Ezekielchapter 3
27 verses · Ezekiel · 593 to 571 BC · The Prophets
“Son of man,” He said to me, “eat and fill your stomach with this scroll I am giving you.” So I ate, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.
Introduction
Ezekiel, The Prophets, Ezekiel Overview.
Ezekiel finishes the account of his call in this chapter and then walks back into the settlement where he lived. His hearers were his own neighbours, men he had grown up with in Judah and now farmed beside in Babylonia. The chapter moves from the vision to the street and then to his own house. Listen for the taste of the scroll, and for the two ways a message can be refused. Mark closely the office he is given, because it carries a debt he could be made to pay.
Context
- Who
- His neighbours in the deportee settlement, men he had grown up with in Judah
- What
- The prophet eats the scroll, returns to the exiles, is made a watchman for Israel and is shut in his house with his tongue held.
- Where
- The Kebar canal, then the exile settlement of Tel Abib, then the plain and the prophet's own house.
- When
- The fifth year of Jehoiachin's exile, about 593 BC, across the seven days after the vision.
- Why
- To fix the prophet's duty and his liability, and to show that his words will come from God alone.
Historical context
Eating a scroll is an image with a real taste behind it. Ink in that world was carbon black mixed with gum, and the writing surface was papyrus or thin leather. What made it sweet was not the material but the honey comparison: honey was the sweetest thing anyone in that world had ever tasted, the standard by which sweetness was measured.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
Tel Abib is a Babylonian place-name, not a Hebrew one, til abubi, the mound left by the flood. Babylonians called an abandoned ruin-mound a tel, and settlers often built on top of one because the ground was raised above the flood plain. The exiles were living on somebody else's ruins.
The watchman was a real municipal office with real legal weight. A man stood on the wall or in a field tower through the night, and if he saw dust on the horizon he blew the ram's horn. If he blew and the town ignored him, the blood was on the town. If he saw and stayed silent, the blood was on him. Ezekiel is being handed that job description word for word, and it is the job description of a man who can be held liable.
The last paragraph is strange and physical: shut yourself in your house, be bound with ropes, and lose the power of speech except when God gives you words. For roughly the next seven years Ezekiel would be a man who acted his messages more than he preached them.
Significance
The exiles had comforted themselves that at least they were among their own kind. God tells Ezekiel it would have been easier to preach to foreigners whose language he could not speak, because foreigners would have listened.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
And the watchman charge changes what the exiles are hearing. This is not a man giving his opinion about the war. This is a sentry on the wall, and the horn has been sounded.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's table of synagogue readings ties no weekly portion and no Haftarah to this chapter. Probed for this lane, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot 0 and haftarah uses 0 for Ezekiel 3, and no festival reading for the book. The table holds the Haftarah of each weekly portion and the six books read whole on a feast or a fast. Across chapters 1 to 24 of Ezekiel the same probe found a Haftarah only in chapters 20 and 22.
How it is read
Rashi is the main commentator on this chapter in the corpus. He is quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. The translation is modern, so every quotation from it is fifty words or fewer.
Ezekiel eats the scroll, and Rashi reads the act as consent: "I accepted it, and its words were in my mouth as sweet honey" (Rashi on Ezekiel 3:3:1). The sixth verse he reads as an oath with its words turned around. Had God sent the prophet to a foreign people, they would have listened (Rashi on Ezekiel 3:6:1).
After the vision the wind carries him "to the place where the people of the exile were" (Rashi on Ezekiel 3:12:1). He went in bitterness "because it was distasteful to me to chide the children of my people" (Rashi on Ezekiel 3:14:1). Tel Aviv in the fifteenth verse is a place name (Rashi on Ezekiel 3:15:1).
The watchman of the seventeenth verse is drawn from the city wall. He is set on the towers so that when an army comes "the shofar shall be sounded to warn the people" (Rashi on Ezekiel 3:17:1). The stumbling block of the twentieth verse falls on the man who sins in secret and shows himself righteous. God brings his sin into the open so that when evil comes "they will not question Me" (Rashi on Ezekiel 3:20:1).
