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Bible Fiber: Ezekiel 25

Welcome to Bible Fiber! Here, we explore the rich textures and shades of the biblical tapestry through the lens of twelve Minor Prophets, two reformers, and one exile. I am Shelley Neese, president of The Jerusalem Connection, a Christian organization dedicated to sharing the story of the people of Israel, both ancient and modern. If you have had a chance to start reading the new Bible Fiber book, please consider going to Amazon and leaving a review! This week, we are diving into Ezekiel 25.

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In the wake of the tragic loss of Ezekiel’s wife, the prophet at least found solace in the promise that God would soon lift the restrictions on his speech. God instructed Ezekiel to keep an eye out for a refugee from Jerusalem who would bring news of the city’s fall (Ezekiel 24:27). This event unfolds in Chapter 33 and suddenly Ezekiel could speak freely.

However, there was a significant delay: it took at least 18 months from the death of Ezekiel’s wife until the Babylonian siege began and the eventual attack on Jerusalem (2 Kings 25:1-3; Jeremiah 52:4-6). As the siege progressed, anxiety mounted among the exiled Israelites, particularly those who believed in Ezekiel’s prophecies. While they awaited news from Jerusalem, God shifted his focus from prophesying against Judah to addressing the neighboring enemies. The subsequent eight chapters are known as the Oracles Against the Nations (OAN), starting with a series of brief oracles against Ammon, Moab, Edom, and Philistia. Tyre and Egypt receive the majority of the prophet’s attention through more extensive oracles filled with metaphors and analogies pointing toward their impending doom.

These oracles serve to remind the exiled Israelites that their fate is intertwined with the larger context of divine judgment and justice. They are both a warning and a reassurance that God is in control, even amid turmoil and uncertainty.

The genre

Extended prophecies against the nations are a common genre in biblical prophetic literature, appearing in several prophetic books with variations in extent and arrangement. Amos’s Oracles Against the Nations (OAN) are most similar to Ezekiel’s in style (Amos 1-2). Jeremiah’s OAN also serves as an important point of comparison, given that the two prophets were contemporaries (Jeremiah 46-51). Zephaniah includes his OAN in the middle of his book, like Ezekiel (Zephaniah 2), while Isaiah features a lengthy OAN that Ezekiel, as his successor, likely would have known (Isaiah 13-23). Some prophetic books contain elements of OAN without dedicating entire sections to them. In contrast, Obadiah and Nahum are entire books composed of prophecies against foreign nations.

Ezekiel 25 delivers four mini-oracles targeting Judah’s closest neighbors, which are also her longest standing enemies: Ammon, Moab, Edom, and Philistia. Israel had been at odds with these four nations for most of its existence. Scholars generally date these oracles to shortly after the Babylonian attack in 586 BCE, given that Jerusalem’s suffering serves as the backdrop for each prophecy.

Ammon

First, God instructed Ezekiel to “set his face” toward Ammon, a phrase he used repeatedly when Ezekiel prophesied against Jerusalem. This command appeared when Ezekiel was told to “set his face” against Israel’s mountains (6:2), the female sorcerers in the camp (13:17), and even the defiled temple (21:2).

God had a specific message for the Ammonites: “Because you said, ‘Aha!’ over my sanctuary when it was profaned, over the land of Israel when it was made desolate, and over the house of Judah when it went into exile, therefore I am handing you over to the people of the East for a possession” (25:4).

In Chapter 25, all of Jerusalem’s neighbors share the same guilt; they gloated over Jerusalem’s destruction. God despised their lack of empathy. Although he was the force behind the Babylonian attack, he did not tolerate taunting from other nations.

In the “sword song” of Chapter 21, Ezekiel illustrated Nebuchadnezzar’s dilemma at a crossroads, contemplating whether to attack Jerusalem or Ammon (21:18-27). Prompted by Yahweh, the Babylonians chose to attack Jerusalem first. While Ammon may have escaped the initial assault, Ezekiel foretold that their time would come (21:28-29). Chapter 25 provides details about Ammon’s impending devastation, stating that the “People of the East” would overrun them. Scholars debate the identity of the “People of the East”; it could refer to the Babylonians, but the description of invaders pitching their tents in Ammonite territory suggests Arabian nomadic tribes. After the Ammonites are captured and scattered, Rabbah would be reduced to pastureland for camels and sheep (25:5). The squatters will consume their produce and milk their livestock (25:4).

According to the historian Josephus, Ezekiel’s prediction was fulfilled in 582 BCE. A few years after the fall of Jerusalem, Ammon fell victim to Babylon’s military expansion. Under Nebuchadnezzar’s leadership, the Babylonian forces conquered Rabbah, ending Ammonite independence and incorporating the territory into the Babylonian Empire.

Like all Judeans, Ezekiel bore a grudge against Ammon, and the feeling was mutual. Though the oracle came from the Lord, Ezekiel had no qualms about declaring Ammon’s total annihilation, stating, “I will cut you off from the peoples and will make you perish out of the countries” (25:7).

Moab

The next nation on Ezekiel’s blacklist was Moab, Judah’s neighbor located east of the Dead Sea. Both Ammon and Moab share a troubling ancestry. Following the catastrophic destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot and his two daughters sought refuge in a cave, believing they were the last survivors on Earth. In a desperate attempt to preserve their family lineage, the daughters engaged in incestuous relations with their father, leading to the birth of Moab by Lot’s oldest daughter. The Ammonites, on the other hand, descended from Ben-Ammi, the son of Lot’s younger daughter. When referring to the Ammonites, Ezekiel specifically uses the name Ben-Ammi, subtly reminding his audience of their sordid origins.

Despite their shared lineage, the Israelites viewed the Moabites and Ammonites with a mix of kinship and resentment due to their actions. Moses attempted to honor familial ties when the Israelites first encountered these nations during their wilderness years, with God instructing Moses to regard them as potential allies. However, the Ammonites and Moabites refused to provide food and water to the Israelites during their journey (Deuteronomy 23:3-4). This lack of hospitality was considered a serious offense, particularly from relatives. The situation worsened when the Moabite King Balak hired the prophet Balaam to curse the Israelites (Numbers 22-24), and the Moabite women seduced Israelite men into idolatry (Numbers 25:1-9). As a result of their treachery, Yahweh excluded the Ammonites and Moabites from the Lord’s assembly for ten generations (Deuteronomy 23:3-6).

Ezekiel’s oracle against Moab echoes the ancient curses pronounced against them during the days of Moses. He prophesied, “Because Moab said, ‘The house of Judah is like all the other nations,’ therefore I will lay open the flank of Moab from the towns on its frontier” (25:8). While the Moabites, like the Ammonites, rejoiced over Judah’s public humiliation, their glee appeared more subdued; Ezekiel does not describe them as celebrating with as much fervor.

Moab had mocked Judah’s belief in its divine election. God equated such mockery with an insult to God himself. By declaring Judah to be no different from other nations, they undermined the covenant relationship established by Yahweh. The Moabite King Balak similarly denied Israel’s uniqueness (Numbers 22:2-24).

As punishment for their blasphemy, God declared that he would destroy Moab’s fortified cities, leaving the nation vulnerable to attacks from the “peoples of the East” (25:10). Nebuchadnezzar’s forces overtook Moab in 582 BCE, the same year they conquered Ammon, marking the end of Ammon and Moab’s independence as distinct kingdoms. A combination of conquests by neighboring powers and forced assimilation ultimately erased them from history.

Edom

Ezekiel next turned his attention to Moab’s closest ally, Edom, whose people descended from Esau, the twin brother of Jacob. Located southeast of Israel, Edom maintained a tumultuous relationship with its neighbor. In fact, the Edomites are mentioned in the Bible more frequently than any other foreign nation, except for Egypt.

Each mini-oracle that Ezekiel delivered followed a consistent structure: he addressed the nation, identified their crime, and outlined their punishment. With the destruction of each nation, Yahweh declared, “then you shall know that I am the Lord” (25:7, 11, 17). This refrain underscores God’s purpose in disciplining them. Like Jerusalem, it is in their moments of greatest tragedy that they would come to recognize their mistake in questioning Yahweh’s sovereignty. God desires for all of humanity to know him, revealing his power not only as an act of vengeance but also as a demonstration of his sovereignty.

Edom, however, presents an exception. To the Edomites, God proclaimed, “they shall know my vengeance” (25:14). As descendants of the disinherited brother, the Edomites were already aware of Yahweh’s lordship, even if they had strayed from their faith heritage.

While Ammon and Moab reveled in Jerusalem’s misfortunes, Edom actively took advantage of Jerusalem’s vulnerability. All biblical accounts point to Edom’s treachery during the Babylonian attack. The Psalmist recounts how Edom mocked Jerusalem on the day of its destruction (Psalm 137:7). Obadiah condemned Edom for joining the fray, pillaging Jerusalem and capturing fleeing refugees to hand over to the Babylonians (Obadiah 11-14). Archaeological evidence further indicates that Edom prospered and extended its reach into Judean territory after Nebuchadnezzar deported the city’s Jewish population. Amos also charged Edom with war crimes, as they pursued Jewish refugees with a sword and slaughtered women (Amos 1:11-12). God had ample justification for punishing Edom.

God told Ezekiel, “Because Edom acted revengefully against the house of Judah and has grievously offended in taking vengeance upon them, thus says the Lord God: I will stretch out my hand against Edom and cut off from it humans and animals, and I will make it desolate” (25:13). God planned to utterly flatten Edom, a nation that prided itself on its natural fortifications. Despite their mountainous stronghold, they could not escape divine judgment.

Unlike the other nations, where God employed foreign agents to execute his wrath, Edom’s punishment would come directly from Israel. God stated, “I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel” (25:14). Ezekiel delivered this prophecy to an Israelite audience that was weak and vulnerable, lacking a standing army or monarchy at the time. This raised the question: how could an exiled Israelite people enact revenge on Edom? In fact, Ezekiel’s prediction regarding Edom took centuries to fulfill. Starting in the third century BCE, the Nabateans, nomadic Arab traders, began to expand into the traditional homelands of the Edomites.

By the Hellenistic period (332-63 BCE), many displaced Edomites had resettled in the southern part of Judah, an area that came to be known as Idumea (the Greek form of Edom). When the Maccabees rose to power, they sought to eliminate the Edomite presence in Judah. John Hyrcanus I launched a military campaign against this ancient enemy, aiming to seal the fate of the Edomites by implementing a policy of forced conversion. The Idumeans faced a choice between converting to Judaism or expulsion. This episode is unusual in Jewish history, as Judaism generally does not support proselytization, let alone forced conversion. Nevertheless, many biblical scholars view the Maccabees’ actions as fulfilling Ezekiel’s prophecy that Edom would fall by Israel’s own hand (25:14).

Philistia

The last mini-oracle addresses the Philistines, whom Ezekiel labels as Israel’s eternal enemy, despite their lack of kinship. The origin of the Philistines is complex, with scholars debating whether they came from Greece, the Aegean islands, Anatolia, Syria, Cyprus, or even the Balkans. By the twelfth century BCE, they settled in the southern coastal region of ancient Canaan, forming a confederation of five cities: Gath, Ashkelon, Ekron, Gaza, and Ashdod. Today, these territories largely correspond to the Gaza Strip and coastal Israel.

God declared regarding the Philistines, “Because with unending hostilities they acted in vengeance and with malice of heart took revenge in destruction, therefore thus says the Lord God: I will stretch out my hand against the Philistines” (25:15). According to this passage, the Philistines reveled in Jerusalem’s downfall. Interestingly, apart from Ezekiel, no other biblical passages record the Philistines’ reactions during the Babylonian attack. However, it is plausible that they would join the fray and take pleasure in the destruction.

Among Israel’s enemy nations, the Philistines are the most familiar to readers, thanks to famous stories such as David and Goliath and Samson and Delilah. During the conquest, Joshua did not defeat the Philistine cities, which meant the Israelites had to coexist with them (Joshua 13). The book of Judges notes that the Philistines remained in Canaan to test the Israelites’ faithfulness to God and their covenant (Judges 3:2). In the narratives of 1 and 2 Samuel, the Philistines appear as the dominant foreign adversary.

During the period of the Judges, God used the Philistines as instruments of punishment when the Israelites turned away from him. When the Israelites fell into idolatry and other sinful behaviors, God permitted the Philistines, alongside other neighboring groups, to oppress them. Each time the Israelites repented and turned back to God, he sent a charismatic judge to deliver them from oppression. One notable judge, Shamgar, defeated 600 Philistines with an ox goad (Judges 3:31). However, it was Samson who played a critical role in delivering the Israelites from the Philistines, even as he had a weakness for Philistine women (Judges 13:5).

The Philistines posed the greatest threat to Israel during the reigns of Saul and David. Saul was frequently in conflict with the Philistine army, with one of the most memorable encounters being David’s defeat of the giant Goliath using only stones and a sling. Ultimately, Saul suffered wounds in battle against the Philistines and chose to fall on his sword to avoid capture (1 Samuel 31).

David’s initial popularity arose from his success against the Philistines in battle as a youth. The people famously chanted, “Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands” (1 Samuel 18:7). As King, David sought God’s guidance and bravely took on the Philistine army, achieving victories at Baal-perazim and the Valley of Rephaim (2 Samuel 5:17-25). In both battles, David consulted the Lord, following divine instructions for victory. Although David never completely eradicated the Philistine threat, their significance in the biblical narrative diminished, shifting them from Israel’s primary enemy to a persistent nuisance.

By the time of Nebuchadnezzar’s military campaign through the Levant, the decline of the Philistines was already apparent. They had been subjugated by both Assyria and Egypt. In 598 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar conquered Ashkelon, a former Philistine stronghold. After this conquest, the Philistines lost their identity as a political and cultural group, with only the fortified city of Gaza surviving the Babylonian destruction. When Alexander the Great advanced on Gaza in 322 BCE, the Philistines mounted a valiant defense against his siege engines, even managing to wound Alexander. Ultimately, however, Gaza could not withstand the combined naval and land assault, leading to the extinction of Philistine civilization as a distinct entity.

Given the Philistines’ weakened state even before Ezekiel’s time, he included the Cherethites in his prophecy. The Cherethites were another group of Sea Peoples, likely from Crete, closely associated with Philistine warriors. God promised to eliminate all the Sea Peoples and the entire coastline of Philistia (25:16). In the context of our current situation post-October 7th, the fighting forces in the IDF draw upon this ancient promise as they confront Israel’s enemies in Gaza.

Like the nations

Ezekiel dedicated twenty chapters to delivering oracles that focused on Israel’s crimes and the impending punishment that awaited her. By the time readers reach the Oracles Against the Nations, Ezekiel’s language of condemnation has become familiar. These prophecies against the nations mirror his earlier words directed at Judah. By addressing Israel as if she were an enemy nation, Ezekiel aimed to provoke genuine repentance. Once Israel faced the consequences of her unfaithfulness, God, like a disciplining parent, shifted his tone.

It was only after Judah was broken and bruised that God changed his approach. God did not intend to concentrate solely on Judah’s sin while letting the rest of humanity evade judgment. Instead, he holds all people accountable for their moral and ethical actions and will bring judgment upon everyone. The prophet Isaiah proclaimed, “It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them like a tent to live in, who brings princes to naught and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing” (Isaiah 40:22-23). Nothing escapes God’s observation—he sees everything and will judge all, even those who try to hide away in subterranean tunnels.

Conclusion

That’s it for Ezekiel 25. Thank you for listening and please continue to take part in this Bible Reading Challenge. Join me next week for Ezekiel 26. The Phoenician port city of Tyre is on deck for God’s judgement. Please keep modern Israel and Jerusalem in your prayers. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem and her people as she feels more alone and isolated than ever on the world stage.

For all the Biblical references each week, please see the show transcript on our blog or by signing up for our emails at www.thejerusalemconnection.us/
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Shabbat Shalom and Am Israel Chai

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Yom Kippur for the Goyim

By Shelley Neese

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Welcome to Bible Fiber, where are we encountering the textures and shades of the biblical tapestry. I am Shelley Neese, president of The Jerusalem Connection, a Christian organization devoted to sharing the story of the people of Israel, both ancient and modern.

On October 1st, the first Bible Fiber book launched! It is a 52-week study of the Twelve Minor Prophets, going through each book. This comprehensive companion provides thoughtful commentary for every chapter, making these ancient texts accessible to all readers. Grab your copy of Bible Fiber today! It is available on Amazon as a Paperback and on Kindle!

Second, we are pressing pause on the Ezekiel study during the Jewish High Holidays for a miniseries we are calling “High Holidays for the Goyim.”

When is Yom Kippur?

Yom Kippur, also known as the Day of Atonement, is the holiest and most solemn day in the Jewish calendar. It falls on the 10th day of the Jewish month of Tishrei, exactly 10 days after the celebration of Rosh Hashanah. That means Yom Kippur is the climactic day of atonement following a long reflective period. This year, on the Gregorian calendar, Yom Kippur starts at sundown on October 11th and ends at sundown on October 12th.

Where is Yom Kippur Mentioned in the Bible?

The biblical basis for Yom Kippur is found in Leviticus 23:26-32. God instructed Moses:

The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present a food offering to the Lord. Do not do any work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the Lord your God. Those who do not deny themselves on that day must be cut off from their people. I will destroy from among their people anyone who does any work on that day. You shall do no work at all. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. It is a day of sabbath rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to observe your sabbath. (Lev. 23:26:32)

In this passage, God refers to Yom Kippur in Hebrew as the Shabbat Shabbaton which is often translated as “Sabbath of Sabbaths.” All Sabbaths are special, but Yom Kippur is the holiest day of all.

The commands in Leviticus outline the requirement for the Israelites to fast and abstain from work on this holy day. Those continue to be the primary means of observing Yom Kippur for the Jewish people today.

The Torah also has a lot to say about the priestly rituals that must be performed on Yom Kippur. Leviticus and Numbers describe the basic structure of the day’s observances and list the required sin offerings (Lev. 16 and 23; Num. 29).

As mediator between God and the people, the High Priest had a critical role to fulfill on Yom Kippur. As we learn from God’s instructions to Aaron, the first High Priest, the job was even dangerous because of the proximity of the priest with the spirit of God (Lev. 16:2). On Yom Kippur, the High Priest wore special white linen garments.

He would first offer a bull as a sin offering for himself and his household, entering the Holy of Holies to sprinkle its blood. Then, two goats were selected: one for the Lord and one as the scapegoat. The goat for the Lord was sacrificed as a sin offering for the people, and its blood was also sprinkled in the Holy of Holies. The High Priest would then lay his hands on the head of the live goat, confessing the sins of the people over it. This scapegoat was then sent into the wilderness, symbolically carrying away the sins of the nation.

Throughout the day, the High Priest would offer additional sacrifices, including rams for burnt offerings and various grain offerings. He would also recite prayers and confessions on behalf of the people. The ritual was intricate and precise, with the High Priest entering the Holy of Holies multiple times. Yom Kippur was the only day of the year that the High Priest was permitted entry into the Holy of Holies. Throughout the ritual sacrifices, the people were required to afflict their souls, typically through fasting and refraining from work.

We know a good deal about how Yom Kippur was observed in the Second Temple period, and the time of Jesus. Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian, described the Yom Kippur rituals in his work Antiquities of the Jews. His accounts help bridge the gap between biblical texts and later Rabbinic literature. The Mishnah, particularly tractate Yoma, also provides extensive details about the Yom Kippur service not found in the Bible. It describes the High Priest’s preparations, the precise order of the rituals, and additional practices that developed over time. Later rabbinic literature, including the Talmud, further expands on these details, offering interpretations and discussions about the minutiae of the observances.

It’s important to note that while the biblical account is considered the most authoritative, the later sources help fill in gaps and provide a more comprehensive picture of how Yom Kippur was understood and practiced in different historical periods. The rabbinic texts reflect the evolution of Jewish thought and practice after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, when the biblical rituals could no longer be performed as described.

Beyond the Torah, the significance of Yom Kippur is reinforced in other parts of the Hebrew Bible. The book of Isaiah, for instance, condemns the notion of Yom Kippur being observed through superficial means, emphasizing instead the need for genuine repentance and righteous living. Isaiah, speaking for God, said, “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?” (Isaiah 58:6)

How is Yom Kippur Celebrated Today?

For the last 2,000 years, there has not been a Temple to perform most of the biblical requirements for the Day of Atonement. Still, the Jewish people maintain observance through a variety of solemn rituals and spiritual practices. It is customary for all Jews, no longer just the High Priest, to wear white clothing on Yom Kippur, as a symbol of their desire to be cleansed of sin. The traditional greeting on the day is “G’mar Chatimah Tovah” which means “May you be sealed for a good year.” It refers to the symbol of God sealing the names of the righteous in the Book of Life. I have sweet memories of being in Israel on Yom Kippur and seeing families all dressed in white out for walks. Because no one dares drive on Yom Kippur, everyone goes out for a walk on major interstates and highways.

One of the most well-known Yom Kippur traditions is the 25-hour fast that begins at sundown on the eve of Yom Kippur and continues until nightfall the following day. This fast abstains from all food and drink, focusing the mind on repentance and spiritual renewal.

During the fast, Jews attend long synagogue services that include readings from the Torah and special prayers. The structure of the service emphasizes themes of atonement, forgiveness, and the seriousness of the day. During the afternoon service, the book of Jonah is read. With its themes of repentance and God’s mercy, Jonah is closely associated with the spirit of Yom Kippur.

Central to the service are the confessional prayers. These include individual and communal recitations of sins, wrongdoings, and transgressions committed over the past year. The goal is to take full responsibility for one’s actions toward each other. Yom Kippur is also a time for the Jewish practice of teshuvah, or repentance and return to God. This involves not only confessing sins but also committing to a renewed connection to God in the coming year. At the conclusion of Yom Kippur, a final shofar blast signals the end of the fast and the attainment of forgiveness. This absolution is seen as a divine pardon.

What Does Yom Kippur Mean for Christians?

As a Christian, I believe that Jesus’ death and resurrection provide the means for my atonement. I know that because of the language and ideas set forth in the Jewish rituals and the Hebrew Bible. Without the Levitical explanations of Yom Kippur and the Jewish teachings of substitutionary sacrifice as a means of communion with God, I would have no context for the salvific qualities of Christ’s shed blood. In case the Messianic overtones of the Yom Kippur service were lost on Gentile believers, the writer of Hebrews spelled it out. Describing the animal sacrifices conducted in the Tabernacle, Hebrews states, “the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” /Hebrews concludes that if the blood of goats and bulls sanctified the children of Israel year after year, “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!”

Next week, we will learn about the Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot. Until then G’mar Chatimah Tovah!

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One year since October 7th….and Ezekiel’s message of hope

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The one-year anniversary of October 7 is approaching, and for Israelis, especially the families of the hostages and soldiers, it still feels like October 8. Before Hamas executed her son, and five other innocent hostages, Rachel Goldberg often said that when people asked her how she was doing, it was like being asked that question while a branding iron was on her back. October 7th opened a door of unimaginable grief without an exit.

The American Christian Leaders for Israel, of which TJCI is a member, will participate as a unified voice at the memorial event at the National Mall in Washington D.C. to commemorate the one-year anniversary. Please consider attending this significant event happening from 12-3pm on October 7th. The hope is that 10,000 Christians will show up. To honor those lost, we will create a visual memorial by displaying photographs of each victim from October 7th, as well as images of those still held hostage. We plan to carry these pictures in a procession to the White House, demonstrating our solidarity. This event welcomes all supporters of Israel. Bring your church, youth group, Bible study, or class.

While Jerusalem Connection is planning on attending the commemorations, I am also studying Ezekiel for Bible Fiber. Chapters 26-33 are a section of Ezekiel called the Oracles Against the Nations. Following the Babylonian invasion that destroyed the Jerusalem temple and led to the deportation of most of Judah’s population, Ezekiel pronounced these condemnations against Israel’s neighboring enemies. After twenty chapters of judgement speeches against Jerusalem, suddenly Ezekiel points the finger away from Judah and at her longtime rivals: the Moabites, Edomites, Ammonites, Philistines, Phoenicians, and Egyptians. God has a divine pronouncement for every pagan neighbor who gloated over Judah’s fall at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.

This is the lowest point in Israel’s biblical story. The exile and loss of the temple were ancient Israel’s most traumatic episode. They needed to hear from the Lord while they processed how it was even possible that God let such a calamity happen to his holy city and covenant people. Because my mind always holds thoughts of biblical Israel together with concerns over modern Israel, I am struck by the relevance of Ezekiel’s Oracles Against the Nations. The prophet’s words to the exilic community of 587 BCE still resonate with those in Israel today.

When an authority insults your enemy or threatens your bully; it is an indirect message of comfort for you. Knowing that to be true of our human nature, I feel God’s kindness and compassion towards Judah in the Oracles Against the Nations, even if it is backhanded.

Without an army, king, or even land, Judah had nothing left to defend herself. God’s message was that it was his job to vindicate her. Ezekiel, speaking as God’s mouthpiece, prophesied:

When I gather the people of Israel from the nations where they have been scattered, I will be proved holy through them in the sight of the nations. Then they will live in their own land, which I gave to my servant Jacob. They will live there in safety and will build houses and plant vineyards; they will live in safety when I inflict punishment on all their neighbors who maligned them. Then they will know that I am the Lord their God. (Ezek. 28:25-26)

Modern Israel, like ancient Israel, is locked in a permanent struggle with her neighbors. Hamas in the Gaza Strip has promised that it will survive this war and regroup for its next genocidal attack. Over the last twelve months, Hezbollah in Lebanon has fired over 7,500 rockets, anti-tank missiles, and explosive UAVs at Israeli civilian and military targets. Of course, Iran is the grand puppet master, forcing all its regional puppets to do its dirty bidding. The Houthis in Yemen did not launch missiles at Eilat because they feel solidarity with Gazans. They are following Iran’s marching orders and trying to stay relevant as a global terrorist organization. What Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and the Houthis all have in common is that they refused to even acknowledge Israel’s right to exist. They forego their own political independence, economic success, and civil stability in favor of killing Jews. Is it any wonder that Israelis’ mental health is fraying at the edges?

If there were an Ezekiel in our midst today, I am sure he would promise Israel that God will not allow her tormentors to walk freely. He would have a strongly worded oracle for each of these bad actors coming against God’s people. However, Ezekiel also had a harsh word for quiet bystanders. God declared Ammon and Moab’s destruction because they gloated over Jerusalem’s fall. They did not take an active part in the attack, but they dared to question Israel’s divine election and rejoice over her weakness. How many individuals and organizations in the West are guilty of the same?

As someone who is fighting for the truth of October 7th to be known and shared, I am taking comfort in the words of Ezekiel that God will vindicate and restore Israel. Nations have forgotten that they will be judged by the standards of Genesis 12:3: whoever curses Israel will be cursed and whoever blesses Israel will be blessed.

In honor of all the victims on October 7th and the IDF heroes who have died in the fight in the last year, I am leaving you with a Psalm of the ascent. My friend Andrew McKain wrote this song to Psalm 123 and I want to end with it since in times of ongoing grief, all we can do is lift our eyes up to the one who sits enthroned in heaven.

 

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Bible Fiber: Ezekiel 24

Welcome to Bible Fiber, where we are encountering the textures and shades of the biblical tapestry through twelve Minor Prophets, two reformers, and one exile. I am Shelley Neese, president of The Jerusalem Connection, a Christian organization devoted to sharing the story of the people of Israel, both ancient and modern. Before the episode, I have big news to share. The very first Bible Fiber book is being released on October 1st. The book is the full collection of commentary essays on the 12 Minor Prophets. It is a 52 week, chapter-by-chapter, study. I am super excited for you to see it. Be sure to sign up for the Bible Fiber newsletter!

Our focus this week is on Ezekiel 24, the dramatic climax of the book. Until now, Ezekiel’s message has served as an ongoing alarm for Jerusalem’s impending punishment. For five years, Ezekiel used every strategy in his prophetic playbook to communicate his message: oracles, visions, sign-acts, riddles, parables, songs, rhetorical questions, history lessons, and laments. By cataloguing Jerusalem’s sins, he established the city’s guilt and validated the need for divine intervention. Yahweh’s patience had run its course.

Judgement day fell on January 15, 588 BCE. Ezekiel received an oracle from the Lord at the same moment that Nebuchadnezzar’s army closed in on Jerusalem’s walls. Yahweh commanded Ezekiel, “Write down the name of this day, this very day. The king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem this very day” (24:2). Ezekiel used the same dating formula as 2 Kings and Jeremiah in marking the start of the Babylonian takeover (2 Kings 25:1; Jer. 52:4). Time stamping the prophecy’s specific date was given special importance by God, partially because the pronouncement authenticated Ezekiel’s prophetic abilities. Earlier in the book, Ezekiel’s fellow exiles had accused all the true prophets of exaggerating and fear-mongering because it seemed their predictions never materialized (12:22-23). Ezekiel’s prophecies were fulfilled in his own lifetime, a powerful testament to the reliability of divine revelation.

Ezekiel’s companions in the refugee encampment had no way of knowing the happenings in their homeland. This information vacuum heightened the exiles’ sense of isolation and powerlessness. In the absence of a 24-hour news cycle, refugees in Tel Abib relied on runners for updates about their homes, friends, and family in Jerusalem. A year later, a fugitive reached Babylon with news of Jerusalem’s fall, confirming Ezekiel’s prophecy (33:21-22). In the meantime, the exiles had the option of ignoring the eccentric prophet’s unsettling news or trust his supernatural insight.

Cauldron song

Ezekiel announced the razing of Jerusalem through a poetic cooking allegory, a motif that he had used once before in Chapter 11. The major prophet, with a penchant for the dramatic, needed a grandiose way to announce the realization of his prophecies. God directed Ezekiel to prepare a meaty dish and guided him through the motions. He said, “Set on the pot; set it on; pour in water also; put in it the pieces, all the good pieces, the thigh and the shoulder; fill it with choice cuts” (24:4-5). It’s unclear whether the meal preperation was a literal sign-act or if it was only a verbal message.

God guided Ezekiel to arrange the wood and cook the meat in a manner that hinted at it being a meal for a religious ceremony or extravagant celebration. In the ancient world, people reserved eating meat for special occasions, ritual observances, or royal celebrations. The dish was made even more high-end with the use of premium cuts of meat.

We know from Ezekiel’s previous cauldron allegory that all those who avoided capture and exile, and remained in the city of Jerusalem, saw themselves as Yahweh’s elect. They were the choice cuts of meat that Yahweh chose to safeguard. Their preservation in Jerusalem, despite all odds, proved they had divine favor. By that logic, the Judean exiles deported to Babylon were the gristle and organs, rejected and cast out of the pot (11:3-7). Ezekiel had previously disputed that idea in Chapter 11, but he seized another chance to counter their wrongheaded interpretation of events.

Rather than a protective barrier, Ezekiel described the cooking pot as a cauldron of death. With the pot representing Jerusalem, God commanded the cook to pile up additional logs and crank up the fire’s heat (24:5). The broth’s low simmer transformed into a roaring boil. The Babylonian army’s siege tactics intensified the pressure on Jerusalem’s population. Instead of protecting the meat in the cauldron from outside threats, the meat boiled and the bones charred. In fact, the meat burned into such a mess that it contaminated the entire pot, making it unusable. The divine cook had no choice but to cast out the scum “piece by piece” and what he depicted as the “pot whose crud is in it” (24:6).

Switching speaking styles, Ezekiel pronounced “woe” on Jerusalem. He said, “For the blood she shed is inside it; she placed it on a bare rock; she did not pour it out on the ground, to cover it with earth” (24:7). The Judahites forgot God’s laws regarding the significance of blood. According to the standards of the Torah, blood signified the sacred source of all life. When priests performed animal sacrifices, they were expected to drain the blood respectfully and pour it into the earth like water (Deut. 12:16, 24). Kosher laws prohibited the consumption of blood. Jerusalem, however, disregarded the sanctity of all life, animal and human.

For the second time, Ezekiel renamed the “holy city” as the “bloody city” (22:2; 24:6,9). Accusing Jerusalem of bloodshed was Ezekiel’s general categorization of all the nation’s crimes. The insult is a critique of the indiscriminate violence in Jerusalem, but it also calls out the city for rampant moral corruption, idolatry, and injustice.

Violence was so widespread in Jerusalem that people didn’t even bother to hide the evidence of their wrongdoing. Yahweh declared he would use Jerusalem’s spilled blood as a target for his wrath. He said, “I have placed the blood she shed on a bare rock, so that it may not be covered” (24:8). In contrast to the blood on the doorposts that saved the Israelites from the angel of death in Egypt, the blood splattered rocks in Jerusalem marked the city for destruction.

Yahweh himself then joined the cook in preparing the dish. He poured out the broth and revved up the fire even more. He commanded, “Heap up the logs; kindle the fire; boil the meat well; boil down the broth; let the bones be burned” (24:10). Every cook has surely forgotten to turn down a stove burner at some point, resulting in the unpleasant smell of burned food exposed to dry heat for too long. Tossing out the overcooked food is a given, but often it is also too late to salvage the pot.

God raised the temperature in Ezekiel’s allegorical pot, causing the remaining encrusted meat to be burned to ash. At first, the narrative makes it seem like he intended to save the pot by heating the charred residue just enough so he could scrape it off. In fact, he heated the pot to such an extreme that it consumed the contents and damaged it beyond repair. To further startle his hearers, Ezekiel described the pot as being made of copper, rather than the standard type of clay cooking vessel. Copper pots were a rare possession among Judeans. The expensive pot met the same fate as the discarded meat. Yahweh declared, “In vain I have wearied myself; its thick crud does not depart. To the fire with its crud!” (24:12).

Ezekiel’s cooking pot allegory illustrated Yahweh’s attempts to bring his people back into the covenant. The cook was not to blame for the pot’s ruin. He went to great lengths to cleanse the pot, but it was unsuccessful (24:13). For almost two centuries, God sent prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Habakkuk and Ezekiel to call the people to repentance. The prophets pleaded for their compatriots to return to their covenant obligations. The whole time, the prophets warned that if the covenant people continued to be unfaithful, they would suffer the consequences.

Each successive prophet became more specific about the exact nature of Babylon’s attack. Using Ezekiel as his mouthpiece, Yahweh made his ultimate declaration before Jerusalem’s fall: “I the Lord have spoken; the time is coming; I will act. I will not refrain; I will not spare; I will not relent” (24:14). The people of Judah had refused to repent, igniting the flame of Yahweh’s wrath. All that remained was to turn up the heat on Jerusalem. The charred pot imagery is both potent and tragic.

Wife’s death

After Ezekiel delivered his cooking pot oracle, God informed him that he was about to perform one last sign-act on the prophet to represent the sanctuary’s fate. He said, “Mortal, with one blow I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes, yet you shall not mourn or weep, nor shall your tears run down” (24:16). The delight of Ezekiel’s eyes was his young wife. Until now, the text has not revealed the details of the prophet’s personal life. Yet, the knowledge of a wife colors earlier episodes in the book’s first half.

When Ezekiel was bound and gagged in his own home, what role did his wife play in his grand performance (3:25-27)? When Ezekiel lied on his side and nearly starved himself to death, did his wife fret (4:4-8)? Did she bring him his daily food and water ration? Was she angry when he dug a hole through the walls of their house (12:1-7)? Did she bandage his cuts after he shaved himself with a sword (5:1-4)? Did she keep her chin up when those in the encampment dismissed Ezekiel as a riddler (20:49)?

If Ezekiel was 30 when God called him to be a prophet, he was likely married before being deported to Babylon. In Jerusalem, his wife had knowingly married a priest, so she had a foundational understanding that her husband was called to the service of God. An even bigger commissioning came later in their marriage when he was called to the prophetic office. Despite the challenges of being married to the refugee camp’s most eccentric man, Ezekiel and his wife must have had a loving relationship. God did not only declare that he was taking Ezekiel’s wife. He referred to his wife as the “delight of your eyes,” which reminds me of God’s tender acknowledgment of Abraham’s love for Isaac. When God tested Abraham’s obedience, he called Isaac the son that he loved (Gen. 22:2).

The text does not reveal the cause of her death. I can’t help but wish she had long been suffering from an unidentified sickness. In such a case, at least God’s action seems less cruel. The text, however, presents the death as sudden and unexpected. God warned Ezekiel beforehand that it would occur with “one blow.” He gave Ezekiel the terrible news that morning and by the evening, she was gone (24:18). The news of her death must have left his fellow exiles bewildered. To further the shock, Ezekiel coud not mourn his wife publicly in any of the conventional ways.

Of course, God permitted Ezekiel to suffer in silence, or “groan quietly” in his own home (24:17). However, God instructed, “Make no mourning for the dead. Bind on your turban, and put your sandals on your feet; do not cover your upper lip or eat the bread of mourners” (24:17). It was not like the prophet to be stoic. Back in Chapter 9, Ezekiel fell facedown and wept over Jerusalem’s destiny (9:8). Judaism, like other ancient religions, possessed elaborate traditions and rituals to grieve the loss of a family member.

God denied Ezekiel any of the customs that gave a kinetic outlet for internal grief. Ezekiel had to keep on his turban rather than cover his head with ashes. Instead of going barefoot, he had to wear his sandals, which is not the usual practice for someone in mourning. He continued to shave. Normally, mourners let their beards grow. Mourning traditions helped others in the community comfort the close family of the departed. God instructed Ezekiel to refrain from eating “the bread of mourners,” meaning no one could even prepare him a dish.

Although Ezekiel had been sounding the alarm for years, the death of his wife got the exiles’ attention. At this point in his ministry, the exiles knew that all of Ezekiel’s words and actions had meaning. They knew that his wife’s death and his rejection of mourning rituals had to be significant. They asked him, “Will you not tell us what these things mean for us, that you are acting this way?” (24:19).

Ezekiel interpreted his sign-act for them with a word from the Lord. He prophesied, “I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the delight of your eyes, and your heart’s desire, and your sons and your daughters whom you left behind shall fall by the sword” (24:21). What Ezekiel lost with the death of his wife, the Judeans will soon lose with the collapse of their Temple and the death of their children still in Jerusalem. Yahweh links the two tragedies by using the same endearing term for the Temple that he had used for Ezekiel’s wife. The Temple was “the delight of your eyes.”

Both the exiles and the residents of Jerusalem believed that the city was impregnable. After dedicating the First Temple, God had promised King Solomon that his name would dwell in the city forever (1 Kings 9:3). In 701 BCE, when the powerful Assyrian army captured every town in its path, God spared Jerusalem (2 Kings 19:35-36). That miraculous episode strengthened the belief that Jerusalem was secure for all eternity and that God provided divine protection to its inhabitants. For this reason, Yahweh has a disparaging tone when he calls the Temple the people’s “stronghold, their joy and glory, the delight of their eyes and their heart’s affection” (24:25).

The Temple had morphed from a place to worship Yahweh into the place that was idolized. The Temple, rather than the God it represented, had become the object of their affection. They had no need for Yahweh to abide with them if the Temple still stood as their “good luck” tool. The prophet Jeremiah had called their reliance on the Temple a great deception because the Temple could not impart its holiness to the people (Jer. 7:4). Without a Temple, they would need to pursue sanctification with God through obedience and relationship.

Ezekiel instructed the exiles that on the day of the Lord, when confirmation of the Temple’s destruction arrived, they were to follow his stoic example. He said, “You shall do as I have done” (24:22). They could not express their grief in public or rely on any of the normal mourning customs. Ezekiel’s personal life was a metaphor for the inescapable sorrow that loomed over his nation. Just as Ezekiel had to suppress his grief, the news of Jerusalem’s fall will overpower the people of Jerusalem. Because of the magnitude of the disaster, customary rites would not provide relief. Swiftly carted off to Babylon, the shell-shocked evacuees would have no time to process their loss.

The death of Ezekiel’s wife is one of the most difficult episodes in the entire book. As a messenger of God, Ezekiel carried out every divine directive without resistance. Why should he also suffer the loss of his closest earthly companion? Ezekiel had already preached repentance and predicted judgement for years. If nothing could block the sword from striking Jerusalem, it seems purposeless to add any more affliction to the prophet’s own life. The exiles had questioned God’s justice despite their guilt (18:25). Ezekiel was innocent and obedient. Yet, he never lashed out against God.

However, in God’s mysterious ways, suffering often came along with the prophetic vocation. God did not remove the prophets from the calamities that they predicted. They suffered alongside their hearers, sometimes even more so. Ezekiel’s commissioning required total submission to the word of God.

God asked the prophet Hosea, a respected and God-fearing man, to marry Gomer, the adulteress (Hos. 1:2). For Gomer, matrimony did not guarantee fidelity, and she continued to break Hosea’s heart. God commanded Jeremiah to never marry or have children (Jer. 16:1-2). The prophet’s loneliness symbolized Judah’s doomed future and lack of immediate hope. Right at the crux of his ministry, Ezekiel took on the pain of the moment in a deeply personal way.

Loosening Ezekiel’s tongue

Ezekiel 24 ends on a hopeful note. God told Ezekiel that when fugitives from Jerusalem arrived in Babylon, the prophet would know that God’s judgement was complete. On that very day, when his prophecies were vindicated, God would loosen Ezekiel’s tongue. God predicted, “On that day your mouth shall be opened to the one who has escaped, and you shall speak and no longer be silent” (24:27).

From the beginning of Ezekiel’s ministry, God struck Ezekiel dumb. He restricted his speech so that his tongue clung to the roof of his mouth and that he was speechless unless giving direct messages of judgement from God (3:26). When God delivered Jerusalem’s punishment, he appeased his own wrath. As a result, he loosened Ezekiel’s tongue, allowing his message and mission to change. When the prophet’s tongue was restrained, he had only been authorized to deliver notices of past sins and coming judgement. Upon loosening his tongue, he changed his tone. He would console the people and offer them words of comfort. In the coming era of mercy, Ezekiel’s messages would be full of possibility and futuristic visions.

Ezekiel’s highest level of sanctification followed his lowest moment of suffering with the death of his wife. The same was true for Jerusalem. Yes, the earthly Temple was gone, but God still resided on his heavenly throne.

Thank you for listening and please continue to take part in this Bible Reading Challenge. We are coming up on the anniversary of the October 7 massacre. Christian organizations have come together to hold a memorial at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. If you would like to join us for the memorial or learn more, email me at srn@tjci.org

Shabbat Shalom and Am Israel Chai

 

The post Bible Fiber: Ezekiel 24 appeared first on Shelley Neese.

Bible Fiber: Ezekiel 23

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Welcome to Bible Fiber! Here, we explore the rich textures and shades of the biblical tapestry through the lens of Twelve Minor Prophets, two reformers, and one exile. I am Shelley Neese, president of The Jerusalem Connection, a Christian organization dedicated to sharing the story of the people of Israel, both ancient and modern.

Before I start this week’s commentary, I have big news! The very first Bible Fiber book is going to be released on October 1st! The book is a 52-week study of the Twelve Minor Prophets. Do the study of the Twelve Minor Prophets by yourself or in a small group for a comprehensive analysis in twelve months! I am excited to release this book, which has been a labor of love. If you want a reminder when the book launches, go to my website, www.shelleyneese.com and sign up for the Bible Fiber newsletter. I’ll have some freebies on the site when it launches. Now, back to Ezekiel.

This week, we are studying Ezekiel 23, an allegory of two unfaithful sisters: Oholah and Oholibah. Oholah represented Samaria, and Oholibah represented Jerusalem (23:4). The sisters’ relentless pursuit of new lovers allegorically portrayed Samaria and Jerusalem’s flirtations with foreign political alliances and their worship of pagan gods. Because of the sisters’ habitual infidelity, God pronounced severe judgment on them.

In the ancient Near East, smaller nations often sought the support of empires to navigate regional threats. The kings of Samaria and Jerusalem did not operate in radically different ways than other kings. However, the Bible writers recorded history from the divine perspective. In God’s eyes, it was unacceptable that Samaria and Jerusalem put their trust in every entity other than Yahweh. Ezekiel’s allegory of the two sisters depicts how Samaria and Jerusalem’s political alliances added sin on top of sin.

Two sisters

Ezekiel 23’s allegory opens differently than earlier allegories. Instead of commanding Ezekiel to compose his own , God narrates the entire story to Ezekiel. The chapter begins with a direct address from God: “Mortal, there were two women, the daughters of one mother; they prostituted themselves in Egypt; they prostituted themselves in their youth” (23:2). The siblings had the same mother, which means they shared a common origin and upbringing. Although they were God’s covenant people, both Samaria and Jerusalem fell into similar patterns of unfaithfulness and idolatry.

He continued, “Oholah was the name of the older and Oholibah the name of her sister. They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters” (23:4). Despite early signs of promiscuity, God claimed both sisters and gave them children. Although the allegory never states that the sisters were Yahweh’s wives, it implies a covenant relationship through the statement “they became mine.” The sisters’ children represented the citizens of Samaria and Jerusalem.

The sister allegory was unambiguous. In Hebrew, Oholah and Oholibah share the common root ohel, which means “tent.” Oholah translates to “her tent” and Oholibah translates to “my tent is in her.” Yahweh’s temple in Jerusalem can be called a tent, recalling the days of the transportable tabernacle. Oholibah’s name—my tent is in her—points to the fact that the temple of Yahweh abided in Jerusalem. Samaria housed alternative shrines and places of worship that opposed the temple in Jerusalem. So, she is called “her tent.” The choice of names is a literary flourish. Because Oholah and Oholibah have a similar sound, their names phonetically reinforce the sisters’ shared destiny.

Oholah

According to the metaphor, Oholah was the first sister to commit adultery. God explained that even when Oholah belonged to him, she grew restless and looked outside their marriage for men who could satisfy her lust (23:5). The Bible’s historical books confirm the Kingdom of Israel’s idolatrous history. Starting during the reign of King Jeroboam I, Israel worshipped golden calves and adopted unauthorized religious practices (1 Kings 12:25-33). King Ahab and his wife Jezebel introduced the worship of Baal, further entrenching Israel’s idolatry (1 Kings 16:29-34).

According to Ezekiel’s uncomfortable descriptions, idolatry was only one way Israel betrayed Yahweh. Because the kingdom lacked trust in Yahweh as their sole protector and provider, it was guilty of pursuing foreign military alliances. The allegory reveals the Assyrians as the first object of Oholah’s passions. The powerful Assyrian warriors teased her with their handsome looks, horses, and fine apparel. Ezekiel recalls, “She bestowed her sexual favors upon them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them, and she defiled herself with all the idols of everyone for whom she lusted” (23:6).

In the eighth century BCE, the Assyrian empire was at the height of its territorial and political power. Because of their extensive military campaigns, they exerted control from Mesopotamia to Egypt. The Oholah allegory may have been a general characterization of Samaria’s infatuation with Assyrian power. However, if Ezekiel was pointing to a specific historical incident in Israel’s history, it was likely King Jehu’s pursuit of Assyrian King Shalmaneser III.

In 840 BCE, King Jehu recognized the Assyrians were on the rise and allied with them against their common enemies in Jerusalem and Damascus. The Bible does not mention this historical alliance, but it describes Jehu’s reign as being filled with internal struggles and conflict with his Judean and Aramean neighbors. Historians know about Jehu’s submission to Assyria because of the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, which was discovered in 1846 during excavations of the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud. Among Shalmaneser’s robust military achievements listed on the obelisk, it depicts King Jehu bowing before Shalmaneser. In return for Assyria’s imperial protection, Jehu paid a tribute of gold, silver, and gifts.

Yahweh explained to Ezekiel that he abandoned Oholah and gave her over to the hands of her Assyrian lovers (23:9). In short order, lust turned to violence. Assyria “uncovered her nakedness” and “seized her sons and her daughters” before killing her with the sword (23:10). Underlying the description of Oholah’s rape was the actual Assyrian attack on the Kingdom of Israel (2 Kings 18:9-12). In 722 BCE, the Assyrian army killed or captured the entire population of Samaria, flattened the city’s buildings, and robbed her of her wealth and natural resources.

Oholibah

After describing Oholah’s punishment, the allegory shifts to the story of Oholibah, the younger sister. Oholibah’s pattern of lust was even worse than her adulterous sister (23:11, 14). Rather than avoiding her sister’s disastrous fate, she too seduced the Assyrian warriors. Ezekiel explained, “she lusted after the Assyrians, governors and commanders, warriors clothed in full armor, mounted horsemen, all of them handsome young men” (23:12).

If the allegory was being specific, this episode might refer to King Ahaz of Jerusalem’s alliance with Assyrian King Tiglath-Pileser III (2 Kings 16:5-20). Ahaz needed help to fend off attacks from King Pekah of Israel and the Arameans. Instead of relying on Yahweh for protection, he acknowledged Assyrian overlordship and sent a heavy tribute to the king. King Ahaz traveled to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser III. During the trip, Ahaz admired the Assyrian pagan altars and ordered a replica to be built in Jerusalem. In another brazen move, he moved the original bronze altar used for Yahweh worship to make room for the Assyrian idols.

After dismissing the Assyrians, Oholibah focused on a bas-relief of Chaldean warriors. These warriors were depicted with red paint, wearing belts around their waists and flowing turbans on their heads. They all appeared to be officers (23:15). The Bible often uses the term Chaldean synonymously with Babylonian. In this context, Oholibah was attracted to the Chaldeans as the ruling dynasty in Babylon. In the seventh century BCE, the Chaldeans were the Semitic tribal group that took the primary positions of power in the Babylonian empire. Nebuchadnezzar II was the most famous of the Chaldean kings.

Oholibah became infatuated with the Chaldean officers. She sent messengers to them and invited them to her bed (23:16). The description might point to King Hezekiah’s welcoming of Babylonian diplomats into his palace. After King Hezekiah recovered from a long bout of sickness that nearly killed him, the king of Babylon sent envoys with letters and gifts. Hezekiah, seeking to impress the Babylonians, responded to their generosity by giving them a tour of all his wealth and military resources (2 Kings 20:12-21). The prophet Isaiah confronted Hezekiah for his naïve and short-sighted actions. He correctly prophesied that because of Hezekiah’s foolishness, one day the Babylonians would pillage the palace treasures (Isa. 39:1-8).

The Chaldean officers responded to Oholibah’s invitation and “came to her into the bed of love” (23:17). As soon as they had defiled her, she regretted her choice “and turned from them in disgust” (23:17). Neither Assyria nor Babylon could satisfy her cravings, and she hated them for it. In her desperation, she continued to prostitute herself and flaunt her nakedness. She even indulged in an affair with her old lover, Egypt. Ezekiel described the Egyptian affair using repulsive, bestial imagery to show the complete lack of bounds on her sexual appetite (23:21). (I don’t even want to repeat any of it on the show, but you can read it yourself.) At no point did Oholibah return to her husband, Yahweh. As a result, Yahweh recounted to Ezekiel, “I turned in disgust from her, as I had turned from her sister” (23:18).

Oholibah’s wooing of Assyrian, Babylonian, and Egyptian soldiers backfired. Yahweh stirred up a rabble of her ex-lovers to torture her. The Babylonians and Assyrians used the very weapons, chariots, and horses she once found alluring to defeat her. Assyrian and Babylonian soldiers, known for their mutilation practices, stripped her and cut off her nose and ears (23:25). The army plundered her clothes and jewelry and burned her city. Ezekiel emphasized God’s hand in the frenzy of violence. Yahweh announced, “I will deliver you into the hands of those whom you hate, into the hands of those from whom you turned in disgust” (23:28).

Even though Yahweh indicted Oholah and Oholibah for the same charges, Ezekiel gave more attention to Oholibah’s punishment since she represented his listeners. Ezekiel reinforced the point of his allegory: the citizens of Jerusalem will not escape the consequences of their political or spiritual infidelity. In listing their crimes, Ezekiel reiterated the accusations of previous oracles: they violated the Sabbath, worshiped idols, profaned the temple, and sacrificed their children to false gods (23:36-39). They mistook their natural enemies—idols and foreign armies—for potential lovers and paid the price.

Even after the sisters grew weary and aged, they continued in the lifestyle of harlots. They beautified themselves with makeup and jewelry. Yahweh said, “you sat on a stately couch with a table spread before it on which you had placed my incense and my oil” (23:41). They repurposed the incense and oil, meant for worshiping Yahweh, to beautify and perfume themselves. Predators took advantage of the aging prostitutes (23:43). No longer capable of wooing suitors from Babylon and Assyria, they resorted to desert nomads and drunk wanderers offering bracelets and trinkets for payment of their sexual favors (23:42).

Connection to Chapter 16

Chapter 23 continues the lewd allegory that began in Chapter 16. Both feature the covenant people’s unfaithfulness through graphic marriage metaphors. Chapter 23 rivals Chapter 16 in its pornographic imagery and R-rated content. Guaranteed, neither chapter makes it into many sermons or Bible studies.

While Chapter 16 focuses on Jerusalem, Chapter 23 expands the address to both Samaria and Jerusalem, even though Samaria received her punishment a century earlier. Chapter 16 characterizes Jerusalem as an abandoned infant whom God adopted and later married. Rather than show gratitude for her rescue, she used her beauty and wealth to betray him and go after other lovers. Chapter 23 depicts two promiscuous sisters who pursued affairs with Assyrian, Babylonian, and Egyptian warriors. The allegory of the orphan turned queen focused on God’s unreturned love as his people went after the Canaanite gods. In the story of the two sisters, the tale highlights both cities’ ill-conceived political pursuits.

Another interesting difference is that Chapter 16 details the splendor of Yahweh’s unfaithful queen. Ezekiel described her fine apparel, jewelry, and shoes. Although Yahweh was her benefactor, she used his gifts to bait her lovers. In Chapter 23, Ezekiel did not describe the sisters’ physical characteristics. Instead, he focused on the attractiveness of the military men that she pursued. The Assyrians were “clothed in full armor, mounted horsemen, all of them handsome young men” (23:12). The Babylonians wore “belts around their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like officers” (23:15). The sisters could not resist the strapping warriors.

The two different allegories reinforce each other. Jerusalem cannot endlessly pursue other gods and foreign alliances without being disciplined. They were not guilty of one-off affairs; they were serial adulterers.

Conclusion

Ezekiel used strong rhetoric to erase any doubt in the minds of his listeners that Jerusalem did not deserve the impending punishment. The Judahites believed they were morally and spiritually superior to the Israelites. They were familiar with the story of Israel’s fall, and Samaria had become synonymous with disobedience. While the Kingdom of Israel met its end, the Kingdom of Judah persisted.

Ezekiel’s shocking claim was that Samaria and Jerusalem not only had the same origin story; they also shared the same fate. In the race to the bottom, Samaria arrived first, but Jerusalem followed. Both sisters cast Yahweh aside. By putting God out of their hearts and minds, they justified their whoredom. Yahweh warned, “Because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back, therefore bear the consequences of your lewdness and prostitutions” (23:35).

Jerusalem should have contemplated the actions that led to Samaria’s downfall, so that she could avoid the same mistakes. Instead, she applauded her survival and made no alterations to her own behavior. Ezekiel’s allegory highlighted how Oholibah repeated the same destructive choices of her older sister. Because her prostitution was never ending, her punishment and disgrace were her own doing.

Yahweh pronounced, “you have gone the way of your sister; therefore, I will give her cup into your hand” (23:31). Ezekiel then inserted a harsh poem describing Oholibah drinking every drop from the same cup of wrath as her sister (23:32-34). Oholibah is “filled with drunkenness and sorrow” (23:33).

Drinking the cup of Yahweh’s wrath was a common word picture in the prophets, a metaphor which placed God in the role of the divine host serving his guests. At times, he provided a cup of salvation, while at others it was a cup of wrath. Isaiah prophesied the day that Jerusalem would drink the bottomless cup of Yahweh’s wrath and become a staggering drunk (Isa. 51:17). Both Isaiah and Jeremiah promised that, after the age of Judah’s punishment was over, God would deliver the cup of wrath to Judah’s tormentors (Isa. 51:23; Jer. 25:15-16).

Jesus’s words and teachings followed the same prophetic chain of divine word pictures. In the days leading up to Jesus’s crucifixion, he prayed, “Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me, yet not what I want but what you want” (Mark 14:36). Jesus referred to the divine cup as a symbol of the suffering, sacrifice, and judgment he was about to endure on behalf of humanity.

Just like the two sisters, we too are sinners and deserve the cup of God’s wrath. However, Jesus took our sins upon himself and drank from the cup in our place. Because of the saving effect of his sacrificial death and resurrection, we instead get to drink from the cup of salvation. The cup of salvation is overflowing with Yahweh’s mercy and lovingkindness. Like the Psalmist proclaimed, “I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord” (Ps. 116:13).

Thank you for listening and please continue to take part in this Bible Reading Challenge. If you would like the transcript of the podcast with all the biblical references, go to our blog and sign up for our weekly newsletter. We added a free downloadable goodie on our website to anyone who signs up so go to www.thejerusalemconnection.us and check it out. Don’t forget to rate Bible Fiber wherever you listen to your podcasts. It helps people find the show.

Until next week, Am Israel Chai!

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Bible Fiber: Interview with Ted Wright about Mount Ararat

This week I am interviewing Ted Wright! Ted Wright is the founder and Executive Director of EpicArchaeology.org. He has a B.A. in Anthropology & Archaeology from the Cobb Institute of Archaeology at Mississippi State University, and a M.A. degree in Christian apologetics from Southern Evangelical Seminary. For over a decade, Ted has been a speaker on Christian apologetics as well as Biblical Archaeology across North America & internationally. One of the super cool things he is doing is currently working as field assistant, photographer, and videographer for the “Agri Regional Archaeological Survey” in Eastern Turkey, co-sponsored by Andrews University and Istanbul University. In fact, Ted just got back from Mount Ararat (Yes, you heard that right….Noah’s Mount Ararat) yesterday. We talk all things Mount Ararat, ancient flood epics, and glacial moraines at 13,000 feet.

The post Bible Fiber: Interview with Ted Wright about Mount Ararat appeared first on Shelley Neese.

Bible Fiber: Ezekiel 22

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Welcome to Bible Fiber, where we are encountering the textures and shades of the biblical tapestry through twelve Minor Prophets, two reformers, and one exile. I am Shelley Neese, president of The Jerusalem Connection, a Christian organization devoted to sharing the story of the people of Israel, both ancient and modern.

This week, we’re studying Ezekiel 22. Ezekiel’s book stands out in biblical studies for a unique reason: it’s the only text that offers a window into the religious life and mindset of Judeans during the Babylonian exile. While the Book of Daniel shares stories of individual exiles in extraordinary situations, Ezekiel provides something different. It gives us an insider’s view of the exiled community’s spiritual atmosphere. This perspective makes Ezekiel’s writings particularly valuable for understanding this crucial period in Jewish history.

Jerusalem versus Tel Abib

Let’s recap what we’ve learned about the exiles so far in Ezekiel. In Chapter 12, we saw that they didn’t buy into doom-and-gloom prophecies. They thought these predictions were either false or too distant to matter in their lives (12:21-28). Chapter 18 revealed their fatalistic attitudes. They believed they were suffering for their ancestors’ sins, not their own (18:1-4). As for idolatry, scholars are unsure if the exiles had idols in their Tel Abib encampment. Still, Chapter 13 tells us they were into pagan divination practices like witchcraft and sorcery (13:17-19).

Ezekiel called out his fellow exiles for their wrong thinking and bad behavior. But he saved his harshest words for the people back in Jerusalem, 600 miles away. Chapter 22 lays out a laundry list of Jerusalem’s sins—covering everything from social issues to religious practices, from sexual misconduct to economic crimes. No one escapes Ezekiel’s criticism. By tallying Jerusalem’s sins, Ezekiel justified God’s actions beforehand. Clearly, God had to cleanse and purge Jerusalem.

Ezekiel 22 comprises three short-form indictments against Jerusalem. The prophet signaled each new oracle with the introductory prophetic formula, “the word of the Lord came to me” (22:1, 17, 23). The first oracle is a full indictment of Jerusalem’s sins (22:1-16). The second oracle describes Jerusalem’s coming judgement in the language of smelting metal (22:17-22). The third oracle elaborates on the guilt of Israel’s leaders and citizens (22:23-31).

Inventory of sins (22:1-16)

The chapter begins with Yahweh commanding Ezekiel to act as prosecutor at Jerusalem’s trial. Yahweh said, “You, mortal, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Then declare to it all its abominable deeds. You shall say: Thus says the Lord God: A city! Shedding blood within itself; its time has come; making its idols, defiling itself” (22:2-3).

Biblical prophets often reverted to courtroom language in their speeches to present the evidence against Israel. Legal imagery depicted God as the judge delivering his irrevocable verdict. In Ezekiel, when God summoned the defendant to the courtroom, he refused to dignify Jerusalem by addressing it with a proper name. Instead, Yahweh called Jerusalem the “bloody city.” And it’s not just a one-time insult; God repeats the accusation of bloodshed three times (22:6, 8, 12).

God had once designated Jerusalem as the “city of God” that he loved “more than all the other dwellings of Jacob” (Ps. 87:3). Isaiah referred to Jerusalem as the “holy city” and “daughter Zion” (Isa. 52:1-2). From “holy city” to “bloody city,” how far had Jerusalem fallen in God’s eyes? The only other place in the Bible to be called the “bloody city” was Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire, which was famous for its brutal exploits of conquered peoples (Nah. 3:1). Ezekiel paired the sins of violence and idolatry because, as often was the case, where there was idolatry, there was also violence, whether it was child sacrifice or self-harm (2 Kings 17:17-18; 1 Kings 18:28). Through their idolatry and violence toward one another, they polluted the land and defiled themselves (22:4).

Ezekiel accused them of a laundry list of other specific sins, even more thorough than he had done in Chapter 18. They treated their fathers and mothers with contempt (22:7). According to the Ten Commandments, dishonoring one’s parents was punishable by death (Ex. 21:17). They extorted foreigners and oppressed orphans and widows. Greed and power had directed their vectors inward rather than outward, rendering them unable to empathize. When God first called the Israelites to be his special people, he recognized that the world was a broken place where many people have it harder than others. For that reason, caring for the vulnerable was essential to building a just society. God embedded protections in his legal code to uphold his standard of justice, but the Jerusalemites ignored them (Deut. 24:17-18).

As a priest, Ezekiel was certain to include their religious apostasies as well (22:8-9). They disrespected what God had set up as sacred and they profaned the Sabbath day, an accusation he had elaborated on earlier in his historical recap (20:12-21). (GO BACK and listen to the episode on Ezekiel 20.) He accused them of participating in pagan rituals, like sacrificial meals and ritual prostitution.

Ezekiel went into the most detail about the sexual crimes they had committed. Besides adultery, they indulged in incestuous relationships, defiling their sisters and their daughters-in-law (22:10-11). Ezekiel also blamed them for corrupting Jerusalem’s judicial system by accepting bribes and they tainted the economic sphere by charging high interest rates (22:12).

Worst of all, Yahweh said, “you have forgotten me” (22:12). Centuries before, God sent the same message to the Northern Kingdom of Israel through the prophet Hosea. Hosea warned the Israelites that they suffered because they no longer had any knowledge of their God (Hos. 4:1,6). Once Yahweh punished Jerusalem and expelled its inhabitants, they would never again forget his power (22:16). Ezekiel said, “I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries, and I will purge your filthiness out of you” (22:15). The irony is that only after being scattered among pagan nations would the people of Jerusalem experience cleansing from their filthiness.

Ezekiel didn’t list every single sin of Jerusalem, but he covered a lot of ground. His accusations hit most of the Ten Commandments. Ezekiel seems also to echo the structure in the Holiness Code—the chapters in Leviticus that detail the moral, ethical, and ritual conduct expected from the community (Lev. 17-26). Since Sinai, the Israelites had known and understood what Yahweh required of them. Yet their selfish pursuits overruled their will to obey God’s commands.

Smelting Furnace

Ezekiel followed up his presentation of Jerusalem’s crimes with a metallurgy word picture. Yahweh told Ezekiel, “The house of Israel has become dross to me; all of them, silver, bronze, tin, iron and led. In the smelter they have become dross” (22:19). Although Ezekiel returned to symbolic language, he did not cloud his meaning.

Smelting involves heating ore to extract valuable metal, like silver. Dross is a waste material that forms on the surface of a liquified metal during the smelting process. The metalworker must skim off and discard the dross. In Ezekiel’s allegory, Yahweh was the metalworker, turning up the heat in his furnace, Jerusalem. He warned, “I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will put you in and melt you” (22:20). God even blew on the fire, giving oxygen to the flames (22:21).

Other prophets—like Jeremiah, Isaiah, Malachi, and Zechariah—also used metallurgy allegories to describe Jerusalem’s calamity and the period of exile (Jer. 6:27-30; Isa. 1:25-26; Mal. 3:2-3; Zech. 13:9). Other than Ezekiel, every prophet depicted God’s judgment as a refining fire that would remove their impurities. To those prophets, the refiner’s fire symbolized the future restoration of Israel after a time of hard-earned lessons. Ezekiel put his own spin on the furnace of judgement. Ezekiel warned nothing would survive the inferno because no one in Jerusalem was innocent (22:22). Noone merited saving from the fire of God’s wrath.

The Guilty

Ezekiel introduced a third oracle that seems to be an intentional cross-reference of the seventh century BCE Judean prophet Zephaniah. Zephaniah prophesied, “The officials within it are roaring lions; its judges are evening wolves that leave nothing until the morning. Its prophets are reckless, faithless persons; its priests have profaned what is sacred; they have done violence to the law” (Zeph. 3:3-4).

Both Ezekiel and Zephaniah reproached every class of the accused in Jerusalem: royalty, priests, elders, and prophets. They were all found wanting. Not for the first time, Ezekiel described Jerusalem’s kings as predatory lions who hate what God loves (22:25). Like Zephaniah, Ezekiel likened the city’s officials to voracious wolves. They were guilty of “destroying lives to get dishonest gain” (22:27). Prophets spread their lies and false visions, misleading people to promote their own self-interest (22:28).

In earlier oracles, Ezekiel called out Jerusalem’s kings, officials, and false prophets. Chapter 22 is the first time that he challenged his fellow priests. To them, he issued the strongest worded rebuke, although it almost exactly mirrored Zephaniah’s condemnation of the priests two centuries earlier. They were guilty of profaning the sacred things, abusing the law, and disregarding the Sabbaths. Although priests were supposed to instruct the people in the law of Moses and enforce purity regulations and rituals, the priests in Ezekiel’s day “made no distinction between the holy and the common” (22:26). Instead of exemplifying covenant living, they committed violence against God’s word.

In a capital with ravenous leaders, lying prophets, and defiled priests, the ordinary citizens had little hope. God commissioned the leaders to set them on the path of justice and righteousness. Instead, they led them to corruption. Guilt began at the top and trickled down to the citizens. In Chapter 18, Ezekiel emphasized individual responsibility; he was not letting the regular people off the hook. They too were guilty of subverting justice, oppressing the poor, and practicing extortion (22:29). In summary, all of Jerusalem had brought on the coming disaster.

In the past, when a generation became so corrupt that they were beyond salvation, Yahweh found at least one righteous person worth saving. In Noah’s day, the people had strayed so far from their creator that their thoughts were constantly filled with evil (Gen. 6:5). Amidst this corruption, however, Genesis described Noah as “blameless in his generation” so he saved Noah and his family from the floodwaters (Gen. 6:9).

Ezekiel lamented that in Jerusalem there was not a single righteous individual who was worth saving. According to Yahweh, it was not for a lack of looking. God said, “And I sought for anyone among them who would repair the wall and stand in the breach before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one” (22:30).

Who is to blame

Ezekiel’s powerful denunciation of Jerusalem preceded the Babylonian destruction of the city by only four years. As a prophet, his job was to reframe their mindset and position them toward repentance and return. When Jerusalem finally fell, the upset exiles in Babylon could look at Ezekiel’s writings to make sense of what happened. Somehow, the exiles needed to reconcile their belief in Yahweh’s supreme power with the disastrous fate of his people, city, and temple. They questioned how a pagan empire could overthrow Jerusalem if Yahweh was the sovereign God of the universe. However, that was the wrong inquiry. Ezekiel urged them to consider why they let Jerusalem become so unholy in the first place.

Looking at their scriptures, the exiles found answers in the Torah, writings, and prophets. The Torah warned that covenant unfaithfulness had consequences. Their loyalty to Yahweh and his laws determined their blessings in the land. The historical writings documented the names of Israel’s unrighteous kings, demonstrating the cyclical nature of Israel’s periods of rebellion. Early prophets called for repentance and return, a last reminder of the repercussions of disloyalty to Yahweh. Later prophets, like Ezekiel and Jeremiah, predicted the coming punishment and justified God’s reasoning.

Oracles like Ezekiel 22 clarified that it was not Yahweh who had failed the covenant. Israel’s covenant betrayal absolved Yahweh of his responsibilities and brought on the disaster. Ezekiel said, “You have become guilty by the blood that you have shed and defiled by the idols that you have made; you have brought your days near” (22:4). The Babylonian attack did not display Yahweh’s weakness; it exhibited his strength. The all-powerful God would not stand idly by while his followers dismissed him and polluted his temple city. Their theology about the one true God was not what they got wrong. What they had miscalculated was the full-hearted commitment that Yahweh required.

That’s it for Ezekiel 22. Thank you for listening and please continue to take part in this Bible Reading Challenge. Join me next week for Ezekiel 23. I am not looking forward to that one. If you peak ahead, you will see why. Please keep modern Israel and Jerusalem in your prayers. Pray for Jerusalem’s peace and its people, who currently feel more isolated than ever on the world stage.

For all the Biblical references each week, please see the show transcript on our blog or by signing up for our emails at www.thejerusalemconnection.us/
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Shabbat Shalom and Am Israel Chai

The post Bible Fiber: Ezekiel 22 appeared first on Shelley Neese.

Bible Fiber: Ezekiel 20:45-21:32

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Welcome to Bible Fiber! Here, we explore the rich textures and shades of the biblical tapestry through the lens of twelve Minor Prophets, two reformers, and one exile. I am Shelley Neese, president of The Jerusalem Connection, a Christian organization dedicated to sharing the story of the people of Israel, both ancient and modern. This week, we are diving into Ezekiel 21, although I am also including in this segment the last five verses of Chapter 20.

In Hebrew Bibles, the division and versification of Chapter 20 and 21 varies from that of English Bibles. By connecting Ezekiel’s divine fire prophecy (20:45-49) with the series of divine sword prophecies that follow (21:1-32), Hebrew Bibles create a correlation. No matter the differing agents of death, they all predict Jerusalem’s coming devastation. However, English Bibles include the fire prophecy in Chapter 20. For our study, I use the verse references from the English Bible, but I am including the fire oracle with the Chapter 21 study. It seems logical to me that the fire oracle is a fitting segue to the four sword oracles.

Fire against the south (20:45-49)

After establishing Israel’s guilt as a habitual covenant violator in the last chapter, Ezekiel pronounced that the time for Israel to repent had passed. Yahweh announced, “I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every green tree in you and every dry tree; the blazing flame shall not be quenched and all faces from south to north shall be scorched by it” (20:47). He instructed Ezekiel to face toward the south, then prophesy against the forest land. The “south” and “forest land” were parabolic code for Jerusalem and Judah.

The unstoppable divine fire would devour everything in its path. In Ezekiel’s vision, the dry tree symbolized the wicked, while the green trees portrayed the righteous. Typically, a dry tree was more ignitable than a green one, but God’s fire consumed both without discrimination. He described everyone, regardless of guilt or innocence, as facing the consequences of Israel’s disobedience.

In 586 BCE, Ezekiel’s predictions came to fulfillment. Led by King Nebuchadnezzar II, the Babylonian army breached the walls of Jerusalem, setting the city ablaze. The inferno engulfed the First Temple, the royal palaces, and large parts of the city. According to descriptions in 2 Kings and Jeremiah, Nebuchadnezzar burned down every significant structure (2 Kings 25:9; Jer. 52:13). The ferocity of the devastation is supported by archaeological findings, which reveal thick layers of ash and debris corresponding to the Babylonian assault. Among the ruins in the Babylonian destruction layer, archaeologists have found artifacts fused or distorted by the intense heat.

In response to the metaphor about forest land and various trees, the exiled Israelites grumbled about Ezekiel’s cryptic language. Ezekiel lamented to God, “They are saying of me, ‘Is he not a maker of allegories?” (20:49). While the exiles’ stubbornness may have contributed to their dismissal of Ezekiel’s message, their critique was not unfounded. Prior to his candid reflection in Chapter 20, Ezekiel relied on symbolic actions and allegories to convey his prophecies, making them easier to overlook or misinterpret.

Sword against Jerusalem (21:1-7)

God responded to Ezekiel’s complaint about his unpopularity. He allowed him to reexplain the fire oracle in clearer terms, but it was still through the language of symbols. An unsheathed sword replaced the fire as God’s agent of death. In the divine fire oracle, he used three different words for “south” or “southern,” but never identified Jerusalem as the actual subject of the divine curse. In the clarifying sword oracle, he dropped the vague terms and addressed Jerusalem, the temple, and the land of Israel (21:2). He replaced the description of green and dry trees with a straightforward warning to Judah’s righteous and wicked citizenry. Ezekiel prophesied, “I am coming against you and will draw my sword out of its sheath and will cut off from you both righteous and wicked” (21:3).

Critics of Ezekiel accuse the prophet of lacking a systematic theology on the doctrine of damnation. Ezekiel’s prior utterances assured that the sins of the wicked did not impact the righteous (18:9). Yet, the sword and fire oracles make it seem like the fates of the righteous and the wicked are linked. Ezekiel described “all faces” as scorched by the “blazing flame” (20:47). Ezekiel held true to his earlier assurances that God would judge everyone based on their own merit. However, the immediate consequences of generational unfaithfulness swept up all of Israel.

To come to the prophets with the lens of theological studies is to overlook the prophetic experience in favor of the seminary experience. Prophets operated as God’s mouthpieces, but they preached charismatically, not mechanically. Rabbi Abraham Heschel warned against attempts to force all prophetic utterances to cohere into one unified presentation of God’s methods and ways. Heschel said the prophets “disclosed attitudes of God rather than about God.”

In addition, Ezekiel may have emphasized the totality of the coming devastation, because his present audience imagined a future attack would be like the two previous Babylonian attacks. In 597 and 591 BCE, the Babylonian army deported Jerusalem’s elite and spared the temple and palace. The presumption was that the deportees were wicked, while the people who stayed in Jerusalem were deemed innocent. Ezekiel’s sharp rhetoric debunked the assumption that Jerusalem would survive the coming assault as it survived previous attacks. Also, the people’s definition of righteous and wicked was not God’s definition, which will come up in Chapter 24’s oracle about the cooking pot.

To outwardly show his sense of inward despair, God instructed Ezekiel to groan loudly enough for others to hear (21:6). The groaning got the exiles’ attention and provoked questions. God said, “When they say to you, ‘Why do you moan?’ you shall say, ‘Because of the news that has come” (21:7). If his oracles had fallen on deaf ears, Ezekiel assured them that the actual punishment would leave their hearts melting, their hands feeble, and their knees weak (21:7).

Sword against Babylon (21:8-17)

In the second sword oracle, Ezekiel sang a poetic ode to Yahweh’s avenging sword and prophesied against Jerusalem and the temple. Ezekiel described the sword in poetic terms as sharp, polished, and flashing like lightning (21:9-10). Ready for battle, the sword had two targets: the population of Israel and the princes of Israel (21:12). Ezekiel added musicality to the song with the line: “Let the sword fall twice, thrice; it is a sword for killing” (21:14). Perhaps he repurposed a preexisting tune for Israelite warriors going to battle.

The sword obeyed Yahweh’s battle commands, relentlessly pursuing its target and blocking any escape from the city. Ezekiel sang, “Attack to the right! Engage to the left! — wherever your edge is directed” (21:16). The Babylonians acted as Yahweh’s appointed agents of execution, positioning their attack weaponry at every gate of Jerusalem to prevent anyone from escaping (21:15).

To dramatize the oracle, Yahweh orchestrated Ezekiel’s gestures. He directed him to smack his thighs and clap his hands in anger (21:12, 14). Through his body language, he mourned the coming destruction of the holy city.

The Signpost (21:18-23)

After the sword song, Ezekiel switched modes from singer to performer. God told Ezekiel to “mark out two roads for the sword of the king of Babylon” (21:19). This is the first specific reference to the “king of Babylon” as Yahweh’s named executioner. The text lacks details on how Ezekiel mapped the road, maybe he sketched in the dirt with a branch, or he could have inscribed another brick. God told him to draw a fork in the road from Babylon that splits into two directions. One road led to Rabbah, the Ammonite city, which is today modern Amman, the capital of Jordan. The other road led to Jerusalem. God instructed Ezekiel to place a signpost where the three roads intersected. As the Babylonian army moved southward, they faced a crucial choice. Both the Ammonite and Israelite kingdoms had rebelled against the empire, giving Nebuchadnezzar justification to attack them both. (Refer to Ezekiel 17 to learn how Zedekiah violated the treaty with Babylon.)

Using his visual aide, Ezekiel imitated Nebuchadnezzar trying to decide which direction he should take his military campaign. Ezekiel performed three distinct types of divination (21:21). First, he drew an arrow from a quiver, a practice known as belomancy. This ancient method is akin to drawing a name from a hat in modern times. Presumably, one arrow bore the inscription “Jerusalem” while the other bore “Rabbah.” Second, Nebuchadnezzar consulted his household idols, known as teraphim in Hebrew. Historians do not know how the ancients consulted teraphim. One theory is that the statues represented ancestors or deified family members; they may have been intermediaries between the family and the divine.

Lastly, Nebuchadnezzar examined an animal’s liver, a widespread divination practice in the ancient Near East called hepatoscopy. Archaeologists have uncovered clay models of animal livers at various sites like Mari, Hazor, and Nippur. Priests would interpret the markings on the liver of a sacrificed animal to divine the future, like the practice of palm reading today. In Babylon, archaeologists discovered an instructional clay model of a sheep’s liver that contained over 50 inscriptions explaining the significance of every blemish.

All three divination methods pointed to Jerusalem. Ezekiel, acting as Nebuchadnezzar, trusted that his course of action was clear. For the exiles observing Ezekiel’s symbolic enactments, it must have been strange seeing a prophet of Yahweh conduct pagan rituals prohibited in the Israelite religion. However, God used Ezekiel’s charade to reveal the coming disaster. God was going to direct Nebuchadnezzar’s path even if that meant directing the pagan king through divination.

King Zedekiah was the recipient of Ezekiel’s last message in the signpost oracle. In previous references to Zedekiah, he deprecated him by calling him “prince,” as if he was undeserving of the title “king.” By this point in Ezekiel’s prophetic career, his vitriol escalated, and he referred to Zedekiah as the “vile, wicked prince of Israel” (21:25). Ezekiel commanded Zedekiah to strip off his robe and royal turban which he had surely profaned. Ezekiel prophesied the end of the Davidic royal line, permanently overthrown until God’s anointed one arrived (21:27). Only a worthy Davidic descendant could reinstate the monarchy and take rule. Beyond that, Ezekiel also longed for the dramatic restructuring of the entire social order in Judah. Ezekiel said, “Exalt that which is low; humble that which is high,” (21:26), a sentiment very familiar to Christians. The apostle Paul described the Gospel as “God chos[ing] what is low and despised in the world” (1 Cor. 1:28).

Sword against the Ammonites and Babylonians (21:28-32)

In his last oracle, Ezekiel turned his attention from Jerusalem to the Ammonites (21:28). God would punish the Ammonites, even if Nebuchadnezzar targeted Jerusalem first. They were the sword of judgment’s next victim.

Despite kinship, the Ammonites were long adversaries of Israel. The Ammonites traced their lineage back to Ben-Ammi, the product of Lot’s incestuous relationship with his younger daughter (Gen. 19:38). Throughout biblical history, Israel and Ammon engaged in a cycle of provocation and retaliation. During the time of the Judges, the Ammonites oppressed Israel until Jephthah led a successful campaign against them (Judg. 10-11). In the monarchy era, both King Saul and later King David waged military campaigns against the Ammonites (1 Sam. 11; 2 Sam. 10-12). Despite intermittent periods of cold peace, animosity between Israel and Ammon endured for centuries. The prophet Zephaniah even likened Ammon to Gomorrah, suggesting they deserved a similar fate (Zeph. 2:9-10).

Although Ezekiel did not have access to an Ammonite audience while he was in exile, he taunted them through his oracle. He said, “A sword, a sword! Drawn for slaughter, polished to consume, to flash like lightning” (21:28). After Jerusalem’s destruction, he explained, the sword would fall on Ammon, and she would receive her “final punishment” (21:29).

The final three verses of Chapter 21 could either be a continuation of the prophecy concerning Ammon or a new oracle directed at Babylon. Suddenly, God commanded the sword to return to its sheath (21:30). Once the sword was sheathed, God pronounced his judgment on the sword itself. /God warned, “In the place where you were created, in the land of your origin, I will judge you” (21:30). Since Babylon acted as God’s sword throughout the oracle, it seems like Ezekiel’s last message was a warning to Babylon. When the Babylonian army’s military campaign had run its course, Nebuchadnezzar and his troops returned to Babylon. Perhaps this is what Ezekiel meant by returning to the place of their origin.

Although God used the Babylonian army to inflict his punishment on Judah, God also had every intention of avenging his covenant people. He alerted the sword, “I will pour out my indignation upon you; with the fire of my wrath, I will blow upon you. I will deliver you into brutish hands, those skillful to destroy” (21:31). /With Jerusalem, God chastised them hoping to initiate their eventual redemption. Their punishment was brutal but temporary. On the other hand, he informed Babylon that her memory would be completely erased from the earth forever (21:32). No one would remember either Babylon or the Ammonites.

Ezekiel does not explain why God punished Babylon if she had fulfilled his own aim in punishing Israel. Although it is a complex theological position, the prophetic writings state many times that the Babylonians were still morally responsible for their actions. God may have used them as a tool of discipline, but their own greed, ambition, and cruelty motivated them. As such, they were accountable for their sins and excesses against God’s people (Jer. 50:11-13). /Prophets like Isaiah and Daniel denounced Babylon’s pride in their writings, emphasizing her self-exaltation as a significant factor that led to her eventual downfall (Isa. 14:12-15; Dan. 4:30-31).

Sword imagery in the Bible

Ezekiel used God’s sword to represent his absolute authority over human affairs, but the image of Yahweh with a drawn sword was an established biblical theme. /For example, prior to the Israelite army’s assault on Jericho, Joshua encountered a divine angel wielding a drawn sword. The angel promised to lead Joshua into battle as commander of the Lord’s army (Josh. 5:13-15). In that case, Yahweh drew his sword against Israel’s enemies for her protection. However, Yahweh did not hesitate to draw his sword of judgment on his own people when necessary. Centuries later, when King David defied God’s commands by ordering a census, he saw Yahweh positioned between heaven and earth with a drawn sword aimed at Jerusalem (1 Chron. 21:16).

When Moses reaffirmed the covenant, he prized faithfulness to God’s commands and warned that if the people turned against him, he would draw his punishing sword (Lev. 26:25). In the Song of Moses, God declared, “When I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand grasps it in judgment, I will take vengeance on my adversaries and repay those who hate me” (Deut. 32:41-42). /Ezekiel’s sword song echoed Moses’s imagery of a sharpened and flashing sword aimed at covenant breakers. The sword represented God’s absolute authority and the severity of his judgments against sin and disobedience.

That is all for Ezekiel’s fire and sword mini oracles. Thank you for listening and please continue to take part in this Bible Reading Challenge. /To access the podcast transcript with biblical references, simply visit our blog and sign up for our weekly newsletter. We just added a free downloadable goodie on our website to anyone who signs up so go to www.thejerusalemconnection.us and check it out. Don’t forget to rate Bible Fiber wherever you listen to your podcasts or email me at srn@tjci.org if you would like to sponsor an episode for 76.00

Until next week, Shabbat Shalom and Am Israel Chai!

Abraham J. Heschel, The Prophets, (United Kingdom: HarperCollins, 2001), 286.

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Bible Fiber: Ezekiel 20:1-44

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Welcome to Bible Fiber, where we are encountering the textures and shades of the biblical tapestry through twelve Minor Prophets, two reformers, and one exile. I am Shelley Neese, president of The Jerusalem Connection, a Christian organization devoted to sharing the story of the people of Israel, both ancient and modern.

This week we are studying Ezekiel 20. Through parables, fables, laments, allegories, and riddles, the prophet spent the previous five chapters undermining the exiles’ ingratitude and blame shifting. However, Ezekiel must have grown tired of delivering opaque messages (20:49). In Chapter 20, Ezekiel broke from a long streak of metaphorical language and finally delivered a straightforward history lesson. By recasting their history from God’s viewpoint, Ezekiel’s overview contrasts Israel’s chronic rebellion with God’s persistent mercy.

Elder’s inquiry

In August 591 BCE, two years after Ezekiel’s commissioning by the River Chebar and 11 months after his Jerusalem vision, a contingent of elders paid Ezekiel a visit (20:1). Perhaps they were the same elders who had earlier approached Ezekiel (14:1-2). In that instance, the prophet accused the elders of secretly worshipping idols in their hearts (14:3). The chapter does not identify the new delegation’s inquiry or explain their motivation for seeking prophetic counsel. Either way, the audacity of seeking an oracle incensed Yahweh. He declared, “I will not be consulted by you” (20:2). Rather than sending them away, God put the elders in the hot seat, directing Ezekiel to “let them know the abominations of their ancestors” (20:4).

In a long divine speech, Ezekiel divided Israel’s history into four distinct periods: the generation in Egypt, two generations in the wilderness, the generation after the conquest, and the exiled generation. By selectively recounting history, Ezekiel veered from Israel’s traditional narrative. Although the foundational stories of Abraham’s election, the Israelites’ deliverance from Egypt, their endurance in the wilderness, and the miracle of the conquest were all true, Ezekiel considered them to be inadequate for instilling confidence. He adjusted his historical recounting to highlight the deep roots of their apostasy and the persistent faithlessness throughout the generations.

Egypt generation (20:5-9)

Ezekiel’s history lesson skips the patriarchal period and jumps right to the Exodus. God chose Israel and made himself known to the house of Jacob while they were slaves in Egypt (20:5). In his grace, he swore to them he would rescue them from Egypt and bring them to the land tenderly described as “flowing with milk and honey, the most glorious of all the lands” (20:6). Throughout the passage, Ezekiel explains how God took every initiative in establishing the covenant relationship. His only requirement was that before delivering them to the promised land, they must cast out their detestable idols from Egypt (20:7).

The Egypt generation possessed the Abrahamic covenant but had not yet received the Mosaic law. God did not hold them accountable to the laws and decrees given at Sinai. However, at the very least, the Abrahamic covenant required exclusive devotion to the one true God. According to Ezekiel, they failed the loyalty test.

The book of Exodus does not describe the spiritual condition or religious practices of the Israelites while they were in Egypt. Ezekiel’s oracle addresses this historical gap, possibly drawing from an oral history not recorded in the Torah. According to Ezekiel, the Israelites’ problem with idolatry began in Egypt. The allure of the diverse Egyptian pantheon was evidently too strong for them to resist during their four centuries in Egypt.

The Exodus tradition depicts a dramatic confrontation between Yahweh and Pharaoh, with the Israelites caught in the middle. According to Ezekiel’s analysis, God sent a series of supernatural plagues to demonstrate His power over the Egyptian deities and to show His supremacy to the wayward Israelites. Each plague targeted a specific Egyptian god. For instance, turning the Nile River into blood was a direct challenge to Hapi, the Egyptian god of the Nile. After Yahweh defeated Pharaoh and his gods, He urged the freed Israelites to abandon their idols and follow Him. However, Ezekiel recounts, “not one of them cast away the detestable things on which their eyes feasted, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt” (20:8).

Ezekiel’s revelation about Israelite idol worship in Egypt adds important context to the golden calf episode at Mount Sinai. According to Exodus 32, the Israelites became anxious due to Moses’s prolonged absence on Mount Sinai. They demanded that Aaron make them a golden calf so they could have a visible deity to worship. Aaron quickly complied, creating the calf from their gold jewelry. The Israelites then worshipped the calf, attributing their deliverance from Egypt to this man-made idol rather than to Yahweh. This act was a direct affront to God. In the Exodus account, the golden calf episode seems sudden, as if the Israelites’ sin arose solely from impatience. However, Ezekiel’s revisionist history suggests that their idol worship at Mount Sinai was a return to the practices they had followed in Egypt for centuries.

After the golden calf incident, Yahweh threatened to wipe the Israelites out and start fresh with a new people. To Ezekiel, Yahweh recalls, “I thought I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. But I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned” (20:8-9). The passage is referencing the moment in Exodus that Moses pleaded with God to cancel his punishment (Ex. 32:11-14). Moses’s line of reason was not that the Israelites deserved to be spared. He asked God to preserve Israel in the interest of his own reputation among the nations. How would the Egyptians react if God saved the Israelites from Egypt only to destroy them in the wilderness? Moses’s point was effective enough, so God relented.

Wilderness generation (20:10-17)

After the events at Sinai, God watched over the Israelites during the wilderness years, dwelling among them, forming and shaping them into a nation. The finest gift he gave the generation in Egypt was freedom. The finest gift he gave the wilderness generation was his covenant. By God’s design, Jews are supposed to perceive the Mosaic laws as divine guidance for seeking holiness, living ethically, and maintaining their bond with God and each other. Yahweh intended what he gave them at Sinai to be a blessing, not a burden.

To the wilderness generation, the memory of God’s meeting with Moses on Mount Sinai should have been fresh (Ex. 19:16-19). As they had waited at the base of the mountain, they witnessed thunder and lightning and a thick cloud resting on the mountain top. They felt the earth tremble and heard the voice of God. After witnessing supernatural events, Yahweh rightly expected total obedience. Instead, the wilderness generation was the first to receive God’s laws, and the first to disregard his laws.

Yahweh told Ezekiel, “The house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness; they did not observe my statutes but rejected my ordinances, by whose observance everyone shall live, and my Sabbaths they greatly profaned” (20:13). According to Ezekiel, the Israelites desecrated the Sabbaths even in the wilderness, despite God providing for all their needs.

Ezekiel goes further than the Torah tradition which only mentions one instance of Sabbath-breaking during the wilderness wanderings. When a man was caught gathering firewood on the Sabbath, the community, under Moses and Aaron’s leadership, stoned him to death (Num. 15:32-36). This story suggests that the Israelites took Sabbath observance seriously, but Ezekiel presents a different view.

By detailing Israel’s many sins during the wilderness period, Ezekiel deviated from the prophetic tradition that idealized this era. Prophets like Hosea, Amos, and Jeremiah used the wilderness years as a symbol to call the nation back to a purer, more faithful relationship with God. They depicted the wilderness period as one of intimacy and devotion, as the nation depended on Yahweh for food and shelter. Hosea wished for Israel to return to the days of her youth (Hos. 2:15), and Jeremiah described the wilderness period as the honeymoon of the covenant relationship (Jer. 2:2-3). In contrast, Ezekiel’s portrayal of this period is far from a romantic recollection of the early days.

Like an ancient version of Malcolm Gladwell, Ezekiel employed revisionist history to challenge established views. By leaving out the patriarchs, godly judges, and obedient kings, he highlighted the persistent issues of idolatry and disloyalty. Ezekiel showed that these problems were more severe than previously realized and had always been. Nevertheless, he acknowledged that God was more patient and merciful than the Israelites had ever recognized.

By God’s grace, he did not annihilate Abraham’s descendants and start over. However, he allowed them to face the consequences of their rebellion. Yahweh told Ezekiel, “My eye spared them, and I did not destroy them or make an end of them in the wilderness” (20:17). God withheld his punishing hand for the sake of his own name and his reputation among the nations (20:9,14,22,44).

Second wilderness generation (20:18-26)

After the first wilderness generation, Ezekiel exposited the history of “their children in the wilderness,” a reference to the second wilderness generation (20:18). God’s mood grew more frustrated with each successive generation. He repeated the same imperative: “Follow my statutes, be careful to observe my ordinances, and hallow my Sabbaths that they may be a sign between me and you, so that you may know that I the Lord am your God” (20:19-20).

Ezekiel emphasized Sabbath observance as one of the most critical commandments, highlighting it five times. The Sabbath was one of Yahweh’s highest commands. While Yahweh established the Sabbath for all humanity from the time of Adam, it served as a special sign of the covenant people’s sanctification. It is notable that Ezekiel always used the plural “Sabbaths” when referring to the command. The plural term encompassed not only the weekly Sabbath but also the Sabbatical year and the Jubilee year. According to Ezekiel, God’s people had defiled all of these. For an Israelite, breaking the Sabbath was akin to rejecting a divine gift and denying the unique relationship with their Creator. God’s promise was that observing the Sabbath would foster a deeper reliance on their Creator (Ex. 31:13-17).

Jewish tradition often personifies the Sabbath as a bride or queen. On Friday evenings, congregants recite the sixteenth-century liturgical poem “Lecha Dodi,” which means “Come, my beloved.” This poem invites the Jewish people to welcome the Sabbath as a beautiful bride. During the last stanza, the congregation often stands and turns to the doorway, symbolically greeting the Sabbath. According to this romantic imagery, if Israel neglects the Sabbath, it is as if the nation has stood Yahweh up at the altar.

In Ezekiel’s historical account, God prohibited the wilderness generation from entering Canaan because they were neglectful of his laws, and they broke the Sabbaths. God would not let rebellious people take possession of the promised land. Ezekiel’s analysis differs slightly from the Torah tradition. According to the book of Numbers, the first wilderness generation lost their privilege of entering the promised land because they lacked faith. Moses sent twelve spies, one from each tribe, to explore Canaan and report back on the land and its inhabitants (Num. 13:1-20). After forty days, the spies returned with their findings. They confirmed that the land was fertile and desirable, but the current occupants were strong and lived in fortified settlements. Fear and despair overtook the Israelite encampment. Because of their lack of faith, God vowed that the current generation would never return to the promised land.

Frustrated with the second wilderness generation’s failure to reform, God told Ezekiel, “I swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them through the countries” (20:23). This account from Ezekiel exposed the reality of Israel’s situation and dispelled any illusions about a glorious past. Even before the Israelites settled the land, God knew he would one day have to expel them for their disobedience.

Chapter 20 includes a contentious verse that seems to suggest that God set the people up for failure with bad laws. Ezekiel states, “Moreover, I gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not live” (20:25). However, it’s implausible that Ezekiel meant the Mosaic laws were faulty, given that his entire book emphasizes obedience to God’s laws. Ezekiel’s rhetoric often tends towards the extreme. He builds a case that, because of the people’s persistent corruption, God permitted them to pursue their own destructive paths, forsaking his good laws for bad ones. The most egregious example of their distortion of divine commands was the practice of child sacrifice, which they falsely believed God demanded as a sign of devotion (20:26).

Ezekiel shares a theology that closely resembles Paul’s in Romans 1. Persistent disobedience can create such a divide between God and His creation that God gives humans “over in the desires of their hearts” and permits them to exchange “the truth about God for a lie” (Rom. 1:24-25). Both Ezekiel and Paul assert that when the covenant people turn away from God, He allows them to follow their own desires, leading to their own ruin. In Ezekiel, the Israelites defiled themselves through idol worship and breaking the covenant. In Romans, Paul describes humanity as worshipping creation instead of the Creator.

Settled generation (20:27-31)         

Ezekiel’s tone becomes increasingly bitter as he recounts the history of the settled generation. Despite being gifted with the promised land by God, they misused the land to further their treachery. Just as they had adopted idolatrous practices in Egypt, they did the same in Canaan, dedicating every hill and tree to false gods made of wood and stone (20:28, 32). Their persistent temptation was to conform to the pagan religions of the surrounding nations, despite their call to be distinct (20:32).

Given Ezekiel’s earlier focus on personal responsibility in Chapter 18, it seems contradictory to blame the exiled generation for the sins of their ancestors. However, Ezekiel presents his contemporaries in Tel Abib as part of a continuous cycle of rebellion. They were as guilty as their ancestors because they repeated their sinful patterns. Ezekiel highlighted this by stating, “you defile yourselves with all your idols to this day” (20:31). Each generation added more to the barrier they had built between themselves and Yahweh.

Ezekiel’s historical accounts follow a pattern of God’s kindness being met with rebellion, which then leads to divine discipline. Throughout history—whether in Egypt, the wilderness, Canaan, or exile—every generation turned away from Yahweh. For the first three generations, God refrained from severe punishment to protect His own name. However, to those in Babylonian exile, Ezekiel conveyed that their judgment was both justified and long overdue.

Word of hope (20:32-44)

Exile was not Yahweh’s last act. Taking the initiative, God promised he would repeat all his mighty acts of the past. Only this time, he would separate and purify a remnant. His goal is to lead the dispersed exiles out of captivity and into the wilderness, launching a fresh exodus. God promised, “I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm” (20:34). God portrayed his coming intervention as the new exodus, intentionally using Exodus phraseology like “mighty hand and outstretched arm” (20:34). During their new period of wilderness wandering, God said, “I will enter into judgment with you face to face” (20:35). During the first exodus, God only spoke with Moses face to face (Ex. 33:11). In this rendition of the exodus, God did not need a mediator such as Moses. Instead, he will directly encounter his people.

Ezekiel did not designate a specific wilderness where he would bring the exiles. The wilderness likely symbolized a destination where God separated the righteous from rebels. God described the sifting process as a shepherd taking inventory of his sheep: “I will make you pass under the staff and will bring you within the bond of the covenant” (20:37). The staff was a shepherd’s instrument of correction. In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus mirrored Ezekiel’s image of the ingathering and judgement by also using shepherd language. Jesus said, “All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Matt. 20:37).

Ezekiel’s message brought hope to those who repented and reformed. The wilderness period would purify them. Free of distractions and the temptation of assimilation, they could devote themselves to Yahweh once more. In return, God would ratify a new covenant and reign as king over the purified nation (20:33). All those who preferred to keep their idols, rather than worship and obey Yahweh, would remain in the wilderness and not take part in the new exodus. Ezekiel prophesied, “I will purge out the rebels among you and those who transgress against me; I will bring them out of the land where they reside as aliens, but they shall not enter the land of Israel” (20:38).

The remnant’s return to the covenant land would firmly establish God’s rule. God emphasized that the physical land of Israel played a crucial role in his plan for the new age of mercy. Only once they retook the land would they fully recognize and worship Yahweh. Only in Jerusalem would he accept their offerings. Ezekiel pronounced, “For on my holy mountain, the mountain height of Israel, says the Lord God, there all the house of Israel, all of them, shall serve me in the land; there I will accept them” (20:40).

God’s ultimate plan included universal recognition of his sovereignty and his name. When he restored the remnant, the nations would take note. God said, “I will manifest my holiness among you in the sight of the nations” (20:41). Despite centuries of rebellion, Ezekiel’s good news is that nothing can stop God’s restoration plan. His grace will prevail.

Thank you for listening and please continue to take part in this Bible Reading Challenge. Join us next week in studying the rest of Ezekiel 20 and Ezekiel 21. Also, one more thing. If you like Bible Fiber and it has been helpful to you on your own journey of biblical literacy, please leave a review for the podcast on Apple podcasts or Spotify, or wherever you listen. It helps others find the show.

And please keep the nation of Israel and the hostages in your prayers. Israelis are living a nightmare scenario now, not knowing if or when Iran might attack.

 

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Bible Fiber: Ezekiel 19

By Shelley Neese

Welcome to Bible Fiber, where we are encountering the textures and shades of the biblical tapestry through twelve Minor Prophets, two reformers, and one exile. I am Shelley Neese, president of The Jerusalem Connection, a Christian organization devoted to sharing the story of the people of Israel, both ancient and modern.

Be sure to Subscribe to our YouTube channel and Follow Bible Fiber wherever you listen to your podcasts (Apple and Spotify)!

This week we are reading Ezekiel 19. God instructs the prophet to “raise up a lamentation for the princes of Israel” (19:1). Hebrew lamentations, or funerary songs, are a common style in the Old Testament. Often sung at gravesides, traditional laments praised the admirable qualities of the departed and mourned their loss. When King David heard of Jonathan’s death on the battlefield, he composed a sorrowful lament acknowledging their strong bond (2 Sam. 1:25-27). Lamentations is an entire book composed of songs mourning the destruction of Jerusalem. Laments also pop up in the Psalms. Thanks to Bob Marley’s 1977 track “By the Rivers of Babylon,” biblical laments have even made their way into pop culture.

Hebrew poets composed laments with a particular poetic meter with musical qualities that do not come through in English translations, but Ezekiel’s audience would have recognized his style immediately. What they may not have comprehended was the essence and underlying meaning of his lament. Unlike classical laments that focus on personal or communal suffering, Ezekiel 19 uses entirely allegorical language. Rather than focusing on the virtues of the departed, it emphasizes the vices of the deceased.

Israel’s last kings

While Ezekiel’s lament is largely allegorical, the funerary song is specifically dedicated to the “princes of Israel,” whom he regards as illegitimate kings (7:27, 12:12). In Chapter 17, Ezekiel clarified that the ungrateful vine represented King Zedekiah, but in Chapter 19 he put the onus on the listener to discern the reality behind the allegory. The first lion cub, second lion cub, and withering vine all represent Judean kings, but exactly which king is open to interpretation.

The most logical way to align the historical kings with their corresponding allegorical elements is to consider the succession order of Judah’s last four kings. (First, let me warn you that three have very similar J names, so it is hard to keep them separate in your head.) They are Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah.

King Jehoahaz ascended the throne following the sudden death of his father, King Josiah. During his brief three-month reign, Jehoahaz faced interference from Pharaoh Necho II of Egypt. Necho II had ambitions to expand Egyptian influence in the region and saw Judah as a strategic territory. The Pharoah deported King Jehoahaz to Egypt in 609 BCE where he died. Egypt placed his brother, Jehoiakim, on the throne instead (2 Kings 23:33-34). Jehoiakim reigned 11 years (609-598 BCE). He initially served as a vassal to the Egyptian Pharaoh. However, when Nebuchadnezzar defeated Egypt at the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BCE, Judah came under Babylonian control and Jehoiakim subsequently became a vassal to Nebuchadnezzar. Jehoiakim rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, provoking a Babylonian siege that led to his death (2 Kings 24:1). Jehoiachin was the next to take the throne, but his reign ended after three months. Once he grasped the futility of resistance, he surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar, who hauled him off to Babylon in 598 BCE (2 Kings 24:12). He spent the rest of his life in exile, along with the rest of his royal court. Nebuchadnezzar hand-picked Zedekiah to take the throne. Zedekiah, like Jehoahaz, was the son of the righteous king Josiah. He reigned eleven tumultuous years (597-586 BCE) until the Babylonian army deported him as well (2 Kings 25).

(Hold that succession history in your mind as we analyze the symbols and clues in Ezekiel’s lament.)

Lioness and her cubs

Ezekiel’s lament begins, “What a lioness was your mother among lions! She lay down among young lions, rearing her cubs” (19:2). Although Ezekiel pictures the lioness nurturing all her cubs, she promoted one above the others. As the favored cub matured into a strong fierce lion, he learned the predatory ways of survival in the wild (19:3). Soon enough, the nations became fearful of the human-eating lion, and they set a trap to catch him in their pit (19:4). Once caught, Ezekiel describes the lion being pulled with hooks into captivity in Egypt.

Most scholars agree that the first lion cub was King Jehoahaz. He was the only one of Judah’s kings taken prisoner to Egypt. Jehoahaz’s reign was too short to inflict much damage on the region, but the Egyptians recognized him as a threat like his father Josiah. In the Bible’s retelling, Jehoahaz fell far short of his father’s commitment to Yahweh (2 Kings 23:25).

At first, the lioness interpreted the capture as a loss of hope (19:5), but she soon promoted a second lion cub as the alpha-male of the pride. The second lion was more ruthless than the first. The lament describes him as devouring humans as his preferred prey, ravaging strongholds, and laying waste to towns (19:6-7). As the drama unfolds, “the nations set upon him from the provinces all around; they spread their net over him; he was caught in their pit” (19:8). They presented the caged lion to the king of Babylon who imprisoned him for the rest of his life. Ezekiel says, “his voice should be heard no more on the mountains of Israel” (19:9).

Biblical interpreters identify the second lion cub with either King Jehoiachin or King Jehoiakim. Both seem likely candidates for different reasons. During Jehoiakim’s eleven-year rule, he developed a reputation for violence. Jeremiah accused him of injustice, dishonest gain, and shedding innocent blood (Jer. 22:16-17). He also incited a rebellion against Babylon that most certainly provoked the wrath of his neighbors. Ezekiel’s description of a ravenous lion, whose roar terrified the entire land, corresponds with the Bible’s presentation of the prideful king Jehoiakim, who did more damage to his own nation than his enemies (19:7).

Although Jehoiakim’s reign parallels the actions of the second lion, most biblical historians agree Jehoiakim died in Jerusalem. The Babylonians never took him into captivity. According to the Chronicler, King Nebuchadnezzar deposed Jehoiakim and bound him with chains, intending to take him to Babylon (2 Chron. 36:6). However, 2 Kings states that Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, hinting that he died in Jerusalem, perhaps during the Babylonian siege, and never made it to Babylon (24:6). According to Jeremiah’s prophecies, part of Jehoiakim’s punishment was to be buried like a donkey, his corpse thrown outside the city of Jerusalem and forgotten (Jer. 22:18-19).

The reason bible scholars more commonly match Jehoiachin with the second cub is because, like the lion, the Babylonians deported him. His three-month rule lacked the duration to leave an impact on nearby nations or cultivate a reputation for arrogance and aggression. However, 2 Kings states that, like his father, he did evil in the sight of the Lord (2 Kings 24:9). If the priority for identification is the destination of their exile, Jehoiachin is the preferred candidate. If the most important identifiers are the lion’s manner and exploits, the better match is Jehoiakim. (I will leave you to your own theorizing who you pick.)

Vine and its offshoots

In the second section, Ezekiel switches his allegory from a mother lion to a mother vine. Thus far in the prophetic book, vines have been Ezekiel’s go-to symbol in recasting the nation’s spiritual history (15:1-18; 17:5-10). Ezekiel says, “Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard transplanted by the water, fruitful and full of branches from abundant water” (19:10). The vineyard symbolized Jerusalem, God’s chosen seat for the Davidic kingdom, the only location where the vine could thrive. The vine’s abundance of fruit, shoots, and foliage reflected the steady succession of rulers that stemmed from Judah over four centuries.

Ezekiel described one of the branches of the growing vine as a “ruler’s scepter” and a “strong stem,” as it adopted tree-like traits and ceased to behave like a vine. Ezekiel explained, “it towered aloft among the clouds; it stood out in its height with its mass of branches” (19:11). Like Judah’s kings, the scepter had grown prideful, self-reliant, and intent on behaving like the surrounding nations.

An unidentified enemy, irritated by the strong stem’s unnatural behavior, uprooted and transplanted it into an arid land (19:13). The mysterious enemy figure must have been Yahweh since Babylon was only a tool to execute divine punishment. Exposed to the east wind and lacking adequate water, the vine dried up and withered. As the exiles listened to Ezekiel’s lament, which perhaps he even sung, they saw themselves as the withered-up vine struggling for survival.

The allegory ends with the scepter branch catching fire and engulfing the entire vine. The way Ezekiel describes it as fire going out from the stem makes it seem as if the branch combusted. Although Ezekiel did not explain his allegory, the ruler’s scepter and strong stem represent King Zedekiah (the butt of many of Ezekiel’s allegories). Zedekiah’s leadership failures and refusal to take heed of the prophetic warnings brought the Davidic line to its ultimate destruction. Even if Zedekiah had not been the worst of all Judah’s kings, he had the dubious distinction of being the last king. Ezekiel grimly stated, “there remains in it no strong stem, no scepter for ruling” (19:14). The lament mourned not just Israel’s last kings, but the entire royal office.

Lion and vine imagery and Jacob’s blessing

By choosing the imagery of lions and vines, Ezekiel intentionally connected his lament over the end of Jerusalem’s dynasty to the tribe of Judah’s origin blessing. In Genesis 49, when the patriarch Jacob was on his deathbed, he gave a prophetic blessing to each of his twelve sons. The blessings contained both positive affirmations and warnings, reflecting the strengths, weaknesses, and destinies of each tribe. To Judah, Jacob prophesied, “Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouches down, he stretches out like a lion, like a lioness—who dares rouse him up?” (Gen. 49:9). Ezekiel’s lion allegory purposefully evoked Jacob’s blessing over Judah.

Ezekiel further evoked Jacob’s deathbed blessing with his incorporation of the term “ruler’s scepter,” rather than branch or cedar shoot, like in his earlier prophecies. The second part of Jacob’s blessing over Judah appointed his tribe as the producer of the entire nation’s rulers. Jacob promised Judah, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him, and the obedience of the peoples is his” (Gen. 49:10). A millennium separated Jacob’s prophecy to the crowning of David, Israel’s first king from the tribe of Judah.

It is incredible to think that a refugee living in in Egypt had the gumption to pronounce future kingship over one of his sons. Yet, the prophecy came true a millennium later with the coronation of David, Israel’s first king from the tribe of Judah. For four centuries, the tribe of Judah had a king on the throne. No wonder Ezekiel called for a national lament over the collapse of the Davidic dynasty. Even if many of Jerusalem’s kings did evil in the sight of the Lord, the destruction of the royal office was a travesty.

Hope not in earthly kings

God’s final directive to Ezekiel at the end of the chapter was, “This is a lament and is to be used as a lament” (19:14). Unlike Ezekiel’s earlier vine oracle that ended with the promise of a new cedar shoot, the lament closes with a lingering feeling of sorrow.

For Ezekiel’s fellow exiles, the continuance of the kingship in Jerusalem was their last shred of hope. As long as a Davidic descendant remained on the throne, victory over Babylon seemed possible. They rooted their confidence in the Davidic covenant that promised God would bless the House of David forever (2 Sam. 7:29). However, what also should have rung in their ears was the warning in 1 Samuel that earthly kings serve themselves rather than the people (1 Sam. 8: 11-18). Far too often, Judah’s kings misunderstood their divine patronage as a right, rather than a privilege, and ruled as they pleased.

Ezekiel’s message was that they needed to abandon any hope in Judah’s kings saving them. As Ezekiel had explained in Chapter 18, every individual stands before God on his own. Kings are no different. The righteousness of King David or Josiah did not impart righteousness to Jehoiakim or Zedekiah. Davidic kings who lost sight of God’s will, and became disloyal and prideful, disqualified themselves from the role.

Although a lament provided the exiles the vehicle to mourn the loss of the Davidic kingship, Ezekiel’s bigger message was that Yahweh was their true ruler and true king. They needed to look to him as their only source of hope. Yahweh was the king of kings, the only sovereign with a right to rule over them.

Jesus the lion

The entire Old Testament later ends without resolving the longing to restore the line of David. The remnant returned to the land and rebuilt the temple but there was never again a Davidic king ruling over an independent Judah. For Christians, Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of Jacob’s promise that the scepter will never depart from Judah. The gospel of Matthew begins with the genealogy of Jesus to present him as a lawful descendant of King David. Only someone from the royal line of Judah could claim the title of Messiah. In the book of Revelation, a mysterious elder comforted John of Patmos with the declaration: “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed” (Rev. 5:50). Jesus was the long-promised lion of the tribe of Judah. The scepter may have departed from Judah temporarily, but God not cancel his eternal promise to Judah.

Thank you for listening and please continue to take part in this Bible Reading Challenge. If you would like to sign up for our weekly newsletter, go to www.jerusalemconnection.us and we will send you a free download of biblical art as a token of our appreciation. Join us next week in studying Ezekiel 20’s straightforward history lesson. Also, one more thing. If you’ve found Bible Fiber helpful in your biblical literacy journey, please leave a review on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred platform. It helps others find the show.

And please keep the nation of Israel in your prayers. Iran’s threats of retaliation grow ever more hostile by the day. Pray that once again, their missile and drone attacks are futile.

For all the Biblical references each week, please see the show transcript on our blog or by signing up for our emails at www.thejerusalemconnection.us/ I do not say all the references in the podcast but they are all in the transcript.

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Am Israel Chai

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