Ezekiel 5

1–4

(Chapter 5, verses 1 onwards) And you, son of man, take for yourself a sharp sword, like a barber's razor, and pass it over your head and your beard; then take scales for weighing and divide them. One third you shall burn in the midst of the city when the days of the siege are completed, one third you shall strike with the sword all around it, and one third you shall scatter to the wind; and I will unsheathe a sword after them. And you shall take from there a small number, and bind them at the top of the cloak, and take them out again and throw them into the midst of the fire, and burn them. From there a fire will come out into all the house of Israel. For three parts of hair and wool, one of which is burned in the midst of the city, another is cut with a sword around it, the third is scattered to and fro by the wind, of which a small part is taken and bound at the edge of the cloak, and again a little of the third part is thrown into the fire, from which a flame comes out into all the house of Israel. Seventy-four parts have been interpreted. And when they had said: Burn the fourth part with fire in the midst of the city, and cut the fourth part with a sword all around it, and scatter the fourth part to the wind, for there remained another fourth part to them, they added from their own: And take the fourth part and burn it in the midst of the city: as if it is not the same as the first, and something else was said in the first, something different in this one that was added. Finally, even in the following, the Lord Himself explained the riddle of the divided hairs into three parts through the Prophet, saying: The third part of you will die by pestilence, and be consumed by famine in your midst, signifying famine and pestilence as fire; and the third part of you will fall by the sword all around you, describing external killings and wars. But, he says, I will scatter your third part to every wind, showing those who are to be led into captivity. After them, he says he will lay bare or pour out his sword, so that captivity is not the last of their evils; and he will take from those dispersed and captive, and bind to the top of his cloak those who are to return from captivity to Jerusalem, and he will also take some part from them, and consume it with fire and flame, signifying the Macedonians under whom the inhabitants of Judaea, and especially Jerusalem, have suffered greatly. But what he says, from this, that is, the people of the Jews; or, according to the LXX, from her; so that it is understood, from the city of Jerusalem, fire will come forth into every house of Israel: The history of the Maccabees relates that a certain part of the Jews surrendered to Antiochus Epiphanes, and incited him to persecute the people, and many other things that are written in the same history, and in the volumes of Josephus, especially the discord between Hyrcanus and Alexander, on account of which Cneus Pompeius, the consul, took Jerusalem and subjected it to Roman rule; and afterwards, under Titus and Vespasian, the city was captured and the temple destroyed. And after fifty years, under Aelius Hadrianus, the city was burned to the ground and destroyed, to the extent that it also lost its original name. However, in the case of emperors, both the hair on their head and their beard are an indication of beauty and manliness, as if they are shaved, an ugly nakedness is revealed, and the most distant and, so to speak, lifeless part of the body is in the hair and beard: in the same way, Jerusalem and its people are lifeless and separated from the living body of God, being handed over to famine, disease, killing, and the sword, and to captivity and dispersion. From this dispersal, under the form of hair, a part of it is tied at the top of the cloak, so that a small amount may be handed over to fire again, from which an infinite flame, almost completely devastating, emerges into every house of Israel.

Commentary on Ezekiel

5–7

(Version 5 and following) Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations, with the lands surrounding it; and it has despised my judgments, being more wicked than the nations, and my commandments more than the lands that surround it. For they have rejected my judgments and have not walked in my commandments. The Prophet also attests to Jerusalem being situated in the midst of the world, showing it to be the navel of the earth. And the Psalmist expressing the birth of the Lord: Truth, he says, has arisen from the earth (Ps. 48:12). And thereafter his passion: He has worked salvation in the midst of the earth (Ps. 74:12). For the plague called Asia is surrounded by the eastern parts. From the western parts, by that which is called Europe. From the south and the north, by Libya and Africa. From the north, by the Scythians, Armenia, Persia, and all the nations of the Pontus. Therefore, placed in the midst of nations, in order that the God who was known in Judea (Ps. 75) and his great name in Israel, all the nations surrounding her would follow her examples, she overcame even the nations themselves in her wickedness. Which Symmachus interpreted beautifully saying, 'These things, he says, Jerusalem, which I placed in the midst of nations, and the regions around her, changed my judgments for the impieties which she learned from the nations, and my statutes for the regions which are around her: for they rejected my laws, and did not walk in my judgments.' But what the Seventy have said, that my justifications are unjust from the nations, and my laws are not consistent with the regions around it, is clear even when I am silent.

