Ezekiel 24

And the word of the Lord came to me in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, saying: Son of man, write down for yourself the name of this day, on which the king of Babylon has been made strong against Jerusalem today. And you shall speak by a proverb a parable to the provoking house, and you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God: Set on the pot; set it on, I say, and put water into it. Heap its pieces into it, every good part, the thigh and the shoulder, choice pieces and full of bones; take the fattest of the flock, and arrange also piles of bones under it. Its cooking has boiled up, and its bones have been boiled through in the midst of it. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Woe to the city of bloods, to the pot whose rust is in it, and its rust has not gone out of it. Piece by piece, and by its pieces, cast it out; the lot has not fallen upon it, for its blood is in the midst of it; upon a most clear rock she poured it out; she did not pour it out upon the ground, so that it could be covered with dust: that I might bring my indignation upon her and avenge with vengeance, I have set her blood upon the most clear rock, so that it should not be covered. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Woe to the city of bloods, whose pyre I will make great. Heap up the bones, which I will set alight with fire; the flesh shall be consumed, and the whole composition shall be boiled down, and the bones shall waste away. Set it also empty upon the live coals, that it may grow hot, and its bronze may melt, and its defilement may be melted down in its midst, and its rust may be consumed. With much labor there has been sweating, and its excessive rust has not gone out of it, not even through fire. Your uncleanness is execrable, because I wished to cleanse you, and you were not cleansed of your filth; but neither will you be cleansed before I make my indignation rest upon you. I the Lord have spoken; it comes, and I will do it: I will not pass over, nor spare, nor be appeased. According to your ways and according to your devices I have judged you, says the Lord. (LXX: "And the word of the Lord came to me in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, saying: Son of man, write down for yourself the day from this day on which the king of Babylon set himself firmly over Jerusalem from this present day. And speak a parable to the exasperating house, and you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God: Set on the cauldron, and pour water upon it. And put into it the divisions, every good cut, the leg and the shoulder, taken from choice cattle, with the flesh separated from the bones; and burn the bones beneath them. It has boiled, it has boiled, and its bones have been boiled out in the midst of it. Therefore thus says Adonai the Lord: O city of bloods, cauldron in which there is rust in it, and the rust has not gone out of it. By its parts it has brought it out; the lot has not fallen upon it, because its blood is in the midst of it; upon a most smooth rock I have set it; I did not pour it out upon the ground, so that it should be covered with earth: that fury might go up to the avenging of vengeance, I have set her blood upon the most clear rock, so that it should not be covered. Therefore thus says Adonai the Lord: Woe to the city of bloods, and I will make the firebrand great and I will multiply the wood and I will kindle the fire, that the flesh may waste away and the broth be diminished, and the bones be burned up and it stand upon its coals. It has been kindled that it may be burned out, and its bronze be roasted, and its uncleanness be burned up in its midst, and its rust fail. The rust shall be humbled, and its abundant rust shall not go out of it; its rust shall be put to confusion. Your uncleanness is 'zemma', because you were defiled, and you have not been cleansed of your uncleanness. And what will it be if you are not cleansed any more, until I fulfil my fury upon you? I the Lord have spoken; and it will come, and I will do it: I will not delay, nor have mercy, nor be entreated. According to your ways and according to your devices I will judge you, says Adonai the Lord." — Most of these were added from Theodotion, and so was the Hebrew word 'zemma', for which we translated 'execrable uncleanness'; and this too was added by them, which is not found in the Hebrew and must be marked beforehand with an obelus: ÷ Therefore I judge you according to your blood, and according to your thoughts I will judge you, unclean and notorious and excessive in provoking. ⁚) Let us speak, then, about each point. In the ninth year of the captivity of King Jehoiakim — for he began to prophesy in the fifth —, and in the tenth month of the same ninth year, on the tenth day of the tenth month, the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the prophet, who was placed in the regions of Babylon, and said to him: 'Son of man, write down for yourself this same day, and know that today the king of Babylon has begun, in the region of Judea, to besiege Jerusalem and to wall it in with an army; and describe the siege itself by a parable and a proverb — which in the present place signifies a metaphor and transference — : Set on,' he says, 'a bronze pot, that is, a cauldron, and put water into it, and cut into pieces the whole body of the fattest animals, the thigh as well as the leg and the shoulder, and carefully separate the flesh from the bones and, once the flesh has been put into the cauldron, set, or arrange, the bones beneath the cauldron, and make piles and heaps of bones, so that the cooking of the cauldron may boil up not once but again and again, and the flesh may be boiled through within, and the bones beneath may be burned up by the fire.

