Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘This burden concerns the prince in Jerusalem and all the house of Israel who are there.’

“JOSEPHUS [Antiquities, 10.7] reports that Ezekiel sent a copy of this prophecy to Zedekiah. As Jeremiah had sent a letter to the captives at the Chebar, which was the means of calling forth at first the agency of Ezekiel, so it was natural for Ezekiel…”

But I will spread My net over him, and he will be caught in My snare.

“It is God's net (Job 19:6). Babylon was God's instrument (Isa 10:5). Called "a net" (Hab 1:14-16). bring him to Babylon . . . ; yet shall he not see it--because he should be deprived of sight before he arrived there (Jer 52:11).”

“Son of man, take note that the house of Israel is saying, ‘The vision that he sees is for many years from now; he prophesies about the distant future.’

“Not a mere repetition of the scoff (Eze 12:22); there the scoffers asserted that the evil was so often threatened and postponed, it must have no reality; here formalists do not go so far as to deny that a day of evil is coming, but…”

This is what the Lord GOD says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit, yet have seen nothing.

“A refutation of those who set the inward word above the objective, and represent the Bible as flowing subjectively from the inner light of its writers, not from the revelation of the Holy Ghost from without.”

My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and speak lying divinations.

“Joh 1:47, and those not so. Literally fulfilled (Ezr 2:59, 62; compare Ne 7:5; Ps 69:28). neither . . . enter . . . land--They shall not so much as be allowed to come back at all to their country.”

I will tear down the wall you whitewashed and level it to the ground, so that its foundation is exposed.

“The repetition of the same threat (see on Eze 13:11) is to awaken the people out of their dream of safety by the certainty of the event.”

Now, O son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people who prophesy out of their own imagination. Prophesy against them

“Isa 50:7). daughters--the false prophetesses; alluded to only here; elsewhere the guilt specified in the women is the active share they took in maintaining idolatry (Eze 8:14).”

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: See, I am against the magic charms with which you ensnare souls like birds, and I will tear them from your arms.

“I am against your pillows--that is, against your lying ceremonial tricks by which ye cheat the people. to make them fly--namely, into their snares, as fowlers disturb birds so as to be suddenly caught in the net spread for them.”

so that I may take hold of the hearts of the people of Israel. For because of their idols, they are all estranged from Me.’

“That I may take--that is, unveil and overtake with punishment the dissimulation and impiety of Israel hid in their own heart.”

Therefore tell the house of Israel that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Repent and turn away from your idols; turn your faces away from all your abominations.

“Their sin was twofold: (1) "In their heart" or inner man; (2) "Put before their face," that is, exhibited outwardly. So their repentance is generally expressed by "repent," and is then divided into: (1) "Turn yourselves (inwardly) from your idols";”

For when any Israelite or any foreigner dwelling in Israel separates himself from Me, sets up idols in his heart, and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face, and…

“FAIRBAIRN translates, as it is the same Hebrew as in the previous clause, "concerning Me," it is natural that God should use the same expression in His reply as was used in the consultation of Him.”

But if the prophet is enticed to speak a message, then it was I the LORD who enticed him, and I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy…

“This declaration of God is intended to answer their objection, "Jeremiah and Ezekiel are but two opposed to the many prophets who announce 'peace' to us."”

They will bear their punishment—the punishment of the inquirer will be the same as that of the prophet—

“God would chastise their sin with a corresponding sin; as they rejected the safe directions of the true light, He would send the pernicious delusions of a false one; prophets would be given them who should re-echo the deceitfulness that already wrought in their own…”

And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

“God had told Jeremiah that the guilt of Judah was too great to be pardoned even for the intercession of Moses and Samuel (Ps 99:6; 15:1), which had prevailed formerly (Ex 32:11-14; 1Sa 7:8-12), implying the extraordinary heinousness of their guilt, since in ordinary cases…”

Or if I send wild beasts through the land to leave it childless and desolate, with no man passing through it for fear of the beasts, then as surely as…

“In Eze 14:21 he concentrates the whole in one mass of condemnation. If Noah, Daniel, Job, could not deliver the land, when deserving only one judgment, "how much more" when all four judgments combined are justly to visit the land for sin, shall these three…”

For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem My four dire judgments—sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague—in order to…

“How much more--literally, "Surely shall it be so now, when I send," &c. If none could avert the one only judgment incurred, surely now, when all four are incurred by sin, much more impossible it will be to deliver the land.”

Yet, behold, some survivors will be left in it—sons and daughters who will be brought out.

“Yet . . . a remnant--not of righteous persons, but some of the guilty who should "come forth" from the destruction of Jerusalem to Babylon, to lead a life of hopeless exile there.”

And I will set My face against them. Though they may have escaped the fire, yet another fire will consume them.

“And I will set my face against them--(See on Le 17:10). from one fire . . . another--(Compare Isa 24:18). "Fire" means here every kind of calamity (Ps 66:12).”

On the day of your birth your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing. You were not rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths.

“Its very life was a miracle (Ex 1:15-22). navel . . . not cut--Without proper attention to the navel cord, the infant just born is liable to die. neither . . . washed in water to supple thee--that is, to make the skin soft.”

Then I passed by and saw you wallowing in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, ‘Live!’ There I said to you, ‘Live!’

“"Live in thy blood," that is, Live, but live a life exposed to many deaths, as was the case in the beginnings of Israel's national existence, in order to magnify the grace of God [CALVIN]. The former view is preferable.”

You even took the sons and daughters you bore to Me and sacrificed them as food to idols. Was your prostitution not enough?

“20, 21. sons and . . . daughters borne unto me--Though "thy children," yet they belong "unto Me," rather than to thee, for they were born under the immutable covenant with Israel, which even Israel's sin could not set aside, and they have received the…”

But when you built your mounds at the head of every street and made your lofty shrines in every public square, you were not even like a prostitute, because you…

“JEROME translates, "Thou hast not been as a harlot in scorning (that is, who ordinarily scorns) a hire offered," in order to get a larger one: nay, thou hast offered hire thyself to thy lovers (Eze 16:33, 34).”

Then they will burn down your houses and execute judgment against you in the sight of many women.

“The result of the awful judgment shall be, when divine vengeance has run its course, it shall cease. burn-- (De 13:16; 2Ki 25:9). women--the surrounding Gentile nations to whom thou shalt be an object of mocking (Ps 137:7).”

Because you did not remember the days of your youth, but enraged Me with all these things, I will surely bring your deeds down upon your own head, declares the…

“I will put it out of thy power to commit it by cutting thee off. FAIRBAIRN translates, "I will not do what is scandalous (namely, encouraging thee in thy sin by letting it pass with impunity) upon all thine abominations"; referring to Le 19:29, the…”

Behold, all who speak in proverbs will quote this proverb about you: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’

“As . . . mother . . . her daughter--"Is," and "so is," are not in the original; the ellipsis gives the proverb (but two words in the Hebrew) epigrammatic brevity. Jerusalem proved herself a true daughter of the Hittite mother in sin (Eze 16:3).”