Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

ing to verse second, was in the fifth year of the captivity Jehoiachin. The real identity of these two dates is i beyond doubt by the mention of the same day of the month, " on the fifth day of the month " (ver. 2 compared with ver. 1). The fifth year from the commencement of Jci.

bo loajpr bo aerertainc cert btcaoso in tha: '.be book of tbo U« *

Tbo Ral Otaae aojomi « chronology according to tho periods of the \ cc, and so alto t be *n alone oj>han? wat

Irifl takes ita rise f. ed

20 the prophecies of ezeki:

springs," near the city Bat-eVAi* at the foe: in range of Masius, flows thro:

tion parallel with its two principal westward, discharges itself in

There the hand of Jehovah i tlie power or omnipotence man,— the- han I: the organ of power in action,—!:1"

dition to exert supeihum.IK the regular expression fort!. n into the state of I spirit of the prophet— pestuous wind rolled togeilu about ft, an metal from the midst 0) — Tl with a general outline of the sented itself to tb ritual i proach from the north. A I from the north a great as a lump of fire, which throws aroun 1 ness of light, and \ in il glowing metal. The north is, as a matter of ( vith th

Ionian representation of the mounl t the g in usage of speech followed pceially by J miah (cf. e.g. i. 1-1, iv. G, vi. 1, etc.), the north is the from which the enemies who were * ute ju

Jerusalem and Judah break in. Arc. the coming of this divine appearance from the north signifies that hoi the north that God i ng to pass the

Of m ell ft • the riraUMUACt * gold or a lustre cuolii akioe forth otr il leas c and Maurer base the bmmu «r ig in lot frc." word appears simpis1 to he:

person of 1 1. m who it enthroned above the chc:

the seer four being*, whom he describes according to figure and st •

there prominently appeared a figure, consisting of four creatures, and this was their appearance: they had the figure of a man. Ver. 6. And each had four faces, and each of them had four icing*. Ver. 7. And their feet were upright- standing feet; and the. of their feet like the soles of a calf, and sparkling like the apj ance of shining brass, Ver. 8. And the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and all four had fad < and wings. Ver. 9. Their icings were joined one to another; they turned not as they went; they went each one in the directi his face, Ver. 10. And the form of tlieir faces was tl man; and on the right all four had a lion's and l n the left all four had the face of an ox; and all four laid an, Ver. 11. And their faces and their wing-. two of each uniting icith one another, and two C Ver. 12. And they went each in the whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went; they tur they went. Ver. 13. And the likeness of tl ibUd burning coals of fire, like the appearand went hither and thither amongst the beingt; and th. brilliant, and from the fire came forth lightning. Ver. 11. And the beings ran hither and thither in a j maun. r.

From out of the fiery centre of the cloud there slum the form (JWJ, properly " resemblance/' u picture") of I rrisn, animautia, u living creatures;" fwet, Apoc iv. 6; not 07j put, "wild beasts," as Luther has incorrectly rei i I it, after the animalia of the Vulgate. These four creatui D*JK My*, "the figure of a man." Agreeably to this nol placed at the head of the description, these creatures are to be conceived as presenting the appearance of a human body in all points not otherwise specified in the following narrative. Each of them had four faces and four wings (nnx without the article stands as a distributive, and D*M3 are '-pinions," as in Isa. vi. 2, not " pairs of wings "). Their feet were ITMG* S>n «•' a straight foot;" the singular stands generically, stating only the nature of the feet, without reference to their number. We which are understood to bo in ten Jed o m«n aa the old translators bara render I -;int baa ea were as a flame I the.

passages lik of hi of God.*' I the as the taking ok: s road at vie of J:i in its % on tautology. The second half of ver. 8 is neither, with II to be referred to the following ninth verse, win no more spoken of, nor, with Hitzig, to be arbitrarily moti but is to be taken as it stands, comprising all that ha been said regarding the faces and wings, in or to in ver. 9 sqq. the description of the use and Dal one to another," is in ver. 11 limited to the according to which we have so to conceive the top or the upper right wing of each cherub with the top of the left wing of the neighl

This junction presented to the of the coherence of all the four creatur, s aa ft c mpl and implied, as a consequence, the harmonious acti of the four creatures. They did not turn but proceeded each in the direction of hi

« over against his face." The meaning i

Kliefoth: " x\s they had four fac they went, but went on as (£.«. in the were going, always after the fa of the faces in ver. 10, the face of tl as that which was turned tow the right side, the ox to the left, and that of the e

In naming these three, it had these faces: in naming the immediately precedes. In ver. 11. the faces and wings, that they wet above," " upward "); then the direction the preceding, " and it was their fac ith II expunged as a gloss; but is quite in order as a stat that not only the wings but also the f consequently were not like Janus': pon one '. but the four faces were planted upon four heads and necks. In the u manifestly to be likm abbre each cherub covered bit body with the pi aided the OS* cherub COteCOB1 the b

Kitn, which alto it sot the nrtmt ux? note on menu is btongbt to a candoaion, while both u are prtmapimm eaeeemt. Iu «bateYer direction t ewf aipinen not * impulen,* nor. even aa the vehicle of the power of the to the I total, *; rtxJuocU and guided their m mc ic w heels which wat in harm -nr «

... «aa oof can* the wind, but procee from the " m the apiht dweili:

ntrary, there it oof in the whole d* cx-»-j'tion aj tie* £ -rural ttat-:m:.: t I | | •:. ■•.■ions wind drove from the north the preat cloud in m\ wat enwrapped, any alluvion to a meant of motion palpable the tcnaat. entire iinprettion prodnced by the morement of the whole ejpennaet. • mem pfnoaden, an 1 h taken absolutely u a^ regards the form of I features," ai eaponds 1 roduced..-.ir apiM-arance wat like burning coals*

I the appearance of torches, irn refers to V* at * pal

conception. Fire, like the fire of burning coals and torches, went, moved hither and thither amongst the four creatures. This fire presented a bright appearance, and out of it came forth lightnings. The creatures, moreover, were in constant motion. W3P, from WO, an Aramaising form for the Hebrew m, to run. The infin. absol. stands instead of the finite l The conjecture of itfKJ, after Gen. viii. 7 (Hitzig), is inappropriate, because here* we have not to think of " coining out," and no reason exists for the striking out of the words, as Hitzig proposes. The continued motion of the creatures is not in contradiction with their perpetually moving on straight before them. "They went hither and thither, ami vet always in the direction of their countenances; because they had a countenance looking in the direction of every side" (Kiiefoth). PJ1 signifies not " lightning w ( = p"}3), but comes from Hij in Syriac, " to be split," and denotes u the splitting,'' i.e. the zigzag course of the lightning (Kiiefoth).

Vers. 15 — 21. The four wheels beside the cherubim. — Ver. 15. And I saw the creatures, and, lo, there was a wheel the earth beside the creatures, towards thurfour \. 10.

The appearance of the wheeli and their work was like the a j -pearance of the chrysolite; and all four had one kind of figure: and their appearance and their work icas at if one whe\ ■ within the other. Ver. 17. Towards their four sides they went when they moved: they tinned not as they went. Ver 1£. And i felloes, they were high a)id terrible; and their felloes xccre full of eyes round about in all the four. Ver. l'J. And when the creatures moved, the wheels moved beside them; and when the creatures raised themselves up from the earth, the wheels also raised themselves. Ver. 20. Whithersoever the spirit was to yo they went in the direction in which the spirit teas to qo; and the wheels raised themselves beside them: for the spirit oj the creatures was in the wheels. Ver. 21. When the former moved, the latter moved also; when the former stood, the latter stood; and wlien the former raised themselves from the ground, the wheds rax front, conceived as a -a* ont create was to b« seen upon the ami. then MM the appearance, in the s- wheels is described. C ii tin- lega felloe-, y possessed height and t ill of eyes all I movement of I _.it of the creature was in the wheels. njPfJj in vers. 20 and 21, is not the "principle of life" (Havernick), but the cherubic creatures conceived as a unity, as in ver. 22, where the meaning is undoubted. The sense is: the wheels were, in their motion and rest, completely bound by the movements and rest of the creatures, because the spirit which ruled in them was also in the wheels, and regulated their going, standi: rising upwards. By the WW nn the wheels are bound in one with the cherub-figures, but not by of a chariot, to or upon which the cherubim were attached.

heads of the creature there app the apj ance of the terrible cry lied out tlieir I

Ver. 23. And under tlie • straight one towards another: t aeh had tic and each two (wing$)} covering to tin. \

And J heard the sown! of their win like the voice of the Almighty, as i • like the clamour of a camp: when t/\- panse which was above tin their icings sink down. V heads was to be scoi, like a sapphii and over the figure of the throne woe a figure above it. Ver. 27. And I saw like the aj brass, like the appearance of fire within the same round ah from the appearance of his loins upwc from the ajpear- ance of his loins downwards, I saw as of the appearance and a shining light was round about it. Ver. 28. Like the appearance of the bow, which is in the clouds in the d I ain, was the appearance of the shining light round about. 7. the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Jehovah. A\ saw it, and fell upon my face, and I heard the voice of one that spake. — Above, over the heads of the figures of the cherubim, Ezekiel sees something like the firmament of heaven (ver.

■jcrub! out in a horizontal the canoj be:

each todies with the other wings could very easily be so extended under the canopy that the tops of the one should touch those of the other. As the creatures moved, Ezekiel hears the sound, i.e. the rustling of their wings, like the roaring of mighty billows. This is strengthened by the second comparison, " like the voice of the Almighty," i.e. resembling thunder, cf. x. 5. The "?£>[} i?ip that follows still depends on Vn&&. np^n» which occurs only here and in Jer. xi. 6, is probably synonymous with |iEH, "roaring," "noise," "tumult." This rushing sound, however, was heard only when the creatures were in motion; for when they stood, they allowed their wings to fall down. This, of course, applies only to the upper wings, as the under ones, which covered the body, hung downwards, or were let down. From this it clearly appears that the upper wings neither supported nor bore up the canopy over their heads, but only were so extended, when the cherubim were in motion, that they touched the canopy. In ver. 25 is also mentioned whence the loud sound came, which was heard, during the moving of the wings, from above the canopy, consequently from him who was placed above it, so that the creatures, always after this voice resounded, went on or stood still, i.e. put themselves in motion, or remained without moving, according to its command. With the repetition of the last clause of ver. 24 this subject is concluded in ver. 25. Over or above upon the firmament was to be seen, like a sapphire stone, the likeness of a throne, on which sat one in the form of a man — i.e. Jehovah appeared in human form, as in Dan. vii. 9 sq. Upon this wras poured out a fiery, shining light, like glowing brass (tern py, as in ver. 4) and like fire, WD B&TWL "within it round about" (n'30 = n<3,

"within," and rP, pointing back to KB3 JWn). This appears to be the simplest explanation of these obscure words. They are rendered differently by Hitzig, who translates them: " like fire which has a covering round about it, i.e. like fire which is enclosed, whose shining contrasts so much the more brightly on account of the dark surroundings." But, to say nothing of the change which would then b^ necessary of ITS m*° ^-> this meaning seems very far-fetched, and cannot be accepted for this reason alone, that t?K •"^1'?, neither in the following hemistich (ver. 21b) nor in viii. 2, has any such or similar strengthening addition. The appearance above shows, as the centre of the cloud (ver. 4), a fiery gleam of light, only there is to be perceived upon the throne a figure resembling a man, fiery-looking from the loins upwards and downwards, and round about the figure, or rather round the throne, a shining light (nil), cf. ver. 4), like the rainbow in the clouds, cf. Apoc. iv. 3. This [Kin, ver. 28, does not refer to fUSn> but to the whole appearance of him who was enthroned, — the covering of light included, but throne and cherubim (x. 4, 19) excluded (Hitzig)] was the appearance of the likeness of Jehovah's glory. With these words closes the description of the vision. The following clause, " And I saw, etc.," forms the transition to the word of Jehovah, which follows on the second chapter, and which summoned Ezekiel to become a prophet to Israel. Before we pass, however, to an explanation of this word, we must endeavour to form to ourselves a clear conception of the significance of this theophany.

