Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
To hypocrites who falsely sought the word of God from the Prophet, He threatens both a real response through plagues and blows, and a false and deceitful one through false prophets. Secondly, in verse 14, He declares that even if Noah, Job, and Daniel were to pray for the Jews, He would not hear them; yet He promises in verse 22 that remnants of them would be preserved.
Vulgate Text: Ezekiel 14:1-23
1. And men of the elders of Israel came to me, and sat before me. 2. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 3. Son of man, these men have set up their uncleannesses in their hearts, and have placed the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face: shall I answer them when they inquire of Me? 4. Therefore speak to them, and say to them: Thus says the Lord God: Every man of the house of Israel who sets up his uncleannesses in his heart and places the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet inquiring of Me through him — I the Lord will answer him according to the multitude of his uncleannesses, 5. so that the house of Israel may be caught in their own heart, by which they have departed from Me through all their idols. 6. Therefore say to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord God: Be converted, and depart from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations. 7. For every man of the house of Israel, and every stranger among the proselytes who sojourns in Israel, if he is alienated from Me and sets up his idols in his heart and places the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet to inquire of Me through him — I the Lord will answer him by Myself. 8. And I will set My face against that man, and I will make him an example and a proverb, and I will destroy him from the midst of My people: and you shall know that I am the Lord. 9. And when the prophet has erred and spoken a word — I the Lord have deceived that prophet: and I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him from the midst of My people Israel. 10. And they shall bear their iniquity: as the iniquity of the inquirer, so shall the iniquity of the prophet be, 11. so that the house of Israel may no longer stray from Me, nor be defiled by all their transgressions; but that they may be My people, and I may be their God, says the Lord of hosts. 12. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 13. Son of man, when a land sins against Me by trespassing grievously, I will stretch out My hand against it and break the staff of its bread, and send famine upon it, and destroy from it man and beast. 14. And if these three men — Noah, Daniel, and Job — were in the midst of it, they by their own righteousness would deliver only their own souls, says the Lord of hosts. 15. And if I bring evil beasts upon the land to devastate it, and it becomes impassable because none can pass through on account of the beasts: 16. if these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they alone shall be delivered, and the land shall be desolated. 17. Or if I bring a sword upon that land and say to the sword: Pass through the land — and I destroy from it man and beast: 18. and these three men were in the midst of it — as I live, says the Lord God, they shall not deliver sons or daughters, but they alone shall be delivered. 19. Or if I send a pestilence upon that land and pour out My indignation upon it in blood, to destroy from it man and beast: 20. and Noah, Daniel, and Job were in the midst of it — as I live, says the Lord God, they shall not deliver son or daughter, but they by their own righteousness shall deliver their own souls. 21. For thus says the Lord God: Even if I send My four worst judgments upon Jerusalem — sword, famine, evil beasts, and pestilence — to destroy from it man and beast: 22. yet there shall be left in it a remnant who shall bring out sons and daughters. Behold, they shall come to you, and you shall see their ways and their deeds, and you shall be consoled concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, concerning all that I have brought upon it. 23. And they shall console you, when you see their ways and their deeds: and you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, says the Lord God.
Verse 1: Men of the Elders
1. MEN OF THE ELDERS. — That is, from the elders of Israel, namely the chief men and magistrates, for these were usually chosen from among the old men. Hence the senate took its name from old age (senium), says Cicero in On Old Age. These men had come to Ezekiel to consult him, but falsely; therefore they sat with him. For this reason God reveals to the Prophet what kind of men they are, namely hypocrites, lest he be surprised if He responds harshly according to their merits, or does not respond at all. This is what He says: "Shall I answer them when they inquire of Me?"
Verse 3: They Have Set Up Their Uncleannesses in Their Hearts
3. THEY HAVE SET UP THEIR UNCLEANNESSES IN THEIR HEARTS — That is, as Aquila translates: They have dedicated idols in their heart, namely as on an altar, that is, they have deeply impressed them upon their heart, while outwardly they display worship of the true God and a desire for God's word and prophecy.
worship, and a desire for the word of God and prophecy.
