Another Bible Commentary: Ezekiel

According to tradition, just like at Jesus’ baptism, Heaven opened to a 30 year old man by a river. Isaiah and Jeremiah have already met the “two witnesses'' requirement regarding what Babylon did to Jerusalem, but wait: there’s more. Ezekiel grew up under Josiah’s reign and was alive at the same time as Jeremiah and Daniel. He was born into a priestly family, but he wound up in captivity with no Temple. This book uses Babylonian imagery similar to things from “Erra and Ishum'' in prophecies against God’s enemies. You have become accustomed to a certain amount of weirdness from prophets, like Isaiah 6’s cherubim vision (shorter than what we will see in this book) featuring kissing a live coal (compared to Jeremiah merely being touched); the Book of Ezekiel is Scroll-Eatin’ Weird™ (Ezekiel 3:2).

1:1 “vision” Seeing God can be lethal (Exodus 33:20), but this is only a prophetic vision like seeing Him in a dream. The date is July 31, 593 BC. We are between the second deportation and the destruction of Jerusalem.

1:4 “cloud” and “fire” like in Exodus 13:21-22. See also Exodus 3:2. This is a chariot throne like in 1 Kings 22:19-22 and 2 Kings 2:11.

1:5 “living creatures” Similar to the seraphim of Isaiah 6:1-2; Ezekiel 10 identifies these as cherubim.

1:7 Devils are depicted with cloven hooves. Devils are fallen angels.

1:10 Rulers are served by the best (Genesis 47:6, Proverbs 22:29). God’s majesty is greater than the (strongest/fiercest/etc.) peak creature of every part of all Creation. Focus on the God above the creatures for the meaning.

1:11 There were two cherubim on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25) and two in the Holy of Holies of Solomon’s Temple (1 Kings 6:27). The images that follow are reminiscent of aspects of the Tabernacle/Temple. These things were always just a copy of the things above (Hebrews 8:5). Basically, Ezekiel lacked access to the earthly place of worship but encountered the real thing to learn that God’s glory was to depart the Temple prior to its destruction, but I’m getting ahead of myself (Ezekiel 8:6).

1:13 Sacrificial fire.

1:15 “wheel” The Ark had rings to carry it.

1:17-21 Heaven sees all, and God’s glory goes where He wants it to, including away from Jerusalem.

1:26 See Exodus 24:10 and Revelation 4.

1:27 Fire. There will be a cloud in the next verse (Exodus 13:21-22).

1:28 “rainbow” like Genesis 9:16.

2:1 “Son of man” or “Son of Adam” as addressed to Ezekiel amounts to “mortal”; everyone who calls him this is something other than mortal. As we will see in Daniel 7:13-14, there is Someone who is like a son of man (emphasis on “like”; Daniel contrasts Him with beastly entities). “The Son of Man” came to be another way of saying “the Messiah” because of this. Thanks to multiple fulfillment, some of the “son of man” material in Ezekiel can be applied to Jesus; context is important.

2:3 He called the Israelites a “nation”, in the sense of “the nations” aka the Gentiles. He said they were worse than the goyim (Ezekiel 5:7).

2:4-5 This is like when God sent Moses to the hard-hearted pharaoh. Jesus, the Son of Man, was sent to the Israelites with words for them, too.

3:1-3 like Jeremiah 15:16 and Revelation 10:9. Words of returning and the New Covenant were sweet.

3:6 “they would have listened” like in Jonah. This is a running gag culminating in a largely Gentile Church today.

3:15 These seven days with the Judean exiles could be a period of mourning (Genesis 50:10) and/or priest consecration (Leviticus 8:33).

3:17 Throughout Ezekiel, “Israel” more or less means Judah.

3:18 The Son of Man gave His blood for us.

3:19 “Obey and live, Adam” was the deal in the Garden, too.

3:24 God kindly put Ezekiel on house arrest. He could have witnessed himself to death based on verse 18. Also, unless you are given the spiritual gift of evangelism and the associated calling, your responsibility to witness is in 1 Peter 3:15. It amounts to honestly answering who Jesus is to you and what He did for you if you are asked; the Body of Christ as a whole spreads the message, and most of us are to live quiet lives in support of it.

4:3 See Deuteronomy 28:52.

4:4 Jesus, The Son of Man, bore my sins.

4:5 “390…years” from splitting the kingdoms to the destruction of Solomon’s Temple. He faced one way for the past and the other way for the future. Remember, the northern kingdom of Israel had already been destroyed by the Assyrians.

4:6 “40…years” from Jesus’ warnings to the destruction of Herod’s Temple. A generation in the Bible is 40 years (Numbers 32:13).

4:9-13 Desperation/siege scraps wouldn’t bake well together. The Son of Man, the Bread of Life, became Sin for me (2 Corinthians 5:21). See Deuteronomy 23:12-14 about human dung; since wood was scarce, the dried excrement of clean herbivores was burned to heat ovens. God doesn’t tempt people to sin (James 1:13) but He can order otherwise prohibited behaviors like carrying a mat on the Sabbath or marching around Jericho on the Sabbath.

4:14-15 Ezekiel said no, and God listened to him like with Moses in Exodus 4:10-17. Prophets like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15) were to receive extra attention. Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of that expectation.

5:1 like the Isaiah 7:20 foreign army razor. This would have looked like God commanding a violation of Leviticus 21:5 if Ezekiel had been a working priest (Ezekiel 1:3, but Leviticus 21:6), but Ezekiel lacked a Temple in which to serve. For non-priests, it was a mourning gesture (Job 1:20) that was not to be done for the dead (Deuteronomy 14:1).

