Chapter Twenty-Four

The Boiling Cauldron. The Death of the Prophet’s Wife

On the day when Nebuchadnezzar began the siege of Jerusalem, around which the entire previous preaching of the prophet had revolved and the outcome of which was to show whether he had prophesied truly and open his mouth (verse 27; cf. Ezek 3:20), the prophet receives a revelation from God about this, and under the image of a cauldron, from which the rust should be boiled out, he presents as an unavoidable outcome of the siege the destruction of the city (verses 1–14). At the same time he is informed that his wife will suddenly die, and that he should not mourn her as a sign of that benumbed horror with which news of the fall of Jerusalem will fill the prophet’s kinsmen. This was the last prophecy about the destruction of Jerusalem, the last terrible prophecy; then the prophet remains silent about Israel for one and a half years of the siege of Jerusalem, devoting this break in prophecy about Israel to prophecies about foreign peoples.

Ezekiel 24:1. And the word of the Lord came to me in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month: The first date after Ezek 20:1 – after 3 years and 5 months. According to our calendar, January 587 B.C.

Ezekiel 24:2. “Son of man, write down the name of this day, this very day. This very day the king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem. Write down the date so as to convince everyone afterward of the truth of the prediction or of God-given far-seeing knowledge. The siege began on this day and according to 2 Sam 25:1 and Jer 52:4. The day in the time of Zechariah the prophet, around 518 B.C., was already kept as a fast (Zech 8:19). The opinion expressed by several rationalists that we have here an obvious case of vaticinium ex eventu (prophecy after the event and on the basis of it) is refuted by people of the same camp, who agree to see here an act of clairvoyance, like the knowledge of Swedenborg about the fire in Stockholm in 1759.

Ezekiel 24:3. And utter a parable to the rebellious house, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Set on the pot, set it on; and pour water into it; “To the rebellious house.” The prophet did not call Israel by this name from Ezek 12:2. – “Utter a parable.” as in Ezek 17:2; consequently, what is described below was not a symbolic action, to which opinion (Kraetzschmar) the imperative mood: “Set on the pot,” “pour water” might give grounds. “Pot.” For the present parable the prophet thus made use of the comparison which he heard from those who remained in Jerusalem after Jehoiachin’s exile, and which in Ezek 11:3 he refuted. Here he, in a certain measure, takes their comparison: like them, he counts them as meat boiling in a cauldron (and there the prophet, contrary to them, called the slain meat), but gives the comparison his own application and unfavorable for the authors supplement: the meat from the cauldron will be cast out (captivity), and the scum melted away (the slaughter of part of the population and the burning of the city).

Ezekiel 24:4. Throw into it pieces of meat, all the good pieces, the thigh and the shoulder; fill it with choice bones; “Pieces of meat” – inhabitants of Jerusalem. Ezekiel obviously considers his kinsmen higher than these latter. “Good pieces, that is, thigh and shoulder” – the nobility of Jerusalem. Mockery at the high opinion of themselves the Jerusalemites had. “With choice bones” – for broth, – perhaps the military strength of the city: bone – a symbol of strength. Slavonic: “cut from the bones.”

Ezekiel 24:5. Take the choicest of the flock, pile fuel under the pot; boil the bones in it. “And pile fuel (added according to the LXX) under it bones.” The Scythians, according to Herodotus, used the bones of sacrificial animals for cooking meat; gauchos of South America and peddlers of Africa, in the absence of firewood, heat bones (Trochon.). One might suppose that the Hebrew “etzem” – “bone” here arose from “etz” – “firewood,” if all the translations did not have “bones” here. – “Boil the bones in it.” So strong is the fire under the cauldron to be (the flame of war).

Ezekiel 24:6. “Therefore thus says the Lord God: Woe to the bloody city, woe to the pot whose scum is in it and whose scum has not gone out of it! Take piece by piece out of it; no lot has fallen on it. Although the meat is well-cooked in the cauldron, it has been spoiled by the rust with which the cauldron is covered; therefore it must all be cast out indiscriminately. Jerusalem is so defiled by the blood shed in it that there cannot be people worthy of the mercy of God there: they, as it were, have been poisoned by its sinful atmosphere and must perish (by sword and captivity) in the siege. Consequently, the Jerusalemites vainly thought (according to Ezek 11:3) that they, like meat in a cauldron, would be preserved in the besieged city: defiled by blood like by rust, the city must all burn up in the fire of the siege, left without all population, so as to become afterward clean. “To the bloody city” – Ezek 22:2. “Scum”: Hebrew “gelata” – ἀπ. λεγ., Slavonic “poison,” ιος, rubigo (rust). The blood shed in Jerusalem. – “Without choice of lots.” In this catastrophe there will not be, as in the preceding ones, any happily saved.

