the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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THE MESSAGE
Ezekiel 11:3
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
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They are saying, ‘Isn’t the time near to build houses? The city is the pot, and we are the meat.’
who say, [The time] is not near to build houses: this [city] is the caldron, and we are the flesh.
Which say, It is not near; let us build houses: this city is the caldron, and we be the flesh.
who say, ‘The time is not near to build houses. This city is the cauldron, and we are the meat.'
who say, 'The time is not near to build houses. This city is the pot and we are the meat.'
They say, ‘It is almost time for us to build houses. This city is like a cooking pot, and we are like the best meat.'
who say, 'Is not the time near to build houses? This city is [secure just like] the pot and we are the meat [in it].'
who say, [The time] is not near to build houses: this [city] is the caldron, and we are the flesh.
For they say, It is not neere, let vs builde houses: this citie is the caldron, and wee be the flesh.
who say, 'The time is not near to build houses. This city is the pot and we are the flesh.'
who say, ‘The time is not near to build houses. This city is the pot, and we are the flesh.'
They are saying, 'Is not the time near to build houses? The city is a cooking pot, and we are the meat.'
They say things like, ‘Let's build more houses. This city is like a cooking pot over a fire, and we are the meat, but at least the pot keeps us from being burned in the fire.'
They say, ‘The time hasn't come to build houses. This city is the cooking pot, and we're the meat!'
who say, It is not the time to build houses: this is the cauldron, and we are the flesh.
These men say, ‘We will be building our houses again very soon. We are as safe in this city as meat in a pot!'
Saying, We have built houses in the midst of it; the city is the caldron, and we are the meat.
They say, ‘We will soon be building houses again. The city is like a cooking pot, and we are like the meat in it, but at least it protects us from the fire.'
who are saying, "The building of houses is not near; the city is the pot, and we are the flesh.
who say, It is not near, let us build houses; she is the pot, and we are the flesh.
sayenge: Tush, there is no destruccion at honde, let vs buylde houses: This Ierusalem is the cauldron, & we be the flesh.
that say, The time is not near to build houses: this city is the caldron, and we are the flesh.
Who say, This is not the time for building houses: this town is the cooking-pot and we are the flesh.
that say: The time is not near to build houses! this city is the caldron, and we are the flesh.
Which say, It is not neere, let vs build houses: this citie is the caldron, and we be the flesh.
Saying, It is not neare, let vs builde houses: this [Hierusalem] is the cauldron, and we be the fleshe.
who say, Have not the houses been newly built? This is the caldron, and we are the flesh.
which say, The time is not near to build houses: this city is the caldron, and we be the flesh.
and seien, Whether housis weren not bildid a while ago? this is the cawdrun, forsothe we ben fleischis.
that say, [The time] is not near to build houses: this [city] is the cauldron, and we are the flesh.
Who say, [It is] not near; let us build houses: this [city is] the caldron, and we [are] the flesh.
They say, ‘The time is not near to build houses; the city is a cooking pot and we are the meat in it.'
who say, "The time is not near to build houses; this city is the caldron, and we are the meat.'
They say to the people, ‘Is it not a good time to build houses? This city is like an iron pot. We are safe inside it like meat in a pot.'
They say, ‘Will it not soon be time to build houses? This city is the pot and we are the meat.'
they say, ‘The time is not near to build houses; this city is the pot, and we are the meat.'
who are saying, Not near! let us build houses, - It, is the caldron, and, we, are the flesh!
Saying: Were not houses lately built? This city is the caldron, and we the flesh.
who say, 'The time is not near to build houses; this city is the caldron, and we are the flesh.'
who are saying, It [is] not near -- to build houses, it [is] the pot, and we the flesh.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
It is not: etc. or, It is not for us to build houses near, Ezekiel 7:7, Ezekiel 12:22, Ezekiel 12:27, Isaiah 5:19, Jeremiah 1:11, Jeremiah 1:12, Amos 6:5, 2 Peter 3:4
this city: Ezekiel 11:7-11, Ezekiel 24:3-14, Jeremiah 1:13
Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 8:12 - and hast built Ezekiel 11:11 - General Ezekiel 21:23 - as a Micah 3:3 - and chop
Cross-References
Then they said, "Come, let's build ourselves a city and a tower that reaches Heaven. Let's make ourselves famous so we won't be scattered here and there across the Earth."
God took one look and said, "One people, one language; why, this is only a first step. No telling what they'll come up with next—they'll stop at nothing! Come, we'll go down and garble their speech so they won't understand each other." Then God scattered them from there all over the world. And they had to quit building the city. That's how it came to be called Babel, because there God turned their language into "babble." From there God scattered them all over the world.
When Peleg was thirty years old, he had Reu. After he had Reu, he lived 209 more years and had other sons and daughters.
The Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits. When the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, they fell into the tar pits, but the rest escaped into the mountains. The four kings captured all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah, all their food and equipment, and went on their way. They captured Lot, Abram's nephew who was living in Sodom at the time, taking everything he owned with them.
David emptied the city of its people and put them to slave labor using saws, picks, and axes, and making bricks. He did this to all the Ammonite cities. Then David and the whole army returned to Jerusalem.
I said to myself, "Let's go for it—experiment with pleasure, have a good time!" But there was nothing to it, nothing but smoke. What do I think of the fun-filled life? Insane! Inane! My verdict on the pursuit of happiness? Who needs it? With the help of a bottle of wine and all the wisdom I could muster, I tried my level best to penetrate the absurdity of life. I wanted to get a handle on anything useful we mortals might do during the years we spend on this earth.
