Ezekielchapter 3
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Key verse
And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.
It stands in scene A of the chapter, verses 1 to 3.
The chapter
Chapter summary
'Eat this roll, and go, speak unto the house of Israel', and it was in his mouth as honey for sweetness, the scene John repeats in Revelation 10. He is not sent to a people of strange speech, who would have listened, but to Israel, who will not; so his forehead is made hard as adamant. The Spirit lifts him with the rushing of a great sound to the captives at Tel-abib, where he sits astonished seven days. Then the watchman commission (3:17-21): warn the wicked, or his blood will be required at thy hand. Finally he is shut in his house, bound with cords, his tongue made to cleave to the roof of his mouth.
Context
Prophecy · Ezekiel · Ezekiel overview
Where the chapter sits
Ezekiel 3 falls in Call and wheels-vision (chapters 1–3). The inaugural theophany by the Chebar canal; four living creatures; commission as watchman to Israel.
The watchman's charge. ‘Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel.’
After it: Symbolic acts and judgment on Jerusalem, chapters 4–24.
The whole shape of Ezekiel→The world behind this chapter
Ezekiel 3The history
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.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
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.
What it meant to them
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.
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.
Sources cited
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
A. Eat this scroll: sweet as honey in his mouth
1. (vv. 1-3)
a.eat this roll, and go speak: The scroll of lamentation, mourning and woe that ended chapter two is now eaten in full, mouth, then belly, and the taste defies the contents: as honey for sweetness. Gill and Henry both take the sweetness as the taste of God's own word to a heart submitted to it, bitter in its subject and sweet in its source, the same paradox John eats again at Revelation 10:9-10. The command to eat what he finds before speaking makes the point structural rather than incidental: no prophet speaks a word he has not first taken fully into himself.
Ezekiel 3:1, 2 voicesWhat preachers and commentators have said about these verses, 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.”
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
Ezekiel 3:2, 2 voices
Ezekiel 3:2
“So I opened my mouth,.... To take in the roll, and eat it; he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision; he did all that he could towards eating it, but was not sufficient of himself; and therefore it follows: and he caused me to eat that roll; he, the Lord, put it into his mouth, caused him to eat it, and tilled him with it, according to his promise, Psa 81:”
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
Ezekiel 3:3, 1 voice
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
B. Sent to a hard-browed house, given a harder forehead
1. (vv. 4-6)
a.get thee unto the house of Israel: The command is repeated from chapter two with one clarification added: Ezekiel is not sent to a foreign people whose language he could not understand, but to his own house of Israel, who speak his tongue and share his history. Wesley observes the argument moves from harder to easier only on the surface; a stranger might have listened precisely because the message would carry no weight of shared memory to resist. The next verse presses the point to its most uncomfortable edge: had the Lord sent him to a genuinely foreign people, they would have heard him, which leaves Israel's coming refusal without the excuse of language.
Ezekiel 3:4, 1 voice
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.”
Ezekiel 3:5, 2 voices
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.”
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
Ezekiel 3:6, 3 voices
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
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
2. (vv. 7-9)
a.will not hearken unto thee: The refusal is traced to its root before it happens: they will not hear Ezekiel because they will not hear the Lord himself, so the prophet's coming failure is not a verdict on his skill. Against that hardness the Lord matches an equal hardness in the messenger, a face made strong against their faces and a forehead like adamant, harder than flint, against theirs. Keil reads the imagery as protective rather than combative, armor fitted to the exact shape of the resistance Ezekiel is about to meet, not a call to fight fire with fire.
Ezekiel 3:7, 1 voice
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
Ezekiel 3:8, 3 voices
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
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
Ezekiel 3:9, 2 voices
Ezekiel 3:9
“As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead,.... Or, "than a rock" (o); the "adamant" has its name in Greek, because it cannot be conquered or subdued, neither by the hammer, nor by fire; the one cannot break, nor this other consume it; land it is called "shamir" in Hebrew, from its preserving itself from both; it will cut iron in pieces, which is harder than stone, and therefore must be harder than that. Bochart takes it to be the same with "smiris", a hard stone, which jewellers use to polish their gems with; see Jer 17:”
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.”
3. (vv. 10-11)
a.receive in thine heart: Before Ezekiel speaks a word to Israel he is told to receive every word into his own heart and ears, an inward reception the text places ahead of the outward errand. The audience is narrowed and made personal, them of the captivity, the children of thy people, his own fellow exiles rather than an abstract nation. The charge closes exactly as chapter two's did, whether they hear or forbear, so the standard for the prophet's obedience is unchanged by two verses of hardening description.
