//5 oopv^ 2. ■^-u Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library http://www.archive.org/details/bookofpropheteze131schr INl."/ COMMENTARY HOLY SCRIPTURES: CRITICAL, DOCTRINAL AND HOMILETICAL, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO :\IINISTERS AND STUDENTS. JOHN PETER LANGE, D.D. uc comfEOTioM wire a nuubeb or ebcinext ecbopean divines. TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN, AND EDITED, WITH ADDUrONS, ORIGINAL AND SELECTED PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D. m OONHEOnOS with AMERJOAN 6CUOLAB8 OF VAIUOL'3 EVANGELICAL DENOMlNATKWi. VOL. XUI. OF THE OLD TESTAMENT: CONTArNlNO EZEKIEL AND DANIEL. NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 1899 THE BOOK ■-^. OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. THEOLOGICALLY AXD HOMILETICALLY EXPOUNDED BT / FR. WILHELM JULIUS SCHRODER, B.D., LATE PASTOK OF THE REFORMED CHURCH AT ELBEBFELD. PBU8S1A. TRANSLATED, ENLARGED, AND EDITED BT PATRICK FAIRBAIRN, D.I\. LATV PaiNCtPAL OF THE FREE CHURCH COLLKOE, OU •::■:. 7?. AND Rev. WILLIAM FINDLAY, M.A., LARSHALL. SCOTLAND, • AIDED BT Rbt. THOMAS CRERAR, M.A., and Rev. SINCLAIR MANSON. M.A, NEW YORK : CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1899 Bstand according to Act of Congi^ss. in the jear irTfi, tj BCBIBNER, ARMSTRONG k CO. tfl ttae Office of the Librarian of CoDgrese at Washington. Trow's Printing and Bookbinding QXt 205-213 £ast 12th St., NEW YORK. PREFACE. The thirteenth volume of this work embiaces the Commentaries on the Prophetical Books of Ezekiel and Daniel. I. The Commentaiy on EzEKlEL was prepared ( 1873 ) by my friend, the Rev. F. W. J. ScHRuDER, Pastor of the First Eeformed Church at Hberfeld, a gentleman of thorouffh theologi- cal education, sound views, and great pulpit abilities. He intended to devote himself to an academic career, took the degree of B.D. (Lk. T7ieol.), in the University of Berlin, and began a Commentary on the Old Testament somewhat similar to that of Lanoe, issuing a volume on Genesis, which was well received. But when the celebrated Dr. F. W. KRTTMMAcnER removed from Elberfeld to Berlin (in 1847), Mr. Schrodeb, on his recommendation, was selected hia successor, and continued in this pastoral charge till his death, in February, 1876. He looked forward with great interest to the appearance of the English translation of his work, on which he spent much labor and care. The English edition was intrusted to the Rev. Dr. F.\iRB.\ra>?, of Glasgow, one of the fathers and founders of the Free Church of Scotland, and himself the author of a valuable Commentary on Ezekiel, as well as other well known theological works. ' His lamented death delayed the work. But he had associated with him his pupil and friend, the Rev. Wm. Findlay, M.A., of Larkhall Scotland, who, in connection with two other Scotch ministers, the Rev. Thomas Crerar, JI.A. of Cardross, and the Rev. SniCLAiR MansoN, M.A., Free Church College, Glasgow, complete^ the task. The translation has been executed as follows : Rev. Wm. Findlat, pp. 1-179. Rev. Thos. Crerar, 180-240. Rev. Dr. Fairbairn, 241-331, (close of chap. XXXIV). Rev. S. Manso.n, 331-492. * Dr. Patmck FA1RB.URN was bom in January, 1805, and died August 6. 1874. See the BioprapbicHl Sketch by Prof, DocGLiS. D.D. (his successor), in the " Monthly Record " of the Free Chnrch of Scotland, for Oct. 1, 1874, pp. 417-218. »nd the Memoir prefixed to Faibbaibn'b '• Pastornl Epistles," Edinburgh, 1S75. PREFACE. Many of the additions, which are numerous, have been extracted from Dr. FAiRBArRN's Com' meutary and from his manuscript notes. His forte lay in the development of principles and com- prehensive views rather than in critical notes and details. The chief additions are on the English literature of Ezekiel (p. 30), the vision of the Cherubim (pp. 52-54), the symbolical actions fpp. 77-78), the 390 days (p. 81), the abominations in the Temple (pp. 104r-106), Noah. Daniel and Job (p. 151), the marriage union of Jehovah and Israel (pp. 161-162), the Jewish Sabbath (p. 197), the Prince of Tyre (pp. 262-263), the Assyrian cedar (p. 284), the image of the Shepherd (p. 318), the d'vine promises in Chaps. XXXIV-XXXVII (pp. 353-353), Gog and Magog (pp. 372-373), and especially on the vision of the Temple (pp. 439^44). II. The Commentary on Daniel is the work of Prof. Zockler (1870), whom the readers of Lanqe already know as one of the largest and ablest contributors to the Old Testament part of this Commentary. The English edition of Daniel is the work of the Rev. Dr. Strong, of Drew Theological Seminary, aided by the Rev. 6. Miller, B.D., of Walpach Centre, N. J., who prepared the first draft of the translation. Dr. Strong has inserted the Biblical Text with its emendations and Critical Notes, and has made all the additions to the Commentary. The most extensive of these are the synoptical view of Daniel's prophecies, in tabular form, given in the Introduction, originally prepared by Dr. Strong for another work, and the excursus on the Seventy Weeks. Dr. Strong has everywhere added the interpretations of later or unnoticed Commentaries, espec- ially those of Dr. Keii, and Moses StujIRT. He differs from the German author with respect to the genuineness of certain parts of Chap. XI (vers. 5-39), and hopes he has fully vindicated the complete integrity of the text, as well as cleared up those difficulties which the author has confessedly left nnsolved. Dr. Zockler himself admits, in the Preface, that his doubts con- cerning Chap. XI. are purely subjective, (the supposed analogia visionis prophetica,) and that the external testimonies are all in favor of the integrity of the text. PHILIP SCHAFF. New Yoek, Oct., 18W. THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. INTRODUCTION. § 1. NAME OF THE PROPHET, AND FTS MEASmfG. In Hebrew, Jechedseqel ; according to the Greek translation, Jezeii-el ; in Sirach in GrecizeO form, Jezeki-elos, as Josephus also writes the name ; in Latin (Vulgate), Ezechi-el ; Luther, Heseki-el. '?Hpm'> is a compound either of hvi ptri' (Ewald) or of ^N pjn' (Gesenius). In the former case the meaning of the name, according to prevailing linguistic usage, would be the intransitive one : ^^ God is strong (firm)" (Hengstenberg : "or he in relation to whom God becomes strong ") ; in the other case the name of the prophet would mean : " God strengthens" i.e. " whom God makes firm (hardens) " (Baumgarten : " whose character is a personal confir- mation of the strengthening of God "). The verb pfn may be compared with inx'^'-' {'"X'';), "to he strong;" in its radical meaning it has a transitive character ("to straiten," "to press," "to make firm," "to fetter"). Hiller in the Onomastkon sacrum translates the name Ezekiel : Deus prxvahbit ; and a similar explanation is given by Witsius also (Treatise, De Pruphetis in i-apl. Bahy}., Miscell. s. i. 19, 6), J. H. Michaelis, and others. The names of the prophets have their providential element, so that they may produce the impression of emblems in word. What the character of the time is in the divine judgment and the special task of the prophet, his calling from God, and therefore also his comfort against men, appear to have found expression in the name. " Like all the names of the canonical prophets, the name of Ezekiel also is not such a name as he had borne from his youth, but an official name which he had assumed at the beginning of his calling" (Hengstenberg). When passages like chap. i. 3, iii. 14 in Ezekiel are quoted for the explanation of his name, we arrive at no further result than something like what may be said distinctively of the prophetic order in general, — this compulsion of the human spirit by the Spirit of God, as a result of superior divine power. The holy men of God were ([epofiifoi i/ird 'rrnvfiaTos aylou, 'J Pet. i. 21 ; God carried them along with Him (Ezek. iii. 14), proved Himself first of all in themselves to be the strong God. But while "the hand of Jehovah was upon him," and " was strong upon him," there is besides a distinctive, peculiar element in Ezekiel, as con- trasted e.f/. with Jeremiah (comp. his first appearance, Jer. i. 4-7, xx. 7), or even as in the case of Jonah. The interpretation of the name assumes a viore individual aspect only when passages like chap. iii. 8, 9 are also taken into consideration. Hard aijainsl hard (pTH) is accordingly the mission of our prophet, the counter-hard he is to be according to God's will. God stands fast to His purpose, alike as respects judgment and as respects salvation -. this is the stamp of the time according to God in the name of Ezekiel, the objective programme of his mission for those to whom he is sent, and let the heathen also know it. Ami for the accomplishment of such a task God strengthens him (the subjective side), i.e. iu conformity with his nature, which is, of course, of another type from that of his parallel Jeremiah (§§ 2, 4). Ezekiel has not the "tender heart" and "soft disposition." but is "an individuality already endowed by nature with admirable strength of mind " (Havernick). Where the man is iron, the divine preparation consists in this, that God makes hira .steel, hardens him, — lends to his natural power and energy the consecration of a sword vf God (Isaiah = Godl (is) salvation, God (is) gracious; Ezekiel = God (is) hard). i, EZEKIEL. Appendix. — " We may suppose that pious parents in those very corrupt times wished to testify their faith and to recommend it to their eliildren by bestowing on them names so significant: that God will support the pious with His might, and carry through the covenant of His grace with His strong hand " (Witsius). — " The name is borrowed from the invincible might of God and our Saviour, and our prophet was able to comfort and fortify himself against all temptations and difficulties in his office by the mere remembrance even of his name and its meaning" (J. H. Micliaelis). — "This prophet strengthened and fortified the souls of the Israelites, and on this account he was so named through Divine Providence from his birth ; i.e. he was to express the might and strength of God, which He would manifest in the future redemption. For the prophets' names were by no means given them at the will and pleasure of their parents, but they got such names from above, through Divine Provi- dence, as corresponded with their sphere of activity and their deeds " (Abarbanel). " God, the Strong, imparts power, gives strength and continuance. Thus might, power, strength from the hand which alone is strong; with human impotence nothing is ever done" (W. Neumann). — " Many explain the name of the prophet in this way : ' he who is strengthened by the Lord ; ' others in this way : ' he who holds fast to God ; ' and the man who will discharge his office with success must be strengthened by the Lord, for mere natural strength is too powerless to bear such a burden and to withstand the violence of the enemy. Let a man therefore hold fast to God, in order that he may overcome through the power of the Most High; let him do so with prayer, in order that his work may have a blessed result" (J. F. Starck). § 2. HIS POSITION AMONG " THE FOUR GREATER PROPHETS." As is well known, the acceptance of four so-called " greater prophets," including Daniel as such after Ezekiel, in Luther's translation of the Bible, rests on the precedent of the Vulgate, which in this had been anticipated by the Greek translation of the LXX. and also by Josephus, while the editions and Mss. of the Hebrew Bible reckon only three D'Tnj — Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel — and place Daniel among the D'3in3- If the designation of the " greater " prophets has a mere outward reference to the size of their books which have come down to us, a deeper instinct has combined the three, and then also added the fourth. We have here the fourfold Old Testament gospel. Tiie fact that in the Talmud, as in German and French codices (comp. W. Neumann on Jeremiah, pp. 10 sqq), Jeremiah is the first, and Ezekiel and Isaiah follow him, — of which Kimchi gives this as the explanation : " As the books of Kings (being those which precede) close with the devastation, and the whole of Jeremiah is occupied with the devastation, and as Ezekiel on the other hand ends with comfort, and Isaiah is wholly comfort," the Talmudists had joined "devastation with devastation, and comfort with comfort," — gives no help indeed to a deeper understanding of the connection, but we see, although this order of succession differs from the Rabbinical one of the Masoretic text, in the one case as in the other a prophetic triad, and that consisting of the same persons. The one arrangement is pre- dominantly according to contents, the other is chronological. The Caln-er Handbuch thus expresses itself: " Ezekiel forms with Isaiah and Jeremiah a glorious triad. WhUe Isaiah exhibits the servant of God marching along in exalted greatness, and Jeremiah exhibits him gently admonishing, silently suffering, Ezekiel is the one who, in the first place, breaking in pieces the hard hearts with the hammer of the law, represents the strict inexorable judge, but thereafter, pouring soothing balm into the open wounds, approves himself as the healing physician. Faith, love, hope, would be a suitable inscription over these three prophetic books also." Whether, then, we make the ascent from Isaiah with the Rabbins, or to Isaiah with the Talmudists, in either arrangement Ezekiel has Jeremiah as a neighbour ; and consequently for his position in the triad this juxtaposition, which is also otherwise confirmed (§ 3), is fii-st of all to be noticed. What Jeremiah's policy of the kingdom of God is in its melancholy way, in presence of the temple and while still in the holy city, that same is the choleric^ Ezekiel, far from the sanctuary among those already carried away. " Humble yourselve* therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in His time," — so runs the preaching of both, this is their harmonious note; thus an announcement ol judgment, of the full measure of punishment ; just as Calvin says, that " God has made Jeremiah and Ezekiel ' The Ezekiel of Michael Angelo on the roof of the Sistine Chapel is correctly described by H. Grimm in his Life of Michael Angela, "with the upper part of the body eagerly bent forward, the right hand stretched out in tlie act of demonstration, holding in the left an unrolled parchment ; it ii M if one saw the thoughts chasing one another in his mind." INTRODUCTION. the instromeDts of arraigning the Jews as guilty, and of lioWing up before them the sentence of condemnation." * But if Kzekiel is parallel with Jeremiah, he may also further, likr him, be made to approach Isaiah. In a theological point of view, Christ is certainly ahnve all and the beginning of the way of God with sinners, God's will and purpose from eternity. The " sali'ation of Jehovah," therefore, takes the lead among the prophets also, and Imiah haa his place before Jeremiah. Historically, on the other hand, Christ appears as the end of the law • where sin abounded, grace did much more abound ; and out of the curse on Israel came the blessing to all nations. This is, ax far as the law w concerned, the historical transition, and in fact that from Ezelciel to Isaiah. For, as is included in the meaning of the name Ezekiel, not merely does the judgment stand fast, but the salvation likewise stands fast through God. " As Isaiah has the calling to bring the word of Jehovah to Israel at the time when the necessity of the judgment of the captivity to be suspended over them had publicly manifested itself, and as Jeremiah discharged the prophetic oflSce when this great and fearful turn of affaire burst forth upon the city of Jerusalem and the house of David, so Ezekiel has the prophetic calling to introduce pereonally the stiff-necked house of Israel into their thou.sand years' school of trial — into the wilderness of the heathen" (Baumgarten). ("As Isaiah proclaims the wrath of God in words of thimder, and Jeremiah wails in deep plaintive tones, 30 Ezekiel spreads out a multitude of splendid pictures, like banners, under which the scattered people are again to gather and comfort themselves, above all the picture of the ideal temple. With Isaiah, power of intellect predominates ; with Jeremiah, depth of feeling ; with Ezekiel, fancy." Wolfg. Menzel.) If, finally, we add to the position of our prophet in the triad with respect to Jeremiah and with respect to Isaiah his position with re.'pect to Daniel, the fourth and additional greater prophet, then we have again a parallelism. The parallel of Ezekiel with Jeremiah has reference to their labours inwardly among L,eartB even certain hours of severe temptation, when they might be on the verge of despair. AVhat inference, then, may thence be drawn with respect to the rest — the large, more or less (J.jphly-minded mass of those carried captive with Jehoiachin ! They were the children of their ^^(.hers in disposition also (comp. Ezek. ii. 3 ff., iii. 7 ff.) ; the foolish imaginations of those "^ dwelling in Palestine were to them thoroughly congenial, they dreamt similar dreams, the iflusive power of Egypt had currency with them also ; and false prophets and soothsayers, .■(bo corresponded with the anti-Jeremian party at Jerusalem, found only too much acceptance ^1 their midst (Jer. xxix. 8 sqq., 21 sqq. ; Ezek. xiii.). Ezekiel's labours during this period, during t)iQ first seven years of his prophetic ottice, among those carried captive with Jehoiachin, which are delineated for us more specially in accordance with such circumstances and these inner conditions of the exiles so far as regards their spiritual historical background, accom- panied, supported, — as we have said, completed and confirmed the labours of Jeremiah, who jp his part, as Jer. xxix. shows, by his word extended his influence to the exiles also, {j 4. The fall of Jerusalem increased the community of the exile by means of the still more extensive deportation which was decreed for Judah in consequence of this occurrence (Ezek. xxxiii. 31 sqq.). What had hitherto upheld the pride and the frivolity of the majority of the nation, had now come to the ground ; the stern reality had followed the hope of which they dreamed ; the overweening trust in human help had received a deadly blow. That in the case of many great despondency took the place of great defiance; that with the hope, according to which they dreamed of the future, and according to which they gladly allowed the false prophets to prophesy of it, all hope of every kind disappeared, and that no trust in the Lord won a place for itself, was natural, was in accorilance with human nature. Those carried captive with Zedekiah were on the whole desperate, determined men. They were also later of coming into the school of the exile, where this had already been able to exercise a wholesome influence upon their predecessors. Although need and misery in themselves are just as capable of making men worse as of making them better, yet we must take into consideration for the result, whether the one or the other, a rougher state of mind or one more prepared by divine grace. Those who brought along with them from home into the strange land the sympathy for heathenish ways, would the less resist apostasy and a complete passing over into heathenism, where they found themselves in the midst of the heathen world, the mo^e easily they could in this way avoid mockery and contempt on the part of the heathen, and «pend a happier, more pleasant life. The 137th Psalm disavows even in the remembrance every weakening of the Jewish patriotic feeling, of the home-sickness for Jerusalem ; yet how many a one, especially in so tolerable a condition as existed outwardly during the exile, was fixed 10 EZEKIEL. down by that plot of ground which he purchased, and whose produce made hiia comfortable perhaps much more so than he was before in Palestine ! For an influential bearing on the world also (the original divine destination of the Jewish character for the world's salvation), through preparatory training for its commerce, for enriching business transactions throughout tlie whole world, the circumstances of the exile, especially after the destruction of Jerusalem, may have had their influence. Meanwhile there lay as a burden upon the pious portion of the exiies the whole pressure not merely of the misery of the strange land, far from the land oi their fathers, which was in fact the pledge of all God's promises, so that for them the exile embodied the question, and made it a standing one: Where is now thy God? but. inasmuch as now that which had been announced from Moses onwards through the prophets had really occurred, there was in addition the much heavier burden on their conscience, that they beheld themselves under a judgment of God, under a punishment long enough held back — that they ' were suffering from no mere vicissitude of political misfortune. If, in weighing the misfortune of the children and the guilt of the fathers, the righteousness of Jehovah was to be held up, and the way of earnest conversion before self-righteous misconception as before frivolous mockery (corap. ch. xviii.), so, where in the present instance the feeliug of guilt on the part of afflicted consciences broke down all courage, and a divine sadness wrestled with despair under the wrath of God, comfort and the promise of salvation above and beyond all misery had their authorized place. If, therefore, -.p to the fall of Jerusalem, in order to confirm Jeremiah, the work of our prophet had been chiefly a preaching of repentance, not of course without thought of salvation, of forbearance and deliverance (e.g. ch. vi. 8 sqq., ix. 4 sqq.). —after the destruction of the city and the temple the activity of Ezekiel manifests itself pre- dominantly in the announcement of salvation, although on the ground of the preceding call to that conversion which alone saves, and along with the repetition of the same. Comp. ch xxxiii. xxxiv. § 5. CONTENTS AND DIVISION OF THE BOOK. 1. The work of our prophet, the picture of his prophetic life,— and this is most truly bia life-picture,— is furnished us first of all by the contents of his book, according to Umbreit's description, " a.s in a prophetic diary carried on by himself." " Where the work of the prophets was par excellence a spiritual one, consisting in the preaching of the word, there the communication and preservation of this word is itself the portraiture of their activity, in very deed their prophetic biography. The latter is the case with Ezekiel" (Hiivernick). The very first three chapters give us a glimpse as into a programme. Still more as regards the object of the vision in ch. i., with which the book opens, than as regards the divine com- mission in ch. ii. and iii., the prophet appears to us at the very beginning as he will be up to the end in the peculiarity of his prophetic work according to the divine appointment. This is tiot merely that he is to be a prophet in the exile, which is the only thing Calvin makes pro- minent, but rather that he has to represent the glory of Jehovah in the exile. This is the key to his prophetic labours in their strictest individuality. As regards the divine commission to the prophet in ch. ii. and iii., what stands opposed on man's part to the carrying out of the same, partly outside (ch. ii. 3 sqq.), partly in himself (ch. ii. 8 sqq.), just as what is said with respect to the equipment of Ezekiel on God's part (ch. iii. 4 sqq.), is immediately connected with what is very similar in the case of Jeremiah (see the exposition). Oh. iv. and v., however, change the scene entirely to the (§ 4) foresaid parallelism of Ezelciel and Jeremiah, which we found significant as regards the first labours of our prophet: from a fourfold (ch. iv. 1-3, 4 sqq., 9 sqq., v. 1 sqq.) .■symbolical representation of the im- pending/a^f of Jerusalem and its inhabitants, the accompanying interpretation of the symbols leads to two almost Jeremian discourses of rebuke against Judah, ch. vi. and vii. What was already made prominent in these discourses of rebuke as guilt, the idolatrous apostasy from Jehovah, is represented with the plastic art of heathen worship and a liturgical vividness— ft?/ the vi.non of the abominations in the temple (ch. viii.), in which from the first the "image of jealousy" and the glory of Jehovah (ch. i.) confront each other (ch. viii. 3, 4), and this latter (ch. ix. 3 sqq.) causes the judgment to be carried out inexorably on the guilty, especially on the city (ch. x.). As the 11th chapter, in which the vision closes, once more, and through a striking case of IXTRODUCTIOX. li death, brings into prominence the leafler.i of the people (the demagogues), so the i-ytnbolical transaction in ch. xii. singles out the lot of the king at Jerusalem, so that with the " bread" and "water" a termination is reached in the meantime of the misery which is to come upon the land and its inhabitants. The only thing remaining is, that the prophet should announce the execution of the punishment as being one that is near, ver. 21 sqq. The circumstance that his repeated (vers. 21 sqq., 26 sqq ) previous announcement of the nearness of the judgment takes the shape in ch. xiii. of a discourse against the false prophets and prophetesses, cannot (according to ch. xii. 24) lie outside the context, and the explanation come to with the idolatrous seekers after oracles in ch. xiv. easily fits into it ; the elders of the people who are guilty of such consultation are just sitting before the prophet, and the guilt, essentially similar to their own. oi faithless Jerusalem (ver. 12 sqq.) justifies to their consciences the righteousness of the punishment in the one case as in the other, just as such justification will also take place through the remnant from Jerusalem (vers. 22, 23), who will come to be seen by them. But after Jerusalem has been depicted in ch. xv. as a vine tree fir the burning, especially after she has been depicted in detail as a lewd adulteress in ch. xvi., — idolatry in that case being adultery and lewdness. — and after the riddle u-ith respect to th' royal house of David in ch. xvii. is followed by the thorough statement of the divire rigldeousnesf in ch. xviii., and lastly by the lamentation in ch. xix. over the perishing kingdom of Israel, ch. XX. merely contains in adtlition a surve;/ of the objective as well as subjective guidance of the people from of old, for the purpose in ch. xxi. of setting forth with the most living distinct- ness the express announcement of the nearness of the judgment (conip. ver. 12), and then alike the punishment nnil (with equal sharpness) the guilt — Jerusalem's in jmrticiilar, and Juilah's ana TsraeCs in common — are portrayed in ch. xxii. and xxiii. In ch. xxiv. the predicted nearness of the judgment is a fid of such a kind, that the prophet must for liinisi-lf write down the d;iy, that the fact of the death of his wife fumishei* the mournful illustration, .and that the prophet does nut uovf any longer speak, but is silent respecting Jerusalem. But during this silence respecting Israel the prophetic word goes forth with loud voice against those without,' such as Animon (comp. ch. xxi. 33 sqq.) and Moah, Edam, the Philistines (ch. XXV.), then Tyi-us and Sidon (ch. xxvi.-xxviii.), and lastly Egypt (ch. xxix.-xxxii.). There is no passing, as in the case of Paul, from the synagogue to the heathen. Neither is it the joy with Zion's joy. but the joy in Zion's suffering, that forms the point of departure. They are therefore predictions o! judgment ; the doicnfall of Jerusalem determines the colour anil tone of these chapters, which appear like an appemlix to what goes before. The judgment begins at the house of God, yet it will not spare the rest of the world. And here the predominating element as regards the carrying out of the judgment and the foreign nations that are named is the connection with j\eliucliadnez:nr, just as on the other hand the more intimate historical relation to Jerusalem down to the last days if Judah. (As to the chronology, see § 6. and the introductory observations to ch. xxv.-xxxii.) These predictions rightly form the transition to the predominantly comforting labours or Ezekiel after the destruction of Jerusalem. For the ever repeated closing statement as the judgments are announced, "and ye shall,"' or "thou shalt," or "they shall know that I am the Lord" (comp. ch. xxv. h, 7, 11), necessarily contaiaed for the exiles the consolation, that the malicious delight in Judah's misery (ch. xxv. 3, C, xxvi. 2) is not to issue in contempt for Judah "s God also (ch. xxv. 8, xxviii. 2, 0, 22. .xxix. 3, 9). but that their Judge will rather seat Himself in judgment on their false heathen friends also, especially on Egypt (ch. xxix. C. 7, 16), If Jehovah made Himself known in such a way to the heathen, then the j.idgments over tliem and their gods, with whom Israel had sinned, to whom they had looked up in trust or in despair, removed at the same time many a stone out of that path which the peojile had to tread for their salvation. But with their conversion to the only true God — that was the path — the former more negative consolation arising from those judgments on the heathen nations grew into a very positive one for the people of Jehovah. As already, in the previous announcements of Judah's punishment (comp. ch. vi. 9, xi. 16 sqq., xvi. 60 sqq., xvii. 22 sqq., ' A similar juxtaposition of predictions rcspectinij the heathen is found both in Jeremiah (ch. xlvi-U., at the close) and in Isaiah (ch. xiii. -xxiii.). Comp. Delitzsch, Comm. on Isaiah, p. 204 sqq. [CLirk's Trans.]. In Isaiali, as in Ezekiel, it is a provisional temporary silence; in Jeremiah, one that is final respecting Israel. EZEKIEL. XX. iO sq(i.), prii.ipecl.t of salvation are opened up, so the closing note of the prediction of judg- ment on Sidon (ch. xxviii. 25 sqq.), on Egypt (ch. xxix. 21), is express consolation for tht exiles. Now what comes in tlie shape of consolation, as being salvation for the people of God. cannot in the end be accomplished without blessing for the heathen world, in which and for which Israel is placed from the beginning as a mediator of salvation. The judgments on one and another and another of the heathen nations are consummated, of course, in the additional judgment on the heathen world-power antagonistic to the kingdom of God ; yet the salvation of the Jews comes to be for the good of the human race. The recovery of the consciousnes? of her peculiar spiritual calling as a nation must be the highest, the/«Z/ consolation for Israel, to whom alike her own judgment and that on the heathen shaped themselves into a process of purification for her divine world-task. The silence of Ezekiel (ch. xxiv.) had been accordingly, as the predictions with respect to the other nations have informed us, not merely for judgment on Israel, but at the same time a icaitiiig for the promise of God with respect to His people, and that /rom among the heathen also. Conip. ch. xlvii. 1 sqq., 22, 23. As the prophet is now entering again on his labours among the children of his people, it is thus suitable that in ch. xxxiii. he again becomes conscious of his prophetic mission from God,' when this h.is to take effect in face of the fact now accomplished and in view of the present situation. The promise of ch. xxxiv. starts therefore from the shepherds of Israel, under whom the sheep have been scattered ; in their stead the Lord Jehovah will interest Himself in the flock, and, when it is again gathered, will make His servant David the one shepherd amid blessings which have as their aim mankind generally. And as the bad shepherds furnish the occasion for the restoration of the Head, so we have for that of the mtmbers Edom as a nation (ch. XXXV.), in contrast with which ch. xxxvi. celebrates the mountains of Israel and the sanctification of the name of Jehovah in His people (ver. i3 sqq.), to which prospect so rich in promise a temporary conclusion is furnished in ch. xxxvii. by the vision of the resurrection and quickening of the dead bones, as well as by the symbolical action with the one slick out of the two sticks (ver. 15 sqq.), which is intended to signify the reuniting of Israel with Judah under the One King David. The bearing toward what is without, the world-position of the people of God in this con- nection, as following upon their inward restoration (which has hitherto been the object of promise), is brought into view by ch. xxxviii. and xxxix. against Gog of Magog. In this symbolical and typical representation of the powers hostile to the kingdom of God, the glory of the Lord will be perfected alike in the consuming judgment toward Gog, and in glorifying mercy toward Israel. The close of the book (ch. xl.-xlviii.) is devoted to the prophetic portrayal of the divine glory in the glory of His kingdom; the temple and its service (ch. xl.-xlvi.), the holy land and the holy city "Jehovah Shammah" (ch. xlvii. and xlviii.), furnish the types consecrated from of old for the purpose. 2. The statement of the contents which we have thus attempted, as it has at the same time shown the profound inner connection, the carrying out of the all-dominating idea of the glory of Jehovah, is still further confirmed by the division of the book. The collection of visions, emblematical actions and facts, of discourses and predictions, of which it is composed, is divided, alike by the downfall of Jerusalem and by the silence of the prophet with respect to his own people, into the two principal parts: (1) Ch. i.-xxiv. : The Prophecy of Judgment ; (2) Ch. xxxiii.-xlviii. : The Prophecy of the Merciis of God toward His people in the world.^ A third transition-section is formed by ch. xxv.-xxxii. : announcements of judgment on the seven heathen nations, i.e. cities. ^ Especially when the symbolical representation (ch. ii. 8-iii. 3) of this mission and of the divine charge to the prophet from the outset made the taste of sweetness follow after the lamentation and woe. * By these two principal parts of the book is Josephus {Antiq. x. 5. 1) perhaps to be explained, who, in speaking of Jeremiah, says further: "But it is not he alone that predicted such things to the people beforehand, but the prophet Ezekiel also, who wfH^H wi^t nvrm Kt ^ifi>.i» >{(oriCO-material element — is that afforded by the inner substance, a method by which we shall have to look at the fundamental idea oj' the glory of Jehorah manifesting itself in judameiit and pitying grace. SUBDIVISION OF THE PRINCIPAL PARTS. A. First Principal Part: Ch. i.-xxiv. The Prophecy of Judgment. * I. The Divine Mission of Ezekiel: ch. i.-iii. 11. 1. The Vision of the Glory of Jehovah, ch. i. 2. The Divine Commission to the Prophet, ch. ii. 1-iii. 11. ri. The First Execution of the Divine Commission: ch. iii. 12-vii 37. 1. The Installation and Instructions, ch. iii. 12-27. 2. The Four Signs and their Interpretation, ch. iv. 1-v. 17. & The Two Discourses of Rebuke, ch. vi. and viL 14 EZEKIEL. III. The Subsequent Execution of Divine Commissions: ch. viii.-xxiT. 1. The Vision, ch. viii.-xi. (1) Of the Abominations in the Temple, ch. viii. (2) Of the Judgment on the GuOty, ch. ix. (3) In particular of the Coals of Fire on the City, ch. z. (4) Of the Leaders of the People, ch. xi. 2. The Signs, ch. xii. 1-20. (1) The Sign of the Departure of the King, ch. xii. 1-16. (2) The Sign of Bread and Water, ch. xii. 17-20. 3. The Near Execution of the Punishment, ch. xii. 21-xxiv. 27. (1) The repeated Preliminary Announcement, ch. xii. 21-28. (2) The Discourse against the False Prophets and Prophetesses, ch. zin. (3) The Testimony against the Idolatrous Seekers after Oracles, ch. xiv (4) The Parable of. the Vine Tree for the Burning, ch. xv. (5) The Story of the Lewd Adulteress, ch. xvi. (6) The Riddle about the Royal House of David, ch. xvii. (7) The Laws of the Divine Punitive Righteousness, ch. xviiL (8) The Lamentation over the Kings of Israel, ch. xix. (9) The Survey of the Leading of the People from of old, ch. zx. (10) The Approaching Judgment, ch. xxi. (11) The Conviction of the Ripeness for Judgment: a. as well of Jerusalem in particular, ch. xxii. b. as of Judah and Israel collectively, ch. xxiii. (12) The Marking down of the Event that is taking place, the Discourse in Signs, aai the Virtual Sign (the Silence of Ezekiel), ch. xxiv. A — B. Ch. xxv.-xxxii. The Transition from the Prophecy of Judgment to the Prophecy of Mercy by means of (hi Predictions against I. 1. Ammon, -> 2. Moab, I ^. 3. Edom, f ^^- ^"• 4. The PhUistines, J II. 1. Tyrus, cIl xxvi. 1-xxviii. 19. • 2. Sidon, ch. xxviii. 20-26. III. Egypt, ch. xxix.-xxxii. B. Second Principal Pabt : Ch. xxxiii.-ilviii. The Prophecy of the Mercies of God toward His People in the World. I. TTie Renewal of the Diurne Mission of Ezekiel, ch. xxxiii. 1. His office of Watchman in itself, ch. xxxiii. 1-20. 2. The same in view of the Event that has taken place (the re-opening of the mouth of Ezekiel), and in face of the state of affairs as well as of hearts, ch. xxSriii. 21-33. II. The Divine Promises. 1. Against the Shepherds of Israel of the Shepherd Mercy of Jehovah toward His Fleck. and of His Servant David, ch. xxxiv. 2. Against Edom with respect to the Mountains of Israel in consequence of the Self- aanctification of the Name of Jehovah, ch. xxxv. and xxxvi. S. (1) In the Vision of the Resurrection and Requickening of the Dead Bones, ch zxzrii. 1-14. INTKODUCTION. lo (2) By means of the Symbolical Action with the One Stick out of the Two Sticks along with the Interpretation, ch. xxxvii. 15-28. 4 Against Gog of Magog for the Glorification of Jehovah in the W^orld «h. xxxviii and xxxix. 5. In the Vision of Glory. (1) Of the Temple and its Services, ch. xl.-xlvi. (2) Of the Holy Land and of the Holy City, ch. xlvii. and zlviii. § 6. CHRONOLOGICAL SKETCH ACCORDING TO THE DATES IN THE BOOK. Day. MoDth. Year of the Captivity of KiDf; Jefaoiachln. Chapibes. 5 4 5 Ch. i.-vii. 1 5 G 6 viii.-xix. 10 5 7 xx.-xxiii. 10 10 9 xxiv. XXV. ? 12 10 10 xxix. 1-16, XXX. 1, 19.? 1 1 11 xxvi.-xxviii. 7 1 11 XXX. 20-26. 1 3 11 xxxi. 5 10 12 xxxiii. (ch.xxxiv -xxxix. ?) 1 12 12 xxxii. 1-16. 15 12 12 xxxii. 17-32. 10 1 25 xl.-xlviii. 1 1 27 xxix. 17-21. It is clear from this chronological sketch, so far as dates in the book make it possible, that Beveral of the predictions of judgment on the heathen encroach on the second principal part of the book. As the prophecy of the divine mercy begins on the ground of the renewed call to conversion, and with repeated earnest accusation of Israel (ch. xxxiii. xxxiv. xxxvi.), sc; tne promises of God for His people are accompanied by the tone of judgment on the hostile world-powers, their judgment and downfall — comp. ch. xxxv. xxxviii. xxxix. — as contrast, background, as well as necessary transition to the glorification of the Lord in His kingdom ■ and so there belong also to this class the predictions, ch. xxxii. 1-16, 17-32, ch. xxix. 17-21, XXX. 1-19, which thus occupy in the transition section (A — B) a preparatory place. It is likewise clear from the above table, that many a question will have to be answered just by the detailed exposition of the passages referred to, and perhaps only in accordance with probability. § 7. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF EZEKIEL'S PROPHECY. J. Gorres says, in the second volume of his History of the Myths of the Asiatic World (p. 477), of our prophet: "Like a flame from heaven, Ezekiel blazes up darkly glowing, a great strong nature, his imagination a furnace of seething metal, genuinely oriental in his whole character." Giving prominence to more than the mere natural peculiarity of Ezekiel, Hengstenberg draws the picture in his C hristoloijy : "A spiritual Samson, who with strong arm grasped the pillars of the idol temple and dashed it to the ground ; a powerful gigantic nature, which by that very circumstance was fitted effectively to combat the Babylonian spirit of the age, which was fond of powerful, gigantic, grotesque forms, standing alone, but equal to a hundred trained in the schools of the prophets." We may begin the discussion of the characteristics, as Ezekiel's book of prophecies exhibits them, by pointing back to the interpretation of his name (§ 1). His prophetic peculiarity ana /6 EZEKIEL. manner of representation is reflected first of all in general, and that throughout, in hii name. Comp, also § 2.' Then, in particular, above other things, emphasis must be laid on the priestly stamp which the prophecy of Ezekiel bears. If Keil {Bibl. Comm. p. 9) appears to have his diflRculties in this respect, he is certainly right as against the opposite views brought forward by him ; but this predominantly "symbolical and allegorical dress," which is "carried out into the most minute details," as it belongs to Ezekiel above "all other prophets," could with difficulty ic tlie case of a Jew be better obtained than in the Levitical service, than in the temple at Jerusalem, than by means of a priestly education and training, — in short, in a priestly-Levitical way. A Levite lived in the Mosaic worship, a priest lived in the midst of symbolism and allegory ; he became accustomed to it (especially if he brought along with him a mind suited for it, and possessed the sanctified imagination of Ezukiel) from his surroundings, from his whole actings, as it were involuntarily as his prevailing mode of expression. Thus " lie the elements," as Keil, following Havernick, remarks, for the vision at the very commencement (ch. i.), "in tlie enthronement of Jehovah above the cherubim on the lid of the ark of the covenant," consequently in what was of necessity the crowning-point of a priest's life and of priestly contemplation, according to Lev. xvi. As the glory of Jehovah is the ruling element in the whole book, its priestly keynote is thus sufficiently indicated : but the closing chapters, with the prophetic description of the new temple, etc., completely reveal the priest-prophet, and are only to be explained from a genuine priestly fancy.^ A further characteristic of the methoil of Ezekiel's prophecy is a lofly ideality, a high figurativeness leaving far behind it the usual forms of existence, side hy side on the other hand with a severe realism, encountering sensunlism sensually. Both elements in their contiasts, in theii conflict with one another, give to the prophetic form of Ezekiel an eminently original vivacity. His sojourn in exile may be looked upon as contributing to this in a twofold respect : in the first place, in so far as our prophet was thereby withdrawn from the proper scene of events ; and in the second place, inasmuch as he was at the same time placed in the midst of the Babylonian world. If Jeremiah is himself present on the scene of events, is every instant enduring his part in the vicissitude of actual occurrences, has to interfere in the circumstances lyuig immediately before Iiini, and if therefore he led a more stirring outward life, his style corresponds tliere- with — -that of more popular prophetic discourse ; his whole activity takes its complexion from the particular actual occurrence. Ezekiel, on the other hand, far as he was from Judea, standing face to face with the hnaginings of the exiles (whatever inner connection these f Diced with the fatherland), amid the most diverse rumours, dispositions, and feelings, was pointed to the divine communication hy means of revelation. It is therefore only fitting if he ' " Above all others, the prophet is distinguished by an uncommon power and energy. Ezekiel is one of the most imposing organs of the Spirit of God in the Old Covenant, a really gigantic phenomenon. In opposition to the present, he steps forth with all sternness and iron consistency, an inflexible nature, encountering the abomination with an immoveable spirit of boldness, with words full of consuming fire. Unceasingly he holds tip the one thing that was needful before the deaf ears and hard hearts of the people. The overpowering element of his eloquence rests on this union in it alike of imposing strength and indefatigable consistency." — (Havernick, Comment, p. xiv.) ■ Ewald asserts that in this last great section of his book Ezekiel "begins already to look on what the people regard as sacred and the priesthood of Israel with that timidity and externality which becomes ever more prevalent after his time," and sees therein "just a consequence of the one-sided literary conception of antiquity according to mere books and traditions, as well as of the depression of intellect increased by the longer duration of the exile and bondage of the people." The exposition will as decidedly reject the alleged "timidity and externality," as Havernick rightly points to this, what " a high spirit " rather, " which, looking away from all the pains and sufiferings of the present, lives in tne future and the reconstruction of the kingdom of God with fresh enthusiasm, meets us just in th« second part of Ezekiel." If, however, the detailed character of tlie description were to make the im- pression of " externality," then this is a peculiarity of the prophet in the very first chapter of his book, and characterizes his popular addresses no less than his visions. One may look upon this at the same time as the later literary style ; but the manner of Ezekiel is once for aU to take a penetrating view o< his subject on all sides, as he himself wholly lives and moves therein, and to exhaust it as far at possible. The more tranquil outward (public) life of Ezekiel, as compared with Jeremiah, is therefor* not yet the " learned " " literary leisure " which Ewald makes it out to be. * In thii as in many other respects, Ezekiel may be compared with Tertullian. INTRODUCTION. 17 looks at things as from afar, thus from the divine idea of Jehovah's self-accomplishing glury. His activity thus ideallij conditioned concerns itself with the certain fact cliiefly accoidmij to lis essence, in its necessity and character of fact as such. On the height, it is not so much the ever-recurring gust of wind, the whirhng dust, the falling of the heavy raindrops, and anou the first flash of lightning, the rolling of the first thunder, that affects us ; it is especially the existence of the thunder-cloud coming from afar that has the power to engross our attention. In the distance from where the event actually occurs as an isolated phenomenon, the prophetic life will be for the most part internal, — a contemplative, ideal one ; instead of the separate occurrences, by means of which the fact is accomplished on its theatre, tliere will meet ua here, according to individuality and surroundings, as well as (in the case of a prophet) ever under the special divine impulse (in vision), the separate forms of representation, by means of which the contemplative spirit seeks to put in shape for itself and others the ruling idea 0} the whole. Hence, to make of Ezekiel a recluse and pedant, — to fancy him, as Ewald does, " a mere literary man confined to his own house aud the narrow Umits of domestic hfe" {The Prophels of the Old Covenant, ii. p. 210), — will appear to a believer in an extraordinary diviue revelation to be an idea which may be mentioned because of its singularity, not refuted. Only on the standpoint of rationalistic or naturalistic materialism, where one makes the prophets at his own hand (comp. another passage at p. 203), are such conceptions aud representations at home. The high position of Ezekiel in God's fixed purpose — the more so that he has his abode far from the sinking fatlierlaud, among his fellow-captives by the Chebar — explains, in connection with his poetic gift (acknowledged even by Ewald), sufficiently the lofty ideality of his prophetic mode of representation.' As to what has been maintained on the other side with respect to the "influence of the Babylonian spirit and taste on the form of his prophecy," viz. in reference to his symbolism, we must agree with Keil in the view, that the admission "of Old Testament ideas and views," alike for the contents and for the form, in general is sufficient (comp. the work referred to, p. 6 sqq.) ; on the other hand, as respects the filing up of the picture in detail, the exposition may indeed specify many an Assyro-Babylouian feature. Thus ch. xl. sqq., with their architectural Jinish and picturesqueness of detail, transport us in a lively way into the midst of the immense architectural labours of Nebuchadnezzar, by means of which, when returned home from his victories, he transformed his metropolis Baliylou mto the finest 2 city of the world, not merely adorning and enlarging it, but fortifying it quite as much, just as, in like manner, in order to preserve the original territory of the kingdom, the land of Shinar, aud the capital, from the Medes, he caused the so-called Median wall to be carried across from the Euphrates to the Tigris. The late Professor Henj;stenberg said to me long ago, in course of a conversation about the last chapters of Ezekiel, the prophet must certainly have had a " knowledge of building," just as, e.g., Riggenbach's treatise also on the tabernacle betrays such knowledge. At all events, the probability is as great of there being a natural substratum for the detailed restoration of the divine visions at the close of his book in what the priest of Judah in Babylonian exile, by means of Nebuchad- nezzar's ■' immense buildings in city and country, was able to appropriate from what he saw ' "The flame of the divine wrath, the mighty rushing of the Spirit of the Lord, the holy majesty o Jehovah, as the seer has beheld it, is wonderfully reproduced in his discourse " (Havernick). • For this we have the ocular testimony (thoroughly confirmed by lately discovered inscriptions) of Herodotus, who visited Babylon in course of the fifth century before our era. The city had tlie form of a rectangle (comp. Ezek. xlviii. 30 sqq.). Herodotus describes the wall 200 feet high with its 100 gates (comp. also Ezek. xl. xlii. ), with posts and thresholds of massive bronze. The deep and swiftly flowing Euphrates (comp. Ezek. xlvii. ) intersected Babylon, discharging itself into the Ei-y thrasan Sea. The outer wall served as a work of defence. In the midst of the one half of the city was the royal palace, with large, strongly fortified enclosure ; in the midst of the other half of the city was the sanctuary of Bel with its brazen gates (comp. ch. xlviii 21 sqq.). Herodotui' description of Babylon reads like a parallel to Ezek. xl. -xlviii. (The circumference of Babylon, as the great outer wall deter- mined it, was, according to the measurements of Oppert, the topographer of the old Chaldean city, sevec times that of modem Paris ; the inner and more contracted wall embraced still a much larger area thac London.) "In symbolical effect," says Lange on one occasion, "human cultiure becomes a picture ol iU\ine worship." ' Nebuchadnezzar as a builder outstripped all his predecessors (Fr. Lenormant, Manuel, ii. 17 sqq). He rebuilt almost entirely the royal city of the old Cushite rulers, lying on the eastern bank of th« Euphrates ; a gigantic new palace rose there at his command, recognizable eren at the present day ia B 18 EZEKIEL. and understood in this connection. Nay rather, in contrast with the buildings of Neliuchad- nezzar, the buildinrj of Jehovah rises up in Ezekiel as the architectural antithesis of the kingdom of God to the kingdoms of this world, as these latter are symbolized and typified by tiie world-empire of Nebuchadnezzar. In this way, face to face with " the dominion of the world- powers," as Auberlen designates the stadium of the Babylonian captivity '■ in the history of the development of the kingdom of God," a significant memento was set up. Oui- view is, that the impression which the melting and expenditure of brass and of gold necessary for the gigautic buildings of Nebuchadnezzar, and the innumerable brick kilns, were fitted to make, is to be met with in comparisons such as Ezek. i. 4, 7, 13, 27, viii. 2, x. 2, xxii. 20, 22, etc. But especially the designedly sensual realism ' of the representation, of the singular mode of expression in chapters like ch. xvi. and xxiii., seems to have borrowed its colouring from the so notorious gross sensuality of the Babylonian idolatry, in which the most unbridled, most shameless naturalism prevailed. Thus Herodotus relates of the temple of Bel, that in the chapel in the uppermost tower "there is a bed quite prepared," and tliat "no one spends the night in it but a woman of the land whom the god appoints." Bilitta, or Mylitta, the great goddess of nature, who combined the contrasted qualities of the heavenly and the popular Venus, Tauth and Zarpanit, demanded usually of every woman of the laud once in her life her prostitution to a stranger as an offering. So Nana or Zarpanit, worshipped at Kutha, bore the surname of Succoth-Benoth, which likewise points to such prostitutions in honour of the goddess. Comp. the apocryphal epistle of Jeremiah, vers. 42, 43. the hill of rubbish Kasr, one of the largest. An artificial hill was the site of the celebrated ' ' hanging gardens," which were intended to represent to his Median consort Amytis her beautiful fatherland ; terraces rising step by step one above the other, an " Isola Bella" on land, according to Oppert the great rubbish-deposit of Amram. Of the "temple of the foundations of the earth," called also Bit Saggiitii ("the temple which raises its head"), that very ancient terraced pyramid of the royal city, with the alleged tomb of the god Bel-Merodach and an esteemed oracle, Nebuchadnezzar says in an inscription : " Bit Saggatu is the great temple of heaven and earth, the dweUing of the lord of the gods, Merodach. I have restored his sanctuary, the seat of the supreme authority, overlaying it with pure gold." A second terraced pyramid was erected by him beside it as a temple for the goddess Zarpanit. On the side of the "secular city" (Uallat) on the west bank of the Euphrates, now HUlah, where the captives from the different countries and Jews also were settled, Nebuchadnezzar restored the tower of Babel, and built therein the great temple of Bel, called Bit-Zida, and " the temple of the seveij heavenly spheres." An inscription discovered some years ago, and translated, calls it "the terrace- tower, the everlasting house, the temple of the seven lights of the earth (planets), to which the oldest mention of Borsippa (i.e. ' the tower of the languages') is attached, which the first king built, but was not able to finish ; men had forsaken it since the days of the flood, expressing their words in confusion. The earthquake and the thunder had shaken the crude brick, and had split the burnt brick of the facing ; the crude brick of the foundation- walls had sunk down into hillocks. " Herodotus also gives a description of this building restored as a temple. General Rawlinson has pointed out that the seven storeys with the sanctuary of the god above were painted as with the colours of the seven heavenly bodies ; the succession of colours represented at the same time the succession of the days of the week. The cuneiform inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar enumerate other temples besides, which he restored or erected anew, and likewise in the other cities of Chaldea. Those of Kai also, on the Euphrates at Babylon, were finished by him ; but just as he cared for " the city of his kingdom " (so he calls it in his inscriptions), so in like manner he cared for the remaining portions of his land : he restored the cele- brated royal canal (Naharwalkor), and below Sippara he caused an immense lake to be dug for the purpose of ii-rigation. It is certainly to be conceded that such activity in building on the part of Nebuchadnezzar will somehow be reflected in the prophetic form of Ezekiel, whose labours were carried on in presence of it. "As the symbolism and appUcation of simiUtudes, images, and proverbs is in general only a means to an end, that of illustrating the truths to be brought forward, and of strengthening by means of illus- tration the effect of the word and the discourse, so the like end is also served by the detail and circum- stantiality of the representation, and even by the repetition of thoughts and expressions under new points of view. The people to whom Ezekiel had to preach repentance by the announcement of divine judgment and salvation were a rebeUious race, of brazen face and hardened heart. If he wished to exercise towards these faithfully and conscientiously the oflice of watchman committed to him by thu Lord, he must both rebuke the sins of the people with strong words and in drastic fashion, and portray the terrors of the judgment vividly before their eyes, and also set forth in a way that would strike the senses that salvation which was to spring up thereafter for the penitent."