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31 chapters
Preface.
Preface.
In this volume I have endeavoured to present the substance of Ezekiel's prophecies in a form intelligible to students of the English Bible. I have tried to make the exposition a fairly adequate guide to the sense of the text, and to supply such information as seemed necessary to elucidate the historical importance of the prophet's teaching. Where I have departed from the received text I have usually indicated in a note the nature of the change introduced. Whilst I have sought to exercise an inde
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Chapter I. Decline And Fall Of The Jewish State.
Chapter I. Decline And Fall Of The Jewish State.
The withdrawal of the Scythians from the neighbourhood of Palestine was followed by the great reformation which made the eighteenth year of Josiah an epoch in the history of Israel. The conscience of the nation had been quickened by its escape from so great a peril, and the time was favourable [pg 006] for carrying out the changes which were necessary in order to bring the religious practice of the country into conformity with the requirements of the Law. The outstanding feature of the movement
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Chapter II. Jeremiah And Ezekiel.
Chapter II. Jeremiah And Ezekiel.
Very closely connected with this is the attitude of the two prophets to what we may call the legal aspect of religion. Jeremiah seems to have become convinced at a very early date of the insufficiency and shallowness of the revival of religion which was expressed in the establishment of the national covenant in the reign of Josiah. He seems also to have discerned some of the evils which are inseparable from a religion of the letter, in which the claims of God are presented in the form of externa
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Chapter III. The Vision Of The Glory Of God. Chapter i.
Chapter III. The Vision Of The Glory Of God. Chapter i.
There is no reason to doubt that what is thus described represents an actual experience on the part of the prophet. It is not to be regarded merely as a conscious clothing of spiritual truths in symbolic imagery. The description of a vision is of course a conscious exercise of literary faculty; and in all such cases it must be difficult to distinguish what a prophet actually saw and heard in the moment of inspiration from the details which he was compelled to add in order to convey an intelligib
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Chapter IV. Ezekiel's Prophetic Commission. Chapters ii., iii.
Chapter IV. Ezekiel's Prophetic Commission. Chapters ii., iii.
2. The next thought that occupies the attention of the prophet is the spiritual condition of those to whom he is sent. It is to be noted that his mission presents itself to him from the outset in two aspects. In the first place, he is a prophet to the whole house of Israel, including the lost kingdom of the ten tribes, as well as the two sections of the kingdom of Judah, those now in exile and those still remaining in their own land. This is his ideal audience; the sweep of his prophecy is to em
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Chapter V. The End Foretold. Chapters iv.-vii.
Chapter V. The End Foretold. Chapters iv.-vii.
In the third symbol (vv. 9-17) the two aspects of the judgment are again presented in the closest possible combination. The prophet's food and drink during the days when he is imagined to be lying on his side represents on the one hand, by its being small in quantity and carefully weighed and measured, the rigours of famine in Jerusalem during the siege— “Behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with anxiety; and drink water by measure, and wi
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Chapter VI. Your House Is Left Unto You Desolate. Chapters viii.-xi.
Chapter VI. Your House Is Left Unto You Desolate. Chapters viii.-xi.
The vision is interesting, in the first place, on account of the glimpse it affords of the state of mind prevailing in influential circles in Jerusalem at this time. There is no reason whatever to doubt that here in the form of a vision we have reliable information regarding the actual state of matters when Ezekiel wrote. It has been supposed by some critics that the description of the idolatries in the Temple does not refer to contemporary practices, but to abuses that had been rife in the days
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Chapter VII. The End Of The Monarchy. Chapters xii. 1-15, xvii., xix.
Chapter VII. The End Of The Monarchy. Chapters xii. 1-15, xvii., xix.
The first of the passages in which the fate of the monarchy is foretold requires little to be said by way of explanation. It is a symbolic action of the kind with which we are now familiar, exhibiting the certainty of the fate in store both for the people and the king. The prophet again becomes a “sign” or portent to the people—this time in a character which every one of his audience understood from recent experience. He is seen by daylight collecting “articles of captivity” — i.e. , such necess
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Chapter VIII. Prophecy And Its Abuses. Chapters xii. 21-xiv. 11.
Chapter VIII. Prophecy And Its Abuses. Chapters xii. 21-xiv. 11.
The passage which forms the subject of this chapter is one of the most important passages of the Old Testament in its treatment of the errors and abuses incident to a dispensation of prophecy. It consists of three parts: the first deals with difficulties occasioned by the apparent failure of prophecy (ch. xii. 21-28); the second with the character and doom of the false prophets (ch. xiii.); and the third with the state of mind which made a right use of prophecy impossible (ch. xiv. 1-11). It is
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Chapter IX. Jerusalem—An Ideal History. Chapter xvi.
Chapter IX. Jerusalem—An Ideal History. Chapter xvi.
The allegory is a highly idealised history of the city of Jerusalem from its origin to its destruction, and then onward to its future restoration. It falls naturally into four divisions:— i. Vv. 1-14.—The first emergence of Jerusalem into civic life is compared to a new-born female infant, exposed to perish, after a cruel custom which is known to have prevailed among some Semitic tribes. None of the offices customary on the birth of a child were performed in her case, whether those necessary to
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Chapter X. The Religion Of The Individual. Chapter xviii.
Chapter X. The Religion Of The Individual. Chapter xviii.
What is here asserted is of course not a distinction between the soul or spiritual part of man's being and another part of his being which is subject to physical necessity, but one between the individual and his moral environment. The former distinction is real, and it may be necessary for us in our day to insist on it, but it was certainly not thought of by Ezekiel or perhaps by any other Old Testament writer. The word “soul” denotes simply the principle of individual life. “All persons are Min
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Chapter XI. The Sword Unsheathed. Chapter xxi.
Chapter XI. The Sword Unsheathed. Chapter xxi.
The long-projected rebellion has at length broken out. Zedekiah has renounced his allegiance to the king of Babylon, and the army of the Chaldæans is on its way to suppress the insurrection. The precise date of these events is not known. For some reason the conspiracy of the Palestinian states had hung fire; many years had been allowed to slip away since the time when their envoys had met in Jerusalem to concert measures of united resistance (Jer. xxvii.). This procrastination was, as usual, a s
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Chapter XII. Jehovah's Controversy With Israel. Chapter xx.
Chapter XII. Jehovah's Controversy With Israel. Chapter xx.
For what is, in the main, the purport of the chapter? Briefly stated the argument is as follows. The religion of Jehovah had never been the true expression of the national genius of Israel. Not now for the first time has the purpose of Israel come into conflict with the immutable purpose of Jehovah; but from the very beginning the history had been one long struggle between the natural inclinations of the people and the destiny which was forced on it by the will of God. The love of idols had been
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Chapter XIII. Ohola And Oholibah. Chapter xxiii.
Chapter XIII. Ohola And Oholibah. Chapter xxiii.
These women are children of one mother, and afterwards become wives of one husband—Jehovah. This need occasion no surprise in an allegorical representation, although it is contrary to a law which Ezekiel doubtless knew (Lev. xviii. 18). Nor is it strange, considering the freedom with which he handles the facts of history, that the division between Israel and Judah is carried back to the time of the oppression in Egypt. We have indeed no certainty that this view is not historical. The cleavage be
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Chapter XIV. Final Oracles Against Jerusalem. Chapters xxii., xxiv.
Chapter XIV. Final Oracles Against Jerusalem. Chapters xxii., xxiv.
There are three features of the state of things in Jerusalem in which the prophet recognises the symptoms of an incurable social condition. The first is the loss of a true conception of God. In ancient Israel this defect necessarily assumed the form of idolatry. Hence the multiplication of idols appropriately finds a place among the marks of the “uncleanness” which made Jerusalem hateful in the eyes of Jehovah (ver. 3). But the root of idolatry in Israel was the incapacity or the unwillingness o
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Chapter XV. Ammon, Moab, Edom, And Philistia. Chapter xxv.
Chapter XV. Ammon, Moab, Edom, And Philistia. Chapter xxv.
When we turn to that ideal future we find a second and more suggestive aspect of these prophecies against the heathen. All the prophets teach that the destiny of Israel is inseparably bound up with the future of God's kingdom on earth. The Old Testament never wholly shakes off the idea that the preservation and ultimate victory of the true religion demands the continued existence of the one people to whom the revelation of the true God had been committed. The indestructibility of Israel's nation
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Chapter XVI. Tyre. Chapters xxvi., xxix. 17-21.