AND THE STUMBLING BLOCK OF INIQUITY. — That is, the idols which are a stumbling block to them and the occasion of all iniquity, that is, of guilt, punishment, and ruin, so that they stumble and fall into every evil and every plague.
THEY HAVE PLACED BEFORE THEIR FACE — to fixedly feed and delight their eyes and minds upon them, as if to say: They have fully fixed their mind on idols, setting up their worship as their end and their highest good. Otherwise the Septuagint has: They have set up the torment, or punishment, of their iniquity before their face, that is, as Theodoret says, they know the punishments decreed by Me for idolaters and do not care, but continue in idolatry; and, as the Scholiast says, they sin shamelessly, disregarding My threat of punishment.
SHALL I ANSWER THEM WHEN THEY INQUIRE? — In Hebrew: Shall I, when inquired of, be inquired of; or when sought, be sought? That is, even though they ask me, am I to be considered truly asked and obligated to answer? As if to say: No — for they ask Me falsely, those who in their heart carry and worship idols. So Origen, Vatablus, and St. Jerome, who says: "He who comes to the Prophet to inquire while still in his former vices — I will answer according to his heart and his uncleannesses, so that according to what he wills and believes, so also may he hear. For he does not deserve correction who inquires not with a mind to learn but to test; nor does he deserve to hear the truth who inquires fraudulently, but he must be caught in his own heart. Thus Christ said to the scribes: Why do you test Me, hypocrites? And again: Nor will I tell you by what authority I do these things." For to these applies the saying of Epicharmus: "What has a blind man to do with a mirror?" Ptolemy says excellently at the beginning of the Almagest: "Do not discuss unless with one who concedes the truth; nor answer except one who seeks counsel from you and eagerly receives it."
Verse 4: Every Man Every Man
4. EVERY MAN, EVERY MAN. — In Hebrew: man, man, that is, any man whatsoever.
Tropologically St. Jerome says: "Man is twofold: the exterior in speech, and the interior in the heart." See his commentary.
I THE LORD WILL ANSWER HIM ACCORDING TO THE MULTITUDE OF HIS UNCLEANNESSES. — St. Jerome in his Commentary: I will answer him according to his heart and his uncleannesses. The Septuagint: I will answer him in those things in which his mind is held (that is, takes delight). As if to say: I will adjust the answer, or through false prophets will allow the answer to be adjusted, to the inquirer's disposition and desire; as Micaiah did with King Ahab, 3 Kings xxii. For they pretend to seek God's oracle, when rather they wish to have ratified what they have already determined in their mind and absolutely desire. In these cases that saying of St. Augustine is true: "God scatters penal blindnesses (and deceptions) upon illicit desires, so that every disordered mind may be its own punishment." The Hebrew inserts 'aba,' which Rabbi David and others say is written ba with he but read ba with aleph, that is, as the Chaldean has, 'to one coming,' as if to say: I will answer the one coming, even though he comes full of idol worship. So Vatablus. Or rather: to the one coming to me, I will answer according to the merit of his filth and his idols. But the reading and sense of our translator is by far truer and better, so that ba should either be deleted or regarded as a pleonasm.
Verse 5: So That the House of Israel May Be Caught in Their Own Heart
5. SO THAT THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL MAY BE CAUGHT IN THEIR OWN HEART. — That is, so that Israel, yielding to its own disposition and desire, may be caught by it as by a snare. As if to say: They have spread snares for themselves in their hearts, by which they will be ensnared. Note that appetites and desires are nets and snares for the one who desires, by which he himself is caught, and often strangled. So also false prophets, preachers, and confessors who foster the desires of their charges are snares for souls. The Wise Man truly said, Proverbs v, 22: "His own iniquities catch the wicked man, and he is bound by the cords of his own sins." And Isaiah, chapter v, 18: "Woe to you who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as with a cart rope." See what is said there, as also Romans i, 24: "Therefore God gave them up to the desires of their hearts."
