76 lines
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76 lines
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<title>Blue Letter Bible: Text Commentaries</title>
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PriorBook = 'Lamentations';
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PriorBookURL = './Comm/jfb/Lam/Lam000.html';
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PriorChapter = 'Ezekiel 32';
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NextChapter = 'Ezekiel 34';
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Title = 'The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel';
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SubTitle1 = 'Commentary by A. R. FAUSSET';
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SubTitle3 = 'CHAPTER 33';
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<p id="Chapter33" align="center">Commentary by A. R. FAUSSET<br>CHAPTER 33
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<p id="Eze33_1"><a onclick="return mV('Eze',33,'1-33');">Eze 33:1-33</a>. RENEWAL OF EZEKIEL'S COMMISSION, NOW THAT HE IS AGAIN TO ADDRESS HIS COUNTRYMEN, AND IN A NEW TONE.
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<p>Heretofore his functions had been chiefly threatening; from this point, after the evil had got to its worst in the overthrow of Jerusalem, the consolatory element preponderates.
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<p id="Eze33_2"><b>2. to the children of thy people</b>—whom he had been forbidden to address from <a onclick="return mV('Eze',24,26);">Eze 24:26-27</a>, till Jerusalem was overthrown, and the "escaped" came with tidings of the judgment being completed. So now, in <a onclick="return mV('Eze',33,21);">Eze 33:21</a>, the tidings of the fact having arrived, he opens his heretofore closed lips to the Jews. In the interval he had prophesied as to foreign nations. The former part of the chapter, at <a onclick="return mV('Eze',33,'2-20');">Eze 33:2-20</a>, seems to have been imparted to Ezekiel on the evening previous (<a onclick="return mV('Eze',33,22);">Eze 33:22</a>), being a preparation for the latter part (<a onclick="return mV('Eze',33,'23-33');">Eze 33:23-33</a>) imparted after the tidings had come. This accounts for the first part standing without intimation of the date, which was properly reserved for the latter part, to which the former was the anticipatory introduction [FAIRBAIRN].
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<br><br><b>watchman</b>— <a onclick="return mV('Eze',33,'1-9');">Eze 33:1-9</a> exhibit Ezekiel's office as a spiritual watchman; so in <a onclick="return mV('Eze',3,'16-21');">Eze 3:16-21</a>; only here the duties of the earthly watchman (compare <a onclick="return mV('2Sa',18,24,25);">2Sa 18:24-25</a>; <a onclick="return mV('2Ki',9,17);">2Ki 9:17</a>) are detailed first, and then the application is made to the spiritual watchman's duty (compare <a onclick="return mV('Isa',21,'6-10');">Isa 21:6-10</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Hsa',9,8);">Hsa 9:8</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Hab',2,1);">Hab 2:1</a>). "A man of their coasts" is a man specially chosen for the office <i>out of their whole number.</i> So <a onclick="return mV('Jdg',18,2);">Jdg 18:2</a>, "five men <i>from their coasts</i>"; also the <i>Hebrew</i> of <a onclick="return mV('Gen',47,2);">Gen 47:2</a>; implying the care needed in the choice of the watchman, the spiritual as well as the temporal (<a onclick="return mV('Act',1,21,22,'24-26');">Act 1:21-22, 24-26</a>; <a onclick="return mV('1Ti',5,22);">1Ti 5:22</a>).
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<p id="Eze33_3"><b>3. the sword</b>—invaders. An appropriate illustration at the time of the invasion of Judea by Nebuchadnezzar.
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<p id="Eze33_4"><b>4. blood...upon his own head</b>—metaphor from sacrificial victims, on the heads of which they used to lay their hands, praying that their guilt should be upon the victims.
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<p id="Eze33_6"><b>6. his iniquity</b>—his negligence in not maintaining constant watchfulness, as they who are in warfare ought to do. The thing signified here appears from under the image.
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<p id="Eze33_7"><b>7. I have set thee a watchman</b>—application of the image. Ezekiel's appointment to be a watchman spiritually is far more solemn, as it is derived from God, not from the people.
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<p id="Eze33_8"><b>8. thou shalt surely die</b>—by a violent death, the earnest of everlasting death; the qualification being supposed, "if thou dost not repent."
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<p id="Eze33_9"><b>9.</b> Blood had by this time been shed (<a onclick="return mV('Eze',33,21);">Eze 33:21</a>), but Ezekiel was clear.
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<p id="Eze33_10"><b>10. be upon us</b>—that is, their guilt remain on us.
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<br><br><b>pine away in them</b>—if we suffer the penalty threatened for them in <a onclick="return mV('Eze',24,23);">Eze 24:23</a>, according to the law (<a onclick="return mV('Lev',26,39);">Lev 26:39</a>).
