Ezekielchapter 33
33 verses · Ezekiel · 593 to 571 BC · The Prophets
Then if anyone hears the sound of the horn but fails to heed the warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head.
Introduction
Ezekiel, The Prophets, Ezekiel Overview.
This chapter is the hinge of the book. Ezekiel had spoken for seven years of the judgment coming on Jerusalem, and here a survivor arrives with the news that the city has fallen. The exiles had waited months for word. The prophet's charge as a watchman is renewed, and his message turns from judgment toward rebuilding. Listen for the watchman's duty and for God's plea to the people to turn and live. Listen too for the two false arguments the people make, and for the last picture of listeners who enjoy the prophet's words and do nothing with them.
Context
- Who
- Exiles who had heard rumours for months and now hear it confirmed by a man who was there
- What
- The renewal of Ezekiel's charge as watchman, a call to turn and live, the news of Jerusalem's fall, and a word against those who hear and do not obey.
- Where
- Tel Abib, the exile settlement in Babylonia, where a fugitive from Jerusalem arrives with the news.
- When
- The twelfth year, tenth month, fifth day of Jehoiachin's exile, about 8 January 585 BC.
- Why
- To put each person's choice before God back in their own hands at the moment when despair or false confidence was easiest.
Historical context
The watchman charge from chapter three is repeated here, and this time it is spelled out as a legal case. A city posts a lookout; if he sees the sword coming and blows the horn, anyone who ignores it has his blood on his own head; if the lookout sees and does not blow, God requires the blood at the watchman's hand. Towns really did keep men in wall towers and field towers through the night, and the ram's horn really was the alarm.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
The timing of the fugitive's arrival is a detail worth pausing on. Jerusalem fell in the summer of 586 BC; this man reaches the canal settlements about five or six months later. That is about right for the journey, Ezra's caravan from Babylonia to Jerusalem took roughly four months, so the gap is not a puzzle but a measure of how far away these people were and how long they had waited in the dark.
Ezekiel's mouth is opened the evening before the man arrives. He had been under restraint since the day the siege began, speaking only about the nations. From here on he speaks freely and the message changes direction entirely, from judgment to rebuilding.
Two arguments from the ground are quoted. The survivors still in Judah say: Abraham was only one man, and he got the land as a possession; we are many, so the land is surely ours. It is a property claim dressed as theology. And the exiles say: our transgressions are on us and we are rotting away, how then can we live?, despair used as an excuse in the same way the sour-grapes proverb had been.
The last picture is the sharpest in the chapter. The people come and sit before Ezekiel as they always do, and they hear his words and do not do them. To them he is like a singer with a beautiful voice who plays well on an instrument. His preaching had become good entertainment.
Significance
The city has fallen. Everything Ezekiel said for seven years has been verified by an eyewitness, and the credibility problem is over.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
So the chapter puts the choice back into individual hands, at the exact moment when it would be easiest to say nothing can be done. The wicked man who turns lives. The righteous man who trusts his record and turns to evil does not. And the God who says it swears He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, turn back, turn back, why will you die?
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this lane, printed no weekly portion and no Haftarah from this chapter, and no festival reading for the book. That table carries the Haftarah of each of the fifty-four weekly portions and the books read whole at the feasts, and it carries nothing for the special Sabbaths or the fast days. This card therefore names no public reading of the chapter and leaves that question to a source that holds those readings.
The corpus joins the chapter to the weeks of the Torah portions through the works arranged by portion. Under the seventh verse it carries Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayeshev 15. Under the fifteenth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Noach 4:8. Under the nineteenth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayetzei 22:6. Under the twenty-first verse it carries Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Lech Lecha 14.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Every quotation of it is held to fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern.
Rashi reads the watchman as the prophet's own office. "Like that lookout, who is appointed to give warning so that no soul be lost, so have I appointed you to warn Israel" (Rashi on Ezekiel 33:7:1). The man who hears and does not heed carries his own death: "The iniquity of causing his death will be required of himself" (Rashi on Ezekiel 33:4:1).
The people's complaint at the tenth verse he reads as despair of repentance. "Therefore, you do not wish to repent, because you believe that repentance will not avail you" (Rashi on Ezekiel 33:10:1). The pledge the wicked man returns is "the pledge that I commanded [one] to return at sunset" (Rashi on Ezekiel 33:15:1).
