Ezekielchapter 5
17 verses · KJVEzekiel book hub →
Key verse
And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber’s razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard: then take thee balances to weigh, and divide the hair.
It stands in scene A of the chapter, verses 1 to 4.
The chapter
Chapter summary
A second sign: a sharp sword used as a barber's razor over head and beard, the hair weighed and divided in three, a third burned in the city, a third smitten with the sword, a third scattered to the wind, with a few bound in the skirts of his robe. 'This is Jerusalem: I have set her in the midst of the nations, and countries are round about her', set at the center and rebelling more than the nations around her. Because she defiled the sanctuary, fathers will eat sons and sons fathers; famine, pestilence and sword will do their work in the sight of every passer-by.
Context
Prophecy · Ezekiel · Ezekiel overview
Where the chapter sits
Ezekiel 5 falls in Symbolic acts and judgment on Jerusalem (chapters 4–24). Lying on his side for 430 days; shaving the head with a sword; eating food in anxiety; the glory departs in stages (8–11); the prophet survives his wife's death without mourning (24).
Before it: Call and wheels-vision, chapters 1–3. After it: Oracles against the nations, chapters 25–32.
The whole shape of Ezekiel→The world behind this chapter
Ezekiel 5The history
Shaving was one of the sharpest humiliations available. Prisoners of war were shaved; mourners cut their hair; and a man's beard was his dignity, which is why an insult to it started wars. On top of that, the Law forbade a priest to shave his head or the edges of his beard. Ezekiel is not only disgracing himself, he is unpriesting himself in public.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The sword used as a barber's razor is the whole point of the picture. What removes the hair is the thing that will remove the people.
Then he weighs the hair on a balance. Every market transaction in that world went across a two-pan balance with stone weights, and dozens of inscribed Judean weights have been dug up. Weighing is how you divide something exactly and fairly. God is saying this judgment is measured, not a fit of temper: a third burned inside the city, a third cut down around it, a third scattered to the winds, with a few hairs tucked into the fold of a garment and even some of those thrown into the fire.
The threat that fathers will eat their sons is not rhetorical exaggeration. Siege cannibalism is recorded of Samaria in the book of Kings, of Jerusalem in Lamentations, and later of Jerusalem again by Josephus in the Roman siege. Everyone hearing this knew of a city where it had happened.
What it meant to them
God's charge against Jerusalem here is comparative, and that is what stings. Set in the middle of the nations to show them what a holy God is like, the city had become worse than the pagans around it.
For hearers who were sure that the temple made Jerusalem untouchable, the verdict lands the other way round: the closer you stand to the holy place, the harder the judgment falls when you defile it.
Sources cited
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- Flavius Josephus, The Wars of the Jews (Whiston translation)
- C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel
A. A sword for a razor, the hair divided in three
1. (vv. 1-4)
a.take thee a barber’s razor: The razor sign follows the tile and the iron pan as the third acted judgment: Ezekiel shaves his own head and beard, weighs the hair, and divides it in three. A third is burned inside the drawn city when the siege is fulfilled, a third struck with the knife round about it, and a third scattered to the wind with a sword drawn out after it, the razor doing to Ezekiel's own body what the sword and famine and pestilence will do to Jerusalem's people. A small remnant of the hair is bound in his skirts, and even that remnant is not left untouched, some of it cast back into the fire, a further burning out of an already spared few. Keil reads the double burning of the remnant as the chapter's harshest note, that even those who survive the first judgment are not simply safe.
Ezekiel 5:1, 3 voicesWhat preachers and commentators have said about these verses, in their own words.
Ezekiel 5:1
“And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife,.... Or, "sword" (m). The word signifies any sharp instrument, by which anything is cut off, or cut asunder; what is here meant is explained by the following: take thee a barber's razor.”
