Ezekiel 24

Our focus this week is on Ezekiel 24, the dramatic climax of the book. Until now, Ezekiel’s message has served as an ongoing alarm for Jerusalem’s impending punishment. For five years, Ezekiel used every strategy in his prophetic playbook to communicate his message: oracles, visions, sign-acts, riddles, parables, songs, rhetorical questions, history lessons, and laments. By cataloguing Jerusalem’s sins, he established the city’s guilt and validated the need for divine intervention. Yahweh’s patience had run its course. 

Judgement day fell on January 15, 588 BCE. Ezekiel received an oracle from the Lord at the same moment that Nebuchadnezzar’s army closed in on Jerusalem’s walls. 

Chapter 24 also tells the tragic story of the death of Ezekiel's wife, and God's command that Ezekiel not publicly mourn her. 

Transcript

Welcome to Bible Fiber, where we are encountering the textures and shades of the biblical tapestry through twelve Minor Prophets, two reformers, and one exile. I am Shelley Neese, president of The Jerusalem Connection, a Christian organization devoted to sharing the story of the people of Israel, both ancient and modern. Before the episode, I have big news to share. The very first Bible Fiber book is being released on October 1st. The book is the full collection of commentary essays on the 12 Minor Prophets. It is a 52 week, chapter-by-chapter, study. I am super excited for you to see it. Go to www.shelleyneese.com or www.thejerusalemconnection.us to sign up for the emails so you can get the announcement when it releases and also some freebies that will come out with the book. 

Our focus this week is on Ezekiel 24, the dramatic climax of the book. Until now, Ezekiel’s message has served as an ongoing alarm for Jerusalem’s impending punishment. For five years, Ezekiel used every strategy in his prophetic playbook to communicate his message: oracles, visions, sign-acts, riddles, parables, songs, rhetorical questions, history lessons, and laments. By cataloguing Jerusalem’s sins, he established the city’s guilt and validated the need for divine intervention. Yahweh’s patience had run its course. 

Judgement day fell on January 15, 588 BCE. Ezekiel received an oracle from the Lord at the same moment that Nebuchadnezzar’s army closed in on Jerusalem’s walls. Yahweh commanded Ezekiel, “Write down the name of this day, this very day. The king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem this very day” (24:2). Ezekiel used the same dating formula as 2 Kings and Jeremiah in marking the start of the Babylonian takeover (2 Kings 25:1; Jer. 52:4). Time stamping the prophecy’s specific date was given special importance by God, partially because the pronouncement authenticated Ezekiel’s prophetic abilities. Earlier in the book, Ezekiel’s fellow exiles had accused all the true prophets of exaggerating and fear-mongering because it seemed their predictions never materialized (12:22-23). Ezekiel’s prophecies were fulfilled in his own lifetime, a powerful testament to the reliability of divine revelation.

Ezekiel’s companions in the refugee encampment had no way of knowing the happenings in their homeland. This information vacuum heightened the exiles’ sense of isolation and powerlessness. In the absence of a 24-hour news cycle, refugees in Tel Abib relied on runners for updates about their homes, friends, and family in Jerusalem. A year later, a fugitive reached Babylon with news of Jerusalem’s fall, confirming Ezekiel’s prophecy (33:21-22). In the meantime, the exiles had the option of ignoring the eccentric prophet’s unsettling news or trust his supernatural insight. 

Cauldron song

Ezekiel announced the razing of Jerusalem through a poetic cooking allegory, a motif that he had used once before in Chapter 11. The major prophet, with a penchant for the dramatic, needed a grandiose way to announce the realization of his prophecies. God directed Ezekiel to prepare a meaty dish and guided him through the motions. He said, “Set on the pot; set it on; pour in water also; put in it the pieces, all the good pieces, the thigh and the shoulder; fill it with choice cuts” (24:4-5). It’s unclear whether the meal preperation was a literal sign-act or if it was only a verbal message. 

God guided Ezekiel to arrange the wood and cook the meat in a manner that hinted at it being a meal for a religious ceremony or extravagant celebration. In the ancient world, people reserved eating meat for special occasions, ritual observances, or royal celebrations. The dish was made even more high-end with the use of premium cuts of meat.

