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I went in bitterness - Being filled with indignation at the wickedness and obstinacy of my people, I went, determining to speak the word of God without disguise, and to reprove them sharply for their rebellion; and yet I was greatly distressed because of the heavy message which I was commanded to deliver.

Lifted me up - We are not to suppose that the prophet was miraculously transported from one place to another in the land of his captivity. Compare Matthew 4:1; Acts 8:39. He had been in an ecstatic vision Ezekiel 1:1, and now guided by the Spirit he goes forth among his countrymen.

The heat of my spirit - Full of the righteous indignation, which God inspired, against the sin which he was to denounce.

But the hand - and “the hand.” The Lord strengthened him for his mission.

This mission made the holy angels rejoice. All this was to convince Ezekiel, that the God who sent him had power to bear him out in his work. He was overwhelmed with grief for the sins and miseries of his people, and overpowered by the glory of the vision he had seen. And however retirement, meditation, and communion with God may be sweet, the servant of the Lord must prepare to serve his generation. The Lord told the prophet he had appointed him a watchman to the house of Israel. If we warn the wicked, we are not chargeable with their ruin. Though such passages refer to the national covenant made with Israel, they are equally to be applied to the final state of all men under every dispensation. We are not only to encourage and comfort those who appear to be righteous, but they are to be warned, for many have grown high-minded and secure, have fallen, and even died in their sins. Surely then the hearers of the gospel should desire warnings, and even reproofs.