Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Ezekiel 5:9

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Ezekiel 5:9. I will do in thee that which I have not done — The destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar was one of the greatest calamities that ever fell on any nation or place before; and that by the Romans under Titus exceeded all that has taken place since. These two sackages of that city have no parallel in the history of mankind.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Jerusalem destroyed (5:1-17)

The last of this group of four acted parables was again concerned with the siege of Jerusalem. It dealt more specifically with the dreadful fate that awaited the citizens.
Ezekiel shaved his hair, weighed it, then divided it into three equal parts. One part he burnt on his model city (the brick), symbolizing the death of one third of the city’s people through famine and disease. The second part he scattered around the model city, then chopped up the hair with a sword, symbolizing the slaughter of many in fighting around the city. The third portion he scattered to the wind, symbolizing those who would be taken captive to Babylon or otherwise scattered among the nations. Many of those who attempted to flee the city would be ruthlessly killed by the enemy (5:1-2; see v. 12).
In a symbolic expression of hope, Ezekiel then picked up a few of the scattered hairs and put them in his clothing, indicating that a remnant would be saved. But even some of these would perish (3-4).
Jerusalem was the centre of God’s chosen nation, but its people had behaved worse than the people of heathen nations round about (5-6). God would therefore punish Jerusalem with a terrible judgment (7-9). Starvation during the siege would make the people so desperate for food that some would kill their children and eat them. They would experience the horrors of famine, disease, slaughter and captivity that Ezekiel had pictured (10-12). God would act as he saw fit. His judgment would be a punishment on Jerusalem and a warning to other nations (13-17).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

"Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: This is Jerusalem: I have set her in the midst of the nations, and countries are round about her. And she hath rebelled against mine ordinances in doing wickedness more than the nations, and as for my statutes, they have not walked in them. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because ye are turbulent more than the nations round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept mine ordinances, neither have done after the ordinances of the nations that are round about you; therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I, even I, am against thee; and I will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations. And I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all thine abominations. Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments on thee; and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter unto all the winds. Wherefore as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, and I also will have no pity. A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee; and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee, and a third part shall I scatter unto all the winds, and will draw out a sword after them."

"This is Jerusalem" The illustration is here explained by God Himself. The doom of Jerusalem is clearly prophesied.

"I have set her in the midst of the nations" This was true in both ways. It refers to the central location of Palestine in the midst of the three continents, Europe, Asia, and Africa; and the nations were literally in all directions from Jerusalem. But it was also true in the larger context of the information and privileges enjoyed by the Jews. God's choice of the Abrahamic children as his "Chosen People" was for the purpose of preserving the knowledge of the true God in a world where that knowledge was in danger of falling. They alone received the Mosaic law; they were particularly chosen as the replacement for the reprobate pagans of ancient Palestine; and to them only the great prophets of God brought correction and enlightenment.

"Against my statutes more than the countries that are round about her" The picture that emerges here is that of a nation abundantly blessed with the ordinances and statutes of God, these repeated words being, absolutely, references to the Mosaic Law. In fact, the references to the Book of Moses are so frequent from this chapter on to the very end of Ezekiel that some of the radical critics (S. R. Driver, for example) have advanced the theory that Ezekiel was the author of Ezekiel 17-26, sometimes called the Holiness Code, in Leviticus.John T. Bunn in the Broadman Bible Commentary (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1871), p. 347.

However, there are so many impossibilities involved in the acceptance of such a false theory that true scholars are unable to allow it. Beasley-Murray stated flatly that, "We may approach this book in confidence that it is what it purports to be, namely the record of Ezekiel's 25-year ministry to his fellow-exiles in Babylon."G. R. Beasley-Murray in the New Bible Commentary, Revised, p. 665.

No, Ezekiel did not invent the regulations, statutes, and ordinances of God which Israel had so long and so thoroughly violated. Those prohibitions are in the Pentateuch, that is, THE BOOK OF MOSES. It should be borne in mind that Moses did not write five books, but one only; and the divisions into five separate books is a foolish device indeed, despite the fact of its serving the convenience of students.

"More than the countries round about her" This is a reference to one of the fundamental facts often overlooked. The pagan nations surrounding the Chosen People certainly did know many of the portions of God's will, as Paul testified in Romans 1:18-23; and the text here reveals that the surrounding pagans had done a better job of honoring what part of God's will they knew than had Israel.

