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Ezekiel 3:24 King James Version with Strong's Concordance (STRONG)

24 Then the spirit H7307 entered H935 into me, and set H5975 me upon my feet, H7272 and spake H1696 with me, and said H559 unto me, Go, H935 shut H5462 thyself within H8432 thine house. H1004

Cross Reference

Ezekiel 2:2 STRONG

And the spirit H7307 entered H935 into me when he spake H1696 unto me, and set H5975 me upon my feet, H7272 that I heard H8085 him that spake H1696 unto me.

Ezekiel 4:1-4 STRONG

Thou also, son H1121 of man, H120 take H3947 thee a tile, H3843 and lay H5414 it before H6440 thee, and pourtray H2710 upon it the city, H5892 even Jerusalem: H3389 And lay H5414 siege H4692 against it, and build H1129 a fort H1785 against it, and cast H8210 a mount H5550 against it; set H5414 the camp H4264 also against it, and set H7760 battering rams H3733 against it round about. H5439 Moreover take H3947 thou unto thee an iron H1270 pan, H4227 and set H5414 it for a wall H7023 of iron H1270 between thee and the city: H5892 and set H3559 thy face H6440 against it, and it shall be besieged, H4692 and thou shalt lay siege H6696 against it. This shall be a sign H226 to the house H1004 of Israel. H3478 Lie H7901 thou also upon thy left H8042 side, H6654 and lay H7760 the iniquity H5771 of the house H1004 of Israel H3478 upon it: according to the number H4557 of the days H3117 that thou shalt lie H7901 upon it thou shalt bear H5375 their iniquity. H5771

Ezekiel 37:10 STRONG

So I prophesied H5012 as he commanded H6680 me, and the breath H7307 came H935 into them, and they lived, H2421 and stood up H5975 upon their feet, H7272 an exceeding H3966 H3966 great H1419 army. H2428

Daniel 10:8-10 STRONG

Therefore I was left alone, H7604 and saw H7200 this great H1419 vision, H4759 and there remained H7604 no strength H3581 in me: for my comeliness H1935 was turned H2015 in me into corruption, H4889 and I retained H6113 no strength. H3581 Yet heard H8085 I the voice H6963 of his words: H1697 and when I heard H8085 the voice H6963 of his words, H1697 then was I in a deep sleep H7290 on my face, H6440 and my face H6440 toward the ground. H776 And, behold, an hand H3027 touched H5060 me, which set H5128 me upon my knees H1290 and upon the palms H3709 of my hands. H3027

Daniel 10:19 STRONG

And said, H559 O man H376 greatly beloved, H2532 fear H3372 not: peace H7965 be unto thee, be strong, H2388 yea, be strong. H2388 And when he had spoken H1696 unto me, I was strengthened, H2388 and said, H559 Let my lord H113 speak; H1696 for thou hast strengthened H2388 me.

Commentary on Ezekiel 3 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible


CHAPTER 3

Eze 3:1-27. Ezekiel Eats the Roll. Is Commissioned to Go to Them of the Captivity and Goes to Tel-abib by the Chebar: Again Beholds the Shekinah Glory: Is Told to Retire to His House, and Only Speak when God Opens His Mouth.

1. eat … and … speak—God's messenger must first inwardly appropriate God's truth himself, before he "speaks" it to others (see on Eze 2:8). Symbolic actions were, when possible and proper, performed outwardly; otherwise, internally and in spiritual vision, the action so narrated making the naked statement more intuitive and impressive by presenting the subject in a concentrated, embodied form.

3. honey for sweetness—Compare Ps 19:10; 119:103; Re 10:9, where, as here in Eze 3:14, the "sweetness" is followed by "bitterness." The former being due to the painful nature of the message; the latter because it was the Lord's service which he was engaged in; and his eating the roll and finding it sweet, implied that, divesting himself of carnal feeling, he made God's will his will, however painful the message that God might require him to announce. The fact that God would be glorified was his greatest pleasure.

5. See Margin, Hebrew, "deep of lip, and heavy of tongue," that is, men speaking an obscure and unintelligible tongue. Even they would have listened to the prophet; but the Jews, though addressed in their own tongue, will not hear him.

6. many people—It would have increased the difficulty had he been sent, not merely to one, but to "many people" differing in tongues, so that the missionary would have needed to acquire a new tongue for addressing each. The after mission of the apostles to many peoples, and the gift of tongues for that end, are foreshadowed (compare 1Co 14:21 with Isa 28:11).

had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened—(Mt 11:21, 23).

7. will not hearken unto thee: for … not … me—(Joh 15:20). Take patiently their rejection of thee, for I thy Lord bear it along with thee.

8. Ezekiel means one "strengthened by God." Such he was in godly firmness, in spite of his people's opposition, according to the divine command to the priest tribe to which he belonged (De 33:9).

9. As … flint—so Messiah the antitype (Isa 50:7; compare Jer 1:8, 17).

10. receive in … heart … ears—The transposition from the natural order, namely, first receiving with the ears, then in the heart, is designed. The preparation of the heart for God's message should precede the reception of it with the ears (compare Pr 16:1; Ps 10:17).

11. thy people—who ought to be better disposed to hearken to thee, their fellow countryman, than hadst thou been a foreigner (Eze 3:5, 6).

