Ezekiel 24:3

3 And thou shalt say by a proverb a parable to the house (of Israel), (the) stirrer to wrath, and thou shalt speak to them, The Lord God saith these things, Set thou a brazen pot, set thou (it) soothly, and put thou water into it. (And thou shalt speak by a parable to the house of Israel, the stirrer, or provoker, to anger, and thou shalt say to them, The Lord God saith these things, Take thou a bronze pot, yea, take thou it, and put thou water into it.)

Ezekiel 24:3 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 24:3

And utter a parable to the rebellious house
The people of the Jews so called, not so much on account of their rebellion against the king of Babylon, which caused him to come against them, as on account of their rebellion against God, and the breach of his laws; see ( Ezekiel 2:3 Ezekiel 2:5-8 ) . The prophet is bid to represent to them, in a figurative and emblematic way, the miseries that were coming upon them for their wickedness, namely, under the parable of a boiling pot: and say unto them, thus saith the Lord God;
speaking in his name, and as coming from him, and clothed with his authority; that the following parable might not be thought to be a fancy and chimera of his own: "set on a pot, set it on"; set a pot on the fire, and do it quickly. This "pot" is the city of Jerusalem, which was to be brought into great distress and ruin; not a cauldron of brass, wherein the inhabitants should be as safe as if they had walls of brass about them, as they vainly boasted, ( Ezekiel 11:3 ) , but a seething pot, such an one as Jeremiah saw, to which, it may be, reference is here had, ( Jeremiah 1:13 ) , in which the people should be destroyed: and also pour water into it;
which, as it is some time a boiling, may denote the length of the siege of the city, which held two years; and of the troubles and miseries attending it; and of the greatness of them, which were as intolerable as boiling water. The Targum is,

``prophesy that armies shall come against this city; and also there shall be given unto it length of time to receive the siege.''

Ezekiel 24:3 In-Context

1 And the word of the Lord was made to me, in the ninth year, and in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month (on the tenth day of the month), and he said,

2 Thou, son of man, write to thee the name of this day, in which the king of Babylon is confirmed (in his attack) against Jerusalem today.

3 And thou shalt say by a proverb a parable to the house (of Israel), (the) stirrer to wrath, and thou shalt speak to them, The Lord God saith these things, Set thou a brazen pot, set thou (it) soothly, and put thou water into it. (And thou shalt speak by a parable to the house of Israel, the stirrer, or provoker, to anger, and thou shalt say to them, The Lord God saith these things, Take thou a bronze pot, yea, take thou it, and put thou water into it.)

4 Take thou a beast full fat (Take thou a very fat beast); gather thou together the gobbets thereof into it, each good part, and the hip, and the shoulder, chosen things and full of bones.

5 Also dress thou heaps of bones under it; and the seething thereof boiled out, and the bones thereof were sodden in the midst thereof (and its bones were boiled in its midst).