Ezekiel 24:7. For her blood is in the midst of her; she poured it on the bare rock; she did not pour it on the ground to cover it with dust. Ezekiel 24:8. To rouse my wrath, to take vengeance, I have set her blood on the bare rock, so it will not be covered. A supplement to Ezek 22:2 and intensification of the thought there. The prophet with spiritually-bestowed acuteness penetrates into the mysterious essence of bloodshed as sin. Although the passage can be explained as meaning that blood was shed by Jerusalemites too openly, brazenly and without the natural in such a dark affair concealment, which might, if not hide, then partly cover the sin before the eyes of the Lord, the direct thought of the passage, although completely inexplicable and incomprehensible to us, is that the earth, by absorbing the shed blood, in a certain way covers the crime; cf. blood poured on the earth at sacrifice and Deut 12:16; Lev 17:13. – In the LXX also in verse 7: not “she,” but “I,” that is, God. In the words “on the bare rock” some see a prophecy of Golgotha.

Ezekiel 24:9. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Woe to the bloody city! I myself will make the fire great. Having proved that the siege of Nebuchadnezzar cannot be lifted, as they thought in Jerusalem (verses 6–8), the prophet returns to the interrupted comparison of the city with a cauldron and develops it further. The fire under the cauldron must be very great: the siege strong and persistent.

Ezekiel 24:10. Heap on the wood, kindle the fire; boil the meat thoroughly; mix in the spices, and let the bones be charred. “Boil the meat thoroughly.” Slavonic closer to the context: “let the meat melt away”: so that the meat turns into liquid. “Mix in the spices” – a conjectural and one of several possible translations of an obscure Hebrew phrase, which closer to the context is translated in Slavonic: “let the broth run out entirely,” that is, let all the liquid evaporate. “And let the bones be charred,” Slavonic more forcefully: “and the bones melt away.” The population of Jerusalem must all perish in the fire of the siege. The command to boil the meat in the cauldron contradicts the command of verse 6 to cast out the meat; but the prophet, absorbed by the thought, never develops the begun comparison consistently and strictly; the thought, however, both there and here is one: the destruction of the wicked population of Jerusalem.

Ezekiel 24:11. Now set the empty pot on the coals, that it may become hot, and its copper grow hot, so that its filth may melt away in it, and its rust be consumed. When the contents of the cauldron are all destroyed through strong boiling and evaporation (the population of Jerusalem through the siege), the cauldron must stand empty on the fire, so that “its copper grow hot” and “all its rust consumed.” The prophet could not think that the rust would fall off the cauldron from heat (Kraetzschmar); although he does not say this directly in the Hebrew text (according to the LXX, it seems, he does say), yet the cauldron itself will certainly perish with the rust; so it was with Jerusalem after the siege (burned and destroyed by the Chaldeans); similarly a house covered with plague must be destroyed: Lev 14:34-35.

Ezekiel 24:12. It has wearied itself with toil; its thick rust does not depart from it. Into the fire with its rust! “It has wearied itself with toil...” The siege will be hard, but even it will not cleanse all the filth of Jerusalem. Perhaps there is a hint that even after the restoration of Jerusalem it still retained many of its former vices. The Vulgate uses the past tense: multo labore sudatum est (it was sweated over with great toil); the question arose why the rust had not come off until now; it seems that God put much labor into Jerusalem’s cleansing (various trials – wars, calamities), but to no avail: non exivit de eo nimia rubigo, neque per ignem – the excessive rust did not go out from it, nor through fire (that is, through former terrible wars and other trials). LXX in the majority of codices do not read the first proposition of the verse; but in Slavonic it is there in such form: “let its poison be humbled” – a repetition of the last thought of the previous verse (such repetitions Ezekiel loves). “Into the fire with its rust!” Hebrew literal: “in the fire its rust” – without a predicate; therefore some translate: “into the fire its rust!” Slavonic “and it will be disgraced, its poison.”