5:9 It's raining cats and dogs, I'm so hungry I could eat a horse, and I'm so tired I could sleep for a week. I've told you a million times about the need to think poetically in the prophets, but some people laugh their heads off. Remember all the similes, metaphors, and allegories we read in Psalms about, for example, David’s relationship with God? Therefore, when God says “never before and never again” here about the events of 586 BC (which Jesus references along with Daniel 12:1 in Matthew 24:21 about a similar catastrophe that occurred in 70 AD), it’s clear that this “never before and never again” keeps happening. It’s poetic language for a remarkable occurrence, like Jeremiah 30:7. The world drowned earlier in the book, and people still waste time comparing death tolls for two sieges, a world war, etc. We have a similar phrase to “never before and never again” in English: “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

5:17 See Deuteronomy 32:23-25.

6:4 like Jeremiah 7:30-34. In Ezekiel, “Israel” usually means Judah. Ezekiel’s favorite word for idols has the connotation of “dung ball”.

6:11 like Jeremiah’s familiar riff from Leviticus 26:25-26.

6:14 like what was said regarding Egypt in Exodus 7:5.

7:10 “rod has budded” This calls back to the rebellion against and reassertion of divine authority in Numbers 16 and Numbers 17.

7:16 like Matthew 24:16.

7:19 like 2 Kings 18:16. The mechanism by which money (Deuteronomy 8:18) caused them to sin is that they made idols with it in verse 20.

7:20 like Exodus 32.

7:22 in Daniel 1:2.

7:23 like Genesis 6:11.

7:26 like Matthew 24:6.

7:27 as if they were Egypt in Exodus 7:5.

8:1 These elders were just having fun with Ezekiel (Ezekiel 33:30-33).

8:2 Jesus again.

8:3 Ow. It’s still a vision.

8:5 See 2 Chronicles 33:7.

8:10 in place of the cherubim (2 Chronicles 3:7).

8:14 There is still a Jewish month named for Tammuz, a dying/rising Mesopotamian god mourned at the summer solstice. He was said to go to the underworld to rescue Inanna/Ishtar. This is how they explained the seasons resurrecting yearly. This is another false Christ that Satan offers, similar to Baal.

8:16 There are only priests here, the 24 from 1 Chronicles 24 plus the High Priest. See also Ezekiel 11:1. These men’s rejection of God for astrology (2 Kings 21:5) is portrayed as worse than Manasseh’s idol here. Horoscopes are not for you. Sing along, everyone:

When you wish upon a star – makes no difference who you are – when God’s chosen people tried that, Babylon invaded their land and they had to resort to cannibalism.

9:2 The Mesopotamian epic “Erra and Ishum” has seven similar characters.

9:4 like Passover. The “mark” is the letter tav, which is sometimes represented by a t or an x. The saved people are marked with the Cross. The other way to draw it looks like the bloody door frame from Passover (Exodus 12:7).

9:5 like Deuteronomy 13:12-15.

9:6 “Begin at my sanctuary” like 1 Peter 4:17. The old men are from Ezekiel 8:11.

9:7 in 2 Chronicles 36:17-19.

9:9 like Genesis 6:11. They say He doesn’t see (Ezekiel 8:12), so He looks away (Deuteronomy 31:17, Deuteronomy 32:20). Throughout the Bible, bad stuff has happened when He looked away (as promised in Deuteronomy 31:16-17), and the devil, who had the power of death (Hebrews 2:14), did what he had wanted to do all along.

10:2 like 2 Kings 25:9.

10:3 like Isaiah 6:6 and Genesis 19:24.

10:13 God’s chariot throne is cooler than any human leader’s.

10:14 “cherub” was an “ox” in Ezekiel 1:10. Between this and the cloven hooves (Ezekiel 1:7), the golden calf of Exodus 32 and the later calves of Bethel and Dan make more sense.

11:3 This cooking pot metaphor comes around again in Ezekiel 24. See also Micah 3:3.

11:19-20 speaks of the New Covenant. See Jeremiah:31:31-34. Fleshy hearts are alive and not hardened (not to be confused with “fleshly” in Bible Belt lingo). See Exodus 6:7.

11:23 The mountain east of the city in this verse is the Mount of Olives. David followed this route when he left in 2 Samuel 15:23-30. Jesus pronounced the doom of Jerusalem and the Temple upon it in Matthew 24. Jesus ascended to Heaven from it in Luke and Acts. He’s coming back to it when He returns (Zechariah 14:4, Acts 1:11).

12:2 Their senses match those of their idols. (Isaiah 6:9-10).

12:12-13 “he cannot see” and “he will not see it” per 2 Kings 25:7.

Ezekiel 13 – This section is comparable to Jeremiah 23:33-40.

13:8,11 See Exodus 9:18 and Joshua 10:10-15.

13:17-18 See Deuteronomy 18:10. Red strings on your wrists to ward off the evil eye probably qualify.

14:1 Another insincere visit (Ezekiel 33:30-33).

14:3-11 He demands exclusivity in worship; see Exodus 20:5 and Exodus 34:14. Well-meaning pastors have been known to exhort Christians to love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24) by scaring them with these verses about having idols in our hearts, but Christians have Jesus in our hearts (Ephesians 3:17). He “cleaned house” (Hebrews 10:14) and moved in to stay (John 17:20-26).

14:13 like Deuteronomy 32:24.

14:14 Daniel was exiled in 605 BC. He had time to gain a reputation before this (Daniel 1, Daniel 2).

14:15 like Deuteronomy 32:24.

14:17 like Deuteronomy 32:25. I’m starting to think we’ve found what was on Ezekiel’s Bible verse calendar back then.

14:19 like Deuteronomy 32:24. Seems like a pattern. The Song of Moses predicted how they would fail Him and what would happen.

