Ezekielchapter 2
10 verses · KJVEzekiel book hub →
Key verse
And when I looked, behold, an hand was sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein;
It stands in scene C of the chapter, verses 8 to 10.
The chapter
Chapter summary
'Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak with thee'. And the Spirit entered into him and set him upon his feet, the title 'son of man' that will name him some ninety times. He is sent to a rebellious nation, to children impudent and stiffhearted, with the refrain that governs his whole ministry: 'whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.' Be not afraid of their words though briers and thorns be with thee and thou dost dwell among scorpions. Then a hand holding out a roll of a book, spread before him, written within and without: 'lamentations, and mourning, and woe.'
Context
Prophecy · Ezekiel · Ezekiel overview
Where the chapter sits
Ezekiel 2 falls in Call and wheels-vision (chapters 1–3). The inaugural theophany by the Chebar canal; four living creatures; commission as watchman to Israel.
After it: Symbolic acts and judgment on Jerusalem, chapters 4–24.
The whole shape of Ezekiel→The world behind this chapter
Ezekiel 2The history
Every prophet's call in the Old Testament follows a recognizable shape: a confrontation, a commission, an objection, and a sign. Ezekiel gets the confrontation and the commission, and he is not given room for the objection. He is stood on his feet by a force outside himself and told to go.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The title God uses for him, son of man, simply means human being, a mortal man. Set against the blazing throne of chapter one, it is a way of keeping the distance clear. It appears more than ninety times in this book and almost never elsewhere in that way, so it becomes Ezekiel's name for the whole of his ministry.
The scroll is a physical object with a physical cost. Writing surfaces were expensive: papyrus imported from Egypt, or leather sheets sewn end to end and rolled on a rod. Scribes normally wrote on one side only, the side with horizontal fibres, because the back was awkward. A scroll written front and back meant the message had overrun the material, there was more bad news than the page could hold.
Briers, thorns and scorpions were not poetry to men who farmed that plain. Thorn scrub took over any neglected field, and scorpions lived under stones and in wall cracks in every village. God is telling him what the audience will feel like to live among.
What it meant to them
The exiles had a story about themselves: Babylon was a disaster that happened to them. God's first instruction to their prophet calls them a rebellious nation, and says so twice before He says anything else.
But notice the measure of success He gives. Ezekiel is not told to get results. He is told to speak whether they listen or not, so that they will know a prophet has been among them. That standard would carry him through twenty-two years.
Sources cited
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel
A. Stand on your feet, son of man
1. (vv. 1-2)
a.stand upon thy feet: The address that will run through this book opens here, son of man, the Lord's constant name for the prophet that keeps his creaturely smallness in view even as he stands before the glory just described. The command to stand is not obeyed by the prophet's own strength; the spirit enters him and sets him on his feet, so that even his posture before God is a gift rather than an achievement. Gill notes that Ezekiel falls at the chapter's own hinge point and is raised again by the same hand, judgment and mercy meeting in two consecutive verses.
Ezekiel 2:1, 2 voicesWhat preachers and commentators have said about these verses, in their own words.
Ezekiel 2:1
“Son of man - This phrase (which occurs elsewhere in Scripture) is applied especially to Ezekiel and Daniel, the prophets of the captivity. Ezekiel is thus reminded of his humanity, at the time when he is especially permitted to have contact with God.”
Ezekiel 2:1
“And - He that sat upon the throne, Jesus Christ. Son of man - A phrase which is ninety-five times, at least, used in this prophecy to keep him humble who had such great Revelations.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 2:2, 1 voice
Ezekiel 2:2
“And the spirit entered into me - This spirit was different to that mentioned above, by which the wheels, etc., were moved. The spirit of prophecy is here intended; whose office was not merely to enable him to foresee and foretell future events, but to purify and refine his heart, and qualify him to be a successful preacher of the word of life. He who is sent by the God of all grace to convert sinners must be influenced by the Holy Ghost; otherwise he can neither be saved himself, nor become the instrument of salvation to others.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2. (vv. 3-5)
a.a rebellious nation that hath rebelled: The commission names the audience before it names the message: a rebellious nation that has rebelled, whose fathers rebelled before them, so the prophet is sent into a pattern generations deep rather than a single generation's fault. Wesley notes the double naming of rebellion in one verse is deliberate emphasis, not repetition for its own sake. The Lord does not promise Ezekiel a hearing, only a hearing of the word; whether they hear or forbear, they will at least know that a prophet has been among them, success measured by faithful delivery rather than by response.
Ezekiel 2:3, 1 voice
Ezekiel 2:3
Nation - literally, as in the margin - the word which usually distinguishes the pagan from God’s people. Here it expresses that Israel is cast off by God; and the plural is used to denote that the children of Israel are not even “one nation,” but scattered and disunited. Translate: “I send thee to the children of Israel, the rebellious nation that have rebelled against Me (they and their fathers have transgressed against Me, even to this very day), and the children impudent and stiff-hearted: I do send thee unto them.”
