A verse by verse commentary on Ezekiel 5 dealing with a continuation of God's judgement on Jerusalem for being so disobedient to God's law.

1. EZEKIEL 5 COMMENTARY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
God’s Razor of Judgment
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.
BARNES, "Translate it: take thee a sharp sword, for a barber’s razor thou shalt take
it thee. Even if the action were literal, the use of an actual sword would best enforce the
symbolic meaning. The “head” represents the chief city, the “hair” the inhabitants - its
ornament and glory - the “hair cut from the head” the exiles cast forth from their homes.
It adds to the force of the representation that “to shave the head” was a token of
mourning Job_1:20, and was forbidden to the priests Lev_21:5. Thus, in many ways,
this action of Ezekiel “the priest” is significant of calamity and ruin. The sword indicates
the avenging power; the shaving of the head the removal of grace and glory; the scales
and weights the determination of divine justice. Compare Zec_13:8-9.
CLARKE, "Take thee a sharp knife - Among the Israelites, and indeed among
most ancient nations, there were very few edge-tools. The sword was the chief; and this
was used as a knife, a razor, etc., according to its different length and sharpness. It is
likely that only one kind of instrument is here intended; a knife or short sword, to be
employed as a razor.
Here is a new emblem produced, in order to mark out the coming evils.
1. The prophet represents the Jewish nation.
2. His hair, the people.
3. The razor, the Chaldeans.
4. The cutting the beard and hair, the calamities, sorrows, and disgrace coming upon
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2. the people. Cutting off the hair was a sign of mourning; see on Jer_45:5 (note);
Jer_48:37 (note); and also a sign of great disgrace; see 2Sa_10:4.
5. He is ordered to divide the hair, 2Sa_10:2, into three equal parts, to intimate the
different degrees and kinds of punishment which should fall upon the people.
6. The balances, 2Sa_10:1, were to represent the Divine justice, and the exactness
with which God’s judgments should be distributed among the offenders.
7. This hair, divided into three parts, is to be disposed of thus:
1. A third part is to be burnt in the midst of the city, to show that so many should
perish by famine and pestilence during the siege.
2. Another third part he was to cut in small portions about the city, (that figure
which he had pourtrayed upon the brick), to signify those who should perish in
different sorties, and in defending the walls.
3. And the remaining third part he was to scatter in the wind, to point out those
who should be driven into captivity. And,
4. The sword following them was intended to show that their lives should be at the
will of their captors, and that many of them should perish by the sword in their
dispersions.
5. The few hairs which he was to take in his skirts, 2Sa_10:3, was intended to
represent those few Jews that should be left in the land under Gedaliah, after the
taking of the city.
6. The throwing a part of these last into the fire, 2Sa_10:4, was intended to show
the miseries that these suffered in Judea, in Egypt, and finally in their being also
carried away into Babylon on the conquest of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar. See
these transactions particularly pointed out in the notes on Jeremiah, chapters
40, 41, 42. Some think that this prophecy may refer to the persecution of the
Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes.
GILL, "And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife,.... Or, "sword" (m). The
word signifies any sharp instrument, by which anything is cut off, or cut asunder; what is
here meant is explained by the following:
take thee a barber's razor. The Septuagint and Arabic versions read this in
conjunction with the former, thus, "take thee a knife", or "sword, sharper than a barber's
razor"; and so the Syriac version, "take thee a sword sharp as a barber's razor"; this
sharp knife, sword, or razor, signifies, as Jarchi interprets it, Nebuchadnezzar; and very
rightly; so the king of Assyria is called in Isa_7:20,
and cause it to pass upon thine head, and upon thy beard; the "head" was a
symbol of the city of Jerusalem, the metropolis of Judea; the "beard", of the cities,
towns, and villages about it; and the "hair" of both, of the common people; compared to
hair for their numbers, for their levity and unsteadiness, and for their being the beauty
and ornament of the places where they lived; and the shaving of them denotes their
disgrace and destruction, and mourning on account thereof:
then take thee balances to weigh and divide the hair. The Syriac version adds,
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3. "into three parts"; signifying, that several distinct punishments would be inflicted on
them, and these according to the righteous judgment of God; balances being a symbol of
justice.
HENRY 1, “We have here the sign by which the utter destruction of Jerusalem is set
forth; and here, as before, the prophet is himself the sign, that the people might see how
much he affected himself with, and interested himself in, the case of Jerusalem, and how
it lay to his heart, even when he foretold the desolations of it. he was so much concerned
about it as to take what was done to it as done to himself, so far was he from desiring the
woeful day.
I. He must shave off the hair of his head and beard (Eze_5:1), which signified God's
utter rejecting and abandoning that people, as a useless worthless generation, such as
could well be spared, nay, such as it would be his honour to part with; his judgments,
and all the instruments he made use of in cutting them off, were this sharp knife and this
razor, that were proper to be made use of, and would do execution. Jerusalem had been
the head, but, having degenerated, had become as the hair, which, when it grows thick
and long, is but a burden which a man wishes to get clear of, as God of the sinners in
Zion. Ah! I will ease me of my adversaries, Isa_1:24. Ezekiel must not cut off that hair
only which was superfluous, but cut it all off, denoting the full end that God would make
of Jerusalem. The hair that would not be trimmed and kept neat and clean by the
admonitions of the prophets must be all shaved off by utter destruction. Those will be
ruined that will not be reformed.
II. He must weigh the hair and divide it into three parts. This intimates the very exact
directing of God's judgments according to equity (by him men and their actions are
weighed in the unerring balance of truth and righteousness) and the proportion which
divine justice observes in punishing some by one judgment and others by another; one
way or other, they shall all be met with. Some make the shaving of the hair to denote the
loss of their liberty and of their honour: it was looked upon as a mark of ignominy, as in
the disgrace Hanun put on David's ambassadors. It denotes also the loss of their joy, for
they shaved their heads upon occasion of great mourning; I may add the loss of their
Nazariteship, for the shaving of the head was a period to that vow (Num_6:18), and
Jerusalem was now no longer looked upon as a holy city.
JAMISON, “Eze_5:1-17. Vision of cutting the hairs, and the calamities
foreshadowed thereby.
knife ... razor — the sword of the foe (compare Isa_7:20). This vision implies even
severer judgments than the Egyptian afflictions foreshadowed in the former, for their
guilt was greater than that of their forefathers.
thine head — as representative of the Jews. The whole hair being shaven off was
significant of severe and humiliating (2Sa_10:4, 2Sa_10:5) treatment. Especially in the
case of a priest; for priests (Lev_21:5) were forbidden “to make baldness on their head,”
their hair being the token of consecration; hereby it was intimated that the ceremonial
must give place to the moral.
balances — implying the just discrimination with which Jehovah weighs out the
portion of punishment “divided,” that is, allotted to each: the “hairs” are the Jews: the
divine scales do not allow even one hair to escape accurate weighing (compare Mat_
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4. 10:30).
K&D 1-4, “The Sign which is to Portray Israel's Impending Destiny. - Eze_5:1. And
thou, son of man, take to thyself a sharp sword, as a razor shalt thou take it to thyself,
and go with it over thy head, and over thy chin, and take to thee scales, and divide it
(the hair). Eze_5:2. A third part burn with fire in the midst of the city, when the days of
the siege are accomplished: and take the (other) third, smite with the sword round
about it: and the (remaining) third scatter to the winds; and the sword will I draw out
after them. Eze_5:3. Yet take a few of them by number, and bind them in the skirt of
thy garment. Eze_5:4. And of these again take a few, and cast them into the fire, and
burn them with fire; from thence a fire shall go forth over the whole house of Israel. -
The description of this sign is easily understood. ‫ר‬ַ‫ע‬ ַ‫תּ‬ ‫ים‬ ִ‫ב‬ָ‫ַלּ‬‫גּ‬ ַ‫,ה‬ “razor of the barbers,” is
the predicate, which is to be understood to the suffix in ‫ָה‬‫נּ‬ ֶ‫ח‬ ָ‫קּ‬ ִ‫;תּ‬ and the clause states the
purpose for which Ezekiel is to use the sharp sword - viz. as a razor, in order to cut off
therewith the hair of his head and beard. The hair, when cut off, he is to divide into three
parts with a pair of scales (the suffix in ‫ם‬ ָ‫תּ‬ ְ‫ק‬ַ‫לּ‬ ִ‫ח‬ refers ad sensum to the hair). The one
third he is to burn in the city, i.e., not in the actual Jerusalem, but in the city, sketched
on the brick, which he is symbolically besieging (Eze_4:3). To the city also is to be
referred the suffix in ָ‫יה‬ ֶ‫ת‬ ‫יב‬ ִ‫ב‬ ְ‫,ס‬ Eze_5:2, as is placed beyond doubt by Eze_5:12. In the
last clause of Eze_5:2, which is taken from Lev_26:33, the description of the sign passes
over into its exposition, for ‫ם‬ ֶ‫יה‬ ֵ‫חֲר‬ ַ‫א‬ does not refer to the hair, but to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem. The significance also of this symbolical act is easily recognised, and is,
moreover, stated in Eze_5:12. Ezekiel, in this act, represents the besieged Jerusalem.
What he does to his hair, that will God do to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. As the hair of
the prophet falls under the sword, used as a razor, so will the inhabitants of Jerusalem
fall, when the city is captured, into destruction, and that verily an ignominious
destruction. This idea is contained in the picture of the hair-cutting, which was a
dishonour done to what forms the ornament of a man. See on 2Sa_10:4. A third of the
same is to perish in the city. As the fire destroys the hair, so will pestilence and hunger
consume the inhabitants of the beleaguered city (Eze_5:12). The second third will, on
the capture of the city, fall by the sword in the environs (Eze_5:12); the last third will
God scatter to the winds, and-as Moses has already threatened the people will draw forth
the sword after them, still to persecute and smite them (Eze_5:12). This sign is
continued (Eze_5:3 and Eze_5:4) in a second symbolical act, which shadows forth what
is further to happen to the people when dispersed among the heathen. Of the third
scattered to the winds, Ezekiel is to bind a small portion in the skirt of his garment.
‫ם‬ ָ‫שּׁ‬ ִ‫,מ‬ “from thence,” refers not to ‫ית‬ ִ‫ישׁ‬ ִ‫ל‬ ְ‫שּׁ‬ ַ‫,ה‬ but, ad sensum, to ‫ה‬ ֶ‫ר‬ְ‫ז‬ ִ‫תּ‬ ַ‫רוּח‬ָ‫:ל‬ “from the
place where the third that is scattered to the winds is found” - i.e., as regards the subject-
matter, of those who are to be found among the dispersion. The binding up into the
‫ם‬ִ‫י‬ַ‫ָפ‬‫נ‬ ְ‫,כּ‬ “the corners or ends of the garment” (cf. Jer_2:34), denotes the preservation of
the few, who are gathered together out of the whole of those who are dispersed among
the heathen; cf. 1Sa_25:29; Eze_16:8. But even of these few He shall still cast some into
the fire, and consume them. Consequently those who are gathered together out of exile
are not all to be preserved, but are still to be sifted by fire, in which process a part is
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5. consumed. This image does not refer to those who remain behind in the land, when the
nation is led away captive to Babylon (Theodoret, Grotius, and others), but, as Ephrem
the Syrian and Jerome saw, to those who were saved from Babylon, and to their further
destiny, as is already clear from the ‫ם‬ ָ‫שּׁ‬ ִ‫,מ‬ rightly understood. The meaning of the last
clause of Eze_5:4 is disputed; in it, as in the final clause of Eze_5:2, the symbolical
representation passes over into the announcement of the thing itself. ‫נּוּ‬ ֶ‫מּ‬ ִ‫,מ‬ which Ewald
would arbitrarily alter into ‫י‬ִ‫נּ‬ ֶ‫מּ‬ ִ‫,מ‬ cannot, with Hävernick, be referred to ‫ל־תּ‬ ֶ‫,א‬ because
this yields a very forced sense, but relates to the whole act described in Eze_5:3 and
Eze_5:4 : that a portion thereof is rescued and preserved, and yet of this portion many
are consumed by fire - from that a fire shall go forth over the whole house of Israel. This
fire is explained by almost all expositors, from Theodoret and Jerome onwards, of the
penal judgment which were inflicted after the exile upon the Jews, which reached their
culminating point in the siege and destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and which
still continue in their dispersion throughout the whole world. But this view, as Kliefoth
has already remarked, is not only in decided antagonism to the intention of the text, but
it is, moreover, altogether impossible to see how a judgment of extermination for all
Israel can be deduced from the fact that a small number of the Israelites, who are
scattered to the winds, is saved, and that of those who are saved a part is still consumed
with fire. From thence there can only come forth a fire of purification for the whole of
Israel, through which the remnant, as Isaiah had already predicted (Isa_6:12.), is
converted into a holy seed. In the last clause, consuming by fire is not referred to. The
fire, however, has not merely a destructive, but also a cleansing, purifying, and
quickening power. To kindle such a fire on earth did Christ come (Luk_12:40), and from
Him the same goes out over the whole house of Israel. This view, for which Kliefoth has
already rightly decided, receives a confirmation through Eze_6:8-10, where is
announced the conversion of the remnant of those Israelites who had been dispersed
among the nations.
So far the symbolical acts. Before, however, we pass on to the explanation of the
following oracle, we must still briefly touch the question, whether these acts were
undertaken and performed by the prophet in the world of external reality, or whether
they were occurrences only internally real, which Ezekiel experienced in spirit - i.e., in
an ecstatic condition - and afterwards communicated to the people. Amongst modern
expositors, Kliefoth has defended the former view, and has adduced the following
considerations in support: A significant act, and yet also a silent, leisurely one, must be
performed, that it may show something to those who behold it. Nor is the case such, as
Hitzig supposes, that it would have been impossible to carry out what had been required
of the prophet in Ezekiel 4. It had, indeed, its difficulty; but God sometimes requires
from His servants what is difficult, although He also helps them to the performance of it.
So here He will make it easy for the prophet to recline, by binding him (Eze_4:8). “In the
sign, this certainly was kept in view, that it should be performed; and it, moreover, was
performed, although the text, in a manner quite intelligible with reference to an act
commanded by God, does not expressly state it.” For these latter assertions, however,
there is anything but convincing proof. The matter is not so simple as Kliefoth supposes,
although we are at one with him in this, that neither the difficulty of carrying out what
was commanded in the world of external reality, nor the non-mention of the actual
performance, furnishes sufficient grounds for the supposition of merely internal,
spiritual occurrences. We also are of opinion that very many of the symbolical acts of the
prophets were undertaken and performed in the external world, and that this
5

