Ezekiel 3:5

Eze 3:5 For thou [art] not sent to a people of a strange speech and of an hard language, [but] to the house of Israel;

Ver. 5. For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech and of an hard language.] Heb., Deep of lip and heavy of tongue. Qui strident sermone, et quasi e profundo gutture barbarum loquuntur. As Jonah was so sent, and those that now preach to the natives in New England in their own language, not without some good success.

But to the house of Israel.] Among whom thou must use vulgari et vernaculo sermone, who also are well seen in the Scriptures; they are indeed God’s library keepers, which is no small privilege, {Rom 3:2} and therefore the better to be dealt with.

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_3:5-6

Thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech.

The danger of abused privileges

If you consider ministers simply as the labourers of God, you will perceive that he whose scene of cultivation is an English parish, has not necessarily an advantage over him who is appointed to a Hottentot settlement. We do not undervalue the sufferings of the missionary or the merchant; but if the merchant abroad grows richer than the merchant at home, his superior wealth is regarded as a counterpoise to his toil; and in like manner if the minister of the Hottentot settlement win more souls than the minister in an English parish, his greater success must be considered as balancing his greater privations. Hence with all our admiration of that moral chivalry which leads a man to abandon home, and give himself to the work of a missionary, we are far enough from allowing that he deserves more of our sympathy, than another who is devoting his strength to the work of the ministry in the land of his birth. There is many a district in this country which offers more resistance to spiritual cultivation, than the wilds of absolute paganism; and he whose lot is cast in one of such districts, and who wrestles apparently uselessly from year to year, would make an exchange incalculably in his favour if he were transferred to a village in some far distant land where Christianity is humanising the savage, where the truths of the Bible are preached in their simplicity, and faithful men are overthrowing the superstitions and exterminating the vices of a long-degraded tribe.

I. The first thing that we consider is the truth that the foreign field would have been more productive than the home; in other words, to make the case completely our own, that ministerial success in an English parish may be far less than in the missionary settlement. We now wish to press upon your notice, as worthy of the closest attention, that the likelihood of men giving ear to the Gospel must diminish in proportion to the frequency of its repetition. It is with spiritual things as with natural; you may live within the sound of the roar of the cannon till you become insensible to the sound, and sleep without being disturbed by it; yes, and you may grow deaf to the thunders of the Word, and listen so often as not to be startled by them! Can it, then, be said on any principle of human calculation, that a man who has stood for many years the formal hearer of the Gospel till the preaching of it has deafened him, is a more promising subject for ministerial attack than the rude dweller in the desert, who never yet has been told of immortality, and never been offered salvation? In the one case we are opposed by ignorance, barbarism, and superstition; and these are formidable adversaries: in the other, we are opposed with enlightened heads and untouched hearts; and this is the combination which, of all others, presents an effectual resistance. It is this tendency of Christianity, to harden where it does not soften, which renders our home parishes so unpromising as fields of ministration. So that whatever the advantage of the home minister, there is so vast a counterpoise in the increased resistance to spiritual impression, which is the produce of a disregarded Gospel, that encouragement drawn from the words--thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech, and of a hard language, is quite overborne by the melancholy statement, surely had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened unto thee.

II. If the foreign field of labour would be more productive than the home--if the heathen would repent though the house of Israel be obdurate;--why was Ezekiel not sent to men of a strange speech and a hard language? There is a mystery which is wholly impenetrable, why God should send the Gospel to one nation, and withhold it from another. We have no sufficient means of determining the election of nations; it appears well-nigh as inexplicable as the election of individuals,--at least we can only resolve both to the sovereign will of the Almighty, and say in the words of the Saviour, Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight. The heathen are as much redeemed men by the blood-shedding of Jesus, as those who are blessed with all the privileges of the Gospel; and in what degree the energies of the atonement may extend themselves to procure the acceptance of those who act up to the light of the dispensation in which they live, we pretend not to determine; neither will we have the hardihood to say, that those who are excluded from all privileges, must be necessarily excluded from all benefit. The heathen will be judged by the laws of the dispensation beneath which he lived. We are assured by infallible authority, that it shall be more tolerable in the judgment for the heathen who never heard of the Gospel, than for those who have heard and rejected it. Though strictly we can only infer from this, that there shall be a graduated scale of punishment; is it not a fair induction that everyone may be tried according to his opportunities? and if this be admitted, then, where the opportunities are small, so also is the responsibility; and we the less marvel that God should have given only little, seeing only little will be demanded in return. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

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

Eze 3:5-8. Thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech — It would be a great addition to the burden of thy office if thou wert sent, as Jonah was, as a prophet to a foreign nation, and to a people whose language thou couldest not understand, nor they thine. Not to many people of a strange speech, &c. — God seems, as it were, to hint here that the time would come when he should order his messengers to go to many people of a strange speech, and should find those who would obey him in this. The apostles, evangelists, and other first preachers of the gospel, were sent to such a people, or rather to all nations, however difficult and strange their language was. Surely, had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened, &c. — And yet, in all appearance, even a strange nation, who could not understand thy words plainly, or without the greatest difficulty, would have hearkened to thy preaching sooner than the house of Israel, so corrupt are they become. Behold, I have made thy face strong, &c. — Do but thou obey me in what I command thee, and I will give thee courage and firmness proportionable to the hardiness and insolence of those thou hast to deal with.

