Ezekiel 5

Ezekiel 5:1-17 . VISION OF CUTTING THE HAIRS, AND THE CALAMITIES FORESHADOWED THEREBY.

1. knife . . . razor--the sword of the foe (compare Isaiah 7:20 ). This vision implies even severer judgments than the Egyptian afflictions foreshadowed in the former, for their guilt was greater than that of their forefathers.
thine head--as representative of the Jews. The whole hair being shaven off was significant of severe and humiliating ( 2 Samuel 10:4 2 Samuel 10:5 ) treatment. Especially in the case of a priest; for priests ( Leviticus 21:5 ) were forbidden "to make baldness on their head," their hair being the token of consecration; hereby it was intimated that the ceremonial must give place to the moral.
balances--implying the just discrimination with which Jehovah weighs out the portion of punishment "divided," that is, allotted to each: the "hairs" are the Jews: the divine scales do not allow even one hair to escape accurate weighing (compare Matthew 10:30 ).

2. Three classes are described. The sword was to destroy one third of the people; famine and plague another third ("fire" in Ezekiel 5:2 being explained in Ezekiel 5:12 to mean pestilence and famine); that which remained was to be scattered among the nations. A few only of the last portion were to escape, symbolized by the hairs bound in Ezekiel's skirts ( Ezekiel 5:3 , Jeremiah 40:6 , 52:16 ). Even of these some were to be thrown into the fiery ordeal again ( Ezekiel 5:4 , Jeremiah 41:1 Jeremiah 41:2 , &c. Jeremiah 44:14 , &c.). The "skirts" being able to contain but few express that extreme limit to which God's goodness can reach.

5, 6. Explanation of the symbols:
Jerusalem--not the mere city, but the people of Israel generally, of which it was the center and representative.
in . . . midst--Jerusalem is regarded in God's point of view as center of the whole earth, designed to radiate the true light over the nations in all directions. Compare Margin ("navel"), Ezekiel 38:12 , Psalms 48:2 , Jeremiah 3:17 . No center in the ancient heathen world could have been selected more fitted than Canaan to be a vantage ground, whence the people of God might have acted with success upon the heathenism of the world. It lay midway between the oldest and most civilized states, Egypt and Ethiopia on one side, and Babylon, Nineveh, and India on the other, and afterwards Persia, Greece, and Rome. The Phoenician mariners were close by, through whom they might have transmitted the true religion to the remotest lands; and all around the Ishmaelites, the great inland traders in South Asia and North Africa. Israel was thus placed, not for its own selfish good, but to be the spiritual benefactor of the whole world. Compare Psalms 67:1-7 throughout. Failing in this, and falling into idolatry, its guilt was far worse than that of the heathen; not that Israel literally went beyond the heathen in abominable idolatries. But "corruptio optimi pessima"; the perversion of that which in itself is the best is worse than the perversion of that which is less perfect: is in fact the worst of all kinds of perversion. Therefore their punishment was the severest. So the position of the Christian professing Church now, if it be not a light to the heathen world, its condemnation will be sorer than theirs ( Matthew 5:13 , 11:21-24 , Hebrews 10:28 Hebrews 10:29 ).

6. changed . . . into--rather, "hath resisted My judgments wickedly"; "hath rebelled against My ordinances for wickedness" [BUXTORF]. But