— Keil. "Est atrox, •ehemens, tragicus, totus in Iumwv, in sensibus elatus, fervidus, acerbus, indignabundus. In eo genere, *d quod unice videtur a natura comparatus, niminun vi, impetu, pondere, granditate, nemo ex omci icriptonun numero eum unquam aequavit." — LowrH. INTRODUCTION. 19 From the circumstance that our prophet was placed in the midst of the Babylonian world, yet another peculiarity characterizing him and his book is explained, viz. his surprismyls accurate knowledge of foreign nations and their affairs (comp. ch. xxvi. sqq., xxxviii., xxxix.). In this respect he makes the impression of a man who has travelled much and far. Naturally, Ewald finds in this a confirmation of his strange view of Ezekiel sittii.g over his books, of tlie " literary and learned man " at the expense of the genuine prophet.i It is true : " the position and circumstances of the nations and countries of the earth are described by him with a com- prehensiveness and a historical vividness such as belongs to no other prophet." But for tbia there was no need in the kingdom of Babylon of any far-fetched "learning ;" it was enough, with an actual interest and the necessary mental endowments, — which even the mastery of hit materials possessed by Ezekiel sufficiently shows,— if there were simply open eyes and ears, for Babylon was one of the centres of eastern commerce (Ezek. xvii. 4, xvi. 29), as its geographical position, where Higher and Lower Asia meet, between two great rivers, which placed it in connection with the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, amply justifies, and as may also be shown in other ways. At this market-place so situated, the caravans of the east and west came together, and the mariners of Africa, Arabia, and India met one another. Here they obtained by barter the products of Babylonian industry, which was employed, down even tc the villages, e.g. in woollen and linen weaving, in the manufacture of garments and carpets. Babylonian weapons, furniture, jewellery, and other fancy goods were articles not less desired. On the other hand, there came to Babylon wines from Armenia, precious stones and large dogs from India, as also the finest woollen stuffs from Persia, perfumes, spices, gold, ivory, and ebony from Arabia and Ethiopia. In the city of Babylon the great world-roads con- verged (comp. Lenormant, p. 35 sqq.). In addition, a powerful uavy ; Babylonian ships sailed over the Persian Gulf. According to Strabo, there were factories and colonies of Babylonians in distant lands. One sees that the Babylonian exile had a similar task to that of the sojourn of the people in Egypt in former days ; it was only a more advanced secular school for the Jews. If now we must specify vision and symbolism as being, to a considerable extent, the charac- teristic of Ezekiel's prophecy, there is thus expressed a departure from the previous fundamental form of prophecy, viz. inspired popular discourse (which is the peculiarity e.g. of Isaiah, and also of Jeremiah even), and an approach to Daniel's peculiarity. What steps more into the background with Isaiah, Jeremiah, and other prophets (Isa. vi. ; Jer. xxiv.), begins to be more prominent in Ezekiel, although " the word of Jehovah " also comes to him repeatedly along with it.'' The lower form of dream is not found in our prophet; but divine revelation comes to him in a waking state, in the higher form of vision (Ezek. i., viii. sqq., xl. sqq.) ; and just as in the dream plastic symbolism is the rule, so symbolic representation, figurative and allegorical discourse, parabolic speech, the enigmatic is the seer's mode of expression in word as in action (Ezek. i., xv., xvii., iii., iv., v., etc.). Hess : " One might call it pantomimic." The more that God is unveiled before the prophet, in so much the more veiled a way does he shape his reproduction of what he has seen for the profane multitude. (Comp. in this connection the phenomena in the case of one who has risen from the dead. Auberlen quotes also Matt, xiii. 10 sqq.') Only when Ezekiel is to be at the same time an expositor, and he is so almost throughout (ch. i. 28, iv. 3, 18 sqq., xvii.),— it is in this way the transition is made in his case to the plain word, to the prophetic popular discourse,— do logical thought and con- ceptions again make their appearance. That being in the Spirit (Kev. i. 10, iv. 2), as distin- guished from this speaking in the Spirit, is the apocalyptic element of Ezekiel. He testifies of ' And yet Ewald concedes, and in words copiously recognises (pp. 204-206), a public ministry of Ezekiel, and that with "clearest consciousness of his being a genuine prophet," and "more plainly expressed than in the case of any earlier prophet." • "We find in the prophet partly a purely didactive mode of discourse tranquilly unfolding itself, gimilar to what is to be found in the older prophets, ch. xii-xix. The etyle is then the usual one of prophetic rhetoric," etc. (Hav.). ' "That mode of representation, because it introduces us immediately to the inner world of the prophetic spirit, has a mysterious, ofttimes obscure and enigmatic character. The prophet loves this rr-ode of speech so much the more, when it rouses attention and inquiry, and the more impressively a word of such a kind touches men's hearts. Jerome designates our book as : scripturarum oceanum e* mysteriorum Dei labjTinthum" (Hav.). Perhaps, for the idea of Theosophy (comp. the article of Lauge in Henog xvi.), the Old Testament point of connection may be got from EzekieL M) EZEKIEL. it fpjra the beginning (ch. i. 1) : that " the heavens were opened," and " he saw visions uf God." (C"mp. the profound reinarlis of Auberlen on the three fornjs of Old Testament revelation, Theophany, Prophecy, Apocalypse, in his Daniel and lievelalion, p. 70 sqq.') We shall also in the case of Ezeliiel be able to speak of "n lonk that is all-embracing,'' according to Auberlen the one peculiarity of apocalypse, just as we shall meet in our prophet with the other peculiarity remarked by him, " specialty of prediction," that apocalypse " gives more of the detail of universal history and more eschatological detail than prophecy," not exactly in the way in which it occurs in Daniel, but yet in similar fashion. Haveriiick says , '■Rightly did Witsius call the donum prophetix of our prophet incomparabile. True indeed, he grasps the future more in its general features, — the most comprehensive possible torm of the kingdom of God as a whole, — but along with that there are not wanting also remarkable gUmpses into the detail of the future, predictions strictly so called, on which by means of their exact fulfilment the seal of truth and of divine enlightenment on the part of the prophet is impressed, ch. xxvi. sqq., xii. 12 sqq., xxiv. ; comp. ch. xxxiii." (ch. xi. lU ; comp. with Jer. Hi. 10). Year, month, and day are given us ; it is the prophet's coi;scious intention to remove every suspicion of a vaticinii post evtntum. But apart from these definite predictions, the general sensuousness, the complete visibility oj the prophetic form oJ tCzekiel is the suitable counterpart of the Chaldean world which so cauyht the eye, and amid which Israel is in a state of dread ; and still more was it, on the other hand, adapted for the comfortless despondency and almost despair of those banished thither, from whom everything visible, which had been to them a pledge of the divine favour,— land, and city, and temple, and the beautiful ordinances of divine worship, — seemed to have vanished for ever, to comfort them against the whole aspect of things visible with something visible from God, and as it n-ere palpably heavenly. For this purpose there lies a security from God in the appearance of Ezekiel, a sacramental character, one might say, to which, equally with the most definite predictions, a number of formulas recurring through the whole book contribute, such as. "and they shall know that I am Jehovah," or, "they shall know that a prophet is in their midst," " and the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying," " the hand of Jehovah came upon me," or the like, " as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah," "I, Jehovah, have said it," etc. ("Thus saith Jehovah the Lord" occurs, according to KJiefoth's reckoning, 121 times.) To perceive in such formulas (as Ewald does) " as it were an encouraging of them- selves on the part of the fainting prophetic order," or even the boastful, stupid weakness of old aL'C, is to misunderstand the intentional emphasizing of the divine origin and contents, which Ezekiel claims for his announcements. Not less does our prophet over and over again emphasize the divine commission, the divine impulse, to speak this, to do this or that (ch. vi. 1, .\iii. 2, 17, xvi. 2, xvii. 2, xxxv. 2, xxxvi. 1, xxxviii. 2, iii. 1 sqq., iv. 4 sqq., xii. 1 sqq., xxi. 24 sqq., etc.). This is the more suitable in confronting his doubting, unbelieving, and rebellious hearers, especially for the opening apocalypse, where, in the case of the visions and symbols, mere human imagination might very greatly deceive itself and impose upon others. But Ezekiel is from the first set by Jehovah to speak and to execute the words of Him who thus commissioned him, and of Him only ; his whole book is the fulfilment, and nothing more, of the symbolic procedure in ch. ii. 8 sqq. In connection with this we must also understand the standing address of God to the prophet "son of man," viz. of one who of himself would be quite incapable of such communications, flesh of flesh, man of man ! As regards the close connection of Ezekiel with the Pentateuch, Keil is perfectly right ia asserting that he has this "in common with all the prophets." "Along with his immediate predecessor Jeremiah, he is distinguished in this respect from the earher prophets by the fact that the verbal references in both become more frequent and appear more prominent, which ia ' To this category belongs also the significant occurrence of the number seven : thus, seven times prophecy about Egypt (ch. xxix. sqq.); and so, seven nations against whom judgment is predicted (ch. XXV. sqq. ), by means of an intentional separation of Tyre and Sidon. Klief oth has shown that, even OS respects the whole book, according to the formula, " and the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying," it consists of 7 x 7 words of God : "an arrangement according to the nimiber seven," says he, " which we find in the book of Zechariah and in the Apocalypse, carried out in a different fashion ; for what these prophets predict will be fulfilled and accomplished, like God's work of creation, in seven days.* Comp. besides, on Apocalypse and Prophecy, Lange on Genesis, p. 36. INTRODUCTION. 2i accounted for chiefly by tlie circumstance, that tlie apostasy from the law had become so great, in consequence of whic^h the judgments already threatened in the Pentateuch were falling upon them," etc. Ewald says that Ezekiel " makes use of the Pentateuch .is a matter of pure learning" and certainly without genuine "prophetic originality and independence;" but the complete proof to the contrary is already furnished by his mode of understanding — which is not only sensible, but a result of his being filled with the Holy Ghost — this very ceremonial law in an eschatological or Christologica,! respect. In reference to the moral law, we may compare, as against Ewald, ch. xviii., for example, of which chapter Umbreit remarks that it " brings out in the most splendid manner the ethical character of our priestly prophet." " If one sees in the ceremonial law narrow and narrowing forms, crippling our mental freedom, then certainly the entering on the same, as Ezekiel does, itself appears as a narrow-mindedness. But the law has a higher significance for the prophet ; and with how free a step intellectually — with all his attachment, fidelity, love to the same — he enters on the subject, is shown by the deeper apprehension of the ideas which are enstamped on the ordinances of the law and of the spiritual import of the legal forms, so that, as the very section ch. xl. sqq. shows, he stands in a relation of nowise slavish dependence on the law, but has clearly recognised its ex.act significance for the perio« wiU mean : as is due, m due measure, or : of right. The LXX. give their support to this meaning, and it suits admirably in the New Testament passages in question. The foresaid mystery is that discussed in Rom. ix. sqq. , which is spoken of to the Ephesians also, namely : that Christ hath made in Bivuelf of Jews and Gentiles, these two, one new man (Eph. ii. 15), so that all believers from among Jeies as well as Gentiles are one in ChriM (Gal. iii. 28), Jsniel after the Spint, the Israel of God (GaL vi. 16). This mystery we ought to know well, in order that we may not in our self-sufficiency forget, thai hardening has happened to the nation of Isrrael accord- ing to desert, of right, which judgment of hardening endures unto the end, until the fulness of the Gentile ntUi^Mi be come in, namely, in Israel's place as a nation, «.J ««r« (ver. 26), i.e. and so (but not : and then), in this way all Israel shall be saved. That is to say : when the silently and continuiOly growing temple of God shaU be built up to the last stone (Eph. ii. 21), in this way shall all Israel, i.e. all that belong «o it in truth (Rom. ix. 6), in this way shall all the children of the promise attain to salvation, which would be the inxCrfmc m xtfinnnan, the full salvation (Eph. L 14), the ioiixW'.s t». vii. ni lui (Rom. viii. 19). And with this agrees also the Pauline application of the quotation from Isa. lix. 20, viz. not for Zion (ii'V^) Sept. i««i. ai,, but U 2ii. ; thus (rf»), when the salvation comes from the Jews to the Gentiles. Comp. Doctrinal Reflections on Deut. xxx. (Lange's Com.). INTRODUCTION. 2S Extremely iTiteresting is the view of Ezekiel, to which the unkuown painter of the lotelv rediscovered noteworthy wall-paintings in the remarkable double church of the 12th century, at Sohwai-z-Rheindorf, opposite Bonn, has given expression. (Comp. SiMOXs, Die Doppel- kirche :u Scliwarz-RheiniJur/; KuGLER, Handtiuch der Kunstfjenchichte, ii. 3 Aufl. pp. 96, 180 sqq. ; Rheiidaiu/s Buudeiikmale des Mittelallers, 7 Heft.) Formerly a collegiate church, it 'eft free for the canonesses, whose places were in the upper chapel, the look (through a round opening, with balustrade) at the high altar in the lower church area. From this lower church the wall-paintings taken from the book of Ezekiel rise up, closing with a representation from the Revelation of John, above the altar of the upper church. These lower wall-paintings after Ezekiel place together, e.y. the vision of Ezekiel in ch. i., and the transfiguration of Christ ; the manifold abominations in the temple (Ezek. viii. sqq.), and the expulsion of the buyers and sel:ers by the Saviour; and opposite one another Ezekiel's visions of judgment, and the final self-judgment of Israel by the crucifixion of the Messiah. What Kugler (following Hohe) mistakenly interprets as the figtire of " a saint," is the Apostle Paul, marked out as such by his long Roman garment and his youthful form (Acts vii. 58), as well as by the threefold halo (2 Cor. xii. l', •' up to the third heaven "), to whom, on the other side, corresponds Peter, as he who has the keys of the Church upon earth, the temple of Ezekiel. The whole, down to the minutest details, is a spirited exegesis of our prophet, in the style of the middle ages. §11. 1. BabbinicaL — R.\sCHi, as he is usually called, R. Salomon ben Isaaki, incorrectly named " Jarchi," Latin by Breithaupt, Commen(ariiis Htbr. in proph. majores, etc. ; Lai. vers. ed. J. Fr. Breilhaupl, 4, Gotha 1713. — David Kimchi (" Radak," according to Jewish abbreviation) in BuxTOiiF's Rabhinical Bilile. — Isaac Abarbanel, Amsterdam edition, 1641, fol. — Salomon BEN Melech (called " Michlal Jophi "), edition in fol., with Abend.uia's additions, Amster- dam, 1685. — Of more recent Jeivish expositions, L. Philippson, hraelitiscke Bibel, 2 Ausg., Leipzig 1858, ii. Theil, was used. 2. Patristic. — Origen, Homilix XIV. in Ezechielem, ix.'Kayxi us to* li^tKiiih. — Gregory Nazianzen, Annnlalio de quatuor apud Ezechielem animalibus. — Theodoret, '^pfirmtici r^s ^po^VTilas Tou hiou lil^iKiii'K. — Jekome, Explanaliones in Ezech., lib. XI V. — Origen, Homilig XXVIII in propliettis Jerem. et Ezech. — Gregory the Great, Homilix in Ezech. proph. 3. Later, embracing Bomish, Befonned, Lutheran. — Ruab.vnus Maurus, Commentary in his Opera, Cologne edit. 1627, fol. — Rupert von Dehtz, in his Commeutarius de operibus sanclx Iriuitatis, and on the Gospel of Matthew, sub titulo: De gloria et honure Jilii hominis, Cologne edit, of his works. — C. Sanctius, In Ezech. et Dan., 1612, 1619. — Maldonatus, Comment, in priec. .i. scr. libr. V. T., Paris 1643, fol. — CoRKELIUS A Lapide, Comment, in (imnes, scr. s. libr., last edit., Venice 1730. — Calmet, Comment., lit. sur tons les liures de I'ancien et da nouv. Test., Latin by Mansi, Wiirzburg 1792, Part X. — HiER. Pradus, Comment, in Ezech., and Villalpandus, In Ezech. expl. et app. urb., etc., Rome 1696-1604. — Die Propheten Ezechiel und Daniel als Fortsetzung des V, BEENTANO'scAen. A. T. von. Deresep- Frankf. a M. 1810. Calvin, Prielectiuves in Ezech. proph. viginta capita priora, Amsterdam edit.; see Collective Works, 1667, in the 4th volume. — LuDOV. LaVATEB, Homilix feu commentarii in libr. v. pmphetiam Ezech., Zurich 1571 (Preface by Beza to Coligny). — Oecolampadius, Comment, in Ezech., Basle 1543, fol. — Conr. Pellicanus, Comment in libr. V. et N. Test., Zurich 1532 sqq., 4th volume. — John Piscator, Analysis, .scholia, el oh.iervationes in onmes V. et N. T. libr., Herboru 1605 sqq. — Piscator's Biblework, 4, Herborn 1603, Part 4. — Polanus, Comment, in Ezech., Basle 1607. — Tossani's Bible, Minden 1716, fol. — The Critici Sacri, torn, iv., pars 1, in which we have : Sebastian Munster, Franciscus Vatablls, Seb.\stian Castalio, Isidorus Clarius, JoH. Drusius, Hugo Grotius, and Ludovici Capelli excerpta ex Villalpando ad cap. 40-42 et 46 Ezechielis. — Poole, Synopsis criticorum, vol. iii. — CocCElus in his Opera omnia, vol. iii. — ■ Venema, LectUmes academ. ad Ezech. usque ad cap. 21. — Clericus, In prophetas, etc., Amsterdam 1731, fol. — Henry, Exposition of the Old and New T. — W. Newcome, An Attempt towards a?i Improved Version, a Metrical Arrangement, and an Explanation on the Prophet Ezekiel, Dublin 1788. — Greenhill, Exposition of the Prophecy of Ezekiel. Luther, Auslegung etlicher Kapitel des Ezechiel und Daniel. — Victor Strigel, Ezechiel pr ad Ifebr., sqq., Leipsic 1697. — Nik. Selneccer, Auslegung Ezechiels lutein, und deutsch. — Luc. Osianiter, Biblia Lai., etc., Tiibingen 1688, fol. — Abr. Calovius, Biblia illustr. q. etiam 80 EZEKIEL. txliihmt (/ i-cimnt nnnot. H. Grntii, Frankf. 1072, fol. — Joach. Lange, Prnphetischex Licht una Recht, Halle 1732.— J. H. Michaelis in his Hebrew Bible with Annotations. — Die TUbiiiger Bihel. ed. Pkaff, 1729, fol. — Siimmarien (so-called Wurtemberg), oiler gruniiliche Ansteg. S. 3 Aufi., fol., Leipzig 1721. — JoH. Fn. Stakck, Commtnt. in proph. Ezech., Frankfort 1731. — JoH. Gf.(irg Starke, Synopsis, etc.. Part 5, Leipzig 1747. — Joh. David Michaelis, Ueb. cles A. T. mil Anmerkungen fiir Ungdehrle. The 10th part, which contains Ezekiel and Daniel, Gbttingen 1781. — Teller, Das englische Bibelwerk. — Moldenhauer, Uehers. und Erkl. d. h. BB d. A. T, Quedlinburg 1744.— Hezel, Die Bibel mil Anm., Leingo 1780.— J. Ch. F. Schulze, Scholia in V. T. (G. L. Bauer), Nurnberg 1783-97. — Dathe, Proph. majores, ed. 2, Halle 1785. — Vollborth, Ezechiel iibers. mil Anm., Gottingen 17 87 .— Berltburger Bibel, 3 Theil, 1730. 4. More recent. — J. G. Eichhorn, Die hebr. Propheten, 1 Band, Gbttingen 1816. — DiNTER, SchulUhrer-Bibel, 4 Theil, Neustadt 1828. — RosESMijLLER, Scholia in Ezech., ed. 2, I82G, 2 Parts, and the same in comp. red., 1833. — Maurer, Comm. gram. crit. in V. T., Part 2d, Leipsic 1836. — Umbreit, Prakt. Comm. iiber d. Proph. Ezech., Hamburg 1843. — Havernick, Comm. iibcr den Proph. Ezech., Erlangen 1843. — Richter, Erkl. Haiishibd, in the 4th vol. p. 523 sqq., Barmen 1837.— V. Geklach (Schmieder), Bibelwerk, 4 Bd. 1 Abth. — Heisi und Hoff.maxn", Die 4 gro.TTOf . . w; 6pxth. read.; biTWI- Ver. 18. . . . aiil et »VT9t ut/Toin . . . x. liw airet, « ci vmroi — Ver. 20. Oi «> ti> >) .iji>,i i«ii t« rtiv/xa rm triputrdtu (flS?? 'nOC 13?' "^ wanting in some MSS. The Greek and Syrlac translators and the Targ. (?) omit n377 niin). Ver. 22. Sept., Vulg , Syr, Chald., Arab, read nVriH. Ver. 23. ... Oct VTtpvytc m/rait 'txrtTxiu4*xi, itTtpvcrafjUveu irtpiK Ttj irtfiat, ixcLTTm ive ffvit^tvyfuixit — ( ntj* CK?1 j^2P|p '20 ^''^ wan'ing in some MSS.. Vulg , Sept., and Arab.) Ver. 24. . . . b^KTO; T6k/.ev, on f>ni^* ixxiw . . . ^wv?) Tou Xe>«i is fann r9pt/J^9\fi( . Ver. 25. tn'SJD 'in D1DV3 »■■« "'""'ing in some MSS., in Sept.?, Syr, and Arab. Ver. 27. . . . *; opxnv trvpes sfffc-di* at^rew xuxkar — EXEGETICAL KEMAKKS. Vers. 1-3 a preface, which contains irilro- ductory matter in general — specially to the risiov tohich immediately follows, what is most neces- sary respecting the time, person, place, and subject-matter on hand. This latter, the subject- matter, is "visions of God" in the plural, which are separated by means of the expression: "and I saw, and, behold" (vers. 4, 15), properly into two visions only, vers. 4-14, and 15-2S ; but it will commend itself to treat vers. 22-28 as a sepa- rate conclusion completing both visions. Vers. 1-3. — Pre/cue, Introductory. Ver. 1. "And it came to pass. " — The imperf. with 1 coDseeut. , as usual without Dagesh forte, indicating a continuation, an advance, connection with something going before, begins, as often elsewhere, so also here the book of Ezekiel. .Since there is no real connection, as in the case of Exodus, Ezra, a connection in thought is to be assumed, as in the case of Ruth, Esther. The chronology, still more the inner relationship vcomp. the Introduction, §§ 2, 3, 4), suggests a >onncction with Jeremiah. Hengsteuberg, while he lays stress upon the similar commencements, by which Joshua is connected with the Penta- teuch, the book of Judges with Joshua, the books of Samuel and also Ruth with the book of Judges, understands, besides a special connection of Ezekiel with Jeremiah (whose letter (Jer. xxi.K.), directed shortly before to the exiles, formed aa it were the programme lor the labours of our prophet), in general (as in the case of the book of Esther) Ike incorporation (represented by nuch a commencement) «» a chain of sacred books, a con- nection with a preceding sacied literature. In a more definite way Athanasius brought int: connection with this the passage in Josephus (Antiq. X.) — comp. lutrod. § 5 — aud made out that the one book of Ezekiel, with which the present one is he7-e cwinected by means of i, had gone amissing through the negligence of the Jews. Pjadus cites Augustine (on Ps. iv. ) and Gregory the Great in support of a view according to which this i is intended to connect the outward word of the prophet with what he had heard inwardly, with the inward vision (Corn, a Lapide : "What he had formerly seen in his spirit or heard from God he connects by means of ' and ' with something else which he saw and heard thereafter, and which he now relates "). Very many expositors have been quite content with a pleonastic Hebrew idiom, and with chang- ing the sense of the future into that of the preterite. (According to Keil, appealing to Ewald (Ausf. Lehrb. § 231, b), it is merely "something annexed to a circle of what is finished — a circle already mentioned, or assumed as known.") — In the thirtieth year, etc. Where tin divine legitimation of Ezekiel for his labo'US SI EZEKIEL. jbout to be described, and at the same time for his literary labours — this book of his — is to be shown, ami where accordingly the prophet speaks of himself in the first person, going on im- mediately to say: "as I," so that 'JNl in such close juxtaposition with njC D'CPK'S looks like the usual phrase DJB' D'tJ^C p, there it ought to appear as simple as it is natural to think, with Origen and Gregory, of the thirtieth year of Ezekiel's life. There was no necessity whatever for Heugstenberg (comp. Introd. § 3) to urge the signiticauce "as respects the man of priestly family." The appointment of the tliirtieth year in Num. iv. , with a view to "the carrying of the sanctuary during the journey througli the wilder- ness— a work requiring the full vigour of man- hood, " cannot in actual fact be applied to Ezekiel ; and we must then in a figurative way compare his prophetic labours in exile, especially his preaihing of the glory of the Lord, and the circumstance that through Ezekiel's exercise of the prophetic office the Lord became to the exiles as a sanctuary in the captivity (eh. xi. 16), witli that carrying of the tabernacle during the time of the wilderness. For "theological exposition," of course, "the entrauce on ofiioe of the Baptist and of Christ after completing tlieir thirtieth year" may be kept in view. The indefiniteness of the statement of time, "in the thirtieth year," is not greater than the indefiniteness with respect tothe person; "as I." As the latter indefiniteness is removed in ver. 3 by the mention of the name, etc., so (according to Kliefoth, and also Keil) the corresponding addition : in the fourth month, on the jij'th day, by the repetition in ver. 2 of the fifth of the month, viz. the fifth day of the fore- mentioned fourth month, is brought into con- nection witli the objectivity of the "fifth year from the canning away captive of king Jeho- iachin, " and in this way relieved of all want of clearness, while at the same time expressly separated from the date : " in the thirtieth year, ' just as this latter itself is so much the more evidently left to its simplest, natural accepta- tion of the thirtieth year of the prophet's life. If then ver. 2 afterwards supplies the period according to wliich Ezekiel adjusts his first, sub- jective date, the supposition of another so-called "publicly cuiTent era" is superfluous, apart from the fact, that no such era has hitherto been pointed out. Recourse has been had (1) to a Jeimsh era, and (2) to a Babylonian one. (1.) Thus Hitzig adheres to the opinion of many Jewish expositors, that the reference is to the thirtieth year /rom a jubilee^ (comp. on ch. xl. 1), but combats what is yet so necessary, the more exact definition, e.g., of Raschi, that in this way the reckoning is from the eighteenth year of king Josiah, important on account of the finding of the book of the law, etc. (2 Kings xxii. sqq. ; 2 Chron. xxxiv. sqq.); while Havernick declares this reckoning (already that of the Chaldee Paraphrast, Jerome, Grotius, and also Ideler) "the only tenable one," as also that which is "alone suited to the context;" "that with the '.aat period of prosperity there stands contrasted 1 The Jews reckon the jubilee year from the fourteenth fear after ttie taking posxesston of the land of Canaan, and place the dealruction of Jerusalem in the thiity-jsixth year 3f the Jubilee: so that the fifth year of Jehoiacbia's cap- tMty as tbe tblrtletta of the Jubilee. the last period of misfortune (under Jehoiachin): the numbers are prophetically significant state- ments, pointing to the weighty circumstance of the prophet's making his appearance in a memor- able, fatal time." We must therefore assume a ' ' priestly " mode of reckoning. Calvin lays stress upon the Greek analogy of Olympiads, as well as the Roman one of reckoning according to con- sulates, and in favour of the jubilee under Josiah brings forward the peculiarly solemn passnver- feast at that time. (2.) For accepting a Babv- lonian era one might urge the sojourn of Ezeki"! in Babylon, especially his peculiar attention to chronology, which dates from this seat of astro" nomical science. In this case the fifth yeot of the captivity of Jehoiachin lia-s been reckoned as the year B.C. 595, and the thirtieth year from that as the year B.C. 625, when Nabopolassar ascended the Chaldean throne ; and either the eighteenth year of Josiah has been taken as con- temporaneous therewith, or the era of Nabo- polassar merely has been clung to (e.g. by Scaliger, Perizonius). But the reckoning does not agree ; according to Bunsen, at least, the fifth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin would be the year B.C. 593. Perizonius wished therefore to be at liberty to read in Ezekiel the thirty-second instead of the thirtieth year. J. D. Michaelis helps liimself by making the reckoning start not from Nabopolassar's ascending the throne, but from the conquest of Nineveh and Babylon by him. Comp. besides in Hitzig. — The fourth month, since the first (Nisan) coincides for tlie most part with our March, corresponds to our June, or, according to J. D. Michaelis, Hitzig, Bun- sen, to July nearly. The (probably Babylonian) name of it would be Tammuz ; but the prophet follows still the custom of antiquity, which, with only some exceptions, did not give names to the separate months, but merely numbered them. — nisun-lina 'JNV As the Ume is indicated by "in the thirtieth year," so also next the place is indicated in a personal way ; as I was, etc. That the clause might by itself mean, cum essem in medio captivorum, is beyond a doubt ; but that the LXX. in this case translate more correctly than the Vulgate is not less undoubtedly clear from ch. iii. 11, 15. Hitzig's solution (favoured by K-lief , Keil) ; "in the district (region) of their (the exiles') dwelling-places (settlements)," is superfluous ; more accurate is his remark ; "and besides he himself was a captive." Rightly Ewald ; in the midst of the captivity. The his- torical dates in the prophetic books have a certain designedness, something symbolic about them, — are at all events not simply historical notices ; they are intended to be understood in the light of the idea, exactly as that was to be realized in the case in hand, and hence characteristically as regards the prophet in question. In the midst of the misery the prophet was to behold the glory oj Ood for his people (comp. Introd. § 5). Calvin on this occasion enters into a polemic against the notion of the Jews, as if the hand of God were shortened towards the holy land, etc. Ezekiel was, according to ch. iii. 11, 15, alone by the river, and did not go, till he had had the vision, among the multitudes of his countrymen who dwelt or happened to be ii'carest him. — By the liver Cbebar, comp. Introd. § 4 (Calvin attaches I indeed no importuice to it, but be mentions the CHAP. I. 1, 2. sd opinion of those who regard the rivers as places consecrated tor revelations, inasmuch as they give prominence to their symbolical character ["the lighter element of water," while "the earth appears heavier"], or inasmuch as others think of the "cleansing" power of water and the like. A kind of spiritual reference to Ps. cxxxvii. 1 Calvin looks .upon as forced.) Hengstenberg compares Dan. viii. 2, x. 4; Ezekiel is "removed to the Chebar, because there he is far from the bus'le of men, and allured to great thoughts by the rushing of the water."' And then it is alleged he was "there i^nly in vision," as is clear from ch. iii. 12, It! .\8 if, forsooth, the Spirit could not have carried h;m to and from the actual river! Then we must understand "in the midst of the captivity" likewise as being in vision. In Daniel it is expressly said at ch. viii. 2 to be in vision, and at ch. x. 4 as well as here it is to be conceived of as not being so. At Ezek. viii. 3, xi. 24, the definition as to its being in vision is expressly added. (Some have also formed to themselves a conception of the sojourn by the water after the analogy of the Romish Ghetto, as Martial .says instead of Jew transtiberinus. ) — The personal reference is kept up still in the descrip- tion of the mibject in hand, of what took place ; the heavens were opened, and I saw — ; so much is the divine authurizalion of Ezekiel the leading thought. The opening of the heavens refers, as respects the form, as regards the character of the vision, to this vision which follows. There is in this respect nothing more general intended by it (John i. 52), as Keil seems to hint. Comp., however, Matt. iii. 16 ; Mark i. 10 ; Luke iii. 21 ; Acts vii. 56, x. 10, 11; Rev. iv. 1, .\ix. 11. As regards what is essential in all ways and forms, Calvin will be right in maintaining, tliat "God opens His heavens, not that in reality they are cleft asunder, but inasmuch as, after the removal of all hindrances. He enables the eyes of believers to penetrate to His heavenly glory." As Jerome has already said : fide credentis intellige, eo quod ccelestia sint illi reserata mysteria. (Grotius makes the heavens to be rent open by repeated flashes of lightning. ) "He who says this, testifies that what he has seen he has not seen as some- thing which has come out of the earth or existed first on the earth, but that it has descended from heaven, and consequently been visions of God " (CoccEius). If the opening of the heavens depicts the manner of the thing, how it happened, then the expression, -visiona of God (ch. xl. 2), specifies the thing jV.sv'// under discussion, and that first of all in accordance with wliat follows, where the next thing is vmon. The genitive relation cannot be rendered by : sublime visions, or the like (as Calvin already rejects as frigid the inter- pretation : visiones prsestantissinias, quia divinum vocatur in scriptura quidquid excellit), but it might perhaps, in accordance also with linguistic usage elsewhere, pass as equivalent to : divine visions, i.e. in the manner of Isa. vi., 1 Kings xxii. 19, 2 Kings vi. 17, etc. (Hitzig: heavenly visions). Quia ex cnelo demonstratas, ideoque divinas et a Deo ostensas (CoccElus). As genitive of the subject (auctoris) it might be interpreted in accordance with Num. xxiv. 4, 16, either : visions which God (as well as they) sees, or : 1 Com. a Lap. ingeniously compares the gentle mnrmur- Ing of the waters to the effect of music upon Elisha (2 Kings II. IS). visions which God gives to see (which proceeil from God) ; which would eoriespond with tlie aire of the following vision, that of legitimating Ezekiel's call as a divine one. "The divine visions stand opposed to the visions of one's own heart, the empty fancies of false prophets, Jer. xxiii. 25, 26" (Hengstenbekg). "Otherwise it would have been incredible, that e prophet should have arisen out of Chaldea. Nazaretli even (John i. 47) was still situated in the promised land. Thus the divine call needed to be confirmed as such in a special way" (Calv.). As genitive of the object the meaning would be, visions which liave reference to God, have Him as their object ; which suits the contents of the vision as expressed at ver. 2S. Here: visions of God; in Jer. i. 1 ; words of Jeremiah. — nsiSI is the complete form without apocope, as after the 1 consecut. not seldom in the first person and in the later books. Ver. 2 is occupied with a reference to the dates. It was the fifth year from the carrying away captive of king Jehoiachin, and it is meant of the "objective common era" (Hengstenbekg),' just as also in the sequel of this notice (ver. 3), which is better inserted immediately than later. E zekiel — a thing which does not occur elsewhere in tlie book (ch. xxiv. 24!) — speaks of himself in the . third person. Witliout verses 2, 3, with ver. 1 simply pushed forward to ver. 4, we would have the impression that a private document, a leal of the prophet's journal, lay before us. The ex- plicit statement of ver. 2 was the more necessary, where already in ver. 1 the fifth of the fourth month was to be explained with reference to this fixed period, the mo.st important of course for the immediate hearers of the prophet, and therefore easily intelligible for them, and also retained by the prophet throughout, but for others not equally clear. That vers. 2, 3 "interrupt" (Ewald) tlie connection cannot be alleged ; we shall find the opposite. — n^i3 if "^r. 1 is essentially the same as nhi in ver. 2, the distinction to be made being perhaps this, that the former refers more to the condition, the latter to the action. — As to the historical fact, see 2 Kings xxiv. 6 sqq., 2 Chron. xx.xvL 9 sqq. — M'l'' "^ here, in 2 Kings, 2 Chron. ra^inV is called in Jer. xxii. 24, 28 in'33. in ct- xxiv. 1 of the same hook !|n^33\ "nd in ch. xxvii. 20 n'3D''.— Kliefoth, on the basis ol the detailed exposition in Havernick, gives pro- minence as regards this period, on the one hand, to the unpleasant impression of the first circular letter (Jer. xxix.) to the exiles, and on the other hand, to the inflaming of their minds by the later prophetic announcement in Jer. li. 59 sqq. Comp. in the remainder of the Introd. § 5. " That it was already the fifth year, is held up as a reproach to the stiflneckedness of the Jews " (Calt.). The appearance of Ezekiel took place in the most hopeful period of the reign of Zede- kiah, when falsfe propliecy was making its voice heard at home and abroad. To all this seemi.ng and fancied glory, opposed as it was to the divine word of the true prophets, Ezekiel's vision of glory formed the divine antithesis. > Namely, the exile, for which reason he Aon^. not reckol according to the year of the leign of Zedekiah. 16 EZEKIEL. Ver. 3. n^n n^Hi inf. absol. , in solemnly rhetori- cal fashion emphasizing the divine attestation of the prophet: really, expressly, quite certainly. Tlie full unquestionable reality of the transaction is to be indicated. — Though ver. 1 spoke of the person, time, place, subject-matter, all the elements of the introduction, yet veT. 2 reverted to the time ; and so ver. 3 speaks an';w first of all of the subject-matter as '" "131, which came to Ezekiel, by which expression this same subject- matter, linking itself on to ver. 1 (there, "visions of God;" here, "the word of Jehovah"), is now designated according to its intrinsic, its essential character as the product of the Spirit (1 Thess. ii. 13). It is at the same time the exact announce- ment of what follows, and the introduction thereto ; for at ver. 28 there is a transition from the " I saw" to the "1 heard the voice of one that spake," and this latter is shown from ch. ii. 4 to be " the Lord Jehovah. " — As to the name of the prophet and that of his father, as well as the prifstly rank of both, with which the personal description is completed, comp. Introd. §§ 1, 3. For the pur- pose in a quite objective way of making more prominent his divine legitimation, Ezekiel speaks of himself as of a third person. (Like the LXX. , the Syriac and Arabic versions presuppose 'py, the reading of several Codd.) Humility also, in a case where he had been deemed worthy of such a revelation (comp. the similar mode of expression in 2 Cor. xii. 2 sqq. ), recommended his speaking in the third person. — The renewed mention of the place is not a mere repetition of the words : by the river Chebar, but a more exact definition alike of this river, and especially of the phrase ; "in the midst of the captivity," both being defined'by mB'3 }nX3, — in thesense, however, of land of the Chaldeans = land of the enemy, to which at the close of the verse QB' again points back, emphaticaUy, as Calvin remarks. This locality was only too significant a corrective of presumption on the one hand, as of despair on the other, or rather of ileshly narrow-mindedness in general. —If then, finally, the subject-matter is again brought into prominence, and that as res))ects its producing cause, viz. that the hand of Jehovah came upon him, this certainly is not said without reference to the statement: "and I fell upon my face," in ver. 28, and might indeed have preceded the words ; the word of Jehovah came in reality (Hitzig) ; but the immediately following subject-matter (ver. 4) demanded this or some such transition at the close of the verse. Thus verses 2, 3 complete the section. The formula of transition used is one that occurs again (Introd. § 7), ch. iii. 22, xxxvii. 1, xl. 1. Comp. 2 Kings iii. 15. The expression the hand of Jehovah always means a divine manifestation of power, but in the sense of action, consequently with will and intention, by means of which self- will and refusal on the part of man are laid in the dust, and the man is prepared for the divine purpose. For whatever may be the natural basis subjectively (intellectually, morally, and spiritu- ally), as well as objectively (as respects the nexus in the history of the time or of the individual), ths prophetic word as God's word, as visions of Goil, is neither a product of one's own effort and exertion, reflection and investigation, nor a result if mere human instractiou. It is not gifts, not study that makes the prophet, just as also we d not meet with inclination as a prophetic tactoi but constraint must be put upon them, — tin prophets needed to be overpowered. Thus some- thing lies in the '" T V")JJ. Comp. Jer. xx. 7. If this appears in a still stronger form where in- stead of 'nfil, e.g. at ch. viiL 1, we have "Jam, ch. xi. 5 certainly explains S' 1* by '" mt ; it is the power of tlie Spirit. "He has thus expressed the energy of the divine Spirit" (Theuuuuet). Hence the prophetic preparation in consequence of this is rightly given by Oehler in the first place as a divine knowledge (comp. Jer. xxiii. 18 with Amos iii. 7), to which there cannot be wanting as a second element the sanctifying as well as strengthening elficacy (Ps. 1. 16 sqq. ; Mic. iii. 8). J. Fr. Starck quotes; iiupulsus inopinatus, illuminatio extraordinaria, spiritus prophetise vehemens, afSatus Spiritus Sancti singularis. " Thus he saw what other men did not see, then he recollected all that he had seen and heard, and understood the meaning of the Lord and did His commandment." Cocc. (On old pictures of the prophets, as well as in the frescoes of the church at Schwarz-Rheindorf, a hand is painted, which is stretched from heaven. ) Vers. 4-28. — Ezekiel' s Vision of the Glory of Jehovah. Isaac Casaubon, in his once far-famed Exerdta- tiones, xvi. de reb. sacr. el eccl. adv. Baronium (Geneva 1655), asserts: "in the whole of the Old Testament there is nothing moi'e obscure than the beginning and the end of the book of Ezekiel. " Under the same impression Calvin declares, that ' ' he acknowledges that he does not understand this vision." Jerome had pronounced that "in its interpretation all the synagogues of the Jews are dumb, giving as their reason that it transcends man's capacity, et de hoc et de cedifcatione templi, quod in ultimo hujus prophetce scribitur, aliquid velle conari." The Jewish designation for the following vision is n23nD> "chariot" or "team of four," in accordance with the four living creatures and the four wheels. Haveunick : "It formed the basis and the point of support for the later mystic theology in its endless gnostic specu- lations about the divine essence and the higher spirit-world. " As their natural theology is called among the Jews n'!J'X13> so the mystic is called aSllO- One is not to read before reaching his thirtieth year either the beginning of Genesis, or the Song of Songs, or the beginning and end of the book of Ezekiel; such is the admonition of Jewish tradition. Comp. ZuNZ, Die gotles- dienstl. Vortr. d. Juden, p. 162 sqq. (the most important work of more recent times in this department). Umbreit, while he denies him the poetic gift, ascribes to Ezekiel "in the rarest degree the ability which is characteristic of the painter, of making visible to the eye what he has seen." But even the celebrated picture of Raphael in t «e Pitti Gallei-y at Florence may pass as a criticism of this assertion. There there is more than one feature quite passed over : what is sepa rate appears grouped together ; what is united, o; 'iie CHAP. I. 4-28. 87 other hand, appears divided. To the artistic conception of the greatest painter the vision of Ezekiel presented itself with difficulty. 'We shall be compelled to assert even more positively, that with all the "exactitude of delineation, and with the plastic art in the giving of details " (Umbreit), an obscurity remains over the whole, even merely as respects the setting it before the eye, an invisi- bilit;/, which is not certainly to be ascribed to "overcrowding," but which lies in the subject- matter, the object of the vision, which results from the thing it.self. The representation of Ezekiel wrestles with its subject, as the amplifica- tion, the repetition and recurrence again to what has been said, shows. It must indeed be the case, according to Exod. xxxiii., that (vers. 22, 23) only the "back parts" of the glory of God are capable of being seen by m:in here upon earth. Comp. 1 John iii. 2. Certainly, if Ezekiel, because he had been carried out of the body, were to have seen the "face" of the glory of God, his after-remembrance in the body of what he had seen would not have been capable of being expressed. Comp. 2 Cor. xii. 4, 3. The "un- approachable light," in which God dwells (1 Tim. vi. 16), remains from the time of the Sinaitic ■ keynote theophany onwards for the whole of the Old Testament. Exod. xix. 9, 16, 20, 21 (Deut. iv. 11, V. 19); Lev. xvi. 2; 1 Kings viii. 12; Ps. xcvii. 2 (xviii. 12). We may quote the remark of Umbreit, that Ezekiel ' ' repeats more frequently than any other prophet the statement : the word of Jehovah was thus made known to me, as if he had felt the word like a burden, and was unable to reproduce it.as such in a very worthy manner ; it is only to set down its symbol that he feels himself called in his inmost being." There is also to be found in Ezekiel as compared with the older prophets a greater complication in the symbolism, in which the following vision especially is expressed in its plastic art. Comp. Introd. § 7. Inasmuch as it is vision, and consequently the divine element is represented visibly in pictures, these pictures have a divine import, are symbols, so that there belongs to them at the same time a concealing, relatively veiling character, especially as regards the people. The word of God must accordingly come in addition to the vision of God, in order to explain it for the prophet and the people. Comp. the distinction between irrxirltcs and BfjroKctXu'^u; xupUv, 2 Cor. xii. 1. But it is not so much a peaceful picture which presents itself to our prophet, as rather a phenome- non of a very excited character inwardly as well as outwardly ; a circuuistance which must not remain unnoticed in the interpretation. The storm brings great clouds therefore. A strong brisk fire, which spreads its brightness round about, forms the interior of the cloud brought by the storm. Such is the first, outermost part of the vision, its porch as it were, which the prophet first of all enters (ver. 4). On a nearer view there arc formed out of the intensive fire of the cloud as it were four "living creatures," which have at first sight the appearance of a man, and are therefore to be carried back in thought to this in general, whatever else in detail more exact description perceives in them. And so the four- fold group of the creatures is individualized in a fourfoUlness of each of them : man, linn, ox, eagle. In spite of such fourfoldness, which is perhaps also clear from other circumstances (thuf they have wings, and at the same time the foot- soles of a calf, and yet the hands of a man. comr^. at ver. 7), prominence is given expressly to a mutuality of relation, the unity of a whole, vers. 6. 12, 15, 20, 21, 22 (vers. 5-14). Then, further, at the direction out of the north (ver. 4) h.TS given the tendency of the vision in its immediate historical reference, so the wheels also bring the whole into connection with the earth. Tlie more expressive connecting link will be the number four, the symbolic number (passing over from the living creatures to the wheels) of the cosmical relations, in which God reveals Himself. (Bahk, Symbolism of the Mosaic Culttis, i. p. 341.) The gloi-y of Jehovah from heaven manifests itself with this second part of the vision as a glorifying of Jehovah upon earth, inasmuch as "the spiiit of the living creature " unites in the closest way wheels and creatures (vers. 15-21). Lastly, tha holy of holies of the vision is opened with the vault as of heaven over the heads of the chajah. The living creatures, into union with which the wheels are taken up by means of the " spirit, " are by means of the "voice," which comes from above the vault, and that while they are at rest, united to Him who is enthroned there, who looked like a man. From Him ultimately everything pro- ceeds, just as to Him ultimately everything tends. As in the holy of holies of the tabernacle and of the temple, the vision culminates in the enthron- ing of Jehovah in His glory. Hence, too, it cannot be passed over without remark, that in this very excited phenomenon a thrice-repeated adt^ance makes itself known. The first time the fire-cloud B'Nn 7]W)D ^DC'nn PV3 (ver. 4). The second time the fire picture of the chajoth t'N"vrU2 D'l'B^n nK"1D3 nilVi (vers. 13, 7), with the height and dreadfulness and t;"{;nn py3 of the wheels (vers. IS, 16). The third time ; the misn mpn pya v''p'\, and the throne nsioa TSD ps, *nd the fire-bright appearance of the Glorious One thereon, the description of which, however, at last terminates significantly in : "As the appearance of the bow," etc. Fire, bright- ness, light, — this remains the common feature all three times; it forms consequently the funda- mental characteristic of the vision as respects its interpretation, in which, however, the meaning of the closing rainbow in the cloud must not be left out. Let us now attempt to get at the meaning of the vision. Although the separate sjiribols must be left over to the exegesis, yet the symbolism as a whole must be understood beforehand, according to which the import of the vision, especially in comparison and connection with other similar visions of the Old Testament, will come to light. Ezekiel himself leaves ns in no doubt as to the meaning of his vision, for he says expressly at the close : '" ni33 niDI HS-IO Kin. It is therefore Jehovah's glory that presented itself tc him, and presents itself to us in the vision. In so far as this can be distinguished more in iti personal relation to Himself, and on the othei side more in its active manifestatit n and execu- tion of His will, as Jehovah's glo^ y and as Hij 3K EZEKIEL. glorification, the NIH of ch. i. 28 may, by a giiinci- .It ch. X. 4, 19, be Diore precisely explained by Keil (following Hitzig), but for the interpreta- tion of the vision in ch. i. it is not advisable. As to the idea ni33 for "glory," comp. on ch. i. 28. Although the 1133 of God stands for the appearance, hence for what is manifest (Introd. § iO), yet tiiejigaradve representatum of the same must not be taken as a matter of course for the essential idea. Gesenius says incorrectly in his Pocket Dictionary; "The Hebrew conceives (?) of it as a clear sliining fire, from which tire issues, and which is usually enveloped in smoke ; " for the Hebrew conceives of it rather (comp. Ges. himself) as "weight, dignity, gravitas." To the divine essence there belongs a corresponding sovereign dignity and sovereign power, — a glory (Herrlichkeit from "hehr"), as well as a dominion (Herrsc haft horn " Herr"). The two things con- ceived of as one idea, and not merely in antithesis to the world, but in the world as the light and the life of the world, is the •\\23 of God — t/te signifi- cance of God for the world. The heavens declare the glory of God (Ps. xix. 1), and the whole earth is full of His glory (Isa. vi. 3). Without it there is nothing but "power and matter" (Biichner), and our view of the world is an atomistic one. Although the manifest aim of creation has been turned by reason of sin into the goal, yet Ps. xcvii. 