It must also be noted how, from the beginning of the prophecy up to the present day when Jerusalem began to be besieged, the captivity comes in order. First the sword is called forth; then two ways are set out, Ammon and Jerusalem, and of these the lot falls for Nebuchadnezzar on the right-hand one; silver, bronze, tin, lead and iron are melted together in the city; the land too is not rained upon, but is overgrown with briers; afterwards, under the name of the two sisters Oholah and Oholibah, the sins of Samaria and Jerusalem are narrated, how the one has been captured and the other is to be captured; finally, in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, it is shown to Ezekiel, placed in captivity, and to those who were with him and had surrendered themselves with King Jeconiah, on what day the city began to be besieged, and the likeness of the cauldron is set forth so that, just as the flesh and the bones, heaped into the cauldron, are burned up by the fire, so the whole city is to perish together with its citizens, and none of those who were besieged is to remain without being consumed by famine, sword, pestilence, and the remaining part is to be led captive into Babylon. This same prophecy, however, can also pertain to the time of the Lord's passion, on account of which Jerusalem was surrounded by an army and her sons were slain and, when Titus the son of Vespasian besieged it, no one escaped to safety, and the temple suddenly, and, after fifty years, under Hadrian, the city was consumed by an everlasting fire. As for the present captivity, when Ezekiel was beholding these things in Babylon, and which Jeremiah sets at the beginning of his volume: What do you see, Jeremiah? And answering he said: A pot set alight, and its face from the face of the north, there are those who, according to tropology, transfer this whole passage to the consummation of the world, and who temper the ninth number, which in the holy Scriptures is the number of punishments and sorrows and always follows righteousness, by the clemency of the tenth month and the tenth day. For punishments are applied to the sick for this reason: that health may follow pain. The world, therefore, which is set in the evil one, is set alight by divine fire on the day of judgment; and the city of bloods is set upon coals of fire, so that what is written in Isaiah may be fulfilled: You have coals of fire, sit upon them: these will be a help to you. And this is difficult: how, when the coals and the bones are consumed — the bones of which even the Pharisees are full, to whom the Lord speaks in the Gospel: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, who are like whitewashed tombs, which within are full of filth and of the bones of the dead —, it is now said that the rust and filth of the world have not been consumed, but that even after the severity of judgment malice remains; this is easily resolved if we understand that saying of the Apostle: God has shut up all things under sin, that he may have mercy on all; for the creation was subjected to vanity. And the blood that has been poured out is set in the open sight of the whole creation, so that the crimes of all may be laid bare. But we can also take the most clear rock to be the Lord Savior, the rock which followed the people of Israel into the wilderness, of which it is written: They drank, moreover, from the rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ, because in him all things are revealed and what is written is fulfilled: Nothing is hidden that will not be revealed. And the Lord says that he will not have mercy, nor pass over the sins of the world, nor spare the impious nor be appeased, so that the ways of the impious may perish, according to what is set at the end of the first psalm: And the way of the impious will perish.

But do you wish, prophet, to know what this cauldron is, or what the flesh or the bones are? Speak these things, says the Lord: Woe to the city of bloods, that is, Jerusalem, to the cauldron whose rust, that is, malice, is excessive, and although fire has been put beneath it, yet its rust has not gone out of it; for even when captured and tortured they persevered in their former crime. Consume it part by part and one by one, so that no one remains to be saved. The lot has not fallen upon it, so that some should perish and others be saved, but a common destruction has come upon all; for its blood, that is, its murders and the slaughter of sons, is in the midst of it. This blood she poured out upon the most clear rock, so that it would be visible to all and not be covered with earth or with dust, so, namely, that my indignation might not pass by, but vengeance might hasten upon blood lying wholly in the open — for it is the way of nature that, if blood is poured out on the earth, the soil drinks up the moisture of the blood, or it is gradually covered with earth and dust; but when blood has been poured out upon a most clear rock which has no hollow, it slides and spreads over a wide space. And this indicates that she committed murders not hidden but public, according to what is said to Cain: The blood of your brother cries to me —.

Therefore say to the city of blood — of bloods not of one but of many —: Behold, I will make a great pyre in you, or I will bring a firebrand, which the common people call a titio [the everyday word for a firebrand], and I will set alight in you not only the soft and tender flesh but the hardest bones as well, and nothing shall remain in you that is not burned up by the fire.

And when both the flesh and the bones have been consumed and burned, set the empty cauldron itself upon the live coals, so that its bronze too may melt and be consumed and, the bronze being consumed, its rust too may perish; that is, when the city has been burned up by the fire, its malice may perish utterly with the city.

But what does it profit to have done what was commanded? Not even by fire could the rust and malice of the cauldron and of the city be taken away, and there remains in it a wicked and execrable uncleanness — for this is what 'zemma' signifies. And he makes an apostrophe to the cauldron itself, that is, to the city itself — : I wished to cleanse you, and you were not cleansed of your filth, nor will you be able to be cleansed any more until I fulfil my indignation upon you.

