Ezekiel 14:1

Here is, I. The address which some of the elders of Israel made to the prophet, as an oracle, to enquire of the Lord by him. They came, and sat before him, Eze 14:1. It is probable that they were not of those who were now his fellow-captives, and constantly attended his ministry (such as those we read of Eze 8:1), but some occasional hearers, some of the grandees of Jerusalem who had come upon business to Babylon, perhaps public business, on an embassy from the king, and in their way called on the prophet, having heard much of him and being desirous to know if he had any message from God, which might be some guide to them in their negotiation. By the severe answer given them one would suspect they had a design to ensnare the prophet, or to try if they could catch hold of any thing that might look like a contradiction to Jeremiah's prophecies, and so they might have occasion to reproach them both. However, they feigned themselves just men, complimented the prophet, and sat before him gravely enough, as God's people used to sit. Note, It is no new thing for bad men to be found employed in the external performances of religion.

II. The account which God gave the prophet privately concerning them. They were strangers to him; he only knew that they were elders of Israel; that was the character they wore, and as such he received them with respect, and, it is likely, was glad to see them so well disposed. But God gives him their real character (Eze 14:3); they were idolaters, and did only consult Ezekiel as they would any oracle of a pretended deity, to gratify their curiosity, and therefore he appeals to the prophet himself whether they deserved to have any countenance or encouragement given them: "Should I be enquired of at all by them? Should I accept their enquiries as an honour to myself, or answer them for satisfaction to them? No; they have no reason to expect it;" for, 1. They have set up their idols in their heart; they not only have idols, but they are in love with them, they dote upon them, are wedded to them, and have laid them so near their hearts, and have given them so great a room in their affections, that there is no parting with them. The idols they have set up in their houses, though they are now at a distance from the chambers of their imagery, yet they have them in their hearts, and they are ever and anon worshipping them in their fancies and imaginations. They have made their idols to ascend upon their hearts (so the word is); they have subjected their hearts to their idols, they are upon the throne there. Or when they came to enquire of the prophet they pretended to put away their idols, but it was in pretence only; they still had a secret reserve for them. They kept them up in their hearts; and, if they left them for a while, it was cum animo revertendi - with an intention to return to them, not a final farewell. Or it may be understood of spiritual idolatry; those whose affections are placed upon the wealth of the world and the pleasures of sense, whose god is their money, whose god is their belly, they set up their idols in their heart. Many who have no idols in their sanctuary have idols in their hearts, which is no less a usurpation of God's throne and a profanation of his name. Little children, keep yourselves from those idols. 2. They put the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face. Their silver and gold were called the stumbling-block of their iniquity (Eze 7:19), their idols of silver and gold, by the beauty of which they were allured to idolatry, and so it was the block at which they stumbled, and fell into that sin; or their iniquity is their stumbling-block, which throws them down, so that they fall into ruin. Note, Sinners are their own tempters (every man is tempted when he is drawn aside of his own lust), and so they are their own destroyers. If thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it; and thus they put the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their own faces, and stumble upon it though they see it before their eyes. It intimates that they are resolved to go on in sin, whatever comes of it. I have loved strangers, and after them I will go; that is the language of their hearts. And should God be enquired of by such wretches? Do they not hereby rather put an affront upon him than do him any honour, as those did who bowed the knee to Christ in mockery? Can those expect an answer of peace from God who thus continue their acts of hostility against him? "Ezekiel, what thinkest thou of it?"

III. The answer which God, in just displeasure, orders Ezekiel to give them, Eze 14:4. Let them know that it is not out of any disrespect to their persons that God refuses to give them an answer, but it is laid down as a rule for every man of the house of Israel, whoever he be, that if he continue in love and league with his idols, and come to enquire of God, God will resent it as an indignity done to him, and will answer him according to his real iniquity, not according to his pretended piety. He comes to the prophet, who, he expects, will be civil to him, but God will give him his answer, by punishing him for his impudence: I the Lord, who speak and it is done, I will answer him that cometh, according to the multitude of his idols. Observe, Those who set up idols in their hearts, and set their hearts upon their idols, commonly have a multitude of them. Humble worshippers God answers according to the multitude of his mercies, but bold intruders he answers according to the multitude of their idols, that is, 1. According to the desire of their idols; he will give them up to their own hearts' lust, and leave them to themselves to be as bad as they have a mind to be, till they have filled up the measure of their iniquity. Men's corruptions are idols in their hearts, and they are of their own setting up; their temptations are the stumbling-block of their iniquity, and they are of their own putting, and God will answer them accordingly; let them take their course. 2. According to the desert of their idols; they shall have such an answer as it is just that such idolaters should have. God will punish them as he usually punishes idolaters, that is, when they stand in need of his help he will send them to the gods whom they have chosen, Jdg 10:13, Jdg 10:14. Note, The judgment of God will dwell with men according to what they are really (that is, according to what their hearts are), not according to what they are in show and profession. And what will be the end of this? What will this threatened answer amount to? He tells them (Eze 14:5): That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, may lay them open to the world, that they may be ashamed; nay, lay them open to the curse, that they may be ruined. Note, The sin and shame, and pain and ruin, of sinners, are all from themselves, and their own hearts are the snares in which they are taken; they seduce them, they betray them; their own consciences witness against them, condemn them, and are a terror to them. If God take them, if he discover them, if he convict them, if he bind them over to his judgment, it is all by their own hearts. O Israel! thou hast destroyed thyself. The house of Israel is ruined by its own hands, because they are all estranged from me through their idols. Note, (1.) The ruin of sinners is owing to their estrangement from God. (2.) It is through some idol or other that the hearts of men are estranged from God; some creature has gained that place and dominion in the heart that God should have.

IV. The extent of this answer which God had given them - to all the house of Israel, Eze 14:7, Eze 14:8. The same thing is repeated, which intimates God's just displeasure against hypocrites, who mock him with the shows and forms of devotion, while their hearts are estranged from him and at war with him. Observe, 1. To whom this declaration belongs. It concerns not only every one of the house of Israel (as before, Eze 14:4), but the stranger that sojourns in Israel; let him not think it will be an excuse for him in his idolatries that he is but a stranger and a sojourner in Israel, and does but worship the gods that his father served and that he himself was bred up in the service of; no, let him not expect any benefit from Israel's oracles or prophets unless he thoroughly renounce his idolatry. Note, Even proselytes shall not be countenanced if they be not sincere: a dissembled conversion is no conversion. 2. The description here given of hypocrites: They separate themselves from God by their fellowship with idols; they cut themselves off from their relation to God and their interest in him; they break off their acquaintance and intercourse with him, and set themselves at a distance from him. Note, Those that join themselves to idols separate themselves from God; nor shall any be for ever separated from the vision and fruition of God, but such as now separate themselves from his service and wilfully withdraw their allegiance from him. But there are those who thus separate themselves from God, and yet come to the prophets with a seeming respect and deference to their office, to enquire of them concerning God, in order to satisfy a vain curiosity, to stop the mouth of a clamorous conscience, or to get or save a reputation among men, but without any desire to be acquainted with God or any design to be ruled by him. 3. The doom of those who thus trifle with God and think to impose upon him: "I the Lord will answer him by myself; let me alone to deal with him; I will give him an answer that shall fill him with confusion, that shall make him repent of his daring impiety." He shall have his answer, not by the words of the prophet, but by the judgments of God. And I will set my face against that man, which denotes great displeasure against him and a fixed resolution to ruin him. God can outface the most impenitent sinner. The hypocrite thought to save his credit, nay, and to gain applause, but, on the contrary, God will make him a sign and a proverb, will inflict such judgments upon him as shall make him remarkable and contemptible in the eyes of all about him; his misery shall be made use of to express the greatest misery, as when the worst of sinners are said to have their portion appointed them with hypocrites, Mat 24:51. God will make him an example; his judgments upon him shall be for warning to others to take heed of mocking God: for thus shall it be done to the man that separates himself from God, and yet pretends to enquire concerning him. The hypocrite thought to pass for one of God's people, and to crowd into heaven among them; but God will cut him off from the midst of his people, will discover him, and pluck him out from the thickest of them; and by this, says God, you shall know that I am the Lord. By the discovery of hypocrites it appears that God is omniscient: ministers know not how people stand affected when they come to hear the word, by God does. And by the punishment of hypocrites it appears that he is a jealous God, and one that cannot and will not be imposed upon.

V. The doom of those pretenders to prophecy who give countenance to these pretenders to piety, Eze 14:9, Eze 14:10. These hypocritical enquirers, though Ezekiel will not give them a comfortable answer, yet hope to meet with some other prophets that will; and if they do, as perhaps they may, let them know that God permits those lying prophets to deceive them in part of punishment: "If the prophet that flatters them be deceived, and gives them hopes which there is no ground for, I the Lord have deceived that prophet, have suffered the temptation to be laid before him, and suffered him to yield to it, and overruled it for the hardening of those in their wicked courses who were resolved to go on in them." We are sure that God is not the author of sin, but we are sure that he is the Lord of all and the Judge of sinners, and that he often makes use of one wicked man to destroy another, and so of one wicked man to deceive another. Both are sins in him who does them, and so they are not from God; both are punishments to him to whom they are done, and so they are from God. We have a full instance of this in the story of Ahab's prophets, who were deceived by a lying spirit, which God put into their mouths (Kg1 22:23), and another in those whom God gives up to strong delusions, to believe a lie, because they received not the love of the truth, Th2 2:10, Th2 2:11. But read the fearful doom of the lying prophet: I will stretch out my hand upon him and will destroy him. When God has served his own righteous purposes by him he shall be reckoned with for his unrighteous purposes. As, when God had made use of the Chaldeans for the wasting of a sinful people, he justly punished them for their rage, so when he had made use of false prophets, and afterwards of false Christs, for the deceiving of a sinful people, he justly punished them for their falsehood. But herein we must acknowledge (as Calvin upon this place reminds us) that God's judgments are a great deep, that we are incompetent judges of them, and that, though we cannot account for the equity of God's proceedings to the satisfying and silencing of every caviller, yet there is a day coming when he will be justified before all the world, and particularly in this instance, when the punishment of the prophet that flattereth the hypocrite in his evil way shall be as the punishment of the hypocrite that seeketh to him and bespeaks smooth things only, Isa 30:10. The ditch shall be the same to the blind leader and the blind followers.

VI. The good counsel that is given them for the preventing of this fearful doom (Eze 14:6): "Therefore repent, and turn yourselves from your idols. Let this separate between you and them, that they separate between you and God; because they set God's face against you, do you turn away your faces from them," which denotes, not only forsaking them, but forsaking them with loathing and detestation: "Turn from them as from abominations that you are sick of; and then you will be welcome to enquire of the Lord. Come now, and let us reason together."

VII. The good issue of all this as to the house of Israel; therefore the pretending prophets, and the pretending saints, shall perish together by the judgments of God, that, some being made examples, the body of the people may be reformed, that the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, Eze 14:11. Note, The punishments of some are designed for the prevention of sin, that others may hear, and fear, and take warning. When we see what becomes of those that go astray from God we should thereby be engaged to keep close to him. And, if the house of Israel go not astray, they will not be polluted any more. Note, Sin is a polluting thing; it renders the sinner odious in the eyes of the pure and holy God, and in his own eyes too whenever conscience is awakened; and therefore they shall no more be polluted, that they may be my people and I may be their God. Note, Those whom God takes into covenant with himself must first be cleansed from the pollutions of sin; and those who are so cleansed shall not only be saved from ruin, but be entitled to all the privileges of God's people.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Eze 14:1 Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.

Ver. 1. Then came certain of the elders unto me.] Rulers and chieftains of the captives in Babylon, pretending to be far better than those elders at Jerusalem, complained about in Eze 8:11-12, but indeed no better; nay, so much the worse, because they had lost the fruit of all their afflictions, and were as arrant hypocrites as those veteratores old hands, the scribes and Pharisees, that came to John’s baptism and to our Saviour’s sermons, with evil and exulcerate minds.

“ Non omnes sancti qui calcant limina Templi. ”

A Doeg may set his foot as far within the sanctuary as a David.

And sat before me.] Demurely and, to see to, devoutly. But why could they not stand to hear the Word of God for reverence sake? Balak did so, {Num 23:18} though a king; and Eglon, though unwieldy; {Jdg 3:20} and a better man than they both, Constantine the Great, as Eusebius {a} records, and further tells us, that being pressed, after long time of hearing, to sit down, with a stern countenance he answered, It were a great sin in me not to hear with utmost attention when God is speaking.

{a} De Vita Const.

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.

Eze_14:1-11

These men have set up their idols in their heart.

Heart idols

The Lord is now going to search the heart, to turn out the corners of the inmost recesses of the mind, the idol and favourite sin. He will proceed to do a spiritual work; He will lay aside His hammer with which He has broken the wall, and no more will He tear and rend the garments which cover falsehood: He will enter the heart, He will name the idols one by one which occupy that secret sanctuary; He will name them, He will bring them forth to judgment, and He will conduct that most penetrating of all criticism, the judgment of the thought and motive and purpose of man. Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me,--came to be looked through, weighed, measured, and adjudged. No office can save men from Divine criticism. How comforting is this thought, though terrible in some aspects! It were well that our judges should be judged, else who can tell to what extremes of folly they might go, hounded on by ambition, or stung to further issues by envy and malice? The higher the office, the greater the responsibility; the larger the privileges, the greater the sin if they are outraged; the more brilliant the genius, the more infamous the mischief if that genius be perverted. The able man, the man of faculty and education, can do more sin in one moment than a poor uneducated soul can do in a lifetime. Elevation aggravates sin. The place of the disease indicates its fatal character--in their heart. This is heart disease. Men almost whisper when they indicate that some friend is suffering from disease of the heart; there is hopelessness in the tone: great allowance should be made, they say, for a man who is suffering from heart disease; be must not be startled, or excited, or suddenly pounced upon; his wishes must be gratified, they must as far as possible even be anticipated; and any little impatience he may show must be looked at charitably. The talk is humane, the considerateness is full of affection, the conditions imposed are suggested by reason. Is there not a higher disease of the heart? What is the meaning of this disease of the heart, this idolatry in the inmost soul? When a moral disease is of the heart it means that the disease is liked, enjoyed; it is wine drunk behind the door, it is a feast of fat things eaten in secrecy; every mouthful so sweet, so good, so rich. When a disease is of the heart in a moral and spiritual sense it means that it is consented to; it is voluntary, it is personal, it is desired; there would be a sense of loss without it. Disease of this kind, too, is most difficult of eradication. It is not in the skin, or it might be cut out; it is not in the limb, or it might be amputated, and the knife might anticipate mortification: the evil is in the heart; no knife can touch it, no persuasion can get at it; nothing can be done with it but one thing--only a miracle of the Holy Ghost can overcome that difficulty and turn that disease into health. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. Are we chargeable with heart idolatry? We have no idols of a visible kind, it may be, yet we may be the veriest pagans in our hearts. We say, How distressing that poor human nature should fall down before stock and stone and worship it! and we, inflated pagans, worship a golden calf, a tinsel crown, a sounding name, a crafty policy. Are we chargeable with heart idolatry? Certainly we are. No man can escape this accusation. It is subtle, far reaching, all but ineradicable. If we do not face such difficulties our piety is a stucco that will peel off in the wet weather, and leave the ghastly moral ugliness exposed to public scorn. Doubt may be an idol used to diminish responsibility. Others, again, may have in the heart an idol called Ignorance, kept there for the purpose of diminishing service: we will not go into the dark places of the city, then we need not attend to the cries which are said to be arising there from overborne and hopeless humanity; we will keep on the broad thoroughfare, where the gaslight is plentiful; we shall see the surface and outer shape of things, and then retire to rest, saying that, say what fanatics may, there is really a good deal of solid happiness in the city. Have we not an idol in the heart we call Orthodoxy, which We keep there in order to enlarge moral licence? Is there not an intellectual orthodoxy and a spiritual heterodoxy often united in the same man? Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus Saith the Lord God: Repent. When did the Lord ever conclude a discourse without some evangelical tone in it? The Bible is terrific in denunciation, awful beyond all other books in its denunciation of sin and its threatening of perdition; yet through it, and through it again, and ruling it, is a spirit of clemency and pity and mercy and hope, yea, across hells burning mouth there lies the shadow of the Cross. (J. Parker, D. D.)

Mental idolatry

The father of modern philosophy and science has shown us that there are in the mind of man, as man, natural idols which act as impediments to his acquisition of knowledge and his search after truth. Till these idols are overthrown and broken in pieces and taken away it is simply useless for man to pursue knowledge. His efforts will be neutralised and their results vitiated. Now, if this is so in the matter of human science, it is none the less worthy of our regard in the matter of Divine truth and of the knowledge of God. We cannot know God, whom to know is eternal life, as long as these natural obstacles are not taken out of the way. We cannot serve Him acceptably as long as, instead of being dethroned, they are still set up in our hearts. What, then, is the practical bearing of this truth? First, there must be a single eye to the knowledge of God. If we have not determined with ourselves that God, and the knowledge of God, and the fear of God, is more to be desired, and if we personally do not desire it more than wealth, or ease, or success, or the applause of men, or position in life, or influence, or comfort, or anything else, then we may be never so punctual in our religious duties, never so zealous for the outward honour of God, never so eager for the triumph of particular principles, or a particular party, or a particular cause, but for all that there is still enshrined in some inner recess, some secret corner of our hearts, an idol which disputes with the Most High God the possession and sovereignty of them. Again, not only must there be a clear and undimmed perception of God as the one sole object of our services, but there must also be a readiness to sacrifice anything in order to know and to serve Him. How many there are in the present day, not, thank God, who cannot afford to be religious--for that brings with it no slur in our times, but rather the reverse--but how many there are who dare not follow Truth whithersoever she may lead, who cannot afford to obey their own convictions, and therefore stifle them with the excuses of propriety or usage or convenience. This is a hard thing, and it is so because the claims of truth and the idol in the heart cannot both be acknowledged. And there is no condition of life where this does not apply. It is hard for the man of science, whose name has been identified with certain theories and principles, to sacrifice his name and fair renown to the growing conviction of counter theories and principles which will make the past a blank, or show it to have been a mistake. It is hard for the religious partisan, whose life has been east in a particular mould, and whose sympathies are linked to one form of opinion and practice, to yield to the force of truth when it comes with the authority of conviction to the mind and compels the acknowledgment of previous error and misunderstanding. But more than this, it is hard not to approach the consideration of religious truth with a distinct bias; but it is certain that the existence of any such bias must damage our appreciation of the truth. Unless we can see all round a thing, we can have no true apprehension of the thing. We may view it partially, but shall have no conception of it as a whole. The idol in possession of the mind will prevent the entrance of the true idea. But if this is true, and in proportion as it is, there are certain general principles to which it behoves us all to give heed when we come to the worship of God. First of all, we must empty ourselves of ourselves. We must come as though our present knowledge of God were as nothing, and as if God were still to be known and learnt. The whole of what we have must be sacrificed for the sake of what we are to have and to gain. As long as sin, in one of its innumerable forms, lurks in the heart or on the conscience, the service of God will be a vain thing, because the pursuit of truth is a lie. It is that practised dishonesty, it is that cherished lust, it is that pampered self-love, it is that incurable indolence, it is that willingly defiled imagination, it is that malice and envy which vitiates all your worship and renders all your religion a lie. There is One who searches the heart, and who cleanses it because He searches it. There is One whose blood cleanses us from all sin, if we are willing to walk in the light, as He is in the light. It is in direct personal communion with this heart-searcher, with this sin-bearer, but only so, that we become sinless. But if anything is suffered to interfere with that direct personal intercourse and communion, no matter what it is, even though it should be some sacred word or ordinance of His own, that is an idol which interferes with our worship and service of Him, and therefore an idol which must be broken down. (S. Leathes, D. D.)

