Ezekiel 14:12

Four Dire Judgments · Ezekiel 14:12–23

Modern

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

Traditional

The word of the Lord came again to me, saying,

Literal

And the word of YHWH came to me, saying:

Latin

Et factus est sermo Domini ad me, dicens:

Hebrew

English

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

Israel had not been treated unfairly. God did not judge Israel without reason. If any nation sinned against the Lord in this way, that nation would face the same result.
However, this passage clearly speaks about Israel. The words used to describe their sin also describe breaking the covenant (the binding promises between God and his people). Israel had broken this covenant. Because of that, the nation would rightly experience the covenant curses (the punishments promised for disobedience) listed in Leviticus 26. The people had agreed to these terms when the covenant was first made.
The covenant curses appear here in four test cases. Each case shows one of the judgments listed in Leviticus 26:
1. Famine (a severe lack of food), as described in Ezekiel 14:13–14 and Leviticus 26:26.
2. Wild animals attacking the land, as described in Ezekiel 14:15–16 and Leviticus 26:22.
3. War, as described in Ezekiel 14:17–18 and Leviticus 26:25.
4. Disease, as described in Ezekiel 14:19–20 and Leviticus 26:25.
These examples show that Israel’s suffering was not random. It was the direct result of breaking the covenant with the Lord.

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