John Calvin Commentary Ezekiel 12:21-23

"And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, what is this proverb that ye have in the land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth? Tell them therefore, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel; but say unto them, The days are at hand, and the fulfilment of every vision." — Ezekiel 12:21-23 (ASV)

Here God inveighs against the gross ridicule that prevailed everywhere among the Jews. For when the Prophets had been threatening them for so long, this earnestness was so far from leading them to repentance that they became more obstinate and callous. Since they persisted in this obstinacy, and boasted in their escape, and through confidence in their freedom from punishment, rebelled more and more against God, the Prophet is ordered to repress this boasting of theirs.

It was monstrous indeed for a people who had absorbed from childhood the teaching of the Law and the Prophets to break forth in this way against God, as if He had spoken falsely through His Prophets. For this was their boasting: Oh! The days are prolonged: therefore every vision has passed away and failed. From this delay they argued that they had no cause for fear, since whatever Jeremiah and the rest had predicted had passed away.

We perceive then how unbelievers turn the patience of God into material for obduracy and stupidity. God spares them, gives them time, and invites them to repentance; but what do they do? They count the days and years, and when they see that God does not immediately execute the judgment which He had uttered through His servants, they laugh at it and consider the Prophet’s words as idle fables.

Such, then, was the impiety against which the Prophet inveighs, saying, What is this? The question implies detestation, for God here wonders at the sloth, or rather the fury, of the people, because they dared in this way to vomit forth their blasphemies with open mouth. For what remains when God is supposed to be false both in His promises and His threats? In this way, all religion is abolished.

Nor is it surprising that God detests so monstrous a thing, when He asks how it can happen that the Israelites break forth into such madness: What, He says, is the meaning of this proverb of yours? He seems to include His servant among the others because he was one of the people; therefore, he shares in what did not personally apply to him. Moreover, this passage must be diligently noted for when the impious conclude that they have no reason to fear because their days are prolonged.

This is, as I have said, a sign of extreme folly, but it is not surprising if they imagine God to be false to His word and His threats to be in vain because His hand does not instantly appear, since they treat His teaching without the slightest respect. Since, therefore, unbelievers are never afraid unless terrified by the power of God, and are never moved in the slightest degree, it is not surprising that they think God’s warnings entirely illusory when they see Him at rest while His words still resound in men’s ears.

Therefore, the words of the Apostle should come to mind: that Noah built the ark by faith because he feared the hidden judgment of God about which he had been admonished, as if the whole deluge was before his eyes, in which he saw the whole world immersed (Hebrews 11:7). Although, therefore, God conceals His hand for a time, let us learn so to fear all of His instructions that delay may not lead us into such sloth as this.

Now He adds, Thou shalt tell them, therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will make this proverb cease from the land of Israel. Here God shows that His anger was inflamed more and more by their contempt. And the impious, by pretending that He is not true to His word, hasten the fulfillment of those judgments which God was otherwise prepared to suspend.

Lastly, the impious stimulate God to exercise His vengeance, while they infer that they have escaped through delay, and that the vision was so fleeting and evanescent that they purposely provoke Him to a contest. For the confirmation of this sentiment follows directly: that verily the days were approaching.

Since time gave the Jews confidence of escaping punishment, God announces that the end was at hand, so that they may realize they had been blinded for too long while they abused His continued forbearance. The days then approached: also the word of every vision: “the word” is here taken for the “effect.” We know that דבר , deber, is often taken for “thing,” “business,” or “result”; but in this place, the Prophet takes “the word” for the effect of the vision, as if he had said that whatever the Prophets had spoken should be firm and stable.