Idolaters inquiring of God

I. What is meant by the setting up of idols?

1. It is oppressive to men in their natural state to think of the spiritual, omnipresent, heart-searching God. Accordingly they have brought down their conception of God to something that can be apprehended by sense. They have thus tried to satisfy the religious instinct within them, while at the same time pleasing themselves. It is much easier to have an object of worship that we can see, or touch, or taste. An idol, too, is not so exacting as the incorruptible and sin-hating God. Being material, it cannot require heart worship.

2. We are in no danger of worshipping idols of wood and stone. But the tendency of human nature is always the same, and where there is not renewing grace there is something creaturely that is idolised--it may be some place of power, or wealth, or some sensual pleasure, or child, or creation of the mind.

(1) There is this idolatry when we are intent upon a sin or a course of sinning.

(2) There is this idolatry when we set up particular ideas in our heart from which we do not mean to turn.

II. The inquiring. These Israelites did not mean by setting up their idols utterly to east off Jehovah. They meant still to connect Him with their past history as their national deity. And so we can understand their going to inquire of one of the Lords prophets. There were cross-currents in their life. There was the idolatrous current which led them to do what was forbidden by God, and yet there was the old current which led them to inquire of God. We may find an analogy to this still.

1. There is this inquiring when we ask for light and help in prayer, while at the same time we are determined to follow what pleases ourselves.

2. There is this inquiry when we search the Bible while yet we are resolved to see in it only certain things.

III. The divine treatment.

1. Why it must be futile to inquire of God while bent on our own way.

(1) God requires submission.

(2) God requires sincerity.

2. How God shows the futility of inquiring of Him while we are bent on our own way. I the Lord will answer him.

(1) He allows our dispositions to work out some terrible result to bring us to shame. We are ruined in our estate, or in our health. Some child whom we idolise may prove a grief to us.

(2) He allows us to get into despondency and despair. No one who puts an idol in the place of God is above being unhinged. Especially is the devotee who has his darling sin the likely victim of despondency.

(3) Or He allows us to be hardened so as to be unable to see the difference between right and wrong. (R. Einlayson, B. A.)

Idols in the heart

I. The principle laid down. As a magnet attracts out of rubbish only the bits of iron for which it has an affinity, so the idol-idea in a mans mind will make him fix on whatever will minister to it, and neglect everything else. The very Word of God will be but a mirror in which he sees reflected the thought which possesses his soul.

II. The working of this principle.

1. The apostles, like the rest of the Jews, had a settled conviction that the Messiah would be a great temporal Prince.

2. Another instance is found in those who seek a system of Church government in the New Testament.

3. The controversy as to the ultimate doom of the unbelieving. Restorationist, annihilist, and believer in endless torment--all appeal to same Word, and often to same texts.

III. Practical use. Three common idols--

1. The thought that to repent of sin and turn to Jesus at last hour will be enough.

2. The thought that good works are not essential to salvation.

3. The thought that the new life of faith must be ushered in with some great and overwhelming spasm of feeling. (J. Ogle.)

The idols in the heart a barrier to the truth

I. The idols that are in the heart and the stumbling blocks that are before the face, are the sins with which Gods people are sometimes chargeable.

II. Men professing to inquire after God while their idols are in their hearts, and their stumbling blocks before their faces; or, the gross inconsistency of seeking to mingle the service of God with the pursuit of sin.

1. Men may pray from the influence of custom.

2. From the promptings of conscience.

3. From the desire to stand, well with their fellow men.

4. From a yam desire to set themselves right with God.

III. God taking notice of the idols that are in mens hearts, and the stumbling-blocks that are before their faces, or the faithful warnings which God addresses to those who follow sin while they profess to serve Him.

1. He intimates that He is perfectly acquainted with us.

2. He tells us that He cannot answer the requests of those who indulge in sin.

3. He shows us how unreasonable it is to expect that He will be inquired of by us. (Evangelical Preacher.)

Heart disease the worst disease

Manton says, What would we think of a man who complained of the toothache, or of a cut finger, when all the while he was wounded at the heart? Would it not seem very strange? Yet men will lament anything sooner than the depravity of their hearts. Many will confess their wandering thoughts in prayer, but will not acknowledge the estrangement of their hearts from God. They will be sorry for having spoken angrily, but not for having a passionate heart. They will own to Sabbath breaking, but never lament their want of love to Jesus, which is a heart matter. The evil of their hearts seems nothing to them: their tongues, hands, feet, are all that they notice. What! will they cry over a cut finger, and feel no fear when they have a dagger thrust into their bowels? Oh, madness of sinners, that they trifle most with that disease which is the most dangerous, and lies at the bottom of all other ills. Gods great complaint of men is that they set up in their hearts idols which they themselves think nothing of. Certain in our day are so far gone that they even deny that the human heart is diseased. What then? It does but prove the intimate connection between the heart and the eyes. A perverted heart soon creates a blinded eye. Of course, a depraved heart does not see its own depravity. Oh that we could lead men to think and feel aright about their hearts; but this is the last point to which we can bring them! They beat about the bush, and mourn over any and every evil except the source and fountain of it all. Lord, teach me to look within. May I attend even more to myself than to my acts. Purge Thou the spring, that the stream may no longer be defiled. I would begin where Thou dost begin, and beseech Thee to give me a new heart. Thou sayest, My son, give Me thine heart. Lord, I do give it to Thee, but at the same time I pray, Lord, give me a new heart; for without this my heart is not worth Thy having. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Idolatry in the heart

Travellers tell us that there is a tribe in Africa so given to superstition that they fill their huts and hovels with so many idols that they do not even leave room for their families. How many men there are who fill their hearts with the idols of sin, so that there is no room for the Living God, or for any of His holy principles! (John Bate.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eze 14:1. Then came certain of the elders of Israel — Men of note, that were in office and power among the Jews. “The prophet neither tells us the name nor the intention of these elders of Israel, nor the time when they came to him. But the manner wherein God speaks, gives us to understand that they came only to tempt him, as the Pharisees came to Christ, and with no design to profit by what they heard, or to correct their faults:” see Calmet. And sat before me — As was the usual posture of those that came to hear the instructions of any prophet or teacher: see Eze 8:1. In after times the teachers sat in a chair or eminent seat, and the hearers on lower forms at the feet of their masters: see Luk 10:39; Act 22:3.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

THE IDOLATROUS ELDERS INQUIRE IN VAIN OF JEHOVAH CONCERNING THE FUTURE, Eze_14:1-5.

1. Then came certain of the elders of Israel — Ezekiel’s sermons have at last aroused deep interest, and the chief men among the exiles, notwithstanding his fearful arraignment of the most popular prophets, come to him to inquire of the future. Ezekiel’s word to them is very different from the soft, smooth messages which he has been condemning (chap. 13). He openly exposes the iniquity of their hearts, and declares that Jehovah will have no speech with such as they (Eze_14:3).

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

JEHOVAH’S REFUSAL TO ALLOW IDOLATERS TO ENQUIRE OF HIM: THE CERTAINTY OF THE JUDGMENTS DENOUNCED AGAINST THEM (Chap. 14)

EXEGETICAL NOTES.—The visit of the elders of the people to the prophet was the occasion of this word of God. They were alarmed by the threatenings which the prophet uttered, but they yet hoped to obtain from him a more favourable answer. They make an appeal to God’s mercy, but are silent concerning the greatness of their sin or any purpose of repentance. These elders were not the representatives of the majority of the exiles who practised the most open and the boldest forms of idolatry; but rather of those who, though they outwardly feared God, yet inwardly served the world and the spirit of the age. “These men have set up idols in their heart” (Eze_14:3). The prophet’s answer to their inquiry extends to Eze_14:11. The latter part of the chapter declares that the coming judgments on Jerusalem will not be averted even for the sake of the righteous few therein.

THE LORD GIVES NO ANSWER TO THE IDOLATERS (Eze_14:1-11)

Eze_14:1. “The elders of Israel.” “These men were not deputies from the Israelites in Palestine, but elders of the exiles among whom Ezekiel had been labouring” (Keil). Their object in this visit is not distinctly stated, but probably it was that they might know something further concerning the duration of the captivity, or the fate of Jerusalem. Unlike the elders in chap. Eze_20:1, they had not come with the definite purpose of inquiring of the Lord.

Eze_14:2-3. “These men have set up their idols in their heart.” They were not given to the grosser forms of idolatry, but they were strangers to the true worship of God. They had set up some object of their own creation, which they put in the place of God. They allowed their minds to be deluded by phantoms. In heart and spirit they were one with the worst idolaters around them. “And put the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face.” They even refused to put away idols from their presence. They sought not to flee from temptation by removing what would be an occasion and reminder of sin. “Should I be enquired of at all by them?” This question implies a strong negation.

Eze_14:4. “I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols.” The form of the verb to “answer” gives the meaning, “I the Lord will answer him by myself,” instead of by the prophet. The manner in which the Lord will answer the idolatry is set forth in Eze_14:8. They are to be treated as all idols should be treated.

Eze_14:5. “That I may take the house of Israel in their heart.” The Lord will reach the very seat of idolatry, touch their conscience, and bring down their heart by judgments.

Eze_14:6-8. Repetition of the threat already uttered, and also of the summons to repentance. “Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.” “We have here a combination of the Kal and Hiphil conjugations for the sake of emphasis. Return unreservedly from your abominable idolatries. Be NO longer estranged from me, either in heart or practice. They were neither to hanker after in desire, nor look towards the accursed thing” (Henderson). “Every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel.” All who hypocritically applied to the prophet, whether proselytes or native Jews, were liable to the same judgments. Strangers were only permitted to dwell in the land of Israel on condition of forsaking all idolatry and all moral abominations, and worshipping Jehovah alone (Lev_20:2; Lev_18:26; Lev_17:10; Exo_12:19). “And will make him a sign and a proverb.” “The expression is a pregnant one; I make him desolate, so that he becomes a sign and proverb” (Keil). “An exemplary punishment” (Heng.)

Eze_14:9-11. No prophet is to give any other answer. “And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet.” He who delivers any other message, though he may think that he speaks the word of the Lord, is not a true prophet. When God is represented as deceiving such a prophet, we are to understand something more than merely a permissive sense, as if God allowed it and did not interfere to prevent the deception. It was Jehovah who sent the lying spirit into the prophets of Ahab, and for this very purpose, that by predicting success to the king they might secure his fall (1Ki_22:20, &c.) “This persuading of the prophets to the utterance of self-willed words, which have not been inspired by God, only takes place in persons who admit evil into themselves, and is designed to tempt them and lead them to decide whether they will endeavour to resist and conquer the sinful inclinations of their hearts, or will allow them to shape themselves into outward deeds, in which case they will become ripe for judgment. It is in this sense that God persuades such a prophet, in order that He may then cut him off out of His people” (Keil). “If matters should turn out differently from what the prophet expected and foretold, I have so ordered them in the course of my providence as to issue in such a result. It is the prerogative of Deity to control the sinful operations of created minds, without interfering with free agency” (Henderson). “The punishment of the prophet shall he even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him.” The false prophets and those who inquire of them are both alike guilty, and come into the same condemnation. Neither in one nor in the other was there any desire to learn the truth, but rather to seek excuse for their sins and errors even by the daring impiety of demanding for them the sanctions of religion. “That the house of Israel may no more go astray from me, neither be polluted any more with all their transgressions.” “It serves to purify the people of God. For the particular sinful generation it flows from the principle of retribution; but for the whole community of God a purpose of mercy lies at the ground of the exercise of this retribution. The prophet here clearly opens up the view to the light which shines behind the darkness.” (Heng.) “It was to this end that, in the last times of the kingdom of Judah, God allowed false prophecy to prevail so mightily,—namely, that it might accelerate the process of distinguishing between the righteous and the wicked; and then, by means of the judgment which destroyed the wicked, purify His nation and lead it on to the great end of its calling” (Keil).

HOMILETICS

HYPOCRITICAL INQUIRERS AFTER GOD

These elders had come as a deputation from among the exiles in order to consult Ezekiel as a prophet of the Lord. They had come from a distance, and are to be distinguished from those mentioned in chap. Eze_8:1 who were already with the prophet. We are not told expressly what their purpose was. They may have sought guidance concerning some question which they felt to be a difficulty. They may have simply waited to hear what seasonable truth the prophet had still to utter. But from Eze_14:3 we learn that they certainly did come in the character of inquirers. And the answer which the Lord gives through theprophet shows that they were not sincere, but hypocritical inquirers. We have here the great features of all such.

I. They closely imitate the conduct of real inquirers. Hypocrites are generally described as those who deceive others by making an outward show of piety. But the sacred writers call those hypocrites not only who deceived others, but deceived even themselves. These closely imitate the religious actions of the pious, but they are ignorant of those deep spiritual principles upon which such conduct is founded. These have no true knowledge of God. They only know Him by tradition and the customs of religious service and worship. These elders had some of the qualities of real inquirers after the mind and will of God.

1. They were already stirred by the message of the prophet. They took alarm at his threatenings. They were afraid at God’s judgments.

2. They tome to the prophet, as an inspired messenger of God, for further counsel. They were the subjects of religious awakening, and professed themselves ready to learn all the will of God. Men may go as far as this without any true and essential knowledge of the realities of religion.

II. They lack the proper characteristics of real inquirers.

1. They apply to religious teachers, not to be instructed in God’s will, but to be confirmed in their own superstitions and errors. They were ready to hear and obey the prophet so long as he prophesied after their own heart. While religion did not interfere with their cherished convictions and prospects they were ready to obey its precepts and ordinances. They did not really believe that the threatened judgments would come to pass, and they desired a prophet who would confirm them in their false hopes. Such men feel a certain satisfaction in heaping to themselves teachers. In some way they feel the necessity of obtaining the sanctions of religion. But they come to the prophet not to learn, but to be confirmed in the purpose of their evil heart. They have not learned what it is to surrender the mind as well as the heart and will to God.

2. They retain sin in their heart, though they avoid the outward manifestation of it. They abstained from the gross forms of idolatry which were practised by their countrymen, but “they set up their idols in their heart” (Eze_14:3). The real root-principle of idolatry was still in them.

3. They take no steps to remove the occasions of sin. “They put the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face” (Eze_14:3). While these outward temptations and means of sin are suffered to remain, it is of no use to seek first to cleanse the heart. Images must first be destroyed, else there is little prospect of rooting out idolatry from the land. Religious teachers should testify against both outward and inward idolatry. If idols are not removed from the eyes of men the temptation to worship them will remain, however faithful the teaching may be against the sin of it. The outward forms of superstition should first be destroyed, else there is little hope of promoting the pure worship of the heart.

III. They are exposed to terrible judgments. Even though they inquire of a true prophet and cannot be charged with open transgression.

1. They cannot hope to deceive God, who sees and knows the heart. God can see into the depths of the heart, which is the real man. It is the sinful heart within which makes the outward temptations of the world dangerous.

2. They are left to the action of the law of retribution. Retribution in kind, “according to the multitude of his idols (Eze_14:4). They trusted in idols; let them have them now. Let them see what their own refuges can do for them. God refuses to be inquired of them. “He heareth not sinners” (Joh_9:31). The Word of God is taken away from the despisers of the truth (Act_13:46). There is a time when God gives an answer, but not as men desire, and there is also a time when He refuses to answer. In both these modes of treatment He shows His righteous indignation, Sinners are left without answer or help in order that they might come to the true knowledge of their sin.

IV. Their only hope for escape is by a thorough repentance.

1. The heart must be turned to God. “Repent and turn yourselves from your idols” (Eze_14:6) The Lord will not share His glory with another. The heart must be entirely given up to the service and worship of the only God.

2. The outward occasion of sin must be removed. “Turn your faces from all your abominations” (Eze_14:6) They must avoid the outward forms of idolatry lest they should become again a temptation and a snare. Their repentance must be a complete reformation both of the outer and of the inner life.

IDOLATRY IN THE HEART (Eze_14:3)

Idolatry is an old sin. The worship of the true God is older; but it was soon corrupted, for men “did not like to retain God in their knowledge” (Rom_1:28). There may be idolatry in the heart even when idols are abolished from external worship. God’s commandment is “exceeding broad.” Idols have long been banished from our land, and therefore the second commandment has in one sense become obsolete. But all that is essential to the sin of worshipping them may still be found even in Christian lands. Everything that stands between a man’s soul and heaven is an idol,—it is that which he trusts in with his whole heart. For the root-principle of idolatry is the tendency to put something in the place of God, to allow the mind to be deluded by phantoms. Idols of all kinds are mere phantoms, they are (as St. Paul tells us) nothing in the world; there is no reality in them. When God is not truly known to the soul within, the man of necessity becomes an idolater. Whatever hinders the true knowledge of God is idolatry. Bacon, the father of modern science, has distinguished certain idols or phantoms which interfere with human knowledge. These idols he represents as certain false notions which possess the mind, and which must be dislodged if men would attain to the truth concerning the knowledge of man and nature. There are “idols of the tribe,” “of the cave,” “of the market-place,” “of the theatre.” It will be found that idolatries in religion spring from similar sources.

I. Idols of the tribe. By which Bacon means, those errors and false conceptions which have their origin in human nature itself. He says that “the human mind is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolours the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it.” Does not this speak to us of our natural ignorance of God, which distorts all the indications He has given us of His character and will? It may assume the form of gross idolatry, of atheism, of indifference, or of the various forms of superstition where ignorant fear is substituted for the worship of Him who alone is to be feared.

II. Idols of the cave. Bacon describes these as the sources of error which belong to individual men. These may arise from the peculiar constitution of our mind, from our early habits and education, from all those influences which form our individual characters. “Each man,” says Bacon, “has a den or cave of his own.” Sometimes it is dark and comfortless, shutting out the light of heaven, full of doleful things and gloomy fears. Each man has some infirmity of mind or temper which leads him to judge wrongly of God and of duty. Each man has his besetting sin, and must bear his own burden, fight against his own enemies, and seek peace for his own soul.

III. Idols of the market-place. These are described as false notions or conceptions, which arise from the intercourse of men with each other. It may be that each man in his own cave—in himself as an individual—is ashamed of the customs and notions of which men as communities approve. But these are often deemed respectable and right if only they are adopted by good society, or by common usage, or by the laws and customs of that particular business or profession to which the man belongs.