Rashi ties the opening of the prophet's mouth to two earlier places in the book. Ezekiel was made mute in chapter 3, and chapter 24 promised that his mouth would open on the day the fugitive came (Rashi on Ezekiel 33:22:1).
The saying of those left in the ruins, that Abraham was one and inherited the land, draws a note on a dispute between teacher and pupil. Rashi calls it "one of four things that Rabbi Akiva interpreted [in one way] and which his disciple, Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai, did not interpret as he did". In Rabbi Shimon's reading, Abraham "was commanded with only one commandment", and the people argued that they, with many, should surely inherit. Rashi cites Tosefta Sotah 6:7 and adds, "This is what the prophet answers them" (Rashi on Ezekiel 33:24:1).
The corpus carries twelve further notes on this chapter without an English text, each of them marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Radak on Ezekiel 33:1:1, 33:6:1, 33:9:1, 33:11:1, 33:21:1 and 33:23:1 and at Metzudat David on Ezekiel 33:8:1, 33:14:1, 33:16:1, 33:17:1, 33:19:1 and 33:20:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the second verse it holds Sifrei Devarim 13:6. On the seventh verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 20:1, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayeshev 15 and Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 1:13:10. It also holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 802:2 there. On the eleventh verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 10:1, Bamidbar Rabbah 11:7 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 23:5. It also holds Midrash Aggadah, Deuteronomy 7:10:1 and Midrash Aggadah, Leviticus 13:2:5 there. On the twelfth verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Kiddushin 1:32, Ein Yaakov, Kiddushin 1:44 and Kiddushin 40b:3. It also holds Otzar Midrashim, Pesikta, Pesikta Chadata 49 there.
On the fifteenth verse it holds Bava Kamma 60b:21, Ein Yaakov, Bava Kamma 6:5 and Midrash Tanchuma, Noach 4:8. On the eighteenth verse it holds Jerusalem Talmud Peah 1:1:52. On the nineteenth verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Yoma 8:17, Ein Yaakov, Yoma 8:27 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayetzei 22:6. It also holds Otzar Midrashim, Midrashim of Rabbi Akiba, Aleph Bet of Rabbi Akiba (Version 1) 30 and Shemot Rabbah 31:1 there. On the twenty-first verse it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Lech Lecha 14, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Rosh Hashanah 1:22 and Ein Yaakov, Rosh Hashanah 1:25. It also holds Jerusalem Talmud Taanit 4:5:6 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 6:4:1 there.
On the twenty-fourth verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 15:1, Aggadat Bereshit 50:2 and Bamidbar Rabbah 10:5. It also holds Bamidbar Rabbah 14:11 and Bamidbar Rabbah 2:14 there. On the thirty-first verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 13:15, Bamidbar Rabbah 13:20 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sotah 9:14. It also holds Ein Yaakov, Sotah 9:13 there. On the thirty-second verse it holds Jerusalem Talmud Bikkurim 2:3:7, Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 5:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 938:43. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Ezekiel 33:2:1 to 33:24:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Radak, Radak on Ezekiel 33:1:1, 33:6:1, 33:9:1, 33:11:1, 33:21:1 and 33:23:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Ezekiel 33:8:1, 33:14:1, 33:16:1, 33:17:1, 33:19:1 and 33:20:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/ezekiel/33.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this chapter and printing no weekly portion, no Haftarah and no festival reading.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The watchman who must blow the trumpet
Ezekiel 33:1-6
the word of the LORD came to me: If the watchman blows the horn, the hearer who ignores it answers for himself, since “his blood will be on his own head”. If the watchman keeps silent, the Lord says, “I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood”. Gill notes the balance of the wording.
appointing him as their watchman: Ancient cities posted a watchman on the wall or a tower to watch the roads, as 2 Samuel 18:24-27 and 2 Kings 9:17 show. The people chose him from among themselves. His office was to see danger early and report it.
Ezekiel 33:2
“Son of man - if the people of the land take a man - The first ten verses of this chapter are the same with Eze 3:17-22; and to what is said there on this most important and awful subject I must refer the reader. Here the People choose the watchman; there, the Lord appoints him. When God chooses, the people should approve.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Ezekiel 33:2
“How are we affected by Ezekiel, the beholder and expositor of the mighty mysteries and visions? By his injunction to the watchmen not to keep silence concerning vice and the sword impending over it, a course that would profit neither themselves nor the sinners, but rather to keep watch and forewarn and thus benefit at any rate those who gave warning, if not both those who spoke and those who heard.”
Gregory of Nazianzus · written before 390 · In Defense of His Flight to Pontus, Oration 2:64patristic
blows the ram’s horn to warn: The ram's horn is the shofar, sounded to warn the people of the sword coming against a land. Amos 3:6 and Joel 2:1 use the same signal for the approach of judgment. One blast warned a whole city.
his blood will be on his own: Blood on a man's own head is a legal formula for bearing the blame for his own death. Rahab's family hears it at Joshua 2:19, and Leviticus 20:9 uses it of capital crimes. The watchman who blew the horn is clear.
he would have saved his life: The man had heard the horn in time. The warning itself was his way of escape, and he refused it. The loss is his own doing.
Ezekiel 33:5
“He heard the sound of the trumpet,.... The alarm of the enemy being at hand, and so was inexcusable: and took not warning; which that gave him: his blood shall be upon him; the fault shall be imputed to himself, and not another; and he must bear it himself, and answer for it, and not the watchman: but he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul; who, hearing the sound of the trumpet, prepares for his own defence, and provides for his safety, he shall save his life, and not fall into the enemies' hands.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 33:5
“IN ALL WORLDLY THINGS, men are always enough awake to understand their own interests. There is scarce a merchant who reads the paper, who does not read it in some way or other, with a view to his own personal concerns. If he finds that by the rise or fall of the markets, he will be either a gainer or loser, that part of the day’s news will be the most important to him. In politics, in everything, in fact, that concerns temporal affairs, personal interest usually leads the van.”
taken away in his iniquity: Even the unwarned man dies for his own sin. The watchman's guilt is added to it, and the LORD requires the blood of him, language that recalls Genesis 9:5. Two parties answer for one death.
Ezekiel 33:6
“Commentary on Chapter XXXIII 6. Is taken away - Punished by the Lord for his sin. Our sins - The unpardoned guilt, and the unsupportable punishment of our sins, in the wasting of our country, burning our city, abolishing the publick worship of God; we shall pine away, 'tis too late to hope.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 33:7-9
I have made you a watchman: The general law becomes personal, “I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel”, the charge first given at 3:17. If Ezekiel stays silent, “I will hold you accountable for his blood”. Keil marks the charge as repeated at the hinge of the book.
Ezekiel 33:7
“So thou, O son of man,.... Here begins the application of the parable to the prophet himself, describing his office and his duty: I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; which is repeated from Eze 3:17; see Gill on Eze 3:17. The Targum is, "I have appointed thee a teacher;'' a spiritual watchman; so pastors, teachers, ministers of the Gospel, are watchmen, 2Ti 4:5, therefore thou shalt hear the word from my mouth, and warn them from me. The Targum is, "thou shalt receive the word from my Word, and warn them from sinning before me.''”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 33:7
“However, we can discuss this passage in three ways: as the land that appoints a watchman for itself, either according to the literal sense, that is, the land of Judea, or according to the spiritual interpretation, the Church, which often chooses a watchman for the last things of its people, namely the one whom the Apostle, writing to the Corinthians, takes as a judge (1 Corinthians 15), or certainly the soul of the believer, which sets its mind and reason above the people and crowd of its thoughts, so that it does not accept all the incentives of thoughts, but…”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Ezekielpatristic
The Hebrew formula is the one spoken over Adam at Genesis 2:17. The prophet's task is to speak the sentence out loud so the wicked man hears it. Silence makes him an accomplice.
Ezekiel 33:8
“When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man,.... Order the prophet to say so to him, and as follows; See Gill on Eze 3:18.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 33:8
“Although it is best for us to be ever aware of our unworthiness and to confess our sins before God, nevertheless it is good and necessary to speak when the times demand it, for I see the church that God founded on the apostles and prophets, its cornerstone being Christ his Son, tossed on an angry sea, beaten by rushing waves, shaken and troubled by the assaults of evil spirits.”
John Damascene · written before 749 · On Divine Images 1:1patristic
you will have saved your life: The prophet's duty ends when the warning is given. The response belongs to the hearer. Paul claims the same clear conscience at Acts 20:26-27, innocent of the blood of all, since he declared the whole counsel of God.
Ezekiel 33:9
“16 None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live. 17 Yet the children of thy people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal. 18 When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 33:9
“Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way,.... See Gill on Eze 3:19.”
