Ezekiel 5:1-7

1 "Now you, human being, take a sharp sword; and use it like a barber's razor to shave your head and beard. Then weigh the hair on a balance-scale, and divide it up.

2 A third of it you are to burn in the city when the days of the siege are over. Take another third, and hit it with your sword all around the city. Scatter the last third to the wind, and I will pursue them with drawn sword.

3 Also take a few hairs and tie them up in the folds of your garment.

4 Again, of these take some; throw them in the fire, and burn them up; from there a fire will come out against the entire house of Isra'el.

5 "Here is what Adonai ELOHIM, says: 'This is Yerushalayim! I have placed her in the middle of the nations; countries can be found all around her.

6 But she has rebelled against my rulings and committed wickedness more than the nations, against my laws more than the countries around her; because they have rejected my rulings and not lived according to my laws.'

7 "Therefore here is what Adonai ELOHIM, says: 'Because you have outdone the nations around you by not living according to my laws or following my rulings or even following the rules of the nations around 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.