Exposition of the Whole Bible

the great court of judicature, and where juftice ought to have been adminiftred,

X. 24. Wherefore I will bring the worft of the heathen, &c.| The Chaldeans, notorious for their cruelty, favagenefs, and barbarity: and they fhall poffe/s their boufes; which they have built, and thought to have lived and died in, and left them to their children for an inheritance; but the Chaldeans, and not their children, became their heirs, and inherited their houfes and lands: J will alfo make the pomp of the firong to ceafe,; or, the pride of the mighty ones"; the noble and the rich; their wealth and fubftance, by which their pride and grandeur were fupported, being taken away from them: and their holy places fball be defiled; the temple, in which were the holy place, and the holy of holies: or, they that fanétify them, the priefts that offered facrifices, which only fanctified to the purifying of the flefh; even thefe holy perfons and things, as well as holy places, would be defiled.

¥. 25. Deftruction cometh, &c.] Upon the temple, city, nation, and people; the king of Babylon, the deftroyer of the Gentiles, and now of the Fews, being on his way, Fer. iv. 7: and they fhall Jeek peace, and there fhall be mone; that is, the Fews will feek to make peace with the Chaldeans, but the latter will not hearken to them, but go on with the fiege, till they have taken the city, put part to the fword, and carried the other captive.

¥. 26. Mifchief fhall come upon mifchief, &c.] One misfortune or calamity after another; firft one unhappy event, and then another, as was 7ob’s cafe. The Targum is, ‘* breach upon breach fhall “© come®:” and rumour fhall be upon rumour, that the Chaldean army is in fuch a place; and then that it is in another place ftill nearer; and then that it is but a few miles off, and will be here immediately: rumours of wars, as well as wars themfelves, are very diftreffing, fee Matt. xxiv. 6:

then fhall they feek a vifion of the Peper apply to him for a prophecy, to know the event of things, whether and when they might expect a deliverance: but the law fhall perifh from the prieft; whofe lips fhould keep knowledge, and frorn whofe mouth the law, the doétrine and interpretation of it, might be expected; but now either there would be no priefts at all; or fuch as were, would be ignorant and unlearned, and uncapable of inftructing the people: azd counfel from the ancients; with whom it ufually is; and which is of great fervice in a time of diftrefs: this therefore adds greatly to the calamity, that there would be no prophet to tell them what fhould come to pafs; no prieft to inftruct them; nor fenator or wife man to give them counfel.

¥. 27. The king foall mourn, and the prince foall be clothed with defolation, &c.] Meaning one and the fame perfon, Zedekiah not being able to fave himfelf and his people; and who falling into the hands of the king of Babylon, his children were flain before him; then his own eyes put out, and he bound in chains, and carried captive to Babylon, fer. xxxix. 6,7: and the bands of the people of the land fhall be troubled; weakened thro’ fear and diftrefs; uncapable of bufinefs, and unable to help themfelves and others; and the more fo, when they found their cafe defperate; which was manifeft by the mourning and defolation of their king, in whom their confidence had been placed: Iwill do unto them after their way; or, for their way?, becaufe of their evil ways and works: and according to their deferts will I judge them, take vengeance on them, as the Zargum: or, in their judgments will I judge them*; the fame meafure they have meted out to others, fhall be meafured out to them, Matt. vii. 1: and they fhall know that I am the Lord; the only Lord God, omnipotent, omnifcient, omniprefent, true agd faithful, holy, juft, and good.

