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THE BOOK OF EZEKIEL,
Chapters 1-48

CHAPTER ONE

 

 

1:1:  “in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month” = Ezekiel’s call to prophesy was in the fifth year from the date of his being carried away with Jehoiachin (see 2Ki. 24:11-15) by Nebuchadnezzar, about B.C. 599.  The best portions of the people seem to have been among the first carried away (Eze. 11:16; Jer. 24:2-8 & 10).  He continued to prophesy for at least twenty-two years, that is, to the twenty-seventh year of the captivity (Eze. 29:17).  The call of Ezekiel followed the very next year after the communication of Jeremiah’s predictions to Babylon (Jer. 51:59).  Another explanation for “thirtieth year” is that it is referring to the Prophet’s age and the beginning of his ministry, so as it was with our Lord when He began His ministry at the age of about thirty (Luke 3:23).

 

“thirtieth year” = Another explanation could be, counting from the beginning of the reign of Nabopolassar, father of Nebuchadnezzar, the era of the Babylonian empire, about B.C. 625, which epoch coincides with the eighteenth year of Josiah, that in which the “Book of the Law” Second Kings 22:8, was found, and the consequent reformation began.  From the finding of the “Book of the Law” in the eighteenth year of Josiah, from which date to the “fifth year,” verse 2, of the captivity, are thirty years.

 

“river of Chebar” = The vicinity of the river Chebar flows into the Euphrates near Circeslum.  A river now called Giulap, arising out of the mountain Masius.

 

1:2:  “fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity” = Taken away by the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, when he had reigned but three months; while his captivity was seven and thirty years (see 2Ki. 24:8).

 

1:4:  “out of the north” = This phrase is used in Scripture to point out the direction toward the throne of God.  See Psalm 75:5-7 & Isaiah 14:13.

 

“midst of the fire” = Throughout Scripture our God is pictured as a consuming fire.  See for examples Acts 26:13; Hebrews 12:29; First John 1:5.

 

1:5:  “four living creatures” = Later identified as “Cherubim” in Ezekiel 10:15 & 20.  See my Bible Study:  “ANGELS, A BREAKDOWN OF.”

 

1:8:  “hands of a man under their wings” = “In Ezekiel’s vision God had His hand beneath the wings of the cherubim.  This is to teach His servants that it is Divine power that gives them success.”  5T:754.

 

“In the vision of the prophet Ezekiel there was the appearance of a hand beneath the wings of the cherubim.  This is to teach God’s servants that it is Divine power that gives success.”  PK:176.

 

1:9 & 12:  “they went every one straight forward” = According to James 1:17, “with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”  This could be the interpretation here.  These beings could see in all directions without turning (see verse 10).

 

1:10:  “likeness of their faces” = Here is my Revelation 4:7 Note:  Compare this list with the list in Ezekiel 10:14:  “And every one had four faces:  the first face was the face of a cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.”  “Man, “eagle,” and “lion” match, but “calf” and “cherub” do not.  That “calf” is a good translation of the Greek word “moschos,”  and that “cherub” is a good translation of the Hebrew word “kerub,” is without doubt.  Therefore, you figure it out when you get there.  The Hebrew word “kerub” is also equivalent to its plural form, “cherubs.”  Thus, this verse makes it clear that angles can be hard to define as to what their faces look like; while their bodies seem to be identified regularly to that of mankind’s.

 

In addition, according to Ezekiel 10:28, these creatures (or this creature) are/is in the “likeness of the glory of the Lord.”  And in Ezekiel 10:20, we are told specifically what they are, i.e., “I knew that they were the Cherubims.”

 

The list in Ezekiel 1:10, is also a little different: “As for the likeness of their faces, they four [all four] had the face of a man, and the face of a lion [only], on the right side:  and they four [all four] had the face of an ox on the left side; they four [all had] also had the face of an eagle.” Are you confused yet?  Let’s get to Heaven so we can see them for ourselves.

 

1:13:  “lamps:  it went up and down” = “The bright light going among the living creatures with the swiftness of lightning represents the speed with which this work will finally go forward to completion.”  5T:754.

 

1:14:  “flash of lightning” = Ezekiel can see them “run” away.  But when they return, there is no hesitancy.

 

1:15-2:3:  “wheels” = According to Daniel 7:9, this is none other than the “Ancient of days. . . and His wheels as burning fire.”  No one has ever locked down just exactly what Ezekiel saw here.  No painting has ever truly captured the sight.  Therefore, let your imagination run with It yourself, for I dare not attempt to picture It for you.  We are attempting to picture these in our three-dimensional system.  This is more likely in a four-dimensional system.

 

1:17:  “they turned not when they went” = See my Ezekiel 1:9 & 12 Note.

 

1:20 & 21:  “for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels” = This is the key phrase to understanding this creature.

 

1:22 & 23 & 25 & 26:  “firmament” = Which “firmament” can be argued here.  I don’t think it is referring to earths “firmament.”

 

1:28:  “glory of the LORD” = The Hebrew word used for “glory” here is, “kavob,” the same as used to identify the “glory” of God in Exodus 16:7 & 10; 24:16 & 17.  It implies more than just the visible manifestation of God, but the physical also.  Thus, more than a vision’s reaction, but the kind of reaction one might more readily accept:  “I fell upon my face,” this verse.

 

 

CHAPTER TWO

 

 

2:1:  “Son of man” = The literal translation is, “son of the dust.”  God calls Ezekiel this 93 times in this Book.

 

2:2:  “the Spirit entered into me” = Not that the Holy spirit did not dwell within Ezekiel already; but that the power of the Spirit of God was now to be used and expressed in him.

 

2:3:  “rebellious nation” = Stated 17 times (“rebellious house”) in this Book and obviously is the root of the problem and the reason for the writing of this Book.  The Hebrew word used for “nation” here is “goy.”  This is the term usually used exclusively for Gentile “nations.”  Thus, to use it here is to show that when Israel is in rebellion against God, He no longer considers them to be His people.  Check your character.

 

2:4:  “Lord GOD” = “Adonai Yahweh,” occurs 217 times in this Book alone; and 103 times elsewhere in the Old Testament.

 

2:5:  “yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them” = They may not believe him, but they will know him to be a prophet.  That is an oxymoron.  Many people know the Word of God to be true and know the people of the Book to be truthful; yet they will not turn from their wicked ways.

 

2:10:  “within and without” = Front and back like the Ten Commandments (Exo. 32:15).

 

 

CHAPTER THREE

 

 

3:1:  “eat” = Digest, or better, understand what “thou findest.”  See Jeremiah 15:16.

 

3:3:  “in my mouth as honey for sweetness” = You can never love God without loving His Word.

 

3:4:  “get thee unto the house of Israel” = The northern kingdom of Israel was dispersed by the nation of Assyria 200 years before this, Judah is now in captivity here.  Therefore, who is this “house of Israel?”  It can be none other than those claiming to still be obedient to the true God.

 

3:6:  “they would have hearkened unto thee” = That is, if they had the privileges that Israel had.  What a change of character Israel has gone to.  “Impudent and hardhearted.”  Verse 7.

 

3:7:  “But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee” = Rather disheartening.  All the coming demonstrations, all the pleading, all the visions and warnings, yet, “But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee.”  Why send Ezekiel to a people who will not listen or turn from their wicked ways anyway?  So that our God, a God of justice, will be just when He judges them.

 

3:8:  “thy forehead strong against their foreheads” = Just as stubborn as they are, so Ezekiel will be just as stout.  Remember that Ezekiel’s name means, “God strengthens.”  This is a word-play in the Hebrew.

 

3:9:  “As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead” = Flint is a hard stone and the people of Israel were “adamant,” meaning they were (dictionary) “utterly unyielding in attitude or opinion in spite of all appeals.”  God would make Ezekiel just as determined in giving the messages of God.

 

3:14:  “the hand of the LORD” = Occurs 190 times in the Old Testament.  We should all want this.

 

3:15:  “seven days” = This may have nothing to do with this time period, or it could, for “seven days” were appointed for the consecration of priests.  See Leviticus 8:33.

 

3:18-21:ALL:  When the Holy Spirit asks you to speak to someone and you have your excuses ready for the firing, consider these verses again, and read them over and over again.  We and Ezekiel is/are accountable for the faithful deliverance of God’s message; but not for Its success of failure to convert.  That is the Holy Spirits problem, not yours.  If you are going to take the Name of the King (Christian), then you better represent Him faithfully and accountably. You have a power that the unbeliever does not have.  Use It.  This is the “watchman’s,” verse 17, role.

 

However, note the change here.  Ezekiel’s call is now to the individual of Israel and not to the nation any longer.  See Revelation 3:20.

 

3:24 & 25:  “[24] shut thyself within thine house [25] thou shalt not go out among them” = Notice that only those interested would have to come to him.  This period lasted about 2 years (see Eze. 24:1 & 27).  Ezekiel starts out his ministry in silence, “thou shalt be dumb,” verse 26.

 

3:27:  “He that heareth, let him hear” = This phrase appears 7 times in the Gospels and 7 times in the Book of Revelation, Chapters 2 & 3.

 

 

CHAPTER FOUR

 

 

4:1:  “tile” = The “Targum” renders it a “stone.”  Most likely it was a brick.  Sun-dried or kiln-burned bricks were from very early times used for building walls throughout the plain of Mesopotamia.  Some think that this was ordered because cities are built of brick; or to show the weakness of the city of Jerusalem, how easily it might be demolished; and Jerome thinks there was some design to lead the Jews to reflect upon their making bricks in Egypt, and their hard service there; though perhaps the truer reason may be, because the Babylonians had been used to write upon tiles.

 

Epigenes says, in “Apud Plin. Nat. Hist.” l. 7. c. 56, that they had celestial observations of a long course of years, written on tiles; hence the prophet is bid to describe Jerusalem on one, which was to be destroyed by the king of Babylon.

 

4:2:  “lay siege against it” = This vision covers the intermediate between the siege of Second Kings 24:10-16, at which time Ezekiel was carried to Babylon, and the siege of Second Kings 25:1-11, eleven years later.

 

“camp” = Or better, like a “detachment of soldiers.”

 

4:4:  “Lie thou also upon thy left side” = He was to lie on his left side for a number of days, supposed to be equal to the years from the establishment of idolatry.  Illustrating that Nebuchadnezzar (Babylon) was God’s instrument He would use to afflict the punishment for not obeying God.  Despite their hope of freedom.

 

4:5:  “three hundred and ninety days” = These “days” were the years during which Israel and Judah sinned, and date in the case of Israel from Jeroboam’s rebellion to the time at which Ezekiel wrote (circa 390 years); and in the case of Judah from Josiah’s reformation.  The breakdown would be when Judah was finally desolated by Nebuzar-adan, in B.C. 584, to the establishment of idolatry in Israel by Jeroboam, in B.C. 975; beginning from First Kings 12:33, and ending in Jeremiah 52:30.  That these “days” equal “years,” speaking prophetically, see verse 6.  For other instances where our Lord uses “days” in the sense of meaning “years” in prophetic language, see also Numbers 14:34; First Samuel 20:6; Psalm 90:10; and then see Genesis 6:3.

 

Another simple breakdown would be, the siege of Jerusalem was about 18 months long (Jer. 52:4-6).  If we deduct 5 months from that siege, when the besiegers withdrew from Jerusalem because of Pharaoh’s approaching army (Jer. 37:5-8), we come close to 390 days.

 

For some reason the “LXX” has it as 190.  No one is sure why.  Keep in mind that Ezekiel most likely did this lying on his left side only at certain times of the day when attention of the populous would notice.  The reason we can know this is because he is given other things to do during this time period (see verse 8-10).

 

4:6:  “forty days” = From “Gill’s Bible Commentary” we read:  “Probably from Josiah’s renewing the covenant, until the destruction of the temple.  Thirteen years of Josiah’s reign, eleven of Jehoiakim’s reign, and eleven of Zedekiah’s reign, and five of his captivity, which amount to just forty years [adding the months].”

 

From “Adam Clark’s Commentary On The Bible” we read:  “Archbishop Newcome, near fifteen years and six months in the reign of Manasseh, two years in that of Amon, three months in that of Jehoahaz, eleven years in that of Jehoiakim, three months and ten days in that of Jehoiachin, and eleven years in that of Zedekiah; and there arises a period of forty years, during which gross idolatry was practiced in the kingdom of Judah.”

 

However, the 390 years covers the idolatry and apostasy of the northern kingdom.  While the 40 years covers the idolatry and apostacy of the southern kingdom.

 

“each day for a year” = The literal Hebrew is more explicit, in that it states it twice for emphasis, “a day for a year, a day for a year.”  See also Numbers 14:34; First Samuel 20:6; Psalm 90:10; and then see Genesis 6:3.

 

4:7:  “arm shall be uncovered” = According to Isaiah 52:10 this is a sign of God’s “vengeance.”

 

4:10:  “by weight” = A Jewish term implying “poverty.”

 

“twenty shekels a day” = A shekel weighs about 0.4 of an ounce.  About 8 ounces a day.

 

4:11:  “sixth part of an hin” = About a pint and a half a day.

 

4:12:  “thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man” = According to Leviticus 5:3 and Deuteronomy 14:23, this would make the bread “unclean,” which is the reason for this instruction, as explained in verse 13.  It is also a sign of the nasty food that the Israelites will have to eat during the siege of Jerusalem for the remnant still there.

 

4:13:  “defiled bread among the Gentiles” = What God is implying is, if you are going to act like Gentiles, you will eat like Gentiles.

 

4:14:  “abominable flesh” = Meaning, meat offered to idols.

 

4:15:  “cow’s dung” = The prayer of Ezekiel pays off.  How much more yours?  See my Bible Study:  “PRAYER, PREREQUISITE FOR ANSWERED.”

 

 

CHAPTER FIVE

 

 

5:1:  “sharp knife” = The Hebrew for “knife” is, “chereb,” better translated as “sword,” meaning a weapon of destruction that Jerusalem would experience.

 

“pass upon thine head and upon thy beard” = To shave the hair of a priest is considered to be a shame, or a sign of morning.  Also representative of the sweeping clean in death the city of Jerusalem.

 

“balances” According to verse 2, three-thirds (parts).

 

5:2 & 12:  “third part” = Burning is symbolic of pestilence and famine; “knife” or better, “sword,” is symbolic of killed; “wind” is symbolic of exiled.  God seems to deal with judgments in thirds.  See Revelation 8:7-12.

 

5:11:  “because thou hast defiled My Sanctuary with all thy detestable things” = Herein is the reason God “will I also diminish thee;  neither shall Mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity.”  This Verse.

 

5:13:  “I the LORD have spoken” = Stated 16 times in this Book.  Don’t get our “LORD” “angry,” verse 15.  See also Second Corinthians 5:11.

