{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_46975/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_46975","id":"gutenberg_46975","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46975","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. Ezekiel -- Commentaries","Category: History - Ancient","Category: Religion/Spirituality"],"text":"The Book of Ezekiel\n\n                                    By\n\n                       The Rev. John Skinner, M.A.\n\n    Professor of Old Testament Exegesis, Presbyterian College, London\n\n                                  London\n\n                           Hodder And Stoughton\n\n                                   1895\n\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nPreface.\nPart I. The Preparation And Call Of The Prophet.\n   Chapter I. Decline And Fall Of The Jewish State.\n   Chapter II. Jeremiah And Ezekiel.\n   Chapter III. The Vision Of The Glory Of God. Chapter i.\n   Chapter IV. Ezekiel\u2019s Prophetic Commission. Chapters ii., iii.\nPart II. Prophecies Relating Mainly To The Destruction Of Jerusalem.\n   Chapter V. The End Foretold. Chapters iv.\u2010vii.\n   Chapter VI. Your House Is Left Unto You Desolate. Chapters viii.\u2010xi.\n   Chapter VII. The End Of The Monarchy. Chapters xii. 1\u201015, xvii., xix.\n   Chapter VIII. Prophecy And Its Abuses. Chapters xii. 21\u2010xiv. 11.\n   Chapter IX. Jerusalem\u2014An Ideal History. Chapter xvi.\n   Chapter X. The Religion Of The Individual. Chapter xviii.\n   Chapter XI. The Sword Unsheathed. Chapter xxi.\n   Chapter XII. Jehovah\u2019s Controversy With Israel. Chapter xx.\n   Chapter XIII. Ohola And Oholibah. Chapter xxiii.\n   Chapter XIV. Final Oracles Against Jerusalem. Chapters xxii., xxiv.\nPart III. Prophecies Against Foreign Nations.\n   Chapter XV. Ammon, Moab, Edom, And Philistia. Chapter xxv.\n   Chapter XVI. Tyre. Chapters xxvi., xxix. 17\u201021.\n   Chapter XVII. Tyre (Continued): Sidon. Chapters xxvii., xxviii.\n   Chapter XVIII. Egypt. Chapters xxix.\u2010xxxii.\nPart IV. The Formation Of The New Israel.\n   Chapter XIX. The Prophet A Watchman. Chapter xxxiii.\n   Chapter XX. The Messianic Kingdom. Chapter xxxiv.\n   Chapter XXI. Jehovah\u2019s Land. Chapters xxxv., xxxvi.\n   Chapter XXII. Life From The Dead. Chapter xxxvii.\n   Chapter XXIII. The Conversion Of Israel.\n   Chapter XXIV. Jehovah\u2019s Final Victory. Chapters xxxviii., xxxix.\nPart V. The Ideal Theocracy.\n   Chapter XXV. The Import Of The Vision.\n   Chapter XXVI. The Sanctuary. Chapters xl.\u2010xliii.\n   Chapter XXVII. The Priesthood. Chapter xliv.\n   Chapter XXVIII. Prince And People. Chapters xliv.\u2010xlvi. _passim_.\n   Chapter XXIX. The Ritual. Chapters xlv., xlvi.\n   Chapter XXX. Renewal And Allotment Of The Land. Chapters xlvii.,\n   xlviii.\nFootnotes\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                               [Cover Art]\n\n[Transcriber\u2019s Note: The above cover image was produced by the submitter\nat Distributed Proofreaders, and is being placed into the public domain.]\n\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nIn this volume I have endeavoured to present the substance of Ezekiel\u2019s\nprophecies in a form intelligible to students of the English Bible. I have\ntried to make the exposition a fairly adequate guide to the sense of the\ntext, and to supply such information as seemed necessary to elucidate the\nhistorical importance of the prophet\u2019s teaching. Where I have departed\nfrom the received text I have usually indicated in a note the nature of\nthe change introduced. Whilst I have sought to exercise an independent\njudgment on all the questions touched upon, the book has no pretensions to\nrank as a contribution to Old Testament scholarship.\n\nThe works on Ezekiel to which I am chiefly indebted are: Ewald\u2019s\n_Propheten des Alten Bundes_ (vol. ii.); Smend\u2019s _Der Prophet Ezechiel\nerkl\u00e4rt_ (_Kurzgefasstes Exegetisches Handbuch zum A. T._); Cornill\u2019s _Das\nBuch des Proph. Ezechiel_; and, above all, Dr. A. B. Davidson\u2019s commentary\nin the _Cambridge Bible for Schools_, my obligations to which are almost\ncontinuous. In a less degree I have been helped by the commentaries of\nH\u00e4vernick and Orelli, by Valeton\u2019s _Viertal Voorlezingen_ (iii.), and by\nGautier\u2019s _La Mission du Proph\u00e8te Ezechiel_. Amongst works of a more\ngeneral character special acknowledgment is due to _The Old Testament in\nthe Jewish Church_ and _The Religion of the Semites_ by the late Dr.\nRobertson Smith.\n\nI wish also to express my gratitude to two friends\u2014the Rev. A. Alexander,\nDundee, and the Rev. G. Steven, Edinburgh\u2014who have read most of the work\nin manuscript or in proof, and made many valuable suggestions.\n\n\n\n\n\nPART I. THE PREPARATION AND CALL OF THE PROPHET.\n\n\n\n\nChapter I. Decline And Fall Of The Jewish State.\n\n\nEzekiel is a prophet of the Exile. He was one of the priests who went into\ncaptivity with King Jehoiachin in the year 597, and the whole of his\nprophetic career falls after that event. Of his previous life and\ncircumstances we have no direct information, beyond the facts that he was\na priest and that his father\u2019s name was Buzi. One or two inferences,\nhowever, may be regarded as reasonably certain. We know that that first\ndeportation of Jud\u00e6ans to Babylon was confined to the nobility, the men of\nwar, and the craftsmen (2 Kings xxiv. 14\u201016); and since Ezekiel was\nneither a soldier nor an artisan, his place in the train of captives must\nhave been due to his social position. He must have belonged to the upper\nranks of the priesthood, who formed part of the aristocracy of Jerusalem.\nHe was thus a member of the house of Zadok; and his familiarity with the\ndetails of the Temple ritual makes it probable that he had actually\nofficiated as a priest in the national sanctuary. Moreover, a careful\nstudy of the book gives the impression that he was no longer a young man\nat the time when he received his call to the prophetic office. He appears\nas one whose views of life are already matured, who has outlived the\nbuoyancy and enthusiasm of youth, and learned to estimate the moral\npossibilities of life with the sobriety that comes through experience.\nThis impression is confirmed by the fact that he was married and had a\nhouse of his own from the commencement of his work, and probably at the\ntime of his captivity. But the most important fact of all is that Ezekiel\nhad lived through a period of unprecedented public calamity, and one\nfraught with the most momentous consequences for the future of religion.\nMoving in the highest circles of society, in the centre of the national\nlife, he must have been fully cognisant of the grave events in which no\nthoughtful observer could fail to recognise the tokens of the approaching\ndissolution of the Hebrew state. Amongst the influences that prepared him\nfor his prophetic mission, a leading place must therefore be assigned to\nthe teaching of history; and we cannot commence our study of his\nprophecies better than by a brief survey of the course of events that led\nup to the turning\u2010point of his own career, and at the same time helped to\nform his conception of God\u2019s providential dealings with His people Israel.\n\nAt the time of the prophet\u2019s birth the kingdom of Judah was still a\nnominal dependency of the great Assyrian empire. From about the middle of\nthe seventh century, however, the power of Nineveh had been on the wane.\nHer energies had been exhausted in the suppression of a determined revolt\nin Babylonia. Media and Egypt had recovered their independence, and there\nwere many signs that a new crisis in the affairs of nations was at hand.\n\nThe first historic event which has left discernible traces in the writings\nof Ezekiel is an irruption of Scythian barbarians, which took place in the\nreign of Josiah (_c._ 626). Strangely enough, the historical books of the\nOld Testament contain no record of this remarkable invasion, although its\neffects on the political situation of Judah were important and far\u2010\nreaching. According to Herodotus, Assyria was already hard pressed by the\nMedes, when suddenly the Scythians burst through the passes of the\nCaucasus, defeated the Medes, and committed extensive ravages throughout\nWestern Asia for a period of twenty\u2010eight years. They are said to have\ncontemplated the invasion of Egypt, and to have actually reached the\nPhilistine territory, when by some means they were induced to withdraw.(1)\nJudah therefore was in imminent danger, and the terror inspired by these\ndestructive hordes is reflected in the prophecies of Zephaniah and\nJeremiah, who saw in the northern invaders the heralds of the great day of\nJehovah. The force of the storm, however, was probably spent before it\nreached Palestine, and it seems to have swept past along the coast,\nleaving the mountain land of Israel untouched. Although Ezekiel was not\nold enough to have remembered the panic caused by these movements, the\nreport of them would be one of the earliest memories of his childhood, and\nit made a lasting impression on his mind. One of his later prophecies,\nthat against Gog, is coloured by such reminiscences, the last judgment on\nthe heathen being represented under forms suggested by a Scythian invasion\n(chs. xxxviii., xxxix.). We may note also that in ch. xxxii. the names of\nMeshech and Tubal occur in the list of conquering nations who have already\ngone down to the under\u2010world. These northern peoples formed the kernel of\nthe army of Gog, and the only occasion on which they can be supposed to\nhave played the part of great conquerors in the past is in connection with\nthe Scythian devastations, in which they probably had a share.\n\nThe withdrawal of the Scythians from the neighbourhood of Palestine was\nfollowed by the great reformation which made the eighteenth year of Josiah\nan epoch in the history of Israel. The conscience of the nation had been\nquickened by its escape from so great a peril, and the time was favourable\nfor carrying out the changes which were necessary in order to bring the\nreligious practice of the country into conformity with the requirements of\nthe Law. The outstanding feature of the movement was the discovery of the\nbook of Deuteronomy in the Temple, and the ratification of a solemn league\nand covenant, by which the king, princes, and people pledged themselves to\ncarry out its demands. This took place in the year 621, somewhere near the\ntime of Ezekiel\u2019s birth.(2) The prophet\u2019s youth was therefore spent in the\nwake of the reformation; and although the first hopes cherished by its\npromoters may have died away before he was able to appreciate its\ntendencies, we may be sure that he received from it impulses which\ncontinued with him to the end of his life. We may perhaps allow ourselves\nto conjecture that his father belonged to that section of the priesthood\nwhich, under Hilkiah its head, co\u2010operated with the king in the task of\nreform, and desired to see a pure worship established in the Temple. If\nso, we can readily understand how the reforming spirit passed into the\nvery fibre of Ezekiel\u2019s mind. To how great an extent his thinking was\ninfluenced by the ideas of Deuteronomy appears from almost every page of\nhis prophecies.\n\nThere was yet another way in which the Scythian invasion influenced the\nprospects of the Hebrew kingdom. Although the Scythians appear to have\nrendered an immediate service to Assyria by saving Nineveh from the first\nattack of the Medes, there is little doubt that their ravages throughout\nthe northern and western parts of the empire prepared the way for its\nultimate collapse, and weakened its hold on the outlying provinces.\nAccordingly we find that Josiah, in pursuance of his scheme of\nreformation, exercised a freedom of action beyond the boundaries of his\nown land which would not have been tolerated if Assyria had retained her\nold vigour. Patriotic visions of an independent Hebrew monarchy seem to\nhave combined with new\u2010born zeal for a pure national religion to make the\nlatter part of Josiah\u2019s reign the short \u201cIndian summer\u201d of Israel\u2019s\nnational existence.\n\nThe period of partial independence was brought to an end about 607 by the\nfall of Nineveh before the united forces of the Medes and the Babylonians.\nIn itself this event was of less consequence to the history of Judah than\nmight be supposed. The Assyrian empire vanished from the earth with a\ncompleteness which is one of the surprises of history; but its place was\ntaken by the new Babylonian empire, which inherited its policy, its\nadministration, and the best part of its provinces. The seat of empire was\ntransferred from Nineveh to Babylon; but any other change which was felt\nat Jerusalem was due solely to the exceptional vigour and ability of its\nfirst monarch, Nebuchadnezzar.\n\nThe real turning\u2010point in the destinies of Israel came a year or two\nearlier with the defeat and death of Josiah at Megiddo. About the year\n608, while the fate of Nineveh still hung in the balance, Pharaoh Necho\nprepared an expedition to the Euphrates, with the object of securing\nhimself in the possession of Syria. It was assuredly no feeling of loyalty\nto his Assyrian suzerain which prompted Josiah to throw himself across\nNecho\u2019s path. He acted as an independent monarch, and his motives were no\ndoubt the loftiest that ever urged a king to a dangerous, not to say\nfoolhardy, enterprise. The zeal with which the crusade against idolatry\nand false worship had been prosecuted seems to have begotten a confidence\non the part of the king\u2019s advisers that the hand of Jehovah was with them,\nand that His help might be reckoned on in any undertaking entered upon in\nHis name. One would like to know what the prophet Jeremiah said about the\nventure; but probably the defence of Jehovah\u2019s land seemed so obvious a\nduty of the Davidic king that he was not even consulted. It was the\ndetermination to maintain the inviolability of the land which was\nJehovah\u2019s sanctuary that encouraged Josiah in defiance of every prudential\nconsideration to endeavour by force to intercept the passage of the\nEgyptian army. The disaster that followed gave the death\u2010blow to this\nillusion and the shallow optimism which sprang from it. There was an end\nof idealism in politics; and the ruling class in Jerusalem fell back on\nthe old policy of vacillation between Egypt and her eastern rival which\nhad always been the snare of Jewish statesmanship. And with Josiah\u2019s\npolitical ideal the faith on which it was based also gave way. It seemed\nthat the experiment of exclusive reliance on Jehovah as the guardian of\nthe nation\u2019s interests had been tried and had failed, and so the death of\nthe last good king of Judah was a signal for a great outburst of idolatry,\nin which every divine power was invoked and every form of worship\nsedulously practised in order to sustain the courage of men who were\nresolved to fight to the death for their national existence.\n\nBy the time of Josiah\u2019s death Ezekiel was able to take an intelligent\ninterest in public affairs. He lived through the troubled period that\nensued in the full consciousness of its disastrous import for the fortunes\nof his people, and occasional references to it are to be found in his\nwritings. He remembers and commiserates the sad fate of Jehoahaz, the king\nof the people\u2019s choice, who was dethroned and imprisoned by Pharaoh Necho\nduring the short interval of Egyptian supremacy. The next king, Jehoiakim,\nreceived the throne as a vassal of Egypt, on the condition of paying a\nheavy annual tribute. After the battle of Carchemish, in which Necho was\ndefeated by Nebuchadnezzar and driven out of Syria, Jehoiakim transferred\nhis allegiance to the Babylonian monarch; but after three years\u2019 service\nhe revolted, encouraged no doubt by the usual promises of support from\nEgypt. The incursions of marauding bands of Chald\u00e6ans, Syrians, Moabites,\nand Ammonites, instigated doubtless from Babylon, kept him in play until\nNebuchadnezzar was free to devote his attention to the western part of his\nempire. Before that time arrived, however, Jehoiakim had died, and was\nfollowed by his son Jehoiachin. This prince was hardly seated on the\nthrone, when a Babylonian army, with Nebuchadnezzar at its head, appeared\nbefore the gates of Jerusalem. The siege ended in a capitulation, and the\nking, the queen\u2010mother, the army and nobility, a section of the priests\nand the prophets, and all the skilled artisans were transported to\nBabylonia (597).\n\nWith this event the history of Ezekiel may be said to begin. But in order\nto understand the conditions under which his ministry was exercised, we\nmust try to realise the situation created by this first removal of Jud\u00e6an\ncaptives. From this time to the final capture of Jerusalem, a period of\neleven years, the national life was broken into two streams, which ran in\nparallel channels, one in Judah and the other in Babylon. The object of\nthe captivity was of course to deprive the nation of its natural leaders,\nits head and its hands, and leave it incapable of organised resistance to\nthe Chald\u00e6ans. In this respect Nebuchadnezzar simply adopted the\ntraditional policy of the later Assyrian kings, only he applied it with\nmuch less rigour than they were accustomed to display. Instead of making\nnearly a clean sweep of the conquered population, and filling the gap by\ncolonists from a distant part of his empire, as had been done in the case\nof Samaria, he contented himself with removing the more dangerous elements\nof the state, and making a native prince responsible for the government of\nthe country. The result showed how greatly he had underrated the fierce\nand fanatical determination which was already a part of the Jewish\ncharacter. Nothing in the whole story is more wonderful than the rapidity\nwith which the enfeebled remnant in Jerusalem recovered their military\nefficiency, and prepared a more resolute defence than the unbroken nation\nhad been able to offer.\n\nThe exiles, on the other hand, succeeded in preserving most of their\nnational peculiarities under the very eyes of their conquerors. Of their\ntemporal condition very little is known beyond the fact that they found\nthemselves in tolerably easy circumstances, with the opportunity to\nacquire property and amass wealth. The advice which Jeremiah sent them\nfrom Jerusalem, that they should identify themselves with the interests of\nBabylon, and live settled and orderly lives in peaceful industry and\ndomestic happiness (Jer. xxix. 5\u20107), shows that they were not treated as\nprisoners or as slaves. They appear to have been distributed in villages\nin the fertile territory of Babylon, and to have formed themselves into\nseparate communities under the elders, who were the natural authorities in\na simple Semitic society. The colony in which Ezekiel lived was located in\nTel Abib, near the _Nahr_ (river or canal) Kebar, but neither the river\nnor the settlement can now be identified. The Kebar, if not the name of an\narm of the Euphrates itself, was probably one of the numerous irrigating\ncanals which intersected in all parts the great alluvial plain of the\nEuphrates and Tigris.(3) In this settlement the prophet had his own house,\nwhere the people were free to visit him, and social life in all\nprobability differed little from that in a small provincial town in\nPalestine. That, to be sure, was a great change for the quondam\naristocrats of Jerusalem, but it was not a change to which they could not\nreadily adapt themselves.\n\nOf much greater importance, however, is the state of mind which prevailed\namongst these exiles. And here again the remarkable thing is their intense\npreoccupation with matters national and Israelitic. A lively intercourse\nwith the mother country was kept up, and the exiles were perfectly\ninformed of all that was going on in Jerusalem. There were, no doubt,\npersonal and selfish reasons for their keen interest in the doings of\ntheir countrymen at home. The antipathy which existed between the two\nbranches of the Jewish people was extreme. The exiles had left their\nchildren behind them (Ezek. xxiv. 21, 25) to suffer under the reproach of\ntheir fathers\u2019 misfortunes. They appear also to have been compelled to\nsell their estates hurriedly on the eve of their departure, and such\ntransactions, necessarily turning to the advantage of the purchasers, left\na deep grudge in the breasts of the sellers. Those who remained in the\nland exulted in the calamity which had brought so much profit to\nthemselves, and thought themselves perfectly secure in so doing because\nthey regarded their brethren as men driven out for their sins from\nJehovah\u2019s heritage. The exiles on their part affected the utmost contempt\nfor the pretensions of the upstart plebeians who were carrying things with\na high hand in Jerusalem. Like the French _\u00c9migr\u00e9s_ in the time of the\nRevolution, they no doubt felt that their country was being ruined for\nwant of proper guidance and experienced statesmanship. Nor was it\naltogether patrician prejudice that gave them this feeling of their own\nsuperiority. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel regard the exiles as the better\npart of the nation, and the nucleus of the Messianic community of the\nfuture. For the present, indeed, there does not seem to have been much to\nchoose, in point of religious belief and practice, between the two\nsections of the people. In both places the majority were steeped in\nidolatrous and superstitious notions; some appear even to have entertained\nthe purpose of assimilating themselves to the heathen around, and only a\nsmall minority were steadfast in their allegiance to the national\nreligion. Yet the exiles could not, any more than the remnant in Judah,\nabandon the hope that Jehovah would save His sanctuary from desecration.\nThe Temple was \u201cthe excellency of their strength, the desire of their\neyes, and that which their soul pitied\u201d (Ezek. xxiv. 21). False prophets\nappeared in Babylon to prophesy smooth things, and assure the exiles of a\nspeedy restoration to their place in the people of God. It was not till\nJerusalem was laid in ruins, and the Jewish state had disappeared from the\nearth, that the Israelites were in a mood to understand the meaning of\nGod\u2019s judgment, or to learn the lessons which the prophecy of nearly two\ncenturies had vainly striven to inculcate.\n\nWe have now reached the point at which the Book of Ezekiel opens, and what\nremains to be told of the history of the time will be given in connection\nwith the prophecies on which it is fitted to throw light. But before\nproceeding to consider his entrance on the prophetic office, it will be\nuseful to dwell for a little on what was probably the most fruitful\ninfluence of Ezekiel\u2019s youth, the personal influence of his contemporary\nand predecessor Jeremiah. This will form the subject of the next chapter.\n\n\n\n\nChapter II. Jeremiah And Ezekiel.\n\n\nEach of the communities described in the last chapter was the theatre of\nthe activity of a great prophet. When Ezekiel began to prophesy at Tel\nAbib, Jeremiah was approaching the end of his great and tragic career. For\nfive\u2010and\u2010thirty years he had been known as a prophet, and during the\nlatter part of that time had been the most prominent figure in Jerusalem.\nFor the next five years their ministries were contemporaneous, and it is\nsomewhat remarkable that they ignore each other in their writings so\ncompletely as they do. We would give a good deal to have some reference by\nEzekiel to Jeremiah or by Jeremiah to Ezekiel, but we find none. Scripture\ndoes not often favour us with those cross\u2010lights which prove so\ninstructive in the hands of a modern historian. While Jeremiah knows of\nthe rise of false prophets in Babylonia, and Ezekiel denounces those he\nhad left behind in Jerusalem, neither of these great men betrays the\nslightest consciousness of the existence of the other. This silence is\nspecially noticeable on Ezekiel\u2019s part, because his frequent descriptions\nof the state of society in Jerusalem give him abundant opportunity to\nexpress his sympathy with the position of Jeremiah. When we read in the\ntwenty\u2010second chapter that there was not found a man to make up the fence\nand stand in the breach before God, we might be tempted to conclude that\nhe really was not aware of Jeremiah\u2019s noble stand for righteousness in the\ncorrupt and doomed city. And yet the points of contact between the two\nprophets are so numerous and so obvious that they cannot fairly be\nexplained by the common operation of the Spirit of God on the minds of\nboth. There is nothing in the nature of prophecy to forbid the view that\none prophet learned from another, and built on the foundation which his\npredecessors had laid; and when we find a parallelism so close as that\nbetween Jeremiah and Ezekiel we are driven to the conclusion that the\ninfluence was unusually direct, and that the whole thinking of the younger\nwriter had been moulded by the teaching and example of the older.\n\nIn what way this influence was communicated is a question on which some\ndifference of opinion may exist. Some writers, such as Kuenen, think that\nthe indebtedness of Ezekiel to Jeremiah was mainly literary. That is to\nsay, they hold that it must be accounted for by prolonged study on\nEzekiel\u2019s part of the written prophecies of him who was his teacher.\nKuenen surmises that this happened after the destruction of Jerusalem,\nwhen some friends of Jeremiah arrived in Babylon, bringing with them the\ncompleted volume of his prophecies. Before Ezekiel proceeded to write his\nown prophecies, his mind is supposed to have been so saturated with the\nideas and language of Jeremiah that every part of his book bears the\nimpress and betrays the influence of his predecessor. In this fact, of\ncourse, Kuenen finds an argument for the view that Ezekiel\u2019s prophecies\nwere written at a comparatively late period of his life. It is difficult\nto speak with confidence on some of the points raised by this hypothesis.\nThat the influence of Jeremiah can be traced in all parts of the book of\nEzekiel is undoubtedly true; but it is not so clear that it can be\nassigned equally to all periods of Jeremiah\u2019s activity. Many of the\nprophecies of Jeremiah cannot be referred to a definite date; and we do\nnot know what means Ezekiel had of obtaining copies of those which belong\nto the period after the two prophets were separated. We know, however,\nthat a great part of the book of Jeremiah was in writing several years\nbefore Ezekiel was carried away to Babylon; and we may safely assume that\namongst the treasures which he took with him into exile was the roll\nwritten by Baruch to the dictation of Jeremiah in the fourth year of\nJehoiakim (Jer. xxxvi.). Even later oracles may have reached Ezekiel\neither before or during his prophetic career through the active\ncorrespondence maintained between the exiles and Jerusalem. It is\npossible, therefore, that even the literary dependence of Ezekiel on\nJeremiah may belong to a much earlier time than the final issue of the\nbook of Ezekiel; and if it should be found that ideas in the earlier part\nof the book suggest acquaintance with a later utterance of Jeremiah, the\nfact need not surprise us. It is certainly no sufficient reason for\nconcluding that the whole substance of Ezekiel\u2019s prophecy had been recast\nunder the influence of a late perusal of the work of Jeremiah.\n\nBut, setting aside verbal coincidences and other phenomena which suggest\nliterary dependence, there remains an affinity of a much deeper kind\nbetween the teaching of the two prophets, which can only be explained, if\nit is to be explained at all, by the personal influence of the older upon\nthe younger. And it is these more fundamental resemblances which are of\nmost interest for our present purpose, because they may enable us to\nunderstand something of the settled convictions with which Ezekiel entered\non the prophet\u2019s calling. Moreover, a comparison of the two prophets will\nbring out more clearly than anything else certain aspects of the character\nof Ezekiel which it is important to bear in mind. Both are men of strongly\nmarked individuality, and no conception of the age in which they lived can\nsafely be formed from the writings of either, taken alone.