Ezekiel 5:1
“Translate it: take thee a sharp sword, for a barber’s razor thou shalt take it thee. Even if the action were literal, the use of an actual sword would best enforce the symbolic meaning. The “head” represents the chief city, the “hair” the inhabitants - its ornament and glory - the “hair cut from the head” the exiles cast forth from their homes. It adds to the force of the representation that “to shave the head” was a token of mourning Job 1:20, and was forbidden to the priests Lev 21:”
Ezekiel 5:1
“He must weigh the hair and divide it into three parts. This intimates the very exact directing of God's judgments according to equity (by him men and their actions are weighed in the unerring balance of truth and righteousness) and the proportion which divine justice observes in punishing some by one judgment and others by another; one way or other, they shall all be met with.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 5:2, 3 voices
Ezekiel 5:2
“Thou, shall burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city,.... Of Jerusalem, as portrayed upon the tile, Eze 4:1; or the prophet was now in Chaldea.”
Ezekiel 5:2
“The third part burnt in the midst of the city” represents those who perished within the city during the siege; “the third part smitten about it” (the city) “with” the sword, those who were killed about the city during the same period: “the third part scattered to the wind” those who after the siege were dispersed in foreign lands. In the midst of the city - The prophet is in exile, and is to do this in the midst of Jerusalem. His action being ideal is fitly assigned to the place which the prophecy concerns.
Ezekiel 5:2
“Three classes are described. The sword was to destroy one third of the people; famine and plague another third ("fire" in Eze 5:2 being explained in Eze 5:12 to mean pestilence and famine); that which remained was to be scattered among the nations.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 5:3, 3 voices
Ezekiel 5:3
“Thou shall also take thereof a few in number,.... These are they that were left in the land of Judea by Nebuzaradan, for vinedressers and husbandmen, and such as returned out of Egypt into the land of Judah, Jer 44:28; and bind them in thy skirts; in the pockets of them; signifying both the very small number of them, and their preservation. Jarchi and Kimchi interpret these of those that were carried captive to Babylon, and lived there, and were preserved, and returned again.”
Ezekiel 5:3
Of the third part a few are yet to be taken and kept in the fold of the garment (representing those still to remain in their native land), and yet even of those few some are to be cast into the fire. Such was the fate of those left behind after the destruction of Jerusalem Jer. 40; 41. The whole prophecy is one of denunciation. Eze 5:4 Thereof - Or, from thence, out of the midst of the fire. Omit “For.”
Ezekiel 5:3
“This signified perhaps that little handful of people which were left under the government of Gedaliah, who, it was hoped, would keep possession of the land when the body of the people was carried into captivity.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 5:4, 1 voice
Ezekiel 5:4
“Then the application will follow; but this I shall pass by today, because I cannot proceed farther. It is sufficient to hold briefly, that men are here designated by hairs, for hair can scarcely be counted, indeed that of the beard is countless; such was the multitude at Jerusalem, for we know that the city was very populous.”
John Calvin· Commentaries (1554)reformed
B. Jerusalem worse than the nations around her
1. (vv. 5-7)
a.This is Jerusalem: The Lord interprets his own sign: this is Jerusalem, set in the midst of the nations and countries round about her, given a central place among the peoples rather than a hidden one. Her crime is stated as comparison rather than isolation, she has changed the Lord's judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and his statutes more than the countries around her, refusing to walk in either. Henry reads the comparison as the chapter's sting, a city set as an example to the nations that instead exceeded the nations it was meant to instruct. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that Israel's greater privilege, the law given to no other people, is what turns ordinary sin into the extraordinary charge this passage brings.
Ezekiel 5:5, 1 voice
Ezekiel 5:5
“I have set it in the midst of the nations - It was not unusual for nations to regard the sanctuary, which they most revered, as the center of the earth. In the case of the holy land this was both natural and appropriate. Egypt to the south, Syria to the north, Assyria to the east and the Isles of the Gentiles in the Great Sea to the west, were to the Jew proofs of the central position of his land in the midst of the nations (compare Jer 3:19).”
Ezekiel 5:6, 2 voices
Ezekiel 5:6
“And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations,.... So they changed their glory for that which did not profit; and the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man; and the truth of God into a lie, Jer 2:11; or, "for wickedness" (q); for judgments and laws that were not good, and which to observe was wickedness.”
