THE n KI1
I be eon ol 1 la -i, ol r>f v^ttJ f ueacet iia, the oobaae ol the kingdom, man y priaati,
AfHl IOC brttrf rUtttof the pOpaj itfawi ol JrTUftaWoi MMJ iKcrr to the nmtbani part ol Hianyotaaaia, on the banks
Wt wti called lo bo a pro fi bat ol too Lord, and laboured in t cficul poMtun, at may ba shown, twerr roan; for the
Uteet of bit pcupotciea it dated in the twenu •rrmth year!.:• n X i./. 371 EX (iiii.lT K 'ir-b; ti,.- othrr r.rcum ataocaa and ereuta ol bi* aa aiao ol bit death, nothing known. The apocryphal ltjtandi found in ihe Faibera an the Rabbini '*&£** to the r f: it be waa put to dc a prince ol bit own nation for rebu> ■ aa buried in the tomb of Shem and Arphaxad, et ire without an y historical ralue. So nit.
alone is certain, that he ended his life among the exile?, where God had assigned him his sphere of labour, and did not, like his contemporary Daniel (comp. Dan. i. 21, x. 1), outlive the termination of the Captivity and the commencement of the redemption of Israel from Babylon, as his prophecies do contain the slightest allusion to that effect
Ezekiel, like Daniel, is a prophet of the exile, but in a different fashion from the latter, who had been already away prisoner before him to Babylon on the first capture Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in th i of Jeh< Iakim, and who lived there upwards of seventy yean at the B dm and Medo-Persian court, and who held from time t«» time important offices of State. Daniel was placed 1 Q: in this high position, which afforded him a view of the formation and evolution of the world-kingdom, in order that from this standpoint he might be enabled to see the development <>f th.' worldkingdoms in the straggle against the kingdom of ( I 1 t«» predict the indestructible power and glory of tl. dom, which overcomes all the p f the world. Ezekiel, on the other hand, was appointed a watcher over nation of Israel, and was in this capacity;.ork of the earlier prophets, especially that of Jeremiah, with whom he in several ways associates himself in his propheci preach to his contemporaries the judgment and salva God, in order to convert them to the Lord th.:,tly to understand his work as a prophet, the ripe fruit of which lies before us in his prophetic writings we must not only 1. in view the importance of the exile for the development of the kingdom of God, but also form a clear conception of the relations amidst which Ezekiel carried on his labours.
What the Lord had caused to be announced by Moses to the tribes of Israel while they were yet standing on the borders of chastening hand of her God, and to bo* If repent,.- under His mighty arm. Instead of listening to the roi© the prophet Jeremiah, and hearing the Chaldean yoke in patience (2 Cliron. xxxvi. 1 tfa monarch and their trust in the assistance of Egypt, and Zedekiah the oath of fealty which he had sworn to the king of B
To punish this perfidy, Nebachadi tin mai
Jerusalem, and by the capture and burning of th temple in the eleventh year of the kingdom of Judali. Zedekiah, w]
heleaguered city, was taken by the I M, an 1 his sons to Riblah into the pri who first caused the the eyes of their father; nej t, / I ki th himself I
Many military officers and ]
death at Riblah; while th< rs at
Jerusalem, along with the
Old Testament theocracy lost its nant people were now driven out of I | the heathen, to bear the punishment of tl from the Lord their God. Neverth the heathen was no entire rejection it wa suspension, and not an annUUlati
Man's unfaithfulness cann troy the faithfulness <
"In spite of this terrible judgment, brought down npon tl by the heaviest transgressions, Israel w -a*
"the chosen people, through whom God was still to carry out
His intentions towards humanity. His gifts and calli:
exile the theocracy was not again restored; the covenant people plrtely ifalpTiad MMOSf a
I tntrapri, ad J thuvoi to larael iu rmwjccxi <jW well a* atnongit thoac w I be hope of the ap< their native col:h wa was v» and was powerfully encouraged by th prophets; cf. Jer. xxix. In the phesied Hananiah, a prophet saying that Jehovah would:
Ion and within two years bl temple-vessels carried away K
Jechoniah and all the captive* irh tude would he of long duwl were to be found in Babj I
This delusion regarding the | spirit of resistan:e to I the 1 only upon the people, but so that they formed and the king of Babylon. The I had no other object than I moreover, sent by Zedekiah to Bal as his own journey thither in tl li. 50), were intended mer tended revolt might be cai at.
of a speedy liberation from the B mmiously disappointed: in c rebellion of Zedekiah, Nebucl siege of a year and a half, captor I.!
