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Texts -- Ezekiel 12:1-28 (NET)

Context
Previewing the Exile
12:1 The word of the Lord came to me: 12:2 “Son of man , you are living in the midst of a rebellious house . They have eyes to see , but do not see , and ears to hear , but do not hear , because they are a rebellious house . 12:3 “Therefore, son of man , pack up your belongings as if for exile . During the day , while they are watching , pretend to go into exile . Go from where you live to another place . Perhaps they will understand , although they are a rebellious house . 12:4 Bring out your belongings packed for exile during the day while they are watching . And go out at evening , while they are watching , as if for exile . 12:5 While they are watching , dig a hole in the wall and carry your belongings out through it. 12:6 While they are watching , raise your baggage onto your shoulder and carry it out in the dark . You must cover your face so that you cannot see the ground because I have made you an object lesson to the house of Israel .” 12:7 So I did just as I was commanded . I carried out my belongings packed for exile during the day , and at evening I dug myself a hole through the wall with my hands . I went out in the darkness , carrying my baggage on my shoulder while they watched . 12:8 The word of the Lord came to me in the morning : 12:9 “Son of man , has not the house of Israel , that rebellious house , said to you, ‘What are you doing ?’ 12:10 Say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says : The prince will raise this burden in Jerusalem , and all the house of Israel within it .’ 12:11 Say , ‘I am an object lesson for you. Just as I have done , it will be done to them; they will go into exile and captivity .’ 12:12 “The prince who is among them will raise his belongings onto his shoulder in darkness , and will go out . He will dig a hole in the wall to leave through. He will cover his face so that he cannot see the land with his eyes . 12:13 But I will throw my net over him, and he will be caught in my snare . I will bring him to Babylon , the land of the Chaldeans (but he will not see it), and there he will die . 12:14 All his retinue – his attendants and his troops – I will scatter to every wind ; I will unleash a sword behind them. 12:15 “Then they will know that I am the Lord when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them among foreign countries . 12:16 But I will let a small number of them survive the sword , famine , and pestilence , so that they can confess all their abominable practices to the nations where they go . Then they will know that I am the Lord .” 12:17 The word of the Lord came to me: 12:18 “Son of man , eat your bread with trembling , and drink your water with anxious shaking . 12:19 Then say to the people of the land , ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says about the inhabitants of Jerusalem and of the land of Israel : They will eat their bread with anxiety and drink their water in fright , for their land will be stripped bare of all it contains because of the violence of all who live in it. 12:20 The inhabited towns will be left in ruins and the land will be devastated . Then you will know that I am the Lord .’” 12:21 The word of the Lord came to me: 12:22 “Son of man , what is this proverb you have in the land of Israel , ‘The days pass slowly , and every vision fails ’? 12:23 Therefore tell them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says : I hereby end this proverb ; they will not recite it in Israel any longer .’ But say to them, ‘The days are at hand when every vision will be fulfilled . 12:24 For there will no longer be any false visions or flattering omens amidst the house of Israel . 12:25 For I , the Lord , will speak . Whatever word I speak will be accomplished . It will not be delayed any longer . Indeed in your days , O rebellious house , I will speak the word and accomplish it, declares the sovereign Lord .’” 12:26 The word of the Lord came to me: 12:27 “Take note , son of man , the house of Israel is saying , ‘The vision that he sees is for distant days ; he is prophesying about the far future .’ 12:28 Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says : None of my words will be delayed any longer ! The word I speak will come to pass , declares the sovereign Lord .’”

Pericope

NET

Bible Dictionary

  • Babylon

    [nave] BABYLON City of Built by Nimrod, Gen. 10:10. In the land of Shinar, Gen. 10:10; 11:2. Tower of, Gen. 11:1-9. Capital of the kingdom of Babylon, Dan. 4:30; 2 Kin. 25:13; 2 Chr. 36:6, 7, 10, 18, 20. Gates of, Isa. 45:1, 2...

  • EZEKIEL, 2

    [isbe] EZEKIEL, 2 - II. Significance of Ezekiel in Israel's Religious History. Under the first head we will consider the formal characteristics and significance of the book; and the examination of its contents will form the subject...

