Ezekiel 3:17 - Exposition

A watchman unto the house of Israel . The seven days' session of amazement came to an end, but even then there was at first no utterance of a message. The word of the Lord came to his own soul, and told him what his special vocation as a prophet was to be. He was to be a "watchman unto the house of Israel." He was, like the watchman of a city on his tower, to be on the look out to warn men against coming dangers, not to slumber on his post. In 2 Samuel 18:24-27 and 2 Kings 9:17-20 we have vivid pictures of such a work. It had already been used figuratively of the prophet's work by Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 6:17 ). The cognate verb, with the image fully developed, meets us in Habakkuk 2:1 . Its use in Hosea 9:8 is doubtful as to meaning, and in Isaiah 52:8 and Isaiah 56:10 it may be, if we accept the theory of a Deutero-Isaiah, an echo from Ezekiel. It is reproduced with special emphasis in Ezekiel 33:2-7 . More than any word it describes the special characteristic of Ezekiel's work. He is to watch personally over individual souls. So in a like sense, a corresponding word is used of the Christian ministry in Hebrews 13:17 (compare also for the thought, though the word is not the same, Isaiah 21:11 , Isaiah 21:12 ; Isaiah 62:6 ; Psalms 127:1 ). A vivid picture of the work of such a watchman is found, it may be noted, in the opening speech of the 'Agamemnon' of AE schylus. Give them warning, etc. It is, I think, a legitimate inference that the prophet acted on the command while he was with the exiles and before the departure of Hebrews 13:22 , not by harangues or sermons addressed to the whole body of the exiles, but by direct warning to individuals.