Ezekiel 12

The prophet proceeds, by a variety of types and parables, to convince those of the captivity that their brethren who were left behind to sustain the miseries of a siege and the insults of a conqueror, would be in a much worse condition than they who were already settled in a foreign land. In the beginning of this chapter he foretells the approaching captivity of Judah by action instead of words, Ezekiel 12:1-7 . He predicts particularly the flight, capture, captivity, and sufferings of Zedekiah and his followers, Ezekiel 12:8-16 , compared with Jeremiah 52:11 . He is to eat his food with trembling and signs of terror, as an emblem of the consternation of the Jews when surrounded by their enemies, Ezekiel 12:17-20 ; and then he answers the objections and bywords of scoffers and infidels, who either disbelieved his threatening or supposed the accomplishment of them very distant, Ezekiel 12:21-28 . Josephus (Antiq. 11:10) tells us that Zedekiah thought the prophecy of Ezekiel in the thirteenth verse inconsistent with that of Jeremiah, ( Jeremiah 34:3 ;), and resolved to believe neither. Both, however, were literary fulfilled; and the event convinced him that they were not irreconcilable. Thus, blinded by infidelity, sinners rush on to that destruction against which they are sufficiently warned.