"Turbulent more than the nations that are round about you" The older versions render "multiplied" here instead of turbulent; and Matthew Henry stated that this was a reference to the multiplication of idols and pagan shrines.Matthew Henry Commentary (Westwood, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell), p. 778. In any case, it is a reference to the excessive wickedness of Israel as compared with the surrounding pagans.

"Neither have done after the ordinances of the nations" Not only had Israel rejected and forsaken the law of God, but they had rejected all laws and regulations, even those of pagan nations, leaving them the status of being essentially lawless.

"Behold, I, even I, am against thee; and I will execute judgments against thee in the sight of the nations" The justice of God's impending judgments against Israel was due in part to the fact that their position, by God's grace, in the midst of the nations as an example and a teacher to all of them, required that their utter failure to discharge their Divine mission be demonstrated to the whole world.

"I will do in thee that which I have not done… the like unto which I will not do any more" The horrible cannibalism mentioned here indeed occurred during that final siege. The account in Lamentations is the record of the tragic fulfillment of these words.

"Thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy abominations" This would seem to indicate that God's terrible judgment against Israel was principally due to this offence; but the sanctuary here was not the only defilement in Jerusalem. The valley of the Sons of Hinnom, from which the word Gehenna was derived, was the scene of the horrible shrine of Moloch, where even the kings of Israel made their sons "pass through the fire" to Molech.

"A third part shall die with the pestilence, and with famine" Here God Himself gives the meaning of the burning of a third part of Ezekiel's hair, mentioned back in Ezekiel 5:2. Also, there is the revelation that a third shall die by the sword, and a third shall be scattered to the winds.

"I will… draw out a sword after them" This means that even of that third who were to be scattered, the sword would also take its toll. Also, this means that, of the hair that was to be bound in the skirts of Ezekiel, thus representing the "righteous remnant," and which was also a small portion of that final third, that even of those thus represented some would be lost.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Compare Matthew 24:21. The calamities of the Babylonian were surpassed by the Roman siege, and these again were but a foreshadowing of still more terrible destruction at the last day.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

Now God subjoins, that their punishment should be so severe that no similar example could be found in the world — I will do what I have not done, nor intended to do, that is, I will avenge your contempt of my law in a striking and unexpected manner; for God sometimes so chastises men as not to exceed the ordinary method. But because punishments seem vile and contemptible when they are so common, God is compelled to surpass the ordinary measure, and to punish the wicked signally and portentously, as he says by Moses. (Deuteronomy 28:46.) When therefore he now says, that he would do what he had not done before, and what he would not do again, he signifies a horrible vengeance, which has no similar example. It means nothing else than what, we have quoted from Moses, that the vengeance would be signal and portentous. Interpreters take this metaphorically, but this view cannot be admitted, because in their opinion no history has recorded its fulfillment; hence they fly to allegory and metaphor. But first of all, we know what Josephus says, that mothers were so ravenous that they slew their children and fed upon them, although here a previous siege is referred to, in which God signifies that he would cause fathers to devour their children: I confess it; but even if we receive what they wish, it was not done then; hence Jeremiah is mistaken when he says, that miserable women cooked their children for food. (Lamentations 4:10.) Surely this is a sufficient witness; for to say that we never find that this actually happened is to reject the testimony of Jeremiah. Besides, God had threatened that very thing by Moses; nor can the passage be eluded, because there is weight in the words —

“Men delicate among you, and those accustomed to luxuries,” says he, “shall eat their own children; a man shall envy the wife of his bosom, so that he shall not suffer her to enjoy that nefarious food with him. Then by stealth shall he consume and devour the flesh of his son, so that he shall distribute no part of it to another.” (Deuteronomy 28:54.)

