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The Death of Ezekiel's Wife and its Significance
v. 15. Also the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
v. 16. Son of man, behold, I take from thee the desire of thine eyes, his very beloved wife, with a stroke, by a sudden death; yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down, that is, Ezekiel was to abstain from every show of mourning or sorrow over the deep loss which he would sustain.
v. 17. Forbear to cry, violently repressing the natural show of grief, make no mourning for the dead, as was customary in the Orient, bind the tire of thine head, the head-ornament which was laid aside during times of mourning, upon thee and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, instead of going barefoot in token of a deep sorrow, and cover not thy lips, as custom decreed in such a case, and eat not the bread of men, as people sent food in case of a death and relieved the survivors of the burden of preparing food for themselves. In everything Ezekiel was to act contrary to the established custom in the case of a death in the family.
v. 18. So I spake unto the people in the morning, bringing them the message of the first part of the chapter; and at even my wife died, being torn suddenly from his side; and I did in the morning as I was commanded, acting in the unusual manner commanded him by the Lord.
v. 19. And the people, noticing his strange behavior and surmising a special reason for it, said unto me, Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us, what meaning his behavior was to convey to them, that thou doest so? This would give Ezekiel the opening which the Lord intended him to have in speaking to the people.
v. 20. Then I answered them, The word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
v. 21. Speak unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will profane My Sanctuary, namely, the Temple at Jerusalem, the excellency of your strength, in which they took such great pride, the desire of your eyes, held as dearly by them as a man holds his beloved wife, and that which your soul pitieth, what they desired with a deep and abiding affection; and your sons and your daughters whom ye have left, those remaining in Jerusalem when the first exiles were taken to Babylon, shall fall by the sword.
v. 22. And ye shall do as I have done, in restraining every show of grief in a similar manner: ye shall not cover your lips nor eat the bread of men.
v. 23. And your tires, their turbans or head-ornaments, shall be upon your heads and your shoes upon your feet; ye shall not mourn nor weep, in an outward demonstration of sorrow; but ye shall pine away for your iniquities, in an overwhelming measure of grief and pain, and mourn one toward another, all the more deeply affected since their sorrow was beyond the ordinary means of expression.
v. 24. Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign, so the Lord tells the people of Jerusalem in addressing them directly; according to all that he hath done shall ye do; and when this cometh, namely, this calamity or catastrophe, ye shall know that I am the Lord God. But the Lord intended that the token of the prophet should have another consequence as well.
v. 25. Also, thou son of man, shall it not be in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, the Temple, as the center of their entire religious cult, and that whereupon they set their minds, with natural parental affection, their sons and their daughters,
v. 26. that he that escapeth in that day, any one not taken away in the general destruction, shall come unto thee to cause thee to hear it with thine ears, to make known the awful greatness of the catastrophe?
v. 27. In that day shall thy mouth be opened to him which is escaped, that is, at the same time with that of the escaped fugitive, so that he would no longer be compelled to hold back his grief, and thou shalt speak and be no more dumb; and thou shalt be a sign unto them, once more typically representative in his own person of the things which would befall them; and they shall know that I am the Lord. In all ages of the world the believers have been a sign to the enemies of the Lord in one way or the other, always as a living testimony before their eyes, if possibly they might be induced to see the error of their ways and turn to the Lord in true repentance.