  • Israel

    [nave] ISRAEL 1. A name given to Jacob, Gen. 32:24-32; 2 Kin. 17:34; Hos. 12:3, 4. 2. A name of the Christ in prophecy, Isa. 49:3. 3. A name given to the descendants of Jacob, a nation. Called also Israelites, and Hebrews, Gen. 4...

  • Instruction

    [nave] INSTRUCTION From nature, Prov. 24:30-34; Eccl. 1:13-18; 3; 4:1; Matt. 6:25-30. See: Parables. From the study of human nature, Eccl. 3-12. By Object Lessons: The pot of maa, Ex. 16:32. The pillar of twelve stones at the f...

  • Symbols and Similitudes

    [nave] SYMBOLS AND SIMILITUDES Trees of life and knowledge, Gen. 2:9, 17; 3:3, 24; Rev. 22:2. Rainbow, Gen. 9:12, 13. Circumcision, of the covenant of Abraham, Gen. 17:11; Rom. 4:11. Passover, of the sparing of the firstborn, an...

  • Prophecy

    [nave] PROPHECY Concerning Jesus, See: Jesus. Concerning church, See: Church, Prophecies Concerning Prosperity of. Relating to various countries, nations, and cities, see under their respective titles. Respecting individuals, see...

  • Zedekiah

    [ebd] righteousness of Jehovah. (1.) The last king of Judah. He was the third son of Josiah, and his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah, and hence he was the brother of Jehoahaz (2 Kings 23:31; 24:17, 18...
    [nave] ZEDEKIAH 1. Made king of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar, 2 Kin. 24:17, 18; 1 Chr. 3:15; 2 Chr. 36:10; Jer. 37:1. Throws off his allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar, 2 Kin. 24:20; 2 Chr. 36:13; Jer. 52:3; Ezek. 17:12-21. Forms an allianc...

  • Ezekiel, Book of

    [ebd] consists mainly of three groups of prophecies. After an account of his call to the prophetical office (1-3:21), Ezekiel (1) utters words of denunciation against the Jews (3:22-24), warning them of the certain destruction of ...

  • Ezekiel

    [nave] EZEKIEL, a priest. Time of his prophecy, Ezek. 1:1-3. Persecution of, Ezek. 3:25. Visions of: of God's glory, Ezek. 1; 8; 10; 11:22; of Jews' abominations, Ezek. 8:5, 6; of their punishment, Ezek. 9:10; of the valley of dry...

  • VISION

    [isbe] VISION - vizh'-un (chazon, chizzayon, mar'ah; horama, optasia): Psychologists find that man is prevailingly and persistently "eye-minded." That is, in his waking life he is likely to think, imagine and remember in terms of v...

  • SHOULDER

    [isbe] SHOULDER - shol'-der (shekhem, katheph, zeroa` or zerowa`, or zero`ah, shoq; omos, brachion (Sirach 7:31 only)): The meanings of the Hebrew words are rather varied. The first (shekhem) has perhaps the widest application. It ...

  • Procrastination

    [nave] PROCRASTINATION. Ex. 22:29; Prov. 27:1; Ezek. 11:2, 3; Ezek. 12:22, 27, 28; Matt. 8:21 Luke 9:59, 61. Matt. 24:48-51; Matt. 25:2-13; Luke 9:59-62; Acts 24:25; 1 Thess. 5:2, 3; Heb. 3:7-19 Heb. 4:1-7. See: Excuses. Instance...

  • STUFF

    [isbe] STUFF - stuf (keli; skeuos): "Material" for any purpose (Ezek 12:3,4,7); or "supplies" in a more general sense (Ex 36:7, Hebrew mela'-khah; compare the King James Version, the English Revised Version 1 Sam 10:22; 25:13; 30:2...

  • Wicked

    [nave] WICKED Compared with: Abominable branches, Isa. 14:19; ashes under the feet, Mal. 4:3; bad fishes, Matt. 13:48; beasts, Psa. 49:12; 2 Pet. 2:12; the blind, Zeph. 1:17; Matt. 15:14; bronze and iron, Jer. 6:28; Ezek. 22:18; br...