IV. Idols of the theatre. By which are meant those hindrances to the knowledge of the truth which have been imported into men’s minds from the various dogmas of human philosophies: It is certainly a hindrance in all intellectual pursuits that many ingenious men have gone wrong before us. Hence knowledge is retarded. Mental power is wasted, for some wiser man must arise to clear away those errors to which great men of former times have given currency. We have such idols of the theatre in religion,—each successive system of infidel philosophy, rationalism, every device for setting aside the revelation which God has given of Himself to man in Jesus Christ, every attempt to get rid of the supernatural and divine element in the Scriptures of God. All these have hidden God from many human souls. They are the peculiar temptations of intellectual men, of speculative minds. Such are often free from vulgar temptations, and it would seem as if in this way their proper measure of the difficulties of probation is filled up to them. And all idols, whether they spring from that nature which is common to mankind, or from each man’s peculiarities of temper and disposition, or from the customs of human business and conventional moralities, or from those ingenious speculations which we find in books,—all these are only to be overcome by the recognition of God in Christ. They are all mere phantoms, they hide God from the soul, they lead us astray, they have no power to teach us, they cannot bring us nearer heaven. But God has not left us to wander in uncertainty. He has given us the true Light. Our blessed Lord said, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father,” “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” He gives the invitation, “Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He will give us rest from the pursuit of vanities of all kinds, from empty speculations which weary the soul for no profit. If we have found the true we cannot worship the false. If we are true worshippers of Christ we must put away all our idols, for He will not share His love and worship with another. Christ gives us the true idea of God. The sin of idolatry is not now impossible though idols are removed from the eyes of men. The Second Commandment may be dead as concerns the letter of it, but the spirit of it is as potent as ever to convince men of sin. How many professed worshippers in the Christian Church set up their idols in their heart and then come to inquire of God! There is a tendency to worship something which is not God, to deny Him the full devotion of our hearts. Even when men will scarcely dare entirely to leave His service, they still strive to serve two masters. All who love pleasure, earthly honours and distinctions, more than they love God, are idolaters. In short, all are involved in this sin who seek the world first before the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

THE INQUIRERS OF FALSE PROPHETS (Eze_14:9-11)

I. They hope to obtain a more favourable answer. The true prophets do not speak that which they would like to hear, so they seek teachers after their own minds. They will undertake to decide for themselves what prophets are true or false by the correspondence of the message with their own corrupt wishes. They are willingly deceived.

II. They do not thereby escape God’s judgments.

1. Even false prophets are by the will of God. “I the Lord have deceived that prophet” (Eze_14:9). God permits such men to preach error, as He permits all other evils to prevail in the world. He does not suppress them by an act of power. He allows the tares and the wheat to grow together until the appointed time of judgment. And we must learn from God’s dealings with mankind the lesson of toleration. If we attempt to pluck up the tares we run the risk of rooting out the wheat also. No man has knowledge or skill enough which will serve him to anticipate God’s final judgment. He who attempts this may, indeed, do some good, but he will certainly do much harm.

2. God uses and controls evil for the working out of His purposes. It is true that “God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man” (Jas_1:13). But God makes use of the sins of men in working out His great designs. Thus He allows men to fall into one sin as a punishment for another. These exiles loved to be deceived, and they were deceived. They loved darkness, and they were allowed to wander into greater darkness. A man must either repent, or he must continue in the sinful path towards his punishment. It is by God’s law that even the germs of sin are permitted to be planted, to be fostered, and to grow, so that sin shall attain to its full maturity and bring on its own punishment. God’s Providence so orders the course of events that men who will not have the truth shall be brought to ruin by a lie.

III. These judgments are intended for the benefit of God’s people.

1. To preserve them from transgression (Eze_14:11).

2. To test their faith. By the flourishing of false prophets their own fidelity and steadfastness would be tried. The prevalence of error makes manifest the tried and approved children of truth (1Co_11:19).

3. To confirm their faith. By witnessing the judgments of God fulfilled upon others.

4. To teach them to realise their relationship to God. “That they may be my people, and I may be their God” (Eze_14:11). We can have no true peace until we know that the Lord is our God. The essence of religion consists in the appropriation of God by the soul.

5. To separate between the righteous and the ungodly. God may use even sin and error to contribute to this final purpose of His judgment (2Th_2:10-11).

(Eze_14:9.)

False prophets were both in Judea and in Babylon, and the people had often recourse unto them. They spake pleasing things. They told them who were in Judea that Nebuchadnezzar should never subdue and carry them captives; yea, they told them that those in Babylon should shortly return. These were vain, false, and deceitful prophecies, and Divine Providence ordered it so. We have here—

I. A supposition. “If the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing.” The false prophets were deceived in what they spake to the people. Zedekiah and the rest of the prophets which bade Ahab to go up to Ramoth-Gilead and prosper, were deceived (1 Kings 22). Hananiah and Shelemiah made that people trust in a lie (Jer_28:15; Jer_32:31). They were deceived in their prophets, and deceive others.

II. An assertion. “I the Lord have deceived that prophet.” These words sound very harsh, and no man durst have attributed them unto the Lord, had not He Himself said so. The words, “I have deceived” are to be taken as a judicial act of God, who, dealing with them as delinquents, punisheth them with this special judgment of seduction; they were idolatrous and hypocritical, and God punished those sins with others, and so accidentally was the efficient cause of their deception. God finding those men false and forward to deceive, hearkening to their own hearts, and following their own spirits (Eze_13:2-3), He gave them up and over to vain visions and lying divinations, which was one punishment, and to perdition, which was another punishment following thereupon. Have you a mind to be prophets, to prophesy lies? Ye shall be so. In Isa_63:17, we read, “O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear?” God did this in judgment to the people who affected false prophets, and chose their own ways (Isa_66:3), and delighted in their abominations. He in judgment gave them up to their own ways, and to hardness of heart (Psa_71:11-12).

III. A threatening. “I will stretch out my hand upon him.” God would put forth His power to punish such a prophet. But if God deceived him, how can He in justice punish or destroy that prophet? We answer,

1. The false prophet did whatever he did freely. He was not forced by any power or act of God. His seduction was principally from himself; and it was his own fault that he was deceived, that he deceived others.

2. A man may serve Providence, and yet sin against the law of God. The secret Providence had ordered it that this people should be seduced by false prophets, yet God in His word had forbidden such (Deuteronomy 13). And because men are to look at what is written, not what is secret and hidden, therefore if they violate the law, God may justly punish thereupon (Act_4:27-28). Herod, Pilate, Judas, and the Jews, they did to Christ whatsoever God had determined to be done, yet they were not without sin, nor without punishment, because they transgressed the rule given them. We make two observations,—

(1.) The Lord, in His infinite wisdom and justice, doth make a punishment of sin, and punish one sin with another. Besides corporal judgments He hath spiritual; if the prophet be deceived, “I the Lord have deceived him,” I have laid this judgment upon him, that he should be deceived, led into errors, and deceive others; this he hath deserved at my hands, and this punishment in just judgment I inflict upon him. The Scriptures hold out frequently this way of God’s proceedings with sinners, His punishment of one sin with another; (2Ch_25:17-20; Jer_4:10; Rom_1:25-26; 2Th_2:10-11).

(2.) God will deal severely with false prophets. “I will stretch out my hand upon him.” He would be made an example to all, as were Hananiah and Shemaiah (Jer_28:15-16; Jer_29:31-32.—Greenhill).

“The great sophister and prince of darkness (God permitting him) can strangely blindfold our reason and muffle our understanding; and, no doubt, the chiefest cause that most of the obstinate, besotted sinners of the world are not sensible that the devil blinds and abuses them is, that he has indeed actually done so already. For how dreadfully did God consign over the heathen world to a perpetual slavery to Satan’s deceits? They worshipped him, they consulted with him, and so absolutely were they sealed up under the ruling cheat, that they took all his tricks and impostures for Oracle and Instruction. And the truth is, when men under the powerful preaching of the Gospel will grow heathens in the viciousness of their practices, it is but just with God to suffer them (by a very natural transition) to grow heathens, too, in the grossness of their delusions.”—South.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Lord Gives No Answer to the Idolaters

Eze 14:1 narrates the occasion for this and the following words of God: There came to me men of the elders of Israel, and sat down before me. These men were not deputies from the Israelites in Palestine, as Grotius and others suppose, but elders of the exiles among whom Ezekiel had been labouring. They came to visit the prophet (v. 3), evidently with the intention of obtaining, through him, a word of God concerning the future of Jerusalem, or the fate of the kingdom of Judah. But Hvernick is wrong in supposing that we may infer, from either the first or second word of God in this chapter, that they had addressed to the prophet a distinct inquiry of this nature, to which the answer is given in vv. 12-23. For although their coming to the prophet showed that his prophecies had made an impression upon them, it is not stated in v. 1 that they had come to inquire of God, like the elders in Eze 20:1, and there is no allusion to any definite questions in the words of God themselves. The first (Eze 14:2-11) simply assumes that they have come with the intention of asking, and discloses the state of heart which keeps them from coming to inquire; and the second (Eze 14:12-23) points out the worthlessness of their false confidence in the righteousness of certain godly men.

Eze 14:2-5

And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Eze 14:3. Son of man, these men have let their idols rise up in their heart, and have set the stumbling-block to guilt before their face: shall I allow myself to be inquired of by them? Eze 14:4. Therefore speak to them, and say to them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Every man of the house of Israel who lifteth up his idols in his heart, and setteth the stumbling-block to his sin before his face, and cometh to the prophet, to him do I, Jehovah, show myself, answering according thereto, according to the multitude of his idols; Eze 14:5. To grasp the house of Israel by their heart, because they have turned away from me, all of them through their idols. - We have not to picture these elders to ourselves as given up to gross idolatry. העלה על לב means, to allow anything to come into the mind, to permit it to rise up in the heart, to be mentally busy therewith. "To set before one's face" is also to be understood, in a spiritual sense, as relating to a thing which a man will not put out of his mind. מכשׁול , stumbling-block to sin and guilt (cf. Eze 7:19), i.e., the idols. Thus the two phrases simply denote the leaning of the heart and spirit towards false gods. God does not suffer those whose heart is attached to idols to seek and find Him. The interrogative clause 'האדּרשׁ וגו contains a strong negation. The emphasis lies in the infinitive absolute אדּרשׁ et placed before the verb, in which the ה is softened into א, to avoid writing ה twice. נדרשׁ, to allow oneself to be sought, involves the finding of God; hence in Isa 65:1 we have נדרשׁ as parallel to נמצא. In Eze 14:4, Eze 14:5, there follows a positive declaration of the attitude of God towards those who are devoted to idolatry in their heart. Every such Israelite will be answered by God according to the measure of the multitude of his idols. The Niphal נענה has not the signification of the Kal, and does not mean "to be answerable," as Ewald supposes, or to converse; but is generally used in a passive sense, "to be answered," i.e., to find or obtain a hearing (Job 11:2; Job 19:7). It is employed here in a reflective sense, to hold or show oneself answering. בה, according to the Chetib בהּ, for which the Keri suggests the softer gloss בא, refers to 'בּרב גל which follows; the nominative being anticipated, according to an idiom very common in Aramaean, by a previous pronoun. It is written here for the sake of emphasis, to bring the following object into more striking prominence. ב is used here in the sense of secundum, according to, not because, since this meaning is quite unsuitable for the ב in Eze 14:7, where it occurs in the same connection (בּי). The manner in which God will show Himself answering the idolatry according to their idols, is reserved till Eze 14:8. Here, in Eze 14:5, the design of this procedure on the part of God is given: viz., to grasp Israel by the heart; i.e., not merely to touch and to improve them, but to bring down their heart by judgments (cf. Lev 26:41), and thus move them to give up idolatry and return to the living God. נזרוּ, as in Isa 1:4, to recede, to draw away from God. כּלּם is an emphatic repetition of the subject belonging to נזרוּ.

Eze 14:6-8

In these verses the divine threat, and the summons to repent, are repeated, expanded, and uttered in the clearest words. - Eze 14:6. Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Repent, and turn away from your idols; and turn away your face from all your abominations. V.7. For every one of the house of Israel, and of the foreigners who sojourn in Israel, if he estrange himself from me, and let his idols rise up in his heart, and set the stumbling-block to his sin before his face, and come to the prophet to seek me for himself; I will show myself to him, answering in my own way. Eze 14:8. I will direct my face against that man, and will destroy him, for a sign and for proverbs, and will cut him off out of my people; and ye shall learn that I am Jehovah. - לכן in Eze 14:6 is co-ordinate with the לכן in Eze 14:4, so far as the thought is concerned, but it is directly attached to Eze 14:5: because they have estranged themselves from God, therefore God requires them to repent and turn. For God will answer with severe judgments every one who would seek God with idols in his heart, whether he be an Israelite, or a foreigner living in the midst of Israel. שׁוּבוּ, turn, be converted, is rendered still more emphatic by the addition of פניכם... השׁיבוּ. This double call to repentance corresponds to the double reproof of their idolatry in Eze 14:3, viz., שׁוּבוּ, to על לב 'העלה גל; and השׁיבוּ פניכם, to their setting the idols נכח פּניהם. השׁיבוּ is not used intransitively, as it apparently is in Eze 18:30, but is to be taken in connection with the object פניכם, which follows at the end of the verse; and it is simply repeated before פניכם for the sake of clearness and emphasis. The reason for the summons to repent and give up idolatry is explained in Eze 14:7, in the threat that God will destroy every Israelite, and every foreigner in Israel, who draws away from God and attaches himself to idols. The phraseology of Eze 14:7 is adopted almost verbatim from Lev 17:8, Lev 17:10,Lev 17:13. On the obligation of foreigners to avoid idolatry and all moral abominations, vid., Lev 20:2; Lev 18:26; Lev 17:10; Exo 12:19, etc. The ו before ינּזר and יעל does not stand for the Vav relat., but simply supposes a case: "should he separate himself from my followers, and let his idols rise up, etc." לדרשׁ־לו בּי does not mean, "to seek counsel of him (the prophet) from me," for לו cannot be taken as referring to the prophet, although דּרשׁ with ל does sometimes mean to seek any one, and ל may therefore indicate the person to whom one goes to make inquiry (cf. Ch2 15:13; Ch2 17:4; Ch2 31:21), because it is Jehovah who is sought in this case; and Hvernick's remark, that "דּרשׁ with ל merely indicates the external object sought by a man, and therefore in this instance the medium or organ through whom God speaks," is proved to be erroneous by the passages just cited. לו is reflective, or to be taken as a dat. commodi, denoting the inquirer or seeker. The person approached for the purpose of inquiring or seeking, i.e., God, is indicated by the preposition בּ, as in Ch1 10:14 (דּרשׁ ); and also frequently, in the case of idols, when either an oracle or help is sought from them (Sa1 28:7; Kg2 1:2.). It is only in this way that לו and בּי can be made to correspond to the same words in the apodosis: Whosoever seeks counsel of God, to him will God show Himself answering בּי, in Him, i.e., in accordance with His nature, in His own way, - namely, in the manner described in Eze 14:8. The threat is composed of passages in the law: 'נתתּי and 'הכרתּי וגו, after Lev 20:3, Lev 20:5-6; and 'וחשׁמותיהוּ וגו, though somewhat freely, after Deu 28:37 ('היה לשׁמּה למשׁל). There is no doubt, therefore, that השׁמותי is to be derived from שׁמם, and stands for השׁמּותי, in accordance with the custom in later writings of resolving the Dagesh forte into a long vowel. The allusion to Deu 28:37, compared with היה in v. 46 of the same chapter, is sufficient to set aside the assumption that השׁמותי is to be derived from שׂים, and pointed accordingly; although the lxx, Targ., Syr., and Vulg. have all renderings of שׂים (cf. Psa 44:16). Moreover, שׂים in the perfect never takes the Hiphil form; and in Eze 20:26 we have אשׁמּם in a similar connection. The expression is a pregnant one: I make him desolate, so that he becomes a sign and proverbs.

Eze 14:9-11

No prophet is to give any other answer. - Eze 14:9. But if a prophet allow himself to be persuaded, and give a word, I have persuaded this prophet, and will stretch out my hand against him, and cut him off out of my people Israel. Eze 14:10. They shall bear their guilt: as the guilt of the inquirer, so shall the guilt of the prophet be; Eze 14:11. In order that the house of Israel may no more stray from me, and may no more defile itself with all its transgressions; but they may be my people, and I their God is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. - The prophet who allows himself to be persuaded is not a prophet מלּבּו (Eze 13:2), but one who really thinks that he has a word of God. פּתּה, to persuade, to entice by friendly words (in a good sense, Hos 2:16); but generally sensu malo, to lead astray, or seduce to that which is unallowable or evil. "If he allow himself to be persuaded:" not necessarily "with the hope of payment from the hypocrites who consult him" (Michaelis). This weakens the thought. It might sometimes be done from unselfish good-nature. And "the word" itself need not have been a divine oracle of his own invention, or a false prophecy. The allusion is simply to a word of a different character from that contained in Eze 14:6-8, which either demands repentance or denounces judgment upon the impenitent: every word, therefore, which could by any possibility confirm the sinner in his security. - By אני יהוה (Eze 14:9) the apodosis is introduced in an emphatic manner, as in Eze 14:4 and Eze 14:7; but פּתּיתי cannot be taken in a future sense ("I will persuade"). It must be a perfect; since the persuading of the prophet would necessarily precede his allowing himself to be persuaded. The Fathers and earlier Lutheran theologians are wrong in their interpretation of פּתּיתי, which they understand in a permissive sense, meaning simply that God allowed it, and did not prevent their being seduced. Still more wrong are Storr and Schmieder, the former of whom regards it as simply declaratory, "I will declare him to have gone astray from the worship of Jehovah;" the latter, "I will show him to be a fool, by punishing him for his disobedience." The words are rather to be understood in accordance with Kg1 22:20., where the persuading (pittâh) is done by a lying spirit, which inspires the prophets of Ahab to predict success to the king, in order that he may fall. As Jehovah sent the spirit in that case, and put it into the mouth of the prophets, so is the persuasion in this instance also effected by God: not merely divine permission, but divine ordination and arrangement; though this does not destroy human freedom, but, like all "persuading," presupposes the possibility of not allowing himself to be persuaded. See the discussion of this question in the commentary on Kg1 22:20. The remark of Calvin on the verse before us is correct: "it teaches that neither impostures nor frauds take place apart from the will of God" (nisi Deo volente). But this willing on the part of God, or the persuading of the prophets to the utterance of self-willed words, which have not been inspired by God, only takes place in persons who admit evil into themselves, and is designed to tempt them and lead them to decide whether they will endeavour to resist and conquer the sinful inclinations of their hearts, or will allow them to shape themselves into outward deeds, in which case they will become ripe for judgment. It is in this sense that God persuades such a prophet, in order that He may then cut him off out of His people. But this punishment will not fall upon the prophet only. It will reach the seeker or inquirer also, in order if possible to bring Israel back from its wandering astray, and make it into a people of God purified from sin (Eze 14:10 and Eze 14:11). It was to this end that, in the last times of the kingdom of Judah, God allowed false prophecy to prevail so mightily, - namely, that it might accelerate the process of distinguishing between the righteous and the wicked; and then, by means of the judgment which destroyed the wicked, purify His nation and lead it on to the great end of its calling.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

3. The Testimony against the Idolatrous Seekers after Oracles (Ch. 14.)

1And there came unto me men from the elders of Israel, and sat before me. 2And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, 3Son of man, these men have caused their filthy idols to go up upon their heart, and the stumbling-block of their iniquity have they given before their face; shall I indeed 4allow Myself to be inquired at by them? Therefore speak with them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Every man of the house of Israel that shall cause his filthy idols to go up to his heart, and shall put the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet, I 5Jehovah, do I answer him in that,—in the multitude of his filthy idols? In order to take the house of Israel in their own heart, who have departed from Me in all their filthy idols: 6Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah; Repent, and turn from your filthy idols, and from all your abominations turn away your face. 7For every one of the house of Israel, and of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, if he shall separate himself from Me, and shall cause his filthy idols to go up to his heart, and shall put the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet 8to inquire in Me, I Jehovah answer him in Myself, And set My face against this man, and make him desolate, for a sign, and for proverbs, and cut him off from the midst of My people; and ye know that I am Jehovah. 9And the prophet, if he shall let himself be enticed, and speaks a word, I Jehovah have enticed that prophet, and stretch out My hand upon him, and 10destroy him from the midst of My people Israel. And they bear their iniquity; as the iniquity of him that inquires, so shall the iniquity of theprophet be; 11That the house of Israel may go no more astray from Me, and may no more be polluted [defile themselves] in all their transgressions; and that they may be to Me a people, and I may be to them a God,—sentence of 12the Lord Jehovah. And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, 13Son of man, if a land shall sin against Me, so that it acts very treacherously, and I stretch out mine hand upon it, and break for it the staff of bread, and 14send upon it famine, and cut off from it man and beast; And there are in the midst of it these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job,—they shall deliver their own soul [life] by their righteousness,—sentence of the Lord Jehovah. 15If I shall cause evil beasts to pass through the land, and they bereave it, and it becomes a desolation, because no one passes through because of the beasts; 16These three men in the midst of it—as I live, sentence of the Lord Jehovah—they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters; they alone shall be delivered, and the land shall be a desolation. 17Or if I shall bring a sword upon this land, and I say, A sword shall go through the land, and I cut off from it man 18and beast; And these three men are in the midst of it—as I live, sentence of the Lord Jehovah—they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters; for they alone shall be delivered. 19Or if I shall send a pestilence on that land, and 20pour out My fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast; And Noah, Daniel, and Job are in the midst of it—as I live, sentence of the Lord Jehovah—they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters; they shall deliver their own soul [life] by their righteousness. 21For thus saith the Lord Jehovah; How much more when I send My four sore judgments—sword, and famine, and evil beasts, and pestilence—upon Jerusalem, to out off from it man and 22beast! And [yet], behold, therein is left an escaped portion, who are brought forth, sons and daughters; behold, they come forth unto you, and ye see their way and their doings, and ye are comforted concerning the evil that I 23have brought upon Jerusalem, all that I have brought upon it. And they comfort you, when ye shall see their way and their doings; and ye know that not without cause have I done all that I have done in [upon] it,—sentence of the Lord Jehovah.