In the valley the glory of the Lord is already standing when the prophet arrives. Rashi calls this humility: "the disciple awaits the Master, whereas here, the Master awaits the disciple" (Rashi on Ezekiel 3:23:1). He is shut in his house "to show them that they are not worthy of reproof" (Rashi on Ezekiel 3:24:1).
The corpus carries 11 notes on this chapter without an English text, marked linked. Radak's notes stand at 3:1:1, 3:2:1, 3:4:1, 3:7:1, 3:8:1, 3:10:1, 3:16:1, 3:18:1, 3:19:1, 3:21:1 and 3:22:1. Each stands cited and unquoted, because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries 38 rabbinic locators on the verses of this chapter, 4 filed under the Talmud and 34 under the Midrash. It carries the text of none, so each is cited by ref here and never quoted or paraphrased. The verse numbers are the Hebrew ones the corpus prints.
On verse 1 it holds Shemot Rabbah 47:7. On verse 3 it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayera 18. On verse 4 it holds Pesikta Rabbati 33:1 and Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 51:10. On verse 8 it holds Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 18:15:3. On verse 12 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 65:21, Chagigah 13b:4, Chullin 91b:18, Devarim Rabbah 11:10, Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 5:3:11 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 20:2:14.
On verse 13 it holds Chullin 92a:1, Pesikta DeRav Kahana 16:1, Ruth Rabbah (Lerner) 5:4:1, Ruth Rabbah 5:4 and Shir HaShirim Rabbah 1:2:5. On verse 15 it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Pischa 1:23, Seder Olam Rabbah 26:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 187:2. On verse 17 it holds Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 31:49:2, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Balak 1:1, Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 22:8:13 and Sifrei Devarim 13:6. It also holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 765:9. On verse 18 it holds Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 1:13:10.
On verse 19 it holds Otzar Midrashim, Pesikta, Pesikta Chadata 17. On verse 20 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Yoma 8:24, Ein Yaakov, Yoma 8:31, Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 10:20:1 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Numbers 13:3:1. It also holds Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 9:12:1 and Midrash Tehillim 52:3. On verse 22 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 39:9, Bereshit Rabbah 55:7, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Nedarim 1:3, Ein Yaakov, Nedarim 1:1 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Pischa 1:15. It also holds Midrash Aggadah, Leviticus 1:1:1.
The corpus also files one entry from a modern study, Introductions to Tanaitic Literature, on verse 16. It is left out of the list above because it is not a saying of the rabbis.
The corpus files one more locator under this chapter on a verse it does not have. Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 11:1 is filed on Ezekiel 3:33. It is left out of the list above rather than cited on a verse that is not there. This chapter has 27 verses.
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 3:3:1 to 3:24:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Radak, Radak on Ezekiel 3:1:1 to 3:22:1, cited by ref only: Sefaria holds no English version of the ref; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/ezekiel/3.json, the 38 Talmud and Midrash locators on the verses of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for Ezekiel 3: parashot 0, haftarah uses 0, no festival reading for the book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Eat this scroll: sweet as honey in his mouth
Ezekiel 3:1-3
Eat this scroll, then go: The scroll of lamentation, mourning and woe is eaten in full. The command sets eating before speaking, and the taste was “as sweet as honey in my mouth.” John eats a scroll in Revelation 10:10 and finds it “as sweet as honey in my mouth,” though his stomach turned bitter.
Ezekiel 3:1
“Thy words were found, and I did eat them, Jer. xv. They must be both well acquainted and much affected with the things of God, that they may speak of them both clearly and warmly, with a great deal of divine light and heat. How this command is inculcated upon the prophet.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Ezekiel 3:1
“Before, there was a direct commission, now there is a symbolic action. John has the same vision (Rev 10:8 ff), but there that is expressed, which is here left to be inferred, namely, that “as soon as he had eaten it his belly was bitter.” The sweetness in the mouth denoted that it was good to be a messenger of the Lord (compare the margin reference), but the bitterness which accompanied it, denoted that the commission brought with it much sorrow.”
