Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Ezekiel 14:17

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Justice in punishing Jerusalem (14:12-23)

Some were no doubt saying that God would not destroy Jerusalem as Ezekiel had been prophesying. God would surely spare the city out of consideration for the godly people within it, even though such godly people may have been few in number. Ezekiel replied that even if some of the godliest people who ever lived were in the city, God would still destroy it; though he would deliver the godly (12-14). God’s punishment could take various forms, but the same basic principle would apply (15-18). The righteousness of a few would not save the wicked from their just punishment (19-20).
Later some citizens of Jerusalem would escape the slaughter and come to join the exiles in Babylon. Then the exiles would see how corrupt the people of Jerusalem really were. The exiles would at last realize that God’s judgment on the city was indeed just (21-23).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

"If I cause evil beasts to pass through a land, and they ravage it, and make it desolate, so that no man pass through because of the beasts; though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, they should deliver neither sons nor daughters; they only should be delivered, but the land should be desolate. Or if I bring a sword upon that land, and say, Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off from it man and beast; though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, they should deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only should be delivered themselves. Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out my wrath upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast; though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, they should deliver neither son nor daughter; they should but deliver their own souls by their righteousness."

In this paragraph, it is clear enough why Ezekiel used Job as the climax of his list of three; it was not due to chronology, but to the fact that Job alone fit the oft repeated expression, "delivered neither sons nor daughters" (Ezekiel 14:16; Ezekiel 14:18; Ezekiel 14:20). Daniel could not qualify, for as a eunuch, he had no posterity. Noah could not qualify, for he saved his sons; but Job was able to save neither sons nor daughters! Therefore, the holy prophet made him the climax of this list. Also, see the comment under Ezekiel 16:46.

Notice the fourfold judgments against Jerusalem that are mentioned in this chapter: famine, wild beasts, sword, and pestilence (Ezekiel 14:13; Ezekiel 14:15; Ezekiel 14:17; Ezekiel 14:19). Jeremiah is apparently the first prophet to assemble this quadruple list (Jeremiah 15:2 f). We believe there are overtones in this that reflect the teaching of Amos (Amos 1-2) that, "For three transgressions of Damascus (repeated for a list of eight nations), yea for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, etc." Right here is given the fulfillment of Amos 2:4-8.

"Thus saith Jehovah, For three transgressions of Judah, yea for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have rejected the law of Jehovah, and have not kept his statutes, and their lies have caused them to err, after which their fathers did walk. But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem. "Thus saith Jehovah, For three transgressions of Israel, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes - they that pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek; and a man and his father go in unto the same maiden to profane my holy name: and they lay themselves down by every altar upon clothes taken in pledge; and in the house of their God they drink the wine of such as have been fined" (Amos 2:4-8).

Bunn also noted the strong resemblance to this business of "three transgressions, yea for four" as used by Amos, adding that its use, "indicated completeness."John T. Bunn in the Broadman Bible Commentary (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1871), p. 271. The prophecy of Amos stressed the fourfold transgressions of God's people; and Ezekiel here stressed the appropriate fourfold judgments which their transgressions merited.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Jeremiah 14:0; Jeremiah 15:0 is a remarkable parallel to this prophecy. Here, as elsewhere, Ezekiel is commissioned to deliver to the exiles the same message which Jeremiah conveys to the inhabitants of Judaea. The answer discovers the nature of the questions which had been expressed or implied.

(1) Can God cast out a people who are holy unto Himself?

(2) Is it just to punish them with utter desolation?

The prophet answers:

(1) That when a people is so corrupt as to call down national judgment, individual piety shall save none but the individuals themselves.

(2) The corrupt condition of the people shall be made so manifest, that none will question the justice of God in dealing thus severely with them.

Ezekiel 14:12

Or, “When a land” - the case is first put in a general form, and then ism brought with increased force home to Jerusalem - “sinneth against me by trespassing grievously,” and I stretch out “mine hand upon it,” and break the staff of bread “thereof,” and send famine “upon it and” cut off “man and beast: though these three men” etc.

Ezekiel 14:14

Noah, Daniel, and Job - Three striking instances of men who, for their integrity, were delivered from the ruin which fell upon others. Some have thought it strange that Daniel, a contemporary, and still young, should have been classed with the two ancient worthies. But the account of him Daniel 2:0 shows, that by this time Daniel was a very remarkable man (compare Ezekiel 28:3), and the introduction of the name of a contemporary gives force and life to the illustration. There is in the order in which the names occur a kind of climax. Noah did not rescue the guilty world, but did carry forth with him his wife, sons, and sons’ wives. Daniel raised only a few, but he did raise three of his countrymen with him to honor. To Job was spared neither son nor daughter.

Ezekiel 14:22, Ezekiel 14:23

Ye shall be comforted ... - By a truer estimate of the dispensations of the Almighty. This visitation will be recognized as inevitable and just.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

The Prophet now descends to the third kind of punishment. Hence God says, if he send a sword upon a land, he cannot be entreated so as not to consume it utterly, neither will he admit any man’s intercession, although the most holy dwell there, namely, Job, Noah, and Daniel. But the phrase used must be marked: if I shall say to the sword, pass through to exterminate and blot out the whole land, or cut off from it, both man and beast, because we here gather the great power of God’s secret government. For we think that wars are stirred up at random: and as men are in agitation, so also we imagine war to be nothing but confusion and turbulence. But God governs even wars by his inestimable wisdom, and also men and their swords: men are enraged, their swords fly about in their hands, and they seem to go hither and thither at random by blind impulse. But God here announces that he permits swords to pass through a land, and to destroy both men and cattle. If he had said, after the language used in many places, that he would arm men, it would not have been very wonderful: for everywhere throughout the Prophets he calls the Chaldaeans and Assyrians executors of his judgment. Hence that sentence of Jeremiah, Cursed is he who has done God’s work negligently. (Jeremiah 48:10.) But that work of God was the slaughter at Jerusalem. So also Nebuchadnezzar is called God’s servant and minister when he laid waste Egypt, and God promises him the reward of his labor. (Ezekiel 29:20.) So here Ezekiel proceeds further, not only that the hands of men are directed as God wishes, but also that their swords listen to his secret command, so that they neither pass by nor strike any man or animal except as far as God pleases. But if God so commands the swords, let us know that whenever men rise up against us, that our patience is exercised and our sins chastised in this way: and that the impious are God’s agents: and let us determine that we shall never profit by noise and resistance, since there is but one remedy, to humble ourselves under God’s strong hand. Now the fourth kind of punishment follows —

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 14

Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me. And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be inquired of at all by them? ( Ezekiel 14:1-3 )

Why should I talk to them? Why should I deal with them? These guys that are sitting here in front of you, they've got idols that they have set up in their hearts.

Idolatry begins in the heart. There's where you first turn against God. There's where you really turn to God. "Believe in thine heart that God has raised Him from the dead" ( Romans 10:9 ). "Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life" ( Proverbs 4:23 ). "Out of the heart proceeds the evil speakings, the murders, the adulteries, the fornications, the lies, the heart" ( Matthew 15:19 ). And here were these men coming to inquire of God, to hear the word of the Lord from the prophet. And God says to Ezekiel, "Hey these guys that are sitting here, Ezekiel, why should I speak to them? Why should I be inquired of by them? Because they all have their little idols all set up in their hearts." Now, usually they would set up an idol on an altar, on a table, or some place in their home, that's bad enough. But it's even worse to set up an idol in your heart, because then you begin to deceive yourself, you say, "Well I don't have... I'm not guilty of idolatry. I don't have any idols. I don't have any little shrines in my home." But you've got it right here in your heart, that's worse.

Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that sets up his idols in his heart, and puts the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh, according to the multitude of his idols; That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols ( Ezekiel 14:4-5 ).

I'll answer them, "They've all become a stranger to me because of their idols, idolatry, worshipping an idol, a principle, an ideal, a philosophy." Having a master passion governing your life other than God always estranges a person from God.

Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, [turn, change, don't just be sorry, repent, have a change of action] and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all of your abominations. For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourns in Israel, which separates himself from me and sets up his idols in his heart, and puts the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and comes to a prophet to inquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will answer him by myself: And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off out of the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the LORD ( Ezekiel 14:6-8 ).

