Commentary on Ezekiel 1 part 11/19

May it be granted us to enjoy this, being taught not by the experience of evils, but by perceiving the divine benefactions, loathing the ungrateful disposition, being renewed each day by the divine remembrance, being set aflame toward the love of God by the working of the all-holy Spirit, and awaiting the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father be glory, together with the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.

'And the word of the Lord came to me in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, saying:'

'Son of man, write down for yourself the name of this day, from which the king of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem, from this present day.'

He taught us the time at which the Babylonian marched against Jerusalem.

And while he was besieging the city, the prophet foretold to those already taken captive the evils that would overtake them.

'And speak a parable against the rebellious house.'

that they might learn the divine oracles.

Thus says Adonai the Lord:

(vv. 4-5) 'Set on the cauldron, set it on, pour water into it, and cast into it the pieces, every good piece, the leg and the shoulder stripped of flesh from the bones.'

'Taken from choice beasts, and pile the bones beneath them.'

By the cauldron he designates the city;

and by the water that is poured in, the manifold calamities;

and by the pieces, the legs and shoulders taken from choice beasts, those who were in prosperity, wealth, and power—rulers and leaders and priests—who were delivered over to the calamities all alike;

and by the bones burnt beneath, those living in poverty, who were the first to be given over to famine;

and by the fire, the Babylonian and his army.

'It boiled, it boiled, and even its bones are consumed in the midst of it.' For when the fire, he says, was cast in, both the bones burning beneath were consumed by the fire;

for they became the prey of famine, and those who escaped the onslaught of famine came to the height of their sufferings, receiving the assaults of the besiegers.

'O city of bloodshed, cauldron in which there is rust, and the rust has not gone out of it; it brought forth piece by piece;'

'no lot fell upon it.'

He has taught us here that above too he named the city a cauldron, and that by the rust of the cauldron he calls sin.

And it is the gravest accusation, that not even so great a fire of calamities consumed the rust of the cauldron.

And the words 'it brought forth piece by piece; no lot fell upon it' show that no one escaped the calamities brought upon them, nor were some allotted to destruction and others to salvation, as happened in the sieges that had occurred before; but all quite simply, some by famine, some by pestilence, were delivered over;

and those who passed through these were either slain in battle or, being besieged, were carried off into slavery;

and he also teaches the cause of these evils.

'Because her blood is in the midst of her.'

These things, he says, they endure, paying the penalty for their exceeding bloodguiltiness.

'I have set it upon a bare rock; I have not poured it out upon the ground, to cover it with earth.'

(v. 8) 'That wrath might come up for vengeance, to be avenged, I have given up her blood; upon a bare rock have I set it, that it should not be covered.'

I will not cover over, he says, the transgressions they have dared to commit, but I will make them bare, and display them to all, just like blood which is not poured upon the ground and swallowed up, but cast upon a smooth rock and preserved forever, as an accusation against those who dared to shed it.

'O city of bloodshed, I also will make great the firebrand.'

'And I will multiply the wood, and kindle the fire, that the flesh may be melted down, and the broth diminished, and the bones scorched together.'

'And let it stand upon its coals empty;'

'it was kindled that its copper might be burnt and heated and scorched, and that its uncleanness might be melted in the midst of it, and its rust consumed.'

'Let its rust be humbled, and let it by no means go out of it.'

I will make great, he says, the firebrand, that is, I will increase the beginning of the evils.

'And I will multiply the wood,' meaning, I will furnish many occasions and fuel for the fire of the evils, so that on the one hand I may kindle it, and on the other cause the boiling flesh—that is, the people in the city—to be melted away;

and some are consumed by famine, scorched like bones, while others are burnt up by the manifold calamities, like flesh being boiled;

and by the great onslaught of the fire the broth too is consumed, and every necessary supply and pretext of comfort, so that at last the copper itself, being alone exposed to the fire, is melted down and consumed together with the rust.

For when those who fought in defense of the city were defeated, it was at last captured, laid waste, and given over to fire;

but even so, he says, though so many evils befell it, it was not rid of the rust, but the inclination to sin remained in it.

'Great is its rust; its rust shall be put to shame.'

(v. 13) 'In your uncleanness is boiling.'

this too kindled the flame of the fire;

for you had much rust of sins, which, being now laid bare, shall be filled with shame.

'Because you were defiled, and were not cleansed from your uncleanness, and you shall by no means be cleansed any more, until I have satisfied my wrath upon you.' For since you were unwilling to heal your wounds through repentance, you shall by no means obtain pardon, nor enjoy cleansing, until you have paid the penalty for your transgressions;

then he shows the unfailing truth of what has been said by the quality of the person.

