Ezekiel 24:12

Eze 24:12 She hath wearied [herself] with lies, and her great scum went not forth out of her: her scum [shall be] in the fire.

Ver. 12. She hath wearied herself with lies.] With seeking and trusting to lying vanities, creature comforts. Others render it, She hath wearied me with lies - i.e., With false promises of amendment; others, Frustra sudatum est, Pains is taken with them to no purpose.

And her great scum went not forth out of her.] But is sodden into her partly, and partly sodden over into the fire. A godly man cleareth himself of sin, as spring water worketh itself clean; as the sea will endure no poisonous thing, but casteth it upon the shore; as the sweet water, made brackish by the coming in of the salt water, gets to be sweet again, so do God’s people work out brackish and sinful dispositions, &c. The good heart admitteth not the mixture of any sin; though sin may cleave to it as dross doth to silver, yet, like right wine or honey, as the scum ariseth, still it casteth it out; so here.

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 24:12-14. She hath wearied herself with lies — Hebrew, תאנים, with vanities, or troubles; multiplying her idolatries, and seeking help sometimes from one idol and sometimes from another, but all in vain. The expression may also include the alliances the Jewish people entered into, and the various arts of policy they employed to avert their ruin, none of which were of any service to them: as if he had said, She has taken a great deal of pains, but to no purpose: her allies, their promises, their forces, their gods, all prove a lie to the house of Judah. Her great scum went not out of her, &c. — All the admonitions I gave her by my prophets, and my sundry chastisements and punishments of her sin, availed nothing to the purifying her from her idolatries and other wickedness; her scum shall be in the fire — The fire must consume her and her wickedness. In thy filthiness is lewdness — Thou hast shown thyself shameless and incorrigible in thine idolatries. Because I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged — I did what was requisite on my part to thy amendment, but thou refusedst to comply with those frequent calls and exhortations which I gave thee; and therefore my Spirit shall not strive with thee any longer with gentle methods, but I will proceed to execute my severest judgments upon thee, namely, by sending thee into captivity, and letting thee suffer all the calamities of it for a long season. According to thy doings shall they judge thee — According to thy deserts shall the Chaldeans, who are the ministers of my justice, punish thee.

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

The city hath flattered herself in vain.

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

herself--rather, "she hath wearied Me out with lies"; or rather, "with vain labors" on My part to purify her without being obliged to have recourse to judgments (compare Isa 43:24; Mal 2:17) [MAURER]. However, English Version gives a good sense (compare Isa 47:13; Isa 57:10).

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

12. As the words stand they seem to read: she hath wearied my labours, and her great rust goeth not out from her; let her rust be in the fire! Previous efforts to purify Jerusalem have been in vain, her uncleanness will go out only by fire (Eze_24:13); cf. Isa_43:24. LXX. omits first clause, which might be a duplicate of words immediately preceding.

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.

She hath wearied herself with lies,.... With serving idols, which were lying vanities; by trusting to the alliances of neighbouring nations, which deceived her; or by committing sin, in which there was no satisfaction; or it may be understood of wearying of God with their sins, and particularly with her lying promises of repentance and reformation:

and her great scum went not forth out of her; notwithstanding her promises; or notwithstanding the admonitions given, and the chastisements inflicted on her, yet she continued hardened in her sins, impenitent and unreformed:

her scum shall be in the fire; like a pot that boils over, its scum falls into the fire, and is consumed there; and in no other way, but by the fire of divine judgments, or the burning of the city, could the wickedness thereof be consumed. The Targum is,

"and they shall not go out of her that work iniquity; in the fire shall she be burnt, because of the multitude of her sins.''

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

She; the nation of the Jews, and the city Jerusalem.

Hath wearied; either her God, (so the French translation,) by her repeated sins, and pertinacy in them, as elsewhere, Isa 1:14; 7:13; 43:24; or wearied others, by injuries done against them; or, as we read it, herself, spent much time and taken great pains, laid out much treasure in making alliances for her security.

With lies: her allies, their promises, their forces, and their idols, on which these unhappy Jews relied, all prove a lie to the house of Judah.