6 says and prophesies: "The heavens declare His righteousness, and all nations see His glory ; " and in Num. xiv. 21 Jehovah swears by His life, that the glory of Jehovah shall fill the whole earth. If with this far-reaching look at the world's goal, and on the broad foundation of the divine aim as regards the world ("Jeho- vah" is certainly everywhere "Elohiui"), Ezekiel's vision of Jehovah's glory shapes itself first of all •ind predominantly as the righteousness of the Holy One, who will execute the judgment upon Jerusalem, and thus also upon that portion of Israel not yet in banishment by the Chebar, such a thing is eiisily understood as being necessary for that historical period, alike from the situation of affairs and as regards the persons. And this it is that is symbolized by the iiTe-cloud in particular, as well as in general by the &re-style, in which the whole is kept. Nevertheless there comes forth as the kernel of the fire-cloud the fire-picture of the four chajoth, whose meaning is as little reached when one goes back and gives them a Judaistio interpretation as the cherubim in the tabernacle or in the temple, as when one chris- tianizes them by anticipation, as Kliefoth does, as the "universality of the economy of salvation founded by Christ when He appeared, in contrast with the particularism and territorialism of the previous economy of salvation." It might rather be nearer the mark to adopt a third view which would keep fast hold of the glory of God as the original aim of the creation of heaven and earth IS well as the ultimate goal of the history of the world ; in connection with which the idea of life, 80 frequent with Ezekiel, pervading as it does the whole book, must not be overlooked (ch. xviii. 23; xxxiii. 11; the whole of ch. xxxvii. ; ch. X7iu. 9, 13, 17, 19, 21, 24, 28, 32; ch. xxxiii. 12, 13, 15, 16; iii. 18, 21; xvi. 6; xx. 11, 13, 21, 26; ilvii. 9; xiii. 18, 19, 22; vii. 13; v. 11; xiv. 18, 18, 20; ivu. 16, 19; xviu. 3; xx. 3, 31, 33; xxxiii. 11, 27; xxxiv. 8; xxxv. 11 : cor p. xxvL 20 ; xx.xii. 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 32). For :is God's glory has its side for Him, according to which it is the self-representation of His life in a majesty invisible for man, so, on the otlier side, heaven and earth and the world of creatures mirror forth the divine life in a visible glory of God, inasmuch as through them God's peculiar nature and power come to he seen in a manifoldness and fulness of life. Tills is His "fame," His "honour," which become known from creation conformably to its original design, according to which the investiga- tion of nature was meant to be, as Prof Fichte says, " an uninterrupted worshij), a rational and intelligent glorification of that uncreated wisdom which manifests itself in nature." And in like manner (according to Beck), "all the threads of life, which the divine faithfulness in revelation preserves within the circle of sinful mankind from the beginning onwards, and eveimore strengthens and perfects in a part of the same, converge at the end in a central manifestation of life: i l^un ifxiifiiSn, 1 John i. 2. The revelation of life in a(-tual fact breaks the death-power of sin, 2 Tim. i. 10; life is the substance of salvation" (Lehr- wissenschaft, i. p. 448) ; and this /i/'e-development of salvation exercises, on the one hand, a jireser*-- ing, renewing, and perfecting influence on the still remaining life-power of the world, and on the other hand, a relaxing, judging, and annihi- lating influence on the death-power of sin, works creatively, so that man and the earthly system come forth as a new creation in eternal and un- changeable life from the catastrophe of conflict and judgment. As arising from such a connec- tion of the life and glory of God, must the spiritual symbolism of the chajoth also be understood in Ezekiel. The retrospective reference to tlie cheru- bim of the ark has certainly its truth, but not till ch. X. (comp. at ch. ix. 3 the explanation with respect to the cherubs in general), where Ezekiel also (ver. 20) expressly brings them forward ; and even there (vers. 15, 17, 20) they are called, as here and at ch. iii. 13, "chajoth" or "chajah." Their symbolic character is necessarily clear even from the symbolic connection in which they appear. The prophet saw also merely a "like- ness " of four living creatures, consequently what looked like four living creatures. To their sym- bolic character corresponds also their designation ; the biblical ideas of life and death have a symbolic colouring. But, in particular, support is entirely wanting in Holy Scripture for conceiving of these "living creatures," as Keil would have us, as " beings who of all the creatures of heaven and earth possess and exhibit life in the fullest sensi! of the word, and who on this very account of all spiritual beings stand the nearest to the God of the spirits of all flesh, who lives from eternity to eternity, and surround His throne on every side." What would thus be aflirmed of " creatures, " is applicable properly to the Son alone (John i. 4); and how would such " representatives and bearers of the eternal blessed life " harmonize even with the uniquely prominent position of man made ip the image of God in the Bible ! In opposition to actual individual beings of such a kind, in 01 po- sition to " angelic beings of a higher order," tnere speaks too evidently their fourfold fornl, whose meaning, as already settled by the Rabbins, is this, that the vital power according to four types (ot man above all and in general because of his UJ'e CHAP. I. 4-28. 38 being in highest potency, because of his spirit and its eternal destiny), — coiiip. Bahr, ■Symb. i. p. 342 sqq., — is to find an expression, is to be repre- seifted in a fulness of the highest possible signi- ficance. From the reproach of being "abstract ideas or ideal forms of the imagination," which would thus be "represented as living beings," the purely symbolic view is released by this cir- cumstance, that certainly the four types are taken from real life, only the manner of their applica- tion and their juxtaposition being ideal. There can be no question of abstraction, where rather the individual element is specially realized by means of the idea of tlie whole, viz. life. Heng- stcnberg ["The Cherubim" at the close of his "Ezekiel," Clark's Trans.], who in Bahr's inter- pretation emphasizes not so much the "ideal creature" as "the living creation," limits it, however, to the earth, holding that it must be viewed altogether apart from the heavenly crea- ture. Passages, however, such as Gen. ii. 7, ix. 16, which he cites, leave sufficient room for the idea of the lining creature in yeneral, since, according to Gen. ii. 7, there by no means belongs to the living creature "a double element, the earthly material and the quickening breatli of God ;" but these two constitute merely the earthly man, and he rather becomes "a living soul" from the fact that God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life," just as Gen. ix. 16 also limits "every living creature" by means of the words "among all ilesh that is upon the earth," the thing spoken of being life upon earth. Theodoret, however, may be right, that the angels likewise are living creatures, and that the ndation of mortality is the distinction between their life and that of man. The contrast with death is not less justified than that "with what is life- less," and the expression the "living" God scarcely allows the idea of the living creature to be confined to man and beasts. Neither does "the number four in itself" point exclusively to the earth ; comp. Bahr in the work quoted, i. p. 156 sqq. Only the composition of the number four, consisting as it does of man, lion, ox, and eagle, has, according to the ingenious exposition of Hengstenberg, much of an earthly appearance. That o.ic and calf alternate in ch. i. 7 (Rev. iv. 7), does indeed make tlie representation of the (tame) cattle by means of the ox and that of the wild animals by means of the lion very probable. But the flying of the eagle would certainly be sufficiently represented by two wings, while the four wings expressly mentioned (ch. i. 6) point beyond this requisite, and in their parallel (ver. 8) with the hands of a man — which give prominence to the human element— allow us on their side to conjecture something superterrestrial beyond man and beast, as Keil has rightly remarked. Wlien Hengstenberg makes use of the cherubs of the tabernacle and in Solomon's temple for his expo- sition, one does not easily understand how the furnishing of their human form with wings is to spring from this cause, that the class of birds "in the history of creation opens the series of living creatures, just as man closes it ; " for in Gen. i. 20 the aquatic animals still take the pre- cedence, and in fact the large ones (ver. 21), which play such a part in Holy Scripture. Just as little can "the bird" take "the last place," as being also that which is relatively "lower," which IS contradicted, as has been said, by the four wings. There is to be noticed ii_ ver. li (23) the parallel to Isa. vi. 2 (comp. ch. iii. 12). Perhaps, also, when speaking of "the noise of tlieir wings "(ver. 24), the comparison njniD ?ip3 (after Gen. xxxii. 2, 3) is worthy of notice. The cherubs in Solomon's temple (and also on the stands of tlie basins,' 1 Kings vii. 29) represented not life upon earth, according to its two extremi- ties, but the terrestrial and stiperterrestrial life of creation. Thus only do the "lions and oxen " before us gain their significance : wild animals and cattle, the strictly animal world as con- trasted with the earthly and heavenly spiritual world in their combination in the winged human figure. Otherwise they would not be necessary representations, inasmuch as they were certainly already represented by means of the irrational bird. With the "palm trees" and "Howers" (1 Kings vi. 29; Ezek. xli. 18, 19, 25), the sir/ni- ficanl vegetable world, too, was added to the earthly creation ; while, in the following vision, storm, clouds, fire, light (ver. 4) set before our eyes almost literally passages like Ps. civ. : "0 Lord, my God, Thou art very great. Thou clothest "Thyself with splendour and glory, wrapping Thyself round with light as a gar- ment,— who maketh clouds His chariot, walketh upon the wings of the wind, making His messen- gers winds. His servants flaming fire," Ps. 1. : " Our God shall come, etc. Fire devoureth before Him, and roiuid about Him it is very tempestu- ous ; He calleth the heavens from above, and the earth, to judge His people, — and the heavens declare His righteousness." Ps. xviii. : " He bowed the heavens and came down, and cloudy darkness was under His feet, and He rode upon the cherub, and did fly, and was poised upon the wings of the wind, made darkness His covering, etc. At the brightness that was before Him His clouds passed away, hail and coals of fire." Although it will have to be conceded to Heng- stenberg, that the earthly reference of the life of creation preponderates in the vision of Ezekiel, quite similarly as on the other side the human type preponderates, yet the whole continues to have an undeniabl;/ sitperterreatrial character. The fire-cloud with the four living creatures appears to the prophet (comp. ver. 1) out of the opened heavens, and it is only the wheals (ver. 15 sqq.) that intentionally set down the heavenly phenomenon as being at the same time something earthly. It is meant to be the human-earthly creation in the fulness of its vital ponder, as appearing from the background of the heaven- stirred, and also spiriMike elemental powers (air, fire), and still more (comp. Rev. iv. 8, 9; v. 8, 14; six. 4) a.s offering itself continually after the manner of the heavenly messengers and servants in obedience and voluntary surrender (. Iv. I) traces back the vision of EiftkiftL 10 EZEKIEL. 63, 38 ; Gal. iii. 19). Hengstenberg speaks strikingly of ch. i. as "the great panorama of the universe ; " and there, certainly, the reference ii.dicated could not be wanting. If the "spirit " (Tor. 12) determines the first rital operation of the chajoth, their motion, and if (vers. 20, 21) it is also the determining element for the motion of the wheels, then the (as one may express it) more spiritual motion of the whole, but especially of the chajoth, viz. "the noise of their wings" (ver. 24), is determined negatively, i.e. is brought to silence, to rest, by the voice from above (ver. 25) ; so that with this voice from the throne, and therefore with Him who is upon it (ver. 26 sqq.), each and all are united, and express themselves as well as move as He pleases (ver. 24), or rest according to His intimation. In this way the God of hosts, whom Hengstenberg only co-or- dinates with Him who is enthroned upon the chajoth, is rather at the same time declared to be this latter, or the chajoth seem in such manner to be embraced in the idea of the heavenly hosts. To see in the wheels, then, "the powers of nature," is certainly not so natural as to abide by the view of Hitzig, who appeals in support of it to Dan. vii. 9. Keil also must after all admit the idea of a throne-cAario*. A throne which is to move upon the earth can hardly be conceived of \vithont wheels. It is not so much, however, "to show the possibility and the ease with which the throne moves to all the four quarters of the world," as ratlier to express the motio/t in the most living manner and expressly for tlie earth. specially in the first place with a view to Jeru- salem, corresponding to the historical circum- stances ; it is for this reason that we have to do with wheels. The eyes in the wheels are parallel with the faces in the chajoth, and both are to be understood in connection with the " spirit " (nn), *nd perhaps also not without reference to "the noise of the wings" (2 Chron. xvi. 9). The sovereignty of Him who rules in heaven, whom all serve as to Him all live, as it is ready from heaven to manifest itself livingly upon earth, is represented at the close as being the sovereignty "as of a man," which, when we take into account the rainbow of ver. 28 (notwithstanding the pre- ponderating judicial character of the whole), allows of the coming forth full of promise---(W the ultimate goal, as the victory of righteousness — of the kindness and love of God toward man (Tit. iii. 4), in grace and mercy toward Israel, and for the salvation of the world, so that the vision would have its fulfilment in Christ (comp. John xii. 41 with Isa. vL ), Rev. iv. After this interpretation of the symbolism of the vision as a whole, its meaning for the pro- phetic mission of Ezekiel (comp. the introductory remarks to ch. i.-iii. ) must be clear thus far, that above all the prophet will have to announce judgment, not merely in the first place upon Jerusalem, but farther upon the heathen also. To this the _/Jre-characteristic points, which remains with the vision from beginning to end, and behind which whatever promise of mercy is in it steps into the background for the time, so that the prophet /oW* down under the impre.ssion received (ver. 28). For a so-called "consecration oj a prophet," this certainly would be too special in its tenor. For this one would be under the necessity of extracting, and that at the same time under a misapprehension "of the dependence ol our theophany on that manifestation of God at Sinai, " as KeU does, " in a more general way the symbols of that righteousness, holiness, and grace which God manifests in the upholding, govern- ing, and perfecting of His kingdom." On the other hand, by means of the fire-character of judgment, which expressed its special tendency, this ^•ision was an introduction of Ezekiel forth- with into his sphere of labour. Nothing else had the prophet at first to testify to the exiles, for their obstinacy with all its ungodly hopes was still founded on the apparent continuance of Jerusalem. The more such high ecstasy — a throwing inwards or spiritualizing, which has its sphere on the boundary' of corporeal life (ver. 28), as Oehler brings out prominently — along with the mission of Ezekiel attested his call as a prophet, the less need was there of an official consecration for him ; his mission under such a vision was so in the highest degree, or at least made a call, calling, consecration to the prophetic office be presupposed in a decided manner in his case, as the Talmudists, even in reference to ri'D n'n in ver. 3 (in the interest certainly of the prophecy, as they assert, being attached to the ark), show therefrom, that Ezekiel was already before a prophet in the holy land. The vision does not by any means consecrate him as a prophet, but it certainly does transfer him to those banished to Tel-Abib (ch. iii. 12 sqq.): it thus realises itself as a mission. And pervading as it does the whole book, it likewise stamps and illustrates the prophetic activity of Ezekiel, ch. iii. 23, viii. 4, xliii. 2. The vision is, however, not merely as regards its fire-character, a pro- gramme for our prophet, but its much 7no)'e essential contents informed him that he would have to represent the glory of Jehovah. Judg- ment in the first place, from the very beginning, however, not without mercy, but rather a glori- fication of the lining God in His people to be accomplished in a glory of vital power, on the basis of creation, and thus from the outset with a view to the whole earth.' The meaning of the chajoth in the vision, whence their designation (purposely not called cherubim in ch. i. ), and their so-varied form, and the accompaniment of spirit-moved wheels full of eyes are explained, cannot be settled by pointing to the Lord's dwell- ing among His people in the holy of holies of the temple, nor explained by the "cecumenical character of the new economy of salvation, for the setting up of which the Lord shall appear upon earth " (which is said to be represented in the fourfold figure of the cherubs and wheels) ; nor even can it be expressed characteristically enough with Keil in this way, that "the moving of the throne to all quarters of the world is made conspicuous, not merely in order to indicate the spread of the kingdom of God over the whole earth, but in order to reveal the Lord and King, whose power stretches over the whole world," etc. (p. 28). The prophecy of glory is the charac- teristic of Ezekiel, whereby he stands distinguished from all prophets. With its destination for the exile, — this too must be added in reference to the meaning of the following vision for the prophetic mission of Ezekiel, — harmonizes the making God 1 A<. the same time, perhaps vith the bint of a creatioD ix the future, a creative renewal. CHAP. I. 4-28. «1 prominent, on the ground of the manifold fulness of life in His creation, a^ Himself the Living One in ruling, reigning, as well as all-filling unique- ness of life and glory. And so He must break forth in judgment on Jerusalem, where He is degraded to a lifeless, powerless, and therefore no longer believed in idol, side by side with other false gods. And as such He must manifest Him- self to the heathen world, into whose power His people hare been alreaily, will be completely, given. The living God, and as such glorious, has, however, no jileasure in the death of the wicked, of him that dieth, as Ezekiel repeatedly testifies to the exiles ; rather is the quickening of Israel to new life (ch. xxxvii.), the stream of life (ch. xlvii. ), His significant promise. As / live, why will ye die, 0 house of Israel ? may be pronounced in this connection to be the prophetic voice of Ezekiel in the exile. If we compare other similar visions in the Old Testament, in order to throw more light on the ch,iracteristic of Ezekiel's, the Talmudists have identified that of Isaiah in ch. vi. with that of Ezekiel, the only difference being as if a towns- man and a countryman were to behold a king. But apart from the circumstance (introductory remarks to ch. i.-iii. ), that in the case of Isaiah it is after the self-legitimation in actual fact by means of the preceding discourses, which are designated as ]i|n (^'h. i. 1), Dm IC'K "Min (ch. ii. 1), and which thus presuppose his consecra- tion as a prophet, and not till ch. vi. that the divine confirmation and introduction of the judicial mission of the prophet is related, so characteristically winding up what goes before as well as introducing what follows, while in the case of Ezekiel the vision opens his book ; the theme with Isaiah is the thrice-/fo/_j/ One over against the sm which has become ripe for the judgment of hardening, whereas, on the other hand, Ezekiel sees the glori/ of Jehovah in the midst of the mistry of the exile. For Him who visibly appears as above the world, there is some- thing becoming in the "holy, holy, holy" (comp. on the other hand, Ezek. iii. 12), in holiness He manifests Himself in the heavens; and the cir- cumstance that His glory fills the whole earth (ver. 3), shows how His intramundane manifesta- tion (Introd. § 10), in accordance with His heavenly holiness, must take shape in righteous- ness upon the earth. In accordance therewith, in accordance with the character of holiness belonging to Isaiah's vision, it is also seraphim that hover around the throne, that call one to another the "holy," etc., and one of whom must hallow the prophet, who declares himself per- sonally, and as a member of the community, unclean. How different what is said in Ezekiel as to the c/iajoth! And, accordingly, Ezekiel becomes like a dead man, whereas Isaiah became conscious to liimself of being a sinner. As regards the visions of the Mosaic period, which are likewise appearances in glorj', Exod. xxiv. 17 resembles the vision of Ezekiel in its pervading fire-character, and ver. 10 of the same chapter resembles the closing picture in Ezek. i. 26 ; but in Moses' vision (Exod. xxxiii., xxxiv. ) the glory of Jehovah is spoken of as "all His goodness" ('21tO ?3- Comp. ch. xxxiii. 19 with xxxiii. 22, 23), with which corresponds also th« revelation in word (ch. xxxiii. 19, xxxiv. 6, 7) in its mail: import. The preponderance of revelation in worn and of the fulness of God's love is in this case the distinguishing element on the one hand from Ezekiel's vision, and on the other fi'ora that of Isaiah. Lastly, the rision of Daniel in ch. vii. is closely related to that of Isaiah by means of the fulness of majesty of the divine hotinejis in ver. 9, just as it in so far coincides with Ezekiel's, when at ver. 12 mention is made of "respite of life for a season and time," while to the Son of man in vei-. 1 4 is given an ' ' everlasting dominion. " The four beasts out of the sea (ver. 3) present themselves, on the contrary, as the antithesis to the four chajoth. (Comp. in the New Testament, besides Rev. at the passage already quoted, Matt, xvii. 5; 2 Pet. i. 17.) The different interpretations of the following vision, from the multitude of persons and views, and because many of the differences are in matters of subordinate importance, can be brought for- ward in passing survey merely. Vitringa (in the work already quoted, iv. ch. ii. 2) makes Abar- banel divide the interpretation of the Jewish teacliei-s into three classes: (1.) The traditional interpretation of the aneie7it school, viz. angels, in which mention is made of the four classes of the heavenly hosts, as leaders of which Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, Raphael are named, and the wheels also, by comparison with Dan. vii. 10, are held to be spiritual beings of higher or lower rank than the chajoth. (2.) The philosophidng interpretation e.g. of Maimonides, who brought in the Aristotelian physics. (3.) The historical interpretation (Kimchi), viz. of the four world- monarchies, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, which are said to be meant by the wheels, while the chajoth are the heavenly spirits of these king- doms. The Christian expositors held fast in general the idea of Divine Providence, as it mani- fests itself either in nature or in the kingdom of grace. The former is, for example, the opinion of Calvin even, of a Lapide, of Bochart : the chajoth are to them heavenly spirits, the wheels, the great movements in the world and the church in accordance with God's decrees. The inter- pretation of the kingdom of grace more specially is the almost universal one in the ancient Church, according to which the chajoth are the four evan- gelists. LuTHEK : "The vision of Ezekiel is nothing else but a revelation of the kingdom of Christ here upon earth in all the four quarters of the whole world." So also Osiander, Couceius. If not the evangelists, then the apostles or certain things predicated of Christ (Arnii. : Incarnation, Sacrifice, Resurrection, Ascension) are dragged in. The wheels, according to sor.je, are meant to sym- bolize the Cluirch, and that in her apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors ; while, accord- ing to others, the chajoth represent the living Church of the New Testament, and the wheels the holj' angels. (Origen found the four luimap passions represented. Some also have wished to find the four ensigns of the camp of Israel therein. According to others, Nebuchadnezzar himself; the king as a man, flew like an eagle, imposed the 3'oke of an ox, and became cruel like th« lion ! and more of the like sort. Comp. Jerome. ) The cesthetico-theologizing interpretation of Um- breit is as follows: "The life-creating Spirit brings the Almighty, but He is not in the stor.u, nor in the clond, — it is only His chariot- throne, — 1-2 EZEKIEL. nor m the fire — that is only the power of the j natural life ; —but neither is He the light, not I even the gleam (eye) of the metal in its look of preatest splendour is the eye of God. Even the four living creatures, the old well-known Mosaic pictures of the cherubim over the ark of the covenant, are not Himself, but the natural life of the creatures in its endlessly divided multiplicity and unity, as well as in its restlessly moving power, reaching in the likeness of man tlie phenomenon of highest beauty. The destination of the four living creatures is shown by the wheels, the elements, which the free, formative principle of the divine Spirit appropriates to itself in the creation of the creatures ; we see into the soul of nature. The third part of the vision lifts us up to heaven : My thoughts are not your thoughts, etc. (Isa. Iv. S, 9). The firmament, even with its crystal splendour, does not give us the likeness of God. It is the fourth part of the prophetic vision that first lets us see the glory of the Eternal King ; we sink down with the prophet before this spectacle, but man bears God's image, and the Word was made flesh, full of grace and truth, surrounded with the light of the rainbow of grace." Vers. 4-14. — The Fire-Cloud (ver. 4) and the Fire- Picture of the Four Living Creatures (vers. 5-14). The Fire-Cloud, ver. 4. That which is set in motion in what presents itself to the prophet in vision (and I saw), and must rouse his attention as well as ours (and, behold), is described in the outset by means of the moving cause, viz. niJID mi, which, by reason of the repeatedly emphasized nil in what follows, is by no means = mVD (Isa. xxix. 6). nil, in place of nil, is properly "a drawing together," in manifold applications, but always with the idea of life in the background, figuratively or in actual fact, which cannot be without significance for the ab'eady mentioned fundamental idea of the vision as a keynote, — a keynote which we have pointed out in Ezekiel generally. We might almost translate : spirit of storm. (Umbreit : " The storm announces the approach of the life-pro- ducing Spirit, who moved creatively upon the waters, poured His breath into the creatures, and who ever renews the face of the earth" (Ps. civ. 30). But comp. Jer. x.xiii. 19. Swiftly and violently, irresistibly devastating ! Maldon.*- TUS : "Such were the Chaldeans, and harsh be- sides, cruel, heartless, unfeeling people. ") mjJD, of the violent impulse, the dashing, roaring along ; in Jon. i. 11 "IJJD, of the raging \'iolence of the sea when rouseil by the storm. (And I saw, viz. visions of God ; and, behold, this was specially the vision which I saw. ) J1QVn"|D — the article, because of this quarter of tlie heavens being uni- versally known and standing alone, and perhaps also because to his circle ol hearers and readers under the existing historical circumstances the quarter could not be a matter of question, but was determined by these. At all events, although •iSV fro™ ^ ^'^'■b "to hold back," "to conceal," "to hide" (piSV, Ezek. vii. 22), might be con- jectured to be something mysterious, yet " the idea of the hill of the gods " is not rendered pre bable by anything here ; and Hitzig is under th" necessity of paving the way for it in our passage by saying : "As the course of the s\m makes the south appear inclined downwards, the north, it i^ conjectured (!!), lies higher, rises up to heaven with its high mountain chains, Lebanon, Cauc;v.«"s, etc." A "sacred quarter of the heavens in the north" (Ewald) is not to be seen in the Bible. Nor are we necessitated to think of the north, as the land of gold of many of the nations of antiquity, by the mere comparison PDE>nn py3 ; and Zech. vi. 1 sqq. (Herder, Umbreit) belongs still less to this category, since in that passage there is just as much mention of south as of north, and the abode of God is in some quite different place ; comp. ver. 5 with ver. 1. Rather is the funda- mental idea of what is concealed justified by the darkness which appeals to the senses, alike by reason of the beclouding of the northern heavens. in contrast with the south, which is richer in light and poorer in rain, and also in respect ot distance, of remoteness. This natural view of the north is, as is well known, the common one with the poets ; but the mediating idea of darkness is also here, where a "great cloud" stands next at least for the outer part of tlie symbol, without our being compelled on that account to think of the dark holy of holies with the ark of the cove- nant and the cherubim, and that in a .similar way the theophany presents itself here to our prophet ; but perhaps for the meaning, the inner sense, we may, with Kliefoth, compare ch. viii. 1 sqq., X. 19, xi. 23, xliii. 2, as showing that God comes from the north when He comes to judgment, and, on the other hand, that He comes from the east for salvation and grace ; only we must not overlook as the ultimate reason for this the historical situation of Israel, as well as of the prophet and the vision, and consequently it is to be explained with BuNSEN : "an allusion to the Chaldeans comimg from the north againut Jeru- salem, Jer. i. 14 ; comp. Ezek. xxvi. 7." And therefore the prophet does not need to have been transported in spirit to Jerusalem (Haveknick), " into the temple, where one naturally experts the priest," for the prophets, as Havernick even does not deny, assign to- the north the Assyrians and Babylonians, that is, "the region pregnant with destiny" (HENOSTENBERfi) ;, from Syria usually the inroad of the Asiatic world-powers was made, because the east side of the holy land was protected by means of the gi-eat trackless Arabia Deserta. We shall also certainly have to take into account the relation of Ezekiel to Jeremiah (comp. Introd. § 4), and along with that the parallel of the seething pot, Jer. i. 13. iv. 6, vi. 1. ("Against the north was the coalition of Jer. .xxvii., Ezek. xxv. sqq. directed, which gave occasion for Ezekiel making his ap- pearance. Tlie storm from the north drives all the sanguine hopes which were founded on this coalition like withered leaves before it. " — Heng- STENBERC.) The moving cause manifests its working by means of the phenomenon of a great cloud (Hitzig : "a thunder cloud ;" the chariot of God afterwards appearing more prominently), with its far-leaching and compact bulk covering the heavens ; but not so much a cloud of a veiling character, as a cloud to serve as a visible sign of the impending judgment, Nah. i. 3 ; Joel ii. 2 ; CHAP. I. 4. Ps. xcvii. 2, xviii. 10 sqq. Grotius : "The i^reat host of the Chaldeans, Jer. iv. 13 ; corap. also Ezek. xxxviii. 9. " — We are not, with a Lapide, to think of rain, hail, and still less of the arrows of the Chaldeans. The divine judicial character of the cloud is indicated by the well-known irii-taphor oi fire (Dent. iv. 24, xxxii. 22), here nnp^na t.••^5— Exod. ix. 24 (the parallel with EiDB'n = boTyn = isona, " pure, solid gold." Fiirst, in the Concordance, explains it as from DU'n, like an3, "brightness," with the termination al affixed: "bright metal;" Keil, according to the analogy of PDig and ma, as from Dtl'n, "probably to glow, with p affixed; glowing brass." That QB'n "probably" means " to glow," is a statement that goes for nothing, and just as unproved is the derivation of the meaning "to be bright," from QflSi although the interchange of ^ and n, ^iii of n *nd 3, would have nothing surprising in it, for the root Dn3, which occurs as a verb only once in the Niphal in Jer. ii. 22, might there perhaps mean : to be engraved, much the same as : to be recorded, were not this meaning generalized, as Hupfeld (on Ps. xvi. 1) convincingly shows, from the more correct one : to be soiled, stained, whicl' is also proved b}' the old translations, and which, besides, suits best the antithesis in Jer. ii., and il it did not need to support itself on the similaritj' of the fundamental idea of Qfij and 303 (to write). Because nn3 is gold, to assume for QnS. and thus for DU'n, a meaning : to be bright, or : to be red-hot, is mere arbitrariness, inasmuch as. if the fundamental meaning : to conceal, to keep safe as a jewel or secret, is incapable of proof from the Arabic, a meaning synonymous to the Hebrew and Aramaic one (to be soiled), viz. to be dark-coloured, lies before us in Arabic, just as it alone corresponds to the usual designation of gold in all languages as the yellow, the dark metal, in contrast with the white silver. Besides, Dn3 properly signifies : to hold back, which is traced back to a fundamental idea like : to divide, to separate, so that nnr, "gold," might perhaps mean what is separated, as being what is purified, pure, held back. For QK'n Meier seeks to point as a kindred meaning to the fundamental idea , to be firm, strong (hence in Arabic : to be fat. a EZEKIEL. thick, aud hard), so tliat PDt'n might originally have designated ; what is hard, firm, hence : brass, solid metal in general, while it would then have been transferred more definitely to a pecu- liarly briglit brass.] To an impression of peculiar brightness the context of our passage points with indisputable necessity ; nor must tbis brightness be conceiveil of apart from the fire, since it pro- ceeds out of the midst of it, and -n [>J?3 has the more exact definition ^iir\ "[ino side by side with it. The question may, however, be asked, whether what is glaringly bright and destructive is to be indicated thereby, or not rather a glo/'y of look that is full of life, which is favoured not merely by the immediately appearing kernel of tire and the picture of the "chajoth," but also by the ingenious remark of Keil, that in all the three passages ■!Dt^'^ has its reference to Him who is enthroned above. We shall thus be com- pelled to abide by the view hinted at above on the "brightness round about it," inasmuch as in the whole vision the "brightness" appears not indeed separated from the fire, but yet distinct from it, although not contrasted with it. [The Syriac translator has simply omitted the difficult word in question here, but at ver. 27 and ch. viii. 2 he has given a conjectural interpretation : "divine look." The Chaldee Paraphrase keeps it .as it stands. The Sept. and Vulg. translate it by riXsxTpov, electrum, which must not be con- founded with "amber" {sucimuu). Neither can tlie name be given to this latter from >jXi«7-«o», nor (as Buttmann, Mijthologiis u., will have it) can the converse be the case, for the colour of amber is of too mild a brightness for it, the com- parison of the same with the precious metals may rest on much else, and the meaning : amber, leads to a derivation from iXkhv, Vx^nr^av, VXxT^av (the drawer, draw-stone), while HXixTfo^ is derived from iXiKTuf (the beaming sun, HXis;, Empedocles so named the element of fire), or at least a more fiery brightness than that of amber was the synonym. The brightness of amber does not certainly corre- spond sufficiently to the comparison in our verse, where a metal, not precious stones of any kind, is thought of ; nor does the transparency of its brightness suffice here. Now the SiXiKTpn, every- where mentioned along with gold and silver, was, according to the testimonies of the ancients (see Pape, Greek Lexifon), a natural metallic mixture of three or four parts of gold .and one part of silver, which was also artificially prepared. (Aacording to Oken, the " electrum " of the Mountain of Serpents in Siberia is gold, with an alloy of 36 per cent, of silver.) Hitzig, Bleek ( Varies, iiher die Apokah/pse), and others mention the peculiar ^xXKoXlfiatoy (Rev. i. 15, ii. 18), which is said to be compounded of the Greek X^Xkc! and the Hebrew pp (= white-shining brass), hut which might also mean "brass from Lebanon" (KnuAiiD, Pesciiito, Ethiopic Vers.). The Talmudists explain PDB'n as from {»>n, "quickness," and po, "rest" (or "speaking" and "silence"). It passed also for the name of ai; angel with the Rabbins, and in fact for that of Ezekiel's teacher. (See Leigh, Crit. .S'. p. 174.) It has even been read backwards ; nB13?, and anderstood oi the Messiah (Calov. Bib. III.}, who united the divine and human natures in Himscll (Maldonatus, Pradus). J. F. Starck compares also the pillar of cloud and fire (Exod. iii. 2), specially for the exiles !] Usage always employs py only of things, never of persons. "As the look of chasmal" means, moreover, not merely : as the aspect thereof, as it looks, but this as well : as it, so to speak, looks, looks on us. In the most poetic way, tjmbreit, at all events, under- stands -n pjJD : "the eye of metal, as the same concentrates itself when melting in a look of the greatest brightness (the so-called silver look!); perhaps it was a technical expression of the smelters, possibly compounded of {ji'nj and xfe - fulness of brass, when the brass appears in the fulness of its brightness." J. D. Michaelis trans- lates : " a great cloud, under which the lightnings flashed through one another, and gilded its edge by the reflection (an aurora round about it), but in the middle it looked like glowing metal in the midst of the fire." Tlie Fire-Picture of the Four Living Creatures (vers. 5-14). Ver. 5. Not only what the prophet sees, hut even his seeing itself is something progressive. It is by no means as if Ezekiel had first sketched the outlines, and were now depicting the interior also, for he has reproduced for us in ver. 4 alike inside and outside what was first seen, but his seeing itself grows more penetrating, and what looked upon him out of the midst of the fire (hence the repetition riDlDDl). like chasmal look- ing out of the fire, shapes itself in the progressive advance of the vision to "niDT. Derived as it is from HOT, and cognate with the S.anscrit soma (similis), niDT is not so much : form, as : like- ness, similitude, a substantival " like as, " and is used of what is living, but also of wdiat is without life (ver. 26). — With respect to the four nVH (not "beasts," as Luther makes them, following the Vnlg. ), see what is said in the introductory remarks to vers. 4-28. (According to Hofmann, Ezekiel was in thisway"to become aware that what he saw was not a thing, but a life. The intention was to represent to the jirophet what there is about the presence of Jehovah : the judg- ment on His unholy people announced itself therein. Creature life, into which the unbroken fulness of the being of God pours itself, in order therein to become a manifoldncss of power, serves the eternal God tor the purpose of making Him- self present to His world.") Formerly : the judg- ment of God rushing on, now : how not merely the power of the Chaldeans, against which one hoped at Jerusalem to accomplish everything with human leagues (Introd. § 4, 2) and one's own prudence, but the whole creation in tlie entire, universe, heaven and earth, is ready to 'execute this judgment of the tiring God! This threaten- ing character the vision obtained from its con- nection with ver. 4, and from the circumstance that the chajoth came forth out of the firr (Hencsteneehg). But in this way, at the same time, its symbolical character is manifest : life out of fire ! — HKID (ver. 1) is "vision," what is seen (|ifn) ; HK'lD : how it is seen, hence: "ap- CHAP. I. 6, 7 4& pear&ncc." As to the plural fomi jn'SIO liere anil in ver. 13, and with Dn'L"l'D ^'^ ^^■'- ^^> 'jomp. Ewald, Ausf. Lehrb. § 256 ; Geseniiis, Gram. § 91. 9. — What first struck the prophet as being prominent in the vision, was "the like- ness of a man." (nirh '^^'ith the full tone.) Likeness to man, where God has made man like God, is just the fulness of the times, Gal. iv. 4 ; Phil. ii. 7, 8. The angels also assume the ways of man ; for man is a microcosm. ' ' All forms of the creature reach in his person a phenomenon of the highest beauty " (Umbueit). At all events, man stands among the living creatures of the earthly world in the first, as in the highest place. In this way, first of all, the impression in general is stated, as Ezekiel received it from the four chajoth. What special feature in tliem produced this impression in his case, will become clear in the further progress of his description. And just because it will be expressly stated, a limit is drawn against arbitrariness in the application of man's corporeal form as a rule. Ver. 6. Just .as, on the one band, man, i.e. (inwardly considered) what is spiritual, what has spiritual life, characterizes the vision, so, on the other hand, in a more outward respect it is sig- nificantly defined by its/ourfuld character. Not only are there "four c/iajoth" in all (ver. 5), but "four faces" (ver. 10) are found "in each, and four wings" (vers. 8, 9, 11, 23 ; conip. ch. x. 8) likewise "in each of them." If the number 3, as the desiguation of the true, highest, most per- fect being, is the utimber of God, then must the number 4 represent the conditional, dependent being, which has proceeded from the true being, and be the number of the world, as the sum of all created things. Time and space, the two most general forms of the universe, bear the number 4 in themselves, etc. (According to Biihr, comp. Symb. i. p. 156 sqq.) — Qn? mascu- line form, which Hengstenberg here, as in what follows, explains from the masculine name cherubim stauding in the background, which, however, here lies as yet too far off. The more probable supposition, as a Lapide has already shown, is the collective mx masc, this being the impression in general of the chajoth. As happens so frequently in looking at the sense, the reference to the grammatical form is let go — D. Hav. , Maurer, and before them Kimchi, explain the concise form of the Kethibh by understanding an ellipse, punctuating y^i), and taking the suffix distributively, thus : and his (each one of the four's) hands were hands of a man (mx i'\^). Keil: "Tlie wings sat accord- ingly on the shoulders, from which the hands proceeded." Hence four wings, and are there not also four hands? and this also because of the four sides ? The designation as man's hands determines nothing as to their number. Comp. on ver. 9. Umbreit: "By means of the man's hands the mention of the bestial appearance is meant to be weakened." With the "hands" the description wiU ascend to the "faces ;" for just as on occasion of the hands, the "wings," as we saw, were very suitably mentioned "on their four sides," so, because the "four sides" are formed by means of the four faces on each of the chajoth, mention may be made of the "faces" as well as (if the "wings;" and they four had their faces and their wings (y^i, as is known, from y3ix, "four," signifies the fourth part, or here: one side of four (ver. 17). The emphasizing of the number four down to the minutest detail is to be noted). Hav. connects the la.st words with 7ers. 9 and 10: "and as regards their faces and their wings in the four, their wings were," etc. Similarly Ewald. It cannot be objected to this, that here tlie topic is no longer the faces; even in ver. 9 the contrary is the case, but still more sc in ver. 10. Ver. 9. But the wings which come into con- sideration here (comp. ver. 11) reach still highei than the faces ; a more exact description, there- fore, which (as in ver. 6) likewise proceeds froir above downwards, will liave to begin with these wings. There is a going down (ver. 7), and -a going up (ver. 8), and a going down again (ver. 11), just as the eye is accustomed to do in such an act of looking. The joining is (with Kliefoth, Keil) to be conceived of in this way : that the right upper wing of the chajoth was joined to the left upper wing of its neiglibour at tlie tiji. Henostenberg : "This pair of wings is stretcheil upwards, so that the one wing stands over against the other, and is in so far (!) joined to it." One does not see how this can still be called a joining. The connection of the joining of the wings with the going straight forward, which Hitzig holds to be impossible, is pointed out by Ewald in the words: "The wings of all so firmly interlaced with one another, that all moved straight forward with wonderful coherence." Comp. for tlie join- ing of the wings, vers. II and 23, also Exod. XXV. 20, 1 Kings vi. 27, for the expression nnins-^s nc's irnan, Exod. xxvi. 3.— !i3D' (Niph. of 33D) shows that it is meant to be a joining of all together, not a joining of the wings of each separate chajoth-forai just for itself. That they needed not to turn jn3^2 (fem. suff. ), when they went (vers. 12, 17), is of course at once in- telligible from the joining of their wings, but is expressed still more strongly (and for this reason the face of each is spoken of) by means of VOS "I3J/ 7N K"S, '■^- in whatever direction they went they always followed their face. Similarly with ^j; in Exod. xxv. 37. — The change in the gender of the suffixes in this way in one and the same line, makes one almost think that the diver- sity of the life of creation in this respect is to be characterized in the chajoth. Ver. 10. Now comes the detailed description of the four faces. First, the face of a man, which, as being turned toward the propliet, hail determined his impression of the vision as a whole (ver. 5). Maimonides understood it even of the other three also, and distinguished in these only an expression corresponding to the animals named. Just as the man's face in front is put without this detiuitiou, so similarly the eagle's face also is not defined more exactly as being the one behind. The definition jny3"1X^ at the close applies to the man's face also, and besides, this latter is immediately preceded by the general DD'OD. Hengst. claims for it the east side, as being the principal side, for the lion on the right the south, for the ox on the left the uortli. 'The position of the e;igle behind shows (as against Hengst.) a background pointing higlier up. Comp. the introductory remarks to vers. 4-28 The right and left of the description may be fixed either with res]iect to the man's face, or to the quarter of the heavens (poi, south side, just as i'lNDl!'. north), or to the prophet. As to the meaning of the faces, — the jiart of the body which, as may be understood, is capable of expressing CHAP. I. ll-lo. 47 moi '. than auy other what is characteristic, and that in the way that is most spirited, most in accordance witli the idea in view, — see the intro- ductory remarks to vers. 4-2S. Bahr ; The ox (bull), the symbol of the generative, creative power of God ; the lion, the symbol of the royal majesty of the Sovereign and Judge ; the eagle, the symbol of the divine omnipresence and omni- science ; man, the symbol of the absolute spiri- tuality of God, of the divine wisdom. Grotius ; Man denoting the goodness, the lion the wrath (punitive justice) of God, the eagle His swiftness to do good, the ox His slowness to wrath. BocHART : The ox the emblem of constancy and firmness ; man, of humanity, gentleness, and (fiXxiSfi^Tisi ; the lion, of generosity and strength ; the eagle, of vigoxu-, and of the sublimity of a heavenly nature. De Wette: The strength, power, wisdom of God, and His nearness. Um- BREIT ; The reason, sovereignty, creative power, and omnipresence of God. (What becomes of the veto of the second commandment ! ?) Ver. 11. The description, which might now have done with the " faces," nevertheless repeats them (remaining, as they certainly do, the prin- cipal subject), — at ver. 8 in moving upwards, now in coming down to the lower parts — along with thewinga: Qn'QOai DH^JDI, which Hav., Klief., Keil rightly refuse to translate : "and (these are) their faces; and their wings were" (Hengst. ), since the clause belongs rather to what follows, as already Ewald has taken it, inasmuch as the faces also were separated (the root-meaning of Tig, — "spread out," because of the reference to the nearer Dn^a33l) "from above" {rh]}a:>0, which likewise gives greater prominence to this reference), i.e. were not (a la Janus) on the same head, but on four heads, or rather necks. Ew.\r.D : " Both faces and wings not hanging down loosely, but stretched upwards." In this way an act of worship is depicted in the hemls, just .as a soarinfj i.s intended to be expressed by means of the wings. — With the reference to the wings, by means of which the description goes downwards, there is a return to what has already been said (ver. 9), but it is conceived of more definitely, and joined with new matter. Every one (not of the four chajoth, but of what is spoken of in ver. 10. viz. the four faces, inasmuch as the description gives what the prophet saw, who, standing before each of the four faces, always beheld two wings, alike on the right and on the left, joined to oue another) had two joined, viz. wings : t^'N ni"l3in, either belonging to {J"{<^, or as Keil : {}"X, ^.n abbreviation for the -px ntJ'N found in ver. 9. The meaning is clear, according to ver. 9. Since, then, the joining is expressed only as regards the four pairs of wings (in all) above, which together represent a square, the pairs of wings lower dowu are to be conceived of without such connection, each with its neighbour, which would also have no object. With these pairs of wings the chajoth covered their bodies. n>lj, properly belly, denotes the body in this respect. As this is covered, the conjecture readily suggests itself, that it is conceived of neither as feathered nor as covered with hair, hence not like an animal, but likewise after the similitude of a man. Bunsen : "which served for covering the body, and are to be conceived ol as before and behind." UsiBREiT: "in ordei to show their holy fear and reverence." Comj'. Isa. vi. 2, where, however, this [»e videant'\ seernt to be expressed by the covering of their faces while the covering of the feet there, corresponding to the covering of the bodies here [«e vidtantur], symbolizes the profound distante of the creature. Ver. 12. The lower part being now iiuite reached, taking up what has beeu said in ver. 9, their going, their movement is described, but along with the mention of the moving principle.. Ver. 4 (comp. there) n"lJ?D nil, here nilH. which in any case does not denote the wind. Hnz. : the instinct, which does not suit the human element of the chajoth ; but also not : the will or the like (Umbreit ; " most unrestricted freedom"), since it is exactly such a movement that is meant to be set aside throughout the whole context. The spirit is conceived of mani- festly according to its divine reference and power of influencing, although not as the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of Christ. Comp. vers. 20, 21. (Hengst. : "The life-breath of God, who dwells in the creature, and leads it according to the laws which He prescribes for it, to the end.s which He sets for it. — Num. xvi. 22.") .ill quarters of the world are facing them, whether they go backward or forward, to the right or to the left. The facility of movement given in this way is — by means of the fastening of the wings outwardly, by means of "the spirit " (absolutely!, i.e. "the spirit of the living creature" (vers. 20, 21) inwardly — united to the whole. Ver. 13. The completed description of the chajoth, going back to ver. 5, merely adds what coiTesponds to the riDiriD of ^''^i'. 5 : out of the midst of the fire, their appearance was first of all in themselves: like kindled cottls (from pnj, to kindle) of fire, burning. Is it primarily as depicting the lightning of the kindled wrath oi God (following Ps. xviii. 8) ? or is it to be re- ferred specially to the eyes of the chajoth ? (Grot. : "after God's long patience, eager for ven- geance. ") — nnV3 cannot easily be referred with Bimsen to nVfl- The accumulation of synony- mous expressions is still more unmistakable thau the gradation of the same remarked by Hiiv. ; it is rather like a movement from the beginning of the fire to its rising up like flames, and to its breaking forth in lightning (Gen. xv. 17). nx^ and B'Sri'iO' confirm the reference of x'n given abonp. jna, 18 KZEKIEL. from to break through, to break forth : light- ning, denoting the threatening effect outwards. (Hofm. compares Gen. iii. 24.) Ver. 14. Next we have the appearance of the movement of the chajoth. 3itjn jijiyi, infin. absol. for the finite verb, here with the noun- subject (Gesen. Heb. Gram. p. 215, Bagster's edit.). A mere indication of what they did, not a ' ' short description " as well (Ew. ). KISl, from XXn = J*^"), according to Hav. : an Aramaistic form. Their yn^, however, was no 3D3i their return (i.e. going back) no turning. Comp. on vers. 9, 12. — pf3 only here, in sound like p"i3 in ver. 11, akin in meaning also, but not identical with it, Hav., Hengst. : "spark-fire;" Klief., Keil : denoting the zigzag of lightning. It is perhaps meant to be an individualizing of the lightning. Vers. 15-21. — The Wonderful Wheels upon the Earth. Vers. 4-14, which contain the first vision vi\iic\i Ezekiel saw, hang directly suspended between heaven and earth ; there is need of connection aUke with what is above and with what is below. The fire-cloud, as regards the spirit of the storm which impels it, and out of its midst the fire- picture of the chajoth, as regards the principle which moves them, are certainly governed from a higher region, and are no less certainly destined for the earth. It is, in the first place, this latter destination which is furnished by vers. 15-21. Ver. 15 introduces the seco^ul vision in a way siraUar to that in which ver. 4 introduces the fiist. But the fact that it is said : and I saw the living creatures, and, behold, a wheel, brings into immediate prominence the connection, which what follows will have to bring out in detail and to give the reason for. The wheel shows itself j»nN3, which is not to be thought of, with KUe- foth, in the case of the chajoth also, for these, forming as they certainly do the kernel of the cloud, are to be conceived of rather as being above the earth. There is thus for the second vision, in its look towards the earth (and the historical scene of events), a repetition of the idea, which was symbolized at the close by tlie movement of the chajoth. The simplest, most natural sym- bolism of this idea, i.e. in reference to earthly affairs, is the wheel, appearing as it does as mere motion, which only waits for the moment (comp. ch. X. 13, 2). This is, as regards the idea,' the connection of the in no OTse " disturbing " nvnn with mix ; and in accordance with this linking together of the second and primaiily earthly vision with the first, that connection is also localized by means of "n yiH, not = " neigh- bourhood" (Hitzig), but: beside. — As one wheel is spoken of, so also the chajoth in the vision are conceived of together as a unity ; hence the sin- gular suffix V3B- So already the Syriac. Nor are sixteen wheels meant to be indicated, with reference to each of the four faces of each of the four chajotli, but four wheels (ver. 16, ch. x. 9), corresponding to the four/rcm< sides, the human ' Hav.: -'^n intenaiflcatlon of the thought of the poirer a^ fulnc£f of Hfe by means of the wheels, where the form maBt give wuy eutirely to the eBsence, to the Idea. faces of the chajoth. Each being always between two faces of the separate chajoth on the right aud on the left, the four wheels formed an outei square round the four chajoth. First of aU Ezekiel had to say, although in general merely, where, in what position as regards the cliajotli he saw the wheels ; the relative position of " wheel " and chajoth took the precedence, not "the na- ture of an individual wheel," — which would be the case, according to Hav., Maurer, Klief, il Vja w-ere to be refcn-ed to |31S5 : "according to its fourfold face," equivalent to : " with fourfold face," — for then we should have here already tlie wheel within a wheel specially mentioned, which comes after in ver. 16. As to the meaning of the wheels, comp. the introductory remarks to vers. 4-28. How little in this connection the basin- stands of 1 Kings vii. come into consideration, Klief. on Hav. and Keil has pointed out exliaus- tively (i. p. 91). To refer to "heathen works of art of Babylon," as Hav. does, explains nothing, whUe the conception of a throne-chariot rolling along over the earth gives a vivid unity to what goes before and what follows. It is to misunder- stand the characteristic of these visions, this pre- dominance of the ideas over everything, when one brings as an objection to such a conception partly the j; comp. on ver. 4. — tJ'''Bnni "the chrysolite, which with the ancients un- doubtedly had a yellow colour" (Babe, 10. 9). "Probably of clear fire" (Hitzig). Perhaps from Tartessus, a Phoenician possession in Spain (similarly TSiX, ioT gold of Ophir). But whether is it so named because from thence, or on account of its solidity ? The probable root, cnn (not CtSn), means, according to the Arabic : to be hard, solid (comp. ppi npn) ; the word formed by doubling the third radical, as so frequently, means a fortified place, fortress. Spain is, how- ever, rich in precious stones. It is said to be the modern topaz (gold-topaz), which commonly has small four-sided columns, whose surfaces are agair. divided into two, and which also appears bluish and quite white ; according to Hengst. the jasper, which, however, has mostly a beautiful red, and also a brown and green colour. The chrysolite is pistachio-green, beautifully transparent and shining. That they four had one Ukeneai, i,e CHAP. I. 17-28. 19 tlat the wheel apparently alike was found with all the four ohajotli, explains the plural of the wheels as being four, but also how the same could before be conceived of as one, when a general statement was made. — [nV3"ISlained in detail. Ver. 19. Mc^ntion was already made in ver. 17 of the movement of the wheels by themselves, although not without relation to the chajoth, jomp. there ; now their relation to the chajoth is spoken of in detail. U.mereit : " The wheels stand beside the living creatures, but when the latter move, the former must of themselves follow the impulse." — Ver. 20: pj;, not "weakei," '» ^X (Hav.); but the ^yo going before has an lU fiuence, as being the last mentioned and mcst significant direction, and it is therefore agai; adopted. The LXX. have, instead of Sy, read 2)J, "cloud-darkness"! — m"in is the spirit ol ver. 12, as it is also expressly called ; but the cliajoth are gathered up in the unity of the sin- gular n»n : n:,-), and means intellectual weight, importance, significance, it rests on real power, as money-power (riches), or high position, etc., without 1133 on this account being=^riches or rc'"alty ; rather does it continue to be the weight which one is able to put ip the scale on the t/ruund of suth power. If in consequence of this a tiimbus gathers round the possessor of the power, because power adorns itself as readily as it is wont to be adorned through recognition and service on the part of others, it is natural that, for the pur- pose of expressing the weight of him who is ])owerful, and in order to represent, to give visi- bility to this power, the idea of brightness, splen- dour, greatness, dignity, respect, renown may enter, without 1133 itself having this meaning radically. Thus it is used nxr 'iix'" of God's showing forth of His power, of His manifestation and presence (the "Shechinah," according to Jewish termiuologj'), where the thought of the principal sphere of His manifestation, viz. the bright heavens, also exerts its influence ; but the '" 1133 is. according to the fundamental idea of the word : the power of life belonging to God, in light that is invisible for man, except in that reflected splendour which adorns the creatures, man pre-eminently, but also the whole creation of God in general : God's sovereignty in glory, as it belongs to Him alone. — nXlSI, comp. on ver. 1. The close of the vision. At the same time we have set before us the impression which it produced in the prophet's case, its immediate, fii-st result. Heng.st. : " He falls down before the majesty of God in His wrath." Hav.: "Although Jehovah did not sufi'er to be wanting tokens of His grace and love, yet he could not bear to look upon His glory." Hitzig: " H&is thrown down in a state of unconsciousness. " Keil: "Having fallen to the ground before the terrible revelation of the glory of Jehovah under a feeling of his owi impotence and sinfulness." (Luke v. 8.) ["In the first place : because of the extraordinary \-ision, and from astonishment thereat. Secondly : from fear and humility ; for if the seraphim veil theii face before God, how should not mortal man fall to the earth when he sees the glor\- of God? Thirdly: in adoration of God" (a L.Kfiui.).] It is an overpowering impression, hence the power of God shown in the '■>■< ni33 (comp. on the other hand Isa. vi. 5), quite corresponding to the funda- mental idea. Ch. iii. 23, xliii. 3; Dan. viii. 17, 18, X. 7 sqq. ; comp. especially ilatt. xvii. 6 (Acts ix. 7, 8); Rev. i. 17. — 5;oE'X1, now some- thing else than in ver. 24; but the "voice" was that of ver. 25. In this way a transition is made to what follows. "He says, however: of ona that spake, and not of God, because, lying upon his face, he could not see and recognise the speaker. Acts ix. 4 sqq. " (a Lapide). As is clear otherwise from the context, the falling down and hearing, like all that has preceded, are to be conceived of within the sphere of the vision. Additional Note o.n Ch. i. 4-28. [To gather up now the leading features and symbolic purport of this wonderlul vision, we can easUy perceive that the gioundwork of it was derived from the patterns of divine things in the most holy place in the temple ; yet very consider- ably modified and changed, to adapt it to the pre- sent occasion. Here also there is the throne of the divine Majesty, but not wearing the humble and attractive form of the mercy-seat ; more like Sinai, with its electric clouds, and pealing sounds, and bursting effusions of living flame. Here, too, are the composite forms alrout the throne — the cherubim with outstretched wings touching each other ; but instead of the two cherubic figures of the temple, four, each with four hands, four wings, four faces, looking in so many directions, doubt- less with respect to the four quarters of the earth toward which the divine power and glory was going to manifest itself. These four are here further represented as peculiarly lii>ing creatures, full of life and motion, and not only with wings for flight, but wheels also of gigantic size beside them, revolving with lightning speed, and all resplendent with the most intense brightness. The general correspondence between what Ezekiel thus saw in the visions of God and what was to be found in the temple, indicated that it was the same God who dwelt between the cherubim in the temple, and who now appeared to His ser- vant on the banks of the <_'hebar ; while the differences bespoke certain manifestations of the divine character to be now at hand, such as re- quired to be less prominently displayed in His ordinary procedure. 1. That He appeared specially and peculiarly as the God of holiness ; this, first of all, was in- timated by the presence of the cherubim. For here, as in the temple, the employment of these composite forms pointed back to their original destination in the garden of Eden, to keep the way to the tree of life, from which man had been debarred on account of sin : ideal creatures, as the region of pure and blessed life they occupied, had now become to men an ideal territory. Yet still they were creatures, not of angelic, but o. CHAP. I. 4-28. SS human mould ; they bore the predominant like- neis of man, with tlie likenesses superadded of th? three highest orders of the inferior creation (the lion, the ox, the eagle). " It is an ideal combination ; no such composite creature as the cherub e.xists in the actual world, and we can think of no reason why the singular combination it presents of animal forms should have been set upon that of man as the trunk or centre of the whole, unless it were to exhibit the higher ele- ments of humanity in some kind of organic con- nection mth certain distinctive properties of the inferior creation. The nature of man is im- mensely the highest upon earth, and towers loftily above all the rest, by powers peculiar to itself. And yet we can easily conceive how this very nature of man might be greatly raised and ennobled, by having superadded to its own in- herent qualities, those of which the other animal forms here mentioned stand as the appropriate types." — "These composite fonns are here called ni'n, for which the Septuagint, and John in the Apocalypse, use the synonymous term J«a, living ones. The frequency with which this name is used of the cherubim is lenmrkable. In Ezekiel and the Apocalypse together it occurs nearly thirty times, and may consequently be regarded as peculiarly expressive of the symbolical mean- ing of the cherubim. It presents them to our view as exhibiting the property of life in its highest state of power and activity ; as forms of creaturely existence, altogether instinct with life. And the idea thus conveyed by the name is fur- ther substantiated by one or two traits associated with them in Ezekiel and the Apocalypse. Such, especially, is the very singular multiplicity of eyes attached to them, appearing primarily in the mystic wheels that regulated their move- ments, and at a later stage (ch. x. 12), in the cherubic forms themselves. For the eye is the symbol of intelligent life, the living spirit's most peculiar organ and index ; and to represent the chembira as so strangely replenished with eyes, could only be intended to make them known AS wholly inspirited. Hence, in ver. 20, ' the spirit of the living creatures ' is said to have been in the wheels ; where the eye was, there also was the intelligent, thinking, directive spirit of life. Another and quite similar trait is the quick and restless activity ascribed to them by Ezekiel, who represents them as ' running and returning ' with lightning speed, and then by John, when he describes them as 'resting not day and night.' Incessant motion is one of the most obvious symptoms of a plenitude of life. We instinctively associate the property of life even with the inanimate things that exhibit motion — such as fountains and running streams, which are called living in contradistinction to stagnant pools, that seem comparatively dead. So that creatures which appeared to be all eyes, all motion, are, in plain terms, those in which the powers and pro- perties of life are quite peculiarly displayed ; but life, it must be remembered, most nearly and essen- tially connected with God — life as it is or shall be held by those who dwell in His immediate presence, and form, in a manner, the very enclo- snre and covering of His throne — pre-eminently, therefore, holy and spiritual life."' ■ Tlie Typology of Scripture, 3d edit vol. I. pp. 259-248, vhere the whole subject of the chembim is ftllly Investigated. 2. But this idea of holy and spiritual life, at connected with the presence and glory of God, was greatly strengthened in the vision by the fervid appearance, as of metallic brightness and flashes of liquid flame, which shone from and around all the parts and figures of the vision. It denoted the intense and holy severity in God's working, which was either to accomplish in the objects of it the highest good, or to produce the greatest evU. Precisely similar in meaning, though somewhat differing in form, was the re- presentation in Isaiah's vision (ch. vi. ), where, instead of the usual name cherubim, that of seraphim is applied to the symbolical attendants of God — the burning ones, as the word properly signifies — burning forms of holy fire, the emblems of God's purifying and destroying righteousness. Hence their cry one to another was, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God of hosts." And in token of the twofold working of this Imliness, it was by the application of a burning coal to his lips that the prophet, as the representative of the elect por- tion of the people, was hallowed for God's service, while in the message that follow.s, the ungodly mass are declared to be for burning (as the word literally is in ver. 13). The same element that refined and purified the one for God's service, was to manifest itself in the destruction of the other. And it is this also that is symbolically tanght here by the dazzling light, the glowing embers, and fiery coruscations, with which all was en- veloped and emblazoned. It made known God's purpose to put forth the severer attributes of His character, and to purify His Church by "the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning." 3. Even these fieiy appearances, however, in the cherubim and the other objects of the vision, did not sufficiently express what was here meant to be conveyed ; and, therefore, to make out the idea more completely, wheels of vast proportions were added to the cherubim. The prophet would thus render palpable to our view the gigantic and terrible energy which was going to characterize the manifestations of the God of Israel. A spirit of awful and resistless might was now to appear in His dealings ; not proceeding, however, by a blind impulse, but in all its movements guided by a clear-sighted and unerring sagacity. How striking a representation did such a spirit find for itself in the resohite agency and stern utterances of Ezekiel ! In this respect he comes nearest of all the later prophets to Elijah. 4. Finally, above the chentbim of glory and their wonderful wheel -work was seen, first, the crystal firmament, and then, above the firma- ment, the throne of God, on which He Himself sat in human form — a form, as here displayed, beaming with the splendour of heavenly fire, but, at the same time, bearing the engaging aspect of a man, and surrounded with the attractive and pleasing halo of the rainbow. In this shone forth the mingled majesty and kindness of God — the overawing authority on the one hand, and the gracious sympathy and regard on the other, which were to distinguish His agency as now to be ptit forth for the reproof of sin among the covenant- people, and the establishment of truth and right eousness. The terror which the manifestation wis fitted to inspire, w.as terror only to the guilty, while, for the penitent and believing, there wai to be the brightest display of covenant love and faithfulness. Espeoislly was this indicated bj M EZEKIEL the crowning appearance of the rainbow, whic)i, from being the token of God's covenant with Xoali, in respect to tlie I'uture preservation of the earth, was like the lianging out from the chrone of the Eternal of a tiag of peace, giving assurance to all, that the purpose of Heaven was to preserve rather than to destroy, and to fulfil that which was promised in the covenant. Even if the divine work now to be carried forward in the spiritual world should require, as in the natural world of old, a deluge of wrath for its successful accomplisliment, still the faithfulness and love of God would be sure to the chililren of promise, and would only shine forth the more brightly at last, in consequence of the tribulations which might be needed to prepare the way for the ultimate good. Such, then, was the form and import of this remarkable vision. There was nothing about it accidental or capricious ; all was wisely adjusted and arranged, so as to convey beforehand suitable impressions of that work of God to which Ezekiel was now called to devote himself. It was sub- stantially an exhibition, by means of emblematical appearances and actions, of the same views of the divine character and government, which were to be unfolded in the successive communications made hy Ezekiel to the covenant-people. By a significant representation, the Lord gathered into one magnificent vision the substance of what was to occupy the prophetic agency of His servant, as in later times was done by our Lord to the evan- gelist John, in the opening vision of the Apoca- lypse.—Faikbairn's Ezekiel, pp. 30-34.— W. F.] DOCTRINAL. 1. Thus God provides a helper for His servant Jeremiah, in a sphere where the latter, for far more than thirty years, has called without ceasing, with small result. But it was no small relief, that Jeremiah at Jerusalem heard the Holy Spirit assenting to and coinciding with him from the exile. Thus the truth was confirmed by the mouth of two witnesses (after Calvin). " Let every one, therefore, do what belongs to his office, and God will doubtless raise up others, if it is necessary, to help us. Thus he associated with Joseph, who took Christ from the cross, Nico- demus. " (Litdw. Lavater.) •2.. "As Ezekiel here, at thirty years of age, sees tlie heavens opened by a river, so Jesus, accord- ing to Matt. iii. 16; comp. with Luke iii. 21" (Hengst.). "As a type of Christ, who at thirty years of age came for baptism. . . . The piiests entered on their office at the same age ; John the Baptist began at thirty years of age the preaching of repentance " (Jerome). Comp. however, In- trod. § 3, and the exeg. remarks on ver. 1. 3. Herein is shown the inestimable goodness of God, in tliat He raised up the prophet for Himself as it were out of hell ; for Babylon was like the deepest abyss, and from thence must the voice of the retribution, as well as of the grace of God, sound forth. Thus the light breaks forth from the blackest darkness, and, at the same time, to the shame of the Jews, who had despised the voice of so many prophets (after Calvin). "God calls the land of Canaan His own land; in that land He had a house ami people, to whem He had given it as an inheritance. And now, when He bogan to lead the people forth from it, He yet did not forsake them, but went as it were with them into the exile, and gave them, even in the mid.st of the heathen in an unclean land, prophets who, like Daniel and Ezekiel, saw the greatest things, — a thing which has no lunger happened to the Jews scattered over the earth after the last destruction of the temijle ; for prophecy departed from tliem. But Christ's dis- ciples preached the gospel : which they, however, despised, and. in this way, turned the Spirit ol God out of the synagogue. Where Goci is, thert is vision, i.e. revelation by means of His word, there He dwells, where His word is loved an . believed; there is the sani tuary (eh. xi. Itj), wdiich the time approaching was to show, when He would march along in the wilderness (Ps. Ixviii. 7), i.e. would have His kingdom among the heatlien in the whole world " (Cucc. ). 4. " Although a thousand heavens were to open, what piercing look would reach as far aa the glory of God ? How small the sun appears, and yet it is so much greater than the earth ! And then the rest of the stars ! And so, when He opens the heavens, God must, at the same time, give His servants new eyes. The eyes of Stephen, therefore, were doubtless eidightened with unusual power, so that he could penetrate in vision beyond what mere man was able to do ; and so also, at the baptism of Christ, John the Baptist was raised above the clouds" (Calvin). 5. He says at ver. 3 that Goil's word came to him ; and thus God alone is to be heard, and the prophets for no other reason than this, that they cause us to hear God's word. Every doctor of the Church must first be a scholar, every teacher first a hearer. God must retain His rights as the only Guide and Teacher. The prophets, where they demand audience of us, demand it only for God's word (after Calvin). "The prophet is to be distinguished essentially from the later scribes and disciples of the Kabbins. In his case it is not said ; it stands written, or : such and such a master speaks, but: thus hath Jehovah spoken, or : the word of Jehovah came unto me, and the like. The true prophets are ' taught ' not of a human master, but of Jehovah (Isa. 1. 4) " (Oeuler). 6. This order: visions oiGoAJirst (ver. 1), and then Jehovah's word, has its significance for bib- lical prophecy. Comp. Ezek. xiii. 2 sqq., where the false prophets prophesy without having seen. The prophet is certainly one who gives expression to something wdiich he has seen, just as Oehler correctly defines internal vision as being the psy- chical form of prophecy ; hence also the designa- tion "seer" (nth poetic, more solemn than the usual nsS)! *ii'i the circumstance that the "word "; comp. Isaiah (ch. ii. 1) "sees' Amos i. 1 ; Hab. j. 1, ii. 1. 7. The section, vers. 1-3, is meant to contain "an exact description of the state of jtrophetic in.spiration or ecstasy" (Hav.) in its threef'.dd operation with a single cause. The four pa.'ti- culars : "the heavens were opened," "1 saw visions of God," "the word of Jehovah came unto Ezekiel," "the hand of Jehovah came upon him there," may, in the first place, indicate: the two first the plastic part of the vision in ch. i.. the two latter the phon?tic part of it, viz. what follows in ch. ii. and iii. Then, as regards the CHAP. I. 4-28. state of Ezekiel, we may admit a gradation in them, if we aiiniit that they are suceessive. Tlie subjectivity of the man is recognized even as re- gards its locality ; how much more as regards its mental, moral, spiritual individuality, and its determination by tlie history of the time and of the individual. What, however, predominates is the objective, the divine. The ehtorah of the first Jewish day of Pentecost, on which besides ch. iii. 12 is read (comp. J. F. ScHKODER, Satzunyen und Gebriiuche des (aim. rabb. Judenth. pp. 224, 214 sqq. ). 9. The /re-c/o!(rf was characteristic. At Exod. xiii. 21, 22 Jehovah introduces Himself to His people for their entire guidance to Canaan by means of a cloud, in which by night there was lire. This cloud formed, in the Red Sea, the wall of separation between Israel and Egypt, for Judgment and ruin to the latter (Exod. xiv.). Over the tabernacle (E.xod. xl. 34 sqq.) it sig- nified the divine presence (E'X"^^<^t^^, Num. ix. 15) ; in it appears the glory of the Lord, and tliat in very im]iortant, solemn crises of the journey through the wilderness (comp. Exod. xvi. 10 ; Num. xiv. 10, xvi. 19, xvii. 7, and other passages). The fire of this cloud had already flashed upon Moses out of that thorn bush on occasion of his mission to Israel (Exod. iii.); it was thoroughly known to the people from Sinai onwards (Exod. xix. ). Thus there could scarcely be anything more familiar to the pious consciousness of the people. But it was not the cloud which had again filled the house of the Eternal in the time of Solomon (1 Kings viii. ), nor was it even the fire (2 Chron. vii.) ; i.e. it must have had a ditle- reiit meaning, when a fire-cloud came from the north, and when it appeared in the land of Baby- lon. The fire in it is also quite manifest ; that which envelopes it, and at the same time stands over against the scorching heat of the sun in the wilderness, is absent from it. (Comp. on the other hand, Isa. iv. 5 sqq., Ix. 1.) 10. Hengst. draws attention to Ezekiel's oppo- sition "to the vicious realism wliich will know nothing of the distinction between the thouglit and its vesture." "Appearance," "likeness," "appearance of the likeness," and the like, are peculiar to Ezekiel, "for the purpose of guard- ing against that vicious realism, which professes, indeed, to represent the intepests of the faith against a 'false spiritualism,' but which is, in truth, nothing else but weakness in the exposi- tion of Scriptm'e. " 11. "Man, in his ideality, the centre of life, which conditions all the other forms. Th' highest form of animal life ; the suttering and bleeding life-form, the .sacrificial animal, th" bullock ; the ruling life-form, exhibiting itseil in royal freedom, the lion ; tile life-form whicii soars above the earth, free from toil, engaged in vision, the eagle. Above these three culminating points of the animal world, man, the intellectual life-form, which reproduces all those preliminarj grades in a higher unity, but is always the oia along with the other, when he corresponds with his destination : the tragic sacrificial animal, the fighting, conquering lion, the contemplative eagle, basking in the liglit — all this is one spirit ; and just in this unity he is man. Every animal- form with Ezekiel is an ethical symbol. Everything living belongs to the spirit, falls to it, and is oti'ered up to it : this is signified by the bullock. Everything living enjoys, contends, and over- comes, because it represents the spirit : this is expressed by the lion. Everything living lulls itself in a state of dreamy intoxication in the sunlight of the spirit : this is rejireseuted by the eagle. But everything liring culminates in man : the inspiration of sutfering, the inspiration of action, and the inspiration of contemjilation ; man is the image of God as regards his destiny. But Christ is the perfect, the glorified man, the God-man. Now, as man expands his fulness in the world, so does the God-man in the gospel, the element of the world's glorification ; and aa the riches of man branch out in the world, so do those of Christ in the Gospels. It was a far- reaching thought, when Irenajus referred the peculiarity of the four Gospels to the four animal- forms of Ezekiel " (Lange). 12. If, in accordance with the representation given in the introductory remarks to ch. i. 4-28, Ezekiel's vision of glory, with its universality preceding tlie particular liistorical application in ch. x., symbolizes the human and earthly life of creation, — in its peculiarity as well with reppect to its general place in the cosmos, — in like fulness of power as of unity and all-sidedness of move- ment (ver. 19 sqq.), — as a life not only of heavenly origin, i.e. from the beginning divinely- established (ver. 4), but also completely dejjen- dent on heaven (ver. 22 sqq.), and after the manner of the heavenly spirits, hence angel-like, always ready for service, — for purposes of judg- ment, but also of mercy : — then there lies therein every possibility of a passing over from the sphere of the merely natural in creation to what belongs to the history of the world in the preparatory re- velation of God's glory in the midst of Israel, as well as in its fulfilment and completion in Christ among mankind. On the basis of this truth, the various interpretations of the vision in ch. i. admit of being harmonized. 13. "All things were," according to Col. i. 16, "created by Him and for Him," i.e. Him "who is the image (likeness) of the invisible God, the first-born before all creation " (ver. 15). Now, the vision of Ezekiel culminates in a " likeness (image) as the appearance of a man " on a throm (ver. 26), and this occupant of a throne is uona other than Jehovah, and so the " likeness as thr appearance of a man " must be the "image of tlie invisible God," according to Col. i. As the life of creation, in accordance with its origin, appears at its highest point in man, whom God hai 36 EZEKIEL. created in His owu image, after His own like- ness, and therefore tlieie is the "likeness of a man " in the four living creatu'es (ver. 5) : so much more in accordance with its goal, as regards the destiny of its life and the goal of its develop- ment, everything which exists in anj' stage of life up to the highest of the invisible world culminates in the Son of man, who is the essential image of God, so that whoever sees Him sees God ; hence the " likeness as the appearance of a man " upon the throne. The culmination of the vision of Ezekicl is thus the culmination of the whole creation in the Son of man, who is the Son of God ; and in this way there lies expressed in the sphere of creation the very same thing which will also come to be expressed for the recovery from the fall and from the misdevelopment in man- kind, for the redemption, so that grace already lies before us in nature archetypally. This is the grand all-embracing universalism of ch. i. The consecration alike of Israel and of mankind to God is the Christian provision, viz. that which is accomplished in Christ ; is the glorifying of Christ by the Holy Ghost (John xvi. 14), i.e. the revela- tion of the power and dignity, the significance (1133, ^er. 28) which Christ has as the redection «if the Father's glory, and at the same time the revelation in power and splendour of His victory over sin and death. 14. The glory ol God, as the effulgent almighti- ness of divine life, must certainly show itself " in the warding off and annihilation of death, of transitoriness and of corruption," for which Nitzsch points away to "the glorification of Christ and of Christians in the resurrection (John xvii. 22 ; Kom. vi. 4, viii. 11, 30; 1 Pet. iv. 14)." 15. According to the interpretation in John xii. 41 of Isa. vi., it may be said also in reference to Ezek. i., that "the name of Jesus" is "the secret of Jehovah's name become manifest " (Delitzsch). The divine glory (1) is symbolized in the Old Covenant, and that partly in outwardly visible phenomena, e.g. the cloud-guide, the signs on Sinai, partly in such ornaments connected with divine worship as the cherubim above the ark of the covenant in the most hoi}- place of the tabernacle and the temple ; and (2) it is personified with full powers in the manifold angelophanies, from which the Angel of the Lord, of the Pre- sence, of the Covenant, is separated in important respects ; (3) just as in like manner in the Old Testament representation of wisdom there begins, especially in what the prophets see in vision, a hypostatizing of the glory of God, which is already, in a manner full of promise, hinting at the in- carnation of the Word i^iycs), in whom the ab- stract principle of wisdom and the spiritually living element in the expression of revelation are combined in one. (Comp. Lange on John i.) "In Christ the Shechinah has appeared in full realization." "The Logos, when on the way to become man, is one with the ii^x of the Father. " This means more exactly, according to Heb. i. 3 : He reflects the rays of the divine 5o|« : He is its refulgence and efltulgence, in the same way as the sunlight is related to the sun. 16. We have given prominence at ver. 28 to the ovcrjMJWering element in the effect of the vision upon Ezekiel, and also (/) emphasized the predominance of the divine factor m the state of our prophet. We shall have occasion to complete what bas be«u said in ch. ii. But here even, as Hengst. has brought out fully (Ge.fch. D'd. p. 141), the distinction between a prophet like Ezekiel and a Balaam, a Saul and the like, is to be main- tained. " Inspiration assumed a character so violent, casting soul and body to the ground, only where it found beforehand an imperfect state." The more it can be taken for granted that " the ordinary consciousness is penetrated by the Spirit," the more "does the Spirit in the case of His extraordinary manifestations come into His own." We would otherwise have to expect the falling down of Ezekiel at the be- ginning of the chapter (comp. Num. xxiv. 4). At the close of the vision it is not explained from the divine power of the Spirit qualifying the seer beforehand for seeing, but from what is seen in its own significance, its own importance, espe- cially over against human sinfulness. It is an embodied Kurie eleison. HOMILF.TIC HINTS. Ver. 1. The important " and " in Holy Scrip- ture : (1) the catena of prophets and men of God ; (2) the coincidence of times and occur- rences ; (3) the nexus of the divine leadings of Israel and of mankind. — "Pious people do not live thoughtlessly, like the ungodly, but mark closely days, months, and years in which special grace was shovm them by God" (J. G. Stahke).^ " With enemies even the pious find an asylum ; Joseph with the Egyptians, David with the Philistines, Ezekiel with the Chaldeans. Who- ever has God for his friend, remains alive among the lions, keeps a whole skin in the fiery furnace, and will be quite safe among whatever enemies he may be" (J. F. Starcke). — "As Ezekiel is in the midst of them, one might say that in general judgments the pious also are taken along with others, and have to endure the like sufferings, as if there were no difference between the one and the other (Mai. iii. 18) ; but God preserves them in the midst of the flames ; where the ungodly perish, the pious are kept safe ; where it goes ill with the former, it goes well with the latter ; and even if the body should be laid hold of, yet not the soul, which is bound up in the bundle of the living" (Stck.). — For intercourse with God, lonely retired places are the most suitable ; here the ricer, there the wilderness (Hos. ii. 14, 16), else- where the closet. Matt. vi. 6 (after Stck.). — "If the heavens are opened to us in baptism, be on thy guard, that they be not shut to thee because of thy sins ! The pious man, when he dies, will find the heavens opened ; the ungodly will find hell open" (Stck.). — "'Visions of God': for Satan also has visions, by means of which he bewitches unbelievers" (L. Lavater). — "We are not, how- ever, on this account to expect and demand from God divine visions, when we have Mosi-s and the prophets (Luke xvi.). It is certainly not impos- sible for God to unveil to us the future, and to reveal His will by means of vision."^ ; but under the New Covenant He has not promised such things" (Stck.). — "The Lord stooped to him, and his spirit was caught up to see God " (Schmieder). — " Those -whom God calls to the office of teaching and preaching. He furnishes also with necessary gifts. Luke xxi. 16" (0.). Ver. 2. "The lie has a bad memory; on the other hand, the truth remains true to itself" (Stck.).— /eAoi«c7nn'« list of sins stand* recordrd CHAP. I. 4-8. 67 ehortly in 2 Kings xxiv. 9. Moreover, he was not so much taken prisoner ; it was rather that he gave himself up as a prisoner, ver. 12. Ver. 3 ; ' ' Ezekiel does not bring forward his dreams or imaginations, but according to 2 Pet. i. 21, God s revelation " (L. L.iV. ). — To the servants of God the word of God is entrusted for those who «re to hear them. How could they otherwise raise such a claim to be heard in all the situations of life ! ? Woe to the unfaithful stewards I Woe to the disobedient hearers ! — What a reto against all pride, self-will, and obstinacy, ought the ser- vants of the word ;o liave in that very word, whose servants merely and not masters they are ! (Ps. cxv. 1. ) — "The son of Buzi, i.e. contempt, is Ezekiel, i.e. God's strength ; in other words, the man whom the world contemns, that very one God strengthens" (a Lapide). — "Humility adorns every one, but most of all the teacher, John i. 27 " (St.). — The guidance of a servant of God among men consists of two parts : (1) God's word; (2) God's hand. — The goodness of God shown in the leading of His servants : (1) He compensates them richly for what they were ob- liged to sacrifice (Ezekiel for his hereditary priest- hood, by means of the prophetic office derived from the Spirit) ; (2) His power is mighty in their misery (Ezekiel's home in God while in a state of exile from his native land, his divine freedom while led captive by man) ; (3) He fills their solitude with the glorious knowledge of Himself; {i) the heavens are opened to them above the earth, so that they see God instead of men. Ver. 4 sqq. The glory of the Lord (1) present in nature, (2) proclaimed in the word, (3) experi- enced in faith. — Ver. 4 : Nebuchadnezzar and Jehovah do not exclude one another ; the former is merely the servant, and the latter tlie Master. The king of Babylon must perform what he has been sent to by the King of heaven and earth (Deut. xxxii. 30). — "With the one word Storm! the prophet places himself in rugged opposition to the false prophets, who with one mouth pro- claimed serene tranquillity (Matt. viii. 26)" (Hengst.). — The storm which makes a clearance among the imaginations of the ilesh is God's judgments, alike upon individuals and upon whole nations. — "The ungodly are like the storm, but God's storm outstorins them " (Stck. ). — " Out of the north, not towards the north. The judgment must begin at the house of God " (H.). — " If they have become like the Egyptians in their practices, they need not wonder if an Egyptian fate also befalls them. They have not, in fact, wished it otherwise" (H.). — "The cloud of sins draws toward it the cloud of punishments" (Stck.). — "Behold, the Judge standeth before the door !" Jas. v. 9. — "Fire consumed Sodom ; fire consumed the tent with the rebels in Israel ; everlasting fire is sure to the ungodly" (Stck.). — " From this flows of itself the exhortation to repentance, in order that the sun may appear after the cloud" (H.). — "The contrast of the false prophets and of the true is not that of sal- Tation and judgment, but that of salvation without punishment and without repentance, and of salvation which after judgment falls to tte lot of the penitent people, — of mere gospel, crying. Peace, pea le, when there is no peace, and of the law and the gospel, each in its own time. A prophet who proclaimed only punish- ment would be no less a false prophet than one who holds out in prospect nothing but peace. Law and gospel, each in its entire fulness, — this is even to the present day the characteristic mark of the true servants of God " (H.). — " Qua putatur poena, medicina est" (Jerome). — "As fiery rays shoot forth from the thick clouds, so in the midst of His judgments God causes a ray of His mercy to be seen " (St.). — "The brightness gleams only out of the far distance. But Exod. xxxiv. y must stand before our eyes, if the sufl'er- iug called forth by sin is to bring forth the healthful fruit of righteousness " (H.). Ver. 5 sqq. " He who appears for judgment is the Almighty, whom everything living serves (just as everything can also be quickened into life for His purposes, the wheels !) ; who is there that can pluck out of His hand ?" (after H.).^ — The four living creatures, four living pictures of suitable instruments for God : (1) from the fire, i.e. zeal for God, all their acting as well as speak- ing must proceed ; (2) they have, a. to confront the whole world ; b. nevertheless, they may rise with confidence above the whole world on wings of prayer and meditation ; (3) at the same time, a. they stand firm, sure, and stedfast, wliile everything around them reels to and fro ; b. and their walk shines in the darkness of this world in a worthy, pure, divine manner. — The nuin- ber four in Ezekiel in its significance for the mission and the missionary call of the Church of God. Ver. 5. " Preachers have the likeness of a man, inasmuch as they imitate Christ in work, grace, suffering, and glory. They stamp in this way the Crucified One in the hearts of their hearers, 1 Cor. i. 23, ii. 2 " (Gregory).— Ver. 6 : " Simi- larly a believing soul also wishes for itself icings in His service, and four, yea, a thousand tongues, wherewith to praise Him" (Beul. B. ). — Ver. 7: " Like pillars, honest servants of God and true believers ought to stand straight and erect in tlie house of God, and not suffer themselves to be bent after the will of men, nor to be corru))ted through their own lusts, so as to get crooked feet" (Berl. B. ). — The world ought to be per- mitted to look at our/ee< also, and to praise our Father in heaven. Matt. v. 16. — " We are in the world, but we ought not to be of the world," John xvii. 16. — "It is the fire of the divine Spirit that is meant, or love in our conduct, as it shines or becomes manifest to men's con- sciences" (Cocc). Ver. 8. "Hands and wings are together, just as we should not fail in carrying out our pious thoughts also" (after Scbiver). — "The hands covered with the wings ought to teach thee humility ; as Jerome says : Conceal thy hands where God has helped thee, and say. The Lord has done it; His name be praised I but not thy industry, tliy wisdom, thy labour, thy care, and the like" (Stck.). — "Wherever and to whatever God calls thee, have not merely thy hands ready, but also thy heart ; let that say : Thy will, 0 God, I gladly do ! and thy mouth also for praise, and thy ear also, to hear and to hearken " (Stck. ). — "The hand under the wing; see the hidden manner of acting of the Most High"(L. Lav.). — " The power of work under the wing of contem- plation, Martha under Mary" (Gregory). — Ver. 9 : " United power is stronger. With laings united iu prayer, and stretched out for unwearied labour, 58 EZEKIEL. we may hope for good success in all things " (SrcK.). — " Through harmony, even small things gi'ow, whUe the gieatest even fade away through discord. Where there is one heart and 07ie soul, there is God Himself and His blessing, Ps.cxxxiii. ; Acts iv. 32"(Stck. ). — The work is common ; let the labour be the same ; else the one pulls down what the other builds up. — Straight forward, a glorious matter also with servants of C4od : (1) The man who turns is not fit for the kingdom of God (Luke ix. 62), since whatever can stop or un- necessarily hinder, even though it cannot cause us to deviate, is behind ; (2) that to which God sends and has called us, lies wholly and always before us, and the way is narrow. Towards this let the eagle's wing, the lion's courage, the ox's strength, the man's spirit, strive with all their powers! (Phil. iii. 14.) — Ver. 11: "The wings portray the faith which lifts us up to Christ ; anil therewith we also cover all our own worthiness, wisdom, strength, righteousness ; for he who is righteous by faith is so as being an unrighteous and condemned man" (Cocc). — "So also the Saviour sent forth the disciples two by two to preach the gospel in concord and humility " (B. B.). Ver. 12 sqq. "The creature in itself cannot and ought not to be the object of love, of trust, and of fear" (H.). — As the Spirit impels those who serve God, so zeal for the honour of God has the sway over them, and the outcome is pure life and motion. — Ver. 13 : Of Basil it is said that his speech was thunder, his life lightning. — Ver. 14 : "The pious soul never has rest ; it has always something to contend with. Believers strive vehemently after what is heavenly, and return to God, while they ascribe all the honour of their works to Him " (Geegorv). — " The Church is continually in motion in the world. She has no fixed place, like Israel in Canaan ; and wherever she is, she will move forward. If she is resisted, so much the more powerfully she breaks through the opposition. Wherever she comes, she subdues men to herself; and if she is driven out, she returns with power" (Cocc). Livinij creatures and wheels ! A glimpse into the divine government upon earth. (1) There all is life, — even what is in itself without life becomes life, — while in the case of man everything tends to* death and becomes death. (2) 'There we see incessant movement in work, directed towards every quarter of the world, and to God's goal as its aim, while the world passes away with its lust as well as with its works in judgment. Ver. 15 sqq. " The word of God may be com- pared to the wheel (1) because of its circuit through the world ; (2) because of its unity in all quarters of the world ; (3) because of the Spirit who works along with the word ; (4) be- cause of the glorious perfections of the word " (Stck. ). — Ver. 16 : "In the gospel thou findest the brightness of eternal truth, the light of heavenly doctrines, in manifold play of colours" (Stck.). — "There is, however, but one word, one gospel, alike in the Old and in the New Testa- ment : the same in paradise, the same on David's harp, the same in the prophets and the apostles, and in the work and word of Christ Himself, Acts XV 11 '" (Stck.). — As wheel in wheel, so the New in th; Old Testament (" Novum in V. latet, Vetus in N. patet." Augtistine). Ver. IS. Starck compares the height of the word of God (Rom. xi. 33), and the fearfulnest of its earnestness against the ungodly ; then, farther, let one perceive therein the eye of divine Providence, the gospel which is all eye and light, etc. — "These are Me ej/e-s which watch over the Church" (A Lapide). — On the other baud, the world pictures to itself its good fortune as blind, in fact, its love also, and even its righteousness. — " But look thou what thou doest, tliou who wouldst gladly be hidilen from God, for He has very many eyes in His invisible instruments, which thou seest not, while they see thee well " (B. B.). — Ver. 19: " This is no chariot which rolls along with its wheels on the earth meiely, and these are no animals which crawl along the earth merely ; their instinct is upwards, and thither they point our way" (B. B.). Vers. 20, 21. "Pious teachers and preachers are governed and impelled by the Spirit of God. 0 happy Churches, which have such teachers ! Acts xviii. 5" (St.). — "The divine care also accompanies godly men everywhere, and follows them step by step in all their undertakings ; it moves and governs them, and does not leave them for an instant. Therefore also they do not move except under the impulse of the Holy Spirit, to which they give heed. They are ordered and re- gulated in all things according to the will of God" (B. B.).— Ver. 21: "That the course of the gospel is sometimes arrested for a season, arises from the decree of God" (0.). Veh 22. "The heaven or the heavens, in con- trast with the poor earth standing in the singular, in the Old Testament is throughout the most illustrious proof of God's gre.atness (Ps. xix.); aud the God of heaven is frequently called, in order to denote His omnipotence, the God of hosts, of the powers of heaven" (H.). — "The heaven is everywhere above us, in order that we may seek what is above, since as yet we have not full possession" (Stck.). — "The terrible crystal reminds us that nothing unclean enters the new Jerusalem" (Stck.). — "The throne of grace is founded in the righteousness of Christ, Ps. Ixxxix. 14, xcvii. 2, of which this crystal foun- dation may be an emblem" (B. B.). — Ver. 23 : "Faith unites the Church militant to the Church triumphant, and to the throne of God " (Cocc). — "The natural man, full of self-love and self-com- placency, has neither wings for flying nor fo> covering himself, and is on that very account, with all liis imagined riches, miserable and poor, naked and bare" (B. B. ). — Ver. 24: "Like the noise of tlte wings is the uproar which God's word occasions. So was it in the time of the apostles " (Stck.). — " By which some understand the prayer and the ardour of spirit in the Church militant, — movements, however, which in the world also awaken a noise and alarm" (B. B. ). — Ver. 25: "The voice in heaven is the voice and authority of the King, of Christ, by which He holds tha nations in allegiance, so that they dare not in- opportunely disturb His Church, Song viii. 4 " (Cocc). — Ver. 26: "He sat upon the throne; for the Lord and Judge of all is of tranquil mind, — is not, like men, disturbed by passions. Above all. He who moves all, Himself unmoved " (B. B.). —Ver. 27 : "As in 2 Thess. i. 8, 9, Christ is re- vealed in fire against the despisers of the gospel, so the fire here is directed against the despisers of the law" (H.). — Ver. 28 : "However severe God's judgments are, yet He does not forget Hif CHAP. II. 1-in. 11. 59 ccreiiant. " — "After the storm tlie sun shines, after tilt' rain follows the rainbow, after the cross the rest, after the tears the joy. Such is the vicissitude in this world; constant felicity is re- served for the world to come" (Stck. ). — Without judgment no grace. — "This was at the same time a foreshadowing of the glorious appearing of Christ in tlie tiesh with His kingdom, 1 Tim. iii. 16 "(B. B. ). — The glorious throne-chariot of Jehovah : (1) its nature : cloud, living creatures, wheels, throne ; (2) its meaning : in the kingdom ot nature, for the kingdom of gi-ace ; (3) its object : judgment and salvation. — " How glorious is the fatherland of the childien of God ! Little hare tlie prophets seen of it in vision ; but we are to 'have it all face to face" (after Richter). — Just when Israel's glory was about to disajipear nndei Babylon, then Jehovah reveals His glory in Babylon. — "Let us learn, if we w'ish to be apt hearers of the divine word, to put no trust in oui own powers, but humbly submitting ourselves to God. to hang on His lips, and to look to Him " (L. Lav.). — " In the sinner there is no ability tc stand before God and before His light and glory, unless he is enabled to do so by the Spirit ol God " (Cocc). — So also the gloi-ij of Jesus Chris! which appeared to Paul, when in fulness of love the question was put to him : Why persecutest thou me ? threw- him to the ground. Yes ; it is grace that does it most of all. 2. The Divine Comsiission to the Prophet (Ch. ii. 1-ni. 11). Ch. II. 1. And He said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak 2 with thee. And the spirit entered into me as He spake unto me, and set me 3 upon my feet, and I heard Him that spake unto me. And He said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the sons of Israel, to heathens, the rebels, who rebelled against me. They and their fathers have been revolters from me down to this 4 very day. And the sons! stiff of face and hard of heart are they, I do send thee unto them [ver. s]; and thou sayest unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah. 5 And they, whether they hear or whether they forbear, — for they are a house ot 6 rebelliousness, — know then that a prophet was in their midst. And thou, son ol man, thou art not to be afraid of them, neither of their words art thou to be afraid; for [although] prickles and thorns are with thee, and thou art dweUing among scorpions, of their words thou art not to be afraid, and at their face thou 7 art not to be terrified, for they are a house of rebelliou.sness. And thou speakest my words unto them, whether they hear or whether they forliear; for tliej- are 8 rebelliousness. And thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee: Thou must not be rebelliousness, like the house of rebelliousness. Open thy mouth, and eat 9 what I give unto thee. And I saw, and behold, an hand sent [stretched] unto me; 10 and behold, in it a book-roll. And He spread it out before me; and it was written within and without, and on it were written lamentations, and groaning, and woe. Ch. III. 1. And He said unto me, Son of man, that which thou shalt find eat; eat 2 this roll, and go, speak unto the house of Israel. And I opened my mouth, and 3 He caused me to eat this roll. And He said unto me, Son of man, thy belly shalt thou cause to eat, and thy bowels shalt thou fill with this roll which I give 4 thee. And I did eat; and it became in my mouth as honey for sweetness. And He said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and thou 5 speakest in my words unto them. For not to a people obscure of lip and difficult 6 of tongue art thou sent, — to the house of Israel. Not to many nations obscure of lip and difficult of tongue, whose words thou canst not hear [undeistandcst nm], — 7 although I have not sent thee to them, they would hearken unto thee. Yet the house of Israel, they will not be willing to hearken unto thee, for they are not willing to hearken unto me ; for all the house of Israel, hard of forehead and stifl 8 of heart are they. Behold, I have made thy face hard against their face, and thy 9 forehead hard against their forehead. As an adamant harder than stone have I made thy forehead: thou shalt not fear them, and thou shalt not be terrified at 1 0 their face, for they are a house of rebelliousness. And He said unto me, Son ol man, all my words that I shall speak unto thee, receive in thine heart and hear 11 in thine ears. And go, get thee to the captivity, to the children of thy jieopla, and thou speakest unto them, and sayest unto them, Thus saith the Ik>I!3 Jehovah, whether they hear or whether they forbear. Ch. iL Ver. 2. Sept. : ... it' »^ rttw/jM x. ct.n\a^u im x. i^yttptu fju x. irTnn fu — Ver. 8. . . . T, i'lxn T. ^\ffe. rwji ^ecpe^irixfiautnTai iMt otTitH — Ver. 6 . , . ^ wnfriBat^itt iivri — fiC EZEKIEL. Ch, ii. Ver. 6. , , , f^it ixerrriS otfTO Tpovittvu nlrtn, Zieri xttpotrrpriretjfftv X. iTmr-Fyttratrctt («i rl xvxAfc— Ver. 7. Anoth. read. : 'HD n'3 (Sepr., Syr., Arab., Chald.: DJ?)