Adam Clarke's Bible Commentary-4 Verses 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, &c., 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. xlv. 5; xlviii. 37; and also a sign of great disgrace; see 2 Sam. x. 4. 5. He is ordered to divide the hair, ver. 2, into three equal parts, to intimate the different degrees and kinds of punishment which should fall upon the people. 6. The balances, ver. 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, ver. 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, ver. 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., xlii. Some think that this prophecy may refer to the persecution of the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes.
Matthew Henry Commentary
- The preparation of the prophet for his work. (Ezek. 3:1-11) His office as that of a watchman. (Ezek. 3:12-2) The restraining and restoring his speech. (Ezek. 3:22-27)
Ezek. 3:1-11 Ezekiel was to receive the truths of God as the food for his soul, and to feed upon them by faith, and he would be strengthened Gracious souls can receive those truths of God with delight, whic speak terror to the wicked. He must speak all that, and that only which God spake to him. How can we better speak God's mind than with his words? If disappointed as to his people, he must not be offended The Ninevites were wrought upon by Jonah's preaching, when Israel wa unhumbled and unreformed. We must leave this unto the Divin sovereignty, and say, Lord, thy judgments are a great deep. They wil not regard the word of the prophet, for they will not regard the rod of God. Christ promises to strengthen him. He must continue earnest in preaching, whatever the success might be.
Ezek. 3:12-21 This mission made the holy angels rejoice. All this wa to convince Ezekiel, that the God who sent him had power to bear his out in his work. He was overwhelmed with grief for the sins an miseries of his people, and overpowered by the glory of the vision he had seen. And however retirement, meditation, and communion with God may be sweet, the servant of the Lord must prepare to serve his generation. The Lord told the prophet he had appointed him a watchma to the house of Israel. If we warn the wicked, we are not chargeabl with their ruin. Though such passages refer to the national covenan made with Israel, they are equally to be applied to the final state of all men under every dispensation. We are not only to encourage an comfort those who appear to be righteous, but they are to be warned for many have grown high-minded and secure, have fallen, and even die in their sins. Surely then the hearers of the gospel should desir warnings, and even reproofs.
Ezek. 3:22-27 Let us own ourselves for ever indebted to the mediatio of Christ, for the blessed intercourse between God and man; and a tru believer will say, I am never less alone than when thus alone. When the Lord opened Ezekiel's mouth, he was to deliver his message boldly, to place life and death, the blessing and the curse, before the people and leave them to their choice _________________________________________________
Original Hebrew ומהם1992 עוד5750 תקח3947 והשׁלכת7993 אותם853 אל413 תוך8432 האשׁ784 ושׂרפת8313 אתם853 באשׁ784 ממנו4480 תצא3318 אשׁ784 אל413 כל3605 בית1004 ישׂראל׃3478