\n\nIt has been already remarked that Jeremiah was the most conspicuous public\ncharacter of his day. If it be the case that he threw his spell over the\nyouthful mind of Ezekiel, the fact is the most striking tribute to his\ninfluence that could be conceived. No two men could differ more widely in\nnatural temperament and character. Jeremiah is the prophet of a dying\nnation, and the agony of Judah\u2019s prolonged death\u2010struggle is reproduced\nwith tenfold intensity in the inward conflict which rends the heart of the\nprophet. Inexorable in his prediction of the coming doom, he confesses\nthat this is because he is over\u2010mastered by the Divine power which urges\nhim into a path from which his nature recoiled. He deplores the isolation\nwhich is forced upon him, the alienation of friends and kinsmen, and the\nconstant strife of which he is the reluctant cause. He feels as if he\ncould gladly shake off the burden of prophetic responsibility and become a\nman amongst common men. His human sympathies go forth towards his unhappy\ncountry, and his heart bleeds for the misery which he sees hanging over\nthe misguided people, for whom he is forbidden even to pray. The tragic\nconflict of his life reaches its height in those expostulations with\nJehovah which are amongst the most remarkable passages of the Old\nTestament. They express the shrinking of a sensitive nature from the\ninward necessity in which he was compelled to recognise the higher truth;\nand the wrestling of an earnest spirit for the assurance of his personal\nstanding with God, when all the outward institutions of religion were\nbeing dissolved.\n\nTo such mental conflicts Ezekiel was a stranger, or if he ever passed\nthrough them the traces of them have almost vanished from his written\nwords. He can hardly be said to be more severe than Jeremiah; but his\nseverity seems more a part of himself, and more in keeping with the bent\nof his disposition. He is wholly on the side of the divine sovereignty;\nthere is no reaction of the human sympathies against the imperative\ndictates of the prophetic inspiration; he is one in whom every thought\nseems brought into captivity to the word of Jehovah. It is possible that\nthe completeness with which Ezekiel surrendered himself to the judicial\naspect of his message may be partly due to the fact that he had been\nfamiliar with its leading conceptions from the teaching of Jeremiah; but\nit must also be due to a certain austerity natural to him. Less emotional\nthan Jeremiah, his mind was more readily taken possession of by the\nconvictions that formed the substance of his prophetic message. He was\nevidently a man of profoundly ethical habits of thought, stern and\nuncompromising in his judgments, both on himself and other men, and gifted\nwith a strong sense of human responsibility. As his captivity cut him off\nfrom living contact with the national life, and enabled him to survey his\ncountry\u2019s condition with something of the dispassionate scrutiny of a\nspectator, so his natural disposition enabled him to realise in his own\nperson that breach with the past which was essential to the purification\nof religion. He had the qualities which marked him out for the prophet of\nthe new order that was to be, as clearly as Jeremiah had those which\nfitted him to be the prophet of a nation\u2019s dissolution. In social\nstanding, also, and professional training, the men were far removed from\neach other. Both were priests, but Ezekiel belonged to the house of Zadok,\nwho officiated in the central sanctuary, while Jeremiah\u2019s family may have\nbeen attached to one of the provincial sanctuaries.(4) The interests of\nthe two classes of priests came into sharp collision as a consequence of\nJosiah\u2019s reformation. The law provided that the rural priesthood should be\nadmitted to the service of the Temple on equal terms with their brethren\nof the sons of Zadok; but we are expressly informed that the Temple\npriests successfully resisted this encroachment on their peculiar\nprivileges. It has been adduced by several expositors as a proof of\nEzekiel\u2019s freedom from caste prejudice, that he was willing to learn from\na man who was socially his inferior, and who belonged to an order which he\nhimself was to declare unworthy of full priestly rights in the restored\ntheocracy. But it must be said that there was little in Jeremiah\u2019s public\nwork to call attention to the fact that he was by birth a priest. In the\nprofound spiritual sense of the Epistle to the Hebrews we may indeed say\nthat he was at heart a priest, \u201chaving compassion on the ignorant and them\nthat are out of the way, forasmuch as he himself was compassed with\ninfirmity.\u201d But this quality of spiritual sympathy sprang from his calling\nas a prophet rather than from his priestly training. One of the contrasts\nbetween him and Ezekiel lies just in the respective estimates of the worth\nof ritual which underlie their teaching. Jeremiah is distinguished even\namong the prophets by his indifference to the outward institutions and\nsymbols of religion which it is the priest\u2019s function to conserve. He\nstands in the succession of Amos and Isaiah as an upholder of the purely\nethical character of the service of God. Ritual forms no essential element\nof Jehovah\u2019s covenant with Israel, and it is doubtful if his prophecies of\nthe future contain any reference to a priestly class or priestly\nordinances.(5) In the present he repudiates the actual popular worship as\noffensive to Jehovah, and, except in so far as he may have given his\nsupport to Josiah\u2019s reforms, he does not concern himself to put anything\nbetter in its place. To Ezekiel, on the contrary, a pure worship is a\nprimary condition of Israel\u2019s enjoyment of the fellowship of Jehovah. All\nthrough his teaching we detect his deep sense of the religious value of\npriestly ceremonies, and in the concluding vision that underlying thought\ncomes out clearly as a fundamental principle of the new religious\nconstitution. Here again we can see how each prophet was providentially\nfitted for the special work assigned him to do. To Jeremiah it was given,\namidst the wreck of all the material embodiments in which faith had\nclothed itself in the past, to realise the essential truth of religion as\npersonal communion with God, and so to rise to the conception of a purely\nspiritual religion, in which the will of God should be written in the\nheart of every believer. To Ezekiel was committed the different, but not\nless necessary, task of organising the religion of the immediate future,\nand providing the forms which were to enshrine the truths of revelation\nuntil the coming of Christ. And that task could not, humanly speaking,\nhave been performed but by one whose training and inclination taught him\nto appreciate the value of those rules of ceremonial sanctity which were\nthe tradition of the Hebrew priesthood.\n\nVery closely connected with this is the attitude of the two prophets to\nwhat we may call the legal aspect of religion. Jeremiah seems to have\nbecome convinced at a very early date of the insufficiency and shallowness\nof the revival of religion which was expressed in the establishment of the\nnational covenant in the reign of Josiah. He seems also to have discerned\nsome of the evils which are inseparable from a religion of the letter, in\nwhich the claims of God are presented in the form of external laws and\nordinances. And these convictions led him to the conception of a far\nhigher manifestation of God\u2019s redeeming grace to be realised in the\nfuture, in the form of a new covenant, based on God\u2019s forgiving love, and\noperative through a personal knowledge of God, and the law written on the\nheart and mind of each member of the covenant people. That is to say, the\nliving principle of religion must be implanted in the heart of each true\nIsraelite, and his obedience must be what we call evangelical obedience,\nspringing from the free impulse of a nature renewed by the knowledge of\nGod. Ezekiel is also impressed by the failure of the Deuteronomic covenant\nand the need of a new heart before Israel is able to comply with the high\nrequirements of the holy law of God. But he does not appear to have been\nled to connect the failure of the past with the inherent imperfection of a\nlegal dispensation as such. Although his teaching is full of evangelical\ntruths, amongst which the doctrine of regeneration holds a conspicuous\nplace, we yet observe that with him a man\u2019s righteousness before God\nconsists in acts of obedience to the objective precepts of the divine law.\nThis of course does not mean that Ezekiel was concerned only about the\noutward act and indifferent to the spirit in which the law was observed.\nBut it does mean that the end of God\u2019s dealings with His people was to\nbring them into a condition for fulfilling His law, and that the great aim\nof the new Israel was the faithful observance of the law which expressed\nthe conditions on which they could remain in communion with God.\nAccordingly Ezekiel\u2019s final ideal is on a lower plane, and therefore more\nimmediately practicable, than that of Jeremiah. Instead of a purely\nspiritual anticipation expressing the essential nature of the perfect\nrelation between God and man, Ezekiel presents us with a definite, clearly\nconceived vision of a new theocracy\u2014a state which is to be the outward\nembodiment of Jehovah\u2019s will and in which life is minutely regulated by\nHis law.\n\nIf in spite of such wide differences of temperament, of education, and of\nreligious experience, we find nevertheless a substantial agreement in the\nteaching of the two prophets, we must certainly recognise in this a\nstriking evidence of the stability of that conception of God and His\nprovidence which was in the main a product of Hebrew prophecy. It is not\nnecessary here to enumerate all the points of coincidence between Jeremiah\nand Ezekiel; but it will be of advantage to indicate a few salient\nfeatures which they have in common. Of these one of the most important is\ntheir conception of the prophetic office. It can hardly be doubted that on\nthis subject Ezekiel had learned much both from observation of Jeremiah\u2019s\ncareer and from the study of his writings. He knew something of what it\nmeant to be a prophet to Israel before he himself received the prophet\u2019s\ncommission; and after he had received it his experience ran closely\nparallel with that of his master. The idea of the prophet as a man\nstanding alone for God amidst a hostile world, surrounded on every side by\nthreats and opposition, was impressed on each of them from the outset of\nhis ministry. To be a true prophet one must know how to confront men with\nan inflexibility equal to theirs, sustained only by a divine power which\nassures him of ultimate victory. He is cut off, not only from the currents\nof opinion which play around him, but from all share in common joys and\nsorrows, living a solitary life in sympathy with a God justly alienated\nfrom His people. This attitude of antagonism to the people, as Jeremiah\nwell knew, had been the common fate of all true prophets. What is\ncharacteristic of him and Ezekiel is that they both enter on their work in\nthe full consciousness of the stern and hopeless nature of their task.\nIsaiah knew from the day he became a prophet that the effect of his\nteaching would be to harden the people in unbelief; but he says nothing of\npersonal enmity and persecution to be faced from the outset. But now the\ncrisis of the people\u2019s fate has arrived, and the relations between the\nprophet and his age become more and more strained as the great controversy\napproaches its decision.\n\nAnother point of agreement which may be here mentioned is the estimate of\nIsrael\u2019s sin. Ezekiel goes further than Jeremiah in the way of\ncondemnation, regarding the whole history of Israel as an unbroken record\nof apostasy and rebellion, while Jeremiah at least looks back to the\ndesert wandering as a time when the ideal relation between Israel and\nJehovah was maintained. But on the whole, and especially with respect to\nthe present state of the nation, their judgment is substantially one. The\nsource of all the religious and moral disorders of the nation is\ninfidelity to Jehovah, which is manifested in the worship of false gods\nand reliance on the help of foreign nations. Specially noteworthy is the\nfrequent recurrence in Jeremiah and Ezekiel of the figure of \u201cwhoredom,\u201d\nan idea introduced into prophecy by Hosea to describe these two sins. The\nextension of the figure to the false worship of Jehovah by images and\nother idolatrous emblems can also be traced to Hosea; and in Ezekiel it is\nsometimes difficult to say which species of idolatry he has in view,\nwhether it be the actual worship of other gods or the unlawful worship of\nthe true God. His position is that an unspiritual worship implies an\nunspiritual deity, and that such service as was performed at the ordinary\nsanctuaries could by no possibility be regarded as rendered to the true\nGod who spoke through the prophets. From this fountain\u2010head of a corrupted\nreligious sense proceed all those immoral practices which both prophets\nstigmatise as \u201cabominations\u201d and as a defilement of the land of Jehovah.\nOf these the most startling is the prevalent sacrifice of children to\nwhich they both bear witness, although, as we shall afterwards see, with a\ncharacteristic difference in their point of view.\n\nThe whole picture, indeed, which Jeremiah and Ezekiel present of\ncontemporary society is appalling in the extreme. Making all allowance for\nthe practical motive of the prophetic invective, which always aims at\nconviction of sin, we cannot doubt that the state of things was\nsufficiently serious to mark Judah as ripe for judgment. The very\nfoundations of society were sapped by the spread of licence and high\u2010\nhanded violence through all classes of the community. The restraints of\nreligion had been loosened by the feeling that Jehovah had forsaken the\nland, and nobles, priests, and prophets plunged into a career of\nwickedness and oppression which made salvation of the existing nation\nimpossible. The guilt of Jerusalem is symbolised to both prophets in the\ninnocent blood which stains her skirts and cries to heaven for vengeance.\nThe tendencies which are uppermost are the evil legacy of the days of\nManasseh, when, in the judgment of Jeremiah and the historian of the books\nof Kings,(6) the nation sinned beyond hope of mercy. In painting his lurid\npictures of social degeneracy Ezekiel is no doubt drawing on his own\nmemory and information; nevertheless the forms in which his indictment is\ncast show that even in this matter he has learned to look on things with\nthe eyes of his great teacher.\n\nIt is scarcely necessary to add that both prophets anticipate a speedy\ndownfall of the state and its restoration in a more glorious form after a\nshort interval, fixed by Jeremiah at seventy years and by Ezekiel at forty\nyears. The restoration is regarded as final, and as embracing both\nbranches of the Hebrew nation, the kingdom of the ten tribes as well as\nthe house of Judah. The Messianic hope in Ezekiel appears in a form\nsimilar to that in which it is presented by Jeremiah; in neither prophet\nis the figure of the ideal King so prominent as in the prophecies of\nIsaiah. The similarity between the two is all the more noteworthy as an\nevidence of dependence, because Ezekiel\u2019s final outlook is towards a state\nof things in which the Prince has a somewhat subordinate position assigned\nto Him. Both prophets, again following Hosea, regard the spiritual renewal\nof the people as the effect of chastisement in exile. Those parts of the\nnation which go first into banishment are the first to be brought under\nthe salutary influences of God\u2019s providential discipline; and hence we\nfind that Jeremiah adopts a more hopeful tone in speaking of Samaria and\nthe captives of 597 than in his utterances to those who remained in the\nland. This conviction was shared by Ezekiel, in spite of his daily contact\nwith abominations from which his whole nature revolted. It has been\nsupposed that Ezekiel lived long enough to see that no such spiritual\ntransformation was to be wrought by the mere fact of captivity, and that,\ndespairing of a general and spontaneous conversion, he put his hand to the\nwork of practical reform as if he would secure by legislation the results\nwhich he had once expected as fruits of repentance. If the prophet had\never expected that punishment of itself would work a change in the\nreligious condition of his countrymen, there might have been room for such\na disenchantment as is here assumed. But there is no evidence that he ever\nlooked for anything else than a regeneration of the people in captivity by\nthe supernatural working of the divine Spirit; and that the final vision\nis meant to help out the divine plan by human policy is a suggestion\nnegatived by the whole scope of the book. It may be true that his\npractical activity in the present was directed to preparing individual men\nfor the coming salvation; but that was no more than any spiritual teacher\nmust have done in a time recognised as a period of transition. The vision\nof the restored theocracy presupposes a national resurrection and a\nnational repentance. And on the face of it it is such that man can take no\nstep towards its accomplishment until God has prepared the way by creating\nthe conditions of a perfect religious community, both the moral conditions\nin the mind of the people and the outward conditions in the miraculous\ntransformation of the land in which they are to dwell.\n\nMost of the points here touched upon will have to be more fully treated in\nthe course of our exposition, and other affinities between the two great\nprophets will have to be noticed as we proceed. Enough has perhaps been\nsaid to show that Ezekiel\u2019s thinking has been profoundly influenced by\nJeremiah, that the influence extends not only to the form but also to the\nsubstance of his teaching, and can therefore only be explained by early\nimpressions received by the younger prophet in the days before the word of\nthe Lord had come to him.\n\n\n\n\nChapter III. The Vision Of The Glory Of God. Chapter i.\n\n\nIt might be hazardous to attempt, from the general considerations advanced\nin the last two chapters, to form a conception of Ezekiel\u2019s state of mind\nduring the first few years of his captivity. If, as we have found reason\nto believe, he had already come under the influence of Jeremiah, he must\nhave been in some measure prepared for the blow which had descended on\nhim. Torn from the duties of the office which he loved, and driven in upon\nhimself, Ezekiel must no doubt have meditated deeply on the sin and the\nprospects of his people. From the first he must have stood aloof from his\nfellow\u2010exiles, who, led by their false prophets, began to dream of the\nfall of Babylon and a speedy return to their own land. He knew that the\ncalamity which had befallen them was but the first instalment of a\nsweeping judgment before which the old Israel must utterly perish. Those\nwho remained in Jerusalem were reserved for a worse fate than those who\nhad been carried away; but so long as the latter remained impenitent there\nwas no hope even for them of an alleviation of the bitterness of their\nlot. Such thoughts, working in a mind naturally severe in its judgments,\nmay have already produced that attitude of alienation from the whole life\nof his companions in misfortune which dominates the first period of his\nprophetic career. But these convictions did not make Ezekiel a prophet. He\nhad as yet no independent message from God, no sure perception of the\nissue of events, or the path which Israel must follow in order to reach\nthe blessedness of the future. It was not till the fifth year of his\ncaptivity(7) that the inward change took place which brought him into\nJehovah\u2019s counsel, and disclosed to him the outlines of all his future\nwork, and endowed him with the courage to stand forth amongst his people\nas the spokesman of Jehovah.\n\nLike other great prophets whose personal experience is recorded, Ezekiel\nbecame conscious of his prophetic vocation through a vision of God. The\nform in which Jehovah first appeared to him is described with great\nminuteness of detail in the first chapter of his book. It would seem that\nin some hour of solitary meditation by the river Kebar his attention was\nattracted to a storm\u2010cloud forming in the north and advancing toward him\nacross the plain. The cloud may have been an actual phenomenon, the\nnatural basis of the theophany which follows. Falling into a state of\necstasy, the prophet sees the cloud grow luminous with an unearthly\nsplendour. From the midst of it there shines a brightness which he\ncompares to the lustre of electron.(8) Looking more closely, he discerns\nfour living creatures, of strange composite form,\u2014human in general\nappearance, but winged; and each having four heads combining the highest\ntypes of animal life\u2014man, lion, ox, and eagle. These are afterwards\nidentified with the cherubim of the Temple symbolism (ch. x. 20); but some\nfeatures of the conception may have been suggested by the composite animal\nfigures of Babylonian art, with which the prophet must have been already\nfamiliar. The interior space is occupied by a hearth of glowing coals,\nfrom which lightning\u2010flashes constantly dart to and fro between the\ncherubim. Beside each cherub is a wheel, formed apparently of two wheels\nintersecting each other at right angles. The appearance of the wheels is\nlike \u201cchrysolite,\u201d and their rims are filled with eyes, denoting the\nintelligence by which their motions are directed. The wheels and the\ncherubim together embody the spontaneous energy by which the throne of God\nis transported whither He wills; although there is no mechanical\nconnection between them, they are represented as animated by a common\nspirit, directing all their motions in perfect harmony. Over the heads and\nout\u2010stretched wings of the cherubim is a rigid pavement or \u201cfirmament,\u201d\nlike crystal; and above this a sapphire stone(9) supporting the throne of\nJehovah. The divine Being is seen in the likeness of a man; and around\nHim, as if to temper the fierceness of the light in which He dwells, is a\nradiance like that of the rainbow. It will be noticed that while Ezekiel\u2019s\nimagination dwells on what we must consider the accessories of the\nvision\u2014the fire, the cherubim, the wheels\u2014he hardly dares to lift his eyes\nto the person of Jehovah Himself. The full meaning of what he is passing\nthrough only dawns on him when he realises that he is in the presence of\nthe Almighty. Then he falls on his face overpowered by the sense of his\nown insignificance.\n\nThere is no reason to doubt that what is thus described represents an\nactual experience on the part of the prophet. It is not to be regarded\nmerely as a conscious clothing of spiritual truths in symbolic imagery.\nThe _description_ of a vision is of course a conscious exercise of\nliterary faculty; and in all such cases it must be difficult to\ndistinguish what a prophet actually saw and heard in the moment of\ninspiration from the details which he was compelled to add in order to\nconvey an intelligible picture to the minds of his readers. It is probable\nthat in the case of Ezekiel the element of free invention has a larger\nrange than in the less elaborate descriptions which other prophets give of\ntheir visions. But this does not detract from the force of the prophet\u2019s\nown assertion that what he relates was based on a real and definite\nexperience when in a state of prophetic ecstasy. This is expressed by the\nwords \u201cthe hand of Jehovah was upon him\u201d (ver. 3)\u2014a phrase which is\ninvariably used throughout the book to denote the prophet\u2019s peculiar\nmental condition when the communication of divine truth was accompanied by\nexperiences of a visionary order. Moreover, the account given of the state\nin which this vision left him shows that his natural consciousness had\nbeen overpowered by the pressure of super\u2010sensible realities on his\nspirit. He tells us that he went \u201cin bitterness, in the heat of his\nspirit, the hand of the Lord being heavy upon him; and came to the exiles\nat Tel\u2010abib, ... and sat there seven days stupefied in their midst\u201d (ch.\niii. 14, 15).\n\nNow whatever be the ultimate nature of the prophetic vision, its\nsignificance for us would appear to lie in the untrammelled working of the\nprophet\u2019s imagination under the influence of spiritual perceptions which\nare too profound to be expressed as abstract ideas. The prophet\u2019s\nconsciousness is not suspended, for he remembers his vision and reflects\non its meaning afterwards; but his intercourse with the outer world\nthrough the senses is interrupted, so that his mind moves freely amongst\nimages stored in his memory, and new combinations are formed which embody\na truth not previously apprehended. The _tableau_ of the vision is\ntherefore always capable to some extent of a psychological explanation.\nThe elements of which it is composed must have been already present in the\nmind of the prophet, and in so far as these can be traced to their sources\nwe are enabled to understand their symbolic import in the novel\ncombination in which they appear. But the real significance of the vision\nlies in the immediate impression left on the mind of the prophet by the\ndivine realities which govern his life, and this is especially true of the\nvision of God Himself which accompanies the call to the prophetic office.\nAlthough no vision can express the whole of a prophet\u2019s conception of God,\nyet it represents to the imagination certain fundamental aspects of the\ndivine nature and of God\u2019s relation to the world and to men; and through\nall his subsequent career the prophet will be influenced by the form in\nwhich he once beheld the great Being whose words come to him from time to\ntime. To his later reflection the vision becomes a symbol of certain\ntruths about God, although in the first instance the symbol was created\nfor him by a mysterious operation of the divine Spirit in a process over\nwhich he had no control. In one respect Ezekiel\u2019s inaugural vision seems\nto possess a greater importance for his theology than is the case with any\nother prophet. With the other prophets the vision is a momentary\nexperience, of which the spiritual meaning passes into the thinking of the\nprophet, but which does not recur again in the visionary form. With\nEzekiel, on the other hand, the vision becomes a fixed and permanent\nsymbol of Jehovah, appearing again and again in precisely the same form as\noften as the reality of God\u2019s presence is impressed on his mind.\n\nThe essential question, then, with regard to Ezekiel\u2019s vision is, What\nrevelation of God or what ideas respecting God did it serve to impress on\nthe mind of the prophet? It may help us to answer that question if we\nbegin by considering certain affinities which it presents to the great\nvision which opened the ministry of Isaiah. It must be admitted that\nEzekiel\u2019s experience is much less intelligible as well as less impressive\nthan Isaiah\u2019s. In Isaiah\u2019s delineation we recognise the presence of\nqualities which belong to genius of the highest order. The perfect balance\nof form and idea, the reticence which suggests without exhausting the\nsignificance of what is seen, the fine artistic sense which makes every\ntouch in the picture contribute to the rendering of the emotion which\nfills the prophet\u2019s soul, combine to make the sixth chapter of Isaiah one\nof the most sublime passages in literature. No sympathetic reader can fail\nto catch the impression which the passage is intended to convey of the\nawful majesty of the God of Israel, and the effect produced on a frail and\nsinful mortal ushered into that holy Presence. We are made to feel how\ninevitably such a vision gives birth to the prophetic impulse, and how\nboth vision and impulse inform the mind of the seer with the clear and\ndefinite purpose which rules all his subsequent work.\n\nThe point in which Ezekiel\u2019s vision differs most strikingly from Isaiah\u2019s\nis the almost entire suppression of his subjectivity. This is so complete\nthat it becomes difficult to apprehend the meaning of the vision in\nrelation to his thought and activity. Spiritual realities are so overlaid\nwith symbolism that the narrative almost fails to reflect the mental state\nin which he was consecrated for the work of his life. Isaiah\u2019s vision is a\ndrama, Ezekiel\u2019s is a spectacle; in the one religious truth is expressed\nin a series of significant actions and words, in the other it is embodied\nin forms and splendours that appeal only to the eye. One fact may be noted\nin illustration of the diversity between the two representations. The\nscenery of Isaiah\u2019s vision is interpreted and spiritualised by the medium\nof language. The seraphs\u2019 hymn of adoration strikes the note which is the\ncentral thought of the vision, and the exclamation which breaks from the\nprophet\u2019s lips reveals the impact of that great truth on a human spirit.\nThe whole scene is thus lifted out of the region of mere symbolism into\nthat of pure religious ideas. Ezekiel\u2019s, on the other hand, is like a song\nwithout words. His cherubim are speechless. While the rustling of their\nwings and the thunder of the revolving wheels break on his ear like the\nsound of mighty waters, no articulate voice bears home to the mind the\ninner meaning of what he beholds. Probably he himself felt no need of it.\nThe pictorial character of his thinking appears in many features of his\nwork; and it is not surprising to find that the import of the revelation\nis expressed mainly in visual images.\n\nNow these differences are in their own place very instructive, because\nthey show how intimately the vision is related to the individuality of him\nwho receives it, and how even in the most exalted moments of inspiration\nthe mind displays the same tendencies which characterise its ordinary\noperations. Yet Ezekiel\u2019s vision represents a spiritual experience not\nless real than Isaiah\u2019s. His mental endowments are of a different order,\nof a lower order if you will, than those of Isaiah; but the essential fact\nthat he too saw the glory of God and in that vision obtained the insight\nof the true prophet is not to be explained away by analysis of his\nliterary talent or of the sources from which his images are derived. It is\nallowable to write worse Greek than Plato; and it is no disqualification\nfor a Hebrew prophet to lack the grandeur of imagination and the mastery\nof style which are the notes of Isaiah\u2019s genius.\n\nIn spite of their obvious dissimilarities the two visions have enough in\ncommon to show that Ezekiel\u2019s thoughts concerning God had been largely\ninfluenced by the study of Isaiah. Truths that had perhaps long been\nlatent in his mind now emerge into clear consciousness, clothed in forms\nwhich bear the impress of the mind in which they were first conceived. The\nfundamental idea is the same in each vision: the absolute and universal\nsovereignty of God. \u201cMine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts.\u201d\nJehovah appears in human form, seated on a throne and attended by\nministering creatures which serve to show forth some part of His glory. In\nthe one case they are seraphim, in the other cherubim; and the functions\nimposed on them by the structure of the vision are very diverse in the two\ncases. But the points in which they agree are more significant than those\nin which they differ. They are the agents through whom Jehovah exercises\nHis sovereign authority, beings full of life and intelligence and moving\nin swift response to His will. Although free from earthly imperfection\nthey cover themselves with their wings before His majesty, in token of the\nreverence which is due from the creature in presence of the Creator. For\nthe rest they are symbolic figures embodying in themselves certain\nattributes of the Deity, or certain aspects of His kingship. Nor can\nEzekiel any more than Isaiah think of Jehovah as the King apart from the\nemblems associated with the worship of His earthly sanctuary. The cherubim\nthemselves are borrowed from the imagery of the Temple, although their\nforms are different from those which stood in the Holy of holies. So again\nthe altar, which was naturally suggested to Isaiah by the scene of his\nvision being laid in the Temple, appears in Ezekiel\u2019s vision in the form\nof the hearth of glowing coals which is under the divine throne. It is\ntrue that the fire symbolises destructive might rather than purifying\nenergy (see ch. x. 2), but it can hardly be doubted that the origin of the\nsymbol is the altar\u2010hearth of the sanctuary and of Isaiah\u2019s vision. It is\nas if the essence of the Temple and its worship were transferred to the\nsphere of heavenly realities where Jehovah\u2019s glory is fully manifested.\nAll this, therefore, is nothing more than the embodiment of the\nfundamental truth of the Old Testament religion\u2014that Jehovah is the\nalmighty King of heaven and earth, that He executes His sovereign purposes\nwith irresistible power, and that it is the highest privilege of men on\nearth to render to Him the homage and adoration which the sight of His\nglory draws forth from heavenly beings.\n\nThe idea of Jehovah\u2019s kingship, however, is presented in the Old Testament\nunder two aspects. On the one hand, it denotes the moral sovereignty of\nGod over the people whom He had chosen as His own and to whom His will was\ncontinuously revealed as the guide of their national and social life. On\nthe other hand, it denotes God\u2019s absolute dominion over the forces of\nnature and the events of history, in virtue of which all things are the\nunconscious instruments of His purposes. These two truths can never be\nseparated, although the emphasis is laid sometimes on the one and\nsometimes on the other. Thus in Isaiah\u2019s vision the emphasis lies perhaps\nmore on the doctrine of Jehovah\u2019s kingship over Israel. It is true that He\nis at the same time represented as One whose glory is the \u201cfulness of the\nwhole earth,\u201d and who therefore manifests His power and presence in every\npart of His world\u2010wide dominions. But the fact that Jehovah\u2019s palace is\nthe idealised Temple of Jerusalem suggests at once, what all the teaching\nof the prophet confirms, that the nation of Israel is the special sphere\nwithin which His kingly authority is to obtain practical recognition.\nWhile no man had a firmer grasp of the truth that God wields all natural\nforces and overrules the actions of men in carrying out His providential\ndesigns, yet the leading ideas of His ministry are those which spring from\nthe thought of Jehovah\u2019s presence in the midst of His people and the\nobligation that lies on Israel to recognise His sovereignty. He is, to use\nIsaiah\u2019s own expression, the \u201cHoly One of Israel.\u201d\n\nThis aspect of the divine kingship is undoubtedly represented in the\nvision of Ezekiel. We have remarked that the imagery of the vision is to\nsome extent moulded on the idea of the sanctuary as the seat of Jehovah\u2019s\ngovernment, and we shall find later on that the final resting\u2010place of\nthis emblem of His presence is a restored sanctuary in the land of Canaan.\nBut the circumstances under which Ezekiel was called to be a prophet\nrequired that prominence should be given to the complementary truth that\nthe kingship of Jehovah was independent of His special relation to Israel.\nFor the present the tie between Jehovah and His land was dissolved. Israel\nhad disowned her divine King, and was left to suffer the consequences of\nher disloyalty. Hence it is that the vision appears, not from the\ndirection of Jerusalem, but \u201cout of the north,\u201d in token that God has\ndeparted from His Temple and abandoned it to its enemies. In this way the\nvision granted to the exiled prophet on the plain of Babylonia embodied a\ntruth opposed to the religious prejudices of his time, but reassuring to\nhimself\u2014that the fall of Israel leaves the essential sovereignty of\nJehovah untouched; that He still lives and reigns, although His people are\ntrodden underfoot by worshippers of other gods. But more than this, we can\nsee that on the whole the tendency of Ezekiel\u2019s vision, as distinguished\nfrom that of Isaiah, is to emphasise the universality of Jehovah\u2019s\nrelations to the world of nature and of mankind. His throne rests here on\na sapphire stone, the symbol of heavenly purity, to signify that His true\ndwelling\u2010place is above the firmament, in the heavens, which are equally\nnear to every region of the earth. Moreover, it is mounted on a chariot,\nby which it is moved from place to place with a velocity which suggests\nubiquity, and the chariot is borne by \u201cliving creatures\u201d whose forms unite\nall that is symbolical of power and dignity in the living world. Further,\nthe shape of the chariot, which is foursquare, and the disposition of the\nwheels and cherubim, which is such that there is no before or behind, but\nthe same front presented to each of the four quarters of the globe,\nindicate that all parts of the universe are alike accessible to the\npresence of God. Finally, the wheels and the cherubim are covered with\neyes, to denote that all things are open to the view of Him who sits on\nthe throne. The attributes of God here symbolised are those which express\nHis relations to created existence as a whole\u2014omnipresence, omnipotence,\nomniscience. These ideas are obviously incapable of adequate\nrepresentation by any sensuous image\u2014they can only be suggested to the\nmind; and it is just the effort to suggest such transcendental attributes\nthat imparts to the vision the character of obscurity which attaches to so\nmany of its details.\n\nAnother point of comparison between Isaiah and Ezekiel is suggested by the\nname which the latter constantly uses for the appearance which he sees, or\nrather perhaps for that part of it which represents the personal\nappearance of God. He calls it the \u201cglory of Jehovah,\u201d or \u201cglory of the\nGod of Israel.\u201d The word for glory (_k\u0101b\u00f4d_) is used in a variety of\nsenses in the Old Testament. Etymologically it comes from a root\nexpressing the idea of heaviness. When used, as here, concretely, it\nsignifies that which is the outward manifestation of power or worth or\ndignity. In human affairs it may be used of a man\u2019s wealth, or the pomp\nand circumstance of military array, or the splendour and pageantry of a\nroyal court, those things which oppress the minds of common men with a\nsense of magnificence. In like manner, when applied to God, it denotes\nsome reflection in the outer world of His majesty, something that at once\nreveals and conceals His essential Godhead. Now we remember that the\nsecond line of the seraphs\u2019 hymn conveyed to Isaiah\u2019s mind this thought,\nthat \u201cthat which fills the whole earth is His glory.\u201d What is this\n\u201cfilling of the whole earth\u201d in which the prophet sees the effulgence of\nthe divine glory? Is his feeling akin to Wordsworth\u2019s\n\n\n                        \u201csense sublime\n    Of something far more deeply interfused,\n    Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,\n    And the round ocean, and the living air,\n    And the blue sky, and in the mind of man\u201d?\n\n\nAt least the words must surely mean that all through nature Isaiah\nrecognised that which declares the glory of God, and therefore in some\nsense reveals Him. Although they do not teach a doctrine of the divine\nimmanence, they contain all that is religiously valuable in that doctrine.\nIn Ezekiel, however, we find nothing that looks in this direction. It is\ncharacteristic of his thoughts about God that the very word \u201cglory\u201d which\nIsaiah uses of something diffused through the earth is here employed to\nexpress the concentration of all divine qualities in a single image of\ndazzling splendour, but belonging to heaven rather than to earth. Glory is\nhere equivalent to brightness, as in the ancient conception of the bright\ncloud which led the people through the desert and that which filled the\nTemple with overpowering light when Jehovah took possession of it (2\nChron. vii. 1\u20103). In a striking passage of his last vision Ezekiel\ndescribes how this scene will be repeated when Jehovah returns to take up\nHis abode amongst His people and the earth will be lighted up with His\nglory (ch. xliii. 2). But meanwhile it may seem to us that earth is left\npoorer by the loss of that aspect of nature in which Isaiah discovered a\nrevelation of the divine.\n\nEzekiel is conscious that what he has seen is after all but an imperfect\nsemblance of the essential glory of God on which no mortal eye can gaze.\nAll that he describes is expressly said to be an \u201cappearance\u201d and a\n\u201clikeness.\u201d When he comes to speak of the divine form in which the whole\nrevelation culminates he can say no more than that it is the \u201cappearance\nof the likeness of the glory of Jehovah.\u201d The prophet appears to realise\nhis inability to penetrate behind the appearance to the reality which it\nshadows forth. The clearest vision of God which the mind of man can\nreceive is an after\u2010look like that which was vouchsafed to Moses when the\ndivine presence had passed by (Exod. xxxiii. 23). So it was with Ezekiel.\nThe true revelation that came to him was not in what he saw with his eyes\nin the moment of his initiation, but in the intuitive knowledge of God\nwhich from that hour he possessed, and which enabled him to interpret more\nfully than he could have done at the time the significance of his first\nmemorable meeting with the God of Israel. What he retained in his waking\nhours was first of all a vivid sense of the reality of God\u2019s being, and\nthen a mental picture suggesting those attributes which lay at the\nfoundation of his prophetic ministry.\n\nIt is easy to see how this vision dominates all Ezekiel\u2019s thinking about\nthe divine nature. The God whom he saw was in the form of a man, and so\nthe God of his conscience is a moral person to whom he fearlessly ascribes\nthe parts and even the passions of humanity. He speaks through the prophet\nin the language of royal authority, as a king who will brook no rival in\nthe affections of his people. As King of Israel He asserts His\ndetermination to reign over them with a mighty hand, and by mingled\ngoodness and severity to break their stubborn heart and bend them to His\npurpose. There are perhaps other and more subtle affinities between the\nsymbol of the vision and the prophet\u2019s inner consciousness of God. Just as\nthe vision gathers up all in nature that suggests divinity into one\nresplendent image, so it is also with the moral action of God as conceived\nby Ezekiel. His government of the world is self\u2010centred; all the ends\nwhich He pursues in His providence lie within Himself. His dealings with\nthe nations, and with Israel in particular, are dictated by regard for His\nown glory, or, as Ezekiel expresses it, by pity for His great name. \u201cNot\nfor your sake do I act, O house of Israel, but for My holy name, which ye\nhave profaned among the heathen whither ye went\u201d (ch. xxxvi. 22). The\nrelations into which He enters with men are all subordinate to the supreme\npurpose of \u201csanctifying\u201d Himself in the eyes of the world or manifesting\nHimself as He truly is. It is no doubt possible to exaggerate this feature\nof Ezekiel\u2019s theology in a way that would be unjust to the prophet. After\nall, Jehovah\u2019s desire to be known as He is implies a regard for His\ncreatures which includes the ultimate intention to bless them. It is but\nan extreme expression in the form necessary for that time of the truth to\nwhich all the prophets bear witness, that the knowledge of God is the\nindispensable condition of true blessedness to men. Still, the difference\nis marked between the \u201cnot for your sake\u201d of Ezekiel and the \u201chuman bands,\nthe cords of love\u201d of which Hosea speaks, the yearning and compassionate\naffection that binds Jehovah to His erring people.\n\nIn another respect the symbolism of the vision may be taken as an emblem\nof the Hebrew conception of the universe. The Bible has no scientific\ntheory of God\u2019s relation to the world; but it is full of the practical\nconviction that all nature responds to His behests, that all occurrences\nare indications of His mind, the whole realm of nature and history being\ngoverned by one Will which works for moral ends. That conviction is as\ndeeply rooted in the thinking of Ezekiel as in that of any other prophet,\nand, consciously or unconsciously, it is reflected in the structure of the\n_merk\u0101b\u0101_, or heavenly chariot, which has no mechanical connection between\nits different parts, and yet is animated by one spirit and moves\naltogether at the impulse of Jehovah\u2019s will.\n\nIt will be seen that the general tendency of Ezekiel\u2019s conception of God\nis what might be described in modern language as \u201ctranscendental.\u201d In\nthis, however, the prophet does not stand alone, and the difference\nbetween him and earlier prophets is not so great as is sometimes\nrepresented. Indeed, the contrast between transcendent and immanent is\nhardly applicable in the Old Testament religion. If by transcendence it is\nmeant that God is a being distinct from the world, not losing Himself in\nthe life of nature, but ruling over it and controlling it as His\ninstrument, then all the inspired writers of the Old Testament are\ntranscendentalists. But this does not mean that God is separated from the\nhuman spirit by a dead, mechanical universe which owes nothing to its\nCreator but its initial impulse and its governing laws. The idea that a\nworld could come between man and God is one that would never have occurred\nto a prophet. Just because God is above the world He can reveal Himself\ndirectly to the spirit of man, speaking to His servants face to face as a\nman speaketh to his friend.\n\nBut frequently in the prophets the thought is expressed that Jehovah is\n\u201cfar off\u201d or \u201ccomes from far\u201d in the crises of His people\u2019s history. \u201cAm I\na God at hand, saith Jehovah, and not a God afar off?\u201d is Jeremiah\u2019s\nquestion to the false prophets of his day; and the answer is, \u201cDo not I\nfill heaven and earth? saith Jehovah.\u201d On this subject we may quote the\nsuggestive remarks of a recent commentator on Isaiah: \u201cThe local deities,\nthe gods of the tribal religions, are near; Jehovah is far, but at the\nsame time everywhere present. The remoteness of Jehovah in space\nrepresented to the prophets better than our transcendental abstractions\nJehovah\u2019s absolute ascendency. This \u2018far off\u2019 is spoken with enthusiasm.\nEverywhere and nowhere, Jehovah comes when His hour is come.\u201d(10) That is\nthe idea of Ezekiel\u2019s vision. God comes to him \u201cfrom far,\u201d but He comes\nvery near. Our difficulty may be to realise the nearness of God.\nScientific discovery has so enlarged our view of the material universe\nthat we feel the need of every consideration that can bring home to us a\nsense of the divine condescension and interest in man\u2019s earthly history\nand his spiritual welfare. But the difficulty which beset the ordinary\nIsraelite even so late as the Exile was as nearly as possible the opposite\nof ours. His temptation was to think of God as only a God \u201cat hand,\u201d a\nlocal deity, whose range of influence was limited to a particular spot,\nand whose power was measured by the fortunes of His own people. Above all\nthings he needed to learn that God was \u201cafar off,\u201d filling heaven and\nearth, that His power was exerted everywhere, and that there was no place\nwhere either a man could hide himself from God or God was hidden from man.\nWhen we bear in mind these circumstances we can see how needful was the\nrevelation of the divine omnipresence as a step towards the perfect\nknowledge of God which comes to us through Jesus Christ.\n\n\n\n\nChapter IV. Ezekiel\u2019s Prophetic Commission. Chapters ii., iii.\n\n\nThe call of a prophet and the vision of God which sometimes accompanied it\nare the two sides of one complex experience. The man who has truly seen\nGod necessarily has a message to men. Not only are his spiritual\nperceptions quickened and all the powers of his being stirred to the\nhighest activity, but there is laid on his conscience the burden of a\nsacred duty and a lifelong vocation to the service of God and man. The\ntrue prophet therefore is one who can say with Paul, \u201cI was not\ndisobedient to the heavenly vision,\u201d for that cannot be a real vision of\nGod which does not demand obedience. And of the two elements the call is\nthe one that is indispensable to the idea of a prophet. We can conceive a\nprophet without an ecstatic vision, but not without a consciousness of\nbeing chosen by God for a special work or a sense of moral responsibility\nfor the faithful declaration of His truth. Whether, as with Isaiah and\nEzekiel, the call springs out of the vision of God, or whether, as with\nJeremiah, the call comes first and is supplemented by experiences of a\nvisionary kind, the essential fact in the prophet\u2019s initiation always is\nthe conviction that from a certain period in his life the word of Jehovah\ncame to him, and along with it the feeling of personal obligation to God\nfor the discharge of a mission entrusted to him. While the vision merely\nserves to impress on the imagination by means of symbols a certain\nconception of God\u2019s being, and may be dispensed with when symbols are no\nlonger the necessary vehicle of spiritual truth, the call, as conveying a\nsense of one\u2019s true place in the kingdom of God, can never be wanting to\nany man who has a prophetic work to do for God amongst his fellow\u2010men.\n\nIt has been already hinted that in the case of Ezekiel the connection\nbetween the call and the vision is less obvious than in that of Isaiah.\nThe character of the narrative undergoes a change at the beginning of ch.\nii. The first part is moulded, as we have seen, very largely on the\ninaugural vision of Isaiah; the second betrays with equal clearness the\ninfluence of Jeremiah. The appearance of a break between the first chapter\nand the second is partly due to the prophet\u2019s laborious manner of\ndescribing what he had passed through. It is altogether unfair to\nrepresent him as having first curiously inspected the mechanism of the\n_merk\u0101b\u0101_, and then bethought himself that it was a fitting thing to fall\non his face before it. The experience of an ecstasy is one thing, the\nrelating of it is another. In much less time than it takes us to master\nthe details of the picture, Ezekiel had seen and been overpowered by the\nglory of Jehovah, and had become aware of the purpose for which it had\nbeen revealed to him. He knew that God had come to him in order to send\nhim as a prophet to his fellow\u2010exiles. And just as the description of the\nvision draws out in detail those features which were significant of God\u2019s\nnature and attributes, so in what follows he becomes conscious step by\nstep of certain aspects of the work to which he is called. In the form of\na series of addresses of the Almighty there are presented to his mind the\noutlines of his prophetic career\u2014its conditions, its hardships, its\nencouragements, and above all its binding and peremptory obligation. Some\nof the facts now set before him, such as the spiritual condition of his\naudience, had long been familiar to his thoughts\u2014others were new; but now\nthey all take their proper place in the scheme of his life; he is made to\nknow their bearing on his work, and what attitude he is to adopt in face\nof them. All this takes place in the prophetic trance; but the ideas\nremain with him as the sustaining principles of his subsequent work.\n\n1. Of the truths thus presented to the mind of Ezekiel the first, and the\none that directly arises out of the impression which the vision made on\nhim, is his personal insignificance. As he lies prostrate before the glory\nof Jehovah he hears for the first time the name which ever afterwards\nsignalises his relation to the God who speaks through him. It hardly needs\nto be said that the term \u201cson of man\u201d in the book of Ezekiel is no title\nof honour or of distinction. It is precisely the opposite of this. It\ndenotes the absence of distinction in the person of the prophet. It\nsignifies no more than \u201cmember of the human race\u201d; its sense might almost\nbe conveyed if we were to render it by the word \u201cmortal.\u201d It expresses the\ninfinite contrast between the heavenly and the earthly, between the\nglorious Being who speaks from the throne and the frail creature who needs\nto be supernaturally strengthened before he can stand upright in the\nattitude of service (ch. ii. 1). He felt that there was no reason in\nhimself for the choice which God made of him to be a prophet. He is\nconscious only of the attributes which he has in common with the race\u2014of\nhuman weakness and insignificance; all that distinguishes him from other\nmen belongs to his office, and is conferred on him by God in the act of\nhis consecration. There is no trace of the generous impulse that prompted\nIsaiah to offer himself as a servant of the great King as soon as he\nrealised that there was work to be done. He is equally a stranger to the\nshrinking of Jeremiah\u2019s sensitive spirit from the responsibilities of the\nprophet\u2019s charge. To Ezekiel the divine Presence is so overpowering, the\ncommand is so definite and exacting, that no room is left for the play of\npersonal feeling; the hand of the Lord is heavy on him, and he can do\nnothing but stand still and hear.\n\n2. The next thought that occupies the attention of the prophet is the\nspiritual condition of those to whom he is sent. It is to be noted that\nhis mission presents itself to him from the outset in two aspects. In the\nfirst place, he is a prophet to the whole house of Israel, including the\nlost kingdom of the ten tribes, as well as the two sections of the kingdom\nof Judah, those now in exile and those still remaining in their own land.\nThis is his ideal audience; the sweep of his prophecy is to embrace the\ndestinies of the nation as a whole, although but a small part be within\nthe reach of his spoken words. But in literal fact he is to be the prophet\nof the exiles (ch. iii. 11); that is the sphere in which he has to make\nproof of his ministry. These two audiences are for the most part not\ndistinguished in the mind of Ezekiel; he sees the ideal in the real,\nregarding the little colony in which he lives as an epitome of the\nnational life. But in both aspects of his work the outlook is equally\ndispiriting. If he looks forward to an active career amongst his fellow\u2010\ncaptives, he is given to know that \u201cthorns and thistles\u201d are with him and\nthat his dwelling is among scorpions (ch. ii. 6). Petty persecution and\nrancorous opposition are the inevitable lot of a prophet there. And if he\nextends his thoughts to the idealised nation he has to think of a people\nwhose character is revealed in a long history of rebellion and apostasy:\nthey are \u201cthe rebels who have rebelled against Me, they and their fathers\nto this very day\u201d (ch. ii. 3). The greatest difficulty he will have to\ncontend with is the impenetrability of the minds of his hearers to the\ntruths of his message. The barrier of a strange language suggests an\nillustration of the impossibility of communicating spiritual ideas to such\nmen as he is sent to. But it is a far more hopeless barrier that separates\nhim from his people. \u201cNot to a people of deep speech and heavy tongue art\nthou sent; and not to many peoples whose language thou canst not\nunderstand: if I had sent thee to _them_, _they_ would hear thee. But the\nhouse of Israel will refuse to hear thee; for they refuse to hear Me: for\nthe whole house of Israel are hard of forehead and stout of heart\u201d (ch.