John Calvin Commentary Ezekiel 5:7-8

"Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because ye are turbulent more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept mine ordinances, neither have done after the ordinances of the nations that are round about you; therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I, even I, am against thee; and I will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations." — Ezekiel 5:7-8 (ASV)

This verse is explained in various ways because of the word המנכם, hemenekem: for some read it as a single phrase, as if because they were multiplied, they did not worship God; as if he meant that they became self-indulgent because of their wealth, just as horses become restless from too much food and fatness.

That passage from Moses has been noted: Israel, when highly fed, kicked. Therefore, they think that this passage is similar to it, and so they connect it, reasoning: because you have been multiplied beyond all Gentiles who were around you, you have despised my judgments, for you have become blind and drunk with prosperity (Deuteronomy 32:15).

But I do not approve of this interpretation, for it is clearly too forced. Others derive it from המה, hemeh, which means to be agitated or disturbed, and arrive at this interpretation: because you are tumultuous beyond all nations—that is, because your lasciviousness and licentiousness surpass that of all people, while your eagerness has drawn you on, as it were, without a bridle.

But I fear that explanation is far-fetched, and so I take it simply to mean 'to be multiplied,' or 'multiplication'; for machor can be either a noun or a verb, but with the same meaning.

However, I do not relate this to the number and multitude of the people, nor even to the abundance of goods, as most do. They argue that the number of people was multiplied, which does not fit the meaning. Even if it is referred to wealth, while it is true that God had acted generously toward that city, my interpretation differs.

I take it in an active sense: that they have multiplied beyond all nations. Jerome, in my opinion, did not translate it badly with, “because you have surpassed the nations,” yet he departed from the proper meaning of the word. Therefore, it is better to retain the verb 'multiply' or the noun 'multiplication,' but in an active sense, signifying that they had indulged excessively in their superstitions, so that they surpassed all nations in wrongdoing.

Therefore, because of your multiplying, or because of your multiplication beyond all nations—that is, because you were not content with moderate impiety, but heaped together all kinds of wickedness, so that your impiety reached the highest point, from which a curse follows.

But before he comes to that, he confirms what he had said before, namely, because they had not walked in his statutes, and had not kept his judgments. This, therefore, is the meaning of to multiply: because when the law was given to them, they despised it and imitated the wickedness of the nations and the surrounding countries.

These statements then agree: because beyond all the nations they had been rebellious in impiety against God, and also because they had multiplied beyond all nations and countries. Again, the reason is to be noted: because they did not walk in God’s statutes.

For the Gentiles followed no set course; hence, it is not surprising that they wandered in their own crooked ways. But a way had been shown to the Jews. The language of Moses was not in vain (Deuteronomy 30:19): I call heaven and earth to witness that I have set before you life and death: choose you therefore life.

Since God had thus laid down the doctrine of salvation for the Jews, He was all the more indignant at their insolence and wickedness in not walking according to His statutes. Life, then, had been set before them, as Moses says; it remained for them to walk in it, which the Gentiles could not do.

Now he adds, and according to the judgments of the Gentiles who are round about you. Here the Prophet seems to blame what is otherwise and in many places praised. For the Jews ought to have been separate from the Gentiles, so that they might worship God in purity, and the Prophets often expostulate with them because they followed the judgments or statutes of the Gentiles.

I have said nothing on these words because they occur often, and it has already been shown in many places why God calls His judgments laws. Some distinguish between judgments and statutes, because judgments pertain to mortals, and statutes to ceremonies. But this distinction is not always observed. However, God, in very many places, commends the precepts of His law, as He shows that nothing necessary for a complete system of teaching was omitted.

But this name is sometimes applied to perverse rites and corrupt superstitions, so that to walk in the judgments of the Gentiles is to corrupt oneself with their perverse morals. As I have already said, the Jews were often condemned by the Prophets because they gave themselves up to the corruptions of the Gentiles.

