Ezekiel5
New International Version
1“Now, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor to shave your head and your beard. Then take a set of scales and divide up the hair.
2When the days of your siege come to an end, burn a third of the hair inside the city. Take a third and strike it with the sword all around the city. And scatter a third to the wind. For I will pursue them with drawn sword.
3But take a few hairs and tuck them away in the folds of your garment.
4Again, take a few of these and throw them into the fire and burn them up. A fire will spread from there to all Israel.
5“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.
6Yet in her wickedness she has rebelled against my laws and decrees more than the nations and countries around her. She has rejected my laws and has not followed my decrees.
7“Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: You have been more unruly than the nations around you and have not followed my decrees or kept my laws. You have not even conformed to the standards of the nations around you.
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.
9Because of all your detestable idols, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again.
10Therefore 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.
11Therefore 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.
12A 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.
13“Then my anger will cease and my wrath against them will subside, and I will be avenged. And when I have spent my wrath on them, they will know that I the Lord have spoken in my zeal.
14“I will make you a ruin and a reproach among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by.
15You will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and an object of horror to the nations around you when I inflict punishment on you in anger and in wrath and with stinging rebuke. I the Lord have spoken.
16When I shoot at you with my deadly and destructive arrows of famine, I will shoot to destroy you. I will bring more and more famine upon you and cut off your supply of food.
17I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I the Lord have spoken.”
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Ezekiel 5.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: A type of hair, showing the judgments about to come upon the Jews. (1-4). These awful judgments are declared. (5-17).
vv1-4
The prophet must shave off the hair of his head and beard, which signifies God's utter rejecting and abandoning that people. One part must be burned in the midst of the city, denoting the multitudes that should perish by famine and pestilence. Another part was to be cut in pieces, representing the many who were slain by the sword. Another part was to be scattered in the wind, denoting the carrying away of some into the land of the conqueror, and the flight of others into the neighbouring countries for shelter. A small quantity of the third portion was to be bound in his shirts, as that of which he is very careful. But few were reserved. To whatever refuge sinners flee, the fire and sword of God's wrath will consume them.
vv5-17
The sentence passed upon Jerusalem is very dreadful, the manner of expression makes it still more so. Who is able to stand in God's sight when he is angry? Those who live and die impenitent, will perish for ever unpitied; there is a day coming when the Lord will not spare. Let not persons or churches, who change the Lord's statutes, expect to escape the doom of Jerusalem. Let us endeavour to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. Sooner or later God's word will prove itself true.
Key Words
אַתָּה: thou and thee, or (plural) ye and you
בֵּן: a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etc., (like father or brother), etc.)
אָדָם: ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species, mankind, etc.)
לָקַח: to take (in the widest variety of applications)
חַד: sharp
חֶרֶב: drought; also a cutting instrument (from its destructive effect), as a knife, sword, or other sharp implement
גַּלָּב: a barber
תַּעַר: a knife or razor (as making bare); also a scabbard (as being bare, i.e. empty)
עָבַר: to cross over; used very widely of any transition (literal or figurative; transitive, intransitive, intensive, causative); specifically, to cover (in copulation)
עַל: above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applications
Cross References
Ezekiel 5Prophetic imagery of a razor hired to shave the head/beard represents humiliating judgment through a foreign king.
Supported by JFB
Priests were forbidden to make baldness; shaving the priestly prophet shows the ceremonial yielding to moral judgment.
Supported by JFB
Daniel confirms that the catastrophe upon Jerusalem was a unique judgment, unequaled under the whole heaven.
Supported by JFB
Lamentations verifies that Jerusalem's punishment surpassed even the sudden, historic overthrow of Sodom.
Supported by JFB
Fulfills the horrific covenant curse of parents eating their children during extreme siege conditions.
Supported by John Calvin
Parallel distribution of the people to specific appointed destines: death, sword, famine, and captivity.
Supported by John Calvin
Jeremiah remaining with Gedaliah represents the tiny remnant bound in the prophet's skirts.
Supported by JFB
The Chaldean captain left a small number of the poorest of the land as a remnant.
Supported by JFB
Ishmael's conspiracy represents the fire coming out from the remnant to consume others.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
The nations did not change their false gods, but Israel shamefully changed their true Glory.
Supported by JFB
Detailed Pentateuchal warning of cannibalism during the desperate straits of a hostile siege.
Supported by Matthew Poole
The covenant curse of being scattered among the heathen while God draws out a sword after them.
Supported by John Calvin
Moses warns of God breaking the staff of bread, leaving the people hungry despite eating.
Supported by Matthew Poole
The Song of Moses lists God spending His arrows of judgment and famine upon rebellious Israel.
Supported by Matthew Poole