Ezekiel 12
Ezekiel 12: 1-16 Zedekiah’s End Enacted
1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 Mortal, you are living in the midst of a rebellious house, who have eyes to see but do not see, who have ears to hear but do not hear; 3 for they are a rebellious house. Therefore, mortal, prepare for yourself an exile’s baggage, and go into exile by day in their sight; you shall go like an exile from your place to another place in their sight. Perhaps they will understand, though they are a rebellious house. 4 You shall bring out your baggage by day in their sight, as baggage for exile; and you shall go out yourself at evening in their sight, as those do who go into exile. 5 Dig through the wall in their sight, and carry the baggage through it. 6 In their sight you shall lift the baggage on your shoulder, and carry it out in the dark; you shall cover your face, so that you may not see the land; for I have made you a sign for the house of Israel.
7 I did just as I was commanded. I brought out my baggage by day, as baggage for exile, and in the evening I dug through the wall with my own hands; I brought it out in the dark, carrying it on my shoulder in their sight.
8 In the morning the word of the LORD came to me: 9 Mortal, has not the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said to you, “What are you doing?” 10 Say to them, “Thus says the Lord GOD: This oracle concerns the prince in Jerusalem and all the house of Israel in it.” 11 Say, “I am a sign for you: as I have done, so shall it be done to them; they shall go into exile, into captivity.” 12 And the prince who is among them shall lift his baggage on his shoulder in the dark, and shall go out; he shall dig through the wall and carry it through; he shall cover his face, so that he may not see the land with his eyes. 13 I will spread my net over him, and he shall be caught in my snare; and I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, yet he shall not see it; and he shall die there. 14 I will scatter to every wind all who are around him, his helpers and all his troops; and I will unsheathe the sword behind them. 15 And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them through the countries. 16 But I will let a few of them escape from the sword, from famine and pestilence, so that they may tell of all their abominations among the nations where they go; then they shall know that I am the LORD.
Ezekiel’s sign-acts are designed, by the nature of their strangeness, to garner attention. In a world before internet influencers who attempt to draw attention to themselves for fame and money, prophets like Ezekiel did outlandish and sometimes destructive acts to call attention to a message God wants the people to talk about and share. Especially for a message which will need to be transmitted (in a world without telephones, new reports, or even a newspaper or regular mail) from the exiles in Babylon to the people of Jerusalem requires it to be memorable and significant. Ezekiel’s action of preparing an exile’s baggage, digging a hole in the wall of his house, entering the house with the baggage through the hole he created and then exiting at night by the same whole leaves his curious neighbors seeking an explanation for these actions, an explanation that he communicates from the LORD.
Throughout the passage the contrast between sight and the lack of sight, light, and darkness, “presents a fascinating study in perception and blindness.” (Block, 1997, p. 365) Christian readers will be familiar with Jesus using identical language to Ezekiel’s description of Israel as those “who have eyes to see but do not see, who have ears to hear but do not hear.” This type of language occurs multiple times in the prophets and the psalms. Ezekiel’s older contemporary Jeremiah says in Jerusalem:
Hear this, O foolish and senseless people. Who have eyes, but do not see, who have ears, but do not hear. (Jeremiah 5:21)[1]
And in the psalmist’s protest against idols:
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. Psalm 115: 4-6
Like Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel’s message attempts to reach people who are blind and deaf to the implications of these divine messages. Yet Ezekiel’s actions are audacious enough to attract the curiosity of his fellow exiles even if they do not lead to repentance. As stated when Ezekiel is called, when these audacious sign-acts and words come to fruition the people will know that a prophet has been among them whether they hear or refuse to hear. (Ezekiel 2:5)
Ezekiel prepares his exile’s baggage[2] and visibly places it on they outside of his house and then proceeds to dig a hole in the wall of his house.[3] The exiles may have interpreted his actions positively as an end to their exile and a return to their homes in Judah. Yet, Ezekiel’s actions of preparing his baggage, digging through the wall, placing his baggage on the inside, and then departing through the hole in the wall at night will be interpreted the next morning for those who are curious enough to see the prophet’s action and hear its interpretation.
The interpretation involves the people still in Jerusalem and in particular king Zedekiah. Zedekiah is never named in Ezekiel and is referred to here as prince (Hebrew navi) rather than king (Hebrew melek). Zedekiah is the target of prophecy for the first time in Ezekiel. Prior to this Ezekiel only referred to the exile of King Jehoichin and the elders acting unfaithfully in Jerusalem. The temple, the city of Jerusalem and the land have all received judgment, but now the appointed leader in Jerusalem is singled out. The prophet Jeremiah had extensive interactions with Zedekiah in Jerusalem (Jeremiah 32-34, 37-38) and narrates the ending of Zedekiah twice in the book of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 39, 52). 2 Kings shares an identical description of Zedekiah’s end:
Then a breach was made in the city wall; the king with all the soldiers fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, by the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans were all around the city. They went in the direction of the Arabah. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho; all his army was scattered, deserting him. Then they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, who passed sentence on him. They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, then put out the eyes of Zedekiah; they bound him in fetters and took him to Babylon. 2 Kings 25: 4-7
The actions of Jeremiah foreshadow the actions of Zedekiah fleeing Jerusalem through a hole in the wall with the sword following him. Ezekiel’s prophecy indicates that the LORD is the one casting his net and setting a snare for Zedekiah and Babylon is merely the instrument.[4] The king does leave by a hole in the wall, is quickly captured, and then is taken to Babylon blinded. As the prophet indicates he is taken to Babylon, but he does not see it.