Ezekiel 2:5, 2 voices
Ezekiel 2:5
“And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear,.... Or "cease" (y); that is, from hearing, as Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it; or from sinning, as the Targum.”
Ezekiel 2:5
“A rebellious house - A phrase employed continually by Ezekiel in bitter irony, in the place of house of Israel, as much as to say, “House no longer of Israel, but of rebellion.” Compare Isa 30:9.”
B. Do not fear the briers and the scorpions
1. (vv. 6-7)
a.briers and thorns be with thee: Three times in one verse the command not to fear is repeated, matched against briers, thorns and scorpions, the hostile country the prophet is told he will feel dwelling among even though he is not physically moved. Clarke reads the imagery as the felt experience of ministry among a hardened people rather than a literal wilderness, words that sting like thorns and looks that threaten like a scorpion's tail. The charge narrows to one duty in the next verse, speak my words, with the outcome, hearing or forbearing, left entirely outside the prophet's control.
Ezekiel 2:6, 1 voice
Ezekiel 2:6
“Verse 6: Therefore, son of man, do not fear them, nor be afraid of their words, because they are unbelievers and destroyers with you. LXX: And you, son of man, do not fear them, nor be afraid of their presence: because they are insane, and they will gather against you in a circle. Though they may have hard necks and stubborn hearts, my commandments are stronger. And do not think yourself deceived if you are sent to those who do not listen to you.”
Jerome· written before 420· Commentary on Ezekielpatristic
Ezekiel 2:7, 1 voice
Ezekiel 2:7
“And thou shall speak my words unto them,.... Not his own words, but those the Lord should put into his mouth. The Targum is, "and thou shall prophesy the words of my prophecy unto them:'' whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear; See Gill on Eze 2:5; for they are most rebellious; or "rebellion" (c) itself; as the carnal mind is said to be "enmity" itself against God, Rom 8:7; which aggravates their character and state. (c) מרי המה "rebellio ipsi", Montanus, Polanus, Starckius; "inobedientia sunt", Cocceius.”
C. A scroll of lamentation handed over
1. (vv. 8-10)
a.open thy mouth, and eat: The prophet is warned against the very sin he is sent to condemn, told not to be rebellious like that rebellious house, before he is given the sign that will make obedience visible: a hand holding out a roll for him to eat. The scroll is written on both sides, an unusual detail commentators read as a message with no blank space left for anything but the appointed words, front and back given over to lamentations, mourning and woe. Henry observes that the book's contents are named before it is eaten, so the prophet knows exactly what bitter message he is about to take into himself in the chapter that follows.
Ezekiel 2:8, 1 voice
Ezekiel 2:8
“The idea is to possess himself fully of the message and digest it in the mind; not literal eating, but such an appropriation of its unsavory contents that they should become, as it were, part of himself, so as to impart them the more vividly to his hearers.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 2:9, 2 voices
Ezekiel 2:9
“Was sent - Rather, was put forth. A roll of a book - The book was one of the ancient kind written on skins rolled up together. Hence, our English volume Psa 40:7. The writing was usually on one side, but in this case it was written within and without, on both sides, the writing as it were running over, to express the abundance of the calamities in store for the devoted people. To eat the book signifies to be thoroughly possessed with its contents (compare Eze 3:10; Jer 15:16).”
Ezekiel 2:9
“Roll - Their books were not like ours, but written in parchment and in the length of it, and so one piece fastened to another, 'till the whole would contain what was to be written, and then it was wrapped or rolled about a round piece of wood, fashioned for that purpose.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 2:10, 3 voices
Ezekiel 2:10
“I take it to be similar in the case of the book mentioned by Ezekiel, in which had been written lamentation, mourning and woe. The whole book contains the "woe" of those perishing, and the "mourning" of those being saved and the "lamentation" of those in between. John, too, who eats one roll on which there is writing on the back and the front, considered the whole Scripture as one book, which is thought to be sweet at the start, when one chews it, but bitter in the perception of each of those who come to know it.”
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 5:7patristic
Ezekiel 2:10
“It was written within and without - Contrary to the state of rolls in general, which are written on the inside only. The Hebrew rolls are generally written in this way. There are several of such Hebrew rolls before me, all written on the inside only, consisting of skins of vellum, or parchment, or basil, a sort of half-tanned sheep or goat skin, sewed together, extending to several yards in length. Other Asiatic books were written in the same way.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 2:10
“What could be more lamentable, more mournful, more woeful, than to see a holy happy people sunk into such a state of sin and misery as it appears by the prophecy of this book the Jews were at this time? Ezekiel echoes to Jeremiah's lamentations. Note, Though God is rich in mercy, yet impenitent sinners will find there are even among his words lamentations and woe.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Ezekiel 2. 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, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; John Gill; John Wesley; Matthew Henry and Origen of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 5:7.
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