Ezekiel 12:2

Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(2) A rebellious house.—Comp. Deuteronomy 1:26; Romans 10:21. The seeing not and hearing not is that perverse refusing to see and to hear so often spoken of in Scripture. (See Deuteronomy 29:4; Isaiah 6:9; Jeremiah 5:21; Matthew 13:14-15.) It was because of this disposition that the prophet was to give them a sign to which they could not shut their eyes.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

12:1-16 By the preparation for removal, and his breaking through the wall of his house at evening, as one desirous to escape from the enemy, the prophet signified the conduct and fate of Zedekiah. When God has delivered us, we must glorify him and edify others, by acknowledging our sins. Those who by afflictions are brought to this, are made to know that God is the Lord, and may help to bring others to know him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Compare Deuteronomy 1:26; margin reference; Romans 10:21. The repetition of such words from age to age, shows that the prophet's words are intended to reach beyond the generation in which he lived.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 12

Eze 12:1-28. Ezekiel's Typical Moving to Exile: Prophecy of Zedekiah's Captivity and Privation of Sight: the Jews' Unbelieving Surmise as to the Distance of the Event Reproved.

1, 2. eyes to see, and see not, … ears to hear, and hear not—fulfilling the prophecy of De 29:4, here quoted by Ezekiel (compare Isa 6:9; Jer 5:21). Ezekiel needed often to be reminded of the people's perversity, lest he should be discouraged by the little effect produced by his prophecies. Their "not seeing" is the result of perversity, not incapacity. They are wilfully blind. The persons most interested in this prophecy were those dwelling at Jerusalem; and it is among them that Ezekiel was transported in spirit, and performed in vision, not outwardly, the typical acts. At the same time, the symbolical prophecy was designed to warn the exiles at Chebar against cherishing hopes, as many did in opposition to God's revealed word, of returning to Jerusalem, as if that city was to stand; externally living afar off, their hearts dwelt in that corrupt and doomed capital.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Thou dwellest; the prophet knowing the captivity would be long, had settled his habitation, and probably found some favour with the enemy, that he might be accommodated for his abode. The Jews who gave up to the Chaldeans found that kindness mentioned Jeremiah 29:4-7, with Ezekiel 24:5,6, and so were indifferently well placed together, and the prophet dwells among them, in the land of Chaldea.

A rebellious house; in their captivity too many of them retained their stubborn murmuring and rebellious humour, and blamed, quarrelled, and condemned them who gave them counsel to yield, and themselves for yielding, and it is likely stirred up them at Jerusalem to hold out, and save themselves, and rescue their brethren. These will ridicule thy words, yet speak them; for they are mine, and shall be accomplished.

Eyes to see; they have wit enough, they are of a capacity well enough fitted, if they would, to understand and consider what thou speakest; expressed by a double phrase, which signifies one and the same thing; eyes and ears.

See not; they contemptuously refuse to see and hear, they will not consider, lay to heart, repent, and reform. They are a rebellious house; they have conspired together, and all they will resolve or design is to do whatever is good in their own eyes, and whatever their wild imaginations, raised by false prophets, suggest.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house,.... The captives in Babylon, who murmured at their present condition and circumstances, and looked upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem to be in happy ones, and believed they would continue in them, as the false prophets persuaded them; not believing the prophets of the Lord; and encouraged them to stand out against the king of Babylon, repenting that they had surrendered to him, and hoped they should by their means be delivered see the same character of them, Ezekiel 2:3;

which have eyes to see, and see not: they have ears to hear, and hear not; they had natural sense and understanding, and means and opportunities of being better informed, and of knowing the true state of things, and how they were, and would be; but they wilfully shut their eyes against all light and evidence, and stopped their ears, and would not hearken to the words of the prophets:

for they are a rebellious house; stubborn, obstinate, and self-willed: or, "a house of rebellion" (r).

(r) "domus rebellionis", Montanus, Vatablus, Starckius; "domus inobedientiae", Cocceius.

Geneva Study Bible

Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, who have eyes to see, and see {a} not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house.

(a) That is, they receive not the fruit of that which they see and hear.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. The people of Israel among whom the prophet dwells is a rebellious house (ch. Ezekiel 2:3; Ezekiel 2:6-8, Ezekiel 3:26-27). His former signs meet with no belief from them. They have eyes but see not: they behold events and history with their bodily eyes, but fail to discern the moral meaning in them. Events are just events to them, the nature of the God who animates the events remains undiscovered by them (Isaiah 6:9; Isaiah 42:20; Jeremiah 5:21; Mark 8:18). And the signs and words of the prophet make no impression on them; they say, “Doth he not speak parables?” (ch. Ezekiel 20:49). Therefore new signs must be given them (Ezekiel 12:4).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - Which have eyes to see, etc. We note the words in their relation both to like utterances in the past (Isaiah 6:9; Isaiah 42:20), and by Ezekiel's contemporary (Jeremiah 5:21), and in the future by our Lord (Matthew 13:13), by St. John (John 12:40), and lastly by St. Paul (Acts 28:27). The thought and phrase were naturally as ever-recurring as the fact. Ezekiel 12:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Symbol of the Emigration

Ezekiel 12:1. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Ezekiel 12:2. Son of man, thou dwellest amidst the refractory generation, who have eyes to see, and see not; and have ears to hear, and hear not; for they are a refractory generation. Ezekiel 12:3. And thou, son of man, make thyself an outfit for exile, and depart by day before their eyes; and depart from thy place to another place before their eyes: perhaps they might see, for they are a refractory generation. Ezekiel 12:4. And carry out thy things like an outfit for exile by day before their eyes; but do thou go out in the evening before their eyes, as when going out to exile. Ezekiel 12:5. Before their eyes break through the wall, and carry it out there. Ezekiel 12:6. Before their eyes take it upon thy shoulder, carry it out in the darkness; cover thy face, and look not upon the land; for I have set thee as a sign to the house of Israel. Ezekiel 12:7. And I did so as I was commanded: I carried out my things like an outfit for exile by day, and in the evening I broke through the wall with my hand; I carried it out in the darkness; I took it upon my shoulder before their eyes. - In Ezekiel 12:2 the reason is assigned for the command to perform the symbolical action, namely, the hard-heartedness of the people. Because the generation in the midst of which Ezekiel dwelt was blind, with seeing eyes, and deaf, with hearing ears, the prophet was to depict before its eyes, by means of the sign that followed, the judgment which was approaching; in the hope, as is added in Ezekiel 12:3, that they might possibly observe and lay the sign to heart. The refractoriness (בּית מרי, as in Ezekiel 2:5-6; Ezekiel 3:26, etc.) is described as obduracy, viz., having eyes, and not seeing; having ears, and not hearing, after Deuteronomy 29:3 (cf. Jeremiah 5:21; Isaiah 6:9; Matthew 13:14-15). The root of this mental blindness and deafness was to be found in obstinacy, i.e., in not willing; "in that presumptuous insolence," as Michaelis says, "through which divine light can obtain no admission." כּלי גולה, the goods (or outfit) of exile, were a pilgrim's staff and traveller's wallet, with the provisions and utensils necessary for a journey. Ezekiel was to carry these out of the house into the street in the day-time, that the people might see them and have their attention called to them. Then in the evening, after dark, he was to go out himself, not by the door of the house, but through a hole which he had broken in the wall. He was also to take the travelling outfit upon his shoulder and carry it through the hole and out of the place, covering his face all the while, that he might not see the land to which he was going. "Thy place" is thy dwelling-place. כּמוצאי : as the departures of exiles generally take place, i.e., as exiles are accustomed to depart, not "at the usual time of departure into exile," as Hהvernick proposes. For מוחא, see the comm. on Micah 5:1. בּעלטה differs from בּערב, and signifies the darkness of the depth of night (cf. Genesis 15:17); not, however, "darkness artificially produced, equivalent to, with the eyes shut, or the face covered; so that the words which follow are simply explanatory of בּעלטה," as Schmieder imagines. Such an assumption would be at variance not only with Ezekiel 12:7, but also with Ezekiel 12:12, where the covering or concealing of the face is expressly distinguished from the carrying out "in the dark." The order was to be as follows: In the day-time Ezekiel was to take the travelling outfit and carry it out into the road; then in the evening he was to go out himself, having first of all broken a hole through the wall as evening was coming on; and in the darkness of night he was to place upon his shoulders whatever he was about to carry with him, and take his departure. This he was to do, because God had made him a mōphēth for Israel: in other words, by doing this he was to show himself to be a marvellous sign to Israel. For mōphēth, see the comm. on Exodus 4:21. In Ezekiel 12:7, the execution of the command, which evidently took place in the strictness of the letter, is fully described. There was nothing impracticable in the action, for breaking through the wall did not preclude the use of a hammer or some other tool.