And the irresistibility of the things to come;

'I will not make distinction, I will not spare, and I will by no means be entreated.' For I will not let some go and give others up, but I will deliver all to the evils that have been threatened.

And he also shows the justice of the punishment.

'According to your ways, and according to your devices, will I judge you, says Adonai the Lord.' And the same thing more fully;

the cause of your transgression is your following after wicked reasonings;

and this he intimated by saying:

'According to your devices, and according to your blood, will I judge you.' For first we reason, whether toward good or toward evil, and then we bring the deed to bear upon our reasonings.

From here he transfers the prophecy to another kind, and says:

The word of the Lord came to me, saying:

'Son of man, behold, I am taking from you the delight of your eyes;'

'you shall not lament, nor shall you weep, nor shall tears come to you.'

'Groan in silence; a groaning of blood is mourning of the loins.'

By 'the delight,' or 'the devices, of the eyes'—for so some of the copies have it—he calls his yoke-fellow wife, at whose death the prophet is commanded neither to weep nor to lament, but to groan in silence, the mourning being about the loins.

For so also the divine Apostle, speaking about Levi, said:

'A groaning of blood is mourning of the loins;' that is, the groaning and mourning of death is about the loins.

But nevertheless, though the calamity was of such a kind, he charges him not to lament;

'For you shall make no human mourning.' Then he also teaches the manner:

'Your hair shall be bound up upon you, and your sandals on your feet, and you shall by no means be comforted by their lips, and you shall not eat the bread of men.' Endure to do none, he says, of the things that mourners are accustomed to do—neither to shear your head, nor to walk barefoot, nor to enjoy any comfort through what are called funeral feasts.

It seems that the prophet was also a Nazirite;

for 'Your hair,' he says, 'shall be bound up upon you.' And above too he was commanded to drink not wine, but water;

and both of these are proper to the Nazirites.

'And I spoke to the people in the morning, in the manner that he had commanded me;'

'and my wife died in the evening, and I did in the morning as I was commanded.'

The prophet fulfills a certain type of the God of all.

'For he does not desire the death of the sinner, so much as that he should turn back and live.' For which cause he charges the prophet also to groan in silence;

signifying by this that he too, against his will, endures the calamities brought upon the people, having great goodness, and by reason of this inclining toward loving-kindness, but being constrained to punish because of the excess of their transgression.

'And the people,' he says, 'said to me:'

'Will you not tell us what these things are that you are doing?' And I said to them:

The word of the Lord came to me, saying:

Say to the house of Israel:

Thus says Adonai the Lord:

Behold, I am about to profane my sanctuary, the pride of your strength, the delight of your eyes, and that for which your souls are spared;

and your sons and your daughters, whom you have left behind, shall fall by the sword.

And you shall do as I have done: you shall not be comforted by their mouth, nor shall you eat the bread of men.

And your turbans shall remain upon your heads, and your sandals upon your feet;

you shall neither mourn nor weep;

but you shall waste away in your hearts, and none shall comfort his brother.

And Ezekiel shall be to you for a sign;

according to all that he has done you shall do, when these things come; and you shall know that I am Adonai the Lord.

For just as I, when my consort had received the end of her life, did none of the customary things performed over the dead — no lament, no tear, no mourning garb —

so also you, when your sons and daughters are being slaughtered, and the holy temple is profaned by the entry of the impious barbarians — that temple in which up to the present you have boasted and continued to exult in your pride, and being pierced besides with countless other evils — you shall have no leave even to lament, nor shall you be permitted to perform the customary rites: not to shave the head, not to bare the feet of their sandals, not to unburden the heaviness of your grief in streams of tears, not to enjoy the table of consolation, nor to carry out any other of the accustomed things.

And you shall remember the things done by the prophet, and you shall learn through the outcome of events that the prophet became for you as a kind of portent and sign, presenting to you through his deeds the prediction of things to come.

And you, son of man — shall it not be in the day when I take from them their strength, the exaltation of their boasting, the delight of their eyes, and the exaltation of their soul, their sons and their daughters? In that day one who has escaped shall come to you, to report it in your ears.

In that day your mouth shall be opened to the one who has escaped, and you shall speak, and shall no longer be dumb; and you shall be to them for a sign, and they shall know that I am Adonai the Lord.