I the Lord have spoken, and my sentence cannot pass away. The siege of the city has already come; I will do what I have threatened, and I will not pass over — as I have often done — your crimes, and I will spare no longer, nor will I be appeased toward you even if you multiply your prayers, but I will repay you your ways and your devices; indeed, I will judge you according to your works and your thoughts, so that in this too I may show my clemency' — like a physician who does not spare rotten flesh, so that the healthy limbs may be saved: he does not spare in order to spare, he is cruel in order to have mercy, and he considers not the pain of the patient but the healing of the wound, according to that saying of the Gospel, preferring that one member should perish rather than that the whole body be killed —.

And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, behold, I am taking from you the desirable thing of your eyes with a stroke, and you shall not mourn nor weep, nor shall your tears flow. Groan in silence; you shall not make the mourning for the dead; let your crown be bound about you, and your shoes shall be on your feet, and you shall not veil your face with a mantle, nor eat the food of mourners. So I spoke to the people in the morning, and my wife died in the evening; and in the morning I did as he had commanded me. And the people said to me: Why do you not show us what these things mean that you are doing? And I said to them: The word of the Lord came to me, saying: Speak to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your dominion and the desirable thing of your eyes, and that over which your soul trembles. And your sons and daughters, whom you have left behind, shall fall by the sword. And you shall do as I have done: you shall not veil your faces with a mantle, and you shall not eat the food of mourners; you shall have crowns on your heads and shoes on your feet; you shall not mourn nor weep, but you shall waste away in your iniquities, and each shall groan to his brother. And Ezekiel shall be a portent to you: according to all that he has done you shall do, when this comes, and you shall know that I am the Lord God. And you, son of man, behold, on the day when I take from them their strength, and the joy of their dignity, and the desire of their eyes, on which their souls rest, their sons and their daughters; on that day, when one fleeing comes to you to announce it to you, on that day, I say, your mouth shall be opened with him who fled; and you shall speak and be silent no longer, and you shall be a portent to them, and you shall know that I am the Lord. (LXX: "And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, behold, I will take away from you the desirable things of your eyes in battle array (or in preparation); you shall not mourn nor weep, nor shall tears come to you. The groaning of the blood of the reins is mourning; your hair shall be bound up upon you and your shoes on your feet, nor shall you be comforted by their lips, and you shall not eat the bread of men. And I spoke to the people in the morning as he had commanded me, and my wife died in the evening; and in the morning I did as it was commanded me. And the people said to me: Will you not announce to us what these things are that you are doing? And I said to them: The word of the Lord came to me, saying: Say to the house of Israel: Thus says Adonai the Lord: Behold, I will defile my holy things, the pride of your strength, the desirable thing of your eyes, and the things which your souls spare. Your sons and your daughters, whom you have left behind, shall fall by the sword. And you shall do as I have done: you shall not be comforted by their mouth, and you shall not eat the bread of men, and your locks shall be upon your heads and your shoes on your feet; you shall not mourn nor weep, and you shall be consumed in your iniquities, and each shall comfort his brother. And Ezekiel shall be a portent to you: according to all that I have done you shall do, and when these things come, you shall know that I am Adonai the Lord. And you, son of man, will it not be on the day when I take away from them their strength, the exaltation of their glorying, the desirable things of their eyes, and the elation of their soul, their sons and their daughters; on that day he who has been saved will come to you, to announce it in your ears? On that day your mouth shall be opened to him who has fled; and you shall speak, and by no means be silent any longer, and you shall be a portent to them, and they shall know that I am the Lord.") Above, by the kindling of the pot and the cauldron, he had shown the siege of the city; now the prophetic word testifies that it has been captured and destroyed, and that the whole people has been either slain by the sword or led into captivity. And first, according to our custom, let us lay the foundations of the history. 'Son of man,' he says, 'behold, I will take away from the sight of your eyes whatever is desirable to you, and I will take it away 'with a stroke' — or, as the Seventy rendered, 'in preparation' —, so that, namely, you may prepare yourself not to do the things that are customarily done in mourning. You shall not mourn nor weep, nor shall flowing tears show the grief of your heart, but if perhaps you are overcome by excessive sorrow, keep your groaning silent, such as does not burst out into words'.

