Catholic Commentary on Ezekiel 5

“Therefore in your midst parents will eat their children, and children will eat their parents. I will inflict punishment on you and scatter all your survivors to the winds.” (Ezekiel 5:10)

The Sign of the Hair

The LORD instructs Ezekiel to shave his head and beard with a sharp sword and weigh and divide the hair into three parts. A third is to be burned inside the city when the days of the siege are completed; a third is to be struck with the sword around the city; a third is to be scattered to the wind. A small number of hairs are to be tucked into the hem of the robe. This is Jerusalem: I set her in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. Yet in her wickedness she has rebelled against my laws and decrees. Therefore in your midst parents will eat their children, and children will eat their parents. I will inflict punishment on you and scatter all your survivors to the winds.

The Catechism draws from Ezekiel's radical sign actions the seriousness of the divine response to covenant violation: the punishment is proportional to the privilege; Jerusalem was placed at the center of the nations precisely because of the responsibility placed upon it (CCC 2448).

Living the Word

Brothers and sisters, Jerusalem was set at the center of the nations with countries all around her. Greater privilege carries greater accountability. The community placed at the center of God's purposes is held to the higher standard, not exempted from it. Let the privilege of being called drive us to greater faithfulness rather than greater complacency.

Prayer

Lord God, the privilege of being called is not exemption from accountability but invitation to greater faithfulness. Keep us faithful in proportion to the calling. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

5
The Razor of Judgment
1 “As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword, use it as a barber’s razor, and shave your head and beard. Then take a set of scales and divide the hair. 2 When the days of the siege have ended, you are to burn up a third of the hair inside the city; you are also to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind. For I will unleash a sword behind them.
 
3 But you are to take a few strands of hair and secure them in the folds of your garment. 4 Again, take a few of these, throw them into the fire, and burn them. From there a fire will spread to the whole house of Israel.
 
5 This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. 6 But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations, and against My statutes worse than the countries around her. For her people have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.’
 
7 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘You have been more insubordinate than the nations around you; you have not walked in My statutes or kept My ordinances, nor have you even conformed * 5:7 Some Hebrew manuscripts and Syriac My ordinances; you have even conformed to the ordinances of the nations around you.’
 
8 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I Myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. 9 Because of all your abominations, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again. 10 As a result, fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your remnant to every wind.’
Famine, Sword, and Dispersion
 
11 Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and abominations, I Myself will withdraw My favor; I will not look upon you with pity, nor will I spare you.
 
12 A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them.
 
13 And when My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath against them, I will be appeased. And when I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, the LORD, in My zeal have spoken.
 
14 I will make you a ruin and a disgrace among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by. 15 So you will be † 5:15 DSS, LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate; MT So it will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror to the nations around you, when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and raging fury. I, the LORD, have spoken.
 
16 When I shower you‡ 5:16 Hebrew them with the deadly arrows of famine and destruction that I will send to destroy you, I will intensify the famine against you and cut off your supply § 5:16 Hebrew staff of food. 17 I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, the LORD, have spoken.”

*5:7 5:7 Some Hebrew manuscripts and Syriac My ordinances; you have even conformed

†5:15 5:15 DSS, LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate; MT So it will be

‡5:16 5:16 Hebrew them

§5:16 5:16 Hebrew staff

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