For its full understanding we have first of all to keep in view that it was imparted to Ezekiel not merely on his being called to the office of prophet, but was again repeated three times, — namely, in ch. iii. 22 sqq., where he was commissioned to predict symbolically the impending siege of Jerusalem; ch. viii. 4 sqq., when he is transported in spirit to the temple-court at Jerusalem for the purpose of beholding the abominations of the idol-worship practised by the people, and to announce the judgment which, in consequence of these abominations, was to burst upon the city and the temple, in which it is shown to him how the glory of the Lord abandons, first the temple and thereafter the city also; and in ch. xliii. 1 sqq., in which is shown to him the filling of the new temple with the glory of the Lord, to dwell for ever among the children of Israel. In all three passages it is expressly testified that the divine appearance was like the first which he witnessed on the occasion of his call. From this Kliefoth has drawn the right conclusion, that the theophany in ch. i. 4 sqq. bears a relation not to the call only, but to the whole prophetic work of Ezekiel: u We may not say that God so appears to Ezekiel at a later time, because lie so appeared to him at his call; but we must say, conversely, that because God wills and must so appear to Ezekiel at a later time while engaged in his prophetic vocation, therefore He also appears to him in this form already at his call." The intention, however, with which God so appears to him is distinctly contained in the two last passages, ch. viii.-xi.

and ch. xliii: " God withdraws in a visible manner from the temple and Jerusalem, which are devoted to destruction on account of the sin of the people: in a visible manner God enters into the new temple of the future; and because the whole of what Ezekiel was inspired to foretell was comprehended in these two things, — the destruction o£ the existing temple and city, and the raising Up of a new and a better; — because the whole of his prophetic vocation had its fulfilment in these, therefore God appears to Ezekiel on his call to be a prophet in the same form as that in which He departs from the ancient temple and Jerusalem, in order to their destruction, and in which He enters into the new edifice in order to make it a temple. The form of the theophany, therefore, is what it is in i. 4 sqq., because its purpose was to show and announce to the prophet, on the one side the destruction of the temple, and on the other its restoration and glorification."

These remarks are quite correct, only the significance of the theophany itself is not thereby made clear. If it is clear from the purpose indicated why God here has the cherubim with Ilim, while on the occasion of other appearances {e.g. Dan. vii. 9; Isa. vi. 1) He is without cherubim; as the cherubim here have no other sitmifkancy than what their figures have in the tabernacle, viz. that God has there His dwelling-place, the seat of temj ther attributes ol Kliefoth, igain i. Becau 1 was called

I comprehended in entering into the I bow of the temple of the future, that H should have Jeborah Himself dwelling within it in ■ visible form. From this, too, may explained the great fulness of the attributes, which are divisible into three i: 1. Those which relate to the manifestation of God for the destruction of Jerusalem; 2, Those which relate to the manifestation of God for entering into the new temple; and, 3. Those which serve both objects in common. To the last class belongs everything which is essential to the manifestation of God in itself, e.g. the visibility of God in general, the presence of the cherubim in itself, and so on: to the first class all the signs that indicate wrath and judgment, consequently, first, the coming from the north, especially the fire, the lightnings, in which God appears He who ifl coming to judgment; but to the second, hi the rainbow and the appearance of God in human form..ally the wheels and the fourfold manifestation in the cherubim and win I r the new temple does not represent the rebuildii the tern] 1 • by

Zerubbabel, but the economy of sail *

His appearing, to which they beli ng founded, on the one hand, by God'fl own C and dwelling upon the earth; on the other, to be of an ocumenie eh in opposition to the particularities and local n..:

vious ancient dispensation of Q in human form; lowers down to earth tl.. which

His throne is i cherubim, which i: G gracious presence with I but in living reality, plant their fe i tin- I, while each cherub has at bis side a wheel, which n air, but only upon the earth. W. this it

Himself is to 1 to the earth, to walk and to dwell visibly among His people; while th< to visit the earth, is repr! in the four: m <>f the cherubim and wheels. The numl ir — th i of the

(ecumenicity which is to come, and t: spread abroad into all the world— i- and wheels, to portray the spreading abroad of the new k'. of God over the whole earth. Bat bow much that is true and striking this attempt at explanation may i I D in details, it does not touch the heart of I and is free from bold combinations. The correctness of the assumption, that in the theophany attributes of an kind united, namely, such as should refer only to the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple, and such as relate only to the foundation and nature of the new economy of salvation, is beset with well-founded doubts. Why, on such a hypoth should the form of the theophany remain the same throughout

God in human shape seated upon the thi The orde these three elements in the descripti in i urdlj of any importance, but is simply explicable from thi I to the seer who is on earth it is the under part <>f the figure which, appearing visibly in the clou. that his look next turns to the op] plianv.

Especially significant al the cherubim under or at the throne of I and by it U indisputably pointed out that Hew]

is the same God that is enthroned Ii the cherubim of the D Whatever opinion may be formi significance of the cherubim, this n, lished, that they belong ntially to th sentation of Jehovah's this portion of our vision fa representation of thi ton in the II H of the tabernacle or temple. A. ' on the subject of the in ences in their four faces and four win.,,f the cherubim upon the mi at and in the temple, nn:.

had only one face and two wi.

standing of our vision, look a little 1 tore and significance of the cherubim.

While, according to the older view, th. ibim a: lie beings of a higher order, the opinion at widely prevalent, that they are only symbolical fig; nothing real corresponds, — merely ideal r creature life in its highest ful. Thi*

* Compare the investigation of the cherubim in my Hat l^heylrchxalogie, I. pp. SG sqq. and 113,n. ■ uber chc Zahlensymbolik der hi! rift in der

Dieckhojf und hhefoth, III. p. 381 sqq., when especial;, that the cherubim are angelic beings of a higher rank-. In a thorough manner, and the daring hypothesis of Hofinann signally rtfal to a cherub, an -ci not at all contact * as real I

Heogstenberg, and others — thai the cherubim were only sj •• figures, there are actually beings of this kind. il Bjmboli furnishes not a single undoubted instance of abstract i I ideal creations of the imagination, being I the prophets as living beings, Under the plastic i the cherubim upon the mercy-seat, and in th and holy place of the tabernacle and the that these are heavenly, spiritual beinj c in th md temple (which was built after Item) eaa ntial relation the kingdom of God are eml all the from things having a real exi Wli

Vitrinira remarks is su to refute th. an r the four creatures are throughout the wh from the angels, but from all I in ch.

From the division of tli ivenly asseml the tin into two choirs or. and \ii.j, — in whi

(cherubim) and the elders form tl;

the other choir (ver. 11), — an argum against the angelic nature of the ch shown, from the distinction b the arpariu ayye\o$, in Luke ii. 13, that the "'multitude would only then furnish the supposed pr lationship of the cherubim to the angels, if in general — all angels, how* numerous soever they may b were spoken of. But the very tenor of the words, ayyeXoi, "all the angels," points back to the choir of an already mentioned in ch. v. 11, which was formed by irokkol ayye\oi) whose number was ten thousand times ten the and thousands of thousands.1 From the distinction beta

1 See on this distinction "Winer's Grammar of mrut Creek

|.: as b< all tlio creatures in heal f all i]:»e GoU of the to it ako th

.a some other way. are fax:

they were represented in the sanctua:: in tl

The cherubim in the sanctuary had the farm of I man.

were only marked out by their wing not bound by the earthly limits The do in man. Angels also assume tl.

For although tl in the spiritual nature of man, — in I the

Spirit of God, — J. as the vessel of this s is the most perf have I ow- ledge, and as such fori ' appropriate ga.

rendering visible the cherubim in our \ body with the fa ■ mai of the ox, and of the. and n so that tl: in an; •. and while so doing, tl. one face; while in the vi>i n in t.r faces of the creatures named | go that each has onl\ • is portrayed his soul and ieh one also higher order of animals, iffl D Gf tl.

and eagle-faces with that of m in ness and the power of lif the ea:i is divided among the four creatures nam L The I

Quatuor sunt qui principatum in hoc mundo tenent. Inter creaturas homo, inter aves aquila, inter pecora bos, inter bestias ho, contains a truth, even if there li,s at the: of it the idea that these four creatures rep:: the entire earthly creation. For in the cherub, the living powers of tb foar citatartt are a tuallr un.tr.!

the o* and the Ilea are t lastly, both of the riirrubim a I foar facet of ca cherub in oar vi*ionf it rnsaataled with their rapt tactions with unhand can cotr ot etsent rin, for on the o at higher spiritual being*, appears not c where a cherub »t retches forth and and fetches out from between tba char angel clothed in t. lag of Jerusalem; but, still more distinc

1 This hat been already rightly recognised bj hat drmwD from it the iafti aaot: fumtemu voifvr cktrnbu m 4to ad mwmtu num ••; 1 cuuaectad with the erroneous representation that the aaaraMai arc laaaaaad as baa tat tai at a! G •! a:. I «... tarry tat L id - 1 lat pssM

Besides this activity of theirs in I divine counsel of salvation, we mutt, in a view as possible of the Bigni vision, as well as in Biblical s; view the position which, in the throne of God. Tl:

form these three concentric circles: tl •' im)

form the innerm thrones, clothed in white gann upon their heads, compose th i while standing before the thron.

and with palms in their I tribulation, and have;l white serve Him day i ht in H.Ac- beside God's throne, the other angels; and in tl exalted above the angels, are tl

This position of the cherubim ju thai they have the name of Jd>a from tfa lasting blessed life which is ami out from the C: of spirits— tl all kin

Lord of all lords — upon t that the cherubim iinmedii I I being representatives and feited by the Fall, but which they are the infini- tude of the divine compassion, to r in I livine king 1 founded for the redemption of fallen hum k of Ko. natu itwuiy and leads t of ilie L are declared to b< ii proceed fi in a of the com; 3 of IIi> pow

44 the rnoniECiES of ezekikl.

picture and mirror of the Spirit; and the ornamentation of the cherubim and wheels with eye?, shows that the power of the divine Spirit dwells within them, and determ their movements.

The remaining objects of the ire not difficult to explain.