When Moses uses this language he certainly does not mean that there shall be intestine dissensions, so that disciples shall rise up against their masters, and masters oppress their disciples, as Jerome fancies. But it is necessary to take the words as they sound, namely, that God would not be content with common and customary punishments when the Jews had arrived at the very last pitch of impiety and wickedness, since he blames them so severely. Hence Ezekiel now threatens this; nor is it surprising that the Prophets took such forms of expression from Moses, since they used the language of Moses rather than a new one, that the people might not despise their prophesyings. Now, therefore, we must decide, that the Prophet uses these threatenings against the Jews literally. But if any one now object that what God says will not happen does often happen, a solution must be sought for. For we said that when the Jews were besieged by Titus, such a ravenousness attacked certain women, that they fed by stealth on their own children. But God pronounces that he never would do this again I reply that this kind of vengeance is not to be restricted to one day, so that God should not often punish the Jews in a similar manner. But we do not read that this was done, except by the Jews, for although this cruelty is related in tragedies — that children were used as food by their parents, yet this barbarity nowhere existed, that a father knowingly and willingly ate his own son; hence this was peculiar to the Jews. And that God had once executed this vengeance on them by means of the Chaldeans, is no obstacle to his again inflicting the same punishment, when he wished to take vengeance on the extreme rebellion of the people. For although in Ezekiel’s time all things were very corrupt, yet we know that when the Son of God was rejected, the Jews cut off from themselves all hope of restoration to the mercy of God. It is not surprising, then, if again he had suffered sons to be devoured by their fathers, as he now threatens that fathers should be so rabid as not even to spare their own bowels.

I know not why Jerome invented this difference, which is altogether futile. For he says, that when a thing is honorable and becoming it should be ascribed to God, but when the thing itself is base, God averts the infamy from himself. For when this wonder is treated of here, God does not say I will cause the people to eat their sons, but he says, fathers shall eat their sons, and sons their fathers. But there is nothing solid in this comment, because the cruelty which the Chaldeans exercised towards the Jews certainly was not either honorable or becoming, and yet God ascribes to himself whatever the Chaldeans did. Again, what was baser than the incest of Absalom, in debauching his father’s wives? and even that was not sufficient, but he wished the whole people, at the sound of a trumpet, to be witnesses of his crime; and yet what does God say? “I will do this before the sun,” says he. (2 Samuel 12:12, and 2 Samuel 16:21.) We see, then, that this man was not familiar with the Scriptures, and yet that he offered his comments too hastily. There was, indeed, no true religion in the man, and it is not without cause that I admonish you; for there is danger lest many be deceived, if they were not admonished that his genius was full of ostentation and arrogance.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 5

Now the fourth thing that he uses as an illustration.

Take a sharp knife, sharpen it like a barber's razor, and cause it to pass upon your head and upon your beard ( Ezekiel 5:1 ).

Shave your head and your beard. He must surely have been a colorful sight there to these people. No doubt they took notice. They would have a hard time not observing.

then take balances to weigh, and divide your hair. And you shall burn with fire a third part in the middle of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled: and you shall take a third part, and cut it [chop it up] with a knife: and a third part you're to scatter in the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them. And thou shalt take thereof a few [a few of these hairs]in number, and bind them in your skirts. Then take those again, and cast them [those that you bound in your skirt] in the midst of the fire; for thereof shall a fire come forth unto all the house of Israel. Thus saith the Lord GOD; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her. And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness ( Ezekiel 5:1-6 )

They've taken the judgments of God, the law of God, and they've turned it into wickedness. Look at our nation today, how we have taken the laws of God and turned them into wickedness. How that the laws today are supporting wickedness. It's exactly what they had done. God's judgment is coming forth upon them. God's judgment will surely come upon our land just as sure as God's judgment came upon Israel. God's judgment is coming upon our land because of taking the laws and making them support evil, wickedness.

and they have done so more than all of the nations, and my statutes they've changed more than all of the countries that are round about her: for they have refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye multiplied more than the nations that are round about you, you've not walked in my statutes, neither have you kept my judgments, neither have you done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you; Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, am against thee, and I will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of all the nations. And I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do anymore the like, because of all your abominations ( Ezekiel 5:6-9 ).

I'm going to do something to you like I've never done before, but it's because of the abominations.

Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee ( Ezekiel 5:10 ),

They'll cannibalize each other before the whole thing is over.

the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds. Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD; Surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all of the detestable things, and with all your abominations, therefore will I diminish thee; neither shall my eyes spare, neither will I have any pity. A third part of thee ( Ezekiel 5:10-12 )

Now here's the hair divided into three parts, a third part is burned.