Verse 7: Concerning Proselytes
7. CONCERNING PROSELYTES. — Proselytes, that is, strangers, are what the Gentiles who come from elsewhere are called, to be incorporated into the religion of the Jews and the people of God. These are called 'God-fearers,' Acts xiii, 16. Note here that God does not want the Jews to permit strangers dwelling among them to worship idols; much less, therefore, should Christians tolerate heretics exercising their heresy among them, says Maldonatus.
BY MYSELF — not through the Prophet's word, but through Me and My scourges, which I will send upon him; or, as if to say: I Myself will pronounce My sentence against him. Hence it follows:
Verse 8: I Will Make Him an Example
8. I WILL MAKE HIM AN EXAMPLE — of divine vengeance, which they will cite when they wish to propose or curse someone with it.
A PROVERB — a byword, so that he may be on everyone's lips; so that when they wish to signify a great vengeance, they may invoke his punishment, just as we speak of the punishments of Tantalus and Tityus.
Verse 9: The Prophet
9. THE PROPHET — that is, the false prophet; for a true one cannot err.
I THE LORD HAVE DECEIVED — that is, I permitted him to be deceived; I did not rebuke when I could have; I tolerated his lying prophecies and promises, so that through him I might punish those who inquire not of Me but of idols and their prophets. For it is fitting that to the fraudulent inquirer
a lying god and prophet should be given a fraudulent, crafty, and lying response, or oracle, by the same one consulting them. For he is speaking about idolaters and false prophets, as is clear from verse 7 and from what he adds: "I will destroy him from the midst of the people." For how God deceives prophets, He Himself declares in 3 Kings xxii, 21, where He deceived the prophets of Ahab, in no other way than by permitting the spirit of falsehood, namely the devil, to deceive them. And reason itself and piety teach that God cannot be the author of falsehood, as Calvin blasphemously claims. Others explain "I have deceived" as meaning "I have declared him to be deceived"; others: "I have deceived," that is, "I have afflicted him with the shame and punishment he did not expect."
You may ask: Why is the permission of deception in God called an action, namely deception? Why does He say "I have deceived" and not "I permitted to be deceived"?
I answer: First, because permission in God is an action, namely a positive decree of permitting this or that deception, this or that sin. For without this prior decree, no demon or wicked man could deceive another, sin, or do anything, especially because God must physically concur and cooperate in deception, as in every act of sin, by His general concurrence; for without this concurrence of God nothing can be accomplished, nothing can be produced.
Second, because this permission in God is certain and efficacious, and certainly produces its effect. For God foreknows, because He penetrates and sees through to the depths both the weakness and tendency of the human will and the cunning, power, and wickedness of the diabolical will, that such a man here and now, given such circumstances, will certainly and infallibly be deceived by the demon, if He permits the demon to do so and loosens the reins for him to tempt and deceive; given this foreknowledge, God says and decrees: I permit the demon to tempt and deceive such a one; from which it certainly follows that such a one is tempted and deceived. Therefore, just as one who unleashes a hunting dog before a hare is said to send the dog against the hare, because the dog naturally and certainly will attack the hare if unleashed: so also God, by permitting the demon a certain deception that he could not accomplish without God's permission, is considered to deceive through him. For what one does through another, one seems to do by oneself. God therefore permits evils differently from man: man negatively, God positively.
Third, because God does this as punishment for a preceding sin, for example, hypocrisy and fraud. Therefore, this deception is a punishment of God, a penalty imposed by God on the fraudulent one. Why then should it not be ascribed to God as a just judge and avenger? For God, from the full and supreme dominion He holds over all creatures and wills, directs them either actively toward good or permissively toward evil, as His providence either mercifully or justly pleases and wills; and His permission as certainly achieves its effect as does His action, as I have said. Therefore, when from this permission and punishment of God a man is certainly deceived, he is said to be deceived by God. Thus God "will mock the mockers," Proverbs iii, 34.
