Ezekiel 5:4-14

4 Take some more of them, throw them into the fire, and burn them in it. A fire will spread from it to the whole house of Israel.
5 "This is what the Lord God says: I have set this Jerusalem in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.
6 But she has rebelled against My ordinances with more wickedness than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that surround her. For her people have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.
7 "Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: Because you have been more insubordinate than the nations around you-you have not walked in My statutes or kept My ordinances; you have not even kept the ordinances of the nations around you-
8 therefore, this is what the Lord God says: See, I am against you, [Jerusalem], and I will execute judgments within you in the sight of the nations.
9 Because of all your abominations, I will do to you what I have never done before and what I will never do again.
10 As a result, fathers will eat [their] sons[a] within Jerusalem,[b] and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your survivors to every direction of the wind.
11 "Therefore, as I live"-[this is] the declaration of the Lord God -"I am going to cut [you] off and show [you] no pity, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable practices and abominations. Yes, I will not spare [you].
12 One third of your people will die by plague and be consumed by famine within you; one third will fall by the sword all around you; and I will scatter one third to every direction of the wind, and I will draw a sword [to chase] after them.
13 When My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath on them, I will be appeased. Then, after I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, the Lord, have spoken in My jealousy.
14 "I will make you a ruin and a disgrace among the nations around you, in the sight of everyone who passes by.

Ezekiel 5:4-14 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 5

This chapter is of the same argument with the former; and contains a type of Jerusalem's destruction; an explanation of that type; what were the reasons of God's judgments on that city; and the nature, rise, and end of them. The type is in Eze 5:1-4; the explanation of that type is in Eze 5:5; the reasons of the severe judgments threatened are changing the statutes of the Lord, and not walking in them, and defiling the sanctuary with their abominations, Eze 5:6-11; an account of the judgments of God, answerable to each of the parts in the type, Eze 5:12; the ends of these judgments are, with respect to God, the accomplishment of his anger, and the satisfaction of his justice; with respect to the Jews, bringing them to an acknowledgment that he had spoken in his zeal; and, with respect to the nations, their instruction and astonishment, Eze 5:13-15; and the chapter is concluded with an assurance that these judgments would be sent, Eze 5:16,17.

Footnotes 2

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