God says, "I'm going to be fierce in My judgment of that person; I'll cut him off. Come to inquire of Me with idols in your heart? Hey, that's dangerous business." Ananias and Sapphira sought to do so. They came to God, but they had idols in their hearts. Mammon was sitting there. A desire, oh there were other idols too; it was desire to be acknowledged and recognized by the church as generous givers. "Oh my, isn't that marvelous? They sold their property and are turning all their money in. Ooh great, fantastic." But they weren't; they were only pretending to do so. They were holding back part of the profit for themselves. Now, there's nothing wrong with that. They didn't have to sell their house. They didn't have to bring anything in. God didn't require that. But they were making a pretense, it was a hoax, it was a sham. They were coming before God, but there were idols in their hearts. "Why have you conspired in your heart," Peter said, "to do this evil and to sin against God and to lie to the Holy Ghost? You haven't lied unto man; you've lied unto God." And of course, they fell over dead and were carried out. God said, "I will wipe them out from among My people." Be thankful God isn't so severe today as He was in the early church. We wouldn't have a church the size that we do. God's heavy hand.

And if the prophet be deceived when he has spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of the people of Israel. And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him; That the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, nor be polluted any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, saith the Lord GOD ( Ezekiel 14:9-11 ).

Oh, how He longed to be their God and for them to be His people and that they walk before Him in holiness and in righteousness, not polluted by their transgressions.

Now, the word of the LORD came unto me saying, Son of man, when the land sins against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out my hand upon it, and I will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it: Now though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord GOD ( Ezekiel 14:12-14 ).

In other words, God says, "When I bring judgment upon the land, even though there are righteous men in it, those righteous men will only deliver themselves. They can't deliver anybody else by their righteousness. They'll only deliver themselves."

Now, it is interesting the three men that God spoke of: Noah, whom God delivered when He brought His judgment upon the earth; Daniel. Now Daniel was at this time alive and one of the counselors to Nebuchadnezzar. Already, he was a very young man, at this point probably in his early twenties, but yet he had already developed a tremendous reputation as a spiritual giant and as a spiritual leader, a spiritual man. And, of course, that was evidenced when first he was brought into captivity in Babylon. And he purposed in his heart not to defile himself with the king's meats and requested that he be allowed a vegetarian diet. He didn't want the meat that had been sacrificed to pagan idols, the meat that wasn't killed according to the kosher laws. And he said, "Just let us eat vegetables." And the guard says, "Hey, you know, if you guys are just eating vegetables, you'll begin to look skinny and sick, you know, then they'll have my head, man." Daniel said, "Well, give us ten days and take a look after ten days and if we look skinny and malnourished then we'll eat your meat." The guy said, "Fair enough." And after ten days ole Daniel and his buddies were healthier, ruddier looking and all than all the others who were eating this polluted meat of the king, so they were able to go on. Then he had begun to be known for his interpreting of the king's dreams and all. And so Daniel already was coming into prominence in the minds of the people, and though he was a young man, still he is named with Noah, Daniel, and Job. Righteous men, examples of righteous men.

Now if I cause noisome beasts to pass through the land, and they spoil it, so that it is desolate, that no man may pass through it because of the beasts: Though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters; they shall only be delivered, but the land shall be desolate ( Ezekiel 14:15-16 ).

These men, if they were dwelling there, they could only deliver themselves. They can't even deliver their families. Every man must have his own personal relationship with God. God has no grandchildren, only sons. You cannot have a relationship with God through your mother, through your father, through your family. You've got to have your own personal relationship with God. And these men, as righteous as they were, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord for he was righteous in all of his generation. And yet, he could only deliver himself and his sons who came into the ark with him.

Now, this of course, to me is a...God it says, "If I'm bringing these terrible things upon the land, the noisome beasts and the famines and so forth, the righteous can only deliver themselves." In other words, the righteous will be delivered even as we will be delivered before God brings His judgment upon this earth. And any man who says otherwise is denying the righteous principles of God.

Or if I bring a sword upon that land, and I say, Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off man and beast from it: Though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered themselves. Or if I send a pestilence into the land, and pour out my fury upon it in blood, to cut it off from man and beast: Though Noah and Daniel and Job, were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness. For thus saith the Lord GOD; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, famine, noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut it off from man and beast? Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be brought forth, both sons and daughters: behold, they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way and their doings: and ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought upon it. And they shall comfort you, when ye see their ways and their doings; and ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, saith the Lord GOD ( Ezekiel 14:17-23 ).

