Ezekiel 3:18

Thou shalt surely die - That is, If he turn not from his wickedness, and thou givest him not warning, as above, he shalt die in his iniquity, which he should not have committed; but his blood will I require at thy hand - I will visit thy soul for the loss of his. O how awful is this! Hear it, ye priests, ye preachers, ye ministers of the Gospel; ye, especially, who have entered into the ministry for a living, ye who gather a congregation to yourselves that ye may feed upon their fat, and clothe yourselves with their wool; in whose parishes and in whose congregations souls are dying unconverted from day to day, who have never been solemnly warned by you, and to whom you have never shown the way of salvation, probably because ye know nothing of it yourselves! O what a perdition awaits you! To have the blood of every soul that has died in your parishes or in your congregations unconverted laid at your door! To suffer a common damnation for every soul that perishes through your neglect! How many loads of endless wo must such have to bear! Ye take your tithes, your stipends, or your rents, to the last grain, and the last penny; while the souls over whom you made yourselves watchmen have perished, and are perishing, through your neglect. O worthless and hapless men! better for you had ye never been born! Vain is your boast of apostolical authority, while ye do not the work of apostles! Vain your boast of orthodoxy, while ye neither show nor know the way of salvation! Vain your pretensions to a Divine call, when ye do not the work of evangelists! The state of the most wretched of the human race is enviable to that of such ministers, pastors, teachers, and preachers. But let not this discourage the faithful minister who teaches every man, and warns every man, in all wisdom, tha…

warning . . . speakest to warn--The repetition implies that it is not enough to warn once in passing, but that the warning is to be inculcated continually (Ti2 4:2, "in season, out of season"; Act 20:31, "night and day with tears"). save--Eze 2:5 had seemingly taken away all hope of salvation; but the reference there was to the mass of the people whose case was hopeless; a few individuals, however, were reclaimable. die in . . . iniquity-- (Joh 8:21, Joh 8:24). Men are not to flatter themselves that their ignorance, owing to the negligence of their teachers, will save them (Rom 2:12, "As many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law").

When I say unto the wicked, thou shalt surely die,.... Not only a corporeal but an eternal death for this is what the law threatens with, and there the Lord says this; and this is the wages, end, and issue of sin, if grace prevent not: and thou givest him not warning; of the evil nature of sin, and of the danger it exposes to: nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way; to abstain from it, and live another course of life: to save his life; for such warning, caution, exhortation, and doctrine, may be a means of converting a sinner from the evil of his way, and of saving a soul from death, Ti1 4:16; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; with the pollution and guilt of sin upon him, and so be punished for it; see Joh 8:24; but his blood will I require at thine hands; thou shalt be answerable for him; his death shall be laid to thy charge, and thou shalt be chastised for thy negligence; see Act 20:26.

In this chapter we have the further preparation of the prophet for the work to which God called him. I. His eating the roll that was presented to him in the close of the foregoing chapter (Eze 3:1-3). II. Further instructions and encouragements given him to the same purport with those in the foregoing chapter (Eze 3:4-11). III. The mighty impulse he was under, with which he was carried to those that were to be his hearers (Eze 3:12-15). IV. A further explication of his office and business as a prophet, under the similitude of a watchman (Eze 3:16-21). V. The restraining and restoring of the prophet's liberty of speech, as God pleased (Eze 3:22-27).