6. supposition, as that which corresponds most fully with the literal meaning of the words,
is on each occasion the most obvious, and is to be firmly adhered to, unless there can be
good grounds for the opposite view. In the case now before us, we have first to take into
consideration that the oracle which enjoins these symbolical acts on Ezekiel stands in
close connection, both as to time and place, with the inauguration of Ezekiel to the
prophetic office. The hand of the Lord comes upon him at the same place, where the
concluding word at his call was addressed to him (the ‫ם‬ ָ‫,שׁ‬ Eze_3:22, points back to ‫ם‬ ָ‫שׁ‬
in Eze_3:15); and the circumstance that Ezekiel found himself still on the same spot to
which he had been transported by the Spirit of God (Eze_3:14), shows that the new
revelation, which he here still received, followed very soon, if not immediately, after his
consecration to the office of prophet. Then, upon the occasion of this divine revelation,
he is again, as at his consecration, transported into an ecstatic condition, as is clear not
only from the formula, “the hand of the Lord came upon me,” which in our book always
has this signification, but also most undoubtedly from this, that he again sees the glory
of Jehovah in the same manner as he had seen it in Ezekiel 1 - viz. when in an ecstatic
condition. But if this were an ecstatic vision, it is obvious that the acts also which the
divine appearance imposed upon him must be regarded as ecstatic occurrences; since
the assertion that every significant act must be performed, in order that something may
be shown to those who witness it, is fundamentally insufficient for the proof that this act
must fall within the domain of the earthly world of sense, because the occurrences
related in Ezekiel 8-11 are viewed even by Kliefoth himself as purely internal events. As
decisive, however, for the purely internal character of the symbolical acts under
consideration (Ezekiel 4 and 5), is the circumstance that the supposition of Ezekiel
having, in his own house, actually lain 390 days upon his left, and then, again, 40 days
upon his right side without turning, stands in irreconcilable contradiction with the fact
that he, according to Eze_8:1., was carried away in ecstasy to Jerusalem, there to behold
in the temple the monstrosities of Israel's idolatry and the destruction of Jerusalem. For
the proof of this, see the introduction to Ezekiel 8.
CALVIN, "By another vision God confirms what he had lately taught concerning
the siege of Jerusalem. For he orders the Prophet to shave the hairs off his head and
his beard, then to distribute them into three parts, and to weigh them in a balance.
He mentions a just balance, that equity may be preserved, and that one portion may
not surpass another. There is no doubt that by the hairs he understands the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, as by the head he understands the seat itself of their
dwelling-place. Then the application will follow; but this I shall pass by today,
because I cannot proceed farther. It is sufficient to hold briefly, that men are here
designated by hairs, for hair can scarcely be counted, indeed that of the beard is
countless; such was the multitude at Jerusalem, for we know that the city was very
populous. We know, again, that it took occasion for pride from this; when they saw
that they were strong in the multitude of their people, they thought themselves
equal, if not superior, to all enemies, and hence their foolish confidence, which
destroyed them. God then commanded the Prophet to shave off all the hairs of his
6

7. head and of his beard. Thus he taught that not even one man should escape the
slaughter, because he says, make the sword pass, or pass it, over thy head, then over
thy chin, so that nothing may remain. We see, then, how far the passing of the razor
is to go — until no hair remains entire on either the head or beard. Whence it
follows, that God will take vengeance on the whole nation, so that not one of them
shall survive. As to his ordering three parts to be weighed, and a proportion to be
kept between them, in this way he signifies what we have often seen in Jeremiah,
(Jeremiah 15:2) — Whosoever shall have escaped the sword shall perish by famine,
and whosoever shall escape the famine shall perish by some other means. But here
God explains at length the manner in which he was about to destroy all the Jews,
although they were distributed into various ranks. For their condition might seem
different when some had been put to flight, and others had betaken themselves to
Egypt. But in this variety God shows that it detracts nothing from his power or
intention of destroying them to a man.
Let us come to the words make a razor pass over thy head and over, thy beard; and
then take scales ‫,מאזנים‬maznim, is properly called a balance on account of its two
ears. Take, therefore, a balance, or scales for weighing, and divide the hair. What
this division means I have already explained, because all the Jews were not
consumed by the same punishment,, and therefore those who had escaped one kind
of destruction boasted that they were safe. Hence they were enraged against God.
But this foolish confidence is taken away, when the Prophet is ordered to divide the
hair extracted from his head and beard, Divide them, he says; afterwards he adds, a
third part. As to God’s distributing the people into three parts, it is not done
without the best reason for it; for a part was consumed by famine and distress
before the city was taken. But because God marks all miseries by fire, therefore he
orders a third part to be cast into the fire, and consumed there. Now because there
were two parts remaining, every one promised himself life; for he who escapes
present death thinks himself free from all danger, and hence confidence is
increased; for we too often think ourselves safe when we have overcome one kind of
death. For this reason, therefore, it is added, after thou hast burnt a third part in
the fire, he says, take a third part and strike it with the sword Besides, he orders a
third part to be burnt in the midst of the city. Ezekiel was then in Chaldea, and not
near the city; but we said that all this took place by a prophetic vision. What is here
said answers to the wrath of God, because before the siege of the city, a third part
was consumed by pestilence, and famine, and distress, and other evils and
slaughters; and all these miseries are here denoted by fire. For after the city had
been taken, God orders a third part to be struck with the sword. We know this to
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8. have been fulfilled when the king with all his company was seized, as he was flying
over the plain of Jericho, (2 Kings 25:0) when meeting with the hostile army;
because very many were killed there, the king himself was carried off, his sons
murdered in his sight, while his eyes were put out, and he was dragged to Babylon
bound in chains. Hence this is the third part, which he commanded the Prophet to
strike with the sword, because that slaughter represented the slaughter of the city.
Now it is added, that he should take a third part and cast it to the wind: then follows
the threat, I will unsheathe my sword after them Here it is spoken as well of the
fugitives who had gone into various countries, as of the poor, who being dispersed
after the slaughter of the city, protracted their life but a short time. For we know
that some lay hid in the land of Moab, others in that of Ammon, more in Egypt, and
that others fled to various hiding-places. This dispersion was as if any one should
cast the shorn-off hairs to the wind. But God pronounces that their flight and
dispersion would not profit them, because he will draw his sword against them and
follow them up to the very last. We see therefore, although at first sight the citizens
of Jerusalem differ, as if they were divided into three classes, yet the wrath of God
hangs over all, and destroys the whole multitude.
COFFMAN, “SYMBOLIC SIEGE OF JERUSALEM CONTINUED
As Dummelow noted, Ezekiel's part in these pantomimes is variable. Part of the
time he represents God, and at other times he stands for Israel. Here he stands for
Jerusalem, his head particularly, standing for city; but again, in the burning of the
hair in the midst of the city (that is, in the middle of the map of the city on the tile),
he enacts the part God would play in the destruction of Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 5:1-4
"And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp sword; as a barber's razor shalt thou take
it unto thee, and shall cause it to pass upon thy head and upon thy beard: then take
thee balances to weigh and divide the hair. A third part shalt thou burn in the fire in
the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled; and thou shalt take a
8

