Ezekiel 12:15

12:1-16 By the preparation for removal, and his breaking through the wall of his house at evening, as one desirous to escape from the enemy, the prophet signified the conduct and fate of Zedekiah. When God has delivered us, we must glorify him and edify others, by acknowledging our sins. Those who by afflictions are brought to this, are made to know that God is the Lord, and may help to bring others to know him.

And they shall know that I am the Lord,.... God omniscient, and can and do foresee and foretell future events, when the above things shall come to pass; and omnipotent, able to do what he purposed and declared he would; and true and faithful to his word, and holy and righteous in all his ways and works: when I shall scatter them among the nations, and disperse them in the countries; of Egypt, Babylon, Media, and other places.

They shall know; they shall see, confess, and be sensible of my power, justice, and truth, who make good my threats against obdurate sinners as well as my promises to believers. Scatter and distress; two expressions of the same thing, which is frequent in Scripture; and as it usually magnifieth the good or evil, so insures either.

Explanation of the Symbolical Action Ezekiel 12:8. And the word of Jehovah came to me in the morning, saying, Ezekiel 12:9. Son of man, have they not said to thee, the house of Israel, the refractory generation, What art thou doing? Ezekiel 12:10. Say to them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, This burden applies to the prince in Jerusalem, and to all the house of Israel to whom they belong. Ezekiel 12:11. Say, I am your sign: as I have done, so shall it happen to them; into exile, into captivity, will they go. Ezekiel 12:12. And the prince who is in the midst of them he will lift it upon his shoulder in the dark, and will go out: they will break through the wall, and carry it out thereby: he will cover his face, that he may not see the land with eyes. Ezekiel 12:13. And I will spread my net over him, so that he will be caught in my snare: and I will take him to Babel, into the land of the Chaldeans; but he will not see it, and will die there. Ezekiel 12:14. And all that is about him, his help and all his troops, I will scatter into all winds, and draw out the sword behind them. Ezekiel 12:15. And they shall learn that I am Jehovah, when I scatter them among the nations, and winnow them in the lands. Ezekiel 12:16.

Yet I will leave of them a small number of men from the sword, from the famine, and from the pestilence; that they may relate all their abominations among the nations whither they have come; and learn that I am Jehovah. - As queries introduced with הלא have, as a rule, an affirmative sense, the words "have they not asked," etc., imply that the Israelites had asked the prophet what he was doing, though not in a proper state of mind, not in a penitential manner, as the epithet בּית plainly shows. The prophet is therefore to interpret the action which he had just been performing, and all its different stages. The words הנּשׂיא המּשּׂא הזּה, to which very different renderings have been given, are to be translated simply "the prince is this burden," i.e., the object of this burden. Hammassâ does not mean the carrying, but the burden, i.e., the threatening prophecy, the prophetic action of the prophet, as in the headings to the oracles (see the comm. on Nahum 1:1). The "prince" is the king, as in Ezekiel 21:30, though not Jehoiachin, who had been carried into exile, but Zedekiah. This is stated in the apposition "in Jerusalem," which belongs to "the prince," though it is not introduced till after the predicate, as in Genesis 24:24. To this there is appended the further definition, "the whole house of Israel," which, being co-ordinated with הנּשׂיא, affirms that all Israel (the covenant nation) will share the fate of the prince.