The descendants also are impudent and stubborn: I send you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD.’
God proceeds in the same discourse, but expresses in other words the great rebellion of the people, for they were not only obstinate and unbending in heart, but also of a contumacious countenance: therefore he places hardness in face as well as in heart.
The title here given to Ezekiel, as often afterwards, is very observable. God, when he speaks to him, calls him, Son of man (Eze 2:1, Eze 2:3), Son of Adam, Son of the earth. Daniel is once called so (Dan 8:17) and but once; the compellation is used to no other of the prophets but to Ezekiel all along. We may take it, 1. As a humble diminishing title.
Commenting on Ezekiel 2:1-5
For they are impudent children,.... "Hard of face" (w); as is commonly said of impudent persons, that they are brasen faced; they had a whore's forehead, and refused to be ashamed, and made their faces harder than a rock, Jer 3:3; they declared their sin as Sodam, and hid it not; they sinned openly, and could not blush at it: and stiffhearted; or, "strong of...