The appearance of the expanse over above the cherabim and wheels, upon which a throne is to 1 the firmament or heaven as the place throne. G I ft] | upon the throne in human form, in th< His holy majesty. The whole i Irawi nigh to prophet in the covering of a cloud points back to the u thick ancient time, descended upon Nfoont: inders promised to the patriarchs with tl. 1, — tli brought forth from Egypt,— and to found His ki grace upon the earth. If W( theophany with that manifestation of G the founding of the OKI TestauM • we shall neither confine the lire and tl htningfl in OOr vision to the manifestation of God for the destruction i the temple, nor refer the bich ftp] the throne in the form of a rainbow to t! which returns after the execution of judgment, or to the salvation which is to be established. N differing attributes, by referring tl individual historical elements of the revelation of God in IT), as in opposition; but must conceive of them, more generally and from the point of view of unity, as symbols of the righteousness, holiness, and grace which God reveals in the preservation, government, and consummation of His kingdom. It holds true also of our theophany what Diisterdieck remarks on Apoc. iv. 3 (cf. p. 219 of the second edition of his Commentary) regarding the importance of the divine appearance described in that passage: u We may not hastily apply in a general way

. and was I «»peatcd at the j ointa in the alcm ch. ix. xi.f and also at t: ad ft new arrai ment which was entrust nihilat and the foundation of the new k' ling of tl Lord among His p 1 1 g among the exiles in the land of C I char), cou led, in new of I of the theocracy, which had already begun, and was shortly to be completed, to give to the prophet and those of his contemporaries who were living with him in exile, a real pledge that the essential element of the theocracy was not to be removed by the penal judgment which was passing over the sinful people and kingdom; but that God the Lord' would still continue to attest Himself to His people as the living God, and preserve His kingdom, and one day bring it again to a glorious consummation. — In correspondence with this aim, God appears in the temple in the symbolical forms of His gracious presence as He who is throned above the cherubim; but cherubim and throne are furnished with attributes, which represent the movement of the throne in all directions, not merely to indicate the spreading of the kingdom of God over all the earth, but to reveal Himself as Lord and King, whose might extends over the whole world, and who possesses the power to judge all the heathen, and to liberate from their bondage His people, who have been given into their hands, if they repent and turn unto Him; and who will a^ain gather them together, and raise them in the place of their inheritance to the glory which had been promised.

Such is the significance of the theophany at the inauguration of Ezekiel to the prophetic office. The significance, however, which its repetition possesses is clearly contained in the facts which the prophet was herewith permitted by God to behold. From the temple and city, polluted by sinful abominations, the gracious presence of God departs, in order that temple and city may be given over to the judgment of destruction; into the new and glorious temple there enters again the glory of God, to dwell for ever among the children of Israel.

Chap. ii. 1-iii. 3. Call of Ezekiel to tiie PRoniETic Office. — Vers. 1 and 2. Upon the^ manifestation of the Lord follows the word of vocation. Having, in the feeling of his weakness and sinfulness, fallen to the ground before the terrible revelation of Jehovah's glory, Ezekiel is first of all raised up again by the voice of God, to hear the word which calls him to the prophetic function. — Ver. 1. And He said to me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, I will speak ivitJi thee. Ver. 2. Then came spirit unto me as Tie sp>ake unto me, and it placed me on my feet, and 1 heard Him speaking unto me. — The address C^"|3 occurs so frequently in Ezekiel, that it must be regarded as one of the peculiarities of his prophecies. Elsewhere it occurs only once, Dan. viii. 17. That it is significant, is generally recognised, although its meaning is variously given. Most expositors take it as a reminder of the weakness and frailness of human nature; Coccejus and Kliefoth, on the contrary, connect it with the circumstance that God appears to Ezekiel in human form, and find in it a TefC{i?']piov amiciticc, that God speaks in him as man to man, converses with him as a man with his friend. This last interpretation, however, has against it the usus loquendi. As Dns~jn denotes man according to his natural condition, it is used throughout as a synonym with B^K, denoting the weakness and fragility of man in opposition to God; cf. Ps. viii. 5; Job xxv. 6; Isa. li. 12, Ivi. 2; and Num. xxiii. 19. This is the meaning also of E^~i? in the address, as may be distinctly seen from the various addresses in Daniel. Daniel is addressed, where comfort is to be imparted to him, as nn?on t^x? "man greatly beloved," Dan. x. 11, 19, cf. ix. 23; but, on the contrary, in ch. viii. 17, where he has fallen on his face in terror before the appearance of Gabriel, with the words, " Understand, O son of man," in order to remind him of his human weakness. This is also the case in our verse, where Ezekiel, too, had fallen upon his face, and by God's word spoken to him, is again raised to his feet. It is only in Ezekiel that this address is constantly employed to mark the distance between the human weakness of his nature and the divine power which gives him the capacity and the impulse to speak. Not, however, with the design, mentioned by Jerome on Dan. viii. 17, (t that he

4S the rnornEciES of ezek may not be elated on account of bk

Havernick subjoins, Ezek rful a: ible nature may have needed to be p< is in reality before God. If I of this addre- several of the other: ture of Ezekiel was mora rful a of t|,e use of this form of I the manner and fashion imparted to him, that which the distinction God prominently than in ordin:. by means of an impwmiuu upon Urn in bringing promin

God and men is to remind the | to whom he communic. weakness of humai: to show | how powerfully the word of God oj also that God, who has will, possesses also the | lying powerless under the oppression misery, and to raise them up again.-At the m -Stand upon thy - conveyed through the word whicl, in,:;_;tandbeforethefaceofGa, „ umJc in ch. xlin. 6, and in Xum vii KQ-

VT'3""7'?e,CallingCfthepr0',heT ^th th.

M-| to Ezek e. the people to wh, n o uer to make h,m acquainted with the difficulties vocatton, and to encourage him for the discharge of the same imrn of irxcl birr become bratheo, 00 longer a propl 4, oot e* co a boatbea aauot.

mplored substa: the form of an aapaasritta. Tb 1 rebelled *p from Jehorah down to thai. see on I%a.

ahaaseleasocss spriags from ness of heart.

Becasa. s.ej shall in an v case ex p* demanded by the tiStfJ loquendi and the Conn of the thought. The meaning is not: t! ill km mony that a prophet is there; bat I the result, viz. when the word announced by him will I therefore, is not to be prevent i an d their words from deliver in Bgainsttfa I be explained ad jectively: nb- beyond doubt by |&C in xxviii.

to singe/1 and ii thistle," as

Donasch in Raecht has aln ling to the later D r V** with of association,,, and 0C4 tly in i these animals inflict a painful | tj1(.

Ver. 8 ad fin. and eli. hi.:». — A the Lord out to the prophet the difficolti II prepares him for the inane, with the divine word which bi thou, son of man, hear what I soy i <. Be not. Wee the stif-nech

10. And He spread it out he/ore me; the so the front and back: and there were writ* and sighing, and woe. Ch. iii. 1. » W to me:

man, what thou jindest eat; eat the roll, and go and spea- i fry m< ufA as kcmry a I prop! announce to the people

4t upoo the: bid a multitude of mournful all that the propbet « noooncr, and what we now read

• into sap and blood. Wl it was tw i tweet taste must n away into a sweet " after-taste," and made to bear t;

8 destr rusalem would be f. a mot* g) ri m mtonfti & Iba roll, inscribed with lamentation, sorrow, and woe, tasted to him sweetly, because its contents was < t d's word, which sufficed for tl and gladness of I he:.; for it is ''infinitely s* be the organ and spokesman of tl and eren the most painful of divine tr;. to a man a joyful and quick A reveal not only the holii but also prepare the way for the the Bavins of the soul.

This consists in G r to < countenances, and y to adamant, harder than roc'. tremble not stiff-neckedness of Israel,,3CS the success of Ezekiel's work '1 a different relation than tl igus£e tho un J of » Jed wil

• ahow that the un language lies in understanding the sounds of its words.

the adversative particle ud is on. the omission apt canst consequence of its position between both sen:.rred to both. Id tw, 6 the thought of by the addition of Ml W??, lantruatres, in order to show tl. I in the ability, hut in the willingness, to hear the I are wantin It is not to many nations with unii languages that God i are able to hear him, I ' against the view that the position of tl. = —~s.

Consequently neither t nor the of: an involves a repenting of I euinn I those whose language the | 1 1 the heathen spoke a lai • unint consequently did not and ch, a:

therefore comprehend his preaching. I: only D, to apply the sentence simply to the Israelii).

nations, but to the Israelites have I take understand thy words." This in ver. 7 is cl ike boot* of Israel Ml bear the*, because raued me mp, emd I h'*rd behind me the roita of a qrtat turn uj U the glory of Jehorv m Uuir fU* eho dtcellrd by the i they sat then § m mmi d their mi J ft. — The apparent Av heart, and hear mith * s so * at it is observed that the cUoee u hear wil ith the: poslgwam auribm t words which I shall speak I lay to..est ol \Vi.«-n ti.

nouoce them to the Wi 1 1 cf. ii.

by the under internalprophet I noise which 1 proceed*, at lei*t in from the (according I raptured prop' \ its present po decidedly in favour of thi sight, but the earanc >sed as takii being removed in a con:i of t: tMe frosa ibe temp'.o. Wbo toemiod — ttosu another", \ 14 JrvnU the proplteVi mood i n iml

' hotagb T> it Uted a of wrath an J duplets*!

■WW that he was melancb- ncom

■sxcesa, too word of the Lord. To to b« seek to withdraw himself from the dninc call, as Moaes and

. of ear ie name of the place where resided a colonv ice was situated on and derived its name, do doubt, from the U valley, rich in grain (ny^n, ver. 23), by which it was surrounded; nothing further, however, is known of it j cf. G< mo. Thesaur. p. 1505. The Chetib tjw, at which the Masorel and many expositors have unnecessarily token offence, is to \ read "WW, and to be joined with the following cy;. « where tin v sat" (so rightly the Chaldee, Syriac, and Vulgate). That this signification would be expressed differently, as Hitlig thinks, cannot be established by means of Job mix, 30. The A 3Bta is not only unnecessary, but also inappropriate, which holds true also of other conjectures of modern expositors.

Ezekiel sat there seven days, W*, U. neither u deprived of sensation,1' nor u being silent/1 but as the partk. HiphU from dop, asDDivto in Ezra ix. 3, 4, u rigidly without moving," the* fore " motionless and dumb." The seven daj oof regard as a period of mourning, in support of which Job ii. 18 is referred to; but as both the purification and the dedication and preparation for a holy service is measured by the numb ID, week " motionless and dumb," to 1 the impn which the word of God, conveyed to him in ecstati I made upon his mind, and to prepare and sanctify himself for his vocation (Kliefoth).

Vers. 16-21. When these seven days are completed, thi comes to him the final word, which spp tints him watchman over Israel, and places before him tie an 1 I ibility of his vocation. — Ver. 16. And it em the la\ of seven days, that the word of Jehovah came to me as follow Ver. 17. Son of man, I have set tl watchman over the house of Israel; thou shalt hear the word from my mouth, and thou shalt warn them from me Ver. 18. Tf I say to the sinner. Thou shalt surely die, and thou warnest him not, and speakest not to warn the sinner from his evil way that he may live, then shall he, the sinner, die because of his evil deeds, but his blood will I require at thy hand, Ver. 19. But if thou warnest the sinner, oh J I ley a tkm tkall he du; if t\ u hast mot teamed Aw.*, he duill dU van them of the dan. iteo tl 17.

-hedding of blood. An awf n Btai: all before God,: i the in his sin, if the form sinning from weakness." ^V~:v. " to do unrighteousm bvczv WW belongs still to the j, "*'-' *W I rming the apodosisj not a relative sentence, — and II

TttfSD, "object of offence," hy which any < fall, is

Ilavernick), but everything that | uts in the WiJ ol the sinner, in order that the Bin, which ninating in his soul, may come forth to the light, and ripen to maturity. G indeed, neither c;! 10, DOT and in this sense He d<. i. 1. I [e guides and places the sinner in in life in which he must come to ■ decision 1 and divine, and either suppress the sinful ll | the barriers which are I. I their Stl U not do the former, but tl thin him i.

away from right* I I in this, that God l< n run on in that fa perish. For r«DJ does not stand {^i no ground for a change of pun Athnach to irr-;n (Hitzig). ]

that the backsliding righteous [ he is not warned" (Hitzig), — that m< that he, in contrast to tlk areobediei

— but only the possibility is SU]. PW, who transgressed upon the way 1, will yield ob< the warning, but not that he will \ ^ itli the JH5h in ver. 19, only the case of his resisting the warning is expressly mentioned; while the opposite case— that he mav, in consequence of the warning, be converted— is not excluded; so in ver. 21, with the pnv, who has entered upon the path of imi men' ibeti 'lie one caie »-> well ai uncv* the fate of not consist the j;

continuation of the sai: B t holds true of iv. ] m hold true also o: at that it is co: 1 with iii. The commencement, thei in the f -and tlie hand of Jehovah came upon mc" (iii. 22), with which also viii. 1 (where only /te| stands instead of *~r> I and xl. 1 — new oracles — are introduced. No doubt these pi are preceded by chronological notices, while in iii. 22 every note of time is wanting. I5ut nothing further can be inferred fi this, than that the divine word contained in iii. 25 v. 17 was imparted to the prophet iinni- T after his < ration ami call, so that it still falls under the date of ch. i. 2: which mav also be discovered from this, that th ~. the locality named in ver. 15.

Immediately after bis call, then, 1 in the sam i where the last word of calling (Hi. IC l'1 i 1 t«> received the first divin was to announce t«> the j pie, Thi lation i^ iota i bv the words in ch. iii. 22 _ 1: and dil the thrice-occun milar addi I thoo, of man "

gives him general injunctions out the divine conn ij in the ii. i\\, II mands him to represent symboli of J< with its miseries: and in the third, eh. v., tl tiny of the inhabitants after the capture of speak to thee. Ver. 2 -, and went into ti lo, there stood the j. like the glory which I hud seen at the river Ckebar: and I f, U upon my fare. \,24. spirit came into vie, and placed me on, and II with me, and said to vie, Go, and shut I *,

Ezekiel is to go out from the midst of the exile- wfa according to ver. 15, he had found himself— into the valley, because God will reveal Himself to him onlv in solitn

For at in i also i i the sam« in Hi ivn the i that ht tie during f nor can it at all be I from others in ich resental rnsslem it i an I accord-

•ntempora it come to him an

Vers. 25-27. The general divine instructions. — Ver, And thou, son of man, (<>. they will lay eordt upon th land thee therewith, to thai thou into their m

Ver. 26. And I shall make thy tongm thou mayeet he dumb, and m for tliey ore a <• Ver. 27. Bui wht

' to thee, I will open thy mouth, th Thus sayeth th LordJe). /- ' him u and let him who neglects^ necked gem i meaning of this si injancl depends upon the d< I d of the

Most expositors think of the prophet1 bind him with cords so that 1 dl not house. The words -:*~- *£! fy. as the circumstance is by no meai is the twofold diffi with cords by his c what he performs in ch. iv. in I v, by the exiles upon the prophet tl discovered in the enl Nracl is indeed repeatedly as a hardened and obdurate tow ment of feeling against the pro; hich should so far as to bind him, oi to make d vent him from exercising 1 rhat towards him, hardly be imagined. Further, the bind!

fettering of the prophet is to be kind with the cleaving of his tongue to his jaw that he be silent and not speak (ver. 26). It is G. ' who suspends this dumbness over him; and according to iv. <s, it i> also God who binds him with cords, so that he cannot stir fi one side to the other. The demonstrative power of the 1 passage is not to be weakened by the objection that it not to quit his house, nor enter into I hip ar with his exiled countrymen, that he may \ fay separation from them, to!-

On the same grounds lie is al and not even correct them with H

God opens his month I nrpoei: ' unconcerned whether they lit! his words or D • ii.

God — will, on tl. Which with which he ii fil of I •mr word, and with J '• ' be SI speak when Q I his month f I of *■ which were to b at fit • I upon the prophet — as follows fr ■ iv. and v. — only for the duration I I I v. 17, or rather vii. 27. Hut the Is, as

Kliefoth has rightly i 11 further on - the whole period up to the fu'iiln.

ing by the destruction of • ':n. T ally able reference to the silence impos n him in our verse, and with reference to which it is said, that when the messe: should bring back the news of the fall of Jerusa!- should be opened and he should be no longer dumb. T reference in xxiv. 27 and in xxxiii. 22 to the verse before us has been observed by most expositors; but several of them

CHir 111:. ' the tilcncv of the ptjfhH M onward*, then only remain whole period from the romror ncrroc: to the receipt of the ne*

. If all the discourse* lions and alto I mb the I on hii men! iraj to be discourses of similar c ntent. li-.-s I s, for a correct aj»j>rcciu- tion of the divine pr noticed that the pro] when God ii him I *J but that bit is explained to moan, that 1 which fall within I this the remark i siffn. which E the eves of I connected an I i three actions appeal to ver. 7, while lying O]

his arm upon the pictur and, according to ver. 8, is I lasts, and during that til f in the mai division of the chapter, ins the pending siege of Jerusalem, are c h otlier by the repetition of the addre.18, mental mta *o, tu.clu were a roramuo I. ng material (la. ix.?>, in OOBttqUCOCi ol "

the selection of tuch a toft mass ■

■ raises several camps around t •• waJl-1 real. accor rong beams of hard wood, furni&hcd at tb with a ram's head made of iron, wl chain, and driven forcibly the *

Compare the description of them by J ■' '

Ezekiel as little figure md th< the lal would represent the city, ]

selected because the d; was I when a citv i • the inscribed picture of I is at oj I in

But the prophet is I to take i siege itself, and to carry it ''an iron pan as an iron wall on the brick, and direct his count the city (r?\!)j and BO b is to represent n the n enemies1 rampart, for 1 while to represent it, preces et queri \ auditurum.

iron plate for baking their 1 of Cm]

Lev. ii. 5. The selection of such an iron plate for the purpose xt I be prvpariat: * bo it occ guoblc metal aught, per: tb© bar on/a uy on cA/r, that tdiuu stir not from one *t ended tiu days of thy ue-/e. — \\ as God's: I in a - turning, he is to bear the guilt of Israel's sin; then lying 40 days more upon his right side, he is to bear the gu.lt of Judah s sin In so doing, the number of the days during which he reclines upon his sides shall be accounted as exactly equal to the same number of years of their sinning, ft *& to bear the evil deeds," i.e. to take upon himself the consequence of s,„, and to atone for them, to suffer the punishment of s.n; cf. IS urn. xiv 34, etc. Sin, which produces guilt and pumshment, is regarded as a burden or weight, which Ezekiel is to lay upon the side upon which he reclines, and in this way bear,t This bearin., however, of the guilt of sin is not to be viewed as v.canous and mediatorial, as in the sacrifice of atonement, but,s mtended as purely epideictic and symbolical; that is to say Ezeluel by his lying so long bound under the burden of Israel and Judah which was laid upon his side, is to show to the people how they are to he cast down by the siege of Jerusalem and Low, while lying on the ground, without the possib.hty of turning or rising, they are to bear the pumshment of hensins The full understanding of this symbolical act, however, depends upon the explanation of the specified periods of time, with regard to which the various views exhibit great

^IrTS first place, the separation of the guilt into that of the house of Israel and that of the house of Judah is close y connected with the division of the covenant people,uto the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah. That Ezekiel now is to bear the siu of Israel upon the left, that of Judah on the right side is not fully explained by the circumstance that the kingdom of the ten tribes lay to the left, i.e. to the north, the kingdom of Judah to the right, i.e. to the south of Jerusalem, but must undoubtedly point at the same time to the pre-eminence of Judah over Israel; cf. Eccles. x. 2. This pre-eminence of Judah is manifestly exhibited in its period of punishment extending only to 40 days = 40 years; that of Israel, on the contrary, 390 days = 390 years. These numbers, however, can: ily explained from i citron 1 point of

, whether th 1 to the time daring which Israel and Jndah tinned, and 1 npon then ailt which punisl ne during which they were to which 1 ar the I ht be pro]

Bideration, as the i of punishment began with the capti of the ten 1 But t only 2

The remaii 7 years the E pply to that of the iction < B th are altogether arbitrirv. Still n the 40 calculal ill the determinations of the phantoms of the air. Ti re our prop!.

would nearly coincide with the eig all's reign, and therefore with the in which th is kin;:

effected the reformation of r;. kiel, however, could not represent ti. it as marking the commencement of

Judah's sin. We must th the literal meaning of the words primarily indicates, I I the specified periods of time as periods of punishment for Israel and Judah. Since Ezekiel, then, had to maintain during the symbolical siege of Jerusalem this attitude of reclining for Israel and Judah, and after turning, he is to bear the guilt of Israel's sin; then, lying 40 days more upon his right side, he is to bear the guilt of Judalf s sin. In so doing, the number of the days during which he reclines upon his sides shall be accounted as exactly equal to the same number of years of their sinning, jty Kfco, u to bear the evil deeds," i.e. to take upon himself the consequence of sin, and to atone for them, to suffer the punishment of sin; cf. Num. xiv. 34, etc. Sin, which produces guilt and punishment, is regarded as a burden or weight, which Ezekiel is to lay upon the side upon which he reclines, and in this way bear it. This bearing, however, of the guilt of sin is not to be viewed as vicarious and mediatorial, as in the sacrifice of atonement, but is intended as purely epideictic and symbolical; that is to say, Ezekiel, by his lying so long bound under the burden of Israel and Judah which was laid upon his side, is to show to the people how they are to be cast down by the siege of Jerusalem, and how, while lying on the ground, without the possibility of turning or rising, they are to bear the punishment of their sins. The full understanding of this symbolical act, however, depends upon the explanation of the specified periods of time, with regard to which the various views exhibit great

