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1 The word of the Lord came to me:

2 "Son of man, you are living among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people.

3 "Therefore, son of man, pack your belongings for exile and in the daytime, as they watch, set out and go from where you are to another place. Perhaps they will understand, though they are a rebellious house.

4 During the daytime, while they watch, bring out your belongings packed for exile. Then in the evening, while they are watching, go out like those who go into exile.

5 While they watch, dig through the wall and take your belongings out through it.

6 Put them on your shoulder as they are watching and carry them out at dusk. Cover your face so that you cannot see the land, for I have made you a sign to the house of Israel."

7 So I did as I was commanded. During the day I brought out my things packed for exile. Then in the evening I dug through the wall with my hands. I took my belongings out at dusk, carrying them on my shoulders while they watched.

8 In the morning the word of the Lord came to me:

9 "Son of man, did not that rebellious house of Israel ask you, ‘What are you doing?’

10 "Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: This oracle concerns the prince in Jerusalem and the whole house of Israel who are there.’

11 Say to them, ‘I am a sign to you.’ "As I have done, so it will be done to them. They will go into exile as captives. 12 "The prince among them will put his things on his shoulder at dusk and leave, and a hole will be dug in the wall for him to go through. He will cover his face so that he cannot see the land.

13 I will spread my net for him, and he will be caught in my snare; I will bring him to Babylonia, the land of the Chaldeans, but he will not see it, and there he will die.

14 I will scatter to the winds all those around him — his staff and all his troops — and I will pursue them with drawn sword.

15 "They will know that I am the Lord, when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them through the countries.

16 But I will spare a few of them from the sword, famine and plague, so that in the nations where they go they may acknowledge all their detestable practices. Then they will know that I am the Lord."

We learn about the people in exile that they have learned nothing from their experience. Although they were the “lucky ones” in the sense that they would survive further judgment and would form the core of the new generation that would return, their heart had not been changed. The same stubbornness that typified the people that left the slavery of Egypt and went on their way to the Promised Land had survived the ages and was demonstrated in the days of Isaiah and Jeremiah. God had said to Isaiah, one century earlier: “Go and tell this people: ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”1 Isaiah’s words reveal God’s eagerness to heal and Israel’s refusal to be healed. By mouth of Jeremiah, God said to those who remained in Jerusalem after the others had been deported: “Hear this, you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear…2 The same words now fall upon the deaf ears of the captives in Babylon. No one had learned the lesson. The message of the false prophets who promised an early return to the wicked city was eagerly received. The message that required repentance and confession was studiously ignored.

God orders Ezekiel to act out a parable for his fellow exiles to see. According to the dictum that a picture is worth a thousand words, this was done in the hope that “perhaps they will understand.” As John B. Taylor, in Ezekiel, observes: “No doubt Ezekiel’s strange doings were becoming a common talking-point among the exiles, and there was never a shortage of spectators to watch and to gossip about every detail of what he did. In this way he soon developed as good a system of communication as any in Tel Abib.”

No details are given as to what Ezekiel was allowed to take with him on his symbolic going into exile. His baggage would be limited to what he could carry on his shoulders for a long journey. That stuff was to be prepared in brought daylight in view of curious onlookers. The most remarkable part of the instructions was the way he had to leave his house, not through the door, but by making a hole in the wall. Evidently, the houses in which the captives lived in Tel Abib had walls made out of bricks dried in the sun, which could be removed without making the whole structure crumble.

Ezekiel’s way of leaving his house referred to the way King Zedekiah and the army tried to escape from Jerusalem during the Babylonian siege. We read: “By the ninth day of the [fourth] month the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat. Then the city wall was broken through, and the whole army fled at night through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Babylonians were surrounding the city.”3 The strange command to cover his face as he sets out on his exile, probably, refers to the way Zedekiah would go into exile. We read that the king was captured and “taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where sentence was pronounced on him. They killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.”4 Ezekiel would go as a blind man who could not see the land as Zedekiah would when he arrived in exile. Ezekiel’s covering of his face may also typify the fact that Zedekiah probably disguised himself when he fled, so that he would not be recognized as the king.

The next morning Ezekiel was allowed to explain the meaning of his strange behavior. The delay would give the captives ample time to talk and gossip about what they had seen. This would guarantee a larger crowd to hear the explanation of the object lesson of the evening before.

The Hebrew text of v.10 reads literally: “This burden concerns the prince.” There is a play-on-word in the words for “prince,” nasiy’ and “burden,” massa’. Both words have three Hebrew consonants in common. Zedekiah is not call “king” in v.12 but “prince.” He had not been the man God had chosen to be the king of Israel; he was put on the throne by Nebuchadnezzar.5

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There is no indication that the message that was acted out by Ezekiel in Babylon ever reached the ears of Zedekiah in Jerusalem. If it did, it failed to leave an impression upon him and those who were with him. But it would make sense if Ezekiel’s prophecy was known to the people to whom it pertained. It would give more meaning to the words “They will know that I am the Lord, when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them through the countries.”

Those who would survive the ordeal would not only recognize for themselves the truth of Ezekiel’s prophecies, but they would also become a testimony to the people in the country of their captivity in the same way as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh.1