Eze_14:1. Another read.: ויבאו.

Eze_14:3. Sept.: ... ἑθεντο τα διανοηατα αν̓τ. ἐπι τ. καρδιας αν̓τ. κ. την κολασιν τ. ἀδικιων αν̓τ. ἐθησαν προ—

Eze_14:4. Other read.: בי , בא? Sept.: ... ἀποχριθησομαι αν̓τω ἐν οἱς ἐνεχεται ἡ διανοια αν̓τον,

Eze_14:5. ὁπως μη διαστρεψωσιν τον οἰκον τ. ̓Ισρ. κατα τ. καρδιας αν̓τ. τας ἀπηλλοτριωμεν̀ας ἀπʼ ἐμον—

Eze_14:7. … και ἐκ των προσηλντων—ἀποκριθησομαι αν̓τω ἐν ὡ ἐνεχεται ἐν αν̓τω,

Eze_14:15. Sept. read.: ושכלתיה, et orbavero illam.

Eze_14:21. Sept.: Ἐαν δε χαι—Vulg.: quod et si.

Eze_14:22. … ν̔πολελειμμενοι ἐν αν̓τη οἰ ἀνασεσωσμενο; ἐξ κγονσιν νἱονς—

Eze_14:23. Some add: אל; there is a reading: אלת נם.

EXEGETICAL REMARKS

Eze_14:1-3. The Occasion. The outward occasion for the divine testimony in this chapter is first mentioned, and then the inward occasion is Bet forth plainly.

Eze_14:1. The outward occasion is furnished by a deputation—in this way we explain the singular of the verb (וַיָּבוֹא), which surprised the old commentators. More certainly is meant than il vient des hommes. Grotius supposes ambassadors from Palestine, on occasion of the embassy of Zedekiah to Babylon (Jeremiah 51). They were certainly from the exiles (Keil); to be distinguished, however, from those of Eze_8:1. Those latter are already with the prophet; the former first come to him. It is not, however, merely because of the different expressions used,—“elders of Judah,” in Eze_8:1, while here we have: men from the elders of Israel,—but rather because of the keeping apart as well as putting together which follows in Ezekiel 16, that we shall have to think of ambassadors from the exiles of the kingdom of the ten tribes (comp. Introd. pp. 7, 8); whether they were themselves elders is not exactly said, but simply that they came from the elders of Israel, out of their midst. Comp. Ezekiel 20.—That they sat down before the prophet, seems to show that they were waiting to see whether they might not hear something from him, of course concerning Judah, concerning Jerusalem, for in this direction was the interest of all who were in exile turned (Introd. pp. 8, 9).

[“For what purpose they came—whether to ask counsel from the prophet regarding some point of difficulty that had occurred to themselves, or to hear what he might be prompted by the Spirit to communicate of seasonable instruction—we are not expressly told. But that they came in the character of inquirers may be almost certainly inferred from Eze_14:3, where the Lord at once proceeds, through His servant, to repudiate the idea of His being inquired at by persons of such a character—persons who had ‘set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face.’ After this it is scarcely possible to doubt that they came in the character of inquirers: though what might be the precise object of their inquiry is nowhere indicated in what follows, unless we can suppose (what is in the highest degree probable) that the message of the prophet was so framed as in some part to meet the proposed subject of inquiry, and thus incidentally to discover what the subject itself really was. This supposition is confirmed by the fact, which strikes us the moment we glance over the contents of the chapter, that it falls into two parts,—the first (Eze_14:3-11) referring to the preliminary point respecting the character of the inquirers, and the remaining portion addressing itself to a subject entirely distinct—God’s method of dealing with a land and people when they have reached a state of hopeless corruption and depravity. It is more than probable, therefore, that while God refused to give any formal answer to such inquirers as those who now sat before the prophet, He yet, in this latter portion of the message, gave a substantial deliverance on the question about which their anxiety had been raised.”—Fairbairn’s Ezekiel, pp. 143, 144.—W. F.]

He was able certainly to anticipate their question—as is actually done in Eze_14:2 sq.—inasmuch as, by means of divine revelation, the still unexpressed design of their coming is made known to him, and in this way they are made manifest before him. They wish, according to Hengst., “to make an experiment, whether they cannot obtain a more favourable answer through the prophet, whose fearfully threatening announcement they have heard not without shuddering” (grace without repentance); but from the text we can only learn that the older portion of the exiles put themselves in an exactly similar position toward Ezekiel as that which, alike in the exile and at Jerusalem, the people assumed toward the false prophets. Hence, Ezekiel treated like the false prophets,—that is the immediate connection, the connection with what precedes. The meaning is not (as Häv., and also Cocc.), that the guilt of the people in general, who so willingly hearken to the lie (Eze_13:19), is to be brought out in detail, by way of supplement to the guilt of the false prophets already handled; nor does Ezekiel intend by his own example to make clear and prominent the contrast between true and false prophets. But by the example of these men from Israel, while he speaks to their conscience, he predicts the impending divine judgment upon Judah and Jerusalem. The internal necessity of it, from the connection of sin and punishment, is justified to their consciousness. This is the more remote connection, the connection with what follows. Hence Eze_14:3, giving what forms the inner reason for the divine testimony.—On גִלּוּלֵיהֶם, see at Eze_6:4.—The statement: these men have caused their filthy gods to go up, etc., as bearing on the object of the discourse we have just indicated, is expressed more exactly by what follows: and the stumbling-block of their iniquity, etc. (see on Eze_7:19); inasmuch as their idols are up upon their heart (Eze_11:5), the occasion taken therefrom (to fall into sin) is given or put before their face (Eze_14:4). [“Anything which, in consequence of the inward disposition of mind and will, is conceived of also as an object of attention outwardly, and as the immediate occasion of corresponding actions, is spoken of as coming up or put upon the heart, Isa_65:17; Jer_3:16; Jer_51:50; 1Co_2:9; Jer_7:31; Jer_19:5; Jer_32:35; 2Ki_12:5 [4]; 2Ch_7:11; Act_7:23.—Dan_1:8; 2Sa_7:3; 1Ch_17:2; Act_5:3.”—Beck.] They are portrayed accordingly as persons whose spirit cleaves to the old idolatrous memories; they are sinners against Jehovah, they have already even been punished by Him, but in heart, just as before, they are not freed from their idols. This, of course, is the explanation of the strongly negative character of the question. הַאדָּרשׁ, inf. abs. Niphal, for ה, הדָּרשׁ being changed into א, according to Kimchi, because of the doubling of the ה. In דָּרַשׁ there lies an element of urgency or zeal, with which one seeks in order to find—in the case before us, asks in order to get an answer.

Eze_14:4-11. A further Disclosure of the Divine Mind, with a more, general reference, and in Eze_14:9 sq. a special application to the prophet.

Idolatrous oracle-seekers, as Eze_14:4 a second time portrays them, generalizing the case before us (אֶל־לִבּוֹ, although merely to the heart; אִישׁ אִישׁ, without exception), have therefore (לָכֵן, see Eze_14:4 at the end) to expect what corresponds to their state. For אוֹתָם, comp. on Eze_2:1. I Jehovah, in emphatic antithesis to the filthy idols. Hence, as well as because of Eze_14:3, where an answer is absolutely refused, נַצֲנֵיתִי is a question without any particle of interrogation, which after Eze_14:3 is unnecessary (Hengst.). The Niphal of צָנָה means: to be inclined, to show oneself willing to answer. [Ewald: “I am become bound to answer him in Myself, for,” etc., i.e. I can no longer remain in a mere state of indifference toward him, but must treat him at the right time as he deserves (!). Castel also, without the form of a ‘question: I answer him, as is becoming in the case of such idols. Cocc. refers to this category such an answer on the part of the prophet, that the inquirer remains fixed in the multitude of his idols, does not repent, 1Ki_22:23.] בָּהּ (Qeri, בָּא), because of the antithesis to Jehovah, a pregnant announcement beforehand of what follows: בְּדֹב֜, indicates the condition in which the inquirer is. [Others: according to it. The fem. instead of the plural; while others have taken it as בֹּה, referring to רֹב, or as a neuter: for it, for this coming to the seer, or (like Hitz.) read בִּי (Jehovah will answer in actual fact).]

Eze_14:5 is understood by most of a good intention on the part of God in such answering, which is to correspond to their idolatry, and is to be given first in Eze_14:8. Keil:—not merely to move and to benefit them, but to bend their heart by means of judgments, etc. Hitz. on the other hand: in order to take them in their state of mind, as their acting is perhaps legal. According to Hengst., giving the reason for refusing an answer: in order that they may attain to a knowledge of sin, to touch their conscience. Rather does לְמַעַן place in the foreground the ruling purpose in the call which follows. It is their heart God means to reach, just as it is there their idols live (Eze_14:3-4). אֲשֶׁר, a pronoun, not a conjunction.—בָזֹרוּ, as in Isa_1:4, Niph. reflexive of זוּר, expressing deliberation; where we have in that case אָחוֹר for מֵאָחוֹרָיו, here we have מֵצָלַי, corresponding to what follows: בֻּלָּם—.וְהָשִׁיבוּ קֵצַל is t.hers as a repetition of the subject: all of them together.

Eze_14:6. וְהָשִׁיבוּ, namely: פְּנֵיהֶם; not: your heart, as Hengst., Rashi. (Others: your wives, children, etc.)

Eze_14:7. Comp. Lev_17:8; Lev_17:10; Lev_17:13; Lev_18:26; Lev_20:2. If it is the rule for the stranger, much more for every one of Israel.—לִדְרָשׁ־לוֹ בִי, Häv.: to apply to the prophet (as organ) for counsel from Me (so that at bottom he inquires of Me). Similarly Hengst.: to inquire of him in Me = to inquire of Me through him. Rosenm.: inasmuch as he pretends faith in Me. Keil: to seek Me for himself (לוֹ reflexively, or dat. commodi of him who inquires). בִּי forms the antithesis to בָּהּ בְּרֹב׳ (Eze_14:4) or בְּנִלּוּלֵיהֶם (Eze_14:5). The case is—after the demand being made by the prophet (Eze_14:6), as is presupposed—one of aggravated hypocrisy, that is, no longer mere coming to the prophet with idolatrous hearts (Eze_14:3-4), but an express appeal to the Lord in spite of inward cleaving to idolatry; hence, a putting of trust in Him, although one is away from Him (Eze_14:7). Hence אְַנִי׳ is no longer (as Hengst.) a question, a refusing to answer, but in this case Jehovah reveals Himself as giving an answer. But how?

Eze_14:8. The divine answer demanded turns out to be one in actual fact; the word of God is God’s judgment. Comp. Lev_17:10; Lev_20:3; Lev_20:5-6; Deu_28:37. In the face we have the revelation of wrath. In the individual the land is already personified (Eze_14:13 sq.). וַהְַשִׁמוֹתִיהוּ from שָׁמֵם, “to be desolate” (Eze_20:26); according to others in the meaning: to put in a state of dumb terror. Ew.: from שׂוּם, as also the ancient translators [and Eng. Vers.] (Psa_44:15 [14]). לְאוֹת׳, so that he becomes a sign, etc.—Comp. on Eze_12:22.

With a special application to the prophet, Eze_14:9 sets forth the case of one to whom one has come to inquire in the name of the Lord (Eze_14:7). That a prophet like Ezekiel was thought of, is not to be inferred from the occasion (Eze_14:1); at most we may say with Hengst.: “Let not one make demands on the true prophets which they are not able to fulfil, appealing to the utterances of the false prophets.” Hitzig certainly maintains that the case of a prophet is supposed in the future who really has, or in good faith imagines that he has, a word of God. But that the prophet supposed is a false prophet is shown by the result. First of all, פִּתָּה itself means: to talk over a credulous person; and hence the person meant here is one who, from his own want of true faith, is not himself acting rightly in a religious point of view, and therefore cannot judge rightly what such acting is, and what is not. Of a desire for gain, honour, or such like, nothing is said; we are not o think of Balaam. Then, farther, there is the expression: וְרבֶּר דָּבָר, being talked over he gives himself to talk, speaks where he ought to have been silent (Eze_3:27), or was at least bound to demand repentance (Eze_14:6), or else to announce judgment—consequently, speaks in a way to flatter the sinner. The case is made quite evident by the explanatory apodosis; what has already happened is God’s judgment on the prophet, punishment, since Jehovah rather speaks to His prophets, gives them His word; and the result which follows in the case of this prophet is therefore merely the completion of the divine judgment. Comp. Eze_6:14. (1 Kings 22, where we have demoniac elements, does not properly belong to the category before us). From fear of man, or from desire to please man, the prophet suffers himself to be persuaded to speak. Because he so depends on men, men get the mastery over him, but in these men the hand of God shows itself against him. His leaning to men is his divine judgment; the conjuncture brought about by God, the prophet in this conjuncture left to himself and to men. According to J. H. Michaelis, Hengst., it is intended in this way to obviate the objection drawn from the solitary position of Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

Eze_14:10 combines Eze_14:8-9. By the equality of punishment, the equality of the offence is proved. The oracle-seeker and the oracle-giver thus, by means of their punishment, expiate their guilt, with which they have burdened themselves in consequence of their sin; and as the punishment of the one offence corresponds to that of the other, it is thus clear that the guilt in both cases is alike in God’s sight. The divine intention therein

Eze_14:11—is, in respect to all Israel, to prevent their going astray, their defilement or polluting of themselves, on such devious paths (in all sorts of transgressions); for Israel’s destination continues to be the holy one of being Jehovah’s people, even as Jehovah’s promise continues to be the glorious one of being their God. Comp. Eze_11:20. With this reference, so general in its character, the special case of the prophet comes to an end.

Eze_14:12-23. The Application to Jerusalem (Eze_14:21), and the Justification thereof (Eze_14:22-23).—In accordance with what, from the outset, has formed the expectation of those who had come to Ezekiel, viz.: that they should know the fate of Judah (of Jerusalem), and in accordance farther with what has been expressed, in a general way, by the divine discourse of the prophet in the shape of judgment on false oracle-seeking and false oracle-giving,—in accordance therewith the section (Eze_14:12 sq.) closes, inasmuch as there is an application of the judgment pronounced, first to an unfaithful land, and then to Jerusalem expressly; an application which is seen to be the more justifiable, as the going astray and the pollution, which God designs to put away for the future by means of the judgment, still characterize the miserable remnant (Eze_14:22-23).

Eze_14:13. A land, indefinitely; not, however, for the purpose of giving utterance to a general proposition as a rule (Keil), but because the nearer definition is expressed by means of the character of the land, and that as a character attaching to it as a whole. The “sinning” in general is specialized as: לִמְעָל־מַעַל, which is to be understood therefore in the strict sense which it everywhere has when it is a special expression. Comp. Lev. 5:21 [Lev_6:2]; Num_5:12; Deu_32:51; Jos_22:20; 1Ch_10:13. There cleaves to the word a contrast between the inward and the outward; it speaks of secret unfaithfulness, of concealed acting, and the like. And so it stands here also, quite in accordance with Eze_14:3 sq., where the subject in hand was the duplicity of oracle-seekers, false prophets, and at the same time paving the way for Eze_15:8. (Ewald sees in מַעַל the treachery of Zedekiah, as a vassal bound by oath to his liege-lord of Babylon, by his leaning toward Egypt.) After such definiteness in the description of the sin of the land, the indefiniteness of the land itself can occasion no difficulty. What is thus kept indefinite rouses the hearers the more to think for themselves what land it will be. The indefinite expression presupposes, in particular, that those “men” (Eze_14:1), from their own conscience, might easily supply what was wanting. There is also an element of retribution—a certain measure of secrecy on the part of God, in return for their secret state of heart. Would that they would only ask! We find ourselves in the act of applying what has gone before to that land for which Jerusalem is the title (Eze_14:21). Hence the expression: and I stretch out, etc., literally the same as in Eze_14:9. As to the rest, there is a retrospective reference to Eze_4:16; Eze_5:16-17. Cut off, as in Eze_14:8.

Eze_14:14. As the description up to this point is an appeal ad hominem, to reflect and to determine the land for themselves, so this number: three, might perhaps draw attention to the difference at Gen_18:32. There it is promised that there will be no destruction if there are ten righteous. Here it is only three that are supposed, belonging to quite different periods, nay, not even mentioned in chronological order. The case supposed is therefore, after all, an inconceivable one, to show at once the impossibility of the land being delivered; or, if the thought were admitted that three men like these were in it, yet the deliverance of the land is meant to be denied, since the three would save their own life merely. The judgment on the land, and that as a judgment that is all-embracing, corresponding with the character belonging to each and all, is to be set forth in all four directions (comp. Eze_5:17) in which it is pronounced, as one that is unalterable, that stands fast for that land. That is the thought. That the elders who had come to the prophet, as well as the people, had cherished the hope (Keil) that God will, for the sake of the righteous, avert the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem, is certainly nowhere even hinted. [True, indeed, there is no express statement to that effect. But why is the prophet’s message thrown into this particular form? Why should he so emphatically declare—once and again, and again, and even a fourth time—that the presence of these three righteous men in the land could not avert its destruction, if no such thought was lurking in the minds of the elders and of the people generally? Keil’s view, which is also that of Fairbairn, is of course a conjecture, but a conjecture that has not a little probability.—W.F.] As the diminution in number from ten in the fall of Sodom to three here is noticeable, so as regards Noah, Daniel, and Job personally, a lowering in the thing itself is to be observed. For these parties come into consideration here neither as regards their righteousness, as being patterns of it, nor even as examples of those who had been themselves spared, as is commonly supposed. בְּצִדְקָתָם (also in Eze_14:20) gives the reason for their deliverance merely, and לְבַדָּם׳, in Eze_14:16; Eze_14:18, isolates them merely for the case in hand. According to their history, which is related to us along with their names, all three, in fact, not merely saved their own lives, but exercised influence in the direction of saving others along with themselves. In addition to Noah himself (Gen_7:13 sq.), his family was saved in the ark, and even a selection of the creatures. Daniel not only saved himself and his companions, but also arrested the execution of the wise men of Babylon (Dan_2:18). The representation of Hävernick, and of those who follow him, is in this matter as incorrect as in respect to Job, to whose intercession for his friends Jehovah certainly has respect (Eze_42:8 sq.). The climax, also, which Klief. and Keil still concede to Hävernick, has therefore no existence. In the parallel passage in Jer_15:1, Moses and Samuel are not supposed to be inhabitants of the land, like those here named; who are also not so specially Israelitish personages, but of a more general historical character, in harmony with the indefinite mode of conceiving the land. (But comp. also for the connection with what precedes, Jeremiah 14.) Daniel figures between Noah and Job, not certainly in order to his being canonized by means of the two primeval personages (Hengst.), but—if this lifting into prominence of a still youthful contemporary by the insertion of his name between theirs is not to be reckoned mere flattery—because of his universally (and especially by the exiles) recognised real and high importance for the faith of Israel at the royal court. Comp. also Eze_28:3. According to Eze_8:1 (comp. with Eze_20:1), we are in the sixth year of Jehoiachin’s captivity. Thirteen or fourteen years earlier, in the reign of Jehoiakim, Daniel was carried into exile in his youth. The divine discourse, therefore, makes rhetorical use of them as three personages universally known for preservation against destruction, in order to represent the state of affairs here in question as the more hopeless; for Noah, Daniel, and Job will save nothing but their own life, i.e. as the repeated assurance in the three following cases expresses it with pathetic emphasis, neither son nor daughter, not to speak of others, or even friends; whereas Noah was able to save beasts even, Daniel Chaldean magi, Job such as were actually outside the community of Israel. The apodosis begins with הֵמָּה׳.

[Fairbairn: “The two most powerful and honoured intercessors, Moses and Samuel, could not prevent or rectify the evil by their intercession, Jeremiah had said. No, responds Ezekiel from the banks of the Chebar; nor could three of the most righteous men that have ever lived, either in past or present times, do it by their righteousness. Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were all at this moment in the land, they could not stay the judgment of God from proceeding.”—W. F.]

Eze_14:15. לוּ, with the imperf., used of things not now actually existing, but perhaps possible.—The wild beasts of prey conceivable in connection with every kind of devastation (comp. Eze_14:21), here placed between famine and war. (Hengst.: “In the usual sense or in human form.”) Comp. Eze_5:17; Lev_26:22; 2Ki_17:25.—Eze_12:20.—מִבְּלִי׳, because of the want of, because there is not, or: so that there is not = Eze_14:16 : אִם־וְאִם, they shall not do so, quite certainly.

Eze_14:17. Eze_6:3; Eze_11:8.

Eze_14:19. Eze_5:17; Eze_9:8. בְּדָם, not: because of blood shed, blood-guiltiness, but: so that the outpouring of divine wrath manifests itself in the shedding of human blood, i.e. either generally: through dying, or more specially: through violent death, hence: as in war, or that (Hengst.) the epidemic is represented as an execution as it were with the sword, or (Hitz.) that a peculiar epidemic, which should make itself known by a vomiting of blood or the like, would be meant.

Eze_14:20. A winding up, and therefore a repetition of the three in the form of Eze_14:14.

Eze_14:21. בִּי does not introduce the application, for all that precedes was already that; but gives the reason why for the whole deliverance is not to be thought of, only destruction, Jerusalem being now named, as we shall see, in order to justify such procedure with it. אַף כִּי, a climax, inasmuch as the separate judgments given above as examples are now all four together, and with definite certainty (שִׁלַּחְתִּי, perf.) pronounced upon Jerusalem. (Hengst.: How much more must it manifest itself in the servant who knew his master’s will, and did it not!) The number four may possibly symbolize the completeness of the judgment, as one on all sides (Klief.). Formerly famine was first; here it is the sword, because the calamity of war lay immediately before them. In consequence of it the other three judgments came after one another, and side by side with one another. War brings famine into the cities, corpses outside, which attract the beasts; and from all there follows the pestilence. It is superfluous in Hengst. to point to Eze_19:2 for figurative beasts. Jerusalem is thus the “land” formerly spoken of, represents it.

Eze_14:22. It is exceedingly striking (וְהִנֵּה), that after all a number escape the judgment, who are carried captive to Babylon (to you); but they are not those who save their life by their righteousness, but those who are to justify Jehovah’s righteousness ad oculos (הִנָּם), and that by means of their way; not in the sense of lot, or what happens to them, but in the connection here, where עֲלִילוֹתָם gives the more exact explanation, as designating their walk, just as עֲלִילוֹתָם itself indicates their habitual actings, and, indeed, their bad way of acting. Ye shall convince yourself with your own eyes that these escaped ones might rather be regarded as an irony, a caricature of these three men. אֵת כָּל׳: “as respects all that.” Still more clear is it in Eze_14:23 that it will be a comfort through the persons themselves, and that it will consist in the knowledge that such corruption had deserved such destruction. לא̇ חִנָּם, comp. Eze_6:10. There of speaking, here of acting. Hence, as it is there said in reference to the consequence, the result, so here in reference to the cause—not without being deserved. Chap. 6 of the remnant themselves; in our passage of those to whom they are added as exiles. We see that there is not much hope of conversion for the former as a whole. That, even in the case of a relentless extermination of the bad, “there should yet be left a remnant of good” (Neteler), is certain, but is not said here. It is thus opposed to the context when Hitzig, appealing in a singular way to Num_14:31, understands by הַמּוּצָאים the younger race who had not grown old in sin, who shall conduct themselves in an irreproachable way, just as they have by their blamelessness saved themselves merely, not their parents also; whereby, however, compassion will be only the more stirred; they will be a pleasing spectacle in their inoffensive and God-pleasing life. The right knowledge is therefore to be this, that God has exterminated the wicked, has saved the innocent, consequently has judged righteously (with good cause). Just as little have we here an asseveration (really, truly), as Hävernick understands אַף כִּי, announcing a new, unusual judgment besides the four.

DOCTRINAL REFLECTIONS

1. Not merely in view of the dangerous position of Israel in the midst of the heathen nations, but as flowing from the peculiar relation of Jehovah to His people as chosen from mankind, there is a prophecy under the Old Covenant mediating that covenant. For the Holy Ghost was not yet present, Joh_7:39. God speaks and manifests Himself in demonstration of the Spirit and of power by the mouth of His holy prophets. Extraordinary gifts of the Spirit assert a place for themselves; things perceived in vision, disclosures by means of the dream, profoundly significant utterances and signs occur even in the service of individual needs. But prophecy becomes a prophetic office and formally an order of prophets, and that especially the more the priesthood sinks, and the commonwealth of Israel is secularized by means of the kingdom. Ever stedfast to Jehovah, and regulating itself by His law, this prophecy preserved its genuine character and proved its genuineness; just as it continued to uphold, with the force of constitutional law and with a reformer’s energy, the sovereignty of Jehovah against every power which rose up against it. As, however, in spite of this, the national life sank to the verge of dissolution, there appeared, in opposition to the divine ordinance of true prophecy, an order of false prophets, devoted to idols and to the court, which enjoyed the sympathies of high and low. It cultivated the rhetoric of a phraseology at once yielding and heroic, in other respects having manifold affinities with the journalism of the present day as it is exhibited by the French press. In itself thoroughly ungodly, it affects outwardly the appearance of a species of religiosity, which certainly desires to know nothing of sin, and consequently also nothing of punishment. It brands with the suspicion of fanaticism and hypocrisy the zealous prophecy of the law, which, in opposition to the ridicule as well as blandishments of the spirit of the age, has to proclaim the reformer’s call to repentance, and along with that, in ever louder tones, the prophecy of judgment.

2. As Jer_29:13 explains the zealous seeking (דָּרַשׁ) with the whole heart, the seeking (בָּקַשׁ) which finds, it is a standing requirement from all who would draw nigh to God that they believe that He is (Heb_11:6). The idolatrous practical atheism corresponds neither to the one nor the other. Thus there can be no talk of finding or letting oneself be found. The answer of God, which is therefore no answer, as the parties in question also have not yet inquired, is consequently a declinature; and that of a special kind, to allow of its being got by inquiry. But it is the nature of idols to be able neither to hear nor to answer. Accordingly, if Jehovah is not to wear the semblance of an idol, He must not only show Himself as one that hears, but as one who tries the heart and reins, and understands the thoughts afar off; and His silence will have to be regarded as speaking, in the same way as His speaking as it passes over into the virtual answer of punishment, of judgment.

3. In the heart the stream of our life is gathered up, alike in its outflow and inflow. To it the Bible assigns the central place, both in a corporeal and spiritual point of view. Comp. Beck, Umriss der bibl. Seelenlehre, 3 Aufl. p. 74 sq. Its hidden depths are known to God alone, who at the same time takes hold of man in his conscience, when He takes him in his heart. In this way He makes the unanswerable witness speak of guilt and punishableness; and alike for faith and for love, the whole heart, the full activity of man’s reason and emotional nature, as it has its sphere in the moral self-determination of the personal consciousness, is claimed. In accordance with such a meaning of the heart must the call to turn from their idols be understood as a taking hold on God’s part of the heart of Israel.

4. The case of the prophet who allows himself to be persuaded, to be enticed, illustrates to us the course of punishment. It is not merely that God permits the temptation, the misleading,—although it proceeds originally from the indwelling sin (Jam_1:14),—for every following sin is at the same time a punishment of that which goes before. “In virtue of a divine law, the man is compelled either to take back the sin with regret, repentance, conversion, to its commencement and its principle, or to continue in its path towards his punishment” (Nitzsch). “God has no inactive part in the development of sin; He knows how to guide the matter throughout, so that sin attains its full maturity, and brings on punishment. He takes care that there can be no standing still, no halting at an intermediate stage; He makes the occasions and removes the hindrances” (Hengst.). Thus God gives up the sinner to his sin, but reveals Himself at the same time in His power, whereby there is always given along with the sin corruption, and that as punishment; and in this way He causes the righteous reward to come upon him.

5. As the false prophets appear in connection with national corruption as a definite stage in the development, so likewise they are put in relation to Jehovah, and in this relation are recognised as a dispensation of God, as a divine judgment, although at the same time meant for separation and decision in Israel. To this we must refer the “testing,” for which provision is made in Deuteronomy 13. “The fact that false prophecy sprang up with quite peculiar energy about the period of the exile, appears accordingly not to be accidental and devoid of significance. The process of separation between the pious and the ungodly was thereby accelerated. But that period is only the bringing to light of a truth which retains its import onwards to the end of the world, 2Th_2:9 sq.” (Häv.) [“The point chiefly to be noticed in this deliverance of the mind of God is the connection between the self-deceived people and the deceiving prophet; regarding whom it is said, in peculiarly strong language, ‘I the Lord have enticed (or deceived) that prophet.’ It is an example in the highest sphere of the lex talionis. If the people were sincere in their desire to know the mind of God, for the purpose of obeying His will, the path was plain. They had but to forsake their idolatries, and the Lord was ready to meet them with direction and blessing. But if, on the other hand, they were bent on playing the hypocrite, professing to inquire concerning Him, while their hearts in reality were cleaving to corruption, punishment was sure to overtake them, and that, too, in the first instance, after the form of their own iniquity. God would chastise their sin with a corresponding sin; and as they had rejected the safe direction of the true light, he would send the pernicious delusion of a false one. Prophets would be given them, who should reecho the deceitfulness that already wrought in their own bosom, so that their iniquity should prove their ruin.”—Fairbairn’s Ezekiel, p. 147.—W. F.]

6. “In the juxtaposition of Daniel with the exalted figures of Noah and Job, we have a solid support for the historical character of the book of Daniel. Besides, the connection with eminent wisdom in Ezekiel 28. is exactly the characteristic feature in the personality of Daniel, as it is represented in his book” (Hengst.).

HOMILETIC HINTS

Eze_14:1 sq.: “Hypocrites may indeed deceive men, but not God, Psa_12:2-3” (Cr.). Acts 5.—“So also the scribes and Pharisees came to Christ in the gospel: not that they wished to learn of Him, but for the purpose of tempting Him” (Luther).—As the prophet is here warned of God, set right through the Spirit, so Jesus knew what was in man (Joh_2:24-25).—“We learn from this how false men are; for who could have supposed this of old men, who were near the grave?” (Luther.)—To listen to God is to get clear insight as to men.—“It is not wrong for one to ask counsel of teachers in doubtful cases; but those teachers are to give it not according to the imaginations of their own heart, but according to the leading of God’s word” (Starke).—“Those parties do not judge rightly who do not wish to put the images out of the temples until the idols are away out of men’s hearts. We ought rather to give testimony against both, because God in His word rejects images and idols alike. For if the former are not removed from the eyes of men, there remains the danger that one may again worship them. From the adulterous woman, the clothes, rings, letters of her paramours must be taken away, that she may not again be reminded of her lovers. This holds good also of the spiritual adultery of superstition” (Luther).—“Such a filthy idol is one’s own righteousness, the high opinion which a man has of his own works, Php_3:7-8” (Cocc).—“Most men have something on which their heart’s dependence is placed, and in this way are chargeable with a refined species of idolatry. Hence it is no wonder if God does not hear their prayer, Joh_9:31” (Starke).—“From the despisers of the truth the word of God is taken away, Act_13:46” (O.).—The speaking and silence of God here, as in the case of Jesus before the Sanhedrim and before Pilate.—“Answering as well as greeting is a sign of good-will and friendliness; and so God shows His indignation when He does not answer, or does not answer as one desires. As e. g. happened to Saul” (Luther).

Eze_14:4. “God leaves sinners without answer and help, in order that they may come to the knowledge of their sin” (Hengst.).

Eze_14:5. God aims at the heart of man.

Eze_14:6. Conversion is a step backward, but one which is also a step forward, and that from idols to the living God.

Eze_14:7-8. As with respect to whole lands, so with respect to the individual man, visitation ends at last in utter destruction. He that wooed to repentance adjudges to perdition. The heart which has become stone is rejected.—Lot’s wife, for example, is a sign; proverbs are such as Sodom and Gomorrha, Dathan and Abiram, Judas, etc.—The cutting off from Israel often takes place inwardly, so that only the individual himself knows about it.—“Although God does not always cause hypocrites to be publicly put to shame, yet the testimony of their own conscience is often punishment enough” (Cr.).—“Because God sees, hears, knows all, He will one day also give an answer as respects all, not only to pious hearts, but also to the ungodly, although such an answer is long delayed” (W.).

Eze_14:9-10. “When the men of the world do not hear from the true prophets what they would like to hear, they are wont to seek out the false prophets. In this way they have already fallen into the judgment of God, for there are no false prophets without God’s will. But now they are expressly said to share also the judgment on the false prophets” (Luther).—“Such miserable men, who themselves lie under the destiny of God, are led by Him whither they will not, and are hastening to meet the judgment, cannot possibly furnish a staff for others” (Hengst.).—He who does not wish the truth—and truth for man consists first of all in the knowledge of sin—is brought to ruin at last by the lie, notwithstanding all his asking after truth and speaking of truth.—God manifests Himself therefore to hypocrites also, but as righteousness.—“God plants the pious, but roots out the ungodly, hearers and teachers alike” (Starck).

Eze_14:11. And yet all at last turns out for the good of His children.—“If the flourishing of the false prophets serves to test the faith of the pious, their fidelity in confession, their stedfastness, the judgment on them and on those who follow them confirms the pious in their piety” (Luther).—Even the burning houses of the wicked are a light on the way of the pious.—The universal approbation which apostasy from God enjoys in the world would lead, if it were possible, to the very elect being seduced in such days as ours. And therefore not only must the world pass away with the lust thereof daily before the eyes of those who, blessed be God, can see, but striking judgments of God as well must confirm to those that hear God’s word the fact that it alone abideth for ever.—“How merciful is God, who reclaims the wanderers, and cleanses the polluted, and in His judgments still fulfils His promises!” (Luther.)

Eze_14:13. Land and people,—the former suffering for the sake of the latter, the latter through the former.—Sin the destruction of the people.—“Although public calamities have their natural causes, they stand under God’s government” (Starke).

Eze_14:14. “The Jews in all likelihood placed much reliance on the commandments and the intercession of the saints, and supposed that on this account they need not be afraid of the threatenings of the prophets. But such empty hope Ezekiel dismisses” (Luther).

Eze_14:15 sq. “If the godly in such judgment cannot be heard when they pray for the ungodly, how much less will the latter find audience for their own persons!” (Luther.)—Godliness has the promise of this life also.—“The cause of wars is sin, which God means to punish; but He means to test the godly also in their patience, and to visit them” (Luther).

Eze_14:21-23. “In a similar relation with the people of the Old Covenant stand the Christian nations, only that in their case the responsibility appears enhanced” (Hengst.).—God’s righteousness is clearly manifested in those that perish, as well as by means of those that escape.—“The ungodly man, so long as he remains unconverted, at most keeps in check, but never changes, his disposition” (Luther).—“Comfort lies in the justification of the ways of God. Knowledge of the greatness and depth of sin—this is in all cases the chief foundation of the theodicy” (Hengst.).—Even these miserable ones may be an apologetic.—“So long as we do not understand that God on just grounds acts sternly, so long are our souls distressed and tormented” (Calv.).

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CHAPTER 14.

HYPOCRITICAL INQUIRERS AFTER—GOD THEIR WICKEDNESS DISCOVERED AND REBUKED.

Eze 14:1. And there came to me some of the elders of Israel and sat before me.

Eze 14:2. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,

Eze 14:3. Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts, and the stumbling-block of their iniquity have they put before their face; should I be at all inquired at for them?

Eze 14:4. Therefore speak to them, and say to them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Every man of the house of Israel that sets up his idols in his heart, and puts the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face, and conies to the prophet, I Jehovah will answer him according to it, according to the multitude of his idols. (This last clause is given in the authorized version, as by many others,” I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols,” following the Kri, which has נַאֲנֵיתִי בָא instead of נַעֲנֵיתִי בָה. There is no need, however, for such a change. Reading nil (which ought to be the pointing), we have, as Havernick remarks, a perfectly common Aramaic construction, according to which the subject expressed in the following noun is anticipated by a pronoun going before, so that the latter is not a mere pleonasm, but employed for the purpose of giving increased emphasis to the following substantive:” I the Lord will answer him according to it, according to the multitude of his idols.” The use of the Niphal of עָנָה in the sense of answering, or making answer, is certainly a peculiarity, as elsewhere the common meaning is, to be answered, or to receive answer. Both Ewald and Hävernick have tried to establish new renderings, but without any satisfactory result. The context plainly obliges us to adhere to the general and common import of the verb. Literally, “I the Lord am answered to him, according to it;” or reflectively, as the Niphal is often used, “I the Lord answer myself (or, for myself) to him, according to it.” The same sentiment, with a very slight variation, is repeated in Eze 14:7 : “And cometh to the prophet to inquire of him concerning me (בִּי), I Jehovah will answer him myself concerning me (בִּי).” The בִּי should in each case be alike rendered “concerning me,” and not in the latter case, as in the common version, “by myself.” For the meaning is not, as most commentators, and among others Hävernick, seem to suppose, that God would give an answer directly and personally, as from himself, without the intervention of a prophet; for in the very next verse but one, the case is supposed of a deceived prophet giving to such persons a wrong answer, while the Lord affirms that even such answer would be from him. Such would be, at least, one of the modes of his meeting these hypocritical inquirers. But the Lord would show, by the kind of answer given, however it might be communicated, that he had taken the matter into his own hand, and that he dealt with them not according to their desires and expectations, but to their deserts. He would take them, as it is said in Eze 14:5, in their own heart, or would make them feel that he was cognisant of their great idolatries and perverse ways.)