In the first place, the separation of the guilt into that of the house of Israel and that of the house of Judah is closely connected with the division of the covenant people into the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah. That Ezekiel now is to bear the sin of Israel upon the left, that of Judah on the right side, is not fully explained by the circumstance that the kingdom of the ten tribes lay to the left, i.e. to the north, the kingdom of Judah to the right, i.e. to the south of Jerusalem, but must undoubtedly point at the same time to the pre-eminence of Judah over Israel; cf. Eccles. x. 2. This pre-eminence of Judah is manifestly exhibited in its period of punishment extending only to 40 days = 40 years; that of Israel, on the contrary, 390 days = 390 years. These numbers, however, cannot be satisfactorily explained from a chronological point of view, whether they be referred to the time during which Israel and Judah sinned, and heaped upon themselves guilt which was to be punished, or to the time during which they were to atone, or suffer punishment for their sins. Of themselves, both references are possible; the first, viz. in so far as the days in which Ezekiel is to bear the guilt of Israel, might be proportioned to the number of the years of their guilt, as many Rabbins, Vatablus, Calvin, Lightfoot, Vitringa, J. D. Michaelis, and others suppose, while in so doing the years are calculated very differently; cf. des Vignoles, Chronol. I. p. 479 sqq., and Rosenmuller, Scholia, Excvrs. to ch. iv. All these hypotheses, however, are shattered by the impossibility of pointing out the specified periods of time, so as to harmonize with the chronology. If the days, reckoned as years, correspond to the duration of their sinning, then, in the case of the house of Israel, only the duration of this kingdom could come into consideration, as the period of punishment began with the captivity of the ten tribes. But this kingdom lasted only 253 years. The remaining 137 years the Rabbins have attempted to supply from the period of the Judges; others, from the time of the destruction of the ten tribes down to that of Ezekiel, or even to that of the destruction of Jerusalem. Both are altogether arbitrary. Still less can the 40 years of Judah be calculated, as all the determinations of the beginning and the end are mere phantoms of the air. The fortieth year before our prophecy would nearly coincide with the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign, and therefore with the year in which this pious king effected the reformation of religion. Ezekiel, however, could not represent this year as marking the commencement of Judah' s sin. We must therefore, as the literal meaning of the words primarily indicates, regard the specified periods of time as periods of punishment for Israel and Judah. Since Ezekiel, then, had to maintain during the symbolical siege of Jerusalem this attitude of reclining for Israel and Judah, and after the completion of the 390 days for Israel must lie a second time (nw, ver. 6) 40 days for Judah, he had to recline in all 430 (390 + 40) days. To include the forty days in the three hundred and ninety is contrary to the statements in the text. But to reckon the two periods together has not only no argument against it, but is even suggested by the circumstance that the prophet, while reclining on his left and right sides, is to represent the siege of Jerusalem. Regarded, however, as periods of punishment, both the numbers cannot be explained consistently with the chronology, but must be understood as having a symbolical signification. The space of 430 years, which is announced to both kingdoms together as the duration of their chastisement, recalls the 430 years which in the far past Israel had spent in Egypt in bondage (Ex. xii. 40). It had been already intimated to Abraham (Gen. xv. 13) that the sojourn in Egypt would be a period of servitude and humiliation for his seed; and at a later time, in consequence of the oppression which the Israelites then experienced on account of the rapid increase of their number, it was — upon the basis of the threat in Deut. xxviii. 68, that God would punish Israel for their persistent declension, by bringing them back into ignominious bondage in Egypt — taken by the prophet as a type of the banishment of rebellious Israel amon^ the heathen. In this sense Hosea already threatens (viii. 13, ix. 3, 6) the ten tribes with being carried back to Egypt; see on Hos. ix. 3. Still more frequently, upon the basis of this conception, is the redemption from Assyrian and Babylonian exile announced as a new and miraculous exodus of Israel from the bondage of Egypt, e.g. Hos. ii. 2; Isa. xi. 15, 16. — This typical meaning lies also at the foundation of the passage before us, as, in accordance with the statement of Jerome,1 it was already accepted by the Jews of his time, and has been again recognised in

1 Alii ve.ro et maxime Judaei a secundo anno Vespasiani, quando Hierusalcm a Romania capta Umplumque subversion est, snpputari volant in tribulaiione et anynstia et cuptiuitatis jugo populi ctnmtitui annus quadrinycntos

modern times by Havernick and Hitzig. That Ezekiel looked upon the period during which Israel had been subject to the heathen in the past as " typical of the future, is to be assumed, because only then does the number of 430 cease to be arbitrary and meaningless, and at the same time its division into 390 + 40 become explicable." — Hitzig. This latter view is not, of course, to be understood as Hitzig and Havernick take it, i.e. as if the 40 years of Judah* s chastisement were to be viewed apart from the 40 years' sojourn of the Israelites in the wilderness, upon which the look of the prophet would have been turned by the sojourn in Egypt. For the 40 years in the wilderness are not included in the 430 years of the Egyptian sojourn, so that Ezekiel could have reduced these 430 years to 390, and yet have added to them the 40 years of the desert wanderings. For the coming period of punishment, which is to commence for Israel with the siege of Jerusalem, is fixed at 430 years with reference to the Egyptian bondage of the Israelites, and this period is divided into 390 and 40; and this division therefore must also have, if not its point of commencement, at least a point of connection, in the 430 years of the Egyptian sojourn. The division of the period of chastisement into two parts is to be explained probably from the sending of the covenant people into the kingdom of Israel and Judah, and the appointment of a longer period of chastisement for Israel than for Judah, from the greater guilt of the ten tribes in comparison with Judah, but not the incommensurable relation of the divisions into 390 and 40 years. The foundation of this division can, first of all, only lie in this, that the number forty already possessed the symbolical significance of a measured period of divine visitation. This significance it had already received, not through the 40 years of the desert wandering, but through the 40 days of rain at the time of the deluge (Gen. vii. 17), so that, in conformity triginta, et sic redire populum ad pristinum statum ut quomodo filii Israel 430 annis fuerunt in Aegypto, sic in eodem numero finiatur: scriptumque esse in Ex. xii. 40. — Hieronymus.

with this, the punishment of dying >n tl:

over the rebellion F Israel at Kadeah, I at

40 years, although it included in this penal I been viewed spart from tl ' ' ment for I rael n -1 I in if the ivl.it' for a division last ' within thai for the wh nuence of meaning of tl them by his hand, M I of Midian, an the

His in. ssenger to Pharaoh purification f< the period of i for the 1 1 in punishment f 'I had experienced in £ 1 1 Ipei

1 Another ingenious •;.aa been attempted by Khefoth, (.:. vnilolical

-h practice of mtli tranfgreai the letter of the law in the enumeration mad* -es bacV f the salem is to be mentally carried on until its capture; but no new symbol of the state of prostration of the besieged Jerusalem is implied. For such a purpose the food of the prophet (ver. 9 sqq.) during this time is employed.

Vers. 9-17. The third symbolical act. — Ver. 9. And do thou take to thyself wheat, and barley, and leans, and lent and millet, and spelt, and put tlt> m in a vessel, and prepare them as bread for thyself, according to the number of Hit days on which thou'liest on thy side; three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat it. Ver. 10. And thy food, which thou eatest, shall be according to weight, twenty sheh a day to time shalt thou eat it. Ver. 11. And water shall then drink < big to measure, a sixth part of the hin, from time to time shalt thou drink it Ver. 12, And as barley cakes shalt thou eat it, and shalt bake it before tin < icith human excrement, Ver. 13. And Jehovah spake; then shall the children of Israel eat their bread polluted amongst the heath, u, whitJn r / shall drive them. Ver. 11. TliensaidI: Ah! I \ Jehovah, my soul has never been polluted; and of a i of that which is t have I never eaten from my youth up until now, and abominable flc<h has not come into my mouth. Ver, \~>. Then U, unto me: Lo, I allow thee the dung of animals ii of that of man; therewith mayest thpu p\ lliy bread. Ver. 16. And He said to me, Son of man, lo, I will fa read in Jeruscdem, so that they will * / according to weight, ■ ' in affliction, and drink water by measure, and in aim Ver. 17. Because bread and water shall fail, and flay shall pine away one with another, and disappear in their guilt. — For the whole duration of the symbolical siege of Jerusalem, Ezekiel is to furnish himself with a store of grain corn and leguminous fruits, to place this store in a vessel beside him, and daily to prepare in the form of bread a measured portion of the same, 20 shekels in weight (about 9 ounces), and to bake this as barley cakes upon a fire, prepared with dried dung, and then to partake of it at the different hours for meals throughout the day. In rUin qu mtiti in ■ -to indicate that all kindi o( grain ti to brcal irill be c< r to b I: for the a?l ' of In. In the btennixtare of various kin of flour we are nut, with \ to seek ■ t: n of the

11 tffcr. ariii "Inter.umina maximm honos aPud | l ct maxime panico woHda ac deUcatims /rat salem is to be mentally carried on until its capture; but no new symbol of the state of prostration of the besieged Jerusalem is implied. For such a purpose the food of the prophet (ver. 9 sqq.) during this time is employed.

Vers. 9-17. The third symbolical act. — Ver. 9. And do thou take to thyself wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and spelt, and put them in a vessel, and prepare them as bread for thyself, according to the number of the days on which thou'liest on thy side; three hundred and ninety days slialt thou eat it. Ver. 10. And thy food, which thou eatest, shall be according to weight, twenty shekels for a day; from time to time shalt thou eat it. Ver. 11. And water shalt thou drink according to measure, a sixth part of the hin, from time to time slialt thou drink it. Ver. 12. And as barley cakes shalt thou eat it, and shalt bake it before their eyes with human excrement. Ver. 13. And Jehovah spake; then shall the children of Israel eat their bread polluted amongst the heathen, whither I shall drive them. Ver. 14. Then said I: Ah! Lord, Jehovah, my soul has never been polluted; and of a carcase, and of that which is torn, have I never eaten from my youth up until now, and abominable flesh has not come into my mouth. Ver. 15. Then said lie unto me: Lo, I allow thee the dung of animals instead of that of man; therewith mayest thou prepaid thy bread. Ver. 16. And He said to me, Son of man, lo, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, so that they will eat bread according to weight, and in affliction, and drink water by measure, and in amazcmeid. Ver. 17. Because bread and water shall fail, and they shall pine away one with another, and disappear in their guilt. — For the whole duration of the symbolical siege of Jerusalem, Ezekiel is to furnish himself with a store of grain corn and leguminous fruits, to place this store in a vessel beside him, and daily to prepare in the form of bread a measured portion of the same, 20 shekels in weight (about 9 ounces), and to bake this as barley cakes upon a fire, prepared with dried dung, and then to partake of it at the different hours for meals throughout the day. In addition to this, he is, at the hours appointed for eating, to drink water, in like manner according to measure, a sixth part of the hin daily, i.e. a quantity less than a pint (cf. Biblisch. ArchdoL II. p. 141). The Israelites, probably, generally prepared the niay from wheat flour, and not merely when they had guests (Gen. xviii. 6). Ezekiel, however, is to take, in addition, other kinds of grain with leguminous fruits, which were employed in the preparation of bread when wheat was deficient; barley — baked into bread by the poor (Judg. vii. 13; 2 Kings iv. 42; John vi. 9; see on 1 Kings v. 8);?)B} " beans," a common food of the Hebrews (2 Sam. xvii. 28), which appears to have been mixed with other kinds of grain for the purpose of being baked into bread.1 This especially holds true of the lentiles, a favourite food of the Hebrews (Gen. xxv. 29 sq.), from which, in Egypt at the present day, the poor still bake bread in times of severe famine (Sonnini, R. II. 390; apros (pdfcivos, Athenaeus. IV. 158). £H, "millet," termed by the Arabs " Voc7in" ( # -^ j), panicum, sl fruit cultivated in Egypt, and still more frequently in Arabia (see Wellsted, Arab. I. 295), consisting of longish round brown grain, resembling rice, from which, in the absence of better fruits, a sort of bad bread is baked. Cf. Celsius, Hierobotan, i. 453 sqq.; and Gesen. Thesaur. p. 333. BHM33, " spelt or German corn " (cf. Ex. ix. 32), a kind of grain wThich produces a finer and whiter flour than wheat flour; the bread, however, which is baked from it is somewhat dry, and is said to be less nutritive than wheat bread; cf. Celsius, Hierobotan, ii. 98 sq. Of all these fruits Ezekiel is to place certain quantities in a vessel — to indicate that all kinds of grain and leguminous fruits capable of being converted into bread will be collected, in order to bake bread for the appeasing of hunger. In the intermixture of various kinds of flour we are not, with Hitzig, to seek a transgression of the

