Ezekiel 24:10

10 Bring more wood! Fan the flames! Cook the meat! Boil away the broth! Burn up the bones!

Ezekiel 24:10 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 24:10

Heap on wood, kindle the fire
This is said either to the prophet, to do this in an emblematic way; or to the Chaldean army, to prepare for the siege, encompass the city, begin their attacks, and throw in their stones out of their slings and engines, and arrows from their bows: consume the flesh;
not entirely, since it is afterwards to be spiced; but thoroughly boil it; denoting the severe sufferings the inhabitants should undergo before their utter ruin: spice it well;
pepper them off; batter their walls, beat down their houses, distress them by all manner of ways and means; signifying that this would be grateful to the Lord, as his justice would be glorified in the destruction of this people; and as the plunder of them would be like a spiced and sweet morsel to the enemy; whose appetites would hereby be sharpened and become keen, and to whom the sacking and plundering the city would be as agreeable as well seasoned meat to a hungry man: and let the bones be burnt;
either under it, or rather in it; even the strongest and most powerful among the people destroyed, who should hold out the longest in the siege. The Targum of the whole is,

``multiply kings; gather an army; order the auxiliaries, and prepare against her warriors, and let her mighty ones be confounded.''

Ezekiel 24:10 In-Context

8 I have left the blood there, where it cannot be hidden, where it demands angry revenge."
9 This is what the Sovereign Lord is saying: "The city of murderers is doomed! I myself will pile up the firewood.
10 Bring more wood! Fan the flames! Cook the meat! Boil away the broth! Burn up the bones!
11 Now set the empty bronze pot on the coals and let it get red-hot. Then the pot will be ritually pure again after the corrosion is burned off,
12 although all that corrosion will not disappear in the flames.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. [Some ancient translations] Boil away the broth!; [Hebrew unclear.]
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.