The City Is Smitten (Ezekiel 33:1-33)

Lyrics · Ezekiel

The City Is Smitten

Ezekiel 33:1-33

[Call] The trumpet is mercy before it is sound, Turn, turn; why will ye die? The city is smitten, the runner declared, [Response] A watchman must warn when the sword comes around. The Judge takes no pleasure when the wicked fall. And the sealed mouth opened where silence had waited. [Verse 1] Past goodness cannot buy present revolt, Past evil need not hold the one who restores. They sat before Ezekiel and praised the song, [Call] Beautiful words, then they carried none home. A melody admired is not obedience done, [Response] A prophet is proven when fulfillment has come. The trumpet was mercy, the ruins replied, [Final Chorus] The city is smitten, the runner declared, And the sealed mouth opened where silence had waited. Hear with the feet, not the ears alone.

Named in this songEzekiel

About the passage

Ezekiel 33: The warning arrives, and Jerusalem has fallen

Ezekiel 33 returns to the watchman and makes responsibility painfully exact. Ezekiel must sound the warning he receives from the LORD, while the hearer remains responsible for what he does with it. The chapter then rejects two opposite evasions: despair that past wickedness makes turning useless, and confidence that past righteousness can excuse present wrongdoing. A fugitive finally arrives with the words, "The city is smitten," confirming Jerusalem's fall and marking a changed phase in the prophet's work. Survivors in the land misread Abraham as a numerical precedent for automatic inheritance, but their conduct contradicts the claim. The exiles present a different problem. They enjoy Ezekiel as though he were a lovely song, gathering eagerly to hear him while leaving their lives untouched by what they hear.

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