We know from Ezekiel’s previous cauldron allegory that all those who avoided capture and exile, and remained in the city of Jerusalem, saw themselves as Yahweh’s elect. They were the choice cuts of meat that Yahweh chose to safeguard. Their preservation in Jerusalem, despite all odds, proved they had divine favor. By that logic, the Judean exiles deported to Babylon were the gristle and organs, rejected and cast out of the pot (11:3-7). Ezekiel had previously disputed that idea in Chapter 11, but he seized another chance to counter their wrongheaded interpretation of events. 

Rather than a protective barrier, Ezekiel described the cooking pot as a cauldron of death. With the pot representing Jerusalem, God commanded the cook to pile up additional logs and crank up the fire’s heat (24:5). The broth’s low simmer transformed into a roaring boil. The Babylonian army’s siege tactics intensified the pressure on Jerusalem’s population. Instead of protecting the meat in the cauldron from outside threats, the meat boiled and the bones charred. In fact, the meat burned into such a mess that it contaminated the entire pot, making it unusable. The divine cook had no choice but to cast out the scum “piece by piece” and what he depicted as the “pot whose crud is in it” (24:6).

Switching speaking styles, Ezekiel pronounced “woe” on Jerusalem. He said, “For the blood she shed is inside it; she placed it on a bare rock; she did not pour it out on the ground, to cover it with earth” (24:7). The Judahites forgot God’s laws regarding the significance of blood. According to the standards of the Torah, blood signified the sacred source of all life. When priests performed animal sacrifices, they were expected to drain the blood respectfully and pour it into the earth like water (Deut. 12:16, 24). Kosher laws prohibited the consumption of blood. Jerusalem, however, disregarded the sanctity of all life, animal and human. 

For the second time, Ezekiel renamed the “holy city” as the “bloody city” (22:2; 24:6,9). Accusing Jerusalem of bloodshed was Ezekiel’s general categorization of all the nation’s crimes. The insult is a critique of the indiscriminate violence in Jerusalem, but it also calls out the city for rampant moral corruption, idolatry, and injustice. 

Violence was so widespread in Jerusalem that people didn’t even bother to hide the evidence of their wrongdoing. Yahweh declared he would use Jerusalem’s spilled blood as a target for his wrath. He said, “I have placed the blood she shed on a bare rock, so that it may not be covered” (24:8). In contrast to the blood on the doorposts that saved the Israelites from the angel of death in Egypt, the blood splattered rocks in Jerusalem marked the city for destruction. 

Yahweh himself then joined the cook in preparing the dish. He poured out the broth and revved up the fire even more. He commanded, “Heap up the logs; kindle the fire; boil the meat well; boil down the broth; let the bones be burned” (24:10). Every cook has surely forgotten to turn down a stove burner at some point, resulting in the unpleasant smell of burned food exposed to dry heat for too long. Tossing out the overcooked food is a given, but often it is also too late to salvage the pot. 

God raised the temperature in Ezekiel’s allegorical pot, causing the remaining encrusted meat to be burned to ash. At first, the narrative makes it seem like he intended to save the pot by heating the charred residue just enough so he could scrape it off. In fact, he heated the pot to such an extreme that it consumed the contents and damaged it beyond repair. To further startle his hearers, Ezekiel described the pot as being made of copper, rather than the standard type of clay cooking vessel. Copper pots were a rare possession among Judeans. The expensive pot met the same fate as the discarded meat. Yahweh declared, “In vain I have wearied myself; its thick crud does not depart. To the fire with its crud!” (24:12). 

Ezekiel’s cooking pot allegory illustrated Yahweh’s attempts to bring his people back into the covenant. The cook was not to blame for the pot’s ruin. He went to great lengths to cleanse the pot, but it was unsuccessful (24:13). For almost two centuries, God sent prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Habakkuk and Ezekiel to call the people to repentance. The prophets pleaded for their compatriots to return to their covenant obligations. The whole time, the prophets warned that if the covenant people continued to be unfaithful, they would suffer the consequences. 

