Ezekiel 11:7

Eze 11:7 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Your slain whom ye have laid in the midst of it, they [are] the flesh, and this [city is] the caldron: but I will bring you forth out of the midst of it.

Ver. 7. Your slain.] Whether ye have slain them outright, or have laid them bleeding and dying by your oppressions; for a poor man’s livelihood is his life. {Mar 12:44 Luk 8:43} He is in his house like a snail in his shell, crush that, and you kill him.

And this city is the caldron.] {a} Thus their own words, spoken in mockery, are wittily retorted upon them, and driven back again down their throats as it were.

But I will bring you forth out of the midst of it.] As rotten flesh, to be cast out; or as filthy scum, to boil over.

{a} Haec verba monachi funibus trahunt ad purgatorium probandum, nixi autoritate Originis.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Contrary to their vain confidence he showeth in what sense the city is the caldron: that is, because of the dead bodies that have been murdered therein, and so lie as flesh in the caldron.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

The city is a caldron to them, but it shall not be so to you. Ye shall meet your doom on the frontier.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 7. Your slain - they are the flesh] Jerusalem is the caldron, and those who have been slain in it, they are the flesh; and though ye purpose to stay and share its fate, ye shall not be permitted to do so, ye shall be carried into captivity.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(7) Your slain . . . they are the flesh.—They had boasted of the protection of their strong city: it should be a security only to the dead who had fallen by their own violence. The living who vainly trusted in its strength should be brought out of it, and delivered as captives to the stranger. The prophecy here takes up their own simile of Eze_11:3, and shows that it shall not avail them. On the contrary, in Eze_11:11 it is expressly said that the figure, in their sense of it, shall not be true. The use of and repeated recurrence to this singular figure may illustrate the familiarity of the people with language of this kind, and help us to appreciate the figurative character of many of Ezekiel’s expressions.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

7. Those slain in the midst of Jerusalem will be the only “flesh” that will remain in the pot. The living conspirators who think they shall be safe shall be dragged forth and judged far away from the protecting city, on the borders of Israel. The figure of the pot and flesh is used differently in ch. 24. (The Heb. is probably to be spelled so as to give the meaning “I will bring you forth.”)

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Therefore thus saith the Lord God,.... Applying the parabolical expressions they had derided, and explaining them, in a different sense from what they had put upon them:

your slain whom ye have laid in the midst of it, they are the flesh; the prophets they had killed; the persons, who had died innocently for crimes laid to their charge they had not been guilty of; and such who had fallen by one judgment or another since the siege, they were the persons intended by "the flesh", and not such as were alive; and therefore could promise themselves nothing from this proverb they had taken up, and scoffed at:

and this city is the cauldron; that holds the slain, and in which they will lie and continue, and not the living:

but I will bring you forth out of the midst of it: where they promised themselves safety, and a long continuance; yet should not abide, but be carried captive.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

All that shall remain in the city are the buried dead. Bloodshed and murder were at this time rife in Jerusalem, and these were among the chief crimes that were bringing down judgment upon the city. All the inhabitants that should yet survive were destined to be carried away into exile.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Cauldron. I will explain the prediction, which you turn to ridicule. Those whom you have slain, are like the flesh (Calmet) boiled. (Haydock) --- But you shall be treated still worse, being led captives and slain. (Calmet) --- They feared wars, but had no dread of captivity. (Worthington)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Therefore; your murders are the cause of my severity, and such sins first or last are surely punished.

Your slain: see Eze 11:6. Or, your slain, because when they might and would have saved their life by a seasonable submission, you persuaded them to an obstinate opposition against the Chaldeans to their destruction.

Whom ye have laid, or placed (as the word bears); it is not unlike that they who persuaded all to stay did provide, or at least help, as many as did stay, to habitations, and placed them in houses or lodgings.

The flesh; the pieces which are to be east into the caldron, and here be punished.

But I, that is, the mighty, eternal, and just God, will bring you forth, not in mercy, but in wrath, by the conquering hand of Babylon; I will draw you out to greater torment.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

7. They are the flesh, etc. — The only ones who will be left within the safe walls of the iron pot will be the slain. The dreams of escape from God’s judgment will fail. All of Jerusalem’s living population will be hurried into captivity. Jehovah had spoken it, and the city, if it remained unrepentant (see notes Eze_9:10), was doomed. The city should be a caldron whose walls would inclose none but the dead, and these captains of the people should not even lie among those heroes slain in the battle, but should fly from behind the strong walls in which they had boasted only to meet their death “in the border of Israel” (Eze_11:10).

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They are the flesh, etc. The prophet is led to retort their derisive or defiant words. Not they, but the carcases of their victims, were as the "flesh" in the "caldron." For themselves, there was another fate in reserve. Neither to be protected by the caldron nor to meet their doom in it, but to be brought out of it. Death, by famine, sword, or pestilence, (Eze_5:12) might be the doom of some, but for others, perhaps specially for those whom the prophet addresses, there would be captivity first, and death from the sword which they feared, afterwards.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Bring you forth - Not in mercy, but in wrath, by the conquering hand of Babylon.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

take out Heb. הוֹצִיא, like לְהוֹצִיא to take out. In vain have you built the houses, for you will go into exile, both the fathers and the sons, and no one will inherit the houses.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.