The Chosen Key Word in this Chapter is “Knife” it comes from the Hebrew Word “chereb” which means “sword, knife.”
Ezekiel shaves his head and beard to symbolize Jerusalem’s coming, threefold destruction. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Chapter Reviews, I am Chris and this is Ezekiel 5.
Ezekiel is instructed to take a sharp knife, a barber’s razor, and cause it to pass upon his head and upon his beard, taking balances to weigh, and divide the hair, burning a third part with fire in the midst of the city, taking a third part and smiting it with a “knife,” “chereb” in Hebrew, round about it, and scattering a third part in the wind, since He will draw out a sword after them.
Ezekiel is told to take a few of the hairs and bind them in his skirts, and of these again take some, casting them into the midst of the fire, and burning them in the fire, since from there shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel, describing how this is Jerusalem, He has set it in the midst of the nations and countries round about it, but she has changed His judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and His statutes more than the countries around her, since they have refused His judgments and His statutes.
Ezekiel delivers God’s judgment, that because they have multiplied more than the nations around them, and have not walked in His statutes, He is against them, and He will execute judgments in the midst of them in the sight of the nations, describing how a third part shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst, and a third part shall fall by the sword round about, and a third part He will scatter into all the winds, and He will draw out a sword after them, closing with the observation that His anger shall be accomplished, and He will cause His fury to rest upon them, and He will be comforted, describing this severe judgment as unprecedented, since He has not done, nor will do again, the like of what He has done because of all their abominations.
Ezekiel’s dramatic act, shaving his own head and dividing the hair into three distinct portions for burning, striking, and scattering, provides a visually striking, memorable illustration of Jerusalem’s coming threefold devastation through pestilence, sword, and exile. This chapter’s sobering observation that Jerusalem’s judgment would exceed anything done before or since underscores just how uniquely severe and unprecedented this particular season of divine discipline would genuinely prove to be.
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