Ezek 5.1-17 continues on with the same theme as the previous chapter and has more object lessons about the destruction of Jerusalem and why these lessons were used. These afflictions were understood by the people as instruction and rebuke, hopefully paving the way for a change in direction.
v 1…”As for you, son of man (Ezekiel represents the people when this is used), take a sword (the Torah in judgment), take and use it as a barber’s razor on your head and beard. Take the scales for weighing and divide the hair (each hair was an individual in Judah; dividing the hair shows that not all will suffer the same fate; this is also a sign of mourning).
v 2…One third you shall burn in the fire at the center of the city, when the days of the siege are completed (died of pestilence and famine in the city and the bodies burned). Then you shall take a third and strike it with the sword all around the city (die by the sword of the enemy), and one third you shall scatter to the wind (those that fled), and I will unsheathe a sword behind them (to destroy them-Jer 42.16).
v 3…Take also a few in number (a remnant will survive and be protected) from them and bind them in the edges (kanaf or corners where the tzitzit were) of your robe.
v 4…And take again some of them and throw them into the fire (some were spared but not repentant, like in the Gedaliah incident-Jer 41.1-3); from it a fire will spread to all the house of Israel (after Gedaliah was murdered Nebuzaradan came and there was a third deportation and further judgments).
v 5…Thus says the Lord God, ‘This is Jerusalem. I have set her at the center of the nations (as chief among them to be a light; to teach the world about their creator) with nations around her (Deut 4.6-7).
v 6…But she has rebelled against my ordinances (in the Torah) more wickedly than the nations and against my statutes (in the Torah) more than the lands which surround her; for they have rejected my ordinances and have not walked in my statutes.’
v 7…Therefore, thus says the Lord, God (Adonai Yehovah), ‘Because you have more turmoil (in sins) than the nations which surround you, and have not walked in my statutes, nor observed my ordinances, nor observed the ordinances of the nations which surround you (the sense is “you did not even walk according to the law and light of natural law and decency, which the non-Jews had and followed-Rom 2.12; even the good things they did they did not do).’
v 8…Therefore, says the Lord (Adonai) God (Yehovah), ‘Behold, I, even I, (too), am against you, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations.
v 9…And because of all your abominations , I will do among what I have not done and the like which I will never do again (Israel would never again be the nation of God in its own land, with the Shekinah dwelling in the Temple and God speaking directly to his people with the Urim V’ Thummim and between the wings of the Keruvim on the Ark. It had great potential and value to the world. Even after the return, Israel was only a shadow of its former self. No future fall would ever be as painful or have such catastrophic losses as this fall).
v 10…Therefore, fathers will eat their sons among you, and sons will eat their fathers (Lev 26.19); for I will execute judgments on you (famine, sword ,disease), and scatter all your remnant to every wind (exile-Lev 26.33).
v 11…So as I live,’ declares the Lord, ‘surely because you have defiled my sanctuary (Temple) with your abominations (idolatry, like Manasseh did in 2 Kings 21.3, etc.), therefore I will withdraw (my favor), and my eye shall have no pity and I will not spare (no mercy).
v 12… One third of you will die by plague or be consumed by famine among you (now he speaks plainly about v 2), one third will fall by the sword around you (as Babylon takes the city), and one third I will scatter to every wind (exiled to every direction), and I will unsheathe a sword behind them (especially those that went and fled to Egypt).
v 13…Thus my anger will be spent (completed) and I will satisfy my wrath on them and I will be appeased (consoled, my justice being vindicated), then they will know that I, the Lord (Yehovah), have spoken in my zeal when I have spent my wrath upon them (by their destruction).
v 14…Moreover (in addition) I will make you a desolation and a reproach (an embarrassment) in the presence of the nations which surround you, in the sight of all who pass by (who will see what happened and taunt you).
v 15…So it will be a reproach, a reviling, a warning (instruction) and an object of horror (astonishment) to the nations who surround you, when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath and raging rebukes. I, the Lord (Yehovah), have spoken.
v 16…When I send the deadly arrows of famine (that bring on famine like hail, rain, mice, locust, mildew, etc.), which shall be for (their) destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine upon you, and will break the staff of bread (yours).
v 17…Moreover, I will send on you famine and wild beasts, and they will bereave you; plague and bloodshed also will pass through you, and I will bring the sword on you. I, the Lord (Yehovah) have spoken (this is Yehovah “signing off” on their fate and there is no turning back. The same fate awaits those in the birth-pains or “tribulation” who have rejected a Torah-based faith in Yeshua).'”
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