Chapter Thirty-Three

The Prophet’s Duties Now

From chapter XXXIII the properly consolatory part of the book begins, in which speeches against the heathen nations (XXV-XXXII) form a transition from the threatening-accusatory 1st part. “When news came of the fall of Jerusalem (Ezek 38:21), the situation of the prophet among the captives, as the Lord had predicted to him (Ezek 24:25 and foll.), became entirely different. The victory of his cause was decided. Of course, he always encountered opposition (Ezek 33:30-33) and there could be no question of a sudden change in the people. The opposition between prophecy and the people was so ancient and so deep that it could not be eliminated in one blow. But a mortal blow to the people’s stubbornness was struck, although the flame of falsely understood patriotism could still flare up on the ruins of Jerusalem (Ezek 33:23-29). The prophet could now resume his practical pastoral activity, in order to compose from the remains of the old Israel a new one in view of the still-threatening judgments of God upon the world” (Smend). And he develops this activity in a way that no prophet before him had developed it; at least in no prophet do we find such a clear and so deeply conscious program of this activity (Ezek 3:27 and foll. Ezek 18:1).

The entire last part of the book is occupied with the future restoration of Israel (chapters XXXIII-XXXIX) and the order of its future social organization (XL-XLVIII chapters). The prophet himself should be the immediate means for such restoration, insofar as Yahweh through him opens up for individuals the possibility of repentance and salvation (chapter XXXIII). But given the insignificant, at least apparently, result which the prophet achieved in this great work of Israel’s reformation through pastoral care for “the sons of his people,” his gaze is involuntarily directed to Yahweh Himself, upon whom alone in the end depends the possibility and necessary restoration of Israel. Passing from the nearest to the distant, from the lesser to the greater miracle, the prophet describes how the Lord establishes in place of the corrupted old kingdom of Israel a new one, as it were reforming it from the head: instead of unworthy shepherds, the former kings, He Himself becomes the shepherd of Israel (chapter XXXIV), — how He will restore His land in new grandeur (chapter XXXVI), having previously wrested it from heathen hands, that is, immediately by destroying those Idumaeans who unlawfully seized it (chapter XXXV) — how God will finally raise the dead and unite His divided people; and at last how He will reveal Himself to it and to the whole world in the fullness of His glory, which is according to Ezekiel the goal of all God’s actions in the world (being at the same time the condition of the present and proper life of the world and humanity) through the final destruction of heathendom on earth in the person of Gog (chapters XXXVIII-XXXIX).

Since God creates a new Israel in place of the old one, chiefly through prophecy and the prophet, the Lord begins His consolatory revelations about the glorious future of Israel with a renewal in Ezekiel’s consciousness of the prophetic duties already revealed to him (in chapter III) and begins. The people have suffered the punitive judgment of God in the fall of Jerusalem, but this judgment is not yet complete: in the future the wicked captives too face destruction. But God has opened a way out of it, has made it possible for each one to repent in time through the proclamation to the prophets of the coming judgment, which when it arrives will find each one as he is: to these warnings the prophet is obligated under penalty of responsibility for each soul entrusted to him (vv. 1–9). For no one is God’s judgment inevitable, and no one should despair of God’s mercy, however much his conscience is weighed down by sin (vv. 10–20). In such warnings and concern for souls the prophet always placed his calling among the people (cf. Ezek 3:16-21), but he was sometimes forced to be silent (cf. Ezek 3:22-27); now the course of events (news of the fall of Jerusalem) made him master of his position, restored his freedom of speech (vv. 21–22), as the Lord had promised him (Ezek 24:23-24). With this first revelation in the prophet’s new position, which sets forth the program of his present activity in relation to Israel, are closely connected 1) the speech against those left in Canaan, who have not yet repented through the fall of Jerusalem (vv. 23–29) and 2) a remark about those captives who obey the prophetic authority only outwardly (vv. 30–33. Smend).

Ezekiel 33:1. And the word of the Lord came to me: This revelation was probably received at the time indicated in v. 21, and the date is placed only there, in order to give this revelation the appearance of a programmatic introduction to the new part of the book devoted to a new and different period of the prophet’s activity.

