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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ezekiel 24:15 - 24:15
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The Sign of Silent Sorrow Concerning the Destruction of Jerusalem
Eze 24:14. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Eze 24:16. Son of man, behold, I take from thee thine eyes' delight by a stroke, and thou shalt not mourn nor weep, and no tear shall come from thee. Eze 24:17. Sigh in silence; lamentation for the dead thou shalt not make; bind thy head-attire upon thee, and put thy shoes upon thy feet, and do not cover thy beard, and eat not the bread of men. Eze 24:18. And I spake to the people in the morning, and in the evening my wife died, and I did in the morning as I was commanded. Eze 24:19. Then the people said to me, Wilt thou not show us what this signifies to us that thou doest so? Eze 24:20. And I said to them, The word of Jehovah has come to me, saying, Eze 24:21. Say to the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your strength, the delight of your eyes, and the desire of your soul; and your sons and your daughters, whom ye have left, will fall by the sword. Eze 24:22. Then will ye do as I have done, ye will not cover the beard, nor eat the bread of men; Eze 24:23. And ye will have your head-attired upon your heads, and your shoes upon your feet; ye will not mourn nor weep, but will pine away in your iniquity, and sigh one towards another. Eze 24:24. Thus will Ezekiel be a sign to you; as he hath done will ye do; when it cometh, ye will know that I the Lord am Jehovah. - From the statements in Eze 24:18, to the effect that the prophet spoke to the people in the morning, and then in the evening his wife died, and then again in the (following) morning, according to the command of God, he manifested no grief, and in answer to the inquiry of the people explained to them the meaning of what he did, it is evident that the word of God contained in this section came to him on the same day as the preceding one, namely, on the day of the blockade of Jerusalem; for what he said to the people on the morning of this day (Eze 24:18) is the prophecy contained in Eze 24:3-14. Immediately after He had made this revelation to him, God also announced to him the approaching death of his wife, together with the significance which this event would have to the people generally. The delight of the eyes (Eze 24:16) is his wife (Eze 24:18) בְּמַגֵּפָה by a stroke, i.e., by a sudden death inflicted by God (vid., Num 14:37; Num 17:13). On the occurrence of her death, he is neither to allow of any loud lamentings, nor to manifest any sign of grief, but simply to sigh in silence. מֵתִים אֵבֶל does not stand for אֵבֶל מֵתִים, but the words are both accusatives. The literal rendering would be: the dead shalt thou not make an object of mourning, i.e., thou shalt not have any mourning for the dead, as Storr (observv. p. 19) has correctly explained the words. On occasions of mourning it was customary to uncover the head and strew ashes upon it (Isa 61:3), to go barefoot (2Sa 15:30; Isa 20:2), and to cover the beard, that is to say, the lower part of the face as far as the nose (Mic 3:7). Ezekiel is not to do any of these things, but to arrange his head-attire (פְּאֵר, the head-attire generally, or turban, vid., Eze 24:23 and Isa 61:3, and not specially that of the priests, which is called פַּאֲרֵי in Exo 39:28), and to put on his shoes, and also to eat no mourning bread. לֶחֶם אֲנָשִׁים does not mean panis miseroroum, cibus lugentium, in which case אֲנָשִׁים would be equivalent to אֲנֻשִׁים, but bread of men, i.e., of the people, that is to say, according to the context, bread which the people were accustomed to send to the house of mourning in cases of death, to manifest their sympathy and to console and refresh the mourners - a custom which gave rise in the course of time to that of formal funeral meals. These are not mentioned in the Old Testament; but the sending of bread or food to the house of mourning is clearly referred to in Deu 26:14; Hos 9:4, and Jer 16:7 (see also 2Sa 3:35). - When Ezekiel thus abstained from all lamentation and outward sign of mourning on the death of his dearest one, the people conjectured that such striking conduct must have some significance, and asked him what it was that he intended to show thereby. He then announced to them the word of God (Eze 24:20-24). As his dearest one, his wife, had been taken from him, so should it dearest object, the holy temple, be taken from the nation by destruction, and their children by the sword. When this occurred, then would they act as he was doing now; they would not mourn and weep, but simply in their gloomy sorrow sigh in silence on account of their sins, and groan one toward another.
The profanation (חִלֵּל) of the sanctuary is effected through its destruction (cf. Eze 7:24). To show the magnitude of the loss, the worth of the temple in the eyes of the nation is dwelt upon in the following clauses. גְּאֹון עֻזְּכֶם is taken from Lev 26:19. The temple is called the pride of your strength, because Israel based its might and strength upon it as the scene of the gracious presence of God, living in the hope that the Lord would not give up His sanctuary to the heathen to be destroyed, but would defend the temple, and therewith Jerusalem and its inhabitants also (cf. Jer 7:4). מַהְמַל נַפְùְׁכֶם .)}4, the desire or longing of the soul (from הָמַל, in Arabic, desiderio ferri ad aliquam rem). The sons and daughters of the people are the relatives and countrymen whom the exiles had been obliged to leave behind in Canaan. - The explanation of this lamentation and mourning on account of the destruction of the sanctuary and death of their relations, is to be found in the antithesis: 'וּנְמַקֹּתֶם בעו, ye will pine or languish away in your iniquities (compare Eze 4:17 and Lev 26:39). Consequently we have not to imagine either “stolid indifference” (Eichhorn and Hitzig), or “stolid impenitence” (Ewald), but overwhelming grief, for which there were no tears, no lamentation, but only deep inward sighing on account of the sins which had occasioned so terrible a calamity. נָהַם, lit., to utter a deep growl, like the bears (Isa 59:11); here to sigh or utter a deep groan. “One toward another,” i.e., manifesting the grief to one another by deep sighs; not “full of murmuring and seeking the sin which occasioned the calamity in others rather than in themselves,” as Hitzig supposes. The latter exposition is entirely at variance with the context. This grief, which consumes the bodily strength, leads to a clear perception of the sin, and also to true repentance, and through penitence and atonement to regeneration and newness of life. And thus will they attain to a knowledge of the Lord through the catastrophe which bursts upon them (cf. Lev 26:40.). For מֹופֵת, a sign, see the comm. on Exo 4:21.