Ezekiel 14:19

Eze 14:19 Or [if] I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out my fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast:

Ver. 19. Or if I send a pestilence.] Which Hippocartes calleth το Yειον, because God hath a special hand in it. Physicians can give no good reason for it.

In blood,] i.e., In great slaughter, laying heaps upon heaps.

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_14:19-20

Or if I send a pestilence.

Public calamity a call to private humiliation

Depend upon it, we have need, and as the years roll away we shall have more and more need, to remind ourselves of the unseen Hand which sends us our blessings or withdraws them from us. New appliances of mechanical skill have a tendency to keep God out of our sight. The simple machinery which depended on the wind or the stream for motion did not suffer men so easily to forget their immediate dependence on God. His agency is half obscured when they become independent of the breath of heaven, and of the moisture which cometh down from above. And so there is a constant danger of our lapsing into practical atheism, if we allow ourselves, in the mere contemplation of a natural law apart from its Divine Author; or attend to its results, without adverting to the revealed cause of its operation. It is no disparagement to natural science to declare that, pursued in any but a godly spirit, it sometimes has a tendency to obscure the vision of God: to interpose hard names and technical phrases between Him and ourselves; and practically to keep Him out of our sight. Nay, the very progress of civilisation, the increase of wealth and refinement and luxury--all have the same tendency. The table daily spread without our care helps to keep God out of sight. And the special value of Scripture is seen in the unconditional and most unceremonious way in which it brushes aside this web of words; puts God, the Giver, prominently forward; and vindicates His absolute Sovereignty in creation. When Christ says, He maketh His sun to rise,--His language is altogether unscientific, to be sure; but He declares a truth which to the devout soul is of paramount importance; namely, that the heavenly bodies are all His creatures; and that, in reality, the phenomena which attend them are but the visible expression of His will. While thoughtful men are investigating the natural history of a calamity which, unless it be stayed, will inevitably press with terrible severity on the poor;--which, if it spreads, may bring contagion to all our doors,--occasion death within our homes and darken every domestic hearth;--a more excellent way is revealed to us in Holy Scripture; a method which is within the reach of us all. I allude, of course, to individual acts of repentance,--personal efforts after holiness,--the heartfelt use of private prayer. The special mention of three of Gods chiefest saints Noah, Daniel, and Job, reminds us that we must as individuals seek to turn away Gods anger from this Church and nation. What, above all, shall be said of our unconcern for the spiritual wants of the benighted heathen,--of our own countrymen in foreign parts, of our fellow citizens here at home? (Dean Burgon.)

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

in blood--not literally. In Hebrew, "blood" expresses every premature kind of death.

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

He now affirms of the fourth kind of punishment, what he has hitherto pronounced of the rest. He says, then, If I shall have sent a pestilence, and have devoted a land to devastation, that Job, Daniel, and Noah, should be safe if they dwelt there: but that their righteousness should not profit even their sons and their daughters. Nay, he seems to speak with greater restriction, since he has substituted the singular number for the plural: for he had just said, they shall not free either sons or daughters. He now says, not even a son or a daughter, that is, they shall not prevail with me by their intercession so much as to save from death even a single son or daughter. We must also remember what I have said, that God does not always act in the way related here: for he has manifold and various methods of carrying out his judgments. Hence it would not be just to impose a law not to liberate any one, and according to his own will either to hear or reject their prayers. But here he only means, that when he has determined to destroy a land, there is no hope of pardon, since even the most holy will not persuade him to desist from his wrath and vengeance. But now the conclusion 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.

19. my fury upon it in blood] The term “blood” is almost a synonym for “death;” cf. Psa_30:9, “What profit is there in my blood, in my going down to the pit?” Ch. Eze_5:7. On the Babylonian idea of “four” plagues, cf. Del. Parad. p. 146.

Eze_14:21-23. Application to Jerusalem.

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.

Though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it,.... Who are again mentioned by name, as in Eze 14:14; and are the three men referred to in Eze 14:16;

as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; not so much as an only son, or an only daughter, no, not even a single child: the plural number is used before, as in Eze 14:16; here the singular, to show how resolutely determined the Lord was upon the destruction of the land; that even the prayers of the best of men among them should not prevail with him to save a single person, no, not a single infant: they

shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness; See Gill on Eze 14:14.

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

Pestilence. Septuagint, "death," as ver. 12., (Calmet) denoting the plague, chap. v. 2. (Haydock)

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

Diseases are sent whenever they come, especially wasting diseases, which empty nations and cities apace.

Pestilence; God’s arrow that flies from God’s bow.

Pour out; not drop or distil on a people in small measures, and by leisure, but in great measures, and hastily, as waters are poured out of a vessel all at once almost.

In blood: sometimes blood does denote war, but here, and in many other places, it denotes death and destruction of men, though not by the sword.

Man and beast; not that beasts die of the same pestilential disease which kills man, but either death of men by pestilence emptieth the nation, that there are not men to take care and provide for the beasts; or rather, because when pestilence wasteth men, murrains and plague of cattle, from the same infected air, and from the hand of God, waste the beasts also.

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

Pestilence is joined with blood, as in Eze_5:17 Eze_38:22, as indicating its death-bearing character.

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

In blood - In death and destruction, not by the sword.

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

pour out my fury

Yahweh speaks of expressing his fury as if his fury were a liquid that he pours out from a container. AT: "I will express my fury" (See: Metaphor)

cut off both man and beast

Yahweh speaks of killing people and animals as if he were cutting them off, like a person would cut a branch from a tree. AT: "kill both man and beast" (See: Metaphor)

only their own lives would be rescued

This can be stated in active form. AT: "they would only rescue their own lives" (See: Active or Passive)

translationWords

plague

bloodshed

cut off

Noah

Daniel

Job

declare

Lord Yahweh

life

righteous

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