Ezekiel 2:3

And he said unto me, son of man,.... Now follow his mission and commission, and an account of the persons to whom he was sent: I send thee to the children of Israel; that were captives in Babylon, in

And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day.

And he: see . Said unto me; either vocally, or by impression upon his mind. Son of man: the prophet had seen, of the former chapter, a very glorious person on a throne above the firmament, and now the prophet is called son of man, perhaps, as the Jews conjecture, to encourage the prophet in his prophetic work, and to assure him he should be owned by that glorious One, who appeared as a man, and calls Ezekiel son of man: it is certain he would never forget what he had seen, and it is likely this Mda Ng as oft as it was spoken, would mind the prophet what relation it might have to the vision. I send thee; I am sending, or he that sendeth thee is whom thou sawest on the throne advanced above angels, who directs them in their course of ministry subserving the will of God, and who will give them charge of thee in thy way. Children, Heb. sons; God gives them still the name of sons and children, he is not hasty to abdicate, to disinherit, and cast off. To the children of Israel, now in the low estate of captives: the lessening name of Jacob had been too great, one might think; but God tells the prophet they were the children of Israel, that prince who wrestled with God, and prevailed, . It is very likely they had some that feared and sought the God of Jacob, and did wrestle as he had done before them: it insinuateth some hope, however, that God would redeem them, , would be good unto them, ; his dominion was over them, , and they were a peculiar people, ,12. To a rebellious nation, Heb. nations that are rebellious, very disobedient: as rebellion is the highest crime against the supreme magistrate, so were Israel’ s sins against God. Hence some will have Ezekiel to be commissioned a prophet to denounce God’ s judgments against the heathen, who are in Scripture called by the word here used. But though Ezekiel did prophesy against the nations, as against Egypt. Babylon, Gog, and Magog, yet here these nations in this third verse are the Jews, who were like the nations in their idolatry and manners; they had degenerated from their father Israel, and rebelled against Israel’ s God. If the title Israel be comfort to the best, the appellation given to the rest, they were a rebellious nation, is terror and menace as well as rebuke to the worst, and God intimates they were what they accounted the Gentiles to be, polluted, profane, and hated of God. That hath rebelled against me: this was implied in the former word, but thus expressly added to ascertain the charge, and to aggravate the crime of this people, who were from their fathers’ days to this very day rebelling against God. It was the glory of St. Paul, he served God with pure conscience; it is the shame of this nation, they have rebelled from their fathers.

Ezekiel 2:3 And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, [even] unto this very day.Ver. 3. I send thee to the children of Israel.] So they will needs call themselves. But what saith God in Micah 2:7? "O thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? are these his doings?" To a rebellious nation.] Heb., Gentiles. So the Jews call us Christians in scorn. So God calleth them here in great contempt "a rebellious nation." See Amos 9:7 Genres apostatrices, as the Vulgate here hath it. The Jews call the Turks Ishmaelites, the Ethiopians Cushites; but Christians they call Gojim, an abominable nation, and Mamzer-goll, a bastard people. They and their fathers have transgressed against me.] A serpentine seed they are, a race of rebels; neither good egg nor bird, but mali corvi mala ova. Even unto this very day.] Being nothing bettered by all that they have suffered. See Jeremiah 16:13 Isaiah 1:5.

(3) I send thee to the children of Israel.—Here properly begins the distinct commission of the prophet. After the captivity of the ten tribes, the two forming the kingdom of Judah, with such remnants of the others as had been induced by Hezekiah and others to cast in their lot with them, are constantly spoken of as “Israel.” (See Ezra 2:2.) The continuity of the whole nation was considered as preserved in the remnant, and hence this same mode of expression passed into the New Testament. (See Acts 26:7.) It is only when there is especial occasion to distinguish between the two parts of the nation, as in Ezekiel 4:5-6, that the name of Israel is used in contrast with that of Judah. A rebellious nation.—Literally, as in the margin, rebellious nations, the word being the same as that commonly used distinctively for the heathen, so that the children of Israel are here spoken of as “rebellious heathen.” There could be no epithet which would carry home more forcibly to the mind of an Israelite the state of antagonism in which he had placed himself against his God. (Comp. the “Lo-ammi” of Hosea 1:9, and also the discourse of our Lord in John 8:39.) Yet still, the God from whom they had turned aside was even now sending to them His prophet, and seeking to win them back to His love and obedience, in true correspondence to the vision of the bow in the cloud about the majesty on high. The following verses enlarge, with a variety of epithets and repetitions, upon the hard-heartedness and perverseness of the people. This had always been the character of the Israelites from the time of Moses (see Exodus 32:9; Exodus 33:3; Exodus 33:5, &c), and continued to be to the end (see Acts 7:51); so entirely without ground is the allegation that they were chosen as a people peculiarly inclined to the right. It is to such a people that Ezekiel is to be sent, and he needed to be prepared and encouraged for his work.

Verse 3. Son of man] This appellative, so often mentioned in this book, seems to have been given first to this prophet; afterwards to Daniel; and after that to the MAN Christ Jesus. Perhaps it was given to the two former to remind them of their frailty, and that they should not be exalted in their own minds by the extraordinary revelations granted to them; and that they should feel themselves of the same nature with those to whom they were sent; and, from the common principle of humanity, deeply interest themselves in the welfare of their unhappy countrymen. To the latter it might have been appropriated merely to show that though all his actions demonstrated him to be GOD, yet that he was also really MAN; and that in the man Christ Jesus dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. When the acts of Christ are considered, it is more easy to believe his eternal Godhead, than to be convinced that the person we hear speaking, and see working, is also a man like unto ourselves. I send thee to the children of Israel] To those who were now in captivity, in Chaldea particularly; and to the Jews in general, both far and near.

3. to a rebellious nation] Rather, nations. First the people are called the children of Israel, then described more particularly as “nations,” the reference being either to the two houses of Israel, the north and south, or to the people as a whole considered as consisting of larger divisions (Psalms 106:5) as “peoples” is used elsewhere (Hosea 10:14; Deuteronomy 33:19). There hardly lies in “nations” any suggestion that they were as the “heathen.” The general character of the people is described as “rebellious;” and they had “rebelled” continuously throughout all their history, they and their fathers; cf. ch. Ezekiel 16:23. Israel is a moral person, with an unbroken identity all through its history; and its disposition has been uniformly disobedient—it is a rebellious house.

Nation - literally, as in the margin - the word which usually distinguishes the pagan from God’s people.

3. I send thee — Only a man can speak to men. Only one who is a child of man can sympathize enough with the woes of humanity to act as God’s messenger to them. To a rebellious nation — Literally, nations; LXX., rebellious ones.