Let us come to the ἀναγωγὴν [anagogy, the higher sense], if only it does not seem forced to the prudence of a cautious reader. No one doubts that the son of man is said to be the Lord Savior, who at the last hour, that is, at the evening of this world, lost his former wife, and did not weep for her nor veil his face with a mantle nor receive any consolation from men, and who foretold in the morning the things to come which were fulfilled in the evening, and again in the morning, at his second coming, proved accomplished what he had foretold was to come: that the sanctuary of the Jews, and what they had held desirable in their eyes and that over which their souls trembled, had been profaned, and that their sons too and their daughters had fallen by the Roman sword. But what is said: You shall have a crown on your heads, and shoes shall be on your feet, we shall refer to this part: that they ought by no means to mourn nor to take up the signs of mourning, after they have received the truth in place of the shadow and certain of them have become Nazirites, and each one will be comforted over his brother, so that Ezekiel, whom God the Father strengthened, may be a portent to them, foretelling things to come; and that, after Jerusalem has been overthrown and the temple burned, and the whole world has heard this, and the dispersion of Israel, which inhabits the ends of the earth, then the words of the Lord, fulfilled in deed, may have freedom, and, his sanctuary having been profaned and the law fulfilled or destroyed according to the letter that kills, the glory of the Gospel may be laid open, and Israel may know that he himself is Lord and God, who foretold in the morning that these things would come, and proved by his coming that they were fulfilled in the evening and at the consummation of the world.

You shall not make the mourning for the dead (or, as the Seventy rendered: The groaning of the blood of the reins is mourning): by this he shows that his wife is going to die; for there follows immediately: And my wife died in the evening, which properly pertains to the union of the reins: nothing is more lovable to a man than a good wife, who is provided for a man by God, and to whom he is joined by the law of the Lord, and with whom he becomes one body. And what follows: Let your crown be bound about you, and your shoes shall be on your feet, signifies this: 'You shall have the hair which is shorn in mourning, and on your feet the shoes which mourners are accustomed to cast off' — whence David too, fleeing from his son Absalom and repenting over the murder of Uriah, walks with bare feet —. The Hebrews say: up to this day the Babylonian teachers, keeping the precepts of the law, bind the Decalogue, written on little parchments, around their heads, and these are the things that are commanded to hang before the eyes and on the forehead, so that they may always see what has been commanded; and because Ezekiel was a priest, he ought by no means to lay aside the crown of glorying, but to have it bound on his head. This is what they said. But let us, following the Seventy, understand by 'crown' the head of hair, although their translation too has by no means expressed the force of the Hebrew word. Nor shall you veil your face, he says, with a mantle, nor take the food of mourners: things which are customarily done in mourning, that people cover the face and receive from those who console them what the Greeks call περίδειπνα [funeral meals].

'I spoke,' he says, 'to the people the things the Lord had commanded me, and in the evening my wife died, the desirable thing of my eyes and the mourning of the loins and of the blood. And immediately, on the next day, in the morning, I did all the things that had been commanded me; and the people asked me why I had acted against the custom of all; and to those seeking the reasons for such great endurance I replied: The word of the Lord which came to me, that I should speak to the people of Israel, commanded these things: Behold, I (that is: now already) will profane my sanctuary, so that the temple may be burned and lie open to all foreigners and profane persons, the temple in which you had your pride, that is, your confidence and hope and the desire of your salvation, and at whose siege your souls were in dread; your sons too and your daughters, whom famine and pestilence had left remaining to you, I will consume with the sword, so that whatever I have done, you too may do'.

When custom is observed in mourning, the grief is moderate; but when so great a necessity of evils presses upon men that it is greater than all lamentation, each one, anxious about his own death, does not groan over the miseries of others, even though they are his nearest. 'You shall do nothing,' he says, 'of what is customarily done in mourning, but, when the city and the temple have been set on fire, you will be stunned at the magnitude of the evils; you will not cut your hair nor walk with bare feet, you will not mourn nor veil your faces with a mantle nor receive food from those who console you, but you will waste away, and you will be consumed in your iniquities, and you will scarcely have free groaning, lest you offend the pride of the victors if you are seen to weep publicly; so that Ezekiel the prophet may be a portent to you, and all that he did not do at the death of his wife, you may not do at the overthrow of the city and the temple'.

And yet more plainly: 'O son of man,' he says, 'at the time when I take away from them their strength — the confidence of the temple, as we have said —, and the joy of dignity and that in which they had their only hope, and the desire in which their souls rested, and besides their sons and their daughters — understood from the above: — I take away, at that time,' he says, 'when one fleeing from Jerusalem, or one who has escaped, comes to you, saying that the city has been overthrown, then you, who before had been silent and had no free groaning, and were of such great endurance that at the death of your wife and in the pain of your loins you did not shed a tear, will open your mouth and speak, not to him who has come but with him, so that whatever you had foretold was to come, he may announce as now accomplished; and you will no longer be silent, but you will rebuke them and say that all these things have befallen them deservedly, so that you may be a portent to them', according to what is written in Zechariah, that the prophets are men who portend, and the Lord says elsewhere: In the hands of the prophets I have been likened. Let this be said according to the history.