- Ver. 10. . . . ytypttpcfjuva. ij* rat oiriffStr x. rcc ifjivpcffBin — Cfc. iii. Ver. 1. . . . avSpwov, xetra^cfyt T. xtt^et^iix . . , vloti'lffp. (Anotb. read.; ''33, Vulg., Syi., ^ab.) Ver. 2. K. iinvoiit^. Ver. 3. ... TO iTTo^jjx, j-cu ^etyiTuA X. n xoikix. . . . Tr,; Si5tf/wy»)f us «... fuXi yXvxetZo*. Ver. 5. . . . ^x6v^tiXoy X. . . . ffv e§«Tao'TiAA*i T/>of t. «Ix. Ver. 6. . . . otXKoyKOKrroui eZiit ffTi^oLpous ttj yXva-rf) curxi . . . «. £i !r/)« TOiowTowf . . . ri/Tfli ccv ciVi)xwr«* m Ver. 7. . . . ^iAoy£ixoj £jV»v X. — Ver. 9. K. icrcci, hi^tTtorss xpterxicTipov jtirpats . . . fjttiil xrtvStls tL^c — Ver. 10. . . . oui XlXaXvxx fUTtc rev — Ver. 11. . . . ietv aox ivSa/irit. EXEGETICAL BEMARKR. In accordance with the character of the vision of ch. i. as discussed at p. 31, the installation of EkfJciel to his sphere of labour must now take place, the vision must be realised as a mission (first of all in words). But before the mission comes to be expressed in words (it is said, tirst of all, merely, ver. 1, and I will speak with thee), the prophet is restored, so to speak, physically, i.e. as regards mind aud body, to the status quo. Vers. 1, 2. — The Divine Raising up of Ezekiel in order to the Divine Commission. Ver. 1. And He spake. The " voice of one that spake " (ch. i. 28, conip. ver. 25) must be that of Him who sits upon the throne (ver. 26). — mX"p, ™"" "/ men. By this expression Ezekiel is immediately contrasted with Him who is speak- ing to him ; for of Him it is said at ch. i. 26 : " tlie likeness as the appeurance of a man." Jehovah merely appeared "as a man," Ezekiel is a son of man. (Cocc. certainly ^ mi frater, Ps. xxii. 22; Heb. ii. 11, 12. ) Hence the view that this form of address is meant to distinguish him from the angels — apart from such a concep- tion of the chajoth in ch. i. — says too little. On the other hand, it would increase the distinction so as to produce a conflict with the raising up of the prophet which follows, if a humbling of him were meant to be signified by this expression (Raschi), — in order that he may not after such visions exalt himself as being only a man (2 Cor. xii. 7). It is perhaps meant to be said at the commencement, — but even more for those who have to hear him than for Ezekiel himself; and on this account it becomes a stereotyped (Haver. : more than 80 times) form of address to the pro- l)het, — that he would not to be able to give such revelations from himself (comp. Introd. § 7). But this man of men is called : one whom God strengthens (comp. Introd. § 1). His legitima- tion for the Churcli lies as much in the one as in the other; in other words, in both together (1 Cor. XV. 10). The expression son of man is meant to say to Israel; "Thus saith the Lord Jehovah." — As regards the divine raising up of Ezekiel which is intended, his falling down comes, first of all, to be considered : stand upon thy feet. This human element, which has come to be ex- pressed, is established by the form of address on the part of Jehovah ; yet without the design of humbling the prophet (e.g. as the Jews say, be- cause driven out of Jerusalem, like Adam out of Eden !), rather with compassionate cnndescen- eion (ob fiXaytpu^lxr — PoLANUs), a divine ecce homo. Then, farther, it corresponds with the Btereotyping of this form of address to Ezekiel, and also with an exaltation of him, as respects hii prophetic mission, when it is remenjbered in connection therewith that the vision of eh. i., with all its direct and special applicability t* Israel of that time, had a general human charac- ter, and a horizon embracing the whole world ; the likeness of a man predominated in the chajoth, the likeness as the appearance of a man was the description of Him who sat on the throne, the number four had the sway numerically over the whole. With this distinction from ch. ix., x., the mission of Ezekiel takes place, who at the same time is addressed as "son of man," as prophet not merely of Israel, but of mankind generally. [RosENM. : pro simplici mx homo. Havern. : a standing humiliation, corresponding with the time of the exile, and the strong, powerful nature of Ezekiel, and at the same time, a lesson for his hearers to look quite away from man. Hengst. ; the form of address admits what lies before the eyes in looking at the frivolous objections of the multitude. Hitzig: a self-reflection of the pro- phet as to the distance between God and him. Klief. : because God speaks with him as man to man, as a man talks with his friend. Keil : the weakness and frailty of man, in contrast with God, which appears the more prominent in the case of Ezekiel, through the preponderance of vision, for the people as for him a sign of the power of God in weakness, who can raise Israel even up again, miserable as she is among the heathen. Umbr. : " The call of giace out of the mouth of Him who by the sight of His glory has cast man to the ground in the consciousness of his sin."] — Ezekiel is to rise to his feet (comp. Dan. viii. 18; Matt. xvii. 7; Actsxxvi. 16 ; E.xod. xxxiii. 21), primarily, a corporeal lifting up of the prophet, in order, however, that God may talk xoith him. ■;]nN. the accusative particle niS for the prep. nN (Ew., Lehrb. § 264 ; Ges. § 101). Comp. ch. iii. 22, 24, 27. Ver. 2. For the divine summon*' the divine preparation is not wanting, impoixant for all coming time (ch. iii. 24 ; comp. Rev. i. 17). nn, coming in this way, by means of God's word, is not "the consciousness, the thinking power' of the prophet, his "animal spirits" (Hitzig), comp. on ch. i. 28 ; for the spirit comes into him, does not so much return to him (how would he have been able, ch. i. 28, in a state of uncon- sciousness, to hear one speaking?) ; but also not the Holy Spirit for the purpose of inspii-ation, but : the spirit who was ajso in the chajoth and in the wheels, ch. i. (Henostenberg) ; just aa the context makes us think of that first. God gives him the .spirit to set him on his feet, but also to catch His words ; on account of the latter, this divine quickening is at the same time ex- pressed as a coming of the "spirit" into him, it is a quickening of mind aud body coniointly CHAP. II. 3-7. CI which brings about the transition from the revela- tion in vision (riKIO) '" >he revelation by word. (Havers. : the Spirit of God, partly as power that overmasters, seizes him, partly as that vic- torious, divine power — in himself — of genuine coui-age and noble alac "ity in his calling ?) An interesting parallel in 1 Kings x. 5. — ")31D (ch. xliii. 6) = -|arinD partic. Hithp. ; in eh. i. 28, 1310 partic. Piel. Raschi : " The Shcchinah talked within itself in its glory." In that case, '^K=:o/"me. ns ^itli tli^ participle=Him who (EwALD, Lehr. p. 569 sqq.). Ver. 3-iii. 11. — The Divine Commission to the Prophet. Vers. 3-7. What Opposition he has to encounter from his Hearers, as well as the Divine Consola- tion thereanent. \'er. 3. And He spake unto me — is continually repeated anew, characteristically, indicating the momentary character of the divine communica- tions.— The mission is portrayed after the manner of the address. 'J2. for which the LXX. have read n'3. The sons (children) of Israel in general are brought down to the level of Q'lj (which expression is not used for the tribes and families, nor does it, as HiTZiG, Klief., mean merely isolated por- tions of the people), — 'ij (from ni3), that which is brought together, like iVys,-, that which hangs together by means of ih;, custom, in distinction from Xxis — (comp. Hos. i. 8) which is farther ex- plained by: the rebels, and may be illustrated by comparison with Ps. ii. 1. The article em- phasizes them as such in a decided way, and the clause : which rebelled against me, impressively repeats what is applicable to them. (Henost. : They are described first according to what they ought to have been, sons of him who wrestled and prevailed in faith with God and man ; then according to what they really are, a microcosm, as it were, of the whole heathen world, whose re- ligion and morals were reflected in them ; the plural goes even beyond Isa. i. 4. Polanus refers it to Judah and Israel. ) How general the state- lueuts are is shown by what follows: they and their fathers— (Jer. iii. 25). The echo makes itself heard still in the speech of Stephen, Acts vii. 51-53. — Dvy. a Pentateuelial word. Ver. 4. But since it is the sons to whom the divine mission directs the prophet, they are put forward, as it were pointed out with the finger, but by no means as "children of God," as Havern. will have it. Stiff is something thoroughly bad (Isa. xlviii. 4); it isothenvise with Lard(Heb. xiii. y), which may at all events be determined by cir- stances (comp. eh. iii. 8, 9). Here the face deter- mines the character of the heart, and of its hard- ness as one that is evil. This evil hardness of the heart explains the before-mentioned faithless- ness "down to this very day." The stiffness of the face excludes alike the emotion of shame and the tears of repentance. — Thee (thus to those who are 3p-ipfn, one of the ^X"'ptn), to the hard- hearted one who is hard (firm) in God, comp. Ezekiel's name, Introd. § 1 (ch. iii. 8, 9).— Thus saith the Lord Jehovah. And here we are by nc! means, with J. H. Michaelis, to add in thought ; etc. Just this short statement, without any addi- tion, is of indescribable majesty as opposed to the rebels ; in connection with it, Virgil's quos ego may suggest itself to us. [Sept. : iiltn; xvfits Vulg. : Domimis deus. Philipps. : the Lord, the Eternal. Other Jewish translators : God the Lord.] It is a short form of Exod. xx. 2. — Be- cause 'jhx. according to which niil' is usually punctuated, immediately precedes, nin ' g<;ts the points of D'n^K.— Ver. 5. And they strongly emphasizes those who have been mentioned. To supply out of ver. 7 : and speak my words unto them, or the like (Hexgst. ), is not necessary, is even unsuitable, inasmuch as "thus saith the Lord Jehovah" precedes (comp. ch. iii. 11), and also confuses the meaning of the sentence, which finds its apodosis after the expressively re- sumed non in 1ST1 : they know then, or : "tl>ey know, however, " etc. Nevertheless, n'n preserves the meaning of was (not : is), although, as both cases are supposed : "hearing" and "forbearing," i.e. neglecting to hear, 'ljn ch. xxviii. 24. Elsewhere also a figurative and non-figurative ex- pression are combined (Ps. xxvii. 1). — '3, accord- ing to Keil: if, but better: although. It give* 62 EZEKIEL. the reason for the charge. — TIDIX 's explained by wliiil follows as bein<5 the with of association (ch. iii. 15; Deut. viii. 15; 1 Kings xii. 11, 14). A gradation : briars, thorns, scorpions ! nnn Niplial : to be broken, to pass away, to despair (ch. iii. 9). — Face, because it is stiff (ver. 4).— House (ver. 5), here again with special reference to his "dwelling." Ver. 7: ch. iii. 4; ii. 5. ^-^o at the close, but with heightened meaning, as it were the incarnation of it. Cli. xliv. 6. Ver. 8-iii. 11. What Opposition he might have to encounter in himself, mid tlie Divine Strengthen- ing against it. Ver. 8. Hitherto it was the commission as such, viz. a divine one, now it is the same commission as resjiects what it will contain 'l^H nS- Inas- much as Ezekiel belongs to t/mt house, iijj (as hitherto always in pause-form) is attributed to him also. It has been understood as an adjective, or elliptically (supply {^'X, ■^'er- ': 'B'JS)- C'onip. Jonah ; Exod. iv. 13 ; Jer. i. 6. The divine commission is symbolized by means of the following demand, with whicli eveiy objection is cut olf. (Illustrating, at the same time, the form of expression in John vi. ) With appetite, hunger, we have here nothing to do. — Ver. 9: nxiSI, comp. ch. i. 1 : consequently in vision. \2. because T" is of the common gender ; others make the sufhx neuter, alleging that T< is always feminine. — TlbjO' written after the manner of the Pentateuch on the skin of an animal, Ps. xl. 7 ; lleb. X. 7 (Rev. X. 2). J. D. Michaelis makes the remark here : such a book rolled about a rounded piece of wood looks not unlike a baker's roll (I). — Ver. 10. God spreads out this roll before him, so that he can ascertain what follows, the contents of the divine commission, can become acquainted with his mission. It was a so-called opisthograph (LuciAN ; Vit. Auct. ix.), Pliny, Ep. 49. Written over inside, and on the back (comp. Rev. v. 1), not merely, as usual, the inside alone ; within and without, indicating a writing of gmat size, whose fulness of contents is also clear at onot: to every one, by which writing we are to understand tlie book of our prophet, whose cliaracter, as will immediately appear, is to be specified as n^p (wailing, mourning, lamen- tation, xix. 1), njn (from tlie low sound), and 'n (according to Geskn., for ipiJ ; Evi'. : a sound of wai]ing=>in). Comp. therewith, Exod. xxxi. 18; Zech. v. 1 ; Jer. xxxvi. IS ; Dan. v. 25. Ch. iii. 1. What he finds before him (ch. ii. 8, 9) ; he would certainly not seek it for himself After the acceptance without objection (symbol- ized by the eating), the speaking to the house of Israel is to take place : -|2T "]?1, i<"'v5;ra'5, without 1 between them, one idea. Only what God imparts to him he is to preach, and that immediately : and therefore nothing of his own, and no delay in accordance with liis own judg- ment (2 Tim. iv. 2). The objectivity and sove- reignty of the divine word are strongly emphasized. Comp. Deut. xviii. 18 ; Jer.' i. 9 (Matt. x. 20).— Ver. 2. A symbolical transaction, and also taking place in vision (Deut. viii. 3 ; Ps. cxix. 130, 131). — Ver. S An intensification of the thought to the highest degree, so that the prophet is not merely to be willing to aci-ept (to "eat", but what he has accepted is to be his food, on which he lives, and that which fills his inner man, which determines liis activity outwardly. Comp. Ps. xl. 8 ; John iv. 31-34 (1 Tim. iv. 6 ; Luke vi. 45). Double accusative— nP3X1, ^^'tii em- phasis (Gesen. Gramm. % 126), neut. : as respects sweetness, as sweet as honey. A frequent com- parison as applied to the fear of God, His word and the like (comp. Jer. xv. 16). The bitter element (Rev. x. 9, 10) is perhaps presupposed in what he saw written on the roll (ch. ii. 10 ; comp. Rom. ix. 2). In this way the bitter ele- ment would come first, and so much the greater an act of obedience would the prophet's eating appear. And so Klief might legitimately em- pliasize the sweet after-taste, and also ])oint to this, that Ezekiel, after and during all the misery which he has to announce, will liave also some- thing sweet in his mouth in saying it, or even in merely knowing it respecting Israel. Com]) Introd. § 5 ; comp. however, ver. 14 also. Ver. 4. S<3""1p; comp. the imperative in vers. 1, 11. A more expressive repetition of the com- mand in the mission. Hence the sweet taste which the prophet experienced in ver. 3 sym- bolizes, first of all, his alacrity; thus the divine preparation, the strengthening experienced in re- spect of that which would possibly ott'er resistance in himself ; so that there may be a retrospective reference to the main hindrance, namely, that which lay with Israel (ch. ii. 3-7). — Ver. 5. It seems like a relief that Ezekiel is not sent to "V2V' ^^'li'ch certainly stands for those speaking a language foreign to a Jew (comp. Isa. xxxiii. 19), as is also explained in so many words in ver. 6, and which, in parallelism here with heavy tongue, will mean not so much "deep" of sound, as rather, in accordance with the cognate idea of deep, viz. obscure as regards the iiiterpret^tion, — is there a reference to the widely-opened lips of the stammering tongue ? The pilural, because of the collective QV- S" already Calvin.— ni^C nns, standing in the middle, refers alike to the positive and to the negative part of the sentence ; we may supply : but. — The house of Israel is the prophet's oum house (ver. 11), in whose case, therefore, lip and tongue have not the stamp of strangeness for him. — Ver. 6. This more general thought in ver. 5 receives in ver. 6 a peculiar colouring, inasmuch as, on the one hand, the many nations are maile prominent by the side of Israel, — Ezekiel's sphere of labour is small and contracted in comparison, — and inasmuch as, on the other hand, stress is laid upon the circumstance ; " ivhose words (if they had to speak to thee) thou wouldst nnf under- stand " — thus the hindrance iis regards tlieir lip and tongue would lie with the prophet. But in the latter respect, it is rather that he has to speak ("and speakest in my words," vers. 4, IV), and not so much to hear. The subject in hand is the power of comprehension which the propliet is to meet with. Now, this is a contrast which lies in thought between the lines. But another con- nected therewith (just as it is hiuted by the con- trast drawn between Israel and the heathen, t< whom Israel was compared above in ch. ii. 3) ia expressed in so many words : Dn'?K N? DX, where -^ ri'31 in '''e''- 7 is to be understood at the principal clause, and "ncn a.s in parenthesis, CHAP. III. 8-11. so tliat the sense is : Ezekiel is sent not to those whom he ought to understanil, and cannot under- stand, but to Israel, who ought to hear him, and will not hearken to him. Those to whom God does not send him would throw no hindrance in his way ; although he might not be able to under- stand them, they would Aearien unto him — ]JT2Z' with ^x, contrasted indeed with the inability to understand on his part, as well as, of course, on their part also ; but only the former reference comes to be considered when the question is as to the right accomplishment of his task, that of speaking God's words ; it does not indeed signify "assent" (Hengst. ), but a givinq heed, and therefore what presupposes interest at least, if not desire, and what might possibly lead to more, perhaps, as Kimchi remarks : they would seek after an interpreter of thy words. But although the prophet is sent not to such, but rather to Israel, yet (ver. 7) the house of Israel does not manifest even the interest which heathens would show, for they will not even pay any attention to Ezekiel, not to speak of becoming obedient to his words. The relief is thus only seeming. Comp. Matt, xxiii. 37. [Similar and different explana- tions : For the most part S^-PS is understood as a formula of swearing, or as an asseveration (verily), and the sentence hypothetically (if 1 sent thee) ; comp. on the other hand Hitzig, KeU. For X^"DX, E"'- reads S^i'DX instead of xp, just as a Lap. does, instead of x^5 ! The old transla- tions omit X? without hesitation, while the Majsoretes, on the other hand, mark the verse because of its threefold {"DS = "l'ut," referring DH'^S and non to Israel, and y'^a IJJOC" = they are able, ought to understand thee. The latter expression, how- ever, does not mean the same thing as "to hearken to any one." Cocc. : If I had not sent thee to them (Israel), those others (the lieathen) would hearken to thee. The words have also been understood intenogatively : if 1 had not sent thee to them, would not those others hearken to thee ?] The meaning we have given harmonizes with the history of Naaman the Syrian, of the book of Jonah, of the woman of Can.aan, of the heathen centurion (Matt. viii. ). Comp. also Matt. xi. 21 sqq., xii. 41. — Not unto thee, be- cause not nnto me : what a strengthening of Ezekiel ! That must have changed his wrath into the sorrow of lo%'e, eh. xx. 8 ; comp. Matt. X. 24, 25 ; John xv. 20. — ri'3"73 considered as a whole, so that the exceptions do not come into consideration. The wicked hardness of the heart (comp. on ch. ii. 4) is here attributed to the fore- head, because it finds expression there ; that the stiffness of the " heart " is here expressed, proves the correctness of the explanation given on ch. ii. 4 of the hardness as applied to the heart (Isa. xlviii. 4 ; Jer. iii. 3 ; Exod. xxxii. 9 ; Matt. six. 8). Ver. 8. The divine strengthening of Ezekiel, now quite clearly expressed, while his labours have become more difficult, and not, as it ap- peared, more easy, offers itself as the explanation of his name (comp. on ch. ii. 4). It is also not without design tliat the word used in reference to him is not "stiff," but hard, which we tiiiJ repeatedly. A divine confronting. Comi>. Jer. i. 18, XV. 20.— Ver. 9. The thought is still furthei intensified by means of the comparison. Tot? (from "lOt^, to holdfast; hence : to keep) means something hard ; hence a thorn ; here the hardest of precious stones. Harrier than stone, a jiro verbial expression of the diamond. Bochart, comparing the I'liifis, emery, understands a sub- stance for grinding and polishing. Comp. also P. Cassel on "Schemir." According to the Jewish Hagada and Turkish legend ; a wonderftil worm, whose blood is said to have cut through the stones without noise at the building of Solo- mon's temple. "{<7, the admonition sounds like a prohibition and promise in one. Comp. ch. ii. 6, 5. — Ver. 10. "The conclusion and return to the prophet himself, in view of the possible re- sisting element in him (ch. ii. 8 sqq. ). An allu- sion at the same time to the symbolic transaction in ver. 1 sqq. — All the words, but those which God will first speak to him. — The heart first, be- cause otherwise the ears are of little use (Acts xvi. 14). — Ver. 11 (ver. 15). Comp. ver. 4. The "house of Israel" there is the "golah" (cap- tivity) here, as a community, a society, which lies nearer to the prophet, because of its being his own people. Thy, not : My (Exod. xxxii. 7), ch. xxxiii. 2, 12, 17. As often ^3'^ and itDK together, the words to be spoken following the latter (ch. ii. 4). At the same time, a setting forth clearly of the position that he has to speak. Comp. ch. iu 5, 7, iii. 27. DOCTRINAL. 1. " A deeper meaning lies in this awakening word. First, the creature falls down in silence before the infinitude of the Creator ; this is humi- lity, the basis and root of all religious conduct. But he whom the Creator has permitted to come but little short of being himself God, whom He has crowned with glory and honour (Ps. viii. 5), is not to remain lying in half-conscious, silent adoration ; he is to rise to his feet, that he may hear the word of God. But certainly he cannot set himself upon his feet ; the Spirit must raise him up as a spirit, if he is to understand what God says. Lo, this is the holy pi,ychology of Holy Scripture, this is the freedom of tlje liighest thinking about God, which comes through God and from God" (Umbreit). 2. The overmastering divine factor in the prophets does not, however, suffer them to appear by any means unconscious. Ezekiel falling down upon the earth, becomes, even in the midst of the divine revelation, and under the impression of it, thoroughly conscious of what is earthly and human in his own self as contrasted with it [i.e. the revelation]. If this self of the prophet stands in a receptive attitude in that part of the revela- tion made to him which is pure vision, yet plastic fancy gives symbolic form to the expression, so as to be understood by men, in similitudes drawn from the earthly world, and memory is able tc reproduce for us what has been seen. But still farther, where, as iu ch. ii. , wh»t has been in- wardly received and experienced is expressed U ^54 EZEKIEL. words as idea and thought, Ezekiel must first rise to his feet, and become capable in spirit of under- stamiing the divine commission. Besides, a vast elevation of the mere natural life is the unmis- takable characteristic of our section ; comp. ch. ii. 5, 6, iii. 8, 9. 3. John also, although he had lain on the Lord's breast, at sight of Him (Rev. i.) fell at His feet as one dead. And by this as a standard, that very great familiarity which proclaims itself in so many prayers of far lesser saints ought to learn to measure and to moderate itself. There is, however, in our prayers more fancy and sham feeling than real intercourse with the Lord. 4. "An image of the new birth. When God bids us rise from the death in which we are lying (Eph. ii. 1, 5, V. 14), He at the same time im- parts to us His Spirit, who quickens us and raises us up. Similarly is it with our strengthening in all that is good. We are to do our duty ; and He brings it about that we are able to do it, Phil, ii. 13" (Cocc). 5. "God does not cast down His own in order to leave them lying on the ground ; but He lifts them up immediately afterwards. In believers, in other words, the haughtiness of the flesh is in this way corrected. If, therefore, we often see the ungodly terrified at the voice of God, yet they are not, like believers, after the humiliation, told to be of good courage," etc. (Calv.) 6. "It was only when the Spirit was added that some effect was produced by the voice of God. God works, indeed, effectually by means of His word ; but the effectiveness is not bound up with the sound, but proceeds from the secret im- pulse of the Spirit. The working of the Spirit is here connected with the word of God, yet in such a way, that we may see how the external word is of no consequence unless it is animated by the power of the Spirit. But when God speaks, He at the same time adds the effectual working of His Spirit" (Calv.). 7. " Signs without the word are in vain. What fruit would there have been if the prophet had merely seen the vision, but no word of God had followed it ? And this may be applied to the sacraments also, if they were mere signs before our eyes ; it is the word of God only that makes the sacraments in some measure living, just as is the case with the visions " (Calv.). 8. By means of the repeated "IDX'1 tlie divine revelation in word is identified with the revela- tion of glorv in ch. i., which was to appear as the ".Shechinah" in the Messiah, according to the Targums falling back upon the older tradition. One of th« steps towards the Logos in John i. 9. " In Jehovah and His covenant-relation to Israel lies the necessity of His revelation ; His testimony, the tidings from Him, viust be heard in the midst of Israel. Thus Jehovah Himself wills not merely the conversion, but also the hardening of the people (Isa. vi. 9 sqq. ), in so far as, first of all. He merely wills the preaching of Himself. Hence, if on the one hand the pro- phetic preaching must be traced back strictly to tlie will of God, is to be looked upon as an out- come and transcript of it, not less is this the case a.s regards its effects ; the hearing and not hearing of the same is likewise God's wUl, since otherwise He would be under the necessity of withholding His word itself" (Hay.). 10. The symbolical procedure with the book- roll belongs manifestly to the rision, is of the nature of vision, however much, as narrated, it resembles an e.xternal occurrence. Bordering, according to Tholuck, on " the rhetorical domain of metaphor," the representation teaches, at all events, how cautiously the exposition of Ezekiel will have to proceed in this respect. 11. Umbreit remarks on ch. iii. 1 sqq. : " Here we have the right expression for enabling us to form a judgment and estimate of true inspiration. The divine does not remain as a stiange element in the man ; it becomes his own feeling thoroughly, penetrates him entirely, just as food becomes a part of his bodily frame." "And the written book of the seer," he says in conclusion, "bears quite the stamp of something thoroughly pervaded alike hy the divine and human. " 12. A parallel to the symbolical transaction in Ezekiel, of which Havernick remarks that it "is the reality of an inner state, of the highest spiri- tual excitement, of the true and higher entering into the divine will," is presented by the second book of Esdras, xiv. 38 sqq. Comp. the ditier- ence of this "dead, apocryphal imitation," by means of which the thought of pure, divine in- spiration is meant to be expressed. 13. The unintelligibility of the language of the heathen world for the prophet is to be taken in a purely formal sense ; for as respects the material element, the substance, the manner of the think- ing, and not of the mere speaking, there is nothing at all said. For the prophet this inner side of the heathen languages would, it is true, present equal difficulty, if not even more, than that outer one. But emphasis is laid on the willingness of the heathen in spite of both, their pricking up their ears in order to understand, which was wanting in Israel. And therefore, what hinders the understanding lies in the case of the heathen merely in the language ; in the case of Israel, on the other hand, in this very circumstance. That the language of Israel was the holy language in which God had spoken from the beginning to them, must as regards the import also have lightened the labours of Ezekiel, and conse- quently have produced a relief in this respect, where, in the case of the heathen, the language brought with it an additional difficulty. It is sometimes easier to exert an influence upon men of the world than upon men who are familiar with the "language of Canaan" (Isa. xix. 18) from childhood up. Just because Israel at once understood what the topic was in Ezekiel's mouth ( " he spake, of course, merely what Moses and the other prophets had spoken," Cocc), their disgust and repugnance towards God's word as soon M possible turned aside out of his way. The alle- viation through the disposition of heart on the part of the heathen became in this case the re- verse through the disposition of heart on the part of Israel. 14. "The distinction which Greeks and Ro- mans made between their language and that of the barbarians, reduces itself to (hat of culture. It is otherwise with the distinction between thu language of Israel and that of the heathen nations. Israel's language is formed by means of God's word, while the languages of the heathen nations were formed from purely human developments" (Klif.f. ). 15. There is thus in Ezekiel the same hopefoj CHAP. II. 1-8. 6: (although, in reference to Israel, mournful) out- look into the heathen world, which iu the Old Covenant alreatiy announces the days of the New. " It follows from the stress laid on the recep- tivity of the heathen, that salvation will yet at some future time be offered to them in an effectual way" (Hiiv.). HOMItETIC HINTS. Ver. 1. The name Son of man belongs above all to Him who did not fall to the giound before the vision of the divine glory, but descended from the midst of the enjoyment of this glory to our earth. — Ezekiel and Christ, type and antitype. — Daniel also is so addressed (ch. viii. 17) ; and if Ezekiel saw God as a man, Daniel saw the Lord of an everlasting dominion as a son of man (ch. vii. ). Thus they bore upon them the stamp of the future, of the fulness of the times. — " I know thy weakness, that thou art a man, and canst not bear the splendour of the divine majesty " (B. B. ). — "Although preachers are compared to angels, yet they continue men, and ought to keep thi.s always in mind " (Stck.). — " Even the most pious and most gifted teachei-s are subject to human infirmities, Gal. ii. 11 " (St.). — " Because teachers are men, hearers ought also to learn to bear patiently with their infimiities, 2 Cor. xii. 13 " (St.). — " We ought not to remain lying on the ground, either in sin, or from laziness of the flesh, or with slavish fear, when God calls us" (Stck.). — "So long as man still lies on the ground, God cannot use liim for His service" (St.). Ver. 2. "Let visions be ever so great, yet they are not so useful as the word" (B. B. ). — God's glory is not meant to kill, but rather to make alive. — "It is the Lord Himself, who fills His children with dismay, that also comforts them again, Hos. vi. 1" ^0.). — "The world smiles, in order to rage ; flatters, in order to deceive ; aUures, in order to kill ; lifts up, iu order to bring low " (Cypkian). — "A herald of God ought to stand high above the world, with his spirit in heaven " (A L. ). — "The man whom God sends, He also qualifies for it, and furnishes with the necessary powers, giving him also His Spirit, as is ever still the experience of the servants of God " (Stck.). — The real prophetic anointing: "the spirit came into me." — To whomsoever God gives an office. He gives underetanding also. The fact that so many void of understanding are in office, may easily arise from this circumstance, that they have their office from men. For it is the Spirit of God, and not the clerical band, that makes the prophet. — "If God's Spirit does not uphold, teach, guide, rule, strengthen, keep us, we are nothing" (Stck. ). — There is a difference 'n-tween our setting oureelves on our feet, and God's Spirit setting us on our feet. The feet indeed remain our own, but the way along which they ran is, like the power by which they are »ble to do so, God's, and the steps are also sure steps. — "0 that we were .at all times disposed to hear Him who speaks to us!" (Stck.) — Vers. 1, 2. At the installation of a preacher in his oflice : (1) What the congregation ought to con- sider : tliat the preacher is only a man, but one whom God sets on his feet by His Spirit ; (2) What the preacher ought to consider ; all this, as well a,s in particular that God wishes to speak with him, and that he also ought to have boeB a hearer ere he comes before his in arers. Ver. 3. "When God demands obedience from us, He does not always promise a happy issue ci our labour ; but we ought to allow ourselves to bfl satisfied with His command, even if our laboui should appear ridiculous in the eyes of men ; out labour is nevertheless well-pleasing before God " (Calvin). — "Hence the true prophet does not go of his own accord, just as he does not force him- self upon the people, and does not come to seek honour and good days with them" (Stck.). — "So God stretches out His hand to sinners" (St.). — "Even at worldly courts ambassadors of princes are a token of friendship" (Stck.).— Every sinner is a rebel against God. — It is a noticeable feature of the Jews of the present day in general, that they make heathens of them- selves, and also take part in revolution against Church and State. — The apple does not fall far from the tree. — There is also a hereditary sin of nations : e.g. French vanity, German cosmopoli- tanism (want of a fixed centre, Zer/alirenheit), English selfishness (egoism). Ver. 4. "Through the habit of sit ling the countenance becomes stifl', just as the heart be- comes hard in sinning " (Stck.).—'" And yet the countenance is the noblest, as the heart is tlie best part of man, Prov. xxiii. 26; Matt. xv. 19" (Stck.). — "Judas Iscariot, e.g., had a stiff coun- tenance : his question Matt. xxvi. 25, his kiss " (L. ). — "Thus saith the Lord" is the watchword of God against all opposition of men, the right war-ciy. — Ver. 5. " Ezekiel may, of course, havH thought with himself as Moses did, Exod. iv. 1 " (St.). — Preachers ought not to look to, to reckon upon hearers, but to listen to the Lord alone. — To preach God's word compensates even in the case of empty churches. — A full church, therefore, is not always a testimony for the preacher, 2 Tim. iv. 3. — "It serves, at all events, as a testi- mony, although no other result is attained by the preaching" (L.). — Ver. 6. Fear is a word which does not belong to any vocation of a preacher ; but as little also does man-pleasing, which is often merely a form of fear. — "The comparison with thorns has reference in general to their unfruitfulness, in particular to their tendency to wound, to injure, their being interlaced together, their seeming bloom, their ultimate burning. As regards the expression scorpions, we are to think of the poison, the secret sting, the cunning. And what a wilderness must the house of Israel be! Ezekiel does not go to strayed sheep, but dwells with scorpions" (Stck.). — "In none of the pro- phetic books is the rigorous spirit of Moses more perceptible than in the case of Ezekiel " (Kocs). Because God knows our fear, therefore He speaks so repeatedly against it. — Ver. 7. Rebelliousness may well grieve the seri-aut of God, may even rouse him to anger, but ought never to degrade him to the level of a dumb dog. — Spiritual dignitaries are those who carry the word of God high above themselves, even when it meets with nothing but contradiction. — "And fathers of families also are to be like preachers " (L. ). Ver. 8. The enemies of a preacher are not what is worst for him ; his friends are often worse than his worst enemies, and his worst enemy of all by far may be his own self. Therefore, know thy- self.— " Preachers ought to be patterns, not imita- tors and followers of the flock" (St.).— "What an E 66 EZEKIEL. influence the surroundings of a preacher have upon him ! And Ezekiel belonged to the same people " (L.).— Many astrange thing happens to one when iie is with God. On the other hand, the demand : "Open thy mouth, and eat," is what we should naturally expect ; for what does not man eat, and how many useless books are devoured with the greatest eagerness! — " By the mere looking at food no one gets his hunger satisfied, but it must be taken and eateu : and so also the mere hearing and reading of the word of God does not save, but it nmst be appropriated, and afterwards lived upon " (St. ). — Ver. 9. "The word of God is very tender and delicate, — a sweet and deep invita- tion " (B. B.).— "The hand which presents the Scripture, is the same which also presents to be- lievers the crown, 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8" (Stck.). — Ver. 10. " Such unfolding takes place with prayer on the part of believers, Eph. i. ; Ps. cxix. 18 (with burning heart, Luke xxiv. 32; just as in the future with praise and jubilant acclama- tion, Rev. V. 9), with searching (John v. 39 ; Matt. vii. 8), and not without manifold tempta- tions" (Fes.sf.l).— "This book-roll may also be applied to the bad conscience of the sinner, as well as to the condition of a soul under assault from outward oppression, likewise to the book of the law, to the misery of the damned, as well as used in the sense of a reward-book for the un- godly," etc. (Stck.)— So man finds in his life first the lamentations over the vanity of all things, then there wakes up the sighing over himself, and the last is the woe of dying. Ver. 8 - ch. iii. 3. The wonderful food of Ezekiel in general (Matt. iv. 4) and in particular (John iv. 34). — It served him: for protection, for instruction, for strengthening, for quickening. Ch. iii. 1. " Ezekiel is no prophet of his own heart. Instead of murmuring against the poor instrument who has received so weighty a com- mission, let them repent" (H.). — "Comede et pasce, saturare et eructa, accipe et sparge, con- ibrtare et labora " (Jer. ). — " A teacher must have the word of God not merely on his lips and in his mouth, but in his heart, and converted into nourishment and strength" (St.). — "The maxim : ' Eat what is set before you ' (Luke x. 8), applies also to the divine revelation. The position of a chooser, which, instead of the motto, ' what I find,' puts 'what I like,' belongs to what is evil" (H.). — "Without having eaten this roll, no one ought to go and preach" (B. B.). — As against resistance from without we are comforted ; as against opposition from within, from ourselves, we are strengthened. In the first case there is suffering, in the second it may come to sin. — Ver. 2. "The word of God is the right food of Bouls" (St.). — Ver. 3. "By our taste our life is determined " (Plato). — " 'The sweet taste means Ezekiel's approbation of God's judgment and commands" (Calv.). — "It is infinitely sweet md lovely to be the organ and spokesman of the Most High" (H.). — "In the case of th>se whs eagerly hear the word of God, it goes into theii heart, and as it were into their bowels ; it become! a treasure within them, out of which they bring forth, in overtiowing abundance, necessary and wholesome instruction for others" (B. B., St.). — "Even a difficult office ought to be undert.-iken and discharged with joy ; for God can sweetes even what is bitter in it" (St.). — "Even the most painful divine truths have for the spi- ritually-minded man a gladdening and quick- ening side" (H.). — "It is in general the quiet secret of all who suffer in true faith, that in their inmost being wormwood turns to honey " (Umbr. ). Ver. 4 sqq. "It was not yet the time of the heathen ; it was still Israel's time, to whom also the Lord HimseK would come, whose forerunners the prophets were" (Coco.). — Ver. 7. Foreliead and heart in their psychological con'espondence. — Where there is the fear of God in the heart, shame still sits upon the forehead. — Ver. 8. "For hard people hard ministers also are suitable, Prov. XX. 30" (W.). For the rough block a rough wedge. — "God gives His prophet merely a firm countenance and forehead, but not a haril heart. In order to encounter a hard heart, a firm forehead indeed is necessary, but never a hard heart. The heart is to be full of love, and from love the firm forehead even is to be gained " (A L.). — Vers. 8, 9. "He who has to contend with the popular spirit is lost, unless he has a firm hold of Omnipotence. He who has not God decidedly with him, must come to terms with the majority " (H.). — " Firm preachers of this stamp were Nathan ugainst David, Elijah, John the Bap- tist, Stephen" (a L.). Comp. Matt. xvi. 18. Nevertheless, the diamond does not occur either in Exod. xxviii. 17 sqq. or in Rev. xxi. 19 sqq. Christ will rather be a magnet, John xii. 32. — "God imparts to such a strength which far sur- passes the strength of the learned. For God never yields to man. Not that the spirit referred to is a stiff-necked spirit, but God gives them words so powerful and mighty, that no one can gainsay them, Luke xxi. 15 " (B. B.). — " This is that ' holy to the Lord' which shone forth on the forehead of the high priest, just as, it belongs to all the servants of God " (Stck.). — " Carnal men stumble thereat, all who wish to be flattered or spared ; for what is to the one class a stone for buQding, is to the other a stone of offence " (B. B.). — Ver. 10. "Whoever is to kear, must have confidence in him who speaks, ana longing to hear, in order that he may lend his ear to the word. The heart, above everj'thing, must be present, else the man does not hear. Acts xvi. 14" (Coco.). — Ver. 11. "The fact, that it is his own people to whom he had to go, at the same time laid Ezekiel under a solemn obligation " (Stck.). — " We must first hear, then we are to speak " (Coco.). II. THE FIRST EXECUTION OF THE DIVINE COMMISSION.— Ch. iii. 12-vii. 27. 1. The Installation and Instructions (Ch. in. 12-27). 12 And the spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a sound of a great 13 tumultuous noise : Praised be the glory of Jehovah from His place. And [i heard] the Doise of the wings of the living creatures striking one upon another, and the noise of the wheels beside them, and the sound of a great tumnltuouf CHAP. III. 12-27. 67 14 noise. And the spirit lifted me up, and took me, and I went bitterly, in the 15 heat of my spirit, and [ijut] the hand of Jehovah was strong upon me. And 1 came to the captivity at I'el-abib, who dwelt by the river Chebar, and where 16 they were sitting, there I also sat stunned [«arr] in their midst seven days. And it came to pass at the end of seven days, that the word of Jehovah came unto 17 me, saying, Son of man, I have given thie as a watchman to the house of Israel; 18 and thou hearest a word at my mouth, and thou warnest them from me. If I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou warnest him not. and speakest not to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, — he, the wicked, shall die in [because of] his iniquity ; but his blood will I require at thine 19 hand. But if thou dost warn the wicked, and he doth not turn from his wickedness and from his wicked way, he shall die in [because of] his iniquity ; 20 but thou hast delivered thy soul. And if the righteous doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I give a stumbling-block before him, he shall die, for thou didst not warn him ; in his sin he shall die, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will 21 I require at thine hand. But if thou dost warn him as a righteous man, not to sin as being righteous, and he sinneth not, he shall surely live, because he is 22 warned; and thou hast delivered thy soul. And the hand of Jehovah came upon me there, and He said unto me. Arise, go forth to the valley, and there will 23 I speak with thee. And I arose, and went forth to the valley : and, behold, the glory of Jehovah standing there, as the glory which I saw by the river Chebar : 24 and I fell upon my face. And the spirit came into me, and set me upon my feet, and He spake with me, and said unto me : Go, shut thyself within thine 25 house. And thou, son of man, behold, they give [lay] bands upon thee, and bind 26 thee in them, and thou shalt not go out among them. And thy tongue will I make to cleave to the roof of thy mouth, and thou art dumb, and thou shalt not be to 27 them a man that reproveth; for they are a house of rebelliousness. But when I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou sayest unto them. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah : He that heareth, let him hear ; and he that forbeareth, let him forbear : for they are a house of rebelliousness. Ver. 13. Sept. : K. !.•?•. fmw— Ver. 14. K. T« rrvfuttas xupio'j i^pt» fM — Ver. 15. . . . tis T. iz't^!jut\^fftgtv /.tiTftipot, K. viptrXBot t. K»7cixmtTat . . . r. «*r«; txu, x. izet9iret txu — (some MSS. ind Syr. omit DB' 'ilDn IB'Nl). Ver. 19. Another reading : 131J)3 yBH SIH. Sept. and Arab, have read ytt'lH for the omllted nytjnn which precedes. ' Ver. 25. . . . irffovctv at l* oLvroit, x. rv /zri l^t>.&r,i l£ ttt'Ten. EXEGETICAL KEMARKS. I of the divine glory, with which movement of th« Vers. 12-15. After the h,stallati that he has not only come hither, but also remained [!], not to speak of other explana- tions. It is simply to be read "lt."N1> and to bo connected with D{»>: and where.) Seven days— not because the week is the unity that most readily suggests itself for a plurality of days (HiTZ. ), nor as a standard period for cleansing, consecration, preparation for holy service (Keil), but, if this number shadows forth anything, then. CHAP. III. 16-19. 69 •ccording to its leading symbolical signification (Bahr, tiyjnb. i. pp. 187 sqq., 193 sqq.), the cove- nant relation of God to Israel, by which the wrath as well as the pain of the prophet might be ex- cited. Comp. Job ii. 13; Gen. 1. 10; 1 Sam. xxxi. 13 (Ps. cxxxvii. 1). — WjyffD partic. Hiph. HiTZ. : sunk in fixed silence; Keil: motionless and still. Comp. Ezra ix. 3, 4. (Hengst. : in a state of horror. But how is this conceivable during the whole seven days?) — Hav. finds in the text two classes of exiles : those who had recently settled near the Chaboras, and the old inhabitants of former times belonging to the kingdom of the ten tribes stUl dwelling there. Comp. Introd. pp. 7, 8. Vers. 16-27. To the Installation of Ezekiel in actual Fact there is appendeil an Admoni- tion of a more general Character {vers. 16-21 ), and a special One having reference to his Sphere of Labour {vers. 22-27). Ver. 16. The admonition after the installation coraes to Ezekiel in a ntie revelation. (In the usual Hebrew text we find between Q'n' and -- 13T 'H''! the sign Pwca; piDD j;VDN2 SpDS, i.e. a pause in the middle of the verse. ) — Ver. 1 7. There is first an admonition of a more general character, but less, as Hitz. supposes, with re- spect to the relation between the revelation and him, that he is to speak only when he receives a revelation, than as to how he is to look upon him- self in reference to his sphere of labour ; for the latter reference is that which predominates in what follows. ns'S partic, not subst., from nax, "to draw round," to draw over, to cover, to take care of, hence: "to keep one's eyes on anything," — the .wfr, the look-out, who from his watch-tower, which, in the case of the prophet, is the divine standpoint, turns to account the revelations which are made to him for the weal and woe of the people entrusted to his care as a watch- man. Comp. 1 Sam. xiv. 16 ; 2 Sam. xiii. 34, xviii. 24; Jer. vi. 17; Hab. ii. 1; Isa. Ivi. 10; Ezek. xxxiii. 1 sqq. — With the judicial character which predominates in the mission of Ezekiel, the word from My month is not revelation in general, but annoimcemeut, hint, commaml, sentence in con- nection with the threatening judgment of God, with a view thereto, and determined thereby ; and, therefore, ini i" Hiph. not : to enlighten in the sense of to te.ich (Heb. xiii. 17), but in the sense of to caution, to warn. '300 is ex- plained in accordance with the preceding 'SQ. Hav. : " partly in compliance with definite divine instructions received, partly with continual appeal and reference thereto." Ver. 18. The ptiH, like the pnV in what follows, is not so much a rhetorical personification of the species (Hengst. ), and that of the people on the one hand, of the little Hock on the other, but a characteristic individualization, for this pre- liminary period of the New Covenant ; already the individuals are separating themselves from Israel as a national whole according to their individual qualification, i.e. as they exhibit them- selves in their procedure towards the divine judg- ment on Israel, and the public preaching takes the shape of the special care of souls ; and in this wav the national mission of the prophetic order, on the one hand, enters more deeply into it» spiritual significance, and, on the other hand, brings into prominence its general human side.— If I say unto the wicked, in accordance with ver. 17: "thou hearest a word at my mouth," equi- valent to : when thou hearest what I say unto the wicked, that I announce unto him inevitable ruin in the impending judgment (Luke x. 16; 1 Thess. iv. 8). — nion niD, the origin.al threaten- ing on the transgressor of the divine word (Gen. ii. 17) is nothing new, unheard of, is only applied here (Gen. xx. 7) to the individual. In order to make his duty quite clear to the prophet, to free it from every objection, whether springing from his own heart, or coming from his fellow-men, oi from surrounding circumstances, to fix it for all cases, and thus to enforce it very strongly, the simple and thon wamest him not is expanded still farther into what follows, and speakest not lo warn, etc., implying at the same time repeti- tion and urgency. Although the nation as a whole is lost (ch. iii. 7), the return of the indi- vidual is nevertheless, nay, so much the more, to be sought (Acts xx. 31 ; 2 Tim. iv. 2). The sub- stance of such warning: "of" and "from his way;" it is consequently not the judgment of God, this way of God with Israel, for this may issue in life, inasmuch as it awakens to return, to repentance, but it is his own way and will, the life of self-v{\\\ on the part of the ytJH, which, in accordance with God's righteousness, is changed into death, just as it is in its root a dying, be- cause departure from God, from the divine way, pointed out in the law. There lies at the root of pt^ (if not, as contrasted with pi v. tt* mean- ing of what is crooked, awry — Hupf. on Ps. i. 1 — and thus deviation from the straight, right way, yet at least) apostasy from God (Ps. xviii. 22 [21]). He is one who, according to the divine law, the rule for Israel as a nation, appears un- righteous, here as everywhere the opposite of p'lV- — njJB'in, which the LXX. in ver. 19 also have passed over, refers to '\yT[ (like rPS). construed as feminine, perhaps in order to emphasize the significance of the figurative expression. — m'n?, the object of the warning, perhaps at the same time : to bring him to life again ( Ps. xxx. 4 [3] ; Hos. vi. 2 ; Eph. ii. 5). — pjj, properly : what is not straight, perverted in consequence of de- viating from the straight, right way, hence : unrighteousness, and also : inignil;/. In his per- versity the unrighteous man necessarily brings upon himself death as a consequence ; there is an J'p py, as it is expressed in eh. xxi. 30 [E. V. 25]. — The close of the verse likewise contains an allusion to a passage in Genesis, Gen. ix. 5 (xiii. 22), only with this difference, that B'pa stands instead of cm, which latter Ges. explains as : to go after any one, thus of a more active re- clamation, while {^p3 means more a looking after, a seeking with the eyes. It is the life, which is in the blood, of those in Israel which is entrusted to the prophet as a watcliman. For this Jehovah, the Supreme Proprietor, demands a reckoning. The prophet who forgets his dutj', which he owes to the unrighteous in God's stead, becomes a man- slaughterer, a murderer of that man, and is re- garded as such by God. Ver. 19. What the way of deliverance ia foi 70 EZEKIEL. the unrighteous man, is shown, viz. return, alike inwardly (wickedness) and outwardly. The de- liverance of soul, as regards the prophet (here [j'£3, formerly m Gen. ix. 4), is preservation from the divine avenging of blood, — Ver. 20. Antithetic parallelism of this and the following verse with the two preceding. Hengst. , holding fast by the people in his interpretation, denies the personal contrast in p'lV; they are, according to him, designated as wicked at present, as right- eous with reference to their destiny and better past. The description of the lighteonB man does not certainly rise above a certain outward legality and isolated righteousnesses. Ver. IS : 'ntDN3. I'sre 3U>*3- — His righteousness is that attained by him as regards the law of Israel, the national-legal righteousness; hence, also, depar- ture therefrom is quite conceivable as " commit- ting wickedness (iniquity) ;" and, for the decision of the matter, the stumbling-block is given by God ; i.e., to such a righteous man (comp. however, Prov. iv. 11, 12, XV. 19) the exile, or the state of matters in Jerusalem, becomes a temptation from God, in so far as, for the purpose of deciding the condition of the man, such like outwai'd circum- stances are arranged by Him, but not : a stum- bliug-block "on which he may die " (Ew. ) ; for ni53' Sin begins the apodosis, just as in ver. 18 yen Nin, ^^ shall die, — so it is decided as to the apostate righteous man, who has become like the wicked (ch. xviii. 