Eze 3:17-21 | KD | STEP | Vers. 16-21. When these seven days are completed, there comes to him the final word, which appoints him watchman over Israel, and places before him the task and responsibility of his vocation. — Ver. 16. And it came to pass after the lapse of seven days, that the word of Jehovah came to me as follows: Ver. 17. Son of man, I have set thee to be a watchman over the house of Israel; thou shalt hear the Lord from my mouth, and thou shalt warn them from me Ver. 18. If I say to the sinner, Thou shalt surely die, and thou warnest him not, and speakest not to warn the sinner from his evil way that he may live, then shall he, the sinner, die because of his evil deeds, but his blood will I require at thy hand, Ver. 19. But if thou warnest the sinner and he turn not from his wickedness and his evil way, then shall he die because of his evil deeds, but thou hast saved thy soul. Ver. 20. And if a righteous man turn from his righteousness, and do unrighteousness, and I lay a stumbling block before his, then shall he die; if thou hast not warned him, he shall die because of his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood will I require at thy hand. Ver. 21. But if thou warnest him — the righteous man — so that the righteous man sin not, and he do not sin, then will he live, because he has been warned, and thou hast saved thy soul. — As a prophet for Israel, Ezekiel is like one standing upon a watch- tower ( ), to watch over the condition of the people, and warn them of the dangers that threaten them ( ; ). As such, he is responsible for the souls entrusted to his charge. From the mouth of Jehovah, i.e. according; to God's word, he is to admonish the wicked to turn from their evil ways, that they die not in their sins. ֚֭טׅטֶּגִּי, “from me,” i.e. in my name, and with my commission. “If I say to the sinner,” i.e. if I commission thee to say to him (Kimchi). As מ֥וֹת תָּמֽוּת reminds us of , so is the threatening, “his blood will I require at thy hand,” an allusion to Gen 9:5. If the prophet does not warn the wicked man, as God has commanded him, he renders himself guilty of a deadly sin, for which God will take vengeance on him as on the murderer for the shedding of blood. An awfully solemn statement for all ministers of the word. הָרְשָׁעָ֖ה, in vers. 18 and 19, at which the LXX. have stumbled, so that they have twice omitted it, is not a substantive, and to be changed, with Hitzig, into רְשָׁעָ֖ה, but is an adjective, foemin. gen. , and belongs to דַּרְכּ֥וֹ, which is construed as feminine. The righteous man who backslides is, before God, regarded as equal with the sinner who persists in his sin, if the former, notwithstanding the warning, perseveres in his backsliding (ver. 20 sqq.). שׁ֨וּב מִצִּדְקוֹ֙, “to turn oneself from his righteousness,” denotes the formal falling away from the path of righteousness, not mere “stumbling or sinning from weakness.”עָ֣שָׂה עָ֔וֶל, “to do unrighteousness,” “to act perversely,” is “ se prorsus dedere impietati ” (Calvin). וְנָתַתִּ֥י מִכְשׁ֛וֹל belongs still to the protasis , ה֣וּא יָמ֑וּת forming the apodosis , not a relative sentence, — as Ewald and Hitzig suppose, — “so that he, or, in consequence of which, he die.” מִכְשׁ֛וֹל, “object of offence,” by which any one comes to fall, is not destruction, considered as punishment deserved (Calvin, Havernick), but everything that God puts in the way of the sinner, in order that the sin, which is germinating in his soul, may come forth to the light, and ripen to maturity. God, indeed, neither causes sin, nor desires the death of the sinner; and in this sense He does not tempt to evil ( ), but He guides and places the sinner in relations in life in which he must come to a decision for or against what is good and divine, and either suppress the sinful lusts of his heart, or burst the barriers which are opposed to their satisfaction. If he does not do the former, but the latter, evil gains within him more and more strength, so that he becomes the servant of sin, and finally reaches a point where conversion is impossible. In this consists theמִכְשׁ֛וֹל, which God places before him, who turns away from righteousness to unrighteousness or evil, but not in this, that God lets man run on in order that he may die or perish. For יָמ֑וּת does not stand for זמ֑ת, and there is therefore no ground for a change of punctuation to carry forward Athnach to הִזְהַרְתּוֹ֙ (Hitzig). For the subject spoken of is not that the backsliding righteous man “in general only dies if he is not warned” (Hitzig), — that meaning is not in ver. 21, “that he, in contrast to the רָשָׁ֔ע, gives sure obedience to the warning,” — but only the possibility is supposed that a צַדִּ֗יק, who has transgressed upon the way of evil, will yield obedience to the warning, but not that he will of a certainty do this. As with the רָשָׁ֔ע in ver. 19, only the case of his resisting the warning is expressly mentioned ; while the opposite case — that he may, in consequence of the warning, be converted — is not excluded ; so in ver. 21, with the צַדִּ֗יק, who has entered upon the path of unrighteousness, only the case of conversion in consequence of the warning is expressly mentioned, without the possibility of his hardening himself against the prophet's word being thereby excluded. For the instruction of the prophet it was sufficient to bring forward the two cases mentioned, as it appears from them that in the one case as well as in the other he has done his duty, and saved his soul.

