Ezekiel;- Proclaiming judgement

Ezekiel is the prophet of the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians.
In the first chapters of the book, he was given the task of explaining this event to his people.
He began his mission by spending three hundred and ninety days acting out, in dumb show, various aspects of the future siege of Jerusalem.

There is now one further piece of acting business, illustrating what happens at the end of the siege (ch5).
Ezekiel is instructed to take a sword and use it as a razor to shave off all the hairs on his head (including his beard). A short sword, I hope, because a long sword would make it a tricky operation.
These hairs are to be understood as representing individuals, the population of Jerusalem. It is “the sword” (of Nebuchadnezzar) that will be deciding their fate.
One third of these hairs are to be burned in the fire. As he explains a little later, this means that “a third part of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed by famine in the midst of you”. “You”, of course, addressing the distant city of Jerusalem rather than his immediate audience.
Another third “you shall take and strike with the sword round about the city”, presumably those who are caught in flight.
The final third “you shall scatter to the wind, and I shall unsheathe the sword after them”. They represent the refugees.
A small remnant will be saved from these fates, kept in Ezekiel’s robe, but even some of these will be given to the fire after all.

This is followed by a verbal explanation which covers two themes.

What Jerusalem has done wrong;
The Lord God set Jerusalem in the middle of the nations (with the intention that she should serve as an example).
Yet Jerusalem has, in fact, rejected against his laws to a greater extent, even, than the others. Her people are “more turbulent than the nations that are round about you”.
They have “defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things and all your abominations” (that is, idolatrous images).

What God will do about it;
He will execute judgement (in the form of a Babylonian siege). “I will do with you what I have never done before and the like of which I will never do again”.
He will send upon them pestilence, famine, wild beasts, and the sword. The famine in the city will be so great that the inhabitants will even be eating each their own relatives, fathers and sons.
The city will be made “a desolation”, an object of reproach and taunt among the surrounding nations.

The “mountains of Israel” are included in this judgement (ch6). God’s eyes are upon them because they have been home to many different altars, the “high places”. Some were the furtive altars of other local gods, and some were altars of YHWH which happened to be outside the control of Jerusalem. The distinction between the two kinds may not have been carefully observed on the spot, so religious reformers regarded both with suspicion. All the altars outside Jerusalem were supposed to have been cleared away in the time of Josiah- though they may have come back, like the idols in Jerusalem itself.

Therefore the Lord God says to these mountains and valleys “I will bring a sword upon you and I will destroy your high places”.
The altars and incense altars themselves would be broken and made desolate.
Just to make sure, ”I will lay the dead bodies of the people of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones round about your altars”.
This would have the effect of desecrating them, making them unfit for spiritual use.
“And you shall know that I am the Lord”.

This last line (alternating with “They shall know…) becomes a refrain for several paragraphs and keeps reappearing in the rest of the book. The moral is that their failure to recognise him as Lord has been key to the problem.
So God addresses the remnants who will survive as captive exiles; he will have “broken their wanton heart which has departed from me…
They will be loathsome in their own sight for the evils which they have committed, for all their abominations…
And they shall know that I am the Lord; I have not said to them in vain that I would do this evil to them”.
Because they did not believe in him, they did not believe his prophetic warnings.

Again, Ezekiel is told to “Clap your hands and stamp your feet”, accompanying his repetition of the previous warnings. “Then you [people] will know that I am the Lord”.
The Lord will stretch out his hand and make the land desolate; “Then they will know that I am the Lord”.

Twice more, in ch7, the Lord warns that the end has come upon the four corners of the land. His eye will not spare them or pity them, but he will punish them for their abominations.
“Then you will know that I am the Lord”.
The rest of that chapter is filled with a declamation about the fall of the kingdom;
“Behold the day!”-that is, the “day of the Lord”, his exercise of judgement and justice.
Therefore “your doom has come!”.