  • Proverbs

    [nave] PROVERBS Design of, Prov. 1:1-4. Written by Solomon, Prov. 1:1; 25:1. Miscellany of 1 Sam. 10:12; 1 Sam. 24:13, 14; 2 Sam. 3:8; 2 Sam. 20:18; 1 Kin. 20:11; Prov. 1:17; Ezek. 12:22, 23; Ezek. 16:44; Ezek. 18:2, 3 [Jer. 31:...

  • Sorcery

    [nave] SORCERY, divination by an alleged assistance of evil spirits. Forbidden, Lev. 19:26-28, 31; 20:6; Deut. 18:9-14. Denounced, Isa. 8:19; Mal. 3:5. Practiced: By the Egyptians, Isa. 19:3, 11, 12; by the magicians, Ex. 7:11, 22...

  • ZEDEKIAH (2)

    [isbe] ZEDEKIAH (2) - (tsidhqiyahu, "Yah my righteousness"; name changed from Mattaniah (mattanyah, "gift of Yah"; Sedekias): I. SOURCES FOR HIS REGION AND TIME 1. Annalistic 2. Prophetic II. THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE LAST KING OF ...

  • DEFER

    [isbe] DEFER - de-fur' ('achar (in Hiphil), 'arakh (in Hiphil), mashakh (in Niphal), "to postpone," more or less definitely; "delay"): In Old Testament passages such as Isa 48:9; Ezek 12:25,28; Dan 9:19, the idea of indefinite post...

  • CARE; CAREFULNESS; CAREFUL

    [isbe] CARE; CAREFULNESS; CAREFUL - kar, kar'-fool-ness, kar'-fool: The English word "care" has such a variety of meanings, and so many Hebrew and Greek words in the Bible are translated by this English expression and its compounds...

  • EXILE

    [isbe] EXILE - ek'-sil, eg'-zil (galah, tsa`ah): Occurs twice only in the King James Version (2 Sam 15:19 (galah, "to remove"); Isa 51:14 (tsa`ah, "to be bowed down")). In the Revised Version (British and American) "exile" is subst...
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Arts

Questions

  • "But unto others in parables that seeing they might not see and hearing they might not understand" Luke 8:10. Dean Farrar says on this passage: "Lord Bacon says, 'A parable has a double use; it tends to veil and it tends to i...