Now, soon these captives will be coming from Jerusalem, that remnant that will escape, and when they tell you the things that happen and when you see these people, you'll know that what I did was righteous in My judgment when you hear the abominations and things that were going on. You'll know that I was righteous when I brought My judgment against Jerusalem. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

5. The need of personal righteousness for deliverance 14:12-23

This prophecy continues the emphasis on judgment from the previous one and stresses the irrevocability of Jerusalem’s destruction (cf. Jeremiah 7:16; Jeremiah 15:1-4).

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The presence of these three men would not save the city if the Lord brought an invading army against it (Ezekiel 14:17-18). The same would be true if God judged His people with disease, the effect of siege warfare (Ezekiel 14:19-20; cf. Revelation 6:1-8). The Lord confirmed the certainty of each of the last three forms of judgment with His oath (Ezekiel 14:16; Ezekiel 14:18; Ezekiel 14:20).

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Or [if] I bring a sword upon that land,.... The land which had grievously sinned; the same land into which a famine should come, and through which evil beasts should pass; to which, if the Lord should add, as he would, a third judgment, the sword; suffer a foreign enemy to come in among them, and destroy them. So the Targum,

"or if those that slay with the sword I should bring upon that land;''

the Chaldean army, as he did; the sword has its commission from God; war is not by chance; the invasion of a foreign enemy is from the Lord; and all the mischiefs and ravages of a tumultuous army are all by divine order:

and say, sword, go through the land; not only enter the borders of it, or proceed far in it, but even go through it; which is terrible indeed! but if the Lord bids it go, it must go, and does; it is a servant of his, and punctually obeys his commands; that is, such are those that use it, however profane and wicked they may be in themselves, as generally armies consist of dissolute persons; yet these are under a divine direction, and are obedient to the will of God, though they may know it not. So the Targum,

"and I say that they that kill with the sword pass through the land:''

so that I cut off man and beast from it; by the sword; the one being destroyed as an enemy, the other for food.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      12 The word of the LORD came again to me, saying,   13 Son of man, when the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it:   14 Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord GOD.   15 If I cause noisome beasts to pass through the land, and they spoil it, so that it be desolate, that no man may pass through because of the beasts:   16 Though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters; they only shall be delivered, but the land shall be desolate.   17 Or if I bring a sword upon that land, and say, Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off man and beast from it:   18 Though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered themselves.   19 Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out my fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast:   20 Though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.   21 For thus saith the Lord GOD; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast?   22 Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be brought forth, both sons and daughters: behold, they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way and their doings: and ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought upon it.   23 And they shall comfort you, when ye see their ways and their doings: and ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, saith the Lord GOD.

      The scope of these verses is to show,

      I. That national sins bring national judgments. When virtue is ruined and laid waste every thing else will soon be ruined and laid waste too (Ezekiel 14:13; Ezekiel 14:13): When the land sins against me, when vice and wickedness become epidemical, when the land sins by trespassing grievously, when the sinners have become very numerous and their sins very heinous, when gross impieties and immoralities universally prevail, then will I stretch forth my hand upon it, for the punishment of it. The divine power shall be vigorously and openly exerted; the judgments shall be extended and stretched forth to all the corners of the land, to all the concerns and interests of the nation. Grievous sins bring grievous plagues.