Chapter XVI. Tyre. Chapters xxvi., xxix. 17-21.
It is that spirit of masterful and untiring ambition kept up for so many centuries that throws a halo of romance round the story of Tyre. In the oldest Greek literature, however, Tyre is not mentioned, the place which she afterwards held being then occupied by Sidon. But after the decay of Sidon the rich harvest of her labours fell into the lap of Tyre, which thenceforth stands out as the foremost city of Phœnicia. She owed her pre-eminence partly to the wisdom and energy with which her affairs
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Chapter XVII. Tyre (Continued): Sidon. Chapters xxvii., xxviii.
Chapter XVII. Tyre (Continued): Sidon. Chapters xxvii., xxviii.
But Tyre was wise and powerful as well as beautiful; and so the prophet, still keeping up the metaphor, proceeds to describe how the great ship is manned. Her steersmen are the experienced statesmen whom she herself has bred and raised to power; her rowers are the men of Sidon and Aradus, who spend their strength in her service. The elders and wise men of Gebal are her shipwrights (literally “stoppers of leaks” ); and so great is her influence that all the naval resources of the world are subjec
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Chapter XVIII. Egypt. Chapters xxix.-xxxii.
Chapter XVIII. Egypt. Chapters xxix.-xxxii.
The oracles against Egypt are seven in number: (i) ch. xxix. 1-16; (ii) 17-21; (iii) xxx. 1-19; (iv) 20-26; (v) xxxi.; (vi) xxxii. 1-16; (vii) 17-32. They are all variations of one theme, the annihilation of the power of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar, and little progress of thought can be traced from the first to the last. Excluding the supplementary prophecy of ch. xxix. 17-21, which is a later addition, the order appears to be strictly chronological. 106 The series begins seven months before the cap
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Chapter XIX. The Prophet A Watchman. Chapter xxxiii.
Chapter XIX. The Prophet A Watchman. Chapter xxxiii.
The immediate effect of the announcement on the mind of the exiles is not recorded. It was doubtless received with all the signs of public mourning which Ezekiel had anticipated and foretold. 129 They would require some time to adjust themselves to a situation for which, in spite of all the warnings that had been sent them, they were utterly unprepared; and it must have been uncertain at first what direction their thoughts would take. Would they carry out their half-formed intention of abandonin
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Chapter XX. The Messianic Kingdom. Chapter xxxiv.
Chapter XX. The Messianic Kingdom. Chapter xxxiv.
The chapters from the thirty-fourth to the thirty-seventh are the necessary complement of the call to repentance in the first part of ch. xxxiii. Ezekiel has enunciated the conditions of entrance to the new kingdom of God, and has urged his hearers to prepare for its appearing. He now proceeds to unfold the nature of that kingdom, and the process by which Jehovah is to bring it to pass. As has been said, the central fact is the restoration of Israel to the land of Canaan. Here the prophet found
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Chapter XXI. Jehovah's Land. Chapters xxxv., xxxvi.
Chapter XXI. Jehovah's Land. Chapters xxxv., xxxvi.
There is another way in which the thought of Canaan as Jehovah's land enters into the religious conceptions of the Old Testament, and very markedly into those of Ezekiel. As the God of the land Jehovah is the source of its productiveness and the author of all the natural blessings enjoyed by its inhabitants. It is He who gives the rain in its season or else withholds it in token of His displeasure; it is He who multiplies or diminishes the flocks and herds which feed on its pastures, as well as
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Chapter XXII. Life From The Dead. Chapter xxxvii.
Chapter XXII. Life From The Dead. Chapter xxxvii.
It is instructive to notice that the divine answer comes through the consciousness of a duty. Ezekiel is commanded first of all to prophesy over these dry bones; and in the words given him to utter the solution of his own inward perplexity is wrapped up. “Say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of Jehovah.... Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live” (vv. 4, 5). In this way he is not only taught that the agency by which Jehovah will effect His purpose is the propheti
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Chapter XXIII. The Conversion Of Israel.
Chapter XXIII. The Conversion Of Israel.