1 Cf. Plinii Histor. Natur. xviii. 30: " Inter Icgnmina maximus honos falae, qui/>pe ex qua tcntatus sit etiam panis... Frumento etiam miscetur apud plerasque gentes et maxime panic o solida ac delicatius fracta."

law in Lev. xix. 19; Deut. xxii. 9. "I3p*? is the accusative of measure or duration. The quantity is to be fixed according to the number of the days. In ver. 9 only the 390 days of the house of Israel's period of punishment are mentioned — quod plures essent et fere universa summa (Prado); and because this was sufficient to make prominent the hardship and oppression of the situation, the 40 days of Judah were omitted for the sake of brevity.1 'W1 *1?3KD, " thy food which thou shalt eat," i.e. the definite portion which thou shalt have to eat, shall be according to weight (between subject and predicate the substantive verb is to be supplied). Twenty shekels = 8 or 9 ounces of flour, yield 11 or 12 ounces of bread, i.e. at most the half of what a man needs in southern countries for his daily support.2 The same is the case with the water. A sixth part of a hin, i.e. sl quantity less than a pint, is a very niggardly allowance for a day. Both, however, — eating the

1 Kliefoth's supposition is untenable, that what is required in vers. 9-17 refers in reality only to the 390 days of Israel, and not also to the 40 days of Judah, so that so long as Ezekiel lay and bore the sins of Israel, he was to eat his food by measure, and unclean. For this is in contradiction with the distinct announcement that during the whole time that he lay upon the one side and the other, he was besieging Jerusalem; and by the scanty and unclean food, was to portray both the deficiency of bread and water which occurred in the besieged city (ver. 17), as well as the eating of unclean bread, which impended over the Israelites when among the heathen nations. The famine which took place in Jerusalem during the siege did not affect the ten tribes, but that of Judah; while unclean bread had to be eaten among the heathen not only by the Israelites, but also by the Jews transported to Babylon. By the limitation of what is prescribed to the prophet in vers. 9-15 to the time during which the sin of Israel was to be borne, the significance of this symbolical act for Jerusalem and Judah is taken away.

2 In our climate (Germany) we count 2 lbs. of bread for the daily supply of a man; but in warm countries the demand for food is less, so that scarcely 1£ lbs. are required. Wellsted {Travels in Arabia, II. p. 200) relates that u the Bedoweens will undertake a journey of 10 to 12 days without carrying with them any nutriment, save a bottle full of small cakes, baked of white Hour and camel or goat's milk, and a leather bag of water. Such a cake weighs about 5 ounces. Two of them, and a mouthful of water, the latter twice within 24 hours, is all which they then partake of."

bread and drinking the water, — he shall do from time to time, i.e. u not throughout the entire fixed period of 390 days " (Iliivernick); but he shall not eat the daily ration at once, but divided into portions according to the daily hours of meals, so that he will never be completely satisfied. In addition to this is the pollution (ver. 12 sqq.) of the scanty allowance of food by the manner in which it is prepared. CH'yLy nay is predicate: " as barley cakes," u prepared in the form of barley cakes," shalt thou eat them. The suffix in njbatf'fl is neuter, and refers to on? in ver. 9, or rather to the kinds of grain there enumerated, which are ground and baked before them: un?9 i.e. u food." The addition D^iH? is not to be explained from this, that the principal part of these consisted of barley, nor does it prove that in general no other than barley cakes were known (Ilitzig), but only that the cakes of barley meal, baked in the ashes, were an extremely frugal kind of bread, which that prepared by Ezekiel was to resemble. The nay was probably always baked on hot ashes, or on hot stones (1 Kings xix. 6), not on pans, as Kliefoth here supposes. The prophet, however, is to bake them in (with) human ordure. This is by no means to be understood as if he were to mix the ordure with the food, for which view Isa. xxxvi. 12 has been erroneously appealed to; but — as Envy in ver. 15 clearly shows — he is to bake it over the dung, i.e. so that dung forms the material of the fire. That the bread must be polluted by this is conceivable, although it cannot be proved from the passages in Lev. v. 3, vii. 21, and Deut. xxiii. 13 that the use of fire composed of dung made the food prepared thereon levitically unclean. The use of fire with human ordure must have communicated to the bread a loathsome smell and taste, by which it was rendered unclean, even if it had not been immediately baked in the hot ashes. That the pollution of the bread is the object of this injunction, we see from the explanation which God gives in ver. 13: u Thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the heathen." The heart of the prophet, however, rebels against such food.

He says he has never in his life polluted himself by eating food forbidden in the law; from his youth up he has eaten no unclean flesh, neither of a carcase, nor of that which was torn by wild beasts (cf. Ex. xxii. 30; Deut. xiv..21), nor flesh of sacrifices decayed or putrefying (/^S, see on Lev. vii. 18; Isa. Ixv. 4). On this God omits the requirement in ver. 12, and permits him to take for firing the dung of oxen instead of that of men.1 In ver. 16 sq., finally, is given the explanation of the scanty allowance of food meted out to the prophet, namely, that the Lord, at the impending siege of Jerusalem, is to take away from the people the staff of bread, and leave them to languish in hunger and distress. The explanation is in literal adherence to the threatenings of the law (Lev. xxvi. 26 and 39), which are now to pass into fulfilment. Bread is called a staff of bread" as being indispensable for the preservation of life. To ^?2, Lev. xxvi. 26, IWT3, "in sorrow," is added; and to the water, |toB#3, " in astonishment," i.e. in fixed, silent pain at the miserable death, by hunger and thirst, which they see before them. Ejto ^J as Lev. xxvi. 39. If we, finally, cast a look over the contents of this first sign, it says that Jerusalem is soon to be besieged, and during the siege is to suffer hunger and terror as a punishment for the sins of Israel

1 The use of dung as a material for burning is so common in the East, that it cannot be supposed that Ezekiel first became acquainted with it in a foreign country, and therefore regarded it -with peculiar loathing. Human ordure, of course, so far as our knowledge goes, is never so employed, although the objection raised by Hitzig, on the other hand, that it would not yield so much heat as would be necessary for roasting without immediate contact, i.e. through the medium of a brick, rests upon an erroneous representation of the matter. But the employment of cattledung for firing could not be unknown to the Israelites, as it forms in the Hauran (the ancient Bashan) the customary firing material; cf. Wetzsteins remarks on Delitzsch's Job, vol. I. pp. 377, 8 (Eng. tran.), where the preparation of the jelle — this prevalent material for burning in the Hauran — from cow-dung mixed with chopped straw is minutely described; and this remark is made among others, that the flame of the gclle, prepared and dried from the dung of oxen that feed at large, is entirely without smoke, and that the ashes, which retain their heat for a lengthened time, are as clean as those of wood.

and Judah; that upon the capture of the city of Israel (Judah) they are to be dispersed among the heathen, and will there be obliged to eat unclean bread. To this in ch. v. is joined a second sign, which shows further how it shall fare with the people at and after the capture of Jerusalem (vers. 1-4); and after that a longer oracle, which developes the significance of these signs, and establishes the necessity of the penal judgment (vers. 5-17).

Chap. v. 1-4. — The Sign which is to portray Israel's impending Destiny. — Ver. 1. And thou, son of man, take to thyself a sharp sword, as a razor shalt thou take it to thyself and go with it over thy head, and over thy chin, and take to thee scales, and divide it (the hair). Ver. 2. A third part burn with fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are accomplished: and take the {other) third, smite with the sword round about it: and the (remaining) third scatter to the winds; and the sword will I draw out after them. Ver. 3. Yet take a few of them by number, and bind them in the skirt of thy garment. Ver. 4. And of these again take a few, and cast them into the fire, and burn them with fire; from thence a fire shall go forth over the whole house of Israel. — The description of this sign is easily understood. Depart "OTj u razor of the barbers," is the predicate, which is to be understood to the suffix in ^^n; and the clause states the purpose for which Ezekiel is to use the sharp sword — viz. as a razor, in order to cut off therewith the hair of his head and beard. The hair, when cut off, he is to divide into three parts with a pair of scales (the suffix in Bfip?n refers ad sensum to the hair). The one third he is to burn in the city, i.e. not in the actual Jerusalem, but in the city, sketched on the brick, which he is symbolically besieging (iv. 3). To the city also is to be referred the suffix in irrtonD, ver. 2, as is placed beyond doubt by ver. 12. In the last clause of ver. 2, which is taken from Lev. xxvL 33, the description of the sign passes over into its exposition, for D'T^OK does not refer to the hair, but to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The significance also of this symbolical act is easily recognised, and is, moreover, stated in ver. 12. Ezekiel, in this act, represents the besieged Jerusalem. What he does to his hair, that will God do to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. As the hair of the prophet falls under the sword, used as a razor, so will the inhabitants of Jerusalem fall, when the city is captured, into destruction, and that verily an ignominious destruction. This idea is contained in the picture of the hair-cutting, which was a dishonour done to what forms the ornament of a man. See on 2 Sam. x. 4 sqq. A third of the same is to perish in the city. As the fire destroys the hair, so will pestilence and hunger consume the inhabitants of the beleaguered city (ver. 12). The second third will, on the capture of the city, fall by the sword in the environs (ver. 12); the last third will God scatter to the winds, and — as Moses has already threatened the people — will draw forth the sword after them, still to persecute and smite them (ver. 12). This sign is continued (vers. 3 and 4) in a second symbolical act, which shadows forth what is further to happen to the people wrhen dispersed among the heathen. Of the third scattered to the winds, Ezekiel is to bind a small portion in the skirt of his garment. DS7D, '"from thence," refers not to n^'wn, but, ad scnsum, to WiJ rnin: " from the place where the third that is scattered to the winds is found" — i.e., as regards the subject-matter, of those who are to be found among the dispersion. The binding up into the EPBQ3, u the corners or ends of. the garment " (cf. Jer. ii» 34), denotes the preservation of the few, who are gathered together out of the whole of those who are dispersed among the heathen; cf. 1 Sam. xxv. 29; Ezek. xvi. 8. But even of these few He shall still cast some into the fire, and consume them. Consequently those who are gathered together out of exile are not all to be preserved, but are still to be sifted by fire, in which process a part is consumed. This image does not refer to those who remain behind in the land, when the nation is led away captive to Babylon (Theodoret, Grotius, and others), but, as Ephrem the Syrian and Jerome saw, to those who were saved from Babylon, and to their further destiny, as is already clear from the DBte, rightly understood. The meaning of the last clause of ver. 4 is disputed; in it, as in tlie final clause of ver. 2, the symbolical representation passes over into the announcement of the thing itself. *3BD, which Ewald would arbitrarily alter into *|BO, cannot, with Havernick, be referred to tt'sn SjfaTvK, because this yields a very forced sense, but relates to the whole act described in vers. 3 and 4: that a portion thereof is rescued and preserved, and yet of this portion many are consumed by fire, — from that a fire shall go forth over the whole house of Israel. This fire is explained by almost all expositors, from Theodoret and Jerome onwards, of the penal judgments which were inflicted after the exile upon the Jews, which reached their culminating point in the siege and destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and which still continue in their dispersion throughout the whole world. But this view, as Kliefoth has already remarked, is not only in decided antagonism to the intention of the text, but it is, moreover, altogether impossible to see how a judgment of extermination for all Israel can be deduced from the fact that a small number of the Israelites, who are scattered to the winds, is saved, and that of those who are saved a part is still consumed with fire. From thence there can only come forth a fire of purification for the whole of Israel, through which the remnant, as Isaiah had already predicted (vi. 12 sqq.), is converted into a holy seed. In the last clause, consuming by fire is not referred to. The fire, however, has not merely a destructive, but also a cleansing, purifying, and quickening power. To kindle such a fire on earth did Christ come (Luke xii. 49), and from Him the same goes out over the whole house of Israel. This view, for which Kliefoth has already rightly decided, receives a confirmation through ch. vi. 8—10, where is announced the conversion of the remnant of those Israelites who had been dispersed among the nations.

