Chapter Fourteen

1–11. Unworthy inquiry of the true prophets. 12–33. Judah will not be spared because of a few of her righteous ones.

Ezek 14:1-11. Those who use the services of the prophets and inquire through them of God are closely connected with the prophets. Just as there can be false prophets, so false inquirers of God are possible. Sometimes men think to find counsel and comfort even from true prophets, when meanwhile in their hearts they tend toward idolatry, which they avoid only outwardly before the eyes of the prophet. God wishes to eradicate this last remnant of false prophecy in His people by destroying among them both such inquirers and the prophet giving them an answer, and thus uproot the sin of the people in its very roots of growth in the heart. Only then can true relationship between God and His people be restored. The visitation of the prophet by elders to inquire of God, related as the occasion for the present discourse, could have been repeated (cf. Ezek 20:1-3; Ezek 8:1). Therefore this revelation could have been received by the prophet not in the period of his activity to which the surrounding discourse relates; but this discourse could have been placed here because of its similarity with the preceding ones. Indeed, the discourse contains marks of later origin: the community has proselytes (verse 7); no word about the impending catastrophe for Jerusalem, instead of which indication of messianic times, the onset of which nothing will hinder once the seducers of the people are removed (verse 11); idolatry passes into syncretism. This section parallels chapter XX.

Ezekiel 14:1. And there came certain of the elders of Israel to me and sat before me. The elders who now came were probably not the same as in Ezek 8:1, because those were with the prophet, whereas these come to seek him; they could have been from another settlement (cf. Dan 13:5). The occasion for their visit is not mentioned; perhaps they wanted to obtain some information from the prophet-seer about the fate of Jerusalem (cf. verses 12 and following); or some public event had occurred. But Ezek 33:31 shows that such visits to the prophet were or gradually became frequent and usual. “Of Israel” – in contrast to the Babylonian.

Ezekiel 14:3. Son of man! These men have set up their idols in their hearts and placed before their faces the stumbling block of their iniquity: should I, then, be inquired of by them? “Have set up their idols in their hearts ...” Not extreme fascination with idolatry. “Placed before their faces the stumbling block of their iniquity ...” Must be an indication of external manifestation of idolatry, as in the preceding expression an indication of internal tendency toward it. Since in the Hebrew, the idols in the first expression are not called by their own name, but “abominations,” the LXX completely eliminate the concept of idols from this place and translate both expressions: “they placed their thoughts in their hearts and the torment of their unrighteousness before their faces,” which according to Blessed Jerome means: they come to me with former thoughts, despairing of better and prepared for punishment. – “Should I, then, be inquired of by them?” A question amounting to strong negation.

Ezekiel 14:4. Therefore speak to them and say to them: Thus says the Lord God: If anyone from the house of Israel sets up his idols in his heart and places before his face the stumbling block of his iniquity, and comes to the prophet – I, the Lord, will answer him as he comes with the multitude of his idols? “If anyone from the house of Israel.” Slavonic more accurately: “man by man of the house of Israel,” that is, each man. A formal formula common in the law of Moses in generally binding decrees (Lev 17:3 and following). On the occasion of a particular case God gives a general rule, not mentioning the particular occasion thereafter; hence the subsequent literal repetitions from verse 3. – “Will I answer him.” Slavonic more accurately: “will I answer him concerning these, on which his thought dwells,” that is, will answer him according to his abominations (Blessed Jerome). How God will answer such an inquirer is told in verse 8: with strict punishment.

Ezekiel 14:5. in order that I may capture the house of Israel by their own heart, since they have become estranged from Me through all their idols. The purpose of such a strictly zealous relationship of God to His honor is the same as all other actions of God toward Israel: to shake the rest of Israel to its very essence and move it to repentance. The Slavonic and accepted Greek text: “that the house of Israel may not go astray from their hearts” gives incorrect thought; the negative must be added (replace “so that” με with “so that not”) and read according to the Alexandrian codex and the Arabic translation (made with verse 17: “so that the house of Israel not go astray,” – so that the house of Israel not wander according to its inclinations.

Ezekiel 14:6. Therefore say to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord God: Turn back and turn away from your idols, and turn your face away from all your abominations. Moving from the present inquirers of God to all inquirers generally, the prophet’s discourse, becoming increasingly generalized, now addresses the whole people. As shown by the threefold concept of turning (“turn back,” “turn away,” “turn your face” – in Hebrew the same verb), the matter is complete turning of the people, upon the possibility of which the prophet, consequently, hopes, if he insists so much upon it. “Turn your face away,” which had been turned toward idols for prayer. The LXX here also do not have the concept “idols.”

