John Calvin Commentary Ezekiel 11:8-11

"Ye have feared the sword; and I will bring the sword upon you, saith the Lord Jehovah. And I will bring you forth out of the midst thereof, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and will execute judgments among you. Ye shall fall by the sword; I will judge you in the border of Israel; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah. This [city] shall not be your caldron, neither shall ye be the flesh in the midst thereof; I will judge you in the border of Israel;" — Ezekiel 11:8-11 (ASV)

We should join these verses together, because the Prophet discusses the same matter extensively. First, he denounces that they should perish by the sword since they feared the sword. By these words he admonishes them that, even if God were to draw them out of the city, Jeremiah’s prophecy would still prove true, as the Chaldeans would consume them as if the pot were boiling on the fire.

Lastly, he shows how frivolous their argument was when they said, “If we are flesh, we will remain in the caldron.” But the Prophet shows that they must not argue childishly with God, because when He showed the caldron to His servant Jeremiah, He meant nothing other than that the Jews would perish, since the Chaldeans would come to consume them.

But they had deliberately distorted the Prophet’s meaning and thought themselves clever and shrewd when they corrupted the heavenly doctrine. First of all, the Prophet says, “You have feared the sword, and you will fall by the sword.” He afterwards adds the manner: “I,” he says, “will bring the sword upon you, which you feared.” He says, “I will draw you out from its midst.” He declares the manner: namely, that He will bring them into an open plain, so that He may more easily slay them there.

If anyone should object that this was not like boiling them in the city, the answer is easy: God did not restrict His wrath to one kind of punishment when He spoke this way through Jeremiah. For we know that the Prophets present God’s judgments to us in various ways and thus use various figures of speech.

Therefore, since the Prophets do not always teach in the same way, it is not surprising if, when He briefly shows that God’s wrath was near the Jews, He used that simile: “You will fall,” He says, “by the sword, and in the borders of Israel I will judge you.”

Here He clearly expresses what I recently touched upon. It was indeed God’s judgment when the Jews were drawn from the city in which they thought they had a quiet nest. For when they were violently dragged into exile, God exercised His judgments upon them; and from the time He deprived them of their country, He then already began to be their judge.

But here He begins to discuss a severer judgment. Although God had begun to chastise the Jews when He expelled them from the city, yet He treated them more severely in the boundaries of Israel. This was because when they came into the sight of the king of Babylon, then the king saw his slain; then Zedekiah himself was rendered blind and dragged into Chaldea, and all the nobles were slain (see 2 Kings 25 and Jeremiah 39). From this we may gather that the people’s blood was poured out without discrimination.

Now, therefore, we understand what God means when He threatens to judge them in the borders of Israel, that is, outside their country. Lastly, He here denounces a double penalty: first, because God would cast them out of Jerusalem, in which they delighted and in which they said they would dwell for so long, making exile their first punishment. Then He adds that He was not content with exile, but that a heavier punishment was at hand, when they would be cast out of their country, and the land would cast them out as a stench it cannot bear.

“I will judge you therefore in the borders of Israel,” meaning beyond the holy land. For since one curse has already occurred in exile, still a harder and more formidable vengeance will await you. Now He adds, “You will know that I am Jehovah.”

Undoubtedly, Ezekiel reproves the sloth that was the cause of such great contumacy. For they would never have dared to contend so persistently with God unless their minds had been stupefied. If we were to reflect that we are striving with God, horror would immediately seize us. For who suffers from such madness as to dare to contend with God his Maker?

Therefore, Ezekiel now indirectly reproves this torpor when He says that the Jews would know too late that they were dealing with God. Therefore, although they sinned through ignorance, it does not follow that they were without excuse. For from where did their ignorance arise, except from being inattentive to God?

It sprang first from carelessness; then that carelessness and false sense of security produced contempt, and contempt sprang from their depraved lust for sinning. Since, therefore, they determined to give themselves up to all kinds of sinning, they rejected all teaching as much as possible. Indeed, they willingly endeavored to stupefy their own consciences.

Thus we see that depraved desire impelled them to contempt, and contempt produced in them a false sense of security, into which this ignorance finally plunged them. Therefore, since at the time it did not enter their minds that they were contending with God, this does not lessen their fault because, as I have said, they had stupefied themselves with determined and spontaneous wickedness.

Meanwhile, there is no doubt that God always pricked their consciences so that they might feel themselves to be sinners, but the Prophet here speaks of that knowledge which is called experiential. For the impious are said to know God when, being struck by His hand, they unwillingly acknowledge His power, because whether they want to or not, they feel Him to be their judge.

But this knowledge does not profit them; indeed, it even increases their destruction. We understand the Prophet’s meaning: that the Jews were rebellious and despised God’s servants because they pretended they were dealing only with men and covered themselves with darkness, lest they should see the light that was offered to their eyes.

God declares that they will finally know with whom they contended, as Zechariah says, “they shall see whom they have pierced” (Zechariah 12:10). That is, they will know that it is I whom they have wounded, when they so proudly despised My servants and rejected all confidence in My teaching.

From this we also gather that the minds of the impious were so confused that, seeing, they did not see. For when they experience God to be their Judge, they are compelled in reality to confess that they feel His hand; yet they remain stupid, because they do not profit, as the Prophet had just said: “You feared the sword.”

But they were careless, as we saw, and despised all threats. What kind of fear, then, is this, which is remarked upon by the Prophet? It is that of the impious, indeed, who, while they offer themselves flatteries and imagine that they have made a covenant with death, as is said in Isaiah (Isaiah 28:15; see also Isaiah 48:22 and Isaiah 57:21), and promise themselves freedom from punishment even when a scourge is passing through the land, yet tremble and are always ill-at-ease, because they have no peace, as it is said elsewhere.

In short, we see the impious always remaining careless and stupid. Though they are careless, they still tremble and are tortured with secret impiety, since the severity of God urges them on.

Finally, He concludes, Jerusalem should not be their caldron, but He would punish them in the border of Israel. But I have sufficiently explained this clause.