He fed me the scroll: Ezekiel opened his mouth, and God fed him the scroll. John Gill notes the two parts: the prophet did what he could by opening his mouth, and the Lord put the scroll in. The act answers the command of 2:8.
Ezekiel 3:2
“When the Prophet is ordered to eat whatever he receives, this ought not to be extended to everything which he meets with, but, whatever may be the taste of the book, he is forbidden to refuse it: for its bitterness might possibly cause him to reject the threats of God. Lastly, the quality of the book is noted, because it contained nothing but the material for sorrow.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
as sweet as honey in my mouth: God told the prophet to eat the scroll and fill his stomach with it. Matthew Henry reads this as taking the message in and keeping it, as food that feeds the body. The scroll of woe tasted as sweet as honey.
Ezekiel 3:3
“It was in my mouth as honey - It was joyous to me to receive the Divine message, to be thus let into the secrets of the Divine counsel, and I promised myself much comfort in that intimate acquaintance with which I was favored by the Supreme Being.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Sent to a hard-browed house, given a harder forehead
Ezekiel 3:4-6
speak My words to them: The Lord sends Ezekiel: “go now to the house of Israel.” He goes to his own people, who share his speech, and the text sets them against “the many peoples of unfamiliar speech.” The Lord adds, “Surely if I had sent you to them, they would have listened to you.”
Ezekiel 3:4
“And he said unto me, son of man, go,.... After he had eaten the roll; for then was he qualified to prophesy: get thee unto the house of Israel; to whom he was to prophesy: and speak with my words unto them: not with his own words; nor with the words of men, the enticing words of man's wisdom; but with the words of Christ; with the taught words of the Holy Ghost; with what is written in the roll; the words of this prophecy are meant.”
a people of unfamiliar speech or difficult language: Ezekiel is sent to his own nation, the house of Israel. He would need no interpreter. Adam Clarke adds that the Chaldeans, or the Medes and Persians, would more likely have listened to him than his own countrymen.
Ezekiel 3:5
“For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech,.... "Deep of lip" (g), or "speech"; difficult to be got at and understood: and of a hard language: or "heavy of tongue" (h) of a barbarous and unknown language, whom he could not understand, nor they him; and so would have been barbarians to one another; and consequently it could not be thought his prophesying among them, could have been of any use.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 3:5
“Thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech - I neither send thee to thy adversaries, the Chaldeans, nor to the Medes and Persians, their enemies. Even these would more likely have hearkened unto thee than thy own countrymen.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
they would have listened to you: God says that foreign peoples, whose words Ezekiel could not understand, would have listened to him. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown compare Matthew 11:21 and 23, where Jesus says Tyre, Sidon and Sodom would have repented. They also see a hint of the apostles to come.
Ezekiel 3:6
"And if you were sent to them, they would listen to you." The obedience of the Gentiles is clearly declared, who would one day follow the voices of the preachers without delay. But the unknown tongue of the Gentiles caused no delay in obeying, although it was foreign to the speech of the law.
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Homilies on Ezekiel, Book 1, Homily 10patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 3:6
“To many people - To various nations using diverse languages. Surely - The thought is that expressed by our Saviour Himself (margin reference). Some render it: “but I have sent thee unto these; they can hearken” etc.”
Ezekiel 3:6
“The after mission of the apostles to many peoples, and the gift of tongues for that end, are foreshadowed (compare 1Co 14:21 with Isa 28:11). had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened-- (Mt 11:21, 23).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 3:7-9
unwilling to listen to you: The Lord tells Ezekiel why he will go unheard: Israel “will be unwilling to listen to you, since they are unwilling to listen to Me.” The whole house is “hard-headed and hard-hearted,” and the Lord answers: “I will make your face as hard as their faces.”