HIS chapter contains a vifion the prophet had of the idolatry of the Fews, which was the caufe of their deftruction. The time when, place where, and perfons with whom he was, when the hand of the Lord came upon him, are mentioned, ¥. 1. then follows a defcription of the divine perfon that appeared to him, y. 2. and an account is given, how he. was in a vifionary way brought to Ferufalem, and to the temple, where he faw the glory of the God of J/rae/, and the. idolatry of the people, ¥. 3, 4. which latter was gradually reprefented to him; firft the image of Jealoufy in the entry at the gate of the altar northward, ¥. 5. then greater abominations through a hole in the wall, by which he faw their idols, in the form of reptiles and four-footed beafts, pourtrayed on the wall, ¥. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. next feventy of the ancients of J/rael, among whom were one mentioned by name, offering incenfe to thefe idols,

¥.11, 12. after this, greater aboininations till are fhewed him, at the north of the temple, women weeping for Tammuz, ¥. 13, 14. and then again far greater ones, twenty-five men, between the porch and the altar, with their backs to the temple, and their face to the eaft, worfhipping the fun, and putting the branch to the nofe, ¥. 14, 16, 17. wherefore it is refolved to deal with them in fury, without any mercy, pity, and compaffion, We be

¥. 1. And it came to pafs in the fixth year, in the fixth month, in the fifth day of the month, &c.] This was the fixth year of the captivity of Feboiachin; the fixth month was the month £/a/, which anfwers to part of Auguft, and part of September. The Septuagint and Arabic verfions wrongly render it, the fifth month. The fifth day of the month is thought to have been the fabbath-day, which feems probable by what follows; this was juft a year and two months from the firft vifion, ch. i. 1,2. As J fate in mine boufe; in Chaldea, by the river Chebar; he was now fitting, the time of ly-

54. be ee ing on his fide, both right and left, being now up, even four hundred and thirty days. It was in the fifth year, and on the fifth of Tammuz, that the firft vifion was; feven days the prophet fat with them of the captivity at Tel-Abridb;. at the end of which, he was ordered to lie on his fide; firft on his left fide three hundred and ninety days, and then on his right fide forty days: now reckoning from the middle of Tammuz, to the fitth of Elul in the fixth year, were but, as Kimchi obferves, four hundred days; but this being, as another Fewi/fb writer fays', an intercalated year, by the intercalation of a month, which confifted of thirty days, the whole number was compleated, and the prophet was now fitting: or it may be this pofition is obferved, becaufe he was now teaching and inftruéting the people, which was frequently done fitting; fee Matt. v. 1. and the note there; and this in his own private houfe, being now in captivity, and having neither temple nor fynagogue to teach in. And the elders of udab fat before me; to hear the word of the Lord from his mouth, the law explained, or any frefh prophecy delivered by him; or to have his advice and counfel in their prefent circumftances. Thefe were the elders of Fudah that were carried captive along with Feboiachin; tho’ fome think they were thofe that were at Ferufalem, and that all this was only in a vifionary way; but the former fenfe feems moft agreeable; feeing this was previous to the vifion, and with what goes before defcribes the time, place, and witneffes of the vifion. That the hand of the Lord fell there upon me; which the Targum interprets of the Spirit of prophecy, which came with power upon him: it denotes the energy and efficacy of the Spirit of God, in throwing him into an exftacy, and acting upon him, and revealing to him the things he did; which are related in the following verfes. y¥. 2. And then I beheld, and lo a likenefs, as the appearance of fire, &c.| The Septuagint and Arabic verfions render it, bebold the likenefs of a man, reading £8 @ mon, for we fire: but without fuppoling fuch a reading, for which there is no foundation; this likenefs may very well be underftood of the likenefs of a man; fince mention is made of his loins in the ‘next claufe, and of his hand in the following verfe; and the defcription agrees with the appearance of a man in ch. 1. 26, 27. it was ‘ufual for the Son of God, who doubtlefs is here meant, to appear in an human form; and fo Funius and Tremellius fapply the words, ** and lo a << jikenefs of @ man, asin the appearance of fire';”’ it was the form of a fiery man that was feen, as he is further defcribed: from the appearance of his loins, even downward, fire; his lower parts, thighs, legs, and feet; expreffive either of the light of grace communicated from ‘Chrift to his people; or of his fervent love towards them, or flaming’ zeal for God and his houfe; ‘or rather, of his wrath againft an idolatrous people; fee Rev. i. 15. a like de- {eription is in ch. i..27+ and from ‘his loins, ‘even ‘upward, as the appearance of brightnefs; his upper parts, back, belly, ‘breaft, fhoulders, arms, “head, ce.’ which may denote ‘his incomprehenfible ma- Jefty and glory; his glory being the. glory of the only begotten, the brightnefs of his Father’s glory, and the exprefs image of his perfon. The Targum renders both the one and the other part of the defcriptioh thus, “ and I faw, and lo a likenefs as prophet in the temple, he fpoke unto him ing him fon of man; a name by which ‘h the look of fire, the look of glory, which thé eye cannot fee, nor. is it poffible to look upom it; and beneath the look of fire, and the look of glory, which the eye cannot behold, nor is it poflible to contemplate it; and above, as the “¢ Jook of brightnefs:” as the colour of amber, or chafmal, which fome take to be the name of am angel. The Syriac verfion is, as the look of God; fee the note on ch. 1. 4, 27.