Morally, learn here that God shows Himself to men and conducts Himself toward them as they themselves are. To the humble He shows Himself gentle and humble; to the sincere, sincere; to the faithful, faithful; to the loving, a friend; to the generous, generous; etc. To the proud He shows Himself exalted; to the cunning, cunning; to the hard, hard; to the greedy, greedy; etc. This is what the Psalmist sings in Psalm xvii, 26: "With the holy You will be holy (O Lord! acting holy, that is, pious toward him, showing Yourself benign to him), and with the innocent man You will be innocent; and with the chosen You will be chosen, and with the perverse You will be perverse." That is to say: To the good, the proven, and the chosen, You will show Yourself good, proven, and chosen. "With the perverse You will be perverse," that is, You will not act candidly or benignly; but (so to speak) wickedly, malignantly, and perversely — that is, craftily, severely, and hostilely; and You will reverse Your own proper manner, which is to have mercy and do good, because the man himself has been reversed and perverted from what he ought to be. So St. Jerome and Jansenius on that passage. And Leviticus xxvi, 27: "But if even after all this you will not listen to Me, but walk contrary to Me, then I will walk contrary to you in wrathful opposition, and I will chastise you with seven (that is, many) plagues for your sins." So He walked against the stubborn Pharaoh, luring and treacherously drowning him in the Red Sea; and against the proud Nebuchadnezzar, turning him into a beast, Daniel iv. So often to hypocrites and wicked peoples He gives hypocritical and wicked kings and magistrates; to unlearned students, unteachable teachers; to quarrelsome wives, quarrelsome husbands; to perverse parents, perverse children; etc.
Similar proverbs are: "One trick pushes out another; It is gate before gate; Strife begets strife, fraud begets fraud; For a blind man, one with his eyes put out; Cure evil with evil; Burn disease with disease; Wash mud with mud; Play the Cretan with a Cretan."
Verse 10: They Shall Bear Their Iniquity
10. THEY SHALL BEAR THEIR INIQUITY — both the false prophet and the one who consults him. He calls iniquity the vengeance and punishment of iniquity. It is metonymy, for the cause is put for the effect, guilt for punishment.
ACCORDING TO THE INIQUITY. — That is, to the one who asks Me falsely and deceitfully, I will answer falsely and deceitfully through the false prophet. Secondly, with equal punishment and destruction both shall be punished for their equal pretense — both the inquirer and the consulted false prophet.
Verse 11: So That the House of Israel May No Longer Stray from Me
11. SO THAT THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL MAY NO LONGER STRAY FROM ME — seeing, namely, that others who departed from Me have strayed and been punished. As if to say: So that by this punishment I may free Israel from following false prophets. So Polychronius.
13. THE LAND (the inhabitants of the land), SO THAT THE TRANSGRESSOR MAY TRANSGRESS — that is, may transgress greatly. Origen here, in Homily 4, seems to take the land itself as though it were animated and endowed with reason, just as Plato held that the Spirit of God is the soul of the world; but he speaks metonymically, for elsewhere he teaches the contrary expressly.
I WILL BREAK THE STAFF OF BREAD. — In Hebrew: the rod or support of bread, that is, bread which sustains life. As if to say: I will send famine upon it. See on this phrase what I said on Isaiah III, 1.