Ezekiel 3:7
“Impudent and hard-hearted - “Stiff of forehead, and hard of heart.” - Margin. The marginal readings on several verses here are very nervous and very correct.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
as hard as their faces: God answers the hard faces of the people by making the face of Ezekiel as hard as theirs. Albert Barnes takes the forehead as a picture from horned animals, a strength greater than theirs. The prophet will meet stubborn people with a firmness God gives.
Ezekiel 3:8
“The Lord says to the prophets that he has made their face a brazen city and a stone of adamant and an iron pillar, so that they will not be afraid of the insults of the people but by their stern composure disarm the effrontery of those who sneer at them. A finely strung mind is more readily overcome by insult than by terror.”
Jerome · written before 420 · LETTER 66.6patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 3:8
“I have made ... thy forehead strong - I have given thee a strength superior to theirs; a metaphor taken from horned animals.”
Ezekiel 3:8
“Ezekiel means one "strengthened by God." Such he was in godly firmness, in spite of his people's opposition, according to the divine command to the priest tribe to which he belonged (De 33:9).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
like a diamond, harder than flint: Ezekiel's forehead will be like a diamond, harder than flint. Albert Barnes notes that diamond was used to cut flint, as in Jeremiah 17:1, so the prophet's firmness could cut into hardened hearts. He is told to have no fear of the rebellious house.
Ezekiel 3:9
Adamant - Or, diamond Jer 17:1, which was employed to cut flint. Ezekiel’s firmness being that of a diamond, he should cut a stroke home to the hardened hearts of a rebellious people. For “though” read “for.”
Ezekiel 3:10-11
take them to heart: Before Ezekiel speaks to anyone, he is told to “listen carefully to all the words I speak to you, and take them to heart.” The audience is then named as his own fellow exiles. The charge ends as in Ezekiel 2:5, “whether they listen or refuse to listen.”
Ezekiel 3:10
“Son of man, take all my words that I speak to you, and assume them in your heart, and listen with your ears. This is the food of the book, and these are the words by which it speaks to different listeners, either with lamentations, or with a song, or with a woe to mankind. And yet it should be noted that before the words of God are to be composed, heard, and understood in our hearts more diligently, and thus proclaimed to the people.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Ezekielpatristic
Go to your people, the exiles: The mission is now named plainly: go to the exiles, his own people. John Gill places them as the Jews carried to Chaldea with Jeconiah, as in Ezekiel 1:2. The message holds whether they listen or refuse.
Ezekiel 3:11
“And go, get thee to them of the captivity,.... Not in the times of Hoshea king of Israel, by Shalmaneser king of Assyria, for these were placed in the cities of the Medes, 2Ki 17:6; but in the times of Jeconiah king of Judah, Eze 1:2; unto the children of thy people; the Jews, which were in the land of Chaldea: and speak unto them, and tell them: the words the Lord spoke to him: thus saith the Lord God; whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear: See Gill on Eze 2:5.”
Carried away bitter, sitting seven days stunned
Ezekiel 3:12-14
a great rumbling sound behind me: Ezekiel heard “a great rumbling sound” and the words “Blessed be the glory of the LORD in His dwelling place!” The sound came from the wings of the living creatures brushing together and from “the wheels beside them.” He went “in bitterness and in the anger of my spirit.”
Ezekiel 3:12
“They now are heard moving with the "voice of a great rushing (compare Ac 2:2), saying, Blessed be the glory of the Lord from His place," that is, moving from the place in which it had been at Chebar, to accompany Ezekiel to his new destination (Eze 9:3); or, "from His place" may rather mean, in His place and manifested "from" it.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 3:12
“Praise him, all his angels, Ps. cxlviii. 1, 2 . [2.] From the temple, his place on earth, whence his glory was now departing. They lament the departure of the glory, but adore the righteousness of God in it: however it be, yet God is blessed and glorious, and ever will be so.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 3:12
“Then the Spirit took me up - This, as Calmet remarks, has been variously understood. 1. An impetuous wind carried him to the place where his brethren sojourned. 2. The Holy Spirit, which filled his heart, transported him in a moment to the place where the captives were. 3. Or, he was so transported with heavenly ardour in his mind, that he ran immediately off, and seemed to fly to the place where God commanded him to go. The promptitude and impetuosity of his spirit seemed to furnish him with wings on the occasion.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
a great rumbling sound: The sound behind Ezekiel came from the vision itself. The wings of the living creatures brushed against one another, and the wheels beside them rumbled. Albert Barnes explains that the creatures raised their wings in flight, so the wings touched.
