NOW, SON OF MAN, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor to shave your head and your beard. Then take a set of scales and divide up the hair. 2When the days of your siege come to an end, burn a third of the hair with fire inside the city. Take a third and strike it with the sword all around the city. And scatter a third to the wind. For I will pursue them with drawn sword. 3But take a few strands of hair and tuck them away in the folds of your garment. 4Again, take a few of these and throw them into the fire and burn them up. A fire will spread from there to the whole house of Israel.
5“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. 6Yet in her wickedness she has rebelled against my laws and decrees more than the nations and countries around her. She has rejected my laws and has not followed my decrees.
7“Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: You have been more unruly than the nations around you and have not followed my decrees or kept my laws. You have not even conformed to the standards of the nations around you.
8“Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will inflict punishment on you in the sight of the nations. 9Because of all your detestable idols, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again. 10Therefore in your midst fathers will eat their children, and children will eat their fathers. I will inflict punishment on you and will scatter all your survivors to the winds. 11Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your vile images and detestable practices, I myself will withdraw my favor; I will not look on you with pity or spare you. 12A third of your people will die of the plague or perish by famine inside you; a third will fall by the sword outside your walls; and a third I will scatter to the winds and pursue with drawn sword.
13“Then my anger will cease and my wrath against them will subside, and I will be avenged. And when I have spent my wrath upon them, they will know that I the LORD have spoken in my zeal.
14“I will make you a ruin and a reproach among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by. 15You will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and an object of horror to the nations around you when I inflict punishment on you in anger and in wrath and with stinging rebuke. I the LORD have spoken. 16When I shoot at you with my deadly and destructive arrows of famine, I will shoot to destroy you. I will bring more and more famine upon you and cut off your supply of food. 17I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I the LORD have spoken.”
Original Meaning
THE IMAGE OF RELENTLESS judgment that we saw in Ezekiel 4 reemerges at the beginning of chapter 5. Here Ezekiel is called upon to shave his head and his beard, a sign of humiliation (cf. 2 Sam. 10:4). The instrument of this humiliation is described as both a “sharp sword” and a “barber’s razor” (taʿar haggallābîm). The first term serves to link this image with what precedes and what follows, underlining the military nature of the coming disaster, while the latter term shows that what God calls Ezekiel to do is to act out in concrete form the imagery of Isaiah 7:20. In that passage, the prophet spoke of the Lord hiring a razor (taʿar) from beyond the river (i.e., from the region on the east of the Euphrates) to shave the head, beard, and feet of Israel. Here Ezekiel records the arrival of the razor to do its work on the prophet, representing the people.
The prophet’s hair itself becomes the medium for the last sign-act of the prophet in this sequence. Using a set of scales, he is to divide it carefully into three parts, representing the different fates that will meet the inhabitants of Jerusalem (Ezek. 5:2–4). God’s judgment is not delivered in a haphazard fashion but is meticulously measured.1 Some of the hair is to be burned with fire, symbolizing those who die in the city; some he is to strike with the sword all around the city, symbolizing those who die outside the city; the remainder he is to scatter to the winds, symbolizing those in exile. A few of this last group he is to gather up and store in the apparent safety of a fold of his garment, which acted like a pocket. But even there they are not free from danger, for he is to take some of those hairs from their refuge and throw them back into the fire.
The interpretation of these last two signs is given in Ezekiel 5:5–17. The thoroughness of the devastation needs little clarification; that much was clear from the original sign. However, the reason for the devastation becomes clearer: Israel has transgressed her covenant relationship with God. The language Ezekiel adopts in these verses is not his own creation but is largely borrowed from Leviticus 26, a chapter that lays out the blessings and curses attached to the covenant.2 There covenant obedience is defined in terms of submission to the Lord alone, specifically through the avoidance of idolatry and respect for the Lord’s sanctuary (Lev. 26:1–2). This matches the nature of the charge made against Israel in Ezekiel 5: They have committed idolatry and thus defiled the sanctuary (Ezek. 5:9, 11). More generally, they have not followed the Lord’s decrees or kept his laws (5:6; cf. Lev. 26:14–15).