15:1-5 like John 15:6. See 2 Kings 25:9 and 2 Chronicles 36:19. For more of God as Gardener, see Isaiah 5:1-7, Psalm 80:8-9, Hosea 10:1, and Jeremiah 2:21. Mary Magdalene’s identification of the risen Jesus in John 20:15 makes sense. Jesus warned that those that do not “abide” in Him burn; to abide is to live. Christians live in Him, and He lives in us. It’s a location for a dwelling place, not a standard to chase with our behavior. The people in Ezekiel’s day turned their backs on God, and things burned. The political and religious powers in Jesus’ day did not accept Him, and the same thing happened again. There is nothing good waiting for those who deny Him by never getting on board the grace train, but He remains faithful to the Bride of Christ even at our most trifling (2 Tim 2:12-13; the “we” is a polite construction like “we humans”. Christians have died with Him, live with Him, reign with Him, and endure with Him despite faithlessness on our part.).

16:3 Jerusalem had a history as a Jebusite city before it became David’s capital city.

16:5 Death by exposure was a form of abortion.

16:6 like Deuteronomy 32:10.

16:7 If a full-frontal scene involving a teenage girl that God is in no hurry to cover up seems to be inappropriate to read about or even think about in your culture, I suspect centuries of (well-intended) misreading the Bible to be the culprit.

16:8 see Song of Songs/Solomon 8:8 for how old “old enough” means.

16:10-14 He allowed Solomon’s Temple to be built in Jerusalem.

16:15 Since this involves a married woman, the prostitution is adultery (Ezekiel 16:32). This is a metaphor for worshiping other gods. See also Jeremiah 3, Hosea 4:10-14, and Hosea 9.

16:17 like what happened in Exodus 32 and at the calf cult centers of Bethel and Dan. Graphic content alert, reader discretion advised: “male idols” is also a polite way of translating dildos, and given the rest of Ezekiel’s content, the double meaning is intentional.

16:18 like Jeremiah 10:9.

16:20-21 See Deuteronomy 12:31, 2 Kings 16:3, 2 Kings 21:6, Jeremiah 7:31, Jeremiah 19:5, and Jeremiah 32:35.

16:26 “large genitals” She liked a big, impressive army. Political and religious betrayals of God were intertwined as making such allies required taking oaths in the names of their false gods.

16:29 “merchants” The focus on merchants in the prophets and in Revelation may be because the same word in Hebrew means “Canaanite” and “merchant” because of the Phoenicians, who are leftover Canaanites.

16:37 like Hosea 2:10 and Nahum 3:5. War captives were led away naked. Hookers were sometimes stripped to discourage people from paying for in the dark what they had seen for free in the unflattering light of day. Heirs stripped divorcees to make sure they left with nothing.

16:40 like Deuteronomy 22:22.

16:42 “Then my wrath against you will subside…” Unfortunately, this was after the metaphorical gang rape, literal killing, and cannibalism. We are blessed to live on this side of the Cross. Jesus paid it all (1 John 2:2), and we don’t have to be afraid of God (1 John 4:18).

16:43 Jerusalem began as a pagan city and became one again.

16:49-50 Sodom’s lack of hospitality was not born of scarcity (Genesis 13:10). Mere affluence wasn’t the problem, as Abram and Lot were already rich men before going there. Homosexual gang rape of travelers as if they were “new fish” in the prison so to speak in order to keep outsiders away from their affluence or just for amusement seems to be the point…

16:51…and God says Jerusalem was worse than Sodom. Involving the Temple in their idolatry (Ezekiel 8) was a particularly sore point; betrayal stings worse from someone you trusted than from a stranger.

16:60 He remembered the covenant from their youth (remember Abraham and his “Seed”) and made a new, everlasting covenant through Jesus (Galatians 3:16).

16:61 “receive your sisters” like when the Samaritans came to know Jesus in John 4. Notice their reconciliation is not based on the Old Covenant.

16:62-63 The New Covenant was established with the blood of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 9:18-28).

17:2 This history parable references people and events from 2 Kings 24, 2 Chronicles 36, Jeremiah 37, and Jeremiah 52.

17:3 “eagle” Nebuchadnezzar; “Lebanon” known for its tall cedar trees was chosen for this parable for the tree reference.

17:4 The king went into exile. The word for “merchants” is the same as the word for “Canaanites”, providing connotations.

17:5 “seedlings” Zedekiah.

17:6 Jerusalem was bowing to Nebuchadnezzar.

17:7 “another great eagle” Egypt. See Deuteronomy 17:16.

17:10 “east wind” like Exodus 10:13 and Exodus 14:21.

17:11 Now, he provides a prosaic recap.

17:19 Not only did Zedekiah disobey Deuteronomy 17:16, but he broke an oath taken in the name of God (2 Chronicles 36:13).

17:22 “shoot” The Branch.

18:2 “about the land of Israel” We’re still talking about the Old Covenant for most of this chapter. See Exodus 20:5 and Deuteronomy 5:9.

18:3-4 like Jeremiah 31:29-30.

18:6 Since Leviticus 18:3,19-20,25-27 includes adultery and “relations with a woman during her period” among the things the Canaanites not under the Law of Moses died for, it is logical that the Gentile God-fearers who converted to Christianity would have understood the “sexual immorality” of Acts 15:20 to include those as things to avoid.

18:7 “gives” There was an Old Covenant alms-for-forgiveness tzedakah Treasure In Heaven scheme like in Isaiah 58:8-10; see Ezekiel 18:22.

18:20 This was said to people who objected that the recompense for hundreds of years of wrongdoing fell to their generation.