14. THEIR OWN SOULS — that is, themselves, their own life and salvation.
Daniel was a type of Christ, whose last and most perfect age was in His 34th year. Daniel, therefore, while still living, is here celebrated by God and as it were canonized. Thus Pope Nicholas V said of St. Antoninus: "St. Antoninus living can be as rightly canonized as St. Bernard deceased." Thus St. Agatha as it were canonized St. Lucy while she was living: for when St. Lucy invoked her and asked her to heal her mother Eutychia, she heard from her: "Why do you ask of me, sister Lucy, what you yourself will soon be able to do for your mother?" So also St. Paul was as it were canonized by God saying: "He is a chosen vessel for Me," Acts ix, 15; and John the Baptist, Luke i, 15; and Jeremiah, chapter i, 5. Therefore heretics ignorantly misuse these passages to prove from them that the Saints in heaven are not to be invoked. For first, Noah and Job at this time of Ezekiel were not in heaven but in limbo, that is, in a state not of beatitude and vision but of waiting and darkness; and Daniel was living on earth. From this, following the heretics' own argument, one would have to conclude by parity that the prayers of the just who are still living should not be sought either — yet St. Paul frequently requests them, asking that the faithful pray for him and for the conversion of the nations and the spread of the Gospel. Second, God does not here forbid the Saints from being invoked, but asserts that He will not hear them — not because He does not love them or would not otherwise hear them, but because the crimes and obstinacy of Judea are now so great that He has determined to devastate it utterly through the Chaldeans and will not allow Himself to be moved by anyone's prayers to spare it. For it is otherwise established that Daniel, in chapter ix, 13, obtained freedom from Babylonian captivity for the repentant Jews; Job, in chapter xlii, 8, obtained pardon for his friends; and Noah, lest men perish again by a flood, in Genesis viii, 21, obtained this by his prayers and sacrifices. Therefore from this passage the contrary should rather be inferred — namely, that the Saints are to be invoked. For God commanded the friends of Job, chapter xlii, 8, saying: "Go to My servant Job; My servant Job will pray for you." Thus a king says to a prince whom he loves: Do not pray for this rebel, because I will not hear you — as if to say: At other times I will hear you, but not this time, because the crime is enormous.
Verse 17: If I Shall Say
17. IF I SHALL SAY — that is, if I command, if I decree that the enemy's sword should punish the sinning land.
19. IN BLOOD — by the pestilential air corrupting the blood, which when corrupted infects the remaining members of the body. So Vatablus. Secondly, and better, Prado and Maldonatus say: 'in blood' means unto slaughter and carnage, so that blood, that is, life, may be poured out.
Verse 20: And Noah and Daniel and Job
20. AND NOAH, AND DANIEL, AND JOB. — You may ask: Why are these three named rather than Abraham, Jacob, or Moses? First, Origen, as reported by St. Jerome, answers: because these three first saw prosperity, then adversity, then prosperity again. Namely, Noah saw the world intact, then destroyed by the flood, and shortly after renewed. Daniel saw the Jews flourishing, captive, and returning. Job saw his own happiness, his affliction, and his restoration. As if to say: So also the people of Israel, if they repent, will return to their homeland and former happiness. But this is not relevant to the topic of this chapter.
Second, St. Jerome says these three are like three examples of divine severity. For not even Noah, a perfect man, could avert the wrath and flood of God except from his children, who were righteous and were preserved as a seedbed of humanity; nor could Daniel avert the Babylonian captivity from the people, nor Job death from his sons and daughters. But only Noah himself with his righteous family from the flood, Job from pestilential death, and Daniel from the lions were delivered by God on account of their own righteousness. So also Maldonatus. And this is said quite aptly, as if arguing from example: Just as neither Noah delivered the world, nor Job his children, nor Daniel his people, so now they will not be able to deliver My people.
Third, on the contrary, St. Chrysostom (Homily 47 on Genesis) answers: Because, he says, Noah saved his sons and daughters; and likewise Daniel and Job saved many others — their household members, their compatriots, and their subjects.
Fourth, most fully Prado answers: because these three in their age, like brilliant suns of righteousness, shone before the world, and were most zealous for the salvation of others; and therefore most dear to God, and most efficacious in prayer. Hence of Noah it is said in Ecclesiasticus xliv, 17 that he "was made the world's reconciliation," that is, so that he might restore it. Job also was most upright, chapter i, verse 1, as also was Daniel, who is called by God "a man of desires."