So a third part of thee will be consumed by the pestilence [the burning pestilence], and the famine within the city ( Ezekiel 5:12 ):

Before Babylon conquers the city, a third part of the people will have already died because of the disease and the famine that exists within Jerusalem.

and then a third part of them will be destroyed by the sword ( Ezekiel 5:12 )

When the Babylonian army comes in, another third part of them will be wiped out with the sword, and then the remaining third part will be scattered around, but God will bring the sword after them. And they will be destroyed. But there will be a small remnant that God will preserve and out of that small remnant, God will start over and He will ultimately bring them back into the land.

Thus my anger be accomplished, I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted: and they shall know that I the LORD have spoken it in my zeal, when I have accomplished my fury upon them. Moreover I will make thee waste, and a reproach among the nations that are round about thee, in the sight of all that pass by ( Ezekiel 5:13-14 ).

Speaking against Jerusalem.

So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment unto the nations that are round about thee, when I shall execute judgments in thee in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I the LORD have spoken it ( Ezekiel 5:15 ).

So the judgment of God upon them would be for instruction to these nations as they are astonished at what God has done.

And when I shall send upon them the evil arrows of my famine, which shall be for their destruction, which I will send to destroy you: and will increase the famine upon you, and break your staff of bread: So will I send upon you famine, and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee; and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee; and I will bring the sword upon thee. I the LORD have spoken it ( Ezekiel 5:16-17 ).

So God speaks of the judgment that is going to come, warning the people, "Hey, don't think that Jerusalem is going to conquer. Don't think that you're going to be delivered soon." God's judgment is not yet complete. He is going to bring utter devastation unto the city of Jerusalem. It's to be destroyed, those that remain there to the present time, a third of them will be killed with the famine, a third will be destroyed by the sword, the third that escape will also be destroyed, for He'll send out a sword against them.

And so then he makes a prophecy as we move on against the mountains of Israel. Now as we get to chapter 34, again, a prophecy to the mountains of Israel, but in chapter 34, it's God beginning His work of restoration. Remember the devastation is going to come, but after the devastation in time to come, God is going to restore. And so we are living in those days now, when God has begun His work of restoration. And as you read the thirty-fourth chapter and read of what God is going to do, "cause the mountains" --he's speaking here of the curses that are going to come upon the mountains because they've built altars upon them. They're going to be barren and so forth, and thus they were for centuries, for millenniums. But then in chapter 34, the prophecies again to the mountains and the restoration, and God is going to put trees on them and there'll be vineyards on them and so forth. And you go to Israel today, you can see the fulfillment of chapter 34 as God has begun His work of restoration in the land.

So the book of Ezekiel is exciting, because it tells, you know, of the judgment, which did come, but it also tells of the future restoration, which is happening today. And so the book of Ezekiel goes from the past history, but it will come right up to current events and then it'll go on into the future and gets ahead of us, even from where we are at this point. And so, you're going to find it an extremely fascinating book as we go through it.

Father, we thank You for Thy Word. Oh, God help us that we might devour Thy Word. That it might become a part of our lives. That we'll be able, then Lord, to speak Thy Word even as You have commanded us. In Jesus' name. Amen.

May the Lord bless and keep you through the week. And may you live after the Spirit, walk after the Spirit, follow after the Spirit, be filled with the Spirit. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Therefore, let a man examine himself, for if we will judge ourselves, then we will not be judged of God. For I speak to you in the name of the Lord, if you are living and walking after the flesh and indulging in the areas and the things of the flesh, God will bring you into judgment. It will destroy you. You need to walk after the Spirit and may God guide and help you. In Jesus' name. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The interpretation of these Acts 5:5-17

Evidently Ezekiel’s verbal explanation of this drama came at the very end of the drama, at the time of the real destruction of Jerusalem. Ezekiel was no longer silent then.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The Lord would punish Jerusalem uniquely for her sins. Father’s would eat their own sons, and sons their fathers, in the siege (cf. Leviticus 26:29; Deuteronomy 28:53; 2 Kings 6:28-29; Jeremiah 19:9; Lamentations 4:10). Yahweh would scatter most of the surviving remnant from the Promised Land.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And I will do in thee that which I have not done,.... In any other nation, or to any other people; not in the old world, when the flood was brought upon the world of the ungodly; not in Sodom and Gomorrah, when they were destroyed by fire from heaven; not in Egypt, when he inflicted his plagues on Pharaoh and his people; nor among the Canaanites, when they were drove out of their land for their abominations:

and whereunto I will not do any more the like; at least not of a long time; and, besides, this may not only refer to the siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, but also by the Romans:

because of all thine abominations; the wickednesses of all sorts that were committed among them, which were abominable to the Lord, and particularly their idolatries; these were the causes why he would do, or suffer to be done, things that were never seen, known or heard of before; and are as follow:

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      5 Thus saith the Lord GOD; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her.   6 And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that are round about her: for they have refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them.   7 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye multiplied more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my judgments, neither have done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you;   8 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, am against thee, and will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations.   9 And I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all thine abominations.   10 Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds.   11 Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD; Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity.   12 A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.   13 Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted: and they shall know that I the LORD have spoken it in my zeal, when I have accomplished my fury in them.   14 Moreover I will make thee waste, and a reproach among the nations that are round about thee, in the sight of all that pass by.   15 So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment unto the nations that are round about thee, when I shall execute judgments in thee in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I the LORD have spoken it.   16 When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread:   17 So will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee; and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee; and I will bring the sword upon thee. I the LORD have spoken it.

      We have here the explanation of the foregoing similitude: This is Jerusalem. Thus it is usual in scripture language to give the name of the thing signified to the sign; as when Christ said, This is my body. The prophet's head, which was to be shaved, signified Jerusalem, which by the judgments of God was now to be stripped of all its ornaments, to be emptied of all its inhabitants, and to be set naked and bare, to be shaved with a razor that is hired,Isaiah 7:20. The head of one that was a priest, a prophet, a holy person, was fittest to represent Jerusalem the holy city. Now the contents of these verses are much the same with what we have often met with, and still shall, in the writings of the prophets. Here we have,

      I. The privileges Jerusalem was honoured with (Ezekiel 5:5; Ezekiel 5:5): I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her, and those famous nations and very considerable. Jerusalem was not situated in a remote obscure corner of the world, far from neighbours, but in the midst of kingdoms that were populous, polite, and civilized, famed for learning, arts, and sciences, and which then made the greatest figure in the world. But there seems to be more in it than this. 1. Jerusalem was dignified and preferred above the neighbouring nations and their cities. it was set in the midst of them as excelling them all. This holy mountain was exalted above all the hills,Isaiah 2:2. Why leap you, you high hills? This is the hill which God desires to dwell in,Psalms 68:16. Jerusalem was a city upon a hill, conspicuous and illustrious, and which all the neighbouring nations had an eye upon, some for good-will, some for ill-will. 2. Jerusalem was designed to have a good influence upon the nations and countries round about, was set in the midst of them as a candle upon a candlestick, to spread the light of divine revelation, which she was blessed with, to all the dark corners of the neighbouring nations, that from them it might diffuse itself further, even to the ends of the earth. Jerusalem was set in the midst of the nations, to be as the heart in the body, to invigorate this dead world with a divine life as well as to enlighten this dark world with a divine light, to be an example of every thing that was good. The nations that observed what excellent statutes and judgments they had concluded them to be a wise and understanding people (Deuteronomy 4:6), fit to be consulted as an oracle, as they were in Solomon's time, 1 Kings 4:34. And, had they preserved this reputation and made a right use of it, what a blessing would Jerusalem have been to all the nations about! But, failing to be so, the accomplishment of this intention was reserved for its latter days, when out of Zion went forth the gospel law and the word of the Lord Jesus from Jerusalem, and there repentance and remission began to be preached, and thence the preachers of them went forth into all nations. And, when that was done, Jerusalem was levelled with the ground. Note, When places and persons are made great, it is with design that they may do good and that those about them may be the better for them, that their light may shine before men.

