Ezekiel 5:4

4 "Take again some of them and throw them into the fire and burn them in the fire; from it a fire will spread to all the house of Israel.

Ezekiel 5:4 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 5:4

Then take of them again
Of that small number preserved: and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire:
this was fulfilled in Gedaliah and the Jews that were with him, over whom the king of Babylon had made him governor, who were slain by Ishmael, ( Jeremiah 41:1-7 ) ; [for] thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel;
from this barbarous murder of Gedaliah and his men, judgment came upon all the house of Israel; a war commenced between Ishmael and Johanan the son of Kareah; and afterwards Nebuzaradan carried captive great numbers of them that were left in the land. The Syriac and Arabic versions render it, "from these shall a fire come forth" which Jarchi interprets of these intimations given the prophet, from whence judgments should come upon all the house of Israel. It may be understood of those that were left in the land, and of such who returned from the captivity; for whose sins, and those of their posterity, the wrath of God came forth upon all the house of Israel, to the utter destruction of their nation, city, and temple, by Titus Vespasian.

Ezekiel 5:4 In-Context

2 "One third you shall burn in the fire at the center of the city, when the days of the siege are completed. Then you shall take one third and strike it with the sword all around the city, and one third you shall scatter to the wind; and I will unsheathe a sword behind them.
3 "Take also a few in number from them and bind them in the edges of your robes.
4 "Take again some of them and throw them into the fire and burn them in the fire; from it a fire will spread to all the house of Israel.
5 "Thus says the Lord GOD, 'This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the center of the nations, with lands around her.
6 'But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations and against My statutes more than the lands which surround her; for they have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.'

Footnotes 1

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