Note: Daniel was still living when Ezekiel here gave this praise of him and compared him to Noah and Job, and he was only 34 years old. For he was 20 years old when he was brought to Babylon in the 3rd year of Jehoiakim, who afterward reigned for 8 more years; he was succeeded by his son Jehoiachin, who in the third month was carried to Babylon. Ezekiel prophesies these things in the 6th year from the deportation of Jehoiachin, as is clear from chapter viii, 1 and 20. Therefore this 6th year of Jehoiachin was the 14th year from the deportation of Daniel. Add 14 to 20, and you get 34 years of Daniel's life when Ezekiel said these things about him. He was therefore this
Tropologically, St. Jerome says: "If Noah, Job, and Daniel gathered together cannot withdraw from the wrath of God those who dwell in a sinful land, what is to be said of those who think that by the merit of parents, sinful children can be freed from the fires of hell? Hence neither will a righteous father be able to deliver his sinful son, nor will a mother of holy life give the rewards of chastity to an unchaste daughter. Conversely, the vices of parents will not harm their children, but the soul that has sinned, it shall die. Lot, dwelling in Sodom but a stranger both in spirit and flesh, did not deliver his wife, because she looked back; but only his daughters, who perhaps had not sinned."
Finally, symbolically, Abba Pastor in the Lives of the Fathers used to say: "Poverty, tribulation, and discretion
are the works of the solitary and perfect life. For it is written: If these three men — Noah, Job, and Daniel — were there, Noah represents the person of those who possess nothing; Job, the person of those who are afflicted; Daniel, the person of those who discern. If therefore these three actions are in a man, God dwells in him."
And St. Gregory, Homily 16 on Ezekiel: "In Noah, Daniel, and Job," he says, "preachers, the continent, and the married are signified. For Noah steered the ark upon the waters, and therefore held the figure of rulers. Daniel in the king's court was devoted to abstinence, and therefore signified the life of the continent. Job, placed in marriage and exercising the care of his own household, was pleasing to God, and through him the order of good married people is fittingly signified."
And St. Bernard, in his sermon on Psalm lxxxiv: 'I will hear what the Lord speaks within me': "Noah, Daniel, and Job," he says, "represent three orders: the continent, the prelates, and the married; if indeed the continent turn from carnal desires to those things that are of the heart, that is, to spiritual desires. Hence Daniel is called by the Angel a man of desires. And prelates should strive to benefit rather than to rule, since holiness especially befits them. Hence in the Psalm they are specially called saints. And the married should not transgress the commandments, so that they may rightly be called the people of the Lord and the sheep of His pasture." The same St. Bernard, in his sermon On the Three Orders of the Church, addressed to the Fathers in Chapter: "There are three," he says, "Noah, Daniel, and Job: of whom the first crosses by ship, the second by bridge, the third by ford. Moreover, three men signify three orders of the Church. Noah indeed steered the ark
lest it perish in the flood, in which I immediately recognize the form of rulers of the Church. Daniel, a man of desires, devoted to abstinence and chastity, represents the order of the continent and penitent who devote themselves to God alone. Job also, rightly managing the substance of this world in marriage, designates the faithful people who lawfully possess earthly things," etc.
Verse 21: My Worst Judgments
21. MY WORST JUDGMENTS. — The Septuagint has 'vengeances,' that is, most bitter scourges; or "judgments," that is, judges, avengers, or rather executioners, who exact vengeance upon the wicked.
22. YET THERE SHALL BE LEFT IN IT A REMNANT. — In Hebrew: an escape, that is, some surviving and escaping from the destruction, who will also bring out sons and daughters from this disaster, so that in them the stock of Abraham may be preserved and propagated.
BEHOLD, THEY SHALL COME TO YOU. — That is, behold, they will be led captive to Babylon, where you are. As if to say: They will follow you, not you them.
23. WHEN YOU SHALL SEE THEIR WAYS (namely, their wicked conduct, on account of which I punished others but preserved these out of mercy; and so) YOU SHALL BE CONSOLED — seeing that I have rightly, on account of such great crimes, overthrown the city and temple of Jerusalem, and yet have mercifully preserved some, and their wicked children (though led captive to Babylon) as a seedbed for the stock of Abraham, whereas I have utterly destroyed other nations. For thus He answers the elders who marveled at the threats of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, wondering how God would destroy His own nation and city just as He destroys other nations. For He answers that God deals more gently with the Jews, whom He does not utterly destroy as He destroyed other nations.