Ezekiel 5:1-7

Jerusalem's Desolation Foretold

1 "As for you, son of man, take a 1sharp sword; take and use it as a barber's razor on your head and beard. Then take 2scales for weighing and divide the hair.
2 "One third you shall burn in the fire at the center of the city, when the 3days 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 4unsheathe 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 5Jerusalem; I have set her at the 6center of the nations, with lands around her.
6 'But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations and against My statutes 7more than the lands which surround her; for they have 8rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.'
7 "Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, 'Because you have 9more turmoil than the nations which surround you and have not walked in My statutes, nor observed My ordinances, nor observed the ordinances of the nations which surround you,'

Ezekiel 5:1-7 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.

Cross References 9

  • 1. Leviticus 21:5; Isaiah 7:20; Ezekiel 44:20
  • 2. Daniel 5:27
  • 3. Jeremiah 39:1, 2; Ezekiel 4:2-8
  • 4. Leviticus 26:33
  • 5. Jeremiah 6:6; Ezekiel 4:1
  • 6. Deuteronomy 4:6; Lamentations 1:1; Ezekiel 16:14
  • 7. 2 Kings 17:8-20; Ezek 16:47, 48, 51
  • 8. Nehemiah 9:16, 17; Psalms 78:10; Jeremiah 11:10; Zechariah 7:11
  • 9. 2 Kings 21:9-11; 2 Chronicles 33:9; Jeremiah 2:10, 11

Footnotes 7

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