Commentary on
Ezekiel 3:24

3:24  Then the spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet, and spake with me, and said unto me, Go, shut thyself within thine house.

Commentary on 3:24
[19 August 2007]: Why, after giving Ezekiel a commission to speak to the house of Israel, does Yehuveh now tell him, “Go, shut thyself within thine house”? How can he accomplish his assignment if he remains confined at home? In context, it appears that Israel could not hear what Ezekiel must say, and Yehuveh withdrew him until the situation in Israel reached a crisis—destruction and death. When those who “escapeth in that day shall come unto” Ezekiel, then his “mouth [would] be opened” and he would “be a sign unto them; and they shall know that I am Yehuveh.” To “one that had escaped,” Ezekiel could speak freely. Until then, he may as well stay home! Ezekiel 24:26-27; 33:21.
        Secondly, seclusion has always been one of Yehuveh’s means of protecting His servants. At the time of the flood, Noah and his family entered the ark and the door was shut—for their protection. But the story began long before when Yehuveh sent an angel with the message:
“Go to Noah and tell him in My name ‘Hide thyself!’ and reveal to him the end that is approaching: that the whole earth will be destroyed, and a deluge is about to come upon the whole earth, and will destroy all that is on it. And now instruct him that he may escape and his seed may be preserved for all the generations of the world.’” We know from Genesis 6:3 and from The Books of Enoch and Jasher that this was “an hundred and twenty years” before the flood. Much later when Israel prepared for the tragic last night in Egypt, for their protection they were also told to “Go, shut thyself within thine house” and “none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning.” Genesis 7:16; The Book of Enoch X:2-3; Exodus 12:22
        Yet there is much to draw a prophet into seclusion beyond rejection or his own protection. “The soul of Enoch was wrapped up in the instruction of Yehuveh, in knowledge and in understanding; and he wisely retired from the sons of men, and secreted himself from them for many days.” Later, after Adam’s death and after Enoch had served as king over the whole earth for more than two hundred and forty years, he returned to this life: “Enoch resolved to separate himself from the sons of men and to secrete himself as at first in order to serve” Yehuveh.
The Book of Jasher III:2, 17. 
        As Yehuveh prepares and commissions His anointed ones for their work in this final battle, at certain times He again says,
“Come, My people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.” “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” Isaiah 26:20; Psalms 91:1.


Gael Bataman
Originally Written:        
19 August 2007
Latest Update:              
20 August 2007


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