Ezekiel 24:13. Your uncleanness is an abomination. Because I would have cleansed you and you were not cleansed from your uncleanness, you shall not again be cleansed until I have satisfied my wrath upon you. “Your uncleanness is such an abomination.” “Abomination” – Hebrew “zimma,” lit. deceit; Slavonic: “dill”: your uncleanness is so deep that grass has grown upon it. – “Since I have cleansed you.” What is meant are all the providential acts of God upon the Jews: prophets, trials. – “And you shall not be cleansed, until I have satisfied...” Slavonic: “and what will be, if you are not cleansed,” – if even now judgment remains without effect; – a thought, although not very probable in the mouth of Ezekiel, who, it seems, expected the final correction of Israel from captivity, but turned out to be true: after captivity Israel was not free from many of the faults of before-captivity times.

Ezekiel 24:14. I the Lord have spoken; it shall come to pass, I will do it; I will not go back, I will not spare, I will not relent. According to your ways and your doings you shall be judged, says the Lord God. “I will not go back” – Slavonic “I will not stop short.” To the verse the LXX make the following large addition: “therefore I myself will judge you according to your blood and according to your thoughts, I will judge you, you unclean, renowned and great in stirring anger”; although here the thought is not new (cf. verse 10), yet the consideration that in the sacred text gaps were psychologically more possible than insertions, and that the translation of the LXX in the book of Ezekiel is distinguished by great accuracy, causes many interpreters to suppose the primacy of this addition, or at least not easily to decide on denying its authenticity.

Ezekiel 24:16. “Son of man, behold, I take away from you the delight of your eyes with a stroke; yet you shall not mourn or weep or let tears run down. “With a stroke.” Hebrew “maggefa” probably means sudden death (a blow? Vulgate plaga). – “The delight of your eyes” – as is clear from verse 18, his wife. The only passage shedding light on the personal relationships and family life of the prophet. – “Rarely has God so humiliated his servants as to deprive them of a wife for nothing else than in order to make use of it for a mimetic depiction of the fate of a people,” says Hengstenberg, and on this basis contests the reality of what is described here, considering all of it a parable. But the prophet does not say that God struck the wife with death for this purpose: she died at the appointed time for her, and God commanded the prophet only to make use of her death for symbolic purposes. This command to the prophet could meet his spiritual need: loving his wife with such force, which shines through here, he could only be troubled by the complex funeral rites for her. “Do not mourn and do not weep.” The first may mean natural weeping, and the second, used at mourning, wailing, loud lamentation (Jer 22:18). – “And let tears run down.” Deep grief deprives man even of tears, which ease suffering.

Ezekiel 24:17. Sigh in silence, make no mourning for the dead. Bind on your turban, and put your shoes on your feet; do not cover your lips, and do not eat bread from those who mourn. “Sigh in silence, make no mourning for the dead.” The plural here is unexpected and explicable only in the sense of mourning as usually performed for the dead. Slavonic: “groan silently, groaning of blood, waist-mourning that is,” that is, both the groaning of blood alone and internal weeping are possible; – the expression “waist-mourning is that” is a doublet of “groaning of blood” (translation of the same Hebrew phrase, differently read); “waist” arose from reading the Hebrew “matim” – “dead” as “matnaim” – “waist,” therefore, the plural here disturbed the LXX as well. Further are enumerated the Hebrew signs of mourning, which the prophet should not allow. 1) “Bind on your turban.” As a sign of mourning they removed from the head the bands which, falling on the eyelids, encircled the head; Vulgate corona; perhaps from there the present yarmulke. In the time of St. Jerome this was erroneously seen as speech about phylacteries. The bands were removed perhaps in place of the original sprinkling of the head with ashes. Slavonic: “let your hair be braided on you” – combed; in verse 23 already unbraided: “and your hair on your heads,” that is, will not be cut. 2) “And put your shoes on your feet.” As a sign of mourning they went barefoot, thus exposing the lower part of the body, as the upper – the head, or out of fear of disrespect to the spirit of the dead, invisibly present beside those close to him. 3) “Do not cover your lips”; which they did (as in leprosy) perhaps as a sign of sorrowful silence and instead of the ancient cutting of the beard (cf. Ezek 7:18). The LXX, reading differently the Hebrew expression, have: “and you will not be comforted by their lips,” that is, do not accept official consolations and visits for this purpose. 4) “And do not eat bread from those who mourn” – bread which relatives or friends brought to the house of mourning as a sign of compassion, perhaps to remind him of eating or to give him a chance to eat clean food; perhaps a remnant of the meal for the dead, in which the dead, according to the old belief, invisibly participated; Vulgate: cibos lugentium – “mourning bread.”

