Ezekiel 1–19 (Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 28 | WBC)

Top Highlights

“Ultimately what needed to be removed lay not outside them, as in v 18, but inside, and only God could do that. The heart stands for the will: Israel’s hearts had been hard and wanton (2:4; 3:7; 6:9). ‘Stone hearts’ refer to that which is unconscious, immobile, and so unresponsive to God (cf. Exod 15:16; 1 Sam 25:37). By contrast, ‘hearts of flesh’ relate to that which is tender, yielding, and responsive. What was needed was a transformation wrought by God, replacing unresponsiveness with a new compliance to the will of God.” (Page 165)

“Here the creatures are represented as supernatural, in view of v 7b. As supernatural beings, they are mediators of Yahweh’s powerful being. Yet, as his supernatural servants, they also represent the concerted best that each of his orders of animate creation can separately contribute to his glory (cf. Pss 103:20–22; 148).” (Page 30)

“But the specification of Sodom’s sins highlights the city’s arrogance or pride in materialistic comfort and excess, coupled with a lack of concern for the poor.” (Page 244)

“The intended readers or hearers were living in the closing years of the exile” (Page xxvi)

“In chaps. 10–11 four stages of Yahweh’s departure are depicted, from the holy of holies, where he was enthroned above the ark, to the threshold of the temple (10:4; cf. 9:3), to the mobile conveyance of the cherubim (10:18), then over to the east gateway of the temple court (10:19), and finally beyond the city to the Mount of Olives (11:23).” (Page 167)