Ezekiel 24:1

Again in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(1) In the tenth day of the month.—Jehoiachin’s captivity (by which all these prophecies are dated) coincided with Zedekiah’s reign. The date here given is therefore the same as in Jeremiah 39:1; Jeremiah 52:4; 2Kings 25:1, and was afterwards observed by the Jews as a fast (Zechariah 8:19). It was doubtless the day on which the investment of the city was completed.

Benson Commentary

Ezekiel 24:1-2. Again, in the ninth year — Namely, of Jehoiachin’s captivity, and of Zedekiah’s reign; the word of the Lord came unto me — Namely, in Chaldea, where the prophet now was, and where, as the words here evidently imply, God gave him notice, though many hundreds of miles distant from Jerusalem, of Nebuchadnezzar’s beginning to lay siege to that city, just at the time when he began to do it. Saying, The king of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem — Hebrew, סמךְ אל ירושׁלים, hath set himself, or, as Buxtorf renders it, accedit, vel appropinquat, comes, or approaches, to Jerusalem, בעצם היום הזה, this self-same day — Namely, this day that I now speak to thee. Write thee the name of the day, &c. — Make a memorial of the day, and of my having this day informed thee of this great event; and signify it to the people, that when they shall receive intelligence from Judea of the siege having been begun this day, according to thy information, it may be a confirmation of the truth of thy mission, and of the certainty of the fulfilment of all thy predictions. This was about two years before the taking of Jerusalem: see 2 Kings 25:1; Jeremiah 39:1; and Jeremiah 52:4.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

24:1-14 The pot on the fire represented Jerusalem besieged by the Chaldeans: all orders and ranks were within the walls, prepared as a prey for the enemy. They ought to have put away their transgressions, as the scum, which rises by the heat of the fire, is taken from the top of the pot. But they grew worse, and their miseries increased. Jerusalem was to be levelled with the ground. The time appointed for the punishment of wicked men may seem to come slowly, but it will come surely. It is sad to think how many there are, on whom ordinances and providences are all lost.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The prophecies in this chapter were delivered two years and five months after those of the previous section Ezekiel 20:1. The day mentioned here was the very day on which Nebuchadnezzar completed his arrangements for the siege, and closed in the city (marginal references). After the captivity this day was regularly observed as a fast day Zechariah 8:19.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 24

Eze 24:1-27. Vision of the Boiling Caldron, and of the Death of Ezekiel's Wife.

1, 2. Ezekiel proves his divine mission by announcing the very day, ("this same day") of the beginning of the investment of the city by Nebuchadnezzar; "the ninth year," namely, of Jehoiachin's captivity, "the tenth day of the tenth month"; though he was three hundred miles away from Jerusalem among the captives at the Chebar (2Ki 25:1; Jer 39:1).By the parable of a boiling pot is showed the destruction of Jerusalem, the bloody city, Ezekiel 24:1-14. Ezekiel is forbidden to mourn for the death of his wife, Ezekiel 24:15-18, to denote that this calamity of the Jews shall be beyond all expressions of sorrow, Ezekiel 24:19-24. In that day of affliction the prophet’s mouth shall be opened to their conviction, Ezekiel 24:25-27.

In the ninth year of the captivity of Jeconiah, and those that were carried away with him; it falls in also with the year of Zedekiah’s reign, though the prophet, and the captives now in Babylon, reckon not by this, but by the former.

The tenth month; which answers to part of December and January.

The tenth day; about our 29th of December, when the winter was well over with them.

Came unto me; the prophet was now in Babylon many leagues from Jerusalem.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Again, in the ninth year,.... Of Jehoiachin's captivity, from which the dates of Ezekiel are, and of Zedekiah's reign, which commenced together:

in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month; the month Tebet, which answers to part of our December, and part of January; so that it was at the latter end of December when this prophecy was given out; at which time Jerusalem was besieged by the king of Babylon, even in the winter season:

the word of the Lord came unto me, saying; as follows:

Geneva Study Bible

Again in the {a} ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the {b} month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

(a) Of Jeconiah's captivity and of the reign of Zedekiah, 2Ki 25:1.

(b) Called Tebeth, which contains part of December and part of January: in which month and day Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

1. The same date of the commencement of the siege is given 2 Kings 25:1; Jeremiah 52:4. In later times the day was kept as a fast, Zechariah 8:19.

