Ezekiel 5:1-11

1 `And thou, son of man, take to thee a sharp weapon, the barber's razor thou dost take to thee, and thou hast caused [it] to pass over thy head, and over thy beard, and thou hast taken to thee weighing scales, and apportioned them.

2 A third part with fire thou dost burn in the midst of the city, at the fulness of the days of the siege; and thou hast taken the third part, thou dost smite with a weapon round about it; and the third part thou dost scatter to the wind, and a weapon I draw out after them.

3 And thou hast taken thence a few in number -- and hast bound them in thy skirts;

4 and of them thou dost take again, and hast cast them unto the midst of the fire, and hast burned them in the fire -- out of it cometh forth a fire unto all the house of Israel.

5 Thus said the Lord Jehovah: this [is] Jerusalem, In the midst of the nations I have set her, And round about her [are] the lands.

6 And she changeth My judgments into wickedness more than the nations, And My statutes more than the lands that [are] round about her, For against My judgments they have kicked, And My statutes -- they have not walked in them.

7 Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because of your multiplying above the nations that [are] around you, In My statutes ye have not walked, And My judgments ye have not done, According to the judgments of the nations That [are] round about you ye have not done.

8 Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Lo, I [am] against thee, even I, And I have done in thy midst judgments, Before the eyes of the nations.

9 And I have done in thee that which I have not done, And that which I do not its like again, Because of all thine abominations.

10 Therefore fathers do eat sons in thy midst, And sons eat their fathers, And I have done in thee judgments, And have scattered all thy remnant to every wind.

11 Therefore, I live -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah: Because My sanctuary thou hast defiled, With all thy detestable things, And with all thine abominations, Mine eye pitieth not, and I also spare not. Do not even I also diminish?

Ezekiel 5:1-11 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.