Ezekiel 5:6
“She hath changed my judgments - God shows the reason why he deals with Jerusalem in greater severity than with the surrounding nations; because she was more wicked than they. Bad and idolatrous as they were, they had a greater degree of morality among them than the Jews had. Having fallen from the true God, they became more abominable than others in proportion to the height, eminence, and glory from which they had fallen. This is the common case of backsliders; they frequently, in their fall, become tenfold more the children of wrath than they were before.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 5:7, 2 voices
Ezekiel 5:7
“Because ye multiplied - Some prefer: Because ye have raged tumultuously.” Neither have done according to the judgments - (or, ordinances) of the nations The reproach is that the Israelites have not even been as faithful to their one true God as the nations have been to their false gods (compare 2Ki 17:33).”
Ezekiel 5:7
“The heathen "changed" not their gods, but the Jews changed Jehovah for idols (see Eze 5:6, "changed My judgments into wickedness," that is, idolatry, Jer 2:11). The Chaldean version and the Masora support the negative. Others omit it (as it is omitted in Eze 11:12), and translate, "but have done according to the judgments," &c.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2. (vv. 8-10)
a.Behold, I, even I, am against thee: The Lord answers the city's exceeded sin with an unprecedented judgment, executed in the sight of the nations who watched her fail to be their example. He states he will do what he has never done before and will not do again, and the specific horror named is fathers eating sons and sons eating fathers within the besieged city. Gill reads the doubled I, even I, as deliberate emphasis, the judgment traced to the Lord's own hand rather than left as the fortunes of war. Clarke connects the cannibalism to Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28's covenant curses, later read as fulfilled history in the siege accounts of 2 Kings and Lamentations.
Ezekiel 5:8, 3 voices
Ezekiel 5:8
“I, even I--awfully emphatic. I, even I, whom thou thinkest to be asleep, but who am ever reigning as the Omnipotent Avenger of sin, will vindicate My righteous government before the nations by judgments on thee.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 5:8-15
“Commentary on Chapter V 1. Take - Thus foretel the mourning, reproach, and deformity that are coming, for all this is signified by shaving the head and beard. A third part - Described on the tile, chap. iv, 1, a type of what should be done in Jerusalem.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 5:8
“I will execute judgments. Note, God himself undertakes to execute his own judgments, according to the true and full intent of them; whatever are the instruments, he is the principal agent.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 5:9, 1 voice
Ezekiel 5:9
“Compare Mat 24:21. The calamities of the Babylonian were surpassed by the Roman siege, and these again were but a foreshadowing of still more terrible destruction at the last day.”
Ezekiel 5:10, 3 voices
Ezekiel 5:10
“The fathers shall eat the sons - Though we have not this fact so particularly stated in history, yet we cannot doubt of it, considering the extremities to which they were reduced during the siege. The same is referred to by Jeremiah, Lam 4:10. Even the women, who were remarkable for kindness and humanity, boiled their own children, and ate them during the siege. Will I scatter into all the winds - Disperse you, by captivity, among all the nations of the earth.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 5:10
“Scatter - This was verified when they were fetched away, who were left at the departure of the besiegers, and when the very small remnant with Johanan fled into Egypt.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 5:10-12
“Nay, and Cain's curse (to be fugitives and vagabonds) is not the worst of it neither; their restless life shall be cut off by a bloody death: " I will draw out a sword after them, which shall follow them wherever they go." Evil pursues sinners; and the curse shall come upon them and overtake them.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
3. (vv. 11-12)
Ezekiel 5:11-13
a.Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord God: The judgment is sworn on oath, as I live, with the reason stated plainly: the sanctuary itself has been defiled with detestable things, so the Lord will diminish the city without pity or sparing. The threefold division of the previous chapter's siege sign returns and intensifies, a third dying by pestilence and famine, a third falling by the sword, a third scattered to the winds with a sword still drawn after them. Henry reads the closing line, I will cause my fury to rest upon them and I will be comforted, as the Lord's own language for satisfied justice, the fury spent rather than smoldering on. Keil notes the recognition formula closing the unit, they shall know that I the Lord have spoken it in my zeal, ties the violence to a stated purpose rather than leaving it as sheer wrath.