Resources/Books

Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

  • The following three pericopes bracket assurance of imminent judgment for Judah with promises of distant blessing for Israel and the nations. This passage promises deliverance from the captivity for the Israelites. It appears ...
  • This passage probably dates from the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 588-586 B.C. (vv. 2, 4; cf. 2 Kings 25). King Zedekiah sought advice from Jeremiah more than once (cf. 37:3-10, 17-21; 38:14-28). This passage consists of ...
  • 43:8 The Lord continued to give prophetic messages to Jeremiah in Egypt.43:9 Yahweh instructed Jeremiah to perform another symbolic act (cf. 13:4-7; 19:1-13; 27:1-28:16; Ezek. 4:1-12; 5:1-4; 12:3-6, 18; 37:15-17). He was to h...
  • Ezekiel ministered to the Jews in exile. He probably wrote this book for the benefit of the exiles and the other Jewish communities of his day and beyond his day. In some of his visions (e.g. chs. 8 and 11) the Lord carried t...
  • There are two major structural peculiarities that set Ezekiel off as distinctive.First, the book is a collection of prophecies arranged in almost consistent chronological order. No other prophetical book is as consistently ch...
  • Ezekiel began prophesying when he was 30 years old, and he had gone into captivity five years before that. Thus Ezekiel was familiar with Jeremiah's preaching and ministry. Ezekiel shows quite a bit of similarity to Jeremiah ...
  • I. Ezekiel's calling and commission chs. 1-3A. The vision of God's glory ch. 11. The setting of the vision 1:1-32. The vision proper 1:4-28B. The Lord's charge to Ezekiel chs. 2-31. The recipients of Ezekiel's ministry 2:1-52...
  • This pericope contains 10 commands, and it is the center of the chiasm in chapters 1-3."The Lord's charge to Ezekiel emphasized the absolute necessity of hearing, understanding, and assimilating God's message prior to going f...
  • "The exiles had not grasped the serious consequences of Ezekiel's warnings. They still hoped for an early return to Palestine, for they viewed the continued preservation of Jerusalem and Judah as signs of security. After all,...
  • This section contains three messages from the Lord all of which deal with the inevitability of another deportation of Jews from Jerusalem and Judah (vv. 1-7, 8-16, 17-20). Jerusalem would be overthrown and the Jews still ther...
  • 12:1-2 The Lord came to Ezekiel with another message.190He told His servant that the people among whom he lived, the house of Israel, were rebellious against Him (cf. 2:3-8). Their blindness to the things that they saw and th...
  • 12:8-9 The morning after Ezekiel had performed this little drama the Lord spoke to him again. He reminded His servant that the Jews had asked him to interpret his symbolic acts.12:10 Ezekiel was to explain to them that the or...
  • 12:17-18 The Lord also instructed Ezekiel to eat his bread and drink his water while trembling and visibly anxious. The prophet appears to have been eating still the symbolic rations that God had prescribed for him earlier (4...
  • This section contains two prophecies (vv. 21-25 and 26-28). The first one deals with the objection of some of the exiles that the prophecies of Jerusalem's overthrow would never come to pass. The second addresses the view of ...
  • 12:21-22 The Lord asked Ezekiel about a proverb that the Jews were reciting among themselves. They were saying that the days were long and that every vision failed. They meant that the captivity that the true prophets (includ...
  • 12:26-27 Some of the people were saying that the prophecies about coming judgment were true, but they would not come to pass for a long time."Rebelliousness (v. 25) can take many forms, some of them even quite pious (How do I...
  • This chapter follows quite naturally from the previous one. There God corrected the mistaken views of His people, and here He rebuked those who were responsible for those views. In this section God pronounced judgment on the ...
  • This chapter, like 12:21-28, corrected a common proverb. This one dealt with the people's false view of the reason for their judgment by God."In Chapters 18 and 33 are contained some of the most thorough, carefully expressed,...
  • This prophecy shows that there were no more rulers left in Judah who could restore the nation to its former glory. Evidently the exiles hoped that some Davidic descendant would prove successful in overcoming the Babylonians a...
  • It is appropriate that this section appears at this point in Ezekiel, between the messages announcing judgment on Judah and Jerusalem for sin (chs. 4-24) and the messages announcing future blessings for Israel (chs. 33-48). I...
  • "This last major division of the book focuses on the restoration of Israel's blessing. Israel would be judged for her sin (chaps. 1-24) as would the surrounding nations (chaps. 25-32). But Israel will not remain under judgmen...
  • Since this message is undated, it may have come to Ezekiel about the same time as the previous two in chapter 32, namely, in the last month of 585 B.C. If so, Ezekiel received it about two months after God gave him the six me...
  • This part of Ezekiel's message of warning to the exiles is similar to 3:16-21. Yahweh recommissioned Ezekiel to his prophetic task (cf. chs. 2-3)."Now that Ezekiel's original ministry of judgment was completed, God appointed ...
  • 37:15-17 The Lord also commanded Ezekiel to take two sticks (cf. Zech. 11:7-14). He was to write on one of them "For Judah and for the sons of Israel, Judah's companions."He was to write on the other stick "For Joseph and for...
  • The Book of Ezekiel begins with a vision of God's glory (ch. 1), records the departure of God's glory (chs. 8-11), and ends with another vision of God's glory (chs. 40-48). This is the longest vision outside the Book of Revel...
  • Ackroyd, Peter R. Exile and Restoration. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1968.Alexander, Ralph H. Ezekiel. Everyman's Bible Commentary series. Chicago: Moody Press, 1976._____. "Ezekiel."In Isaiah-Ezekiel. Vol. 6 of The Expo...
  • 11:1 "And"(Gr. kai) ties this chapter closely to the previous one. John's first prophetic assignment after receiving his fresh commission was to provide this information.Again John became an active participant in his vision (...

Expositions Of Holy Scripture (Maclaren)

  • His weakness of character shows itself to the end. Why was there no resistance? It would have better beseemed him to have died on his palace threshold than to have skulked away in the dark between the shelter of the two walls...
  • Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 2. And he did that which was evil in the eyes of th...
  • "He prophesieth of the times that are far off.'--Ezekiel 12:27.HUMAN nature was very much the same in the exiles that listened to Ezekiel on the banks of the Chebar and in Manchester to-day. The same neglect of God's message ...
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