Ezekiel 14:7. For if anyone from the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel, separates himself from Me and sets up his idols in his heart and places the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet to inquire of Me through him – I, the Lord, will answer him Myself? “And of the strangers who sojourn in Israel.” A formula often encountered in the Pentateuch (Lev 17:8 and others), which Ezekiel is the first to use, which may testify to the wide development of proselytism already in his time. The attention he gives to proselytes is evidenced by Ezek 22:7 and Ezek 47:22, where he expressly recognizes their equal rights with native Israelites. Therefore he demands from them the same purity of faith and morality as from the latter, as the law of Moses did: Exod 12:19; Lev 17:10 and others. On the difference between the Slavonic and Russian translation at the beginning of the verse see the explanation of verse 4.

Ezekiel 14:8. I will set My face against that person and make him a sign and a byword, and cut him off from the midst of My people; and you will know that I am the Lord. “I will make him a sign and a byword.” “A sign,” in that upon this person will be shown what fate befalls idolaters; “a byword,” in that his fate will become a comparison to denote the greatest misfortune imaginable. Such a stern mode of action toward this religious weakness is necessary in order that the true nature of God may someday be attained.

Ezekiel 14:9. And if a prophet be deceived and speaks a word, I, the Lord, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him from the midst of My people Israel. “A prophet” not only a false one (as in Ezek 13:2), but even a true one, to which this can happen, as shown by the example of Balaam. – “Speaks a word,” that is, gives an answer from the name of God to one inquiring through him of the God who is an idolater. “I, the Lord, have deceived that prophet.” The LXX and all ancient translations (the Vulgate, etc.) more accurately: “I, the Lord, have deceived the prophet.” How such deception is possible on the part of God is shown by the vision of Micaiah, son of Imlah: 1 Sam 22:20-23 (one must keep in mind Jas 1:13). God, according to the thought of Holy Scripture, sometimes accelerates the development of sin to its full measure, so that judgment may put an end to it (cf. “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart”). In the present case it is supposed that the prophet had matured even earlier in his wickedness for God’s judgment, and for the latter it was only necessary this particular manifestation of his wickedness. – “Destroy him from the midst of My people.” The prophet is punished like one inquiring through him of God; by satisfying the latter’s desire, he revealed complete misunderstanding of the basic principle on which the relationship between Jehovah and Israel is founded, and therefore his presence among the people would be ruinous for the latter and would hinder its turning to Jehovah.

Ezekiel 14:10. And they shall bear their iniquity; as the iniquity of the inquirer is, so shall be the iniquity of the prophet, The guilt and punishment of the prophet does not, however, diminish that of the inquirer. The principle of personal moral responsibility, developed by Ezekiel in Ezek 3:18 and following and Ezek 18, to which he returns in the second half of the present chapter, requires that each suffer for his own iniquity.

Ezekiel 14:11. so that the house of Israel may no longer stray from Me, nor defile themselves anymore with all their transgressions, but that they may be My people, and I may be their God, says the Lord God. When the idolaters and false prophets are removed, then messianic times can arrive, and with them the realization of the ideal covenantal communion between Jehovah and Israel (cf. Ezek 11:20). Thus all the judgments of God sent upon Israel flow from God’s love for him and the desire to see him attached to Himself. The judgment of the people here is more favorable than in the earliest discourses following his calling. The prophetic discourse of verses 12–23, connected with the preceding, in that it demonstrates that God, destroying the idolaters, will not be stopped by the presence among them of a few righteous ones, forms an introduction to the following discourses (from chapter XV), which depict the impiety of Judah and Jerusalem as an inexorable cause for their fall.

Ezekiel 14:13. Son of man! If a land sins against Me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out My hand against it to break the supply of bread, and send famine upon it, and cut off man and beast from it; “If a certain land.” Wishing to set forth a general view of God’s justice, in order to apply it later (from verse 21) to the fate of Jerusalem, the prophet must speak of a hypothetical land. But he describes this impiety in such a way that Palestine is plainly in mind: only a land in covenantal relationship with God could “act faithlessly” against Him; a pagan nation could not, although pagan lands can also sin, be better or worse (Nineveh, Jonah 1). – “Break the supply of bread” see explanation Ezek 4:16. – “Famine” – the first of four judgments (verses 15, 17, 19 – the three other judgments are: beasts, sword, plague) of God (Ezek 4:16-17), a judgment with the slowest action and therefore most suitable for the instruction of the unrepentant. – “And beast.” “In Zeph 1:3 for the first time both beasts are destined for destruction for the sins of men on the day of the Lord” (Kraetzschmar).