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

Hebrew, deep lips.

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

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

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

Verse 5. Thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech] I neither send thee to thy adversaries, the Chaldeans, nor to the Medes and Persians, their enemies. Even these would more likely have hearkened unto thee than thy own countrymen.

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

(5) To a people of a strange speech.—In Eze_3:4-7 it is emphasised that Ezekiel’s immediate mission is to be, like that of his great Antitype, to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel; “and yet that they would not give the heed to him which men far below them in spiritual privilege would have gladly yielded. Similar facts are continually encountered in the Scriptures, whether in its histories, as in those of Naaman the Syrian, of the faith of the Syro-Phœnician woman (Mat_15:21-28), and of the Roman centurion (Mat_8:10-12), or in the express declarations of our Lord that the teaching and signs given to Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum in vain would have been more than sufficient for the conversion of Tyre, or Sidon, or even of Sodom (Mat_11:21; Mat_11:23; Mat_12:41-42). If it be asked, Why then should so much of the Divine compassion be expended upon a nation which so generally refused to avail itself of its blessings? the answer must be that only thus could even a few be raised at all above the very lowest spiritual plane, and that the raising of these few leads ultimately to the elevation of many. As an accountable being, man must be left free to neglect the proffered grace; and, as in the case of the Israelites to whom Ezekiel was sent, there would always be many who choose to do so. The consequence of this neglect must be such a hardening of the heart as was now shown by these people, and every man is warned by their example of the responsibility attached to the enjoyment of religious privilege. But the same thing would have happened with any other nation; and that God’s faithfulness should not fail, and that His purposes for man’s salvation should be accomplished, more grace must yet be given and His people must still be pleaded with, that at least a remnant of them might be led to repentance and be saved from the impending ruin. Theodoret calls attention to the contrast between the restriction of the grace of the Old Dispensation to a single people, and the universal diffusion of the preaching of the Gospel.

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

5. a strange speech] lit. deep of lip (or speech) and heavy of tongue. The former expression perhaps refers to the inarticulateness with which, to one unacquainted with their language, foreigners appear to speak; and the other to the thickness of their utterance. The first half of the expression occurs again Isa_33:19, a people of deep speech, so that thou canst not perceive; and the second half is said of Moses, Exo_4:10.

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.

For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech,.... "Deep of lip" (g), or "speech"; difficult to be got at and understood:

and of a hard language: or "heavy of tongue" (h) of a barbarous and unknown language, whom he could not understand, nor they him; and so would have been barbarians to one another; and consequently it could not be thought his prophesying among them, could have been of any use. This may be considered, either by way of encouragement to the prophet to go on his errand to such a people; since as he could understand them, and they him he might hope to meet with success; or, however he could deliver his message so as to be understood: or as an aggravation of the impiety perverseness and stupidity of the Israelites; that though the prophet spoke to them in their own language, yet they would not hear nor receive his words:

but to the house of Israel; who were a people of the same speech and language with the prophet; all spoke and understood the language of Canaan; nor were the things he delivered such as they were altogether strangers to being the same, for substance, which Moses, and the other prophets, had ever taught.

(g) "profundi labii", Vatablus; "profundorum labio", Polanus, Cocceius; "profundi sermonis", Starkius. (h) "graves linguae", Montanus; "gravium lingua", Polanus.

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

Though the Divine command is reason enough why we should obey readily, yet God is pleased to give the prophet arguments to persuade, and ushers them in here.

A people of a strange speech; who cannot skill of thy speech, nor thou speak (without gift of tongues) to them. Shift not off thy work as if, with Jonah, sent to a people of barbarous tongue, in which are dark and profound idioms, but as horrid to thy ear as deep and dark precipices and gulfs to the eye, as the Hebrew, deep of lip, intimates.

Of an hard language; the same repeated in other words; they will need no interpreter to tell them what thou sayest to them, nor wilt thou need an interpreter to tell thee what answer they give. Thy work will be the easier, neither difficult, as things that lie deep to be digged out, nor as things of great weight and heaviness to be lifted, as both metaphors imply: this is his first argument. Next, implied in it, I send thee to thine own countrymen, whose welfare thou shouldst readily seek, and in their own tongue thou mayst express thy care for them.

To the house of Israel; they still are a family that God owneth he hath not broke up housekeeping, there is further encouragement; and they are Israel’s seed, the posterity of Jacob, and under covenant mercy; go therefore readily, for Israel shall be gathered.

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

Of a strange speech and of a hard language, etc.; literally, as in margin, both of Authorized Version and Revised Version, to a people deep of lip and heavy of tongue; i.e. to a barbarous people outside the covenant, Chaldeans, Assyrians, Scythians: not speaking the familiar sacred speech of Israel. (compare the "stammering lips and another tongue" of Isa_28:11 Isa_33:19) The thought implied is that Ezekiel"s mission, as to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel", (Mat_15:24) was outwardly easier than if he had been sent to the heathen. With Israel there was at least the medium of a speech common both to the prophet and his hearers. In ver. 6 the thought is enlarged by the use of "many peoples.

Colonial missions.

Ezekiel was not sent, like Jonah, to a foreign city; though living among people of a strange language, he was not called upon to preach to the natives. His mission was to a colony of fellow Jews in a foreign country. He is the typical colonial missionary of the Old Testament.

I THE CLAIMS OF COLONIAL MISSIONS. Broadly stated, there are two great claims in colonial missions.

1. Close kinship. The colonists are our brethren. Charity begins at home, and the English home now stretches to Canada and to Australia. It is stated by those who know our colonies that the affection tot the old country is warm among them. To treat them with coldness is a cruel neglect of family ties.

2. Pressing need. It has been said that the colonies should provide for their own religious requirements. Such a sweeping statement betrays ignorance of the condition of our colonies. They cannot be lumped together in a mass when we discuss them; for there are enormous differences between the several colonies in regard to resources and capacity for religious activity. An old colony, such as we find in parts of Australia, can well provide for itself. But we have to consider new colonies, cities springing up like mushrooms, with the most raw civilization. Here the fight for life is fierce. Here young men, leaving behind all home influences, find themselves in close companionship with the roughest characters. Little or no provision can be made on the spot for the spiritual assistance of these people. We must follow them into the bush, or leave them to sink to mere animalism.

II THE DIFFICULTIES OF COLONIAL MISSIONS.

1. Lack of novelty. We cannot draw romantic pictures of these missionslike those pictures of New Guinea or Central Africa, which thrill the spectator with emotion. The work is English, commonplace, without much adventure. But it is only the superficial mind that should be discouraged by so childish an objection when real need presses.

2. Roughness of character. The backwoodsmen may not speak a rough dialect, but the freedom of their life tempts into their neighbourhood some of the wildest characters. Two classes emigrate the most energetic and best workmen, who go of their own accord; and the most worthless persons, who are sent by their friends. We ship our "ne"er-do-weels" off to the colonies. But change of scene does not bring change of character. Those who were scoundrels in the streets of London do not become all of a sudden respectable citizens in Melbourne. While we continue to pour into our colonies the scum and refuse of the old world, a great burden is being laid upon these young communities to protect themselves from dangerous influences.

3. Width of area. The colonies are vast in extent, yet they are but thinly peopled. The colonial missionary must travel far. His parish may be as large as a county. Men of great energy and devotion are required for such work.

III THE ENCOURAGEMENTS OF COLONIAL MISSIONS.

1. Readiness of access. Travelling is safe. There are no native chiefs to conciliate. The interference of a foreign government has not to be considered. The colonists speak our own language, and thus no time is spent in learning a foreign tongue before the real work begins. The missionary has the claims of kinship to help him.

2. A great future. No missions have been more successful than those to the South Sea Islands, yet the population of those islands is rapidly dwindling away, and in course of time all effects of the missions will have vanished, simply because the people will have died out. It is just the opposite in the case of our colonies. There population advances by leaps and bounds. Greater Britain is already one of the wonders of the world. If Christianity loses hold of this young giant, the ultimate result will be disastrous to mankind; but if the colonies are won for Christ, the freshest, strongest, most promising life of the world is secured for the cause of truth and righteousness. Moreover, no work is so remunerative in result as successful colonial missions. The new Churches have only to be planted and fostered for a time. Before long they will stand alone and become centres of usefulness. While foreign mission Churches are too much like the ivy, that must always cling to an external support, colonial Churches are like the saplings, needing a stake for a time to keep them straight and to help them to stand against the gale, but which can soon dispense with that aid. Lastly, where colonies are planted among native races, colonial missions may save these poor creatures from the ruin which bad white men always bring, and thus the colonies may become centres of Christianizing influence for the heathen.

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

of an unfathomable language Who have a deep language, which you do not understand.

to the house of Israel But to the house of Israel I send you, whose language is like your language.

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.