Ezekiel 3

Verse 1. Eat this book, and go speak to the children of Israel. By this eating of the book, was signified the diligent attention and affection with which we are to receive and embrace the word of God; and to let it as it were, sink into our interior by devout meditation. Challoner.—The revelation came from God. verse 10. Worthington.

Verse 2. Book, in spirit; ( Calmet.) or in reality, he chewed the volume. Bible.

Verse 3. Mouth. I readily accepted the commission, but soon found the difficulties to which it would expose me. verse 12. Jeremiah 15:16. Revelation 10:10.

Verse 6. Unknown. Hebrew “heavy.” Calmet.—Prot. “hard.” Bible.—It is not above thy strength. Deuteronomy 30:12.—To thee. He insinuates that the Gentiles would obey the apostles. Saint Jerome—But the time was not yet come. Calmet.—From this text and Matthew 11:21 it appears that “the same grace” is accepted by some and rejected by others, as “more grace is added to the former, which was sufficient before, and by this … is made effectual” through God’s mercy. Romans 9. Worthington.—Those who reject the first grace, can blame only themselves, if they receive no more. The same grace falling on a heat better prepared by God, like seed on good soil, is more fruitful.

Verse 7. Hard. Lit. “rubbed” like a stone, or brass; attritâ. Bible.—God’s ambassadors (Ephesians 6:20. Calmet.) must do their utmost. Bible.—The success must not puff them up, nor the failure too much depressed them, as all regards God, (Matthew 10:40) who will know how to make things conduce to his own glory. They must only bewail the blindness of sinners. Calmet.—The care of them, and not the cure, will be required at their hands. verse 19. Bible.

Literally, have a hard forehead

Verse 8. Harder. If they will not blush, thou shalt not be ashamed to lay their disorders before their eyes, though they be such as ought not to be mentioned, as becomes saints. Bible. See Calmet. 16 and 22. Calmet.

Verse 12. Spirit; wind (Hugo) or angel, took me through the air; (Prado.) or, I went willingly. Saint Jerome—Commotion, like an earthquake, (Hebrew Sept.) occasioned by the motion of the chariot, or the voice of the cherubim. verse 13.

Verse 14. Spirit, resolved to rebuke ( Calmet.) sinners. Septuagint “the spirit of the Lord also lifted me … and I went aloft (like a meteor; μετεωρος) by the impulse of my spirit; for the hand of the Lord upon me was strong; and I went loft, to the captivity, and passed through them … conversing in the midst of them.” Bible.

Verse 15. The heap of new corn. It was the name of a place; in Hebrew, Telabib, ( Challoner.) as the Chal. leaves it ( Menochius.) with the three Greek interpreters. Calmet.—Tel means “a heap,” and abib “new corn.” Bible.—There was no new wheat in the fourth month, but rather in May or June. Calmet. 1:1. Ptolemy places Thelda near the Chaboras.—Mourning; or Prot. “astonished,” like Job’s friends, for people dead in sin. Bible.—Many suppose that he never spoke. Yet this is not certain, (verse 11. Calmet.) though probable from verse 16. Bible.

Verse 17. Watchman: the usual title of those placed over others. Calmet. 33:2. Isaiah 21:6. Let none perish through thy neglect. Calmet.—“He (the pastor) kills the man whom he delivers up to death by silence.” Saint Gregory hom. xi. 9.

Verse 20. Iniquity, for want of thy instruction; ( Bible.) or, if thou neglect to reclaim him, ( Calmet.) and he perish, or owe his conversion to another, when duty requires thee to take care of him, thou shalt answer for the possible bad consequences. Thy sin is great, whatever become of him. But if he be damned, though he must blame himself chiefly, yet the blood of his soul shall cry for vengeance more than Abel’s. Bible.—Before him, taking away my grace in punishment of his revolt. Worthington.—If thou neglect to attempt reclaiming him, thou shalt perish with him; (Saint Gregory) or if he be exposed to trial, and thou abandon him, (Vat.) of if thou neglect to husband well the precious moments, when I open his eyes, and fill him with apprehensions of his dangerous state, I will require, and so forth Orig. Saint Jerome—Remembered. Ingratitude caused the fruits of virtue to decay, and former crimes to revive, in some sense. Saint Thomas Aquinas iii. p. q. 88. a. 1. Matthew 5:26. Calmet.

Verse 21. Warn. It is the duty of a pastor to warn the just as well as sinners. Worthington.—It will not suffice to do this publicly: sometimes we must go from house to house, like Saint Paul, and compel those who are in the hedges to enter the marriage feast, by the most persuasive arguments. Bible.

Verse 25. Bands. It is uncertain whether by his order, or they supposed he was deranged, as our Saviour’s brethren meant to treat him. Mar. 3:21. The Chal. explains it figuratively of God’s order, attaching the prophet to his service. Calmet.—But real chains would more forcibly shew the future captivity of Juda ( Bible.) which the prophet declared both by words and actions. Calmet.

Verse 26. House. “When there is a multitude of sins, (or sinners; peccatorum) the offenders are unworthy of being corrected by the Lord.” Saint Jerome—The prophet’s silence might suffice to admonish them. Calmet.—He heard the Lord’s commands to Calmet. 11:24 before he spoke to the people. Menochius.

Verse 27. Forbeareth. Septuagint “disbelieveth, let him disbelieve.” So we read, He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; (Revelation 22:11) which denotes the most desperate condition. Bible.—Aquila (2 edit.) has, “he who abandons, shall be abandoned.” Saint Jerome—The man who makes good use of grace shall receive more; but he who despises the offers of God, shall be justly deprived of them in his greatest need. Calmet.