And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber's razor, and cause [it] to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard: then take thee balances to weigh, and divide the [hair].
Ver. 1. And thou, son of man.] See on Ezekiel 2:1 .
Take thee a sharp knife.] This was the King of Babylon. as Isa 7:20 The Turk is at this day such another. Mohammed I was, in his time, the death of 800,000 men. Selymus II, in revenge of the loss received at Lepanto, would have put to death all the Christians in his dominions. a
Take thee a barber's razor.] Not a "deceitful razor," as Psa 52:2 but one that will do the deed - sharp and sure. Pliny b telleth us, out of Varo, that the Romans had no barbers till 454 years after the city was built; ante intonsi fuere.
And cause it to pass upon thy head and upon thy beard.] As hairs are an ornament to the head and beard, so are people to a city. But, as when they begin to be a burden or trouble to either, they are cut off and cast away; so are people by God's judgments, when by their sins they are offensive to him; dealing as Dionysius did by his god Aesculapius, from whom he presumed to pull his golden beard. David felt himself shaved in his ambassadors; so doth God in his servants - whose very hairs are numbered Mat 10:30 - in his ministers especially - who, by a specialty, are called God's men 1Ti 6:11 2Ti 3:17 - with whom to meddle is more dangerous than to take a lion by the beard or a bear by the hair.
Then take the balances to weigh.] This showeth that God's judgments are just to a hair's weight: and capillus unus suam habet umbram, saith Mimus.
And divide the hair.] Dii nos quasi pilas habent, saith Plautus; Imo quasi pilos, saith another.
a Turkish History, 885.
b Lib. vii. cap. 59.