Ezekielchapter 24
27 verses · KJVEzekiel book hub →
Key verse
Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke: yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down.
It stands in scene B of the chapter, verses 15 to 24.
The chapter
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
Where the chapter sits
Ezekiel 24 falls in Symbolic acts and judgment on Jerusalem (chapters 4–24). Lying on his side for 430 days; shaving the head with a sword; eating food in anxiety; the glory departs in stages (8–11); the prophet survives his wife's death without mourning (24).
Before it: Call and wheels-vision, chapters 1–3. After it: Oracles against the nations, chapters 25–32.
The whole shape of Ezekiel→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 rest of the history, and what it meant to them
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
A. The boiling pot with rust that will not come off
1. (vv. 1-2)
a.in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month: The chapter opens with an unusually exact date, the ninth year, the tenth month, the tenth day, and the Lord commands the prophet to write it down as a fixed record rather than a vague oracle. Henry reads the precision as proof offered in advance, Ezekiel by the river Chebar naming the very day Nebuchadnezzar's siege began outside Jerusalem before any news of it could travel that far. Keil notes the date became a fixed fast day in the Jewish calendar, the tenth of Tebeth, a tradition that has kept this chapter's opening verse in memory ever since.
Ezekiel 24:1, 2 voicesWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Ezekiel 24:1
“Again, in the ninth year,.... Of Jehoiachin's captivity, from which the dates of Ezekiel are, and of Zedekiah's reign, which commenced together: in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month; the month Tebet, which answers to part of our December, and part of January; so that it was at the latter end of December when this prophecy was given out; at which time Jerusalem was besieged by the king of Babylon, even in the winter season: the word of the Lord came unto me, saying; as follows:”
Ezekiel 24:1
“The prophecies in this chapter were delivered two years and five months after those of the previous section Eze 20:1. The day mentioned here was the very day on which Nebuchadnezzar completed his arrangements for the siege, and closed in the city (marginal references). After the captivity this day was regularly observed as a fast day Zec 8:19.”
Ezekiel 24:2, 1 voice
Ezekiel 24:2
“Son of man, write thee the name of the day,.... That is, what day of the week it was, as well as what day of the month; as whether the first, or second, or third, &c.: for the Jews had no other names for their days, as we have: even of this same day; according to Bishop Usher (r), it was the 30th of January, and the fifth day of the week (Thursday); A.M. 3414, or 590 before Christ. Mr. Whiston (s) places it at 3413 A.M. or 591 before Christ.”
2. (vv. 3-5)
a.Set on a pot, set it on, and also pour water into it: The sign is spoken as a parable of a cooking pot, filled with the choice pieces of the flock, the thigh and the shoulder and the choice bones, a picture any hearer would first read as a feast rather than a judgment. Gill reads the choice cuts as Jerusalem's own leading citizens, the best of the flock rather than the culls, which sharpens rather than softens the coming point. Wesley notes the command set on, set it on, doubled for urgency, matches the book's earlier pattern of repeated commands carrying more weight than a single word would.
Ezekiel 24:3, 2 voices
Ezekiel 24:3
“A pot - Or, the caldron; with reference to Eze 11:3. The prophet indicates by the figure utter destruction. The caldron is the city, the fire is the surrounding army, the flesh and bones are the inhabitants shut in within the walls.”
Ezekiel 24:3
“Alluding to the self-confident proverb used among the people, Eze 11:3 (see on Eze 11:3), "This city is the caldron and we be the flesh"; your proverb shall prove awfully true, but in a different sense from what you intend.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 24:4, 2 voices
Ezekiel 24:4
“The "choice bones" in the pot have flesh adhering to them. The bones under the pot (Eze 24:5) are those having no flesh and used as fuel, answering to the poorest who suffer first, and are put out of pain sooner than the rich who endure what answers to the slower process of boiling.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 24:4
“Fill it - With those pieces that are biggest, fullest of marrow, and which are divided according to the bones; these are the principal members of the state, the king, princes, priests, magistrates, and the most wealthy citizens.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 24:5, 2 voices
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 bubble its bubbling; something like that of the poet: - “Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble: Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.” Very like the noise made by ebullition, when a pot of thick broth, “sleek and slab,” is set over a fierce fire.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 24:5
“The bones - Not of the pieces to be boiled, but of the many innocents murdered in Jerusalem; for their blood crieth for vengeance, and their bones scattered on the face of the earth, will both make and maintain this fire.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
3. (vv. 6-8)
a.Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose scum is therein: The parable turns at once into plain speech, woe to the bloody city, the pot itself named as corrupt, its scum never removed, the choice pieces brought out one by one without the mercy of a lottery to spare any of them. Fairbairn reads the detail of blood set upon the top of a rock rather than covered with dust as the chapter's sharpest legal point, the law required spilled blood to be covered, and Jerusalem's blood is pictured as deliberately left exposed to demand the vengeance it is owed. Barnes notes the exposed blood functions as a standing accusation, the city's own crime left uncovered until judgment answers it.