Each successive prophet became more specific about the exact nature of Babylon’s attack. Using Ezekiel as his mouthpiece, Yahweh made his ultimate declaration before Jerusalem’s fall: “I the Lord have spoken; the time is coming; I will act. I will not refrain; I will not spare; I will not relent” (24:14). The people of Judah had refused to repent, igniting the flame of Yahweh’s wrath. All that remained was to turn up the heat on Jerusalem. The charred pot imagery is both potent and tragic. 

Wife’s death

 After Ezekiel delivered his cooking pot oracle, God informed him that he was about to perform one last sign-act on the prophet to represent the sanctuary’s fate. He said, “Mortal, with one blow I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes, yet you shall not mourn or weep, nor shall your tears run down” (24:16). The delight of Ezekiel’s eyes was his young wife. Until now, the text has not revealed the details of the prophet’s personal life. Yet, the knowledge of a wife colors earlier episodes in the book’s first half.

When Ezekiel was bound and gagged in his own home, what role did his wife play in his grand performance (3:25-27)? When Ezekiel lied on his side and nearly starved himself to death, did his wife fret (4:4-8)? Did she bring him his daily food and water ration? Was she angry when he dug a hole through the walls of their house (12:1-7)? Did she bandage his cuts after he shaved himself with a sword (5:1-4)? Did she keep her chin up when those in the encampment dismissed Ezekiel as a riddler (20:49)?

If Ezekiel was 30 when God called him to be a prophet, he was likely married before being deported to Babylon. In Jerusalem, his wife had knowingly married a priest, so she had a foundational understanding that her husband was called to the service of God. An even bigger commissioning came later in their marriage when he was called to the prophetic office. Despite the challenges of being married to the refugee camp’s most eccentric man, Ezekiel and his wife must have had a loving relationship. God did not only declare that he was taking Ezekiel’s wife. He referred to his wife as the “delight of your eyes,” which reminds me of God’s tender acknowledgment of Abraham’s love for Isaac. When God tested Abraham’s obedience, he called Isaac the son that he loved (Gen. 22:2). 

The text does not reveal the cause of her death. I can’t help but wish she had long been suffering from an unidentified sickness. In such a case, at least God’s action seems less cruel. The text, however, presents the death as sudden and unexpected. God warned Ezekiel beforehand that it would occur with “one blow.” He gave Ezekiel the terrible news that morning and by the evening, she was gone (24:18). The news of her death must have left his fellow exiles bewildered. To further the shock, Ezekiel coud not mourn his wife publicly in any of the conventional ways.

Of course, God permitted Ezekiel to suffer in silence, or “groan quietly” in his own home (24:17). However, God instructed, “Make no mourning for the dead. Bind on your turban, and put your sandals on your feet; do not cover your upper lip or eat the bread of mourners” (24:17). It was not like the prophet to be stoic. Back in Chapter 9, Ezekiel fell facedown and wept over Jerusalem’s destiny (9:8). Judaism, like other ancient religions, possessed elaborate traditions and rituals to grieve the loss of a family member. 

God denied Ezekiel any of the customs that gave a kinetic outlet for internal grief. Ezekiel had to keep on his turban rather than cover his head with ashes. Instead of going barefoot, he had to wear his sandals, which is not the usual practice for someone in mourning. He continued to shave. Normally, mourners let their beards grow. Mourning traditions helped others in the community comfort the close family of the departed. God instructed Ezekiel to refrain from eating “the bread of mourners,” meaning no one could even prepare him a dish. 

Although Ezekiel had been sounding the alarm for years, the death of his wife got the exiles’ attention. At this point in his ministry, the exiles knew that all of Ezekiel’s words and actions had meaning. They knew that his wife’s death and his rejection of mourning rituals had to be significant. They asked him, “Will you not tell us what these things mean for us, that you are acting this way?” (24:19).

Ezekiel interpreted his sign-act for them with a word from the Lord. He prophesied, “I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the delight of your eyes, and your heart’s desire, and your sons and your daughters whom you left behind shall fall by the sword” (24:21). What Ezekiel lost with the death of his wife, the Judeans will soon lose with the collapse of their Temple and the death of their children still in Jerusalem. Yahweh links the two tragedies by using the same endearing term for the Temple that he had used for Ezekiel’s wife. The Temple was “the delight of your eyes.” 

