Ezekiel 2:4

For they are impudent children and stiffhearted. I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(4) Impudent children.—Literally, as in margin, hard of face. The epithet is repeated in Ezekiel 3:7, and it is with reference to this that in Ezekiel 3:7-8 the prophet’s face is to be made strong, and his forehead “harder than flint.” “The Lord God” is in the original “the Lord Jehovah,” the second name taking the pointing of, and being translated “God,” because of the word “Lord” preceding.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:1-5 Lest Ezekiel should be lifted up with the abundance of the revelations, he is put in mind that still he is a son of man, a weak, mortal creature. As Christ usually called himself the Son of man, it was also an honourable distinction. Ezekiel's posture showed reverence, but his standing up would be a posture of greater readiness and fitness for business. God will speak to us, when we stand ready to do what he commands us. As Ezekiel had not strength of his own, the Spirit entered into him. God is graciously pleased to work in us whatever he requires of us. The Holy Spirit sets us upon our feet, by inclining our wills to our duty. Thus, when the Lord calls upon the sinner to awake, and attend to the concerns of his soul, the Spirit of life and grace comes with the call. Ezekiel is sent with a message to the children of Israel. Many might treat his message with contempt, yet they should know by the event that a prophet had been sent to them. God will be glorified, and his word made honourable, whether it be a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Nation - literally, as in the margin - the word which usually distinguishes the pagan from God's people. Here it expresses that Israel is cast off by God; and the plural is used to denote that the children of Israel are not even "one nation," but scattered and disunited.

Translate: "I send thee to the children of Israel, the rebellious nation that have rebelled against Me (they and their fathers have transgressed against Me, even to this very day), and the children impudent and stiff-hearted: I do send thee unto them."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. impudent—literally, "hard-faced" (Eze 3:7, 9).

children—resumptive of "they" (Eze 2:3); the "children" walk in their "fathers'" steps.

I … send thee—God opposes His command to all obstacles. Duties are ours; events are God's.

Thus saith the Lord God—God opposes His name to the obstinacy of the people.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Impudent children; shameless, who cannot blush, else they could never have transgressed so highly, constantly, and obstinately. Sodom in her day did not hide her sin, nor blush; so did the Jews in Isaiah’s times, so they did to the days of their captivity, and under the captivity.

Stiffhearted; hard-hearted, resolute, and strongly bent to do whatever liked them. Of disposition that relenteth not, but rather more confidently going on in evil.

I, who appeared in so much glory, and on the throne,

send thee unto them; give thee authority that thou mayst, and I give thee charge that thou must, go to them, and say unto them what I shall say unto thee. They will scoff and persecute, but I command; and remember whom thou hast seen, who is with thee.

Thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; be sure to tell them who sends thee, read the commission,

Thus saith, & c.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For they are impudent children,.... "Hard of face" (w); as is commonly said of impudent persons, that they are brasen faced; they had a whore's forehead, and refused to be ashamed, and made their faces harder than a rock, Jeremiah 3:3; they declared their sin as Sodam, and hid it not; they sinned openly, and could not blush at it:

and stiffhearted; or, "strong of heart" (x); whose hearts were like an adamant stone, and harder than the nether millstone; impenitent, obdurate, and inflexible; they were not only stiff-necked, as Stephen says they were in his time, and always had been; but stiff-hearted; they were not subject to the law of God now, nor would they submit to the Gospel and ordinances of Christ in his time, and in the times of his apostles, nor to his righteousness, Romans 10:3;

I do send thee unto them; even to such as they are: this is a repetition, and a confirmation, of his mission; and suggests, that though they were such, he should not refuse to go to them, since he had sent him:

and thou shalt say unto them, thus saith the Lord God: that what he said came from the Lord, and was spoken in his name.

(w) "duri facie", Pagninus, Vatablus, Calvin, Cocceius, Starckius. (x) "duri corde", Pagninus, Montanus; "fortes carde", Vatablus, Polanus.

Geneva Study Bible

For they are impudent children and stiffhearted. I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

4. for they are impudent children] Rather, and the children are impudent and stiffhearted, to whom I send thee. The “children” are the present generation, who are like their fathers. Outwardly they are “impudent,” lit. hard in face, resolute and whose eyes do not quail before one that opposes them; and within they are strong of heart, unyielding and stubborn in will and feeling. The word here used of the face is said of the heart, ch. Ezekiel 3:7, and the term applied to the heart is said of the face and forehead, ch. Ezekiel 3:8. More often the term used of the face is applied to the neck, “stiffnecked” (Exodus 33:3). For the idea comp. Isaiah 48:4, “I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass.”

Thus saith the Lord God] lit. the Lord Jehovah. The word “Jehovah” was pronounced Adonai, “Lord,” and when Adonai, Lord, actually stood in the text, Jehovah was pronounced God, Elohim. In A.V. “God” is then printed in small capitals. This is what the prophet shall say on his part: “Thus saith the Lord Jehovah;” he shall announce himself a prophet from Jehovah, bearing his word. And the people shall eventually know that a prophet has been among them (Ezekiel 2:5). By various omissions LXX. reads Ezekiel 2:3-4 in a shorter form: Son of man I send thee to the house of Israel, who provoke me; who have provoked me they and their fathers unto this day, Ezekiel 2:4 and thou shalt say unto them, &c. This reading certainly reflects a more natural Hebrew sentence than our present text.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - Impudent children and stiff-hearted; literally, hard of face (i.e. callous to their shame) and stiff of heart. The LXX. gives aptly, σκληροπρόσωποι καὶ σκληροκάρδιοι (compare the "past feeling" of Ephesians 4:19). Thus saith the Lord God. In the Hebrew, Adoaai Jehovah; which the LXX. represents by Κύριος Κύριος, and Luther by "der Herr Herr." The two highest names of the God of Israel were 'used to denote the fulness of the prophet's inspiration. The same formula occurs in Ezekiel 3:11, 27: 13:8; 22:28, and passim. So also in 2 Samuel 7:18, 19, 20, 29; and elsewhere. Ezekiel 2:4

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The calling of the prophet begins with the Lord describing to Ezekiel the people to whom He is sending him, in order to make him acquainted with the difficulties of his vocation, and to encourage him for the discharge of the same. Ezekiel 2:3. And He said to me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to the rebels who have rebelled against me: they and their fathers have fallen away from me, even until this very day. Ezekiel 2:4. And the children are of hard face, and hardened heart. To them I send thee; and to them shalt thou speak: Thus says the Lord Jehovah. Ezekiel 2:5. And they - they may hear thee or fail (to do so); for they are a stiff-necked race - they shall experience that a prophet has been in their midst. Ezekiel 2:6. But thou, son of man, fear not before them, and be not afraid of their words, if thistles and thorns are found about thee, and thou sittest upon scorpions; fear not before their words, and tremble not before their face; for they are a stiff-necked race. Ezekiel 2:7. And speak my words to them, whether they may hear or fail (to do so); for they are stiff-necked.

The children of Israel have become heathen, no longer a people of God, not even a heathen nation (גּוי, Isaiah 1:4), but גּוים, "heathens," that is, as being rebels against God. המּורדים (with the article) is not to be joined as an adjective to גּוים, which is without the article, but is employed substantively in the form of an apposition. They have rebelled against God in this, that they, like their fathers, have separated themselves from Jehovah down to this day (as regards פּשׁע בּ, see on Isaiah 1:2; and עצם היּום הזּה, as in the Pentateuch; cf. Leviticus 23:14; Genesis 7:13; Genesis 17:23, etc.). Like their fathers, the sons are rebellious, and, in addition, they are קשׁי פנים, of hard countenance" equals חזקי, "of hard brow" (Ezekiel 3:7), i.e., impudent, without hiding the face, or lowering the look for shame. This shamelessness springs from hardness of heart. To these hardened sinners Ezekiel is to announce the word of the Lord. Whether they hear it or not (אם־ואם, sive-sive, as in Joshua 24:15; Ecclesiastes 11:3; Ecclesiastes 12:14), they shall in any case experience that a prophet has been amongst them. That they will neglect to hear is very probable, because they are a stiff-necked race (בּית, "house" equals family). The Vau before ידעוּ (Ezekiel 2:5) introduces the apodosis. היה is perfect, not present. This is demanded by the usus loquendi and the connection of the thought. The meaning is not: they shall now from his testimony that a prophet is there; but they shall experience from the result, viz., when the word announced by him will have been fulfilled, that a prophet has been amongst them. Ezekiel, therefore, is not to be prevented by fear of them and their words from delivering a testimony against their sins. The ἁπάξ λεγόμενα, סרבים and סלּונים, are not, with the older expositors, to be explained adjectively: "rebelles et renuentes," but are substantives. As regards סלּון, the signification "thorn" is placed beyond doubt by סלּון in Ezekiel 28:24, and סרב in Aramaic does indeed denote "refractarius;" but this signification is a derived one, and inappropriate here. סרב is related to צרב, "to burn, to singe," and means "urtica," "stinging-nettle, thistle," as Donasch in Raschi has already explained it. אותך is, according to the later usage, for אתּך, expressing the "by and with of association," and occurs frequently in Ezekiel. Thistles and thorns are emblems of dangerous, hostile men. The thought is strengthened by the words "to sit on (אל for על) scorpions," as these animals inflict a painful and dangerous wound. For the similitude of dangerous men to scorpions, cf. Sir. 26:10, and other proof passages in Bochart, Hierozoic. III. p. 551f., ed. Rosenmll.