, I am against thee, even I" (u); who am the Lord God omnipotent, great King, and a dreadful one; and a terrible thing it is for a people to have the mighty God against them; or for any to fall into the hands of the living God: this is repeated to show that it certainly was so; and that the Lord was set upon it; and determined to come forth against them in the way of his judgments, as follows: and will execute judgments in the midst of thee, in the sight of the nations; that is, inflict punishments upon them for their disregard to his righteous judgments, which should take place in the midst of them, and consume them all around; and should be so manifest as to be seen by all the nations about them. (u) "ecce ego ad te, etiam ego", Pagninus, Montanus; "ecce ego contra te, etiam ego", Starckius.

(Vers. 8, 9.) Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have surpassed the nations that are around you, and have not walked in my commandments, and have not kept my judgments, and have not acted according to the judgments of the nations that are around you, therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, and I myself will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. And I will do in you what I have not done, and the like of which I will not do again, because of all your abominations. Therefore, because we have understood: Because you have surpassed the nations that are around you, Symmachus translated: Because your multitude was from the nations that are around you. Aquila's second edition: Because you have been counted among the nations that are around you. Moreover, the Septuagint: Because your occasion is from the nations that are around you. And the meaning is, either that Jerusalem, by its own crimes, surpassed all the nations around it, or that its multitude, not the people of Israel, but the crowd of other nations, should be called. Certainly, among the other nations that are around it, they had been converted, or had every opportunity to teach the nations that they should be inclined towards the good. 'Why,' He says, 'have you not followed my commandments and not observed my judgments, when you have even conquered all the nations around you with your wickedness, and have not done what they often did, which is written by natural law in their hearts?' Therefore, I will not do my judgments through Angels or through any other ministers, but I myself will do them in you, with everyone watching, things that I have not done before and will not do again. By speaking of judgments, he shows the truth of his sentences, so that anger does not appear to exceed the measure of punishments. And he did not do in any nation the things that he did in Jerusalem: Because the servant who knows the will of his master and does not do it will be beaten with many lashes (Luke 12:48). And the mighty endure mightily severe torments (Wis. 6:7). And he says, I will not do the same again. He spoke well, I will not do the same again. For much harsher things he will do after the killing of Christ. For it is one thing to have at times worshipped idols for which they were previously punished, and another to have killed the Son of God.

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.

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).

I, even I--awfully emphatic. I, even I, whom thou thinkest to be asleep, but who am ever reigning as the Omnipotent Avenger of sin, will vindicate My righteous government before the nations by judgments on thee.