Ezekiel 5:10

10 Therefore in your midst parents will eat their children, and children will eat their parents. I will inflict punishment on you and will scatter all your survivors to the winds.

Ezekiel 5:10 in Other Translations

10 Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds.

10 Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers. And I will execute judgments on you, and any of you who survive I will scatter to all the winds.

10 Parents will eat their own children, and children will eat their parents. I will punish you and scatter to the winds the few who survive.

10 turn families into cannibals - parents eating children, children eating parents! Punishment indeed. And whoever's left over I'll throw to the winds.

10 As a result, fathers will eat [their] sons within Jerusalem, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your survivors to every direction of the wind.

Ezekiel 5:10 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 5:10

Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee,
&c.] Which was long ago threatened by the Lord, and prophesied of by Moses, ( Leviticus 26:27 ) ( Deuteronomy 28:53 Deuteronomy 28:55 Deuteronomy 28:57 ) ; and was fulfilled at several times in the people of Israel, as at the siege of Samaria, ( 2 Kings 6:28 2 Kings 6:29 ) ; at the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, ( Lamentations 4:10 ) ; and at the siege of the same city by Titus Vespasian, as Josephus ^F23 relates; for though these instances only show that mothers ate their children, yet no doubt the fathers took part with them; and if mothers, who are naturally more tender, could do this, it is much more reasonable to suppose that fathers did the same: and the sons shall eat their fathers;
this, though nowhere recorded, yet doubtless was done; it being as reasonable to think that a son might eat his father as a father his son, though both monstrously shocking: and I will execute judgments in thee;
punishments, such as pestilence, famine, and sword, after mentioned: and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds;
that is, those that remain, and are not cut off, by the above judgments, shall be carried captive into Babylon, or be dispersed in to Egypt, Ammon, Moab, and other places: this had a full accomplishment in the dispersion of the Jews into the several parts of the world, when they were destroyed by the Romans.

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FOOTNOTES:

F23 De Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 3. sect. 4. Ed. Hudson.

Ezekiel 5:10 In-Context

8 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will inflict punishment on you in the sight of the nations.

9 Because of all your detestable idols, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again.

10 Therefore in your midst parents will eat their children, and children will eat their parents. I will inflict punishment on you and will scatter all your survivors to the winds.

11 Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your vile images and detestable practices, I myself will shave you; I will not look on you with pity or spare you.

12 A third of your people will die of the plague or perish by famine inside you; a third will fall by the sword outside your walls; and a third I will scatter to the winds and pursue with drawn sword.

Cross References

• 1. S Leviticus 26:29; S Lamentations 2:20
• 2. S Leviticus 26:33; S Psalms 44:11; S Jeremiah 13:14; Ezekiel 12:14; Zechariah 2:6