Commentary on Ezekiel

8–9

(Vers. 8, 9.) Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have surpassed the nations that are around you, and have not walked in my commandments, and have not kept my judgments, and have not acted according to the judgments of the nations that are around you, therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, and I myself will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. And I will do in you what I have not done, and the like of which I will not do again, because of all your abominations. Therefore, because we have understood: Because you have surpassed the nations that are around you, Symmachus translated: Because your multitude was from the nations that are around you. Aquila's second edition: Because you have been counted among the nations that are around you. Moreover, the Septuagint: Because your occasion is from the nations that are around you. And the meaning is, either that Jerusalem, by its own crimes, surpassed all the nations around it, or that its multitude, not the people of Israel, but the crowd of other nations, should be called. Certainly, among the other nations that are around it, they had been converted, or had every opportunity to teach the nations that they should be inclined towards the good. 'Why,' He says, 'have you not followed my commandments and not observed my judgments, when you have even conquered all the nations around you with your wickedness, and have not done what they often did, which is written by natural law in their hearts?' Therefore, I will not do my judgments through Angels or through any other ministers, but I myself will do them in you, with everyone watching, things that I have not done before and will not do again. By speaking of judgments, he shows the truth of his sentences, so that anger does not appear to exceed the measure of punishments. And he did not do in any nation the things that he did in Jerusalem: Because the servant who knows the will of his master and does not do it will be beaten with many lashes (Luke 12:48). And the mighty endure mightily severe torments (Wis. 6:7). And he says, I will not do the same again. He spoke well, I will not do the same again. For much harsher things he will do after the killing of Christ. For it is one thing to have at times worshipped idols for which they were previously punished, and another to have killed the Son of God.

Commentary on Ezekiel

(Verse 10.) Therefore, fathers will eat their sons in your midst, and sons will eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments on you and scatter all your remnants to every wind. This is in accordance with what was said before: Because you have surpassed the nations that surround you, or because your behavior is like the nations that surround you, you have not walked in my commandments and have not kept my judgments. This is why it is repeated for the third time. First, thus: Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am coming to you, and I myself will bring judgments in your midst. Second: Therefore, fathers will eat their sons in your midst. Third: Therefore, as I live, says the Lord God; if you have violated my sanctuary in all your offenses, and the rest. However, it should be noted that where there are beautiful and honorable things, and according to the merit of those who uphold them, God professes to act for their sake. But where there are sad and unworthy things for God, he indeed says that they happen, but not by his own doing, as at present: Therefore, fathers will eat their sons in your midst, and sons will eat their fathers. For he did not say, 'I will make the fathers eat their sons in your midst, and the sons eat their fathers.' But what was proper and not unworthy of the majesty of God, he says he will do. For it follows: 'And I will execute judgments in you, and I will scatter all your remnant to every wind.' We can expect such a thing to come in curses in Deuteronomy, especially in that place: 'Those who glorify me I will glorify, but those who despise me will be brought to nothing.' (Deuteronomy XXVIII). For he who glorifies himself, glorifies himself. But those who despise him will not be despised by the Lord, or be reduced to nothingness (for it followed that he said), but absolutely, they will be reduced to nothingness: not by God, but by their own merits and sins. We read in the Book of Kings, driven by the necessity of hunger, a mother devoured her son (2 Kings 6). Josephus also recounts many such acts in the siege of Jerusalem. However, the story does not tell when fathers eat their sons or when sons eat their fathers, except perhaps in many desperate situations, it must be believed that these things have also happened. This can also be applied to our Jerusalem: when teachers are against their students, that is, fathers against sons, and students against teachers, that is, sons against fathers, they are stirred up by mutual rebellion, and what is said by the Apostle is fulfilled: But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you are not consumed by one another (Gal. 5:15). And so the Prophet sang in mystical speech: When they drew near against me, who afflict me, to eat my flesh (Psalm 26:2). And Job speaks something similar: But if my handmaids have said: Who will give us of his flesh, that we may eat (Job 31). And concerning the leaders who seek profit from the disciples and have no concern for their salvation, it is said: Who devour my people as bread (Psalm 52:5). And concerning these, the Apostle says: 'And they devour the houses of widows' (Luke 20; Matthew 23). We can understand, fathers, that those who have eaten their children and children who have eaten their fathers, not only in Babylon, but also in the Roman siege. However, what is said, 'I will scatter all your remnants to every wind,' pertains more to the Roman captivity, when they were dispersed throughout the whole world. And this is the scattering to every wind of hair and beard.

Commentary on Ezekiel

(Verse 11.) Therefore, I am alive, says the Lord God: unless for the reason that you have violated my sanctuary in all your offenses, and in all your abominations: I also will shatter (or, according to the LXX, cast away) you, and my eye will not spare, and I will not have mercy. This is specifically said to Jerusalem, because you have violated my sanctuary by forsaking me, and you have worshipped idols in my temple. I also will shatter all your idols, and I will break and overthrow them, or cast you away, because you have cast me away first. And my eye will not spare when I see you hungry, with a sword, submitting your neck to servitude, nor will I have mercy; because you do not deserve my mercy. For it is written: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy (Matthew 5:7). This same thing must be understood in the Church, that God can say daily to teachers and priests who have acted negligently: Because you have violated my holy things in all your offenses, and in all the abominations you have committed, I will also crush and break you, and I will repay through me what you have perpetrated against my people. About whom the same Prophet speaks more fully against the shepherds here (Infra, XXXIV), that they cover themselves with the wool of the sheep and feed on milk and cheese, and do not seek the broken and sick.

Commentary on Ezekiel

12–13

(Verse 12, 13.) A third part of you will die by pestilence and be consumed by famine in your midst, and a third part will fall by the sword all around you. I will scatter your third part to every wind, and I will unsheathe the sword after them. And I will pour out my fury and make my anger rest upon them, and I will comfort myself. And they will know that I, the Lord, have spoken in my zeal, when I have accomplished my anger upon them. Because they had divided the Septuagint into four parts, they approved that only the prophetic discourse about the fire, sword, and dispersion were superfluous, so that the first part of the fire would be divided into two parts in this place as well, they also divided the same first part into two, saying: The fourth part of you will be crushed by death, and the fourth part of you will be consumed by famine in your midst, and the fourth part of you will fall around you, and I will scatter the fourth part of you to every wind; although what we have added: And the fourth part of you will fall by the sword, is added from Theodotion's edition under asterisks. It is clear, however, that the Hebrew truth contains three parts. Of the first of these, it is said: 'And a third part of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed by famine in your midst.' It would have been much better to translate what is written than to seek support for a poorly translated matter. And we do not say that this was done by those to whom antiquity gave authority, but it was corrupted by the fault of many centuries of scribes and readers. Although both Aristeus and Josephus, and the entire school of the Jews, claim that only five books of Moses were translated by the Seventy. The chapter we mentioned above now seems to be omitted. I will only add this, which is necessary in what he says: And I will pour out my wrath and make my indignation rest upon them, and I will comfort them, and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have poured out my indignation upon them; how the wrath, indignation, and zeal of God are to be understood, we have often explained, that God speaks with human emotions: not because he is angry himself, but so that we may perceive God as angry through punishments and torments. But zeal is to be understood under the metaphor of a husband and wife, who as long as he loves his wife, is jealous; if he neglects her, he says what we are going to say in the following: My jealousy will depart from you, and I will no longer be angry with you (Below, LXI, 42). And it is joined: And they shall know that I the Lord have spoken in my jealousy, not to those who have perished by famine and pestilence, nor to those who have fallen by the sword around the city, but to those who will be scattered to every wind, they will feel the anger of God for the deaths of others and their own miseries, whom they did not want to perceive as merciful.