 

 

CHAPTER SIX

 

 

6:2:  “the mountains” = It would seem useless to prophecy to the people, so God speaks to “the mountains.”

 

6:3:  “high places” = Even the false god worship places will not escape God’s judgments.  See Numbers 33:52 & First Kings 11:7-10.

 

6:5:  “scatter your bones round about your altars” = A way of defiling the altar.  See Numbers 9:6-10.  The irony is having the smell of dead bodies around the altar instead of sweet-smelling incense.

 

6:8:  “leave a remnant” = God always has “a remnant.”

 

6:13:  “every green tree. . . every thick oak” = This refers to the fertility goddess cults.  See Hosea 4:13.

 

6:14:  “Diblath” = If what is really meant here is “Riblah,” Numbers 34:11-12, then this would be from the southernmost boundary to the northern boundary.

 

 

CHAPTER SEVEN

 

 

7:2 & 6:  “[2] An end, the end is come [6] An end is come, the end is come” = There is a wordplay here in order to draw more attention.  The Hebrew for “end” is “qets.”  While the Hebrew for “is come” is “bo,” with some Manuscripts having both “haqets” and “haqus.”

 

7:3:  “judge thee according to thy ways” = The punishment will fit the crime.

 

7:7 & 10:  “The morning” = The Hebrew is “tsephiyrah,” which assumes a root like the cognate Akkadian root, “saparu,” meaning “to destroy.”  The “KJV” translators went with the Aramaic root of “saphra,” meaning “dawn.” However, “saparu” would be better here translated as, “Your doom.”

 

7:9:  “the LORD that smiteth” = The Hebrew is “Yahweh-Makke,” a new fearful Name for God, literally meaning, “The LORD strikes the blow.”  God means what He says and says what He means.

 

7:12:  “not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn” = Property is of little value when exile threatens.  See Isaiah 24:2-3.

 

7:18:  “sackcloth” = Typically woven from the long hair of goats or camels.

 

“baldness upon all their heads” = Shaving ones head was used to express lament from some sort of disaster (Isa. 15:2-3; Jer. 48:37); or to mourn the dead, forbidden to the Jews (Gen. 37:34; Lev. 21:5; Deu. 14::1; Jer. 16:6; Eze. 44:20; Mic. 1:16).

 

7:22:  “My secret place” = The Most Holy Place of the Temple.

 

7:26:  “the Law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients” = Without the Word of God and subsequent writings (commentaries about It), there is no frame of reference to righteousness.  See Amos 8:11.

 

7:27:  “I will do unto them after their way” = See my Ezekiel 7:3 Note.

 

 

CHAPTER EIGHT

 

 

8:1:  “sixth year” = This would be the sixth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin (see my Ezekiel 1:1 & 2 Notes).

 

“sixth. . . sixth. . . fifth” = The rest of the Chapter explains the condition of the Church ONE DAY before the “Mark of the Beast,” i.e., “666.”

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“the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me” = Put Ezekiel into a trance before all “the elders of Judah.”

 

8:3:  “a lock of mine head” = If this is literal, then the shaving of Ezekiel’s head fourteen months ago has his hair growing back (once shaved only).

 

“seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy” = See Deuteronomy 32:16 & 21.  This could be a reference to the idol which Manasseh put in the Temple in Second Kings, Chapter 21, in particular, verse 7 & Second Chronicles, Chapter 33.

 

8:5:  “north” = It could be, in reference to “north,” that they were worshipping the stars, i.e., the North Star (they were astrologers).

 

“far off from My Sanctuary” = Jehovah leaves His Sanctuary and no longer “dwells” with His people because of their “abominations.”  How much worse when He sees even “greater abominations?”

 

8:10:  “pourtrayed” = The Hebrew is “chaqah,” meaning, “carved; engraved,” and as such should have been translated that way.  See Romans 1:21.

 

8:11:  “Jaazaniah” = He was either the prince of the Sanhedrim, or at least a person of great note and esteem; and shows the corruption to be general, from the least to the greatest.  In Ezekiel 11:1, he is said to be the son of Azur, and one of the princes of the people.

 

“Shaphan” = He was a scribe in Josiah’s time, who had a son named Ahikam, perhaps the father of this personage; see Second Kings 22:3.

 

8:12:  “of his imagery” = The Hebrew word used here is “maskiyth,” which could mean a literal figurine, or figuratively, one’s imagination.  Thus, it could mean the chambers where they stored their own idols, or it could mean the chambers of their own imagination, i.e., what was in their own hearts.  Either way, the elders and leaders had fallen so far from the Lord’s ways that they said to themselves that the Lord didn’t even see what they were doing, nor could He tell what they were imagining.

 

8:14 & 16:  “weeping for Tammuz” = Tammuz was adored as the son of the sun god, Nimrod, the mighty hunter described in Genesis 10:8-9.  However, when summer came, the crops died, and it was as though their god died.  Thus, the weeping.  Until spring, when he would come back to life with the plants.  It was like a death and resurrect god.  Sound familiar?  Except theirs had multiple resurrections.

 

After Nimrod’s death, his wife Semiramis claimed that his spirit had gone into the sun.  Later, when she gave birth to an illegitimate son, named Tammuz, she claimed that Nimrod had been reincarnated through the child.  Subsequently, when Tammuz was killed by a wild boar, the legend sprang up that his spirit had gone to the underworld.  By then Semiramis had become the mother-goddess figure (now seen in the worship of Mary) whose name had been accommodated to a variety of fertility cults and personalities.  As Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of reproduction, she was portrayed as “weeping for Tammuz” until his mystical revival from the underworld, in spring of course!  Because Tammuz was forty years old when killed by a boar, the period of forty days was set aside to weep for him -- a day for a year.  Those forty days are what some would now call Lent, and terminate in the observance of Ishtar’s day, or Easter (verse 16).  Rites connected with the dawning of the sun (or today’s Easter sunrise services) have been verified in almost every non-Christian culture since the days of Babylon.  See my Bible Studies on “EASTER” & “LENT.”

 

Other false gods that are associated with this god are:  the Egyptian Osiris; the Canaanite Ba-al; the Syrian Adonis; the Summerian Dumuzi, the god of spring vegetation -- the “weeping” being associated with the death of Tam

 

8:16:  “five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east” = This is none other than sun worship, while having their “backs toward the temple” would be refusing to face west, the direction in which one would face in order to worship towards the Most Holy Place.  These are none other than the administering priests of the Temple (24 in number; 1Ch. 24:5), and the High Priest.

 

8:17:  “branch to their nose” = This is supposed to mean some branch or branches, which they carried in succession in honor of the idol, and with which they covered their faces, or from which they inhaled a pleasant smell; the branches being odoriferous.  That the heathens carried branches of trees in their sacred ceremonies is well known to all persons acquainted with classic antiquity; and it is probable that the heathen borrowed those from the use of such branches in the Jewish feast of tabernacles (Satan always abominating that which our Lord has designed to be a blessing).  Sacred trees were frequent symbols in idol-worship.  They held up a branch or bundle of tamarisk (called “barsom”) to their nose at daybreak, while singing hymns to the rising sun (see Strabo, 1.15, p. 733).

 

We find this type of practice still going on in Acts 14:13, where we read of garlands used in their idolatrous worships, out of which every zealot took a branch which they smelled to as a nosegay.  The sense is, here in Ezekiel, that they are bringing more fuel (such as the withered branches of the vine) to the fire of Divine wrath, which they have already kindled, as if that wrath did not burn hot enough already.  The putting of the branch to the nose may also signify the giving of a very great affront and provocation either to God or man.  In any case, they are an abusive generation of men and our Lord passes sentence upon them that they shall be utterly cut off (see verse 18).

 

8:18:  “yet will I not hear them” = This verse has reference and connotations to the CLOSE OF PROBATION.

 

 

CHAPTER NINE

 

 

9:ALL:  “The prophecy of Ezekiel Nine will be fulfilled. . . to the very letter.”  1888M3:1303.

 

9:2:  “clothed with linen” = Righteousness.  Just Who this Personage is we are not told; but I believe it refers to the Messiah.  Why? He is like a “God-Man.”

 

“the Brazen Altar” = They are standing in the “Court” of the Temple.

 

9:3:  “whereupon He was, to the threshold” = From the Most Holy Place to entrance to the Sanctuary by the Brazen Altar.

 

9:4:  “set a mark” = A “seal.”  The reason for the “seal” is because God was going to “destroy the city,” Ezekiel 43:3.  See Revelation 7:2-4.  Seal of God = Keeping of the Sabbath -- 8T:117.

 

“Mark this point with care:  Those who receive the pure mark of truth, wrought in them by the power of the Holy Ghost, represented by a mark by the man in linen, are those ‘that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done’ in the Church.”  3T:267.

 

“The seal of God will be placed upon the foreheads of those only who sigh and cry for the abominations done in the land.”  5T:212.

 

“a mark upon the foreheads” = The thought process of mankind.  Only those who are obedient to God’s Law will survive.

 

“the men that sigh and that cry” = God always has a remnant.  See verse 8.

 

9:6:  “begin at My sanctuary” = Begin with those most responsible (see 1Pe. 4:17; Rev. 9:4).  Notice that that would be, not the political leaders, nor the judicial leaders, but the religious leaders.

 

9:11:  “I have done as Thou hast Commanded me.” = This verse is taking about THE END OF HUMAN PROBATION (see 4SP:431; EW:279; GC:613).  Will you join the remnant and “do as the Lord has Commanded you?”

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CHAPTER TEN

 

 

10:2:  “wheels” = See my Ezekiel 1:20 & 21 Note.

 

10:3:  “on the right side of the house” = According to the “Targum,” it was the south side of the house; the right hand always marked the south among the Hebrews (see Eze. 47:2).  The idolatries had been seen on the north side.  On the south side stood the “cherubim,” ready to receive and bear away the glory of the Lord.

 

10:3 & 4:  “the cloud” = The Shekinah Glory.

 

10:8:  “a man’s hand under their wings” = See my Ezekiel 1:8 Note.

 

10:14 & 20:  “four faces. . . living creature” = Compare with the list in Ezekiel 1:10 and the list in Revelation 4:7; and my Notes there.

 

10:19:  “east gate” = Which would face the Mount of Olives.  God seems to pause here before leaving Jerusalem altogether.

 

10:22:  “straight forward” = See my Ezekiel 1:9 Note.

 

 

CHAPTER ELEVEN

 

 

11:1:  “five and twenty men”. See my Ezekiel 8:16 Note.

 

“Jaazaniah” = Meaning, “God hears.”  Most likely not the Jaazaniah’s of Second Kings 25:23; Jeremiah 35:3; Ezekiel 8:11.  This would be a new corrupt set.

 

“Azur” = Meaning, “help.”

 

“Pelatiah” = Meaning, “God delivers.”  No help is given here for identification other than they were “princes of the people.”  Notice they are not “princes of the Sanctuary,” Isaiah 43:28, nor “chiefs of the priests,” Second Chronicles 36:14, and as “princes of the people,” they would be the ringleaders, using their influence among the “people,” driving them towards sinfulness.

 

“Benaiah” = Meaning, “God builds.”  Oh, if our parents could see us now.  “God hears, then helps, then delivers, then builds.”

 

11:3:  “the caldron” = Like meat in a kettle for safety (Jerusalem’s walls around them).

 

11:10:  “in the border of Israel” = Fulfilled literally when the captives of Jerusalem were deported to Riblah in Syria and killed (2Ki. 25:18-21; Jer. 52:8-11 & 24-27).

 

11:15:  “this land given in possession” = As always, the “land” was “given” as long as Israel obeyed.  It is taken away, or squandered away, through disobedience.  Those who believe in Israel being in prophecy today should check first their obedience to Christ.  See all my Bible Studies upon “ISRAEL.”

 

11:17; 28:25; 34:13; 36:24:  “I will even gather you from the people” = Fulfilled when they came out of Babylon with Zerubbabel in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

 

11:19:  “a new spirit within you” = Jesus rebukes Nicodemus for not knowing this “born again” concept (John 3:1-10).

 

11:21:  “I will recompense their way” = Obey and live, disobey and die.  For God not to execute His judgements would cause His enemies to blaspheme.

 

11:23:  “the mountain” = The Mount of Olives.  It is from this “mountain” from which Jesus wept over the doomed city of Jerusalem (Luke 19:37-44).  And at the last straw, the stoning of Steven (Acts, Chapter 7), is when Israel had its “Close of Probation” as a nation.

 

 

CHAPTER TWELVE

 

 

12:3:  “removing, and remove. . . remove” = Benjamin Franklin is quoted as using this verse in regard to relocating when he stated:  “Three removes are like a good fire.”  See “Richards Almanac.”

 

12:6 & 12:  “see not the ground” = This refers to Zedekiah disguising himself (Jer. 39:4).

 

12:9:  “What doest thou” = Ezekiel (God) finally gets their attention with these previous actions.

 

12:10:  “the prince” = Ezekiel nowhere refers to Zedekiah as “king.”  God does not acknowledge Zedekiah as “king” do to his actions.  Zedekiah means, “Righteousness of YHWH.”  He was Judah’s last king.  He was the youngest son of Josiah and Hamutal (Jer. 1:3; 37:1).  He was a brother to Jehoahaz (2Ki. 24:17-18; 23:31).

 

From Flavius Josephus, in “Antiquities of the Jews,” Book 10, Chapter 7.2-8.2:  “Now Zedekiah was twenty-and-one years old when he took the government; and had the same mother with his brother Jehoiachin, but was a despiser of justice and of his duty, for truly those of the same age with him were wicked about him, and the whole multitude did what unjust and insolent things they pleased; for which reason the prophet Jeremiah came often to him, and protested to him, and insisted, that he must leave off his impieties and transgressions, and take care of what was right, and neither give ear to the rulers (among whom were wicked men) nor give credit to their false prophets who deluded them, as if the king of Babylon would make no more was against him, and as if the Egyptians would make war against him, and conquer him, since what they said was not true; and the events would not prove such.

 

“Now as to Zedekiah himself, while he heard the prophet speak, he believed him, and agreed to everything as true, and supposed it was for his advantage; but then his friends perverted him, and dissuaded him from what the prophet advised, and obliged him to do what they pleased.

 

“Ezekiel also foretold in Babylon what calamities were coming upon the people, which when he heard, he sent accounts of them unto Jerusalem; but Zedekiah did not believe their prophecies, for the reason following: -- it happened that the two prophets agreed with one another in what they said as in all other things, that the city should be taken, and Zedekiah himself should be taken captive; but Ezekiel disagreed with him, and said, that Zedekiah should not see Babylon; while Jeremiah said to him, that the king of Babylon should carry him away thither in bonds; and because they did not both say the same thing as to this circumstance, he disbelieved what they both appeared to agree in, and condemned them as not speaking truth therein, although all the things foretold him did come to pass according to their prophecies, as we shall show upon a fitter opportunity,”

 

“Now the city was taken on the ninth day of the fourth month, in the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah.