Ezekiel 33:2. Son of man! speak to the sons of your people and say to them: If I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of that land take from their midst one man and make him their watchman; “To the sons of your people.” An epithet of Israel that carries a certain tenderness, especially compared with the frequently used name in the 1st part of the book “the house of the rebellious” (in the 2nd part in Ezek 44:6); such gentleness is caused, of course, by the overwhelming but morally favorable impression which the fall of Jerusalem made on the captives; this epithet in the 2nd part of the book is usual (also vv. 12, 17, 30; 37:18; in another sense in Ezek 3:11, see explanation there). — “From their midst.” Heb. miqtzem, which contains qetz, end, — a rare (Gen 47:2; Num 22:41) and not with firmly established meaning expression; Vulgate.: de novissimis suis (Maldonatus: a man of low station). — “Watchman” — a sentry, as is clear from the following.

Ezekiel 33:3. And he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people; “Sword” — the enemy army. In relation to Israel and the prophet, the punitive judgments of God are understood, which may have taken place, perhaps also specifically among the captives (by some calamity). — “Blows the trumpet” — Amos 3:6.

Ezekiel 33:4. And if any one hears the sound of the trumpet but does not take heed, and the sword comes and takes him, his blood will be on his own head. Ezekiel 33:5. He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take heed; his blood will be on himself. But he who takes heed will save his life. “His blood will be on his own head.” He will die (cf. 1 Chr 12:19; Dan 1:10) and will be guilty of this. It is not from anyone to exact his blood according to the law of blood-vengeance (Lev 1:4). “Saves his own life” see explanation Ezek 3:18.

Ezekiel 33:6. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes a life from among them, that person will be taken away because of his sin, but I will require his blood from the watchman’s hand. “And takes a life from among them,” Slavonic “and takes away a soul from them.” The singular indicates that the watchman and prophet are responsible for each soul of the people entrusted to them. — “Will be taken away because of his sin.” According to the view of the prophet Ezekiel, not foreign to other prophets either, but expressed especially vividly in him, a person cannot perish, at first of course eternally, but partly by violent death otherwise than by reason of his own sin, even though the immediate cause of his death was the negligence of another.

Ezekiel 33:7. And you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word from My mouth and give them warning from Me. Ezekiel 33:8. When I say to the wicked, “You wicked one, you shall surely die,” and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, then that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand. Ezekiel 33:9. But if you do warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, then he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have saved your life. An almost literal repetition of Ezek 3:17-19. But there the destruction of the kingdom was primarily in view, which the prophet was to warn the people about, while here the further purifying judgments of God upon Israel are in question. — “Wicked one!” Slavonic “sinner.” This vocative is an addition (and expressive) to the parallel passage in chapter III, but it is not read in many ancient translations. The relationship to a sinful righteous person, as a comparatively rare case, is omitted from chapter III.

Ezekiel 33:10. And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel: Thus have you spoken, saying, “Our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we are wasting away because of them; how then can we live? The second task of the prophet after warning sinners — to oppose their despair by assurance of God’s mercy. The verse sheds interesting light on the mood of the captives. When the incredible threat of the prophets came true, Jerusalem fell (or was on the eve of falling), the people’s despair became as great as their earlier self-confidence (cf. Zech 7:3), as the prophet had predicted (Ezek 24:23) and as he now foresees (anticipation v. 21). The prophet, in his usual manner, takes the phrase from the very lips of the people. — “You have spoken” have customarily and rightfully (Kimhi) spoken. — “Our transgressions (Slavonic: “our deceptions” which seems to be a reference to idolatry) and our sins are upon us,” will accuse us before God and provoke His wrath. — “And we are wasting away because of them,” which fulfilled the threat Lev 26:39. The image is taken from a corpse. The people are dead (Ezek 37:11). — “How then can we live?” How can the promise of v. 5 be fulfilled? The expression shows also the complete hopelessness of the views of the Old Testament person.

Ezekiel 33:11. Say to them: As I live, says the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways; why will you die, O house of Israel? The terrible depression caused by misfortune is not the goal of the suffering sent by God, as the destruction of the people is not His goal, but rather its restoration. On the contrary, every suffering, and the present (more accurately: the coming one v. 26) in precise measure only a necessary warning, an exhortation to reform conduct, a reform necessary in order to “live,” that is, to enter into the number of the blessed people of the future which the prophet is striving to form (Bertholet). See explanation Ezek 18:23 and pay attention to the difference in expressions (reluctance to repeat literally): the interrogative form is replaced by simple negation; the force of negation, reduced by this, is fully restored by the oath (“As I live”). “Turn, turn,” Slavonic “with turning turn you.” Emphasis. Cf. Ezek 18:32. — “Why will you die, O house of Israel?” A full of zeal for the amendment of Israel, for the formation of the blessed people of the future exclamation, in which already a little shines through the consciousness of the attained success.

