Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
God commands Ezekiel to shave his head and beard, and to burn one third of the hairs with fire, cut another third with the sword, and scatter the third to the wind; so that by this he may portend that a third of the citizens of Jerusalem will be consumed by plague and famine, a third by the sword, and a third will be scattered throughout the world.
Vulgate Text: Ezekiel 5:1-17
1. And you, son of man, take for yourself a sharp sword, a razor for shaving: and take it and pass it over your head and over your beard; and take for yourself a balance for weighing, and divide them. 2. A third part you shall burn with fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are completed; and you shall take a third part and cut it with the sword around it; and the other third you shall scatter to the wind, and I will unsheathe the sword after them. 3. And you shall take from them a small number, and bind them in the skirt of your garment. 4. And from these again you shall take some, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them with fire; and from it a fire shall go forth into all the house of Israel. 5. Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations, and the lands around her. 6. And she has despised My judgments so as to be more wicked than the nations, and My precepts more than the lands around her; for they have cast away My judgments and have not walked in My precepts. 7. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have surpassed the nations around you, and have not walked in My precepts, and have not kept My judgments, and have not even acted according to the judgments of the nations around you; 8. therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, and I Myself will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations; 9. and I will do in you what I have not done, and the like of which I will not do again, because of all your abominations. 10. Therefore fathers shall eat their children in your midst, and children shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments upon you and scatter all your remnant to every wind. 11. Therefore as I live, says the Lord God: Because you have violated My sanctuary with all your offenses and with all your abominations, I also will break you down, and My eye shall not spare, and I will not have pity. 12. A third part of you shall die by plague and be consumed by famine in your midst; and a third part shall fall by the sword around you; and a third part I will scatter to every wind, and I will draw the sword after them. 13. And I will fulfill My fury, and I will cause My indignation to rest upon them, and I will be consoled; and they shall know that I the Lord have spoken in My zeal, when I have fulfilled My indignation upon them. 14. And I will make you a wasteland and a reproach among the nations around you, in the sight of everyone who passes by. 15. And you shall be a reproach and a blasphemy, an example and a horror among the nations around you, when I execute judgments upon you in fury and indignation and in the rebukes of wrath. 16. I the Lord have spoken: When I send upon them the deadly arrows of famine, which shall be fatal, and which I shall send to destroy you; and I will gather famine upon you and break the staff of bread among you. 17. And I will send upon you famine and fierce beasts, even to destruction; and plague and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I the Lord have spoken.
Verse 1: A Sharp Sword, a Razor for Shaving
1. A SHARP SWORD, A RAZOR FOR SHAVING — That is, a small sword or sharp knife, like a barber's razor, as the Hebrew, Septuagint, Vatablus, and others have it. This sword, and, as the Septuagint says, 'rhomphaea' (a large sword), signifies both the wrath of God, as Maldonatus explains; and God's will to punish and destroy the Jews, as Vatablus says; and God's avenging power, as Polychronius says; and most aptly, as St. Jerome says, Nebuchadnezzar, the executioner of the Jews, who like a sword and razor cut away from Judea its hair — that is, its beauty and splendor — and its beard — that is, its virility, namely all its strength, its handsome young men and robust men. For the beard is a symbol of virility, and hair of liberty and nobility. Hence Absalom cultivated his locks, and the Nazirites consecrated to God, as sons of the Most High, cherished their hair (Numbers 6). See what was said at Leviticus 19:27. Therefore among the ancients it was a great disgrace to cut or pluck someone's beard, as if by this very act they had taken away his virility and manly honor. Hence Horace, Satires Book I: 'Naughty boys pluck your beard.' And Persius: 'If a wanton harlot plucks the Cynic's beard.' Hence the proverb: 'He plucks the beard of a dead lion' — meaning one who is fierce and insulting toward the fallen. The pagans marvel at Dionysius of Sicily, because he dared to strip the golden beard from Aesculapius. So Hanun mocked the envoys of David, shaving half their beards (2 Samuel 10:4) — an insult that David avenged with war and the destruction of the nation. By this shaving of the beard, then, the Prophet foreshadows not only the destruction of the Jews but also their supreme ignominy and disgrace.
