Ezekiel 11 Study Notes

11:1 This verse mentions the same twenty-five men who had been described earlier (see note at 8:16).

11:2-4 In 24:3-5 Jerusalem is portrayed as a pot being filled with the choicest morsels. The people thought they could go ahead and build houses (Jr 32:6-15) because they belonged in Jerusalem, whereas the exiles were like the entrails that were discarded as unfit for the cooking pot. Jeremiah 29:5 may address this same concern from the context of those in exile and the elders in captivity.

11:5 On the Spirit of the Lord came on me, see note at 2:2.

11:6 This accusation of the leaders of Judah is illustrated in 19:3,6, where kings are charged with devouring humans, and in 22:27, where Ezekiel portrays Israel’s leaders as ravenous, violent animals.

11:7-8 Only the slain will be left in Jerusalem. The rest will be taken into exile.

11:9-10 The judgments that had once fallen on Egypt (Ex 6:6; 12:12) would now fall on the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They would be handed over to foreigners.

11:11-12 This prophecy I will judge you at the border of Israel was literally fulfilled at Riblah (2Kg 25:18-21; Jr 52:24-27).

11:13 Ezekiel’s lament is also found in 9:8.

11:14-15 God had given Israel the land, but he had also threatened to remove them from it because of their disobedience (Dt 28:36,64-68). God would spare a remnant, but the remnant would not include the corrupt leadership (Ezk 6:8; 12:16).

11:16 The sanctuary was a symbol of the Lord’s presence among the Israelites. With the coming of Jesus, the presence of God is no longer located in the physical, man-made temple, but the presence once again dwelt among the people (Jn 1:14), just as it had during the desert period and, according to Ezk 11:16, during the exile. In other words, with the coming of Jesus there is a fundamental redemptive-historical change in the demonstration of God’s glory and presence. The closest parallels are found in the NT, with Jesus’s appropriation of the term “temple” to himself (Jn 2:19-22) and his statement that true worship will occur “in Spirit and in truth” (Jn 4:21-24). But here the Lord promised personally to be for the exiles what the temple had been for them in Jerusalem.

11:17 The Lord may abandon his land, but he will not permanently forsake the people. The regathering (I will gather you from the peoples) refers to the end of the Babylonian exile but also may refer to a future gathering of Israel at the beginning of the millennial kingdom (36:24-38; 37:11-28).

11:18 The new inhabitants will remove the abhorrent idols and vile images that once filled the land (7:20; 8:3-17). Some scholars believe the historical fulfillment of these actions occurred in Ezr 6-10.

11:19 The heart of stone is that of the unregenerate, those who refuse to submit to the will of God (Zch 7:12). The stony heart is another way of referring to the “hardhearted” (Ezk 2:4; 3:7). The radical spiritual transformation of the people and the associated physical blessings promised in this and other prophecies of the new covenant (34:20-31; 36:24-38; 37:15-28; Jr 31:31-34) will take place in the future messianic age.

11:20-21 The restoration of Israel’s relationship with God (They will be my people, and I will be their God) will fulfill the goal of the first exodus (Ex 6:7; cp. Gn 17:7-8; 2Co 6:16; Rv 21:3). But the promise did not apply to everyone.

11:22-23 The glory of God, leaving the city, took the direction of King David’s flight from Absalom, on the mountain [Mount of Olives] east of the city (see 2Sm 15:23). Jesus Christ ascended to heaven from the Mount of Olives and promised to return to the same place (cp. Zch 14:4; Ac 1:9-12).