Charles Ellicott Commentary Ezekiel 33

Set him for their watchman. —The same figure as in Ezekiel 3:17. Ezekiel 33:2–9 form the introduction to this renewed commission, and closely correspond to Ezekiel 3:17-21. Yet these verses have also a distinct retrospective object, and explain to the people why he had until now spoken to them so much of judgments and in such warning tones; this had been his duty, both in obedience to God’s commands and in regard for their welfare, and it would still be his duty in the future. The passage is too clear to need comment.

How should we then live? — Formerly, when the prophet had given them warning of impending judgments, the people had refused to believe: now, however, when those judgments had been realized, they despaired, and cried out, “If all this is in punishment for our sins, how can there yet be any hope for us?”

I have no pleasure.— Compare Ezekiel 18:28 and Ezekiel 18:32. Ezekiel meets the despair of the people with the assurance, given long before in another connection, that the Creator and Father of all can have no pleasure in the death of any, and adds an earnest exhortation to repentance that they may be saved. Yet it was very important that there should be no misunderstanding in regard to the basis of acceptance with God, and the prophet therefore, in the following verses (Ezekiel 33:12–20), briefly reiterates the teaching of Ezekiel 18 in regard to the individual responsibility of every one for himself before God. This teaching has already been explained under Ezekiel 18.

In the twelfth year.— Compare 2 Kings 25:8; Jeremiah 52:12. It was now a year and five months since the final destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and this seems like a long time for the news to be carried to Chaldea. The news itself must have reached Babylon long ago, but Ezekiel was to receive the news, undoubtedly with full and circumstantial details, from the mouth of a fugitive, and there are reasons why this could not easily have occurred earlier. After the capture of the city, the general, Nebuzaradan, took the mass of the people and the abundant spoil to carry them to Babylon (Jeremiah 52:15–27).

He first took them to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, where a few were executed, and some time must have been spent settling the affairs of the desolated land. After this, the journey of the captives, carrying with them the weighty spoil, was a slow one, and perhaps with frequent halts. We know from Ezra 7:9 that the returning captives, not hindered in this way, took exactly four months for the journey from Babylon to Jerusalem. It is not surprising, therefore, that it took four times as long from the capture of Jerusalem to the arrival of the captives in Chaldea. This prophecy was nearly two months before that recorded in Ezekiel 32:0.

Was upon me. —The sentence becomes clearer by translating this in the pluperfect: The hand of the Lord had been (already) upon me.