 

“They were indeed only generals of the king of Babylon, to whom Nebuchadnezzar committed te care of the siege, for he abode himself in the city of Riblah.

 

“The names of these generals who ravaged and subdued Jerusalem, if anyone desire to know them, were these:  Nergal Sharezer, Sangar Nebo, Rabsaris, Sarsechim, and Rabmag [Note, the leader of the Magi], and when the city was taken about midnight, and the enemy’s generals were entered into the Temple, and when Zedekiah was sensible of it, he took his wives and his children, and his captains and friends, and with them fled out of the city, through the fortified ditch, ad through the desert; and when certain of the deserters had informed the Babylonians of this, at break of day, they made haste to pursue after Zedekiah, and overtook him not far from Jericho, and encompassed him about.  But for those friends and captains of Zedekiah who had fled out of the city with him, and dispersed themselves, some one way and some another, and every one resolved to save himself; so the enemy took Zedekiah alive, when he was deserted by all but a few, with his children and his wives, and brought him to the king.  When he was come, Nebuchadnezzar began to call him a wicked wretch, and covenant-breaker, and one that had forgotten his former words, when he promised to keep the country for him.”

 

“He also reproached him for his ingratitude, that when he had received the kingdom from him, who had taken it from Jehoiachin, and given it him, he had made use of the power he gave him against him that gave it:  ‘but,’ said he, ‘God is great, Who hateth that conduct of thine, and hath brought thee under us.”

 

“And when he had used these words to Zedekiah, he commanded his sons and his friends to be slain, while Zedekiah and the rest of the captains looked on; after which he put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him, and carried him to Babylon.

 

“And these things happened to him, as Jeremiah and Ezekiel had foretold to him, that he should be caught, and brought before the king of Babylon, and should speak to him face to face, and should see his eyes with his own eyes; and thus far did Jeremiah prophecy.

 

“But he was also made blind, and brought to Babylon but did not see it, according to the prediction of Ezekiel.”

 

12:13:  “My net also will I spread upon him, and he shall be taken in My snare” = When the king will think to escape by fleeing, God will take him into “My [God’s] net,” as in Ezekiel 32:3.

 

“yet shall he not see it” = Because Zedekiah should be deprived of sight before he arrived there (2Ki. 25:7; Jer. 52:11); being put out at Riblah (Jer. 39:7; 52:11).

 

“though he shall die there” = Fulfilled in Jeremiah 52:11.

 

12:16:  “a few men of them” = Once again, “a remnant.”  I don’t believe this is God’s will.  I believe that as in Noah’s day, as in any day, only “a few” believe “and obey,” out of the multitudes.  Consider the (only a) 144,000 of the Book of Revelation.

 

12:18:  “trembling and with carefulness” = Ezekiel is to display the future of the coming Babylonian attack, not only with famine, but with the terror accompanied with it.

 

12:22:  “The days are prolonged” = The next best thing when you cannot refute prophecy is to make it apply to a future period other than now or soon.

 

 

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

 

 

13:5:  “into the gaps” = The thought process here is that God is saying that Israel (WE) had not repaired any of her wrongs; and as such will not be prepared for “the day of the LORD (will you repent?).

 

13:10:  “Peace; and there was no peace” = See First Thessalonians 5:3.  Here is my Jeremiah 6:14 Note:  “Peace, peace; when there is no peace” = Who is saying “Peace and safety?” From 8T:250-251 we read:  “[250] God has not changed toward His faithful servants who are keeping their garments spotless.  But many are crying, ‘Peace and safety,’ while sudden destruction is coming upon them.  Unless there is thorough repentance, unless men humble their hearts by confession and receive the truth as it is in Jesus, they will never enter Heaven.  When purification shall take place in our ranks, we shall no longer rest at ease, boasting of being rich and increased with goods, in need of nothing.

 

“Who can truthfully say:  ‘Our gold is tried in the fire; our garments are unspotted by the world?’  I saw our Instructor pointing to the garments of so-called righteousness.  Stripping them off, He laid bare the defilement beneath.  Then He said to me:  ‘Can you not see how they have pretentiously covered up their defilement and rottenness of character?  ‘How is the faithful city become an harlot!’  My Father’s house is made a house of merchandise, a place whence the Divine presence and glory have departed!  For this cause there is weakness, and strength is lacking.’

 

“Unless the Church, which is now being leavened with her own backsliding, shall repent and be converted, she will eat of the fruit of her own doing, until she shall abhor herself.  When she resists the evil and chooses the good, when she seeks God with all humility and reaches her high calling in Christ, standing on the platform of eternal truth and by faith laying hold upon the attainments prepared for her, she will be healed.  She will appear in her God-given simplicity and [251]

 

“purity, separate from earthly entanglements, showing that the truth has made her free indeed.  Then her members will indeed be the chosen of God, His representatives.

 

“The time has come for a thorough reformation to take place.  When this reformation begins, the spirit of prayer will actuate every believer and will banish from the Church the spirit of discord and strife.  Those who have not been living in Christian fellowship [not going to Church at all] will draw close to one another.  One member working in right lines will lead other members to unite with him in making intercession for the revelation of the Holy Spirit.  There will be no confusion, because all will be in harmony with the mind of the Spirit.  The barriers separating believer from believer will be broken down, and God’s servants will speak the same things.”

 

13:11:  “daub” = Meaning, “overlay.”  The issues that Ezekiel (God) is attempting to point out to Israel is that the false prophets were compounding difficulties by hiding the problems that needed to be exposed and fixed.

 

13:18:  “women” = These superstitious women, for money, would prophecy and tell every man his fortune, giving them pillows to lean on, and kerchiefs (see below) to cover their heads, to the intent they might the more allure them and bewitch them.

 

“that sew pillows to all armholes” = Or better, “put pillows to all elbows” thereby signifying that they might be at ease, and rest secure.  According to “Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible:”  “This refers to those cushions, which are so copiously provided in the eastern countries for the apartments of women; on which they sit, lean, rest their heads, and prop up their arms. . . which the predictions of those false prophetesses allured the inhabitants of Jerusalem.”

 

“kerchiefs” = The word “kerchief” has its foundation from the French language, i.e., “couvre chef,” meaning “that which covers the head.”  Again, according to “Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible:”  “hence, handkerchief and neck handkerchief, and pocket handkerchief, are pitifully improper; because none of them is used to cover the head, from which alone that article of dress has its name.  Therefore, it was probably some kind of ornamental dress, which rendered women more enticing, such that they could the more successfully hunt or inveigle the souls [of] (men) into the worship of their false gods.”

 

Or this explanation.  The Hebrew word here is “mispachah,” translated by the Vulgate (“cervicalia”) as “bolsters,” meaning, some sort of “support” to “augment” or “strengthen” their beauty.

 

Calmet contends that this means a sort of nets used in hunting, and in every place where it occurs it will bear this meaning; and hence the use to which it is here said to be applied, to hunt souls (see verse 20).

 

“upon their heads” = Either as a token of victory and triumph, signifying that they should have the better of their enemies, and rejoice over them; or to make them proud, and suggest to them that they should never be stripped of their ornaments.

 

13:21:  “Your kerchiefs also will I tear” = This would mean that their false prophecies would be exposed.

 

 

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

 

 

14:6:  “repent” = This is ALWAYS our God’s solution to all our problems.

 

14:7:  “stranger that sojourneth in Israel” = If you believe in Israel’s God, and you “repent” of sins committed against Israel’s God, you join the family of God.

 

14:14:  “Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job” = See Job 13:13; Psalm 119:109; Jeremiah 15:1; Philippians 2:12.

 

Noah, though a righteous man, could not by his intercession preserve the old world from being drowned.  Job, though a righteous man, could not preserve his children from being killed by the fall of their house.  Daniel, though a righteous man, could not prevent the captivity of his country.  Thus, we are saved as individuals (see verses 16 and 18 and 20). God will not overcome your lack of “repentance.”

 

14:23:  “not done without cause” = See Genesis 18:25.  We live under the attributes of a just God.  And we shall all, both wicked and righteous, see His justice in the end.  That is eighter a terror or a joy for you.

 

 

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

 

 

15:2:  “vine tree. . . branch” = All wood workers know that vines are good for nothing except for bearing fruit?  If you are a “vine,” bear fruit.  If you are a “branch,” support the “fruit” bearer.  See Isaiah 5:1-7, in particular verse 7. Jerusalem is the “vine” that is set for burning because they produced no “righteous” fruit.

 

 

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

 

 

16:3:  “an Amorite” = The term denotes the whole people.  The Amorites, being a principal branch of the Canaanites (Gen. 10:6-20; see also Jud. 19:10-12; 1Ch. 11:4-9), are often taken to represent the entire stock; for according to Genesis 15:16, they were living there before the Israelites (see also 2Ki. 2:11).

 

“an Hittite” = They first appear in Genesis, Chapter 23.  If we look at Esau’s attitude in Genesis 26:34, we can see that the main concept that our Lord is putting across here is the idea that the Israelites, by their behaviors, proved themselves to be the very children of the idolatrous nations who once occupied the land of Canaan (see Deu. 20:17).  Melchisedec, king of Salem, lived in the land of Canaan (Gen. 14:18), which makes the Canaanites even more guilty for their disobedience to the True God which they should have known.

 

16:8:  “thy time was the time for love; and I spread My skirt over thee” = Ready for marriage.  Just as in the Book of Ruth, 3:9.

 

16:13:  “prosper into a kingdom” = Most likely a reference to the time of Solomon.

 

16:16:  “divers colours” = See Second Kings 23:7.

 

16:21:  “pass through the fire” = Child sacrifice to the false god Moloch.  How low can you go?

 

16:27:  “daughters of the Philistines, which are ashamed of thy lewd way” = As bad as the Philistines were, Israel decided to even outdo them!

 

16:31:  “hast not been as an harlot, in that thou scornest hire” = In other words, she enjoyed her sins so much so that she did it without being paid!  See verse 47!

 

16:33:  “but thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers” = Most likely a reference to Ahaz stripping the Temple of Its gold and silver (could have gotten from other means) in order to pay tribute to Assyria (2Ki. 16:8).

 

16:49:  “iniquity of thy sister Sodom” = Notice that the sin of Sodom was not the sin of homosexuality.  It was the condoning of that sin.

 

16:55:  “shall return to their former estate” = The meaning of this passage is that it would never come to pass.

 

16:50:  “Nevertheless” = After all these judgments, God still looks towards the Coming of Messiah before their final rejection of Him and He of them.

 

 

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

 

 

17:1-10:  “riddle” = This parable is called “chidhah,” in other words, a “riddle,” verse 2, because of the deeper meaning lying beneath the parabolic shell.  It appears to be explained in verses 11-21.  The symbolism of this parable has been traced by many commentators to Babylonian influences working upon the prophet’s mind.  However, not only is Nebuchadnezzar compared to an eagle in Jeremiah 48:40 and Jeremiah 49:22, so is Cyrus as to a bird of prey in Isaiah 46:11, and even Moses has described the paternal watchfulness of God over His own people as bearing them upon eagle’s wings (Exo. 19:4; Deu. 32:11).  The cedar of Lebanon and the vine are genuine Israelite figures.  The great eagle in verse 3 is the great King Nebuchadnezzar (compare with verse 12).

 

The article is simply used to indicate the species, for which we should use the indefinite article.  The feathers of variegated ornamental colors point to the many peoples, differing in language, manners, and customs, which were united under the scepter of Nebuchadnezzar.  He came to Lebanon.  This is not a symbol of the Israelite’s land, or of the kingdom of Judah; but, as in Jeremiah 22:23, of Jerusalem, or Mount Zion, with its royal palace so rich in cedar wood as being the place where the cedar was planted (see verse 12 again; however, see also Eze. 31:3).

 

17:3:  “A great eagle” = Symbolizing Babylon; which displayed its entrance gates with lions that had wings.  Used by Jeremiah for Babylon (Nebuchadnezzar) in Jeremiah 48:40 & 49:22.  Daniels vision of Babylon is of an eagle having wings (Dan. 7:4).  All these verses, 3-10, will be explained in verses 11-21.  Keep in mind that all of this is prophecy, three to five years before these events happened.

 

“longwinged” = Meaning, the duration of the nation of Babylon.

 

“full of feathers” = Many nations were concurred and subject to Babylon.

 

“unto Lebanon” = Not the country, but referring to Babylon’s temple; because it was built wholly from the cedars of Lebanon, according to Eusebius.

 

“highest branch” = Meaning, Babylon concurred Israel; the “highest branch” being such as in God’s eyes.  Specifically, when Nebuchadnezzar defeated Jeconiah (2Ki. 24:8 & 12-16).

 

17:4:  “top of his young twigs” = See Esther 2:6 & Jeremiah 28:4; 37:1.  Jeconiah, who was only 18 years of age (2Ki. 24:8).  Also known as Coniah and Jehoiachin; his father being Johoiakim.

 

17:5:  “the seed of the land” = The “seed of the land,” based on Ezekiel 16:13, is King Zedekiah, because he was of the land, the native king, in contrast to a foreign, Babylonian governor.  The second eagle mentioned in verse 7 is the king of Egypt, based upon verse 15.  He had also large wings and many feathers, i.e., a widely spread and powerful kingdom; but there is nothing said about pinions and variegated colors, concluding that Egypt had not spread out its kingdom over many countries and peoples, or subjugated a variegated medley of peoples and tribes as had Babylon.  The interpretation of this second eagle is given in verse 15.

 

17:6:  “brought forth branches” = What Ezekiel (God) is expressing here is that if Zedekiah had kept his oath of allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar, his kingdom under him would have been prosperous.

 

17:7:  “another great eagle” = Meaning, Egypt, Pharaoh Hophra (2Ki. 23:29; Jer. 37:7; 44:30); successor to Pharaoh Necho.  See Isaiah 30:1-7; 31:1-3, where he councils Zedekiah against aliening with Egypt.

 

7:10:  “east wind” = Meaning Nebuchadnezzar.

 

17:17:  “Pharaoh” = Pharaoh Hophra.  See my Ezekiel 17:7 note.

 

17:20:  “I will spread My net upon him” = God will entrap him as he had tried to entrap others (Psa. 7:15).

 

17:22:  “I will also take of the highest branch” = God is saying that as Nebuchadnezzar planted Israel, wo will God do, but better.  Through our Lord Jesus, The Christ.