9. third part and smite with the sword round about it; and a third part shalt thou
scatter to the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them. And shall take thereof a
few in number and bind them in thy skirts. And of these again shalt thou take, and
cast them into the midst of the fire; therefore shall a fire come forth into all the
house of Israel."
As regarded the destiny of Jerusalem, the symbols introduced here were extremely
distressing. The sword stood for the armed might of Babylon. The shaving of the
head stood for humiliation, mourning, disaster, the loss of sanctity, catastrophe. The
balances were a symbol of the justice and righteousness of God and the equity of his
judgments. Ezekiel's head represented Jerusalem; the hair represented the
population of it, the glory, and honor, and ability of the city. These were all to
disappear in the destruction.
The various uses of the three-thirds of the hair, only a part of the last third being
accorded a special treatment, indicated the various ways in which the population of
Jerusalem would be killed. The burning in the midst of the city refers to their death
by famine and pestilence; the smiting of a third of it with the sword "round about
the city" represents those who would fall to the sword of Babylon; and the
scattering of a third of it to the winds represented the scattering of the Israelites
among all nations.
Apparently the mandate to smite some of the hair "round about the city" refers to
his smiting of it symbolically around the tile that had the map of Jerusalem
engraved upon it.
"And thou shalt take thereof a few in number, and bind them in thy skirts ..."
(Ezekiel 5:3) Yes indeed, right here is that same glorious doctrine of the righteous
remnant so prominent in the works of Isaiah and Jeremiah. "There are some who
deny the doctrine of the remnant is in Ezekiel, but that view is untenable in the light
of this verse 3."[1] It is clear enough here that the small portion of that final third
which was bound in the skirts of God's prophet was an eloquent testimony that not
all of Israel would be destroyed.
9

10. "And of these again shalt thou take and cast them ... into the fire ..." (Ezekiel 5:4)
This shows that not all of the "righteous remnant" would escape the disasters to fall
upon the Whole nation. Even from them also there would be those who fell away.
Having in these dramatic pictures foretold the terrible destruction of Jerusalem,
Ezekiel in the following paragraph explained the necessity for the coming judgment.
COKE, “Ezekiel 5:1. Take thee a barber's razor— The balances were a symbol of
the divine justice, as the razor was of the divine anger; the former signifying his
equity, the hairs the Jews, and the dividing of the hair the punishment inflicted
upon individuals. The author of the Observations has remarked, that among the
Arabs there cannot be a greater stamp of infamy, than to cut off any one's beard;
and that many among them would prefer death to this kind of punishment. And as
they would think it a grievous affliction to lose it, so they carry things so far as to
beg for the sake of it; "By your beard, by the life of your beard, do." In like
manner, some of their benedictions are, "God preserve your blessed beard; God
pour his blessings on your beard;" and when they would express their value for a
thing, they say, "It is worth more than his beard." I must confess, continues this
writer, that I never had so clear an apprehension as after I had read these accounts,
of the intended energy of the thought of Ezekiel in the verse before us, when the
inhabitants of Jerusalem are compared to the hair of the prophet's head and beard.
The passage seems to signify, that, though the inhabitants of Jerusalem had been as
clear to God as the hair of an Indian beard to its owner, yet that they should be
taken away and consumed; one part by pestilence and famine, another part by the
sword, and the third by the calamities of exile. See Observations, p. 261.
TRAPP, “Ezekiel 5:1 And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a
barber’s razor, and cause [it] to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard: then
take thee balances to weigh, and divide the [hair].
Ver. 1. And thou, son of man.] See on Ezekiel 2:1.
10

11. Take thee a sharp knife.] This was the King of Babylon. {as Isaiah 7:20} The Turk is
at this day such another. Mohammed I was, in his time, the death of 800,000 men.
Selymus II, in revenge of the loss received at Lepanto, would have put to death all
the Christians in his dominions. (a)
Take thee a barber’s razor.] Not a "deceitful razor," {as Psalms 52:2} but one that
will do the deed - sharp and sure. Pliny (b) telleth us, out of Varo, that the Romans
had no barbers till 454 years after the city was built; ante intonsi fuere.
And cause it to pass upon thy head and upon thy beard.] As hairs are an ornament
to the head and beard, so are people to a city. But, as when they begin to be a
burden or trouble to either, they are cut off and cast away; so are people by God’s
judgments, when by their sins they are offensive to him; dealing as Dionysius did by
his god Aesculapius, from whom he presumed to pull his golden beard. David felt
himself shaved in his ambassadors; so doth God in his servants - whose very hairs
are numbered [Matthew 10:30] - in his ministers especially - who, by a specialty, are
called God’s men [1 Timothy 6:11 2 Timothy 3:17] - with whom to meddle is more
dangerous than to take a lion by the beard or a bear by the hair.
Then take the balances to weigh.] This showeth that God’s judgments are just to a
hair’s weight: and capillus unus suam habet umbram, saith Mimus.
And divide the hair.] Dii nos quasi pilas habent, saith Plautus; Imo quasi pilos, saith
another.
POOLE, “Under the type of the prophet’s hair, Ezekiel 5:1-4, is showed God’s
judgment upon Jerusalem, Ezekiel 5:5-11, by pestilence, by famine, by the sword,
and by dispersion, Ezekiel 5:12-17.
It is not unlikely that this command was given to the prophet so soon as he had
understood the former chapter’s vision.
11

12. Son of man: see Ezekiel 2:1.
Take thee; procure it by any means.
A sharp knife; a sword or knife very sharp, as the Hebrew; so the grievous
judgment is expressed Ezekiel 21:9-11,14-16, and here the speedy, irresistible, and
sweeping judgment against this people is aptly set forth.
A barber’s razor: this in different words is the same thing, and explains the former,
and makes the emblem more exact, for by hair shaved and destroyed is the
destruction of Jerusalem and its people represented to us, Now, that this may
appear in the certainty of it, both a sword for strength, and sharp for cutting, nay, a
razor much sharper, that shaves close, leaves nothing behind it, and cannot be
resisted by the weak hair, so shall it be here with this people.
Cause it to pass; a Hebraism, shave close with it.
Thy head; the chief, as king and rulers, the city.
Thy beard; the common citizens; or, the towns round about.
Balances; just and exact scales, an emblem of Divine justice and equity.
To weigh: the prophet’s weighing represents God weighing these men and their
ways.
The hair; these light, vain, and worthless ones, inhabitants of this sinful city, 2
12

13. Samuel 10:4,5 Jer 41:5 48:37. Thus foretell them their mourning, reproach, and
deformity that is coming, for all this is signified by this shaving head and beard.
PETT, “Verse 1-2
The Significance of His Shaven Beard and Head.
“And you, son of man, you take a sharp sword. As a barber’s razor you will take it
to you. And you will cause it to pass over your head and on your beard. Then take
for yourself balances to weigh and divide the hair. A third part you will burn with
fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled. And you will
take a third part and smite with the sword round about it. And a third part you will
scatter to the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them.”
Shaving the head or beard was a sign of mourning (Ezekiel 7:18; Isaiah 15:2; Isaiah
22:12; Jeremiah 48:37; Amos 8:10), or even of disgrace (2 Samuel 10:4). It was also
the sign of the end of a person’s separation to God (Numbers 6:5; Numbers 6:18).
Ezekiel’s act in doing so was an indication that Jerusalem would be shorn, as a sign
of disgrace, as a sign of mourning, and as a sign of the end of its separation to God.
The hair then had to be weighed and divided and separated into three parts. The
weighing indicated that Jerusalem had been weighed and had been found wanting
(compare Proverbs 21:2; Daniel 5:27). Then one third he had to burn in the midst of
his model city, a third part he had to smite with a sword round about the city,
chopping them in pieces, and a third part had to be scattered to the wind. This was
to take place once he had finished his days of depicting the period of the siege. This
signified that one third of the inhabitants of Jerusalem would die in the siege
through pestilence and famine, one third in the fighting round about and that one
third would be scattered among the nations (Ezekiel 5:12; compare Jeremiah 15:2).
But even these latter would still be subject to further judgments from God. ‘I will
draw out a sword after them’. They would be constantly harried, and many would
die because of their evil ways.
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14. WHEDON, “ 1. A sharp knife,… a barber’s razor — The prophet uses a knife
(literally, sword) as a razor — or, less probably, his razor is called a sword
(Ewald) — to make the meaning more plain that the people are to be cut off by the
sword, which Isaiah previously in this connection had actually called “a razor”
(Isaiah 7:20). The hair in all oriental symbolism stands for the life. To sacrifice the
hair is to symbolically sacrifice the life. (See note Ezekiel 16:21, and Oneil’s Night of
the Gods, 1:312.) The priests were forbidden by law to shave (Leviticus 19:27;
Leviticus 21:5); this therefore was another act which, when he saw it in the future,
had made him “hot” and “bitter” (Ezekiel 3:14).
Balances to weigh — No slightest inaccuracy is permitted. The exact judicial
punishment must be executed (Deuteronomy 16:20; Daniel 5:27).
PULPIT, “Ezekiel 5:1
Take thee a barber's razor, etc. The series of symbolic acts is carried further.
Recollections of Isaiah and Leviticus mingle strangely in the prophet's mind. The
former had made the "razor" the symbol of the devastation wrought by an invading
army (Isaiah 7:20). The latter had forbidden its use for the head and beard of the
priests (Le Leviticus 19:27; Leviticus 21:5). Once again Ezekiel is commanded to do
a forbidden thing as a symbolic act. He is, for the moment, the representative of the
people of Jerusalem, and there is to be, as of old, a great destruction of that people
as "by a razor that is hired." The word for "barber" (perhaps "hair cutter") does
not occur elsewhere in the Old Testament, but its use may be noted as showing that
then, as now, the "barber" was a recognized institution in every Eastern town. The
word for "knife" (Joshua 5:2; 1 Kings 18:28) is used in verse 2, and commonly
throughout the Old Testament, for "sword," and is so translated here by the LXX.
and Vulgate. The prophet is to take a "sword" and use it as a razor, to make the
symbolism more effective.
BI 1-4, “Take thee a sharp knife.
God’s judgments upon the wicked
1. Wicked men are of little worth; take a whole city of them, they are of no more
14