      II. The provocations Jerusalem was guilty of. A very high charge is here drawn up against that city, and proved beyond contradiction sufficient to justify God in seizing its privileges and putting it under military execution. 1. She has not walked in God's statutes, nor kept his judgments (Ezekiel 5:7; Ezekiel 5:7); nay, the inhabitants of Jerusalem had refused his judgments and his statutes (Ezekiel 5:6; Ezekiel 5:6); they did not do their duty, nay, they would not, they said that they would not. Those statutes and judgments which their neighbours admired they despised, which they should have set before their face they cast behind their back. Note, A contempt of the word and law of God opens a door to all manner of iniquity. God's statutes are the terms on which he deals with men; those that refuse his terms cannot expect his favours. 2. She had changed God's judgments into wickedness (Ezekiel 5:6; Ezekiel 5:6), a very high expression of profaneness, that the people had not only broken God's laws, but had so perverted and abused them that they had made them the excuse and colour of their wickedness. They introduced the abominable customs and usages of the heathen, instead of God's institutions; this was changing the truth of God into a lie (Romans 1:25) and the glory of God into shame,Psalms 4:2. Note, Those that have been well educated, if they live ill, put the highest affront imaginable upon God, as if he were the patron of sin and his judgments were turned into wickedness. 3. She had been worse than the neighbouring nations, to whom she should have set a good example: She has changed my judgments, by idolatries and false worship, more than the nations (Ezekiel 5:6; Ezekiel 5:6), and she has multiplied (that is, multiplied idols and altars, gods and temples, multiplied those things the unity of which was their praise) more than the nations that were round about. Israel's God is one, and his name one, his altar one; but they, not content with this one God, multiplied their gods to such a degree that according to the number of their cities so were their gods, and their altars were as heaps in the furrows of the field; so that they exceeded all their neighbours in having gods many and lords many. They corrupted revealed religion more than the Gentiles had corrupted natural religion. Note, If those who have made a profession of religion, and have had a pious education, apostatize from it, they are commonly more profane and vicious than those who never made any profession; they have seven other spirits more wicked. 4. She had not done according to the judgments of the nations,Ezekiel 5:7; Ezekiel 5:7. Israel had not acted towards their God, as the nations had acted towards their gods, though they were false gods; they had not been so observant of him nor so constant to him. Has a nation changed its gods, or slighted them, so as they have? Jeremiah 2:11. Or it may refer to their morals; instead of reforming their neighbors, they came short of them; and many who were of the uncircumcision kept the righteousness of the law better than those who were of the circumcision,Romans 2:26; Romans 2:27. Those who had the light of scripture did not according to the judgments of many who had only the light of nature. Note, There are those who are called Christians who will in the great day be condemned by the better tempers and better lives of sober heathens. 5. The particular crime charged upon Jerusalem is profaning the holy things, which she had been both entrusted and honoured with (Ezekiel 5:11; Ezekiel 5:11): Thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, with thy idols and idolatries. The images of their pretended deities, and the groves erected in honour of them, were brought into the temple; and the ceremonies used by idolaters were brought into the worship of God. Thus every thing that is sacred was polluted. Note, Idols are detestable things any where, but more especially so in the sanctuary.

      III. The punishments that Jerusalem should fall under for these provocations: Shall not God visit for these things? No doubt he shall. The matter of the sentence here passed upon Jerusalem is very dreadful, and the manner of expression makes it yet more so; the judgments are various, and the threatenings of them varied, reiterated, inculcated, that one may well say, Who is able to stand in God's sight when once he is angry?

      1. God will take this work of punishing Jerusalem into his own hands; and who knows the power of his anger and what a fearful thing it is to fall into his hands? Observe what a strong emphasis is laid upon it (Ezekiel 5:8; Ezekiel 5:8): I, even I, am against thee. God had been for Jerusalem, to defend and save it; but miserable is its case when he has turned to be its enemy and fights against it. If God be against us, the whole creation is at war with us, and nothing can be for us so as to stand us in any stead: "You think it is only the Chaldean army that is against you, but they are God's hand, or rather the staff in his hand; it is I, even I, that am against thee, not only to speak against thee by prophets, but to act against thee by providence. I will execute judgments in thee (Ezekiel 5:10; Ezekiel 5:10), in the midst of thee (Ezekiel 5:8; Ezekiel 5:8), not only in the suburbs, but in the heart of the city, not only in the borders, but in the bowels of the country." Note, Those who will not observe the judgments of God's mouth shall not escape the judgments of his hand; and God's judgments, when they come with commission, will penetrate into the midst of a people, will enter into the soul, into the bowels like water and like oil into the bones. I will execute judgments. Note, God himself undertakes to execute his own judgments, according to the true and full intent of them; whatever are the instruments, he is the principal agent.