¥. 3. And be put forth the form of an band, &c.} That is, he that appeared in thé Irkenefs of a many and with fo much glory and fplendor, out of the midit of the fire and brightnefs which were about him, put forth the form of an hand, that looked like a man’s hand; for this appearance was not real, only vifionary; and this feems to defign the Spirit of God fent forth by Chrift, fometimes called the finger of God, Luke xi. 20. as appears by what follows: and took me by a lock of mine bead; without hurting him, fhewing his power over him; and by this means raifing him from his feat, as it feemed to the prophet: andthe Spirit lift me up between the earth and heaven; took him off of his feat, and out of his houfe, lifted him up in the air, and carried him thro’ it, as he thought; for this was not real and local; in like manner as the Spirit caught away Philip, Adts viii. 39. but in vifion, as follows: and brought me in the vifions of God to Ferufalem, fo it was re+ prefented to him in a true vifion, which was of God, and not of fatan, that he was carried from Chaldea to ferufalem, not that he really was, for he was ftill in Cha/dea; and hither in vifion was he brought again, and found himfelf to be when that vifion was over, ch. xi. 24, 25. but things fo appeared to him, as if he was a€tually brought to Ferufalem by the power of the Spirit of Ged’: to the door of the inner gate; not of Ferufalem, but the temple; or rather the court, the inner court; fee ch. x. 3. and fo it fhould be rendered, 0 the door of the gate cf the inner court*; and thus it is - explained by archi, Kimchi, and Ben Melech: that looketh toward the north, for there were gates on every fide: where was the feat of the image of jealoufy; which provoketh to jealoufy, fome. graven image, perhaps the image of Baal; fo called, becaufe it provoked the -Lord to jealoufy, Dewt. xxxii. 21. Guffetius * fuggetts, that bpp Semel, here may be the fame with Semele; who, inthe opinion of the heathens, made 7uzo jealous.;

y. 4. And behold the glory of the God of Tfrael was there, &c.] In the temple, between thewbevubim, where the Shekinah or the ‘glory of -the divine majefty dwelt; for as yet he had notsremoved, tho’ provoked to it, and as he afterwards did; or he was here to deftroy the idols, and both city and temple, for the idolatry-of the peoplel; or this is here mentioned, to fhow ‘the *bafenefs and wickednefs of the people, that they fhould \place

‘an idol where the‘ Lord himfelf was: according wto

the vifion that I faw in the plain, it-was the fame

glorious perfon he faw in the temple, whom she had before feen in the plain, ch. ii. 223923. and that was the fame he had feen in the vifionby the river Chebar, ch. i: 3, 28. q ¥. 5. Then faid he unto me, fon of man, 8c.) That is, the glorious perfon defcribed above this vifion, the glorious God of J/rael, feen by the

* HME Iyer MND ON adoftium porte imteriois,;

goes in this prophecy: “ft up thine eyes now toward the north; of the mountain of the houfe without the court, as Farchi interprets it: fo 1 lift up mine eyes the way, toward the north, being obedient to the heavenly vifion: and behold, northward at the gate of the altar; at the northern gate of the inner court, where was the altar of burnt-offering, brought by bab; to the north of the altar he built in imitation of that at Damafcus, 2 Kings xvi. 10—14. and here ftood this image of jealoufy in the entry or the image of this jealoufy; the image beforementioned, which provoked the Lord to jealoufy; this ftood at the entry of the northern gate, which led into the inner court, and to the altar.