Commentary on Ezekiel

(Verse 14.) And I will make you a desert; and what follows: and a reproach to the nations that are around you, which is not found in the Septuagint: for which they added from their own, and your daughters in your vicinity. And again, according to both editions, in the sight of all passing by. However, it is beneficial for Jerusalem to be destroyed by all its vices, and to be brought to a desert, and to recognize its own sins, so that what should have been an example of virtues to other nations may be an example of miseries. But we can understand his daughters, the cities or villages, or the Churches dispersed throughout the whole world, so that whoever is a pilgrim of this world may say with the Psalmist: I am a stranger and a sojourner like all my fathers (Ps. 38:12); and regarding whom it is said: Those who pass by say not: The blessing of the Lord be upon you (Ps. 129:8), let him see his disgrace and mourn.

Commentary on Ezekiel

(Verse 15) And you will be a reproach and a blasphemy, an example and a wonder among the nations around you. For in the Septuagint it is written: And it will be στενακτὴ, which means mournful. And in Theodotion it is added, καὶ δηλαἳστὴ; the meaning of this word is unknown to us. For this reason, three other interpreters have translated it as blasphemy, which is called Geddupha in Hebrew (). It follows:

When I pronounce judgment on you in my anger and wrath and in the fierce blows of my fury, in full view of your sinfulness, you groan and moan like the deserving city of Jerusalem, which experiences the wrath and indignation of God because it has offended him. This is also confirmed by the words of Paul, who says, 'We were by nature children of wrath, just like everyone else' (Ephesians 2:3). And again, 'While we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened' (2 Corinthians 5). We also say with Jerusalem, 'I will endure the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him.' Some interpret 'Δηλαἳστὴν' or 'δηλαίαν' as unfortunate and miserable, while others believe it to mean clear and exposed to miseries.

Commentary on Ezekiel

(Verse 16.) When I send the most destructive arrows of famine (the Vulgate adds 'against them'), which will be deadly, and I will send them to destroy you, and I will gather famine upon you, and I will break the staff (or rod) of bread. Famine and pestilence, and the most terrible beasts, and whatever other evils we endure in this world, it is clear that they come because of our sins. Thus, that famine which is mentioned in the book of Ruth (Ruth 1) and in the book of Kings under Elijah (3 Kings 17), when the heavens were closed for three years and six months, and under Elisha (4 Kings 6), whose incredible scarcity was compensated by sudden abundance by God's judgment, was sent. Not only was this done in Jerusalem at that time, but it also happens in our Jerusalem, where, because of the magnitude of sins, hunger is first sent to hear the word of God. Then hunger is followed by death, so that those who have not heard may experience: Taste and see that the Lord is sweet (Psalm 33:9), and afterwards let us feel: The death of sinners is most bitter (Psalm 22). We have already spoken about the firmament and the staff of bread (above, IV).

Commentary on Ezekiel

(Verse 17) And I will send famine upon you, and the most evil beasts to annihilate you. And pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I am the Lord who has spoken. The most evil beasts are brought upon the desolate land, which has been devastated by famine, the sword, and pestilence. These times also show when familiar animals, like dogs, are driven to madness and attack their masters' flesh, and the land is filled with bears, wolves, and all other kinds of beasts. The pestilence and blood passing through it signify disease and the sword. But even in our Jerusalem the worst beasts are sent, when we are handed over to ignominious sufferings, and to a reprobate sense and consciousness of our sins, which torture and tear apart our soul (Rom. I). Dissensions, heresies, schisms, rivalries, envy, sadness, detractions, evil desires, greed, which is the root of all evils (II Cor. XII), are the worst beasts. When they are within us, we deserve to hear: Your transgression shall rebuke you (Jeremiah). And we pray and say: Do not deliver the soul confessing to you to the beasts (Ps. LXXIII, 19).

Commentary on Ezekiel