Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah Woe to the bloody city! I also will make the pile great.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Heap on the wood, kindle the fire, boil thoroughly the flesh, and spice it well, and let the bones be burned.
God tells Ezekiel to pile the logs high under a cooking pot and let the fire finish its work. The pot is Jerusalem under siege, which raises hard questions: who is the meat, why must the bones burn too, and why is nothing spared?
This was not general preaching. God attached it to one particular day.
Numerical Bible NotesThe word of Jehovah comes to Ezekiel on that day. It tells him to write down the name of the day, and assures him that the king of Babylon has drawn near to Jerusalem on that very same day.
The pot was not a new image. The leaders in Jerusalem had said it first.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinIn regard to the judgment they said, "It is not the time to build houses; this is the cauldron and we are the flesh." … They still thought themselves safe in Jerusalem. The phrase "this is the cauldron" means the city of Jerusalem; and we are the "flesh" — themselves. As the flesh in the cauldron is preserved from the fire by the cauldron itself, so they felt themselves secure in the doomed city.
God takes their own picture and makes it come true in a way they never intended.
Numerical Bible NotesAnd now the taunt about the cauldron is to be answered in the event. Jerusalem is indeed to be their cauldron, and in it they will feel the fire of divine wrath. The city itself was a cauldron whose rust was in it, and the rust could not be scoured out. So the whole of it comes under judgment. No lot has fallen on it to spare anyone.
The fire is built so high because of what the city had done with human life.
Numerical Bible NotesShe had taken life — the life that God had ordained to be sacred. Even where life was rightly taken, the blood was to be poured out to Him. It had not been poured out, so it remained to defile her. Worse, she had set it on the bare rock in open view: "She did not pour it on the ground to cover it with dust." So it cried out openly for vengeance. God, in His turn, had set her blood on the bare rock, so that it should not be covered.
Boiling would soften the meat. Burning the bones leaves nothing at all.
William KellyIn verses 9-14 we see that Jerusalem should be taken and destroyed in no superficial way. For now Jehovah lets it be known that not only should the bones be burnt, but the city itself. The city is the cauldron, set no longer with water but empty on the coals. So its copper glows, its filthiness is smelt inside it, and its scum is consumed.
The scum that will not scour off explains the severity. Gentler measures had already been tried and had failed.
J. N. DarbyJerusalem should be set as a caldron on the fire to melt and consume the whole. God had purged her, but she was not purged; and now He causes His fury to rest upon her.
Kelly names what had already been tried, and who would carry out the sentence.
William KellyDisciplinary measures had long failed; proper government according to His law was despised. Let the haughtiest and most cruel of earthly marauders come and execute the divine decree now fixed.
Kelly traces the boast back to a habit of mind that did not die with Jerusalem.
William KellyJust as the flesh never trusts God for eternal life or for full forgiveness of sins, so mere religiousness tends to presume that God's promises cannot fail. It pays no heed at all to His will or His glory, and it plainly dishonours His name and word.
- Dated. The order to heap on the logs came the day Babylon's king reached Jerusalem. God told the prophet to write that date down.
- Answered. The pot was their own slogan of safety; God took the image and made it come true against them.
- Uncovered. The city shed blood and never covered it, so God left it exposed on bare rock, crying out.
- Thorough. Flesh boiled, bones burned, then the emptied pot itself set glowing on the coals: nothing superficial.
- Refused. He had cleansed her and she would not be cleansed; when discipline is despised long enough, He lets His fury rest.
Then set it empty upon its coals, that it may be hot, and the brass of it may burn, and that its filthiness may be molten in it, [and] that its rust may be consumed.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
She hath exhausted [her] labours, yet her great rust goeth not forth out of her let her rust be in the fire.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
In thy filthiness is lewdness, for I have purged thee, and thou art not pure. Thou shalt no more be purged from thy filthiness, till I have satisfied my fury upon thee.
This verse falls on the day Babylon's army closed in around Jerusalem. It is not a warning but a verdict: God offered to cleanse the city, she refused, and now no cleansing is left until His fury has spent itself on her.
The chapter is dated to the day the siege began. One writer sums up the sentence passed that day:
J. N. DarbyIn Ezekiel 24 God pronounces final judgment on Jerusalem, who was not even ashamed of her sins. On the day Nebuchadnezzar lays siege to Jerusalem, the prophet's wife dies... Jerusalem was to be set on the fire like a cooking pot, to melt down and consume the whole. God had purged her, but she was not purged; and now He causes His fury to rest upon her.
The chapter pictures the city as a cooking pot. This time there is no water in it — the empty pot goes straight on the coals. One commentator explains the picture, then translates the verse:
William KellyJehovah makes it known that the bones are not the only thing to be burned. The city itself is pictured as the cooking pot. It is set on the coals no longer with water but empty, so that its copper might glow, its filthiness be melted out inside it, and its scum be consumed... "Because I cleansed you and you would not be cleansed, you shall not be cleansed from your uncleanness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest on you. I Jehovah have spoken: it comes to pass, I will do it; I will not go back, nor have pity, nor change my mind."
That is the commentator's own translation. Where the ESV says "you were not cleansed," his wording brings out the refusal behind it: "you would not be cleansed."
The same writer gives the reason for such severity, then points to who would carry it out: "Disciplinary measures had long failed, and proper government according to His law was despised. Let the proudest and cruellest of earthly raiders come and carry out the divine decree now fixed."