Ezekiel 33:12. And you, son of man, say to the sons of your people: The righteousness of the righteous will not save him when he transgresses, and the wickedness of the wicked will not cause him to stumble when he turns from his wickedness, and the righteous will not be able to live by his righteousness when he commits sin. The moral state of a person at the moment (“day”) when God’s judgment strikes him is decisive, not his past. It is not yet too late. A concise repetition of Ezek 18:20-21.

Ezekiel 33:13. When I say to the righteous that he shall live, and he relies on his righteousness and commits iniquity, then all his righteous deeds will not be remembered, but he shall die in his iniquity which he committed. An intensification. Even if salvation and destruction are proclaimed by God (evidently through the prophet), a change in a person can lead to a change of what seems to be an unalterable (Ezek 32:18) word of God (the book of Jonah). The passage shows how the prophets themselves regarded their prophesying. The case of the righteous was taken first to then dwell more fully on the sinner. Cf. Ezek 18:21.

Ezekiel 33:14. But when I say to the wicked, “You shall surely die,” and he turns from his sin and does what is just and right, Ezek 33 Ezek 18:5.

Ezekiel 33:15. If the wicked person returns the pledge, gives back what he has stolen, and walks in the statutes of life, doing no injustice, he shall surely live and not die. Since the repentance of the sinner is especially important, it is defined more precisely, and only two manifestations of it are indicated, both concerning property. Probably these two sins were especially common among the poor communities of Hebrew colonists in Babylonia (see explanation Ezek 18:7). — “And walks in the statutes of life....” “If the law did not give life to a person, it was not so much a defect of the law as of the person himself with his weakness in fulfilling it.” Rom 7:10; Gal 3:21 (Trochon).

Ezekiel 33:16. None of his sins that he has committed will be remembered against him; he has done what is just and right, he shall surely live. Ezek 33 Ezek 18:22.

Ezekiel 33:17. And the sons of your people say: “The way of the Lord is not just,” when it is their own way that is not just. Ezek 18:29. Again (v. 11) the interrogative form is replaced by simple negation (for brevity in repetition).

Ezekiel 33:18. When the righteous turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he shall die for it. Ezekiel 33:19. And when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he shall live. Ezek 18:26-27.

Ezekiel 33:20. But you say: “The way of the Lord is not just!” I will judge you, O house of Israel, each according to his ways. Ezek 18:30.

Ezekiel 33:21. In the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month, one who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me and said, “The city has been destroyed! According to the Hebrew and Russian texts, the news of the fall of Jerusalem was received by the prophet almost 18 months after the event, which occurred in the 4th month of the 11th year of the reign of Zedekiah (the same as the captivity of Jehoiachin and the prophet: Jer 39:2) — a very long interval even with the generally good international communications of the time, Ezek 26:1-2. Therefore the ancient translations alter this date; the Greek: in the 10th year (which is worse than the Hebrew text; should be in correspondence with the 10th month), the Slavonic: in the 12th month (should be in correspondence with the 12th year and 12th month; the interval is even longer); best is the Peshitta: in the 11th year, in the 12th month, which would be 5 months after the destruction of Jerusalem, — an interval sufficient for travel from Judea to Babylon. The Hebrew reading could have arisen from the date Ezek 32:1, so that it would not be later than the present one. However, one cannot decidedly reject the Hebrew reading: Ezekiel could have lived in such remote parts of Mesopotamia that news reached there very slowly. — “One who had escaped,” Slavonic more precisely: “one who survived,” which can also have a collective sense.