 

“the highest branch” = When the royal family of Judah was brought to desolation by the captivity of Jehoiachin and Zedekiah it might be asked, “What has now become of the covenant of royalty made with David, that his children should sit upon his throne for evermore?  Do the sure mercies of David prove thus unsure?”  To this it is sufficient for the silencing of the objectors to answer that the promise was conditional.  “If they will keep My Covenant, then they shall continue,” Psalm 132:12.

 

However, David’s posterity broke the condition, and so forfeited the promise.  This promise had its accomplishment in part when Zerubbabel, a branch of the house of David, was raised up to head the Jews in their return out of captivity, and to rebuild the city and temple and re-establish their Church and state; but it was to have its full accomplishment in the kingdom of the Messiah, Who was a Root out of a dry ground, and to Whom God, according to His promise, gave the throne of His father David (see Luke 1:32).

 

17:24:  “exalted the low tree” = God will bring down Babylon and exalt Israel.  Not because of Israel; but because of Messiah.

 

 

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

 

 

18:2:  “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge” = Jeremiah makes reference to this same proverb in Jeremiah 31:29 and Lamentations 5:7.  The Jews built this proverb on the last part of the Commandments in Exodus 20:5.  The effects of a father’s sin may pass down; but each individual is responsible for their own sins.  Otherwise, after the fourth generation one need not worry.  In other words, the people are just making excuses for their own sins by blaming them on someone else.  Sound familiar?

 

In reality, they felt that they were being punished for the sins of a bad king; Manasseh (2Ki. 24:3-4).  The meaning of the proverb is this, that the people murmured at the chastising of the Lord, and therefore used this proverb, meaning that their fathers had sinned and their children were punished for their transgressions.  However, the Lord corrects them in His statements in verses 4 and 20, explaining His true nature and intent in verses 14-17.

 

18:4 & 20:  “the soul that sinneth, it shall die” = See Deuteronomy 24:16.  Literally and Spiritually.

 

18:12:  “hath not restored the pledge” = Kept what he borrowed and kept it for his own use; taking advantage of the poverty of the person from which he borrowed it from.

 

18:17:  “walked in My Statutes” = See Revelation 14:12.

 

18:23 & 32:  “[23] Have I any pleasure [32] I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth” = It seems they did not understand their God the way New Testament Christians seem to understand Him; full of “grace.”  However, New Testament Christians also mis-apply just how far that “grace” can and will go.  See Second Peter 3:9.

 

18:24 & 26:  “[24] when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness. . . shall he die [ 26] When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness. . . shall he die” = See my Bible Study:  “ONCE SAVED ALWAYS SAVED.”

 

18:30:  “Repent, and turn” = Herein lies the Biblical definition of “repent.”  To go the opposite direction one is on.

 

18:31:  “new heart and a new spirit” = One cannot cure a “heart.”  It is too “wicked,” Jeremiah 17:9.  God will have to give you a new one upon repentance.

 

 

CHAPTER NINETEEN

 

 

19:2:  “A lioness” = Israel.

 

“lay down among lions” = Israel had become like the heathen nations.

 

19:3:  “one of her whelps” = Jehoahaz (2Ki. 23:32).

 

19:4:  “brought him with chains unto the land of Egypt” = Pharaoh Necho captures Jehoahaz (2Ki. 23:33-34; Jer. 22:11).

 

“chains” = This is incorrect.  They brought Jehoahaz to Egypt by “hooks in his nose,” Second Kings 19:28; Isaiah 37:29; Ezekiel 38:4.

 

19:5:  “another of her whelps” = Jehoiachin.

 

19:8:  “he was taken in their pit” = Jehoiachin was besieged and taken to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar’s allies; the Chaldeans, Syrians, Moab, and Ammon (2Ki. 24:2).

 

19:9:  “chains” = See my Ezekiel 19:4 Note.

 

19:10:  “a vine” = Israel.

 

19:12:  “east wind” = Nebuchadnezzar.

 

19:13:  “dry and thirsty ground” = The condition of the people, not the condition of the land.

​​

CHAPTER TWENTY

 

 

20:1:  “seventh year” = That is, of Zedekiah’s reign, and of the captivity of Jeconiah; from whence the dates of Ezekiel’s visions and prophecies are taken (see Eze. 1:2; 24:1; 26:1; 29:17; 30:20; 31:1; 32:17; 33:21).

 

20:3 & 31:  “I will not be enquired of by you” = There are sins in your life that resticks God from answering your prayers.  See my Bible Study:  “PRAYER, PREREQUISITES FOR ANSWERED.”

 

20:7:  “idols of Egypt” = Here God points out that even after the Exodus the people were still filled with their “idol” worship of Egyptian gods (Exo. 32:4; Lev. 17:7; 18:3; Jos. 24:14).

 

20:8 & 9:  “[8] to accomplish My anger against them [9] for My Name’s sake” = This is about showing all the nations of the earth the character of God through the treatment of Israel.  If He doesn’t punish them, then the other nations will think their behavior is acceptable with this God.  The same when He blesses them.  God must judge sin; but His mercy must also be shown when doing so; or lack thereof.

 

Ezekiel 20:11 & 13 & 21; Leviticus 18:5; Nehemiah 9:29; Romans 10:5; Galatians 3:12:  “live in Them” = Here is my Leviticus 18:5 Note:  Having thus received life, he “lives,” that is, maintains, enjoys, and exercises this life only in so far as he walks “in them,” or “by them,” as Romans and Galatians have it, that is, the Laws of God.

 

“The statues and judgments given of God were good for the obedient.  ‘They should live in them.’  But they were not good for the transgressor; for in the civil Law given to Moses, punishment was to be inflicted on the transgressor, that others should be restrained by fear.”  1SP:266.

 

20:12 & 13 & 20:  “My Sabbaths” = How much clearer can our Lord be that He wants us to keep His Seventh-day Sabbath, for this is talking of the wilderness experiences and their not keeping of the Sabbath then.

 

“Since He made all things, He made the Sabbath.  By Him it was set apart as a memorial of the work of creation.  It points to Him as both the Creator and the Sanctifier.  It declares that He who created all things in heaven and in earth, and by Whom all things hold together, is the Head of the Church, and that by His power we are reconciled to God.  For, speaking of Israel, He said, ‘[verse 12 quoted] that sanctify them,’ -- make them holy.  Ezekiel 20:12.  Then the Sabbath is a sign of Christ’s power to make us holy.  And it is given to all whom Christ makes holy.  As a sign of His sanctifying power, the Sabbath is given to all who through Christ become a part of the Israel of God.”  DA:288.2.

 

“That is, knowing that our sanctification is the will of God (1 Thess. 4:3; 5:23, 24), we learn, by means of the Sabbath, properly used, what the power of God is that is exerted for our sanctification.  The same power that was put forth to create the worlds is put forth for the sanctification of those who yield themselves to the will of God.”  “Christ and His Righteousness,” by Ellet J. Waggoner, p. 43.

 

20:19:  “My Statutes” = Failure to keep God’s Law is in effect a denial of the existence of God; or at least that He will punish you.

 

20:20:  “a sign” = God’s people will be known by whether or not they are keeping His Sabbath Holy.

 

20:24:  “Because they had not executed My jusgments” = “Because of continual disobedience, the Lord annexed penalties to the transgression of His Law, which were not good for the transgressor, or whereby he should not live in his rebellion.”  1SP:265.

 

20:25:  “I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live” = What is to be noticed is that our Lord was upset at them for obeying laws contrary to His Laws (see verse 26).  Therefore, the text would be saying that since the Israelites were determined to follow bad laws from their neighbors, the Lord confirmed their willing rebellion against Him by handing them over to obey laws that were not good for them.

 

20:26:  “I polluted them” = Not that God actually did this.  No, no!  He allowed them to “pollute themselves.”  For our God does not force the will of the individual.

 

“to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb” = Molech worship of placing your baby upon the altar of the god Molech’s arms full of fire.  We become what/Who we worship.  The Book of Revelation (see my Bible Study of such) is full of idioms of “Who do you worship?”  See Psalm 115:8; 135:18.

 

20:29:  “Bamah” = “Ba” means, “to go,” and “mah” means, “where.”  But this is a contemptuous pun by our Lord, meaning and saying, “going nowhere.”

 

20:37:  “to pass under the rod” = Like a shepherd counts his sheep.  Or better, separating the righteous from the unrighteous (Lev. 27:32; Jer. 33:13; Mat. 25:31-40).  See also verse 38.

 

20:44:  “nor according to your wicked way” = See Psalm 103:10.

 

20:47:  “fire” = Symbolizing judgment.

 

20:48:  “they say of me” = Ezekiel is asking God to be more clear (and He will be; coming up in the next Chapters).

 

 

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

 

 

21:ALL:  In actuality, Ezekiel 20:45 through Ezekiel 21:32 is called “The Prophecy of the Sword.”

 

21:3:  “My sword” = Nebuchadnezzar.

 

21:3 & 4:  “righteous and the wicked” = Notice that our Lord is so frustrated that He cuts off the “righteous and [along with] the wicked.”  Could it be that it was because the “righteous” permitted the actions of the wicked without protest?  And or, were they not so well set as to counter the actions of the wicked and choose to do nothing, which is why they are included in this action (see verse 13)?

 

21:6:  “breaking of thy loins” = The “loins” were regarded as the seat of strength (Job 40:16; Psa. 66:11; 69:23; Isa. 21:3; Nah. 2:10).  Our Lord is instructing Ezekiel God’s broken heart over His people.

 

21:7:  “it shall be” = Too late for repentance.  The coming siege of Nebuchadnezzar will happen.

 

21:11:  “the slayer” = God’s agent still, Nebuchadnezzar.

 

21:13:  “it is a trial” = Rather, “There is a trial” being made.  Spiritually speaking,  the sword of the Lord will subject all to the ordeal.

 

“and what if the sword contemn even the rod” = Though there are righteous people in the land, they shall perish with the wicked (see verses 3 and 4), even though it is against “the princes of Israel,” verse 12.

 

“contemn” = The meaning of “contemn” is, “to despise; to abhor; to refuse; to reject; to treat as loathsome.”  From “The Complete Word Study Dictionary,” we learn:  “It designates people’s actions in refusing to heed God or accept His authority (1Sa. 10:19; Jer. 8:9); esteeming God’s Commands lightly (Lev. 26:15; Isa. 30:12); and despising one’s spiritual condition in an act of repentance (Job 42:6).  Scripture also speaks of the Lord rejecting His people (Hos. 4:6) and their worship (Amos 5:21) because of their rejection of Him.  A secondary and more rare meaning of the word is to run or flow.  This use appears in Psa. 58:7 [8] as David prayed for the wicked to melt away like a flowing river.”

 

21:19:  “two ways” = “Rabbath of the Ammonites” or “Judah in Jerusalem,” verse 20.

 

21:21:  “looked in the liver” = It was only inspected to see whether the animal offered in sacrifice was sound and healthy, of which the state of the liver is the most especial indication.  When the liver is sound, the animal is healthy; and it would have been a bad omen to any who offered sacrifice, to find that the animal they had offered to their gods was diseased; as, in that case, they would have taken for granted that the sacrifice was not accepted.  However, the true meaning here goes back to the Babylonians and other peoples who had also developed the art of necromancy and witchcraft in order to interpret and find omens for the future.  Especially they practiced the examination of the intestines.  The liver of sacrificial animals particularly, was carefully examined, and, from this, predictions, good or bad, were inferred.

 

21:25:  “prince of Israel” = Zedekiah.

 

21:27:  “He Come” = Messiah.  See Genesis 49:10 & Ezekiel 34:23.  Understanding Genesis 49:10 correctly, Israel as a nation is God’s people “UNTIL” Christ.  In other words, Israel, after the stoning of Steven (Acts, Chapter 7), forfeited its service as demonstrating the Love of God.

 

21:28:  “Ammonites” = Why Ammon, back in verse 20?  Because, as with Jerusalem, Ammon had allied against Babylon.  The Ammonites had organized a coup that caused the death of Gedaliah, the governor appointed by Nebuchadnezzar.  See Jeremiah 40:13-41.  Attempting to set up their own governor of choice.

 

21:29:  “divine a lie” = Ammon also had false gods/prophets they would turn to.

 

“necks of them that are slain” = Heads cut off.

 

21:31 & 22:21:  “blow against thee in the fire of My wrath” = Fiery wrath is one thing; but to blow on a fire. . .

 

21:32:  “no more remembered” = Jerusalem will be restored, Ammon would not.  Chapter 25 will deal with that judgment; Jerusalem in Chapter 22.

 

 

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

 

 

22:2:  “the bloody city” = Jerusalem.  See Luke 13:34.

 

22:7:  “set light by father and mother” = Parents no longer exalted (Exo. 20:12; 21:17; Lev. 20:9; Deu. 5:16; 27:16).

 

“the stranger” = Strangers were to be protected (Exo. 21:21; 23:9).

 

“fatherless and the widow” = Most vulnerable to be protected (Exo. 22:22-24; Deu. 24:17; 27:19).

 

22:8 & 26:  “My Sabbaths” = WHOSE?  It is amazing to me how easily the “Christian” world sets aside the Biblical Sabbath for the false Roman Catholic sabbath (Sunday).  See my Bible Study:  “SABBATH STILL VALID TODAY, THE.”

 

22:9:  “eat upon the mountains” = Where the altars to the false gods were worshipped.  Known in Scripture as “high places.”

 

22:10:  “discovered their fathers’ nakedness” = Homosexuality.  These were the things done in the worship centers of the “high places” of these false gods.

 

22:12:  “and hast forgotten Me” = Herein lies the root problem (Deu. 32:18; Jer. 2:32; 3:21).

 

22:15:  “scatter thee among the heathen” = Moses had warned of this if they failed to obey (Lev. 26:27-39; Deu. 28:64-68).

 

22:18:  “the dross of silver” = Ask any blacksmith.  The “dross of silver” is useless.  Dross is used in Scripture as worthlessness (Psa. 119:119; Pro. 25:4; 26:23; etcetera).

 

22:21:  “blow upon you in the fire of My wrath” = See my Ezekiel 21:31 Note.

 

22:25:  “conspiracy of her prophets” = Falsely prophesying peace and safety; most likely like today; for the purpose of riches.

 

22:26:  “Her priests” = The religious leaders.

 

“no difference between the holy and profane” = Everything is relative, you have your truth I have mine.  NON-SENCE.

 

22:27:  “Her princes” = Governmental leaders.  See Acts 20:29.

