Compare Ezekiel 6:12 with Deuteronomy 28:15-68 on consequences of disobedience. Setting the Scene • Deuteronomy 28 is Moses’ prophetic warning to Israel on the eve of entering Canaan. • Ezekiel 6 is God’s word to the exiles more than eight centuries later, after the nation had ignored those warnings. • Both passages lay out the concrete, literal consequences that fall on a covenant people who turn from the LORD. Key Texts in Parallel • Ezekiel 6:12: “He who is far away will die by the plague, and he who is near will fall by the sword, and he who survives and is spared will die of famine. So I will spend My wrath upon them.” • Deuteronomy 28:15: “But if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.” Shared Themes of Judgment Plague • Deuteronomy 28:21–22: “The LORD will make the plague cling to you… strike you with wasting disease.” • Ezekiel 6:12a: “He who is far away will die by the plague.” Sword (military defeat) • Deuteronomy 28:25: “The LORD will cause you to be defeated by your enemies.” • Ezekiel 6:12b: “He who is near will fall by the sword.” Famine • Deuteronomy 28:48: “You will serve your enemies… until He has destroyed you” (loss of harvest); 28:53 speaks of cannibalism during siege. • Ezekiel 6:12c: “He who survives and is spared will die of famine.” Scattering and Exile • Deuteronomy 28:64–65: “The LORD will scatter you among all nations… you will find no repose.” • Ezekiel 6:8: “Yet I will leave a remnant, for some of you will escape the sword among the nations.” Comprehensiveness • Deuteronomy 28:45: “All these curses will come upon you… until you are destroyed.” • Ezekiel 6:12d: “So I will spend My wrath upon them.” Progressive Intensification Deuteronomy outlines a step-by-step escalation (crop failure → disease → defeat → siege → exile). Ezekiel shows the same threefold escalation (plague → sword → famine) compressed into one verse, indicating the culmination of that earlier warning. National Implications • The land promised for blessing (Genesis 12:7) becomes the stage for judgment (Deuteronomy 28:24; Ezekiel 6:5–7). • Covenant breach affects city, countryside, sanctuary, and soil alike (compare Deuteronomy 28:16–19 with Ezekiel 6:3–6). Personal Implications • Physical: disease, hunger, fear (Deuteronomy 28:22, 28; Ezekiel 6:12). • Social: family breakdown, siege horrors (Deuteronomy 28:53–57). • Spiritual: separation from God’s presence (Ezekiel 6:9-10; cf. Isaiah 59:2). Echoes in the Prophets • Leviticus 26:14-39—earlier covenant curses, mirrored in both passages. • Jeremiah 24:10—“sword, famine, and plague” triad repeated. • Revelation 6:8—end-times horseman authorized to kill “by sword, famine, plague.” Grace Even in Judgment • Deuteronomy 30:1-3 foresees return when hearts turn back. • Ezekiel 6:8-10 promises a remnant who will “loathe themselves for the evil they have done.” The curses are real and severe, yet always aimed at repentance and restoration (Hosea 6:1-2). |
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