\niii. 5\u20107). The meaning is that the incapacity of the people is not\nintellectual, but moral and spiritual. They can understand the prophet\u2019s\nwords, but they will not hear them because they dislike the truth which he\nutters and have rebelled against the God who sent him. The hardening of\nthe national conscience which Isaiah foresaw as the inevitable result of\nhis own ministry is already accomplished, and Ezekiel traces it to its\nsource in a defect of the will, an aversion to the truths which express\nthe character of Jehovah.\n\nThis fixed judgment on his contemporaries with which Ezekiel enters on his\nwork is condensed into one of those stereotyped expressions which abound\nin his writings: \u201chouse of disobedience\u201d(11)\u2014a phrase which is afterwards\namplified in more than one elaborate review of the nation\u2019s past. It no\ndoubt sums up the result of much previous meditation on the state of\nIsrael and the possibility of a national reformation. If any hope had\nhitherto lingered in Ezekiel\u2019s mind that the exiles might now respond to a\ntrue word from Jehovah, it disappears in the clear insight which he\nobtains into the state of their hearts. He sees that the time has not yet\ncome to win the people back to God by assurances of His compassion and the\nnearness of His salvation. The breach between Jehovah and Israel has not\nbegun to be healed, and the prophet who stands on the side of God must\nlook for no sympathy from men. In the very act of his consecration his\nmind is thus set in the attitude of uncompromising severity towards the\nobdurate house of Israel: \u201cBehold, I make thy face hard like their faces,\nand thy forehead hard like theirs, like adamant harder than flint. Thou\nshalt not fear them nor be dismayed at their countenance, for a\ndisobedient house are they\u201d (ch. iii. 8, 9).\n\n3. The significance of the transaction in which he takes part is still\nfurther impressed on the mind of the prophet by a symbolic act in which he\nis made to signify his acceptance of the commission entrusted to him (chs.\nii. 8\u2010iii. 3). He sees a hand extended to him holding the roll of a book,\nand when the roll is spread out before him it is found to be written on\nboth sides with \u201clamentations and mourning and woe.\u201d In obedience to the\ndivine command he opens his mouth and eats the scroll, and finds to his\nsurprise that in spite of its contents its taste is \u201clike honey for\nsweetness.\u201d\n\nThe meaning of this strange symbol appears to include two things. In the\nfirst place it denotes the removal of the inward hindrance of which every\nman must be conscious when he receives the call to be a prophet. Something\nsimilar occurs in the inaugural vision of Isaiah and Jeremiah. The\nimpediment of which Isaiah was conscious was the uncleanness of his lips;\nand this being removed by the touch of the hot coal from the altar, he is\nfilled with a new feeling of freedom and eagerness to engage in the\nservice of God. In the case of Jeremiah the hindrance was a sense of his\nown weakness and unfitness for the arduous duties which were imposed on\nhim; and this again was taken away by the consecrating touch of Jehovah\u2019s\nhand on his lips. The part of Ezekiel\u2019s experience with which we are\ndealing is obviously parallel to these, although it is not possible to say\nwhat feeling of incapacity was uppermost in his mind. Perhaps it was the\ndread lest in him there should lurk something of that rebellious spirit\nwhich was the characteristic of the race to which he belonged. He who had\nbeen led to form so hard a judgment of his people could not but look with\na jealous eye on his own heart, and could not forget that he shared the\nsame sinful nature which made their rebellion possible. Accordingly the\nbook is presented to him in the first instance as a test of his obedience.\n\u201cBut _thou_, son of man, hear what I say to thee; Be not disobedient like\nthe disobedient house: open thy mouth, and eat what I give thee\u201d (ch. ii.\n8). When the book proves sweet to his taste, he has the assurance that he\nhas been endowed with such sympathy with the thoughts of God that things\nwhich to the natural mind are unwelcome become the source of a spiritual\nsatisfaction. Jeremiah had expressed the same strange delight in his work\nin a striking passage which was doubtless familiar to Ezekiel: \u201cWhen Thy\nwords were found I did eat them; and Thy word was to me the joy and\nrejoicing of my heart: for I was called by Thy name, O Jehovah God of\nhosts\u201d (Jer. xv. 16). We have a still higher illustration of the same fact\nin the life of our Lord, to whom it was meat and drink to do the will of\nHis Father, and who experienced a joy in the doing of it which was\npeculiarly His own. It is the reward of the true service of God that\namidst all the hardships and discouragements which have to be endured the\nheart is sustained by an inward joy springing from the consciousness of\nworking in fellowship with God.\n\nBut in the second place the eating of the book undoubtedly signifies the\nbestowal on the prophet of the gift of inspiration\u2014that is, the power to\nspeak the words of Jehovah. \u201cSon of man, eat this roll, and go speak to\nthe children of Israel.... Go, get thee to the house of Israel, and speak\nwith My words to them\u201d (ch. iii. 1, 4). Now the call of a prophet does not\nmean that his mind is charged with a certain body of doctrine, which he is\nto deliver from time to time as circumstances require. All that can safely\nbe said about the prophetic inspiration is that it implies the faculty of\ndistinguishing the truth of God from the thoughts that naturally arise in\nthe prophet\u2019s own mind. Nor is there anything in Ezekiel\u2019s experience\nwhich necessarily goes beyond this conception; although the incident of\nthe book has been interpreted in ways that burden him with a very crude\nand mechanical theory of inspiration. Some critics have believed that the\nbook which he swallowed is the book he was afterwards to write, as if he\nhad reproduced in instalments what was delivered to him at this time.\nOthers, without going so far as this, find it at least significant that\none who was to be pre\u2010eminently a literary prophet should conceive of the\nword of the Lord as communicated to him in the form of a book. When one\nwriter speaks of \u201ceigenth\u00fcmliche Empfindungen im Schlunde\u201d(12) as the\nbasis of the figure, he seems to come perilously near to resolving\ninspiration into a nervous disease. All these representations go beyond a\nfair construction of the prophet\u2019s meaning. The act is purely symbolic.\nThe book has nothing to do with the subject\u2010matter of his prophecy, nor\ndoes the eating of it mean anything more than the self\u2010surrender of the\nprophet to his vocation as a vehicle of the word of Jehovah. The idea that\nthe word of God becomes a living power in the inner being of the prophet\nis also expressed by Jeremiah when he speaks of it as a \u201cburning fire shut\nup in his bones\u201d (Jer. xx. 9); and Ezekiel\u2019s conception is similar.\nAlthough he speaks as if he had once for all assimilated the word of God,\nalthough he was conscious of a new power working within him, there is no\nproof that he thought of the word of the Lord as dwelling in him otherwise\nthan as a spiritual impulse to utter the truth revealed to him from time\nto time. That is the inspiration which all the prophets possess: \u201cJehovah\nGod hath spoken, who can but prophesy?\u201d (Amos iii. 8).\n\n4. It was not to be expected that a prophet so practical in his aims as\nEzekiel should be left altogether without some indication of the end to be\naccomplished by his work. The ordinary incentives to an arduous public\ncareer have indeed been denied to him. He knows that his mission contains\nno promise of a striking or an immediate success, that he will be\nmisjudged and opposed by nearly all who hear him, and that he will have to\npursue his course without appreciation or sympathy. It has been impressed\non him that to declare God\u2019s message is an end in itself, a duty to be\ndischarged with no regard to its issues, \u201cwhether men hear or whether they\nforbear.\u201d Like Paul he recognises that \u201cnecessity is laid upon him\u201d to\npreach the word of God. But there is one word which reveals to him the way\nin which his ministry is to be made effective in the working out of\nJehovah\u2019s purpose with Israel. \u201cWhether they hear or whether they forbear,\nthey shall know that a prophet hath been among them\u201d (ii. 5). The\nreference is mainly to the destruction of the nation which Ezekiel well\nknew must form the chief burden of any true prophetic message delivered at\nthat time. He will be approved as a prophet, and recognised as what he is,\nwhen his words are verified by the event. Does it seem a poor reward for\nyears of incessant contention with prejudice and unbelief? It was at all\nevents the only reward that was possible, but it was also to be the\nbeginning of better days. For these words have a wider significance than\ntheir bearing on the prophet\u2019s personal position.\n\nIt has been truly said that the preservation of the true religion after\nthe downfall of the nation depended on the fact that the event had been\nclearly foretold. Two religions and two conceptions of God were then\nstruggling for the mastery in Israel. One was the religion of the\nprophets, who set the moral holiness of Jehovah above every other\nconsideration, and affirmed that His righteousness must be vindicated even\nat the cost of His people\u2019s destruction. The other was the popular\nreligion which clung to the belief that Jehovah could not for any reason\nabandon His people without ceasing to be God. This conflict of principles\nreached its climax in the time of Ezekiel, and it also found its solution.\nThe destruction of Jerusalem cleared the issues. It was then seen that the\nteaching of the prophets afforded the only possible explanation of the\ncourse of events. The Jehovah of the opposite religion was proved to be a\nfigment of the popular imagination; and there was no alternative between\naccepting the prophetic interpretation of history and resigning all faith\nin the destiny of Israel. Hence the recognition of Ezekiel, the last of\nthe old order of prophets, who had carried their threatenings on to the\neve of their accomplishment, was really a great crisis of religion. It\nmeant the triumph of the only conception of God on which the hope of a\nbetter future could be built. Although the people might still be far from\nthe state of heart in which Jehovah could remove His chastening hand, the\nfirst condition of national repentance was given as soon as it was\nperceived that there had been prophets among them who had declared the\npurpose of Jehovah. The foundation was also laid for a more fruitful\ndevelopment of Ezekiel\u2019s activity. The word of the Lord had been in his\nhands a power \u201cto pluck up and to break down and to destroy\u201d the old\nIsrael that would not know Jehovah; henceforward it was destined to \u201cbuild\nand plant\u201d a new Israel inspired by a new ideal of holiness and a whole\u2010\nhearted repugnance to every form of idolatry.\n\n5. These then are the chief elements which enter into the remarkable\nexperience that made Ezekiel a prophet. Further disclosures of the nature\nof his office were, however, necessary before he could translate his\nvocation into a conscious plan of work. The departure of the theophany\nappears to have left him in a state of mental prostration.(13) In\n\u201cbitterness and heat of spirit\u201d he resumes his place amongst his fellow\u2010\ncaptives at Tel\u2010abib, and sits among them like a man bewildered for seven\ndays. At the end of that time the effects of the ecstasy seem to pass\naway, and more light breaks on him with regard to his mission. He realises\nthat it is to be largely a mission to individuals. He is appointed as a\nwatchman to the house of Israel, to warn the wicked from his way; and as\nsuch he is held accountable for the fate of any soul that might miss the\nway of life through failure of duty on his part.\n\nIt has been supposed that this passage (ch. iii. 16\u201021) describes the\ncharacter of a short period of public activity, in which Ezekiel\nendeavoured to act the part of a \u201creprover\u201d (ver. 26) among the exiles.\nThis is considered to have been his first attempt to act on his\ncommission, and to have been continued until the prophet was convinced of\nits hopelessness and in obedience to the divine command shut himself up in\nhis own house. But this view does not seem to be sufficiently borne out by\nthe terms of the narrative. The words rather represent a point of view\nfrom which his whole ministry is surveyed, or an aspect of it which\npossessed peculiar importance from the circumstances in which he was\nplaced. The idea of his position as a watchman responsible for individuals\nmay have been present to the prophet\u2019s mind from the time of his call; but\nthe practical development of that idea was not possible until the\ndestruction of Jerusalem had prepared men\u2019s minds to give heed to his\nadmonitions. Accordingly the second period of Ezekiel\u2019s work opens with a\nfuller statement of the principles indicated in this section (ch.\nxxxiii.). We shall therefore defer the consideration of these principles\ntill we reach the stage of the prophet\u2019s ministry at which their practical\nsignificance emerges.\n\n6. The last six verses of the third chapter may be regarded either as\nclosing the account of Ezekiel\u2019s consecration or as the introduction to\nthe first part of his ministry, that which preceded the fall of Jerusalem.\nThey contain the description of a second trance, which appears to have\nhappened seven days after the first. The prophet seemed to himself to be\ncarried out in spirit to a certain plain near his residence in Tel\u2010abib.\nThere the glory of Jehovah appears to him precisely as he had seen it in\nhis former vision by the river Kebar. He then receives the command to shut\nhimself up within his house. He is to be like a man bound with ropes,\nunable to move about among his fellow\u2010exiles. Moreover, the free use of\nspeech is to be interdicted; his tongue will be made to cleave to his\npalate, so that he is as one \u201cdumb.\u201d But as often as he receives a message\nfrom Jehovah his mouth will be opened that he may declare it to the\nrebellious house of Israel.\n\nNow if we compare ver. 26 with xxiv. 27 and xxxiii. 22, we find that this\nstate of intermittent dumbness continued till the day when the siege of\nJerusalem began, and was not finally removed till tidings were brought of\nthe capture of the city. The verses before us therefore throw light on the\nprophet\u2019s demeanour during the first half of his ministry. What they\nsignify is his almost entire withdrawal from public life. Instead of being\nlike his great predecessors, a man living full in the public view, and\nthrusting himself on men\u2019s notice when they least desired him, he is to\nlead an isolated and a solitary life, a sign to the people rather than a\nliving voice.(14) From the sequel we gather that he excited sufficient\ninterest to induce the elders and others to visit him in his house to\ninquire of Jehovah. We must also suppose that from time to time he emerged\nfrom his retirement with a message for the whole community. It cannot,\nindeed, be assumed that the chs. iv.\u2010xxiv. contain an exact reproduction\nof the addresses delivered on these occasions. Few of them profess to have\nbeen uttered in public, and for the most part they give the impression of\nhaving been intended for patient study on the written page rather than for\nimmediate oratorical effect. There is no reason to doubt that in the main\nthey embody the results of Ezekiel\u2019s prophetic experiences during the\nperiod to which they are referred, although it may be impossible to\ndetermine how far they were actually spoken at the time, and how far they\nare merely written for the instruction of a wider audience.\n\nThe strong figures used here to describe this state of seclusion appear to\nreflect the prophet\u2019s consciousness of the restraints providentially\nimposed on the exercise of his office. These restraints, however, were\nmoral, and not, as has sometimes been maintained, physical. The chief\nelement was the pronounced hostility and incredulity of the people. This,\ncombined with the sense of doom hanging over the nation, seems to have\nweighed on the spirit of Ezekiel, and in the ecstatic state the incubus\nlying upon him and paralysing his activity presents itself to his\nimagination as if he were bound with ropes and afflicted with dumbness.\nThe representation finds a partial parallel in a later passage in the\nprophet\u2019s history. From ch. xxix. 21 (which is the latest prophecy in the\nwhole book) we learn that the apparent non\u2010fulfilment of his predictions\nagainst Tyre had caused a similar hindrance to his public work, depriving\nhim of the boldness of speech characteristic of a prophet. And the opening\nof the mouth given to him on that occasion by the vindication of his words\nis clearly analogous to the removal of his silence by the news that\nJerusalem had fallen.(15)\n\n\n\n\n\nPART II. PROPHECIES RELATING MAINLY TO THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM.\n\n\n\n\nChapter V. The End Foretold. Chapters iv.\u2010vii.\n\n\nWith the fourth chapter we enter on the exposition of the first great\ndivision of Ezekiel\u2019s prophecies. The chs. iv.\u2010xxiv. cover a period of\nabout four and a half years, extending from the time of the prophet\u2019s call\nto the commencement of the siege of Jerusalem. During this time Ezekiel\u2019s\nthoughts revolved round one great theme\u2014the approaching judgment on the\ncity and the nation. Through contemplation of this fact there was\ndisclosed to him the outline of a comprehensive theory of divine\nprovidence, in which the destruction of Israel was seen to be the\nnecessary consequence of her past history and a necessary preliminary to\nher future restoration. The prophecies may be classified roughly under\nthree heads. In the first class are those which exhibit the judgment\nitself in ways fitted to impress the prophet and his hearers with a\nconviction of its certainty; a second class is intended to demolish the\nillusions and false ideals which possessed the minds of the Israelites and\nmade the announcement of disaster incredible; and a third and very\nimportant class expounds the moral principles which were illustrated by\nthe judgment, and which show it to be a divine necessity. In the passage\nwhich forms the subject of the present lecture the bare fact and certainty\nof the judgment are set forth in word and symbol and with a minimum of\ncommentary, although even here the conception which Ezekiel had formed of\nthe moral situation is clearly discernible.\n\n\n\nI\n\n\nThe certainty of the national judgment seems to have been first impressed\non Ezekiel\u2019s mind in the form of a singular series of symbolic acts which\nhe conceived himself to be commanded to perform. The peculiarity of these\nsigns is that they represent simultaneously two distinct aspects of the\nnation\u2019s fate\u2014on the one hand the horrors of the siege of Jerusalem, and\non the other hand the state of exile which was to follow.(16)\n\nThat the destruction of Jerusalem should occupy the first place in the\nprophet\u2019s picture of national calamity requires no explanation. Jerusalem\nwas the heart and brain of the nation, the centre of its life and its\nreligion, and in the eyes of the prophets the fountain\u2010head of its sin.\nThe strength of her natural situation, the patriotic and religious\nassociations which had gathered round her, and the smallness of her\nsubject province gave to Jerusalem a unique position among the mother\u2010\ncities of antiquity. And Ezekiel\u2019s hearers knew what he meant when he\nemployed the picture of a beleaguered city to set forth the judgment that\nwas to overtake them. That crowning horror of ancient warfare, the siege\nof a fortified town, meant in this case something more appalling to the\nimagination than the ravages of pestilence and famine and sword. The fate\nof Jerusalem represented the disappearance of everything that had\nconstituted the glory and excellence of Israel\u2019s national existence. That\nthe light of Israel should be extinguished amidst the anguish and\nbloodshed which must accompany an unsuccessful defence of the capital was\nthe most terrible element in Ezekiel\u2019s message, and here he sets it in the\nforefront of his prophecy.\n\nThe manner in which the prophet seeks to impress this fact on his\ncountrymen illustrates a peculiar vein of realism which runs through all\nhis thinking (ch. iv. 1\u20103). Being at a distance from Jerusalem, he seems\nto feel the need of some visible emblem of the doomed city before he can\nadequately represent the import of his prediction. He is commanded to take\na brick and portray upon it a walled city, surrounded by the towers,\nmounds, and battering\u2010rams which marked the usual operations of a\nbesieging army. Then he is to erect a plate of iron between him and the\ncity, and from behind this, with menacing gestures, he is as it were to\npress on the siege. The meaning of the symbols is obvious. As the engines\nof destruction appear on Ezekiel\u2019s diagram, at the bidding of Jehovah, so\nin due time the Chald\u00e6an army will be seen from the walls of Jerusalem,\nled by the same unseen Power which now controls the acts of the prophet.\nIn the last act Ezekiel exhibits the attitude of Jehovah Himself, cut off\nfrom His people by the iron wall of an inexorable purpose which no prayer\ncould penetrate.\n\nThus far the prophet\u2019s actions, however strange they may appear to us,\nhave been simple and intelligible. But at this point a second sign is as\nit were superimposed on the first, in order to symbolise an entirely\ndifferent set of facts\u2014the hardship and duration of the Exile (vv. 4\u20108).\nWhile still engaged in prosecuting the siege of the city, the prophet is\nsupposed to become at the same time the representative of the guilty\npeople and the victim of the divine judgment. He is to \u201cbear their\niniquity\u201d\u2014that is, the punishment due to their sin. This is represented by\nhis lying bound on his left side for a number of days equal to the years\nof Ephraim\u2019s banishment, and then on his right side for a time\nproportionate to the captivity of Judah. Now the time of Judah\u2019s exile is\nfixed at forty years, dating of course from the fall of the city. The\ncaptivity of North Israel exceeds that of Judah by the interval between\nthe destruction of Samaria (722) and the fall of Jerusalem, a period which\nactually measured about a hundred and thirty\u2010five years. In the Hebrew\ntext, however, the length of Israel\u2019s captivity is given as three hundred\nand ninety years\u2014that is, it must have lasted for three hundred and fifty\nyears before that of Judah begins. This is obviously quite irreconcilable\nwith the facts of history, and also with the prophet\u2019s intention. He\ncannot mean that the banishment of the northern tribes was to be\nprotracted for two centuries after that of Judah had come to an end, for\nhe uniformly speaks of the restoration of the two branches of the nation\nas simultaneous. The text of the Greek translation helps us past this\ndifficulty. The Hebrew manuscript from which that version was made had the\nreading a \u201chundred and ninety\u201d instead of \u201cthree hundred and ninety\u201d in\nver. 5. This alone yields a satisfactory sense, and the reading of the\nSeptuagint is now generally accepted as representing what Ezekiel actually\nwrote. There is still a slight discrepancy between the hundred and thirty\u2010\nfive years of the actual history and the hundred and fifty years expressed\nby the symbol; but we must remember that Ezekiel is using round numbers\nthroughout, and moreover he has not as yet fixed the precise date of the\ncapture of Jerusalem when the last forty years are to commence.(17)\n\nIn the third symbol (vv. 9\u201017) the two aspects of the judgment are again\npresented in the closest possible combination. The prophet\u2019s food and\ndrink during the days when he is imagined to be lying on his side\nrepresents on the one hand, by its being small in quantity and carefully\nweighed and measured, the rigours of famine in Jerusalem during the\nsiege\u2014\u201cBehold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they\nshall eat bread by weight, and with anxiety; and drink water by measure,\nand with horror\u201d (ver. 16); on the other hand, by its mixed ingredients\nand by the fuel used in its preparation, it typifies the unclean religious\ncondition of the people when in exile\u2014\u201cEven so shall the children of\nIsrael eat their food unclean among the heathen\u201d (ver. 13). The meaning of\nthis threat is best explained by a passage in the book of Hosea. Speaking\nof the Exile, Hosea says: \u201cThey shall not remain in the land of Jehovah;\nbut the children of Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and shall eat unclean\nfood in Assyria. They shall pour out no wine to Jehovah, nor shall they\nlay out their sacrifices for Him: like the food of mourners shall their\nfood be; all that eat thereof shall be defiled: for their bread shall only\nsatisfy their hunger; it shall not come into the house of Jehovah\u201d (Hos.\nix. 3, 4). The idea is that all food which has not been consecrated by\nbeing presented to Jehovah in the sanctuary is necessarily unclean, and\nthose who eat of it contract ceremonial defilement. In the very act of\nsatisfying his natural appetite a man forfeits his religious standing.\nThis was the peculiar hardship of the state of exile, that a man must\nbecome unclean, he must eat unconsecrated food unless he renounced his\nreligion and served the gods of the land in which he dwelt. Between the\ntime of Hosea and Ezekiel these ideas may have been somewhat modified by\nthe introduction of the Deuteronomic law, which expressly permits secular\nslaughter at a distance from the sanctuary. But this did not lessen the\nimportance of a legal sanctuary for the common life of an Israelite. The\nwhole of a man\u2019s flocks and herds, the whole produce of his fields, had to\nbe sanctified by the presentation of firstlings and firstfruits at the\nTemple before he could enjoy the reward of his industry with the sense of\nstanding in Jehovah\u2019s favour. Hence the destruction of the sanctuary or\nthe permanent exclusion of the worshippers from it reduced the whole life\nof the people to a condition of uncleanness which was felt to be as great\na calamity as was a papal interdict in the Middle Ages. This is the fact\nwhich is expressed in the part of Ezekiel\u2019s symbolism now before us. What\nit meant for his fellow\u2010exiles was that the religious disability under\nwhich they laboured was to be continued for a generation. The whole life\nof Israel was to become unclean until its inward state was made worthy of\nthe religious privileges now to be withdrawn. At the same time no one\ncould have felt the penalty more severely than Ezekiel himself, in whom\nhabits of ceremonial purity had become a second nature. The repugnance\nwhich he feels at the loathsome manner in which he was at first directed\nto prepare his food, and the profession of his own practice in exile, as\nwell as the concession made to his scrupulous sense of propriety (vv.\n14\u201016), are all characteristic of one whose priestly training had made a\ndefect of ceremonial cleanness almost equivalent to a moral delinquency.