Ezekiel 12:16

16 But I will preserve a few of their number from the sword, famine, and plague, so that they may confess all their detestable practices among the nations where they go. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

Ezekiel 12:16 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 12:16

But I will leave a few men of them
Or, "men of number" {x}; of a small number, such as are easily reckoned up; which will require no great skill in numbers, nor trouble to count them: from the sword, from the famine, and from the pestilence;
during the siege of Jerusalem, and at the breaking of it up; but then they should be carried captive into other countries: that they may declare all their abominations among the Heathen whither
they come;
who, observing their calamities, and distresses, would read their sin in their punishment; and conclude they must have been guilty of great enormities, who were punished in such a manner; so that their punishment was a visible and standing declaration to the Heathens of the abominable sins they had been guilty of: or else the end of reserving a few of them from the above capital judgments was, that they being brought to a sense of their sins by their afflictions, might freely confess them, express their repentance for them, and justify God in his proceedings towards them: and they shall know that I [am] the Lord;
not the Heathens, among whom this declaration would be made; but the Jews, brought under a conviction of their sin, and of the justice of God in his dealings with them.

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FOOTNOTES:

F24 (rpom yvna) "viros numeri", Montanus, Vatablus; "homines numero", Starckius.

Ezekiel 12:16 In-Context

14 As for all those who are in league with him, I will scatter his helpers and all his troops to the winds and let the sword loose after them.

15 They will know that I am the LORD when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands.

16 But I will preserve a few of their number from the sword, famine, and plague, so that they may confess all their detestable practices among the nations where they go. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

17 The LORD's word came to me:

18 Human one, eat your bread in trembling, and drink your water in anxious agitation.