Ezekiel 3:11, 1 voice
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.”
C. Carried away bitter, sitting seven days stunned
1. (vv. 12-14)
a.a voice of a great rushing: The spirit lifts the prophet as the vision closes, and what he hears behind him is not silence but praise, blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place, the created order apparently answering the throne even as it withdraws. The same rushing sound comes from the wings and wheels described in chapter one, so the departure carries the same weight of detail as the arrival did. Ezekiel's own state matches the difficulty of the commission rather than the wonder of the vision: he goes in bitterness, in the heat of his spirit, carried by a hand of the Lord he describes as strong upon him.
Ezekiel 3:12, 3 voices
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
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
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 3:14, 2 voices
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
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
2. (v. 15)
Ezekiel 3:15-16
a.astonished among them seven days: Ezekiel's first act among his own people is silence: he sits where they sit and stays astonished for seven days, matching the traditional week of mourning rather than rushing to preach. Gill and Clarke both take the seven days as deliberate identification with the exiles' grief before a single word of judgment is spoken to them. Only at the end of that week does the word of the Lord come again, the pattern of the whole book repeating in miniature, a season of silence before every fresh commission.
Ezekiel 3:15, 2 voices
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.”
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
D. Appointed watchman: their blood on your hands
1. (v. 16)
Ezekiel 3:16, 2 voices
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.''”
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.”
2. (vv. 17-18)
a.I have made thee a watchman: The watchman charge is the book's central office named outright: Ezekiel is set to hear the word at the Lord's own mouth and pass on warning, a position with legal weight rather than a metaphor for general preaching. The next verse states the failure case first and starkly: if the prophet does not warn the wicked man and he dies in his sin, his blood is required at the watchman's hand, guilt transferred by silence rather than by any active wrong. Henry and Fairbairn both note the charge is renewed almost word for word at chapter thirty three on the eve of the city's fall, framing the whole book between two statements of the same duty.
Ezekiel 3:17, 4 voices
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
“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.”
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
“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
Ezekiel 3:18, 1 voice
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
3. (vv. 19-21)
a.he shall die in his iniquity: The warning's outcome for the watchman turns on the warning given, not on whether the wicked man listens: even if he refuses and dies in his iniquity, the prophet who spoke has delivered his own soul. The same principle is run again for a righteous man who turns to sin unwarned, his former righteousness forgotten and his blood likewise required of the watchman who stayed silent. JFB reads the paired cases, wicked warned and unwarned, righteous warned and unwarned, as building toward chapter eighteen's fuller argument that every soul stands or falls on its own present state before God, not on a fixed category of righteous or wicked.
Ezekiel 3:19, 1 voice
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
Ezekiel 3:20, 2 voices
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
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
Ezekiel 3:21, 1 voice
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
E. Shut in the house, bound and struck mute
1. (vv. 22-24)
a.go forth into the plain: The Lord calls Ezekiel out to open ground, away from the house he has been sitting in, and there the glory reappears exactly as he first saw it by the Chebar, so the plain becomes a second Chebar rather than a lesser encounter. Ezekiel's response repeats his response in chapter one, he falls on his face, and the spirit again enters him and sets him on his feet, the same two-stage pattern of collapse and lifting that will recur through the book. Fairbairn notes the repetition is not wasted ink: each fresh commission in Ezekiel is grounded in a fresh sight of the glory, never assumed from the first vision alone.
Ezekiel 3:22, 1 voice
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
Ezekiel 3:23, 2 voices
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.”
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
Ezekiel 3:24, 1 voice
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
2. (vv. 25-27)
a.they shall put bands upon thee: The chapter ends with two sign-acts that will govern Ezekiel's ministry for years rather than a single day: bands that confine him, whether literal or the felt restraint the commentators debate, and a tongue made to cleave to the roof of his mouth so he cannot act as the people's reprover at will. Gill reads the enforced silence as itself a message, a prophet visibly unable to argue or negotiate says something to onlookers that speech could not. His mouth opens only when the Lord speaks with him, and even then the outcome is left exactly where chapter two left it, he that heareth, let him hear, and he that forbeareth, let him forbear.
Ezekiel 3:25, 2 voices
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
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
Ezekiel 3:26, 2 voices
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
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
Ezekiel 3:27, 2 voices
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).”
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
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Ezekiel 3. 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 13 works. Open for the list.
This page draws on Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes; Ambrose of Milan, LETTER 40:2; Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Gregory the Dialogist; 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; John Calvin, Commentaries (1554); John Gill; John Wesley; Matthew Henry and Patrick Fairbairn, An Exposition of Ezekiel.
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