15. account with God than a little hair of the head or beard.
2. It is the privilege of Christ to appoint whom and what instruments He pleases to
execute His pleasure upon sinners.
3. When God hath been long provoked by a people, He comes with sharp and
sweeping judgments amongst them.
4. There is no standing out against God; whatever our number or strength is, His
judgments are irresistible.
5. The judgments and proceedings of God with sinners are not rash, but most
carefully weighed.
6. There is no escaping of God’s judgments for hard-hearted sinners.
7. In great judgments and general destructions, God of His infinite mercy spares
some few. Ezekiel must take a few and bind up in his skirts, all must not be
destroyed; the fire and sword devoureth many, but the dispersion preserved some,
and some few are left in Judah. God is just, and yet when He is in the way of His
judgments, he forgets not mercy: a little of the hair shall be preserved, when the rest
goes to the fire, sword, and wind.
8. The paucity preserved in common calamities are not all precious, truly godly.
Reprobates for the present escape as well as elect vessels; some choice ones may be
cut off, and some vile ones may be kept. In a storm cedars and oaks are smitten,
when bushes and briers are spared; and yet after they are cut up and cast into the
fire. Sinners may escape present wrath, but there is wrath to come (Luk_3:7).
9. God may take occasion, from the sin of some, to bring in judgment upon all. He
must take of the remnant preserved, and throw into the fire, and out of that fire went
forth fire into all the house of Israel. (W. Greenhill, M. A.)
2 When 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.
15

16. BARNES, "“The third part burnt in the midst of the city” represents those who
perished within the city during the siege; “the third part smitten about it” (the city)
“with” the sword, those who were killed about the city during the same period: “the third
part scattered to the wind” those who after the siege were dispersed in foreign lands.
In the midst of the city - The prophet is in exile, and is to do this in the midst of
Jerusalem. His action being ideal is fitly assigned to the place which the prophecy
concerns.
When the days of the siege are fulfilled - i. e., “when the days of the figurative
representation of the siege are fulfilled.”
CLARKE 1-4, “Take thee a sharp knife - Among the Israelites, and indeed among
most ancient nations, there were very few edge-tools. The sword was the chief; and this
was used as a knife, a razor, etc., according to its different length and sharpness. It is
likely that only one kind of instrument is here intended; a knife or short sword, to be
employed as a razor.
Here is a new emblem produced, in order to mark out the coming evils.
1. The prophet represents the Jewish nation.
2. His hair, the people.
3. The razor, the Chaldeans.
4. The cutting the beard and hair, the calamities, sorrows, and disgrace coming upon
the people. Cutting off the hair was a sign of mourning; see on Jer_45:5 (note);
Jer_48:37 (note); and also a sign of great disgrace; see 2Sa_10:4.
5. He is ordered to divide the hair, 2Sa_10:2, into three equal parts, to intimate the
different degrees and kinds of punishment which should fall upon the people.
6. The balances, 2Sa_10:1, were to represent the Divine justice, and the exactness
with which God’s judgments should be distributed among the offenders.
7. This hair, divided into three parts, is to be disposed of thus:
1. A third part is to be burnt in the midst of the city, to show that so many should
perish by famine and pestilence during the siege.
2. Another third part he was to cut in small portions about the city, (that figure
which he had pourtrayed upon the brick), to signify those who should perish in
different sorties, and in defending the walls.
3. And the remaining third part he was to scatter in the wind, to point out those
who should be driven into captivity. And,
4. The sword following them was intended to show that their lives should be at the
will of their captors, and that many of them should perish by the sword in their
dispersions.
5. The few hairs which he was to take in his skirts, 2Sa_10:3, was intended to
represent those few Jews that should be left in the land under Gedaliah, after the
16

17. taking of the city.
6. The throwing a part of these last into the fire, 2Sa_10:4, was intended to show
the miseries that these suffered in Judea, in Egypt, and finally in their being also
carried away into Babylon on the conquest of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar. See
these transactions particularly pointed out in the notes on Jeremiah, chapters
40, 41, 42. Some think that this prophecy may refer to the persecution of the
Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes.
GILL, "Thou, shall burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city,.... Of
Jerusalem, as portrayed upon the tile, Eze_4:1; or the prophet was now in Chaldea. The
burning of the third part of the hair with fire denotes such who were destroyed by the
pestilence and famine during the siege; see Lam_5:10; or it denotes the burning of the
city itself, when the siege was over; since it follows:
when the days of the siege are fulfilled; for, when it was taken, it was burnt with
fire, Jer_52:13;
and thou shall take a third part, and smite about it with a knife; which designs
those that fled out of the city whim it was broken up, and were pursued after, and
overtook by the Chaldean army, and cut off by the sword, Jer_52:7;
and a third part thou shall scatter in the wind; which intends those that fled, and
were dispersed into several countries, as Moab, Ammon, and especially Egypt, whither
many went along with Johanan the son of Kareah, Jer_43:5;
and I will draw out a sword after them; and destroy them; which, as it was
threatened, Jer_42:16; so it was accomplished when Egypt was subdued by
Nebuchadnezzar. The Septuagint and Arabic versions, in every clause, read a "fourth
part", instead of a "third"; but wrongly.
HENRY, " He must dispose of the hair so that it might all be destroyed or dispersed,
Eze_5:2. 1. One third part must be burnt in the midst of the city, denoting the
multitudes that should perish by famine and pestilence, and perhaps many in the
conflagration of the city, when the days of the siege were fulfilled. Or the laying of that
glorious city in ashes might well be looked upon as a third part of the destruction
threatened. 2. Another third part was to be cut in pieces with a knife, representing the
many who, during the siege, were slain by the sword, in their sallies out upon the
besiegers, and especially when the city was taken by storm, the Chaldeans being then
most furious and the Jews most feeble. 3. Another third 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; so that they were hurried, some one
way and some another, like loose hairs in the wind. But, lest they should think that this
dispersion would be their escape, God adds, I will draw out a sword after them, so that
wherever they go evil shall pursue them. Note, God has variety of judgments wherewith
to accomplish the destruction of a sinful people and to make an end when he begins.
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18. JAMISON, “Three classes are described. The sword was to destroy one third of the
people; famine and plague another third (“fire” in Eze_5:2 being explained in Eze_5:12
to mean pestilence and famine); that which remained was to be scattered among the
nations. A few only of the last portion were to escape, symbolized by the hairs bound in
Ezekiel’s skirts (Eze_5:3; Jer_40:6; Jer_52:16). Even of these some were to be thrown
into the fiery ordeal again (Eze_5:4; Jer_41:1, Jer_41:2, etc.; Jer_44:14, etc.). The
“skirts” being able to contain but few express that extreme limit to which God’s goodness
can reach.
TRAPP, “Ezekiel 5:2 Thou shalt burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city,
when the days of the siege are fulfilled: and thou shalt take a third part, [and] smite
about it with a knife: and a third part thou shalt scatter in the wind; and I will draw
out a sword after them.
Ver. 2. Thou shalt burn with fire a third part,] i.e., With famine, pestilence, and
other mischiefs, during the siege of Jerusalem. Pythagoras gave this precept among
others, Unguium, criniumque praesegmina ne contemnito. But God findeth so little
worth in wicked people that he regardeth them not, but casteth them as excrements
to the dunghill, yea, to hell. [Psalms 9:17]
And smite about it with a knife.] They shall be slain with that sharp knife or sword,
[Ezekiel 5:1] after that the city is taken.
Thou shalt scatter in the wind.] Sundry of them shall flee for their lives; but in
running from death they shall but run to it. [Amos 9:1-4; Amos 2:13-16]
POOLE, “ This verse tells you into how many parts the hair was to be divided, and
how to be disposed of, and so plain it needs little explication.
With fire; so either pestilence, or famine, with the displeasure of God, and the
burning of the city and of the citizens, is noted.
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19. The city, described on the tile, Ezekiel 4:1, a type of what should be done in
Jerusalem.
When the days of the siege are fulfilled; when the three hundred and ninety days of
thy lying against the portrayed city shall be ended; for when Jerusalem shall be
taken at the end of the siege, the city shall be burnt; and who can say that none of
the inhabitants were burnt, as the two false prophets Ahab and Zedekiah? Jeremiah
29:22. To be sure many that hid themselves under ground, in vaults and cellars,
were burnt with the burning of the city.
A third part; it is not necessary this part should be equal to the former, if it be
proportional it is enough; perhaps it might be somewhat less then the first third.
Smite about it with a knife; for these were such as fell, in either defending the walls,
or sallying out during the siege, or were found in arms when the city was taken, or
were overtaken in their flight with their most unhappy king or by law martial were
adjudged to die by the conqueror. These many, yet weak ones, women and children,
which died in the siege by famine and pestilence, might be a greater third.
A third part; those that fell to the Chaldeans, or fled to Egypt, or other countries,
though they escape somewhat longer, yet carrying like sins are at last overtaken
with like evils.
Thou shalt scatter; though these disposed of themselves, yet there was God’s hand
also in it; he scattered those that of their own accord did flee.
In the wind; violent, uncertain, and troublesome should their enemies prove to
them.
19

20. I will draw out; God will pursue them.
A sword; figuratively it is wasting punishment, literally it was fulfilled, Jeremiah
42:16,17,22 43:10,11 44:27. Thereof, i.e. of the last third which were to be dispersed.
A few, or small quantity. In number; or, by number, as it may be read; tell out a
small parcel of the hair. Bind them in thy skirts; as men tie up in a handkerchief, or
in the skirt of their garment, what they would not lose. So some few shall be kept,
God will not cut off the whole house of Israel, but reserves a remnant.
WHEDON, “ 2. Burn… when the days of the siege are fulfilled — This would
indicate that, although so closely following the command to lie upon his side (Ezekiel
4:4, etc.), the acting out of this symbolic picture must be delayed until his one
hundred and ninety days of silent and motionless watching of the besieged city are
finished. The hair will then be burned on the tile in the midst of the besieged city
(Ezekiel 4:1).
Smite about it with a knife — “It” refers to the city, as is seen from Ezekiel 5:12.
The prophet must throw the second lot of hair “about the city” and smite it as it
falls. The meaning is that those who escape from the famine and pestilence within
the city will fall by the sword outside the gates.
I will draw out a sword — Those who do not fall in the city or its suburbs, but fly to
distant places, will not escape. Jehovah’s sword — in the hand of the heathen — will
still follow them (Jeremiah 9:16).
PULPIT, “Thou shalt burn with fire, etc. The symbolism receives its interpretation
in Ezekiel 5:12. A third part of the people (we need not expect numerical exactness)
was to perish in the city of pestilence and famine, another to fall by the sword in
their attempts to escape, yet another third was to be scattered to the far off land of
their exile, and even there the sword was to follow them. The words, in the midst of
the city, and the days of the siege, find their most natural explanation in Ezekiel 4:1,
Ezekiel 4:5, Ezekiel 4:6.
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21. 3 But take a few hairs and tuck them away in the
folds of your garment.
BARNES, "Of the third part a few are yet to be taken and kept in the fold of the
garment (representing those still to remain in their native land), and yet even of those
few some are to be cast into the fire. Such was the fate of those left behind after the
destruction of Jerusalem Jer. 40; 41. The whole prophecy is one of denunciation.
GILL, "Thou shall also take thereof a few in number,.... These are they that were
left in the land of Judea by Nebuzaradan, for vinedressers and husbandmen, and such as
returned out of Egypt into the land of Judah, Jer_44:28;
and bind them in thy skirts; in the pockets of them; signifying both the very small
number of them, and their preservation. Jarchi and Kimchi interpret these of those that
were carried captive to Babylon, and lived there, and were preserved, and returned
again.
HENRY 3-4, “He must preserve a small quantity of the third sort that were to be
scattered in the wind, and bind them in his skirts, as one would bind that which he is
very mindful and careful of, Eze_5:3. This signified perhaps that little handful of people
which were left under the government of Gedaliah, who, it was hoped, would keep
possession of the land when the body of the people was carried into captivity. Thus God
would have done well for them if they would have done well for themselves. But these
few that were reserved must be taken and cast into the fire, Eze_5:4. When Gedaliah and
his friends were slain the people that put themselves under his protection were
scattered, some gone into Egypt, others carried off by the Chaldeans, and in short the
land totally cleared of them; then this was fulfilled, for out of those combustions a fire
came forth into all the house of Israel, who, as fuel upon the fire, kindled and consumed
one another. Note, It is ill with a people when those are taken away in wrath that seemed
to be marked for monuments of mercy; for then there is no remnant or escaping, none
shut up or left.
CALVIN, "It is now added: Thou shalt take then a small number, and bind them,
(that is, that number, but the number is changed,) viz., those hairs of which the
21

22. number is small in the skirts of thy clothing It either takes away the confidence
which might spring up from a temporary escape, or else it signifies that very few
should be safe in the midst of the destruction of the whole people, which came to
pass wonderfully. If that is received, the correction is added, that God would give
some hope of favor because the people was consumed, yet so that the covenant of
God might remain. Hence it was necessary that some relics should be preserved, and
they had been reduced like Sodom, unless God had kept for himself a small seed.
(Isaiah 1:9; Romans 9:29.) Therefore in this sense the Prophet is ordered to bind
and to hide in the skirts of his garment, some part of the hair. Moreover, that part is
understood only in the third order, because those who had escaped thought that
they had obtained safety by flight, especially when they collected themselves in
troops. Afterwards it follows, thou shalt then take from these, and throw it into the
midst of the fire, and burn it in the fire Out of these few hairs God wishes another
part to be burnt and consumed; by which words he signifies, even where only a
small portion remains, yet it must be consumed in like manner, or at least that many
out of these few will be rejected. And indeed those who seemed to have happily
escaped and to have survived safely, were soon after cut off by various slaughters,
or pined away by degrees as if they had perished by a slow contagion. But since it
pleased him to remember his promise, we gather that a few of the people survived
through God’s wonderful mercy: for because he was mindful of his covenant, he
wished some part to be preserved, and therefore that correction was interposed, that
the Prophet should bind under his skirts a small number. Yet from that remnant,
God again snatched away another part, and cast it into the fire. If the filth of the
remainder was such, that it was necessary to purge it, and cast part of it into the
fire, what must be thought of the whole people, that is, of the dregs themselves? For
the portion which the Prophet bound in his skirts was clearly the flower of the
people: if there was any integrity, it ought to be seen there.
COKE, “Ezekiel 5:3. Take—a few—and bind, &c.— Hereby is prefigured the
remnant of the Jews who should be left in the land under Gedaliah; and in the next
verse the destruction which should come upon them also. See Jeremiah 40:5-6;
Jeremiah 44:11; Jeremiah 44:30. Houbigant renders the last clause of the next verse,
From that fire a flame shall burst forth, &c.
TRAPP, “Ezekiel 5:3 Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number, and bind them
in thy skirts.
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23. Ver. 3. Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number.] A remnant is still reserved,
"that the Lord God may dwell among men." [Psalms 68:18] See Jeremiah 44:28, 2
Kings 25:12, Isaiah 1:9; Isaiah 6:10.
POOLE, “ Thereof, i.e. of the last third which were to be dispersed.
A few, or small quantity.
In number; or, by number, as
them in thy skirts; as men tie up in a handkerchief, or in the skirt of their garment,
what they would not lose. So some few shall be kept, God will not cut off the whole
house of Israel, but reserves a remnant.
PETT, “Verse 3-4
“And you will take from there a few in number, and bind them in your robes, and of
these again you will take and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in
the fire. From there will come out a fire to all the house of Israel.”
Of the third part who escape death and were scattered some would be selected out
for preservation, but even of these some too would die by famine and pestilence. The
‘fire’ of pestilence and famine which burned in Jerusalem would reach out to some
of those who have escaped. In the end the whole of the house of Israel would be
affected. It is a sad picture. God’s judgments would continue to reach out
continually. His scattered people would never be fully at rest because of famine,
pestilence and the sword.
23

24. ‘Bind them in your robes (skirts - the lower flowing ends of the robe).’ The bottom
of the robe would be tucked into the belt for walking and would form a kind of
container which could be used for carrying things.
The second ‘from there’ probably refers to the fire depicted as burning in Jerusalem
(Ezekiel 5:2 a). It would not only affect Jerusalem but would reach out and continue
its effect even in those who had escaped.
Some have seen the last sentence as referring to a fire of purification, but in view of
the importance of fire in the context it is difficult to think that such a change of
usage would take place in context. It is rather a summary of the effect of the fire
which Ezekiel had placed in Jerusalem (which signified pestilence and famine -
Ezekiel 5:12). It affected one third of those in Jerusalem, and it would continue to
affect the exiles, even those under God’s general protection. All would share in the
judgments poured out on Jerusalem, for all shared its guilt.
WHEDON, “Verse 3-4
3, 4. To take a few hairs “by number,” and preserve them thus carefully only
emphasizes the fate of the mass; but even of this remnant (Isaiah 10:20-22; Isaiah
11:11; Ezekiel 6:8-9), flying into exile, whom Jehovah in the person of the prophet
would gladly bind to his person, some will be lost. For thereof [literally, from
thence] shall a fire come forth — The punishment which falls upon the rebellious
exiles whom Jehovah has tried to save will be felt by the whole nation.
4 Again, take a few of these and throw them into
the fire and burn them up. A fire will spread from
there to all Israel.
24

25. GILL, "Then take of them again,.... Of that small number preserved:
and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire: this was
fulfilled in Gedaliah and the Jews that were with him, over whom the king of Babylon
had made him governor, who were slain by Ishmael, Jer_41:1;
for thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel; from this
barbarous murder of Gedaliah and his men, judgment came upon all the house of Israel;
a war commenced between Ishmael and Johanan the son of Kareah; and afterwards
Nebuzaradan carried captive great numbers of them that were left in the land. The Syriac
and Arabic versions render it, "from these shall a fire come forth", &c. which Jarchi
interprets of these intimations given the prophet, from whence judgments should come
upon all the house of Israel. It may be understood of those that were left in the land, and
of such who returned from the captivity; for whose sins, and those of their posterity, the
wrath of God came forth upon all the house of Israel, to the utter destruction of their
nation, city, and temple, by Titus Vespasian.
CALVIN, "We just saw that there were many reprobate in that small number.
Hence, therefore, it is easily gathered how desperate was the impiety of the whole
people. After this, he says, take: this adverb is used that those who survived after
the slaughter of the city should not think that all their punishments were over: after
this, says he, that is, when they shall fancy all their difficulties over, thou shalt take
from that part which thou hast preserved, and shalt cast it into the fire. Thence, he
says, afire shall go forth through the whole house of Israel He signifies by these
words, as we have seen before, that the vision was not illusory, just as many
fictitious things are represented in a theater. Hence God says, what he shows by
vision to his servant would happen, as the event itself at length proved. But he goes
further that the whole house of Israel shall burn in this burning, because indeed the
last destruction of the city brought despair to the miserable, exiles, who, while the
city was standing, promised themselves a return. But when they saw such utter
destruction of the city, they were consumed just as if fire from Judea had crept even
to themselves. In the meantime the remnant are always excepted whom the Lord
wonderfully preserved, although he was in a vision destroying the whole people. We
now see the tendency of this vision. I will not proceed further, because I should be
compelled to desist, and so the doctrine would be abrupt. It is sufficient therefore to
hold, although the people was divided into many parts so that the condition of each
was distinct, yet that all should perish, since God so determined. Hence the
confidence of those who thought they would be safe at Jerusalem was broken: then
the ten tribes, which were captives, ought also to acknowledge that the last
vengeance of God was not complete, until the city itself, the seat of government and
the priesthood was destroyed.
25

26. TRAPP, “Ezekiel 5:4 Then take of them again, and cast them into the midst of the
fire, and burn them in the fire; [for] thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house
of Israel.
Ver. 4. Then take of them again, and cast them into the midst of the fire.] Thus "evil
shall hunt a wicked man to overthrow him"; [Psalms 140:11] {See Trapp on
"Psalms 140:11"} he shall not escape, though he hath escaped; his preservation is
but a reservation to further mischief, except he repent.
And burn them in the fire.] Such he meaneth as were combustible matter; for there
were a sort of precious ones among them, who being brought by God through the
fire, were thereby "refined as silver is refined, and tried as gold is tried."
[Zechariah 13:9] {See Trapp on "Zechariah 13:9"}
POOLE, “ Then take of them again; another division make of that little number, the
preserved remnant. Throw some of them into the fire; they are not all to be saved
who are delivered at the end of the siege.
Burn them; literally burn the hair, but signify the burning them that are meant by
it.
In the fire of God’s displeasure, and of civil war, or private conspiracy, as in
Ishmael against Gedaliah, Jer 41.
Thereof, from their sin against God, their discontents at their state, and conspiracies
against their governor, appointed by Nebuchadnezzar, evil like another fire shall
break out, which shall devour the most, and be near consuming all the house of
Israel, as happened to them after Gedaliah’s death, and their going down to Egypt,
as Jeremiah 40:1-Jer_44:30 Jer 46, under Johanan’s revolt, which the Chaldean did
revenge at last.
26

27. 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.
BARNES, "I have set it in the midst of the nations - It was not unusual for
nations to regard the sanctuary, which they most revered, as the center of the earth. In
the case of the holy land this was both natural and appropriate. Egypt to the south, Syria
to the north, Assyria to the east and the Isles of the Gentiles in the Great Sea to the west,
were to the Jew proofs of the central position of his land in the midst of the nations
(compare Jer_3:19). The habitation assigned to the chosen people was suitable at the
first for separating them from the nations; then for the seat of the vast dominion and
commerce of Solomon; then, when they learned from their neighbors idol-worship, their
central position was the source of their punishment. Midway between the mighty
empires of Egypt and Assyria the holy land became a battlefield for the two powers, and
suffered alternately from each as for the time the one or the other became predominant.
CLARKE, "This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations - I
have made this city the most eminent and the most illustrious in the world. Some think
that these words refer to its geographical situation, as being equally in the center of the
habitable world. But any point on a globe is its center, no matter where laid down; and it
would not be difficult to show that even this literal sense is tolerably correct. But the
point which is the center of the greatest portion of land that can be exhibited on one
hemisphere is the capital of the British empire. See my Sermon on the universal spread
of the Gospel.
GILL, "Thus saith the Lord God, this is Jerusalem,.... A type or sign of it; it may
refer to both the former and latter type. It is the city of Jerusalem that is designed by the
city portrayed upon the tile; and the same is signified by the head of the prophet that
was to be shaved; that being not only the chief city of Judea, but of the whole world, as
follows:
I have set it in the midst of the nations; as the chief of them; and distinguished it
from them by peculiar favours and blessings, natural and spiritual; being seated in a
27

28. land flowing with milk and honey; and having the house and worship of God in it; and
where were the symbols of his presence, and his word and ordinances; and therefore
should have excelled them in true religion, devotion, and holiness, and set an example to
them. The Jews generally understand this of the natural situation of Jerusalem. Jarchi
interprets it of the middle of the world; as if it was mathematically placed in the centre of
the earth. Kimchi says it was in the midst of the continent; and so its air was better than
others; and these sort of writers (n) often speak of the land of Israel being in the navel or
centre of the earth; they say (o) that the sanhedrim sat in the middle of the world; and
therefore is compared to the navel, Son_7:2; because it sat in the temple, which was in
the middle of the world; but the former sense is best; though Jerom gives in to the latter:
and countries that are round about her: this is a proposition of itself; fire former
clause being distinguished from it by the accent "athnach"; and should be rendered thus,
"and the countries are", or "were, round about her" (p); on the east was Asia, on the
west Europe on the south Africa and Libya, and on the north Babylon, Scythia, Armenia,
Persia, and Pontus; and was mere conspicuous, eminent, and honourable than them all,
having greater privileges, prerogatives, and excellencies; and therefore should have
exceeded them in its regard to the laws and statutes of God, which she did not; hence
this is said, in order to upbraid her for her ingratitude, as appears by the following
words.
HENRY, "We have here the explanation of the foregoing similitude: This is
Jerusalem. Thus it is usual in scripture language to give the name of the thing signified
to the sign; as when Christ said, This is my body. The prophet's head, which was to be
shaved, signified Jerusalem, which by the judgments of God was now to be stripped of
all its ornaments, to be emptied of all its inhabitants, and to be set naked and bare, to be
shaved with a razor that is hired, Isa_7:20. The head of one that was a priest, a prophet,
a holy person, was fittest to represent Jerusalem the holy city. Now the contents of these
verses are much the same with what we have often met with, and still shall, in the
writings of the prophets. Here we have,
I. The privileges Jerusalem was honoured with (Eze_5:5): I have set it in the midst of
the nations and countries that are round about her, and those famous nations and very
considerable. Jerusalem was not situated in a remote obscure corner of the world, far
from neighbours, but in the midst of kingdoms that were populous, polite, and civilized,
famed for learning, arts, and sciences, and which then made the greatest figure in the
world. But there seems to be more in it than this. 1. Jerusalem was dignified and
preferred above the neighbouring nations and their cities. it was set in the midst of them
as excelling them all. This holy mountain was exalted above all the hills, Isa_2:2. Why
leap you, you high hills? This is the hill which God desires to dwell in, Psa_68:16.
Jerusalem was a city upon a hill, conspicuous and illustrious, and which all the
neighbouring nations had an eye upon, some for good-will, some for ill-will. 2.
Jerusalem was designed to have a good influence upon the nations and countries round
about, was set in the midst of them as a candle upon a candlestick, to spread the light of
divine revelation, which she was blessed with, to all the dark corners of the neighbouring
nations, that from them it might diffuse itself further, even to the ends of the earth.
Jerusalem was set in the midst of the nations, to be as the heart in the body, to
invigorate this dead world with a divine life as well as to enlighten this dark world with a
divine light, to be an example of every thing that was good. The nations that observed
28

29. what excellent statutes and judgments they had concluded them to be a wise and
understanding people (Deu_4:6), fit to be consulted as an oracle, as they were in
Solomon's time, 1Ki_4:34. And, had they preserved this reputation and made a right use
of it, what a blessing would Jerusalem have been to all the nations about! But, failing to
be so, the accomplishment of this intention was reserved for its latter days, when out of
Zion went forth the gospel law and the word of the Lord Jesus from Jerusalem, and
there repentance and remission began to be preached, and thence the preachers of them
went forth into all nations. And, when that was done, Jerusalem was levelled with the
ground. Note, When places and persons are made great, it is with design that they may
do good and that those about them may be the better for them, that their light may
shine before men.
JAMISON, “Explanation of the symbols:
Jerusalem — not the mere city, but the people of Israel generally, of which it was the
center and representative.
in ... midst — Jerusalem is regarded in God’s point of view as center of the whole
earth, designed to radiate the true light over the nations in all directions. Compare
Margin (“navel”), Eze_38:12; Psa_48:2; Jer_3:17. No center in the ancient heathen
world could have been selected more fitted than Canaan to be a vantage ground, whence
the people of God might have acted with success upon the heathenism of the world. It
lay midway between the oldest and most civilized states, Egypt and Ethiopia on one side,
and Babylon, Nineveh, and India on the other, and afterwards Persia, Greece, and Rome.
The Phoenician mariners were close by, through whom they might have transmitted the
true religion to the remotest lands; and all around the Ishmaelites, the great inland
traders in South Asia and North Africa. Israel was thus placed, not for its own selfish
good, but to be the spiritual benefactor of the whole world. Compare Psa_67:1-7
throughout. Failing in this, and falling into idolatry, its guilt was far worse than that of
the heathen; not that Israel literally went beyond the heathen in abominable idolatries.
But “corruptio optimi pessima”; the perversion of that which in itself is the best is worse
than the perversion of that which is less perfect: is in fact the worst of all kinds of
perversion. Therefore their punishment was the severest. So the position of the Christian
professing Church now, if it be not a light to the heathen world, its condemnation will be
sorer than theirs (Mat_5:13; Mat_11:21-24; Heb_10:28, Heb_10:29).
K&D 5-9, “The Divine Word which Explains the Symbolical Signs, in which the
judgment that is announced is laid down as to its cause (5-9) and as to its nature
(10-17). - Eze_5:5. Thus says the Lord Jehovah: This Jerusalem have I placed in the
midst of the nations, and raised about her the countries. Eze_5:6. But in wickedness she
resisted my laws more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries
which are round about her; for they rejected my laws, and did not walk in my statutes.
Eze_5:7. Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah: Because ye have raged more than the
nations round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, and have not obeyed my
laws, and have not done even according to the laws of the nations which are round
about you; Eze_5:8. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Lo, I, even I, shall be
against thee, and will perform judgments in thy midst before the eyes of the nations.
29

30. Eze_5:9. And I will do unto thee what I have never done, nor will again do in like
manner, on account of all thine abominations.
'‫ת‬ֹ‫זא‬ ‫רוּשׁ‬ְ‫י‬ not “this is Jerusalem,” i.e., this is the destiny of Jerusalem (Hävernick), but
“this Jerusalem” (Hitzig); ‫ֹאת‬‫ז‬ is placed before the noun in the sense of iste, as in Exo_
32:1; cf. Ewald, §293b. To place the culpability of Jerusalem in its proper prominence,
the censure of her sinful conduct opens with the mention of the exalted position which
God had assigned her upon earth. Jerusalem is described in Eze_5:5 as forming the
central point of the earth: this is done, however, neither in an external, geographical
(Hitzig), nor in a purely typical sense, as the city that is blessed more than any other
(Calvin, Hävernick), but in a historical sense, in so far as “God's people and city actually
stand in the central point of the God-directed world-development and its movements”
(Kliefoth); or, in relation to the history of salvation, as the city in which God hath set up
His throne of grace, from which shall go forth the law and the statutes for all nations, in
order that the salvation of the whole world may be accomplished (Isa_2:2.; Mic_4:1.).
But instead of keeping the laws and statutes of the Lord, Jerusalem has, on the contrary,
turned to do wickedness more than the heathen nations in all the lands round about
(‫ה‬ ָ‫ר‬ ְ‫מ‬ ִ‫,ה‬ cum accusat. object., “to act rebelliously towards”). Here we may not quote
Rom_2:12, Rom_2:14 against this, as if the heathen, who did not know the law of God,
did not also transgress the same, but sinned ἀνόμως; for the sinning ἀνόμως, of which
the apostle speaks, is really a transgression of the law written on the heart of the
heathen. With ‫ן‬ֵ‫כ‬ָ‫,ל‬ in Eze_5:7, the penal threatening is introduced; but before the
punishment is laid down, the correspondence between guilt and punishment is brought
forward more prominently by repeatedly placing in juxtaposition the godless conduct of
the rebellious city. ‫ם‬ ֶ‫כ‬ ְ‫נ‬ ָ‫מ‬ֲ‫ה‬ is infinitive, from ‫ן‬ ַ‫מ‬ ָ‫,ה‬ a secondary form ‫ן‬ ‫מ‬ ָ‫,ה‬ in the sense of
‫ה‬ ָ‫מ‬ ָ‫,ה‬ “to rage,” i.e., to rebel against God; cf. Psa_2:1. The last clause of Eze_5:7 contains
a climax: “And ye have not even acted according to the laws of the heathen.” This is not
in any real contradiction to Eze_11:12 (where it is made a subject of reproach to the
Israelites that they have acted according to the laws of the heathen), so that we would be
obliged, with Ewald and Hitzig, to expunge the ‫ֹא‬‫ל‬ in the verse before us, because
wanting in the Peshito and several Hebrew manuscripts. Even in these latter, it has only
been omitted to avoid the supposed contradiction with Eze_11:12. The solution of the
apparent contradiction lies in the double meaning of the ‫י‬ ֵ‫ט‬ ְ‫פּ‬ ְ‫שׁ‬ ִ‫מ‬ ‫ם‬ִ‫גוי‬ ַֹ‫.הּ‬ The heathen had
laws which were opposed to those of God, but also such as were rooted in the law of God
written upon their hearts. Obedience to the latter was good and praiseworthy; to the
former, wicked and objectionable. Israel, which hated the law of God, followed the
wicked and sinful laws of the heathen, and neglected to observe their good laws. The
passage before us is to be judged by Jer_2:10-11, to which Raschi had already made
reference.
(Note: Coccejus had already well remarked on Eze_11:12 : ”Haec probe
concordant. Imitabantur Judaei gentiles vel fovendo opiniones gentiles, vel etiam
assumendo ritus et sacra gentilium. Sed non faciebant ut gentes, quae integre diis
suis serviebant. Nam Israelitae nomine Dei abutebantur et ipsius populus videri
volebant.”)
In Eze_5:8 the announcement of the punishment, interrupted by the repeated mention
of the cause, is again resumed with the words '‫ן‬ֵ‫כ‬ָ‫ל‬ ‫כֹּה‬ ‫.וגו‬ Since Jerusalem has acted
worse than the heathen, God will execute His judgments upon her before the eyes of the
30

31. heathen. ‫ה‬ָ‫שׂ‬ָ‫ע‬ ‫ים‬ ִ‫ט‬ָ‫פ‬ ְ‫שׁ‬ or ‫ה‬ָ‫שׂ‬ָ‫ע‬ (Eze_5:10, Eze_5:15; Eze_11:9; Eze_16:41, etc.), “to
accomplish or execute judgments,” is used in Exo_12:12 and Num_33:4 of the
judgments which God suspended over Egypt. The punishment to be suspended shall be
so great and heavy, that the like has never happened before, nor will ever happen again.
These words do not require us either to refer the threatening, with Coccejus, to the last
destruction of Jerusalem, which was marked by greater severity than the earlier one, or
to suppose, with Hävernick, that the prophet's look is directed to both the periods of
Israel's punishment - the times of the Babylonian and Roman calamity together. Both
suppositions are irreconcilable with the words, as these can only be referred to the first
impending penal judgment of the destruction of Jerusalem. This was, so far, more severe
than any previous or subsequent one, inasmuch as by it the existence of the people of
God was for a time suspended, while that Jerusalem and Israel, which were destroyed
and annihilated by the Romans, were no longer the people of God, inasmuch as the latter
consisted at that time of the Christian community, which was not affected by that
catastrophe (Kliefoth).
CALVIN, "Now God shows the reason why he determined to act so severely and
harshly towards that holy city which he had selected as the royal residence. For the
greater the benefits with which he had adorned the city, by so much the baser and
grosser was their ingratitude. God recounts, therefore, his benefits towards
Jerusalem, and that for the sake of reproving it. For if the Jews had embraced the
blessing of God, doubtless he would have enriched them more and more with his
gifts: but when he saw that they rejected his favors, he was the more angry with
their indignity. For contempt of God’s benefits is a kind of profanation and
sacrilege. Now, therefore, we understand the intention of the Holy Spirit when he
says, that Jerusalem was placed as it were on a lofty platform, that its dignity might
be conspicuous on all sides. This is not said in praise of Jerusalem, but rather to its
greatest disgrace, because whatever the Lord had conferred upon it ought to be
taken into account, since they had so unworthily corrupted themselves and had
polluted God’s glory as it were on purpose. As to its being said, that Jerusalem was
in the midst of the nations, (Psalms 74:12,) I do not take this so precisely as Jerome
and most others. For they fancy that Jerusalem was the center of the earth, and he
twists other places also into this sense: where God is said to have worked salvation
to the midst of the earth, he explains it the very middle, as they say. But that is in my
judgment puerile, because the Prophet simply means that Jerusalem was placed in
the most celebrated part of the world: it had on all sides the most noble nations and
very rich, as is well known, and was not far distant from the Mediterranean Sea: on
one side it was opposite to Asia Minor: then it had Egypt for a neighbor, and
Babylon on the north. This is the genuine sense of the Prophet, that Jerusalem was
endued with remarkable nobility among other nations, as if God had placed it in the
31

32. highest rank. There is no city which has not nations and lands round it, but God
here names lands and nations par excellence, not any whatsoever, but those only
which excelled in fruitfulness, in opulence, and all advantages. And the
demonstrative pronoun is emphatic when he says, This is Jerusalem: for he extols
the city with magnificent praises, that its ingratitude may appear the greater —
hence it was placed in the midst of the nations and of countries round about it:
because it was surrounded by many opulent regions, and there the grace of God was
chiefly displayed, as if it were the most beautiful part of a theater, which attracted
all eyes towards it, and moved all minds to admiration.
COFFMAN, “"Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: This is Jerusalem: I have set her in the
midst of the nations, and countries are round about her. And she hath rebelled
against mine ordinances in doing wickedness more than the nations, and as for my
statutes, they have not walked in them. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah:
Because ye are turbulent more than the nations round about you, and have not
walked in my statutes, neither have kept mine ordinances, neither have done after
the ordinances of the nations that are round about you; therefore thus saith the
Lord Jehovah: Behold, I, even I, am against thee; and I will execute judgments in
the midst of thee in the sight of the nations. And I will do in thee that which I have
not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all thine
abominations. Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the
sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments on thee; and the whole
remnant of thee will I scatter unto all the winds. Wherefore as I live, saith the Lord
Jehovah, surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable
things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither
shall mine eye spare, and I also will have no pity. A third part of thee shall die with
the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee; and a
third part shall fall by the sword round about thee, and a third part shall I scatter
unto all the winds, and will draw out a sword after them."
"This is Jerusalem ..." (Ezekiel 5:5). The illustration is here explained by God
Himself. The doom of Jerusalem is clearly prophesied.
"I have set her in the midst of the nations ..." (Ezekiel 5:5) This was true in both
ways. It refers to the central location of Palestine in the midst of the three
continents, Europe, Asia, and Africa; and the nations were literally in all directions
32

33. from Jerusalem. But it was also true in the larger context of the information and
privileges enjoyed by the Jews. God's choice of the Abrahamic children as his
"Chosen People" was for the purpose of preserving the knowledge of the true God
in a world where that knowledge was in danger of falling. They alone received the
Mosaic law; they were particularly chosen as the replacement for the reprobate
pagans of ancient Palestine; and to them only the great prophets of God brought
correction and enlightenment.
"Against my statutes more than the countries that are round about her ..." (Ezekiel
5:6). The picture that emerges here is that of a nation abundantly blessed with the
ordinances and statutes of God, these repeated words being, absolutely, references
to the Mosaic Law. In fact, the references to the Book of Moses are so frequent from
this chapter on to the very end of Ezekiel that some of the radical critics (S. R.
Driver, for example) have advanced the theory that Ezekiel was the author of
Ezekiel 17-26, sometimes called the Holiness Code, in Leviticus.[2]
However, there are so many impossibilities involved in the acceptance of such a false
theory that true scholars are unable to allow it. Beasley-Murray stated flatly that,
"We may approach this book in confidence that it is what it purports to be, namely
the record of Ezekiel's 25-year ministry to his fellow-exiles in Babylon."[3]
No, Ezekiel did not invent the regulations, statutes, and ordinances of God which
Israel had so long and so thoroughly violated. Those prohibitions are in the
Pentateuch, that is, THE BOOK OF MOSES. It should be borne in mind that Moses
did not write five books, but one only; and the divisions into five separate books is a
foolish device indeed, despite the fact of its serving the convenience of students.
"More than the countries round about her ..." (Ezekiel 5:6). This is a reference to
one of the fundamental facts often overlooked. The pagan nations surrounding the
Chosen People certainly did know many of the portions of God's will, as Paul
testified in Romans 1:18-23; and the text here reveals that the surrounding pagans
had done a better job of honoring what part of God's will they knew than had
Israel.
33

34. "Turbulent more than the nations that are round about you ..." (Ezekiel 5:7). The
older versions render "multiplied" here instead of turbulent; and Matthew Henry
stated that this was a reference to the multiplication of idols and pagan shrines.[4]
In any case, it is a reference to the excessive wickedness of Israel as compared with
the surrounding pagans.
"Neither have done after the ordinances of the nations ..." (Ezekiel 5:7). Not only
had Israel rejected and forsaken the law of God, but they had rejected all laws and
regulations, even those of pagan nations, leaving them the status of being essentially
lawless.
"Behold, I, even I, am against thee; and I will execute judgments against thee in the
sight of the nations ..." (Ezekiel 5:8). The justice of God's impending judgments
against Israel was due in part to the fact that their position, by God's grace, in the
midst of the nations as an example and a teacher to all of them, required that their
utter failure to discharge their Divine mission be demonstrated to the whole world.
"I will do in thee that which I have not done ... the like unto which I will not do any
more ..." (Ezekiel 5:9). The horrible cannibalism mentioned here indeed occurred
during that final siege. The account in Lamentations is the record of the tragic
fulfillment of these words.
"Thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy abominations ..." (Ezekiel 5:11). This
would seem to indicate that God's terrible judgment against Israel was principally
due to this offence; but the sanctuary here was not the only defilement in Jerusalem.
The valley of the Sons of Hinnom, from which the word Gehenna was derived, was
the scene of the horrible shrine of Moloch, where even the kings of Israel made their
sons "pass through the fire" to Molech.
"A third part shall die with the pestilence, and with famine ..." (12). Here God
Himself gives the meaning of the burning of a third part of Ezekiel's hair,
mentioned back in Ezekiel 5:2. Also, there is the revelation that a third shall die by
34

35. the sword, and a third shall be scattered to the winds.
"I will ... draw out a sword after them ..." (Ezekiel 5:12). This means that even of
that third who were to be scattered, the sword would also take its toll. Also, this
means that, of the hair that was to be bound in the skirts of Ezekiel, thus
representing the "righteous remnant," and which was also a small portion of that
final third, that even of those thus represented some would be lost.
COKE, “Ezekiel 5:5. This is Jerusalem— "This Jerusalem, against which thou
prophesiest, was placed in the midst of the heathen nations. It made a figure among
them on account of my temple, and the tokens of my presence. It was a city set on a
hill, that it might be a pattern of religion, holiness, and virtue to them." There are
some who take this expression, In the midst of the nations, literally, and suppose
that Jerusalem is in the centre of the world. See Calmet.
TRAPP, “Ezekiel 5:5 Thus saith the Lord GOD This [is] Jerusalem: I have set it in
the midst of the nations and countries [that are] round about her.
Ver. 5. This is Jerusalem,] i.e., This head and beard so to be shaved. [Ezekiel 5:1] By
the hair of the head some think the wise men of that city are figured out, and by the
hair of the beard are the strong men; the razor of God’s severity maketh clean
work, leaving no stub or stump behind it.
I have set it in the midst of the nations.] As the head, heart, and centre of the earth.
See Psalms 72:10, Ezekiel 38:12; and God had peculiar ends in it, that the law might
go forth out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and that all nations
might flow into it. [Isaiah 2:2-3] Talis est Roma Christianis, Such now is Rome to
Christians, saith A Lapide; but lay a straw there, say we; or, as the Gloss saith upon
some decrees of popes, Haec non credo, I believe it not. See Revelation 17:5.
POOLE, “ Thus saith the Lord God: this solemn declaration in God’s name the
35

36. prophet useth by express order, Ezekiel 3:11.
This portrayed city’s typically Jerusalem, and her inhabitants.
I have placed her in a most delightful situation, chosen out the best part of the
known world for her; in a neighbourhood to most rich and plenteous countries, with
whom she might have conversed and spread forth my name, and which are round
about her, either as servants about a mistress, or as meaner houses about the palace
or manor of a lord, or as traders about an emporium, much to advantage of
Jerusalem.
PARKER, “In the fifth chapter Ezekiel is commanded to take a sharp knife, a
barber"s razor, and to cause it to pass upon his head and upon his beard; then he is
to take balances to weigh and divide the hair; he has to burn with fire a third part in
the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled; then he is to take
another third part, and smite it about with a knife, and the final third part he is to
scatter in the wind; and so the new commission rolls on like a series of wind-driven
clouds, now full of terror, now lighted up with beauty, now significant of great
change and judgment and progress. The Lord is determined that the small remnant
of his people left after the great Captivity should be regarded with favour, yet even
some of these were to perish—to be cast into the midst of the fire. The result of the
whole was the utter cleansing of Judaea, the utter banishment of the chosen people.
Here the prophet is allowed to rest awhile. He has seen strange things, and heard
strange voices, and now for a little time he is permitted to descend to commonplace
thought and utterance. He will hardly know himself, coming out of this wonder and
perilous excitement. This is the action of God in training his ministers and prophets.
He takes them to great heights, shows them scenes of transfiguration, delights their
vision, excites their wonder to the point of rapture, thrills them with a consciousness
of the larger possibilities of life, and then almost suddenly he brings them down the
hill to talk their mother tongue, and do the ordinary business of men.
How much our prophets endure on our account! There is a sense in which the
prophet is the priest of his age, for on account of that age he suffers much: he is the
instrument chosen of God through whom to express divine thoughts and commands;
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37. he is both the divinely chosen instrument and the servant who is to carry out his
own messages in practical life. Who can tell all he knows? Who has language that
will go with him through all the winding mazes of his highest thought? This is true
of our common intellectual life, apart from special excitements and inspirations. We
suppose ourselves to be writing our whole mind, yet, as we have often said, the only
thing that is most certain Isaiah , that we have not yet begun to express our deepest
thoughts. When the spirit of the Lord seizes us, and causes cur whole nature to enter
into a state enthusiastic, rapturous, and almost bodiless, we cannot come back and
tell the experience through which we have passed. We blunder, we hesitate, we
correct ourselves, we go in quest of larger and truer words, and cannot find them,
and then we seek to eke out our meaning by invented phrases, and sometimes by
perverted and tortured language. There is no room on the earth for the stars. The
poor little earth is only large enough to hold a few flowers, and even these flowers
overflow with poetic meaning, and prophetic symbol, and instructive suggestion.
The stars we must keep high up in heaven, and can only see a little twinkling and
gleaming of them now and then. They are so distant we cannot measure their
fulness, and yet we are assured of their majesty and splendour. So it is with our
thinking: we have a few flower-words that we can make use of, a few things that we
can say in tolerably plain language; yet how few they are! On the other hand, we
have star-thoughts, great planetary contemplations, marvellous impressions
regarding the vastness of things, and the immanence of God in his universe: here
our eloquence breaks down, and we betake ourselves to the higher eloquence of
hesitation, self-correction, and agony of endeavour, not always ending fruitlessly,
but often the more fruitful in that it apparently fails in its great purpose. There are
failures that are grand. Some defeats are assurances of future victories.
At the fifth verse of the fifth chapter there is quite a change of communication.
Instead of high prophetic language we have comparative simplicity and directness,
until another vision begins with the eighth chapter. The Lord brings a great moral
charge against Jerusalem; he says:—
"I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her.
And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and
my statutes more than the countries that are round about her: for they have refused
my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them" ( Ezekiel 5:5-6).
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38. "Set in the midst of the nations": Egypt and Ethiopia on the south; the Hittites, the
Syrians, and Assyrians, from time to time, on the north; on the coast, southern and
northern, were the Philistines and the Phoenicians; whilst on the deserts of the east,
and in the near south, were the Ishmaelites going to and fro, and keeping up
intercourse with all the nations. It is thought that Solomon himself established
commercial relations with the nations of India. So situated, what opportunities
Israel had of presenting the aspect of a people well instructed in the divine law, and
sweetly obedient to the divine will and purpose; how without so much as uttering
one word of mere exhortation she might have preached with the eloquence of
unimpeachable consistency and generous beneficence: Jerusalem was called upon to
be the great expositor of monotheism in the ancient world. Yet how wondrously was
Jerusalem separated by natural barriers from all other lands or nations—by
deserts, by the sea on the west, by the northern mountains; how in this geographical
solitude Israel might have cultivated to perfection the worship of the one true God!
When the Israelites failed in this high purpose they seemed to dry up the sea, and
create a high-road through the desert, and break down the mountains, that they
might not only allow, but almost invite, the surrounding nations to come in and
reduce them to subjection, making a prey of the very treasure of God"s heart. While
the judges judged Israel, Israel was continually falling under the power of some of
the petty tribes on the confines of the Holy Land, When the empire of Solomon was
broken up, in consequence of the sins of the people, the Israelites had no defence
against the powerful nations that assailed them: Judaea and Chaldaea made sport
of the Israelites. How is the fine gold become dim! how is the giant of God reduced
to the feebleness of childhood! how are the mighty fallen! All this apostasy was
moral; not because the surrounding nations had better arms, or better military
training, did Israel fail in the war, but because Israel had wickedly resisted divine
judgment. Immortality is always weakness. When conscience ceases to take part in
the battle of life, the battle has already ended in ruin.
What is true of the Israelites is true of all other peoples; and what is true of peoples
in their collective capacity is true of the individual man: he goes up or down
according to his moral temperament, his moral discipline, his moral purpose in life.
How tremendous is the judgment of God as revealed in such words as these:—
"Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord God; Surely, because thou hast defiled my
sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore
will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity. A
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39. third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be
consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about
thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword
after them" ( Ezekiel 5:11-12).
And so the judgment passes on from thunder to thunder, and the last grand note of
that judgment-thunder Isaiah , "I the Lord have spoken it." It was impossible for
Ezekiel to invent all these moral judgments. We feel that they must have come up
from eternity, because they express what never entered into the heart of man to
conceive concerning the proper desert and issue of sin. Hell itself is a revelation.
Make of that part of the invisible state what we may, it surely never entered into the
heart of man to invent it. We may have perverted the idea; by our foolish
exaggerations we may have distorted the divine revelation; but the great central fact
of judgment, of burning indignation, of unquenchable anger against sin, we must
always recognise as one of the unchangeable realities of true religion. It is clear that
all judgment was not future in the Old Testament. There was an immediate
degradation, and an immediate infliction of tremendous penalty. "I will make thee
waste, and a reproach among the nations that are round about thee, in the sight of
all that pass by"; "I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine"; "I will
increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread"; "So will I send
upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee; and pestilence and
blood shall pass through thee; and I will bring the sword upon thee." These were
immediate visitations. In the New Testament we are supposed to come upon a
prediction rather than a realised judgment. What we have to suffer for our sins is
supposed to be in the future, whilst here we may enjoy ourselves in the very act of
drinking goblets of iniquity, and sitting down to partake of the festivities of
darkness. All this is an error on our part. Under the New Testament dispensation, as
under the Old, judgment is immediate, penalty is now impending, our very next step
may be into a burning pit They allegorise who postpone judgment, not they who
immediately feel it and respond to it penitentially. Every serpent that bites the
hedge-breaker is but a hint of the still greater punishment that awaits us when all
life is looked at by a judicial eye and pronounced upon by a judicial voice. Blessed
are they who take counsel of immediate dispensations and providences, and who
have the spiritual eye that in all these can see symbols of something infinitely more
appalling. The Lord does not fail to set forth the great truth that the bread and the
water are his, and that in his hands are all the issues of the immediate time. It is not
man that makes the sword; it is the Lord that fashions it: it is not a mere failure in
the arrangement of accidents that ends in physical disaster; it is a plan of the Most
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