Ezekiel 14:12-23, Not Enough Righteous People

Strawberries are wonderful, unless you let them sit too long. They start getting moldy and mushy. It seems as if when one gets moldy it starts to spread to others, infecting all of them. At this point it just seems best to toss them all out. Yahweh is telling Ezekiel that this is the way it has become with Israel.

12 The word of Yahweh came to me: 13 “Son of man, if a country sins against me by being unfaithful and I stretch out my hand against it to cut off its food supply and send famine upon it and kill its people and their animals, 14 even if these three men—Noah, Daniel and Job—were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness, declares the Sovereign Yahweh.

When Yahweh told Abraham that He was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham requested that if there were ten righteous people in them to not destroy it. There weren’t even 10. God saved only Lot and his family from the destruction by pulling them out of that town. That is the condition of Israel.

Is Yahweh really talking about Daniel, the prophet, here? It is possible that Daniel’s fame has spread by this time, but not likely. The name here is not the normal way Daniel is spelled. It is Danel. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible makes a good case for this not being our Daniel:

The Biblical Noah and Job are paragons of virtue from eras long ago. They are not considered to be Israelites. Moreover, the spelling of Daniel here (dnl) differs from the Hebrew spelling of the prophet Daniel (dnyl) and is usually taken as a reference to another ancient Gentile of old — hence the aptness of comparing the king of Tyre to him (28:3).

In the Ugaritic texts, the father of the hero Aqhat is a king, Dan’el, who is described as the righteous ruler “who judges the cause of the widow and adjudicates the case of the fatherless.” This is a stock phrase that describes a righteous ruler par excellence. Dan’el is an upright man who prays to god and gives righteous judgment. The memory of an ancient righteous man named Dan’el is part of the common tradition in the ancient Near East. He has become an emblematic figure and we may see a reference to him here in Ezekiel.

The context favors such an understanding. The point of Ezekiel’s invectives is that Israel has become more wicked and worse than the nations and countries around her. In 5:6 – 7, Israel is accused of not even conforming to the standards of the nations around her. Even if the three noble Gentiles of old — Noah, Dan’el and Job — would intercede for Israel, they could not revert the judgment God ordained for the wayward and rebellious nation. Accepting a reference to Ugaritic Dan’el in this verse makes Ezekiel’s invective even more poignant and squares well with the rest of his message.

15 “Or if I send wild beasts through that country and they leave it childless and it becomes desolate so that no one can pass through it because of the beasts, 16 as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Yahweh, even if these three men were in it, they could not save their own sons or daughters. They alone would be saved, but the land would be desolate.

17 “Or if I bring a sword against that country and say, ‘Let the sword pass throughout the land,’ and I kill its people and their animals, 18 as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Yahweh, even if these three men were in it, they could not save their own sons or daughters. They alone would be saved.

19 “Or if I send a plague into that land and pour out my wrath on it through bloodshed, killing its people and their animals, 20 as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Yahweh, even if Noah, Daniel and Job were in it, they could save neither son nor daughter. They would save only themselves by their righteousness.

It doesn’t sit well with most of us to hear God speaking about killing people. But as He says in verse 23, He does nothing without cause. Israel’s sin has earned it destruction.

21 “For this is what the Sovereign Yahweh says: How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem my four dreadful judgments—sword and famine and wild beasts and plague—to kill its men and their animals! 22 Yet there will be some survivors—sons and daughters who will be brought out of it. They will come to you, and when you see their conduct and their actions, you will be consoled regarding the disaster I have brought on Jerusalem—every disaster I have brought on it. 23 You will be consoled when you see their conduct and their actions, for you will know that I have done nothing in it without cause, declares the Sovereign Yahweh.” (Ezekiel 14:12-23)

Ezekiel has already been concerned about there being no remnant of the people after God’s judgment with which to rebuild Israel. But Yahweh assures him that there will be. God will not fail to keep His covenant with His people. This is Paul’s argument in Romans 11 for the restoration of all Israel in the future to faith in Jesus.