24:1–5 This oracle is delivered the day Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem begins, the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year, that is, January 5, 587 BC.186 The beginning of the end is in sight for Jerusalem. More precisely, Nebuchadnezzar has “leaned on” (Hb. samak) Jerusalem. This word often describes the actions of a worshiper bringing an animal to the sanctuary to be sacrificed, identifying it as his offering (cf. Lev. 1:4; 3:2). In the same way, Nebuchadnezzar is identifying Jerusalem as the sacrificial lamb (albeit not one without spot or blemish, as required by the law, which the previous chapter made abundantly clear), ready to be slaughtered. The oracle is a parable (or riddle; mashal; Ezek. 24:3) to be spoken to the “rebellious house,” as Ezekiel’s exilic counterparts are repeatedly called (e.g., 2:5; 3:9; 12:2; 17:12). Nothing has changed throughout Ezekiel’s years of preaching. The exiles are just as hardhearted as ever—just as Ezekiel had been warned that they would be at the outset of his preaching (3:4–9).

The riddle concerns a cooking pot that has been filled with the choicest pieces of meat, perhaps ready for a fellowship offering meal, in view of the earlier sacrificial language (24:3–5). It is later noted that this pot is copper (v. 11), which would be atypical for ordinary household pots. It is thus clearly intended for either a royal feast or a cultic one. The animal has been cut up (netakh, another unusual word that often has ritual or sacrificial overtones; v. 4; cf. Lev. 1:6) and its parts gathered (ESV “put”)187 into the pot to be boiled. The fire is lit, and the stew is bubbling nicely (Ezek. 24:5). It seems at first sight a very positive, even cozy, image: a tasty meal is in preparation, ready for God’s chosen people to enjoy fellowship with each other and with their God.

24:6–8 The riddle has fooled its hearers, though. The “good pieces” (like the thigh and the shoulder) and “choice bones” from the choicest of the flock ought to make a prime stew (vv. 4–5). Instead, the pot contains nothing but filth. The corrosion is not a problem with the pot itself but rather is from the pollution of what is inside the pot.188 In a similar way the depiction of the city of bloodshed in chapter 22 stressed repeatedly the fact that her defilement is “in her.” This filthy mess must be emptied out of the pot completely, piece by piece. All the pieces will share the same fate. None will be chosen by divine lot189 to be spared, with others being assigned to die. In this case, all are destined to die.

The reason for this universal fate is Jerusalem’s bloodshed: she is “the bloody city” (24:6; cf. 22:2). Yet the prophet mixes the metaphor when he says, “Her blood is within her” (24:7 AT; ESV “the blood she has shed is in her midst”). Jerusalem, the city of bloodshed, is compared to an animal being prepared for food. In order to be kosher her blood should be drained and the blood covered with earth (Deut. 12:16, 24). Yet the blood shed by Jerusalem has been poured out on an exposed rock rather than covered with earth. Such open bloodshed provokes the wrath of God, especially in the case of murder (cf. Lev. 17:10–16). As a fitting judgment, the Lord will respond by leaving Jerusalem’s own blood visible on the bare rock (“the blood she has shed”; Ezek. 24:8) as a constant testimony to his wrath against the bloody city.

24:9–14 The final part of the oracle combines the themes of the previous parts. Jerusalem is once again in the Lord’s crosshairs: “Woe to the bloody city!” But now the image of the boiling pot has been transformed from a cozy image to a frenzied scene of destruction. The fire is to be heated to its maximum extent by heaping up logs, as if for a funeral pyre (v. 10; cf. Isa. 30:33). Then, after the meat is thoroughly cooked, the broth is to be removed,190 leaving the meat dry in the cauldron, ready to be burned. But maximally heating the pot full of filth does nothing to cleanse it from its defilement. The fire may melt the uncleanness and consume the filth, but the result is not a clean pot but merely a charred and useless vessel. God’s wrath will be poured out on Jerusalem until it is satisfied by her destruction, and now is the day for that destruction to begin. But there will be no positive outcome. The Lord will not turn back from his wrath or spare his people out of pity (Ezek. 24:14). Comprehensive judgment is the only fitting response to Jerusalem’s long history of bloodshed and idolatry.

24:15–18 In the second half of the chapter we encounter the most personal of the prophetic sign-acts that Ezekiel is called to undertake. The Lord suddenly takes away the prophet’s wife, the delight of his eyes, yet he is not allowed to mourn publicly for her with the usual ritual of tears and loud cries, disheveled clothing, covered face, or ritual food191 (v. 17). This prohibition is often misunderstood. It is not that Ezekiel is forbidden to feel sad over the death of his wife; he is permitted to sigh quietly, expressing his inner emotions. What is forbidden is the societal expression of grief that invites others from the community to come alongside him in solidarity. This is not a unique requirement that the Lord makes here of the prophet, nor is it one with which Ezekiel would have been unfamiliar as a priest. Any priest on active service was forbidden to make himself ritually unclean, as these formal mourning rites would have required, except for a very close relative (Lev. 21:1–4). The high priest was not even permitted to mourn publicly in the case of a close relative (Lev. 21:11). Ezekiel’s behavior was therefore certainly unusual, sufficiently so to act as a striking sign to the people, but what God asks of him is not an unfeeling psychological imposition in the midst of an already tragic situation.

The prophet does exactly what he is told to do and mourns without outward display, for he is not part of the rebellious house, Israel. He is the Lord’s obedient servant, whose every step is ordered by the Lord. As Job reflects, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). So too the prophet’s whole life is submitted to the Lord.

24:19–24 The people recognize that Ezekiel’s unconventional behavior is a sign, and they ask the right question, inquiring of its meaning for them (Ezek. 24:19). The prophet’s next words must fall upon them like a hammer, even in the context of all his earlier words of impending doom. The Lord is about to profane his own sanctuary in Jerusalem, the delight of the exiles’ eyes, in the same way that Ezekiel’s wife was the delight of his eyes (v. 21; cf. v. 16). Of course, the Lord has been threatening to do so many times via the prophet, but now the moment of destruction has finally come. Worse still, the Lord will put to death by the sword the sons and daughters the exiles have left behind in Judah (v. 21). It is a double blow—and yet, when the news of the temple’s fall comes, along with the deaths of their loved ones, they will not be supported by the usual communal mourning rites because too many people will have lost multiple family members at the same time. Like Ezekiel, they will be forced to express their grief through nothing more elaborate than quiet groans, each in their own households rather than with the help of the wider community (v. 23). Then they will acknowledge that the Lord has indeed fulfilled his word given through Ezekiel.

24:25–27 Yet, in the midst of the blackest day of Israel’s history, when the news arrives of Jerusalem’s fall and the overwhelming loss of everything they hold dear, a pinprick of light will shine forth. On the same day when the fugitive comes bearing news of the city’s fall, Ezekiel himself will have his dumbness lifted (cf. 3:26). He will be enabled to intercede for his people and speak words of hope for their future rather than judgment over their past. Out of Jerusalem’s ashes a new future could rise, a future quite unlike the sinful past. This promise marks a key turning point in the book of Ezekiel. Thus far he has spoken largely of judgment and death; the next section, the oracles against the surrounding nations (chs. 25–32), are already a turn in the direction of hope, for they demonstrate the Lord’s continued commitment to at least part of the Abrahamic covenant (“him who dishonors you I will curse”; Gen. 12:3). Once the prophet’s dumbness is actually removed (Ezekiel 33), he will speak words of hope and life for the future of the covenant people (chs. 34–48). The Lord is a God of grace as well as of justice.