Ezekiel 11:3

"They say, the time is not near to build houses: this city is the caldron, and we are the flesh. Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy O son of man."

The understanding of this is difficult. The best versions of the Bible render the verse differently. They say, It is not near; let us build houses: this city is the caldron, and we be the flesh (KJV).

Is not the time near to build houses? this city is the caldron and we are the flesh (ASV margin).

We will soon be building houses again. The city is like a cooking pot, and we are like the meat in it, but at least it protects us from the fire (the Good News Bible).

Will it not soon be time to build houses? The city is a cooking pot, and we are the meat (NIV).

Saying, Were not houses lately built? This city is the caldron, and we the flesh (Douay Version).

Houses have been recently rebuilding; all is well! The city is a cauldron, and we are the flesh, safe inside in it. (Moffatt's Translation).

These versions and translations are enough to show how general is the uncertainty about what is actually said here. It will be noticed that some have taken great liberties with the text, even introducing thoughts in no way connected with it.

Beasley-Murray accepted the ASV margin, and accepted the thought as opposed to the prophetic warnings and a support for Jerusalem's false sense of security.[3] Bruce also preferred the ASV marginal rendition, stating that the false leaders here claimed security, normality, and their expectation of a long residency in Jerusalem.[4]

The learned opinions of scholars like Bruce and Beasley-Murray are impressive, but their weakness rests in the fact that the Hebrew text simply does not fit such interpretations; and therefore we favor the view of Keil.

Keil took the view that the `house-building' referred to here is a reference to Jeremiah's instructions (Jeremiah 29:5), making the words here a brazen attempt to contradict Jeremiah's instructions to the exiles. This would give a meaning like this: "House-building in exile is a long way off. It will not come to this; Jerusalem will not fall into the hands of the king of Babylon."[5]

Whatever the false leaders were saying in Jerusalem, we are certain that their policies, their advice to the people and their false sense of security were all extremely wicked.

The meaning of their proverb about the caldron and the flesh in it seems to be clear enough. They fancied themselves to be the meat, preserved and safe in the pot, at the same time falsely imputing to the exiles the status of the excess liquor already poured out of the caldron.

The remaining Jews in Jerusalem at that time, following their wicked leaders looked upon themselves as "the true and only Israel." They alone were in God's land; all others, including the exiles, were out of it for ever. They no longer counted. The Jerusalemites alone had access to the Temple and its sacred services. They detested and despised the exiles, supposing that God no longer cared for them, and they thought that they alone were the heirs of the promises to the patriarchs. It was the horrible unjustness and arrogance of such views that had reached the exiles; and it was that very problem that had brought the elders to the house of Ezekiel at the beginning of this section in chapter 8.

The very next few verses here will present the situation as it really was, namely, that the exiles were the "true Israel," and that the Jerusalemites were doomed to utter destruction, except for a few who would be added to the remnant in Babylon.