and temple to the ground, and deal
By this blow all the supports u; | | nation had vainly relied were broken. T of the false prophets had proved to be li of the Lord's prophets, on the contrary, fa bojIBJOf ol tbo Irmpor, ai>d tbo tio«o iKct boa oppreaord Willi! repent sod rrfurti t J I gather tbeoi out ol tbotr diaperaioo; ooold make ol ibcm a boi? ■olino, waliif; » roeaaaaoda and yield
Tbo colaagtioo, ol tbo teuphocaao placed Ingot bor i book,
Iirorl, ch. x\x upon tbo heathen i i be second main on o of tie redemption and restoration ' I fall tbo btithf worid-powi pbotic picture of tbo re-formation and exaltar dom of Godf ch. xl. entin collection opens with the solemn dedication of Ezekiel to the pi ch. i. 1 — Hi. 21. The prophet fourth parts are throughout arranged in chronol those of the second par: — the thn the heathen nations — are dis| i their subject-matter. This is Attested by the chr the superscriptions, and confirmed by tl.: the irl of the groups of prophecies in the three parts I year of the captivity of Jehoiachio Ezekiefs call to the tions regarding Jerusalem and 1 I. 1., seventh (xx. 1), and ninth the I monarch (xxiv. 1). I against seven foreign D in the eleventh (xxvi. I), those xxxi. 1), and twelfth Mars wo last parts, each contains 01 ch. xxxiii. 21, the twelfth year of I after the destruction of J fifth year of the captation of Jerusalem. The ivmain. their head no note of tin their contents with those * i. logical data, so that the. From this it appears that the ] wholly, those of the second j the destruction of Jerusalem. parts proceed from the tin: chronological relationship is in favour of the I prophecies against foreign nations, ch. -as the majority of expositors Bupp second, but rather to the first half of tl confirmed, on the one hand, by the contents of tl.
Met tWeaonlrto clo*. h ihc propbecai liMllritf OpOO iW CoOtenU *n«J Mlbdlf IMOOa of Oh- U - phet i. anil nUoiMB and aUegory an* not confined proeral ootlinc* and picture*, tut elabo detail*, ao at to prawn rodoce a* * grandeur and cube asnaawtk dn<"ourw it ncii m imagery, anl in bold, partly itcbct out into a < piowneae '. oo al of wi.;etetioni and form ig po 1 an elal n of actual 1 supposed
Ionian spirit, however, in the forms of our \ whole of these symbols has I ints in many ways to those powerful in the prophet in a foreign lai are grasped and given out again with a n spirit," remains yet to For these symbols, in ref sufficient for the purpose, and the truth, by reference to t:..: the comparison of rich nun to 1., btCt these pictures already occur in 1 sas as well as cedars are Dative in I'.! I as li"
field with the dead of the cherubim with four fluence. But if we leave out of 1 which the Lord appears in human form, the central point of this % derived from the contemplate sculptures of human figures wit]
winged oxen with human heads, or Bpfail animals and female heads such I, 0f ancient Nineveh, inasmuch ai not pictures of oxen with lions' nun,. and human countenances furnished with has still portrayed them in his tr
There are indeed also found, among tl winged human figures; but these i the art of the author U reduced to a faithful kno> These i\-. appear not m
Eirypt (ch. xxix. and xxxi.), as well M in the endeavours nnnifest in all his representations, — not merely in t;
descriptions and allegorical p -h. wi also in the simple discour vices and sins, and in the threateninj pnniafa judgment, — to follow out the Bui into ti special details, to throw light upon it: through it, and not to rest until I without any effort, in I the individuality of our proph< of his time, and in his attitude i to whom lie had to announce tl the Lord, proverbs is, in general, only i senting in an attractive li_rlit tin speech and discourse, bo al tiality of the picture, and ewn tl
The people to whom 10/ kid wa by announcing the divine ju rebellious race, impudent and bfl xii. 2, etc.). If he was faithfully an 1 charge the office, laid upon him by tl the house of Israel, he mi:
and in drastic fashion, the sins of I paint before their eyes the 1 must also set forth, in a palpable to the salvation which was to bloom forth for ti when the judgment was fulfilled.