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<br><br><b>how should we...live?</b>—as Thou dost promise in <a onclick="return mV('Eze',33,5);">Eze 33:5</a> (compare <a onclick="return mV('Eze',37,11);">Eze 37:11</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Isa',49,14);">Isa 49:14</a>).
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<p id="Eze33_11"><b>11.</b> To meet the Jews' cry of despair in <a onclick="return mV('Eze',33,10);">Eze 33:10</a>, Ezekiel here cheers them by the assurance that God has no pleasure in their death, but that they should repent and live (<a onclick="return mV('2Pe',3,9);">2Pe 3:9</a>). 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 <a onclick="return mV('Eze',3,'18-21');">Eze 3:18-21</a>, by the statement that each should be treated with the closest adaptation of God's justice to his particular case.
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<p id="Eze33_12"><b>12. not fall...in the day that he turneth</b>— (<a onclick="return mV('2Ch',7,14);">2Ch 7:14</a>; see <a onclick="return mV('Eze',3,20);">Eze 3:20</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Eze',18,24);">18:24</a>).
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<p id="Eze33_15"><b>15. give again that he had robbed</b>— (<a onclick="return mV('Luk',19,8);">Luk 19:8</a>).
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<br><br><b>statutes of life</b>—in the obeying of which life is promised (<a onclick="return mV('Lev',18,5);">Lev 18:5</a>). If the law has failed to give life to man, it has not been the fault of the law, but of man's sinful inability to keep it (<a onclick="return mV('Rom',7,10, 12);">Rom 7:10, 12</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Gal',3,21);">Gal 3:21</a>). It becomes life-giving through Christ's righteous obedience to it (<a onclick="return mV('2Cr',3,6);">2Cr 3:6</a>).
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<p id="Eze33_17"><b>17. The way of the Lord</b>—The Lord's way of dealing in His moral government.
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<p id="Eze33_21"><b>21. twelfth year...tenth month</b>—a year and a half after the capture of the city (<a onclick="return mV('Jer',39,2);">Jer 39:2</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Jer',52,5,6);">52:5-6</a>), in the eleventh year and fourth month. The one who escaped (as foretold, <a onclick="return mV('Eze',24,26);">Eze 24:26</a>) may have been so long on the road through fear of entering the enemy's country [HENDERSON]; or, the <i>singular</i> is used for the <i>plural</i> in a collective sense, "the escaped remnant." Compare similar phrases, "the escaped of Moab," <a onclick="return mV('Isa',15,9);">Isa 15:9</a>; "He that escapeth of them," <a onclick="return mV('Amo',9,1);">Amo 9:1</a>. Naturally the reopening of the prophet's mouth for consolation would be deferred till the number of the escaped remnant was complete: the removal of such a large number would easily have occupied seventeen or eighteen months.
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<p id="Eze33_22"><b>22. in the evening</b>— (see on JFB for <a href="./Comm/jfb/Eze/Eze033.html#Eze33_2">Eze 33:2</a>). Thus the capture of Jerusalem was known to Ezekiel by revelation before the messenger came.
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<br><br><b>my mouth...no more dumb</b>—that is, to my countrymen; as foretold (<a onclick="return mV('Eze',24,27);">Eze 24:27</a>), He spake (<a onclick="return mV('Eze',33,'2-20');">Eze 33:2-20</a>) in the evening before the tidings came.
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<p id="Eze33_24"><b>24. they that inhabit...wastes of...Israel</b>—marking the blindness of the fraction of Jews under Gedaliah who, though dwelling amidst regions laid waste by the foe, still cherished hopes of deliverance, and this without repentance.
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<br><br><b>Abraham was one...but we are many</b>—If God gave the land for an inheritance to Abraham, who was but one (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',51,2);">Isa 51:2</a>), much more it is given to us, who, though reduced, are still many. If he, with 318 servants, was able to defend himself amid so many foes, much more shall we, so much more numerous, retain our own. The grant of the land was not for his sole use, but for his numerous posterity.
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<br><br><b>inherited the land</b>—not actually possessed it (<a onclick="return mV('Act',7,5);">Act 7:5</a>), but had the right of dwelling and pasturing his flocks in it [GROTIUS]. The Jews boasted similarly of their Abrahamic descent in <a onclick="return mV('Mat',3,9);">Mat 3:9</a>.
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<p id="Eze33_25"><b>25. eat with the blood</b>—in opposition to the law (<a onclick="return mV('Lev',19,26);">Lev 19:26</a>; compare <a onclick="return mV('Gen',9,4);">Gen 9:4</a>). They did so as an idolatrous rite.
