Bible Commentaries
Ezekiel 11

Verse 1

Moreover the spirit lifted me up, and brought me unto the east gate of the LORD’s house, which looketh eastward: and behold at the door of the gate five and twenty men; among whom I saw Jaazaniah the son of Azur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people.

Jaazaniah — Not him that is mentioned chap8:11.

Pelatiah — Named here for that dreadful sudden death, whereby he became a warning to others.

Verse 2

Then said he unto me, Son of man, these are the men that devise mischief, and give wicked counsel in this city:

He — The Lord sitting on the cherub.

Verse 3

Which say, It is not near; let us build houses: this city is the caldron, and we be the flesh.

It — The threatened danger and ruin by the Chaldeans.

The caldron — This is an impious scoff, yet mixt with some fear of the prophet, Jeremiah 1:13.

Verse 6

Ye have multiplied your slain in this city, and ye have filled the streets thereof with the slain.

Ye — Many murders have you committed yourselves, and you are accountable to God for all those whom the Chaldeans have slain, seeing you persuaded them, thus obstinately to stand out.

Verse 7

Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Your slain whom ye have laid in the midst of it, they are the flesh, and this city is the caldron: but I will bring you forth out of the midst of it.

Bring you forth — Not in mercy, but in wrath, by the conquering hand of Babylon.

Verse 9

And I will bring you out of the midst thereof, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and will execute judgments among you.

Deliver you — Defeating all your projects for escape.

Verse 10

Ye shall fall by the sword; I will judge you in the border of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

Will judge — My just judgments shall pursue you, whithersoever you fly.

Verse 11

This city shall not be your caldron, neither shall ye be the flesh in the midst thereof; but I will judge you in the border of Israel:

Your caldron — The place of your sufferings; greater are reserved for you in a strange land.

Judge you — I will do more against you at Riblah, where the captive king had his children, and others with them, first murdered before his eyes, and then his own eyes put out; Riblah is called the border of Israel: for Syria was adjoining to Israel on the north, and Riblah was on the frontiers of Syria.

Verse 13

And it came to pass, when I prophesied, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then fell I down upon my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah Lord GOD! wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?

Pelatiah — Mentioned verse1, a principal man among the twenty-five princes, who made all the mischief in Jerusalem. It should seem this was done in vision now, (as the slaying of the ancient men, chap9:6,) but it was an assurance, that when this prophecy was published, it would be done in fact. And the death of Pelatiah was an earnest of the compleat accomplishment of the prophecy.

A full end — By slaying all, as this man is cut off.

Verse 15

Son of man, thy brethren, even thy brethren, the men of thy kindred, and all the house of Israel wholly, are they unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Get you far from the LORD: unto us is this land given in possession.

Thy brethren — Thy nearest kindred, which it seems were left in Jerusalem. Their degeneracy is more noted in the repetition of the word brethren.

Gone far — Ye are gone far from the Lord; as much as the Heathens accused the Christians of atheism.

Verse 16

Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.

Say — In vindication of them.

Although — The obstinate Jews at Jerusalem will call them apostates; but I the Lord sent them thither, and will own them there.

Scattered — Dispersed them in many countries which are under the king of Babylon: yet they are dear to me.

A little sanctuary — A little one in opposition to that great temple at Jerusalem. To him they shall flee, and in him they shall be safe, as he was that took hold on the horns of the altar. And they shall have such communion with God in the land of their captivity, as it was thought could be had no where but in the temple.

Verse 18

And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence.

They — They who assemble upon Cyrus’s proclamation first, and then upon Darius’s proclamation, shall overcome all difficulties, dispatch the journey, and come safely to their own land.

Take away — They shall abolish superstition and idolatry from the temple.

Verse 19

And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:

One heart — Cyrus shall give them leave, and I will give them a heart to return; and on their way shall there be great utility; and, when come to Jerusalem, they shall own me, and my laws, and with one consent, build Jerusalem and the temple, and restore true religion.

The stony — That hard, inflexible, undutiful, incorrigible disposition.

Verse 21

But as for them whose heart walketh after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their way upon their own heads, saith the Lord GOD.

Heart — Soul and affections.

Walketh — Either secretly adhere to, or provide for the service of idols, called here detestable things.

Verse 23

And the glory of the LORD went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city.

Went up — The glory of the Lord removes now out of the city, over which it had stood some time, waiting for their repentance.

The mountain — Mount Olivet. He removed thither, to be as it were within call, and ready to return, if now at length in this their day, they would have understood the things that made for their peace.

Verse 24

Afterwards the spirit took me up, and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to them of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up from me.

The spirit — The same spirit which carried him to Jerusalem, now brings him back to Chaldea.

Went up — Was at an end.