 

22:30:  “I sought for a man” = What is God searching for?  A man who will pray for others.  Yet Jeremiah was in Jerusalem at that time.  Jesus prayed for Jerusalem.  But prayers are of no value except to the prayer warier, when the people will not repent.  In fact, Jeremiah was forbidden to pray for the people because they were doomed to the wrath of God (Jer. 11:14).  And Jesus did not pray for the world; but only for His own (John, Chapter 17).

 

 

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

 

 

23:1:  “two women” = Samaria & Jerusalem.

 

“one mother” = Israel.

 

23:4:  “Aholah” = Samaria.  The meaning of “Aholah” is, “her own tent or tabernacle.”  The northern kingdom committed adultery first.  Ephraim and Samaria are often used idiomatically to represent the northern kingdom.

 

“Aholibah” = Jerusalem.  The meaning of “Aholibah” is, “My tent or tabernacle is in her.”  The southern kingdom of Judah.

 

These were the names chosen to express that after the division, the northern kingdom set up her own tabernacle in the place of the Temple in which God dwelt.  Eventually taken away and dispersed by Assyria; while the southern kingdom is taken to Babylon.

 

23:12:  “She doted upon the Assyrians” = The adopted the Assyrian gods.  See the account in Second Kings 16:10-18.

 

23:14:  “vermilion” = A peculiar color of the Chaldeans, as purple was with the Assyrians (Jer. 22:14; Eze. 8:10).

 

23:20:  “paramours” = From “Adam Clark’s Commentary On The Bible” we read, “their harlots or concubines. Anciently harlot meant in our language either the male or female prostitute.”

 

23:24:  “buckler” = A small shield covering or carried upon the arm.

 

23:25:  “take away thy nose and thine ears” = Facial mutilation was a frequent punishment for adultery used in Mesopotamia.  The analogy is that in the same way Jerusalem would be rendered unattractive to her lovers.

 

23:31:  “cup” = The “cup” of judgment.  See Psalm 75:8; Isaiah 51:17-23; Jeremiah 25:15-19; 51:7; Habakkuk 2:16; Revelation 17:3-4; 18:6 (Mat. 26:39 & 42).

 

23:34:  “break the sherds thereof” = The “LXX” renders it as, “gnaw its sherds.”  The meaning is, “pluck out your hair.”

 

23:38:  “defiled My Sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned My Sabbaths” = They did this on the Sabbath day, going into the Sanctuary after their idolatrous services!!!

 

23:42:  “Sabeans” = The Hebrew is, “seba’iy,” literally meaning, “drunkards.”  In Isaiah 45:14 it speaks of them as stating that there is “no God.”

 

23:47:  “stone them with stones” = The punishment for adultery was stoning (Deu. 21:21).  According to Luke 19:24, all the stones of Jerusalem would be dismantled because they did not recognize their Messiah, even though the exact time of His visitation was laid out for them (Dan. 9:24-27).

 

 

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

 

 

24:1:  “ninth year” = That is, the “ninth year” of Zedekiah’s reign and of the captivity of Jeconiah; from whence the dates of Ezekiel’s visions and prophecies are taken (see Eze. 1:2; 20:1; 26:1; 29:17; 30:20; 31:1; 32:17; 33:21).

 

24:2:  “king of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem this same day” = Ezekiel is writing this the “same day” Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem (B.C. 588; 2Ki. 25:1; Jer. 39:1; 52:4).

 

24:3:  “pot” = Symbolizing Jerusalem.

 

24:4:  “choice bones” = The most prominent of the people.

 

24:7:  “cover it with dust” = Blood poured on a rock is not so soon absorbed as blood poured on the earth.  God’s Law ordered the blood even of a beast or fowl to be “covered with the dust,” Leviticus 17:13; but Jerusalem was so shameless as to be at no pains to cover up the blood of innocent men slain in her.

 

24:11:  “empty upon the coals” = Jerusalem will be utterly destroyed.

 

24:14:  “neither will I repent” = See First Samuel 15:29.

 

24:18:  “and I did in the morning as I was Commanded” = Meaning the morning following the death of his wife.  This shows who is meant by “the desire of thine eyes,” verse 16, and what was meant by the taking away of it (also verse 16).

 

24:16:  “desire of thine eyes with a stroke” = Ezekiel’s wife dies.  Her death symbolizes the destruction of the Temple; the “desire of” Jerusalem’s “eyes.”

 

24:23:  “tires” = The Hebrew is, “pehayr,” meaning “fancy head dress, bonnet, goodly ornament.”

 

“pine away” = They would languish with secret sorrow, when they would dare not to show it openly.  Compare with Leviticus 26:39, where the outward signs of grief were a certain consolation and their absence would indicate a heart-consuming sorrow.

 

24:24 & 27:  “[24] Ezekiel is unto you a sign [27] thou shalt be a sign unto them” = Their key to understanding his prophecies.  These verses have given many a Bible commentator the keys to unlock this Book.

 

 

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

 

 

25:ALL:  This Chapter shows that God also keeps a hedge around other peoples (the Ammonites and Moabites and the Edomites and the whatever “ites”) and Nations.  However, notice that when these countries rejoice over the tragedies of Israel, they are judged for their rejoicings; for they should have learned about the God of Israel.

 

25:2:  “Ammonites” = Ammon means, “son of my people,” or “children of my people.”

 

25:5:  “Rabbah” = Their chief city which became a pasture (Isa. 17:2; 32:14; Zep. 2:14).

 

25:6:  “stamped with the feet” = Dancing for joy.

 

25:8:  “Seir” = A mountain range south of the Dead Sea.  This name became synonymous with the land of Edom (2Ch. 20:10; Num. 20:14-21.

 

25:9:  “Bethjeshimoth” = Two miles north east of the Dead Sea.  (Jos. 12:3; 13:20).

 

“Baalmeon” = Nine miles east of the Dead Sea.  (Jos. 13:17).

 

Kiriathaim” = Ten miles below Baalmeon and seven miles north west of Dibon (Jos. 13:9; Jer. 48:1 & 23).

 

25:13:  “Teman” = Located in central Edom about three miles from Sela; later known as Petra.

 

“Dedan” = Southeast of Edom in northern Arabia (Jer. 49:7-8).

 

25:16:  “Philistines” = Today’s inhabitants of the Gaza Strip.  They still don’t realize they are on the wrong side.  A few Muslims, who have been exposed to the judgments of this Chapter, have converted to Christianity.

 

“Cherethims” = A sub-tribe under the Philistines.  The word means, “the cutters.”  It actually is a play on words of verse 16, “I will cut off the cutters.”

 

 

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

 

 

26:ALL:  Verses 15-18 are known as a “Hebrew Meter,” called the “Kinah.”  This word can mean “a dirge,” such as a funeral hymn.  It is a particular “meter” in Hebrew poetry that is suggestive of a lamentation, a funeral dirge.

 

26:1:  “eleventh year” = That is, of Zedekiah’s reign, and of the captivity of Jeconiah; from whence the dates of Ezekiel’s visions and prophecies are taken (see Eze. 1:2; 20:1; 24:1; 29:17; 30:20; 31:1; 32:17; 33:21).

 

26:2:  “Aha, she is broken” = Because “Tyrus” was mocking Jerusalem when “she is broken,” the following prophecy would be accomplished to “Tyrus.”  Tyre controlled the sea routes, while Jerusalem had to be passed through for the land trade routes.  Tyre means, “the rock.”

 

26:3:  “as the sea causeth his waves to come up” = Being a sea faring nation, Tyre would understand this proverb.

 

26:4: “scrape her dust from her” = Nothing would remain.

 

“make her like the top of a rock” = Fishermen generally spread out their nets to dry on barren rocks.  The message is, Tyre would become as barren as a rock.

 

26:6:  “her daughters” = Trye had colonies all over the then known world.

 

26:7:  “I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadnezzar” = In B.C. 585, Tyre was besieged for 13 years until all the settlements on the mainland and Trye were destroyed.

 

26:8:  “buckler” = Small shield upon one’s arm.

 

26:12:  “they” = This is a change of prophecy.  It is “he,” meaning Nebuchadnezzar, in verses 1-11.  Whereas “they,” is inclusive to anyone who wants in on the action.

 

“thy dust in the midst of the water” = Tyrus was near unto the sea into which they cast the rubbish of the demolished houses, stones, timber (trees from Lebanon), and dust, and so left it bare and naked.  This prophecy of verses 3 through 14, was accomplished when Alexander The Great of Greece came through.

 

There was/is an Island half-a-mile off the coast from Tyrus, called Tyre, where the people of Tyrus fled to during the siege of Tyrus in about B.C. 332.  Using the demolished houses, stones, timber and other remains of Tyrus, Alexander The Great had his army build a bridge out to that island an thus concurred it.  If you look on maps today you can see it is now a peninsula.

 

26:14:  “top of a rock” = See my Ezekiel 26:4 Note.

 

26:16:  “come down from their thrones” = The ancient symbol of mourning for a king of a foreign land when he was mourning the fall of another king, would be to come off of his throne, put on morning garments, and go through a ceremonial mourning service.

 

26:20:  “be not inhabited” = Still “not inhabited” today.

 

 

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

 

 

27:3:  “I am of perfect beauty” = “Pride goeth before a fall.”  Proverbs 16:18.

 

27:8:  “Zidon” = Twenty miles north of Tyre (Gen. 10:15-19).

 

“Arvad” = An Island off the coast of Syria.

 

27:9:  “Gebal” = If the Greek translation is correct, this would be “Byblos,” which is Jebeil of today, 21 miles north of Beirut, Syria, on the Mediterranean coast.  See First Kings 5:18.

 

27:10:  “Persia” = This is the first mention in the Bible of Persia, who defeated the Babylonians in B.C. 539.  See Daniel, Chapter 2, Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and my commentary there.

 

“Lud” = Possibly Lydia, on the west coast of Asia Minor.

 

“Phut” = Possibly Cyrene, in norther Africa, or Punt or Somaliland (Eze. 38:5).  Both Lydia and Phut supplied mercenary soldiers for the Egyptian army (Jer. 46:8-9).

 

27:11:  “Arvad” = Possibly Helech, in Cilicia; or Hethlon near Hamath.

 

“Gammadim” = Possibly. Kumidi of northern Syria, mentioned in the “Amarna Letters.”  It could also be the Gomerim from Cappadocia.

 

27:12:  “Tarshish” = Tartessus in Spain.  See First Kings 22:48 & Isaiah 2:16 for their ships.

 

27:13:  “Javan” = The Ionians of Asia Minor, Greeks.

 

“Tubal, and Meshech” = Cities in Anatolia, now in the eastern two-thirds of Turkey.

 

27:14:  “the house of Togarmah” = The peoples of eastern Turkey and Armenia call themselves Beth-Togarmah’s today.  “Beth” meaning, “the house of.”

 

27:15 & 20:  “Dedan” = The “LXX” has it as “Rodan,” meaning “Rhodes.”  According to “Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary:”  Was “near the Persian Sea:  thus an avenue to the commerce of India.  Not the Dedan in Arabia (Eze. 27:20), as the names in the context here prove, but the Dedan sprung from Cush [Bochart], (Gen. 10:7).”

 

27:17:  “Minnith, and Pannag” = See Judges 11:33; First Kings 5:9; Ezra 3:7; Acts 12:20.  Grotius identifies “Pannag” with “Phenice,” the Greek name for “Canaan.”

 

27:18:  “Helbon” = Located twelve miles north of Damascus.

 

27:19:  “Dan” = The tribe of Dan was supposed to concur the Philistines in Gaza, but couldn’t do it.  Moses predicted this in Deuteronomy 33:22, stating they would end up in “Bashan.”  What is today the “Golan Heights,” becoming a seafaring people (Jud. 5:16).

 

27:21:  “Kedar” = One of the 12 tribes of Ishmael; northern Arabia nomad Bedouins (Gen. 25:13; Jer. 2:10; 49:28).

 

27:22:  “Sheba” = In Southwest Arabia (1Ki. 10:1-13; Job 6:19).

 

“Raamah” = Commentators speculate as to this being on the Persian Gulf (Gen. 10:7).

 

27:23:  “Haran” = In northwest Mesopotamia, sixty miles east of Carchemish; the dwelling-place of Abraham in Mesopotamia after he moved from Ur (Gen. 11:31-32; 12:4-5).

 

“Canneh” = Possibly Calneh, an Assyrian city on the Tigris River.  The Greeks called in Ctesiphon.  See Genesis 10:10.

 

“Eden” = On the middle course of the Euphrates River, south of Haran (Isa. 37:12; Amos 1:5).

 

“Asshur” = South of Nineveh of the west side of the Tigris River, between the Upper and Lower Zab rivers.

 

“Chilmad” = According to Ptolemy, in “Gaala of Media,” a compound of Media.  In other words, a Chaldean label for the Medes.

 

27:33:  “many people” = In this verse lies the key; for with the destruction of Tyrus all these other Nations listed in the Chapter would be affected and the Glory of the Lord be seen.

 

 

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

 

 

28:2:  “prince of Tyrus” = Ethbaal III.

 

“thou hast said, I am a God” = Here is the true reason for her downfall (see also verse 6).  See Isaiah 14:13-14; Ezekiel 29:3; Acts 12:21; Second Thessalonians 2:4.

 

28:6:  “thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God” = “The wicked are filled with the same hatred of God that inspires Satan,” 4SP:487.

 

28:9:  “in the hand of him that slayeth thee” = Ethbaal III, the leader of Tyre, claiming to be a god,  was removed from his throne by Nebuchadnezzar in B.C. 583-572.

 

28:10:  “Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers” = In other words, an “uncircumcised” nation will kill Tyre.  The Phoenicians practiced the art of circumcision according to Herodotus, 2:104.  Whereas, the Babylonians did not.

 

28:12:  “king of Tyrus” = Pay careful attention to the change of title.  In verse 2, “the prince of Tyrus” is referring to Ethbaal III.  Thus, this “king” is a different personage.  And we know this to be Satan, because Ethbaal III has never “been in Eden the garden of God,” verse 13.  Nor was he “full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty,” this verse.

 

28:13:  “Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God” = See my Genesis 3:23 & Genesis 3:24 Notes.  The “Targum”states it as:  “thou delightest thyself with plenty of all good things and delectable ones, as if thou dwellest in the garden of God.”  That would be a misrepresentation of the reality of actually being “in” the garden.

 

“every precious stone was thy covering” = The “Targum” states it as:  “all precious stones were set in order upon thy garments.”

 

“the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle” = Only nine of the 12 stones that were on the breastplate of Aaron are mentioned here.  The additional mention of “and gold” may be a key.  For this verse the “Septuagint” includes all 12 stones.  However, it is most likely biased towards Israel and more Bible Study as to any application is yet to be discovered.  In an interesting twist, it could be that this is a way of expressing what one sees when looking upon him, in that he is clothed with light.  See Second Corinthians 11:14.