Our sins weigh on us: the Lord's way is equal
Ezekiel 33:10-11
Verse 10 quotes the exiles' question, “How can we live”. The Lord replies with an oath that He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, the note first sounded at 18:32. The call to turn closes with the question “why should you die, O house of Israel”.
Ezekiel 33:10
If our transgressions and our sins be upon us - They are upon us, as a grievous burden, too weighty for us to bear: how then can we live under such a load? We pine away in them - In such circumstances how consoling is that word: “Come unto me, all ye who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
I take no pleasure in the death: The New Testament carries the same desire. Second Peter 3:9 says the Lord is patient, wishing none to perish, and 1 Timothy 2:4 says God wants all men to be saved. The call to turn from evil ways and live answers the despair of verse 10.
Ezekiel 33:11
“They questioned whether they should live, though they did repent and reform; yea, says God, as sure as I live, true penitents shall live also; for their life is hid with Christ in God. (2.) It is certain that God is sincere and in earnest in the calls he gives sinners to repent: Turn you, turn you, from your evil way.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 33:11
“IT is a token of the great mercy of God that He is very earnest in His pleading with men to turn from their sins that He may not be compelled to punish them, as He must do if they go on in their iniquities. A cruel governor is glad of an opportunity to show his severity and, therefore, not especially anxious to prevent offenses.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3324: “Turning From Death” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
Ezekiel 33:11
“A yearning tenderness manifests itself here, notwithstanding all their past sins; yet with it a holiness that abates nothing of its demands for the honor of God's authority. God's righteousness is vindicated as in Eze 3:18-21 and Eze 18:1-32, by the statement that each should be treated with the closest adaptation of God's justice to his particular case.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 33:12-16
righteous man will not deliver him: The chapter restates the argument of chapter 18: past righteousness cannot cover a present fall, and past wickedness cannot condemn a present turning. Verses 14 to 16 give the case of a wicked man. The Lord says, “None of the sins he has committed will be held against him”.
Ezekiel 33:12
“In the lives of Christians we look not to the beginnings but to the endings. Paul began badly but ended well. The start of Judas wins praise; his end is condemned because of his treachery.”
Jerome · written before 420 · LETTER 54.6patristic
Ezekiel 33:13
“So the case is put here: If he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, and come to make a trade of sin--if he not only take a false step, but turn aside into a false way and persist in it. This may possibly be the case of a righteous man, and it is the effect of his trusting to his own righteousness.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 33:13
“If you are righteous, fear his wrath lest you slip; if you are a sinner, believe in his mercy so that you can arise. But see, we have already fallen, we are not strong enough to stand, we lie prostrate in our evil desires. He who created us to be upright still waits, and he appeals to us to rise. He opens up his heart of love and seeks to get us back to himself again through repentance.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 34patristic
he turns from his sin: Turn translates shub, the Old Testament word for repentance. Just and right renders mishpat and tsedaqah, the pair used of Abraham's household at Genesis 18:19. The wicked man's turn from sin shows itself in conduct.
Ezekiel 33:14
“Again, when I say unto the wicked, thou shalt surely die,.... That is, provided he continues in the same course of life, impenitent and unbelieving: but if he turn from his sin; repent of it, and forsake it: and do that which is lawful and right; or "judgment and justice"; do that which is agreeably to the law of God, and what is right between man and man; lives soberly, righteously, and godly, as well as denies ungodliness and worldly lusts; whereby it appears that his repentance is genuine and true.”
if he restores a pledge: The pledge law of Exodus 22:26-27 required a poor man's cloak returned by sunset. Leviticus 6:1-5 required stolen goods repaid with a fifth added. The statutes of life recall Leviticus 18:5, where the man who keeps them will live by them.
Ezekiel 33:15
“He repents not of his repentance, nor returns to the commission of those gross sins which he before allowed himself in. [3.] He that does thus repent and return shall escape the ruin he was running into, and his former sins shall be no prejudice to his acceptance with God. Let him not pine away in his iniquity, for, if he confess and forsake it, he shall find mercy.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
None of the sins he has committed: The Hebrew says his sins will not be remembered against him. Isaiah 43:25 and Jeremiah 31:34 use the same language of God forgetting forgiven sin. The past is closed.
Ezekiel 33:17-20
The people's complaint that the Lord's way is unjust returns a second time, and the Lord turns the charge back on them. Verse 20 closes the exchange, “I will judge each of you according to his ways”. Wesley notes the prophet answers the same complaint twice in the one book.
he will die for it: Verses 18 and 19 compress the case of verses 12 to 16 into two short rules for the righteous and the wicked. They repeat almost word for word the answer given at 18:26-27. The complaint had not changed, so neither did the answer.
Ezekiel 33:18
“Hence those who say that the way of the Lord is not just are argued against because their opinion is unjust, possessed of a very evil eye, and not at all new, but of those who have passed judgment in the past. To all of whom it is shown that the sinner should not despair of salvation if he repents; nor should the righteous person place confidence in his righteousness if he negligently loses what he had earnestly sought after.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Ezekielpatristic
he will live because of this: This verse answers the despairing question of verse 10. The way to life is turning from wickedness to what is just and right. The door stood open to the exiles.
Ezekiel 33:19
“He shall live thereby - “The wages of sin is death;” the “gift of God is eternal life.” It is a miserable trade by which a man cannot live; such a trade is sin.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
judge each of you according to his: The city fell as a whole, yet each person still stands before God alone. Paul states the same rule at Romans 2:6, that God will repay each one according to his deeds. The exiles could not hide in the crowd.
Ezekiel 33:20
“Yet ye say, the way of the Lord is not equal,.... Still obstinately persisting in their false charges, notwithstanding plain proofs to the contrary: O ye house of Israel, I will judge you everyone after his ways; See Gill on Eze 18:30.”
A fugitive arrives: the city has fallen
a fugitive from Jerusalem came to me: A fugitive from Jerusalem brings the news, “The city has been taken”. Verse 22 ties the moment to the sign Ezekiel had carried since chapter 24. The evening before, “the hand of the LORD was upon me, and He opened my mouth”, ending the silence since his wife's death.
Ezekiel 33:22
“My mouth was opened - They had now the fullest evidence that I had spoken from the Lord. I therefore spoke freely and fully what Good delivered to me, Eze 24:27.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 33:22
“Opened my mouth - Not that the prophet was utterly dumb before, for he had prophesied against many nations, only he was forbidden to say anything of the Jews, But now the spirit moved him to speak, and continued his motion, 'till the messenger came, and ever after.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 33:23-26
the word of the LORD came to me: Those still living in the ruins argue from Abraham, “Abraham was only one man, yet he possessed the land”, and add, “we are many”. The Lord answers by naming their conduct: they eat meat with the blood, look to idols, shed blood and defile a neighbor's wife.
Ezekiel 33:23
“The exhortation to repentance. Ezekiel first addresses the remnant that still linger in their ancient home, and warns them against presumptuous hopes resting on false grounds Eze 33:23-29; then he turns his eyes to those near him, and points out that their apparent attention to his words was illusory. Eze 33:24 Those wastes - The places in the holy land devastated by the conqueror.”
Isaiah 51:2 uses the same argument in hope, pointing the humble remnant to Abraham, called when he was one man. Here those living in the ruins of Israel turn it into a claim to possess the land. Their numbers became their title deed.
Ezekiel 33:24
“He inherited - Our father had a right to all this land, when but one; we his children though diminished, are many, and the divine goodness will surely continue to us both right and possession. Is given - It was given by promise to us, the seed, as well as to our progenitor; nay more, 'tis given us in possession, whereas Abraham had not one foot of it.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 33:24
“Abraham was one . . . but we are many--If God gave the land for an inheritance to Abraham, who was but one (Isa 51:2), much more it is given to us, who, though reduced, are still many.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Eating blood was forbidden from Genesis 9:4, and Leviticus 17:10-14 explains that the life is in the blood. The charges in verses 25 and 26 follow the holiness laws of Leviticus 17 to 20. Those laws warned that the land would expel such people.
Ezekiel 33:25
“Ye eat with the blood - Abraham was righteous, ye are unrighteous. Eating of blood, in any way dressed, or of flesh from which the blood had not been extracted, was and is in the sight of God abominable. All such practices he has absolutely and for ever forbidden. Let the vile blood-eaters hear and tremble. See the note on Act 15:20, and the passages in the margin.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
You have relied on your swords: The Hebrew reads literally you stand on your sword, a rule kept by violence. Defiling a neighbor's wife breaks the seventh commandment. The charges against those who would possess the land cover worship, bloodshed and the home.