\n\nThe last of the symbols (ch. v. 1\u20104) represents the fate of the population\nof Jerusalem when the city is taken. The shaving of the prophet\u2019s head and\nbeard is a figure for the depopulation of the city and country. By a\nfurther series of acts, whose meaning is obvious, he shows how a third of\nthe inhabitants shall die of famine and pestilence during the siege, a\nthird shall be slain by the enemy when the city is captured, while the\nremaining third shall be dispersed among the nations. Even these shall be\npursued by the sword of vengeance until but a few numbered individuals\nsurvive, and of them again a part passes through the fire. The passage\nreminds us of the last verse of the sixth chapter of Isaiah, which was\nperhaps in Ezekiel\u2019s mind when he wrote: \u201cAnd if a tenth still remain in\nit [the land], it shall again pass through the fire: as a terebinth or an\noak whose stump is left at their felling: a holy seed shall be the stock\nthereof\u201d (Isa. vi. 13). At least the conception of a succession of sifting\njudgments, leaving only a remnant to inherit the promise of the future, is\ncommon to both prophets, and the symbol in Ezekiel is noteworthy as the\nfirst expression of his steadfast conviction that further punishments were\nin store for the exiles after the destruction of Jerusalem.\n\nIt is clear that these signs could never have been enacted, either in view\nof the people or in solitude, as they are here described. It may be\ndoubted whether the whole description is not purely ideal, representing a\nprocess which passed through the prophet\u2019s mind, or was suggested to him\nin the visionary state but never actually performed. That will always\nremain a tenable view. An imaginary symbolic act is as legitimate a\nliterary device as an imaginary conversation. It is absurd to mix up the\nquestion of the prophet\u2019s truthfulness with the question whether he did or\ndid not actually do what he conceives himself as doing. The attempt to\nexplain his action by catalepsy would take us but a little way, even if\nthe arguments adduced in favour of it were stronger than they are. Since\neven a cataleptic patient could not have tied himself down on his side or\nprepared and eaten his food in that posture, it is necessary in any case\nto admit that there must be a considerable, though indeterminate, element\nof literary imagination in the account given of the symbols. It is not\nimpossible that some symbolic representation of the siege of Jerusalem may\nhave actually been the first act in Ezekiel\u2019s ministry. In the\ninterpretation of the vision which immediately follows we shall find that\nno notice is taken of the features which refer to exile, but only of those\nwhich announce the siege of Jerusalem. It may therefore be the case that\nEzekiel did some such action as is here described, pointing to the fall of\nJerusalem, but that the whole was taken up afterwards in his imagination\nand made into an ideal representation of the two great facts which formed\nthe burden of his earlier prophecy.\n\n\n\nII\n\n\nIt is a relief to turn from this somewhat fantastic, though for its own\npurpose effective, exhibition of prophetic ideas to the impassioned\noracles in which the doom of the city and the nation is pronounced. The\nfirst of these (ch. v. 5\u201017) is introduced here as the explanation of the\nsigns that have been described, in so far as they bear on the fate of\nJerusalem; but it has a unity of its own, and is a characteristic specimen\nof Ezekiel\u2019s oratorical style. It consists of two parts: the first (vv.\n5\u201010) deals chiefly with the reasons for the judgment on Jerusalem, and\nthe second (vv. 11\u201017) with the nature of the judgment itself. The chief\nthought of the passage is the unexampled severity of the punishment which\nis in store for Israel, as represented by the fate of the capital. A\ncalamity so unprecedented demands an explanation as unique as itself.\nEzekiel finds the ground of it in the signal honour conferred on Jerusalem\nin her being set in the midst of the nations, in the possession of a\nreligion which expressed the will of the one God, and in the fact that she\nhad proved herself unworthy of her distinction and privileges and tried to\nlive as the nations around. \u201cThis is Jerusalem which I have set in the\nmidst of the nations, with the lands round about her. But she rebelled\nagainst My judgments wickedly(18) more than the nations, and My statutes\nmore than [other] lands round about her: for they rejected My judgments,\nand in My statutes they did not walk.... Therefore thus saith the Lord\nJehovah: Behold, even I am against you; and I will execute in thy midst\njudgments before the nations, and will do in thy case what I have not done\n[heretofore], and what I shall not do the like of any more, according to\nall thy abominations\u201d (vv. 5\u20109). The central position of Jerusalem is\nevidently no figure of speech in the mouth of Ezekiel. It means that she\nis so situated as to fulfil her destiny in the view of all the nations of\nthe world, who can read in her wonderful history the character of the God\nwho is above all gods. Nor can the prophet be fairly accused of\nprovincialism in thus speaking of Jerusalem\u2019s unrivalled physical and\nmoral advantages. The mountain ridge on which she stood lay almost across\nthe great highways of communication between the East and the West, between\nthe hoary seats of civilisation and the lands whither the course of empire\ntook its way. Ezekiel knew that Tyre was the centre of the old world\u2019s\ncommerce,(19) but he also knew that Jerusalem occupied a central situation\nin the civilised world, and in that fact he rightly saw a providential\nmark of the grandeur and universality of her religious mission. Her\ncalamities, too, were probably such as no other city experienced. The\nterrible prediction of ver. 10, \u201cFathers shall eat sons in the midst of\nthee, and sons shall eat fathers,\u201d seems to have been literally fulfilled.\n\u201cThe hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were\ntheir meat in the destruction of the daughter of My people\u201d (Lam. iv. 10).\nIt is likely enough that the annals of Assyrian conquest cover many a tale\nof woe which in point of mere physical suffering paralleled the atrocities\nof the siege of Jerusalem. But no other nation had a conscience so\nsensitive as Israel, or lost so much by its political annihilation. The\nhumanising influences of a pure religion had made Israel susceptible of a\nkind of anguish which ruder communities were spared.\n\nThe sin of Jerusalem is represented after Ezekiel\u2019s manner as on the one\nhand transgression of the divine commandments, and on the other defilement\nof the Temple through false worship. These are ideas which we shall\nfrequently meet in the course of the book, and they need not detain us\nhere. The prophet proceeds (vv. 11\u201017) to describe in detail the\nrelentless punishment which the divine vengeance is to inflict on the\ninhabitants and the city. The jealousy, the wrath, the indignation of\nJehovah, which are represented as \u201csatisfied\u201d by the complete destruction\nof the people, belong to the limitations of the conception of God which\nEzekiel had. It was impossible at that time to interpret such an event as\nthe fall of Jerusalem in a religious sense otherwise than as a vehement\noutburst of Jehovah\u2019s anger, expressing the reaction of His holy nature\nagainst the sin of idolatry. There is indeed a great distance between the\nattitude of Ezekiel towards the hapless city and the yearning pity of\nChrist\u2019s lament over the sinful Jerusalem of His time. Yet the first was a\nstep towards the second. Ezekiel realised intensely that part of God\u2019s\ncharacter which it was needful to enforce in order to beget in his\ncountrymen the deep horror at the sin of idolatry which characterised the\nlater Judaism. The best commentary on the latter part of this chapter is\nfound in those parts of the book of Lamentations which speak of the state\nof the city and the survivors after its overthrow. There we see how\nquickly the stern judgment produced a more chastened and beautiful type of\npiety than had ever been prevalent before. Those pathetic utterances, in\nwhich patriotism and religion are so finely blended, are like the timid\nand tentative advances of a child\u2019s heart towards a parent who has ceased\nto punish but has not begun to caress. This and much else that is true and\nennobling in the later religion of Israel is rooted in the terrifying\nsense of the divine anger against sin so powerfully represented in the\npreaching of Ezekiel.\n\n\n\nIII\n\n\nThe next two chapters may be regarded as pendants to the theme which is\ndealt with in this opening section of the book of Ezekiel. In the fourth\nand fifth chapters the prophet had mainly the city in his eye as the focus\nof the nation\u2019s life; in the sixth he turns his eye to the land which had\nshared the sin, and must suffer the punishment, of the capital. It is, in\nits first part (vv. 2\u201010), an apostrophe to the mountain land of Israel,\nwhich seems to stand out before the exile\u2019s mind with its mountains and\nhills, its ravines and valleys, in contrast to the monotonous plain of\nBabylonia which stretched around him. But these mountains were familiar to\nthe prophet as the seats of the rural idolatry in Israel. The word\n_b\u0101mah_, which means properly \u201cthe height,\u201d had come to be used as the\nname of an idolatrous sanctuary. These sanctuaries were probably\nCanaanitish in origin; and although by Israel they had been consecrated to\nthe worship of Jehovah, yet He was worshipped there in ways which the\nprophets pronounced hateful to Him. They had been destroyed by Josiah, but\nmust have been restored to their former use during the revival of\nheathenism which followed his death. It is a lurid picture which rises\nbefore the prophet\u2019s imagination as he contemplates the judgment of this\nprovincial idolatry: the altars laid waste, the \u201csun\u2010pillars\u201d(20) broken,\nand the idols surrounded by the corpses of men who had fled to their\nshrines for protection and perished at their feet. This demonstration of\nthe helplessness of the rustic divinities to save their sanctuaries and\ntheir worshippers will be the means of breaking the rebellious heart and\nthe whorish eyes that had led Israel so far astray from her true Lord, and\nwill produce in exile the self\u2010loathing which Ezekiel always regards as\nthe beginning of penitence.\n\nBut the prophet\u2019s passion rises to a higher pitch, and he hears the\ncommand \u201cClap thy hands, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Aha for the\nabominations of the house of Israel!\u201d These are gestures and exclamations,\nnot of indignation, but of contempt and triumphant scorn. The same feeling\nand even the same gestures are ascribed to Jehovah Himself in another\npassage of highly charged emotion (ch. xxi. 17). And it is only fair to\nremember that it is the anticipation of the victory of Jehovah\u2019s cause\nthat fills the mind of the prophet at such moments and seems to deaden the\nsense of human sympathy within him. At the same time the victory of\nJehovah was the victory of prophecy, and in so far Smend may be right in\nregarding the words as throwing light on the intensity of the antagonism\nin which prophecy and the popular religion then stood. The devastation of\nthe land is to be effected by the same instruments as were at work in the\ndestruction of the city: first the sword of the Chald\u00e6ans, then famine and\npestilence among those who escape, until the whole of Israel\u2019s ancient\nterritory lies desolate from the southern steppes to Riblah in the\nnorth.(21)\n\nCh. vii. is one of those singled out by Ewald as preserving most\nfaithfully the spirit and language of Ezekiel\u2019s earlier utterances. Both\nin thought and expression it exhibits a freedom and animation seldom\nattained in Ezekiel\u2019s writings, and it is evident that it must have been\ncomposed under keen emotion. It is comparatively free from those\nstereotyped phrases which are elsewhere so common, and the style falls at\ntimes into the rhythm which is characteristic of Hebrew poetry. Ezekiel\nhardly perhaps attains to perfect mastery of poetic form, and even here we\nmay be sensible of a lack of power to blend a series of impressions and\nimages into an artistic unity. The vehemence of his feeling hurries him\nfrom one conception to another, without giving full expression to any, or\nindicating clearly the connection that leads from one to the other. This\ncircumstance, and the corrupt condition of the text together, make the\nchapter in some parts unintelligible, and as a whole one of the most\ndifficult in the book. In its present position it forms a fitting\nconclusion to the opening section of the book. All the elements of the\njudgment which have just been foretold are gathered up in one outburst of\nemotion, producing a song of triumph in which the prophet seems to stand\nin the uproar of the final catastrophe and exult amid the crash and wreck\nof the old order which is passing away.\n\nThe passage is divided into five stanzas, which may originally have been\napproximately equal in length, although the first is now nearly twice as\nlong as any of the others.(22)\n\ni. Vv. 2\u20109.\u2014The first verse strikes the keynote of the whole poem; it is\nthe inevitableness and the finality of the approaching dissolution. A\nstriking phrase of Amos(23) is first taken up and expanded in accordance\nwith the anticipations with which the previous chapters have now\nfamiliarised us: \u201cAn end is come, the end is come on the four skirts of\nthe land.\u201d The poet already hears the tumult and confusion of the battle;\nthe vintage songs of the Jud\u00e6an peasant are silenced, and with the din and\nfury of war the day of the Lord draws near.\n\nii. Vv. 10\u201013.\u2014The prophet\u2019s thoughts here revert to the present, and he\nnotes the eager interest with which men both in Judah and Babylon are\npursuing the ordinary business of life and the vain dreams of political\ngreatness. \u201cThe diadem flourishes, the sceptre blossoms, arrogance shoots\nup.\u201d These expressions must refer to the efforts of the new rulers of\nJerusalem to restore the fortunes of the nation and the glories of the old\nkingdom which had been so greatly tarnished by the recent captivity.\nThings are going bravely, they think; they are surprised at their own\nsuccess; they hope that the day of small things will grow into the day of\nthings greater than those which are past. The following verse is\nuntranslatable; probably the original words, if we could recover them,\nwould contain some pointed and scornful antithesis to these futile and\nvain\u2010glorious anticipations. The allusion to \u201cbuyers and sellers\u201d (ver.\n12) may possibly be quite general, referring only to the absorbing\ninterest which men continue to take in their possessions, heedless of the\nimpending judgment.(24) But the facts that the advantage is assumed to be\non the side of the buyer and that the seller expects to return to his\nheritage make it probable that the prophet is thinking of the forced sales\nby the expatriated nobles of their estates in Palestine, and to their\ndeeply cherished resolve to right themselves when the time of their exile\nis over. All such ambitions, says the prophet, are vain\u2014\u201cthe seller shall\nnot return to what he sold, and a man shall not by wrong preserve his\nliving.\u201d In any case Ezekiel evinces here, as elsewhere, a certain\nsympathy with the exiled aristocracy, in opposition to the pretensions of\nthe new men who had succeeded to their honours.\n\niii. Vv. 14\u201018.\u2014The next scene that rises before the prophet\u2019s vision is\nthe collapse of Judah\u2019s military preparations in the hour of danger. Their\narmy exists but on paper. There is much blowing of trumpets and much\norganising, but no men to go forth to battle. A blight rests on all their\nefforts; their hands are paralysed and their hearts unnerved by the sense\nthat \u201cwrath rests on all their pomp.\u201d Sword, famine, and pestilence, the\nministers of Jehovah\u2019s vengeance, shall devour the inhabitants of the city\nand the country, until but a few survivors on the tops of the mountains\nremain to mourn over the universal desolation.\n\niv. Vv. 19\u201022.\u2014At present the inhabitants of Jerusalem are proud of the\nill\u2010gotten and ill\u2010used wealth stored up within her, and doubtless the\nexiles cast covetous eyes on the luxury which may still have prevailed\namongst the upper classes in the capital. But of what avail will all this\ntreasure be in the evil day now so near at hand? It will but add mockery\nto their sufferings to be surrounded by gold and silver which can do\nnothing to allay the pangs of hunger. It will be cast in the streets as\nrefuse, for it cannot save them in the day of Jehovah\u2019s anger. Nay, more,\nit will become the prize of the most ruthless of the heathen (the\nChald\u00e6ans); and when in the eagerness of their lust for gold they ransack\nthe Temple treasury and so desecrate the Holy Place, Jehovah will avert\nHis face and suffer them to work their will. The curse of Jehovah rests on\nthe silver and gold of Jerusalem, which has been used for the making of\nidolatrous images, and now is made to them an unclean thing.\n\nv. Vv. 23\u201027.\u2014The closing strophe contains a powerful description of the\ndismay and despair that will seize all classes in the state as the day of\nwrath draws near. Calamity after calamity comes, rumour follows hard on\nrumour, and the heads of the nation are distracted and cease to exercise\nthe functions of leadership. The recognised guides of the people\u2014the\nprophets, the priests, and the wise men\u2014have no word of counsel or\ndirection to offer; the prophet\u2019s vision, the priest\u2019s traditional lore,\nand the wise man\u2019s sagacity are alike at fault. So the king and the\ngrandees are filled with stupefaction; and the common people, deprived of\ntheir natural leaders, sit down in helpless dejection. Thus shall\nJerusalem be recompensed according to her doings. \u201cThe land is full of\nbloodshed, and the city of violence\u201d; and in the correspondence between\ndesert and retribution men shall be made to acknowledge the operation of\nthe divine righteousness. \u201cThey shall know that I am Jehovah.\u201d\n\n\n\nIV\n\n\nIt may be useful at this point to note certain theological principles\nwhich already begin to appear in this earliest of Ezekiel\u2019s prophecies.\nReflection on the nature and purpose of the divine dealings we have seen\nto be a characteristic of his work; and even those passages which we have\nconsidered, although chiefly devoted to an enforcement of the fact of\njudgment, present some features of the conception of Israel\u2019s history\nwhich had been formed in his mind.\n\n1. We observe in the first place that the prophet lays great stress on the\nworld\u2010wide significance of the events which are to befall Israel. This\nthought is not as yet developed, but it is clearly present. The relation\nbetween Jehovah and Israel is so peculiar that He is known to the nations\nin the first instance only as Israel\u2019s God, and thus His being and\ncharacter have to be learned from His dealings with His own people. And\nsince Jehovah is the only true God and must be worshipped as such\neverywhere, the history of Israel has an interest for the world such as\nthat of no other nation has. She was placed in the centre of the nations\nin order that the knowledge of God might radiate from her through all the\nworld; and now that she has proved unfaithful to her mission, Jehovah must\nmanifest His power and His character by an unexampled work of judgment.\nEven the destruction of Israel is a demonstration to the universal\nconscience of mankind of what true divinity is.\n\n2. But the judgment has of course a purpose and a meaning for Israel\nherself, and both purposes are summed up in the recurring formula \u201cYe\n[they] shall know that I am Jehovah,\u201d or \u201cthat I, Jehovah, have spoken.\u201d\nThese two phrases express precisely the same idea, although from slightly\ndifferent starting\u2010points. It is assumed that Jehovah\u2019s personality is to\nbe identified by His word spoken through the prophets. He is known to men\nthrough the revelation of Himself in the prophets\u2019 utterances. \u201cYe shall\nknow that I, Jehovah, have spoken\u201d means therefore, Ye shall know that it\nis I, the God of Israel and the Ruler of the universe, who speak these\nthings. In other words, the harmony between prophecy and providence\nguarantees the source of the prophet\u2019s message. The shorter phrase \u201cYe\nshall know that I am Jehovah\u201d may mean Ye shall know that I who now speak\nam truly Jehovah, the God of Israel. The prejudices of the people would\nhave led them to deny that the power which dictated Ezekiel\u2019s prophecy\ncould be their God; but this denial, together with the false idea of\nJehovah on which it rests, shall be destroyed for ever when the prophet\u2019s\nwords come true.\n\nThere is of course no doubt that Ezekiel conceived Jehovah as endowed with\nthe plenitude of deity, or that in his view the name expressed all that we\nmean by the word God. Nevertheless, historically the name Jehovah is a\nproper name, denoting the God who is the God of Israel. Renan has ventured\non the assertion that a deity with a proper name is necessarily a false\ngod. The statement perhaps measures the difference between the God of\nrevealed religion and the god who is an abstraction, an expression of the\norder of the universe, who exists only in the mind of the man who names\nhim. The God of revelation is a living person, with a character and will\nof His own, capable of being known by man. It is the distinction of\nrevelation that it dares to regard God as an individual with an inner life\nand nature of His own, independent of the conception men may form of Him.\nApplied to such a Being, a personal name may be as true and significant as\nthe name which expresses the character and individuality of a man. Only\nthus can we understand the historical process by which the God who was\nfirst manifested as the deity of a particular nation preserves His\npersonal identity with the God who in Christ is at last revealed as the\nGod of the spirits of all flesh. The knowledge of Jehovah of which Ezekiel\nspeaks is therefore at once a knowledge of the character of the God whom\nIsrael professed to serve, and a knowledge of that which constitutes true\nand essential divinity.(25)\n\n3. The prophet, in ch. vi. 8\u201010, proceeds one step further in delineating\nthe effect of the judgment on the minds of the survivors. The fascination\nof idolatry for the Israelites is conceived as produced by that radical\nperversion of the religious sense which the prophets call \u201cwhoredom\u201d\u2014a\nsensuous delight in the blessings of nature, and an indifference to the\nmoral element which can alone preserve either religion or human love from\ncorruption. The spell shall at last be broken in the new knowledge of\nJehovah which is produced by calamity; and the heart of the people,\npurified from its delusions, shall turn to Him who has smitten them, as\nthe only true God. \u201cWhen your fugitives from the sword are among the\nnations, when they are scattered through the lands, then shall your\nfugitives remember Me amongst the nations whither they have been carried\ncaptive, when I break their heart that goes awhoring from Me, and their\nwhorish eyes which went after their idols.\u201d When the idolatrous propensity\nis thus eradicated, the conscience of Israel will turn inwards on itself,\nand in the light of its new knowledge of God will for the first time read\nits own history aright. The beginnings of a new spiritual life will be\nmade in the bitter self\u2010condemnation which is one side of the national\nrepentance. \u201cThey shall loathe themselves for all the evil that they have\ncommitted in all their abominations.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nChapter VI. Your House Is Left Unto You Desolate. Chapters viii.\u2010xi.\n\n\nOne of the most instructive phases of religious belief among the\nIsraelites of the seventh century was the superstitious regard in which\nthe Temple at Jerusalem was held. Its prestige as the metropolitan\nsanctuary had no doubt steadily increased from the time when it was built.\nBut it was in the crisis of the Assyrian invasion that the popular\nsentiment in favour of its peculiar sanctity was transmuted into a\nfanatical faith in its inherent inviolability. It is well known that\nduring the whole course of this invasion the prophet Isaiah had\nconsistently taught that the enemy should never set foot within the\nprecincts of the Holy City\u2014that, on the contrary, the attempt to seize it\nwould prove to be the signal for his annihilation. The striking fulfilment\nof this prediction in the sudden destruction of Sennacherib\u2019s army had an\nimmense effect on the religion of the time. It restored the faith in\nJehovah\u2019s omnipotence which was already giving way, and it granted a new\nlease of life to the very errors which it ought to have extinguished. For\nhere, as in so many other cases, what was a spiritual faith in one\ngeneration became a superstition in the next. Indifferent to the divine\ntruths which gave meaning to Isaiah\u2019s prophecy, the people changed his\nsublime faith in the living God working in history into a crass confidence\nin the material symbol which had been the means of expressing it to their\nminds. Henceforth it became a fundamental tenet of the current creed that\nthe Temple and the city which guarded it could never fall into the hands\nof an enemy; and any teaching which assailed that belief was felt to\nundermine confidence in the national deity. In the time of Jeremiah and\nEzekiel this superstition existed in unabated vigour, and formed one of\nthe greatest hindrances to the acceptance of their teaching. \u201cThe Temple\nof the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord are these!\u201d\nwas the cry of the benighted worshippers as they thronged to its courts to\nseek the favour of Jehovah (Jer. vii. 4). The same state of feeling must\nhave prevailed among Ezekiel\u2019s fellow\u2010exiles. To the prophet himself,\nattached as he was to the worship of the Temple, it may have been a\nthought almost too hard to bear that Jehovah should abandon the only place\nof His legitimate worship. Amongst the rest of the captives the faith in\nits infallibility was one of the illusions which must be overthrown before\ntheir minds could perceive the true drift of his teaching. In his first\nprophecy the fact had just been touched on, but merely as an incident in\nthe fall of Jerusalem. About a year later, however, he received a new\nrevelation, in which he learned that the destruction of the Temple was no\nmere incidental consequence of the capture of the city, but a main object\nof the calamity. The time was come when judgment must begin at the house\nof God.\n\nThe weird vision in which this truth was conveyed to the prophet is said\nto have occurred during a visit of the elders to Ezekiel in his own house.\nIn their presence he fell into a trance, in which the events now to be\nconsidered passed before him; and after the trance was removed he\nrecounted the substance of the vision to the exiles. This statement has\nbeen somewhat needlessly called in question, on the ground that after so\nprotracted an ecstasy the prophet would not be likely to find his visitors\nstill in their places. But this matter\u2010of\u2010fact criticism overreaches\nitself. We have no means of determining how long it would take for this\nseries of events to be realised. If we may trust anything to the analogy\nof dreams\u2014and of all conditions to which ordinary men are subject the\ndream is surely the closest analogy to the prophetic ecstasy\u2014the whole may\nhave passed in an incredibly short space of time. If the statement were\nuntrue, it is difficult to see what Ezekiel would have gained by making\nit. If the whole vision were a fiction, this must of course be fictitious\ntoo; but even so it seems a very superfluous piece of invention.