Ezekielchapter 24
27 verses · BSBEzekiel book hub →
Speaks with:Ezekiel 22×4Jeremiah 52×3Ezekiel 33×3Ezekiel 20×2Jeremiah 39×2Jeremiah 7×2
Summary
Chapter summary
On the very day Nebuchadnezzar set himself against Jerusalem, Ezekiel is given the parable of the boiling caldron: set it on, fill it with the choice bones and the good pieces, heap on the wood, and then leave it empty on the coals till its brass burns and its rust is consumed, for the rust will not go out any other way. Then the hardest sign of his life: 'Behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke.' He preaches in the morning, his wife dies at evening, and he does not mourn, as they will not mourn when the sanctuary, the desire of their eyes, falls. When the fugitive comes, his mouth will be opened.
Context
Prophecy · Ezekiel — Ezekiel overview
- A. 1–14 The boiling pot with rust that will not come off
- B. 15–24 The desire of his eyes taken, and no mourning allowed
- C. 25–27 When the fugitive comes, your mouth will open
The outline
A.The boiling pot with rust that will not come offvv. 1 to 14
Read vv. 1 to 14 →B.The desire of his eyes taken, and no mourning allowedvv. 15 to 24
Read vv. 15 to 24 →C.When the fugitive comes, your mouth will openvv. 25 to 27
Read vv. 25 to 27 →
The world behind this chapter
Ezekiel 24The history
The date is the point of the chapter. God tells Ezekiel to write down the name of this day, this very day — because on this very day the king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem. The book of Kings gives the same day of the same month for the start of the siege. News travelled by caravan and took months; nobody in Babylonia could have known. Writing it down created a record that could be checked later, and it was.
The cooking pot is a household object doing awful work. A large bronze or clay cauldron is set on the fire and filled with choice cuts and the best bones. Then it is boiled until the meat is gone, and then — this is the part no cook does — the empty pot is left on the coals until the metal glows and the crusted deposit inside is burned out. That corrosion is the city's blood-guilt, and the fire is the only thing that will remove it.
The blood detail underneath is legal. Blood poured on bare rock, not covered with earth, cries out and cannot be hidden. Covering blood with dust was the required act; Jerusalem's guilt was left on the bare rock deliberately, so that it would provoke a response.
Then the personal blow. Ezekiel's wife, called the delight of his eyes, dies, and he is forbidden every ordinary mourning custom: no wailing, no tears, keep the turban on instead of baring the head, keep the sandals on instead of going barefoot, do not cover the moustache, do not eat the bread that neighbours bring to a house of death. Each of these was a fixed public practice, and skipping them was as visible as performing them.
What it meant to them
The exiles ask him directly: will you not tell us what these things mean for us? The answer is that the temple, the pride of their strength, the delight of their eyes and the desire of their soul, is going to be profaned — and their sons and daughters left behind will fall by the sword.
And they will not mourn either, because grief that public would be an admission, and because the loss will be too great for the ordinary rituals to carry. Ezekiel's silent, dry-eyed morning after his wife's death is the rehearsal. From here to chapter thirty-three he speaks only about the nations, until a survivor arrives with the news.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- Edwin R. Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Ezekiel 24. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.