BOOK 26 OF 66 · MAJOR PROPHETS · KING JAMES BIBLE

Ezekiel 12

Ezekiel book home•Chapter 12 of 48•28 verses

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REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Ezekiel 12 Overview

Ezekiel acts out exile by carrying baggage through a wall and covering his face, then explains that the sign concerns Jerusalem’s prince and people. A second sign portrays trembling meals, and the LORD rejects popular sayings that prophetic visions will be delayed or fail: His word will be performed without further postponement.

EzekielBook

12Chapter

28Verses

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Before you read Ezekiel 12

Coming from

Ezekiel sees twenty-five leaders giving wicked counsel in Jerusalem, receives an oracle against them, and witnesses Pelatiah’s death. Yet the LORD promises to be a sanctuary to the scattered exiles, gather them again, give them one heart and a new spirit, while the glory leaves the city and stands on the mountain east of Jerusalem.

In this chapter

Leads into

The LORD condemns false prophets who invent visions, promise peace when judgment is coming, and whitewash a weak wall. He also condemns women who use magical practices to ensnare people. Their deceptions will be exposed so Israel will know that the LORD has spoken.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The “prince in Jerusalem” is Zedekiah, who would attempt escape during Babylon’s final siege, be captured, see the Babylonian king, and yet not see Babylon because his eyes would be put out. Ezekiel’s sign anticipates those events before they occur.

The chapter confronts two forms of unbelief: dismissing prophecy because time has passed, and pushing fulfillment into a comfortably distant future. God answers both by announcing that the word relevant to that generation is near.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Prophetic delay is not prophetic failure

The passage of time does not cancel what God has actually spoken.

Symbolic prophecy is anchored to real historical events

The acted exile points to the coming fate of Jerusalem’s ruler and inhabitants.

False proverbs can normalize unbelief

Repeated slogans about failed or distant visions become tools for resisting God’s warning.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

2 Kings 25:4-7

Zedekiah’s attempted escape, capture, blinding, and removal to Babylon match the substance of Ezekiel’s sign.

Jeremiah 39:4-7

Jeremiah records the same historical outcome from within the Jerusalem narrative.

2 Peter 3:3-9

Peter later answers scoffers who mistake apparent delay for the failure of God’s promise, though his subject is the Lord’s future coming rather than Jerusalem’s Babylonian judgment.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not use “there shall none of my words be prolonged” to claim every biblical prophecy had to be fulfilled in Ezekiel’s lifetime.

The statement addresses the warnings then being dismissed by his contemporaries; Ezekiel itself contains later restoration prophecies beyond that immediate crisis.

Do not treat prophetic sign-acts as permission to manufacture dramatic signs today.

Ezekiel acts by direct revelation and then receives the divine interpretation of what his actions mean.

Read Ezekiel 12 watching for…

the exile baggage and hole in the wall

the prince covering his face

the prediction that he reaches Babylon yet does not see it

the trembling meal sign

the two sayings used to dismiss prophecy

Chapter outline3 sections

1-16Ezekiel acts out exile with baggage and a hole in the wall as a sign to the prince and people 17-20Eating and drinking with trembling pictures fear and desolation in the land 21-28The LORD rejects sayings that delay prophecy and says his word will be fulfilled without delay

The word of the LORD also came unto me, saying,

Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house.

Therefore, thou son of man, prepare thee stuff for removing, and remove by day in their sight; and thou shalt remove from thy place to another place in their sight: it may be they will consider, though they be a rebellious house.

Then shalt thou bring forth thy stuff by day in their sight, as stuff for removing: and thou shalt go forth at even in their sight, as they that go forth into captivity.

Dig thou through the wall in their sight, and carry out thereby.

In their sight shalt thou bear it upon thy shoulders, and carry it forth in the twilight: thou shalt cover thy face, that thou see not the ground: for I have set thee for a sign unto the house of Israel.

And I did so as I was commanded: I brought forth my stuff by day, as stuff for captivity, and in the even I digged through the wall with mine hand; I brought it forth in the twilight, and I bare it upon my shoulder in their sight.

And in the morning came the word of the LORD unto me, saying,

Son of man, hath not the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said unto thee, What doest thou?

Say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; This burden concerneth the prince in Jerusalem, and all the house of Israel that are among them.

Say, I am your sign: like as I have done, so shall it be done unto them: they shall remove and go into captivity.

And the prince that is among them shall bear upon his shoulder in the twilight, and shall go forth: they shall dig through the wall to carry out thereby: he shall cover his face, that he see not the ground with his eyes.

My net also will I spread upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare: and I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there.

And I will scatter toward every wind all that are about him to help him, and all his bands; and I will draw out the sword after them.

And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall scatter them among the nations, and disperse them in the countries.

But I will leave a few men of them from the sword, from the famine, and from the pestilence; that they may declare all their abominations among the heathen whither they come; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

Son of man, eat thy bread with quaking, and drink thy water with trembling and with carefulness;

And say unto the people of the land, Thus saith the Lord GOD of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and of the land of Israel; They shall eat their bread with carefulness, and drink their water with astonishment, that her land may be desolate from all that is therein, because of the violence of all them that dwell therein.

And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be desolate; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

Son of man, what is that proverb that ye have in the land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth?

Tell them therefore, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel; but say unto them, The days are at hand, and the effect of every vision.

For there shall be no more any vain vision nor flattering divination within the house of Israel.

For I am the LORD: I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass; it shall be no more prolonged: for in your days, O rebellious house, will I say the word, and will perform it, saith the Lord GOD.

Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are far off.

Therefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; There shall none of my words be prolonged any more, but the word which I have spoken shall be done, saith the Lord GOD.

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Ezekiel 12:3

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