¥. 6. He faid furthermore unto me, fon of man, &c.] He continued his fpeech to the prophet, ‘faying, feeft thou what they do? the idolatrous Fews, who had fet.up a graven image at the northern aie of the court, where the altar was, and were facrificing to it‘ even the great abominations that the boujfe of Ijrael committeth here, for to fet up an idol where he was, and an altar by his altar, and to facrifice to Baal, and not to him, or to Baal along with him, or befides him, or to any other idol, were very abominable to the Lord: even to fuch a degree, that I fhould go far from my fanctuary? be obliged to leave if, not being able to bear fuch abominable idolatries.: or, that they fhould go far from my fanéuary”; depart from the true worfhip and fervice of it, and fall into idolatry: dut turn thee yet again; from the north to the fouth it may be; however, to fome other part of the temple: and thou fhalt fee greater abominations, or, great abominations “, for there is no neceffity of rendering it greater; but the meaning is, that he fhould fee other great abominations befides what he had feen, than which there could not be any thing well greater.

y. 7. And he brought me to the door of the court, &c.] Of the inner court, the court of the priefts. and Levites. “Dr. Lightfoot * fays, this was the eattgate, and;moft common way of entrance; and in that gate the Sanhedrim ufed to fit in thefe times; and there the prophet fees their council-chamber painted about with imagery;. aud when I looked, behold a bole in the wall; of one of the chambers of the priefts and Levites, where they lay.

¥. 8..Then faid he unto me, fon of man, dig now in the wall, &c.| And fo make the hole larger; that he might have a fuller view of what was to be feen within the wall: end when I hed, digged in the wall, bebald a door; an opening, by which he ‘could go into the cell or chamber, and take a full wiew of what.was to be feen there. All this was vifionary; for in reality.the prophet did not dig, -nor-could-he, not having any thing to dig with; -but fo things.appeared: to his mind in the vifion; firft a little-hole, by which he could difcern there was aroom; then by making ufe of fome means, a large door appeared, at which there was an entrance into it, held the-wicked abominations they do bere, the idolatries. there,committed,,,. wicked in themfelves, and abominable, to God.

_form of creeping. things, -&c.| As beetles and

Ee BF ar unclean ones;. not only oxen, but dogs and cats, and other impure creatures; for fuch were the gods of the Egyptians, from whom the Yews took their deities: and all the idols of the boufe of Ifrael; which were many, even as numerous as their cities: pourtrayed upon the wall round about; the pictures of them were drawn and placed around the wall of the room or chamber; and where they. were worfhipped by the priefts and Levites, and members of the Sanhedrim; and this was not in one chamber only, but in many, as appears from y. 12.

¥. 11. And there ftood before them, &c.] Before the pictures, as the Vulgate Latin verfion expreffes it, praying, facrificing, and offering incenfe unto them: feventy men of the ancients of the houfe of Tfrael, the whole Sanhedrim, or great court of judicature among the ews, as Kimchi; or at leaft there is an allufion to that number, which were appointed in Moj/es’ time to be officers over the people, and govern and direct them, Numb. xi. 16. which fhows how fadly depraved and corrupted the {tate was, that not the common people only, but the civil magiftrates, the chief rulers and governors, were given to idolatry; and thofe that fhould have taught the people the right way, led them wrong; and it is ftill a further aggravation of their crime, that they fhould do this in the chambers of the priefts and Levites, where they ought not to have been: and in the midft of them ftood ‘faazaniah the fon of Shaphan; who was either the prince of the Sanhedrim, or at leaft a perfon of great note and efteem; and fhows the corruption to be general, from the leaft to the greateft: Shapban was a fcribe in Fofiah’s time, who had a fon named Ahikam, perhaps the father of this, 2 Kimgs xxii. 3, 12. inch. xi. 2. he is faid to be the fon of Azur, and one of the princes of the people: with every man his cenfer in bis hand to offer incenfe to the idols pourtrayed on the wall; and which they did, for it follows: and a thick cloud of incenfe went up; there were many that offered; and perhaps they offered a large quantity, being: very liberal and profufe in this kind of devotion to their idols.