\n\nWe prefer, therefore, to regard the vision as real, and the assigned\nsituation as historical; and the fact that it is recorded suggests that\nthere must be some connection between the object of the visit and the\nburden of the revelation which was then communicated. It is not difficult\nto imagine points of contact between them. Ewald has conjectured that the\noccasion of the visit may have been some recent tidings from Jerusalem\nwhich had opened the eyes of the \u201celders\u201d to the real relation that\nexisted between them and their brethren at home. If they had ever\ncherished any illusions on the point, they had certainly been disabused of\nthem before Ezekiel had this vision. They were aware, whether the\ninformation was recent or not, that they were absolutely disowned by the\nnew authorities in Jerusalem, and that it was impossible that they should\never come back peaceably to their old place in the state. This created a\nproblem which they could not solve, and the fact that Ezekiel had\nannounced the fall of Jerusalem may have formed a bond of sympathy between\nhim and his brethren in exile which drew them to him in their perplexity.\nSome such hypothesis gives at all events a fuller significance to the\nclosing part of the vision, where the attitude of the men in Jerusalem is\ndescribed, and where the exiles are taught that the hope of Israel\u2019s\nfuture lies with them. It is the first time that Ezekiel has distinguished\nbetween the fates in store for the two sections of the people, and it\nwould almost appear as if the promotion of the exiles to the first place\nin the true Israel was a new revelation to him. Twice during this vision\nhe is moved to intercede for the \u201cremnant of Israel,\u201d as if the only hope\nof a new people of God lay in sparing at least some of those who were left\nin the land. But the burden of the message that now comes to him is that\nin the spiritual sense the true remnant of Israel is not in Jud\u00e6a, but\namong the exiles in Babylon. It was there that the new Israel was to be\nformed, and the land was to be the heritage, not of those who clung to it\nand exulted in the misfortunes of their banished brethren, but of those\nwho under the discipline of exile were first prepared to use the land as\nJehovah\u2019s holiness demanded.\n\nThe vision is interesting, in the first place, on account of the glimpse\nit affords of the state of mind prevailing in influential circles in\nJerusalem at this time. There is no reason whatever to doubt that here in\nthe form of a vision we have reliable information regarding the actual\nstate of matters when Ezekiel wrote. It has been supposed by some critics\nthat the description of the idolatries in the Temple does not refer to\ncontemporary practices, but to abuses that had been rife in the days of\nManasseh and had been put a stop to by Josiah\u2019s reformation. But the\nvision loses half its meaning if it is taken as merely an idealised\nrepresentation of all the sins that had polluted the Temple in the course\nof its history. The names of those who are seen must be names of living\nmen known to Ezekiel and his contemporaries, and the sentiments put in\ntheir mouth, especially in the latter part of the vision, are suitable\nonly to the age in which he lived. It is very probable that the\ndescription in its general features would _also_ apply to the days of\nManasseh; but the revival of idolatry which followed the death of Josiah\nwould naturally take the form of a restoration of the illegal cults which\nhad flourished unchecked under his grandfather. Ezekiel\u2019s own experience\nbefore his captivity, and the steady intercourse which had been maintained\nsince, would supply him with the material which in the ecstatic condition\nis wrought up into this powerful picture.\n\nThe thing that surprises us most is the prevailing conviction amongst the\nruling classes that \u201cJehovah had forsaken the land.\u201d These men seem to\nhave partly emancipated themselves, as politicians in Israel were apt to\ndo, from the restraints and narrowness of the popular religion. To them it\nwas a conceivable thing that Jehovah should abandon His people. And yet\nlife was worth living and fighting for apart from Jehovah. It was of\ncourse a merely selfish life, not inspired by national ideals, but simply\na clinging to place and power. The wish was father to the thought; men who\nso readily yielded to the belief in Jehovah\u2019s absence were very willing to\nbe persuaded of its truth. The religion of Jehovah had always imposed a\ncheck on social and civic wrong, and men whose power rested on violence\nand oppression could not but rejoice to be rid of it. So they seem to have\nacquiesced readily enough in the conclusion to which so many circumstances\nseemed to point, that Jehovah had ceased to interest Himself either for\ngood or evil in them and their affairs. Still, the wide acceptance of a\nbelief like this, so repugnant to all the religious ideas of the ancient\nworld, seems to require for its explanation some fact of contemporary\nhistory. It has been thought that it arose from the disappearance of the\nark of Jehovah from the Temple. It seems from the third chapter of\nJeremiah that the ark was no longer in existence in Josiah\u2019s reign, and\nthat the want of it was felt as a grave religious loss. It is not\nimprobable that this circumstance, in connection with the disasters which\nhad marked the last days of the kingdom, led in many minds to the fear and\nin some to the hope that along with His most venerable symbol Jehovah\nHimself had vanished from their midst.\n\nIt should be noticed that the feeling described was only one of several\ncurrents that ran in the divided society of Jerusalem. It is quite a\ndifferent point of view that is presented in the taunt quoted in ch. xi.\n15, that the exiles were far from Jehovah, and had therefore lost their\nright to their possessions. But the religious despair is not only the most\nstartling fact that we have to look at; it is also the one that is made\nmost prominent in the vision. And the divine answer to it given through\nEzekiel is that the conviction is true; Jehovah _has_ forsaken the land.\nBut in the first place the cause of His departure is found in those very\npractices for which it was made the excuse; and in the second, although He\nhas ceased to dwell in the midst of His people, He has lost neither the\npower nor the will to punish their iniquities. To impress these truths\nfirst on his fellow\u2010exiles and then on the whole nation is the chief\nobject of the chapter before us.\n\nNow we find that the general sense of God\u2010forsakenness expressed itself\nprincipally in two directions. On the one hand it led to the\nmultiplication of false objects of worship to supply the place of Him who\nwas regarded as the proper tutelary Divinity of Israel; on the other hand\nit produced a reckless, devil\u2010may\u2010care spirit of resistance against any\nodds, such as was natural to men who had only material interests to fight\nfor, and nothing to trust in but their own right hand. Syncretism in\nreligion and fatalism in politics\u2014these were the twin symptoms of the\ndecay of faith among the upper classes in Jerusalem. But these belong to\ntwo different parts of the vision which we must now distinguish.\n\n\n\nI\n\n\nThe first part deals with the departure of Jehovah as caused by religious\noffences perpetrated in the Temple, and with the return of Jehovah to\ndestroy the city on account of these offences. The prophet is transported\nin \u201cvisions of God\u201d to Jerusalem, and placed in the outer court near the\nnorthern gate, outside of which was the site where the \u201cimage of Jealousy\u201d\nhad stood in the time of Manasseh. Near him stands the appearance which he\nhad learned to recognise as the glory of Jehovah, signifying that Jehovah\nhas, for a purpose not yet disclosed, revisited His Temple. But first\nEzekiel must be made to see the state of things which exists in this\nTemple which had once been the seat of God\u2019s presence. Looking through the\ngate to the north, he discovers that the image of Jealousy(26) has been\nrestored to its old place. This is the first and apparently the least\nheinous of the abominations that defiled the sanctuary.\n\nThe second scene is the only one of the four which represents a secret\ncult. Partly perhaps for that reason it strikes our minds as the most\nrepulsive of all; but that was obviously not Ezekiel\u2019s estimate of it.\nThere are greater abominations to follow. It is difficult to understand\nthe particulars of Ezekiel\u2019s description, especially in the Hebrew text\n(the LXX. is simpler); but it seems impossible to escape the impression\nthat there was something obscene in a worship where idolatry appears as\nashamed of itself. The essential fact, however, is that the very highest\nand most influential men in the land were addicted to a form of\nheathenism, whose objects of worship were pictures of \u201chorrid creeping\nthings, and cattle, and all the gods of the house of Israel.\u201d The name of\none of these men, the leader in this superstition, is given, and is\nsignificant of the state of life in Jerusalem shortly before its fall.\nJaazaniah was the son of Shaphan, who is probably identical with the\nchancellor of Josiah\u2019s reign whose sympathy with the prophetic teaching\nwas evinced by his zeal in the cause of reform. We read of other members\nof the family who were faithful to the national religion, such as his son\nAhikam, also a zealous reformer, and his grandson Gedaliah, Jeremiah\u2019s\nfriend and patron, and the governor appointed over Judah by Nebuchadnezzar\nafter the taking of the city. The family was thus divided both in religion\nand politics. While one branch was devoted to the worship of Jehovah and\nfavoured submission to the king of Babylon, Jaazaniah belonged to the\nopposite party and was the ringleader in a peculiarly obnoxious form of\nidolatry.(27)\n\nThe third \u201cabomination\u201d is a form of idolatry widely diffused over Western\nAsia\u2014the annual mourning for Tammuz. Tammuz was originally a Babylonian\ndeity (Dumuzi), but his worship is specially identified with Ph\u0153nicia,\nwhence under the name Adonis it was introduced into Greece. The mourning\ncelebrates the death of the god, which is an emblem of the decay of the\nearth\u2019s productive powers, whether due to the scorching heat of the sun or\nto the cold of winter. It seems to have been a comparatively harmless rite\nof nature\u2010religion, and its popularity among the women of Jerusalem at\nthis time may be due to the prevailing mood of despondency which found\nvent in the sympathetic contemplation of that aspect of nature which most\nsuggests decay and death.\n\nThe last and greatest of the abominations practised in and near the Temple\nis the worship of the sun. The peculiar enormity of this species of\nidolatry can hardly lie in the object of adoration; it is to be sought\nrather in the place where it was practised, and in the rank of those who\ntook part in it, who were probably priests. Standing between the porch and\nthe altar, with their backs to the Temple, these men unconsciously\nexpressed the deliberate rejection of Jehovah which was involved in their\nidolatry. The worship of the heavenly bodies was probably imported into\nIsrael from Assyria and Babylon, and its prevalence in the later years of\nthe monarchy was due to political rather than religious influences. The\ngods of these imperial nations were esteemed more potent than those of the\nstates which succumbed to their power, and hence men who were losing\nconfidence in their national deity naturally sought to imitate the\nreligions of the most powerful peoples known to them.(28)\n\nIn the arrangement of the four specimens of the religious practices which\nprevailed in Jerusalem, Ezekiel seems to proceed from the most familiar\nand explicable to the more outlandish defections from the purity of the\nnational faith. At the same time his description shows how different\nclasses of society were implicated in the sin of idolatry\u2014the elders, the\nwomen, and the priests. During all this time the glory of Jehovah has\nstood in the court, and there is something very impressive in the picture\nof these infatuated men and women preoccupied with their unholy devotions\nand all unconscious of the presence of Him whom they deemed to have\nforsaken the land. To the open eye of the prophet the meaning of the\nvision must be already clear, but the sentence comes from the mouth of\nJehovah Himself: \u201cHast thou seen, Son of man? Is it too small a thing for\nthe house of Judah to practise the abominations which they have here\npractised, that they must also fill the land with violence, and [so]\nprovoke Me again to anger? So will I act towards them in anger: My eye\nshall not pity, nor will I spare\u201d (ch. viii. 17, 18).\n\n                  \u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\n\nThe last words introduce the account of the punishment of Jerusalem, which\nis given of course in the symbolic form suggested by the scenery of the\nvision. Jehovah has meanwhile risen from His throne near the cherubim, and\nstands on the threshold of the Temple. There He summons to His side the\ndestroyers who are to execute His purpose\u2014six angels, each with a weapon\nof destruction in his hand. A seventh of higher rank clothed in linen\nappears with the implements of a scribe in his girdle. These stand \u201cbeside\nthe brazen altar,\u201d and await the commands of Jehovah. The first act of the\njudgment is a massacre of the inhabitants of the city, without distinction\nof age or rank or sex. But, in accordance with his strict view of the\ndivine righteousness, Ezekiel is led to conceive of this last judgment as\ndiscriminating carefully between the righteous and the wicked. All those\nwho have inwardly separated themselves from the guilt of the city by\nhearty detestation of the iniquities perpetrated in its midst are\ndistinguished by a mark on their foreheads before the work of slaughter\nbegins. What became of this faithful remnant it does not belong to the\nvision to declare. Beginning with the twenty men before the porch, the\ndestroying angels follow the man with the inkhorn through the streets of\nthe city, and slay all on whom he has not set his mark. When the\nmessengers have gone out on their dread errand, Ezekiel, realising the\nfull horror of a scene which he dare not describe, falls prostrate before\nJehovah, deprecating the outbreak of indignation which threatened to\nextinguish \u201cthe remnant of Israel.\u201d He is reassured by the declaration\nthat the guilt of Judah and Israel demands no less a punishment than this,\nbecause the notion that Jehovah had forsaken the land had opened the\nfloodgates of iniquity, and filled the land with bloodshed and the city\nwith oppression. Then the man in the linen robes returns and announces,\n\u201cIt is done as Thou hast commanded.\u201d\n\nThe second act of the judgment is the destruction of Jerusalem by fire.\nThis is symbolised by the scattering over the city of burning coals taken\nfrom the altar\u2010hearth under the throne of God. The man with the linen\ngarments is directed to step between the wheels and take out fire for this\npurpose. The description of the execution of this order is again carried\nno further than what actually takes place before the prophet\u2019s eyes: the\nman took the fire and went out. In the place where we might have expected\nto have an account of the destruction of the city, we have a second\ndescription of the appearance and motions of the _merkaba_, the purpose of\nwhich it is difficult to divine. Although it deviates slightly from the\naccount in ch. i., the differences appear to have no significance, and\nindeed it is expressly said to be the same phenomenon. The whole passage\nis certainly superfluous, and might be omitted but for the difficulty of\nimagining any motive that would have tempted a scribe to insert it. We\nmust keep in mind the possibility that this part of the book had been\ncommitted to writing before the final redaction of Ezekiel\u2019s prophecies,\nand the description in vv. 8\u201017 may have served a purpose there which is\nsuperseded by the fuller narrative which we now possess in ch. i.\n\nIn this way Ezekiel penetrates more deeply into the inner meaning of the\njudgment on city and people whose external form he had announced in his\nearlier prophecy. It must be admitted that Jehovah\u2019s strange work bears to\nour minds a more appalling aspect when thus presented in symbols than the\nactual calamity would bear when effected through the agency of second\ncauses. Whether it had the same effect on the mind of a Hebrew, who hardly\nbelieved in second causes, is another question. In any case it gives no\nground for the charge made against Ezekiel of dwelling with a malignant\nsatisfaction on the most repulsive features of a terrible picture. He is\nindeed capable of a rigorous logic in exhibiting the incidence of the law\nof retribution which was to him the necessary expression of the divine\nrighteousness. That it included the death of every sinner and the\noverthrow of a city that had become a scene of violence and cruelty was to\nhim a self\u2010evident truth, and more than this the vision does not teach. On\nthe contrary, it contains traits which tend to moderate the inevitable\nharshness of the truth conveyed. With great reticence it allows the\nexecution of the judgment to take place behind the scenes, giving only\nthose details which were necessary to suggest its nature. Whilst it is\nbeing carried out the attention of the reader is engaged in the presence\nof Jehovah, or his mind is occupied with the principles which made the\npunishment a moral necessity. The prophet\u2019s expostulations with Jehovah\nshow that he was not insensible to the miseries of his people, although he\nsaw them to be inevitable. Further, this vision shows as clearly as any\npassage in his writings the injustice of the view which represents him as\nmore concerned for petty details of ceremonial than for the great moral\ninterests of a nation. If any feeling expressed in the vision is to be\nregarded as Ezekiel\u2019s own, then indignation against outrages on human life\nand liberty must be allowed to weigh more with him than offences against\nritual purity. And, finally, it is clearly one object of the vision to\nshow that in the destruction of Jerusalem no individual shall be involved\nwho is not also implicated in the guilt which calls down wrath upon her.\n\n\n\nII\n\n\nThe second part of the vision (ch. xi.) is but loosely connected with the\nfirst. Here Jerusalem still exists, and men are alive who must certainly\nhave perished in the \u201cvisitation of the city\u201d if the writer had still kept\nhimself within the limits of his previous conception. But in truth the two\nhave little in common, except the Temple, which is the scene of both, and\nthe cherubim, whose movements mark the transition from the one to the\nother. The glory of Jehovah is already departing from the house when it is\nstayed at the entrance of the east gate to give the prophet his special\nmessage to the exiles.\n\nHere we are introduced to the more political aspect of the situation in\nJerusalem. The twenty\u2010five men who are gathered in the east gate of the\nTemple are clearly the leading statesmen in the city; and two of them,\nwhose names are given, are expressly designated as \u201cprinces of the\npeople.\u201d They are apparently met in conclave to deliberate on public\nmatters, and a word from Jehovah lays open to the prophet the nature of\ntheir projects. \u201cThese are the men that plan ruin, and hold evil counsel\nin this city.\u201d The evil counsel is undoubtedly the project of rebellion\nagainst the king of Babylon which must have been hatched at this time and\nwhich broke out into open revolt about three years later. The counsel was\nevil because directly opposed to that which Jeremiah was giving at the\ntime in the name of Jehovah. But Ezekiel also throws invaluable light on\nthe mood of the men who were urging the king along the path which led to\nruin. \u201cAre not the houses recently built?\u201d(29) they say, congratulating\nthemselves on their success in repairing the damage done to the city in\nthe time of Jehoiachin. The image of the pot and the flesh is generally\ntaken to express the feeling of easy security in the fortifications of\nJerusalem with which these light\u2010hearted politicians embarked on a contest\nwith Nebuchadnezzar. But their mood must be a gloomier one than that if\nthere is any appropriateness in the language they use. To stew in their\nown juice, and over a fire of their own kindling, could hardly seem a\ndesirable policy to sane men, however strong the pot might be. These\ncouncillors are well aware of the dangers they incur, and of the misery\nwhich their purpose must necessarily bring on the people. But they are\ndetermined to hazard everything and endure everything on the chance that\nthe city may prove strong enough to baffle the resources of the king of\nBabylon. Once the fire is kindled, it will certainly be better to be in\nthe pot than in the fire; and so long as Jerusalem holds out they will\nremain behind her walls. The answer which is put into the prophet\u2019s mouth\nis that the issue will not be such as they hope for. The only \u201cflesh\u201d that\nwill be left in the city will be the dead bodies of those who have been\nslain within her walls by the very men who hope that their lives will be\ngiven them for a prey. They themselves shall be dragged forth to meet\ntheir fate far away from Jerusalem on the \u201cborders of Israel.\u201d It is not\nunlikely that these conspirators kept their word. Although the king and\nall the men of war fled from the city as soon as a breach was made, we\nread of certain high officials who allowed themselves to be taken in the\ncity (Jer. lii. 7). Ezekiel\u2019s prophecy was in their case literally\nfulfilled; for these men and many others were brought to the king of\nBabylon at Riblah, \u201cand he smote them and put them to death at Riblah in\nthe land of Hamath.\u201d\n\nWhile Ezekiel was uttering this prophecy one of the councillors, named\nPelatiah, suddenly fell down dead. Whether a man of this name had suddenly\ndied in Jerusalem under circumstances that had deeply impressed the\nprophet\u2019s mind, or whether the death belongs to the vision, it is\nimpossible for us to tell. To Ezekiel the occurrence seemed an earnest of\nthe complete destruction of the remnant of Israel by the wrath of God,\nand, as before, he fell on his face to intercede for them. It is then that\nhe receives the message which seems to form the divine answer to the\nperplexities which haunted the minds of the exiles in Babylon.\n\nIn their attitude towards the exiles the new leaders in Jerusalem took up\na position as highly privileged religious persons, quite at variance with\nthe scepticism which governed their conduct at home. When they were\nfollowing the bent of their natural inclinations by practising idolatry\nand perpetrating judicial murders in the city, their cry was, \u201cJehovah\nhath forsaken the land; Jehovah seeth it not.\u201d When they were eager to\njustify their claim to the places and possessions left vacant by their\nbanished countrymen, they said, \u201cThey are far from Jehovah: to us the land\nis given in possession.\u201d They were probably equally sincere and equally\ninsincere in both professions. They had simply learned the art which comes\neasily to men of the world of using religion as a cloak for greed, and\nthrowing it off when greed could be best gratified without it. The idea\nwhich lay under their religious attitude was that the exiles had gone into\ncaptivity because their sins had incurred Jehovah\u2019s anger, and that now\nHis wrath was exhausted and the blessing of His favour would rest on those\nwho had been left in the land. There was sufficient plausibility in the\ntaunt to make it peculiarly galling to the mind of the exiles, who had\nhoped to exercise some influence over the government in Jerusalem, and to\nfind their places kept for them when they should be permitted to return.\nIt may well have been the resentment produced by tidings of this hostility\ntowards them in Jerusalem that brought their elders to the house of\nEzekiel to see if he had not some message from Jehovah to reassure them.\n\nIn the mind of Ezekiel, however, the problem took another form. To him a\nreturn to the old Jerusalem had no meaning; neither buyer nor seller\nshould have cause to congratulate himself on his position. The possession\nof the land of Israel belonged to those in whom Jehovah\u2019s ideal of the new\nIsrael was realised, and the only question of religious importance was,\nWhere is the germ of this new Israel to be found? Amongst those who\nsurvive the judgment in the old land, or amongst those who have\nexperienced it in the form of banishment? On this point the prophet\nreceives an explicit revelation in answer to his intercession for \u201cthe\nremnant of Israel.\u201d \u201cSon of man, thy brethren, thy brethren, thy fellow\u2010\ncaptives, and the whole house of Israel of whom the inhabitants of\nJerusalem have said, They are far from Jehovah: to us it is given\u2014the land\nfor an inheritance!... Because I have removed them far among the nations,\nand have scattered them among the lands, and have been to them but little\nof a sanctuary in the lands where they have gone, therefore say, Thus\nsaith Jehovah, so will I gather you from the peoples, and bring you from\nthe lands where ye have been scattered, and will give you the land of\nIsrael.\u201d The difficult expression \u201cI have been but little of a sanctuary\u201d\nrefers to the curtailment of religious privileges and means of access to\nJehovah which was a necessary consequence of exile. It implies, however,\nthat Israel in banishment had learned in some measure to preserve that\nseparation from other peoples and that peculiar relation to Jehovah which\nconstituted its national holiness. Religion perhaps perishes sooner from\nthe overgrowth of ritual than from its deficiency. It is an historical\nfact that the very meagreness of the religion which could be practised in\nexile was the means of strengthening the more spiritual and permanent\nelements which constitute the essence of religion. The observances which\ncould be maintained apart from the Temple acquired an importance which\nthey never afterwards lost; and although some of these, such as\ncircumcision, the Passover, the abstinence from forbidden food, were\npurely ceremonial, others, such as prayer, reading of the Scriptures, and\nthe common worship of the synagogue, represent the purest and most\nindispensable forms in which communion with God can find expression. That\nJehovah Himself became even in small measure what the word \u201csanctuary\u201d\ndenotes indicates an enrichment of the religious consciousness of which\nperhaps Ezekiel himself did not perceive the full import.\n\nThe great lesson which Ezekiel\u2019s message seeks to impress on his hearers\nis that the tenure of the land of Israel depends on religious conditions.\nThe land is Jehovah\u2019s, and He bestows it on those who are prepared to use\nit as His holiness demands. A pure land inhabited by a pure people is the\nideal that underlies all Ezekiel\u2019s visions of the future. It is evident\nthat in such a conception of the relation between God and His people\nceremonial conditions must occupy a conspicuous place. The sanctity of the\nland is necessarily of a ceremonial order, and so the sanctity of the\npeople must consist partly in a scrupulous regard for ceremonial\nrequirements. But after all the condition of the land with respect to\npurity or uncleanness only reflects the character of the nation whose home\nit is. The things that defile a land are such things as idols and other\nemblems of heathenism, innocent blood unavenged, and unnatural crimes of\nvarious kinds. These things derive their whole significance from the state\nof mind and heart which they embody; they are the plain and palpable\nemblems of human sin. It is conceivable that to some minds the outward\nemblems may have seemed the true seat of evil, and their removal an end in\nitself apart from the direction of the will by which it was brought about.\nBut it would be a mistake to charge Ezekiel with any such obliquity of\nmoral vision. Although he conceives sin as a defilement that leaves its\nmark on the material world, he clearly teaches that its essence lies in\nthe opposition of the human will to the will of God. The ceremonial purity\nrequired of every Israelite is only the expression of certain aspects of\nJehovah\u2019s holy nature, the bearing of which on man\u2019s spiritual life may\nhave been obscure to the prophet, and is still more obscure to us. And the\ntruly valuable element in compliance with such rules was the obedience to\nJehovah\u2019s expressed will which flowed from a nature in sympathy with His.