18:21 That’s not the finished work of Christ, and no blood has been shed; that’s entirely up to human works. We’re still before the Cross in the text. Therefore, behavioral “turn or burn” is not the New Covenant. The “all the sins” and “all my decrees” phrases catch everyone; we all need Jesus (Romans 3:19-20).

18:22 See Ezekiel 18:7 note.

18:23 God’s not happy about any of the mayhem in the Old Testament, whether attributed to Him or not. Also, we can’t turn from our ways enough to be as perfect/holy/set-apart as God (Matthew 5:48). We need Jesus.

18:24 Help! See Romans 3:21-26; we’re okay. Ezekiel 18 is still about the Old Covenant so far.

18:31-32 He told them to get a new heart and a new spirit to live. We can’t do that on our own. It’s a free gift. See Jeremiah 31:31-34 and Ezekiel 36:25-27.

19:1-2 Refers to Hamutal, queen mother of Jehoahaz and Zedekiah, in the language of Genesis 49:9.

19:3 “one of her cubs” Jehoahaz.

19:4 See 2 Kings 23:30-34.

19:5 Zedekiah.

19:12 There’s that east wind again (Ezekiel 17:10 note).

19:14 “fire” like in Jotham’s parable in Judges 9.

20:1 The elders are still playing with him (Ezekiel 33:30-33).

20:3 See Ezekiel 14:6-8.

20:10-11 He gave the Israelites the laws and the Sabbaths. As for “made them holy”, He gave Jesus for us (Romans 5 – Yes, the whole chapter is that good; read it until it sinks in).

20:13 Jesus is our Sabbath (Hebrews 10:1, Hebrews 4, Romans 10:4, Colossians 2:16-17).

20:25 This is not to say that any of the laws in your Old Testament are wrong (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The Law is good (Romans 7:13) if it is used for its purpose (1 Timothy 1:8), namely to send you running to grace (Romans 3:19-20). Ezekiel 20:25 is more like the fine-let-them-be-pagans-and-find-out of Isaiah 63:17 and Ezekiel 20:39, such as the child sacrifice condemned in the next verse.

20:26 like Ezekiel 16:20.

20:34 is a dark echo of Exodus 6:6.

20:35-38 Exile as a new wilderness experience (Hosea 2:14).

20:40 in the 2nd Temple Era (rebuilt by those who returned and later remodeled by Herod).

20:41 See Deuteronomy 30:4-5.

20:46 The Babylonian invasion proceeded from north to south.

21:2 A different type of Son of Man, Jesus, did this too in His Olivet Discourse.

21:4 Looking at Ezekiel 18:1-9 in light of what all the prophets say the people were up to, there were no righteous people (Psalm 14:2-3, Ecclesiastes 7:20).

21:6 like Luke 19:41.

21:21 Using arrows for divination is belomancy, and examining the liver of a sacrifice for divination is hepatoscopy.

21:25-26 Later mentions of the lowly people being subsequently exalted in the Gospels are flavored by this context.

21:27 “Him” Jesus.

22:2 There is wordplay here with “city of bloodshed” since Jerusalem means “City of Peace”.

22:3 The two greatest commandments in the Law of Moses are love of God and neighbor, and both are violated in this verse (Deuteronomy 6:5, Leviticus 19:18, and Exodus 20:1-4,13). I will provide references for several infractions to follow merely to demonstrate that they knew the deal the whole time. God sent several prophets to warn them earlier, too. Since their works are shorter, we’ll see them later when we get to the Minor Prophets.

22:6 like Exodus 20:13.

22:7 like Exodus 20:12, Exodus 22:21, and Deuteronomy 14:29.

22:8 like Exodus 20:8-11 and Exodus 23:12.

22:9 Ezekiel is about to elaborate on examples of “lewd acts”.

22:10-11 Generally, see Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20. Specifically, see Deuteronomy 22:30 and Deuteronomy 27:20.

22:12 See Deuteronomy 27:25 and Exodus 22:25.

22:18 Compare this “dross” with the faithful in Daniel 3:19-30.

22:19-22 In a dark bit of multiple fulfillment, the siege of Jerusalem that culminated in its destruction again in 70 AD was exacerbated by thousands of Passover pilgrims who got trapped in the city. What Ezekiel said was relevant to his hearers regarding 586 BC as well.

22:25 like 1 Peter 5:8.

22:26 See Zephaniah 3:4, Jeremiah 7:4,21-26, Jeremiah 8:8,10-11. Basically, they told them that sin was fine and gladly profited from insincere religious rituals.

22:30-31 like Genesis 18:16-33, Exodus 32:10, Deuteronomy 9:14, and Isaiah 59:16.

23:2-4 These are the capital cities of the northern and southern kingdoms. The word ohel means tent, Oholah is “her tent” in reference to Israel’s estrangement from Judah, and Oholibah is “My tent is in her” in reference to the Tabernacle/Temple.

23:3 “caressed because of your young breasts” in the sense of recognition of readiness for intercourse like in Song of Songs/Solomon 8:8-10 rather than a focus on tactile exploration of the baby-feeding apparatus. Other translations show different flavors of the language including connotations of bruising/grabbing/holding down while copulating. The political and the religious are tied together; the idolatry mentioned in Joshua 24:14 had been going on since their time in Egypt, and the family ties that were hazardous to Deuteronomy 17:16 went back to Solomon.

23:7-10 Being an ally/vassal and attempts at appeasement gave way to conquest in 722 BC (2 Kings 15:17-20, 2 Kings 17:1-6).

23:11-13 Judah followed the same pattern as Israel (2 Kings 16:7-8, 2 Kings 20, 2 Kings 24).

23:20 For readers who grew up in the city, think of a large restaurant pepper mill. God’s wife cheated on Him with a big army. The bar for “obscene stories” in Ephesians 5:4 is higher than most people think since it is in the same Bible as Ezekiel.