y¥. 12. Then faid be unto me, fon of man, haft thou feen, &c.] Here fhould be a ftop, as the accent /egolta fhows; haft thou taken notice of, haft thou confidered what thou haft feen, the amazing fhocking abominations committed by thefe men? it follows, and the queftion is to be repeated, haf thou feen what the ancients of the houfe of Ifrael do in the dark; their deeds being evil, fuch as will not bear the light, of which they had reafon to be afhamed before men; and which they imagined would not be feen by the Lord, tho’ the darknefs and the light are both alike to him: in the chambers of his imagery? the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic verfions render it, ia bis hidden or fecret chamber; and the Vulgate Latin verfion, in the bidden place of his bed-chamber. ‘The Targum is, * in ‘© the chamber of the houfe of his bed;” in his bed-chamber; that is, in thofe chambers of the temple, which belonged to the priefts and Levites, on the walls of which were pourtrayed the images and pictures of their gods. Here they had their fecret rites or myfteries performed, in imitation of the heathens; who had the feveral myfteries of their religion privately obferved; to which none were admitted but thofe that were initiated into them;

1*4 wapndyp mpnad ut longius recedant, wel abeant, Septuagint, Syriac, and. Arabiciverfions; ub Ifraelite a fanftuario meo, Vatablus; and to this fenfe are the ad longe recedendum, Cocceius.

af mba MAY abominationes magnas * Profpect of the Temple, c. 28. p. 2018.

them; as thofe of Ofris among the Egyptians, of Ceres with the Grecians,; and of Bona Dea among the Romans; as Junius obferves. Tho’ fome interpret this of the imaginations of their minds, according to which they framed to themt{elves deities, and a form of worfhip. For they fay, the Lord feeth not, the Lord hath forfeken the earth; this they gave as a reafon of their idolatry, becaule the Lord took no notice of them, did not help them when in diftrefs, but as they concluded had forfaken them; therefore they betook themfelves to the gods of the Egyptians, Syrians, and other nations, for their afliftance and protection: for thefe words are not the language of Epicureans, or fuch who deny the providence of God in general; who think that God takes no notice of the lower world, only of the upper one, as Kimchi, and others interpret them; for thefe elders of J/rael were not fo ignorant and ftupid as to deny the general providence of God, only diitrufted his particular care of them. >

¥.13. He faid alfo unto me, turn thee yet again, &c.] Towards the north, as before: and thou fealt fee greater abominations that they do, or, the great abominations; for fo the words may be ftrictly rendered; nor does it appear that what follows, tho’ great abominations, were greater than the creeping things, four-footed beafts, and other idols, or dunghil-gods, pourtrayed upon the walls, which the elders of J/rae/ burnt incenfe to.

y.14. Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord’s houfe, which was towards the north, &c.] By the Lord’s houfe, no doubt is meant the temple, which the Targum here calls the houfe of the fanctuary of the Lord; that gate of the temple, for the temple had feveral gates, which was to the north, was the gate called Zeri or Jedi, and was very little ufed ». In this part of the temple were the facrifices offered; and therefore it was the greater abomination to commit idolatry where the Lord was more folemnly worfhipped: and bebold, here fat women weeping for Tammuz, they were not in the court of the women, where they fhould have.been; but at the northern gate, near the place of facrifice; and they were fitting there, which none but the kings of the houfe of ‘udab, and of the family of David, were allowed in the temple *, but what was the greateft abomination, they were weeping for Tammuz. ‘archi fays, this was an image which they heated inwardly, and its eyes were of lead; and thefe being melted with the heat, it feemed to weep; wherefore (the women) faid, it afks for an offering: but not the idol, but the women wept. Kimchi relates various interpre-