Eze 14:5. That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, since they are all estranged from me through their idols.

Eze 14:6. Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Turn and come back from your idols (literally, from off your idols), and from all your abominations turn away your faces.

Eze 14:7. For every one of the house of Israel and of the stranger that sojourns in Israel, and separates himself from me, and sets up his idols in his heart, and puts the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet to inquire of him concerning me, I Jehovah will answer him myself concerning me.

Eze 14:8. And I will set myself against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb; and I will cut him off from among my people; and he shall know that I am Jehovah:

Eze 14:9. And the prophet, if he let himself be enticed (viz. by love of money or any other motive), and speak a word, I Jehovah have enticed that prophet, and will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from among my people Israel.

Eze 14:10. And they shall bear their iniquity; as the iniquity of him that inquires so is the iniquity of the prophet.

Eze 14:11. That the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, and may no more be polluted with all their transgressions; and that they may be to me a people, and I may be to them a God, saith the Lord Jehovah.

12. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,

Eze 14:13. Son of man, if a land sin against me by acting very treacherously, and I stretch out my hand upon it, and break for it the staff of bread, and send against it famine, and cut off from it man and beast:

Eze 14:14. And there were in the midst of it these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, these three men should deliver (only) their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord Jehovah.

Eze 14:15. If I cause noisome beasts to pass through the land, and they spoil it, and it becomes a desolation, so that no one passes through because of the beasts:

Eze 14:16. These three men in the midst of it—saith the Lord Jehovah—should not deliver either sons or daughters; they alone should be delivered; and the land shall be a desolation.

Eze 14:17. Or should I bring a sword upon that land, and say, Sword, pass through the land, and cut off from it man and beast:

Eze 14:18. And these three men were in the midst of it—saith the Lord Jehovah—they should not deliver either sons or daughters; but themselves alone should be delivered.

Eze 14:19. Or should I send a pestilence upon that land, and pour out my wrath upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast:

Eze 14:20. And Noah, Daniel, and Job were in the midst of it, As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, neither son nor daughter should they deliver by their righteousness; they should but deliver their own souls.

Eze 14:21. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, How much more (The “how much more when” here, which we retain as it is in the English Bible, expresses rather the thought indicated than the exact force of the original—אַף כִּי. The prophet had announced what would take place on each of the supposed cases separately; and he comes now to say, Surely shall it be so now, when I send, etc. The particles are strongly affirmative, and intimate the much greater necessity that existed for what was now to be declared.) when I send my four severe judgments—sword, and famine, and noisome beasts, and pestilence—against Jerusalem, to cut off from it man and beast!

Eze 14:22. And behold there shall be left in it a remnant, that shall be brought forth, sons and daughters; they shall come forth to you, and ye shall see their way and their doings, and shall be comforted concerning the evil which I shall have brought upon Jerusalem, in all that I shall have brought upon it.

Eze 14:23. And they shall comfort you; for not without cause do I perform all that I do perform against it, saith the Lord Jehovah.

THIS chapter opens with a statement that “certain of the elders of Israel came to the prophet and sat before him.” By these elders we are certainly to understand persons holding that dignity among the exiles of Chebar, and not, as some have erroneously supposed, deputies from the people still resident in Judah and Jerusalem. For what purpose they came—whether to ask counsel from the prophet regarding some point of difficulty that had occurred to themselves, or to hear what he might be prompted by the Spirit to communicate of seasonable instruction—we are not expressly told. But that they came in the character of inquirers may be almost certainly inferred from Eze 14:3, where the Lord at once proceeds, through his servant, to repudiate the idea of his being inquired at by persons of such a character,—persons who had “set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face.” After this it is scarcely possible to doubt that they came in the character of inquirers; though what might be the precise object of their inquiry is nowhere indicated in what follows, unless we can suppose (what is in the highest degree probable) that the message of the prophet was so framed as in some part to meet the proposed subject of inquiry, and thus incidentally to discover what the subject itself really was. This supposition is confirmed by the fact, which strikes us the moment we glance over the contents of the chapter, that it falls into two parts,—the first (Eze 14:3-11) referring to the preliminary point respecting the character of the inquirers, and the remaining portion addressing itself to a subject entirely distinct,—God’s method of dealing with a land and people when they have reached a state of hope less corruption and depravity. It is more than probable, therefore, that while God refused to give any formal answer to such inquirers as those who now sat before the prophet, he yet, in this latter portion of the message, gave a substantial deliverance on the question about which their anxiety had been raised.

The previous communications of the prophet had disclosed an amazing degree of wickedness prevailing generally among the people of Judah, and extending even to those who should have set themselves vigorously to check and reform it,—the priestly and prophetical orders. It was not to be denied, however, with all the truth there might be in such representations, that there still were some noble expectations. Among the prophets there was, at least, the faithful and unflinching Jeremiah; and there were others, beyond doubt, of a kindred spirit, both in the priesthood and among the laity. How naturally, then, in such a case might the thought arise, that possibly after all, the existence of this faithful remnant would tell favourably upon the procedure of God, and throw a kind of shield over the land of Judah for its preservation! It is even conceivable, that the thought might assume in the minds of some a more decided form, and that they might be tempted to ask, how, with such an admixture of righteousness in the midst of them, God could justly proceed to pour down his exterminating judgments on the land! Such cogitations and inquiries were by no means unnatural at the time, especially when it is known how loath the people were—as well that portion of them which was already in exile, as those who still dwelt in Jerusalem—to think of the nation going to ruin. And if these were the points respecting which the elders on this occasion came to confer with the prophet, the message delivered in the latter division of the chapter might certainly be regarded as forming a most direct and explicit deliverance upon their intended inquiries.

1. But there was a strong reason for the prophet addressing himself, in the first instance, to the preliminary point connected with the character of the inquiries, on account, more especially, of the close relation that subsisted between such an exhibition of character in them, and the false spirit of prophecy which had already been so severely condemned. However they might wish, by coming to the Lord’s true prophet, to be regarded as of a different spirit from the false prophets and their deluded followers mentioned in the preceding chapter, they were in reality of one spirit with them, and, under another form, pursuing the same infatuated course. Therefore, when the word of the Lord came describing them as persons who were each setting up their idol in their heart, and putting the stumbling-block of iniquity before their face, their hypocrisy was at once unmasked, and they were themselves identified with the corrupt idolaters and incorrigible backsliders in Judea. “You,” the prophet virtually said to them, discerning through the Spirit the real state and purposes of their heart, “you also are living in idolatry, and differ only in outward semblance from those who are openly worshipping false gods; you have not yet returned in truth to the living God, but are each bent on the love and pursuit of things which are utterly opposed to his mind and will. And that you may be encouraged in these, not that you may learn with childlike docility what God would have you to do, is the object that lies nearest to your heart. In such a state, what presumption is it not in you to expect any friendly communications from God?”

The expression of “setting up their idols in their heart” (lit. making their idols to go up upon their heart), as Calvin justly remarks, implies a silent comparison between God and idols. For, as God erects the seat of his empire in our hearts, when we set up idols there we of necessity endeavour to subvert the throne of God, and to render his supremacy of no account. So also in the other expression, “putting the stumbling-block of iniquity before their face,” a contrast is implied between the law of God and the perverse inclinations of their own hearts. What should have been set before their eyes for their constant observance was the law of God, respecting which the exhortation had been given, “Let it not depart from thine eyes; then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thou shalt not stumble” (Pro 3:21; Pro 3:23). But displacing this unerring rule of Divine counsel and direction, and adopting in its stead the course dictated by their own selfish and corrupt passions, they were as surely running into mischief as if they had deliberately placed a stumbling- block in their path. So that, in both respects, they were warring with the mind of God—being at once idolatrous at heart and perverse in their ways.

For such persons to come and inquire of God, at the mouth of his servant, was plainly but a mockery of God; it was professing to have a desire to know God’s will, and a heart ready to fall in with its requirements, while in reality their mind was made up to a plan and purpose of its own, which set at nought the Divine authority. No wonder, then, that the Lord should at once have repelled the thought of his being inquired at by such persons; since, to use the words of Jerome, “he does not deserve to hear the truth who seeks for it in a fraudulent manner, but ought to be taken in his own heart.” Seeing, however, in these elders types of a class unhappily very numerous among the Jews, both in Judea and in exile, the prophet proceeded to inform them how, if they persisted in their course, they might expect to be dealt with. They should certainly find an answer to their inquiries, and that answer in a sense also from the Lord; but one, at the same time, after their own heart’s lusts, not in conformity with the truth of things—“that I may take,” it is added,” the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.”

Yet, that this was not what the Lord properly wished—that the giving of such an answer, and the ruinous consequences it was sure to entail, was a judgment which the Lord would fain avert, if he righteously could, he again charged the prophet to say to the house of Israel, “Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Turn, and come back from your idols, and turn away your faces from your abominations.” He wished them distinctly to understand that if they really sought to be on terms of friendship with God, and to obtain answers of peace to their inquiries, there was one thing essential to be done: they must thoroughly reform their ways, and abandon the polluted objects on which they had set their hearts. On this condition alone could they expect to be graciously dealt with by God; and if they refused to comply with the terms, they might indeed go to a prophet, and receive an answer to their inquiries, but it must be with a sure reversion of evil; their own measure would be meted back to them. They should, in that case, be dealing deceitfully toward God, and the prophet in turn would deal deceitfully toward them. Both subjects of a common delusion, they should also at last become the victims of a common ruin. “And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity; the iniquity of the prophet shall be even as the iniquity of him that inquires at him; that the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, and may no more be polluted with all their transgressions; but that they may be to me a people, and I may be to them a God, saith the Lord Jehovah.”

The point chiefly to be noticed in this deliverance of the mind of God is the connection between the self-deceived people and the deceiving prophet; regarding whom it is said, in peculiarly strong language, “I the Lord have enticed (or deceived) that prophet.” It is an example in the highest sphere of the lex talionis. If the people were sincere in their desire to know the mind of God, for the purpose of obeying his will, the path was plain. They had but to forsake their idolatries, and the Lord was ready to meet them with direction and blessing. But if, on the other hand, they were bent on playing the hypocrite, professing to inquire concerning him while their hearts in reality were cleaving to corruption, punishment was sure to overtake them, and that too, in the first instance, after the form of their own iniquity. God would chastise their sin with a corresponding sin; and as they had rejected the safe direction of the true light, he would send the pernicious delusion of a false one. Prophets would be given them, who should re-echo the deceitfulness that already wrought in their own bosom, so that their iniquity should prove their ruin.

The people themselves had no reason to complain of such a procedure, for they had from the first been distinctly forewarned of it by Moses. At the beginning of the 13th chapter of Deuteronomy, the supposition is made of a false prophet arising, who, by dreams and visions, should attempt to lead away the people from the true worship and service of Jehovah. In that event they were expressly discharged from hearkening to his words—nay, were commanded to put him at once to death; and were instructed to regard such occurrences as among the means of trial which the Lord appointed for the purpose of proving and purifying them. “For the Lord your God proveth you,” it is said, “to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul.” The very appearance of such characters, then, was a judicial act on the part of God. It implied that he detected the existence of sin among the people, and required, for the ends of his righteous government, to apply a touchstone, by which to effect a separation between the precious and the vile. Not as of itself, but as a form of chastisement under the hand of God, did the false spirit of prophecy arise—a sure indication that the day of visitation had begun. So, too, it had happened in the case of Saul, when an evil spirit was sent to trouble him, in the room of that blessed Spirit whose guidance he had rejected; a messenger of Satan, indeed, but one that should not have been suffered to appear unless there had been a call for judgment! It was the Lord’s instrument of correction for indulged sin.

The most notable and striking example of this sort in ancient history, and one to which the prophet here evidently refers, is that recorded in 1Ki 22:19, etc., where the prophet Micaiah says to Ahab: “Hear thou, therefore, the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him, on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him. And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth; and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also; go forth and do so.” Here, it is plain, the spirit of falsehood, entering into and working in the false prophets, appears to come elsewhere than from God; but not less plain, also, that the giving up of Ahab and his people to the influence of such a spirit was of God, an act of judgment, standing midway between the sins of a past life and the approaching doom of a fearful retribution. It was God—who, in righteousness, fixed the doom, and who also appointed this particular mode of carrying it into execution. Yet the power by the immediate instrumentality of which it was to be effected was no magical one, such as might fascinate and control the minds of Ahab and his people, independently of their own free will. On the contrary, it was their voluntary adherence to the spirit of delusion, and their obstinate surrender to its influence, which led God to abandon them to this new and more fatal subjection to its power. And hence, both in the case of Ahab, and here again in the representation by Ezekiel, the yielding to that spirit, whether in the way of persuading or of being persuaded, is treated as a crime, drawing after it its appropriate punishment: the Lord stretches out his hand, and punishes both the prophet and him that inquires at him.

The facts and statements now referred to clearly imply something more on the part of God than that bare permission, by which many commentators, both in earlier and later times, have sought to explain his entire connection in such cases with evil. “I have deceived that prophet,” that is, says Dr. Adam Clarke, “He ran before he was sent; he willingly became the servant of Satan’s illusions; and I suffered this to take place, because he and his followers refused to consult and serve me.” So also Maurer, who explains the statement thus: “I will suffer him to be deceived; I will not hinder him from being so; I will surrender him to his fate.” True, no doubt, so far as it goes, but a portion of the truth still remains to be told. There is not merely a negative, but also a positive relation on God’s part to sin, inasmuch as he controls and directs its operations, so that they may fit suitably into his Divine plan, and may develope themselves in such forms and ways as are demanded by the order and rectitude of his administration. Should a spirit of delusion, for example, break out in any particular place or time, it is certainly in itself to be regarded as an emanation from the prince of darkness; but that it should appear in the precise form it does, at such a time, or with such results, must be ascribed to the directing agency and overruling providence of God. So the apostle evidently teaches, when, speaking of what, in Christian times, should correspond to the false prophesying of an earlier period, he says: “And for this cause”—viz. because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved—“God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2Th 2:11-12). “God punishes sin with sin. Therefore upon the lost, who in their guilt would not cherish a love of the truth in their hearts, he sends forth a powerful delusion, that they might believe a lie. The force of the expressions must not be weakened, so as to describe anything less than a judicial hardening. The ‘strong delusion,’ as to its ultimate ground, points to Antichrist himself, who, in ‘the working of Satan,’ sets forward his deceit; but the ‘sending’ indicates the coming of Antichrist to be of God. The Lord does not make Antichrist, so far as he is evil, but he certainly does make him, in so far as he manifests himself in this particular shape and form, under these circumstances and relations.” (Olshausen on 2Th 2:11-12.)

II. But we pass on to the second part of the chapter, which, as before noticed, speaks to a case entirely different, and one that probably coincided with the inquiry proposed by the elders. It has respect to the question, what effect the existence of a few righteous persons among the Jewish people might be expected to have at such a time on the purposes of God? The Lord had already told Jeremiah that the guilt of the people was too great to be pardoned on account of his intercession, and that even if Moses and Samuel, to whom the Lord had listened on former occasions of grievous backsliding and apostasy (Exodus 32; Numbers 14; 1 Samuel 7.), were now present to plead in their behalf, it would be altogether in vain (Jer 14:2, Jer 15:1). It was in immediate connection with the forms of evil, which are so prominently exhibited in this portion of Ezekiel’s writings, viz. the prevalence of the spirit of false prophecy, and the readiness of the people to listen to its lying divinations, which called forth in Jeremiah that strong declaration of the utter inefficacy of prayer to meet and remedy such a case as this. And as in regard to the subject itself Ezekiel treads in the footsteps of Jeremiah, so also, in the judgment pronounced upon it, he merely supplements the representation previously given by Jeremiah, by bringing another moral element into play, and declaring also its incompetence to prevent or rectify the evil in such a time of apostasy and rebuke. The two most powerful and honoured intercessors, Moses and Samuel, could not do it by their intercession. Jeremiah had said. No, responds Ezekiel from the banks of the Chebar; nor could three of the most righteous men that have ever lived, either in past or present times, do it by their righteousness. Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were all at this moment in the land, they could not stay the judgment of God from proceeding.

Many frivolous reasons have been assigned, especially by the Fathers, why these three men in particular should have been singled out for such distinguished honour on this occasion. But the real reasons are not far to seek. For these three individuals were all eminently distinguished for their personal righteousness, and, on account of this, were saved from overwhelming calamities which destroyed others. Yet not without some striking diversities of circumstance, evidently in the eye of the prophet. Noah was saved amid the wreck and desolation of a world, and had the members of his family, but these alone, given to him. Daniel was saved from the unreasonable fury of the king of Babylon, and prevailed also to shield from destruction a few companions of kindred spirit, though inferior standing to himself (Daniel 2.). But Job was stript even of his family and household, not a son nor a daughter left to him; and of the three, therefore, was the most striking monument of the simple righteousness of God preserving the good and punishing the bad. On this account, probably, his name comes last in order, since, in his case, the principle under consideration found its most stringent application. In all these cases, God had signally stamped their righteousness with his approbation; yet if the whole three should now stand before him, they could not alter his determination to inflict the sore judgments which were impending over the king and people of Judah; the cup of iniquity was full; the stroke of vengeance must come down; and the utmost that the righteousness of such men could do, would be to deliver their own souls—only a Job’s escape could be given to them, without either son or daughter. (Exception has been taken very unreasonably against the mention of Daniel along with Noah and Job, and an argument raised out of it against the authenticity of Daniel’s history. But at the time Ezekiel now wrote, Daniel had been at least fourteen years in Babylon, and the circumstances which first spread abroad his fame so much—those recorded in the two first chapters of his book—are understood to have occurred very shortly after his going to Babylon. There was, therefore, ample time for his extraordinary worth to be generally known and familiarly referred to; the more so, as the Jews would naturally, in their present low condition, think with pride of one who had acquired so much glory for their nation at the very seat of empire, and would probably even be disposed to count unduly upon the benefits to be derived from his virtues and influence. See Hengstenberg’s Beitr. i. pp. 70-72.)

The manner of the prophet in unfolding this sentiment is highly rhetorical. He first puts the case in the form of a general supposition,—the case of a land sinning grievously, and liable to one of the grievous judgments threatened in the law against hardened transgressors (Lev 26:22, Lev 26:33); he repeats successively the four different kinds of Divine judgment, as ready to be executed, and in respect to each affirms the impossibility of the three righteous men arresting the course of justice, or prevailing to deliver more than their own souls. Then, at Eze 14:21, concentrating the whole of the supposed cases, with their corresponding judgment, as in one mass of condemnation and woe upon Jerusalem, he proceeds: “How much more when I send my four severe judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast!” As much as to say, “This land has now reached such a state of utter abandonment and hopeless depravity, that it deserves to have not one merely, but the whole of my sore judgments let loose upon it in combined fury; and if those righteous men could not save a land, when one only was due, how foolish to think that they could save such a land as this!”