12. (Ac 8:39). Ezekiel's abode heretofore had not been the most suitable for his work. He, therefore, is guided by the Spirit to Tel-Abib, the chief town of the Jewish colony of captives: there he sat on the ground, "the throne of the miserable" (Ezr 9:3; La 1:1-3), seven days, the usual period for manifesting deep grief (Job 2:13; see Ps 137:1), thus winning their confidence by sympathy in their sorrow. He is accompanied by the cherubim which had been manifested at Chebar (Eze 1:3, 4), after their departure from Jerusalem. They now are heard moving with the "voice of a great rushing (compare Ac 2:2), saying, Blessed be the glory of the Lord from His place," that is, moving from the place in which it had been at Chebar, to accompany Ezekiel to his new destination (Eze 9:3); or, "from His place" may rather mean, in His place and manifested "from" it. Though God may seem to have forsaken His temple, He is still in it and will restore His people to it. His glory is "blessed," in opposition to those Jews who spoke evil of Him, as if He had been unjustly rigorous towards their nation [Calvin].

13. touched—literally, "kissed," that is, closely embraced.

noise of a great rushing—typical of great disasters impending over the Jews.

14. bitterness—sadness on account of the impending calamities of which I was required to be the unwelcome messenger. But the "hand," or powerful impulse of Jehovah, urged me forward.

15. Tel-Abib—Tel means an "elevation." It is identified by Michaelis with Thallaba on the Chabor. Perhaps the name expressed the Jews' hopes of restoration, or else the fertility of the region. Abib means the green ears of corn which appeared in the month Nisan, the pledge of the harvest.

I sat, &c.—This is the Hebrew Margin reading. The text is rather, "I beheld them sitting there" [Gesenius]; or, "And those that were settled there," namely, the older settlers, as distinguished from the more recent ones alluded to in the previous clause. The ten tribes had been long since settled on the Chabor or Habor (2Ki 17:6) [Havernick].

17. watchman—Ezekiel alone, among the prophets, is called a "watchman," not merely to sympathize, but to give timely warning of danger to his people where none was suspected. Habakkuk (Hab 2:1) speaks of standing upon his "watch," but it was only in order to be on the lookout for the manifestation of God's power (so Isa 52:8; 62:6); not as Ezekiel, to act as a watchman to others.

18. warning … speakest to warn—The repetition implies that it is not enough to warn once in passing, but that the warning is to be inculcated continually (2Ti 4:2, "in season, out of season"; Ac 20:31, "night and day with tears").

save—Eze 2:5 had seemingly taken away all hope of salvation; but the reference there was to the mass of the people whose case was hopeless; a few individuals, however, were reclaimable.

die in … iniquity—(Joh 8:21, 24). Men are not to flatter themselves that their ignorance, owing to the negligence of their teachers, will save them (Ro 2:12, "As many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law").

19. wickedness … wicked way—internal wickedness of heart, and external of the life, respectively.

delivered thy soul—(Isa 49:4, 5; Ac 20:26).

20. righteous … turn from … righteousness—not one "righteous" as to the root and spirit of regeneration (Ps 89:33; 138:8; Isa 26:12; 27:3; Joh 10:28; Php 1:6), but as to its outward appearance and performances. So the "righteous" (Pr 18:17; Mt 9:13). As in Eze 3:19 the minister is required to lead the wicked to good, so in Eze 3:20 he is to confirm the well-disposed in their duty.

commit iniquity—that is, give himself up wholly to it (1Jo 3:8, 9), for even the best often fall, but not wilfully and habitually.

I lay a stumbling-block—not that God tempts to sin (Jas 1:13, 14), but God gives men over to judicial blindness, and to their own corruptions (Ps 9:16, 17; 94:23) when they "like not to retain God in their knowledge" (Ro 1:24, 26); just as, on the contrary, God makes "the way of the righteous plain" (Pr 4:11, 12; 15:19), so that they do "not stumble." Calvin refers "stumbling-block" not to the guilt, but to its punishment; "I bring ruin on him." The former is best. Ahab, after a kind of righteousness (1Ki 21:27-29), relapsed and consulted lying spirits in false prophets; so God permitted one of these to be his "stumbling-block," both to sin and its corresponding punishment (1Ki 22:21-23).

his blood will I require—(Heb 13:17).

22. hand of the Lord—(Eze 1:3).

go … into the plain—in order that he might there, in a place secluded from unbelieving men, receive a fresh manifestation of the divine glory, to inspirit him for his trying work.

23. glory of the Lord—(Eze 1:28).

24. set me upon my feet—having been previously prostrate and unable to rise until raised by the divine power.

shut thyself within … house—implying that in the work he had to do, he must look for no sympathy from man but must be often alone with God and draw his strength from Him [Fairbairn]. "Do not go out of thy house till I reveal the future to thee by signs and words," which God does in the following chapters, down to the eleventh. Thus a representation was given of the city shut up by siege [Grotius]. Thereby God proved the obedience of His servant, and Ezekiel showed the reality of His call by proceeding, not through rash impulse, but by the directions of God [Calvin].

25. put bands upon thee—not literally, but spiritually, the binding, depressing influence which their rebellious conduct would exert on his spirit. Their perversity, like bands, would repress his freedom in preaching; as in 2Co 6:12, Paul calls himself "straitened" because his teaching did not find easy access to them. Or else, it is said to console the prophet for being shut up; if thou wert now at once to announce God's message, they would rush on thee and bind them with "bands" [Calvin].

26. I will make my tongue … dumb—Israel had rejected the prophets; therefore God deprives Israel of the prophets and of His word—God's sorest judgment (1Sa 7:2; Am 8:11, 12).

27. when I speak … I will open thy mouth—opposed to the silence imposed on the prophet, to punish the people (Eze 3:26). After the interval of silence has awakened their attention to the cause of it, namely, their sins, they may then hearken to the prophecies which they would not do before.

He that heareth, let him hear … forbear—that is, thou hast done thy part, whether they hear or forbear. He who shall forbear to hear, it shall be at his own peril; he who hears, it shall be to his own eternal good (compare Re 22:11).