Ezekiel 33:22. Now the hand of the Lord had been upon me in the evening, before the fugitive came; and He opened my mouth before he came to me in the morning. So my mouth was opened, and I was no longer mute. Just as the prophet was brought to silence not by external compulsion, but by God Himself (Ezek 3:25), so now, although his silence was to be broken by the news of the fall of Jerusalem (Ezek 24:27), it ends a whole day before he receives this news (cf. Ezek 24:2 and its explanation): in the evening before receiving the news the prophet falls into ecstasy (“the hand of the Lord was upon me” — see explanation Ezek 1:3), in which he apparently received all the revelations of this chapter (vv. 1–20). — “So my mouth was opened and I was no longer mute.” He could speak more boldly and freely, since the fulfillment of the prophecies revealed before all that he was a true prophet in him. See explanation Ezek 3:26.

Ezekiel 33:23. And the word of the Lord came to me: The present speech (vv. 23–29) is directed against those left in the homeland by the conqueror, the Jews who had suddenly become the sole owners of the holy land and began, on account of this, to indulge in impossible dreams of the speedy restoration of the kingdom: the result of these dreams was the uprising of the descendant of David, Ishmael, and his murder of the Babylonian governor Gedaliah (Jer 41:1-2), and then a new (3rd) captivity of the Jews in Babylon in the 23rd year of Nebuchadnezzar, 5 years after the destruction of Jerusalem. The prophet could have received the news of such a disposition of those left in the homeland from the same fugitives from which he received (according to v. 21) the news of the fall of Jerusalem. But this speech could also be written later, when the uprising against Gedaliah had occurred or was being prepared, and placed here in the systematic arrangement of the speeches.

Ezekiel 33:24. Son of man! those who inhabit these ruins in the land of Israel keep saying, “Abraham was only one man, yet he took possession of the land; but we are many; the land is surely given to us to possess. “In these ruins,” which the whole land had become: one could settle only in the ruins. All the more unreasonable were the dreams of the “inhabitants.” — “Abraham was only one.” The beginning of that pride in fleshly descent from Abraham (cf. Isa 51:2), which had grown so much by the time of the Savior. If Abraham alone became lord of the land of Canaan, then all the more can a whole succession (“but we are many”) of Abraham’s descendants count on such dominion. — “The land is surely given to us to possess.” Self-confidence, a complete opposite to the depressed mood of the captives. Cf. Ezek 11:15. They suddenly felt themselves masters of the land — let it be all in ruins, they need only stretch out their hands to take it; take it can be without any effort.

Ezekiel 33:25. Therefore say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD: You eat flesh with the blood, you lift up your eyes to your idols, and you shed blood; and will you then possess the land? Sins are indicated, as usual for Ezekiel, chiefly of a religious character and, remarkably, with the exception of one, concerning blood. Thus the first: “you eat flesh with the blood” (Gen 9:4; cf. 1 Sam 14:32); perhaps under the influence of the Philistines (Zech 9:7). — “You lift up your eyes to your idols” — Ezek 18:6. — “And you shed blood.” Perhaps an indication of the sacrifices of Ishmael’s uprising. — “And will you then possess the land,” being so unlike Abraham, to whom the holy land was promised in possession. The verse is absent in some LXX codices.

Ezekiel 33:26. You rely on your sword, you commit abominations, and each of you defiles his neighbor’s wife; and will you possess the land? “You rely on your sword” instead of law and justice; the right of the strong. — “You commit abominations,” probably sexual ones: Ezek 18:12. — “And each of you defiles his neighbor’s wife” — Ezek 18:6. The verse is absent in some LXX codices.

Ezekiel 33:27. Say to them thus: Thus says the Lord GOD: As I live, those who are in the ruins will fall by the sword; and those who are in the open field I will give to the beasts to be devoured; and those who are in strongholds and in caves will die of pestilence. Three punishments correspond to three zones of habitation of the inhabitants. 1) “Those who are in the ruins,” probably in Jerusalem, “will fall by the sword” of the Chaldeans when suppressing Ishmael’s uprising (Jer 52:30). 2) “Those who are in the open field,” in a flat space, in a steppe or villages, “I will give to the beasts to be devoured,” especially those multiplied after the Chaldean devastation of the land; see explanation Ezek 5:17). 3) “And those who are in strongholds and caves,” fugitives from the Chaldean punitive expeditions (cf. Judg 6:2), “will die of pestilence,” which easily develops in besieged cities with a crowded population and without means of subsistence; cf. Ezek 5:14.

