Sigh, but not aloud; make no mourning for the dead. Bind on your turban, and put your shoes on your feet; do not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men.”
God tells Ezekiel that his wife will die. In the same breath He forbids every normal sign of grief — no tears, no bared head, no bare feet, no covered lip, no funeral meal from neighbours. The strangeness is the point: his silence is a message to the exiles about what is coming on Jerusalem.
The Signs He Was Forbidden
Start with the head covering. "Turban" (older translations say "tire") renders a Hebrew word used elsewhere for other fine head coverings.
Morrish Bible DictionaryAn ornamental head-dress. Ezekiel 24:17, 23. The same Hebrew word, peër, is translated 'bonnet' in Isaiah 3:20; Ezekiel 44:18; and 'ornament' in Isaiah 61:10.
Every item on the list broke with the funeral customs of the day.
Numerical Bible NotesPeople normally wailed loudly at a death, and even hired mourners. So Ezekiel's conduct called for an explanation: "The people said to me, 'Will you not tell us what these things mean for us, that you are doing this?'"
Grief Without a Show
The order was never that Ezekiel should feel nothing.
Numerical Bible NotesIt is not that grief is forbidden, but the expression of it. He is to be in this expressionless grief a sign to the people.
The Cost to the Man
The record is short, but it lets us see both the depth of his love and the completeness of his obedience.
W. T. P. WolstonThe day Nebuchadnezzar began the siege, the prophet's wife died. She was the one he loved most tenderly, yet he was not to mourn — and he did not. That he had the sympathies and affections of a man is clear from the beautiful touch of tenderness at the start of the story. But he puts himself completely under the will of Jehovah, and gives up the interests of his own life for the work of his prophetic office.
Commentators read the demand in two ways. Some stress the prophet's work. Others set it beside Aaron the priest, who was also forbidden to show grief when his sons died.
C. H. MackintoshSomeone will say that all this was only "a sign" to Israel. True. But it proves that in prophetic testimony, as well as in priestly worship, we must rise above every claim and influence of nature and of earth. Aaron's sons and Ezekiel's wife were struck down in a moment. Yet neither the priest nor the prophet was to uncover his head or shed a tear.
What the Sign Said
The sign turned on a broken bond.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinWhile he faithfully delivered the message in the morning, even his wife was taken from his side. Death had dissolved the marriage union and taken from the prophet the beloved wife. In the same way, the tie between Jehovah and Jerusalem was now to be cut completely.
The judgment would reach the temple itself, and the God they had offended would be the one bringing it.
William KellyThe destruction that had begun was so complete that nothing would be left for them but wasting away in their sins and groaning to one another. Jehovah Himself was profaning the sanctuary by judgment, as they had profaned it by their wrongdoing and their detestable practices. What a picture of despair, when sorrow lies too deep for tears and a crushing sense of guilt drives people to give up hope!
Whose Sorrow Is Pictured
There is one more layer. The sign shows whose grief this really is.
Numerical Bible NotesEzekiel here, as elsewhere, is the representative of God to the people, as the prophet always was. Notice that the blow falls not on the people, but on the prophet himself. And as far as he is concerned, it is not sent as a judgment… So it is clearly hinted that the prophet's sorrow is the sorrow of God Himself. The grief is on His side, not on man's. Yet it is a grief that can find no expression among a people as stubborn as these.
Living Above the Bread of Men
One writer turns the command about not eating "the bread of men" into a question for the reader.
C. H. MackintoshOh, my reader, how far have you and I come in this deep lesson? No doubt both reader and writer have to make the same humbling confession. Too often we "walk as men" and "eat the bread of men." Too often the workings of nature and the influences of earth rob us of our high priestly privileges.
Summary
- The sign — Ezekiel keeps his turban and sandals on and skips the mourner's meal. That broke with the loud wailing everyone expected, so the exiles had to ask what it meant.
- The silence — God never forbade the grief, only the showing of it.
- The meaning — death ended the prophet's marriage. In the same way, the bond between the Lord and Jerusalem was about to end, and the sanctuary itself would be profaned.
- The despair — the loss ran past tears. The people would waste away in their guilt and groan to one another.
- The sorrow — the blow fell on God's representative, not on the people. The grief in the picture is God's own, over a tie He had to break.