So far the symbolical acts. Before, however, we pass on to the explanation of the following oracle, we must still briefly touch the question, whether these acts were undertaken and performed by the prophet in the world of external reality, or whether they were occurrences only internally real, which Ezekiel experienced in spirit — i.e. in an ecstatic condition — and afterwards communicated to the people. Amongst modern expositors, Kliefoth has defended the former view, and has adduced the following considerations in support: A significant act, and yet also a silent, leisurely one, must be performed, that it may show something to those who behold it. Nor is the case such, as Hitzig supposes, that it would have been impossible to carry out what had been required of the prophet in ch. iv. 1-17. It had, indeed, its difficulty; but God sometimes requires from His servants what is difficult, although He also helps them to the performance of it. So here He will make it easy for the prophet to recline, by binding him (iv. 8). " In the sign, this certainly was kept in view, that it should be performed; and it, moreover, was performed, although the text, in a manner quite intelligible with reference to an act commanded by God, does not expressly state it." For these latter assertions, however, there is anything but convincing proof. The matter is not so simple as Kliefoth supposes, although we are at one with him in this, that neither the difficulty of carrying out what was commanded in the world of external reality, nor the non-mention of the actual performance, furnishes sufficient grounds for the supposition of merely internal, spiritual occurrences. We also are of opinion that very many of the symbolical acts of the prophets were undertaken and performed in the external world, and that this supposition, as that which corresponds most fully with the literal meaning of the words, is on each occasion the most obvious, and is to be firmly adhered to, unless there can be good grounds for the opposite view. In the case now before us, we have first to take into consideration that the oracle which enjoins these symbolical acts on Ezekiel stands in close connection, both as to time and place, with the inauguration of Ezekiel to the prophetic office. The hand of the Lord comes upon him at the same place, where the concluding word at his call was addressed to him (the DB>, Hi. 22, points back to DP in iii. 15); and the circumstance that Ezekiel found himself still on the same spot to which he had been transported by the Spirit of God (iii. 14), shows that the new revelation, which he here still received, followed very soon, if not immediately, after his consecration to the office of prophet. Then, upon the occasion of this divine revelation, he is again, as at his consecration, transported into an ecstatic condition, as is clear not only from the formula, " the hand of the Lord came upon me," which in our book always has this signification, but also most undoubtedly from this, that he again sees the glory of Jehovah in the same manner as he had seen it in ch. i. — viz. when in an ecstatic condition. But if this were an ecstatic vision, it is obvious that the acts also which the divine appearance imposed upon him must be regarded as ecstatic occurrences; since the assertion that every significant act must he performed, in order that something may be shown to those who witness it, is fundamentally insufficient for the proof that this act must fall within the domain of the earthly world of sense, because the occurrences related in ch. viii.-xi. are viewed even by Kliefoth himself as purely internal events. As decisive, however, for the purely internal character of the symbolical acts under consideration (ch. iv. and v.), is the circumstance that the supposition of Ezekiel having, in his own house, actually lain 390 days upon his left, and then, again, 40 days upon his right side without turning, stands in irreconcilable contradiction with the fact that he, according to ch. viii. 1 sqq., was carried away in ecstasy to Jerusalem, there to behold in the temple the monstrosities of Israel's idolatry and the destruction of Jerusalem. For the proof of this, see the introduction to ch. viii.

Vers. 5-17. The Divine Word which explains the Symbolical Signs, in which the judgment that is announced is laid down as to its cause (5-9) and as to its nature (10-17). — Ver. 5. Thus says the Lord Jehovah: This Jerusalem have I placed in the midst of the nations, and raised about her the countries. Ver. 6. But in wickedness she resisted my laws more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries which are round about her; for they rejected my laws, and did not walk in my statutes. Ver. 7. Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah: Because ye have raged more than the nations round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, and have not obeyed my laws, and have not done even according to the laws of the nations which are round about you; Ver. 8. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Lo, I, even Iy shall be against thee, and will perform judgments in thy midst before the eyes of the nations. Ver. 9. And I will do unto thee what I have never done, nor will again do in like manner, on account of all thine abominations,

'CTV riST, not " this is Jerusalem," i.e, this is the destiny of Jerusalem (Havernick), but " this Jerusalem " (Hitzig); DXT is placed before the noun in the sense of iste, as in Ex. xxxii. 1; cf. Ewald, § 293&. To place the culpability of Jerusalem in its proper prominence, the censure of her sinful conduct opens with the mention of the exalted position which God had assigned her upon earth. Jerusalem is described in ver. 5 as forming the central point of the earth: this is done, however, neither in an external, geographical (Hitzig), nor in a purely typical sense, as the city that is blessed more than any other (Calvin, Havernick), but in a historical sense, in so far as " God's people and city actually stand in the central point of the God-directed world-development and its movements " (Kliefoth); or, in relation to the history of salvation, as the city in which God hath set up His throne of grace, from which shall go forth the law and the statutes for all nations, in order that the salvation of the whole world may be accomplished (Isa. ii. 2 sqq.; Mic. iv. 1 sqq.). But instead of keeping the laws and statutes of the Lord, Jerusalem has, on the contrary, turned to do wicked- nesemore than the heathen nations in all the lands roundabout (rn^n, Cu?n accusat. object., u to act rebelliously towards"). Hero we inav not quote Koin. ii. 12, 11 against this, as if the heathen, who did not know the law of God, did not also transgress the same, but sinned avuficos; for the sinning dvufjL(o$, of which the apostle speaks, is really a transgression of the law written on the heart of the heathen. With i?S, in ver. 7, the penal threatening is introduced; but before the punishment is laid down, the correspondenee between guilt and punishment is brought forward more prominently by repeatedly placing in juxtaposition the godless conduct of the rebellious city. E3:rpn is infinitive, from |Dflj a secondary form flon, in the sense of ncn, "to race," i.e. to rebel against God: cf. Vs. ii. 1. The last clause of ver. 7 contains a climax: " And ye have not even acted according to the laws of the heathen." This is not in any real contradiction to ch. xi. 12 (where it is made a subject of reproach to the Israelites that they have acted according to the laws of the heathen), so that we would be obliged, with Ewald and Hitzig, to expunge the NP in the verse before us, because wanting in the Peshito and several Hebrew manuscripts. Even in these latter, it has only been omitted to avoid the supposed contradiction with xi. 12. The solution of the apparent contradiction lies in the double meaning of the Bi-in 1&&&D. The heathen had laws which were opposed to those of God, but also such as were rooted in the law of God written upon their hearts. Obedience to the latter was good and praiseworthy; to the former, wicked and objectionable. Israel, which hated the law of God, followed the wicked and sinful laws of the heathen, and neglected to observe their good laws. The passage before us is to be judged by Jer. ii. 10, 11, to which Raschi had already made reference.1 In ver. 8 the announcement of

1 Coccejus had already well remarked on ch. xi. 12: " Haec -probe con-

cordant. Imitabantur Judaei gentiles vel fovendo opiniones gentiles, vel etiam assumendo Titus et sacra gentilium. Sed non faciehant ut gentes, quae integre

the punishment, interrupted by the repeated mention of the cause, is again resumed with the words 'tH nb j37. Since Jerusalem has acted worse than the heathen, God will execute His judgments upon her before the eyes of the heathen. D'LpSiy ifj'y or D*OBf? nb'y (vers. 10, 15, ch. xi. 9, xvi. 41, etc.), " to accomplish or execute judgments," is used in Ex. xii. 12 and Num. xxxiii. 4 of the judgments which God suspended over Egypt. The punishment to be suspended shall be so great and heavy, that the like has never happened before, nor will ever happen again. These words do not require us either to refer the threatening, with Coccejus, to the last destruction of Jerusalem, which was marked by greater severity than the earlier one, or to suppose, with Haverniek, that the prophet's look is directed to both the periods of Israel's punishment — the times of the Babylonian and Roman calamity together. Both suppositions are irreconcilable with the words, as these can only be referred to the first impending penal judgment of the destruction of Jerusalem. This was, so far, more severe than any previous or subsequent one, inasmuch as by it the existence of the people of God was for a time suspended, while that Jerusalem and Israel, which were destroyed and annihilated by the Romans, were no longer the people of God, inasmuch as the latter consisted at that time of the Christian community, which was not affected by that catastrophe (Kliefoth).