And even this does not reveal the whole of the severity that was to be exercised upon Jerusalem; for the two concluding verses, while they point to a remnant escaping the flood of judgments, point at the same time to the necessity of still further severity being made to follow them. It is a word of threatening, not of promise, as the great majority of commentators suppose, and our translators also appear to have understood it. “And, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be brought forth, sons and daughters: behold, they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way and their doings; and ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that I shall have brought upon Jerusalem, in all that I shall have brought upon it. And they shall comfort you, when ye see their ways and their doings; and ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, saith the Lord Jehovah.” The word is formally addressed to the people already in exile, who are regarded as viewing the destruction about to be executed on Jerusalem with astonishment, and some degree of dissatisfaction. The prophet tells such there would certainly be a remnant—not, however, in the proper sense, as if they were themselves deserving persons, or spared for blessing for the sake of the pious among them, but a remnant still so wedded to sin, and so manifestly deserving of severe chastisement, that every one would recognise the justice of God’s dealings toward them. “Ye shall see,” to use the language of Calvin, who here caught the real meaning of the prophet, “the men to be so wicked, that ye shall be forced to confess the city was deserving of destruction, and the men themselves worthy of death. And instead of murmuring and fretting against God, ye shall be satisfied, it could not have been otherwise ordered, their wickedness was of so desperate a nature; so that, with soothed and tranquil minds, ye shall henceforth proclaim my righteousness, and cease any more to utter the complaints which now disturb your minds.”

This, we have no doubt, is the correct view of the passage, for it has respect simply to God’s justice in visiting them with such severity; and there is not a word dropped, either of their being brought to repentance when in exile, or of God’s extending mercy to them when there. It is the severe aspect of the Divine procedure that is exhibited throughout. Doubtless the view given is to be understood with certain limitations; there was mercy, to some extent, to be found mingling with the judgment, as there would also be some grains of wheat concealed among the heaps of chaff that were to be driven forth into Chaldea. Other prophecies speak also of these; but the word here has to do only with the work of judgment on account of sin. Yet, even in regard to that, it challenges the concurring judgment and approval of all who should be at pains to acquaint themselves with the entire circumstances. For God must ever be justified when he is judged with knowledge and impartiality. Dissatisfaction with his ways, or quarrelling with his purposes, springs up only where ignorance and sinful prejudice exist. And when all things shall at last be made manifest, there is not an act in his administration, however stern and severe, which shall not call forth the response from every intelligent bosom: He hath done all things well; his ways are righteousness and truth.

Patrick Fairbairn — An Exposition of Ezekiel (1851), Jonah (1849), and The Pastoral Epistles (1874) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eze 14:1-23. These inquiring elders, with wickedness in their hearts, give another illustration of the depth of degradation in which the people had sunk. He who searches the hearts knew what was in them. They came with pious, religious pretensions. It sounded well to inquire of the Lord and seek the prophet-priest for that purpose. Their hearts were full of evil. While their lips spoke of asking the Lord, their hearts were full of idolatry. They liked idolatry. Their hearts were in it and this stumbling-block of their iniquity they had put before their faces, which means they openly defied the Lord God of Israel by their doings. “Should I be inquired of at all by them?” To seek the Lord and inquire of Him in such a condition reveals a brazen spirit and the deepest depravity. Yet this also belongs to the conditions in which the professing people of God are when judgment overtakes them.

Eze 14:12-23 contain an additional judgment message. The threatened judgment cannot be averted; it is unavoidable. Famine is to come and the noisome beasts, symbolical of Gentile world powers, as Daniel beheld them in his vision Dan 7:1-28. The judgment message closes again with a message of mercy and comfort for the remnant.

Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14:1-3 The leaders of the exiled community of Israel came to visit Ezekiel again, probably seeking encouragement (cp. 8:1; 20:1). The people were tainted with the same kinds of sin, such as idolatry, that affected the people in Judah (cp. 8:10-12).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

He showeth the hypocrisy of the idolaters, who will dissemble to hear the Prophets of God, though in their heart they follow nothing less than their admonitions, and also how by one means or other God doth discover them.

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

CHAPTER XIV

Here God threatens those hypocrites who pretended to worship

him, while they loved and practised idolatry, 1-11.

He declares his irreversible purpose of punishing so guilty a

nation, in behalf of which no intercession of the people of God

shall be of any avail. The gross idolaters of Jerusalem and

Judah shall be visited with God's four sore judgments, famine,

12-14;

wild beasts, 15, 16;

the sword, 17, 18;

and pestilence, 19-21.

A remnant shall be delivered from the wrath coming upon the

whole land, 22, 23.

NOTES ON CHAP. XIV

Verse 1. Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me] These probably came to tempt him, or get him to say something that would embroil him with the government. They were bad men, as we shall see in the third verse.

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

Here Ezekiel relates an event worthy of notice. For this was not a mere vision, but a real transaction, since some of the elders of Israel came to him for the sake of consultation. He says that he sat, as men who are perplexed and astonished by evils are accustomed to do, when they see no remedy. The gesture then which the Prophet describes was a sign of anxiety and despair. A person wishing for an answer is said to sit before another; but since it is probable that they disputed among themselves about beginning, and did not immediately discover how they should commence, hence they became anxious to consult the Prophet. Ezekiel, indeed, might be touched and softened by pity when he saw them seeking God in this way. For this was a sign of repentance when they turned to the true and faithful servant of God. But since they had no sincerity, the Prophet is warned in time against supposing them to come with cordiality. Hence God instructs his servant not to give way with too much facility when he sees old men coming to be disciples. But he shows their hypocrisy, because superstition still reigned in their hearts; nay, they desired openly to violate God’s law, and they did not disguise this feeling whenever occasion offered. First, he says they have set up idols in their hearts; by which words he means that they were addicted to superstition, so that idols obtained a high rank in their hearts; as Paul exhorts the faithful, that the peace of God which passes all understanding may obtain the rule in their hearts (Philippians 4:7; Colossians 3:15); so on the other hand the Prophet says that these men had given supreme sway to idols. And again an implied comparison must be remarked between God and idols. For God has erected the seat of his empire in our hearts: but when we set up idols, we necessarily endeavor to overthrow God’s throne, and to reduce his power to nothing. Hence the most heinous crime of sacrilege is here shown in those old men who caused idols to rise above their hearts. For hence it follows that all their senses were drowned in their superstitions.

He adds, they placed the stumblingblock of their iniquity before his face. By this second clause he signifies their hardness and perverseness; as if he had said, although the doctrine of the law was put before their eyes, yet they had no regard for piety, and despised even God’s threats, as if he were not going to be their judge. When, therefore, the sinner is not moved by any admonitions, and is more than convicted of his impiety, and is compelled, whether he will or not, to suffer God’s anger, and yet afterwards despises it, he is said to put the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face. For many slide away by error and thoughtlessness, because they do not think they can attempt anything against God. But here Ezekiel expresses that there was a gross contempt of God in these old men, and even a professed rebellion against him. Now he asks, Shall I by inquiring be inquired of by them? Some translate, Shall I, when consulted or asked, answer them? But this comment seems to me too remote from the mind of the Prophet; and it is probable that they thought this to be the sense, because they could not understand what else the Prophet meant. But God shows that this was like a wonder, since these old men dared to break forth, and to pretend to have some desire to inquire the truth. Hence their impudence is shown here, because they did not hesitate to place themselves before God’s servant, and to pretend a regard for piety when they had none. God says, therefore, can it be done? For this question expresses the absurdity of the thing, and that for the above mentioned purpose, that their wickedness may be the more apparent in their daring to insult the face of God. For what else is it than openly to reproach God when impure men approach him, and wish to become partakers of his counsel? Meanwhile they show by their whole life that they are most inveterate enemies of the whole heavenly doctrine. Afterwards it follows —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(1) Certain of the elders of Israel.—There is no distinction intended here between the elders of Israel and the elders of Judah mentioned in 8:1, and therefore there is no occasion to suppose a deputation sent to the prophet from Jerusalem. Israel is now becoming the ordinary name of the existing nation, except where it is used with some special mark of distinction. The object of their enquiry is not mentioned, nor is it even expressly said that they made any enquiry; but the message to them implies this, and from what is said to them we may probably gather what was uppermost in their minds. Already told by the previous prophecies that God would not spare Jerusalem for its own sake, and that His long forbearance hitherto was no warrant for its continuance, they still evidently cherished the hope that, however sinful they might be in themselves, their city would yet be delivered for the sake of the holy men who lived therein. With such thoughts in their minds the elders came and sat before the prophet, in whose fearless words they had already learned to have confidence, and waited what he might have to say to them.

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

1–9. Answer to idolaters who inquire of the Lord

1. elders of Israel] That is, in point of fact, elders of the exiles; but in them the prophet sees representatives of the house of Israel both at home and abroad (Eze_14:4; Eze_14:7), and when addressing them he feels himself speaking to his people in all places. Cf. ch. Eze_8:1, Eze_20:1. These elders came and sat before him. It is scarcely probable that their presence was due to the prophet’s words in ch. 13, denouncing their false prophets. It might no doubt be supposed that they were perplexed by these denunciations, and, not knowing whom to believe, waited on the prophet for some further enlightenment. It is more likely that their thoughts were occupied about Jerusalem and the future of their country, and that they hoped to hear something more from Ezekiel on these subjects.

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.

Then came certain, of the elders of Israel unto me,.... The Syriac version adds, "to consult the Lord"; by the prophet. These, according to Kimchi, were the elders of the captivity, the heads of the captives that were now in Babylon with Ezekiel: but there are others that think they were some that came from Jerusalem to Babylon on some business or another; and having heard much of the prophet, came to visit him, and to hear his prophecies, and inquire of the Lord by him:

and sat before me; silent and pensive, as persons in anxiety and distress; or as hearers of him, for sitting is a hearing gesture; they sat and heard with great attention, gravity, and seriousness, with seeming affection and reverence; and all this was not in a visionary way, but was a real fact; see Eze 33:31.

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

Elders of Israel - Some of the fellow-exiles of Ezekiel, among whom he ministered.

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

Then, Heb. And, that we need not inquire the precise time of this prophecy.

Certain of the elders; men of note, that were in office and power among the Jews, called here elders, &c.

Of Israel; who were yet in Jerusalem; not the elders who were now, and had been some time, in Babylon.

Sat before me: see Eze 8:1.

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

As the result, probably, of the previous utterances, certain elders of Israel, i.e. of the exiles in Tel-Abib, came to consult Ezekiel, wishing to know what counsels or what predictions he had for them. in Eze_8:1 we have "the elders of Judah," and it is possible that there were two groups in the Population of the town, and that these represented Israel as distinct from Judah a deputation, as it were, from the earlier exiles. The term appears again in Eze_20:1. More probably, however, the terms are used interchangeably.

HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON Vers. 1-5. Idolatry.

It certainly seems strange that, at this period of their national history, the Israelites should be chargeable with the folly and sin of idolatry. The admonitions against this offence had been so numerous, and the chastisements following its commission had been so severe, that the reader of Old Testament history is surprised to find that at so late a period the temptation had not been outgrown.

I THE MULTITUDE AND VARIETY OF THE IDOLATRIES OF ISRAEL. The chosen people were exposed to corruption from neighbouring peoples from the Phoenicians upon the north, the Syrians and Chaldeans upon the east, and the Egyptians upon the south. Each of these idolatries had its own characteristics, and in some way sprang from, and ministered to, the evil passions of human nature. It would almost seem as if the kings, the great men of the land, and the common people generally, chose such idols as harmonized with their own tastes or suited their own convenience. At all events, the prophet speaks of idols, in the plural, of the multitude of the idols, and of every idolater"s own special and peculiar divinities.

II THE SEAT OF THESE IDOLATRIES. The people are said to have set them up "in their heart." Hills, valleys, groves, high places, and altars and temples, were indeed consecrated, or rather desecrated, by idol worship. But all this was external. There was something much worse; the idols were set up in the inner nature of the worshippers, and there were honoured and served. That is to say, the belief in the government of a righteous and holy God having been abandoned, many of the Israelites exalted the vices and crimes which the deities of the heathen embodied, sanctioned, and encouraged, and came in their hearts to love the evils against which, as a nation, they were called to witness.

III THE ESTRANGEMENT FROM GOD WHICH IDOLATRY PRODUCED. In setting up the idols in their hearts the people had been patting "a stumbling block of iniquity" before their face. The idols came between them and their God. The house of Israel, Jehovah exclaims, "are all estranged from me through their idols." There can be no rivalry between the false gods and the true. The choice has ever to be made. To exalt an idol, a passion, a taste, a habit, an association, to a position above that occupied by the supreme Lord of all, is to dethrone him from his rightful place, to forfeit his regard, to ensure his displeasure.

IV THE INDIGNANT RESPONSE OF GOD TO THE DISHONOUR DONE TO HIM. It was presumed that, with wicked inconsistency, some of the Israelites who had been seduced into idolatrous practices would nevertheless in some time of perplexity or affliction resort to the prophets of Jehovah to seek counsel, guidance, and comfort. In such circumstances, how would their conduct be regarded by the Lord? The word of the Lord to the prophet should be attentively considered, "Should I be inquired of at all by them?...I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols." We are not to believe that any sincere, lowly, penitent, and believing suppliant would be rejected. But those who in their hearts cherished the idolatry which was their shame, and yet for some selfish purposes had the effrontery to approach the Lord for counsel and for help, were assured that their application should meet with no favorable response. They were double-hearted and insincere; and for such there is no blessing, and indeed no tolerance.

APPLICATION. It is the same today. If with all your hearts ye truly seek him, the request shall not be offered in vain. But it is useless to draw near to God with the lips while the heart is far from him. T.

HOMILIES BY J.D. DAVIES Vers. 1-11. Disastrous answers to prayer.

Ezekiel"s predictions had been so gloomy and adverse, that the ciders of Israel in Babylon were staggered. They could not acquiesce in their nation"s ruin. Hopeful that some message more favourable might come from God, they sought (it may be on the sabbath day) the prophet"s presence. We must not place these elders in the same category with those in Jerusalem who preferred the flattering speeches of the false prophets. Nevertheless, they were not right at heart. The taint of idolatry was upon these also. Good and evil may be mingled in men"s hearts in different degrees.

I OUTWARD TROUBLE OFTEN DRIVES MEN TO GOD. It is not always so. It sometimes chafes and exasperates men. In their pain they sometimes curse God and blaspheme him yet the more. Perhaps affliction, in itself, has no softening, subduing influence. But the Spirit of God frequently uses affliction as his instrument, his pruning knife, in order to make the soul fruitful. This much is certain, that many have found a season of affliction a season of salvation. Certain it is that "whom the Lord loveth he correcteth;" and not a few of the redeemed adopt David"s language as their own, "Before I was afflicted, I went astray; but now have I kept thy Word.

II YET THE RETURN IS SOMETIMES OUTWARD, NOT COMPLETE. In human nature there is a strong bias to be satisfied with what is merely outward in religion. To utter words of prayer, we imagine, must be successful To come into God"s house, no matter what may be our motives or intentions, we think, must please God. Do we not confer a favour on him? Has he not engaged to do us good? Yet how often is the heart away when the body is present? How often do We bring our idols with us into that sacred place? How often do we worship mammon, or pleasure, or fashion, under pretence of worshipping God? How often do our words far exceed our desires? Hypocrisy and idolatry are as common in sanctuaries now as in the days of ancient Israel. Frequently the heart is preoccupied with its own wishes and plans and ambitions, while we are using the words, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" We want our own ends, while we profess to yield unto God.

III GOD REPLIES, NOT TO OUR WORDS, BUT TO OUR TEMPER OF MIND. "I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols." Men often think that they lay a trap for God, but God takes them in their own snare. We try to use God for the attainment of some worldly end, and we think sometimes that we succeed, but we are always outwitted. Men"s words are often veils to hide the facts, and we may deceive others; we cannot deceive God. To give to such men blessing would be to do them harm. For such the only real blessing is self-humiliation, inward contrition. True faith in God is the only measure of success, and faith is loyal, candid, self-submissive. Four sympathetic men brought a paralytic to Jesus; but Jesus first read the yearning desire of the sufferer"s heart, and said, "Man, thy sins are forgiven thee." For God is a Spirit, and deals with the human spirit. Therefore in prayer we should always imitate David, "I lift up my soul unto thee.

IV GOD"S AIM IS LOFTIER THAN THE AIM OF THE SUPPLIANT. The aim of the suppliant is usually temporary relief deliverance from some present evil. But God sees that present trouble is the best blessing the rough husk that contains nourishing meat. Our object is enjoyment; God"s object is soul profit. He yearns to see repentance the first cry of the new life. "Thus saith the Lord God; Repent." God"s aim is remote, but right noble. His design is that "the house of Israel may go no more astray." His purpose is that "they may be my people, and I may be their God." If we will not allow God"s purpose to prevail, he will not allow our low and vain purposes to succeed. If we set ourselves in hostility against God, only ruin can result. If God sends us to Nineveh, and we sail away to Tarshish, we may expect to meet an overwhelming storm. God"s will must become our will; then only shall we have rest.

V GOD TURNS UNSUCCESSFUL SUPPLIANTS INTO BEACONS. "I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb." As battlefields, saturated with human gore, yield larger crops of grain, so out of all evil God will bring ultimate good. Cain"s published sin served as a restraint upon others. Lot"s wife became a standing witness for God and for righteousness. In the long run, everything contributes to the good of mankind. The wrath of man shall bring praise to God. Man"s crime at Calvary has become the fount of greatest blessing. Even human sin shall serve as a dark background, the better to set forth the brilliant hues of Divine mercy. Yet how slow men are to note the various winnings which God sets up! Self-examination is a rare virtue,

VI ANSWERED PRAYER MAY BE HEAVIEST DISASTER. The Gadarenes prayed that Jesus would depart out of their coasts, and he departed. The man who has practised deceit shall be himself deceived. Pharaoh hardened his heart against God until at length God joined in the process: "The Lord hardened Pharaoh"s heart." He who will not accept any answer from God except that which chimes in with his own wishes shall have his wish gratified, but it will prove his ruin. To Ephraim God at last said, "He is joined to his idols: let him alone." He who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit is "in danger of eternal sin." And this is the heaviest punishment a man cart receive. "He that is filthy, let him be filthy still." The most notable example of this principle in God"s government is seen in the case of Ahab. He had set his heart upon war against Ramoth-Gilead. He would not be dissuaded. Yet he wished to have the appearance of God"s approval, in order to gain allies. At length the Lord said, "Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead?" "And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him. And the Lord said, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and shalt prevail also." If foolish men prefer flattering delusions to the naked truth, God will at length abandon them to this fatal influence. He punishes sin with sin.

VII THE LAW OF RIGHTEOUSNESS ALLOWS OF NO EXEMPTION. Pauper and prince are amenable to the same law in the kingdom of God. "The punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him." No office, however honourable, will serve as a cloak for sin, nor alleviate the weight of punishment. Righteousness deals with man as man, and takes no note of names or titles. If a king drinks poison, it produces the selfsame effect as if a ploughboy drank it. It will avail us nothing to say to the white-robed Judge, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?" Office may increase our responsibility; it does not add to our purity; it gives no passport to heaven. Not genius, nor power, commends men to God; only moral goodness. "In this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject to you; but rather rejoice that your names are written in heaven. D.