 

“thy tabrets” = Most likely like tambourines.

 

“thy pipes” = literally, like the holes in a flute.  If you think Satan does not work through music also is to misunderstand music composition.

 

“thou wast created” = It is beyond me that ANY “created” being should think that they are or will be “God,” let alone, “a God.”  Even Satan knew he could only be “like God,” Isaiah 14:14.  The conflict is, and has it always been, between Christ and Satan.  Although the Devil is the face of the conflict.  The conflict is between the Character of God and any other form of character.

 

24:14:  “anointed cherub” = The word “anointed” means, “in charge of.”  See my Bible Study:  “ANGELS, A BREAKDOWN OF.”

 

28:14 & 16:  “stones of fire” = If we go to Deuteronomy 33:2 (see Deu. 5:22 & 25 also), we can see that God’s Law is a “fiery Law.”  And Deuteronomy 4:24; 9.23; Hebrews 12:29, tell us that our God is a “consuming fire.”  What does that mean?  That He is mean?  No.  Our God is “Love,” but “just” and “jealous,” Deuteronomy 6:15, for His Law.  Thus, Satan was obedient to the Law of God.  See also Isaiah 30:27; 66:15; Daniel 7:9-10; Matthew 3:11-12; Second Peter 3:7.  The Law of God was written upon “stone.”

 

28:15:  “thou wast created” = See my Ezekiel 28:14 Note.

 

“till iniquity was found in thee” = According to Mrs. White, Satan existed “for ages,” 4SP:317, before he sinned.

 

28:16:  “thy merchandise” = According to John 8:44 the Devil’s “merchandise” is “murder” and “lying.” This is better spelled out in Second Peter 2:1-3, where the Devils “merchandise” is “denying the Lord,” verse 1, and “the way of truth shall be evil spoken of,” verse 2, i.e., lying.​

 

“covering cherub” = According to Exodus 25:18-20 & 22; 37:7-9; Numbers 7:89; First Samuel 4:4; Second Samuel 6:2; First Kings 8:6-7; Second Kings 19:17; First Chronicles 13:6; 28:18; Second Chronicles 3:10-14; 5:7-8; Psalm 80:1; 99:1; Isaiah 37:16; Hebrews 9:5, and many more texts, one of the responsibilities of the cherub’s is to be as close to God as you can get and protect the Law of God.  Thus, they would be the ones who would testify to the other angles what their God is like; specifically, His personality, which is comprised in the Ten Commandments that they were covering over with their wings.  And at some point, Satan decided that these Ten Commandments, which are the character of God, were against the angelic freedom.  Therefore, Lucifer’s job description, before he fell, was to show the holiness of the Law of God.

 

The reason we can know for sure that it was Lucifer’s assignment to be the “covering cherub,” is because he was “anointed,” verse 14, to do it (“Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth”).  According to Leviticus 8:12, to be “anointed” means to be “sanctified” for a specific purpose.  And since God is the Only One that sanctifies us, He sanctified Lucifer specifically for this position.

 

28:17:  “Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty” = See Isaiah 14:13.

 

“Satan in Heaven, before his rebellion, was a high and exalted angel, next in honor to God’s dear Son.  His countenance, like those of the other angels, was mild and expressive of happiness.  His forehead was high and broad, showing a powerful intellect.  His form was perfect; his bearing noble and majestic.  A special light beamed in his countenance, and shone around him brighter and more beautiful than around the other angels. . . Satan was envious of Christ, and gradually assumed command which devolved on Christ alone.”  1SP:17.1; ST, January 9, 1879.

 

“Though God had created Lucifer noble and beautiful, and had exalted him to high honor among the angelic host, yet he had not placed him beyond the possibility of evil.  It was in Satan’s power, did he choose to do so, to pervert these gifts.  He might have remained in favor with God, beloved and honored by all the angelic throng, presiding in his exalted position with generous, unselfish care, exercising his noble powers to bless others and to glorify his Maker.  But, little by little, he began to seek his own honor, and to employ his powers to attract attention and win praise to himself.  He also gradually led the angels over whom he ruled to do him service, instead of devoting all their powers to the service of their Creator.  This course perverted his own imagination, and perverted those who yielded implicitly to his authority.”  4SP:317.

 

28:18:  “traffic” = “In this place ‘traffic’ is the emblem of corrupt administration.  It denotes the bringing of self-seeking into spiritual offices.”  4BC:1163.

 

“ashes” = See Malachi 4:3.

 

28:21:  “Zidon” = Known today as Saida; 20 miles from Tyre.  See Judges 10:6; Joel 3:4-8; Zec. 9:2.

 

28:25:  “gathered the house of Israel from the people” = See my Ezekiel 11:17 Note.

 

 

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

 

 

29:1:  “tenth year” = Of Zedekiah; and tenth of the captivity of Jeconiah.  About B.C. 586 or 587, just before the fall of Jerusalem.

 

29:2:  “Pharaoh” = Pharaoh Hophra (Apries, as he is called in the Greek), grandson of Pharaoh Necho, of the 25th dynasty (B.C. 588-569).

 

29:3:  “the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers” = The Hebrew for “dragon” here is, “tanniym,” and generally applies to any large aquatic animal.  It is here used to depict a crocodile, which on Roman coins is the emblem of Egypt.

 

“hath said” = See my Ezekiel 29:9 Note.

 

29:4:  “I will put hooks in thy jaws” = From “Adam Clark’s Bible Commentary” we learn:  “‘I will put hooks in thy jaws,’ Amasis, one of this king’s generals, being proclaimed king by an insurrection of the people, dethroned Apries [Pharaoh of Egypt], and seized upon the kingdom; and Apries was obliged to flee to Upper Egypt for safety.  ‘I will cause the fish. . . to stick unto thy scales.’  Most fish are sorely troubled with a species of insect which bury their heads in their flesh, under their scales, and suck out the vital juices.  The allusion seems to be to this:  Pharaoh was the crocodile; the fish, the common people; and the sticking to his scales, the insurrection by which he was wasted and despoiled of his kingdom.”

 

29:5:  “I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness” = Improper burial ws considered a fearful fate in the ancient world, especially to the Egyptians (see Ezekiel 32:4-5; Jer. 22:18-19).

 

29:6:  “staff of reed” = A reed is not strong enough to lean on.  See verse 7.

 

From “Adam Clark’s Bible Commentary” we read:  “An inefficient and faithless ally.  The Israelites expected assistance from them when Nebuchadnezzar came against Jerusalem; and they made a feint to help them, but retired when Nebuchadnezzar went against them.  Thus were the Jews deceived and ultimately ruined.”

 

“reed” = The “reed” being especially appropriate to Egypt as the natural product of its river.

 

29:9:  “because he hath said. . . I have made” = Claiming to be God.  See verse 3.

 

29:10:  “the tower” = Migdol.  In Tell el-Heir, 12 miles southwest of Pelusium, which is the northeast boreder of Egypt (Exo. 14:2; Eze. 30:6; Jer. 44:1).

 

“Syene” = Meaning “elephant.”  However, it is at the first cataract of the Nile River, near Aswan, which is the southern boundary of Egypt (Eze. 30:6).  According to Josephus, in his work, “Wars,” IV. 10.5, “near the border of Ethiopia, or Cush.”

 

29:11:  “forty years” = If we allow for the fact that this prophecy would find its fulfillment when Cyrus conquered Babylon, this would be in the 24th year of the captivity of Jeconiah (notice verse 17 being the 27th year), at which time the seventy years captivity of the Jews ended and very likely the captivity of the Egyptians also.  See Jeremiah 46:25-26.  Seventeen years after Ezekiel made this prophecy, Nebuchadnezzar to the Egyptians into captivity, where they remained for “forty years.”

 

29:14:  “Pathros” = In southern Egypt, with “No,” verse 14, its capital; also known as Thebes.

 

“base kingdom” = How true this prophecy has been fulfilled, having passed into various hands, and come under the power and dominion of different states throughout the rest of its history, to this, our day.

 

29:17:  “seven and twentieth year” = That is, of Zedekiah’s reign, and of the captivity of Jeconiah; from whence the dates of Ezekiel’s visions and prophecies are taken (see Eze. 1:2; 20:1; 24:1; 26:1; 30:20; 31:1; 32:17; 33:21).  About B.C. 571 or 570.

 

29:18:  “yet had he no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus” = The pun is that Nebuchadnezzar did not get paid by God for this service, therefore God paid him with Egypt (see verses 19 & 20).

 

29:21:  “horn of the house of Israel” = This may refer generally to the restoration of Israel; or to Zerubbabel, who became one of the leaders who lead the people from Babylon; or to the advancement of Daniel in the court of Babylon; or to the taking of Jehoiachin out of prison by “Evil-merodach,” and the setting of his throne above the rest of the kings.

​

 

CHAPTER THIRTY

 

 

30:2:  “Howl ye, Woe worth the day” = The Hebrew is “heylilu, hah laiyom!”  So a better translation would be, “Howl ye, Alas for the day!”

 

30:3:  “the heathen” = Better, “the nations.”  Meaning nations other than Israel.

 

30:5:  “Chub” = Thought to be all that are in alliance with the other three.  The “Septuagint” adds, “the Persians and the Cretans.”

 

30:6:  “tower of Syene” = See my Ezekiel 29:10 Note.

 

30:12:  “by the hand of strangers” = Egypt fell later on to Alexander the Great.  Most fail to realize that Cleopatrawas not Egyptian bot Greek.

 

30:13:  “Noph” = In Hosea 9:6, this city is referred to as “Memphis,” as do many other versions place it here instead of “Noph.”  Memphis was very famous for idolatry.  In it stood the temple of Serapis, and the temple of other idols, such as Isis and Osiris.  In Jerome’s time, as stated by him, the metropolis of the Egyptian superstition.  It was built by Menes (“Herodot, Euterpe, sive,” l. 2. c. 99), the “Mizraim” of the Scriptures, who was the first king of Egypt.

 

“Noph” is the Hebrew rendering; “Memphis” the Greek rendering; “Mennofri” the Egyptian rendering.  It was 10 miles south of Cairo, the home of the fire-god, Ptah, and the Apis bull.

 

30:14:  “Pathros” = See my Ezekiel 29:14 Note.

 

“Zoan” = Tanis, the ancient capital of Egypt.  Present day San el-Hagar, in the eastern delta of the Nile River, west of Pelusium, according to Goshen.

 

“No” = Diospolis, or Thebes, the city of Jupiter.

 

30:15:  “Sin” = “Sin” is thought to be “Pelusium,” which was a strong city of Egypt, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, in the vicinity of Pelusium, 23 miles southeast of Port Said; now completely buried in sand.

 

30:17:  “Aven” = This is none other than the city of “On,” the famous Heliopolis (Greek), or city of the sun; home of the sun-god “Ra;” about 7 miles northeast of Cairo.  See Genesis 41:45 & 50.

 

“Pibeseth” = This could be “Bubastum” or “Bubaste,” by a slight alteration of the letters.  If so, it is situated on the eastern branch of the Nile, towards Arabia.  If it is the present-day Tel Basta, in would be about 30 miles north-northeast of Cairo.  It was the house of the goddess Bast, to whom the cat was sacred.

 

30:18:  “Tehaphnehes” = Also called Tahapanes (see Jer. 2:16), which “is the Pelusian Daphne,” according to “Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible.”  About 30 miles southwest of Pelusium.  According to Jeremiah 43:9, it was the residence of Pharaoh.

 

Ezekiel 30:20 & Ezekiel 31:1:  “eleventh year” = That is, of Zedekiah’s reign, and of the captivity of Jeconiah; from whence the dates of Ezekiel’s visions and prophecies are taken (see Eze. 1:2; 20:1; 24:1; 26:1; 32:17; 33:21).

 

30:21:  “broken the arm of Pharaoh” = Pharaoh Necho.

 

 

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

 

 

31:1:  “eleventh year” = See my Ezekiel 30:20 Note.

 

31:3:  “the Assyrian” = The question in verse 2 is answered here by implying that as the haughty king of Assyria was concurred and overthrown by the Babylonians, so shalt thou be.

 

31:9:  “envied him” = This discourse shows the kings of Assyria were controlled by (Satan) a demonic power.

 

31:12:  “cut him off. . . all the people of the earth” = Assyria shall fall via Babylon.  Spiritually speaking, after the Millennium, none will have anything more to do with Satan’s lies.

 

31:14:  “them that go down to the pit” = The “second death.”

 

31:15:  “In the day when he went down to the grave” = See Revelation 20:10.

 

31:16:  “comforted in the nether parts of the earth” = According Ecclesiastes 9:5-6, and many others (see my Bible Study:  “DEATH, THE BIBLICAL TRUTH ABOUT”), there is no more pain in death.

 

31:18:  “This is Pharaoh” = The previous verses discussing the destruction of Egypt.  But don’t miss the spiritual applications I tended to point out.

 

 

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

 

 

32:1:  “twelfth year” = That is, of Zedekiah’s reign, and of the captivity of Jeconiah; from whence the dates of Ezekiel’s visions and prophecies are taken (see Eze. 1:2; 20:1; 24:1; 26:1; 32:17; 33:21).

 

32:7:  “cover the heaven” = Here is a portion of my Matthew 24:29 Note:  “It is at midnight that God manifests His power for the deliverance of His people.  The sun appears shining in its strength.  Startling signs and wonders follow in quick succession.  The wicked look with terror and amazement upon the scene, while the righteous behold with solemn joy the tokens of their deliverance [“the tokens of their deliverance” = “signs in the sun, moon, and stars”].  Everything in nature seems turned out of its course.  The streams cease to flow.  Dark, heavy clouds come up, and clash against each other.”  4SP:453.

 

“The rabbis, Christ said, would declare that the signs that appeared were tokens of the Advent of the Messiah.  But. . . The signs that they argue are tokens of their release from bondage, are signs of their approaching destruction.”  ST, February 20, 1901.

 

32:17:  “twelfth year” = See my Ezekiel 32:1 Note.

 

32:18:  “her, and the daughters of the famous nations” = The “her” here is Egypt.  Whereas the “daughters” would be those “nations” in alliance with Egypt.

 

32:21:  “shall speak to him out of the midst of hell” = According to Ecclesiastes 9:5-6, the only way that these can speak to Egypt is for Egypt to notice that death and destruction will be its demise if it does not repent.  This is explained in verse 23, “which cause terror in the land of the living.”

 

32:22:  “Asshur” = Another name for Assyria.

 

32:24:  “Elam” = Persia.  The parts that are east of the Tigris River and north of the Persian Gulf.  Iran.

 

32:26:  “Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude” = See my Ezekiel 38:2 Note.  Thought to be on the northern fringe of what is now eastern and central Turkey.  They battled with the Assyrians for control of the area south of the Black Sea.