The pot is not just dirty. The rust has eaten into the metal. Beside that picture stands the sin the chapter names: blood shed in the city and left uncovered on open rock.
F. W. GrantThe city itself was a cooking pot with the rust inside it, and the rust could not be scoured out. So judgment falls on the whole city. No lot has fallen to spare anyone. She had taken life — the life that God had made sacred... The blood was never poured out; it stayed to defile her. No, she had set it on the bare rock in open view... So it cried out openly for vengeance, and God in His turn set her blood on the bare rock, so that it should not be covered.
The words "I would have cleansed you" look back over a long history of appeals. The same pattern runs far beyond Jerusalem:
J. N. DarbyGod's patience waits. More than that, it uses every means to call back to sincerity and to Himself those who have the truth and who at least keep its outward form. The most touching appeals, the most forceful warnings... men make all of it useless by their stubbornness in despising grace and in practising sin. In the end, when God has used up every means of calling people to repentance, the judgment comes that His patience had held back.
God offered cleansing first, and the fire comes only after. That order is His usual way:
W. T. P. WolstonGod always warns before He judges... He loves mercy, He loves blessing. He loves to bless the soul. Do you suppose, friend, that God wants to judge you? No, it is the last thing in His heart; but, if you refuse to be blessed by Him, you must be judged.
- Cleansing offered. God had worked to purge Jerusalem. The failure was hers, not His: "God had purged her, but she was not purged."
- Cleansing refused. The rust had eaten into the pot and "could not be scoured out." Innocent blood lay uncovered on the rock, crying for vengeance.
- Cleansing withdrawn. She would not be cleansed, so no cleansing was left. The empty pot goes on the coals until the scum burns away.
- Patience exhausted. Appeals and warnings were all spent. Judgment comes only when God "has used up every means of calling people to repentance."
- Warning still standing. God warns before He judges, and He loves to bless; but if you refuse His blessing, only judgment is left.
I Jehovah have spoken [it] it shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, nor will I repent. According to thy ways, and according to thy doings, shall they judge thee, saith the Lord Jehovah.
The date in this chapter marks the day Babylon's siege of Jerusalem began. The boiling pot is God's picture of what that siege means. Verse 14 is God's closing signature on that sentence: three refusals and one measure. It raises the hardest question in the chapter. Why does a God who elsewhere holds back His hand say here that He will not?
This is not the first word God has spoken to Jerusalem, but the last. One commentator reads verses 9–14 as the second stage of the pot picture: the meat has been boiled, and now the empty vessel itself is put on the coals.
William KellyIn verses 9–14 we see that Jerusalem was to be taken and destroyed in no shallow way... Not only were the bones to be burnt. The city itself was the cauldron, set on the coals — no longer filled with water, but empty — so that its copper might glow, its filth be smelt inside it, and its scum consumed... Disciplinary measures had long failed; proper government according to His law was despised. Let the proudest and cruellest of earthly raiders come and carry out the divine decree, now fixed.
The pot's stain is what settles the outcome. Another writer notes that no lot is cast over the pieces, which in the picture means no one is picked out to be kept back.
Numerical Bible NotesThe city itself was a cauldron whose rust was in it, and could not be scoured out. So judgment falls on the whole city. No lot has fallen to spare anyone.
The verse before this one says God would have cleansed her, and she was not cleansed. That refusal is what turns the fire from a cleaning fire into a consuming one — and it came from a city that felt no shame.
J. N. DarbyIn Ezekiel 24 God pronounces final judgment on Jerusalem, who was not even ashamed of her sins... God would set Jerusalem as a cauldron on the fire to melt and consume the whole. God had purged her, but she was not purged; and now He causes His fury to rest upon her.
Scripture elsewhere shows God withdrawing a threatened judgment, most famously over Nineveh. One writer distinguishes two things the Bible means when it speaks of God relenting, and both are needed to read this verse honestly.
The Bible TreasuryGod is not a man, that He should change His mind about His eternal and unchangeable purposes and His unconditional promises, which "are without repentance." But in His grace He may repent of a threatened judgment — that is, not carry it out — as with Nineveh. We must remember that the Spirit of God stoops to speak in our human way, because we are weak.
The last clause hands them the yardstick: their ways and their deeds. Earlier in this same book the people had argued that God's dealings were uneven, and He answered the charge directly.
James McBroomGod's word is the expression of His justice, and the guarantee of stability in all things... In such a state of things we hear the Lord saying: "Yet the house of Israel says, The way of the Lord is not just. O house of Israel, are My ways not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord God" (Ezek. 18:29–30). The Lord stoops to reason with them. That is very telling in the light of Deuteronomy 32:4: "The Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is He."
This sentence cannot be stopped. Yet the same writer, on an earlier chapter, shows what did open a new road for this city — not a softer sentence, but Someone carrying it.
William KellyThere was no escape, for no real repentance followed, and God was not mocked... it was the only road open until Messiah came. He bore their judgment, and so made it righteous for the mercies of God to begin again on the ground of sovereign grace.
- Warned — the fire came only after long correction. Discipline had failed, and the people had despised God's law, before God fixed the decree.
- Refused — God worked to cleanse her, and she would not be cleansed. A stain that will not scour must burn out.
- Fixed — He may hold back a threatened judgment, as with Nineveh. Here He has spoken, and He will do it. No lot spares anyone.
- Measured — the sentence is by their own ways and deeds; His ways are just, and it was theirs that were not.
- Mercy — the road reopened only when Messiah bore that judgment. Then God's mercies could begin again on the ground of grace.