24), and therefore must appear still worse than he ; just as the stumbling- block to be given by God brings him also in actual fact to utter ruin. The parallel, however, with ver. 18 necessarily implies neglect in warn- ing on the part of the prophet; and as such omis- sion is presupposed, so also tlie death of this '■ righteous " man, his ruin in the Chaldean divine judgment, must be expressly ('3) referred to the prophet, and, consequently, the possibility of another result be presupposed. How the case will be in reality with this man, who is worse than the yd, is shown by the statement : in his sin he shall die, which points, not to a false step arising from mere weakness, ignorance, but to loickedne.-'s become a habit. The individualizing description of our verse (as already in ver. 19) gives additional proof of the fearful corruption of Israel as a whole, which was disclosed in what precedes (ch. ii. 3). His righteousnesses mean, according to Hengst., "the good works of pious ancestors, Ps. cxxxii. 1 " (!). They are the legal deeds of the "righteous man," or collectively: what he has done in accordance with the law, works without reference to the state of the heart. [Rosenm. reads inplV ^ * collective singular with the plural of the verb ^13^0. ] Comp. be- sides, on ver. 18. — Ver. 21. '3 riDNl *s in ver. 19 ; but the issue of the case is exactly the oppo- site : there warning without return, here warnmg which attains its object. After the three dark pictures which precede, this is drawn in colours so nmch the brighter. /( is the righteous man as he ouijht to be : and hence also the emphatic mode of expression. Comp. besides, 1 John iii. 8, 9, ii. 1, iii. 6. — <3 BS in ver. 20. Comp. besides, on ver. 19. In vers. 22-27 there follows a quite special in- (truction for Ezekiel as to his sphere of labour, which is introduced by a special demand in ver. 22. Comp. ch. i. 3. It is at Tel-abib, also, tlut this divine revelation is made to the prophet. Hengst. consistently asserts that there is no actual change of place, that Ezekiel's betaking himself to the valley, like his presence at the Chebar, takes place in the inner region of the spirit (!). — The valley, iis distinguished from the height on which Tel-abili was situate, is not exactly the plain extending to the river — not mtS'n, but nvp3n, a certain valley between the mountain -walls there. It is not so much the solitude (Hengst.) as the subsequent renewal of the earlier vision of glory which leads to the choice of this locality. (2 Cor. vi. 17; Ps. xlv. 10, 11; comp. Ezek. xxxvii. 1, 2.) Ver. 23 ; comp. ch. i. 23. The vision begins with : and, behold, ^l3y indicated to him the standing background and |irotection for his labours, or the Judge before the door! — Ver. 24; comp. ch. ii. 2. Hitzig's conjecture seems a correct one, that this detinite ordering of the prophet into the house is connected with the preceding summons to go forth ; it appears at least so much the more visible, — which is certainly of importance, if the prophet was, in the first place, to preach to the eye merely of his country- men. If his procedure in ver. 15 was a sermon, this shutting of hinijsel/ up within his house is, primarily, nothing else, — an action, a condition of Ezekiel's, meant for a sermon ; just as in his case, more readily than in that of any of the other prophets, the inward becomes outward, and the outward is inward. His isolation from the midst of his countrymen in the valley /or God is now followed by his isolation among them within his own house ; the former a momentary one, the latter of a more endm-ing character. This latter symbolical sermon is further defined as a non in publicum prodire (ver. 25), and more exactly as a silence on the part of the voice calling to repent- ance (ver. 26). Those who are so very eager after what is visible are accordingly directed, first of all, to look at what the prophet will do (ch. xii. 6, 11). That would uecessarOy excite attention, and curiosity would necessarily, with ever growing intensity, desire to have it explained, what Ezekiel's acting has in •\'iew, what it means. This is certainly the primary reason why the pro- phet is not only summoned away by God (ver. 22 sqq.) from the midst of his countrymen, but also receives the command to shut himself up in his house in their midst. The shutting himsell up in his house is therefore, of course, sj'mbolic, although, at the same time, it explains to us the way in which ch. iv and v. are to be under- stood, viz. as domestic occurrences. It has been regarded as a picture of the future of Ezekiel's own prophetic destiny (HXv. ), and also as a pic- ture of Jerusalem under investment (Ephraem Syrus, Jer.), inasmuch as it was falsely assumeil that there was a connection with what follows immediately, or at a later stage. (Raschi : that thou mayest show them that they are unworthy of admonition. Grot. : in order to await the suitable time for speaking.) Moreover, this house of the prophet is the innocent cause of all the " leisure of domestic life," amid which, according to Ewald, Ezekiel was almost exclusively occupied in literary pursuits. Ver. 25. The shtitting himself up in his hous« is not intended to shut out his countrymen frnni CHAP III. 26, 27. 71 him ; for what be is to do there is for the house of Israel (eh. iv. 3 sqq.), is done before their eyes (ver. 12; comp. alSb eh. viii. 1); but he (nnxi) is to be for them one who is shut up, i.e. in the first place, one who is not to go forth into their midst. — For son of man, comp. on ch. ii. 1. — Behold, they lay, etc., can only be his country- .ueu, and that not as being members of his family, who take him for a madman (A Lapide), — a view which nothing in the context favours. But Hit- zig's view (accepted by Keil) of invisible, heavenly powers, which bound Ezekiel ("as it were bands of enchantment"!), is quite opposed to the con- text. Ver. 25 by no means moves in the same line with ver. 26 ; but in ver. 26 the transition is made from men to God. Ch. iv. 8, according to Keil's own explanation, has no connection with this. Everything depends on whether we are to look upon the binding of the prophet as intended to prevent him leaving his house, which would, indeed, fall in ^ith the shutting himself up in it commanded by God, but which would correspond little with the disposition of the prophet's country- men, who do not certainly wish what God wishes, but much rather the contrary! (Hence, perhaps, KlMCHi: Go into thine house, and thou shalt be shut up therein, just as if they had boimd thee with bands.) We are not to assert with Keil that a fettering by means of these would be in'econ- cilable with ch. iv. and v., since a fettering of this description might take place afterwards, and Kzekiel, meanwhile, might again have become free ; and just as little is it to be regarded as a decisive objection to this view, that no trace of such assault is to be discovered elsewhere ; our passage itself might contain the missing trace. But D3in2 SVn K^ is* rather (as also Hengst.) =:but thou (nnXl) ""^^ (shalt) tiot go forth to them. Instead of hindering him from speaking, his couutrjTnen will, on the contraiy, in their cuiiosity, do everything, will even lay violent hands upon him, that he may come forth and speak to them ; they will throw bands over him, will bind him with them, in order the more easily to bring him forth. All that they gain thereby, besides his not going forth himself to them in such a case, will be, that, notwith- standing their efforts, he will not speak to them, since — ver. 26 — God will hinder it. The shutting himself up in his house is to become something more definite, viz. the shutting of his mouth at the same time, and that as an n'OW B"N, which is here equivalent in meaning to "a dedaimer against vice," in an almost exclusively formal lespect, since they are a house of rebeliiousness (ch. iii. 5), and nothing material is to be accom- plished among them as a whole. Comp. on ver. 18. Ver. 27. '12131 points back to nDS3 in ver. 18. Thus the silence of Ezekiel is even here already a judgment of God upon Israel ; for the opening of nis mouth has for its object the communication of the divine revelation to his countrymen. Comp. besides, on ch. ii. 4, iii. 11, ii. 5, 7 (Rev. ii. 7, xxii. 11). The reference of vers. 25-27 is primarily to ch. iv., v. ; in a less degiee it is car- ried on to ch. vii. ; but perhaps ch. xxiv. 27 and ch. xxxiii. 22 refer to vers. 26, 27. Comp. there. In general, vers. 26, 27 express the entire dependence of the prophet, alike in silence and in speaking, on God, and consequently his divine legitimation ; in particular, the remaining dumb imposed upon him — but that as regariis tne other character of his prophetic labours from ch. xxxiv. onwards — may be applied to the period down to the destruction of Jerusalem, as charac- teristic of this period, and therefore significantly repeated at its close. Comp. besides, on ch. v. 5. Additional Note ox Ch. hi. 12-27. [This section, which should have formed a sepa- rate chapter, records the entrance of Ezekiel on hia high vocation, and contains the first message de- livered to him respecting it. His former placi of abode, it would seem, was not the most advan- tageously situated for prosecuting with success the work committed to him ; and, in consequence, he removed to Tel-abib, which is nowhere else mentioned, but was, in all probability, the best peopled locality, or the chief town of the Jewish colony. When he came and saw the captives dwelling there, in a dejected and mournlul con- dition, he sat down among them for seven days continuously — sitting being the common attitude of giief (Ezra ix. 3; Lam. i. 1-3), and seven days being the usual period for the manifestation of the heaviest sorrow (Job ii. 13). By thus spend- ing, at the outset, so many days of desolation and sadness, he gave proof of his deep fellow-feeling with his exOed brethren in their depressed condi- tion, and showed how entirely he entered into their state. Thus sorrowing in their sorrow, and breathing the tenderness of a sympathizing spirit toward them, he sought to win their confidence, and secure a favourable hearing for the words of mercy and of judgment which he was from time to time to press upon their notice. The projihet, however, did not go alone to this mournful field of prophetic agency. He was borne thither under the conscious might of the Spirit of God, and was attended by the symbols of the divine presence and glory. When he rose to proceed on his course, the whole machinery of the heavenly vision iiegan also to move ; and amid the crashing or tumultuous noise which broke upon his spiritual ear, he heard the words, " Blessed be the glory of Jehovah from His (or its) place "—certainly a somewhat peculiar utterance, and one not found in any other part of Scripture ; yet not materially different from another in freqiu-nt use, " Blessed be the name of the Lord." The glory of Jehovah here was that manifested glory which had ap- peared in vision to the prophet, and which was, in other words, a revelation of His glorious name. To pronounce it blessed from its place, was in effect to bless God Himself, as thus and there re- vealing His adorable perfections and divine will. And as the prophet was going to be the represen- tative and herald of these in a sphere where there was much to damp his spirit, and withstand his faithful agency, it was fit that he should go with the solemn word pealing in his ears, from these ideal ministers of heaven, " Blessed be the glory of the Lord." As much as to say. Let this above all be magnified ; whatever is experienced or done, let nothing interfere with that pure and majestic glory of Jehovah, which has now in emblem been exhibited. In regard to the message communicated to the prophet after the seven days of sadness had ex- pired, there is also something peculiar in it ; for 72 EZEKIEL. it is only Ezekiel among the prophets who is described as a watchman appointed bj' God, to give timely and faithful warning to the people. Habakkuk speaks of standing upon his watch- tower (ch. ii. 1), but this was only in respect to his eager and anxious outlook for the manifesta- tions he was expecting of divine power and faith- fulness. Ezekiel alone is represented as called to do for others the part of a watchman ; and in doing it he was most strictly charged, on the cue hand, to receive all his instructions from God as to the existence of whatever danger there might be in the condition of the people, and, on the other, to sound a loud and solemn alarm when he might perceive it actually besetting them. That such should have been the distinctive character given to his position and calling, manifestly be- spoke the very perilous condition of those to whom he was sent. It indicated that he had something else to do than merely to sympathize witli them in their afflicted state, and speak soothing words to their downcast and drooping spirits. It was to be his rather to open their eyes to the profounder evils that encompassed them, to break the spell of inveterate and che- rished delusions, and raise the cry of danger where none was suspected. So that the very form of the commission given to him was like the deliver- ince of a strong and impressive testimony to the people of the latent corruptions and imminent perils with which they were beset. If we look also to the substance of the com- munication, or to the particular instructions given to the prophet concerning the discharge of his office, we see at once the grand principle dis- closed on which the destiny of Israel was to turn. The question, whether life or death, blessing or cursing, was to be their portion, hung upon another, whether they were to make righteous- ness or sin their choice? Their return to light- eousness was the indispensable condition of their restoration to blessing. If, in despite of this, the wicked should persevere in his evil ways, or even the righteous man should turn aside and practise iniquity, a visitation of wrath must be looked for — the original sentence against sin, to which the language designedly points, that the purpose of God in this respect might be seen to be fixed and unalterable — the sentence, that he who trans- gresses "shall surely die," must take effect; for God is unchangeably the same, and what he ap- pointed at first as the wages of sin must continue to be its wages .still. But while this part of the charge cut off all hope from a backsliding and impenitent people, the other part of it held out ample encouragement to such as remained stedfast in the covenant of God, or repented of their evil ways. The man who continued to love the paths of righteousness, and the man also who, after having forsaken, again returned to them, was to be assured of the blessings of life ; these should as surely live as the others should die. For the prophet, as God's watchman, was to represent the mercy as well as the justice of God's administration ; he was to have a wakeful eye upon the good, not less than the evil, that appeared among the people ; and was to stretch out the hand of fellowship, and display the banner of divine love and protection, in behalf of all who might be inclined or moved to cle»ve to the service of Heaven. Thus were they to know from the outset that, for the people as a whole, and for each individual amongst them^ this one path lay open for their return to peace and blessing. — ¥AiRBXiB.}i'a Ezekiel, yp. 40-43. — W. r.j DOCTBIKAL. 1. The revelation of the glory of God, because it is revelation, has always accordingly its special locality (DipD)- If heaven, above all, is reckoned the place from which it beams forth (Deut. xxvi, 15; 2 Chron. xxx. 27; Isa. Ixiii. 15; Hab. ii 20 ; Zeeh. ii. 17 ; 1 Kings viii 39), yet even of it 1 Kings viii. 27 is true ; how much more of all places of revelation upon earth! Thus God Him- self remains 0 ©£of and 9 TaTTip Tni "ho^ri; (Acts vii. 2 ; Eph. i. 17), the independent Possessor and Dispenser of glory, and the self-revelation of God made in Christ is the full revelation of His glory (Luke ii 14) ; for to Him the angels of God descend, just as from Him also and from no other spot on earth they again ascend (John i 52). From God, wherever He manifests Himself, on Sinai, in the temple. His praise goes forth accord- ingly with its destination for the whole world. 2. The praise of God is the glory of God, which is reflected in the blessedness of the creature, especially of man. "It is a momentary celebra- tion beforehand of the eternal perfection, which, momentary though it be, has already an element of eternity in itself," says Lange with respect to the prayer of the doxology. 3. The servants of God, however mightily, however completely they fulfil their task, so that Ezekiel can speak of the "heat (glow) of his spirit," yet always remain men, i.e. if nOD signi- fies the holy wrath of God as distinguished from mn> the being angry as the effect of passion, yet we shall meet with pain in the prophet's natural love to his people ; just as Jesus the Son of man has tears over Jerusalem (Luke xix. 41). Pain is more active than sorrow, which is more a passive state. We ought to be full of the wrath of God over sin, especially where it has already become punishment, the judgment of hardening ; but our feeling towards the sinners can only be pain, because of our love to them as men, as in the case of Ezekiel, or sorrow, if we wish to distinguish the melancholy, sorrowful Jeremiah (comp. Jer. vi. 11) in this way from the choleric, energetic Ezekiel. The servant of God, who should not find the latter emotions in himself, according to character and the circle in which he is placed, would need to bethink himself, and to mourn over himself. Wrath without love is of the devil, but not of God ; just as a love which cannot be angry may be mere nature, mere human weakness. 4. Even a silent preacher may be a loud and very impressive sermon. In certain circumstances silence may be even more expressive than speak- ing. "This is the wisdom of him who is truly called," says Umbreit, "that he is sometimes silent, sometimes speaks ; but that when he speaks, he lets the divine word stream forth freely with- out fear and trembling as to whether it is under- stood ; for the light is not to be put under a bushel ; it has a right to shine, because it in Ught." 5. The prophetic office of watchman, in accord- ance with the similitude of one who is posted on a height, or a watch-tower, has a twofold applica CHAP. III. 12-27. tiiin. Inasmuch as the watchman has, in the firsi place, to keep a look-out — but what meets thf. prophetic eye is presented to him in vision, or by means of a revelation in word — the office of watchman is identical with the general designa- tion of the prophets as "seers" (Doct. ReHect. 6 on ch. i. 1-3). Thus it is the circumstance nf tlieir dcscrjing or not descrying that makes them "watchmen," not the circumstance that they have always to speak or to be silent accordingly (HiTZ. ) ; for the former, at least as regards Ezekiel, is still dependent on divine instructions. In Ezekicl's case, the opening of his mouth by God forms the transition to the second aud more definite application and interpretation of the similitude of a watchman, viz. that the watch- man has to announce the approaching danger, and therefore to warn against it. As such he is certainly not "the mere watchman, i.e. (as Ew. expresses it) the sharp but quiet, calm observer of men, in order to warn each at the right time." The whole of the people as such, as well as in their governing heads, is what is entrusted to the watchman. But the application of the figure of the watchman, in the direction of warning, rests on the more general duty of prophecy, to be the controlling power of the national life according to the divine law in all respects. Only the warn- ing of the prophetic watchman is of a more special kind, not as regards the law, but in view of the judgments of God, — an express turning to account of the future which he has seen for the immediate present in its existing state. 6. If we find with Ezekiel — of course, on the basis of the nation as a whole, of the theocratic nationality of Israel — individnalization already taking place (comp. ch. xxxiii. 1 sqq. ), such indiridualization, in view of the period in the kingdom of God, is a sign of this period, and more than the personification, so frequent else- where, of what accords with the law and what is contrary to it, in the ideal picture of the righteous man, just as in his opposite, the j){jn. Israel as a whole, in contradiction to its idea, begins to resolve itself into the iVu ii of John i. 12. Comp. on ch. ix. 4. 7. In times when the axe is laid at the root of a whole nation, the mission of those who were originally destined for the whole becomes of itself the work of saving individuals. 8. The emphasizing (in ch. xviii. still more explicit) of the statement as to the personal re- sponsibility of the individual has reference to the theocratic delusion and superstition of the hypo- crites, the secure, which the false prophets still flattered, according to which the individual, be- cause a descendant of Abraham according to the flesh, might hold hims-ilf assured of belonging to a nationality where, and where alone, a sure sal- vation was to be found. 9. The illustration of the prophet's office by means of the sixth commandment, supported by Gen. ix., shows not merely how Tytu/iitTiKif the vifisi is, but what an idea of life ought to be familiar to the ministers of the word. They are not, as it were, in accordance with the world's policy, " to live and let live." 10. The disputed question, as to whether the righteous can fall away, as the Lutheran theology along with that of the Jesuits asserts, and which the Reformed doctrine, on the other hand, denies, demands for its solution that we should make the distinction between law and grace. That th(- man wlio is righteous according to the law maj apostatize unto death, is the very thing asserted in ch. iii. 20 : comp. xviii. 24. Just in the same way, it is denied in ch. iii. 21 with respect to him who is justified by faith, and who remains righteous when admonished by the Spirit. Only this dis- tinction must not be applied so as to become a distinction between the Old and New Testament, as is done by Havemick. For the rightoousness of God is one and the same in both (comp. Roiu. iv. ). The legal standpoint, although not in its national form, yet in its externality, runs through the period of the New Covenant, just as the evan- gelical standpoint is not strange to the period of the Old Covenant, although mediated — not ob- scui'ed — under the law by means of the symbolism of sacrifice. 11. "As the sinner may turn from his way and be saved, so a righteous man may fall ?way from his righteousness and become a wicked man. The man who is really and truly righteous cannot do so in such a way as to be lost ; but he may fall into heinous transgressions, and appear for the time stripped of his faith, like the sun under a cloud, like fire beneath the ashes (David, Peter). But there are also those who believe for a time (1 John ii. I9>, who become quite manifest during temptation, and also after it is ended, when it is all over with them." — Lavatek. 12. If we speak of a snare which God lays for man, this cannot be sin, what is evil, but the position in which God places man with a view to his own personal decision, as well as with a view to the decision regarding him ; and, in fact, this cannot be misfortune merely, but also so-called good fortune, the former leading to despair, the latter conducing to hardening in false security. Of course a snare of God in a definite develop- ment of sin may also be already punishment, the beginning of divine judgment. 13. Around the warning as neglected or ad- ministered by the prophet, four cases group them- selves, four types for all time : the wicked man in general, who goes to destruction without warn- ing,— this being the relative and ever-increasing guilt of Christendom ; the wicked man in parti- cular, who, in spite of warning, chooses the way of death ; the righteous man, who is so merely in form, whether a conscious hypocrite or not, — just as nominal Christians in the mass have fallen away from the Church in critical times of perse- cution,— he who without warning falls under the judgment, in connection with whose case the Church ought to remember her duty, as opposed to the Pietism of the future, the diplomatic or government Pietism, as well as the "soldierly- pious" element {"mililar-fromm"); lastly, the upright and sincere righteous man, who also re- mains so, who lets himself be warned. Of the four, then, there is one against three. What a con- clusion may be drawn from this numerical relation of individuals to the whole ! 14. No mere deelaimer against vice, still less one who is this in the disguise of a homiletic mask, or who labours thereat as being his profes- sion, is in accordance with God's word. That man only ought to reprove his brethren who ha« a commission from God for it, and only wlien he has that commission. "God does not permit mortal men, according to their mere vrill and pleasure, to condemn or to absolve. And althoneli •Ti EZEKIEL. He si'iii^s forth His servants, yet He does not Himself renounce His authority, in virtue of which the supreme sovereignty remains with Him. He is tile One Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy (Jas. iv. 12)" (Calv.). The so-called " in virtue of our office " is by no means sufficient for this, but our own conscience must legitimate our doing it. HOMILETIC HINT.S. \'er. 12. " He had come unto me for the pur- pose of drawing me out of myself, and taking me into Himself" (B. B.).— "The Holy Spirit lifts us up from the earth towards heaven ; and where He rules, the man hastens in willing obedience to God to perform his duties " (SrcK.). — " Scripture is full of examples of how God has lifted vp rulers of the people and His prophets by His Spirit to higher things. Moses thinks no longer of his sheep, but of the people whom he has to lead forth ; David is dra\vn by the Spirit from the Hock to something higher ; the apostles openly confess Christ, and conspicuous among them Peter, whom a maid had formerly frightened ; even with respect to Saul we read of the elevating influence of the Spirit" (L. L. ). — " Lest he should execute his work with fleshly zeal, the Spirit is sent him as a Guide. Hence for a time he is transported out of himself, raised on high beyond the bounds of the lower and merely human mode of representation. In this state he hears the judg- ments of God again" (Hei.m-Hoffmann). Vers. 12, 13. The servants of our Go\il on a parallel with ver. 1 by means of "JPTIp. — n3nD signifies something bent together, which may be flat for frying or roasting; in such saucepans the flat cakes were fried. Lev. ii. 5. As he is to set the iron pan as an iron wait, it is clear that he has to set it up perpendicularly ; it is likewise clear, from the expression between thee and the city, that a relation of separation, of division, between Jerusalem as portrayed upon the brick and the representative of God is meant to be expressed. Only on the ground of such a relation between God and Jerusalem can we ex- plain alike the hostile attitude of the prophet's face, and specially the clause, and it is in siege, and along with that vers. 1 and 2. But as the wall is to be after the manner of iron (3), the iron pan cannot be taken as a fascine protecting the besieger, because such a thing, as a rule, was not of iron, and because certainly there could be no need of a protection for God the Besieger, but rather of a protection from Him ; nor are we to think with Ewald (1st edit. ) of the " very strong iron-like wall of Jerusalem " (Raschi), since the suffix also in n''7X does not refer to the pan, but to the city, and the strength of the city wall is not certainly to be made prominent. Ewald also iu his very recent 2d edition approaches the view of Havernick (who with Ephraem understands "the mass of misfortune which is coming upon Jerusalem "), inasmuch as he makes the prophet put "the merely painted siege more strongly and palpably by means of the picture of a wall, as it were, of iron." But in this way also the so ex- press attitude of separation, which Hitzig recog- nises, is lost. The allusion to Jer. i. 13 for " the horrors of the siege" (Hiv. ) is too far-fetched [a Lapide ; the burning of the city ; Okigen : the horrible tortures of the inhabitants, Jer. xx'lx. 22 ; 2 Mace. vii. 5 ; others : the army-fire of the Chaldeans]. Jerome (that the wrath of God ia represented) nearly approaches the correct view, to which Kimchi points by referring to Isa. lix. 2. The pan, therefore, as a wall, symbolizes the strong (Jer. i. 18, alike in accordani'e with God's decree, and in consequence of the corruption o' Israel) wall of separation, which finally explains everything, what precedes and also what follows. Vatabliis and Grotius bring in, besides, "their hardness of heart and the blackness of their sins," just as Hitzig also, " the base metal " and (in accordance with ch. xxiv. 6) " the rast as a picture of defilement through sin." (Hengst. : first the refusal of divine help, then God Himself even the assaUant. ) Not so much the preparation of food which follows (Klief. ), as the circumstance that such a pan (according to Ewald : " the nearest iron plate ") was at hand in every house- hold (Keil), suggested the choice of the same. As the siege is described with the prophet as besieger, so "certainly it wUl be carried out, not hundreds of years afterwards, but in the lifetime of Ezekiel, during his labours" (Kliek.). The significance of the iron pan would certainly disap- pear if we imagined that the prophet had grouped the siege in little figures round about the brick. Moreover, what is portrayed upon the stone, and is here spoken of as the city, is called in ver. 7 " the siege of Jerusalem. " — 'llie house of Israel is here the same as in ch. iii. Comp. on the other hand, ver. 5. — If the symbolical action is to be a sign (in the sense of foreshadowing), thin the view, that it was also shown them, tliat, as it was for them, so it made its appearance objectively before them, is certainly more probable than Hengstenberg's subjective view, more probable than with Staudlein, Hiivern., Hitzig, to make the action one that was not really performed, but only discoursed about (Isa. xx. 3). Klief. : "an im- portant action, even when besides it is a silent one, must be performed ; although the text does not mention it expressly, a thing that quite ex- plains itself in the case of one who has received a command from God." Additional Note on Ch. iv. 1-3. [In regard to the part required to be played by the prophet himself, however it may have been understood in former times, we should suppose few now will be disposed to doubt that the suc- cessive actions spoken of took place only in vision, and are no more to be ranked among the occur- rences of actual life than the eating of the pro- phetic roll mentioned in the preceding chapter. Indeed, such actions as are described here, though well fitted, when rehearsed as past, and read as narratives of things ideally done, to make a strong and vivid impression upon the mind, would |iro- bably have had an opposite efl'ect if transacted in real life. It would have been impossible for ordinary spectators to see Ezekiel conducting a miniature siege with a tile and a saucepan, and such like implements of war, without a feeling of the puerile and ludicrous being awakened ; and the other symbolical actions mentioned, especially his lying for 390 days motionless on one side, if literally understood, can scarcely be regarded as coming within the limits of the possible. And along with the physical impossibility of one part 78 EZEKIEL. of the requirement there was the moral impossi- bility of another, since to eat bread composed of such abominabls materials would have been (if ])erforraed in real life) a direct contravention of the law of Jloses, — that law, respectful submission to which was ever held to be the first and most essential characteristic of a true prophet (compare Deut. xiv 3, xxiii. 12-14, with xiii. 1-5). Be- sides, we find the prophet (ch. viii. 1) represented as sitting in his house before the number of the days to be spent in a lying posture could have been completed. So that, on every account, it is necessary to consider the actions to have taken place in vision, as, indeed, was usually the case in prophetical actions, and uniformly so, as we shall find in Ezekiel. — Fairbairn's Ezekiel. — W. F.] Vers. i-S.— The Second Si^. Once more a new appointment, which onwards to ver. 8, carrying into further detail the above indicated destiny of Jerusalem, gives us a more vivid picture of it as respects the inner condition of the parties concerned, after the manner of a second symbolic action on the part of Ezekiel. In the position of a prophet, it is implied tliat such an one may be the representative alike of God and of r.lie people ; and as, therefore, Ezekiel represents Jehovah in vers. 1-3, so now, and in ver. 9 sqq., he represents Israel. " Where in this way Jehovah Himself fights against His people, their downfall is certain ; the propliet immediately assumes this po.sition" (Hay.). The mere cir- cumstance, that he is to lie on the one side and the other ("to sleep," as the Sept. and Vulg. make it, plainly contradicts the context), is sym- bolical as regards those whom he represents, a picture of the poli ical situation (Isa. xxviii. 20, 1. 11 ; Amos v. 2 ; Ps. xx. 8, xliv. 25) ; not "as a sick pereon who can lie only on one side, and must always without shifting lieupon it" (Ewald), not as a figure for a state of political languishing, but in contrast with standing upright, a lying down in consequence of a fall (HiTZ. ). — As the period fixed is days (whicli, however, mean years), the reference generally to the besieged ("the fiightful constraint from without, during which one cannot move or stir," Ewald) is to be held fast in the first place ; but then, farther, the carrying captive which follows, and the sojourn in exile, is at the same time to be kept in view. First the left side is made prominent when the reference is to the severed house of Israel, — according to Ewald, Hitzig, because of tlie geo- graphical situation to the north of Judah (ch. xvi. 46), while the latter lay in the south, — ac- cording to Grot., Havernick, Keil, because of the superiority of the latter over the former (comp. ch. xxiii.), Eccles. x. 2. Maldon. : it had the priesthood and the kingdom.— Jlj; is the gnilt, thus the sin in its consciousness of punishment ; neither the former alone nor the latter alone, but tlie transition from the one to the other in process of being effected for the subjective consciousness. The consciousness of guilt on the p.'irt of the people is to be awakened. — Inasmuch as Ezekiel is to lay the guilt upon it, i.e. his left side, the side apon which he himself has to lie, the problem ran only be solved when we regard Ezekiel him- self, in virtue of his lying upon his left side, as the bearer of the guilt, which is also immediately said. According to Keil, he would come lo lii upon the guilt, and not the guilt uyon him ! That XCT cannot here mean " to bear," as Hengstenbcrg asserts, one cannot see, bei'ausc, il he is to lay the guilt upon himself, he will have to bear it also, and the matter in hand is not at all an olficial and mediatorial or atoning substitu- tion, but only a symbolical bearing of a burden which has to lie heavily upon the people, whom he only represents. As many days as he shall lie upon his left side, so long will he represent the burden of guilt of the ten tribes. This is not certainly meant to signify the number of the years which they have sinned (Rosenm. ). Is this, then, asserted by ver. 5 ? I'he number of the days of his lying means, of course, " the years uf their guilt;" but what is carefully to be noticed, as a period given him by God (y;) Tinj '3S1)' }"'''■ not surely as a period selected by God from their course of sinning for the purpose of being repre- sented by him ? is such a divine formulating of the period of their sinning well conceivable ? but as the guilt measured by God, to be represented by Ezekiel, and thus to be announced in actual fact, which they have brought upon themselves, and have to bear in years. What comes upon them in years, Ezekiel is to represent to them in days, thus bearing the guilt of the house of IsraeL This explanation, simply arrived at from the text, will have to be tested by the interpreta- tion of the periods given. For Israel there are appointed 390 days, and the prophet has accom- plished these. — Ver. 6. For his lying on his right side, a second time, to bear the guilt o( the house of Judah, 40 days are appointed. The question, whether the 40 days are to be supposed as included in the 390 (with Cocc. and others), is expressly answered in the negative by the n'jB' (" for the second time ") ; there are 390 and 40, in all 430 days, which sum the text cert.'iinly does not add together. For the special rea.son, that the season of punishment has begun long ago in the case of the ten tribes, just as it is already touching Judah also, a division of time readily suggested itself, while the division of collective Israel into Israel and Judah presinted itself his- torically. In getting the 390 years to correspond in respect of sinning, and especially the 40, if they are to be reckoned as actual years, and there- fore exactly, even the most diverse modes of explanation have found themselves helpless. The whole kingdom of Israel did not last for 390 years ; and we must therefore go back beyond the ten tribes, into the period of the judges, not to mention other modes of reckoning by means of omissions. Eosenm. , therefore, made the distinction between Israel and Judah step into the liackground as re- gards the 390 years ; and inasnmih as he gets at 386 years from the division of the kingdom down to the eleventh year of Zedekiah (the conquest of Jerusalem), he consoles himself for what is wanting with the poetic rounding off of prophetic language : but Judah's 40 years of sin are reckoned fi'om the twelfth year of the reign of the pious king Josiah! Hengstenbcrg understands Israel as collective Israel, begins with 2 Chron. xii. 1 (comp. 2C'hron xi. 17), i.e. from the fourth year cf Rehoboani, "the year of the falling into sin of the whoU nation," and supports himself in this view by Vitringa's reckoning of 430 years 6 months from the founding of the temple to the destra;tion of the CHAP. IV. 4-8. 79 itate; and deducting 37 years of Solomon's and 3 of Rehoboam's, there remain 390 years ; and Judah, according to him, is contrasted with the whole people, the iO years being 40 from the collec- tive 390 : " the despising of the grace of God in the raising up of king Josiah (2 Kings xxiii. 25), and the frustration of the last attempt made by Jeremiah," beginning with the thirteenth year of Josiah, tlie first appearance of Jeremiah on the stage, whose labours down till the destruction of Jerusalem lasted 40 years. The connection with vers. 1-3 manifestly makes the time of punishment more probable than a time of sin ; and the compu- tation of the number 390 for the days which the sieije of the city lasted, from the 10th day of the lOtli month of the 9th year of Zedekiah down to the 9th day of the 4th month of the 11th year, can very simply be made to correspond by making a deduction for the temporary raising of the siege on account of the Egyptians (Jer. xxxvii. 5). On the other hand, every calculation of 390 and of 40 years — which is certainly involved — fails as a time of exile for Israel and Judah. In this state of matters, if one reckons by literal days and years, but still more considering the all-per- vading symbolical character of the whole and of the details, the acceptance of symbolical formulas of time for the divinely-awarded punishment of the guilt alike of Israel and of Judah commends itself. For the number 390 in reference to Israel, Kliefoth, by comparing Deut. xxv. 3 with 2 Cor. xi. 24, in accordance with the number of the ten tribes, arrives at 10 X 39 years of punish- ment as just so many strokes of divine chastise- ment ; and for Judah, on the other hand, as he does not treat it as two tribes, by a fair adjust- ment he arrives at the highest legal number of just 40 strokes, i.e. years. Wliat Keil remarks in opposition to this view may be said, but is less decisive than the certainly surprising character of sucli a mode of reckoning for the prophetic symbolism of an Ezekiel. Klief. has been driven to his ingenious attempt at interpretation, be- cause the number 390 bafBed every other interpre- tation. But this number also, which stands for Israel, can claim no peculiar symbolism for itself. The ten tribes, as Klief. himself calls them "torn off branches, atoms of a nation," have, in view of the longer historical duration of their exile, qs well ashy reason of their greater liability topunishment, only in general a claim to be more heavily punished. In particular, they do not come into consideration as regards the siege in our verses which applies to Jenisalem, nor in any other way, save that the national prophetic spirit must include them in its conception of collective Israel, for which Judah with Jerusalem is the title. With such a his- torical meaning also for Judah, with which also the right side of the prophet standing for it corre- sponds, one need not be stumbled with Kliefoth, although the number 390 should be "in itself quite meaningless." It is the same as with the left side of Ezekiel, so quite peculiarly taking the lead in vers. 4, 5, for this reason onlj', because his misery as an exile, long ago bet;un, and already entered upon in part by Judah likewise, is fitted to exhibit before the eyes of the remnant of Judah what will not be wanting to them just as visibly. For the symbolism the number 40, which is ap- plied to Judah, is the determining element. The relation of the 40 to 390 may be similar to the case in which Bahr (ii. p. 491) does not allow the numbers 33 and 66 as such to come into consii'.era- tion, but only in their connection with 7 and 14, bringing them up to 40 and SO. As respects the number 40 itself, Bahr says convincingly, accord- ing to it, almost universally, such periods are fixed as bring with them a state of more or less con- straint and oppression, and yet somehow at the same time a state having a bearing on religious affairs. Keil is right in basing the sjTnbolical meaning of a definite term of divine visitation not simply on the 40 years' leading of the people through the wilderness (Num. xiv. ), which pro- perly amounted to 38 years only, but on the earlier passage Gen. vii. 12, 17 Comp. , in order to determine the meaning of the number 40, Ex. xxxiv. 28 (Deut. ix. ) ; 1 Kings xix. 8; Jonah iii. 4 ; Matt. iv. As in this way the 40 for Judah, which alone properly came under con- sideration, threw light on the 390, the summing up might be let alone ; with some reflection it was done, as a matter of course, and this all the more that the number 390 in itself must of necessity appear meaningless. The possible connection with the actual period of the siege of Jerusalem, or a portion of it (comp. on ver. 9), may be re- garded as a subordinate reference. " The suH'ei- ings of the siege will, in the general sense of severe constraint, certainly continue during the whole exile also," etc. (Ew.) The addition of 390 and 40 gives (according to Ex. xii. 40) the period of sojourn of the children of Israel in Eijypt, 430 years, significant for all after periods of tlie nation, on account of the parallel of this period with the exile (Introd. p. 19), and in the law- even (Deut. xxviii. 68), as well as in Ezek. ix. 3, 6, viii. 13, brought into significant prominence. That the sojourn in Egypt, which sprang from quite a different cause, suits badly as a type for a period of punishment (Klief.), cannot accord- ingly be maintained. Comp. besides. Gen. xv. 13 (Acts vii. 6), where we have it in round num- bers! "The period of the first heathen tyranny over the people of Jehovah repeats itself in the history of the nation : the old, everlastingly memor- able time becomes to the seer — himself already living amid heathen surroundings —a type of tlie oppressions rushing in anew upon them with irresistible violence ; hence the punishment of the exile is intensified by the circumstance that it appears as the antitype of the ancient 430 years' Egyptian bondage" (Hav.). But here Klief. is right, when, against a special reference of the 40 years for Judah to the 40 years' leading of the people collectively through the wilderness (for which Hav. points to ch. xx. 13 sqq., 23 sqq.. 35, 36), he raises the objection, that in this way another occurrence lying outside the 430 years is drawn in, while the 40 years must certainly lie within the 430. We must therefore either abide by the general symbolical character of the number 40, or like Keil, who very ingeniously draws attention to the cii-cumstance, that the last 40 years of the Eg\'ptian bondage furnished a reason for a division of the 430 into 390 and 40, find again in the 40 the 40 years of his exile which Moses spent in Midian. Comp. Ex. vii. 7 with Acts vii. 23, 30— not as Keil, Ex. ii. 11-iii. 10 ; Acts vii. 23-30. "These 40 years," remarks Keil, "were not only for Moses a season of testing and purifi- cation for his future calling, but doubtless for the Israelites also the period of their severest oppres- sion by the Egyptians, and in this respect quite EZEKIEL. appropriate as a type for the future period of JuJah's punishment ; so that as Israel in Egypt lest in Moses her helper and protector, so now Judah was to lose her king, and to be given up to the tyranny of the heathen world-power. " [See Additional Note at the close of the Exegetical Remarks. — W. F.] Instead of the Kethib 'J'D'n (elsewhere only in 2 Ghron. iii. 17) we must read, with the Qeri, 'JD'H- — Comp. on rer. 5. — The suffix in vnnj refers to py. Hengst., who takes "IBDdS as = for just as many days (Klief., Keil : for the number of, for a number of), trans- lates : so that for every day there comes a year, 1 give it thee. [The 190 of the Sept. for the whole, and 40 for Judah, Havernick explains to himself by the bringing in of another type, viz. the deluge. Gen. vii. 24, 12. They read Ex. xii. 40 differently from the Hebrew text. Hitzig makes them reckon their 150 from the year 738 to 588.] By means of ver. 7 our section goes back upon the first (ver. 3), and harmonizes the two sym- bolical actions. Inasmuch as the prophet repre- sented the people before, and not so much Jeru- salem, he can in representing Jehovah set his face towarid the Biege of Jerusalem (viz. as that was to be represented in vers. 1-3), fixedly, sharply, as an enemy. The bared arm, — (Isa. Iii. 10) as ot a warrior, for the purpose of fighting, stripping it of the garment up to the shoulder, — according to Rasehi, prefiguring Nebuchadnezzar, is at the same time the fret arm of the prophet, who is lying upon the other. As it must be the right arm for the warlike object in view, we shall have (as against Hitz.) to think of the 390 days in vers. 4, 5, during which Ezekiel lies upon the left side, with which ver. 8 also agrees. The arm outstretched in the same direction strengthens as well as gives effect to the permanence of the look ; if it were to be understood as occasionally lifted up, then the py, which is certainly usual else- where also in the case of threatening announce- ments, would be explained still more definitely. — In accordance with ch. iii. 25, the expositors un- derstand the prophesying as not so much orally in words, but virtuaUy by means of this very symbolical acting. Comp. however, on ch. v. 5 sqq. — Ver. 8. ~^T\T\i njm in contrast with njn 13n3. ch. iii. 25 : there in order to move him along, here in order to make him fast. The bands are not the same as there ; but whereas those bands of men do not make the prophet obedient to them, a slave to their will, the bands here, on the other hand, which God throws over him, answer their purpose of fixing him according to God's will. The outward literal bands become in the divine speech a figurative expression for the divine pow&r which will hold him down, and at the same time (Klief.) make him bear it with patience. [According to Hav., a new element is introduced by n;ni ; the prophet, in a vivid man- ner, is placed in the condition of the besieged. According to Calv. : indicating the stability and firmness of the divine decree.] — The turning Trhiuh is hindered in such wise is that /rom the left to the right side, onwards till the accomplish- ment of the days of his besieging ; so that he has to represent the siege of the city, which may in this way he specified as lasting 390 days (comp. on vers. 6 and 7), unless what follows was in- tended to suggest a still more special reference. [Klief. refers vers. 7, 8 to the whole period ol 430 days ; Hitz. refers the prophesying to the 40 days merely.] Vers. 9-17.— r/te Third Sign. Ver. 9. A new charge, as in ver. 4 ; a still more detailed amplification, now especially of the out- ivard condition ; a third symbolic action, by wfiich also provision is made lor the sustenance of Eze- kiel whUe the above described state of affairs lasts ; and thus in connection with it. A repre- sentation of the people. If already in ver. 8 " the state of restraint of the besieged" (Henost. ) were thought of, then an immediate transition would be made from this more general calamity to the more special want of sustenance. — ptjn, a Chaldaic plural ; J instead of Q, wheat in grains (in the sing, especially wheat on the stalk, in the field). Hengst. : as wheat is thfe usual means of sustenance among the exiles, the Ch'^l- daic form pushes itself forward. Manifestly from a better time (Hav. : descending from what is better to what is worse and worse) ; for now there follows what, — however good and in part de- licious the ingredients in themselves are, — when baked into bread, as is the case here, is prison- bread, — barley in grains, 1 Kings iv. 28 (Judg. vii. 13 ; 2 Kings iv. 42 ; John vi. 9), beans as well as lentils, a favourite dish (Gen. xxv. 34), ot the latter of whiuh down to the present day the poor in Egypt, in time of dearth, make use as food ; inM, millet (from ni. to swell in water, or from the dark colour, allied with [jrj, "grain"), yielding a bad kind of bread ; and D«DD3, fitches, spelt (Ex. ix. 32), as being one of the poorest sorts of grain, which produces a dry and not very nourishing kind of bread. — The circumstance that Ezekiel is to take of all together does not indeed run counter to the law (TjCV. xix. 19 ; Dent. xxii. 9), but comes very near the prohibition, possibly indicating circuvutances of a lawless character, where one is not so rigid. More expressly it is suggested in this way, that the besieged will in their distress be compelled to gather together every- thing /hat can possibly be turned into bread. ("Airai'TflE yafi Toi [ipaiTac ToXlopKet/fiivou.} This State of matters is represented yet more strongly by means of the one vessel, which shows that of each separate sort not much more is to be had (ver. 10). ^The length of time (D'DTI 1BDD = as many days as there are) is given definitely as 390 days. It is therefore "inadmissible," with Keil, to get rid of this clear and definite statement by the supposition that the greater number merely is given (Prado), and that the 40 days are to be understood with the rest, but (Ewald) are omitted for brevity's sake (in the case of Ezekiel 1 !). It is conceivable that for 390 days exactly the famine would make itself specially felt. (2 Kings xxv. 3; Lara. ii. 20, iv. 9, 10.) At all events, ths prophet has to calculate his prison-fare for 390 days, for so many days is he to eat it. (390 loaves, Jer.) — ■]1S"7V ^^ accordingly his left sid( (ver. 5), before he turned to the right one. Comp. on vers. 7, 8. Klief is right as agiinst the including of the 40 days in the 390, not, hew- eve.-, in the extended application which he assert* CHAP. IV. 10-14 81 .or these 390 days, viz. on to ver. 17, as will soon appear. It is a very good remark of Klief. , that the prophet w:is not altogether prohibited from letting service be rendered to him. Additional Note on Ch. iv. 9. [At ver. 9, he is ordered to " make bread ac- cording to the number of the days that he should lie upon his side ; three hundred and ninety days shall thou eat thereof." Here the 40 days are left out, although during them also he was to lie upon his side — not, as commentators generaUy, and still also Havernick, suppose, from the first period being by much the larger of the two, and as such standing for the whole ; but to keep the reference clear to the distinctive character of the wilderness-period, which was the point chiefly to be bad in view by the Jewish exiles. The eating of polluted bread as a symbol, properly implied a constrained residence in a Gentile country — an unclean region ; hence, in the explanation given of the symbol at ver. 13, it is declared of the house of Israel, that " they shall eat their defiled bread amorKj the Gentiles," But in the wilder- ness Israel stood quite separate from the GentUes, though still under ]>enal treatment, and in a sense stUl connected with Egypt (hence "the wil- derness of Egypt," XX. 36) ; and so they who were in a manner to return to that state again were merely to ' ' eat bread by weight, and with care, and drink water by measure, and in desolate- ness;" a state of chastisement and trouble, but not by any means so heathen-like, so depressed and helpless, as the other. — Fairbairn's Ezekiel. — W. F.] Ver. 10. His food is this bad mixed food (EwALD), not the definite portion which he will have to eat (Keil), for it is defined as portions only by what follows. Ezekiel is to have to eat, not as much as he likes, but, as usually happens in a time of scarcity during sieges, by weight (ver. 16). 