Ezekiel 33:28. And I will make the land a desolation and a waste, and her proud strength will come to an end; and the mountains of Israel will be so desolate that no one will pass through them. “And I will make the land a desolation and a waste” Ezek 6:14. — “Her proud strength” — Ezek 30:6. — “The mountains of Israel” see explanation Ezek 6:2. — “No one will pass through them” Ezek 14:15.

Ezekiel 33:29. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I have made the land a desolation and a waste because of all their abominations which they have committed. “Then they will know that I am the Lord.” This knowledge seems to be more like the knowledge promised among the Heathen nations in Ezekiel, see explanation Ezek 25:7, that is, it will consist in the recognition of God’s power that has destroyed them, rather than the knowledge promised to the true Israel, in this case the captives, who are chiefly promised participation in the coming blessings of the Messianic kingdom.

Ezekiel 33:30. And as for you, son of man, the sons of your people are talking about you beside the walls and in the doorways of the houses; one speaks to another, each to his brother, saying, “Come, please, and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord. The fellow captives of the prophet, although better than the self-confident sinners left in Judea, but by their attitude to the prophet and his word make one wish for much better and, apparently, a separate revelation — vv. 30–33 — although not marked with a date, and not having the stereotypical beginning “the word of the Lord came to me,” is directed against them. After the exact fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecies about the fall of Jerusalem, the situation of the prophet among the captives suddenly and sharply changed: he became the object of universal attention; he was not only sought out the opportunity to hear, but he became the usual topic of conversations in houses and on the streets. V. gives a lively picture of Eastern life, the urban day: in the shade of the walls near the houses and in the cool of the doorways and porches stand the peaceful inhabitants of a Jewish town in Babylonia and exchange the news of the day. In all such groups there is only talk of the prophet and of the brilliant and sad confirmation of his recent predictions about the fall of Jerusalem. The time is very near the catastrophe and the impression from it is fresh. Now they are catching every word of Ezekiel and, what interests each one most, what will the prophet say today (“Come, please, and hear, what word comes from the Lord”). The prophet has attained the popularity of which he could not even think before, and it could not but please him as a man, all the more so as in it was for him a pledge of the success of God’s work on earth. But he knows also the true value of this popularity; he needs something else, or rather — something quite different, altogether.

Ezekiel 33:31. And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their gain. “And they come to you as people come,” in such numbers, as at an entire gathering. — “And they sit before you” — with the intention to listen thoroughly and not to leave soon, as from some public entertainment. — “My people” — absent in some LXX codices. The passage speaks of considerable freedom granted to the Babylonian captives. — “And they hear your words, but they do not do them,” “by which the coming of the kingdom of God would be hastened” (Kratz.). The diminution in the captives of the vices against which the prophet had been fighting since chapter XVIII and with renewed force resumed his attacks in Ezek 33:15 and following, he did not notice, at least to the degree he desired. — “For with their mouth they show much love” — a conjectural translation of an unclear Hebrew expression; the Slavonic is better: “because falsehood is in their mouth” (agavim is read as kezavim), that is, they falsely promise the prophet to fulfill his exhortations. — “Their heart goes after their gain.” Greed has always been the first vice of the Jews. 1 Sam 8:3; Isa 56:11.

Ezekiel 33:32. Behold, you are to them like a song of love sung sweetly by one with a pleasant voice and who plays well on an instrument; they hear your words, but they do not do them. “A song of love” — Heb. shir agavim, that is, a song of love, the most pleasing, not unknown to the Jews (Song; Isa 5:1). The LXX are general: “the voice of a singer,” φωνη ψαλτηριον, Vulgate. carmen musicum. — “Who plays well on an instrument” — a rare and especially delightful combination: natural voice and good music; the Slavonic: “sweet-voiced graceful” (ευαρμοστου) — with a good voice and good execution. The prophet, consequently, was known as a good orator. Besides his rhetorical beauties, the speeches of the prophet became for the people pleasant music also on account of their comforting content. — “They hear your words” — a refrain; v. 31.

Ezekiel 33:33. But when it comes to pass — look, it is coming — then they will know that a prophet has been among them. When the predictions about the last purifying judgments of God upon Israel are fulfilled (see explanation v. 3), as the prediction about the fall of the kingdom has been fulfilled, then the prophet will become for the people what a prophet should be — the highest moral authority. But even now the promise of God to the prophet Ezek 2:5 was close to complete fulfillment.