      II. That God has a variety of sore judgments wherewith to punish sinful nations, and he has them all at command and inflicts which he pleases. He did indeed give David his choice what judgment he would be punished with for his sin in numbering the people; for any of them would serve to answer the end, which was to lessen the numbers he was proud of; but David, in effect, referred it to God again: "Let us fall into the hands of the Lord; let him choose with what rod we shall be beaten." But he uses a variety of judgments that it may appear he has a universal dominion, and that in all our concerns we may see our dependence on him. Four sore judgments are here specified:-- 1. Famine,Ezekiel 14:13; Ezekiel 14:13. The denying and withholding of common mercies is itself judgment enough, there needs no more to make a people miserable. God needs not bring the staff of oppression, it is but breaking the staff of bread and the work is soon done; he cuts off man and beast by cutting off the provisions which nature makes for both in the annual products of the earth. God breaks the staff of bread when, though we have bread, yet we are not nourished and strengthened by it. Haggai 1:6, You eat, but you have not enough. 2. Hurtful beasts, noisome and noxious, either as poisonous or as ravenous. God can make these to pass through the land (Ezekiel 14:15; Ezekiel 14:15), to increase in all parts of it, and to bereave it, not only of the tame cattle, preying upon their flocks and herds, but of their people, devouring men, women, and children, so that no man may pass through because of the beasts; none dare travel even in the high roads for fear of being pulled in pieces by lions, or other beasts of prey, as the children of Beth-el by two bears. Note, When men revolt from their allegiance to God, and rebel against him, it is just with God that the inferior creatures should rise up in arms against men, Leviticus 26:22. 3. War. God often chastises sinful nations by bringing a sword upon them, the sword of a foreign enemy, and he gives it its commission and orders what execution it shall do (Ezekiel 14:17; Ezekiel 14:17): he says, Sword, go through the land. It is bad enough if the sword do but enter into the borders of a land, but much worse when it goes through the bowels of a land. By it God cuts off man and beast, horse and foot. What execution the sword does God does by it; for it is his sword, and it acts as he directs. 4. Pestilence (Ezekiel 14:19; Ezekiel 14:19), a dreadful disease, which has sometimes depopulated cities; by it God pours out his fury in blood (that is, in death); the pestilence kills as effectually as if the blood were shed by the sword, for it is poisoned by the disease, the sickness we call it. See how miserable the case of mankind is that lies thus exposed to deaths in various shapes. See how dangerous the case of sinners is against whom God has so many ways of fighting, so that, though they escape one judgment, God has another waiting for them.

      III. That when God's professing people revolt from him, and rebel against him, they may justly expect a complication of judgments to fall upon them. God has various ways of contending with a sinful nation; but if Jerusalem, the holy city, become a harlot, God will send upon her all his four sore judgments (Ezekiel 14:21; Ezekiel 14:21); for the nearer any are to God in name and profession the more severely will he reckon with them if they reproach that worthy name by which they are called and give the lie to that profession. They shall be punished seven times more.

      IV. That there may be, and commonly are, some few very good men, even in those places that by sin are ripened for ruin. It is no foreign supposition that, even in a land that has trespassed grievously, there may be three such men as Noah, Daniel, and Job. Daniel was now living, and at this time had scarcely arrived at the prime of his eminency, but he was already famous (at least this word of God concerning him would without fail make him so); yet he was carried away into captivity with the first of all, Daniel 1:6. Some of the better sort of people in Jerusalem might perhaps think that, if Daniel (of whose fame in the king of Babylon's court they had heard much) had but continued in Jerusalem, it would have been spared for his sake, as the magicians in Babylon were. "No," says God, "though you had him, who was as eminently good in bad times and places as Noah in the old world and Job in the land of Uz, yet a reprieve should not be obtained." In the places that are most corrupt, and in the ages that are most degenerate, there is a remnant which God reserves to himself, and which still hold fast their integrity and stand fair for the honour of delivering the land, as the innocent are said to do, Job 22:30.

      V. That God often spares very wicked places for the sake of a few godly people in them. This is implied here as the expectation of Jerusalem's friends in the day of its distress: "Surely God will stay his controversy with us; for are there not some among us that are emptying the measure of national guilt by their prayers, as others are filling it by their sins? And, rather than God will destroy the righteous with the wicked, he will preserve the wicked with the righteous. If Sodom might have been spared for the sake of ten good men, surely Jerusalem may."

      VI. That such men as Noah, Daniel, and Job, will prevail, if any can, to turn away the wrath of God from a sinful people. Noah was a perfect man, and kept his integrity when all flesh had corrupted their way; and, for his sake, his family, though one of them was wicked (Ham), was saved in the ark. Job was a great example of piety, and mighty in prayer for his children, for his friends; and God turned his captivity when he prayed. Those were very ancient examples, before Moses, that great intercessor; and therefore God mentions them, to intimate that he had some very peculiar favourites long before the Jewish nation was formed or founded, and would have such when it was ruined, for which reason, it should seem, those names were made use of, rather than Moses, Aaron, or Samuel; and yet, lest any should think that God was partial in his respects to the ancient days, here is a modern instance, a living one, placed between those two that were the glories of antiquity, and he now a captive, and that is Daniel, to teach us not to lessen the useful good men of our own day by over-magnifying the ancients. Let the children of the captivity know that Daniel, their neighbour, and companion in tribulation, being a man of great humility, piety, and zeal for God, and instant and constant in prayer, had as good an interest in heaven as Noah or Job had. Why may not God raise up as great and good men now as he did formerly, and do as much for them?

