Ezekiel 33:25 - Exposition

Ye eat with the blood . It is characteristic of Ezekiel that the first offence which he names with horror should be a sin against a positive commandment. He felt, as it were, a sense of loathing at what seemed to him a descent into the worst form of pollution, forbidden, not to the Jews only (Le Ezekiel 17:10 ; Ezekiel 19:1-14 :26; Deuteronomy 12:16 ), but to mankind ( Genesis 9:4 ); compare the scene in 1 Samuel 14:32 . The same feeling shows itself in Zechariah 9:7 and Acts 15:20 , Acts 15:29 . The prohibition of blood took its place, in later Judaism, as among the precepts of Noah, which were binding even on the proselytes of the gate, upon whom, as distinct from the proselytes of righteousness, the rite of circumcision was not enforced; and as such were accepted by the council at Jerusalem, as binding also among Christian converts. Not for such as these was the inheritance of Israel, and the prophet asks indignantly, after naming yet more hateful offenses, Shall ye possess the land?