And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife; a barber's razor shalt thou take; and cause it to pass upon thy head and upon thy beard and thou shalt take balances to weigh, and divide the [hair].
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
A third part shalt thou burn in the fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled; and thou shalt take a third part, [and] smite about it with a knife; and a third part thou shalt scatter to the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them.
God tells Ezekiel to shave his head and beard with a sword, weigh the hair, and destroy it in three ways: burning, cutting and scattering. The sign is not about hair but about a city and its people, and it asks who holds the blade and whether anything survives.
The picture works on two levels at once: what is cut, and what does the cutting. One writer names both halves of the picture. Older translations call the blade a "sharp knife" where the ESV has "sword."
The sharp knife is the symbol of the king of Babylon. (See Isa. 7:20.) He was God's instrument in carrying out His wrath; the people are represented by the hair. The third part of the hair burned with fire pictures the fate of a part of the people during the siege. The pestilence and the famine were also to consume them.
The sign cost Ezekiel something. He was a priest, and God told him to do what the priestly rules forbade.
Ezekiel was now to take a sharp sword and use it as a barber's razor. He was to mark his own head and beard with shame, where everyone could see it. A priest was forbidden to do this, and Ezekiel was a priest, so the loss of his priestly character is plain. But this forced shaving of the hair carries a further meaning as well. It shows the fate of the many Israelites scattered abroad, struck down in this way.
One writer sets out the three portions and where each one falls: inside the walls, around the walls, and far away.
So we see clearly how God dealt with them. One third would die of plague and famine inside the besieged city. One third would fall by the sword around Jerusalem. The last third would be scattered to every wind, with a sword drawn after them by God. Here too the people of Jerusalem, in their situation, stand for "all the house of Israel." The ten tribes already carried off to the East are not counted here. Kings, priests and people had brought pagan practices into the Lord's sanctuary and defiled it. That is what made Jerusalem unbearable.
The closing threat of the verse — the sword unsheathed after the scattered — is not new language. The same phrase appears in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, where God promises scattering and pursuit together.
Another phrase found only in Ezekiel and the Pentateuch is, "I will draw out a sword after them." Compare Ex. 15:9, Lev. 26:33, with Ezek. 5:2, 12, Ezek. 12:14. In Lev. 26:33 and Ezek. 12:14, notice that the threat of drawing the sword comes together with "the threat of dispersion" both times. The original uses the very same words.
Israel had taken earlier setbacks as temporary discipline. They assumed God was bound to them, whatever they did.
In our prophecy judgment is falling on Jerusalem, steadily and without letting up. That was a strange story for Israel to hear and believe. Until then their setbacks had been only temporary discipline. Pity kept flowing down its usual channel. Most Israelites hoped it must always be so, and that God at least was bound to them. Yet they knew well how often, and how regularly, the people dishonoured Him.
Ezekiel binds a few hairs into his robe, and even some of those go into the fire. One writer takes that surviving handful as standing for the position of the whole nation.
The sword pursues the scattered remnant, and only part of that remnant is spared. Some even of that part would be thrown into the fire. And this fire would reach the whole house of Israel. In other words, the judgment falling on the remnant who do not die in the city stands for the position of all Israel. That is why the prophet keeps speaking of the whole nation. For as long as there was a remnant at Jerusalem, the nation had a place on the earth.
- Weighed — God measures this judgment out. Each third has its own named end: plague and famine inside the city, the sword around it, scattering to every wind.
- Wielded — the blade is God's, but the hand holding it is Babylon's. The king who destroys Jerusalem is God's instrument, not an accident.
- Warned — the phrase about the drawn sword comes from the law's own threats. There God promised scattering and pursuit in the same breath.
- Worn — a priest bears the shaved head himself, publicly losing his priestly dignity, so the message is seen before it is heard.
- Withheld — a few hairs survive in the robe, and even some of those burn. Mercy is not absent, but it has shrunk to a handful — and that handful carries the standing of the whole nation.