tations of it, ‘* fome (he fays) expound it by an ‘© antiphrafis, making Tammuz glad, in the month << of Tammuz they made a feait to the idol, and ‘* the women came to make him glad: others “* fay, that with great diligence they brought “¢ water to the eyés of the idol, called Tammuz, * and it wept; fignifying, that it defired they would worfhip it: others interpret the word “ Tammuz, as fignifying burnt; (from the words © in Daa, lil. 19. NIN sii to beat the fur- ** nace); as if you fhould fay, they wept for him, ** becaufe he was burnt; for they burnt their fons

’** and daughters in the fire, and the women wept “¢ for them. He further obferves, that Maimo- ‘« nides * writes, that he found written in one of

“© the books of the ancient idolaters, that there ‘© was a man of the idolatrous prophets, whofe ** name was Zammuz; who called to a certain’ ** king, and commanded him to worfhip the feven ‘* ftars, and the twelve figns of the Zodiac, for ‘* which the king put him to a violent death; and ** the fame night he died, all the images from *< the ends of the earth gathered together to the ** temple of Babylon, to a golden image, which ‘* was the image of the fun; and this image was *« hanging between the heavens and the earth, and *¢ it fell into the midft of the temple, and fo all ‘* the images round about it; and it declared unto them what had happened to Tammuz the pro- ‘* phet; and all the images wept and lamented all ‘¢ that night; and when it was morning, they all ** fled to their temples at the ends of the earth; ** and this became an everlafting ftatute to them, ‘“* that at the beginning of the firft day of the ** month Tammuz, every year they lament and “* weep for Jemmuz, and there are others that ** expound Tammuz, the name of a beak which they worfhip;” but leaving thefe interpretations,

Tammuz was either the Adonis of the Grecians; and fo the Vulgate Latin verfion renders it, Adonis; who was a young man beloved by Vexus, and being killed by a boar, his death was lamented by her; and, in refpect to the goddefs, an anniverfary folemnity was kept by men and women lamenting his death, efpecially by women. So Paufanias {peaking of a certain place, there (fays he) the women of the Argives (a people in Greece) mourn for Adonis». Lucian © gives a particular account of this ceremony, as performed at Byblus, a city in Phenicia, not far from Fudea; from whence the Jews might have borrowed this cuftom. ‘* I have

** feen (lays he) in Byb/us, a large temple of Venus “* Byblia, where they performed the rites unto ‘* Adonis, and I was a fpectator of them. The ‘* Byblians fay, the affair relating to Adonis (or his ‘* death) by a boar, happened in their country; ‘** and in memory of it, every year they beat them- “* felves, lament and offer facrifice, and great ‘* mourning goes thro’ the whole country; and ‘* when they beat themfelves and mourn, they fa- “* crifice to Adonis as dead; but the day following ‘* they pretend he is alive; and they fhave their ‘© heads, as the Egyptians do at the death of “< Apis;” and indeed it is thought by fome that

this Tammuz is the Ofris of the Egyptians; the fame with Mizraim, the firft king of Egypt, who being flain in battel, his wife J/s ordered that he fhould be worfhipped as a God, and a yearly Jamentation made for him; and indeed Ofiris and Adonis feem to be one and: the fame, only in different nations, called by different names. Mention is made in Plato *, of Thamus a king that reigned at Thebes over all Egypt, and was the God called Ammon; no doubt the fame with this Zammuz; and who is here called in the Syrige and Arabic verfions, Thamuz or Tamuz; he feems to be the fame with Ham; and Egypt was called the land of Ham, Pf. cv.27. and it is moft probable, the ews borrowed this piece of idolatry from the Egyptians their neighbours; with whom they were _ now very familiar, and from whom they expeét help againft the Chaldeans; but as there were fuch fhocking obfcenities ufed in this idolatrous fervic it is moft amazing that the Fewifh women, who