Morally, learn here that a human being before God is like a single hair. What a head thick with hair is to us, that the world full of people is to God. Lest the hair grow luxuriantly, it is trimmed; and lest the human race grow too much, it is cut back by God. For what region would hold them all, what land would feed them? Indeed, 'the gods treat us like balls,' or rather like hairs, says Plautus. A hair falls from the head — who cares? A person perishes — what does God lose by it? And yet (such is God's condescension) God protects these hairs of His. For 'not a hair of your head shall perish,' Christ says to His Apostles, because 'even a single hair has its own shadow,' as the mime Publilius said.
Again, God shaves those who are men only as far as their hair goes, and wise only as far as their beard — that is, those who outwardly display the appearance of a sensible and wise man, but inwardly have nothing of the man, nothing of sense or wisdom, as these Jews were. So Lucian mocks the deep beards of the Philosophers, in his work on the eunuch Bagoas, saying: 'If a philosopher must be measured by his beard, goats would carry off first prize.' This fit Julian the Apostate, who paraded himself as a philosopher by his long beard. Rightly Plutarch in the Table Talk: 'Neither growing a beard,' he says, 'nor wearing a cheap cloak makes a philosopher; nor does wearing linen make priests of Isis,' that is, the priests of the goddess Isis. Therefore among the ancient Romans, 'bearded ones' was a proverbial joke for men of old-fashioned and simple manners and rustic truthfulness; hence Juvenal: 'It is easy to impose on a bearded king.' For the Romans began to shave and trim their beards late. For the first barbers, as Pliny writes (Book VII, chapter 57), 'came to Italy from Sicily, in the year 454 after the founding of Rome, brought by Publius Licinius Mena, as Varro attests; before that they went unshaved.'
YOU SHALL PASS — you shall have it passed by a barber; for he could not conveniently shave his own head.
Tropologically, the hairs are curiosities, superfluous thoughts, desires, allurements, and vanities of the world: these Ezekiel, that is, the faithful man, must cut away, and consume them with the sword and fire — that is, with mortification and pure love of God — and therefore pour out what is superfluous to the poor through almsgiving. For when these are consumed by the fire of love of God and neighbor, they are turned into a holocaust most pleasing to God.
A BALANCE FOR WEIGHING — with which things are usually weighed, or which is accurate and of proven weight. This balance, or scale, signifies the equity of divine justice and vengeance, which clemency tempers and moderates, lest it exceed the measure not of justice (for this cannot happen) but of humanity and kindness.
Verse 2: A Third Part You Shall Burn with Fire
2. A THIRD PART YOU SHALL BURN WITH FIRE — Fire signifies plague and famine, which blackened, scorched, and devoured a third of the hairs — that is, of the citizens of Jerusalem — like fire, as is clear from verse 12. For plague is physically like a fire burning and inflaming bodies.
IN THE MIDST OF THE CITY — in which you dwell, by the Chebar in Chaldea; or rather in the midst of Jerusalem, which you drew on the brick. So Vatablus, Maldonatus, and R. David.
WHEN THE DAYS ARE COMPLETED — That is, as Vatablus translates: After the days of the siege have been fulfilled, namely 390, during which I willed you to lie before the brick on which you drew the siege of the city, so that by this means you would represent the days of the most severe siege of Jerusalem. That is: After the 390 days and another 40 days of your lying, you shall do with your hairs what I here prescribe. Others interpret differently: Burn some of the hairs each day until the 390 days of the siege are completed.
AND YOU SHALL TAKE A THIRD PART (of your hairs); AND CUT THEM WITH THE SWORD AROUND IT — around the city, that is. This sword represents the sword of the Chaldeans. For the Jews who, with Zedekiah or before him, were trying to flee the city by stealth — all of these were slain by the Chaldeans around and near the city. Again, when the Chaldeans were capturing the city, they slaughtered everyone they encountered in it.
AND THE OTHER THIRD YOU SHALL SCATTER TO THE WIND — These were those who fled to Egypt with Johanan son of Kareah, Jeremiah 43. Likewise all who were led away to Babylon, or who in flight wandered and were scattered here and there.
AND I WILL UNSHEATHE THE SWORD (so the Roman, Hebrew, Chaldean, and Septuagint editions; some codices therefore incorrectly read 'you shall unsheathe') AFTER THEM — For the Chaldeans pursued the Jews fleeing to Egypt and slaughtered them there together with the Egyptians, as Jeremiah had threatened them (Jeremiah 42:16).