23:29 War captives were led away naked. Hookers were sometimes stripped to discourage people from paying for in the dark what they had seen for free in the unflattering light of day. Heirs stripped divorcees to make sure they left with nothing.

23:37 like Ezekiel 16:20. The children born to Him are proof of God as Husband in this passage. God is portrayed as a sororal polygamist, so marrying sisters (and polygamy in general) isn’t what is prohibited in Leviticus 18:18. God, who does not sin (Leviticus 19:1-2), is portrayed as married to sisters in Jeremiah 3:8 as well. A better way to read the rule was “do not take your wife’s sister as a wife to vex her”; they were actually to take their wives’ feelings into consideration and not marry rival sisters that would cause fights. We are called to live in peace (1 Corinthians 7:15). Minimizing the grumpiness level in your tent is a good thing.

23:43 like Revelation 17.

23:45 emphasizes that the specific sex crime in focus throughout the chapter was adultery by God’s wives.

23:46 This is God’s judgment against an unfaithful nation; in John 8, He was asked what to do to an individual woman caught in adultery, and He emphasized the sinfulness of the mob as making them unfit to exercise judgment.

23:48 as when Jesus said to go and sin no more (John 8:11).

Ezekiel 24 – The cooking pot metaphor about the siege (2 Kings 25:1) also shows up in Ezekiel 11:3 and Micah 3:3.

24:7-8 See Genesis 4:10-11 and Job 16:18.

24:16-18 She died much like the Egyptian firstborn. All humanity deserves death. God killed His prophet’s wife and told him not to cry (like Jeremiah 16:5), but thanks to Jesus, we look forward to Revelation 21:3-4. See also 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14.

24:23 “sandals on your feet” like at Passover.

24:26-27 in Ezekiel 33:21-22.

Ezekiel 25 through Ezekiel 32 bridges doom and hope. Warnings to the nations and prophecies of return (Ezekiel 36) sound like Exodus 15:11-18.

25:3 See Genesis 12:3. The prophet speaks of events still in his future as having already happened.

25:12 “revenge” Much like “made men” in alleged criminal organizations cannot be harmed without reprisal even if there’s a “good reason”, God avenges His people. Edom lost to the Maccabees and to Rome. See also Ezekiel 35.

25:15 See Joel 3:4-6.

25:17 A mistranslation/embellishment of this verse from a Hong Kong movie found its way into Pulp Fiction, providing a conversational hook or witnessing opportunity for unbelieving friends who like movies. Again, God is merciful by a ratio of at least 1000:4 per Exodus 34:6-7.

Ezekiel 26 – See Joel 3:4-6 and Amos 1:9. There is a city called Tyre in Mark 7:31 and Acts 12:20, much like there is a city called Jerusalem on the map then, too. There is a new version that is still the fourth biggest city in Lebanon. The Jerusalem that exists at the time of this writing is in a sense different from both the Jerusalem that was sacked in 70 AD and the Jerusalem that was sacked in 586 BC. The Tyre in Ezekiel 26 had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar by the time spoken of in Ezekiel 29:20. Some historians say Alexander the Great did it instead/as well. Multiple fulfillments are possible, etc. Don’t get into pointless arguments over prophecy. What God was doing in Hebrew history is consistent. We worship Immanuel, not a manual. Everyone in this chapter is dead now, and Jesus is our risen Lord (Romans 10:9-13).

26:14-21 “never be rebuilt” God has mercifully delayed/canceled judgment before. See Jonah. For the futurists, this could all be in reference to a Satanic global trade network started by Phoenicians that the Joshua generation failed to eliminate. Tyre gained market share in global trade after Solomon and apparently saw the fall of Jerusalem as an opportunity (Ezekiel 26:2). This network ran the Mediterranean from about 1200 BC to about 350 BC. The trade empire still flourished even under Assyria’s thumb. They even had a colony at Carthage back then. The global government ball has passed from nation to nation, but the wealthy and powerful seem to intermarry among themselves (Daniel 11:6,17) and stay above it all. Everything that is supposed to make sense to us will make sense someday, and many prophecies are only seen clearly in the rearview mirror.

Ezekiel 27 – Places around the Mediterranean as far as Spain as well as Arabia and Persia are all hinted at in this chapter.

27:12 It is said that the tin trade even reached the British Isles back then.

27:25-36 Remember this when we get to Revelation 18.

Ezekiel 28 – Much has been made of the predictions regarding Tyre and the King of Tyre; Egypt and Pharaoh got similar coverage (Ezekiel 29 through Ezekiel 32) for comparison. See Amos 1:9-10 and Joel 3:4-6 for possible motives for the extensive coverage of Tyre. Also, they were Phoenicians and therefore Canaanites that were never successfully purged. The Hebrew words for “merchant” and “Canaanite” are the same because of these people.

28:2 “ruler” A prince; a mortal. See Proverbs 16:5, Isaiah 14:13-14, and Ezekiel 26:2.

28:12 The Phoenician “Baal-Melqart” (1 Kings 16:31) or Satan who wears the masks of all false gods may be this King of Tyre. Paul would tell the people who think this and the people that think it’s about a human to still be friends with each other.

28:13-14 Assyria was said to be envied by Eden (Ezekiel 31:3-9) so this ejected-from-the-Garden stuff can perhaps be read as metaphor. But, it is interesting that the stones are like those of the High Priest garment (Exodus 28:15-20, Exodus 39:10-13) that is a copy of the heavenly version. High Priests and angels have access to God. See Isaiah 14:12-17. There’s a way to read the “anointed cherub who covers” as a defender of holiness like in Genesis 3:24; see Hebrews 2:14 – the Accuser was to be a defender of holiness in the proper exercise of his office. Also, since Adam (humanity) was ejected from the Garden, all humanity can identify with most of the rest of this passage. However…

Ezekiel 29 – …does whoever is selling you a lofty/spiritual/futuristic interpretation of Tyre and the King of Tyre have a comparable hermeneutic for Egypt and Pharaoh?

