Ezekiel 12:16
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But I will spare a few of them from sword and famine and plague, so that in the nations to which they go, they can recount all their abominations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
Though the vision of God's glory had gone up from the prophet, yet his word comes to him still, and is by him sent to the people, and to the same purport with that which was discovered to him in the vision, namely, to set forth the terrible judgments that were coming upon Jerusalem, by which the city and temple should be entirely laid waste. In this chapter, I. The prophet, by removing his stuff, and quitting his lodgings, must be a sign to set forth Zedekiah's flight out of Jerusalem in the utmost confusion when the Chaldeans took the city (v. 1-16). II. The prophet, by eating his meat with trembling, must be a sign to set forth the famine in the city during the siege, and the consternation that the inhabitants should be in (Eze 12:17-20). III. A message is sent from God to the people, to assure them that all these predictions should have their accomplishment very shortly, and not be deferred, as they flattered themselves they would be (Eze 12:21-28).
Open source ↗12:16 The unhappy few survivors would confess all their detestable sins to their captors, not necessarily in repentance, but in recognition that the Lord had acted justly in judgment against them.
Open source ↗Cross-references
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Unless the LORD of Hosts had left us a few survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have resembled Gomorrah.
For this is what the LORD says: “The whole land will be desolate, but I will not finish its destruction.
The remaining trees of its forests will be so few that a child could count them.
Though your people, O Israel, be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant will return. Destruction has been decreed, overflowing with righteousness.
For I am with you to save you, declares the LORD. Though I will completely destroy all the nations to which I have scattered you, I will not completely destroy you. Yet I will discipline you justly, and will by no means leave you unpunished.”
Then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and abominations.
If those days had not been cut short, nobody would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.
But small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites is like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved.
So will it be on the earth and among the nations, like a harvested olive tree, like a gleaning after a grape harvest.