Ezekiel 3:13
“A great rushing - All the living creatures and the wheels being then in motion.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 3:13
“That touched - literally, touching. The living creatures in their flight raised their wings, so as to touch each other.”
the strong hand of the LORD upon me: The Spirit lifted Ezekiel and took him away. He went in bitterness and anger of spirit, and the LORD's strong hand rested on him. Albert Barnes reads the lifting as the Spirit guiding him from the vision to his countrymen, and the heat of his spirit as righteous anger.
Ezekiel 3:14
“But the hand of the Lord is upon the prophet, strengthening him, so that he may receive the name of a watchman, and teach what he has learned. And for seven days he moves among them, seeing all that they do, so that afterwards he may know what he should reprove. Yet he mourns, or dwells among them, seeing their wickedness, and the just judgment of God for the iniquity of their sins.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Ezekielpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 3:14
“I went in bitterness - Being filled with indignation at the wickedness and obstinacy of my people, I went, determining to speak the word of God without disguise, and to reprove them sharply for their rebellion; and yet I was greatly distressed because of the heavy message which I was commanded to deliver.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 3:15-16
the exiles at Tel-abib: Ezekiel came to the exiles “at Tel-abib who dwelt by the River Kebar,” and his first act among them was silence. He says that “for seven days I sat where they sat,” the same number of days that Joseph mourned in Genesis 50:10.
Ezekiel 3:15
“Tel-abib - , on the river Chebar was the chief seat of the Jewish exiles in Babylonia. The name “Tel-abib” (“mount of ears of corn”) was probably given on account of its fertility. I sat where they sat - Rather, “And I saw them sitting there and I sat there.” Astonished - Rather, silent, with fixed and determined silence (compare Ezr 9:3-4). “To be silent” was characteristic of mourners Lam 3:28; “to sit” their proper attitude Isa 3:26; Lam 1:1; “seven days” the set time of mourning Job 2:13.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 3:15
“I sat, &c.--This is the Hebrew Margin reading. The text is rather, "I beheld them sitting there" [GESENIUS]; or, "And those that were settled there," namely, the older settlers, as distinguished from the more recent ones alluded to in the previous clause. The ten tribes had been long since settled on the Chabor or Habor (2Ki 17:6) [HAVERNICK].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Appointed watchman: their blood on your hands
At the end of seven days: After seven days of silence among the exiles, the word of the LORD came again. Albert Barnes says the charge that follows makes each person stand alone before God to give account. The watchman passage begins here.
Ezekiel 3:16
“And it came to pass at the end of seven days,.... Some think it was on the sabbath day he had the following declaration made to him, and instructions given him; but this is not certain; nor does it follow, or to be concluded, from such a way of speaking: that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying; the Targum is, "the word of prophecy from before the Lord.''”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 3:16
“The Lord guards both Ezekiel and his countrymen from dwelling exclusively on the national character of his mission. In the midst of the general visitations, each individual was to stand as it were alone before Him to render account of his doings, and to be judged according to his works.”
Ezekiel 3:17-18
I have made you a watchman: The Lord sets Ezekiel as “a watchman for the house of Israel.” If he does not warn the wicked man, “that wicked man will die in his iniquity, and I will hold you responsible for his blood.” The charge is given again in almost the same words in Ezekiel 33:7.
Ezekiel 3:17
“Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel,.... Not in a civil sense, a watchman of a town or city, or of the whole country, but in an ecclesiastical sense.”
3 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 3:17
“Watchman - The priests and ministers of the Lord were often so called. Ezekiel is especially distinguished by this title Eze 33:7. The duties of a watchman are twofold, (1) to wait and watch what God will order, (2) to watch over and superintend the people. Isaiah describes and censures unfaithful watchmen Isa 56:10.”
