Ezekiel 5:15

"So it shall be a reproach and taunt, an instruction and an astonishment, unto the nations that are round about thee, when I shall execute judgments on thee in anger and in wrath, and in wrathful rebukes (I, Jehovah, have spoken it); when I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, that are for destruction, which I will send to destroy you. And I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread; and I will send upon you evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee; and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee; and I will bring the sword upon thee: I, Jehovah, have spoken it."

Greenberg cited no less than five phrases and expressions here that Ezekiel quoted from Leviticus 26.[7] It was for their violation of the covenant that came through Moses that resulted in God's fierce anger against Israel.

"The evil arrows of famine ..." (Ezekiel 5:16). According to the Book of Moses (Deuteronomy 22:23), these evil arrows refer to famine. God's promise to increase it shows that hunger upon hunger would fall upon the condemned people.

"Evil beasts ..." (Ezekiel 5:17). According to Watt, this is a reference to brutalized men who have no breath from God."[8] This, of course, could be correct; but the passage may also be intended literally. It will be remembered that when the Assyrians deported the Northern Israel, it was necessary to send back a priest to teach the people regarding the "God of the land," as a protection against the wild beasts (2 Kings 17:27).

"Pestilence and blood ..." (Ezekiel 5:17). "This refers to some terrible disease."[9]

Eichrodt pointed out that in this chapter, "Ezekiel brings out God's world-wide purpose of salvation, showing that it formed the background of the election of Israel, whose resistance to God's plan for the whole world amounted to her throwing away the position Israel was intended to occupy, thus making her rejection and severe punishment absolutely certain."[10]

The holy Church herself is in danger of the same tragic mistake made by Israel. If the Church shall forget that "God so loved the world" (all of it) that he gave the Gospel to "the whole creation"; and if she shall forget or neglect her mission to spread the Truth to the ends of creation, she herself might indeed suffer a fate similar to that which God inflicted upon the ancient Israel.