Ezekiel 33:26
“Every heretic dwells in walls and deserts, and believes himself to possess the land of Israel, and says: If Abraham, by his faith alone, came into such great blessedness that his descendants were multiplied like the sand of the sea and like the stars of heaven, how much more will we, who are many, possess the land of Israel, that is, those who see God, and the confession of the Lord's Day?”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Ezekielpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 33:26
“Here we meet with those who, while they live, think they cannot stand firmly above ground unless they have their swords under their feet, as if swords were both the softest pillows and the strongest pillars; though it was sin, it was sin, that first drew the sword.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 33:27-29
those in the ruins will fall by the sword: The sentence answers the claim of verse 24: the sword for “those in the ruins”, wild animals for the open field, and plague. Verse 28 extends the desolation to the land. Henry marks verse 29, “Then they will know that I am the LORD”, as the formula closing the unit.
Ezekiel 33:27
“They that are in the wastes - He seems to speak of those Jews who had fled to rocks, caves, and fortresses, in the mountains; whose death he predicts, partly by the sword, partly by wild beasts, and partly by famine.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the pride of her strength will: The same phrase stood over Egypt at 30:18. Judah's pride receives the sentence the nations received. The desolate mountains of Israel are promised new life and new people in 36:8-11.
Ezekiel 33:28
“The foregoing verses spoke conviction to the Jews who remained in the land of Israel, who were monuments of sparing mercy and yet returned not to the Lord; in these verses those are reproved who were now in captivity in Babylon, under divine rebukes, and yet were not reformed by them. They are not indeed charged with the same gross enormities that the others are charged with.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
because of all the abominations: Leviticus 18:24-28 warned that a land defiled by abominations would vomit out its people. The desolation here is that warning come true. The land itself bears witness.
They hear your words like a lovely song and do nothing
Ezekiel 33:30-33
your people are talking about you: The people gather to hear the prophet as an audience gathers for entertainment. Verse 32 names the comparison, “you are to them like a singer of love songs with a beautiful voice”. The closing verse makes the city's fall the proof that “a prophet has been among them”.
Ezekiel 33:30
“The people still are talking against thee - בך bach should be rather translated, “concerning thee,” than “against thee;” for the following verses show that the prophet was much respected. The Vulgate translates, de te; the Septuagint, περι σου, “concerning thee,” both right. Talking by the walls and in the doors of the houses is not a custom peculiar to the Copts, mentioned by Bp. Pococke, it is a practice among idle people, and among those who are resting from their work, in every country, when the weather permits.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 33:30
“But now that Jerusalem is taken, two years after, he is appointed again to direct his speech to them; and there his commission is renewed. If God had abandoned them quite, he would not have sent prophets to them; nor, if he had not had mercy in store for them, would he have shown them such things as these.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 33:30
“Their talking was not directly "against" Ezekiel, for they professed to like his ministrations; but God's word speaks of things as they really are, not as they appear. by the walls--in the public haunts.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
their hearts pursue dishonest gain: The word for love in their mouths shares a root with the love songs of verse 32. Isaiah 29:13 names the same fault, honour with the lips while the heart is far away, and Jesus quotes it at Matthew 15:8. Greed ruled underneath.
Ezekiel 33:31
“As the people cometh - As they are accustomed to come on public days, Sabbaths, etc. With their mouth they show much love - They respected the prophet, but would not bend themselves to follow his precepts. They loved earthly things, and did not relish those of heaven.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
a singer of love songs with: The closing line repeats verse 31 word for word, framing the portrait of the prophet as a singer of love songs. Jesus pictures the same hearer at Matthew 7:26, the man who hears and does not act, building on sand. James 1:22 calls believers to be doers of the word.
Ezekiel 33:32
“As a very lovely song - They admired the fine voice and correct delivery of the prophet; this was their religion, and this is the whole of the religion of thousands to the present day; for never were itching ears so multiplied as now.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The line repeats the promise of 2:5, spoken at Ezekiel's call. Deuteronomy 18:21-22 made fulfilment the test of a true prophet. The fall of Jerusalem has now passed that test for him.
Ezekiel 33:33
“And when this cometh to pass,.... The prophecy before delivered out, concerning the desolations in the land of Israel, by the sword, pestilence, and wild beasts: lo, it will come; whatever is predicted by the Lord; in the mouth of his prophets, certainly comes to pass: then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them; and acknowledge it; and particularly that Ezekiel was one, a true prophet of the Lord, by the exact accomplishment of his predictions.”
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Carl Friedrich Keil; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Patrick Fairbairn and Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible.