NOTES for Eze 24:1-27

The prophetic discourse continues to use the image of meat boiling in a cauldron. Some time earlier, this image had appeared in the words of the inhabitants of Jerusalem whom the prophet rebuked: they compared their city to a cauldron and themselves to its contents. But now the theme develops in a new way, and it is no longer a matter of the cooked meat being taken out of the cauldron, but of everything in it being burned.

But what of Ezekiel? Does he stand aside and coldly watch his relatives and countrymen perish, proudly delighting in their suffering? No: his denunciations are free of Pharisaic self-righteousness. More than that, this time the words are supported not only by symbolic actions inseparable from the prophetic tradition, but also by Ezekiel's very real grief as he buries his wife. In that grief, the prophet not only reveals to his listeners what they are to endure, but also unites himself with them, sharing in advance the sufferings that await the sinners.