20 shekels {shekel, what is weighed, hence a definite weight, just as mishkol is weight in general) — according to Ewald, about 20 ounces ; according to Keil, 22-23 ounces of bread ; accord- ing to Philippson, equivalent to 400 beans in weight (Lev. xxvi. 26). Although in those warmer, countries a man needs less than in our climate, yet here it is at most the half of what is usually necessary that is specified for each day. The definition from time to time strengthens the daily element, as distinguished from the hunger which is continually making itself known, never satisfied ; he will not be at liberty to give heed to this latter, but will have to consider the time, that he has only 20 shekels fcr each day, hence — .seldom, at long intervals, sparingly! [Keil sup- poses: at the different hours ol the daily meal time. He makes Ezekiel provide himself with a store of grain and legumes, and prepare his bread daily therefrom. Precisely so Klief., who brings in, besides, the pan from ver. 3 for the purpose.] And as the food is by weight, so the drink — the water is by measure. Ver. 11 (ver. 16). A whole hin is reckoned by the Rabbins at 72 egg-shellfuls ; hence one-sixth the same as two logs = 12 egg-shells. Too much for dying, too little for living. As in this way food and drink are specified for the 390 days, the idea readily suggests itself, with Grotius and others, of referring Ver. 12 to the 40 days that slill remain. The express mention of the numbei was not necessary here, because its symbolism (comp. on vers. 5, 6) in general sways the whole, and because in particular it is, of course, under- stood as the residue after the 390 had bcc:: eo expressly made prominent (ver. 9). The deseiip- tion may the more readily dispense with the number, as from the facts of the case it becomes sufficiently clear, on the one hand, by means of the new element of uncleanness, especially after the divine explanation which immediately follows in ver. 13, and, on the other hand, by means of that freer movement on the part of the prophet which is demanded by ver. 12. The 40 certainly symbolizes (comp. on vers. 4-6) chiefly the exile among the heathen, as it was to begin for Judah alter the taking of besieged Jerusalem. Hengst. excellently remarks: "the barley cake here has nothing at all to do with the pot in ver. 9 ; that is gone." Ewald finds in it an " exceptional sort of thing, as if for a feast;" certainly too much, and not in accordance with the character of the period of exile. .lay, the warm cake of bread baked in the hot ashes, just as is usual down even to the present day in eastern lands, especially on journeys, is distinguished as something more common, what is more in order, from the preced- ing unusual and extraordinary mixed food. Ths poor standing of exiles causes it to be of barley (comp. ver. 9), unless such cakes baked in ashes were as a rule of barley, of which Keil has by no means proved the contrary, as against Hitzig. [Keil, Hitzig, and others translate predicatively : as a barley cake, prepared in that manner, shalt thou eat it. (Is the sufllx neuter? is it to be re- ferred to Qrh in ver. 10?)] Since the important thing here, as regards the sense, is merely the emphasizing of the uncleanness of the food, and since the use of dry animal dung as fnel (ver. 15) is at least nothing unusual in the East, nSV '7^3 msn was the strong term for it. As fuel (comp. for <^^33, ver 15; Dn'isj;), unlike Isa. xxxvi. 12, it has nothing to do with the siege, beyond which, as regards the symbol, we have now come, as if it were pointing to a scajcity of wood ; but at most, it refers to the harassing, immured con- dition of Ezekiel in his own house. Filth and misery round about on every side : what an over- whelmingly vivid sermon for his countrymen this situation before their eyes! Comp. besides, Deut. xxiii. 12-14. njJiJn from Jiy, a technical word for njy, either : to make round, to curve, to bend, in reference to the form of these cakes, or : because they were surrounded with hot ashes. (Sept.: ft iyicpvfiai.) Ver. 13. The divine interpretation, which i/ immediately annexed to this quite extraordinary demand, and just because it is so, lays stress (for the reference is not to the siege, but it is already the exile that is spoken of), not on the difficulty as to fuel, but bn its uncleanness, and that not so much in a Levitical as in a moral point of view, as judged by the universal human instinct of decency. Man's dung signifies the profane sojourn in the heathen world in general with its idols (q'5^73 !). Comp. Ezek. ix. 3. The proyihet raises his ob- jection— in Ver. 14 — in the sense: if I Ivave never eaten that which is unclean according to the law of Israel, how should I have anything to do with 82 EZEKIEL. % thing unclean generally! (GnoT.) — pinx, an exclamation of astonishment, fear, horror. My Boul — not so much as: I myself; it expresses rather the living consciousness of the prophet in ills feelings, alike as to his antipathies and sym- pathies (Matt. xxvi. 38). A lively expression of feeling, especially characteristic oiapriest! Comp. as to the subject-matter, Deut. xiv. 21 ; Ex. xxii. 31 ; Acts X. 14, xi. 8 ; Dan. i. 8.-^33, according to Ges. ; something made fetid, stinking ; hence, on the one hand : unpalatable, on the other : for- bidden to be used by the laws of food, something abominable, disgusting, or: something rejected, worthy of rejection (Lev. vii. 18); also without lij'Q, Isa. Ixv. 4. According to Hiv. : especially characterizing the priest, inasmuch as in the case of the sacrificial meals flesh left over till the third day was reckoned ^ys, Lev. xix. 7. God makesthe concession to him— Ver. 15 — with riNI, corresponding to his njH, of cow's dung (Kethib : 'JflEV. Qeri: ^y^Si"), like camel's dung — a very common, odourless fuel. The objection and con- cession (Hav. : an impressive episode) give a dis- tinctness of their own to the matter in hand ; and thereafter Ver. 16 returns to the beginning, not merely of this third symbolical action (ver. 9 sqq. ), but, in winding up, of the whole chapter (ver. 1 sqq.), and in this way to what is most closely im- pending, viz. to the siege of Jerusalem. And to this corresponds in point of form the m{<-p, and, as regards the subject-matter, the participial construction ■;3C"»33n, of what is as it were shown in the act of beiug broken in pieces. — As in Isa. iii. 1 bread and also water are named as that which supports (Delitzsch), or more exactly, that on which one supports himself, so here the staff of bread, since bread supports, i.e. nourishes, strengthens, refreshes the heart of man, Ps. civ. 15; Gen. xviii. 5; Judg. xix. 5; Lev. xxvi. 26. This stafi' being broken on which the earthly man leans, he falls into the dust of death. Defined more exactly, and, at the same time, set forth vividly by means of -Dni'~faNV Comp. vers. 10, 11.— pDDtfD strengthens njsns, the anxiety about the means of subsistence (Matt. vi. 31, 32) rising up into silent, speechless pain, caused by the impending starvation. — Ver. 17. Either dependent on the principal thought in ver. 16: "in order that" (Ewald), or, as this is limited to bread, dependent on the amplification of the same there : because. — The brother also in Ps. xlix. 7. — In other respects, a quotation from Lev. xxvi. 39 ; Lam. ii. 12, 19 (Luke xxi. 26). Additional Note on Ch. iv. [Jerusalem in a state of siege represents the covenant-people, as a whole, straitened and op- pressed by the powers of this world, as the instru- ments of God's just displeasure. And the prophet being appointed to bear, during its continu- ance, the iniquity of the people, with stinted and fjul provisions, points in another form to the same visitation of evil — only with a more particu- lar respect to the cause from which it was to ?)ring; and the penal character it should wear, hat the time specified should have been in all 430 years, denoted that the dealing was to forip. ;i kind of fresh Egyptian exile and bondage to the elements of the world ; but much more so in the case of the one house than in that of the other. The house of Israel having cast off nearly all tluil was distinctive in the position and privileges of the covenant-people, they had consequently sunk into a condition of greatest danger, one bordering on heathen darkness and perdition^nigh unto cursing. What they might expect was to be bruised and crushed to the dust, as if under the rod of Egypt. But Judah was not so far gone; she had tlie true priesthood to minister at her altars, and the house of David to rule by divine right over the heritage of God ; so tliat her sub- jection to the powers of evil was only to be like tlie time of chastisement and trial in the wilder- ness, out of which she might again emerge into a state of peace and blessing. As the prophet also again declared, in a later prophecy, "And 1 will bring you into the wUderuess of the peoples (not the wilderness merely, but the wilderness of the peoples, to sliow that it was to be the same only in character as of old, but not in geographical position), and there will I plead with you face to face ; like as I pleaded with }"Our fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God " (ch. xx. 35-38). A new time of chastisement, but mingled, as of old, with mercy ; severe and earnest dealing, but for a gracious result — that they might be refined and purified, so as to become fit for enjoying the good which, as a redeemed people, was secured to them for a heritage of blessing. And if any hope remained for the other branch, the house of Israel — if they were ever to escape from their state of Egyptian darkness and bondage, it must be by their going to join their brethren of Judah in the wilderness, and sharing in their peculiar treat- ment and prospects. On which account, it is not the whole of the 430 years of the Egypt-state that is appointed toward the house of Israel in the vision, but this shortened by the 40 yeare of the wilderness sojourn, to teach them that a way still lay open for their return to life, but only by their having the Egypt-state merged into that of the wilderness ; in other words, by ceasing from their rank idolatries and open apostasy from the way of God, and coming to seek, along with Judah, through God's covenant and ordinances, a restora- tion to righteousness and peace and blessing. But why should the prophet, in thus announc- ing the future dealings of God, have thrown the delineation into so peculiar, so enigmatical a form ? Why should he have presented it to the view as a returning again " of the years of former generations"? Not, certainly, on the principle of a bald and meagre literalism, as if he meant us to understand that the clock of Providence was actually to be turned back, and the identical ground trodden over again, the precise measures of time filled up anew, of which we read in the earlier history of the chosen race. He who would interpret in such a style the symbolical visions of an Ezekiel is incapable of entering into the rapt emotions of such a mind, and must necessarily flounder at every step. For here we have to do, not only with a lively and fervid spirit, which i» ever breathing life, as it were, into the dead, bu that spirit in a state of ecstatic elevation, in which the mind naturally served itself of the more remarkable facts and proviiences in the CHAP. IV. «3 past; yet only as aids to the utterance of pro- phetic thought — appropriate forms wherein to clothe the new things oonceruiug God's kingdom, that were through the Spirit imaging themselves to the prophet's vision. And, indeed, the very imperfection that usually appears in the/rame of 8ueh historical visions, as compared with the past realities, — the partial mingling together here, for example, of the two great consecutive periods of ptist judgment and trial in the history of the covenant-j)eople, so as to make the second begin before the fiist had ended, — this very imperfection shows, as it was doubtless intended to do, that an e.\act re])roduction of the past was not in the eye of the prophet, and that the nature of God's con- templated designs, rather than any definite bounds and limits respecting them, were imaged under those ancient periods of tribulation in Egj'pt and the wilderness. There were three reasons chiefly why the pro- phets in general, and this prophet in particular, might be often led to speak of the future under the form and image of the past. In the first place, as the me^ining obviously did not lie upon the surface, it called for serious thought and inquiry regarding the purposes of God. A time of general backsliding and corruption is always a time of superficial thinking on sjiiritual things. And just as our Lord, by His parables, that partly veiled while they disclosed the truth of God, so the prophets, by their more profound and enig- matical discourses, sought to arouse the careless from their security, to awaken in(juiiy, and stir the depths of thought and feeling in the soul. It virtually said to them. You are in imminent peril ; direct ordinary discourse no longer suits your case ; bestir yourselves to look into the depths of things, otherwise the sleep of death shall overtake you. Then, again, it conveyed in a few words — by means of a brief allusion — what the most lengthened description without it could scarcely have accomplished. It was employing a device which the most powerful and effective orators have sometimes resorted to with the greatest effect — as in the memorable words of Mirabeau, when, wishing to repel the thought of danger, he flashed out the pregnant interrogation : " Is Hannibal at the gates?" In like manner, the prophet here, seeking to impress upon his countrymen the cer- tainty and the awfulness of God's impending judgments on account of sin, carries them back to the past ; he brings up to their view Egypt and the wilderness as ready to renew themselves again in their experience. What thoughts of terror and alarm were these fitted to awaken in their minds! Centuries of bondage and oppres- sion! A wearisome sojourn amid drought and desolation ! And then this foreshadowing of the future, not only rendered more distinct, but also strengthened as to its credibility, authenticated by those stern realities of the past ! It assuredly has been ; shall it not be again ? But this suggests another and, indeed, still deeper reason for such a mode of representation having been adopted ; for such renewed exhibi- tions of the past were among the means specially jhosen by God for the purpose of enforcing on men's notice the uniformity of His dealings, and teaching them to regard the providential facts of one age as substantial predictions of what are to be expecteA in another. It told men then, and it tells us now (only it was more peculiarly adapted to those who lived in ancient times, as the revelations they possessed consisted, much more than now, in the records of history — yet it tells all alike), that tht^ forms alone are transitory in which divine truth and righteousness manifest themselves, while the principles embodied in these forms are eternal, and can never cease, amid all outward varieties, to be giving forth siujilar exhi- bitions of their life and power to those which have already appeared. The eye that can thus look through the shell into the kernel, may see the future things of God's administration mirrored in the p:ist — not, indeed, the exact copy and image of what is to be, yet its essential character and necessary result. Even those very ]ieriods of bygone tribulation and chastisement, which the prophet here represents as coming to life again in his day — have they not also a voice for other times? Are they not still reiterating their lessons, and perpetually renewing their existences, in the case of impenitent transgressors now, as well ns formerly, in that of drooping exiles in the cities of the Medes, or on the banks of Chebnr? One of these periods — the sojourn in the wilderness — the Baptist still finds prolonging itself to the era of his own ministry. His word of stern expostu- lation and solemn warning makes itself heard as "the voice of one crying in the wilderness;" for he sees everywhere around him trackless deserts where ways of God need to be opened up — ele- ments of coiTuption working which require to be purged away by the searching application of divine righteousness, before the Canaan of God's inheritance can be properly entered and enjoyed. And the lukewwrn and fruitless professor still — so long as he cleaves to the ways of iniquity, and refuses to yield a hearty surrender to the will of God — what else is his condition? He is in bondage to the elements of the world, and there- fore can have no part in that good inheritance which floweth with milk and honey. The doom of Heaven's condemnation hangs suspended over his head ; and if not averted by a timely submis- sion to the righteousness of (!od, and a cordial entrance into the bond of the covenant, he shall infallibly perish in the wilderness of sin and death. — Faikbaien's i&eiW, pp. 57-61. — W. F.J DOCTKINAL REFLECTIONS. 1. In the case of a prophet of Ezekiel's pecu- liarity, it must be granted that the bouiulary be- tween symbolic representation in mere forms of speech, and by means of action in real life, may be a movable one. Where, however, the prophet, just as in the case before us, is not to speak, but to be silent, what he relates as a series of facts can hardly be otherwise understood than as actually so. Preaching by means of things done as a mere form of speech is a contradiction in itself. He is to act as He who has sent bin; will also act. There is, in the first place, enougii of words. And then it would perhaps be difficult to reconcile with the "honesty and uprightuess of the prophet," which, however, Hengst. main- tains, what he asserts of his symbolical actions, that they are " only pictures executed in a lively manner, calculated to make an indelible impres- sion on the imagination." For example, veiB 14, 15. [But see Note on vers. 1-3.— W. F.] 2. "If any one reads what Ezekiel reports here, it will perhaps appear to him like a childish play a EZEKIEL. wliieh it would also be, if God had not commanded tlie prophet to make it so. From this we may learn that the sacraments also are distinguished from empty illusions by means of the word of God alone. The authority of God for them is the mark of distinction, by which the sacraments are singled out, and have their meaning. It is not the outward appearance, but the Author that is to be looked at. So also the whole system of divine worship under the law differed almost in no respect from the ceremonies of the heathen ; yea, these latter brought their sacrifices, and that even with the greatest possible pomp ; but Israel had God's command and promise on their side " (Calv. ). 3. The sinner will not get off so easily before God,- however lightly he may appear to deal with his sin before men, and before the tribunal of his own conscience. Sin lies as guilt upon man's conscience, as a burdensome consciousness that one deserves punishment, has to expect punish- ment. Between the past, wlieu the sin was com- mitted, and the future, when punishment is de- servedly to be expected, guilt is the painful, burdensome present of the sinner. Guilt is an abiding thing, even if punishment is a past thing. 4. If every one in himself has to bear his guilt, this moral side is supplemented by the specifically religious one, that a freeing from the burden of it, an exculpation — not the denial, nor the lessening, the explaining away, but the removal of guilt — has been provided for. Without this thought, by means of which the forgiveness of sins is ac- complished, true religion is inconceivable. Such a removal of guilt took place mediatorially in Israel by means of the priesthood. What lay in this case in the office, as of divine form for ths period of shadows, lay also in the sacrifice, as of divine substance for the same period of types ; by means of the sacrifice, the removal of guilt took place in the way of substitution, of atoning accept- ance of that guilt. Everything was in a manner like a bill of exchange, of which God meant to get payment {realisiren) in His own time. This divine realization in the fulness of the times will thus have the form of a priest and the essence of a sacrifice. The Servant of Jehovah in Isa. liii. is both, priest as well as sacrifice ; but the prophet is not so, who has neither to mediate nor to make atonement, but who speaks God's word or em- bodies it in action — in our case here the latter ; that is to say, he symbolically represents the guilt of the people in his own person, not so much, of course, by action as by suffering. 5. As Ewald already points out, the 40 years for .Tudah are parallel with the 70 years of the Babylonian exile in Jeremiah. What the latter are in a predominantly numerical point of view, the 40 of Ezekiel are in a purely sjTnbolical. 6. Havemick, in connection with the episode of vers. 14, 15, mentions the case of Daniel, who in deepest sorrow must eat the bread of affliction, and pine away in grief over the sins of his people, hut an angel of God comes also, and comforts and strengthens him. So likewise here, as he says, Jehovah alleviates the punishment. The protest of Ezekiel not less closely resembles the n' oii»«to> of the Son of man in Gethsemane, and the strength- ening by an angel from heaven. 7. The circumstance that they were to eat " their bread polluted " among the heathen, printed at the same time, according to Coco., to the entire want of the means of cieansing through sacrifice Hos. ix. 4). The land of the heathen far from the temple was an unclean land, because there was no possibility of cleansing according to the law of the Sanctifier of Israel. HOMILETIC HINTS. Ver. 1. Similar symbolic actions pe find per formed by Christ also, who places a child in tht midst of His disciples, washes their feet, etc. And so God wishes here also to say to Israel: "Thou wilt not hear; open thine eyes at least!" (H. H.) — God sometimes demands things which appear to men foolish, nay, silly. But in God's foolishness there is wisdom, while in all the wis- dom of men there is mere foolishness in the end, 1 Cor. i. 23. — "Elisha in 2 Kings xiii. causes bow and arrows to be brought; Isaiah in ch. xx. walks barefoot ; Jeremiah in ch. xxvii. wears a yoke, bonds, etc. The apostles shake the dust off their feet (Matt. x. ), shake their clothes (Acta xviii. 6) ; Agabus binds Paul with his girdle (Actsxxi. ). Let us recal to mind the bundle of arrows wherewith that heathen preached concord to his sons" (L. L.). — " Most of all art thou be- sieged, when thou supposest that thou art not at all besieged. There is a security of the Christian which is storm ; for, according to Job, man's life upon earth is a warfare" (Jek.). — "Besieged Jerusalem is the soul in its sins, against which all the works of the divine righteousness are directed; but as the unburnt brick is easily d.s- solved in pieces by water, so also the soul in its sins by the tears of repentance " (a L.). Ver. 2. Titus confessed of the second destruc- tion of Jerusalem, that the city was conquered more by the angry Deity than by means of the Roman weapons. — "Temptation may be called a spiritual siege" (Stck.). — The whole world round about us is, in the main, a siege of the soul ; in the world we have tribulation. If only the iron pan does not stand between us and God ! For if God be for us, who can be against us? But, on the other hand, if God must be against us, accord- ing to the testimony of our own conscience, what could peace even with all men help us ! Ver. 3. " Preachers frequently appear to their hearers as their enemies, because they proclaim to them their ruin, and depict the punishment of their sin vividly before their eyes ; and yet they do not wish their ruin, but the salvation of their souls" (Stck.). — "The Jews might shake their heads and thrust out their tongues, but this fact they could not alter, that it was a sign for Israel " (Calv.).^To him who has his soul before his eyes, everj'thing, even if it is not said so expressly as here, may be a sign. — All things must, and in fact do, work for good to those who love God. Ver. 4 sqq. " Preachers are to grudge no trouble and inconvenience for the best interests of their hearers, 1 Thess. ii. 8, 9 " (St. ). — "God does not always punish on the spot, when men deserve it with their sins " (0.). — Preachers are to preach not merely with the word, but by their example, in doing as well as in leaving undone, and als» in suffering. — God's patience and His servants patience is a tine sermon. — "We, for the most part, reckon up only our days of sorrow, but for our days of joy, and e^pecially for our days of sin, we have neither reckoning nor remembrance " (Stck.). — Ver. 7. How much longing, h^w mncb CHAP. T. pain, but what righteousness also, lay in this look toward Jerusalem ! — A prelude on Ezekiel's part to Luke xix. 41 sfjci., but also a contrast — here the uncovered arm, there the weeping eyes of Jesus. — '* Ah! if now Jerusalem and we who are in it were to judge ourselves, and were to look upon our sina and vices as our worst enemies, and to attack them ; then it would not be necessary for God with those who are His to take up a posi- tion against us as enemies" (B. B.). — Ver. 8. " Diseases and afflictions of every kind are such bands, wherewith God binds His own, and not merely the ungodly" (Stck.). — "And now, be- hold, I go bound in the spirit," says Paul in Acts XX. — "Let us break their bands asunder, »ud cast away their cords from us," is a well- known watchword of those who are mighty according to the flesh in this world. — "We bind ourselves with our sins, and Satan knows how to hold us fast in these bands of our own " (Stck.). Ver. 9 sqq. So the hread of misery is ever still of many sorts, and yet not much for each day. — " But our days also for the bread of misery are measured and numbered, and beyond them it is not to last" (B. B. ). — Want of bread is to be endured, for man lives .lot by bread alone ; but the want of God no man ought to be able to en- dure, not even for a single instant ; and yet how many become old and grey without hunger on this account! — Vers. 10, 11. The high import- ance of bread and water in a bodily and spiritual point of view ; and yet, for the most part, w e are able to think only of prisoners in connection with ! bread and water. — Ver. 12. "Nothing can be sv I loathsome to men as sin is to God" (Stck. V — I " But what else, pray, are those doing but citing j dirt, who delight themselves in earthly tldngs, and do everything for the sake of the belly or tin; i flesh?" (B. B.) — And in what is the daily intei- 1 lectual food of so very many men, consisting as it does of newspapers and pamphlets, of social inter- course and conversation — in what is it bakeil! Paul reckoned everything but dung for Christ, Phil. iii. — Ver. 13. Along with the Jews, all those, even at the present day, are eating defiled bread, who, like them, are despising the bread of life which came down from heaven. — Ver. 14. He who must be silent to men, may yet open heart and mouth to his God.— " There is full permission to ask God for the alleviation of the cross" (0.). — Ver. 15. " God is and remains gracious even in the midst of wrath ; if He does not take the cross of His cliildren entirely away, yet He alle- viates it " (Cr.). — Ver. 16 sq. " No one has less thought of it than the rich, that there was to be a possibility of the want becoming so great in their case, that bread and water were so easily to fail them, even althougli a famine should happen. But the rich man experienced it even in hell, and could not get a drop of water, however much he wished to have it" (B. B.). CHAPTER V. 1 And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp sword; as a barber's razor shalt thou take it; and thou causest it to pass over thine head and over thy chin, and 2 takest thee weighing-balances, and dividest them [the hair]. A third part thou burnest in the flame in the midst of the city, as the days of the siege are fulfilled [when they are complete] ; and thou takest the [second] third part, with the sword shalt thou smite round about it [the city]; and the [third] third part shalt thou 3 scatter to the wind ; and I will draw out the sword after them. And thou takest 4 thereof a few in number, and bindest them in thy skirts. And thou shalt take of them farther, and thou castest them into the midst of the fire, and burnest them in the fire; therefrom shall fire go forth to the whole house of Israel. 5 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah : This [city] Jerusalem, in the nidst of the [heathen] 6 nations I placed her, and the countries round about her. And she quarrelled with My judgments more wickedly than the [heathen] nations, and with My statutes more than the countries which are round about her; for they despised 7 My judgments, and walked not in My statutes. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah : Because ye raged more than the [heathen] nations which are round about you, walked not in My statutes, and did not My judgments, and [also] did not 8 after the judgments of the [heathen] nations which are round about you. There- fore thus saith the Lord Jehovah : Behold, I am against thee, even I, and I D execute judgments in thy midst before the eyes of the [heathen] nations. And I do in thee what I have not done, and the like of which I will not do any more, 10 because of all thine abominations. Therefore fathers shall eat sons in thy midst, and .sons shall eat their fathers ; and I execute judgments in thee, and scatter 11 thy whole remnant to every wind. Therefore, as I live, sentence of the Lord Jehovah : Surely, because thou didst defile My sanctuary with all thy detestable things, ami with all thine abominations, I also will cut off; neither shall Mine eye i2 spare, neither will I show pity. A third part of thee — of the pestilence shall 86 EZEKIEL. they die, and with the famine shall they perish in the midst cif thee ; and the [-econci] third part — by the sword sliall they fall round about thee; and the [thinij third part will I scatter to every wind, and the sword will I draw out after 13 them. And Mine anger is accomplished, and I cause My fury to rest upon them, and I breathe again; and they shall know that I, Jehovah, have spoken in My 1 4 zeal, while I accomplish My fury on them. And I will give thee to desolation and to mockery among the [heathen] nations which are round about thee, before 15 the eyes of every passer-by. Arid it is a reproach and a taunt, a warning and an astonishment, to the [heathen] nations which are round about thee, when I execute judgments in thee in anger and in fury, and in furious rebukes : I, Jehovah, have 16 spoken. When I send ujion them the evil arrows of famine, which are for de.struetion, which I will send to destroy you, and I will increase famine upon 17 you, and I break for you the staff of bread; And I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they make thee childless; and pestilence and blood press upon thee; and a sword will I cause to come upon thee. I, Jehovah, have spoken. Ver. 2. Sept.: To nretprot . . , , x. ^x^v, t. TiTctprei' x. xetrecxxufti! ttCro Ir ute-ai x'jTri, x. r. nrxfinn a^aTaa;»^^Hff— Ver. 4. . . . trup. K. ipsti irecvn eixoi 'Irp. Ver. 6. K. Ipit; Tct itxattUfiMTti fxc'J r»i xvafjM \x ran td*an, x. ret jofjjfXM ,u«i* kx ruy ^aipmy retv xvxXoi »-JTr,i' Ver. 7. Sept.: . . . ocvd' av r, et^opfjix Ct^tMti IX T. £0*»r» — (Anoth. read. : Qn^tJtTJ without s^S, Syr.) Ver. 11. Anoth. read.; r'TIV. Ver. 12. To TiTOLprov treu . . . x. r. nrctpT. rtv £» ^tpLti x, T. TIT. ff. IjV ir«»T« atii[jun . . . X. r. tit. r, £* pcf/^eu» . . . M- Ver. 14. . . . tfr,pi,cii X. T«f Qvyartprti rov xuxKm — Ver. 15. Anoth. read. : n*^33 • Sept., Arab., Vulg. : tn gentibtu. Ver. 17. . . . et batias pessimas usqite ad intemicumem — EXEGETICAL REMARKS. Vers. 1-4. — The Fourth Sign. Vers. 5-\1.—The Divine Interpretation of the same. What follows may be called a second sign, in- asmuch as the three preceding symbolical acts fit into each other as parts of one symbolical whole. There is also the indication of the new section, just as in ch. iv. 1 : And thon, son of msn. Ch. T. 1-4, however, is not without reference to ch. iv. If, then, ch. iv. 1.3 already carried Ub beyond the siege of Jerusalem as such, so much the more readily may the (numerically^ fourth sign which the prophet is to perform place us hi the miflst of the conque.st of the city. For it is with this that ver. 1 begins. The whole of the lively action revolves round the sword, which ROW does its work victoriously ; what follows is a threefold act of the sword. Comp. Deut. xxxii. 41. Ezekiel, just as in ch. iv., also represents therein both God and the ].eople. What he is to take to him.self is what God will take to Himself in the person of the king of Babylon, whose sword of execution is that of God, here that of Ezekiel. Comp. Isa. vii. 20. ("The mere image becomes a .symbolically isolating action ; where others only speak of shaving the head as a sign of deepest grief, Ezekiel takes a sword," etc. — Um- BREIT.) Ewald's translation appears to invert the matter, where, namely, the razor is to serve as a sharp sword. Ezekiel is rather to take a sharp mcord as a razor. (The purposely-em- phasized sharpness of the sword ought to relieve Hengst. of the difficulty which the outward exe- cution cau.ses him. Of smooth shaving, so that no hairs at all .are left, nothing is said ; and what jhall one say, when Hengst. makes the task still more difficult by adding: "especially for a man of predominant subjectivity, who is usually not skilled in such manipulations." Such a thing .sounds ridiculous, but not what Ezekiel is to ilo-) 3in is the instrument that "devastates," "destroys," not (at all events, in the context of our chapter) : a cutting tool in general, knife (HiTZiG), although it -has to serve as a barber's razor. — Head and bearded chin come into con- sideration, neither as being the capital nor as being the head of the nation, the king, in con- trast with the land or the people, but solely in reference to the hair, which, therefore, we are also to understand in the clause : and dividest them: they mean the innumerable (Vs. xl. 12) individuals of Israel, — in its fulness (the flowing ornament, just as it is the manly strength, of the oriental) tlie ornament and the strength of a nation, — conceived of especially as inhabitants of Jerusalem. (In Lev. xxi. 5, the shaving off of the hair is specially forbidden to the priest, HXv. ) — The weighing balances (dual) symbolize the divine justice, as it weighs out the punishment (Isa, xxviii. 17), and render possible the division into three parts of equal weight which follows. Ver. 2 puts us back into ch. iv. : the prophet is to burn a third part of his hair which he has cut oil' -\1S3i i" fhs flame of a tire kindled for this purpose. The flame as an emblem represents, not Jerusalem rising up in flames (as Hengst.), but, according to ver. 12, the co7isnmi)ig violence of the pe.stilpnce and the famine (Lam. v. 10). Hengsi. gives himself unnecessary trouble to make the dead bodies be consumed by the flames. Keii correctly refers -i, Isa. xli. 16. — aiT'inS pns (Ex. XV. 9) constructio prceg- nans, a quotation from Lev. xxvi. 33, eonse- Huently not the hairs, but what is signified by them : the .Jews, partly those who can flee, in still larger number those who are taken prisoners. Ewald; "even then still pursued by the sword, so that only very few after repeated testings (?) ultimately remain over, Isa. vi. 13." (Jer. xlii. 15 sqq., xliii. 10 sqq., xliv. 11 sqq.) The LXX. have from ver. 12 — where pestilence, famine, sword, and wind occur — introduced a fourfold division here, against which both the text— that they had a better before them does not appear — and the symbolical meaning of the number three for the divine recompense testify, as also, besides, Zech. -xiii. 8, 9 ; Rev. viii. Vers. 3, 4 contain a continuation (Keil) or rather the completion of the symbolical trans- action. DBt2, "from there," because the last third, remaining as it iloes in life, is conceired of as locally somewhere in the figure and in the reality. It is the third part scattered to the wind that is spoken of, as in every case of such scatter- ing, some part remains lying on the gi-ound, another part comes to rest somewhere farther on. — A few in nambor. This even indicates a cer- 'lin care, but still more the symbolic binding inot a collecting, but a preserving) of the hairs in the skirt of the garment. (Hos. iv. 19 does not belong to this category.) That "the Lord will gather the remnant of His people from their dispersion, and lead them back to their native land " (Hencst.) is not said : on the contrary, in ver. 4 there is also another (n^j;) taking of them (DDDl). ' f- of those that were taken, the few, counted hairs ; and, in fact, not only are those thus taken caxt into the midst of the fire and htirni therein, but ^JOO. i.e. from the midst of the fire (Tin). '" whirli they are burning, there shall fire go forth to the whole house of Tsrael. Neither in connection with these words nor from ver. 13 sqq. can the thought arise of testings, of a fire of purification. Nor is it, as Umbreit : " that the most pungent grief over the mournfa' lot of the besieged of Jerusalem shall seize all Israel. " Thejire symbolizes throughout Ihe judg- ment of the wrath of God, at last annihilating the people as a whole. (Jer. iv. 4 ; Zeph. iii. 8. ) Jer. xxix. 21, 22 is not to be quoted here as R:ischi does ; but we must rather go back with Grot, to Jer. xl. sqq. : these fugitives gathering together in the land may at least easily be com- pared to the hairs which fell to the earth im- mediately around the prophet (ver. 3) ; and their destiny also corresponds (Jer. Iii. 30). Hav. , Hengst. think of those brought back from Baby- lon down to the burning of Jerusalem by the Romans. It is still farther fetched, with Klie- foth, Keil, to drag in Luke xii. 49 here : where, pray, has a "cleansing, purifying, aud quicken- ing power gone forth from Christ over the whole house of Israel"? There remains certainly a remnant from vers. 3, 4, only it is neither cha- racterized as a holy seed (Isa. vi. 13), no even as in Ezek. vi. 8 sqq. : it is left between tlie lines. [Ewald (1st edit.) translated: from me shall a fire, etc., as if it were >30D- Keil, after Hitzig, would refer it (" therefrom ") to the whole trans- action descril)ed in vera. 3, 4. But Hitzig makes the sin to be a fire (Job x.\xi. 12), and also the prophecy threatening destruction a fire pent up (Jer. xxiii. 29), which breaks forth into flame at the moment of its accomplishment. To refer 13Dt3 directly to {jt^J is prevented, of course, by the feminine construction f^x KVD- Hengst. : "from it, i.e. from them, the numerical multi- plicity being combined into an ideal unity with reference to the uniting bond of the evil dis- position." Have the LXX. with their i? aurii) thought of the city?] Comp. besides, Judg. ix. 15, 20. Inasmuch now as in ver. 5 the divine interpret tation begins with "nj3j{ 713, what is said in ch. iii. 26 (comp. ch. iii. 27), as well as a purely symbolical jirophesying in ch. iv. 7, is thereby modified. "To prophesy" (comp. ch. xxxvii.) is also, primarily, to speak in the spirit, as that usually takes place by divine direction. But the divine intcrpret:ition begins with the meaning of Jerusalem. This city portrayed upon the tile, viz. Jerusalem, the word of Jehovah points out a.s placed by Him in the midst of the heatheii nations, of course not in a local sense, liki Delphi, the navel of the earth. Already thi Chinese empire of the centre points as such to tlir maxims as to the ethical equilibrium prevailinc; in the Chinese system. But this is the centra, position as regards the history of salvation of Israel — represented by its capital, hence in local symbolism — for the history of the world, so that from it all the rays go forth to the world as a cir- cumference. John iv. 22. (Latu. ii. 15.) In its position, so distinguished by God's grace, we get the measure of the guilt of Jerusalem, i.e. of those whom it represents, inasmuch as they have come so far short of tlie obligation therein implied, that — Ver. 6 — in God's sight they appear even more v/icked than the heathen (2 Kings xxi. 9). Ewald reads unnecessarily (because of p) loni. from "ID', IID, which in Hiph. is read with 3 ; and linn, according to i8 EZEKIEL. him, means originally : to cause to totter, hence : to exchange something against (p^ something else, so that it gives way before this latter. (Easchi: "changed My judgments into wicked- ness." SimUarly Chald. and Syr.) loni is simply imperf. apoc. from mO Hiph. (an allu- sion to Ex. XV. 23 sqq., the first resistance of the newly- saved people.) Comp. Deut. i. 26, 43, ix. 7, 24, etc. Like a technical term for Israel's rebelliousness. — p. in a comparative sense : more than, leaving the heathen behind them, njftn^, unto wickedness; as an adverb: wickedly. (Hitz. infin. : so that they sinned more grievously.) njftJn^ brings into promi- nence tlie condition which makes Israel appear worse comparatively than the heathen ; hence [Q is most connected with it. Unsuitably, Hengst. compares 1 Cor. v., where the question is not about the what, but about a how. Neither have Isa. ii. 6 and Jer. ii. 10 any connection with this passage. But the more wicked character of Israel is intelligible, partly as contrasted with the grace of God which they have experienced, partly there- fore from the circumstance that they were acting contrary to the express will of God. The com- parison" is, in a general sense, possible, because the heathen also, by means of conscience, know about the divine will, have a law written in their hearts. Rom. ii. 14, 15. '3 inasmuch as they so acted, they were rebels convicted by law and statute, apart from conscience, common to them with the heathen. Ver. 7. 'ob (°u account of such things), as usual, at the beginning of a weighty, and, for the most part, of a threatening consequence. But before the threatening of punishment there is a second emphasizing of their greater guilt. [In- stead of D330n Ewald reads D33Sn, from njO, to count; HlTZ. : it stands for D3)pDn, "because of your driving;" Hav , after the Syr.: because ye "were more careless than the heathen (?). Most simply, as also Ges., from pn, or as Fvirst, from jiDH. going back to nOH : "because of your raging," vdih significant reference to Ps. ii. 1.] — With of this noblest orna- ment of the people, where Jehovah meets with His people, and they with Him. [^i, in this its simplest sense, too readily suggests itself for us to have recourse, with Hengst., to the funda- mental passage Deut. iv. 2 (ch. xiii. 1): to take therefrom of that which God has promised to give them, or, like Hav. : I also will withdraw from the people what is theirs, or, with Ges. , to supply the following lyjj : I also will draw off mine eye, or, like Ewald, to read, from xxiv. 14, jnsx s^: "I will not neglect." Hitz.: I also will sweep you away (C|-\J, 2 Kings xxi. 13), or (jJISK)' I also will let myself alone, leave myself scope to do as I please. Keil, like Ges. (Job xxxvi. 7), takes Dinn {<7) adverbially : that it may not feel CHAP. V. 12-17. 89 compassiou, aii'l understands the last 'JJJ'DJI ac- cordingly.] JJ13S stands emphatically without an object ; if it is allowable to refer it to the temple, the following transition (Jer. xiii. 14) to vers. 12, 13 sqq. announces certainly something more general, more comprehensive. Comp. ch. ix. 6. — Ver. 12. After this reference to ver. 1, as already in ver. 10, we have now the more de- tailed divine interpretation of ver. 2. Comp. besides, Jer. xxix. 17, .\vi. 4, xv. 7. By means of what is threatened, the anger of God is accom- plished— Ver. 13 — inasmuch as it is fully poured out. The full realization is its accomplishment. Up to the point of " causing it to rest vpoti them," and, at the same time, in them, so that they have the consciousness thereof, comp. John iii. 36. [To give vent to His fury upon them suits badly, after the anger is accomplished.] Comp. besides, ch. xvi. 42, xxi. 22 [17]. — 'riDnjni perf. Hithp., by syncope for 'noninnv The meaning of the Niphal (to have compassion) does not suit the context, especially in what follows. DHi is properly : to take draughts of air, to draw in and send forth tlie breath, whence the Piel ; to comfort, Hithp. : to comfort oneself (so also the Nipbal). The meaning: " to be re- venged," does not suit here. Comp. Isa. i. 24. The accomplishing of anger comes therefore to mean also the bringing of it to an end ; one might say : grace recovers breath again. The extremely anthropomorphic style of our passage is a highly figurative mode of representing the personal life and acting of God.— ijn'V knowledge as the re- sult of experience. — the "devastator" (in this section of the sword of God), n3"in i* A^ "de- vastation," the desert, wilderness. Lev. xxvi. 31, 33 ; Jer. vii. 34 ; Lam. ii. 1 sqq. AUitera- tively therewith, flD^n : the tearing in pieces ; in other words : the dishonouring, derision. Jer. xxiv. 9; Ezek. xxxvi. 34. The divine interpre- tation from here onwards touches on what is said in ver. 4 — the national annihilation of Israel. — Ver. 15. nn'm. ■viz. Jerusalem, to which the dis- covrse returns, as in ver. 8 (ver. 5). (Deut. X3 fiii. 37; Lam. v. 1.) Declamatorily in the third person. — njDn ninariQli rebukes in actual fact, from nS'i to reprove, to chastise. Comp. besides, Deut. xxix. 24. Ver. 16. Famine is the predominating element. Because sent forth among them by the Lord, its operations are compared to the arrows of a bow. Deut. xxxii. 23, 42; Lam. iii. 12, 13.— As in ver. 15 njrn, so now Dn3- — The evil aiTows, because they are n'nCD?, from rmc. which is explained by what follows. — The description of the famine rises to a climax ; first it strikes like single arrows — destruction is present ; then it in- creases, accumulates — the arrows from all sides become thicker; at length the staff of bread is broken (comp. ch. iv. 16). — Ver. 17. The famine IS again referred to, in order to connect with it what remains, after the manner of the Pentateuch and of Jeremiah ; comp. ch. liv. 15; Deut. xxxii. 24 ; Lev. xxvi. 22, 25 ; Ezek. xxviii. 23. Hengst. understands the evil beasts figuratively of the heathen. Isa. hi. 9 ; Jer. xii. 9. Famine and evil beasts, in parallel with pestilence and blood (not ;= bloody pestilence, as Ew. ). Correspond- ingly with the beginning of the chapter, it oome.o to an end at last with the sword. rOCTKIKAL REFLECTIONS. 1. It belongs to the prevailing aspect of judg- tntnt, that those who are to be saved appear like a minimum, which is indicated, indeed, but not described more fully. This also is characteristic, that their salvation is made dependent wholly on their being concealed and spared (ver. 4), with- out any reference to their subjective state. As judgment reigns on the one hand, so imconditional free grace on the other. 2. Judgment must prevail where the national standpoint is that of the law. This lies as a con- sequence in the character of the law. It is only his having a certain position towards, or be- taking himself to, the person of the Lawgiver that can preserve the transgressor, the sinner, from the sentence of death pronounced by the law. But Israel as a whole stands in opposition to Jehovah, not merely with its unlawful outward conduct, but as regards its thorough ungodliness of heart. Thus compassion ceases, as is expressly mentioned in ver. 11. That Jehovah is engaged in the most personal way is attested by the very form of the expression in ver. 13. 3. The lost condition morally of the people as such is significantly brought before us, in ver. 11, in the profanation of the sanctuary. For this is the most express local symbol of the personal presence of Jehovah in the midst of Israel, with which, besides, the most perfect indwelling of God in the fulfilment (John ii. 19 sqq.) is iden- tified. 4. The judgment threatens the national exist- ence of Israel. But if the nationality of Israel is the holy nationality of the people of God, then it is as intelligible, that the peculiar form, the symboli- cal body, of this idea which is to be realized may perish in the judgment of God, as it is certain that the idea will be realized, in however few i* may be ; in reality, there has been but One Israt ., that was alike sacrifice and priest, people and king. 5. Hav., Hengst., and others find in our chap- ter the announcement of yet a second penal judg- ment, viz. the last by the hand of the Romans, as already Theodoret, Jerome. The truth is, that the more complete (the expulsion of the ten tribes was a partial thing) unfolding of j «dgment in- volved in the Chaldean destruction of Jerusalem is not finished till the judgment of the world on the last day (Matt. xxiv. 21). The judgment which still farther diminishes the small number in the skirt of the garment in ver. 3 thus finds in the context — where a transition is made from the numerical element to the substance of the matter — its goal in the consuming of the whole of Israel (ver. 4). In the Chaldean judgment, Israel's nationality perished; at that early period, not first by the hand of the Romans. "We have no king but Caesar" is the answer of the lea .ling men of Israel already in John xix. 6. On ver. 9 Hav. remarks : " Alone of itt kind, and to be compared with nothing else, it !»0 EZEKILL. tlie judgmeut of tlie Lord which runs through the history of the kingdom of God: it is a judg- ment continually rising higher and higher, as compared with which what goes before always appears an insignificant one, and in this its un- ceasing progress paving the way for the culmi- nating point of the last judgment." Hengst. calls the judgment on Israel "a thing unique in the history of the world." Only one must not choose to read the true fulfilment in Josephus first, but as and because the Chaldean destruc- tion of Jerusalem was the first judgment of the kind, so it remains, as to its essence also, the onh/ one. For where is there a second nation, to which God has stood so near, driven forth in such a way from its land of promise since the days of the fathers, judged and, as being judged, pre- served? But as this political mummification serves the world-purpose of the Anointed One, so it is in the same direction that we are to seek the meaning of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, viz. not as a repetition, but merely a« an application of the Chaldean judgment to the last period of the world beginning with Christ, to the last day. Hence the general eschatolo- gical character of the discourses of Jesus in the Gospels bearing on the subject. 7. For the central position of Jerusalem, in a theological point of view, Hengstenberg quotes " Jeshurun, the congregation of the upright, the pattern nation prepared by God, which was to send forth its light into the surrounding heathen darkness, to honour its God, and to draw others to Him. Deut. iv. 5, 6; Isa. xlii. 19. Comp. Matt. V. 14; 1 Pet. ii. 9." 8. Judgment is, in every decisive moment of the history of salvation (in tlie history of the world), the goal, the end. " Crisis " is the name given to it when one contemplates history from a remedio-pathological point of yiew. HOMILETIC HINTS. Ver. 1 sqq. " By means of the similitude of the hair, the Lord would intimate His exact con- nection with Israel, how they have received from Him all nourishment and supplies ; from which fellowship He now cuts them olf like hair " (B. B. ). — "On account of its much hair, i.e. its great population, Jerusalem was so proud and full of vain confidence" (C. ). — "And what an Impression must it make, when Ezekiel, who was of the priestly class, contrary to Lev. xxi., shaved head and beard ! " (L. ) — "The judgments of God have their stages, and come at last, when the measure of sins is full, in a crowd, so that he who escapes the one falls into the other " (Tub. B. ). * ' Men and all creatures become sharp swords, when God makes use of them in judgment" '(SrcK. ). — " Behold an example of divine providence ! God does not strike blindly in His judgments, but, in the midst of the greatest confusion of human affairs, weighs, as it were with scales, all that is to happen to every one " (W.). — " Not even a hair shall be wanting to ns ; but neither shall a hair escape with the just God"(B. B.). — "God is just, but He is also merciful : let us betake ourselves to His mercy" (L. ). — " If one does not himself in time cut off his vanities and bad habits, then must a razor belonging to another make the eyes water, and cut in such a way, that of skin and hail nothiig remains" (B. B.). — •" In the judg- ment leavn God's justice, in the foretelling of i1 His goodness ; but sin's loathsomeness brings on the judgment" (Stck.). — "If one does not fear before the sword of the Spirit or God's word (Eph. vi. ; Heb. iv.), then must the sword of the enemy come and hew down the barren trees " (B.B.). — God's judgments : (1) sharp, (2) without respect of persons, but (3) just. — Ver. 2. "Exile is honourable if it happens to us for Christ's sake ; the man who has to endure it because of sin cannot comfort himself therewith" (Stck.). — " These were certainly thoroughly scattered sheep, because they had forsaken their Sheplierd! He that will not allow himself to be gathered uuuer the wings of Jesus, will be carried away by the wind of the divine wrath down to hell. And let a man flee whither he will, if he wants a good conscience, then the vengeance of God follows: there is no possibility of escape from Him " (B. B). — Under the sword of God: (1) the man whom the tiame in the inner man, the fire of conscience, does not consume, (2) is struck down by the out- ward calamities of life, (3) or he is carried away by every gust of wind — of pleasure, of opinion, etc., in the world, and so is lost. — Ver. 3. " Divine providence and goodness remembers mercy in the midst of wrath, because of the Messiah, who w;is to be born of this seed " (Stck.). — " Otherwise it would have happened as in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah" (L. ). — Think how we are first bound up in the skirt of the righteousness of Jesus Christ ! And no one will pluck us out of His hand. — Ver. 4. "This is not to be literal file, but something much more real even than this, the fire of the wrath of God, when He gives them over to the curse, and to the everlasting torment of an evil conscience ; and this fire is to take hold of all Israel, with the exception of those preserved in the skirt of the garment " (Cocc). Ver. 5 sqq. The greater the benefit, the greater ought to be the gratitude. — "In the Church, greater sins are often committed than outside of it" (St.). — After the manner of Jerusalem, those cities acted in later times, where most of Jesus' miracles were wrought (Matt. xi. ). — Outward advantages, without the inward disposition to correspond, are tow for the fire. — "We have therefore to see to it, that we hear the pleasure (the burden) of prosperity with a strong mind" (C. ). — To whom much is given, of him much may be required, and much is required ; and yet there shall only be required faithfulness in stewardship, and that gratitude which is so easily understood of itself. — " He that knows his Lord's will, am) does it not, sins more giievously, and has mor.