Her great scum went not forth; she repented not, nor did she reform her ways.

Her scum, her unrepented sins, shall be in the fire, shall be punished in the fire that burns their city.

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

12. Wearied herself with lies — R.V., “with toil”; margin, “wearied me with toil.” Plumptre, “it [the caldron] is worn out with labors.” The meaning evidently is that all the previous efforts to cleanse Jerusalem have failed. Even the hottest fire seems unable to cleanse its foulness, and its destruction is the logical sequence.

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

She hath wearied herself with lies, etc.; better, it (keeping to the image of the cauldron) is worn out with labors; sc. with the pains taken to cleanse it, and yet the rust remains. The fire must burn, the retributive judgment must continue, till the work is done.

A weary task.

Jerusalem is represented as endeavoring to remove her own evil, but as growing weary in the fruitless task. The rust cannot be cleansed from the vessel.

I IT ACTS LIKE RUST.

1. It comes from a corroding agent. Temptation bites into the yielding soul like an acid.

2. It reveals an inferior character. Brass and iron become rusty under circumstances which leave gold and silver untarnished. Readiness to yield to temptation is a sign that there is base metal in the soul.

3. It corrupts the very substance of the soul. Rust on metal is not like moss on stone, a mere excrescence and parasite growth. It is formed from the metal itself; it is a portion of it disintegrated and mixed with an alien body. Sin breaks down the fabric of the soul-life, and wears it away in a slow death.

4. It tarnishes the beauty of the soul. Rust is like ingrained dirt on the bright surface of the metal. The rusty mirror no longer reflects light. The sin-stained soul has lost its luster and ceases to reflect the light of heaven.

II MEN TRY TO REMOVE THE RUST OF SIN. This is the task that the people of Jerusalem are supposed to have undertaken.

1. They turn from their past. The atmosphere which caused the rust is abandoned. The old days are to be forgotten; a new life is to be commenced.

2. They put their souls under discipline. The attempt is made to burn off the rust or to scour it away.

3. They offer compensation. New deeds of goodness are to supersede and atone for old deeds of sin.

4. They offer sacrifices of expiation. The history of religion is full of such sacrifices sacrifices which constitute a leading element in the Old Testament economy.

III THE ATTEMPT TO REMOVE THE RUST OF SIN IS A WEARY TASK.

1. New circumstances do not destroy old sins. Though the vessel be taken out of the damp atmosphere which first corroded it, it does not become bright. The rust is still on it. We may try to make amends in the future, but by such means we cannot get rid of the guilt and the consequences of the past.

2. Sin has eaten its way so deeply into the soul that no efforts of ours can remove it. It is not like dust that lies loosely on the surface; it has cut into our nature like rust. Our feeble self-discipline is ineffectual for removing so close-clinging an evil.

3. No compensation of good works nor expiatory sacrifices will remove this evil. "It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin". (Heb_10:4) Such sacrifices can be but symbols at the best.

IV CHRIST HAS ACCOMPLISHED THIS WEARY TASK.

1. He has made the great atonement with God. He is the one true Sacrifice for sin. (Heb_10:14) Thus the way is now clear for the soul"s cleansing.

2. He removes the rust of sin from the soul. As "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world," Christ not only brings pardon, he produces purity. His mighty arm scours the rust off the soul.

3. This was a weary task for Christ. Even he found it no easy work. It required the humiliation of Bethlehem, the agony of Gethsemane, and the death of Calvary. Christ toiled, suffered, and grew weary unto death in the awful task. Yet he persevered to the end.

4. Christ invites us to abandon our useless, weary task and come to him for cleansing. It is especially to those who labor and are heavy laden with sin that he gives his great invitation. (Mat_11:28-30)

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

She - Jerusalem. With lies - Her allies, their promises, their forces, and their idols, all prove a lie to the house of Judah. Her scum - Her unrepented sins shall be punished in the fire that burns their city.

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

With guile she wearied [Heb. תְּאֻנִים הֶלְאָת.] With pretext and guile, she wearied the poor. Therefore, the wicked in her midst will not leave her, but they will perish in the fire of her retribution.

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.