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<p id="Eze33_26"><b>26. Ye stand upon your sword</b>—Your dependence is, not on right and equity, but on force and arms.
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<br><br><b>every one</b>—Scarcely anyone refrains from adultery.
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<p id="Eze33_27"><b>27. shall fall by the sword</b>—The very object of their confidence would be the instrument of their destruction. Thinking to "stand" by it, by it they shall "fall." Just retribution! Some fell by the sword of Ishmael; others by the Chaldeans in revenge for the murder of Gedaliah (<a onclick="return mV('Jer',40,'1-');">Jer 40:1 - 44:30</a>).
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<br><br><b>caves</b>— (<a onclick="return mV('Jdg',6,2);">Jdg 6:2</a>; <a onclick="return mV('1Sa',13,6);">1Sa 13:6</a>). In the hilly parts of Judea there were caves almost inaccessible, as having only crooked and extremely narrow paths of ascent, with rock in front stretching down into the valleys beneath perpendicularly [JOSEPHUS, <i>Wars of the Jews,</i> 1.16.4].
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<p id="Eze33_28"><b>28. most desolate</b>— (<a onclick="return mV('Jer',4,27);">Jer 4:27</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Jer',12,11);">12:11</a>).
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<br><br><b>none...pass through</b>—from fear of wild beasts and pestilence [GROTIUS].
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<p id="Eze33_30"><b>30.</b> Not only the remnant in Judea, but those at the Chebar, though less flagrantly, betrayed the same unbelieving spirit.
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<br><br><b>talking against thee</b>—Though going to the prophet to hear the word of the Lord, they criticised, <i>in an unfriendly spirit,</i> his peculiarities of manner and his enigmatical style (<a onclick="return mV('Eze',20,49);">Eze 20:49</a>); making these the excuse for their impenitence. Their talking was not directly "<i>against</i>" Ezekiel, for they professed to like his ministrations; but God's word speaks of things as they really are, not as they appear.
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<br><br><b>by the walls</b>—in the public haunts. In the East groups assemble under the walls of their houses in winter for conversation.
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<br><br><b>in the doors</b>—privately.
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<br><br><b>what is the word</b>—Their motive was curiosity, seeking pastime and gratification of the ear (<a onclick="return mV('2Ti',4,3);">2Ti 4:3</a>); not reformation of the heart. Compare Johanan's consultation of Jeremiah, to hear the word of the Lord without desiring to <i>do</i> it (<a onclick="return mV('Jer',42,'1-');">Jer 42:1 - 43:13</a>).
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<p id="Eze33_31"><b>31. as the people cometh</b>—that is, in crowds, as disciples flock to their teacher.
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<br><br><b>sit before thee</b>—on lower seats at thy feet, according to the Jewish custom of pupils (<a onclick="return mV('Deu',33,3);">Deu 33:3</a>; <a onclick="return mV('2Ki',4,38);">2Ki 4:38</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Luk',10,39);">Luk 10:39</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Act',22,3);">Act 22:3</a>).
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<br><br><b>as my people</b>—though they are not.
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<br><br><b>hear...not do</b>— (<a onclick="return mV('Mat',13,20);">Mat 13:20-21</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Jam',1,23,24);">Jam 1:23-24</a>).
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<br><br><b>they show much love</b>—literally, "make love," that is, act the part of lovers. Profess love to the Lord (<a onclick="return mV('Mat',7,21);">Mat 7:21</a>). GESENIUS translates, according to <i>Arabic</i> idiom, "They do the delights of God," that is, all that is agreeable to God. <i>Vulgate</i> translates, "They turn thy words into a song of their mouths."
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<br><br><b>heart goeth after...covetousness</b>—the grand rival to the love of God; therefore called "idolatry," and therefore associated with impure carnal love, as both alike transfer the heart's affection from the Creator to the creature (<a onclick="return mV('Mat',13,22);">Mat 13:22</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Eph',5,5);">Eph 5:5</a>; <a onclick="return mV('1Ti',6,10);">1Ti 6:10</a>).
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<p id="Eze33_32"><b>32. very lovely song</b>—literally, a "song of loves": a lover's song. They praise thy eloquence, but care not for the subject of it as a real and personal thing; just as many do in the modern church [JEROME].
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<br><br><b>play well on an instrument</b>—Hebrew singers accompanied the "voice" with the harp.
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<p id="Eze33_33"><b>33. when this cometh to pass</b>—when My predictions are verified.
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<br><br><b>lo, it will come</b>—rather, "lo it <i>is</i> come" (see <a onclick="return mV('Eze',33,22);">Eze 33:22</a>).
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<br><br><b>know</b>—experimentally, and to their cost.
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