‏ Ezekiel 3:17-21

Vers. 16-21. When these seven days are completed, there comes to him the final word, which appoints him watchman over Israel, and places before him the task and responsibility of his vocation. — Ver. 16. And it came to pass after the lapse of seven days, that the word of Jehovah came to me as follows: Ver. 17. Son of man, I have set thee to be a watchman over the house of Israel; thou shalt hear the Lord from my mouth, and thou shalt warn them from me Ver. 18. If I say to the sinner, Thou shalt surely die, and thou warnest him not, and speakest not to warn the sinner from his evil way that he may live, then shall he, the sinner, die because of his evil deeds, but his blood will I require at thy hand, Ver. 19. But if thou warnest the sinner and he turn not from his wickedness and his evil way, then shall he die because of his evil deeds, but thou hast saved thy soul. Ver. 20. And if a righteous man turn from his righteousness, and do unrighteousness, and I lay a stumbling block before his, then shall he die; if thou hast not warned him, he shall die because of his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood will I require at thy hand. Ver. 21. But if thou warnest him — the righteous man — so that the righteous man sin not, and he do not sin, then will he live, because he has been warned, and thou hast saved thy soul. — As a prophet for Israel, Ezekiel is like one standing upon a watch- tower (Hab 2:1), to watch over the condition of the people, and warn them of the dangers that threaten them (Jer 6:17 ; Isa 56:10). As such, he is responsible for the souls entrusted to his charge. From the mouth of Jehovah, i.e. according; to God's word, he is to admonish the wicked to turn from their evil ways, that they die not in their sins. ֚֭טׅטֶּגִּי, “from me,” i.e. in my name, and with my commission. “If I say to the sinner,” i.e. if I commission thee to say to him (Kimchi). As מ֥וֹת תָּמֽוּת reminds us of Gen 2:17, so is the threatening, “his blood will I require at thy hand,” an allusion to Gen 9:5. If the prophet does not warn the wicked man, as God has commanded him, he renders himself guilty of a deadly sin, for which God will take vengeance on him as on the murderer for the shedding of blood. An awfully solemn statement for all ministers of the word. הָרְשָׁעָ֖ה, in vers. 18 and 19, at which the LXX. have stumbled, so that they have twice omitted it, is not a substantive, and to be changed, with Hitzig, into רְשָׁעָ֖ה, but is an adjective, foemin. gen., and belongs to דַּרְכּ֥וֹ, which is construed as feminine. The righteous man who backslides is, before God, regarded as equal with the sinner who persists in his sin, if the former, notwithstanding the warning, perseveres in his backsliding (ver. 20 sqq.). שׁ֨וּב מִצִּדְקוֹ֙, “to turn oneself from his righteousness,” denotes the formal falling away from the path of righteousness, not mere “stumbling or sinning from weakness.”עָ֣שָׂה עָ֔וֶל, “to do unrighteousness,” “to act perversely,” is “se prorsus dedere impietati” (Calvin). וְנָתַתִּ֥י מִכְשׁ֛וֹל belongs still to the protasis, ה֣וּא יָמ֑וּת forming the apodosis, not a relative sentence, — as Ewald and Hitzig suppose, — “so that he, or, in consequence of which, he die.” מִכְשׁ֛וֹל, “object of offence,” by which any one comes to fall, is not destruction, considered as punishment deserved (Calvin, Havernick), but everything that God puts in the way of the sinner, in order that the sin, which is germinating in his soul, may come forth to the light, and ripen to maturity. God, indeed, neither causes sin, nor desires the death of the sinner; and in this sense He does not tempt to evil (Jas 1:13), but He guides and places the sinner in relations in life in which he must come to a decision for or against what is good and divine, and either suppress the sinful lusts of his heart, or burst the barriers which are opposed to their satisfaction. If he does not do the former, but the latter, evil gains within him more and more strength, so that he becomes the servant of sin, and finally reaches a point where conversion is impossible. In this consists theמִכְשׁ֛וֹל, which God places before him, who turns away from righteousness to unrighteousness or evil, but not in this, that God lets man run on in order that he may die or perish. For יָמ֑וּת does not stand for זמ֑ת, and there is therefore no ground for a change of punctuation to carry forward Athnach to הִזְהַרְתּוֹ֙ (Hitzig). For the subject spoken of is not that the backsliding righteous man “in general only dies if he is not warned” (Hitzig), — that meaning is not in ver. 21, “that he, in contrast to the רָשָׁ֔ע, gives sure obedience to the warning,” — but only the possibility is supposed that a צַדִּ֗יק, who has transgressed upon the way of evil, will yield obedience to the warning, but not that he will of a certainty do this. As with the רָשָׁ֔ע in ver. 19, only the case of his resisting the warning is expressly mentioned ; while the opposite case — that he may, in consequence of the warning, be converted — is not excluded ; so in ver. 21, with the צַדִּ֗יק, who has entered upon the path of unrighteousness, only the case of conversion in consequence of the warning is expressly mentioned, without the possibility of his hardening himself against the prophet's word being thereby excluded. For the instruction of the prophet it was sufficient to bring forward the two cases mentioned, as it appears from them that in the one case as well as in the other he has done his duty, and saved his soul.