Closely connected with this is the other peculiarity of Ezekiel's style of prophecy, namely, the ma I1CL.
assigned to the divine origin and content, of ] ments, which distinctly appears in the standing form of a tbo cootranr, according lo tbo Seripimrmt coo n each orruioo to.© Mt of tbr: *mrf At well At the n tbo winnnii ai procoodtog * iroct tbe corrt \'w* pretnoot and;
I minncr and fashion in and consecrated to the pro;. not < of enjoining upon him dumbness or entire silence, only then permitting him to open his mouth to speak when He wishes to inspire him with a word to be addressed to the rebellious people (iii. 26, 27; cf. xxiv. 27 and xxxiii. 22), — but also the theophany which inaugurated his call to the prophetic office (ch. i.), which, as will appear to us in the course of the exj tion, has unmistakeably the significance of an explanati reality, which will not be dissolved and annihilated with the dissolution of the kingdom of Judah, and the destruction of Jerusalem, and of the tempi'' of that covenant of grace which Jehovah had concluded with Isra
It is usual, moreover, to quo*. a peculiarity < f I" prophecies, the prominence given to his priestly descent and disposition, especially in the vi i, cf. ch. x.. ch.
viii.-xi. and xl.-xlviii., and in individual iv. L3 explains as ua result of the one-sided literary a of antiquity according to mere and t: ^ of the extreme prostrati m <»f spiri I by t:
duration of the exile and bondage of the people;" while de Wette, Gesenius, and others v><>u':n it an ii tual narrowness on the part of the prophet Th< superficial opinion that the copii articles in the temple were sketched by K/ ki 1 < nlv for purpose of preserving for the future the elevating of the better times of the past (Ewald). AVI:
on the contrary, the symbolical character of tl. scripti we may always say that for the portrayal of the I tion of the theophany in ch. i. and x., and of the picture of temnle in ch. xl., no individual was so well fitted as a pri familiar with the institutions of worship. In this symbolism however, we may not venture to seek for the products of ii, lectual narrowness, or of sacerdotal ideas, but must rise to the conviction that God the Lord selected a priest, and n i to behold the ( on earth in the » ^nh.-inl forma sj the lanctutr? at u»«- tin* f.fin wai the iituU-i. al i- \c.i j which ihe closes* CPfroJpOwllowrO to the mom.
imltliiMi it mentioned a* a (itM of the judgment that *n.• oree larael. b eridewce of priestly om ■ifUdnma
Low no other «ct than that which it takrt.
Moral, hot aim el 1 1 I. issen whole Uw, bo orgee obodiewcs I anmandi adherence t«» the i not at all pecu common to all the prophet*, inasmuch aa a.. ipp the life of the i B the Mi* I i in both occur with greater frequency, and receive a greater emphasis, lint this ha -mod not so nu lescent of both from e priestly family, as rather
•n from the law bad become so grea of a e penal judgments alrra.
tench ape: tgremors had f em, so that icts of the Lo: hold up b* BWOta, bat ibo f- threatening of the law, if they were faitii- enumeration of these in the Manual of Historic -< the diction of the Pentateuch. It has, however, been OflftM resist the influences of the inaccurate popular dialed, and of the
Aramaic idiom, so that it betrays, in its many anomali corruptions, the decline and commoncem the Hebrew tongue (cf. § 17 of the / ' Mam and reminds us that the prophi I
The genuineness of Ezekiel's prophec day, unanimously recognised by all criti' no longer any doubt that the writi] n of them in the volume which ha- transn the work of the prophet himself. Only I an 11: the purpose of setting aside the predictions which so much them, have proposed very artificial hypoth the manner and way in which the book originated; but it unnecessary to enter into a cl< probability and trustworthy ml only upon the dogmatic
For the exegetical literature, the!/ vol. i. p. 353 (new ed. p, I'M), where ii also to fa very recent date. Das /inch I. ind erkliirt a mje*tie threne in human for the fuhject- mailer of his annooncrmr* reafter Iran*:- ■ OhibtTi bio llM nHtf ■? ihe mln, and the duties and mpoarfUai:. * «f hii calling laid before him (iii. 4-21). My appearance and the commiaaion b be corn*
The whole occurrences in the % copious doner ophai t it ters do introduction to the whole, to which the (
13 the rnoniFXiES of ezekiel of the time and place of this revelation of God at the commencement, i. 1-3, also point.
to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth \ I tl fifth
Chebar, that the hravens and I by the river Chebar; and the hand year in vers. 1 and 2 are < firs't, according to its form or phenomenal I 19 verses second and third, according to i its effect upon the prophet The in this, that the heavens were opened, ai I saw \
God. The heaven op • merely a is disclosed of the heavenly gl. bat il when God manifests Hi. in ■ mani human sight. The latter was the case DWM ":
ft visions of God," are not " hut \ i which have divine or heavenly things for their obj f. Isa.
festation of Jehovah's glory described in the followin This was beheld by Ezekiel in the thirtieth year, whkl I d-