We live in an age where even many biblical scholars are skeptical of prophecy as prediction. Many scholars of the historical critical and source criticism school view prophesies which foretell later events as “prophecy after the fact” which are included in the compilation of the words of the prophets which may have occurred at a later date. This idea would have been foreign to the early readers of scripture who viewed the prophet as one who receives and transmits divine oracles in both word and action. The prophets’ predictions normally speak in generalities, but it is expected (as we will see in the resistance in the remainder of the chapter) that prophets would communicate coming events. Blinding captives was a widespread practice among the Babylonians, but believability based on common practices is not necessary for a prophet. A true prophet was a person who received a message or insight from God whose knowledge is not limited to the present and whose actions may include the actions through another nation as an instrument of God’s judgment or salvation.
Ezekiel 12: 17-20 Portraying a Traumatized People
17 The word of the LORD came to me: 18 Mortal, eat your bread with quaking, and drink your water with trembling and with fearfulness; 19 and say to the people of the land, Thus says the Lord GOD concerning the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the land of Israel: They shall eat their bread with fearfulness, and drink their water in dismay, because their land shall be stripped of all it contains, on account of the violence of all those who live in it. 20 The inhabited cities shall be laid waste, and the land shall become a desolation; and you shall know that I am the LORD.
In the next visual picture, the prophet demonstrates the traumatic nature of the events for those impacted by the LORD’s judgment of Jerusalem. One of the symptoms of prolonged stress and trauma is uncontrollable shaking, and in the public act of eating and drinking[5] and again the sign must be memorable enough to be communicated from Ezekiel’s position in exile to the remnant in Jerusalem. The judgment of the LORD echoes the covenant curses of Leviticus 26:43:
For the land shall be deserted by them, and enjoy its sabbath year by lying desolate without them while they make amends for their iniquity, because they dared to spurn my ordinances, and abhorred my statutes.[6]
Within Hebrew thought there is a connection between the people and the land, and the disobedience of the people has a negative impact on the land. In Leviticus the land is given a sabbath to recover from the damage incurred by the unfaithfulness of the people, but in Ezekiel the focus is on the impact on the people who will bear the fearful consequences of violence committed in the land.
Ezekiel 12: 21-28 The Time of Judgment is At Hand
21 The word of the LORD came to me: 22 Mortal, what is this proverb of yours about the land of Israel, which says, “The days are prolonged, and every vision comes to nothing”? 23 Tell them therefore, “Thus says the Lord GOD: I will put an end to this proverb, and they shall use it no more as a proverb in Israel.” But say to them, The days are near, and the fulfillment of every vision. 24 For there shall no longer be any false vision or flattering divination within the house of Israel. 25 But I the LORD will speak the word that I speak, and it will be fulfilled. It will no longer be delayed; but in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak the word and fulfill it, says the Lord GOD.
26 The word of the LORD came to me: 27 Mortal, the house of Israel is saying, “The vision that he sees is for many years ahead; he prophesies for distant times.” 28 Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: None of my words will be delayed any longer, but the word that I speak will be fulfilled, says the Lord GOD.
Although the God presented throughout the book of Ezekiel is a God whose judgment will not be delayed much longer, the character of the God of Israel throughout scripture is a God who desires repentance. The patience of God in continuing to send prophets to warn the people of the consequences of their actions has continued to meet resistance from a people who no longer hear or see. The two proverbs that the LORD responds to in this final portion of the chapter speak to the belief among the speakers that the visions of the prophets come to nothing or they are for distant times. Unfortunately, what these proverb speakers fail to realize is that the time of judgment being delayed is closing and they will soon see these prophecies of doom fulfilled.
Throughout the bible, the patience of God has allowed an opportunity for the wicked to turn from their ways. This patience often has a cost for the righteous, the society, and as mentioned above even the land and God’s costly patience is not infinite. Prophets throughout the bible have encountered rejection[7] as well as dealing with false prophets[8] who often echoed royal or popular desires. The combination of divine patience and conflicting message made it difficult for the population to take the challenging message of Jeremiah and Ezekiel as seriously as they merited. This combination of factors has led to the illusion that God’s judgment will either not come or will be delayed for a future generation to deal with. Ezekiel attempts to communicate with a people who no longer listen with the urgency of the prophecy he has received.
[1] Similar language is used in Isaiah 6:9-10, 43: 8.
[2] Literally “container of exile.” Probably a sort of knapsack to carry the essentials for a long journey. This would be familiar to the exiles who prepared similar baggage for their journey from Jerusalem to Babylon.
[3] The Hebrew qir used here is the word for the wall of a house. Homa is the Hebrew word for a defensive wall. The act of digging through the wall is reasonable because most structures in Babylon used bricks made from dried mud. (Block, 1997, p. 370)
[4] The same claim will be advanced with nearly identical wording in Ezekiel 17: 20.
[5] Eating in the ancient world was normally a communal activity not a private one, and the LORD using this as a prophetic sign act implies an audience to observe the sign act.
[6] A similar stripping of the land will occur in 32:15 (referring to Egypt) and 33:28(referring to Judah). Zechariah 7:10 uses the image of a desolated land in a similar way, while Jeremiah uses the image of a desolate land as the place where God will in the future will know joy and prosperity (Jeremiah 33:10) as he narrates a hopeful future after the exile.
[7] For example, the man of God from Judah (1 Kings 13) the prophets killed by Jezebel (1 Kings 18:4) and later the threat to Elijah (1 Kings 19) Zechariah (2 Chronicles 24: 20-22)
[8] The prophets may have been aligned with other gods like the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18 or simply proclaim a message that did not come from the God of Israel like Hananiah in Jeremiah 28.