Ezekiel 5:7-10 - Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

Bible Comments

‘Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Because you are more turbulent than the nations which are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes nor have kept my ordinances, nor have done after the ordinances of the nations which are round about you, therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold I, even I am against you, and I will execute judgments against you in the eyes of the nations, and I will do in you what I have previously not done, and as I will not do any more the like, because of all your abominations. Therefore the father shall eat the sons in the midst of you, and the sons shall eat the fathers, and I will execute judgments in you, and the whole remnant of you will I scatter to all the winds.” '

God's indictment continues. The raging of the nations was well known (Psalms 2:1; Psalms 46:6) but Israel had been even more turbulent than they, rebelling against His statutes and ordinances, and against all moral standards. Therefore judgments would come on them so that the nations might see that Yahweh did not allow His people to behave so. They were intended to be a witness to the nations, but instead they had become their worst example. Thus God, even Yahweh, was against them. So He would do among them something unlike He had done before or will do after, because of their abominations (compare Ezekiel 5:11). Thus would they be an example to the nations.

For what was included in the word ‘abominations' see Ezekiel 18:10-13.

Their situation would become so bad that they would become cannibals, eating even members of their own family (compare Jeremiah 19:9; Lamentations 4:10 which confirm that cannibalism is meant and not just murder). Then His judgments would come on them, plague, pestilence, famine and slaughter, and those who were left would be scattered in all directions. Winds came from all directions.

Ezekiel 5:7-10

7 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye multiplied more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my judgments, neither have done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you;

8 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, am against thee, and will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations.

9 And I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all thine abominations.

10 Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds.