Tidings of the Fall of Jerusalem, and the Consequences with Regard to the Prophet

Ezekiel 33:21. And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the tenth (month), on the fifth of the month after our being taken captive, there came to me a fugitive from Jerusalem, and said, The city is smitten. Ezekiel 33:22. And the hand of Jehovah had come upon me in the evening before the arrival of the fugitive, and He opened my mouth, till he came to me in the morning; and so was my mouth opened, and I was silent no more. - In these verses the fulfilment of the promise made by God to the prophet in Ezekiel 24:25-27, after the prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem, is recorded. The chronological datum, as to the precise time at which the messenger arrived with the account of the destruction of Jerusalem, serves to mark with precision the point of time at which the obstacle was removed, and the prophet was able to speak and prophesy without restraint. - The fact that the tidings of the destruction of Jerusalem, which took place in the fifth month of the eleventh year, are said to have only reached the exiles in the tenth month of the twelfth year, that is to say, nearly a year and a half after it occurred, does not warrant our following the Syriac, as Doederlein and Hitzig have done, calling in question the correctness of the text and substituting the eleventh year for the twelfth. With the distance at which Ezekiel was living, namely, in northern Mesopotamia, and with the fearful confusion which followed the catastrophe, a year and a half might very easily pass by before a fugitive arrived with the information. But Hitzig's assertion, that Ezekiel would contradict himself, inasmuch as, according to Ezekiel 26:1-2, he received intelligence of the affair in the eleventh year, is founded upon a misinterpretation of the passage quoted. It is not stated there that Ezekiel received this information through a fugitive or any man whatever, but simply that God had revealed to him the fall of Jerusalem even before it occurred. לגלוּתינוּ, after our being led away (Ezekiel 33:21 and Ezekiel 40:1), coincides with לגלוּת המּלך in Ezekiel 1:2. הכּתה, smitten, i.e., conquered and destroyed, exterminated. In the clause 'ויד יהוה , the verb היתה is a pluperfect, and אלי stands for עלי, according to the later usage. The formula indicates the translation of the prophet into an ecstatic state (see the comm. on Ezekiel 1:3), in which his mouth was opened to speak, that is to say, the silence imposed upon him was taken away. The words, "till he came to me in the morning," etc., are not to be understood as signifying that the prophet's mouth had only been opened for the time from evening till morning; for this would be opposed to the following sentence. They simply affirm that the opening of the mouth took place before the arrival of the fugitive, the night before the morning of his arrival. ויּפּתח פּי, which follows, is an emphatic repetition, introduced as a link with which to connect the practically important statement that from that time forward he was not speechless any more. - It was in all probability shortly afterwards that Ezekiel was inspired with the word of God which follows in Ezekiel 33:23-33, as we may infer from the contents of the word itself, which laid the foundation for the prophet's further prophesying. But nothing can be gathered from Ezekiel 33:22 with regard to the time when this and the following words of God (as far as Ezekiel 39), of which no chronological data are given, were communicated to the prophet and uttered by him. His being "silent no more" by no means involves immediate or continuous speaking, but simply recalls the command to be speechless. There is no ground for the assumption that all these words of God were communicated to him in one night (Hvernick, Hengstenberg, and others), either in Ezekiel 33:22 or in the contents of these divine revelations.

Ezekiel 34:25 Parallel Commentaries

I will make

Ezekiel 37:26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them...

Isaiah 55:3 Incline your ear, and come to me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you...

Jeremiah 31:31-33 Behold, the days come, said the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah...

Zechariah 6:13 Even he shall build the temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule on his throne...

Hebrews 13:20 Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep...

and will

Leviticus 26:6 And I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land...

Job 5:22 At destruction and famine you shall laugh: neither shall you be afraid of the beasts of the earth.

Isaiah 11:6-9 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid...

Isaiah 35:9 No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:

Hosea 2:18-23 And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven...

and they

Ezekiel 34:28 And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely...

Psalm 4:8 I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for you, LORD, only make me dwell in safety.

Jeremiah 23:6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called...

Jeremiah 33:16 In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name with which she shall be called...