As a result, the curses of Leviticus 26 will be operative in their midst. The Lord’s face will be set against them (Lev. 26:17).3 The result will be plagues of wild animals (Lev. 26:22; Ezek. 5:17), the sword and pestilence (Lev. 26:25; Ezek. 5:17), famine through a cutting off of the food supply (Lev. 26:26; Ezek. 5:16),4 eating of one’s own children (Lev. 26:29; Ezek. 5:10), being scattered among the nations, and being pursued by the sword (Lev. 26:33; Ezek. 5:12). This threatened exile will be a consequence of the iniquities of that generation and their fathers (Lev. 26:39; cf. Ezek. 4:5).
Even the Jerusalem-centered focus of the judgment reflects on an aspect of Israel’s covenant relationship with her Lord, this time related to the Lord’s covenant with David. When the Lord established that covenant, Jerusalem became, in his eyes, “the center of the nations” (Ezek. 5:5). When he chose Mount Zion as the site for the temple, that city was designated the dwelling place for his name (Deut. 12:11). Thereby, the Lord staked his name particularly on the land of Canaan, on the people of Israel, whom he had established there, and on the Davidic house.5 But the Lord’s immediate presence, the crowning blessing of the covenant relationship, is no blessing to a rebellious people but rather a curse. For the Lord who is there is no longer with them but against them.6
This covenant context is important because it demonstrates that the judgment that will befall Jerusalem is neither arbitrary nor unfair. The judgments coming on that city are not random afflictions thought up on the spur of the moment, as if God has lost his temper; they are the execution of the curses on the covenant breakers. Indeed, Israel has not merely failed to live up to God’s standards; they have not even lived up to the standards of the nations around them (Ezek. 5:7). Instead of being a light to the nations, they have led the nations further into the darkness. For this reason, God must act to judge. As in Deuteronomy 13:9, where Israelites were forbidden to show compassion toward even their nearest and dearest or to spare them if they were attempting to lead others into apostasy, so the Lord will not show pity or spare his beloved but rebellious people (Ezek. 5:11).
The focus of each of the sign-acts is on the gloom rather than the rainbow, the tunnel rather than the light. Yet each contains within it, hidden away yet nonetheless present, the possibility of hope. The final sign-act is no different, for recalling the covenant curses of Leviticus 26 should also lead to remembering the promise of 26:44–45:
Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or abhor them so as to destroy them completely, breaking my covenant with them. I am the LORD their God. But for their sake I will remember the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the LORD.
Both Leviticus 26 and Ezekiel 5 hold out the hope that the Lord’s anger will reach an end before Israel will. Yes, God’s anger and wrath must be poured out on Israel so that they may know the Lord as a jealous God (Ezek. 5:13; cf. Ex. 20:5), a God who will not share the devotion of his people with another. For now, they will be a ruin and reproach in the sight of the nations (Ezek. 5:14). But God’s anger will cease and his wrath will subside once it has been fully vented (5:13), for the Lord is merciful and gracious as well as jealous (Ex. 34:6, 14). To put it more precisely, God has covenanted himself to his people and has made a commitment he will not break, even though his people are unfaithful (Lev. 26:44). The purpose of this present chastisement, therefore, is not to destroy them utterly and forever but in order that the Lord may once again amaze the nations by accomplishing a new exodus of his people.
Bridging Contexts
THE SUZERAINTY TREATY. The idea of the relationship between God and his people as a covenant is central to the Old Testament, and it is a key idea underlying Ezekiel 5. As already indicated, the judgments coming on Jerusalem are not random afflictions but curses attached to the covenant between Israel and her God. In the ancient Near East there were different kinds of covenants, but one of the forms most commonly compared with biblical covenants is the suzerainty treaty, known from Hittite sources.7
This type of treaty was a kind of diplomatic surrender document, whereby a great king (the suzerain) agreed to enter into a relationship with a lesser king (the vassal). In return for the protection and benefits of a good relationship with the suzerain, the vassal king agreed to submit to the suzerain, to serve him alone, and to pay tribute to him. A vassal could only have one suzerain, though a suzerain might have many vassals, who would have obligations to respect the rights of the other vassals as well as the suzerain. At the end of these treaty documents, there were attached blessings and curses, which invoked the power of the only higher authority in international politics, the gods. In the absence of any appeal to a United Nations, the gods formed the ultimate sanction and were called upon to deliver blessings if the vassal king was faithful and curses if he broke the terms of the covenant.