\nHence in this chapter, while the first thing that the restored exiles have\nto do is to cleanse the land of its abominations, this act will be the\nexpression of a nature radically changed, doing the will of God from the\nheart. As the emblems of idolatry that defile the land were the outcome of\nan irresistible national tendency to evil, so the new and sensitive\nspirit, taking on the impress of Jehovah\u2019s holiness through the law, shall\nlead to the purification of the land from those things that had provoked\nthe eyes of His glory. \u201cThey shall come thither, and remove thence all its\ndetestable things and all its abominations. And I will give them another\nheart, and put a new spirit within them. I will take away the stony heart\nfrom their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh: that they may walk in My\nstatutes, and keep My judgments, and do them: and so shall they be My\npeople, and I will be their God\u201d (ch. xi. 18\u201020).\n\nThus in the mind of the prophet Jerusalem and its Temple are already\nvirtually destroyed. He seemed to linger in the Temple court until he saw\nthe chariot of Jehovah withdrawn from the city as a token that the glory\nhad departed from Israel. Then the ecstasy passed away, and he found\nhimself in the presence of the men to whom the hope of the future had been\noffered, but who were as yet unworthy to receive it.\n\n\n\n\nChapter VII. The End Of The Monarchy. Chapters xii. 1\u201015, xvii., xix.\n\n\nIn spite of the interest excited by Ezekiel\u2019s prophetic appearances, the\nexiles still received his prediction of the fall of Jerusalem with the\nmost stolid incredulity. It proved to be an impossible task to disabuse\ntheir minds of the prepossessions which made such an event absolutely\nincredible. True to their character as a disobedient house, they had \u201ceyes\nto see, and saw not; and ears to hear, but heard not\u201d (ch. xii. 2). They\nwere intensely interested in the strange signs he performed, and listened\nwith pleasure to his fervid oratory; but the inner meaning of it all never\nsank into their minds. Ezekiel was well aware that the cause of this\nobtuseness lay in the false ideals which nourished an overweening\nconfidence in the destiny of their nation. And these ideals were the more\ndifficult to destroy because they each contained an element of truth, so\ninterwoven with the falsehood that to the mind of the people the true and\nthe false stood and fell together. If the great vision of chs. viii.\u2010xi.\nhad accomplished its purpose, it would doubtless have taken away the main\nsupport of these delusive imaginations. But the belief in the\nindestructibility of the Temple was only one of a number of roots through\nwhich the vain confidence of the nation was fed; and so long as any of\nthese remained the people\u2019s sense of security was likely to remain. These\nspurious ideals, therefore, Ezekiel sets himself with characteristic\nthoroughness to demolish one after another.\n\nThis appears to be in the main the purpose of the third subdivision of his\nprophecies on which we now enter. It extends from ch. xii. to ch. xix.;\nand in so far as it can be taken to represent a phase of his actual spoken\nministry, it must be assigned to the fifth year before the capture of\nJerusalem (August 591\u2010August 590 B.C.). But since the passage is an\nexposition of ideas more than a narrative of experiences we may expect to\nfind that chronological consistency has been even less observed than in\nthe earlier part of the book. Each idea is presented in the completeness\nwhich it finally possessed in the prophet\u2019s mind, and his allusions may\nanticipate a state of things which had not actually arisen till a somewhat\nlater date. Beginning with a description and interpretation of two\nsymbolic actions intended to impress more vividly on the people the\ncertainty of the impending catastrophe, the prophet proceeds in a series\nof set discourses to expose the hollowness of the illusions which his\nfellow\u2010exiles cherished, such as disbelief in prophecies of evil, faith in\nthe destiny of Israel, veneration for the Davidic kingdom, and reliance on\nthe solidarity of the nation in sin and in judgment. These are the\nprincipal topics which the course of exposition will bring before us, and\nin dealing with them it will be convenient to depart from the order in\nwhich they stand in the book and adopt an arrangement according to\nsubject. By so doing we run the risk of missing the order of the ideas as\nit presented itself to the prophet\u2019s mind, and of ignoring the remarkable\nskill with which the transition from one theme to another is frequently\neffected. But if we have rightly understood the scope of the passage as a\nwhole, this will not prevent us from grasping the substance of his\nteaching or its bearing on the final message which he had to deliver. In\nthe present chapter we shall accordingly group together three passages\nwhich deal with the fate of the monarchy, and especially of Zedekiah, the\nlast king of Judah.\n\nThat reverence for the royal house would form an obstacle to the\nacceptance of such teaching as Ezekiel\u2019s was to be expected from all we\nknow of the popular feeling on this subject. The fact that the few royal\nassassinations which stain the annals of Judah were sooner or later\navenged by the people shows that the monarchy was regarded as a pillar of\nthe state, and that great importance was attached to the possession of a\ndynasty which perpetuated the glories of David\u2019s reign. And there is one\nverse in the book of Lamentations which expresses the anguish which the\nfall of the kingdom caused to godly men in Israel, although its\nrepresentative was so unworthy of his office as Zedekiah: \u201cThe breath of\nour nostrils, the anointed of Jehovah, was taken in their pits, of whom we\nsaid, Under his shadow shall we live among the nations\u201d (Lam. iv. 20). So\nlong therefore as a descendant of David sat on the throne of Jerusalem it\nwould seem the duty of every patriotic Israelite to remain true to him.\nThe continuance of the monarchy would seem to guarantee the existence of\nthe state; the prestige of Zedekiah\u2019s position as the anointed of Jehovah,\nand the heir of David\u2019s covenant, would warrant the hope that even yet\nJehovah would intervene to save an institution of His own creating.\nIndeed, we can see from Ezekiel\u2019s own pages that the historic monarchy in\nIsrael was to him an object of the highest veneration and regard. He\nspeaks of its dignity in terms whose very exaggeration shows how largely\nthe fact bulked in his imagination. He compares it to the noblest of the\nwild beasts of the earth and the most lordly tree of the forest. But his\ncontention is that this monarchy no longer exists. Except in one doubtful\npassage, he never applies the title king (_melek_) to Zedekiah. The\nkingdom came to an end with the deportation of Jehoiachin, the last king\nwho ascended the throne in legitimate succession. The present holder of\nthe office is in no sense king by divine right; he is a creature and\nvassal of Nebuchadnezzar, and has no rights against his suzerain.(30) His\nvery name had been changed by the caprice of his master. As a religious\nsymbol, therefore, the royal power is defunct; the glory has departed from\nit as surely as from the Temple. The makeshift administration organised\nunder Zedekiah had a peaceful if inglorious future before it, if it were\ncontent to recognise facts and adapt itself to its humble position. But if\nit should attempt to raise its head and assert itself as an independent\nkingdom, it would only seal its own doom. And for men in Chald\u00e6a to\ntransfer to this shadow of kingly dignity the allegiance due to the heir\nof David\u2019s house was a waste of devotion as little demanded by patriotism\nas by prudence.\n\n\n\nI\n\n\nThe first of the passages in which the fate of the monarchy is foretold\nrequires little to be said by way of explanation. It is a symbolic action\nof the kind with which we are now familiar, exhibiting the certainty of\nthe fate in store both for the people and the king. The prophet again\nbecomes a \u201csign\u201d or portent to the people\u2014this time in a character which\nevery one of his audience understood from recent experience. He is seen by\ndaylight collecting \u201carticles of captivity\u201d\u2014_i.e._, such necessary\narticles as a person going into exile would try to take with him\u2014and\nbringing them out to the door of his house. Then at dusk he breaks through\nthe wall with his goods on his shoulder; and, with face muffled, he\nremoves \u201cto another place.\u201d In this sign we have again two different facts\nindicated by a series of not entirely congruous actions. The mere act of\ncarrying out his most necessary furniture and removing from one place to\nanother suggests quite unambiguously the captivity that awaits the\ninhabitants of Jerusalem. But the accessories of the action, such as\nbreaking through the wall, the muffling of the face, and the doing of all\nthis by night, point to quite a different event\u2014viz., Zedekiah\u2019s attempt\nto break through the Chald\u00e6an lines by night, his capture, his blindness,\nand his imprisonment in Babylon. The most remarkable thing in the sign is\nthe circumstantial manner in which the details of the king\u2019s flight and\ncapture are anticipated so long before the event. Zedekiah, as we read in\nthe second book of Kings, as soon as a breach was made in the walls by the\nChald\u00e6ans, broke out with a small party of horsemen, and succeeded in\nreaching the plain of Jordan. There he was overtaken and caught, and sent\nbefore Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s presence at Riblah. The Babylonian king punished\nhis perfidy with a cruelty common enough amongst the Assyrian kings: he\ncaused his eyes to be put out, and sent him thus to end his days in prison\nat Babylon. All this is so clearly hinted at in the signs that the whole\nrepresentation is often set aside as a prophecy after the event. That is\nhardly probable, because the sign does not bear the marks of having been\noriginally conceived with the view of exhibiting the details of Zedekiah\u2019s\npunishment. But since we know that the book was written after the event,\nit is a perfectly fair question whether in the interpretation of the\nsymbols Ezekiel may not have read into it a fuller meaning than was\npresent to his own mind at the time. Thus the covering of his head does\nnot necessarily suggest anything more than the king\u2019s attempt to disguise\nhis person.(31) Possibly this was all that Ezekiel originally meant by it.\nWhen the event took place he perceived a further meaning in it as an\nallusion to the blindness inflicted on the king, and introduced this into\nthe explanation given of the symbol. The point of it lies in the\ndegradation of the king through his being reduced to such an ignominious\nmethod of securing his personal safety. \u201cThe prince that is among them\nshall bear upon his shoulder in the darkness, and shall go forth: they\nshall dig through the wall to carry out thereby: he shall cover his face,\nthat he may not be seen by any eye, and he himself shall not see the\nearth\u201d (ch. xii. 12).\n\n\n\nII\n\n\nIn ch. xvii. the fate of the monarchy is dealt with at greater length\nunder the form of an allegory. The kingdom of Judah is represented as a\ncedar in Lebanon\u2014a comparison which shows how exalted were Ezekiel\u2019s\nconceptions of the dignity of the old regime which had now passed away.\nBut the leading shoot of the tree has been cropped off by a great, broad\u2010\nwinged, speckled eagle, the king of Babylon, and carried away to a \u201cland\nof traffic, a city of merchants.\u201d(32) The insignificance of Zedekiah\u2019s\ngovernment is indicated by a harsh contrast which almost breaks the\nconsistency of the figure. In place of the cedar which he has spoiled the\neagle plants a low vine trailing on the ground, such as may be seen in\nPalestine at the present day. His intention was that \u201cits branches should\nextend towards him and its roots be under him\u201d\u2014_i.e._, that the new\nprincipality should derive all its strength from Babylon and yield all its\nproduce to the power which nourished it. For a time all went well. The\nvine answered the expectations of its owner, and prospered under the\nfavourable conditions which he had provided for it. But another great\neagle appeared on the scene, the king of Egypt, and the ungrateful vine\nbegan to send out its roots and turn its branches in his direction. The\nmeaning is obvious: Zedekiah had sent presents to Egypt and sought its\nhelp, and by so doing had violated the conditions of his tenure of royal\npower. Such a policy could not prosper. \u201cThe bed where it was planted\u201d was\nin possession of Nebuchadnezzar, and he could not tolerate there a state,\nhowever feeble, which employed the resources with which he had endowed it\nto further the interests of his rival, Hophra, the king of Egypt. Its\ndestruction shall come from the quarter whence it derived its origin:\n\u201cwhen the east wind smites it, it shall wither in the furrow where it\ngrew.\u201d\n\nThroughout this passage Ezekiel shows that he possessed in full measure\nthat penetration and detachment from local prejudices which all the\nprophets exhibit when dealing with political affairs. The interpretation\nof the riddle contains a statement of Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s policy in his\ndealings with Judah, whose impartial accuracy could not be improved on by\nthe most disinterested historian. The carrying away of the Jud\u00e6an king and\naristocracy was a heavy blow to religious susceptibilities which Ezekiel\nfully shared, and its severity was not mitigated by the arrogant\nassumptions by which it was explained in Jerusalem. Yet here he shows\nhimself capable of contemplating it as a measure of Babylonian\nstatesmanship and of doing absolute justice to the motives by which it was\ndictated. Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s purpose was to establish a petty state unable\nto raise itself to independence, and one on whose fidelity to his empire\nhe could rely. Ezekiel lays great stress on the solemn formalities by\nwhich the great king had bound his vassal to his allegiance: \u201cHe took of\nthe royal seed, and made a covenant with him, and brought him under a\ncurse; and the strong ones of the land he took away: that it might be a\nlowly kingdom, not able to lift itself up, to keep his covenant that it\nmight stand\u201d (vv. 13, 14). In all this Nebuchadnezzar is conceived as\nacting within his rights; and here lay the difference between the clear\nvision of the prophet and the infatuated policy of his contemporaries. The\npoliticians of Jerusalem were incapable of thus discerning the signs of\nthe times. They fell back on the time\u2010honoured plan of checkmating Babylon\nby means of an Egyptian alliance\u2014a policy which had been disastrous when\nattempted against the ruthless tyrants of Assyria, and which was doubly\nimbecile when it brought down on them the wrath of a monarch who showed\nevery desire to deal fairly with his subject provinces.\n\nThe period of intrigue with Egypt had already begun when this prophecy was\nwritten. We have no means of knowing how long the negotiations went on\nbefore the overt act of rebellion; and hence we cannot say with certainty\nthat the appearance of the chapter in this part of the book is an\nanachronism. It is possible that Ezekiel may have known of a secret\nmission which was not discovered by the spies of the Babylonian court; and\nthere is no difficulty in supposing that such a step may have been taken\nas early as two and a half years before the outbreak of hostilities. At\nwhatever time it took place, Ezekiel saw that it sealed the doom of the\nnation. He knew that Nebuchadnezzar could not overlook such flagrant\nperfidy as Zedekiah and his councillors had been guilty of; he knew also\nthat Egypt could render no effectual help to Jerusalem in her death\u2010\nstruggle. \u201cNot with a strong army and a great host will Pharaoh act for\nhim in the war, when mounds are thrown up, and the towers are built, to\ncut off many lives\u201d (ver. 17). The writer of the Lamentations again shows\nus how sadly the prophet\u2019s anticipation was verified: \u201cAs for us, our eyes\nas yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a\nnation that could not save us\u201d (Lam. iv. 17).\n\nBut Ezekiel will not allow it to be supposed that the fate of Jerusalem is\nmerely the result of a mistaken forecast of political probabilities. Such\na mistake had been made by Zedekiah\u2019s advisers when they trusted to Egypt\nto deliver them from Babylon, and ordinary prudence might have warned them\nagainst it. But that was the most excusable part of their folly. The thing\nthat branded their policy as infamous and put them absolutely in the wrong\nbefore God and man alike was their violation of the solemn oath by which\nthey had bound themselves to serve the king of Babylon. The prophet seizes\non this act of perjury as the determining fact of the situation, and\ncharges it home on the king as the cause of the ruin that is to overtake\nhim: \u201cThus saith Jehovah, As I live, surely _My_ oath which he hath\ndespised, and _My_ covenant which he has broken, I will return on his\nhead; and I will spread My net over him, and in My snare shall he be\ntaken, ... and ye shall know that I Jehovah have spoken it\u201d (vv. 19\u201021).\n\nIn the last three verses of the chapter the prophet returns to the\nallegory with which he commenced, and completes his oracle with a\nbeautiful picture of the ideal monarchy of the future. The ideas on which\nthe picture is framed are few and simple; but they are those which\ndistinguish the Messianic hope as cherished by the prophets from the crude\nform which it assumed in the popular imagination. In contrast to\nZedekiah\u2019s kingdom, which was a human institution without ideal\nsignificance, that of the Messianic age will be a fresh creation of\nJehovah\u2019s power. A tender shoot shall be planted in the mountain land of\nIsrael, where it shall flourish and increase until it overshadow the whole\nearth. Further, this shoot is taken from the \u201ctop of the cedar\u201d\u2014that is,\nthe section of the royal house which had been carried away to\nBabylon\u2014indicating that the hope of the future lay not with the king _de\nfacto_ Zedekiah, but with Jehoiachin and those who shared his banishment.\nThe passage leaves no doubt that Ezekiel conceived the Israel of the\nfuture as a state with a monarch at its head, although it may be doubtful\nwhether the shoot refers to a personal Messiah or to the aristocracy, who,\nalong with the king, formed the governing body in an Eastern kingdom. This\nquestion, however, can be better considered when we have to deal with\nEzekiel\u2019s Messianic conceptions in their fully developed form in ch.\nxxxiv.\n\n\n\nIII\n\n\nOf the last four kings of Judah there were two whose melancholy fate seems\nto have excited a profound feeling of pity amongst their countrymen.\nJehoahaz or Shallum, according to the Chronicler the youngest of Josiah\u2019s\nsons, appears to have been even during his father\u2019s lifetime a popular\nfavourite. It was he who after the fatal day of Megiddo was raised to the\nthrone by the \u201cpeople of the land\u201d at the age of twenty\u2010three years. He is\nsaid by the historian of the books of Kings to have done \u201cthat which was\nevil in the sight of the Lord\u201d; but he had hardly time to display his\nqualities as a ruler, when he was deposed and carried to Egypt by Pharaoh\nNecho, having worn the crown for only three months (608 B.C.). The deep\nattachment felt for him seems to have given rise to an expectation that he\nwould be restored to his kingdom, a delusion against which the prophet\nJeremiah found it necessary to protest (Jer. xxii. 10\u201012). He was\nsucceeded by his elder brother, Eliakim,(33) the headstrong and selfish\ntyrant, whose character stands revealed in some passages of the books of\nJeremiah and Habakkuk. His reign of nine years gave little occasion to his\nsubjects to cherish a grateful memory of his administration. He died in\nthe crisis of the conflict he had provoked with the king of Babylon,\nleaving his youthful son Jehoiachin to expiate the folly of his rebellion.\nJehoiachin is the second idol of the populace to whom we have referred. He\nwas only eighteen years old when he was called to the throne, and within\nthree months he was doomed to exile in Babylon. In his room Nebuchadnezzar\nappointed a third son of Josiah\u2014Mattaniah\u2014whose name he changed to\nZedekiah. He was apparently a man of weak and vacillating character; but\nhe fell ultimately into the hands of the Egyptian and anti\u2010prophetic\nparty, and so was the means of involving his country in the hopeless\nstruggle in which it perished.\n\nThe fact that two of their native princes were languishing, perhaps\nsimultaneously, in foreign confinement, one in Egypt and the other in\nBabylon, was fitted to evoke in Judah a sympathy with the misfortunes of\nroyalty something like the feeling embalmed in the Jacobite songs of\nScotland. It seems to be an echo of this sentiment that we find in the\nfirst part of the lament with which Ezekiel closes his references to the\nfall of the monarchy (ch. xix.). Many critics have indeed found it\nimpossible to suppose that Ezekiel should in any sense have yielded to\nsympathy with the fate of two princes who are both branded in the\nhistorical books as idolaters, and whose calamities on Ezekiel\u2019s own view\nof individual retribution proved them to be sinners against Jehovah. Yet\nit is certainly unnatural to read the dirge in any other sense than as an\nexpression of genuine pity for the woes that the nation suffered in the\nfate of her two exiled kings. If Jeremiah, in pronouncing the doom of\nShallum or Jehoahaz, could say, \u201cWeep ye sore for him that goeth away; for\nhe shall not return any more, nor see his native country,\u201d there is no\nreason why Ezekiel should not have given lyrical expression to the\nuniversal feeling of sadness which the blighted career of these two youths\nnaturally produced. The whole passage is highly poetical, and represents a\nside of Ezekiel\u2019s nature which we have not hitherto been led to study. But\nit is too much to expect of even the most logical of prophets that he\nshould experience no personal emotion but what fitted into his system, or\nthat his poetic gift should be chained to the wheels of his theological\nconvictions. The dirge expresses no moral judgment on the character or\ndeserts of the two kings to which it refers: it has but one theme\u2014the\nsorrow and disappointment of the \u201cmother\u201d who nurtured and lost them, that\nis, the nation of Israel personified according to a usual Hebrew figure of\nspeech. All attempts to go beyond this and to find in the poem an\nallegorical portrait of Jehoahaz and Jehoiachin are irrelevant. The mother\nis a lioness, the princes are young lions and behave as stalwart young\nlions do, but whether their exploits are praiseworthy or the reverse is a\nquestion that was not present to the writer\u2019s mind.\n\nThe chapter is entitled \u201cA Dirge on the Princes of Israel,\u201d and embraces\nnot only the fate of Jehoahaz and Jehoiachin, but also of Zedekiah, with\nwhom the old monarchy expired. Strictly speaking, however, the name\n_q\u00eenah_, or dirge, is applicable only to the first part of the chapter\n(vv. 2\u20109), where the rhythm characteristic of the Hebrew elegy is clearly\ntraceable.(34) With a few slight changes of the text(35) the passage may\nbe translated thus:\u2014\n\n\n    i. _Jehoahaz._\n\n    How was thy mother a lioness!\u2014\n              Among the lions,\n    In the midst of young lions she couched\u2014\n              She reared her cubs;\n    And she brought up one of her cubs\u2014\n              A young lion he became,\n    And he learned to catch the prey\u2014\n              He ate men.\n\n    And nations raised a cry against him\u2014\n                In their pit he was caught;\n    And they brought him with hooks\u2014\n                To the land of Egypt (vv. 2\u20104).\n\n    ii. _Jehoiachin._\n\n    And when she saw that she was disappointed(36)\u2014\n              Her hope was lost.\n    She took another of her cubs\u2014\n              A young lion she made him;\n    And he walked in the midst of lions\u2014\n              A young lion he became;\n    And he learned to catch prey\u2014\n              He ate men.\n\n    And he lurked in his lair\u2014\n              The forests he ravaged;\n    Till the land was laid waste and its fulness\u2014\n              With the noise of his roar.\n\n    The nations arrayed themselves against him\u2014\n              From the countries around;\n    And spread over him their net\u2014\n                In their pit he was caught.\n    And they brought him with hooks\u2014\n                To the king of Babylon;\n    And he put him in a cage, ...\n    That his voice might no more be heard\u2014\n                On the mountains of Israel (vv. 5\u20109).\n\n\nThe poetry here is simple and sincere. The mournful cadence of the elegiac\nmeasure, which is maintained throughout, is adapted to the tone of\nmelancholy which pervades the passage and culminates in the last beautiful\nline. The dirge is a form of composition often employed in songs of\ntriumph over the calamities of enemies; but there is no reason to doubt\nthat here it is true to its original purpose, and expresses genuine sorrow\nfor the accumulated misfortunes of the royal house of Israel.\n\nThe closing part of the \u201cdirge\u201d dealing with Zedekiah is of a somewhat\ndifferent character. The theme is similar, but the figure is abruptly\nchanged, and the elegiac rhythm is abandoned. The nation, the mother of\nthe monarchy, is here compared to a luxuriant vine planted beside great\nwaters; and the royal house is likened to a branch towering above the rest\nand bearing rods which were kingly sceptres. But she has been plucked up\nby the roots, withered, scorched by the fire, and finally planted in an\narid region where she cannot thrive. The application of the metaphor to\nthe ruin of the nation is very obvious. Israel, once a prosperous nation,\nrichly endowed with all the conditions of a vigorous national life, and\nglorying in her race of native kings, is now humbled to the dust.\nMisfortune after misfortune has destroyed her power and blighted her\nprospects, till at last she has been removed from her own land to a place\nwhere national life cannot be maintained. But the point of the passage\nlies in the closing words: fire went out from one of her twigs and\nconsumed her branches, so that she has no longer a proud rod to be a\nruler\u2019s sceptre (ver. 14). The monarchy, once the glory and strength of\nIsrael, has in its last degenerate representative involved the nation in\nruin.\n\nSuch is Ezekiel\u2019s final answer to those of his hearers who clung to the\nold Davidic kingdom as their hope in the crisis of the people\u2019s fate.\n\n\n\n\nChapter VIII. Prophecy And Its Abuses. Chapters xii. 21\u2010xiv. 11.\n\n\nThere is perhaps nothing more perplexing to the student of Old Testament\nhistory than the complicated phenomena which may be classed under the\ngeneral name of \u201cprophecy.