Verse 3: From There
3. FROM THERE (from the third and last portion) YOU SHALL TAKE (a few hairs) AND BIND THEM IN THE SKIRT (that is, the edge or hem) OF YOUR GARMENT — This signifies that by God's providence and clemency some Jews were preserved from the Chaldean devastation; so Apollinaris — namely, those who, with Jeremiah and at his urging, surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar with Jehoiachin. Better, understand the remnants of the fugitive Jews, preserved by God's providence as a seed and offspring of their nation; for these, as if bound in a corner of the Lord's garment, were protected by God's predestination and protection.
FROM THESE AGAIN YOU SHALL TAKE, AND CAST THEM INTO THE MIDST OF THE FIRE — which he had kindled in the middle of the brick on which he had drawn the siege; from which suddenly a flame leapt up and began to lick and destroy the entire depicted city. These are, says Apollinaris, those who after the return from Babylon, because of new sins, were killed by the Macedonians, especially when Antiochus Epiphanes raged like fire. Likewise, and even more so, those who were slain and captured by Titus and the Romans; for then the entire house of Israel was overthrown, about which more at verse 9.
Finally, Galatinus, Book IV of De Arcanis Fidei, chapter 21, from ancient Rabbis refers these things to the slaughter of the Jews that the Emperor Hadrian carried out in Judea after Titus, especially in the city of Bethar, where he also killed their leader who called himself Bar Kokhba, that is, 'son of the star' (for he said he was divinely sent and was the star of which Balaam predicted in Numbers 24: 'A star shall arise out of Jacob,' as if he, having shaken off the Roman yoke, would bring light and freedom to the Jews), when in reality he was Bar Kosiba, that is, 'son of lies,' namely an impostor; for he pretended to be the Messiah. Therefore Hadrian killed about fifty thousand Jews and crushed the entire nation. See Eusebius, Book IV of the History, chapter 6.
Verse 4: And from It
4. AND FROM IT — namely, from the people, so St. Jerome; or 'from it,' namely from the small number of verse 3. (The Septuagint translates 'from it,' namely from the city.) That is: From that returned people a fire of crimes went forth, which was the cause of the final destruction. For first, on account of their crimes they were handed over to Antiochus; then, on account of the killing of Christ, their children perished along with the city and temple by the sword, famine, plague, and fire of the Romans. Second and better: 'from it,' namely from the remnant of the people cast into fire — that is, the fiery persecution of Antiochus — fire shall go forth, that is, the conflagration both of ambition and discord among the chief priests, and thence every kind of outrage; and consequently of calamity, of all cruelty and devastation. So Apollinaris. For Menelaus, Jason, Alcimus, and other traitor Jews, seeking the pontificate and positions of honor, since they could not obtain them legitimately among their own people, fled to Antiochus and incited him to the ruin of their own nation, and to those disasters narrated in the books of the Maccabees. See 1 Maccabees 7:5, and 2 Maccabees 3:4, and Josephus, Antiquities, Book XII, chapter 7.
Again, the quarrel about the kingdom that arose among the Maccabees themselves destroyed both them and the nation. For Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, contending with each other for the kingdom, were the reason why Pompey and the Romans subjugated Judea for themselves; and the Jews, not bearing the yoke of the Gentiles, when they tried to shake it off, were finally completely destroyed by Titus and Vespasian. Therefore allegorically these things are applied to the killing of Christ crucified by the Jews, who was the fire and cause of this destruction, says Apollinaris; for then the entire house of Israel was overthrown.
That from those few hairs which he had gathered in the skirt of his garment he burns some, some hold also signifies the civil war between Gedaliah and Ishmael, which is described more fully in Jeremiah 40 ff.; which civil disturbances gave the Chaldeans the occasion to remove from Judea even the smallest person, and to leave no one behind, so that there would not be even any seeds of revolution; see Jeremiah 52:30.
Verse 5: This is Jerusalem in the Midst of the Nations
5. THIS IS JERUSALEM, IN THE MIDST OF THE NATIONS — meaning: By this figure, namely of your head and hairs, Jerusalem is represented; Jerusalem, I say, which I, God, once placed as the head of the world, and as a queen in the midst of the nations, so that they, like handmaids, might be her guards and attendants. So Polychronius and the Scholiast. Therefore: I PLACED HER, AND AROUND HER THE LANDS — of the nations; namely, Jerusalem has to the north Scythia, Armenia, and Pontus; to the east, Asia; to the west, Europe; to the south, Libya, says Apollinaris. Hence in Ezekiel 38:12 it is called the navel of the earth, and in Psalm 73:12 the middle of the earth; because Jerusalem is in the fourth climate of the seven into which the habitable earth is divided. And I did this to this end: that all nations in spiritual life — that is, in religion and divine matters, says Theodoret — might receive from Jerusalem all understanding and knowledge, namely piety, faith, and the law that directs the steps of men to salvation. But she so far failed to do this that she rather learned impiety from them, and she who had once been the teacher of truth and the model of piety became the student of error and impiety, and soon surpassed her own teachers in it — namely, the other nations. Justly therefore she is destined by Me for destruction — so St. Jerome and the Chaldean. Jerusalem and the temple were therefore like the center of the earth, indeed like its head, foundation, fountain, and heart; since from it as from a center, the splendor of light was to go forth into all the earth; as from a heart, the vital spirit; as from the head of other provinces and nations, sense, motion, and impulse to walk in the way of the Lord; and finally as from a center, the drawing of lines — the perfection of all good, of prayers and vows — was to be expected; and as from a fountain, the derivation of streams into other regions; and as from a foundation, the stability of other provinces.
Symbolically, note here: Just as a human being is a small world, so the world is a great human being, whose limbs are the provinces and nations, whose head is Jerusalem — both because it was situated on the lofty Mount Zion (Isaiah 2:2-3), and because from it, as from the head, into the whole body of the world was derived sense, that is, the knowledge of God, and motion, that is, the ordering of life and actions. But because she, forgetful of her dignity, cast off My law, says God — the law which had made her the head of the world — therefore I will shave her hair and beard, that is, I will take away all her nobles and strong men, and expose her to the scorn of the whole world, and leave her to her enemies.
You will say: If Jerusalem is the head, how is it in the midst of the nations? I respond: Just as the head is between two shoulders, as it were in the middle of the two sides of a person, so Jerusalem, as mistress, was situated in the midst of the nations. So also Prado. Add that a comparison need not be similar in all respects.
Otherwise R. David, R. Solomon, and from them Lyranus interpret these things as referring to Ahab and Zedekiah, whom the king of Babylon fried with fire, who became a proverb to all Israel, so that when they wished to curse someone they would say: 'May the Lord make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab' (Jeremiah 29:22). But this is forced and twisted. Maldonatus takes it in the same way but in this sense, as if to say: These false prophets, namely Ahab and Zedekiah, who were persuading the people that Jerusalem would never be captured, were the cause of the Jews rebelling against the Chaldeans, and of the city being captured and burned. But the Prophet had already represented this destruction in the cutting of the hair and its division into three parts; therefore he is not dealing here with that, but with another event that followed later.
The Chaldean translates: 'Beautiful as a bridegroom, the exultation of the whole earth is Mount Zion, the sides of the north, the city of the great king. God shall be known in her palaces.' So Pineda, Book V of De Rebus Salomonis, chapter 5, number 31. Such is Rome for Christians.
Verse 6: My Judgments
6. MY JUDGMENTS — My law, according to which a judge must judge.
Verse 7: You Have Surpassed the Nations
7. YOU HAVE SURPASSED THE NATIONS — namely in sins and in your impiety, and you have become as it were the standard-bearers of these, as apostates are wont to do. Second, the Hebrew תון (hamon) can be translated with Vatablus and R. David as: 'your abundance' — that is, your pomp, pride, luxury, wealth, your fierceness was greater than that of the nations. Meaning: I gave you an abundance of things; you returned to Me an abundance of ingratitude and crimes. 'For the beloved grew fat and kicked.' Third, the Septuagint translates: 'Your form,' pattern or character, 'from the nations' — that is, as Theodoret says, you put on the form, religion, customs, and impiety of the nations.
Verse 8: According to the Judgments of the Nations
8. ACCORDING TO THE JUDGMENTS OF THE NATIONS — 'Judgment' here means custom, practice; but in the following verse it means chastisement. Meaning: You have not followed the good customs that the nations have. Or rather: The nations do not change or abandon their gods, however vile and mute they may be; but you abandon Me, the living God, to worship mute idols; therefore you are more wicked and more foolish than the nations. So Apollinaris and the Scholiast.
JUDGMENTS — That is, punishments: as a just avenger I will inflict them upon you.
Verse 9: I Will Do in You What I Have Not Done
9. I WILL DO IN YOU WHAT I HAVE NOT DONE — not even in the flood, nor to Sodom, nor to Pharaoh, nor to the Canaanites (Lamentations 4:6). Meaning: Because, O Jerusalem, you have committed crimes that the nations have not committed, I also will inflict upon you harsh plagues that I have not inflicted upon the nations.
AND THE LIKE OF WHICH I WILL NOT DO AGAIN — St. Jerome refers this to the destruction of the Jews by the Romans, which was greater than the destruction by the Chaldeans; just as the killing of Christ was greater than the crimes of the ancient Jews. Hence on account of it the Jews were dispersed to all winds, which the Prophet states here. It can, however, also be referred to the Chaldean destruction, if you take 'again' strictly, namely: in this generation, in this age, within the memory of these times; for 'again' is often taken elsewhere in this sense. For the Prophets threaten their Jews first with the Chaldean destruction and then with the Roman.
Verse 10: Fathers Shall Eat Their Children
10. FATHERS SHALL EAT THEIR CHILDREN, etc., AND CHILDREN SHALL EAT THEIR FATHERS — Both happened in the destruction by both the Chaldeans and the Romans. So Theodoret. See what was said on Lamentations 2:20 and 4:10. Note: That mothers ate their children, we read elsewhere; but that children ate their fathers, we read nowhere — yet from this passage it is certain that this happened during the siege of Jerusalem.
Otherwise Vatablus says: Therefore the famine will be so great that children will snatch food from parents and parents from children. But this is weak and beside the point; for eating the food of fathers is one thing, and eating fathers is another.
Thus under the Emperor Honorius there was such a scarcity of food in Rome, and such dearness of all things, that people were already threatening one another, so much so that a voice was heard openly in the circus: 'Set a price on human flesh,' as Procopius reports in Book II of the Gothic War. Hear the lamentable voice of a mother killing and eating her son from famine during the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, in Josephus, Book VII of the Jewish War, chapter 8: 'Wretched child,' she said, 'in war and famine and sedition, for whom shall I save you? Among the Romans, even if you live, you will be a slave; but famine forestalls slavery, and these seditious men are more savage than both. Be therefore food for me, and a fury to the seditious, and a tale for human life — the only thing still lacking to the calamities of the Jews.' And saying this, she killed her son, cooked him, and ate half.
Verse 11: Therefore
11. THEREFORE (because of your sins) AS I LIVE (that is, I swear by My life), UNLESS, etc., I WILL BREAK — Supply: may I be considered a liar, or perish. For the Hebrew אם לא (im lo), that is 'if not, unless,' is among the Hebrews a formula of execratory oath, by which they as it were devote themselves; hence they leave unspoken the evil to which they devote themselves, for the sake of horror and good omen, as I have said elsewhere.
MY SANCTUARY — In Hebrew מקדשי (mikdashi), that is 'my sanctuary' or temple. The Hebrew root קדש (kadash) signifies first, to sanctify; second, to make firm, to establish; third, to purify. Thus the house of God is called holy, that is consecrated to God, as if stable in perpetuity, which therefore rightly ought to be most clean. To this third meaning, namely cleanness, God here looks, saying: My house, which ought to have been most clean, you have violated and polluted with the filth of idols which you brought into the temple (2 Kings 21 and 23).
WITH ALL YOUR OFFENSES — In Hebrew בשקוצים (shiqquts im), that is 'with abominations,' meaning idols, which as abominable things offend the sight of God and the pious. Similar is 2 Kings 23:13. Hence He soon calls idols 'abominations'; as also Daniel 9:27: 'There shall be in the temple the abomination of desolation,' that is, the idol of Antiochus.
I WILL BREAK — He alludes to the second signification of mikdashi, that is, 'sanctuary,' meaning: I had established for Myself a firm house in the temple; but because you polluted it, I will break it down as though temporary. Hence the Chaldean translates: 'I also will crush your arm.' In Hebrew it is אגרע (egra), which secondly can be translated 'I will shave,' alluding to the Nazirites and lepers who were purified from uncleanness and leprosy by shaving the hair of the body (Numbers 6:9; Leviticus 14:8). Meaning: Just as they are purified by shaving their hair, so I, observing this same law of Mine, will purify and sanctify My sanctuary, which you polluted, by shaving it and destroying it. Similar is 2 Kings 21:13. Third, egra can be translated 'I will diminish.' Hence R. David explains it thus: Just as you diminished My glory in My temple, so I in turn will diminish your glory. Hence the Septuagint translates: 'I also will cast you away.'
MY EYE SHALL NOT SPARE — To spare belongs to the will, but it is attributed to the eyes as to judges; for these are leaders both in love and in mercy. Out of mercy a person closes his eyes, winks, turns them away, when he cannot bear to see such great misery and punishment of the accused; he grieves, refrains, and spares. God does not spare, says St. Jerome, out of mercy: 'For just as a most merciful physician, wishing to burn putrid flesh and decayed wounds with cautery, does not spare in order to spare; does not show mercy in order to show greater mercy' — namely to the living flesh, lest it be corrupted by the neighboring putrid part. So God does when He chastises His own, to cut off their vices and future punishments; or at least takes care that they do not creep into others.
Verse 13: I Will Cause to Rest
13. I WILL CAUSE TO REST (I will sate My soul with their punishment, and My wrath will burn itself out), AND I WILL BE CONSOLED — For vengeance is usually a relief for an injury or insult received. Hence the Poet says: 'Vengeance is a good more pleasant than life itself.'
I HAVE SPOKEN IN MY ZEAL — I have decreed an irrevocable, fierce, bloody sentence. Zeal, says Prado, is an indignation arising from love, with which a father is angry at his dear children, or a spouse at his wife, for the injury of adultery received. Hence it grows as much as love grows, and is strong and violent, so as to commit memorable deeds. So God punishes the adultery of idolatry by completing His indignation — that is, by pouring out all His wrath and vengeances.
Verse 15: A Blasphemy
15. A BLASPHEMY — so that all who see you will blaspheme, that is, curse you and revile you. For the common people call any kind of cursing 'blasphemy,' even though properly blasphemy is an insult directed at God or the Saints. Hence in Hebrew it is גדופם (geduphah), which signifies any reproach or disgrace. Hence the Septuagint translates στεναχτή, that is, 'you shall be one to be groaned over' — that is, groaning and worthy of groaning — over whose wound all who see will groan. Theodotion translates δειλαίων or δειλαίαν, which some render as 'unhappy and wretched,' others as 'conspicuous and exposed to miseries,' says St. Jerome.
AN EXAMPLE — namely, of unhappiness as well as of wickedness, so that others may learn from your misfortune not to provoke God. Hence in Hebrew it is מוסר (musar), that is, discipline, chastisement.
A HORROR — So that others, seeing your calamities, may be stupefied, as if thunderstruck; hence some translate it as 'terror.' Similar threats are found in Jeremiah 19:8 and 25:9, and elsewhere.
JUDGMENTS — extreme punishments. It is a metonymy: for 'judgment' is used for the penalty decreed in judgment.
IN THE REBUKES OF WRATH — That is, as the Septuagint has it, with chastisement and vengeance, which comes from an angry God.
Verse 16: Arrows of Famine
16. ARROWS OF FAMINE — He so calls both the lightning, winds, and storms by which, as with arrows, God strikes down the crops and brings famine; and also the locusts, caterpillars, canker-worms, blight, and other pests of crops, by which, as with arrows, He sends and hurls famine at people. Hence He adds: 'And I will gather famine upon you.' 'Famine' — that is, caterpillars, canker-worms, etc., which are wont to bring famine. So R. David, Vatablus, Maldonatus, and others.
THE STAFF OF BREAD — The Chaldean translates 'prop'; the Septuagint, 'the support of bread.'
Verse 17: Beasts
17. BEASTS — that is, the Chaldeans, says Theodoret, who with their wild jaws and bloody claws will pluck you like sheep. Second, I will properly send lions and other beasts against those who flee the Chaldeans; for I will cause those hiding in the mountains and forests to be devoured by wild animals. Moses threatened the sinning Jews with these beasts (Deuteronomy 32:24); again, Ezekiel 34:28; likewise the Canaanites (Exodus 23:28). So God sent lions against the Cutheans transported by the Assyrians into Samaria, because they did not fear the Lord (2 Kings 17:25). So in later centuries also, He sends wolves, bears, and other wild beasts upon certain provinces from time to time, to punish the crimes of their inhabitants.
Tropologically St. Jerome says: 'But against our Jerusalem (that is, against the Church and against the soul) the worst beasts are sent, when we are given over to shameful passions and to a reprobate mind, and to the conscience of sins which torture and tear apart our soul. Dissensions, heresies, schisms, rivalries, envy, sadness, detraction, evil desires, avarice which is the root of all evils — these are the worst beasts. When these are in us, we deserve to hear: Your transgression will correct you. And we pray and say: Do not hand over to beasts the soul that confesses to You.'
BLOOD (that is, the killing and carnage of war) SHALL PASS THROUGH — shall rage. For thus it is said in Psalm 41:8: 'Your waves have passed over me.' And Psalm 87:17: 'Your wraths have passed through me,' that is, have raged against me.
I THE LORD HAVE SPOKEN — thus I decree, thus I subscribe in the manner of kings to this prophecy, as to My decree.
Morally, from the many signs and portents by which God through Ezekiel forewarned the Jews of future punishment, note this: God is accustomed to show in advance by prior signs the future calamities of the state and the Church, so as to warn sinners and incite them to repentance by which they may escape them, and to fortify the just to endure them bravely.
Thus He was unwilling to bring the flood upon the world without first warning people about it through Noah (Genesis 6). Thus He foretold the disaster of Jerusalem, of the Moabites, Ammonites, Egyptians, Babylonians, etc., through Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. The destruction of Babylon He wrote on the wall for Belshazzar: 'Mene, Tekel, Peres' (Daniel 5). The disaster of Judea through Antiochus was portended by armies seen clashing in the sky (2 Maccabees 5:2).
Thus He foreshadowed to the Jews the destruction of Judea by Titus that was imminent. For above Jerusalem a comet resembling a sword stood for a year. Again, chariots and armies of warriors were seen in the sky. The voice of angels was heard in the temple: 'Let us depart from here.' A certain Jesus, son of Ananias, for seven years continually cried out: 'Woe to Jerusalem!' — nor could he be restrained from this cry by scourging, until while crying on the wall 'Woe to Jerusalem, and woe to me!' he was struck by an enemy missile and died. So Josephus, Book VII of the Jewish War, chapter 12.
Thus the persecution of Huneric, king of the Vandals, was foreshadowed: for a certain person saw the church of St. Faustus gleaming with unusual ornament, candles, veils, and lamps; then he saw Ethiopians come in and disperse all this adornment. Another saw the same church filled with crowds of people, then soon filled with pigs and goats. A third saw someone winnowing grain from chaff. A fourth saw someone crying out: 'Migrate, migrate!' A fifth saw clouds, with the sky roaring, hurling huge stones which, falling to earth and ignited, burned everything. Sixth, Bishop Paul saw a tree extended to the heavens with flowering branches, which shaded all of Africa, and behold, a violent donkey came (Huneric), which rubbing its neck against the root, felled it to the ground. Seventh, Bishop Quintilianus saw himself standing on a mountain from which he beheld an innumerable flock of his sheep, and in the midst of the flock were two pots boiling fiercely (these portended Huneric and his Bishop Cyrola). There were also slaughterers of the sheep, whose flesh they were plunging into the boiling pots. So Victor of Utica, Book II on the Vandals.
Around the year of the Lord 1017, as Baronius reports from the Annals of the Franks, in the region of Aquitaine, in the times of Benedict VIII, near the seacoast, the following prodigy occurred before the feast of St. John the Baptist: for three days blood rained from the sky, which when it fell on human flesh or on stone could not be washed off; but if it fell on wood, it could be washed off. This prodigy terrified all of Gaul, so much so that Robert, king of the Franks, consulted by letter Fulbert, Bishop of Chartres, easily the foremost among the Gallic bishops in learning, whose letter in response to the same king on these matters is extant. In it, at the end, he philosophizes on what these things portended: 'As for the fact that you have recently heard that blood of this kind rained in a certain part of your kingdom, and that the blood, where it fell upon stone or upon human flesh, could not be washed off, but where it fell upon wood was easily washed off: by these three, three kinds of people seem to be signified. By stone, the impious; by flesh, the fornicators; by wood, which is neither hard like stone nor soft like flesh, those who are neither impious nor fornicators. When therefore the sword or pestilence designated by the blood comes upon that nation to which it is extended, if the hard and soft have not previously been changed for the better, they will die eternally in their blood; but those in the middle may be delivered through the anguish of death, or otherwise, at the judgment of the most secret and excellent Judge.' These words Fulbert wrote to King Robert.
Furthermore, that very serious wars followed in that province between William, Duke of Aquitaine, and Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, by which they destroyed each other with hostile arms, the same author affirms. Behold a triple portent, similar to the triple portent of the hairs of Ezekiel here.