Like these Hittite treaty documents, the Lord’s covenant established with Israel on Mount Sinai concluded with blessings and curses (Lev. 26). If the people were faithful in obeying the stipulations of the covenant, they would experience material blessings in their land of peace and prosperity, culminating in the crowning blessing of the Lord’s dwelling in their midst (26:11). But if they were disobedient to the terms and conditions of the covenant, serving other gods and rejecting their true suzerain, then they and their land would experience curses, culminating in the crowning curse of exile from God’s land (26:33–39).
Ezekiel’s point in picking up the language of Leviticus 26 is that because of Israel’s unfaithfulness in her relationship to the Lord, pursuing other gods and serving them instead of the true God, all of the curses of the covenant are now falling on her. God’s jealousy, power, and faithfulness to his Word are good news as long as Israel is faithful to him; but when she turns away, she cannot expect him not to act. Sure, certain, devastating judgment will fall on the unfaithful city and people.
Christ and the covenant(s). In the New Testament period, the covenant relationship made with Israel on Mount Sinai, as well as the earlier covenants made with Adam, Noah, and Abraham, find their consummation in Christ.8 He is the One who fulfills the conditions of the covenant for us, enabling us as his people to experience every blessing in him (Eph. 1:3). He is the One who took upon himself the curse that we deserved as covenant breakers, so that we might be redeemed by his blood (1:7). He is the One in whom the nations can find their inclusion into the one new people of God, the new Israel, the new temple in which God dwells by his Spirit (2:19–22).
For this reason, blessing and curse in the New Testament take on a different complexion from the Old Testament. The blessing we pronounce on God’s people is that they may experience God’s grace and favor in Jesus Christ through the ministry of the Holy Spirit: “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Cor. 13:14). This blessing of life in God’s presence is for all who keep the words given in God’s book (Rev. 22:7).9 However, there still remains a place for curse in the New Testament, specifically on those who attempt to pervert the gospel, either by proclaiming a different gospel (Gal. 1:8–9) or by tampering with the true gospel (Rev. 22:19).
If that is true, what then is our relationship, as New Testament believers, to the concepts of blessing and curse? We should note that the New Testament blessings and curses are spiritual, pertaining to life in God’s presence or death separated from God. The Old Testament shadows, whereby the blessings and curses were associated with material prosperity or disadvantage in the land of promise, have passed away; the reality is found in Christ. For us, then, blessing is not a new Cadillac and a house on the golf course, but to be united with Christ in his death and resurrection. The curse that we have avoided is not poverty and a dull life but eternal separation from the One who makes life worth living. Praise God, then, from whom all spiritual blessings flow!
Contemporary Significance
GOD, SIN, AND JUSTICE. If you have ever talked to people about God and the world, then I am sure that someone somewhere will have brought this up to you as an objection: “Where is this good God you talk about in a world gone mad? If he were really half as good as you say and half as powerful as you say, then evil would be instantly eliminated. Where is this God of justice? Why are there so many pointless wars and so much suffering in this world? Why doesn’t God step in and do something?”
Ezekiel’s message to the Israelites is that God is about to step in and do something. He is about to act against unrighteousness and injustice. But that is not good news for Ezekiel’s contemporaries, because he is coming as their judge. It is as if in an old Western movie the beleaguered cowboys hear the bugle call that sounds to announce the arrival of the Seventh Cavalry—only to find that this time the cavalry are fighting on the side of the dispossessed Indians. Our basic problem in longing for justice is that we ourselves are sinners. For such as ourselves, the coming of the judge brings with it a problem: “Who can endure the day of his coming?” (Mal. 3:2).
