Ezekiel 3:25

25 Look at you, human one! They've now put cords on you and bound you up so that you can't go out among them.

Ezekiel 3:25 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 3:25

But thou, O son of man, behold, they shall put bands upon
thee
Or, "bands shall be put upon thee"; either visionally, or really; not by angels, but by the Jews, who, taking the prophet for a madman by his motions and gestures; would bind him, and keep him within doors: or figuratively this may be understood of the sins of the people, their rebellion and obstinacy, which hindered the prophet from prophesying among them as yet; and so this is observed to conciliate his mind to the divine order, to shut up himself for a while in his own house, and be silent: or else by these bonds may be meant the divine order itself, which restrained him from doing his office as yet. So the Targum,

``behold, I have appointed the words of my mouth upon thee, as a band of ropes with which they bind;''

and shall bind thee with them;
which some think is emblematical of the Jews being bound by the Chaldeans: and thou shall not go out among them;
to converse with them, or prophesy unto them. The Septuagint version renders it, "shall not go out from the midst of them"; as if he should be taken out of his own house by the Jews, and be bound by them, and kept among them, and not able to get away from them; but it is to be understood of his being bound in his own house, and not able to go out of that to them; and may signify, that in like manner the Jews should not be able to go out of Jerusalem when besieged by the Chaldeans.

Ezekiel 3:25 In-Context

23 So I got up and went out to the valley. Suddenly, the LORD's glory stood there, like the glory that I had seen at the Chebar River, and I fell on my face.

24 When a wind came to me and stood me on my feet, he spoke to me and said: Go, shut yourself up inside your house.

25 Look at you, human one! They've now put cords on you and bound you up so that you can't go out among them.

26 I'll make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth and take away your ability to speak. You won't be able to correct them, because they are a household of rebels.

27 But whenever I speak to you, I'll open your mouth, and you will say to them: The LORD God proclaims. Those who hear will understand, but those who refuse will not. They are just a household of rebels.