* grievous punishment to expect, Luke xii. 47 (0.). — "Perversion of the true doctrine and o* the tme worship and imholy living draw thi judgments of God after them" (TiJB. Bib. ).— Ver. 6 sqq. "The heterodox often show in their worship more zeal, earnestness, and stedfastness than the orthodox" (St.). — "Their vices we often adopt from the heathen, and in what is good allow them the advantage. They ought to have learnt from us, and we may learn even from them " (B. B.). — Ver. 8 sqq. " As it is the com- fort of the pinus : if God be for us, who can b» against us ? so it is the terror of the ungodly : since God is against you, who will be for you ? " (Stck.) — The divine judgments in the world ar» a mirror for the world. — Ver. 9. The individuality CHAP. VI. 91 oi" tlu- jiult;nients of Ooil an interesting liistorical fore we ought to liear betimes, lest "we be com- tliemi-. — \'er. 10. " Famine has no eyes, no ears, pelled to feel when it is too late. — Ver. 14. How po hands, but teeth. It has no respect of persons, nor does it listen to anything, nor does it give, but is cruel and unmerciful" (Stck.). — Fathers often enough devour their children by the bad example which they give them. And children many su':h mon iments of divine retribution stani on our life-path! We walk past, yes, alas! past them. Into thr mirror of the judgments of God we look in vain, just as into that of the divin-j law. — " If love cannot improve us, then must wt devour their fathers by their covetousness, want ' feel the iron sceptre" (B. B.). — Ver. 17. "AU of affection, disobedience, by the grief which they i the creatures are ready for vijngeance, and wait prepare for them. — Ver. 11. In him that does not sanctify God, God sanctifies Himself. — I live, and ye shall live also. But it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. These are con- trasts.— How many pr>fane the sanctuary of God by sleep, by extravagance in dress, by their dis- tracted worldly thoughts !^Ver. 13. There thou seest how zealous love can be. This causes the jealousy of Him who is Israel's Husband. — There- nierely for God's command " (Stck.), — " If men do not terrify us, then there are the beasts " (Stck.). — Thus there is a chiiin of divine punish- ments; one takes the other's hand. — " In the end, it is God with whom we have to do. Be not, then, like the ilog which bites the stone, and not the hand which threw it!" (Stck.) — "God sub- scribes the threatening with the royal monogram of His name" (a L.). 3. The Two Discourses of Rebuke (Ch. vi, and vii,). ('h, VI. 1. And the word of Jehpvah came unto me, saying: Son of man, set "2 thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophe.sy to them. And say, 3 Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Jehovah, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah to the mountains and to the hills, to the brook-channels and to the valleys : Behold, I, even I, cause a sword to come upon you, and I t destroy your high places. And your altars are desolated, and your sun- pillars are broken in pieces; and I make your slain to fall before your dung- 5 idols. And I lay the carca.ses of the children of Israel before their dung-idols. C and scatter your bones round about your altars. In all your dwelling-places shall the cities be laid waste, and the high places become desolate, in order that your altars may be laid waste and broken in pieces, and your dung-idols be laid waste and done away with, and your sun-pillars be thrown down, and your handi- 7 works be rooted out. And the slain falls in your midst, and ye know that I am 8 Jehovah, And I leave a remnant, inasmuch as there are to you some that have escaped the sword among the heathen nations, when ye are scattered in the 9 countrie.s. And your escaped ones remember me among the heathen nations, whither they are carried captive, when I have broken their whorish heart, wliich hath departed from me, and their eyes, which go a whoring after their dung-idols ; and they feel loathing in their faces for the evil things which they have done in 10 respect of all their abommations. And they know that I am Jehovah; not in 11 vain have I said that I would do this evil unto them. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah : Strike into thy hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Woe to all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, who shall fall. by the sword, by the 12 famine, and by the pestilence. He that is far off shall die by the pestilence; and he that is near shall fall by the sword; and he that remained over, anu he that is preserved, shall die by the famine; and I accomplish My fury upon [in] 13 them. And ye know that I am Jehovah, when their slain are in the midst of their dung-idols round about their altars, at every high hill, upon all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick terebinth, on 1 4 wliatever place they did offer sweet savour to all their dung-idols. And I stretch out My hand upon them, and make the land a desert and waste more than the wilderness of Diblath, in all their dwelling-places; and they know that I am Jehovah. Ver. 3 VhIk,: . . . ni/u'iiu e( miHiitu— (Anoth. read : njH I <3X ''* """''"^ '" *•""'■' Ver, 6. Anoth.read. : Q^^^p^ ^JsS. ^^alg. : simulacroi-um vestrorum. Ver. 6. . . . tf Txirt] r XK.Totxtxuij.etv. At vekttg — Ver. 9. Sept. : . , . art ifju^uAxoL rr, xxpita ociraiv — Ver. 12. O lyyve iv pof^xtx . . . c hs fjuzxpixi iv Qa.va.'rat TlAlvTtjtf-li, X, a . . . x. 9 Ttptlxo^vi Bv Jtifxi^ — re^kttU . . - M Ver. 13. , . , t/u«v— 98 EZEKIEL. EKEGETICAL REMARKS. The first discourse is not exactly a continuation, or eTCn a farther elucidation of what precedes, but a word by itself, although with reference to what went before. Its resemblance to Jeremiah will be shown by manifold points of contact with the style of Jeremiah. According to Calv., Ezekiel turns now from Judah to Israel (?). — Ver. 1. Comp. ch. i. 3, iii. 16. — Ver. 2. yiS qib* expresses the direction, and that simply: toward; the trans- lation of 5X by : " against," is stronger than is necessar)-. — The moantaina of Israel remove, of course, the horizon of the prophet from Jeru- salem, which was hitherto mainly the subject of discourse, to a greater distance ; but the expres- sion is used, not so much in order to characterize the whole land according to its peculiarity, as a land of mountains in the sense of Deut. xi. 11 (Hengst.), which in the connection here would be quite superfluous ; but the mountains come into consideration, as the sequel shows, as Israel's well-known, favourite placet of sacrifice ( Jer. iii. 6). According to J. D. Mich. : "a prophecy against the remnant of the ten tribes in Pales- tine, which took part ercn in Hezekiah's and Josiah's passover. " As in the case of words of speaking, QnvX might also mean : "to prophesy of them;" but they are — Ver. 3 — formally ad- dressed. Comp. 1 Kings xiii. 2. — p'SK may be a narrow valley, a defile, and equally well a river-bed, a brook-channel. — For niX'ji'l we have in the Qeri : nVSsi'V Not for the purpose of depicting the whole land, but in order graphically to set forth the mountains ; or because defiles and valleys, on account of the growth of trees, are distinctively for idolatrous services (e.g. the valley of Hinnom, Jer. vii. 31, xxxii. 35). In the latter respect, the sword comes and destroys the high places, as high places of worship, self- chosen ; hence your. — ^jx (jjn energetically ex- pressive. The sword-tone from ch. v. begins again to make itself heard. Ver. 4. lOC'JI perf. Niph. of Dt3t'. comp. ch. iv. 17 ; here of being rendered silent by devasta- tion ; to lay waste. — The altars where sacrifices are offered.— n»3sn only in the plural, statues, images of the Phenician sun-god (Baal -Ham- man) ; Raschi : "sun-pillars." — D'b^^J likewise only in the plural, certainly not : " stocks," from ^\)i, " to roll " (?), but undoubtedly con- nected with ^^3 and ^J^j, " dung, " unless : the "abominable," "hoi-rible," from the original meaning: " to separate," "to divide." HJiv. : Btone monuments (contemptuously : loose stones), dead masses of stone. (Perhaps : " your excre- ments.")—lD 733 to the inhabited land, more specially to the cities (Jer. ii. 28).— njSinri) with significant allusion to 2"in (sword). — IVD/ ■ ^^^ extermination of the idolatrous wor- ship therefore is the object. — 10tJ>{{'V Hengst.: " and become guilty," be convicted as guilty by means of the destruction. UCH is "to demolish," "to break in pieces," and from that morally: to commit a fault, and consequently to become guilty, finally : to suffer punishment. Guilt appears a strange thought for our context here. — Ver. 7. Slain [sing.]; the individual instead o( all who are like him, one here, another there. — Because the discourse reaches a pause, after the personal element (as in vers. 4, 5) has been added to the material, there is mentioned as the result the experimental knowledge of Jehovah, — not so much of His being God alone, as of His eternity ; here in|poutrast with the idols which pass away. With such knowledge taken into view as the effect of later experience, the way is paved at the same time for Ver. 8. (Ew. converts *n^nini, which is to him " incapable of explanation "(!!), into 'n"l31, which he attaches to ver. 7.) — The remnant are such as have escaped so far as the sword is concerned, etc. ; comp. ch. v. 2, 12, 3 (Rom. ix. 27, xi. 5). — D3'm"lTn3, inf. Niph. with plur. suffix, for D3nilin3- Ver. 9. Comp. Luke xv. 17 sqq. (Lev. xxvi. 41). — -|B>j< : if, or when. — TIISB'J Ges. under- stands in a middle sense : " I break for myself. ' Hengst. : " The passivity passes over, as it were, from those whose heart is broken to Him by whom, and in whose interest, it has been broken. I was broken, instead of : I have broken for my- self. " [Others : By whose whorish heart I am broken (with pain. Gen. vi. 6>. Hitz. : their heart and eyes, which could not be satisfied with whoredom (ch. xvi. 2S, 29), God will then "satisfy" with bitter feelings (Tiysb'n instear' of ^niSCj)- Ew. reads, instead of 'rn3K'J IC'K, "more simply," ^13E>3V The LXX. have read 'nV3K'3- ] Is there an allusion to David in Ps. li. 1 7 (2 Sam. xi. 2), as Hengst. supposes? — njt is found properly only of the woman, as here aW> in the application to the marriage relationship of Israel to Jehovah. The word means properly : to incline ; but whether is it towards or away from? In the latter sense (Hos. ix. 1) we have it inter- preted by means of '^yo ID — \^ii J i"! ^^^ former by means of -<-|nK.— itSpJI (Dip) "'i'^ Dag. euphon. in the last. — Dn'JD3. not of the idols = '3S7. vers. 4, 5, but of the e.«caped, who feel loathing in their own faces ("not reciprocally," Hitz.). (Hengst.: to become a loathing to them- selves. EosENM. : so that their face shows th« loathing.) Ch. xx. 43, xxxvi. 31.— nipnrT^N : "in reference to," as respecting, etc. Comp. besides, Jer. xxii. 22; Hos. iv. 19.— 73?, like ^{<> of which it is an abbreviation. CHAP. VI. lC-14. 93 Ver. 10. Like ver. 7, a pause in the discourse, a lepetition of the object in view. He remains what He is, but they must change, must away back to Him. In this experimental way they come to know Jehovah. — Qjn (in), gratis, frustra, in complete form DJIT^S- That the deed proves the word is not the special point of this second pause in the discourse, but (according to the accents) the eternity of Jehovah, as in ver. 7, in contrast with the idols that pass away, so now in contrast with those who change in Israel. — The words "Not in vain have I aaid," etc. (comp. on ch. xiv. 23), show in general how it is possible, by means of the fulfilment of what has been said, that they can acquire from experience the knowledge of Jehovah ; and they form, be- sides, the transition to Ver. 11 : ^OX"^^• P^ia and displeasure, in general lively emotion (Num. xxiv. 10 ; Ezek. xxi. 19 [17], xxii. 13). Not like ch. XXV. 6 or "2 Sam. xxii. 43. But comp., as to the Jirst gesture, ver. 14. Either: with the hand upon the thigh (Jer. xxxi. 19), or ; one liand into the other. The gesture with the/oot Hengst. takes in the sense of impatience, which cannot wait for the sutt'ering following upon the sinful action. The prophet symbolizes in his own person the indignation of Jehovah. — nt'Xi accord- ing to Keil, a conjunction : that. Ver. 12. Since the " house of Israel" (ver. 11) as a whole is interpreted b}' means of ^g'X in the plural, and since, in fact, more exactly it is those who fall by the sword, etc., the specification of our verse refers to the same parties. He that is far off, who may reckon himself far off from the sword, whicli is first named in ver. 11, dies by that which is last named in ver. 11, and hence relatively farthest off : pestilence. He that is near, who is near the death by famine, the second named, does not, however, perish by it, but falls by what is still nearer to him (according to ver. 11), the first named sword. He that re- malneth over, viz. from the pestilence, and he that is preserved, viz. from the sword, dies never- theless, as it were of himself, by the famine. The prevailing reference here, according to ch. iv., v., is to the siege of Jerusalem; but livjn is not on that account : he that is besieged (HiTZ.). Comp. besides, ch. v. 13. Ver. 13. A third pause in the discourse ; comp. vers. 7, 10. The point iL hind is the eternity of Jehovah — the begir.ning being at the same time resumed in e supplementary way now at the close and termination of the discourse — in con- trast with the land, consequently with what has been promised and given by Jehovah Himself! Thus the accomplishment of the divine fury just threatened (ver. 12) is brought about. Perhaps also the hearers of the prophet are aildressed, who may be conceived of as acquiring such knowledge. Comp. besides, vers. 4, f>; 1 Kings xiv. 23 ; 2 Kings xvii. 10; Dent. xii. 2; Isa. Ivii. 5 sqq. ; Hos. iv. 13 ; Jer. ii. ?0, iii. 6. — Heights of hills and tops of mountains, as being nearer heaven, the heavenly powers, as it were like natural altars of the earth, adapted also for watching the progress of the sacrifice, of the sacritcial smoke mentioned in what follows. — Not forests, groves, but single green trees found in the brook-channels »nd ravines. — n^K like [i^K, from its strength, a tree similar to the oak, ever-green, rich in shade, with fruit in clustere, capable of reaching a great age, hence also used for monuments, l;.nilmarks, and the like (KiMCHi : our elms). In arboricul- ture the tree most preferred, perhaps as being sacred to Aatarte. -|[^}{ Qipo, toco 5^0=: uM. — The standing formula in the law of the offering in general, and in particular ol the burnt-offering which is whoUy consumed, TWi n'"l. "savour ol rest," is a bitter criticism, where God must pro- nounce it of the worship of idols. (" The idea of rest is, like that of peace, synonymous with ac- ceptability, pleasantness, so that the formula is intended to assert that the oflering, when it rises up, is acceptable, well-pleasing to God," Bahr.) Comp. Gen. viii. 21; Ezek. \Tii. 11, xvi. 18; Hos. ii. 13. Ver. 14. The exceedingly expressive gesture (ch. xiv. 9, 13) explains itself, in contrast with the foregoing spread of idolatry ('DDJI over against DKnjHJ 'n ver. 13).— noU'DI nODB' 13 ; a waste and desolation. Me greatest waste. Comp. ch. V. 14 ; Jer. vi. 8. — A wilderness of Diblah is not known elsewhere, hence many have read Kiblah, a city which lay on the northern boundary of Palestine (?), with n local attached to it, in this sense : " from the wilderness (in the south and east) as far as Riblah." Besides the fact that the change of reading is without support from the ancient translators, there is so much against it in a linguistic and geographical point of view (comp. Dent, xxxiv. H and 2 Kings xxiii. 33 ; Jer. xxxix. 5, Iii. 10), that certainly the simpler plan recommends itself, to take o comparatively (p) and " Diblathah " == Dib- lathaim (Jer. .xlviii. 22 ; Num. ,x.xxiii. 46), which is also in the inscription recently discovered at Dhiban, on the other side of the Dead Sea voomp. Schlottmann's Osterprogramm, 1870 ; Nbldekc, Die Inschri/t des Kon'ujs Mesa von Moab, Kiel, 1870), the Moabite city on the margin of the great wilderness of Arabia Deserta. Comp. Keil on the passage. [Hav. takes " Diblathah " as a proper name formed by Ezekiel, whose appellative meaning (the form like nniDR. side by side with njon) is perhaps : "wilderness of ruin, of de- struction " (Joel ii. 3; Jer. Ii. 26), analogously U "Babylon."] Additional Note on Ch. v., vi. [In the vision of the siege and the iniquity- bearing, a heavy burden of troubles, partly in progress, and partly still impending, had been announced by the prophet as determined against the covenant people. The afflictions of Egj'pt and the trials of the wilderness were, in a manner, to pass over them again. But even that was not enough ; for as their guilt exceeded the guilt ol their forefathers, so the chastisement now to b'l received from the hand of God was to surpass all that had been experienced in the history of the past. This more severe message is unfolded in the next vision, that recorded in these chapters. The judgments themselves are distributed into three classes, according to the threefold division of the hair : the sword was to devour one-third of the people ; famine and pestilence another ; acd that which remained was to be scattered among the nations. The strongest language is employed to describe the calamities indicated under these H EZEKIEL. vai-ioiis h.'ads, ;inil everytliiag is introduced thiit might liave thf effect of conveying the most appalling idea ol' the coming future. Aniiil the horrors to be produced by famine and pestilence, the dreadful words of Moses, that " their fathers should eit their sons in the midst of them," are reiterated, with the addition of the still darker feature, that " the sons should also eat their lathers " (ver. 10). The wild beasts of the field, too, were to embitter by their ravages the cala- mities produced by the evil arrows of famine ; and the sword was to pass through the land in such fury, that none should be able to escape, rendering all a desolate wilderness (ch. vi. 14), destroying also their idols, and scattering around them the dead carcases of the people, so that the things in which they had foolishly trusted should flnly in the day of evil prove the witnesses and companions of their ruin (ch. vi. 3-6). Finally, in respect to those who should escape the more immediate evils, not only should they be scat- tered far ant' wide among the nations, but should there also meet with taunting and reproaches ; nay, a sword should be drawn out after them, as had already been predicted by Moses (ch. v. 12 ; Lev. xxvi. 33) ; they, too, were to be for burning (so also Isa. vi. 13) ; for the anger oil the Lord was still to pursue after them with " furious rebukes," until He had completely broken their rebellious liearts, and wrought in them a spirit of true contrition for sin and perfect reconciliation of heart with God (ch. vi. 9). Nothing of a dehnite nature is mentioned as to time and place in this dark outline of revealed judgments. That the doom of evil was by no njeans to be e.'cliausted by the troubles connected with the Chaldean conquest is manifest ; for that portion of the people who were to go into exile and be dispersed among the nations were ap- pointed to other and still future tribulations. There w;is to be a germinating eWl in their destiny, because there would be, as the Lord clearly foresaw, a germinating evil in their cha- racter ; and so long as this root of bitterness should still be sjiringing up into acts of rebellion against God, it should never cease to be recoiling upon then with strokes of chastisement in pro- vidence. In this there was nothing absolutely singular as to the principle on which the divine government proceeded— only; as God had con- nected himself with Israel in a manner He never had done with any nation before, nor would with any other again, there should be a certain singularity in their case as to the actual experi- ence of suffering on account of sin. In their his- tory as a people, the footsteps of God's righteous judgment would leave inipres.iions behind it of unexampled .severity, according to the word here utti-red: "And I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whcreunto I will not do any more the like, because of all thine abominations." Hut there is no caprice in the dealings of God. When He afHicts with the rod of chastisement and rebuke, it is only becaus the righteous prin- ciples of His govennnent clemand it; anil the fearful buiden of evils bere suspended over the heads of ancient Israel sounds also a warning- note of judgment to all nations and all ages of che world. Tliere have been, it is true, such clianges introduced into tlie outward adnnnistra- tion of (iod's kingdom, as render it, foi- the most (crt, impossible to truce the execution of His judg- ments with the same ease ani certainty nilh which we can mark their course in the history o ancient Israel. But it is not the less certain that the principles which produced such marked effects then are in active operation still ; and wherever Israel's guilt is incurred anew, there will infallibly be experienced a renewal of Israel's doom. For the gospel has brought no suspension of God's justice any more than of His mercy. It contains the most glorious exhibition of His grace to sinners ; but along with this it contains the most affecting and awful display of His righteous indignation against sin. Both features, indeeil, of the divine character have reached under the gospel a higher stage of development ; and so far has the introduction of the new covenant been from laying an arrest on the severity of God, that not till it appeared did the Jews themselves experience the heaviest portion of the evils threatened against them ; then only did the wrath begin to fall upon them to the uttermost, and the days of darkness and tribulation come, such as had not hitherto been known. This vision of woe, therefore, extends alike over both dispensations, and speaks to men of every age and clime ; it is a mirror, in which the justice of God reflects itself for the world at large, with no further alteration for gospel times than such as ia implied in the words of the apostle: "Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?" — Faikbaiun's Ezekiel, pp. 64, 65-67.— W. F.] DOCTRINAL KEFLECTIONS. 1. But what has Israel sought with all its idolatry ? It has sought a strange righteousness instead of that offered to it in the law of God, viz. the heathen righteousness, which is that of the natural man in his self-will. Therefore God's righteousness in judgment breaks in pieces this self-righteousness in all its manifold forms. 2. It is therefore the first petition in the prayer which the Messiah has taught us : Hallowed be Thy name, of which the first step is thus ex- pressed in the Heidelberg Catechism : Grant that we may rightly know Thee, a point to which this chajiter also returns over and over again. And to glorify and praise God in all His works, as the catechism farther tt aches, is exactly the opjiosite of the works of our own hands in ver. 6. 3. Without a remnant, theetemity of the divine covenant, and with it the eternity of Jehovah Himself, the essence of His name, would fall to the ground. The continuity of the Church of God is the defence of the divine covenant-faithful- ness, the proof of the divine providence (govern- ment), the triumph of gi'ace over all judgment. He who judges, sifts. 4. " But first must heart and eye be broken, and fallen man must feel a loathing of himself on account of his wickedness, before lie turns to Him who has not spoken in vain. This is the only way to the knowledge of the living and true God ; and wc all must first with Israel learn to seek and find with broken whorish hearts and eyes th* light of the gospel in the shame of captivity among the blind heathen" (Umdi:.). CHAP. VI. 96 5. " One may certainly feel that he has to do with God, but not humble himself ; just as Cain (Gen. iv. 6) was compelled to tremble before God, but alwaj's remained the same. So it usually happens with the lost. It is certainly a part of repentance to recognise God's judgment, but the half merely. To be displeased with oneself is the other half" (Calv. ). 6. By consenting to God's judgment, by ap- ]irovin<; of it and of His righteousness with our whole heart, as the prophet is to smite with his hands and to stamp with his foot, let us judge ourselves, and then we shall not be judged. Our justification of God leads to our justification by God, in the way shown, e.g., in Ps. li. 7. It is a specialty of the prophecy of Ezekiel, on the one hand, the prominence given to jcuovah, who speaks and will act accordingly (ch. v. ), and, on the other, the emphasis laid on knowledge as the result of experience. Because Jehovah speaks in accordance with His nature, will, decree. He will be what He is, when what He has said comes to pa.ss. In such knowledge of Jehovah, reached through experience of what comes to pass, there lies an eschatological, New Testament element. There is a reference to the fulness of the times, alike in the judgment on Israel, and as regards the salvation of the whole world. The judgment on the heathen element in Israel is, besides, the judgment on heathenism in general. Jehovah is the holy monogram of all the future, the divine motto for the appearing of eternity in time, the manifestation of God in flesh. (Comp. Hos. ii. 19 slace con- demns jnany a man, and becomes his place of judgment ! — There thou seest the manifold ways of men, in which they depart from the One Liring God, and make to themselves broken cisterns, Jer. ii. 13. — In particular, a false worship does not remain unpunished, although it boasts a long time. — The power of strange gods over a heart which is not at home with God, and which follows unceasingly its strange lust : this, namely, that house and l|)l'art become desolate places of death. — Ver. 6. God first smites man repeatedly on the hand ; at last He smites in ]iieces the works of his hands. — Ver. 7. " If, therefore, sin is committed in our midst, be not silent, laugh not, give no applause' (Stck.V — God is not less to be known in His judgments. — Vei-s. 1-7. God and idols: (1) how His word condemns them ; (2) how His judgment annihilates them ; (3) how those who serve thrm come to shame, spiritually and cor- poreally. Ver. 8. "The Jews among the heathen nations —an example of the goodness, but also of the severity, of God, ooth leading us to repentance " (Stc.k.). — " God has and keeps for Himself at all times a little flock in the world, which can V< overpowered by no one"(CK.). — "Yes, what ia there that is not scattered over the earth ! Only think of the many graves and gi-avestones ! ;Stck. ) — Ver. 9. "So long as it goes well with the sinner, he is usually deaf and blind amid all admonitions and judgments. What a benefit therefore conferred by God, when he opens his eyes and ears by means of evil days!" (St. ^ — " Among the heathen " means grace in the strange land, where one was not to expect it.— The blessing of affliction. — In prosperity misery, in adversity salvation ! — Remembrance a way to God. — " AfEiction is, as it were, a hammer for our strong heart, and is able to force tears from the eyes " (a L. ). — " Misery is the best preacher of repent- ance, when one will not listen to others. The majority are always like horses and mules ; they are not to be brought to God otherwise than by bits and bridles, whips and rods" (B. B. ). — In idolatry there is a whorish ardour, as the religious history of heathendom characteristically proves. — " For it is chastity of the spirit to serve God purely" (C. ). — How must the good God thus go after us men, in order merely to bring back our heart and oiu- eyes even from destruction ' — " The sinner has nothing of his own, neither his heart, nor his eyes, nor his feet ; everything be- longs to the world, and is in the service of the devil " (A L. ). — " The true grief for our sin begins in the heart, manifests itself through the eyes, and proves itself in the whole life and walk ' (Stck.). — "Sincere repentance never comes too late, but has always access to the grace of God, Rev. iii. 17, 19 "'(W.).—" When it is right in the penitent heart, there is also loathing of cur- selves, Luke xviii. 13 " (after St.). Ver. 10. " The knowledge of God a fruit of repentance " (C). — " Men make their boast with empty threatenings ; but with God there is earnestness" (B. B. ). — Ver. 11. Ezekiel's ex- clamation of woe has, as one may say, hand and foot. The whole man is wholly in it with his heart. Such excitement is not to be blamed in any servant of the Living God. The messengers of "peace at least (Matt, x.) are to shake the dust off their feet. And He Himself, the Peace- ful One, has in Luke xi. uttered one woe after another. — " God has many rods, wherewith He chastises evil-doers, but three especially, in which all the rest are gathered up" (L.). — Ver. V2. "No man can escape God" (Stck.). — Death overtakes us in all forms ; woe to the impenitent': — "There are two kinds of flight from God : one which is of no use, and that by means of true re- pentance, which avails" (L.V — Ver. 13. " .\s is the case with Paul in Phil, iii., it causes the pro- phet also no annoyance to say the same thing repeatedly" (Stck.). — How sin can turn what is pleiising to the Most High into exactly the opposite 1 — Ver. 14. " When God has held His hand long enough stretched out to allure, to bless, then at length He stretches it out also to punish" (Stck.). — The wilderness shall blo.ssom (Isa. XXXV.) ; but what was blossoming may also become a wihlerness, and both from God. — "Jehovah is He who will be what He is; in other words. He who shows His eternity and power, and fulfils His word, and does not chan^. nor deny Himself" (Cocc). K EZEKIEL. CHAPTER Vir. 1, 2 And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, And thou, son of man, thus saith the Lord Jehovah : An end to the soil of Israel ! the end cornea 3 upon the four comers [borders] of the land. Now [comes] the end upon thee, and I send Mine anger into thee, and judge thee as thy ways [are], and give 4 upon thee all thine abominations. And Mine eye will not restrain itself from [have pity upon] thee, neither will I spare; for [but] thy ways will I give upon thee, and thine abominations shall be in thy midst ; and ye know that I am 5 Jehovah Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, An evil, one evil, behold it cometh. 6 An end cometh, there cometh the end ; it awaketh for thee, behold, it 7 cometh. The turn {1) cometh to thee, O inhabitant of the land; the time cometh ; the day is near, tumult and not joyous shouting upon the mountains. 8 Now will I shortly pour out My fury upon thee, and I accomplish Mine anger upon [in] thee, and judge thee as thy ways [are], and give upon thee all thine 9 abominations. And Mine eye will not forbear, and I will not spare ; as thy ways [are] wiU I give upon thee, and thine abominations shall be in thy midst ; 10 and ye know that it is I, Jehovah, that smiteth. Behold, the day, behold, it 1 1 cometh : the turn (i) springeth up ; the rod sprouts ; pride blossoms. The violence riseth up into the rod of wickedness; not of them, nor of their multitude, nor of their pomp ; neither is there anything glorious upon 12 [in, among] them. The time comes, the day arrives ; let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn ; for heat [of anger] cometh upon the whole multitude 13 thereof For the seller shall not return to what is sold, even were their life still among the living ; for the vision is upon [against] the whole multitude thereof; he shall not return, nor shall they — in his iniquity is 14 every one's life — show themselves strong. They blow the horn, and make all ready, and there is none who goeth to the battle ; for My heat of anger is 15 upon [against] their whole multitude. The sword without, and the pestilence and famine within ! He that is in the field shall die by the sword ; and he 16 that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him. And if their escaped ones escape, they are upon the mountains like doves of the valleys, 17 all of them cooing, each one in his iniquity. All hands shall be slack, and all 18 knees shall dissolve into water. And they gird sackcloth about them, and horror covers them ; and upon all faces is shame, and baldness on all their 19 heads. Their silver shall they cast upon the streets, and their gold shall be to them for repudiation. Their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them on the day of the outpouring of the wrath of Jehovah : they shall not satisfy their soul, neither fill their bowels ; for it was a stumbling- 20 block of their iniquity. And the ornament of his decoration — for pride they placed it, and images of their abominations, of their [their acatt.'^ detestable 21 things, they made of it ; therefore I give it to them for repudiation. And I give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of 22 the earth for a spoil ; and they profane her. And I turn away My face from them, and they profane My secret; and violent ones come into her, and pro- 23 fane her. Make the chain ; for the land is full of blood-guiltiness, and the 24 city is full of outrage. And I bring wicked ones of the [heathen] nations, and they take possession of their houses : and I make the pride of the strong to 25 cea.se; and their holy places are profaned. Destruction cometh [came]; and 26 they seek salvation [peace], and there is none. Destruction upon destruction shall come, and rumour shall be upon rumour ; and they seek a vision from the prophet ; and the law [instruction] shall perish from the priest, and counsel 27 from the elders. The king shall mourn, and the prince shall put on blank amazement, and the hands of the people in the land shall be slack : according to their way will I do unto them, and according to their deserts will I judge them ; and they know that I am Jehovah. CHAP. VII. 1-7. 97 Ver. 2. Sept. ; , . . raSi Asyii . . . Trt yri r. 'Iff-/). Ttpiz; nxti, to iFipizi xku et* — (Anotb. read. ; Y\i7\ K3 N3 }*P") Ver. 3. . . . r. xtpaa mn, ra vtpxi Tp9t *■«. Ver, 4. Anoth. read. : n^3"n3. Ver, 5. Anoth. read.: "IflN. Ver. 7. . , . ^ «Xax*i ... fly utTx SepvSin •vjs pur Hifm—contritio super te . . . prope est dies occisionis, et non fioriae niontiuTn. (Anoth. read.: n^px ^^'"■^ Ver. 10. Sept. : . . . r.fupat xupiou, iiui t. irtpxs 11*11— Ver. 11. K. ffvrrpi'^it rrrptyuM itafjuu, K, di fUrcL $opu$an o-lil fUroL rrouini. K, 9-Jx il c^ran liVir, tuit itpmrf*o( i> J '. nic. (Anoth. read. : nj ^p^. Vtilg. : et non erit requies in eis.} Ver. 13. ... 0 XTOiuivei Tpe{ rav s-aiAouvTa ... at/ ipatiri; . . . r. TAt;dff< etuTits «u«*»vx««ju^li, x. emSptifTtf fp e^Sm} u* Zitr.t at'jTOv av xpeLTyiffii. Ver. It . . . x(!.,«T< Ti «v^T«>r«— (Anoth. read. : lypHi Sept, Arab, Vulg.) Ver. 16. 'llf ^tptffvipgu fx.iXiTr'rtxcti' vxtrot; i^oxTlw, ixaffnt — Ver. 22. . . . ti.r,pr,; Aoan- — Ver. 24. . . . X. xvarrpt^v TO fpvxyfjux T. lirx'"*f xurmi — (Anoth. read. : Q|y, Arab.) Ver. 27. . . . Anoth. read. : Dn't3DtJ'D3V Vulg. : et secundum Judicia — EXEGETICAL KEMARKS. According to Hengst., the first cycle closes here, and, in fact, with a song (?). But the "lyric" element (E\v. ) is rather a rhetorical one. Neither is there any " solemn close, which corresponds with the solemn introduction," but simidy a second prophetic discourse attached to the firbt in ch. vi. The prophet has in his eye the time of the breaking forth of the divine judgment. (Hitzig from ver. 3 onwards works himself into tlie idea of two defective recensions of the original text, for which there is no valid ground. Neteler lays the Hebrew text as a basis, so far as it is confirmed by the Greek translation, in order to obtain a ' ' piece of four parts carried through with complete symmetry.") Ver. 1. Comp. ch. vi. 1. — Ver. 2. pinxi. as so often, an address to the prophet in contradistinc- tion from the people (ch. ii. 8, iii. 25, iv. 1, v. 1). The Sept. supplied "ibS- A mark of exclamation is enough. — riDlN^. not "of" (Hesgst.), nor, as Ew. maintains against the accents : " thus saith . . , to the fatherland of Israel." HDIX is tlie soil of a countiy, for which afterwards JIXH; hence the tobil ruin. Comp. ch. vi. 14. The preceding discourse is brought to a point in this, under the motto of the end, — Instead of nys^S the Qeri gives the more usual form j;3"i{<. — Ver. 3. 713, so that it finds its place in thee, where it can have vent. — Ways for walk. In accordance therewith will be the judgment. Their abominations come upon their own heads. — Ver. 4. Din, "to restrain oneself," hence "to spare " (cli. v. 11), to have compassion. — They are to see their abominations again in their midst, in their consequences, the divine punish- ments. Comp. besides, ch. vi. 7. Ver. 5. njn, what is destructive, injurious, here conceived of as being so evil, that it is spoken of as one standing alone, and not as a succession of evils. (Comp. ch. v. 9.) J. D. MlCH. : " which makes an end at once, so that no second is necessary." — The curt, abrupt character of the discourse portrays the snidden, violent nature of the judgment. — The Chald. read perhaps inK- Ver. 6. f'pn J'pn. a play upon words. After having apparently slept so long and so soundly, the end (not Jeliovah) awakes, and therefore it comes. — "rhtt, fern., because Jerusalem is in th« background, as in ver. 3 also. (" The repetition indicates the certainty, the gi-eatness, and the swiftness." — a L.) — nX3(fem.) resumes the .so strongly-emphasized nV"! of ^^^- 5, or it stands impersonaDy (Hiv., Keil), or it prepares for m'DSn in ver. 7, which means "a crown" in Isa. xxviii. 5, a meaning which is not suitable here. It might be allowable to translate in our verse: "the turn comes to thee," inasmuch as m'BV from ngv ™ay be something " arranged in a row together " with something else, where one thing follows another. But this certainly hardly suits nsy in ver. 10. The interpretation most in favour, viz. "destiny" (HiTZ. : the goddess of fate, properly : vicissitude of fortune, catastrophe), gives a suitable although heathenish sense ; we would be compelled to admit a borrowing on Ezekiel's part from his Chaldaic surroundings, and yet the expression itself is not thereby ex- plained. It is sought to be explained by the circle of fate, or its being shut up within itself. One might think of the return of the sin in the pitnishment, wherewith it finishes itscourse; comp. vers. 3, 4. (iqv in Judg. vii. 3 = to return circuitously.) Others hold fast by the meaning "crown," and understand by it the kingdom of the Chaldeans, or the king of the Chaldeans. Hav., who combats this meaning, asserting that in Isa. xxviii. it is a pkit of hair that is meant, accepts a later Aramaism, m'DV = 8^DV. "the dawn," viz. of the evil day (Joel ii. 1, 2). Grot, with reference to Y^p7\ in ver. 6, inasmuch as it was cu.stomary for judgment to be administered in the morning. Others in other ways. Was it intended, perhaps, to indicate something equiva- lent to : what is marked with the graver (pSV), what is determined, established, as in Jer. xvii. 1? — ?['7Ni masc, because of what follows (Hos. ix. 7). — Di'H, artic: dies Hie. — Tumult, perhaps alarm of war, and in contrast therewith ^^, '•«■ Tl>n (comp. Isa. xvi. 9, 10; Jer. xlviii. 33), cry of joy of the vine-dressers (?), or cry of victory, Isa. xl. 9 (J. D. Mich.), or /ftsiinaZ-pomp of th? idolaters, ch. vi. 3, 13 (Kosenm.). Hengst, ; "joyful shout of the mountains," because th» shout of joy is heard on them and called forth bj 9« EZEKIEL. theru (Ts. ixxxix. 13), in placp of which will come the painful tumult of those who are seeking iluliverance. Hav. takes in for nin, " bri^'htness," so that the dawn rises without inouutain - brightness (?), without irradiating the mountains which are first to be irradiated (!). Ver. 8. nny; comp. ver. 3.— anpo, in Deut. xxxii. 17 of place, here of time (Job xx. 5). Comp. besides, ch. vi. 12, vii. 3, 4.— Ver. 9. Comp. ver. 4. The added expression smiteth does not announce what follows, but meets beforehand a false interpretation of the same (the sprouting rod). Ver. 10. Comp. on ver. 7. — nXV> because of what follows of the springing up, like a plant, from the koU of which thesinnern are bragging. — The rod is for Israel, in order ti pimkhment, in fact, the staff of the Chaldean ruler, Nebuchad- nezzar's sceptre. What a contrast to Num. xvii. 2, 3 ! To the " sprouting " of power, which can, corresponds the "blossoming" of pride, which will. (Tn^, to boil, to boil over. ) Ver. 11. Thus the violence, the violent acting which takes place, rises into the rod of wicked- ness, i.e. which punishes the wickedness of Israel ; into the staff, sceptre, of the Chaldean, where- with Israel's wickedness is smitten (Isa. x. 5). Other expositors interpret nDD already in ver. 10 of the tribe of Judah (Grot.), its royal Hceptre (Coco.), and refer alike pnj there and ODD here to the complete sinful development of the kingdom (Ew.), so that the rod of wicked- ness would be that rod wherewith wickedness smites itself. Grot, takes ■) adversative ; the violent Chaldean rises up against the wicked tribe of Judah. Cocc. : Israel's violent conduct (Gen. vi. 11) brings upon them instead of God the sceptre of the Chaldean dominion of wickedness. It would be natural to understand the immedi- ately following not of them, etc., in such a way that this "rod of wickedness," "of violence," would now be pointed out more definitely, in as far as it is not to spring forth from Israel (QnO"87)> neither from their roaring (pnn. Isa. V. 13, 14, the noisy, politically-roused mul- titude), nor from their humming (by paronomasia, equivalent to : pomp), consequently neither of democratic nor of aristocratic origin (comp. 1 Kings xii. 11). on or nOH, plur. D^D.l (only to be foimd here) ; DnDHD for DlT'Onn, Ges. : of their possessions, Keil : the multitude of possessions. [Hen'gst. : "nor of them, and them (yet again)," — like n,-; en in Isa. Ivii. B, — however much they may hold up their heads ; Jewish expositors resolve it into itjJx QflD N^l DHD, and understand it of their children (so the Chaldee) ; Hav. : cares, anxieties, these are as useless as the multitude of the people them- selves ! ?] The penal judgment will come from outside themselves. Hengst. : "It is a throw- ing contempt on the 'we,' which they hail con- tinually in their mouth, and repeated with great emphasis : we, we shall do everything, etc. (Jer. XXX. 21 ; Zech. x. 4)."— cna nrx^l, Ges. from ny, Keil, fromnij, "tobe prominent ;" something gloricm. [Hi v. : " and there is a want of beauty in them." (The word is found only here.) — According to the Jewish expositors, ni '<" nn'3, from nnj, loud lament. Hengst. : "that wailing wUl be forgotten in deep despair." (Cocc. making it refer to the falling sceptre of David, they will be obliged to conceal their nail- ing on that account before the tjTant who con- quers them!) Ew. : "Nothing will remain o'. the wicked, neither of their proud, haughtily blustering, luxurious conduct, in prosperity as hitherto, nor of their sighing or even their discon- tented grumbling and murmuring in adversity." Similarly Calvin, of the root and branch destruc- tion of them, their multitude, their possessions.] Accordingly s^ sijl N^l ^^^ understood as short sentences descriptive of the result of the stroke of ver. 10 (Keil), the effect of the repetition being heightened by the omission of the verb, as if they were exclamations. As for the rest, Hitz . remarks excellently: "unannounced as KXiTTr,; the day will come, unexpectdlly, and so much greater the shock of surprise." After a second emphasizing in ver. 12 of the leading thought of the proclamation — comp. ver. 7 — X3i J"Jn, proph. preterites — the buyer and the «eller ai-e given as an exemplification from the dealings of ordinary life. The former is not to rejoice in the possession which he covets ; he does not come into the enjoyment of it. The latter is not to mourn over the loss of a property he would fain retain, but which has been alienated from necessity ; much else is at stake : for pin, elsewhere e)}< pin. comes upon n3ion"^3 (the suffix agreeing witli i)X"lB" ODIS^. or referring to Jerusalem), the whole of the people is con- sumed. Comp. Ps. x.xxix. 6. Hengst. : the multitude which makes so much ado about nothing. — The general reason is followed in ver. 13 by a more special one (as Hengst. ), or by what is merely a specializing of -jnri- — '3 might also stand in the sense of : but certainly, i.e. the seller is not to mourn, but certainly lie shall not return to his property that is sold; hence the possible return thereto must not be a motive for him not to mourn. That is to say, the seller would have, — and therefore is this specialty intro- duced, in order, at the same time, to mark the national ruin, — according to Lev. xxv., the pros- pect of the year of jubilee, the caiTying out of which is thus attested here (Hiv.), or at least presupposed in its idea, and therewith the return to what he had sold remained open. (PhUipps. thinks of the right of the seller at any time to buy back again what was sold, either himself or through the nearest kinsman, for the selling price, Ruth iv. ; Jer. xx.xii.) But although in other cu'cumstances the man who has no possession, the vexed poor man, has a better chance of being left behind than the man who has a possession, the joyous rich man, in the case impending it will in general be otherwise, i.e. quite alike for the one and for the other. Individuals, indeed, will remain alive. ~liyi, a conditional circum- btantial clause (Hiv., Keil), so that the case is supposed, that their (viz. the sellers') life i? among the living, that they come out of it with their life. The aeUer, consequently, is used col- lectively for the individuals who as such comi CHAP. VII. 13-lS. 99 to he considered. The judgment applies to th( [lerKont — this is the leailin<; thoufjht — and not, as the expositors assert, to tlieir possession. Hence n:iOn"^D"?X — ^a is repeated from ver. 12, hut instead of pin ^^c have by paronomasia ptn, the ijlowinij heat seen in the prophetic vision (ch. i. ). pfn might perhaps confirm the interpretation of m'DVn in ver. 7 as wliat is ti.\ed, determined. in like manner 31C" S? i^ resumed from the beginning of our verse, and that in the same sense, so that it is certainly not to be translated : " for the prophecy against the whole multitude shall not return " (Jer.), a tliought which is too little in keeping with the exceptional earnestness of the context. Rather is the statement meant to be sometliing additional o-i to the perso/is, ap- pended to the special exemplitication of the seller. Hence tJ"N1 equivalent to ; slrux every one has ' his life in his iniquity," and it is therefore very questionable whether (as was parenthetically sup- posed above) " their life " might be " still among the living." — iptnn' vh- t^^ey shall not show themselves strong, manifest strength, coui-age ; the iniquity cripples their power of life, with which what follows agrees admirably. [Other expositions : Ewald ; " But certainly they may become unfortunate or the reverse for a time : he who was compelled to sell his property may not even obtain it in the year of jubilee, or, on the other hand, the divine punishment may no longer light upon the rich brawlers, yet the former re- main in their lust after a life of sense in the world, without coming to repentance through adversity (Ps. xvii. 14), and the latter do not sutler themselves to be drawn out of their sins by prosperity ; all are irresolute, cowardly people," etc. Hiiv. explains the last clause also of the year of jubilee still, whose object is "to be ' strengthened in life " (in^PI. 'm accus. to be con- nected with the passive 1ptnn')> *>o t\i&t one springs up into new life : there has been a restora- tion— a new birth. No one is to obtain a new strength of his vital powers by means of his sin ; rather do those fearful Sabbatical years make their apjiearance, Lev. x.xvi. 34 sq. The second aif vh ^^^ ^Iso been understood by some in the sense that no one "turns," although the prophecy summons all to repentance, which agrees just as little with the context. "B"X1 's inter- preted on the part of some by an omission of the relative: "every one whose life is in his iniquity, " while others take the first suffix pleoiiastically, i:i this way : " they shall not any of them strengthen themselves by means of (on account of) the iniquity of his life," so as to be able to stand against their enemies. The plural with the collective t^'X- Hesgst. : "The seller will in no case return to the property which he has sold, so that he should be obliged to regard it with pain, for the whole land is strippe>n belong to the city, Jerusalem, which always stands in the back- ground. Others prefer a neuter construction ; Keil : come " over it. " For violent ones, comp. Matt. xi. 12 (which passage is to be understood in accordance with this). Ver. 23. In form directed to the prophet, like the whole discourse ; in substance equivalent to : pronounce the captivity to be ready. "As it were indignant at the profanation, Jehovah com- mands to put an end to the doings of the enemy by the deportation of those who were left be- hind " (Hiiv. ). By means of the article, the putting in chains is declared to be no longer a thing to be doubted, but certain, quite fixed, just as things generally known have the article. Others collectively. "In reality the king was carried away in chains and cast into prison " (Buns.). — The plural D''DT always means blood poured out ; hence Q'OT USB'Dj ^ trial which is held with ■ respect to such a case, a sentence which is pro- nounced upon it, a punishment which is decreed for it, all of which are unsuitable for the parallel Don- Just as unsuitable here is : the right of blood-shedding. We are therefore to understand it of the case in law, the ciime, the blood-guilti- ness. Comp. Deut. xix. 6 (Gen. vi. 11). Hav. understands it of the judgment on blood-shedding (" hence : inexorable, relentless "), while he refers Don to the violent enemies. Of course "blood- guiltiness " gives a reason for (13) something more than putting in chains, viz. death ; but perhaps captivity is thereby meant to be indicated as the least thing that can happen to them after guilt such as theirs. Ver. 24. " fPicked heathen" — (ver. 21) so that they fall, besides, into bcul hands of men (2 Sam. xxiv. 14). Comp. Ew. Gram. § 313, c; Hab. i. 6 sqq. — pxj, either as in ver. 20: pride (HXv. : everything of which the mighty are wont to boast), or: ornament, decoration, glory, of the temple (ch. xxiv. 21). — They may be called strong, as well because of their real strength, when they preserved their fidelity to the Strong One who dwelt in their midst, as in accordance with their imagined strength (Lev. xxvi. 19). Ew. reads Q^j) pj{J, "their proud splendour." — l^jflj cannot be the Picl of ^nj, which would mean "to divide for a possession," but, is the CHAP. VII. 25-27. lOi N'phal of ij^n. — Dn'BnpO> according to Ew. (Oramm. % 215, a) from Er^po, with vowel paAed back. Rosenm. reads : Dn'{}''IpD ; Hav. Dn*!J''lpO- Hengst. : ' ' those who sanctify them, " hence partic. Piel without Dagesch forte of gnp, understanding the priests now no longer able to discharge their functions, whereby the means of reconciliation are withdrawn from Israel (Lev. xvi. ; Isa. xliii. 26, 27). [Others : of unworthy Levitical service, inasmuch as the Holy One of Israel is also hisonly true Sauctifier, ch. xxxvii. 28.] "Ezekiel points to the cloud only, Jeremiah in eh. xxxiii. opens the view to the sun hidden be- hind it." By their sanctuaries are understood sometimes the buildings of the temple, but, as being no longer God's, sometimes the self-chosen ones of the Jews. Ver. 25. niSp only li^re (see Gesen. Lex.). Acoording to Meier, not : destruction, but in accordance with the root -meaning ("to draw- together"), as in the Syr., of the drawing to- gether of the skin and hair from fright (horror). Exactly so Ew., Hengst. : contraction, in con- trast with the expansion which is connected with all joyful prosperity, and which is founded in the nature of the people of God, Gen. xxviii. 14 ; Isa. liv. 3, [Hav. : the conclusion, the close (J»p, vers. 2, 6).] For the gender and masc. verb comp. Ew. Gramm. § 173, h, 174, g. [Ros. : n paragog.] X3i a proph. perf. (Keil). — "Peace" is too narrow for Dipc>, as also attempts at peace with money-offerings with Nebuchadnezzar, of which some think. The attempts at salvation which they make in vain are specified in what follows. Ver. 26. While the disasters are accumulating, and the rumours are multiplying (Matt. xxiv. 6\ they seek, first of all, from the prophet (the generic idea). Comp. Jer. xx.wii 17, xxxviii. 14. [Hengst. understands it of the false prophets, aiid compares for the priests Zeph. iii. 4 ; Jer. ii. 8 ; Ezek. xxii. 26.] What they seek, viz. a vision, is mentioned, but it is not said tliat they find it. That they do not becomes clear alike from ver. 25, and from the circumstance that in- struction perishes from the priest, and counsel from the elders. Comp. Jer. xviii. 18 ^Luke xxi. 25). To the threefold class in ver. 26 we have a corresponding parallel in Ver. 27, the king — the prince of the tribe — the people in the land; and to the want of counsel corresponds the failure in action. It is a national ruin. (As to ^3Kr;\ see Gesek. Gramm. § 53, Obs.) {^2^, a well-known figurative mode of expression for beiTig covered with and wrapt up in terror, just as in the case of the king it is a deep siknt viourning that is meant (73^). For '