      2. These punishments shall come from his displeasure. As to the body of the people, it shall not be a correction in love, but he will execute judgments in anger, and in fury, and in furious rebukes (Ezekiel 5:15; Ezekiel 5:15), strange expressions to come from a God who has said, Fury is not in me, and who has declared himself gracious, and merciful, and slow to anger. But they are designed to show the malignity of sin, and the offence it gives to the just and holy God. That must needs be a very evil thing which provokes him to such resentments, and against his own people too, that had been so high in his favour, and expressed with so much satisfaction (Ezekiel 5:13; Ezekiel 5:13): "My anger, which has long been withheld, shall now be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them; it shall not only light upon them, but lie upon them, and fill them as vessels of wrath fitted by their own wickedness to destruction; and, justice being hereby glorified, I will be comforted, I will be entirely satisfied in what I have done." As, when God is dishonoured by the sins of men, he is said to be grieved (Psalms 95:10), so when he is honoured by their destruction he is said to be comforted. The struggle between mercy and judgment is over, and in this case judgment triumphs, triumphs indeed; for mercy that has been so long abused is now silent and gives up the cause, has not a word more to say on the behalf of such an ungrateful incorrigible people: My eye shall not spare, neither will I have any pity,Ezekiel 5:11; Ezekiel 5:11. Divine compassion defers the punishment, or mitigates it, or supports under it, or shortens it; but here is judgment without mercy, wrath without any mixture or allay of pity. These expressions are thus sharpened and heightened perhaps with design to look further, to the vengeance of eternal fire, which some of the destructions we read of in the Old Testament were typical of, and particularly that of Jerusalem; for surely it is nowhere on this side hell that this word has its full accomplishment, My eye shall not spare, but I will cause my fury to rest. Note, Those who live and die impenitent will perish for ever unpitied; there is a day coming when the Lord will not spare.

      3. Punishments shall be public and open: I will execute these judgments in the sight of the nations (Ezekiel 5:8; Ezekiel 5:8); the judgments themselves shall be so remarkable that all the nations far and near shall take notice of them; they shall be all the talk of that part of the world, and the more for the conspicuousness of the place and people on which they are inflicted. Note, Public sins, as they call for public reproofs (those that sin rebuke before all), so, if those prevail not, they call for public judgments. He strikes them as wicked men in the open sight of others (Job 34:26), that he may maintain and vindicate the honour of his government, for (as Grotius descants upon it here) why should he suffer it to be said, See what wicked lives those lead who profess to be the worshippers of the only true God! And, as the publicity of the judgments will redound to the honour of God, so it will serve, (1.) To aggravate the punishment, and to make it lie the more heavily. Jerusalem, being made waste, becomes a reproach among the nations in the sight of all that pass by,Ezekiel 5:14; Ezekiel 5:14. The more conspicuous and the more peculiar any have been in the day of their prosperity the greater disgrace attends their fall; and that was Jerusalem's case. The more Jerusalem had been a praise in the earth the more it is now a reproach and a taunt,Ezekiel 5:15; Ezekiel 5:15. This she was warned of as much as any thing when her glory commenced (1 Kings 9:8), and this was lamented as much as any thing when it was laid in the dust, Lamentations 2:15. (2.) To teach the nations to fear before the God of Israel, when they see what a jealous God he is, and how severely he punishes sin even in those that are nearest to him: It shall be an instruction to the nations,Ezekiel 5:15; Ezekiel 5:15. Jerusalem should have taught her neighbours the fear of God by her piety and virtue, but, she not doing that, God will teach it to them by her ruin; for they have reason to say, If this be done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry? If judgment begin at the house of God, where will it end? If those be thus punished who only had some idolaters among them, what will become of us who are all idolaters? Note, The destruction of some is designed for the instruction of others. Malefactors are publicly punished in terrorem--that others may take warning.

