John Calvin Commentary Ezekiel 12:13

"My net also will I spread upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare; and I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there." — Ezekiel 12:13 (ASV)

That was no small slaughter when Zedekiah, finally, in his desperation, thought of fleeing and so descended into hidden trenches, as if seeking life in a tomb; in this way, he was driven to extreme measures. But the Prophet now adds that it would be useless, because despite this he would be taken by his enemies. Moreover, what God executed through the Chaldeans, He rightly attributes to Himself.

The Chaldeans laid their snares when informed of the king’s flight; they knew its direction, and so they captured him. Thus God declares Himself as the author: He says, I will stretch out my net. We know this: the Chaldeans did not leave their own country voluntarily, nor wage war in their own strength, nor capture the king by their own strategy; but the entire matter was under heavenly governance.

Men played their part and seemed to carry on the work by their own labor; but unless God had ordained the outcome, all their efforts would have been futile. Therefore, just as God had incited the Chaldeans to inflict punishment on the king and the people, so He instilled confidence in them, then He strengthened their resolve to persist in the siege of the city, and afterwards He opened their eyes and sent people to reveal the king's plans, so that he could be captured in a cave, as indeed happened.

All of this was done by the secret providence of God. Therefore, we should diligently observe those instances where God shows that what appears to be human work is actually His own. Even an analogy is not without its significance; for in times of confusion, we always seem to find some refuge, and wherever we look, some false hope deceives us.

But God announces that He has nets spread that surround us on every side. Therefore, when we think we have a way of escape, God has hidden nets in which He traps us.

Thus, this passage compares God to a hunter and us to wild animals. For when a hunter pursues wild animals, they seek an escape route and rush towards it, only to be caught in nets.

Similarly, when we try to escape God’s hands, we are trapped and held by Him, because when we desire to remove ourselves from His providence, we deserve the blindness that causes us to rush toward our own destruction.

Therefore, I will spread my net for him, and he shall be taken in my snares; I will lead him away, He says, to Babylon. The Prophet shows step by step how terribly God’s vengeance would fall upon Zedekiah and the entire people. It was already a most miserable fate to be captured by the enemy and subjected to their lust and cruelty.

If he had been killed, this would have been over in a single moment, but God wished him to be taken into exile. Instead, He says that Zedekiah would die in Babylon without seeing the city, both of which came to pass. Zedekiah then languished in exile, for he remained until his death in filth and defilement.

And although he was buried, as we saw in Jeremiah, yet his condition was most sorrowful: to live his entire life fearing some new wrath from an enemy. Then he was treated barbarously and inhumanly: his eyes were put out during the journey. And here it is said, he shall not see Babylon, and yet he shall arrive there and die there.

Afterwards, he saw his sons strangled before his eyes; then his own eyes were gouged out—a sight more terrible than death itself. We can now reflect on the kind of life such a man must endure in exile, in prison, and in chains—since he was bound with chains, as the sacred history tells us—to waste away by a slow death in a wretched prison and in complete darkness. Yet all this befell Zedekiah.

Thus, we see how God thunders against the Israelites, who considered themselves harshly treated in exile, when they could have remained safe in Jerusalem.