Both the exiles and the residents of Jerusalem believed that the city was impregnable. After dedicating the First Temple, God had promised King Solomon that his name would dwell in the city forever (1 Kings 9:3). In 701 BCE, when the powerful Assyrian army captured every town in its path, God spared Jerusalem (2 Kings 19:35-36). That miraculous episode strengthened the belief that Jerusalem was secure for all eternity and that God provided divine protection to its inhabitants. For this reason, Yahweh has a disparaging tone when he calls the Temple the people’s “stronghold, their joy and glory, the delight of their eyes and their heart’s affection” (24:25). 

The Temple had morphed from a place to worship Yahweh into the place that was idolized. The Temple, rather than the God it represented, had become the object of their affection. They had no need for Yahweh to abide with them if the Temple still stood as their “good luck” tool. The prophet Jeremiah had called their reliance on the Temple a great deception because the Temple could not impart its holiness to the people (Jer. 7:4). Without a Temple, they would need to pursue sanctification with God through obedience and relationship. 

Ezekiel instructed the exiles that on the day of the Lord, when confirmation of the Temple’s destruction arrived, they were to follow his stoic example. He said, “You shall do as I have done” (24:22). They could not express their grief in public or rely on any of the normal mourning customs. Ezekiel’s personal life was a metaphor for the inescapable sorrow that loomed over his nation. Just as Ezekiel had to suppress his grief, the news of Jerusalem’s fall will overpower the people of Jerusalem. Because of the magnitude of the disaster, customary rites would not provide relief. Swiftly carted off to Babylon, the shell-shocked evacuees would have no time to process their loss. 

The death of Ezekiel’s wife is one of the most difficult episodes in the entire book. As a messenger of God, Ezekiel carried out every divine directive without resistance. Why should he also suffer the loss of his closest earthly companion? Ezekiel had already preached repentance and predicted judgement for years. If nothing could block the sword from striking Jerusalem, it seems purposeless to add any more affliction to the prophet’s own life. The exiles had questioned God’s justice despite their guilt (18:25). Ezekiel was innocent and obedient. Yet, he never lashed out against God. 

However, in God’s mysterious ways, suffering often came along with the prophetic vocation. God did not remove the prophets from the calamities that they predicted. They suffered alongside their hearers, sometimes even more so. Ezekiel’s commissioning required total submission to the word of God. 

God asked the prophet Hosea, a respected and God-fearing man, to marry Gomer, the adulteress (Hos. 1:2). For Gomer, matrimony did not guarantee fidelity, and she continued to break Hosea’s heart. God commanded Jeremiah to never marry or have children (Jer. 16:1-2). The prophet’s loneliness symbolized Judah’s doomed future and lack of immediate hope. Right at the crux of his ministry, Ezekiel took on the pain of the moment in a deeply personal way. 

Loosening Ezekiel’s tongue

Ezekiel 24 ends on a hopeful note. God told Ezekiel that when fugitives from Jerusalem arrived in Babylon, the prophet would know that God’s judgement was complete. On that very day, when his prophecies were vindicated, God would loosen Ezekiel’s tongue. God predicted, “On that day your mouth shall be opened to the one who has escaped, and you shall speak and no longer be silent” (24:27).

From the beginning of Ezekiel’s ministry, God struck Ezekiel dumb. He restricted his speech so that his tongue clung to the roof of his mouth and that he was speechless unless giving direct messages of judgement from God (3:26). When God delivered Jerusalem’s punishment, he appeased his own wrath. As a result, he loosened Ezekiel’s tongue, allowing his message and mission to change. When the prophet’s tongue was restrained, he had only been authorized to deliver notices of past sins and coming judgement. Upon loosening his tongue, he changed his tone. He would console the people and offer them words of comfort. In the coming era of mercy, Ezekiel’s messages would be full of possibility and futuristic visions. 

Ezekiel’s highest level of sanctification followed his lowest moment of suffering with the death of his wife. The same was true for Jerusalem. Yes, the earthly Temple was gone, but God still resided on his heavenly throne. 

Thank you for listening and please continue to take part in this Bible Reading Challenge. We are coming up on the anniversary of the October 7 massacre. Christian organizations have come together to hold a memorial at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. If you would like to join us for the memorial or learn more, email me at srn@tjci.org

Shabbat Shalom and Am Israel Chai