Evidently Ezekiel's verbal explanation of this drama came at the very end of the drama, at the time of the real destruction of Jerusalem. Ezekiel was no longer silent then.
5:5-6 The Lord explained that the center of the drama was Jerusalem that He had set at the center of many nations and lands. Some in Ezekiel's audience undoubtedly hoped that the city under symbolic destruction was Babylon, but it was indeed Jerusalem. It was at the center of civilization geographically and theologically.118
"God intended for Israel to be the great monotheistic missionary to the nations of the ancient world . . ."119
But this blessed city had rebelled against Yahweh by being unfaithful to the Mosaic Covenant.
5:7-8 The Lord promised to judge Jerusalem in the sight of the other nations because she had been so unfaithful and rebellious. She had not even observed the common laws that her neighbors obeyed.
5:9-10 The Lord would punish Jerusalem uniquely for her sins. Father's would eat their own sons, and sons their fathers, in the siege (cf. Lev. 26:29; Deut. 28:53; 2 Kings 6:28-29; Jer. 19:9; Lam. 4:10). Yahweh would scatter most of the surviving remnant from the Promised Land.
5:11-12 The Lord affirmed that He would withdraw His presence from His people because they had defiled His temple with idols (cf. ch. 8; 10:4; 11:22-23).120He would not have pity on them. One third of the residents would die by plague or famine, another third by the sword, and another third would scatter from the land pursued by enemy soldiers.
5:13 These judgments would satisfy the Lord's anger against His people and would convince them of His wrath because of their sins.
5:14-15 The Lord would desolate the people and make them an abhorrence to the observing nations. They would revile the Jews and use them as a warning of the consequences of covenant unfaithfulness, Yahweh promised.
5:16-17 The Lord would send famine-like arrows against His people to destroy them. Also wild beasts, plague, bloodshed, and war would be His instruments to judge them (cf. Lev. 26:21-26). These are standard curses for covenant unfaithfulness referred to frequently in the Mosaic Law (e.g., Lev. 26:22, 26, 29; Deut. 28:21, 53-56; 32:24: 42; cf. Lam. 1:7-14; 2:20-22; 4:4-10). All this Yahweh solemnly promised to do.
