John Wesley on Ezekiel 5

Take - Thus foretel the mourning, reproach, and deformity that are coming, for all this is signified by shaving the head and beard.

A third part - Described on the tile, chap.4:1, a type of what should be done in Jerusalem. The days - When the three hundred and ninety days of thy lying against the portrayed city shall be ended. With a knife - To signify them that fall by the sword. Scatter - To typify them that fell to the Chaldeans, or fled to Egypt, or other countries.

Take - Of the last third. Bind - As men tied up in the skirt of their garment what they would not lose: to signify the small remnant.

Of them - Out of that little remnant. In the fire - For their sin against God, their discontents at their state, and conspiracies against their governor, another fire shall break out which shall devour the most, and be near consuming all the houses of Israel.

This is Jerusalem - This portrayed city, is typically Jerusalem. The midst - Jerusalem was set in the midst of the nations, to be as the heart in the body, to invigorate the dead world with a divine life, as well as to enlighten the dark world with a divine light.

More - More than the heathen.

Multiplied - In idols, superstitions, and wickedness. Neither - You have exceeded them in superstition and idolatry, and fallen short of them in moral virtues.

Not done - Though the old world perished by water, and Sodom by fire, yet neither one or other was so lingering a death.

Scatter - This was verified when they were fetched away, who were left at the departure of the besiegers, and when the very small remnant with Johanan fled into Egypt.

Sanctuary - My temple. Detestable things - Thy idols.

Comforted - In executing my vengeance. In my zeal - For my own glory.

Taunt - A very proverb among them. Instruction - Sinners shall learn by thy miseries, what they may expect from me.

Bereave thee - Of your children, friends, and your own life. Pestilence and blood - Thy land shall be the common road for pestilence and blood. Tho' this prophecy was to be accomplished presently, in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans; yet it may well be supposed to look forward, to the final destruction of it by the Romans, when God made a full end of the Jewish nation, and caused his fury to rest upon them.