 

32:30:  “Zidonians” = The “KJV” has this translated correctly.  While the “Vulgate Latin Version” renders it, "and all the hunters;” but wrongly; as also the “Septuagint” and “Arabic” versions, which read “the princes or soldiers of Assyria.”  The Zidonians, or inhabitants of Zidon, are meant; as the “Targum” agrees.  They were a famous maritime people, just as was Tyre.

 

 

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

 

 

33:3-6 & 8-9:  “the watchman” = Echoes of Chapter Eighteens warnings.

 

33:10:  “pine away” = See Leviticus 26:39-42.

 

33:11:  “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked” = This is the God we serve.  We should feel the same way.  See Isaiah 28:21.

 

33:12 & 13:  “The righteousness of the righteous” = One wrong act, one wrong decision, can ruin a 30 year career.  How much more the life of a Christian?  This is why we need Colossians 1:27.

 

33:15:  “If the wicked restore the pledge” = That is, return his neighbor’s raiment, which he has taken as a pledge for money lent him; and which, according to the Law (Exo. 22:26), was to be restored before sunset.

 

33:17:  “The way of the Lord is not equal” = Meaning, they believed that he had more sins than righteousness.  That may be so.  But the final outcome of a righteous life can uproot all the unrighteous deeds.  Confirmed in verse 19.  See First Peter 3:12.

 

33:21:  “twelfth year” = That is, of Zedekiah’s reign, and of the captivity of Jeconiah; from whence the dates of Ezekiel’s visions and prophecies are taken (see Eze. 1:2; 20:1; 24:1; 26:1; 30:20; 31:1; 32:17).

 

However, the reconning can be solved by understanding that Jeremiah’s year (Jer. 39:2) began in the autumn, while Ezekiel, following the Babylonian reckoning, began the year in the spring.  Thus, the 11th year of Jeremiah is the same as the 12th year of Ezekiel.

 

Jerusalem fell in the 11th year of king Zedekiah (Jer. 39:2 parallels Jer. 52:5-7 & 2Ki. 25:2), and was burned a month later (Jer. 52:12-14 parallels 2Ki. 25:8-10).

 

33:22:  “opened my mouth” = Remembering that in Ezekiel 24:25-27, the Lord prophesied that Ezekiel would be silent to Judah (only), until Jerusalem fell.

 

33:24:  “saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land:  but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance” = Abraham was but one, and had no child, when the promise of inheriting the land was made unto him; and he was but a single worshipper of God, and yet he had this favor and privilege:  so they oppose themselves to Abraham, and argue from the lesser to the greater; that if a single person was vouchsafed to inherit it, then much more many, and those of his seed; and to whom the land was particularly given for an inheritance, and who were now in the possession of it, as Abraham never was;  and, being many, were able to defend their right, and secure themselves in the enjoyment of it;  therefore the Lord should give it back to them.

 

Sound familiar?  They feel intitled because they are children of Abraham.  See Matthew 3:9; Luke 3:8; John 8:33 & 39.

 

33:30:  “hear what is the Word that cometh forth from the LORD” = They are hearers but not doers.  See verse 32.

 

 

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

 

 

34:2:  “shepherds” = In the New Testament, the concept of a “shepherd” was one of being a spiritual leader.  However, the concept of a “shepherd” in the Old Testament, except for the Book of Psalms, is one of being a king, or governmental leader (Psa. 78; Isa. 44 & 63; Zec. 11 & 13).  Although both can apply here (“feed the flocks” this verse; “ruled them,” verse 4).

 

34:13:  “out from the people” = See my Ezekiel 11:17 Note.

 

34:14:  “I will” = All of this is after the Second & Third Comings of our Lord.

 

34:17 & 22:  “cattle and cattle” = Should be translated as “sheep and sheep,” for it is the same Hebrew word as used in Genesis 30:34-42; 31:8-12.

 

34:23:  “I will set up one Shepherd over them” = Messiah.

 

34:29:  “a Plant of renown” = Isaiah used this idiom of a “plant” being raised, meaning the Messiah, in Chapter 11; while Jeremiah 23:5, speaks of Messiah as the foot out of the dry ground.

 

 

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

 

 

35:2:  “mount Seir” = Meaning, “hairy; covered with brushwood.”  According to “John Gills Bible Commentary,” “Which had its name from Seir the Horite, who first possessed it; and was succeeded in it by Esau and his posterity, the Edomites; see Gen. 36:8, Deu. 2:12, so that the country of Edom or Idumea is here intended, and the inhabitants of it.” Stretching from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akaba; the highlands east of the Arabah.  Edom was, of course, descended from Esau, and was subjugated by Babylon, then by the Medo-Persians, then in B.C. 126 the Hasmoneans compelled them to become Jews; thus making them to become known as Idumeans.  King Herod was an Idumean.

 

35:6:  “sith” = This is an old English expression for “seeing that,” or “since.”

 

35:10:  “two nations” = Israel and Judah.  See Jeremiah 33:24.

 

35:15:  “O mount Seir, and all Idumea” = See my Ezekiel 35:2 Note.  Here is my Isaiah 34:5 & 6 Note:  This is the Greek term for the land of Edom.  My Isaiah 21:11 Note, makes them out to be “dumb.”  It is also used a a term implying all the enemies of Israel.  In Isaiah 63:1-2 Messiah comes from Edom.  See also verses 3-4.

 

 

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

 

 

36:5:  “My jealousy” = Having fervent zeal for God’s Own glory.

 

“Idumea” = See my Ezekiel 35:2 Note.

 

36:7:  “lifted up Mine hand” = God is making an “oath.”  Often in Scripture God’s mind can be persuaded (not actually; He knows the future) to be changed from His (supposed) intended action.  However, in this case, there is no turning back from His statement.

 

36:8:  “for they are at hand to come” = This could be translated, “For they are soon to come.”

 

36:17:  “uncleanness of a removed woman” = Meaning, idolatry.

 

36:20:  “are gone forth out of His land” = For Israel to be “out of” their land was in itself “profaning God’s Holy Name.”  Why does God so long deal with Israel?  Because His Name is o them.  See verse 22.

 

36:25:  “sprinkle clean water” = These verses do not prefigure the introduction of sprinkling for baptism.  Here God does the sprinkling and not man to another man.  Sprinkling was done away with under the New Covenant along with ashes of an heifer, et cetera.  “Neither by the blood of goats or of calves, but by His own blood. . . For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer [Num. 19:17-19] sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth. . . how much more shall the blood of Christ.”  Hebrews 9:12-13.  There is no scriptural connections whatsoever between the ceremonial sprinkling of the Old Testament and the New Testament ordinance of baptism, an act of complete immersion (Rom. 6:4-6).

 

36:26:  “A new heart also will I give you” = “The words, ‘A new heart also will I give you,’ mean, ‘A new mind will I give you.’  A change of heart is always attended by a clear conviction of Christian duty, an understanding of truth.” MLT:24.

 

36:27:  “cause you to walk in My Statutes” = According to Joel 2:28-29, all obedient flesh is involved in this prophecy.  Compare to Leviticus 26:15.

 

36:28:  “And ye shall dwell” = All prophecy is “conditional” upon obedience.  Israel was not.

 

 

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

 

 

37:1:  “carried me out” = Ezekiel is in vision.  This has us thinking that his other revelations were by dreams or other visions not mentioned.  Thus, this one is most important.

 

37:3:  “O Lord GOD, Thou knowest” = This should most probably be the only answer we should ever give God, “Only You know Lord.”

 

37:4:  “Prophesy” = The Hebrew is “naba,” literally meaning by my interpretation, “speak by inspiration; making yourself a prophet.”

 

37:5-6:  “[5] breath. . . [6] flesh” = According to Genesis 2:7, man becomes a living soul when you have a body plus God’s breath.  See verse 10.

 

37:12:  “come up out of your graves” = Israel to return from the lands they have been scattered to.  Most chose not to return.  See the Book of Esther.

 

37:24:  “David My Servant” = Meaning, “The Son of David.”  Otherwise, there would be “two shepherds,” and not just “One Shepherd.”

 

37:25:  “My Servant David” = Meaning, “The Son of David.”

 

37:26:  “will set My Sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore” = Upon the New earth after the Millennium.

 

37:27:  “Tabernacle” = According to Hebrews 9:11, Christ is the “Tabernacle.”

 

 

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

 

 

38:2:  “Gog and Magog” = Efforts to identify “Gog and Magog” with any historical character have proven to be fruitless guesses.  However, most Christian denominations have made “Gog” out to be Russia, because it is “north,” verse 6, of Israel.  The misunderstanding of other prophecies and believing Israel to “still be the apple of God’s eye,” leads to false doctrine.

 

The root, from which the names are derived, are unknown.  In Revelation 20:8 they are used to symbolize the nations of the wicked, whom Satan assembles after the millennium to attack Christ and to seize the New Jerusalem.

 

The Greek meaning for Magog is “an Anti-Christian Party,” i.e., “Nation.”  Gog seems to be the king and Magog the kingdom; such that Gog and Magog are like Pharaoh and the Egyptians.  However, Gog is identified in verses 17 & 18as a people who attack God’s people.

 

In addition, Magog, i.e., “Meshech and Tubal,” could be referring to the descendants of the son of Japheth (see Gen. 10:2; 1Ch. 1:5); his descendants and their dwelling-place being probably somewhere in the neighborhood of Armenia (Herodotus iii. 94).  However, in Psalm 120:5 the name “Mesech” occurs as simply a synonym for foreigners or barbarians.  According to the Targum, “Meshech” and “Tubal” would be the Scythians.

 

According to Pliny, in “Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 23,” “the city of Hierapolis in Syria was called by the Syrians Magog; and they fancy the name of Gog is the same with Gyges a king of Lydia, whose country was called from him Gygea, or Gog's land, who was grandfather to Croesus; and which country came into the hands of Cyrus, and from the Persians into the hands of the Greeks, and so to the Seleucidae; for which reason they may bear this name in this prophecy.”

 

In Jewish tradition, Gog and Magog became equated with all the rebellious nations of Psalm, Chapter Two, (“kings of the earth”) are those who revolted against God and His Messiah (The Babylonian Talmud, p. 7b, 10a, 13a).  This appears to be more fitting to the text and context.

 

38:3:  “Meshech and Tubal” = Again, according to the Targum, “Meshech” and “Tubal” would be the Scythians.

 

38:5:  “Persia” = Ezekiel’s audience would understand this Provence as modern-day Iran.

 

38:6:  “Gomer” = According to John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible, “Gomer was the eldest son of Japheth, Gen. 10:2, from whom descended the people called by the Greeks Galatians, or Galio-Grecians, as Josephus (Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 1) says, who before were from him called Gomarians:  others think that Phrygia, and the inhabitants of it, are meant; but, whether one or the other, they were both people of the lesser Asia, which is now in the hands of the Turks.”

 

“Togarmah” = Also from John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible, “Togarmah was one of the sons of Gomer, Gen. 10:3whose posterity, according to the Greeks, as Josephus (Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 1) says, were the Phrygians; but others rather think the Cappadocians descended from him; and that Togarmah designs their country, which also is a part of the Turkish dominions.”  In other words, the Turks (Turkey).

 

38:8:  “against the mountains of Israel” = That the Arab nations took over the land of Israel cannot be denied.  Beginning in the 11th century, Christians in Jerusalem were increasingly persecuted by the city’s Islamic rulers, especially when control of the city passed from the relatively tolerant Egyptians to the Seljuk Turks in 1071 A.D.

 

38:9:  “Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm” = When the Turks invaded Israel and Christian lands, they were brutal.  They slaughtered and captured so many Christian that they tarred out their organs and tied them to a strake, posts and other things, then shoot them full or arrows.  They cute of their heads.  To the Christians, these men were deathly killing machines.

 

38:13:  “Sheba, and Dedan” = Sheba and Dedan are a designation of those Arabian countries which inhabited that part of Arabia which lay near to Judea; whom the Turks passed through in order to get to Israel.

 

38:16:  “in the latter days” = Herein is a change from history to “the latter days.”

 

“My land” = Many Christian denominations, teaching this to be Israel, who as a nation will revert back to God and His Christ, have missed the point.  God’s “land” is “where two or three are gathered together in My Name,” Matthew 18:20.  Granted, verses 17-19 specifically speak of the land of Israel.  But verses 20-23 specifically prophecy of Second Coming events, which effect the entire earth.

 

Thus, when Israel was obedient, God worked for them.  The same will be true when Christians are obedient in “the latter days.”

 

“Gog” = Gog in this sense would be all those who are still revolting against God and His Messiah (see above, The Babylonian Talmud, pages 7b, 10a, 13a).

 

38:22:  “pestilence and with blood. . . and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone” = Notice that our Lord uses “pestilence,” “blood,” “rain,” “hailstones, fire, and brimstone,” in an attempt to reason with His people.

 

 

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

 

 

39:3:  “I will smite thy bow out of they left hand” = In ancient times (as sometimes now), the “left hand” was counted as weakness.  Whereas, the right hand was strength.

 

In 1291 A.D., was the Crusaders’ last foothold and Acre, falls to Mamluks.  In 1342 A.D., Pope Clement VI formally establishes Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land.  In 1517 A.D., the Ottoman Turks take control of Palestine from Mamluks.  In 1517 A.D., Martin Luther begins Protestant Reformation in Europe.  And in 1538 A.D., Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent builds present walls of Old City of Jerusalem.

 

39:7:  “So will I make My Holy Name known in the midst of My people Israel” = “Not as though the Word of God hath taken none effect.  For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel.”  Romans 9:6.  I believe Ezekiel here is speaking Second Coming language, when there will be no doubt Who “the heathen shall know that” God is “the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.”  This is confirmed in verse 8, when it will be “done.”

 

39:9-10:  “seven years” = Mariana, in his History of Spain, lib. xi., c. 24, says, that after the Spaniards had given that signal overthrow to the Saracens in 1212 A.D., they found such a vast quantity of lances, javelins, and such like, that they served them for four years for fuel.  Most probably these instruments obtained by the Israelites were used in general for culinary firewood, and might literally have served them for seven years; so that during that time they should take no wood out of the fields, nor out of the forests for the purpose of fuel.

 

39:11 & 15:  “Hamongog” = The first part of this Hebrew word, “Hamon,” signifies “a multitude.”  Thus, the meaning is “The multitude of Gog.”  This name will be imposed upon the place of Gog’s sepulcher (“graves”), because of the multitude slain and buried there.

 

39:16:  “Hamonah” = This will be the name of a city to be built in commemoration of the defeat of Gog.