Ezekiel 3:17
“An emperor ought not to deny freedom of speech, and a bishop ought not to conceal his opinions. Nothing so much commends an emperor to the love of his people as the encouragement of liberty in those who are subject to him by the obligation of public service. Indeed, the love of liberty or of slavery is what distinguishes good emperors from bad, while in a bishop there is nothing so perilous before God or so disgraceful before people as not to speak his thoughts freely.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · LETTER 40:2patristic
Ezekiel 3:17
“It is a dangerous office. Sometimes they cannot keep their post, but are in peril of death from the enemy, who gain their point if they kill the sentinel; and yet they dare not quit their post upon pain of death from their general. Such a dilemma are the church's watchmen in; men will curse them if they be faithful, and God will curse them if they be false.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
I will hold you responsible for his blood: If God says a wicked man will surely die and the watchman gives no warning, the man still dies in his iniquity. Yet the LORD holds the silent watchman to account. Albert Barnes sees here the principle Ezekiel 18 sets out in full: each person answers for his own actions.
Ezekiel 3:18
“Thou shalt surely die - That is, If he turn not from his wickedness, and thou givest him not warning, as above, he shalt die in his iniquity, which he should not have committed; but his blood will I require at thy hand - I will visit thy soul for the loss of his. O how awful is this!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 3:19-21
he will die in his iniquity: If Ezekiel warns a wicked man who does not turn, “he will die in his iniquity, but you will have saved yourself.” The same rule holds for “a righteous man” who “turns from his righteousness”: unwarned, he dies. Chapter 18 takes up the righteous man who turns away.
Ezekiel 3:19
“For then your subject dies without you, when in the cause of death he has endured you as one who does not speak against it. For you are joined to the death which you do not oppose. And it should be noted what things ought to be preached by the watchman, namely faith and works. For he says: "But if you have announced to the wicked man, and he has not been converted from his wickedness and from his wicked way." For wickedness pertains to unbelief, but the wicked way pertains to depraved action.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Homilies on Ezekiel, Book 1, Homily 11patristic
a stumbling block before him: Verse 20 turns to a righteous man who leaves his righteousness and commits iniquity. If no warning came, the watchman bears his blood. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read righteous here as outward show and deeds, while Arminian readers take it as a true believer who falls away.
Ezekiel 3:20
“When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness - Which these words plainly state he may do, and commit iniquity and die in his sin; and consequently die eternally, which is also here granted; if he have not been warned, though he die in his sin, the blood - the life and salvation, of this person also will God require at the watchman’s hand. Pastor hunc occidit, quia eum tacendo morti tradidit. “This man the pastor kills; for in being silent, he delivers him over to death.” - Gregory.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 3:20
I Lay - Permit it to be laid before him. He shall - Perish in his sin. Remembered - Shall not be profitable to him; "he that apostatizes is the worst of men, because he falls from known ways of goodness and holiness."
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
he heeded your warning: The last case is the good one. The watchman warns the righteous man, he keeps from sin, and he lives, and the watchman saves himself as well. Matthew Henry puts it simply: when ministers warn and people take the warning, it is well for both.
Ezekiel 3:21
“If, therefore, the preacher freed his soul because he warned the just man not to sin, when the just man has fallen into sin while the preacher remained silent, the preacher is held guilty because he was silent. But who among us, I ask, is sufficient for these things, not only to zealously rebuke sinners, but also to watch over the just lest they fall?”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Homilies on Ezekiel, Book 1, Homily 11patristic
Shut in the house, bound and struck mute
Ezekiel 3:22-24
go out to the plain: The LORD’s hand comes on Ezekiel with the command “go out to the plain.” On the plain “the glory of the LORD was present there,” and he fell facedown as at the first vision. The Spirit “entered me and set me on my feet,” the same words as Ezekiel 2:2.