Here, therefore, the Prophet says that they had not done according to the judgments of the Gentiles. But he means that in this particular, also, they had surpassed the madness of the Gentiles, because they had not embraced the law of God so as to remain constantly in obedience to it.

For we saw in the second chapter of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 2:10, 11) that the Gentiles were obstinate in their madness. Although that was not praiseworthy, yet God deservedly blames His people because they held Him in less honor than the Gentiles did their idols.

For we know how obstinately the nations were fixed in their superstitions; they did not change their religion except by some violent impulse, just as if heaven and earth were shaken together.

Therefore, since the religion of each nation was firm and fixed, God deservedly accuses the Jews of fickleness, because they inclined toward the errors and madness of the pagans. This, therefore, is Ezekiel’s meaning when he says, the Jews had not done according to the statutes of the Gentiles: as if he had said, 'They should have looked at the Gentiles, and just as they saw them obstinately worshipping idols, so they should have persisted in My law and in pure worship.'

But while the obstinacy of the Gentiles was so great that they could not be torn away from their own superstition, 'My people,' He says, 'have treacherously turned away from Me and My law by rash impulse, and without any need for it.' Now, therefore, we understand why the Prophet adds this to their crimes: that the people had not walked according to the judgments or customs of the Gentiles.

From this, they might have perceived that what people had once embraced, they ought not to have lightly thrown away, because when we are suddenly and easily turned aside in the matter of worshipping God, it is certain that we have never put down living roots. Since, then, the Gentiles instructed the Jews in their duty, their crime became more detestable.

Now follows the threat that God was prepared to take vengeance: Behold, I, even I, am against you. The particle גם, gam, 'even,' is used as we might say in French, yea, even: I, even I. We now see that the repetition is emphatic, as if God were asserting that a horrible destruction was hanging over the Jews.

For He wishes to inspire them with fear, since He assures them that He will prove to be an avenger. However, I do not accept Jerome’s comment, for he says that angels and other ministers of God’s wrath are excluded, because God determined to destroy the Jews by Himself. This we know to be false, for He made use of the Assyrians and Chaldeans.

Since then those people were His scourges, it follows that angels and men are not excluded when God pronounces Himself an avenger. But He increases the weight of the punishment when He says, I, even I, am He with whom thou shalt have to do. Now He adds, I will execute judgments, by which word 'jurisdiction,' as they call it, is intended.

What Jerome and those interpreters who follow him affirm is not correct: that by this name God’s justice is asserted, as if He meant that He would not be cruel in exacting punishment, nor unjust, nor too rigid. For 'to execute judgment' merely means to exercise jurisdiction, and an earthly judge is said to exercise justice when he sits on his tribunal, even if he perverts justice and equity.

This, indeed, cannot be the case with God, although the word itself might allow for such an interpretation. Besides, there is a fitting contrast between the doctrinal judgments and the actual ones. God complained that the Jews did not execute His judgments; now He threatens that He Himself would execute them, because He will vindicate His law by punishments.

The sum of the whole is that He will execute judgments in the midst of Jerusalem, because He will ascend a tribunal and compel the wicked to plead their cause and to give an account of their life.

God, therefore, executed His judgments at that time when He manifested His vengeance by means of the Chaldeans; and so famine was a part of His punishment, as well as the sword and the pestilence.

For while He delays, He seems to have ceased from His duty, and then the impious indulge themselves as if He had forgotten to execute judgment.

Therefore, in opposition to this, He declares that He would execute judgments: as if He had said, 'I will appear as judge although you think Me asleep.'

For He says, He will execute judgments in the midst of Jerusalem, before the eyes of the Gentiles. By this assertion He means that their punishments would be remarkable and such as could be easily observed by all the nations.

For we know that the Gentiles were then blind, because they thought that good and evil happened by chance. But God affirms that His judgments will be so manifest that the blind will be, as it were, eyewitnesses.