Ezekiel 12:3-7 - Exposition

Prepare thee stuff for removing , etc.; better, equipment for a journey, with the implied thought that it is the journey of one going into exile. "Bag and baggage," all the household goods which an exile could take with him, were to be brought out in broad daylight and piled up opposite his door. Then in the twilight (Revised Version, in the dark, and so in Ezekiel 12:7 , Ezekiel 12:12 ) he was to go forth, not by the door of his house, but by breaking through the wall (with such walls as those of Ezekiel 13:11 the process would not be difficult), as a man might do who was escaping secretly from a city through the gates of which he dared not pass ( Ezekiel 12:5 ), and was to start with his travelling chattels upon his shoulder. Lastly ( Ezekiel 12:6 ), as the strangest feature of all, he was to go forth with his face covered , as one who wished to avoid recognition, as one also who could not see one step of the way before him. This, it is intimated, would startle even the most careless, and in this way he would become, as he had been before in like symbolic acts ( Ezekiel 4:1-17 ; Ezekiel 5:1-17 .), as Isaiah ( Isaiah 20:2 ) and Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 27:2 ) had been before him, a sign unto the house of Israel.