1–14. The rusted caldron set on the fire

(1) Ezekiel 24:1-5. A caldron is to be set on the fire, filled with water, pieces of flesh cast into it and fuel piled under it that it may boil furiously. The caldron is Jerusalem; the pieces of flesh the inhabitants; the fire and boiling the siege with its terrible severities. The pieces of flesh shall be pulled out of the caldron indiscriminately, symbol of the universal dispersion when the siege is over.

(2) Ezekiel 24:6-8. Explanation: these sufferings are judgments for the sins of the city, its bloodshed and uncleanness, which are public and open. This blood and filthiness cleaves to it like rust to a caldron.

(3) Ezekiel 24:9-14. Rising anew into tones of menace the divine voice commands that the caldron be set empty upon the coals that its rust and foulness may be molten and consumed. This must signify the ruin in which the city shall long lie, and the dispersion in which her inhabitants shall pine away, till her warfare be accomplished and her iniquity pardoned.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 1. - In the ninth year. We pass from the date of Ezekiel 20:1 ( B.C. 593) to B.C. 590, and the very day is identified with that on which the army of Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem (Jeremiah 39:1; 2 Kings 25:1-12). To the prophet's vision all that was passing there was as plain as though he saw it with his own eyes. The siege lasted for about two years. The punishments threatened in Ezekiel 23, had at last come near. We may probably infer that a considerable interval of silence had followed on the Aholah and Aholibah discourse. Now the time had come to break that silence, and it was broken, after the prophet's manner, by a parable. In the "rebellious house" we find, as in Ezekiel 2:3 and elsewhere, primarily Ezekiel's immediate hearers, secondarily the whole house of Israel as represented by them. Ezekiel 24:1

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

On the day on which the king of Babylon commenced the siege and blockade of Jerusalem, this event was revealed by God to Ezekiel on the Chaboras (Ezekiel 24:1 and Ezekiel 24:2); and he was commanded to predict to the people through the medium of a parable the fate of the city and its inhabitants (Ezekiel 24:3-14). God then foretold to him the death of his own wife, and commanded him to show no sign of mourning on account of it. His wife died the following evening, and he did as he was commanded. When he was asked by the people the reason of this, he explained to them, that what he was doing was symbolical of the way in which they were to act when Jerusalem fell (Ezekiel 24:15-24). The fall would be announced to the prophet by a fugitive, and then he would no longer remain mute, but would speak to the people again (Ezekiel 24:25-27). - Apart, therefore, from the last three verses, this chapter contains two words of God, the first of which unfolds in a parable the approaching calamities, and the result of the siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans (Ezekiel 24:1-14); whilst the second typifies by means of a sign the pain and mourning of Israel, namely, of the exiles at the destruction of the city with its sanctuary and its inhabitants. These two words of God, being connected together by their contents, were addressed to the prophet on the same day, and that, as the introduction (Ezekiel 24:1 and Ezekiel 24:2) expressly observes, the day on which the siege of Jerusalem by the king of Babylon began.

And the word of Jehovah came to me in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, saying, Ezekiel 24:2. Son of man, write for thyself the name of the day, this same day! The king of Babylon has fallen upon Jerusalem this same day. - The date given, namely, the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year after the carrying away of Jehoiachin (Ezekiel 1:2), or what is the same thing, of the reign of Zedekiah, who was appointed king in his stead, is mentioned in Jeremiah 52:4; Jeremiah 39:1, and 2 Kings 25:1, as the day on which Nebuchadnezzar blockaded the city of Jerusalem by throwing up a rampart; and after the captivity this day was still kept as a fast-day in consequence (Zechariah 8:19). What was thus taking place at Jerusalem was revealed to Ezekiel on the Chaboras the very same day; and he was instructed to announce it to the exiles, "that they and the besieged might learn both from the time and the result, that the destruction of the city was not to be ascribed to chance or to the power of the Babylonians, but to the will of Him who had long ago foretold that, on account of the wickedness of the inhabitants, the city would be burned with fire; and that Ezekiel was a true prophet, because even when in Babylon, which was at so great a distance, he had known and had publicly announced the state of Jerusalem." The definite character of this prediction cannot be changed into a vaticinium post eventum, either by arbitrary explanations of the words, or by the unfounded hypothesis proposed by Hitzig, that the day was not set down in this definite form till after the event. - Writing the name of the day is equivalent to making a note of the day. The reason for this is given in Ezekiel 24:2, namely, because Nebuchadnezzar had fallen upon Jerusalem on that very day. סמך signifies to support, hold up (his hand); and hence both here and in Psalm 88:8 the meaning to press violently upon anything. The rendering "to draw near," which has been forced upon the word from the Syriac (Ges., Winer, and others), cannot be sustained.