Ezekiel 24:6, 2 voices
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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 24:6
“In former carryings away of captives, lots were cast to settle who were to go, and who to stay, but now all alike are to be cast out without distinction of rank, age, or sex.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 24:7, 1 voice
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 creature to be shed, in order to the atonement of the offender’s guilt. To “cover the blood of the victim,” was a command of the law, Lev 17:13; Deu 12:24.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 24:8, 1 voice
Ezekiel 24:8
“The blood of Abel, though the ground received it, still cries to heaven for vengeance (Ge 4:10, 11); much more blood shamelessly exposed on the bare rock. set her blood--She shall be paid back in kind (Mt 7:2). She openly shed blood, and her blood shall openly be shed.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
4. (vv. 9-14)
a.I will even make the pile for fire great: The fire is built greater still, wood heaped high, the flesh consumed, the bones themselves burned, and finally the empty pot set on the coals until its own brass grows hot enough to burn away the filthiness that boiling alone could not remove. Keil reads the escalation from cooking to scorching the empty vessel as the point where the metaphor gives out, some corruption cannot be purged by ordinary means and requires the pot destroyed along with its contents. Henry notes the chapter's most severe line closes the sign, I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent, three negatives stacked to close off any reading of the coming siege as a threat mercy might still turn aside.
Ezekiel 24:9, 1 voice
Ezekiel 24:9
“Therefore thus saith the Lord God, woe to the bloody city,.... See Gill on Eze 24:6, I will even make the pile for fire great; a large pile of wood, a great quantity of fuel to maintain the fire, and keep the pot boiling; meaning the vast army of the Chaldeans, which the Lord would bring against Jerusalem, which should closely besiege it, and vigorously attack it, until it had executed the fury of the wrath of God, comparable to fire, and of his judgments upon it. The Targum is, "even I will multiply her destruction.''”
Ezekiel 24:10, 1 voice
Ezekiel 24:10
“And spice it well - To express this justice, that is acceptable to God and men. The bones - The greatest, strongest, and firmest of the Jews shall perish in this fiery indignation.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 24:11, 1 voice
Ezekiel 24:11
“This was Jerusalem's case: She has wearied with lies, wearied her God with purposes and promises of amendment, which she never stood to, wearied herself with her carnal confidences, which have all deceived her,”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 24:12, 1 voice
Ezekiel 24:12
“With lies - Her allies, their promises, their forces, and their idols, all prove a lie to the house of Judah. Her scum - Her unrepented sins shall be punished in the fire that burns their city.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 24:13, 1 voice
Ezekiel 24:13
“In thy filthiness is lewdness - זמה zimmah, a word that denominates the worst kinds of impurity; adultery, incest, etc., and the purpose, wish, design, and ardent desire to do these things. Hers were not accidental sins, they were abominations by design, and they were the worse in her, because God had cleansed her, had separated the Israelites from idolatry and idolatrous nations, and by his institutions removed from them all idolatrous incentives. But they formed alliances with the heathen, and adopted all their abominations; therefore God would not spare them. See Eze 24:14.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 24:14, 1 voice
Ezekiel 24:14
“God hath said it, and he will do it. Note, The declarations of God's wrath against sinners are as inviolable as the assurances he has given of favour to his people; and the case of such is sad indeed, who have brought it to this issue, that either God must be false or they must be damned.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
B. The desire of his eyes taken, and no mourning allowed
1. (vv. 15-18)
a.the word of the Lord came unto me, saying: The hardest sign in the book follows without warning, the Lord tells the prophet he takes away the desire of thine eyes with a stroke, and forbids him to mourn her, no tears, no covered lips, no bread of mourners, ordinary grief itself withheld along with the loss. Keil reads the bare notice, so I spake unto the people in the morning, and at even my wife died, as deliberately unadorned, the chapter refusing to dwell on the prophet's own pain because the point is the discipline kept in the face of it. Henry reads the loss with the weight the text gives it, calling it the costliest sign any prophet was ever asked to perform, obedience that cost Ezekiel the one thing dearest to him without the comfort of mourning it in public.
Ezekiel 24:16, 3 voices
Ezekiel 24:16
“Son of man, behold,.... This is said to raise the attention of the prophet, something strange and unusual, interesting and affecting, being about to be delivered: I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke; meaning his wife; who very probably was of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to; however, of an amiable disposition, and in her conjugal relation very agreeable to the prophet; and, no doubt, a truly religious woman, and upon all account's desirable to him.”