Ezekiel 14:14. and if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they alone would deliver themselves by their righteousness, says the Lord God. Noah, Daniel, and Job are taken as three righteous men who preserved their purity amid the universal impiety of those around them and thereby were saved from common destruction. The strange at first glance arrangement (Daniel not last) is explained by the fact that Noah by his righteousness saved his whole family – 8 people, Daniel only people like himself in righteousness – 3 people, while Job could not save his children. The righteous ones are probably taken deliberately from different and distant epochs. Remarkably, only one of them is a Hebrew; this corresponds to the thought developed further by the prophet about the constant and universal corruption of Israel (chapters XV, XVI, XXIII); Jeremiah in similar passages names Moses and Samuel (Jer 15:1 and others). The mention, and such an unsubstantiated one, of these righteous shows how well known they were to the popular masses, although the book of Job could not yet exist. There is no need with some modern interpreters to see in the Daniel mentioned here a different person, a more ancient one known, based on the place occupied by him in this list and the fact that he was the younger contemporary of Ezekiel; transferred to Babylon under Jehoiakim (Ezekiel under Jehoiachin), Daniel by the time of the present discourse of Ezekiel had already lived in captivity 14 years and had managed to gain fame everywhere by his dream interpretation and wisdom, which Ezekiel in Ezek 28:3 presupposes known to all (and in Tyre). The teaching of the prophet Ezekiel about the powerlessness of the righteous to save those around him by his holiness does not contradict God’s promise to save Sodom even for 10 righteous ones: after all, Sodom perished despite the presence of one, or perhaps several, righteous ones in it; all the more could not three righteous ones save an entire country. – Here are the beginnings of Ezekiel’s teaching on personal moral responsibility, which at that time was new and subsequently developed in detail by the prophet in chapters XVIII and XXXIII.

Ezekiel 14:15. Or if I send wild beasts through the land and they bereave it, so that it becomes desolate, that no one may pass through because of the beasts, “Wild beasts” cf. 2 Sam 17:25; Lev 26:22. – “Desolate” – Slavonic more accurately: “there will be no one passing through it”; not only will it lose its population (“bereaved”) and goods (“desolate”), but even strangers will avoid it.

Ezekiel 14:16. Though these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they would not deliver sons or daughters, but only they themselves would be delivered. “As I live.” A solemn oath was needed perhaps in view of the apparent contradiction of the teaching here about individual moral responsibility of man with the Mosaic teaching about family moral responsibility, with which the people had long identified and pushed to extremity (Ezek 18:2). – “Would not deliver sons or daughters.” Perhaps children of Job or Ham are meant. – “Would be delivered.” Probably means more than preservation of life, continued enjoyment of divine mercy, in which sense it could not be said of the sons of Noah that they were delivered.

Ezekiel 14:17. Or if I bring a sword upon that land, saying, “Sword, pass through the land!” and I cut off from it man and beast, “Sword” – war, invasion of the country by enemies.

Ezekiel 14:19. Or if I send a plague upon that land and pour out My wrath upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast, “I pour out My wrath upon it in blood.” The last plague is sent with particular divine anger in view of the ineffectiveness of the three preceding ones. – “In blood,” see explanation Ezek 5:17.

Ezekiel 14:20. Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they would not deliver son or daughter; they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness. In conclusion the three righteous are named in full again, instead of the abbreviated designation at the 2nd and 3rd judgment: “these three men.” For the same reason “they would deliver only themselves” instead of the simple “would be delivered” of verses 16 and 18.

Ezekiel 14:21. For thus says the Lord God: How much more when I send My four severe judgments upon Jerusalem – the sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague – to cut off from it man and beast! “Therefore.” The Hebrew conjunction “af – ki” can have the meaning “yet,” “nevertheless,” “but,” more fitting here: the following speak of an exception to the rule stated above. The Slavonic without conjunction: “these says ...” – “When I send all four...” Upon Jerusalem God sends not one or another of the listed plagues, but all of them at once. On the fourth number of plagues see explanation Ezek 5:2. The sword is named first here (and not famine, as in verse 13), because this is what happened to Jerusalem: its trials began with a siege.

Ezekiel 14:22. And then a remnant will be left in it, sons and daughters who will be brought out; behold, they will come forth to you, and when you see their ways and their deeds, you will be comforted concerning the disaster that I have brought upon Jerusalem, for all that I have brought upon it. If not one of the listed four judgments of God could escape the ungodly, one would expect that the combination of all of them, which was to befall Jerusalem (namely, at the Chaldean invasion), would destroy all its ungodly population; on the contrary, on the other hand, part of this population, even whole families in it (“sons and daughters”) will be saved (not said: “will be delivered,” therefore in preceding verses “deliverance” means more than preservation of life). The purpose of saving this remnant from Jerusalem sufficiently shows how terrible was the moral condition of the city and how longsuffering God is. Bitterly ironical sounds the word “be comforted,” showing at the same time how difficult it was for the captives to bear the fall of Jerusalem, despite the enmity between the city and them (Ezek 11:15). It is characteristic and that the prophet Ezekiel sees comfort in the fall of Jerusalem in a more perfect knowledge of God’s justice made possible by this fall. How precious were to the prophet the successes of knowledge of God!