Not only in the present time shall you teach them these things;

but also when the prediction reaches its fulfilment, and the holy things are handed over to the impious barbarians, and their sons and daughters are given up to slaughter, and someone arrives from there reporting what has happened, reminding them of the prediction — you shall not endure to keep silence, so that they may learn that these things have come to pass because I willed and permitted them, and that they shall pay the penalty for their impieties;

and that they have suffered not through the strength of their enemies, but through my just wrath.

From here he next turns his prophecy against those who dwell as neighbours of Israel and rejoiced over them, and first brings forward into the midst the sons of Ammon.

And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

Son of man, set your face against the sons of Ammon, and prophesy against them.

And you shall say to the sons of Ammon:

Hear the word of Adonai the Lord:

Thus says Adonai the Lord:

Because you rejoiced over my sanctuary when it was profaned, and over the land of Israel when it was laid waste, and over the house of Judah when it went into captivity;

therefore I deliver you to the sons of Kedem for a possession, and they shall encamp in you with their equipment, and shall set their tents in you;

they shall eat your fruits, and they shall drink your fatness.

And I will make the city of Ammon a pasture for camels, and the sons of Ammon a pasture for sheep; and you shall know that I am Adonai the Lord.

The other translators rendered 'sons of Kedem' as 'sons of the East'; and these are of the lineage descending from Ishmael.

For these trace their descent from Ishmael.

The God of all things therefore says through the prophet to the sons of Ammon:

Since you rejoiced when you beheld the temple consecrated to me trodden down by defiled and impious men, and the land of Israel laid waste, and the tribe of Judah taken captive, I will make you subject to those who are far inferior and weaker than the Babylonians, who will surround you with many disasters — pitching their tents in your cities, and grazing the herds of camels in your country, and making you yourselves keepers of sheep.

When these things come upon you, then, you shall learn that my people has suffered what it has suffered not because of any weakness of mine, but because of its own transgression.

Because you clapped with your hand, and stamped with your foot, and rejoiced in your soul with all your contempt against the land of Israel;

therefore, behold, I will stretch out my hand against you, and give you for plunder among the nations, and cut you off from the peoples, and destroy you utterly from the lands; and you shall know that I am Adonai the Lord.

For since, he says, in gloating and exulting over the calamities of my people, you clapped with your hands and made a noise with your feet, leaping and dancing, for this reason you shall suffer harsher things, and through these very events you shall learn my sovereign lordship.

From here he transfers the prophecy to Moab, which was brother to Ammon and its close neighbour.

Thus says Adonai the Lord:

Because Moab and Seir said, 'Behold, the house of Israel and Judah are like all the nations';

therefore, behold, I will loosen the shoulder of Moab from its cities, from its frontier towns — the choice land, the house of Beth-jeshimoth, above the fountain of the city by the sea, namely Baal-meon and Kiriathaim.

I have given the sons of Kedem, together with the sons of Ammon, to them for a possession, and I will give it up to destruction, so that there may be no remembrance of the sons of Ammon among the nations.

And in Moab I will execute judgments, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

He joined Seir to Moab, since it too was among the neighbouring peoples;

and by Seir he means those who trace their descent from Esau;

and he was also called Edom, that is, 'the ruddy' or 'the red';

and 'Seir' means 'shaggy' and 'hairy'.

Both of these belonged to Esau, the brother of Jacob.

For, it says, the first came out ruddy;

all over like a hairy garment, shaggy; and the patriarch Jacob too said concerning him to his mother:

Esau my brother is a hairy man, but I am a smooth man. Since, then, he says, Seir and Moab, reveling in the calamities of my people, dared to say that my people differs in no way from the rest of the nations — and this blasphemy has passed on to me, as though, being weak like the idols of the other nations, I was unable to defend my people —

for this reason 'I loosen the shoulder of Moab from its cities'; that is, I will dissolve their strength;

and not only those situated on the mountain heights, but also its coastal cities I will lay in ruins.

By 'coastal' he means those situated along the Dead Sea;

for the Moabites dwelt far from the other sea.

He also gives the names of the cities, of which up to the present a small remnant has remained;

and some belong to this Arabia, others to that.

'They shall know that I am the Lord.' Having thus foretold what would befall Moab, he transfers his discourse to Seir, which is also Edom (verses 12–14).

Thus says Adonai the Lord:

Because Edom acted in taking vengeance upon them, exacting revenge with wrath upon the house of Judah, and bore a grudge, and exacted retribution from them;

therefore thus says Adonai the Lord:

I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel, and they shall deal with Edom according to my anger, and they shall know my vengeance, says Adonai the Lord.

