Ezekiel 5:1 - Meaning and Application

Here is the sign that shows the complete destruction of Jerusalem. As before, the prophet himself becomes the sign, so the people can see how deeply he feels for Jerusalem and how much it weighs on his heart, even while he predicts its ruin. He cares so much that he treats what happens to Jerusalem as if it were happening to him. He is far from wishing for that sad day.

He must shave off the hair of his head and beard (Ezekiel 5:1). This showed that God was rejecting and abandoning that people completely, as if they were a useless and worthless nation, one that could be spared. In fact, it would be to God's honor to part with them. God's judgments, and all the tools he uses to cut them off, are like a sharp knife and razor that do their work well. Jerusalem had once been the head, but it had turned into hair. When hair grows thick and long, it becomes a burden, something a person wants to get rid of, and so it was with the sinners in Zion. "I will get relief from my enemies" (Isaiah 1:24). Ezekiel was not to trim away only the extra hair, but to shave it all off, showing the full end God would bring on Jerusalem. The hair that would not be kept neat and clean by the prophets' warnings would be removed by total destruction. Those who will not be corrected will be ruined.

He must weigh the hair and divide it into three parts. This shows how carefully God directs his judgments according to justice. He weighs people and their actions in the sure balance of truth and righteousness. It also shows the way divine justice uses different kinds of punishment for different people. In one way or another, all of them will be dealt with. Some understand the shaving of the hair as a sign that the people would lose their freedom and their honor. It was a mark of disgrace, as when Hanun shamed David's ambassadors. It also showed the loss of joy, since people shaved their heads in times of deep grief. We may also think of the loss of their Nazirite status, since shaving the head ended that vow (Numbers 6:18), and Jerusalem would no longer be treated as a holy city.

He must then arrange the hair so that all of it would be destroyed or scattered (Ezekiel 5:2). One third was to be burned in the middle of the city, showing the many who would die from famine and plague, and likely many who would perish when the city itself burned after the siege ended. Or the burning of that glorious city to ashes may itself be counted as one third of the destruction threatened. Another third was to be cut up with a sword, representing the many who would be killed during the siege, either when they rushed out against the attackers or, especially, when the city was taken by storm and the Babylonians, the Chaldeans, struck with fierce anger while the Jews were helpless. Another third was to be scattered to the wind, showing some taken away into the conqueror's land and others fleeing to nearby countries for safety. They would be driven off in every direction, like loose hairs in the wind. But to keep them from thinking that scattering was escape, God adds, "I will draw out a sword after them," so that evil would follow wherever they went. God has many ways of carrying out the ruin of a sinful people and making an end once he begins.

He must also keep a small amount of the third group that was scattered in the wind, and bind them in his skirts, as someone would carefully hold something precious (Ezekiel 5:3). This may have pictured the small group left under Gedaliah, the governor who was placed over the land, in hopes that they would hold on to it after the rest of the people went into captivity. In this way, God would have dealt kindly with them if they had dealt wisely with themselves. But even these few who were spared had to be taken and thrown into the fire (Ezekiel 5:4). When Gedaliah and his friends were killed, the people who had placed themselves under his care were scattered. Some went to Egypt, and others were carried off by the Babylonians, so that the land was finally emptied of them. Then this sign was fulfilled, for out of those troubles a fire spread through the whole house of Israel, who, like fuel on a fire, kept kindling and destroying one another. It is a bad sign for a people when those who seemed set apart as signs of mercy are taken away in wrath, for then there is no remnant and no escape, no one shut in and no one left.