Ezekiel 5 pronounces specific judgment against the city of Jerusalem. The LORD tells Ezekiel to cut his hair and beard with a sword and then to divide it into thirds. One third of the hair he is to burn in the midst of the city, another third he is to take around the city and cut with a sword, the final third he is to scatter to the wind. This is the way the city will be judged: one third will die of pestilence; one third will die by the sword, and one third will be scattered to the wind. The situation will be so bad that fathers will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. The LORD tells Ezekiel nothing like this will ever happen again, that is the extent of the judgment to come.
Ezekiel 6 pronounces judgment against the mountains and hills of Israel. Specifically, judgment is pronounced against the people for their worship of idols. The LORD compares Himself to a husband and the people have been “whoring” against Him with the idols of the other nations. Once again we’re told that people will die by famine, sword, and pestilence. But a remnant will remain, so they can remember what the LORD has said, and so they will one day return to worshiping Him.
Ezekiel 7 pronounces the judgment of the Day of the LORD, a day of wrath against the people. This is more of what have been pronounced in the previous chapters. The day is coming and the people in the fields will die by the sword, while the people in the city will die of famine and pestilence. Some will remain alive and will be witnesses of the fierce judgment of the LORD for the evil the people did against Him.
As we return to Matthew 17, we read the record of Jesus being transfigured with Moses and Elijah before Peter, James, and John. The event is recorded in similar fashion to that of Mark’s gospel, but in Matthew Jesus is more explicit about the significance of the event, that it is foreshadowing His crucifixion. He also tells them clearly that John the Baptist was the Elijah who was to come. After this the four of them return to the bottom of the mountain, where Jesus heals a demon-possessed boy, which the nine remaining disciples of Jesus couldn’t heal. The detail is limited, as Matthew tends not to be as explicit in showing the short-coming of the disciples as Mark is, perhaps because Mark was not one of them. In any case, Jesus simply tells the disciples this kind of demon can only be cast out through prayer and fasting. Following this Jesus announces once again that He was going to be killed, and the disciples were filled with grief. In Mark’s gospel, we’re told that following this announcement, they argued among themselves about who would be greatest. Finally, Jesus has Peter catch a fish that has a coin in its mouth that permits Peter to pay the Temple tax for Peter and Jesus. This is one more case of Jesus fulfilling all righteousness.