Is there then no hope? Are we all doomed? The early chapters of Ezekiel certainly give a more negative outlook than we are accustomed to. We must not undercut the prophet’s message by focusing exclusively on the glimmers of light and ignoring the tunnel. The prophet would have people understand the depth of their sin—greater transgression than that of the nations around them, who did not know God (Ezek. 5:7)—and the extent of the wrath of God against sin, especially the sin of idolatry. When the Bible says that God is of purer eyes than to look upon evil (Hab. 1:13), what that means is that his face is set against sinful men and women. In other words, we all are under his judgment—or, to use Pauline language, we are all “by nature objects of wrath” (Eph. 2:3). Thus, left to ourselves, we have nothing to hope for on the last day except judgment and eternal separation from God. Because of our sin, we all sit on death row.
This fact is true not merely because of our own sin, which is bad enough, but also because of our history of sin. Indeed, humankind has a history of sin that stretches back not merely 390 years, as symbolized in Ezekiel 4, but back to the beginning of time and the sin of the first couple in the garden. Our problem is not simply that we have broken the covenant made at Mount Sinai and defiled the temple, making the place where God has chosen to dwell with his people unfit for divine habitation. Rather, in Adam we have all broken the original covenant relationship between God and humanity and made the world unfit for divine habitation. We were intended to be vassal rulers under God, ordering the world in submission to the Great King, serving him and him alone.10 Instead, we rebelled against him, pursuing the idolatries of our hearts and bringing down on ourselves the sentence of death. Thus, for us as sinners, encounter with the living God can never be “a delightful and thought-provoking hour,” but rather an awesome and terrifying encounter (cf. Heb. 12:21).
The flicker of hope and its fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Yet if we must not overplay the flickering candle of hope in Ezekiel 4–5, we must also not ignore it altogether. Even on death row, God has his people. If Ezekiel himself is a model of the righteous remnant, undefiled in the land of exile, if there may be some preserved through the judgment, even if only a small fraction, if there is the possibility of a renewed exodus on the other side of the renewed Egyptian bondage, then there is hope. But how can that be? Justice must be done and the covenant curses must fall. If the wages of sin are indeed death, how can we survive payday?
Ezekiel does not yet begin to answer the question how. But by pointing his listeners back to Leviticus 26 and the covenant nature of the forthcoming destruction, he is already inviting them to consider the grounds of hope implicit within the covenant itself, the faithfulness of the One who established the covenant, God himself. God has purposed in establishing the covenant in the first place to win for himself a people, and he will not allow that purpose to be thwarted, not even by the sins of those whom he has chosen. As Malachi 3:6 puts the equation: “I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.”
But still how can this be? Even though God is faithful and loving, he is also just. He is a holy God, of purer eyes than to look upon evil. So how can he forgive the guilty and still be just? Ezekiel does not give us a very clear answer to that question. He leaves it open. He knows that it is true, for God has revealed it to him, but he doesn’t know how it can be true. But we who live this side of Christmas have a much clearer understanding. How can God be just and still forgive the guilty? How can the fire pass over us and not completely burn us alive? It is only because it has already passed over Jesus and poured its heat out on him.
The judgment that was to fall on Jerusalem for her sins was truly horrendous, so awful that few, a bare remnant of a remnant, would live to tell the tale. Yet it was nothing compared to the wrath of God that was poured out on his beloved Son on the cross for the sins of his people. The sword of God’s wrath descended on Jesus; the fire of God’s wrath burned him. He became an object of reproach to those passing by, who taunted him, “Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God” (Matt. 27:39–40). But the result was that the wrath of God was exhausted on him; he has been avenged on sin, his wrath is spent (Ezek. 5:13).
As a consequence, there is now no condemnation for us who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1). As Paul puts it in 1 Thessalonians 5:9–10: “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.” The wrath of God came on him once and for all, so that it might not now or in the future have to fall on us, his people.