For since they not only rejoiced like the Moabites and Ammonites, but also displayed their own wickedness in deeds, keeping alive that former grudge;

for, he says, Esau bore a grudge against Jacob concerning the blessing with which his father had blessed him — for this reason I will not deliver them to other enemies, but to that very people of mine which had been wronged by them, so that through their utter desolation they may learn the power of my sovereign lordship.

Having thus foretold the things concerning these, he transfers the prediction to the Philistines.

For the Edomites are not foreigners, being descendants of Isaac;

nor indeed the Ammonites and Moabites, who trace their descent from Lot.

Foreigners, then, were both the Tyrians and the Sidonians, and all the others who dwelt near them;

but the divine Scripture calls in a special sense 'foreigners' the Ashkelonites and Gazites, the Gittites and the Ekronites, and the Ashdodites, since they had land bordering on the tribe of Judah, and were very close and neighbouring.

He therefore also declares the things that would befall these.

Thus says Adonai the Lord:

Because the Philistines acted in wrath, and rose up to take vengeance, rejoicing with all their soul, to destroy with an everlasting enmity;

Behold, I will stretch out My hands against the Philistines, and I will utterly destroy the Cretans, and I will destroy the remnant that dwell along the seacoast.

And I will execute great vengeance upon them with rebukes of My wrath, and they shall know that I am Adonai the Lord, when I bring My vengeance upon them.

And against the Idumeans likewise He brings a charge of indignation.

For, He says, bearing a grudge against My people, as against a people that had prevailed and strengthened its own kingdom, they made the time of calamity a time of vengeance, and rising up against them they inflicted upon them countless evils.

For this reason I will exact from them the penalty of their rancor, and I will deliver them over to God-sent plagues, and together with the rulers I will destroy the subjects, and I will hand them over to inescapable evils;

so that through what they endure they may come to know the power of My dominion.

But rather, having received the knowledge through His ever-flowing gifts, let us become thankful concerning His benefactions, and let us flee the passion of rancor, having learned its ruinous fruits;

and let us keep the apostolic commandment, not waiting for the sun to set upon the grief we hold against one another;

but before its setting let us quench our anger.

For in this way we shall both put an end to the wrath of the righteous Judge against us, and shall reap that lovely and thrice-longed-for favor;

which may it be for us all to attain, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father be glory, together with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

And it came to pass in the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

Because Tyre said against Jerusalem, 'Aha, she is broken, she is destroyed; the nations have turned to me; she that was full is made desolate.'

In the eleventh year of the captivity of Jechonias, and of the reign of Sedekias, in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, Jerusalem was taken by the Babylonians.

Therefore, a few days before the capture, the prophet is commanded to utter his prophetic words against Tyre.

For Tyre is called 'Sor' in the local tongue.

She too had rejoiced at the siege of Jerusalem, and had supposed that, once that most illustrious city was overthrown, she herself would rise to power over all the neighboring nations.

Behold, I bring against Sor, and I will bring up against you many nations, as the sea comes up with its waves, and they shall cast down your walls;

And they shall pull down your towers, and I will scrape her dust from her, and I will make her a bare rock.

She shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken, says Adonai the Lord; and she shall be a spoil to the nations. And her daughters that are in the field shall be slain with the sword, and they shall know that I am the Lord.

By these words He threatens her with the campaign of the Babylonians;

and He says that her ramparts also shall be pulled down, and that she shall become desolate, so as to resemble certain smooth rocks upon which fishermen are accustomed to spread out their nets.

He says also that the cities and villages subject to her shall be laid waste;

for these He calls her daughters.

He indicates also the gain that comes from these calamities;

for 'They shall know,' He says, 'that I am the Lord.'

For thus says Adonai the Lord:

Behold, I bring against you, O Sor, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the north;

he is a king of kings, with horses and chariots and horsemen, and a very great gathering of nations.

He shall slay with the sword your daughters that are in the field, and shall set against you a siege-work, and shall build a wall around you, and shall cast up a trench against you, and shall build around you a rampart in a circle, and a barricade of arms, and he shall set his spears over against you.

By 'siege-work' (prophylakē) he means the fortified bases which invading enemies are accustomed to build, so as both to plunder the surrounding country and to destroy the besieged by scarcity of necessities;

and by 'building around' he means the walls constructed on the outside by the enemies.

He will add, He says, to this encircling wall palisades and trenches and mounds, so that no one may dare to go out, but rather that missiles of every kind may readily be hurled.

