Ezekiel 5:11-12

C. The Second Threat 5:11-12

TRANSLATION

(11) Therefore as I live (oracle of the Lord GOD) surely, because My sanctuary you have defiled with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will cut you short, and My eye will spare not, nor shall I have pity. (12) A third part of you with pestilence shall die, and with famine they shall be consumed in your midst; and a third part shall fall by the sword round about you; and a third part I shall scatter to every wind, and a sword I shall unsheath after them.

COMMENTS

1. The basis of this threat (Ezekiel 5:11 a); This dire threat is in order because the inhabitants of Jerusalem had defiled God's Temple with their detestable things and their abominations, i.e., their idolatrous paraphernalia. History records how King Manasseh erected an idol in the Temple precincts (2 Kings 21:7) and Ahaz replaced the divinely ordained altar with an Assyrian model (2 Kings 16:11). Because of such brazen presumption God would cur shot-(Jerusalem without mercy (Ezekiel 5:11). There is no evidence that the Israelites were overtly more wicked than neighboring peoples. But they had violated the first and most basic commandment in that they rendered allegiance to that which was less than God.

2. The specifics of the threat (Ezekiel 5:12). In Ezekiel 5:12 Ezekiel alludes to the symbolic act which he performed with his shaven hair (Ezekiel 5:1-4). A third of the populace would be consumed by pestilence and famine in the midst of the city. A third would fall by the sword round about the city, and a third would be scattered in every direction. This latter group would include both those who might manage to escape to surrounding nations and those who would be carried into foreign exile. Divine retribution would continue to pursue these folks even on foreign soil. The sword which God would unsheath after these refugees and exiles symbolizes the persecution which they would continue to experience. The horrors of the Babylonian siege were but the beginning of sorrows of the nation. The prophecy may reach beyond the limits of the Babylonian era. Ezekiel may here be foretelling the continuous misery which the once favored people of God would experience.