29:18 See Jeremiah 43:10.

30:13 like Exodus 12:12.

30:21 See 2 Kings 24:7.

31:18 The attempts at immortality through mummification and pyramids were all for naught.

32:1 on March 3, 585 BC.

32:6 like Exodus 7:14-24.

32:7 like Exodus 10:21-29.

32:24 Again, he speaks of events in his future as having happened already.

32:26 See Ezekiel 38:2.

Ezekiel 33 begins a new section. Remember the call of the watchman from Ezekiel 3:17-21.

33:8 This was among people who were all under the same performance-based covenant. Well-meaning believers sometimes act like this is still our mission and scream at the world about sin management. However, God has no interest in better-behaved dead people. Everyone is either dead in Adam or alive in Christ (1 Corinthians 15:22-23), belief in Christ is what matters, and Christ is coming again for those looking for Him (Hebrews 9:28) “without regard to sin”. Christ bought all sin at the Cross; believers have already made it through the final judgment (John 5:24), and unbelievers aren’t going to make it without Him (John 16:8-9). Paul preached nothing but Christ crucified to the wildly sinful Corinthians (1 Corinthians 2:2) before encouraging better behavior among those who had been saved (similar to Hebrews 10:24). The Church as a whole was given the Great Commission, but unless you are an evangelist (a specific role gifted by the Spirit) your orders apart from supporting those spreading the Gospel (Romans 10:14-15) are in 1 Peter 3:15 which amounts to being willing to share what He did for you in a gentle and respectful way if someone asks you about your faith.

33:11 like Ezekiel 18:23.

33:12-20 This is how many people think sin and righteousness works, and it’s all Old Covenant. No one can turn well enough to survive “turn or burn” (Romans 3:19-24). We have a Savior (1 John 2:1-2, Hebrews 7:25, 2 Timothy 2:13).

33:24 See Genesis 15.

33:25-26 These “murderers, idolaters, and adulterers” have found the three exceptions to pikuach nefesh. The rabbis say that they weren’t permitted murder, idolatry, or sexual immorality (as enumerated in Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20) even to save their own lives because they would fail to “possess the land” and die like the Canaanites, drowned like the world in Noah’s day, burnt like Sodom, etc. These issues look a lot like what the Gentile Christians were expected to obey in Acts 15.

33:30 “your people” Namely, Judean exiles in Babylon in context.

34:2 God has issues with these peoples’ leaders. Shepherds that only take care of themselves are goats in verse 17. See Zechariah 10:1-3 and Zechariah 11:16.

34:3 When the Good Shepherd asked Peter to feed his lambs in John 21, He was restoring Peter’s place in the Twelve (Matthew 19:28). Matthew 25’s Parable of the Sheep and Goats is about the bad shepherds being replaced by the Good Shepherd and His administration. There are sheep, there are goats, and then there are Jesus’ brethren (Hebrews 2:11).

34:4 See Leviticus 25:43.

34:6 like 1 Kings 22:17.

34:11 See Psalm 23 and Isaiah 40:11.

34:13 like Deuteronomy 30:4-5

34:16-19 like Ezekiel 34:2-4. In case any believers are worried about feeling too “goaty” or caprine, this is still an indictment of the political and religious leadership you read about in Kings and Chronicles. See Isaiah 3:13-15, Isaiah 5:8, Amos 5:12, Amos 6:1-7, and Micah 2:1-5. These are corrupt and abusive leaders, land thieves, unjust judges, and Assyrian collaborators. Even a well-paid employee (doctor, etc.) would have still been considered a servant/slave in the ancient world. When Jesus referenced this sheep/goat concept, He had just pronounced doom on the political and religious leadership which was realized in 70 AD when Jerusalem fell again. When Jesus returns, we, His brethren (Hebrews 2:11), will be as safe as He is.

34:25 from the Leviticus 26 blessings.

34:30 like Exodus 6:7.

35:2 “Mount Seir” in Edom. Since “Edom” and “Adam (humanity)” are similar words, sometimes you can sense a hint at all of God’s enemies (Ezekiel 36:5) when Edom is mentioned in the prophets. There must be some reason to revisit Edom’s warning since it was already covered in Ezekiel 25. Perhaps the next chapter will enlighten us.

36:1 Yes, Ezekiel 36 is an antithesis to Ezekiel 35. The repetition of Edom’s judgment was for comparison.

36:3 See Deuteronomy 32:26-27.

36:5 See Leviticus 25:23.

36:6-7,15 “the nations” further emphasizes a more general application of Ezekiel 35.

36:9-12 See Leviticus 26:9.

36:17 The period tent (Leviticus 15:19) is used here as a symbol of exile and return.

36:18 Offenses against God and neighbor (Matthew 22:34-40).

36:20 See Isaiah 52:5 and Ezekiel 39:21-22.

36:22-24 Since they didn’t follow Deuteronomy 30:2, bringing them back was a mercy even under the thumb of empires like Persia and Rome.

36:25 “sprinkle” like Numbers 19.