Ezekiel 5:11, 1 voice
Ezekiel 5:11
“The images of their pretended deities, and the groves erected in honour of them, were brought into the temple; and the ceremonies used by idolaters were brought into the worship of God. Thus every thing that is sacred was polluted. Note, Idols are detestable things any where, but more especially so in the sanctuary.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 5:12, 2 voices
Ezekiel 5:12
“The judgments Eze 5:12-17 of “famine, pestilence,” and the “sword,” were precisely those which attended the coming siege of Jerusalem (Jer 15:2 ff). The “drawing out the sword after them” indicates that the anger of God will follow them even to the land of their exile (compare Jer 42:19-22; Lev 26:25), and that the horrors of the Babylonian siege are but the beginning of the sorrows of the nation.”
Ezekiel 5:12
“But the prophecy is not restricted to Zedekiah's time. It includes all that Israel suffered, or was still to suffer, for their sins, especially those committed at that period (Eze 17:21).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
C. Sword, famine, and wild beasts spend God's fury
1. (v. 13)
Ezekiel 5:13, 1 voice
Ezekiel 5:13
“Comforted - In the sense of “consoling oneself” and “feeling satisfaction in punishing;” hence, to “avenge oneself.” The fury is to “rest” upon them, abide, so as not to pass away. The “accomplishment” of the divine anger is not the “completion” in the sense of bringing it to a close, but in the sense of carrying it out to the full.”
2. (vv. 14-15)
a.Moreover I will make thee waste: Jerusalem's ruin is given a further purpose beyond her own punishment, to become a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment to the nations round about who witness it. Wesley reads the four terms as a rising scale, from simple disgrace to a lesson other nations would draw on, the city's fall made a byword rather than a private tragedy. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note the same city that refused to be an example of righteousness to the nations in verses six and seven becomes, against her will, an example of judgment instead. The verse closes with the Lord's own signature on the sentence, I the Lord have spoken it, the formula the book uses to mark a judgment as final.
Ezekiel 5:14, 1 voice
Ezekiel 5:14
“Moreover I will make thee waste,.... That is, their land; which, being without inhabitants, lay untilled; and so became barren and unfruitful: and a reproach among the nations that are round about thee, in the sight of all that pass by; who, seeing it in this desolate condition, shall throw out their taunts and jeers upon it, as in Lam 2:15.”
Ezekiel 5:15, 2 voices
Ezekiel 5:15
“So it shall be a reproach and a taunt,.... The subject of the reproaches and taunts of the enemy; see Jer 24:9; this is repeated for the greater confirmation of it: an instruction; or "discipline", or "correction" (x).”
Ezekiel 5:15
“This she was warned of as much as any thing when her glory commenced ( 1 Kings ix. 8 ), and this was lamented as much as any thing when it was laid in the dust, Lam. ii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
3. (vv. 16-17)
a.When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine: The chapter closes with four judgments named together, famine pictured as evil arrows shot to destroy, then evil beasts, then pestilence and blood, then the sword, the same fourfold set the book repeats at 14:21. Famine is described as increased rather than merely sent, and the staff of bread broken again, the same figure the previous chapter used for bread's collapse as life's support. Clarke reads the four together as deliberately exhaustive, no avenue of escape left open between war, hunger, wild beasts and disease. The closing formula, I the Lord have spoken it, seals the oracle exactly as it sealed the previous unit, framing the whole chapter as one sentence delivered in two movements.
Ezekiel 5:16, 1 voice
Ezekiel 5:16
“The evil arrows of famine - Famine and pestilence are represented as poisoned arrows, inflicting death wherever they wound. The ancients represented them in the same way.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 5:17, 2 voices
Ezekiel 5:17
“So will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee - Wild beasts always multiply in depopulated countries. In England, wolves abounded when the country was thinly peopled, it is now full of inhabitants, and there is not one wolf in the land. Nebuchadnezzar and his Chaldeans may be called here evil beasts. He is often compared to a lion, Jer 4:7; Dan 7:14; on account of the ravages made by him and his Chaldean armies.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 5:17
“The sword of the Lord, that used to be drawn for Jerusalem's defence, is now drawn for its destruction. Others are devoured by evil beasts, which will make a prey of those that fly for shelter to the deserts and mountains. They shall meet their ruin where they expected refuge, for there is no escaping the judgments of God,”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Ezekiel 5. 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 9 works. Open for the list.
This page draws on Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); John Calvin, Commentaries (1554); John Gill; John Wesley and Matthew Henry.
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