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 such cases. Superficial griefs affect the more easily moved passions; great ones affect the soul itself, in its powers of reasoning, reflecting, comparing, recollecting, etc., when the sufferer feels all the weight of wo.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 24:16
“His natural tenderness is shown by that graphic touch, "the desire of thine eyes." What amazing subjection, then, of his individual feeling to his prophetic duty is manifested in the simple statement (Eze 24:18), "So I spake . . . in the morning; and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded." stroke--a sudden visitation.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 24:17, 3 voices
Ezekiel 24:17
“Make no mourning - As a priest, he could make no public mourning, Lev 21:1, etc. 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 shoes upon thy feet - Walking barefoot was a sign of grief. Cover not thy lips - Mourners covered the under part of the face, from the nose to the bottom of the chin.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 24:17
“JEROME explains, "Thou shalt retain the hair which is usually cut in mourning." The fillet, binding the hair about the temples like a chaplet, was laid aside at such times. Uncovering the head was an ordinary sign of mourning in priests; whereas others covered their heads in mourning (2Sa 15:30).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 24:17
“Bind the tire - Adorn thy head, as thou wast used to do; go not bare-headed as a mourner. Thy shoes - ln great mournings the Jews went bare-footed. Cover not thy lips - It was a custom among them to cover the upper lip.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 24:18, 1 voice
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 Eze 24:21, where the temple is represented to be the desire of his eyes, as his wife was, Eze 24:16.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2. (vv. 19-24)
a.Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us: The people ask for the meaning, and the answer names the coming loss in the same terms as the prophet's own, the sanctuary itself called the desire of your eyes, profaned along with the sons and daughters left behind who will fall by the sword. Gill reads the parallel as deliberately built, the temple to Jerusalem what the wife was to Ezekiel, so the city's coming grief is measured by a loss every hearer had just watched the prophet endure without a tear. JFB notes the command laid on the people, ye shall not mourn nor weep, but ye shall pine away for your iniquities, turns Ezekiel's silence into theirs, the whole nation forbidden the relief of ritual grief when the day finally comes.
Ezekiel 24:19, 1 voice
Ezekiel 24:19
“EZEKIEL'S wife died. His heart was bleeding, but he received orders from his Divine Master that he should not mourn, nor weep, nor make any sign of mourning whatever. It was a strange command, but he obeyed it. The people understood that Ezekiel was a Prophet to them in all that he did—his actions did not only concern himself. He was a teacher, not only by his words, but by his actions, so the people gathered round him and said to him, "What is the meaning of this?”
Charles Spurgeon· written before 1892· The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2286: “An Ancient Question Modernized” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
Ezekiel 24:21, 2 voices
Ezekiel 24:21
“Profane - Cast off, and put into the hands of Heathens. The excellency of your strength - So it was while God's presence was there. The desire - As much your desire, as my wife was mine; most dear to you.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 24:21
“It was the pride of their strength; they prided in it as their strength that they were the temple of the Lord, Jer. vii. Note, The church-privileges that men are proud of are profaned by their sins, and it is just with God to profane them by his judgments.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 24:22, 1 voice
Ezekiel 24:22
“And ye shall do as I have done,.... When his wife died, and as he was ordered by the Lord; the meaning of Which they were now inquiring: ye shall not cover your lips; as a token of mourning; nor use any other of their country rites and ceremonies, for fear of provoking their enemies, in whose hands they shall be: nor eat the bread of men; or "of mourners", as the Targum; there shall be none to comfort them, or send bread to them; they shall all be alike mourners.”
C. When the fugitive comes, your mouth will open
1. (vv. 25-27)
a.the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes: The chapter closes forward-looking, naming the day a survivor will reach the prophet with news of the fall, and promising that on that day Ezekiel's mouth will open and his long dumbness end. Fairbairn reads the coming end of the prophet's silence, noted already at chapter 3, as bound to this very sign, the years of restrained speech closing exactly when the wife's death finally makes sense to those who watched it. Clarke notes the chapter's last clause, they shall know that I am the Lord, applies the recognition formula to the prophet's own household loss, the private grief made to serve the book's public purpose one final time.
Ezekiel 24:26, 1 voice
Ezekiel 24:26
“That he that escapeth in that day shall come unto thee,.... That is, that one that should escape the hands of the Chaldeans, when the city should be taken, should directly make the best of his way to the prophet: to cause thee to hear it with thine ears; all the particulars of the destruction of the city and temple, as it had been represented to him in vision; when he would see the exact agreement between prophecy and facts; see Eze 33:21.”
Ezekiel 24:27, 3 voices
Ezekiel 24:27
“In that day shall thy mouth be opened - What 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 tears and lamentations. And we find from Eze 33:21, that one did actually escape from the city, and informed the prophet and his brethren in captivity that the city was smitten.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 24:27
“No more dumb - From this prophecy for eighteen months during the siege, he does not prophesy of Israel, but of other nations. Thou shalt be a sign - Until the event shall convince the Jews, thou shalt by sign, signify to them, what is coming.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 24:27
“Thus Christ forbade his disciples to preach openly that he was Christ till after his resurrection, because that was to be the full proof of it. "But then thou shalt speak with the greater assurance, and the more effectually, either to their conviction or to their confusion." Note, God's prophets are never silenced but for wise and holy ends.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
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 10 works. Open for the list.
This page draws on Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes; Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2286: “An Ancient Question Modernized” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley; Matthew Henry and Patrick Fairbairn, An Exposition of Ezekiel.
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