Charles Ellicott Commentary Ezekiel 2:3

"And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to nations that are rebellious, which have rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me even unto this very day." — Ezekiel 2:3 (ASV)

I send thee to the children of Israel. Here the distinct commission of the prophet properly begins. After the captivity of the ten tribes, the two forming the kingdom of Judah, with such remnants of the others as had been induced by Hezekiah and others to cast in their lot with them, are constantly spoken of as “Israel” . The continuity of the whole nation was considered to be preserved in the remnant; consequently, this same mode of expression passed into the New Testament . It is only when there is a special occasion to distinguish between the two parts of the nation, as in Ezekiel 4:5-6, that the name Israel is used in contrast with that of Judah.

A rebellious nation. This is literally, as noted in the margin, rebellious nations. The word used is the same as that commonly employed distinctively for the heathen, so the children of Israel are here described as “rebellious heathen.” No epithet could impress more forcibly upon the mind of an Israelite the state of antagonism in which he had placed himself against his God (compare the “Lo-ammi” of Hosea 1:9, and also the discourse of our Lord in John 8:39). Yet, the God from whom they had turned away was even now sending His prophet to them, seeking to win them back to His love and obedience, in true correspondence with the vision of the bow in the cloud surrounding the majesty on high.

The following verses expand, with a variety of epithets and repetitions, on the hard-heartedness and perverseness of the people. This had always been the character of the Israelites from the time of Moses (Exodus 33:3; Exodus 33:5, and other passages), and it continued to be so until the end ; so entirely without ground is the allegation that they were chosen as a people particularly inclined to what is right. It is to such a people that Ezekiel is to be sent, and he needed to be prepared and encouraged for his work.