"Well now, let me tell you what I'll do to my vineyard: I'll tear down its fence and let it go to ruin. I'll knock down the gate and let it be trampled. I'll turn it into a patch of weeds, untended, uncared for— thistles and thorns will take over. I'll give orders to the clouds: ‘Don't rain on that vineyard, ever!'"
Store up water for the siege. Shore up your defenses. Get down to basics: Work the clay and make bricks. Sorry. Too late. Enemy fire will burn you up. Swords will cut you to pieces. You'll be chewed up as if by locusts. Yes, as if by locusts—a fitting fate, for you yourselves are a locust plague. You've multiplied shops and shopkeepers— more buyers and sellers than stars in the sky! A plague of locusts, cleaning out the neighborhood and then flying off. Your bureaucrats are locusts, your brokers and bankers are locusts. Early on, they're all at your service, full of smiles and promises, But later when you return with questions or complaints, you'll find they've flown off and are nowhere to be found. King of Assyria! Your shepherd-leaders, in charge of caring for your people, Are busy doing everything else but. They're not doing their job, And your people are scattered and lost. There's no one to look after them. You're past the point of no return. Your wound is fatal. When the story of your fate gets out, the whole world will applaud and cry "Encore!" Your cruel evil has seeped into every nook and cranny of the world. Everyone has felt it and suffered.
And now I have a word for you who brashly announce, "Today—at the latest, tomorrow—we're off to such and such a city for the year. We're going to start a business and make a lot of money." You don't know the first thing about tomorrow. You're nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing. Instead, make it a habit to say, "If the Master wills it and we're still alive, we'll do this or that."
And a final word to you arrogant rich: Take some lessons in lament. You'll need buckets for the tears when the crash comes upon you. Your money is corrupt and your fine clothes stink. Your greedy luxuries are a cancer in your gut, destroying your life from within. You thought you were piling up wealth. What you've piled up is judgment.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Which say [it is] not near, let us build houses,.... Meaning that the destruction of the city was not near, as the prophet had foretold, Ezekiel 7:3; and therefore encourage the people to build houses, and rest themselves secure, as being safe from all danger, and having nothing to fear from the Chaldean army; and so putting away the evil day far from them, which was just at hand: though the words may be rendered, "it is not [proper] to build houses near" e; near the city of Jerusalem, in the suburbs of it, since they would be liable to be destroyed by the enemy; but this would not be condemned as wicked counsel, but must be judged very prudent and advisable: and the same may be objected to another rendering of the word, which might be offered, "not in the midst to build houses"; or it is not proper to build houses in the midst of the city, in order to receive the multitude that flock out of the country, through fear of the enemy, to Jerusalem for safety; since by this means, as the number of the inhabitants would be increased, so provisions in time would become scarce, and a famine must ensue, which would oblige to deliver up the city into the hands of the besiegers; wherefore the first sense seems best. The Septuagint and Arabic versions render them, "are not the houses lately built?" and so not easily demolished, and are like to continue long, and we in them;
this [city is] the cauldron, and we [be] the flesh; referring to, and laughing at, what one of the prophets, namely Jeremiah, had said of them, comparing them to a boiling pot, Jeremiah 1:13; and it is as if they should say, be it so, that this city is as a cauldron or boiling pot, then we are the flesh in it; and as flesh is not taken out of a pot until it is boiled, no more shall we be removed from hence till we die; we shall live and die in this city; and as it is difficult and dangerous to take hot boiling meat out of a cauldron, so it, is unlikely we should be taken out of this city, and carried captive; what a cauldron or brasen pot is to the flesh, it holds and keeps it from falling into the fire; that the walls of Jerusalem are to us, our safety and preservation; nor need we fear captivity.
e לא בקרוב בנות בתים "non in propinque aedificandae domus", Junius Tremellius, Cocceius, Polanus "non in propinquo aedificare domos", Montanus, Piscator, Starckius.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
It is not near - In contradiction to Ezekiel 7:2.
Let us build houses - “To build houses” implies a sense of security. Jeremiah bade the exiles “build houses” in a foreign land because they would not soon quit it Jeremiah 29:5; Jeremiah 35:7. These false counselors promised to their countrymen a sure and permanent abode in the city which God had doomed to destruction. No need, they said, to go far for safety; you are perfectly safe at home. The Hebrew, however, is, difficult: literally it means, “It is not near to build houses,” which may be explained as spoken in mockery of such counsel as that of Jeremiah: matters have not gone so far as to necessitate “house-building” in a foreign land. The same idea is expressed by the image of the “caldron:” whatever devastation may rage around the city, we are safe within its walls, as flesh within a caldron is unburned by the surrounding fire (compare Ezekiel 24:6).
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Ezekiel 11:3. It is not near — That is, the threatened invasion.
This city is the caldron, and we be the flesh. — See the vision of the seething pot, Jeremiah 1:13. These infidels seem to say: "We will run all risks, we will abide in the city. Though it be the caldron, and we the flesh, yet we will share its fate: if it perish, we will perish with it." Or they may allude to the above prediction of Jeremiah, in order to ridicule it: "We were to have been boiled long ago: but the fulfilment of that prediction is not near yet."