Ezekiel 24:18. So I spoke to the people in the morning, and in the evening my wife died. And in the morning I did as I was commanded. “I spoke to the people in the morning the word of the Lord” – perhaps the revelation of verses 1–14. – “In the morning,” when those came to the prophet with expressions of condolence, which could be done only in the morning, as death came in the evening. – “I did” – here means did not do – the signs of mourning.

Ezekiel 24:19. And the people said to me, “Will you not tell us what these things mean for us, that you are doing so? So accustomed the people had become to seeking symbolism in all the actions of the prophet. Characteristic here is “for us”: the people already looks at itself as the prophet’s flock.

Ezekiel 24:20. And I said to them, “The word of the Lord came to me: “The word of the Lord came to me.” Usually: “came to me.” Perhaps denotes the past tense.

Ezekiel 24:21. Say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the desire of your eyes, and the delight of your soul; and your sons and your daughters whom you left behind shall fall by the sword. What was the wife to Ezekiel, that is the temple for the Jews. The epithets are not too strong if we take into account that Israel stood and fell together with the temple (Smend). Besides, in these proud and tender epithets is expressed the attitude of the prophet himself toward the temple; cf. Ezek 7:22; Jer 7:4; Mic 3:11 and further. – “The delight of your soul,” Slavonic: “whom your soul spares” (which you so guard): Hebrew ἀπ. λεγ. “machmal.” The LXX read like “machmod.” – The prophet from the numerous losses of Israel at the fall of the Judean kingdom points only to two most precious and equally dear: the temple and children. Besides, for the ancient Jew, religion and nationality (the preservation of which was conditioned by offspring) were one. It is quite possible that the countrymen of Ezekiel did not take children with them to Babylon in hope of a better future, so as not to expose them to dangers and deprivations of resettlement; perhaps only those whom they were forced to take went into captivity. If so, then the separation of sons from fathers in chapter XVIII according to their fate had historical basis for Ezekiel.

Ezekiel 24:22. And you shall do as I have done; you shall not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men. Ezekiel 24:23. Your turbans shall be upon your heads and your shoes upon your feet; you shall not mourn or weep, but you shall pine away for your iniquities and groan to one another. Ezek 24:22-23 verses 16–17. See there. Difference of Slavonic with Russian: instead of: “your turbans...” – “your hair on your heads” – will not be cut; different Slavonic in verse 17.

Ezekiel 24:24. Thus Ezekiel shall be a sign to you; all that he has done you shall do. When this comes, then you shall know that I am the Lord God. The second and last time in the book the prophet’s name is mentioned. The importance of the moment. Slavonic “wonder” is inexact instead of “sign.”

Ezekiel 24:25. And you, son of man, on the day when I take from them their stronghold, their pride and joy, the desire of their eyes and their heart’s delight, and also their sons and their daughters, “The stronghold of their glory” and so on – the temple; cf. verse 21. In Slavonic it is more accurate with the 4 epithets.

Ezekiel 24:26. on that day one who has escaped will come to you to report the news. “One who has escaped.” A terrible understatement; cf. Ezek 14:22. “In your hearing.” What God has spoken until now to the mind and spirit of the prophet, he will then hear with bodily ears. It was fulfilled after a year and a half (Ezek 33:21), if it was predicted on the day of verse 1.

Ezekiel 24:27. In that day when the one who escaped comes to you, your mouth will be opened and you will speak, and you will no longer be silent, and you will become a sign to them, and they will know that I am the Lord. The news of the fall of Jerusalem put an end to the periodic silencing that had been imposed on the prophet from above (Ezek 3:26-27), as if it was no longer needed: the prophet’s fellow-survivors became more attentive to his words through this news, and his words themselves became more pleasant to them, comforting; there began a bright period in all respects of the prophet’s activity, when he became, thanks to his prophecies coming so precisely true, a recognized prophet, when people began to listen to his voice and he became through this a sign of God, a “wonder” (Slavic translation) to the people (Zech 3:8).