36:26-27 This is a really important section. This is another look at the “new covenant” as seen in Jeremiah 31:31-34. (It was new to them, but old to Abraham; it is the one and only path to salvation for everyone, especially the Gentiles. See Galatians 3.) Thanks to Jesus, God totally forgave us and gave us new hearts (Deuteronomy 30:6, Jeremiah 24:7, Colossians 2:11), new human spirits, and the Holy Spirit (Ezekiel 11:19-20, Isaiah 59:21, John 14:16). The wishes behind 1 Kings 8:57-61, Psalm 51:10, and Numbers 11:29 are fulfilled; God works within us to produce what He wants (Jeremiah 32:38-41) and leads us by the Spirit (Isaiah 30:21, Isaiah 32:3, and Isaiah 54:13). He remembers your sins no more. He didn’t just forget the old ones; He stopped keeping track because the performance-based ledger is gone (Colossians 2:13-14). It’s important to understand what the Old was (thanks again for reading the Old Testament along with me) to distinguish what the New means, but the Old is gone (Hebrews 8:7-13).

36:28 like Exodus 6:7.

36:31 There’s an attitude among some believers that evil people who convert on their deathbed got away with something by getting to “enjoy” sinning their whole lives, but as a new creation, do you feel awesome about the awful things you did before you met Him?

36:35 He restores the Eden it once was geographically. See the Genesis 15:18 note.

37:4 These are like the unburied disobedient dead of Deuteronomy 28:26.

37:5 See Genesis 2:7 and Isaiah 26:19.

37:9-10 Ezekiel was a “son of man” aka a mortal. Jesus, the Son of Man (Daniel 7), sent the Holy Spirit at His enthronement in Heaven (Acts 2:33).

37:12 reminds me of John 11:43-44.

37:15-17 Two parallel sticks symbolize the reunion of Judah and Israel. Jews and Gentiles were later united into one new people (Ephesians 2:14-18) by two perpendicular sticks, the Cross.

37:23 “backsliding” Under the New Covenant, we don’t “backslide” because we don’t climb. Jesus came down and got us. We can’t get out of His hand. Even if we could slide, we are united with Him, so He’d come with us. Believer, notice that sin’s just not as fun as it used to be anymore because He is with you now.

37:24 like John 10:16.

37:28 Christians are the new Temple, and we live forever.

Ezekiel 38 – Compare Jeremiah 1:13-16 (about the Babylonian Empire attacking Jerusalem) to this.

38:2 See Genesis 10:1-12, 1 Chronicles 1:5, and Ezekiel 32:26. The “land of” can be just a geographical location. Sumerian “gug” means darkness. It seems to be a multinational coalition (Psalm 83:1-8, Isaiah 5:26-30) of enemies that all join/act like Scythian raiders. Just imagine whatever fearsome horse-based nomadic warrior culture with which you are most familiar.

38:5-6 Hebrews used place names as compass directions. These names suggested all points on their known map.

38:10 like in Revelation 20:7-8.

38:16 echoes Joshua’s invasion.

38:17 Since some of the lands spoken of in this chapter can suggest the Seleucids (post-Alexander Greek government based in Syria) and later echoes thereof, the “Assyrians” of Micah 5:5 are a possibility.

38:18-23 include covenant curses plus some plagues of Egypt plus the burning of Sodom.

38:21 like 2 Chronicles 20:22-23.

39:2 like the calling of Babylon in Ezekiel 21.

39:9 like in a holy war victory (Joshua 11:9).

39:11 Compare with Jeremiah 19:7,11.

39:12-14 “cleanse the land” See Deuteronomy 21:23.

39:17-20 like Lamentations 2:22 and Revelation 19:17-18. “Bashan” is the ranch land in Deuteronomy 3.

39:21-24 God “gets His shine back” from Ezekiel 36:20; He is honored where he was once profaned.

39:25 New topic.

39:28 like Deuteronomy 30:4-5.

Ezekiel’s Temple invites much speculation. Hebrews 1:1-2 says Jesus supersedes Ezekiel’s vision if there is any question. Some say it will be built in the future, but Jesus’ finished work on the Cross calls that into question regarding the sacrifices for atonement, as we’ll discuss. Let me humbly suggest that if it doesn’t symbolize the certainty we have under the New Covenant, then not building Ezekiel’s Temple was just one more way the people under the Old Covenant messed up (Ezekiel 43:10-11). They didn’t build this version even with Haggai’s and Zechariah’s prodding. God’s Glory (1 Kings 8:10-11) did not return in Ezra 6 as in Ezekiel 43 and Ezekiel 44. Jesus mercifully came anyway. Hebrews 9:12 and Hebrews 10:12-14 say that Jesus’ one sacrifice got the job done. Some say Ezekiel’s Temple is a symbol of the Heavenly Temple coming to Earth to represent Immanuel or the Church. Revelation 21 and Revelation 22 lack a Temple but have a river like Ezekiel 47. Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Malachi include sacrifices; are these all somehow according to the Old Covenant during the Second Temple period or was Christ’s finished work just incomprehensible to the Old Testament prophets’ brains? The Law was “forever” for Jewish Christians even in Acts 21 (and Acts 24:17 Paul still sacrificed, not for righteousness), but Ezekiel 45:17 has “atonement”; the New Testament says that’s over. Some suggest sacrifices as a future commemoration of Christ’s sacrifice, but Jesus said that Communion is that (1 Corinthians 11). Jesus says a physical location for worship has given way to Spirit and truth (John 4:23). Ezekiel’s yet-unbuilt Temple has a Cross-shaped inner plan. Hebrews 9 suggests Ezekiel’s Temple is not the one in Heaven as the Tabernacle was a copy of that. The level of detail in this vision is not unusual; remember Exodus’ “here’s how to build this up to code” and “here’s how they built that up to code”. Now, contrast this section with what we read earlier to see “here’s how they could have done the opposite of the idolatry in Ezekiel 8”.

40:2 “visions” and “looked like” let us know that we’re in the realm of poetic language.