      4. These punishments, in the kind of them, shall be very severe and grievous. (1.) They shall be such as have no precedent or parallel. Their sins being more provoking than those of others, the judgments executed upon them should be uncommon (Ezekiel 5:9; Ezekiel 5:9): "I will do in thee that which I have not done in thee before, though thou hast long since deserved it; nay, that which I have not done in any other city." This punishment of Jerusalem is said to be greater than that of Sodom (Lamentations 4:6), which was more grievous than all that went before it; nay, it is such as "I will not do any more the like, all the circumstances taken in, to any other city, till the like come to be done again to this city, in the final overthrow by the Romans." This is a rhetorical expression of the most grievous judgments, like that character of Hezekiah, that there was none like him, before or after him. (2.) They shall be such as will force them to break the strongest bonds of natural affection to one another, which will be a just punishment of them for their wilfully breaking the bonds of their duty to God (Ezekiel 5:10; Ezekiel 5:10): The fathers shall eat the sons, and the sons shall eat the fathers, through the extremity of the famine, or shall be compelled to do it by their barbarous conquerors. (3.) There shall be a complication of judgments, any one of them terrible enough, and desolating; but what then would they be when they came all together and in perfection? Some shall be taken away by the plague (Ezekiel 5:12; Ezekiel 5:12); the pestilence shall pass through thee (Ezekiel 5:17; Ezekiel 5:17), sweeping all before it, as the destroying angel; others shall be consumed with famine, shall gradually waste away as men in a consumption (Ezekiel 5:12; Ezekiel 5:12); this is again insisted on (Ezekiel 5:16; Ezekiel 5:16): I will send upon them the evil arrows of famine; hunger shall make them pine, and shall pierce them to the heart, as if arrows, evil arrows, poisoned darts, were shot into them. God has many arrows, evil arrows, in his quiver; when some are discharged, he has still more in reserve. I will increase the famine upon you. A famine in a bereaved country may decrease as fruits spring forth; but a famine in a besieged city will increase of course; yet god speaks of it as his act: "I will increase it, and will break your staff of bread, will take away the necessary supports of life, will disappoint you of all that which you depend upon, so that there is no remedy, but you must fall to the ground." Life is frail, is weak, is burdened, so that, if it have not daily bread for its staff to lean upon, it cannot but sink, and is soon gone if that staff be broken. Others shall fall by the sword round about Jerusalem, when they sally out upon the besiegers; it is a sword which God will bring,Ezekiel 5:17; Ezekiel 5:17. The sword of the Lord, that used to be drawn for Jerusalem's defence, is now drawn for its destruction. Others are devoured by evil beasts, which will make a prey of those that fly for shelter to the deserts and mountains. They shall meet their ruin where they expected refuge, for there is no escaping the judgments of God, Ezekiel 5:17; Ezekiel 5:17. And, lastly, those who escape shall be scattered into all parts of the world, into all the winds (so it is expressed, Ezekiel 5:10; Ezekiel 5:12), intimating that they should not only be dispersed, but hurried, and tossed, and driven to and fro, as chaff before the wind. Nay, and Cain's curse (to be fugitives and vagabonds) is not the worst of it neither; their restless life shall be cut off by a bloody death: "I will draw out a sword after them, which shall follow them wherever they go." Evil pursues sinners; and the curse shall come upon them and overtake them.

      5. These punishments will prove their ruin by degrees. They shall be diminished (Ezekiel 5:11; Ezekiel 5:11); their strength and glory shall grow less and less. They shall be bereaved (Ezekiel 5:17; Ezekiel 5:17), emptied of all that which was their joy and confidence. God sends these judgments on purpose to destroy them, Ezekiel 5:16; Ezekiel 5:16. The arrows are not sent (as those which Jonathan shot) for their direction, but for their destruction; for god will accomplish his fury upon them (Ezekiel 5:13; Ezekiel 5:13); the day of God's patience is over, and the ruin is remediless. Though this prophecy was to have its accomplishment now quickly, in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, yet the executioners not being named here, but the criminal only (this is Jerusalem), we may well suppose that it looks further, to the final destruction of that great city by the Romans when God made a full end of the Jewish nation, and caused his fury to rest upon them.

      6. All this is ratified by the divine authority and veracity: I the Lord have spoken it,Ezekiel 5:15; Ezekiel 5:15 and again Ezekiel 5:17; Ezekiel 5:17. The sentence is passed by him that is Judge of heaven and earth, whose judgment is according to truth, and the judgments of whose hand are according to the judgments of his mouth. He has spoken it who can do it, for with him nothing is impossible. He has spoken it who will do it, for he is not a man that he should lie. He has spoken it whom we are bound to hear and heed, whose ipse dixit--word commands the most serious attention and submissive assent: And they shall know that I the Lord have spoken it,Ezekiel 5:13; Ezekiel 5:13. There were those who thought it was only the prophet that spoke it in his delirium; but God will make them know, by the accomplishment of it, that he has spoken it in his zeal. Note, Sooner or later, God's word will prove itself.