Ezekiel 3:11 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ezekiel 3:11
And go, get thee to them of the captivity, unto the children of thy people, and speak unto them, and tell them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
saith
אָמַ֖ר'a.Mar
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Lord
אֲדֹנָ֣י'a.do.Nai
H136
the Lord (used as a proper name of God only) · proper noun, a title
GOD
יְהֹוִ֑הYah.weh
H3069
YHWH · proper noun, a title
hear
יִשְׁמְע֖וּyish.me.'U
H8085
to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
forbear
יֶחְדָּֽלוּyech.Da.lu
H2308
properly · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
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
Ezekiel 2:7 And thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear: for they are most rebellious.
Ezekiel 2:5 And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there hath been a pro…
Ezekiel 3:27 But when I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; He that heareth, let him hear; and…
Ezekiel 33:2 Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man…
Ezekiel 33:12 Therefore, thou son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his…
Ezekiel 33:17 Yet the children of thy people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal.
Ezekiel 33:30 Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one…
Exodus 32:7 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 3:1-15
These verses are fitly joined by some translators to the foregoing chapter, as being of a piece with it and a continuation of the same vision. The prophets received the word from God that they might deliver it to the people of God, furnished themselves that they might furnish them with the knowledge of the mind and will of God. Now here the prophet is taught,
I. How he must receive divine revelation himself, Eze 3:1. Christ (whom he saw upon the throne, Eze 1:26) said to him, "Son of man, eat this roll, admit this revelation into thy understanding, take it, take the meaning of it, understand it aright, admit it into thy heart, apply it, and be affected with it; imprint it in thy mind, rumina…
thy people--who ought to be better disposed to hearken to thee, their fellow countryman, than hadst thou been a foreigner (Eze 3:5-6).
Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 3:7
Impudent and hard-hearted - "Stiff of forehead, and hard of heart." - Margin. The marginal readings on several verses here are very nervous and very correct.
John Gill on Ezekiel 3:11
And go, get thee to them of the captivity,.... Not in the times of Hoshea king of Israel, by Shalmaneser king of Assyria, for these were placed in the cities of the Medes, 2 Kings 17:6; but in the times of Jeconiah king of Judah, Ezekiel 1:2;
unto the children of thy people; the Jews, which were in the land of Chaldea:
and speak unto them, and tell them: the words the Lord spoke to him:
thus saith the Lord God; whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear: See Gill on Ezekiel 2:5.
John Calvin on Ezekiel 3:10-11
Ezekiel 3:10-11
10. Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears.
10. Et dixit mihi, Fili hominis, omnes sermones meos quos loquor ad te sume in corde tuo, et auribus tuis audi.
11. And go, get thee to them of the captivity, unto the children of thy people, and speak unto them, and tell them, Thus saith the Lord GOD, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.
11. Et vade (ingredere) ad transmigrationem, [71] ad filios populi tui, et loquere ad ipsos: et dic illis: sic dicit Dominator Iehovah, sive audiverint sire cessaverint.
This is a repetition of the same doctrine; for we said that our Prop…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 11.) Go, enter into the exile (or captivity), to the sons of your people, and speak to them, and say to them: Thus says the Lord God: perhaps they will listen and be still. And our Lord came to the people of the Jews, sent by the Father, to proclaim remission to the captives, and to fulfill what is written: Ascending on high, he led captivity captive: he gave gifts to men (Psalm 67:19).
"And go, enter in to the captivity of the children of your people." But as for the fact that the prophet is sent to admonish the people concerning their transmigration, not only should that transmigration be understood which was of that people in body, but also that which had occurred in mind. For they had come from Jerusalem to Babylon. And what is Jerusalem called but "vision of peace," what is Babylon called but "confusion"? But whoever falls from right works into perverse deeds, since he slips from good zeal into vices, comes as it were from Jerusalem to the city of Babylon. For he has abandoned the height of good contemplation and lies in the transmigration of confusion. This often tends to happen to those who, when they do good things, glory in their own virtue in these matters. Hence the Psalmist, lest he should migrate as a captive from the vision of peace, that is, from good deeds, to Babylon, supplicating the Lord, says: "My helper, I shall not migrate." For if he had trusted in himself, he would have migrated by falling from works of righteousness. But neither should those who have fallen from a state of righteousness into wicked action be despaired of, because behold, the prophet is sent to the captivity of Babylon. And through another prophet the Lord says: "And you shall come even to Babylon, and there you shall be delivered." For often someone, after falling into the confusion of vices, blushing at the evils he has committed, returns to repentance and raises himself from his falls by living well. What then is this except that he came even to Babylon and was delivered there? He who, after committing perverse acts with a confused mind, blushing at those very evils he did, raises himself against himself and by working good returns to a state of righteousness. Therefore he was delivered in Babylon, who through divine grace is shown to have been saved even from confusion. The prophet therefore speaks to the captivity when he rebukes those who have fallen by migrating from a state of righteousness to the vices of error.
Dictionary and topics
Prophets · Spoke in the name of the Lord — Spoke in the name of the Lord
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).
After the Lord had pointed out to the prophet the difficulties of the call laid upon him, He prepared him for the performance of his office, by inspiring him with the divine word which he is to announce. - Eze 2:8. And thou, son of man, hear what I say to thee, Be not stiff-necked like the stiff-necked race; open thy mouth, and eat what I give unto thee. Eze 2:9. Then I saw, and, lo, a hand outstretched towards me; and, lo, in the same a roll of a book. Eze 2:10. And He spread it out before me; the same was written upon the front and back: and there were written upon it lamentations, and sighing, and woe. Eze 3:1. And He said to me: Son of man, what thou findest eat; eat the roll, and go and…
"And you shall speak to them, and you shall say: Thus says the Lord God: if perhaps they may hear and be still." That the difficulty of hearing is repeated so many times in the divine words, so that it is said, "If perhaps they will hear," what else is designated but the hardness of the exiled people? In these words there is great consolation for us, because if almighty God, sending a prophet, declares that His words are heard with difficulty by a perverse people, why should we wretches be saddened when we are often despised by our brothers in our admonition? For frequently we address those who transgress, often we rebuke them, frequently we deal with them with gentle words, and yet if one hears, another disdains to hear; one partially receives the word of exhortation, and partially refuses to accept it; so that we seem to see daily fulfilled what the Lord narrates through another prophet about what He did in anger, when He says: "I rained upon one city, and upon another I did not rain. One part was rained upon, and the part that was not rained upon dried up." For when one mind receives the words of holy exhortation while another refuses to receive them, the Lord rains upon one city and does not rain upon another. But when even the same neighbor who hears corrects himself from some vices and disdains to amend himself from others, one and the same city is both partly rained upon and partly remains dry, in which it repels from itself the rain of preaching. For there are some who do not hear the words of exhortation at all; these completely refuse to receive the rain. And there are some who hear but nevertheless do not follow it from the depths of their heart, because they cut off some vices in themselves but persist gravely in others. For often we see some who through the word of preaching repel from themselves the heat of avarice, and not only no longer seize what belongs to others but also distribute their own possessions to the needy; yet they do not tame the stings of anger, nor preserve the restraints of patience through tranquility of mind. And often others, at the word of exhortation, now overcome in themselves the uncleanness of the flesh, guard the body in chastity, yet still do not incline their spirit toward their neighbors as they ought, but through the rigidity of pride they exalt themselves in their thoughts. In these, one part has been rained…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