40:5 Ezekiel’s Temple is like a religious citadel.

40:39 “sin offerings” Again, the Hebrews 9:12 says that Christ’s sacrifice was “once for all”. Even if these are “purification offerings” we are already sanctified entirely (1 Corinthians 6:11, Hebrews 10:10) and perfected forever (Hebrews 10:14) by Christ’s finished work. What do you intend to do when you get cleaner and closer to God? Please proceed with it.

40:46 Essenes and other sticklers had a problem with non-Zadokites in the post-Maccabees priesthood. Zadok’s loyalty to David (and later Solomon) during the events of 2 Samuel and 1 Kings 1 merited this appointment (1 Kings 2:35).

41:4 This and Solomon’s Temple have a Holy of Holies measuring 20x20x20 cubits. The Tabernacle’s Holy of Holies (copied from Heaven’s version) measured 10x10x10 cubits.

41:19 In a two dimensional image, two cherub faces are unseen.

41:22 The wooden altar that matters is the Cross.

42:13 See Ezekiel 40:39 note.

43:2-5 “from the east” Back from where His Glory left in Ezekiel 10:19. Ezra 6 lacked a 1 Kings 8:10-11 moment.

43:7-9 “prostitution” refers to the worship of idols.

43:8 looks back to Ezekiel 8:8-9.

43:10-11 “if” makes this a conditional statement; “so that they may be faithful to its design” They weren’t.

43:19,21,22,25 See Ezekiel 40:39 note.

44:2 God signifies an intent to stay.

44:3 Don’t let anyone tell you that this “prince” is Jesus, because he offers sin offerings for himself in Ezekiel 45:22. Sinless Jesus has no need for that (John 8:46, 2 Corinthians 5:21), and His one time sacrifice was Himself for us (Hebrews 10:14).

44:7 like in Nehemiah 13:4-9. As to God speaking of his food (Leviticus 21:6), He never needed it and preferred obedience to meat bribes (Psalm 40:6, Psalm 50:12, Psalm 51:16, Acts 17:25, Hebrews 10:6)

44:9 Before you get any notions about cutting anything off of yourself or others, go read Galatians.

44:15-16 This is Old Covenant stuff; the priesthood has changed (Hebrews 7:12), and we’re the Temple now (1 Peter 2:5). God’s not changing His mind again (Psalm 110:4, Hebrews 7:17,21).

44:17 like Exodus 28:39-43. Wearing plants (Genesis 3:7) instead of animal products (Genesis 3:21) is a hint at the feigned sinlessness/other-ness of the office.

44:18 This is a step up from Deuteronomy 23:9-14. They wouldn’t want to remind Him of their sinful humanity (Genesis 3:19) on duty.

44:19 Unregulated contact with Old Testament holiness is dangerous (1 Samuel 6:19, 2 Samuel 6:6-7). Now think about God living inside you as part of the New Covenant.

44:20 Don’t mistake this as an endorsement for human priests and the like, but tonsure would be forbidden to them.

44:24 like Deuteronomy 17:8-9.

44:25-26 See Leviticus 21:1-3 and Numbers 19.

44:31 like Leviticus 22:8.

Ezekiel 45 and Ezekiel 46 – There is speculation about the following sections about why the sacrifices described here are different compared with Numbers 28 and Numbers 29, why some festivals are different or missing like the Day of Atonement, etc. Common themes in the speculation include a) the new sacrifices are perhaps for the “prince” aka human king in this scenario (who was supposed to be a much better ruler than those seen in the latter bits of Kings and Chronicles) without changing the Torah requirements for the people, b) maybe the “missing” elements are still there, just not commented on by Ezekiel, and c) since Ezekiel was speaking to a generation that saw the Temple fall, his vision of a future Temple as a large fortress farther from the population with limited access for the unclean and outsiders as well as plentiful sacrifices was meant to signify greater stability.

45:8 See 1 Kings 21.

45:22 This “prince” is not our Messiah (John 8:46, 2 Corinthians 5:21).

46:9 Whatever the real reason for this, it would keep traffic moving on a busy festival day.

Ezekiel 47 – See Jeremiah 17:13. The ending of Revelation lacks Ezekiel’s Temple (Revelation 21:22) but has a river (Revelation 22). See also Joel 3:18, Isaiah 33:20-21, Isaiah 55:1, and Zechariah 14:8. John 7:38-39 identifies the living water as the Holy Spirit.

47:5 Perhaps the topography includes the split Mount Olives from Zechariah 14:4.

47:8-10 The Holy Spirit fixes us, even we stinky Gentiles. Is it any wonder many of the apostles used to be commercial fishermen?

47:11 Salt is useful and needed for rituals. Also, this could be the unchanged pockets of humanity that do not accept the Gospel especially if the Gog/Magog of Revelation is a multiple/future fulfillment.

47:12 like the trees in Revelation 22. Notice the nourishing fruit, the healing leaves, and the lack of a reality-breaking damnation magnet like the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

47:15 This land allocation in horizontal stripes (Ezekiel 48) is not the eternal condition of things since the sea leaves in Revelation 21:1.

47:22 like Isaiah 56:3-8 (think of Gentile God-fearers like Cornelius in Acts 10 that prefigured Gentile Christians like us in Ephesians 3:6).

48:31 Even though it seems like Ezekiel’s Temple was an unrealized possibility under a conditional covenant (Ezekiel 43:10-11), the New Jerusalem from God shows up in Revelation 21 with gates named for tribes and foundations named for apostles.

48:35 After seeing the exit in Ezekiel 11:23 and the return in Ezekiel 43:5, what Ezekiel values most highly for the ending to his book is the God who is here to stay.

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