HOMILIES BY W. JONES Vers. 1-11. Hypocritical inquirers of God.

came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me," etc. In the former chapter false prophets and prophetesses were severely rebuked by the Lord God through his true prophet. In this one certain elders who came to Ezekiel to inquire of the Lord through him, while their hearts were given up to idols, are reproved, exhorted, and warned. The paragraph before us presents the following connected topics for consideration, which we will notice in the order in which they are presented by the prophet.

I MEN HYPOCRITICALLY INQUIRING OF THE LORD GOD. "Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me. And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying," etc. (vers. 1-3). These elders who came to inquire of God through his prophet were probably of the number of his fellow exiles. They came to consult the prophet of Jehovah, yet they were idolaters at heart. They had "set up their idols in their heart," etc. (ver. 3). Their idolatry involved practical atheism. Genuine belief in the existence of the Lord Jehovah would have effectually precluded idolatry. Men of such character could not sincerely inquire of God. There can be no real approach unto him without faith in the reality of his being. "He that cometh to God must believe that he is," etc.. (Heb_11:7) Their seeking information or counsel of the Lord was not true; they were not whole-hearted in so doing, but hypocritical. They are, says Hengstenherg, the "representatives of those who only outwardly fear God, but inwardly serve the spirit of the world and the age." How many meet in God"s house, unite in his worship, and listen to the ministry of his holy Word, as though they were genuine inquirers of his will, who yet have idols in their hearts! Seeming to sincerely "inquire in his temple," yet they are devoted to the pursuit of rank or riches, power or pleasure, etc.

II HYPOCRITICAL INQUIRERS OF GOD ANSWERED ACCORDING TO THEIR OWN HEART. "Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart," etc. (vers 4, 5). Different interpretations are given of these two verses. Thus Hengstenberg: "The question in ver. 4" (he places a note of interrogation at the end of that verse; so also does Schroder) "is in the sense of a negative, "I will not answer;" and this negative has its ground in ver. 5. God leaves sinners without answer or help, that they may come to a knowledge of their sin. "To take in the heart" (ver. 5) is to touch the conscience." Another interpretation is that he would give them an answer as delusive as the idols which they had taken into their hearts. The case presents itself to us thus: The spiritual state of these elders prevented them from truly hearing the word of the Lord. They were not sincere in their inquiries of him. They would not receive the truth which his servants Jeremiah and Ezekiel proclaimed. Nay, more, in their then moral condition they could not receive the truth of God. With their hearts devoted to idols, how could they apprehend and held fast the pure words of the Lord? So he would send them a message answerable to their own character. These "idolatrous oracle seekers have to expect what corresponds to their state." Hence their own hearts were their seducers. God deals with men according to their character. "With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful," etc.. (Psa_18:25, Psa_18:26) "The sin and shame, the pain and ruin, of sinners are all from themselves, and their own hearts are the snares in which they are taken; they seduce them, they betray them; their own consciences witness against them, condemn them, and are a terror to them. If God take them, if he discover them, if he convict them, if he bind them over to his judgment, it is all by "their own heart." "O Israeli thou hast destroyed thyself." The house of Israel is ruined by its own hands, "because they are all estranged from me through their idols (Matthew Henry).

III HYPOCRITICAL INQUIRERS OF GOD EXHORTED TO COMPLY WITH THE CONDITIONS OF ACCEPTABLE APPROACH UNTO HIM. "Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations." Here is a true message from God for them if they will accept it. Repentance towards God was their present and imperative duty. From the Lord the house of Israel had grievously departed, and their true repentance would be a returning to him, and renunciation of their abominable idolatries. Repentance is not mere regret, or self-reproach, or sorrow, or tears. It is that grief for sin which leads to reformation of life. "Repentance," says Shakespeare, "is heart"s sorrow, and a clear life ensuing." Now, this was necessary as a condition of approaching God acceptably. "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me". (Psa_66:18) Men should "pray in every place, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting". (1Ti_2:8) "Let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith," etc.. (Heb_10:22) When men inquire of God in this spirit, he will grant unto them gracious answers.

IV HYPOCRITICAL INQUIRERS OF GOD WARNED OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF PERSISTENCE IN SIN. "For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me," etc. (vers. 7-11). Here they are solemnly warned that, if they would not turn from sin unto God:

1. They should encounter the Divine displeasure. "I will set my face against that man," etc. (ver. 8). God cannot look upon sin with indifference. He hates it. And if sinners persist in it, he will set his face against them, and visit them because of their transgressions He did this in the case of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Siege and famine, pestilence, slaughter, and captivity were the consequences of their aggravated and long continued. sins and crimes.

2. They should become the victims of their chosen delusions. "If the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet," etc. (vers. 9, 10). They had chosen idols for their gods; they believed the false prophets rather than the true ones; and if they persisted in their choice they must take the consequences thereof. This was God"s answer to their inquiries. He had shown them that by true repentance they would put themselves into right relations with him. But if they would not repent, he would no more speak to them by his prophets, but by his judgments in the just consequences of their sins. Their chosen prophets would he deceived, and would deceive those who inquired of them, and both the prophets and the inquirers should "bear the punishment of their iniquity." But in what sense can the Lord be said to deceive the false prophet, and then to punish him? It is certain that he cannot sin, and that he is not the nuttier of sin. "The deception proceeds originally from indwelling sin (Jam_1:14) otherwise it could not be the object ofpunishment." But it was both permitted and regulated by God. He controls both sin and the consequences thereof for the accomplishment of his own glorious purposes. (cf. Psa_76:10) When Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, he did so of his own accord, with no thought of doing the will of the Lord Jehovah, yet unconsciously he was doing that will; and frequently the Lord says that he would do those things which the army of the Chaldean monarch did. (cf. Eze_4:16 Eze_5:8-17) God employed the Chaldeans, and regulated and controlled their movements, for the working out of his own plans; yet they were free in those movements, and had no idea that in them they were the agents of the Lord God of Israel. So these false prophets were used by him in the way of judgment, and were controlled by him; but they acted voluntarily in the course which they pursued, and they who consulted them did so of their own will; and both of them should become the victims of their cherished delusions, and "bear the punishment of their iniquity.

3. They should become the means, under God, of leading his people to fidelity unto him. "That the house of Israel may go no more astray from me," etc. (ver. 11). This was the Divine design in the punishment of the sinful people. punishes sins by means of sins," but the end is the reestablishment of righteousness. His people, purified by trials, will cleave to him whom they have forsaken, and become a converted, sanctified people, joined unto their God by a covenant which they will not break" ("Speaker"s Commentary"). The judgments of God aim at the promotion of the well being of man.

CONCLUSION.

1. Here is solemn warning against insincere approach unto God.

2. Here is encouragement to approach God sincerely and humbly. (Vers. 6, 11.) W.J.

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

The elders of Israel come to inquire of the prophet, ver. 1-5. They are ordered to repent, or not to pretend to inquire of God, ver. 6-11. Tho' Noah, Daniel and Job were to pray for the people, yet they would not prevail, ver. 12-21. Yet a remnant shall escape, ver. 22, 23.

Elders - Men of note, that were in office and power among the Jews, who were come from Jerusalem.

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

Jehovah Refuses to Answer the Idolaters

v. 1. Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, namely, of the exiles in Chaldea, and sat before me, evidently for the purpose of obtaining some information concerning the fate of Jerusalem and of the Jewish people, their bearing expressive of the anxiety which they felt.

v. 2. And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

v. 3. Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, literally, "have caused their filthy gods to go up upon their heart," for the corruption of man begins in his heart, and put the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face, for the iniquity of their heart became manifest in their outward actions, their evil thoughts causing them to stumble, Pro 3:21-23; should I be enquired of at all by them? Were such transgressors, who were here acting the hypocrites, at all worthy of an answer? The emphatic question of the Lord denies this fact with unmistakable vehemence.

v. 4. Therefore speak unto them and say unto them, in a message every word of which was divinely inspired, as the entire book of prophecies is, Thus saith the Lord God, Every man of the house of Israel, each individual being held responsible for his every act, that setteth up his idols, his filthy gods, in his heart and putteth the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face and cometh to the prophet, increasing the guilt of his idolatry by his insolent oracle-seeking: I, the Lord, will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols, in proportion to the idolatry practiced by him,

v. 5. that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, to bend and mold their hearts by means of His judgments, because they are all estranged from Me through their idols. If the present judgments did not succeed in bringing the people to their senses, they would act as fitting punishments for their idolatry.

v. 6. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God, Repent and turn yourselves from your idols, from the filthy gods which they had chosen for themselves, and turn away your faces from all your abominations, with the proper revulsion and loathing.

v. 7. For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, associated with the people of God either by birth or by accession in later life, which separateth himself from Me, through idolatry becoming estranged from the true God, whom he once confessed, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face, as described above, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning Me, regarding God’s will and intentions over against himself and others: I, the Lord, will answer him by Myself, giving him the answer which his apostasy and hypocrisy deserve,

v. 8. and I will set My face against that man, as an implacable enemy, and will make him a sign and a proverb, so that his case would serve as a standing example of warning to men everywhere, and I will cut him off from the midst of My people, Cf Num 26:10; Deu 28:37; and ye shall know that I am the Lord. Nor should the message of any prophet differ from that proclaimed by the Lord.

v. 9. And if the prophet, one who really considers himself a minister of Jehovah, be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, permitting himself, for any reason whatever, to be led astray and to deviate from the clearly expressed will of the Lord, so that his message confirms sinners in their obstinacy, I, the Lord, have deceived that prophet, permitting a spirit of falsehood to convey to him a message in agreement with the obstinacy of the people; and I will stretch out My hand upon him and will destroy him from the midst of My people Israel. One of God’s reasons for letting false prophecy gain such headway in the latter years of Judah’s existence was to have the process of separation between the true and the false Israelites go forward with the proper vigor and speed.

v. 10. And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity, that which they deserved for their willful transgressions; the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him, thereby supporting hypocrisy and deceit,

v. 11. that the house of Israel may go no more astray from Me, neither be polluted any more with all their transgressions, for the effect of sin is to bring corruption and pollution upon every one that sins, but that they may be My people, and I may be their God, saith the Lord God. The purpose of the Lord, even in His severest chastisements, is to gain the sinner, if possible, and to preserve his soul from eternal destruction. Well-deserved as every chastening is, it is still an instrument of mercy in the hands of God, unless the sinner hardens his heart against every influence for good and deliberately invites perdition.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eze 14:3

I. What is the sin and the voice of which the prophet speaks, and how may we ourselves be guilty of it? The father of modern philosophy and science has shown us that there are in the mind of man, as man, natural idols, which act as impediments to his acquisition of knowledge, and his search after truth. Till these idols are overthrown and broken in pieces and taken away, it is simply useless for man to pursue knowledge. His efforts will be neutralised, and their results vitiated. He will not arrive at truth. Now if this be true in the matter of human science it is not less worthy of our regard in the matter of Divine truth, and of the knowledge of God. We cannot know God, whom to know is eternal life, as long as these natural obstacles are not taken out of the way. What, then, is the practical bearing of this truth? (1) First there must be a single eye to the knowledge of God. If we have not made up our minds that the one only object worth living for is God, and the knowledge of God, we have set up idols in our hearts no less than the men in Ezekiel’s time, who came and sat before him. (2) Not only must there be a clear perception of God as the one sole object of our services, but there must also be a readiness to sacrifice anything in order to know and to serve Him. The man who is not prepared at any cost to himself to know and to serve God, is not prepared to serve Him at all.

II. There are certain general principles to which it behoves us to give heed when we come to the worship of God. (1) First of all we must empty ourselves of ourselves. We must come as though our present knowledge of God were as nothing, and as if God were still to be known and learnt. (2) There is nothing which so infallibly prevents us from seeing the truth of God as secret sin. As long as sin, in one of its innumerable forms, lurks in the heart or on the conscience, the service of God will be a vain thing, because the pursuit of truth is a lie. It is that practised dishonesty, it is that cherished lust, it is that pampered self-love, it is that incurable indolence, which vitiates all your worship and renders your religion a lie.

S. Leathes, Church of England Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 209.

Eze 14:4-5

I. The word estranged implies a former condition of close relationship and affection, from which they have since fallen. You would not say of a mere acquaintance, if you ceased to see him, that he was estranged from you; but if the love of an old friend grow cold, if a child become indifferent to his home, or a husband fail in his devotion to his wife, you describe such a falling off as estrangement. In this temper certain elders of Israel presented themselves before the prophet of God. God’s eye marked them as they came, and He warned His prophet instantly. God will not hear their prayer, nor answer them. Why? "Because they are all estranged from Me through their idols."

II. The question which God puts "Should I be enquired of at all by them?" expects the answer "No," and yet it is not the answer which He gives it. His answer admits us to a nearer view of His mysterious dealings with men. When men thus estranged and alienated from Him in heart present themselves in person before Him, He does not refuse them an audience. They pray, He hears—their prayer is answered; but how fatal is the gift which He grants! "I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols."

III. "That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart." This is God’s purpose in answering the evil desires of hearts alienated from His love. Their heart is to become the snare, the net in which they shall be caught, the pitfall in which they shall be entrapped. Could we look back on our years past we should see how many wishes, cherished while we professed to give them up for God, how many talents used in vanity, how many selfish prayers persisted in and gratified, had become like the meshes of a net to take our souls withal. Look back in time, turn your face towards God in real prayer, pray that He may not fulfil His threats, nor answer any other of your prayers, except you say, "Not my will, but Thine, be done."

C. W. Furse, Sermons preached at Richmond, p. 12.

Eze 14:8; Eze 20:38

Such is the solemn burden with which the prophet Ezekiel closes almost every paragraph of his prophecy: the proposed result of all the judgments denounced and all the mercies promised by God through his ministration. A result so announced, so repeated, cannot be unimportant.

I. When we come seriously to consider the matter, shall we not find that it is a lesson worth knowing at any price—at the price of home and comfort, of wealth and vigour, yea, of life itself, if need be? For let us think on the importance of this knowledge—to know that God is the Lord. On this, in a rational and responsible being, all real and enduring happiness depends. God is the Author of his life, the only satisfying object of his soul’s desire. On communion with Him, on grace derived from Him, on growing in likeness to Him, depend both his present and his advancing power for good. To know Him, not only leads on to eternal life, but it is eternal life itself.

II. Let us endeavour to sketch the boundaries of this knowledge, and give some idea of its nature, and how it is brought about. Man of himself has it not, he requires teaching it. Moreover, it is not a knowledge which any education, however complete, could confer upon us. Education may teach the knowledge of God’s works, may make a man conversant with the interesting and glorious details of creation, but it cannot teach the knowledge of God Himself. You may, and often do, find the accomplished natural philosopher, the accurate and experienced historian, the minute Biblical scholar, yet in total ignorance of the knowledge implied in those words, "Ye shall know that I am the Lord."

III. "Ye shall know that I am Jehovah." It is God’s promise to His people. And it is a crowning promise—one that includes all others in itself. For the more knowledge there is of God, the more love will there be towards Him; and the more love there is towards Him the more enjoyment there will be of Him; so that they who know Him best shall stand highest in the ranks of the blessed.

H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. ii., p. 120.

Reference: Eze 14:11.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xv., p. 146.

Eze 14:12-14

The language of the text is worthy of remark, because it speaks of Noah, Daniel, and Job saving their own souls by their righteousness; a form of expression to which undoubtedly many persons would object if it were used at the present day; it would be said to savour of the notion of salvation by works, and to be opposed to the doctrine of justification by faith.

I. In order to illustrate the subject, let us notice first that if we look at the history of the three holy men mentioned in the text, we shall find that they did save their souls or their lives by their righteousness. It is impossible to deny that certain great blessings did come to them because they were righteous, and if we had no religious theory at stake which we were afraid of injuring, we could not fear to say that their righteousness saved them. And it is manifestly in accordance with our own deepest sense of right and justice that this should be so; the notion that good deeds will bring a reward, and that evil deeds will bring punishment, is too deep to be rooted out.

II. Who shall say with our Lord’s description of the judgment before him, that the last judgment will not be a judgment according to works, that righteousness will not save souls alive? If we have a real deep view of our redemption through the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall not be afraid to speak freely as the Scriptures speak concerning the mode of our salvation. On the one hand the Scriptures say the Lord Jesus Christ has said, our own consciences say, that the man who turns away from his wickedness and does that which is lawful and right shall save his soul alive; nothing can interfere with this great principle. At the same time, when a human being conscious of sin presents himself before God, he will feel in his inmost heart that his righteousness is as filthy rags; he will feel that he can by no manner of means save himself, but he knows that he does not depend upon himself, he comes before God as one redeemed by Christ, he claims God’s mercy—not because he has done his duty, but because Christ has died.

Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 3rd series, p. 33.

References: Eze 14:13.—W. McAll, Penny Pulpit, No. 104. Eze 14:14.—H. Griffith, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 401; Parker, Christian Commonwealth, Sept. 2nd, 1886. Eze 14:19, Eze 14:20.—J. W. Burgon, Ninety-one Short Sermons, No. 81. Eze 14:20.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxviii., No. 1651; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xvii., p. 151. Eze 15:1, Eze 15:2.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii., No. 125. Eze 15:2.—Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 22. Eze 16:1, Eze 16:2.—Ibid., Sermons, vol. vi., No. 323. Eze 16:5, Eze 16:6.—Ibid., vol. viii., No. 468.

The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me

The elders sat before Ezekiel in order to inquire of the Lord through Ezekiel. (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

the word of Yahweh came

This is an idiom that is used to introduce something that God told his prophets or his people. See how you translated this in Ezekiel 3:16. AT: "Yahweh spoke this message" or "Yahweh spoke these words" (See: Idiom)

Son of man

"Son of a human being" or "Son of humanity." God calls Ezekiel this to emphasize that Ezekiel is only a human being. God is eternal and powerful, but humans are not. AT: "Mortal person" or "Human"

have taken their idols into their hearts

Yahweh speaks of the elders committing themselves to worshiping idols as if the elders had "taken their idols into their hearts." AT: "have devoted themselves to idols" (See: Metaphor)

have put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their own faces

Yahweh speaks of the idols that the elders worship as if they were blocks over which the elders stumble, and of being determined to worship those idols as if they had placed those stumbling blocks in front of their faces. AT: "have resolutely determined to worship the things that lead to iniquity" (See: Metaphor)

stumbling block of their iniquity

Possible meanings are 1) the idols are a stumbling block that leads to the elders' iniquity or 2) worshiping idols is an iniquity that causes the elders to stumble.

Should I be inquired of at all by them?

Yahweh asks this rhetorical question to emphasize that the elders should not be inquiring of him. This question can be translated as a statement. It can also be stated in active form. AT: "Should I permit them to inquire of me at all?" or "They should not be inquiring of me at all." (See: Rhetorical Question and Active or Passive)

translationWords

elder

Israel

word of God

Son of Man

false god

heart

stumbling block

iniquity

face

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Now there came to me some men Heb. וַיָבוֹא. All of them with one accord for evil. Therefore, it is said: וַיָבוֹא, and came [the singular form]. The Midrash Aggadah says that [the word is in the singular] because the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed to the ear of the prophet beforehand, “Behold so-and- so and so-and-so will come to you.”

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.