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39:17:  “to My sacrifice” = It all becomes clear now (verses 17-24), that these passages (Ezekiel, Chapters 38 & 39), are NOT speaking prophetically of Israel’s “latter days,” but of the time when “Israel went into [Babylonian] captivity,”verse 23.  Why, “because they trespassed against” God.  Ezekiel 39:23.  And so will we if we “trespass against God.”  But that “captivity” will be the “second death” spoken of in the Book of Revelation.

 

39:25:  “Israel” = Again, “Not as though the Word of God hath taken none effect.  For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel.”  Romans 9:6.  See my Bible Study:  “ISRAEL'S REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY DOCTRINE.”  ALL Bible prophecy is CONDITIONAL upon the nation or person being obedient to the CONDITIONS of the prophecy.  Israel was not.  Therefore, who is God speaking of is what you need to determine.

 

39:28:  “I have gathered them unto their own land” = As the Books of Ezra & Nehemiah demonstrate.  But the Book of Esther tells us, not all (kin fact most) left, but stayed against the Will of God.  But “His mercy endureth for ever.”  First Chronicles 16:34.

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CHAPTER FORTY

 

 

CHAPTERS 40-44:ALL:  Regarding the building of the “Third Temple.”  All prophecies, with the exception of time prophecies, are “conditional” based upon the obedience or disobedience of God’s children.  Therefore, this “Third Temple” was never built because of the disobedience of God’s children.  See Ezekiel 43:8 & 11 [“if].

 

40:1:  “In the five and twentieth year of our captivity. . . in the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten” = That is, in the twenty-fifth year of the captivity of Jeconiah, and fourteen years after the taking of Jerusalem.

 

40:3:  “Man. . . appearance of brass” = According to Revelation 1:15, this would be Jesus.

 

“flax. . . reed” = A “flax” would be used for long measurements; while a “reed” would be used for shorter measurements.  The Rabbis believe Ezekiel’s “reed” to be about 10 1/3 feet long.

 

40:38 & 39:  “[38] burnt offering. . . [39] sin offering and the trespass offering” = Since “offerings” where to be made in this Third Temple (which was never built due to the disobedience of Israel), this Temple can not be in Heaven -- as some commentators erroneously contend -- for nothing dies there.  Thus, I do not focus upon it.

 

40:46:  “Zadok” = Zadok was a descendent of Aaron and was from the eldest house of Aaron, to whom the priesthood belonged; though it had been usurped a long time by the family of Ithamar.  So it was, in Solomon’s time, Abiathar, of that family, was dispossessed of it, and Zadok was placed in his stead.  Solomon had set aside the family of Ithamar because of the part which Abiathar had taken in the rebellion of Adonijah (1Ki. 1:7; 2:26-27; see also the reason given in Eze. 48:11).  Zadok’s name signifies “just,” or righteous; and was a type of Christ, the Holy and Just One, Whose spiritual children and offspring are possibly here meant; the true meaning of the passage.

 

 

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

 

 

41:ALL:  See my Ezekiel 40:38 & 39 Note.

 

41:12 & 13 & 14 & 15:  “the separate place” = The Hebrew is “gizrah,” and is possibly referring to a place reserved for repair, polishing, and general maintenance support of the Sanctuary (2Ki. 23:11; 1Ch. 26:18).

 

41:18:  “every cherub had two faces” = We know that cherub’s have four faces (Eze. 1:6 & 8 & 10; 10:8 & 21).  This is only because they could only be depicted as such on a relief or mural or two-dimensional painting.  Thus, they had “four faces.”  See my Bible Study:  “ANGELS, A BREAKDOWN OF.”

 

41:22:  “Altar of Wood” = This would be the Altar of Incense.  Interesting that it is not covered with gold.

 

 

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

 

 

42:ALL:  See my Ezekiel 40:38 & 39 Note.

 

42:10:  “the separate place” = See my Ezekiel 41:12 & 13 & 14 & 15 Note.

 

42:20:  “the profane place” = From “Adam Clark’s Commentary on the Bible” we read:  “The profane place was that in which men, women, Gentiles, pure or impure might be admitted.  Josephus says War, lib. vi., c. 14, that in his time there was a wall built before the entrance three cubits high, on which there were posts fixed at certain distances, with inscriptions on them in Latin and Greek, containing the laws which enjoined purity on those that entered; and forbidding all strangers to enter, on pain of death.  See Calmet.”

 

 

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

 

 

43:ALL:  See my Ezekiel 40:38 & 39 Note.

 

43:2:  “His voice was like a noise of many waters” = According to Revelation 1:15-16; 14:2; 19:6, this would be our Lord Jesus, The Christ.

 

43:3:  “I came to destroy” = According to this statement, Ezekiel is no longer speaking, but Christ.

 

“destroy the city” = This refers back to the vision in Ezekiel 9:4 (see note there).

 

43:6:  “the Man” = Christ Jesus.

 

43:7:  “[Behold]” = The “LXX” inserts this word after “Son of man.”  The concept is, “Behold, thou hast seen. . .”

 

“soles of My feet” = According to Leviticus 16:14 and First Chronicles 28:2, the High Priest, on the Day of Atonement, not only sprinkles the blood on the Mercy Seat, but before It, where God’s “feet” are.

 

“the Altar” = The Hebrew is “Harel,” or “Haharel,” meaning, “Mount of God.”

 

43:11:  “if” = They were obedient.  This is why the Third Temple was never built.

 

43:17:  “his stairs” = According to Exodus 20:26, “stairs” were prohibited.  Why?  So that none could look up the dress of the priests.  Apparently, the clothing for this Temple was to be different.

 

 

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

 

 

44:ALL:  See my Ezekiel 40:38 & 39 Note.

 

44:2:  “the God of Israel, hath entered in by It, therefore It shall be shut” = No one enters where the Shekinah Glory Dwells/Is.  It was an eastern tradition that one way to honor a king was to provide a gate for him that no on else used.

 

44:3:  “the Prince” = This “Prince” is foretold under the name of David (see Eze. 34:24).  However, the Rabbis understood this to be the Messiah.  It is argued that this Prince cannot be the Messiah, because according to Ezekiel 45:22, He is offering a sin offering for Himself.  Therefore, just Who this Prince is, or, is He offering for Himself for the sins He took upon Himself, you decide.  I believe Him to be Messiah.

 

44:15:  “Zadok” = See my Ezekiel 40:46 Note.

 

44:17:  “no wool” = Wool was regarded as to cause perspiration, and therefore was unacceptable for garments.  See verse 18.

 

44:19:  “other garments” = A change of clothing.  The cleanliness of God to some is astounding.

 

44:20:  “nor suffer their locks to grow long” = Such as the Nazarites, that a distinction might be preserved between those who were and were not such.

 

“they shall only poll their heads” = In order to observe a medium between both; neither shave their heads close, nor let their hair grow long, but keep it in an even moderate length.

 

44:21:  “Neither shall priest drink wine” = This then does not give permission for a non-priest to do so.  Never should this be done.  If we are to be “kings and priests,” Revelation 1:6; 5:10, of God, we should not be toying with evil.  See my Bible Study:  “WINE, BIBLICALLY ACCEPTABLE.”

 

44:24:  “My Laws and My Statutes. . . My Sabbaths” = Interesting that our God has to specifically mention His “Sabbaths,” considering that they are included in “My Laws and” also “My Statutes.”  God knew that in the latter days, the Biblical Sabbath would be contested.  That the Biblical Sabbath is still valid today, see my Bible Study on that subject.

 

 

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

 

 

45:ALL:  See my Ezekiel 40:38 & 39 Note.

 

45:2:  “length. . . breath” = “Length” refers to East and West, while “breath” refers to North and South (Ezekiel 48:8-22).

 

45:11:  “ephah and the bath” = The ephah was in use for dry measure, the bath for liquid.  The “ephah” was a dry measure of about one bushel in capacity.  It corresponded to the “bath” in liquid measure and was the standard for measuring grain and similar articles since it is classed with balances and weights (Love. 19:36; Amos 8:5).  A “bath” being about 8 or 9 gallons.

 

“homer” = About 75 gallons.  In ancient times, “a donkey load.”

 

45:12:  “shekel” = Eleven and a half grams, or about 2/5 of an ounce.

 

45:18:  “first month” = See my Bible Study:  “MONTHS, BIBLICAL CALENDAR OF.”  There are two Jewish calendars.  The Civil calendar would be in the Fall, “Tishri,” wherein falls “Rosh Hoshana,” and the Religious calendar, “Abib,” or “Nisan,” which fell in the Spring (Exo. 12:2).

 

45:21:  “a feast of seven days” = Arguments begin among Bible commentators that this should be translated as, “a feast of weeks of days.”  Then the speculations start to range.  However, this Temple was never made, the services never happened, nor will happen.  Thus, I will stay out of the speculations.

 

45:22:  “sin offering” = See my Ezekiel 44:3 Note.  If I were to speculate at this point; had the Jewish nation been obedient, and showed to the world the True God and His Laws, Messiah, upon His First Coming, would have been the High Priest of this Temple that would have been built in preparation for Him; He would have been offering the offerings of which if you will search and notice, no lambs were offered, for He Himself is to be in symbol the “Lamb;” and the Romans or another would have murdered Him instead of the religious Jewish leadership.

 

In fact, this Tabernacle and its services were so confusing to the Levitical priesthood, that it was almost excluded from the Scriptures.  Here is the statement in the “Babylonian Talmud, Hagiga,” 13a:  “Moreover, said they, had it not been for Rabbi Chaniana ben Hezekiah, who explained away several of these difficulties [we are not given these], the Gook of Ezekiel would have been excluded from the Canon of Scripture.”

 

 

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

 

 

46:ALL:  See my Ezekiel 40:38 & 39 Note.

 

46:1:  “but on the Sabbath It shall be opened” = See my Bible Study:  “SABBATH, STILL VALID TODAY.”

 

46:13 & 15:  “every morning” = Notice no evening offerings.

 

 

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

 

 

47:ALL:  “[404] In the different places where the work is established, it will often be small in its beginning.  Then it will grow.  This is represented by the prophet Ezekiel under the figure of water issuing from under the threshold of the house. . . [405] These waters signify the gospel of Christ which went forth from Jerusalem and appeared to all countries.  The gifts and power of the Holy Spirit which accompanied the work caused it to yield great results.”  SpM:404-405.

 

47:2:  “that looketh eastward” = Zechariah 14:8 records that the water flowing from Jerusalem will divide In two, with half flowing east toward the Dead Sea and the other half flowing west toward the Mediterranean.  Apparently, Ezekiel only is allowed to see the one side, while Zechariah is allowed to see both.  And this is the side our Lord wants Ezekiel to pay close attention to.

 

47:3:  “the man” = This could be Messiah.

 

47:8:  “the sea, the waters shall be healed” = Meaning the Dead Sea will receive fresh waters.

 

47:10:  “Engedi even unto Eneglaim” = According to Jerome, the latter one lay at the entrance of the Dead Sea, while the former at the end of it.  Whereas it appears from Pliny, Engedi was on the western shore of the lake, meaning it is probable there was another city on the eastern shore opposite to it, called Eneglaim.  En-gedi, meaning, “fountain of the kid,” or “spring of the two calves,” was anciently Hazazon-Tamar; now Ain-Jidy, west of the Dead Sea.  It was David’s place of refuge from Saul (1Sa. 23:29; 24:1; see also 2Ch. 23:22) and was about in the middle of the western shore of the Dead Sea.

 

En-eglaim means “fountain of two calves,” on the confines of Moab, over against Engedi, and near where the Jordan River enters into the Dead Sea (see Isa. 15:8).  Within these two city limits, and between them, they would comprise the whole Dead Sea.  Eneglaim does not occur elsewhere in God’s Word.  Its form indicates that it was one of the double cities of Moab.  However, it that is the case, it would be identified with “Ain-el-Feshkah” to the north, on the western bank of the Dead Sea.  On this supposition, “from Eneglaim to Engedi” would be the line of coast from the most northern fountain to the principal fountain southward.

 

47:12:  “by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat” = Apparently these inhabit this space along with the “tree of life,” Revelation 22:2.

 

“neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed” = Not that it will not be eaten, for “and the fruit thereof shall be for meat,” but rather, it will not rot; for nothing dies in Heaven.  And just to throw this in here:  No more eating of dead animals either.

 

47:13:  “Joseph shall have two portions” = Joseph’s sons were given the birthright forfeited by Reuben (the real first-born), because of his adultery with his fathers concubine (1Ch. 5:1).

 

47:14:  “I lifted up mine hand” = Swearing of an oath (Exo. 6:8; Neh. 9:15; Psa. 106:26; Eze. 20:5 & 15 & 23 & 42; 36:7; 44:12).

 

47:15:  “Hethlon, as men go to Zedad” = In all probability Hethlon is the same as Cuthlon, a city of Syria, between Antioch and Laodicea, according to Antoninus.  The line of this border shall begin at the Mediterranean Sea, commonly called the “great sea,” as in this verse, and so proceed to Hethlon, a city in Syria Damascene, and from thence to Zedad (see Num. 34:8), the description of which is taken all along from the places which were on the border of Canaan, or in countries adjacent to it.

 

47:16:  “Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim. . . Hazarhatticon. . . Hauran” = Between the parallel ranges of Lebanon is the El-Bekaa valley, leading to the entering in of “Hamath,” on the Orontes, in the Syrian frontier.  Berothah is a city in Syria conquered by king David; meaning “wells.”  See Second Samuel 8:8.  Hazar-Hatticon means, “the middle village.”  Hauran is a tract in Syria, south of Damascus according to Auranitis.

 

47:17:  “Hazar-Enan” = A town in the north of Canaan, meaning, “village of fountains.”

 

47:23:  “inheritance” = Here is an edict (entire verse) for the outright adoption into the family of God for Gentiles.

 

 

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

 

 

48:8:  “the Sanctuary shall be in the midst of it” = Seven of the twelve tribes listed will be to the North of the Sanctuary.  Going from North to South, Dan; Asher; Naphtali; Manasseh; Ephraim; Reuben; Judah (being closest to the Sanctuary).

 

48:11:  Zadok” = See my Ezekiel 40:46 Note.

 

48:21:  “for the Prince” = Messiah?

 

48:29:  “divide by lot” = Not as was done like rolling the dice.  But the meaning here is better (since each tribe is specifically given their portions), by allocation.  To finish up from my verse 8 Note; North to South, Benjamin (closest to the Sanctuary); Simeon; Issachar; Zebulun; Gad.

 

48:32:  “Joseph” = The tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh are here combined as the tribe of Joseph (Gen. 48:1).

 

48:35:  “the name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD is there” = The New Jerusalem is to receive a new name?  Or will this just be Its new title?

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