And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day.
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Son
בֶּןben-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
man
אָדָם֙'a.Dam
H120
ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species · noun, common masculine singular absolute
send
שׁוֹלֵ֨חַsho.Le.ach
H7971
to send away · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
children
בְּנֵ֣יbe.Nei
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵ֔לYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
rebellious
הַמּוֹרְדִ֖יםha.mor.Dim
H4775
to rebel · definite article + verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
nation
גּוֹיִ֥םgo.Yim
H1471
a foreign nation · noun, common masculine plural absolute
rebelled
מָרְדוּma.re.du-
H4775
to rebel · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
fathers
וַאֲבוֹתָם֙va.'a.vo.Tam
H1
father · conjunction + noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
transgressed
פָּ֣שְׁעוּPa.she.'u
H6586
to break away (from just authority) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
very
עֶ֖צֶם'E.tzem
H6106
a bone (as strong) · noun, common feminine singular construct
day
הַיּ֥וֹםhai.Yom
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 3:25 We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth eve…
1 Samuel 8:7-8 And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but the…
Deuteronomy 9:24 Ye have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.
Daniel 9:5-13 We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy jud…
Numbers 20:10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water…
Numbers 32:13-14 And the LORD’s anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation, that had d…
Deuteronomy 9:27 Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin:
2 Kings 17:17-20 And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evi…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 2:1-5
The title here given to Ezekiel, as often afterwards, is very observable. God, when he speaks to him, calls him, Son of man (Eze 2:1, Eze 2:3), Son of Adam, Son of the earth. Daniel is once called so (Dan 8:17) and but once; the compellation is used to no other of the prophets but to Ezekiel all along. We may take it, 1. As a humble diminishing title. Lest Ezekiel should be lifted up with the abundance of the revelations, he is put in mind of this, that sill he is a son of man, a mean, weak, mortal creature. Among other things made known to him, it was necessary he should be made to know this, that he was a son of man, and therefore that it was wonderful condescension in God that he was plea…
nation--rather, "nations"; the word usually applied to the heathen or Gentiles; here to the Jews, as being altogether heathenized with idolatries. So in Isa 1:10, they are named "Sodom" and "Gomorrah." They were now become "Lo-ammi," not the people of God (Hos 1:9).
Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 2:3
Son of man - This appellative, so often mentioned in this book, seems to have been given first to this prophet; afterwards to Daniel; and after that to the Man Christ Jesus. Perhaps it was given to the two former to remind them of their frailty, and that they should not be exalted in their own minds by the extraordinary revelations granted to them; and that they should feel themselves of the same nature with those to whom they were sent; and, from the common principle of humanity, deeply interest themselves in the welfare of their unhappy countrymen. To the latter it might have been appropriated merely to show that though all his actions demonstrated him to be God, yet that he was also reall…
And he said unto me, son of man,.... Now follow his mission and commission, and an account of the persons to whom he was sent:
I send thee to the children of Israel; that were captives in Babylon, in Jehoiakim's captivity; so Christ was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Matthew 15:24;
to a rebellious nation, that hath rebelled against me; or, "rebellious Gentiles", (u); not the nations of the earth, though Ezekiel did prophesy many things concerning them; but the Jews, the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin; or the twelve tribes of Israel, called Gentiles, because they joined with them in their idolatries; and, as Kimchi says, were divided in their evil works; some worshipp…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 3.) I send you to the children of Israel, to the apostate nations, who have turned away from me. They and their fathers have violated my covenant until this day. They are no longer called the people of God Israel, but rather the apostate nations, those who have turned away from the Lord, not only the fathers, but also the sons. It is not that the sons are guilty because of the sins of their fathers, but rather that the wickedness of both fathers and sons is equal. Furthermore, what the Septuagint translated as 'irritating me' or 'turning into bitterness' signifies that our kind and sweet God is changed into bitterness by our vices. For as it is said to the holy ones: Taste and see that the Lord is sweet (Psalm 33:9); so sinners perceive him as bitter. Therefore the Apostle refers to the goodness and severity of God towards the holy ones and sinners (Romans 21). And concerning the sinners who were lying down, it is written: The Lord raises up the fallen, the Lord loves the just, the Lord loosens the bound (Psalm 145:8). But to the holy ones who stand, he promises rewards.
"I send you to the sons of Israel, to apostate nations, who have departed from me." It should be noted that it is said: "I send you to the sons of Israel, to apostate nations, who have departed from me." For just as one departs from God in two ways, so in two ways men become apostates from God. For everyone departs from his Creator either by faith or by works. Therefore, just as one who departs from the faith is an apostate, so one who returns to the perverse work which he had abandoned is without any doubt reckoned an apostate from Almighty God, even if he seems to hold the faith. For one without the other avails nothing, because neither does faith help without works, nor works without faith, unless perhaps they are done for the sake of receiving faith; just as Cornelius deserved to be heard for his good works before he became a believer. From this it is gathered that he was doing good works for the sake of receiving faith. For when the angel says to him: "Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial in the sight of God," and immediately on account of that same ascent he is instructed to send for Simon, who should come and preach to him, it is clear that he sought that for which he deserved to be heard.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Nation · Chastised — Chastised
Rebellion Against God · Ministers: Sent to those guilty of — Ministers: Sent to those guilty of
Reproof · Ministers should give: Fearlessly — Ministers should give: Fearlessly
Sins, National · Ministers should: Testify against — Ministers should: Testify against
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Ezekiel 2:3
3. And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day.
3. Et dixit ad me: Fili hominis mitto to [57] ad filios Israel, ad gentes rebelles vel defectrices, quae rebellarunt [58] in me: ipsi et partes eorum perfidie se gesserunt erga me usque ad ipsum huic diem.
The Prophet now more clearly explains the object of the vision which he has formerly mentioned, namely, that being armed with authority he might more freely discharge the office of Prophet among the Israelites. For we know that God claims this honor to himself alone, that…
The calling of the prophet begins with the Lord describing to Ezekiel the people to whom He is sending him, in order to make him acquainted with the difficulties of his vocation, and to encourage him for the discharge of the same. Eze 2:3. And He said to me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to the rebels who have rebelled against me: they and their fathers have fallen away from me, even until this very day. Eze 2:4. And the children are of hard face, and hardened heart. To them I send thee; and to them shalt thou speak: Thus says the Lord Jehovah. Eze 2:5. And they - they may hear thee or fail (to do so); for they are a stiff-necked race - they shall experience that a proph…
The Lord addressed Ezekiel regularly as son of man (Hebrew ben-’adam, “son of Adam”). This phrase reminded Ezekiel that he was profoundly different from the heavenly beings before whom he stood. In contrast to them, he was a child of the dust, a mere mortal. It also marked him out from the nation of Israel (literally the sons of Israel). They were a rebellious nation, true descendants of Jacob, whose defining characteristic was striving with God and man (Gen 32:28). As a son of Adam, Ezekiel represented a new community of faith, empowered by the Spirit to form a life of radical obedience. He was a sign of hope to the exiles. Jesus is the ultimate son of man who combines in himself the human…