Ezekiel 3:22
“Arise, go forth into the plain - Into a place remote from observation and noise; a place where the glory of God might have sufficient room to manifest itself, that the prophet might see all its movements distinctly.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
went out to the plain: Ezekiel went out to the plain, and “the glory of the LORD was present there, like the glory I had seen by the River Kebar.” He fell facedown again, as he had at the first vision.
Ezekiel 3:23
“We are not now to expect such visions, but we must own that we have a favour done us no way inferior if we so by faith behold the glory of the Lord as to be changed into the same image, by the Spirit of the Lord; and this honour have all his saints.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 3:23
“A fresh revelation of the glory of the Lord, to impress upon Ezekiel another characteristic of his mission. Now he is to learn that there is “a time to be silent” as well as “a time to speak,” and that both are appointed by God. This represents forcibly the authoritative character and divine origin of the utterances of the Hebrew prophets.”
shut yourself inside your house: The Spirit set Ezekiel on his feet again and told him to shut himself inside his house. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown see the shut house as a picture of the city shut up by siege. The signs of chapters 4 to 11 follow from there.
Ezekiel 3:24
"Do not go out of thy house till I reveal the future to thee by signs and words," which God does in the following chapters, down to the eleventh. Thus a representation was given of the city shut up by siege [GROTIUS].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 3:25-27
they will tie with ropes: Ezekiel will be tied “with ropes” so that he “cannot go out among the people,” and commentators differ over whether the ropes are literal. The Lord will make his “tongue stick to the roof of your mouth,” so he will be “silent.” His mouth opens only when the Lord speaks.
Ezekiel 3:25
“Festus said to Paul, Thou art beside thyself; and so the Jews said of our Lord Jesus, Mark iii. Perhaps this was the reason why he must keep within doors, because otherwise they would bind him, under pretence of his being mad, and therefore he must not go out among them. Justly are prophets forbidden to go to those that will abuse them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
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Ezekiel 3:25
“Their perversity, like bands, would repress his freedom in preaching; as in 2Co 6:12, Paul calls himself "straitened" because his teaching did not find easy access to them. Or else, it is said to console the prophet for being shut up; if thou wert now at once to announce God's message, they would rush on thee and bind them with "bands" [CALVIN].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
stick to the roof of your mouth: God will make the tongue of Ezekiel stick to the roof of his mouth, so he cannot rebuke the rebellious house. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown call this God's sorest judgment: Israel had rejected the prophets, and now the word is held back from them. The silence is itself a message.
Ezekiel 3:26
“And again, because of the fault of those subject to them, the voice of preachers is forbidden, as the Lord says to Ezekiel: "I will make your tongue cleave to your palate, and you shall be mute, and not as a man who rebukes, because it is a provoking house." As if he were to say openly: Therefore the word of preaching is taken from you, because while the people provoke me in their actions, they are not worthy to receive the exhortation of truth. From whose fault, therefore, the word is withdrawn from the preacher is not easily known.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 17patristic
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Ezekiel 3:26
“He shall not give them instructions and admonitions, for they are lost and thrown away upon them. He is before commanded to speak boldly to them because they are most rebellious ( ch. ii. 7 ); but, since that proves to no purpose, he is now for that reason enjoined silence and shall not speak at all to them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Whoever listens, let him listen: The silence lifts only when God speaks and opens the prophet's mouth to say, This is what the Lord GOD says. Whoever listens may listen, and whoever refuses may refuse. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read this as the prophet having done his part, whether they hear or refuse.
Ezekiel 3:27
“He that heareth ... - The judicial blindness of which Ezekiel speaks had already fallen upon the great body of the nation (Eze 14:4. Compare Rev 2:7; Rev 22:11).”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 3:27
“After the interval of silence has awakened their attention to the cause of it, namely, their sins, they may then hearken to the prophecies which they would not do before. He that heareth, let him hear . . . forbear--that is, thou hast done thy part, whether they hear or forbear.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Gregory the Dialogist, Homilies on Ezekiel, Book 1, Homily 12; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Patrick Fairbairn, An Exposition of Ezekiel.