Ezekiel 5:13-15

D. The Results of the Judgment 5:13-15

TRANSLATION

(13) Then My anger shall end, and MY wrath I shall cause to rest in respect to them and shall be comforted; and they shall know that I the LORD have spoken in My zeal when I have finished My wrath on them. (14) And I shall make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations which are round about you, before every one who passes by. (15) And it shall be a reproach, and a taunt, a lesson and an astonishment to the nations which are round about you when I execute against you judgments in anger and wrath and in furious rebukes; I the LORD have spoken it.

COMMENTS

Three results of Jerusalem's judgment are mentioned in these verses:
1. Only when Jerusalem was in ruins and her few survivors scattered abroad would God's indignant wrath be assuaged. The strongly anthropomorphic expression, My wrath I shall cause to rest in respect to them is used in three other places in the book.[172] Evil actions have tragic results. In this first discourse the only note of hope is that once Jerusalem is destroyed the righteous anger of God would be satisfied.

[172] Ezekiel 16:42; Ezekiel 21:22; Ezekiel 24:13.

2. Through the fulfillment of the predicted punishment they would recognize that the calamity was initiated by God and was not due to mere chance.

3. The retribution against Jerusalem would earn for the people of Judah the contempt of all neighboring nations and passers by as well (Ezekiel 5:14), The ruins of the once proud capital of Judah would serve a reproach, taunt, a warning lesson and a source of astonishment to the neighboring nations. At this point Ezekiel mentions only this one good which will result from the fall of Judah. From the tragedy of Israel the nations will learn that Yahweh is in control of history and that He is a righteous God.