Ezekiel 18:5

5. If a man be just The just man, according to Ezekiel’s definition, is one who is faithful to God and is obedient to his written law (Ezekiel 18:6); he does that which is “lawful and right;” he is a pure man and a religious man. He is not only honest but merciful (Ezekiel 18:7), generous and true-hearted (Ezekiel 18:8-9), one who is true to God and kind to his brother. This is very similar to Micah’s “good man,” who must “do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with his God” (Micah 6:8) see also Job’s righteous man (31), Isaiah’s (Isaiah 58:5-7), and the Psalmist’s (15). With Ezekiel’s description of the just man it is also interesting to compare the “superior man” of Confucius and the “righteous man” of the Egyptians of Moses’s day. Chinese “justice” had to do wholly with this world, but the Egyptians, like the Hebrews, believed God was man’s neighbor, to whom he owed duties of honor and gratitude and worship. In the confession of every orthodox Egyptian occurs the expression, “I permitted no one to suffer hunger, I pressed forth no tear, I did harm to no man, I did not commit adultery, I was not unchaste, I was not a quarreler, I have told no lie,” etc. There occur also declarations of positive virtue: “I gave bread to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothing to the naked.” (See the author’s Ancient Egypt, p. 11, etc.) It has often been insinuated that Ezekiel considered obedience to the “law” as the whole duty of man. But while the injunctions here are almost certainly taken from the written law, for he uses the very word for law which is used in Deuteronomy 12:1 (see, for full discussion, Konig vs. Smend, Revue de l’Hist, des Rels., 1894); yet he does not identify justice with the mere formal and technical observance of those statutes and ordinances. (Compare Ezekiel 18:31.) The statement which he here very properly emphasizes a statement which marks a new era in religious thought is, that it is only through obedience that a man can become just. Ezekiel saw that what his auditors most needed was a humble obedience to God’s will and a reverence for the written Scriptures. It was no doubt to a people already scrupulous about obeying the letter of the law that Isaiah spoke, urging the more spiritual idea of justice (Isaiah 5:1; Isaiah 6:11; Isaiah 51:7; Isaiah 56:6-8; Isaiah 62:1-3). Ezekiel’s audience was not prepared for this highest teaching, but there is no good reason for believing that Ezekiel was not in full sympathy with Isaiah’s best thought.