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Ezekiel 14: What the Passage Says

96 claims across 23 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Ezekiel 14 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

Some of Israel's elders come to sit before Ezekiel, and the LORD tells him these men have set up idols in their hearts, so he will answer them according to their idols and cut off both the inquirer and the prophet who answers, calling Israel to turn back. The LORD then says that if a land sins against him and he sends famine, wild animals, the sword, or plague, even Noah, Daniel, and Job in that land would save only themselves by their righteousness, not their sons or daughters. He applies this to Jerusalem, which will face all four judgments. Yet survivors will be brought out to the exiles, and seeing their conduct will show the exiles that what the LORD did to the city was not without cause.

Claim by Claim

  1. 14:1
    • Men from among the elders of Israel came to Ezekiel.
    • They sat down before him.
  2. 14:2
    • The word of the LORD came to Ezekiel.
  3. 14:3
    • God addressed Ezekiel as son of man.
    • God said these men had set up their idols in their heart.
    • God said they had put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face.
    • God asked whether he should let himself be inquired of at all by them.
  4. 14:4
    • God told Ezekiel to speak to them and say to them.
    • The message is introduced as the words of the Lord GOD.
    • The message concerns any man of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart.
    • It concerns such a man who puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face.
    • It concerns such a man who then comes to the prophet.
    • The LORD says he himself will answer that man.
    • The LORD says he will answer him according to the multitude of his idols.
  5. 14:5
    • The purpose is that the LORD may seize the house of Israel in their own heart.
    • They are all estranged from the LORD through their idols.
  6. 14:6
    • God told Ezekiel to say to the house of Israel.
    • The message is introduced as the words of the Lord GOD.
    • God commands them to repent.
    • God commands them to turn away from their idols.
    • God commands them to turn their faces away from all their abominations.
  7. 14:7
    • The word applies to every man of the house of Israel.
    • It applies also to the foreigner who sojourns in Israel.
    • It applies to one who separates himself from the LORD.
    • It applies to one who sets up his idols in his heart.
    • It applies to one who puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face.
    • It applies to one who comes to the prophet to inquire of the LORD.
    • The LORD says he himself will answer that man.
  8. 14:8
    • The LORD will set his face against that man.
    • The LORD will make him a sign and a proverb.
    • The LORD will cut him off from the midst of his people.
    • Then they will know that he is the LORD.
  9. 14:9
    • If a prophet is enticed and speaks a word.
    • The LORD says he himself enticed that prophet.
    • The LORD will stretch out his hand against him.
    • The LORD will destroy him from the midst of his people Israel.
  10. 14:10
    • They will bear their iniquity.
    • The punishment of the one who inquires will be the same as the punishment of the prophet.
  11. 14:11
    • The purpose is that the house of Israel may no longer stray from the LORD.
    • The purpose is that they may no longer defile themselves with all their transgressions.
    • They will be his people.
    • He will be their God.
    • This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.
  12. 14:12
    • The word of the LORD came again to Ezekiel.
  13. 14:13
    • God addressed Ezekiel as son of man.
    • The case is a land that sins against the LORD by acting unfaithfully.
    • The LORD will stretch out his hand against it.
    • The LORD will break its supply of bread.
    • The LORD will send famine upon it.
    • The LORD will cut off man and beast from it.
  14. 14:14
    • Even if these three men were in that land, namely Noah, Daniel, and Job.
    • They would deliver only their own lives.
    • They would deliver themselves by their righteousness.
    • This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.
  15. 14:15
    • The case is that the LORD sends wild beasts through the land.
    • The beasts leave the land bereaved of its children.
    • The land becomes desolate.
    • No one passes through it because of the beasts.
  16. 14:16
    • Even if these three men were in that land.
    • The LORD swears by his own life.
    • This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.
    • They would deliver neither sons nor daughters.
    • They alone would be delivered.
    • The land would be desolate.
  17. 14:17
    • The case is that the LORD brings a sword upon that land.
    • The LORD says, Let a sword pass through the land.
    • The LORD cuts off man and beast from it.
  18. 14:18
    • Even if these three men were in that land.
    • The LORD swears by his own life.
    • This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.
    • They would deliver neither sons nor daughters.
    • They alone would be delivered.
  19. 14:19
    • The case is that the LORD sends a pestilence into that land.
    • The LORD pours out his fury upon it in blood.
    • The purpose is to cut off man and beast from it.
  20. 14:20
    • Even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in that land.
    • The LORD swears by his own life.
    • This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.
    • They would deliver neither son nor daughter.
    • They would deliver only their own lives by their righteousness.
  21. 14:21
    • The message is introduced as the words of the Lord GOD.
    • The case of Jerusalem is much worse.
    • The LORD sends his four evil judgments upon Jerusalem.
    • The four judgments are the sword, the famine, the wild beast, and the pestilence.
    • The purpose is to cut off man and beast from it.
  22. 14:22
    • A remnant will be left in Jerusalem.
    • The remnant consists of sons and daughters who are brought out.
    • They will come out to those addressed.
    • Those addressed will see their way and their doings.
    • Those addressed will be comforted concerning the evil the LORD brought upon Jerusalem.
    • They will be comforted concerning all that the LORD brought upon it.
  23. 14:23
    • The survivors will comfort those addressed.
    • This will happen when those addressed see the survivors' ways and doings.
    • Those addressed will know that the LORD has not acted without cause.
    • This applies to all that the LORD has done in Jerusalem.
    • This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

