CHAPTER XXIV _The prophet now informs those of the captivity of the very day_ _on which Nebuchadnezzar was to lay siege to Jerusalem,_ (_compare_ Jeremiah 52:4,) _and describes the fate of that city and its inhabitants by a_ _very apt similitude_, 1-14. _As another sign of the greatness of tho... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 24:3. _SET ON A POT_] The _pot_ was Jerusalem; the _flesh_, the inhabitants in general; _every good piece, the thigh_ and _the_ _shoulder_, King Zedekiah and his family; the _bones_, the soldiers; and _the setting on_ the _pot_, the commencement of the siege. The prophet was then in _M... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 24:5. _MAKE IT BOIL WELL_] Let it boil over, that its own scum may augment the fire, that the _bones_ - the soldiers, may be _seethed_ _therein_. Let its contentions, divided counsels, and disunion be the means of increasing its miseries, רתח רתחיה _rattach_ _rethacheyha_, let it bubbl... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 24:6. _LET NO LOT FALL UPON IT._] Pull out the flesh indiscriminately; let no piece be _chosen_ for _king_ or _priest_; thus showing that all should be involved in one indiscriminate ruin.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 24:7. _FOR HER BLOOD IS IN THE MIDST OF HER_] She gloried in her idol sacrifices; she offered them upon a rock, where the blood should _remain evident_; and she poured none upon the _ground_ to cover it with dust, in horror of that moral evil that required the blood of an innocent crea... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 24:8. _THAT IT MIGHT CAUSE FURY_] This very blood shall be against them, as the blood of _Abel_ was against _Cain_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 24:10. _HEAP ON WOOD_] Let the siege be _severe_, the carnage great, and the ruin and catastrophe complete.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 24:13. _IN THY FILTHINESS_ IS _LEWDNESS_] זמה _zimmah_, a word that denominates the _worst kinds of impurity; adultery,_ _incest_, c., and the _purpose, wish, design_, and _ardent desire_ to do these things. Hers were not _accidental_ sins, they were _abominations by design_, and they... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 24:16. _BEHOLD, I TAKE AWAY FROM THEE THE DESIRE OF THINE_ _EYES_] Here is an intimation that the stroke he was to suffer was to be above all grief; that it would be so great as to prevent the relief of tears. Curae leves loquuntur, graviores silent, is a well-accredited maxim in suc... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 24:17. _MAKE NO MOURNING_] As a _priest_, he could make no public mourning, Leviticus 21:1, c. _BIND THE TIRE OF THINE HEAD_] This seems to refer to the high priest's bonnet or perhaps, one worn by the ordinary priests: it might have been a black veil to cover the head. _PUT ON THY S... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 24:18. _AT EVEN MY WIFE DIED_] The prophet's wife was a type of the city, which was to him exceedingly dear. The _death of his wife_ represented the _destruction of the city_ by the Chaldeans; see Ezekiel 24:21, where the _temple_ is represented to be the _desire of his eyes_, as his _... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 24:19. _WILT THOU NOT TELL US_] In the following verses he explains and applies the whole of what he had _done_ and _said_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezekiel 24:27. _IN THAT DAY SHALL THY MOUTH BE OPENED_] That is, When some one who shall have escaped from Jerusalem, having arrived among the captives, shall inform them of the destruction of the city, the temple, the royal family, and the people at large; till then he might suppress his tear... [ Continue Reading ]