The Lord now adds another set of reasons for what he is doing.
This judgement is also about their behaviour to one another, their pride and injustice and violence, which have all “blossomed” to produce this “flower”.
Their silver and gold cannot save them because it has been “the stumbling-block of their iniquity”- it provided the fabric for their images.
The land is full of bloody crimes and the city is full of violence, and THAT is the reason why “I will bring the worst of nations to take possession of their houses”.
The connection with the previous explanation is that all this violence and injustice would not have been happening if they had really “known the Lord” for what he is.

Therefore the kingdom will fail.
“They have blown the trumpet and made all ready; but none goes to battle, for my wrath is upon all their multitude”.
“They seek a vision from the prophet, but the law perishes from the priest and counsel from the elders”.
“The king mourns, the prince is wrapped in despair, and the hands of the people are palsied with terror”.
“All hands are feeble, and all knees as weak as water”.
The buyer and the seller have no more time to rejoice over their trade; even their lives will not be maintained.
They will be cast out, wandering, and “moaning over their iniquity”.
“When anguish comes, they will seek peace, and there will be none”.
The removal of their peace means that the Lord has judged them by their own judgements and by their behaviour;

“And they shall know that I am the Lord”.

In these chapters, there is a transition from the silence of the siege enactment to a period of spoken prophecy. It’s not clear whether Ezekiel’s mouth had been closed by the direct power of God or merely by God’s command. However, his power of speech has now been restored, until the time comes when another bout of silence is required.

That seems to be the simplest explanation of the sequence.
We are not specifically told that Ezekiel’s mouth was opened until ch33, and some commentators are tempted to assume that he was permanently silent up to that point.
However, that makes it necessary to account for the many spoken prophecies delivered during the interval. We might suppose that they were delivered in writing, or left unpublished until the fall of Jerusalem, but neither option seems very plausible.

a reply to: DISRAELI

Babylonians rule!

a reply to: dfnj2015
Yes, they did, for a further fifty years or so after this prophecy.

a reply to: DISRAELI

Ezekiel is the prophet of the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians.

Lol, that happened in 1948.

a reply to: intrptr
He is talking about the one in 586 B.C.

I think the US is headed for some of the same......

We were blessed, then turned away. George Washington warned us about that as he walked to the small church at ground zero with congress to pray. Most people don't even know about that.
Yes ground zero. Jonathan Kahn has some great books out that address this

a reply to: visitedbythem
All of us are vulnerable to judgement.

a reply to: DISRAELI

That is what the washing away of sins are for.

a reply to: 3daysgone
Quite so. Though in the case of Ezekiel's Jerusalem, things had obviously gone too far. A more drastic cleansing was needed (see next chapter).

a reply to: DISRAELI

That is true. God will admonish his children, and he believes in spare the rod spoil the child.

originally posted by: DISRAELI
a reply to: intrptr
He is talking about the one in 586 B.C.

Says you. Prophecies are for every Empire's "End Times".

There have been many.

But only this one matches the descriptives. Thats why they remained a mystery for thousands of years. Nobody but nobody could interpret the 'symbology' until events began to unfold. They were aptly explained 'as yet to be revealed', i.e., revelations.

originally posted by: intrptr
Says you.

Say the dates given in the text, all the way through to the announcement that the fall of the city has taken place.
The dates are measured from the year when king Jehoiachin went into exile.

originally posted by: DISRAELI

originally posted by: intrptr
Says you.

Say the dates given in the text, all the way through to the announcement that the fall of the city has taken place.
The dates are measured from the year when king Jehoiachin went into exile.

All biblical scholars agree, after the fact, I'm sure.

a reply to: intrptr
I repeat, the dates are in the text itself, like the date on top of a newspaper page. Anyone who wants to read may read.

originally posted by: DISRAELI
a reply to: intrptr
I repeat, the dates are in the text itself, like the date on top of a newspaper page. Anyone who wants to read may read.

Men Worte these texts after the fact.

Date wise, anyway.

Gozer is coming!