Your walls and your towers he shall pull down with his weapons.

From the multitude of his horses their dust shall cover you, and from the sound of his horsemen and of the wheels of his chariots your walls shall shake, when he enters your gates, as one entering a city out of a plain.

With the hoofs of his horses they shall trample down all your streets;

your people he shall slay with the sword, and the pillar of your strength he shall bring down to the ground.

And he shall plunder your power, and shall spoil your possessions, and shall cast down your walls, and shall pull down your desirable houses, and your stones and your timber and your dust he shall cast into the midst of the sea.

And he shall put an end to the multitude of your musicians, and the sound of your harps shall no more be heard.

And I will make you a bare rock; you shall be a place for the spreading of nets, and you shall be built no more, for I have spoken, says Adonai the Lord.

True, He says, are all the things foretold by Me.

Therefore receive the prophecy as unerring, that the Babylonians shall pull down your walls, and having demolished your houses that stand nearby, shall fill them up with stones;

and so great shall be the din of the horses and chariots, that the city shall seem to be shaken as by some earthquake.

And such desolation shall overtake it, that within you the fishermen shall dry their wetted nets, and what they are accustomed to do upon the smooth rocks that lie near the sea, this they shall do in you because of the great desolation.

But the phrase, 'You shall be built no more,' we shall learn from the prophecy of the blessed prophet Isaiah.

For that prophet also foretold grievous things against Tyre, yet he limited the grievous things to a certain fixed period of time;

for 'Tyre shall be forsaken,' he says, 'for seventy years, as the time of one king, as the time of a man;'

'and it shall come to pass, after the seventy years God shall visit Tyre, and she shall be restored again to her former state, and shall be a mart to all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of all the earth, and her merchandise shall be holy to the Lord,' and what follows.

Therefore the phrase 'She shall be built no more' hints at the change of her ways;

that she shall not be built up according to her former impiety, but shall receive another and directly opposite building, which, according to the prophet Isaiah, shall be holy to the Lord.

And the facts bear witness, and the piety that now prevails.

For from her former superstition and from her wandering after idols, having turned to God, she received the light of the knowledge of God.

For thus says the Lord to Sor:

Shall not the islands shake at the sound of your fall, when your wounded groan, when the slaughter is made with swords in the midst of you? And all the princes of the nations of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and shall take off their mitres from their heads, and shall put off their embroidered garments; with amazement shall they be amazed, they shall sit upon the ground, and shall fear their own destruction, and shall groan over you. Tyre was distinguished from ancient times, not only in Asia but also in Europe;

necessarily, therefore, the calamity that befell her also became well known.

And having learned of this, He says, those who dwell in the islands shall be terrified, and their kings too, out of despondency and vexation, shall bare their heads of their diadems;

for these He called mitres;

and they shall put off their costly raiment, and shall take up a mourning habit, expecting to suffer the same things.

For this He signified when He said:

And they shall fear their own destruction. And so greatly shall the tidings of your evils grieve them, that they shall even take up a lamentation over you, and shall say:

How have you perished, and been destroyed out of the sea, O praiseworthy city, which was made strong in the sea, both she and those who dwelt in her, who imposed her terror upon all who dwelt in her?

And the islands shall fear from the day of your fall, and the islands shall be troubled at your power in the sea.

Reckoning, He says, your former power, and beholding the calamity that has now overtaken you, they shall mourn you, who were once so much talked of and renowned;

and they shall be anxious about their own affairs, fearing lest they too fall into the same misfortunes.

For thus says Adonai the Lord:

When I make you a desolate city, like the cities that shall not be inhabited, when I bring up the deep upon you, and much water covers you;

And I will bring you down to those that go down to the pit, to a people of old, and I will settle you in the depths of the earth, as an everlasting desolation, with those that go down to the pit, that you may not be inhabited, nor rise up in the land of life.

He called the campaign of the Babylonian the 'deep' because of its multitude.

For since she herself is surrounded by water and resembles an island, lying wholly within the sea and having but one entrance from the land, He fittingly employed the figure, calling the multitude of the enemies 'much water' and 'the deep.'

And the phrase, 'I will bring you down to those that go down to the pit, to a people of old,' signifies death, under which all who pass through life complete the present age.

Accordingly, he named the dead 'a people of the age.'

And the phrase, 'May you not rise up onto the land of life,' declares that saying of the psalm:

'...in the council of the righteous.' But being impious, those who at that time dwelt in Tyre shall not rise up into the land of life.