The name of God is that by which He is known amongst men. It is more than His honour or reputation, although that is included in it according to Hebrew idiom; it is the expression of His character or His personality. To act for His name's sake, therefore, is to act so that His true character may be more fully revealed, and so that men's thoughts of Him may more truly correspond to that which in Himself He is. There is plainly nothing in this inconsistent with the deepest interest in men's spirit
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Chapter XXIV. Jehovah's Final Victory. Chapters xxxviii., xxxix.
Chapter XXIV. Jehovah's Final Victory. Chapters xxxviii., xxxix.
These are some general features of the prophecy which at once attract attention. We shall now examine the details of the picture, and then proceed to consider its significance in relation to other elements of Ezekiel's teaching. The thirty-eighth chapter may be divided into three sections of seven verses each. i. Vv. 3-9.—The prophet having been commanded to direct his face towards Gog in the land of Magog, is commissioned to announce the fate that is in store for him and his hosts in the latter
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Chapter XXV. The Import Of The Vision.
Chapter XXV. The Import Of The Vision.
It is true that this change was effected by a vision, and it may be said that that fact forbids our regarding it as indicating a progress in Ezekiel's thoughts. But the vision of a prophet is never out of relation to his previous thinking. The prophet is always prepared for his vision; it comes to him as the answer to questions, as the solution of difficulties, whose force he has felt, and apart from which it would convey no revelation of God to his mind. It marks the point at which reflection g
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Chapter XXVI. The Sanctuary. Chapters xl.-xliii.
Chapter XXVI. The Sanctuary. Chapters xl.-xliii.
Let the reader, then, after the manner of Euclid, draw a straight line a b , and describe thereon a square a b c d . Let him divide two adjacent sides of the square (say a b and a d ) into ten equal parts, and let lines be drawn from the points of section parallel to the sides of the square in both directions. Let a side of the small squares represent a length of fifty cubits, and the whole consequently a square of five hundred cubits. 214 It will now be found that the bounding lines of Ezekiel'
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Chapter XXVII. The Priesthood. Chapter xliv.
Chapter XXVII. The Priesthood. Chapter xliv.
Here, then, we have historical evidence of the admission to the sanctuary of a class of foreigners answering in all respects to the uncircumcised aliens of Ezekiel's legislation. That the practice of enlisting foreign mercenaries for the guard continued till the reign of Josiah seems to be indicated by an allusion in the book of Zephaniah, where the prophet denounces a body of men in the service of the king who observed the Philistine custom of “leaping over the threshold” (Zeph. i. 9: cf. 1 Sam
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Chapter XXVIII. Prince And People. Chapters xliv.-xlvi. passim.
Chapter XXVIII. Prince And People. Chapters xliv.-xlvi. passim.
The first point that calls for attention is the provision made for the maintenance of the prince and his court. It would seem that the revenue of the prince was to be derived mainly, if not wholly, from a portion of territory reserved as his exclusive property in the division of the country among the tribes. 247 These crown lands are situated on either side of the sacred “oblation” around the sanctuary, set apart for the use of the priests and Levites; and they extend to the sea on the west and
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Chapter XXIX. The Ritual. Chapters xlv., xlvi.
Chapter XXIX. The Ritual. Chapters xlv., xlvi.
By the time of Ezekiel, however, the age of sacrifice in this strict and absolute sense may be said to have passed away, at least in principle. Devout Jews who had lived through the captivity in Babylon and found that Jehovah was there to them “a little of a sanctuary,” 266 could not possibly fall back into the belief that their God was only to be approached and found through the ritual of the altar. And long before the Exile, the ethical teaching of the prophets had led Israel to appreciate the
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Chapter XXX. Renewal And Allotment Of The Land. Chapters xlvii., xlviii.
Chapter XXX. Renewal And Allotment Of The Land. Chapters xlvii., xlviii.
But with all its idealism, Ezekiel's conception presents many points of contact with the actual physiography of Palestine; it is less universal and abstract in its significance than that of the Apocalypse. The first thing that might have suggested the idea to the prophet is that the Temple mount had at least one small stream, whose “soft-flowing” waters were already regarded as a symbol of the silent and unobtrusive influence of the divine presence in Israel. 304 The waters of this stream flowed
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