      VII. That when the sin of a people has come to its height, and the decree has gone forth for their ruin, the piety and prayers of the best men shall not prevail to finish the controversy. This is here asserted again and again, that, though these three men were in Jerusalem at this time, yet they should deliver neither son nor daughter; not so much as the little ones should be spared for their sakes, as the little ones of Israel were upon the prayer of Moses, Numbers 14:31. No; the land shall be desolate, and God would not hear their prayers for it, though Moses and Samuel stood before him,Jeremiah 15:1. Note, Abused patience will turn at last into inexorable wrath; and it should seem as if God would be more inexorable in Jerusalem's case than in another (Ezekiel 14:6; Ezekiel 14:6), because, besides the divine patience, they had enjoyed greater privileges than any other people, which were the aggravations of their sin.

      VIII. That, though pious praying men may not prevail to deliver others, yet they shall deliver their own souls by their righteousness, so that, though they may suffer in the common calamity, yet to them the property of it is altered; it is not to them what it is to the wicked; it is unstrung, and does them no hurt; it is sanctified, and does them good. Sometimes their souls (their lives) are remarkably delivered, and given them for a prey; at least their souls (their spiritual interests) are secured. If their bodies be not delivered, yet their souls are. Riches indeed profit not in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death, from so great a death, so many deaths as are here threatened. This should encourage us to keep our integrity in times of common apostasy, that, if we do so, we shall be hidden in the day of the Lord's anger.

      IX. That, even when God makes the greatest desolations by his judgments, he reserves some to be the monuments of his mercy, Ezekiel 14:22; Ezekiel 14:23. In Jerusalem itself, though marked for utter ruin, yet there shall be left a remnant, who shall not be cut off by any of those sore judgments before mentioned, but shall be carried into captivity, both sons and daughters, who shall be the seed of a new generation. The young ones, who had not grown up to such an obstinacy in sin as their fathers had who were therefore cut off as incurable, these shall be brought forth out of the ruins of Jerusalem by the victorious enemy, and behold they shall come forth to you that are in captivity, they shall make a virtue of a necessity, and shall come the more willingly to Babylon because so many of their friends have gone thither before them and are there ready to receive them; and, when they come, you shall see their ways and their doing; you shall hear them make a free and ingenuous confession of the sins they had formerly been guilty of, and a humble profession of repentance for them, with promises of reformation; and you shall see instances of their reformation, shall see what good their affliction has done them, and how prudently and patiently they conduct themselves under it. Their narrow escape shall have a good effect upon them; it shall change their temper and conversation, and make them new men. And this will redound, 1. To the satisfaction of their brethren: They shall comfort you when you see their ways. Note, It is a very comfortable sight to see people, when they are under the rod, repenting and humbling themselves, justifying God and accepting the punishment of their iniquity. When we sorrow (as we ought to do) for the afflictions of others, it is a great comfort to us in our sorrow to see them improving their afflictions and making a good use of them. When those captives told their friends how bad they had been, and how righteous God was in bringing these judgments upon them, it made them very easy, and helped to reconcile them to the calamities of Jerusalem, to the justice of God in punishing his own people so, and to the goodness of God, which now appeared to have had kind intentions in all; and thus "You shall be comforted concerning all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and, when you better understand the thing, shall not have such direful apprehensions concerning it as you have had." Note, It is a debt we owe to our brethren, if we have got good by our afflictions, to comfort them by letting them know it. 2. It will redound to the honour of God: "You shall know that I have not done without cause, not without a just provocation, and yet not without a gracious design, all that I have done in it." Note, When afflictions have done their work, and have accomplished that for which they were sent, then will appear the wisdom and goodness of God in sending them, and God will be not only justified, but glorified in them.