14:1
Ezekiel was living among the Judeans deported to Babylon, and the "elders" are the heads of families who led that exile community. Sitting down in front of a prophet was the recognized posture of people who had come to put a formal question to God through him and wait for the answer.
14:2
Where the King James prints LORD in large and small capitals, it stands for God's own personal name, not just a title.
14:3
"Son of man" translates a Hebrew phrase meaning simply "human being" or "mortal." It is God's standard form of address to Ezekiel throughout the book, marking him out as a man being spoken to, not a title of rank. (The word translated "idols" here is a contemptuous Hebrew term (gillulim) that appears to be related to a word for dung pellets; it is closer to "filthy things" than to a neutral word for images.) "Should I be enquired of" refers to the formal practice of consulting a deity through a prophet for a yes-or-no answer or a divine ruling, the way one might consult an oracle.
14:4
"According to the multitude of his idols" is deliberately double-edged in the Hebrew: it can mean God answers in a way that exposes the man's idolatry, or that the answer he gets will be as worthless and confused as the idols themselves. The wording does not settle which.
14:5
"Take the house of Israel in their own heart" is compressed even by KJV standards: it means seize them at the exact point where the problem sits, the heart, which is where the idols have been set up. "Estranged" means turned into strangers, pulled outside a relationship they used to be inside.
14:6
"Repent" here translates a Hebrew verb that simply means "turn back" or "turn around" (a change of direction, pictured physically, which is why the next line speaks of turning the face away.) "Abominations" renders a word for practices treated as disgusting and out of bounds; in Ezekiel it usually points to foreign religious rites.
14:7
"The stranger that sojourneth" is a legal category, not a casual visitor: a foreigner settled long-term in Israel, who had defined rights and was bound by many of Israel's laws. "Separateth himself" and the "estranged" of verse 5 translate the same Hebrew root, so the people's turning away and this man's are described with one word.
14:8
"Set my face against" is an idiom for fixed, hostile intent, the opposite of the face turned toward someone in favor. "Cut him off from the midst of my people" is a set formula from Israel's law for removal from the community; ancient readers debated whether it meant execution, expulsion, or a death left to God. A "proverb" (Hebrew mashal) here means a byword: a name people quote as a standing example of what happens.
14:9
The Hebrew verb behind "deceived" means to entice, lure, or talk someone around; it is the same word used for seducing or persuading. English "deceive" in 1611 covered this sense. Whether the prophet is presented as willingly enticed or as overpowered is left open.
14:10
One Hebrew word (avon) covers both a wrongdoing and the penalty it brings; "bear the punishment of their iniquity" carries both senses at once: they carry their guilt and they carry what it costs.
14:11
"Polluted" is ritual language, not moral distaste: it means rendered unfit to approach what is holy, the way physical contamination barred someone from the sanctuary. "They may be my people, and I may be their God" is a fixed formula that recurs throughout the Hebrew Bible to state the binding relationship between God and Israel, phrased much like the terms of an ancient treaty.
14:13
"Break the staff of the bread" is a Hebrew idiom: bread is pictured as the staff or walking stick that holds a person upright, so breaking it means cutting off the food supply that sustains life. Some read it more narrowly as the storage rods on which ring-shaped loaves were kept, and so as rationing.
14:14
All three men are figures from the distant past who were remembered for surviving a catastrophe that swept away everyone around them, and none of them was an Israelite of Ezekiel's own national story. "Daniel" is spelled here without a letter that the biblical book of Daniel's name carries; some take him to be that Daniel, others an ancient righteous king named Danel known from Canaanite literature for judging fairly and caring for widows and orphans. The text does not say which.
14:15
"Noisome" in 1611 English meant harmful or dangerous, not foul-smelling. The Hebrew verb behind "spoil it" means to bereave of children, and is here applied to a land emptied of the people in it; "strip it bare" and "leave it childless" are both attempts at the same word.
14:16
"As I live" is the standard opening of a Hebrew oath, staking the speaker's own life on the truth of what follows, the most binding form of promise available.
14:17
"A sword" stands for war and invading armies generally, as "the sword" does throughout the Hebrew prophets; it is not a single weapon.
14:19
"Pestilence" means an epidemic disease. ("Pour out my fury upon it in blood" combines two idioms: anger imagined as a liquid emptied out, and "in blood" meaning through slaughter) plague and killing together.
14:21
"Sore" in 1611 English meant severe or grievous. Sword, famine, wild beasts and plague form a fixed set of four disasters that recurs in Israel's older legal texts as the penalties attached to breaking the covenant, so a reader would have recognized the list as a formula rather than an improvised threat.
14:22
"A remnant" is a standard term in the prophets for the survivors left after a national disaster (those brought out alive, here as deportees joining the exiles Ezekiel is speaking to.) "Their way and their doings" means their conduct and behavior, not their journey.
14:23
"Without cause" translates a Hebrew word meaning for nothing, groundlessly, the same word used for a payment given free of charge or an accusation with no basis behind it.

Read Ezekiel 14