Ezekiel 14:14-20

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Ezekiel 14:12-21

The scope of these verses is to show, I. That national sins bring national judgments. When virtue is ruined and laid waste every thing else will soon be ruined and laid waste too (Ezek. 14:13): When the land sins against me, when vice and wickedness become epidemical, when the land sins by trespassing grievously, when the sinners have become very numerous and their sins very heinous, when gross impieties and immoralities universally prevail, then will I stretch forth my hand upon it, for the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Ezekiel 14:14

Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it ,.... In the sinning land, and made intercession for it, that the famine might be removed, and the inhabitants of it be saved alive, this would not be granted; though they were men that found favour in the sight of God, and were eminent for prayer, and successful in it, and the means of saving many; as Noah his family, by preparing an ark according to the will of God; and Daniel was an instrument of saving the lives of his companions,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Ezekiel 14:15

If I cause noisome beasts to pass through the land ,.... Evil and hurtful ones; not so much those that are poisonous as pernicious; such, as lions, tigers, foxes, wolves, and bears, that are very ravenous and devouring, and especially in a time of famine before threatened; though sometimes God makes use of lesser creatures to do damage to a land, and the fruits of it, as locusts, caterpillars, &c.; but the former seem to be intended here, which sometimes God threatens and sends to a... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Ezekiel 14:16

Though these three men were in it ,.... Above named, Noah, Daniel, and Job; as they were not, two of them not being in the land of the living, and the other in Babylon; but if all three had been in a land so threatened, and used all the interest they had with God, by fervent prayer and supplication, to have called in the wild beasts, and chained them up, and to preserve the people from being destroyed by them, it would have been all in vain; the Lord was determined upon the destruction... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Ezekiel 14:17

Or if I bring a sword upon that land ,.... The land which had grievously sinned; the same land into which a famine should come, and through which evil beasts should pass; to which, if the Lord should add, as he would, a third judgment, the sword; suffer a foreign enemy to come in among them, and destroy them. So the Targum, "or if those that slay with the sword I should bring upon that land;' the Chaldean army, as he did; the sword has its commission from God; war is not by chance; the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Ezekiel 14:18

Though these three men were in it ,.... Before mentioned: as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters : believe me no more, or be it so and so, if they do; it is in the form of an oath, and in the same manner it is expressed in Ezekiel 14:16 ; but they only shall be delivered themselves ; their own souls or lives, and by their righteousness, as in Ezekiel 14:14 . read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Ezekiel 14:19

Or if I send a pestilence into that land ,.... Or the plague, which is the destruction that wastes at noon day; this is from the Lord, and a sore judgment it is: and pour out my fury upon it in blood ; or, "by blood" F25 בדם "per sanguinem", Piscator. ; by corrupting the blood, which is done when a man is seized with the pestilence. The Targum renders it, "with slaughter"; by slaying a great number of persons by that disease, as a token of fury and wrath, because of their... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Ezekiel 14:20

Though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it ,.... Who are again mentioned by name, as in Ezekiel 14:14 ; and are the three men referred to in Ezekiel 14:16 ; as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter ; not so much as an only son, or an only daughter, no, not even a single child: the plural number is used before, as in Ezekiel 14:16 ; here the singular, to show how resolutely determined the Lord was upon the destruction of the land; that even the... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Ezekiel 14:14

Though - Noah, Daniel, and Job - The intercession even of the holiest of men shall not avert my judgments. Noah, though a righteous man, could not by his intercession preserve the old world from being drowned. Job, though a righteous man, could not preserve his children from being killed by the fall of their house. Daniel, though a righteous man, could not prevent the captivity of his country. Daniel must have been contemporary with Ezekiel. He was taken captive in the third year of... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Ezekiel 14:14

Verse 14 Here again God threatens the people of Israel with final destruction: but the words seem opposed, that God would be merciful and propitious to his people, and yet that no hope of pardon would be left. But we must remember the principle, that the prophets sometimes directed their discourse to the body of the people which was utterly devoted to destruction, since its wickedness was desperate; yet afterwards they moderated that rigor, when they turned to the remainder, which is the seed... read more

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