Vers. 10-17. Further execution of this threat. — Ver. 10. Therefore shall fathers devour their children in thy midst, and children shall devour their fathers: and Iivill exercise judgments upon thee, and disperse all thy remnant to the ivinds. Ver. 11. Therefore, as I live, is the declaration of the Lord Jehovah, Verily, because thou hast polluted my sanctuary with all thine abominations and all thy crimes, so shall I take away mine eye without mercy, and will not spare. Ver. 12. A third of thee shall die by the pestilence, and perish by hunger in thy

diissuis serviebant. Nam Israelitae nomine Dei abulcbantur et ipsius populus videri vokbant."

midst; and the third part shall fall by the sivord about thee; and the third part ivill I scatter to all the winds; and will draw out the sword after them, Ver. 13. A nd my anger shall be fulfilled, and I will cool my wrath against them, and will take vengeance. And they shall experience that I, Jehovah, have spoken in my zeal, when I accomplish my wrath upon them, Ver. 14. And I ivill make thee a desolation and a mockery among the nations which are round about thee, before the eyes of every passer-by. Ver. 15. And it shall be a mockery and a scorn, a warning and a terror for the nations round about thee, when I exercise my judgments upon thee in anger and wrath and in grievous visitations. I, Jehovah, have said it. Ver. 16. When 1 send against thee the evil arrows of hunger, which minister to destruction, which I shall send to destroy you; for hunger shall I heap upon you, and shall break to you the staff of bread: Ver. 17. And I shall send hunger upon you, and evil beasts, which shall make thee childless; and pestilence and blood shall pass over thee; and the sword ivill I bring upon thee. I, Jehovah, have spoken it. — As a proof of the unheard-of severity of the judgment, there is immediately mentioned in ver. 10 a most horrible circumstance, which had been already predicted by Moses (Lev. xxvi. 29; Deut. xxviii. 53) as that which should happen to the people when hard pressed by the enemy, viz. a famine so dreadful, during the siege of Jerusalem, that parents would eat their children, and children their parents; and after the capture of the city, the dispersion of those who remained " to all the winds, i.e. to all quarters of the world." This is described more minutely, as an appendix to the symbolical act in vers. 1 and 2, in vers. 11 and 12, with a solemn oath, and with repeated and prominent mention of the sins which have drawn down such chastisements. As sin, is mentioned the pollution of the temple by idolatrous abominations, which are described in detail in ch. viii. The 3H3K, whicfh is variously understood by the old translators (for which some Codices offer the explanatory correction jTttx), is to be explained, after Job xxxvi. 7, of the " turning away of the eye," and the ^J following as the object; while Dinrr*Ol? " that it feel no compassion," is interjected between the verb and its object with the adverbial signification of a mercilessly." For that the words Dinn N7I are adverbially subordinate to JHJK, distinctly appears from the correspondence — indicated by ^ Dil — between JTtiN and fenx iO. Moreover, the thought, " Jehovah will mercilessly withdraw His care for the people," is not to be termed " feeble " in connection wTith what follows; nor is the contrast, which is indicated in the clause ^N'D^ lost, as Havernick supposes. ^"DjI does not require JH3 to be understood of a positive act, which would correspond to the desecration of the sanctuary. This is shown by the last clause of the verse. The withdrawal without mercy of the divine providence is, besides, in reality, equivalent to complete devotion to destruction, as it is particularized in ver. 12. For ver. 12 see on vers. 1 and 2. By carrying out the threatened division of the people into three parts, the wrath of God is to be fulfilled, i.e. the full measure of the divine wrath upon the people is to be exhausted (cf. 7, 8), and God is to appear and "cool " His anger, nsn rr:n? " sedavit iram" occurs again in xvi. 42, xxi. 22, xxiv. 13. Wn^ Illtlipael, pausal form for "Wnarij " se consolari" u to procure satisfaction by revenge;" cf. Isa. i. 24, and for the thing, Deut. xxviii. 63. In ver. 14 sqq. the discourse turns again from the people to the city of Jerusalem. It is to become a wilderness, as was already threatened in Lev. xxvi. 31 and 33 to the cities of Israel, and thereby a u mockery " to all nations, in the manner described in Deut. xxix. 23 sq. ^%J}\ in ver. 15, is not to be changed, after the LXX., Vulgate, and some MSS., into the second person; but Jerusalem is to be regarded as the subject which is to become the object of scorn and hatred, etc., when God accomplishes His judgments. 1WD is a warningexample. Among the judgments which are to overtake it, in ver. 16, hunger is again made specially prominent (cf. iv. 16); and first in ver. 17 are wild beasts, pestilence, blood, and sword added, and a quartette of judgments announced as in xiv. 21. For pestilence and blood are comprehended together as a unity by means of the predicate. Their connection is to be understood according to xiv. 19, and the number four is significant, as in xiv. 21; Jer. xv. 3sqq. For more minute details as to the meaning, see on xiv. 21. The evil arrows point back to Deut. xxxii. 23; the evil beasts, to Lev. xxiv. 22 and Deut. xxxii. 24 sqq. To produce an impression, the prophet heaps his words together. Unum ejus consilium fuit penetrare in animos populi quasi lapideos etferreos. IIcvc igitur est ratio, cur hie tanla varietate utatur et exornet suam doctrinam variis figuris (Calvin).

To God's address in vers. 5-17, explaining the signs in ch. iv. 1-5, are appended in ch. vi. and vii. two additional oracles, which present a further development of the contents of these signs, the judgment portrayed by them in its extent and greatness. In ch. vi. there is announced, in the first section, to the idolatrous places, and on their account to the land, desolation, and to the idolaters, destruction (vers. 3-7); and to this is added the prospect of a remnant of the people, who are dispersed among the heathen, coming to be converted to the Lord (vers. 8-10). In the second section the necessity and terrible character of the impending judgment is repeatedly described at length as an appendix to vers. 12, 14 (vers. 11-14).

Vers. 1-7. The desolation of the land, and destruction of the idolaters. — Ver. 1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Ver. 2. Son of man, turn thy face towards the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them. Ver. 3. And say, 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 valleys, and to the low grounds, Behold, I bring the sword upon you, and destroy your high places. Ver. 4. Your altars shall be made desolate, and your sun-pillars shall be broken; and I shall make your slain fall in the presence of your idols, Ver. 5. And I will lay the corpses of the children of Israel before their idols, and will scatter your bones round about your altars, Ver. 6. In all your dwellings shall the cities be made desolate, and the high places icaste; that your altars may be desolate and waste, and your idols broken and destroyed, and your sun-pillars hewn down, and the works of your hands exterminated, Ver. 7. And the slain iv ill fall in your midst; that you may know that I am Jehovah. — With ver. 1 cf. iii. 16. The prophet is to prophesy against the mountains of Israel. That the mountains are mentioned (ver. 2) as pars pro toto, is seen from ver. 3, when to the mountains and hills are added also the valleys and low grounds, as the places where idolatry was specially practised; cf. Hos. iv. 13; Jer. ii. 20, iii. 6; see on Hos. I.e. and Deut. xii. 2. B*i??K, in the older writings, denotes the " river channels," " the beds of the stream;" but Ezekiel uses the word as equivalent to valley, i.e. ^^, a valley with a brook or stream, like the Arabic wrady. &% properly " deepening," lt the deep ground," " the deep valley;" on the form ni%K3, cf. Ewald, § 186da. The juxtaposition of mountains and hills, of valleys and low grounds, occurs again in xxxvi. 4, 6, and xxxv. 8; the opposition between mountains and valleys also, in xxxii. 5, 6, and xxxiv. 13. The valleys are to be conceived of as furnished with trees and groves, under the shadow of which the worship of Astarte especially was practised; see on ver. 15. On the mountains and in the valleys were sanctuaries erected to Baal and Astarte. The announcement of their destruction is appended to the threatening in Lev. xxvi. 30, which Ezekiel takes up and describes at greater length. Beside the nto:3, the places of sacrifice and worship, and the O^Bn, pillars or statues of Baal, dedicated to him as the sun-god,, he names also the altars, which, in Lev. I.e. and other places, are comprehended along with the niD3; see on Lev. xxvi. 30 and 1 Kin^s iii. 3. With the destruction of the idol temples, altars, and statues, the idolworshippers are also to be smitten, so as to fall down in the presence of their idols. The fundamental meaning of the word DW1, " idols," borrowed from Lev. I.e., and frequently employed by Ezekiel, is uncertain; signifying either " logs of wood," from 7Qf "to roll" (Gesen.), or stercorei, from?3, "dung;" not "monuments of stone" (Hiivernick). Ver. 5a is taken quite literally from Lev. xxvi. 30/>. The ignominy of the destruction is heightened by the bones of the slain idolaters bein^ scattered round about the idol altars. In order that the idolatry may be entirely rooted out, the cities throughout the whole land, and all the high places, are to be devastated, ver. 6. The forms njB&^fl and *DK*P are probably not to be derived from DOB> (Ewald, § 138&), but to be referred back to a stemform EC*;, with the signification of DDIP, the existence of which appears certain from the old name fiWW) in Ps. lxviii. and elsewhere. The K in 1d::;&0 is certainly only mater lectionis. In ver. 7, the singular ivrt stands as indefinitely general. The thought, " slain will fall in your midst" involves the idea that not all the people will fall, but that there will survive some who are saved, and prepares for what follows. The falling of the slain — the idolaters with their idols — leads to the recognition of Jehovah as the omnipotent God, and to conversion to Him.

Vers. 8-10. The survivors shall go away into banishment amongst the heathen, and shall remember the word of the Lord that will have been fulfilled. — Ver. 8. Bat I shall preserve a remnanty in that there shall be to you some who have escaped the sword among the nations, when ye shall be dispersed among the lands, Ver. 9. And those of you who have escaped, will make mention of me among the nations ivhither they are led captive, when I have broken to me their whorish heart, which had departed from me, and their eyes, which went a whoring after their idols: and they shall loathe themselves because of the evil which they have done in reference to all their abominations. Ver. 10. And ye shall know that 1 am Jehovah. Not in vain have I spoken this evil to you. — TrtfHj superstites facere, u to make or preserve survivors." The connection with 'w niTra is analogous to the construction of vnirij in the sense of i( giving a superabundance," with 3 m, Deut. xxviii. 11 and xxx. 9, and is not to be rejected, with Ewald and Hitzig, as inadmissible. For nvnn is supported by the old versions, and the change of "mrrirn into Wail, which would have to be referred to ver. 7, is in opposition to the twofold repetition of the tm <js *3 DnflM (UTW), vers. 10 and 14, as this repetition shows that the thought in ver. 7 is different from that in 17, 21, not a they shall know that Jehovah has spoken," but " they shall know that He who has done this is Jehovah, the God of Israel." The preservation of a remnant will be shown in this, that they shall have some who have escaped the sword. DaVjViJTl is injin. Nipli. with a plural form of the suffix, as occurs elsewhere only with the plural ending ni of nouns, while Ezekiel has extended it to the ni of the infinitive of r6 verbs; cf. xvi. 31, and Ewald, § 259Z>. The remembrance of Jehovah (ver. 9) is the commencement of conversion to Him. ">^K before W3^3 is not to be connected as relative pronoun with CBp, but is a conjunction, though not used conditionally, u if," as in Lev. iv. 22, Deut. xi. 27, and elsewhere, but of time, ore, " when," as Deut. xi. 6 and 2 Chron. xxxv. 20, and VnatKJ in the signification of the futur. exact. The Niphal T3Bfa here is not to be taken as passive, but middle, sibi frangere, i.e. Blip, poenitentid contercre animum eorum id ad ipsum (JJeum) redeant (Maurer, Havernick). Besides the heart, the eyes also are mentioned, which God is to smite, as the external senses which allure the heart to whoredom. *BpJ1 corresponds to V13J1 at the beginning of the verse, tttp, *he later form for pp, " to feel a loathing," IHplnl, a to be filled with loathing;" cf. Job x. 1 with 2 object., "in (on) their D^B, faces," i.e. their persons or themselves: so also in xx. 43, xxxvi. 31. rrijnn bx, in allusion to the evil things; 'ayirrw, in reference to all their abominations. This fruit, which is produced by chastisement, namely, that the idolaters are inspired with loathing for themselves, and led to the knowledge of Jehovan, will furnish the proof that God has not spoken in vain.