\u201d In Israel, as in every ancient state, there\nwas a body of men who sought to influence public opinion by\nprognostications of the future. As a rule the repute of all kinds of\ndivination declined with the advance of civilisation and general\nintelligence, so that in the more enlightened communities matters of\nimportance came to be decided on broad grounds of reason and political\nexpediency. The peculiarity in the case of Israel was that the very\nhighest direction in politics, as well as religion and morals, was given\nin a form capable of being confounded with superstitious practices which\nflourished alongside of it. The true prophets were not merely profound\nmoral thinkers, who announced a certain issue as the probable result of a\ncertain line of conduct. In many cases their predictions are absolute, and\ntheir political programme is an appeal to the nation to accept the\nsituation which they foresee, as the basis of its public action. For this\nreason prophecy was readily brought into competition with practices with\nwhich it had really nothing in common. The ordinary individual who cared\nlittle for principles and only wished to know what was likely to happen\nmight readily think that one way of arriving at knowledge of the future\nwas as good as another, and when the spiritual prophet\u2019s anticipations\ndispleased him he was apt to try his luck with the sorcerer. It is not\nimprobable that in the last days of the monarchy spurious prophecy of\nvarious kinds gained an additional vitality from its rivalry with the\ngreat spiritual teachers who in the name of Jehovah foretold the ruin of\nthe state.\n\nThis is not the place for an exhaustive account of the varied developments\nin Israel of what may be broadly termed prophetic manifestations. For the\nunderstanding of the section of Ezekiel now before us it will be enough to\ndistinguish three classes of phenomena. At the lowest end of the scale\nthere was a rank growth of pure magic or sorcery, the ruling idea of which\nis the attempt to control or forecast the future by occult arts which are\nbelieved to influence the supernatural powers which govern human destiny.\nIn the second place we have prophecy in a stricter sense\u2014that is, the\nsupposed revelation of the will of the deity in dreams or \u201cvisions\u201d or\nhalf\u2010articulate words uttered in a state of frenzy. Last of all there is\nthe true prophet, who, though subject to extraordinary mental experiences,\nyet had always a clear and conscious grasp of moral principles, and\npossessed an incommunicable certainty that what he spoke was not his own\nword but the word of Jehovah.\n\nIt is obvious that a people subjected to such influences as these was\nexposed to temptations both intellectual and moral from which modern life\nis exempt. One thing is certain\u2014the existence of prophecy did not tend to\nsimplify the problems of national life or individual conduct. We are apt\nto think of the great prophets as men so signally marked out by God as His\nwitnesses that it must have been impossible for any one with a shred of\nsincerity to question their authority. In reality it was quite otherwise.\nIt was no more an easy thing then than now to distinguish between truth\nand error, between the voice of God and the speculations of men. Then, as\nnow, divine truth had no available credentials at the moment of its\nutterance except its self\u2010evidencing power on hearts that were sincere in\ntheir desire to know it. The fact that truth came in the guise of prophecy\nonly stimulated the growth of counterfeit prophecy, so that only those who\nwere \u201cof the truth\u201d could discern the spirits, whether they were of God.\n\nThe passage which forms the subject of this chapter is one of the most\nimportant passages of the Old Testament in its treatment of the errors and\nabuses incident to a dispensation of prophecy. It consists of three parts:\nthe first deals with difficulties occasioned by the apparent failure of\nprophecy (ch. xii. 21\u201028); the second with the character and doom of the\nfalse prophets (ch. xiii.); and the third with the state of mind which\nmade a right use of prophecy impossible (ch. xiv. 1\u201011).\n\n\n\nI\n\n\nIt is one of Ezekiel\u2019s peculiarities that he pays close attention to the\nproverbial sayings which indicated the drift of the national mind. Such\nsayings were like straws, showing how the stream flowed, and had a special\nsignificance for Ezekiel, inasmuch as he was not in the stream himself,\nbut only observed its motions from a distance. Here he quotes a current\nproverb, giving expression to a sense of the futility of all prophetic\nwarnings: \u201cThe days are drawn out, and every vision faileth\u201d (ch. xii.\n22). It is difficult to say what the feeling is that lies behind it,\nwhether it is one of disappointment or of relief. If, as seems probable,\nver. 27 is the application of the general principle to the particular case\nof Ezekiel, the proverb need not indicate absolute disbelief in the truth\nof prophecy. \u201cThe vision which he sees is for many days, and remote times\ndoes he prophesy\u201d\u2014that is to say, The prophet\u2019s words are no doubt\nperfectly true, and come from God; but no man can ever tell when they are\nto be fulfilled: all experience shows that they relate to a remote future\nwhich we are not likely to see. For men whose concern was to find\ndirection in the present emergency, that was no doubt equivalent to a\nrenunciation of the guidance of prophecy.\n\nThere are several things which may have tended to give currency to this\nview and make it plausible. First of all, of course, the fact that many of\nthe \u201cvisions\u201d that were published had nothing in them; they were false in\ntheir origin, and were bound to fail. Accordingly one thing necessary to\nrescue prophecy from the discredit into which it had fallen was the\nremoval of those who uttered false predictions in the name of Jehovah:\n\u201cThere shall no more be any false vision or flattering divination in the\nmidst of the house of Israel\u201d (ver. 24). But besides the prevalence of\nfalse prophecy there were features of true prophecy which partly explained\nthe common misgiving as to its trustworthiness. Even in true prophecy\nthere is an element of idealism, the future being depicted in forms\nderived from the prophet\u2019s circumstances, and represented as the immediate\ncontinuation of the events of his own time. In support of the proverb it\nmight have been equally apt to instance the Messianic oracles of Isaiah,\nor the confident predictions of Hananiah, the opponent of Jeremiah.\nFurther, there is a contingent element in prophecy: the fulfilment of a\nthreat or promise is conditional on the moral effect of the prophecy\nitself on the people. These things were perfectly understood by thoughtful\nmen in Israel. The principle of contingency is clearly expounded in the\neighteenth chapter of Jeremiah, and it was acted on by the princes who on\na memorable occasion saved him from the doom of a false prophet (Jer.\nxxvi.). Those who used prophecy to determine their practical attitude\ntowards Jehovah\u2019s purposes found it to be an unerring guide to right\nthinking and action. But those who only took a curious interest in\nquestions of external fulfilment found much to disconcert them; and it is\nhardly surprising that many of them became utterly sceptical of its divine\norigin. It must have been to this turn of mind that the proverb with which\nEzekiel is dealing owed its origin.\n\nIt is not on these lines, however, that Ezekiel vindicates the truth of\nthe prophetic word, but on lines adapted to the needs of his own\ngeneration. After all, prophecy is not wholly contingent. The bent of the\npopular character is one of the elements which it takes into account, and\nit foresees an issue which is not dependent on anything that Israel might\ndo. The prophets rise to a point of view from which the destruction of the\nsinful people and the establishment of a perfect kingdom of God are seen\nto be facts unalterably decreed by Jehovah. And the point of Ezekiel\u2019s\nanswer to his contemporaries seems to be that a final demonstration of the\ntruth of prophecy was at hand. As the fulfilment drew near, prophecy would\nincrease in distinctness and precision, so that when the catastrophe came\nit would be impossible for any man to deny the inspiration of those who\nhad announced it: \u201cThus saith Jehovah, I will suppress this proverb, and\nit shall no more circulate in Israel; but say unto them, The days are\nnear, and the content [literally _word_ or _matter_] of every vision\u201d\n(ver. 23). After the extinction of every form of lying prophecy, Jehovah\u2019s\nwords shall still be heard, and the proclamation of them shall be\nimmediately followed by their accomplishment: \u201cFor I Jehovah will speak My\nwords; I will speak and perform, it shall not be deferred any more: in\nyour days, O house of rebellion, I will speak a word and perform it, saith\nJehovah\u201d (ver. 25). The immediate reference is to the destruction of\nJerusalem which the prophet saw to be one of those events which were\nunconditionally decreed, and an event which must bulk more and more\nlargely in the vision of the true prophet until it was accomplished.\n\n\n\nII\n\n\nThe thirteenth chapter deals with what was undoubtedly the greatest\nobstacle to the influence of prophecy\u2014viz., the existence of a division in\nthe ranks of the prophets themselves. That division had been of long\nstanding. The earliest indication of it is the story of the contest\nbetween Micaiah and four hundred prophets of Jehovah, in presence of Ahab\nand Jehoshaphat (1 Kings xxii. 5\u201028). All the canonical prophets show in\ntheir writings that they had to contend against the mass of the prophetic\norder\u2014men who claimed an authority equal to theirs, but used it for\ndiametrically opposite interests. It is not, however, till we come to\nJeremiah and Ezekiel that we find a formal apologetic of true prophecy\nagainst false. The problem was serious: where two sets of prophets\nsystematically and fundamentally contradicted each other, both might be\nfalse, but both could not be true. The prophet who was convinced of the\ntruth of his own visions must be prepared to account for the rise of false\nvisions, and to lay down some criterion by which men might discriminate\nbetween the one and the other. Jeremiah\u2019s treatment of the question is of\nthe two perhaps the more profound and interesting. It is thus summarised\nby Professor Davidson: \u201cIn his encounters with the prophets of his day\nJeremiah opposes them in three spheres\u2014that of policy, that of morals, and\nthat of personal experience. In policy the genuine prophets had some fixed\nprinciples, all arising out of the idea that the kingdom of the Lord was\nnot a kingdom of this world. Hence they opposed military preparation,\nriding on horses, and building of fenced cities, and counselled trust in\nJehovah.... The false prophets, on the other hand, desired their country\nto be a military power among the powers around, they advocated alliance\nwith the eastern empires and with Egypt, and relied on their national\nstrength. Again, the true prophets had a stringent personal and state\nmorality. In their view the true cause of the destruction of the state was\nits immoralities. But the false prophets had no such deep moral\nconvictions, and seeing nothing unwonted or alarming in the condition of\nthings prophesied of \u2018peace.\u2019 They were not necessarily irreligious men;\nbut their religion had no truer insight into the nature of the God of\nIsrael than that of the common people.... And finally Jeremiah expresses\nhis conviction that the prophets whom he opposed did not stand in the same\nrelation to the Lord as he did: they had not his experiences of the word\nof the Lord, into whose counsel they had not been admitted; and they were\nwithout that fellowship of mind with the mind of Jehovah which was the\ntrue source of prophecy. Hence he satirises their pretended supernatural\n\u2018dreams,\u2019 and charges them from conscious want of any true prophetic word\nwith stealing words from one another.\u201d(37)\n\nThe passages in Jeremiah on which this statement is mainly founded may\nhave been known to Ezekiel, who in this matter, as in so many others,\nfollows the lines laid down by the elder prophet.\n\nThe first thing, then, that deserves attention in Ezekiel\u2019s judgment on\nfalse prophecy is his assertion of its purely subjective or human origin.\nIn the opening sentence he pronounces a woe upon the prophets \u201cwho\nprophesy _from their own mind_ without having seen\u201d(38) (ver. 3). The\nwords put in italics sum up Ezekiel\u2019s theory of the genesis of false\nprophecy. The visions these men see and the oracles they utter simply\nreproduce the thoughts, the emotions, the aspirations, natural to their\nown minds. That the ideas came to them in a peculiar form, which was\nmistaken for the direct action of Jehovah, Ezekiel does not deny. He\nadmits that the men were sincere in their professions, for he describes\nthem as \u201cwaiting for the fulfilment of the word\u201d (ver. 6). But in this\nbelief they were the victims of a delusion. Whatever there might be in\ntheir prophetic experiences that resembled those of a true prophet, there\nwas nothing in their oracles that did not belong to the sphere of worldly\ninterests and human speculation.\n\nIf we ask how Ezekiel knew this, the only possible answer is that he knew\nit because he was sure of the source of his own inspiration. He possessed\nan inward experience which certified to him the genuineness of the\ncommunications which came to him, and he necessarily inferred that those\nwho held different beliefs about God must lack that experience. Thus far\nhis criticism of false prophecy is purely subjective. The true prophet\nknew that he had that within him which authenticated his inspiration, but\nthe false prophet could not know that he wanted it. The difficulty is not\npeculiar to prophecy, but arises in connection with religious belief as a\nwhole. It is an interesting question whether the assent to a truth is\naccompanied by a feeling of certitude differing in quality from the\nconfidence which a man may have in giving his assent to a delusion. But it\nis not possible to elevate this internal criterion to an objective test of\ntruth. A man who is awake may be quite sure he is not dreaming, but a man\nin a dream may readily enough fancy himself awake.\n\nBut there were other and more obvious tests which could be applied to the\nprofessional prophets, and which at least showed them to be men of a\ndifferent spirit from the few who were \u201cfull of power by the spirit of the\nLord, and of judgment, and of might, to declare to Israel his sin\u201d (Mic.\niii. 8). In two graphic figures Ezekiel sums up the character and policy\nof these parasites who disgraced the order to which they belonged. In the\nfirst place he compares them to jackals burrowing in ruins and undermining\nthe fabric which it was their professed function to uphold (vv. 4, 5). The\nexistence of such a class of men is at once a symptom of advanced social\ndegeneration and a cause of greater ruin to follow. A true prophet\nfearlessly speaking the words of God is a defence to the state; he is like\na man who stands in the breach or builds a wall to ward off the danger\nwhich he foresees. Such were all genuine prophets whose names were held in\nhonour in Israel\u2014men of moral courage, never hesitating to incur personal\nrisk for the welfare of the nation they loved. If Israel now was like a\nheap of ruins, the fault lay with the selfish crowd of hireling prophets\nwho had cared more to find a hole in which they could shelter themselves\nthan to build up a stable and righteous polity.\n\nThe prophet\u2019s simile calls to mind the type of churchman represented by\nBishop Blougram in Browning\u2019s powerful satire. He is one who is content if\nthe corporation to which he belongs can provide him with a comfortable and\ndignified position in which he can spend good days; he is triumphant if,\nin addition to this, he can defy any one to prove him more of a fool or a\nhypocrite than an average man of the world. Such utter abnegation of\nintellectual sincerity may not be common in any Church; but the temptation\nwhich leads to it is one to which ecclesiastics are exposed in every age\nand every communion. The tendency to shirk difficult problems, to shut\none\u2019s eyes to grave evils, to acquiesce in things as they are, and\ncalculate that the ruin will last one\u2019s own time, is what Ezekiel calls\nplaying the jackal; and it hardly needs a prophet to tell us that there\ncould not be a more fatal symptom of the decay of religion than the\nprevalence of such a spirit in its official representatives.\n\nThe second image is equally suggestive. It exhibits the false prophets as\nfollowing where they pretended to lead, as aiding and abetting the men\ninto whose hands the reins of government had fallen. The people build a\nwall and the prophets cover it with plaster (ver. 10)\u2014that is to say, when\nany project or scheme of policy is being promoted they stand by glozing it\nover with fine words, flattering its promoters, and uttering profuse\nassurances of its success. The uselessness of the whole activity of these\nprophets could not be more vividly described. The white\u2010washing of the\nwall may hide its defects, but will not prevent its destruction; and when\nthe wall of Jerusalem\u2019s shaky prosperity tumbles down, those who did so\nlittle to build and so much to deceive shall be overwhelmed with\nconfusion. \u201cBehold, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said to them,\nWhere is the plaster which ye plastered?\u201d (ver. 12).\n\nThis will be the beginning of the judgment on false prophets in Israel.\nThe overthrow of their vaticinations, the collapse of the hopes they\nfostered, and the demolition of the edifice in which they found a refuge\nshall leave them no more a name or a place in the people of God. \u201cI will\nstretch out My hand against the prophets that see vanity and divine\nfalsely: in the council of My people they shall not be, and in the\nregister of the house of Israel they shall not be written, and into the\nland of Israel they shall not come\u201d (ver. 9).\n\nThere was, however, a still more degraded type of prophecy, practised\nchiefly by women, which must have been exceedingly prevalent in Ezekiel\u2019s\ntime. The prophets spoken of in the first sixteen verses were public\nfunctionaries who exerted their evil influence in the arena of politics.\nThe prophetesses spoken of in the latter part of the chapter are private\nfortune\u2010tellers who practised on the credulity of individuals who\nconsulted them. Their art was evidently magical in the strict sense, a\ntrafficking with the dark powers which were supposed to enter into\nalliance with men irrespective of moral considerations. Then, as now, such\ncourses were followed for gain, and doubtless proved a lucrative means of\nlivelihood. The \u201cfillets\u201d and \u201cveils\u201d mentioned in ver. 18 are either a\nprofessional garb worn by the women, or else implements of divination\nwhose precise significance cannot now be ascertained. To the imagination\nof the prophet they appear as the snares and weapons with which these\nwretched creatures \u201chunted souls\u201d; and the extent of the evil which he\nattacks is indicated by his speaking of the whole people as being\nentangled in their meshes. Ezekiel naturally bestows special attention on\na class of practitioners whose whole influence tended to efface moral\nlandmarks and to deal out to men weal or woe without regard to character.\n\u201cThey slew souls that should not die, and saved alive souls that should\nnot live; they made sad the heart of the righteous, and strengthened the\nhands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way and be\nsaved alive\u201d (ver. 22). That is to say, while Ezekiel and all true\nprophets were exhorting men to live resolutely in the light of clear\nethical conceptions of providence, the votaries of occult superstitions\nseduced the ignorant into making private compacts with the powers of\ndarkness in order to secure their personal safety. If the prevalence of\nsorcery and witchcraft was at all times dangerous to the religion and\npublic order of the state, it was doubly so at a time when, as Ezekiel\nperceived, everything depended on maintaining the strict rectitude of God\nin His dealings with individual men.\n\n\n\nIII\n\n\nHaving thus disposed of the external manifestations of false prophecy,\nEzekiel proceeds in the fourteenth chapter to deal with the state of mind\namongst the people at large which rendered such a condition of things\npossible. The general import of the passage is clear, although the precise\nconnection of ideas is somewhat difficult to explain. The following\nobservations may suffice to bring out all that is essential to the\nunderstanding of the section.\n\nThe oracle was occasioned by a particular incident, undoubtedly\nhistorical\u2014namely, a visit, such as was perhaps now common, from the\nelders to inquire of the Lord through Ezekiel. As they sit before him it\nis revealed to the prophet that the minds of these men are preoccupied\nwith idolatry, and therefore it is not fitting that any answer should be\ngiven to them by a prophet of Jehovah. Apparently no answer _was_ given by\nEzekiel to the particular question they had asked, whatever it may have\nbeen. Generalising from the incident, however, he is led to enunciate a\nprinciple regulating the intercourse between Jehovah and Israel through\nthe medium of a prophet: \u201cWhatever man of the house of Israel sets his\nthoughts upon his idols, and puts his guilty stumbling\u2010block before him,\nand comes to the prophet, I Jehovah will make Myself intelligible to\nhim;(39) that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because\nthey are all estranged from Me by their idols\u201d (vv. 4, 5). It seems clear\nthat one part of the threat here uttered is that the very withholding of\nthe answer will unmask the hypocrisy of men who pretend to be worshippers\nof Jehovah, but in heart are unfaithful to Him and servants of false gods.\nThe moral principle involved in the prophet\u2019s dictum is clear and of\nlasting value. It is that for a false heart there can be no fellowship\nwith Jehovah, and therefore no true and sure knowledge of His will. The\nprophet occupies the point of view of Jehovah, and when consulted by an\nidolater he finds it impossible to enter into the point of view from which\nthe question is put, and therefore cannot answer it.(40) Ezekiel assumes\nfor the most part that the prophet consulted is a true prophet of Jehovah\nlike himself, who will give no answer to such questions as he has before\nhim. He must, however, allow for the possibility that men of this stamp\nmay receive answers in the name of Jehovah from those reputed to be His\ntrue prophets. In that case, says Ezekiel, the prophet is \u201cdeceived\u201d by\nGod; he is allowed to give a response which is not a true response at all,\nbut only confirms the people in their delusions and unbelief. But this\ndeception does not take place until the prophet has incurred the guilt of\ndeceiving himself in the first instance. It is his fault that he has not\nperceived the bent of his questioners\u2019 minds, that he has accommodated\nhimself to their ways of thought, has consented to occupy their standpoint\nin order to be able to say something coinciding with the drift of their\nwishes. Prophet and inquirers are involved in a common guilt and share a\ncommon fate, both being sentenced to exclusion from the commonwealth of\nIsrael.\n\nThe purification of the institution of prophecy necessarily appeared to\nEzekiel as an indispensable feature in the restoration of the theocracy.\nThe ideal of Israel\u2019s relation to Jehovah is \u201cthat they may be My people,\nand that I may be their God\u201d (ver. 11). That implies that Jehovah shall be\nthe source of infallible guidance in all things needful for the religious\nlife of the individual and the guidance of the state. But it was\nimpossible for Jehovah to be to Israel all that a God should be, so long\nas the regular channels of communication between Him and the nation were\nchoked by false conceptions in the minds of the people and false men in\nthe position of prophets. Hence the constitution of a new Israel demands\nsuch special judgments on false prophecy and the false use of true\nprophecy as have been denounced in these chapters. When these judgments\nhave been executed, the ideal will have become possible which is described\nin the words of another prophet: \u201cThine eyes shall see thy teachers: and\nthine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye\nin it\u201d (Isa. xxx. 20, 21).\n\n\n\n\nChapter IX. Jerusalem\u2014An Ideal History. Chapter xvi.\n\n\nIn order to understand the place which the sixteenth chapter occupies in\nthis section(41) of the book, we must remember that a chief source of the\nantagonism between Ezekiel and his hearers was the proud national\nconsciousness which sustained the courage of the people through all their\nhumiliations. There were, perhaps, few nations of antiquity in which the\nflame of patriotic feeling burned more brightly than in Israel. No people\nwith a past such as theirs could be indifferent to the many elements of\ngreatness embalmed in their history. The beauty and fertility of their\nland, the martial exploits and signal deliverances of the nation, the\ngreat kings and heroes she had reared, her prophets and lawgivers\u2014these\nand many other stirring memories were witnesses to Jehovah\u2019s peculiar love\nfor Israel and His power to exalt and bless His people. To cherish a deep\nsense of the unique privileges which Jehovah had conferred on her in\ngiving her a distinct place among the nations of the earth was thus a\nreligious duty often insisted on in the Old Testament. But in order that\nthis sense might work for good it was necessary that it should take the\nform of grateful recognition of Jehovah as the source of the nation\u2019s\ngreatness, and be accompanied by a true knowledge of His character. When\nallied with false conceptions of Jehovah\u2019s nature, or entirely divorced\nfrom religion, patriotism degenerated into racial prejudice and became a\nserious moral and political danger. That this had actually taken place is\na common complaint of the prophets. They feel that national vanity is a\ngreat obstacle to the acceptance of their message, and pour forth bitter\nand scornful words intended to humble the pride of Israel to the dust. No\nprophet addresses himself to the task so remorselessly as Ezekiel. The\nutter worthlessness of Israel, both absolutely in the eyes of Jehovah and\nrelatively in comparison with other nations, is asserted by him with a\nboldness and emphasis which at first startle us. From a different point of\nview prophecy and its results might have been regarded as fruits of the\nnational life, under the divine education vouchsafed to that people. But\nthat is not Ezekiel\u2019s standpoint. He seizes on the fact that prophecy was\nin opposition to the natural genius of the people, and was not to be\nregarded as in any sense an expression of it. Accepting the final attitude\nof Israel toward the word of Jehovah as the genuine outcome of her natural\nproclivities, he reads her past as an unbroken record of ingratitude and\ninfidelity. All that was good in Israel was Jehovah\u2019s gift, freely\nbestowed and justly withdrawn; all that was Israel\u2019s own was her weakness\nand her sin. It was reserved for a later prophet to reconcile the\ncondemnation of Israel\u2019s actual history with the recognition of the divine\npower working there and moulding a spiritual kernel of the nation into a\ntrue \u201cservant of the Lord\u201d (Isa. xl. ff.).\n\nIn chs. xv. and xvi., therefore, the prophet exposes the hollowness of\nIsrael\u2019s confidence in her national destiny. The first of these appears to\nbe directed against the vain hopes cherished in Jerusalem at the time. It\nis not necessary to dwell on it at length. The image is simple and its\napplication to Jerusalem obvious. Earlier prophets had compared Israel to\na vine, partly to set forth the exceptional privileges she enjoyed, but\nchiefly to emphasise the degeneration she had undergone, as shown by the\nbad moral fruits which she had borne (cf. Isa. v. 1 ff.; Jer. ii. 21; Hos.\nx. 1). The popular imagination had laid hold of the thought that Israel\nwas the vine of God\u2019s planting, ignoring the question of the fruit. But\nEzekiel reminds his hearers that apart from its fruit the vine is the most\nworthless of trees. Even at the best its wood can be employed for no\nuseful purpose; it is fit only for fuel. Such was the people of Israel,\nconsidered simply as a state among other states, without regard to its\nreligious vocation. Even in its pristine vigour, when the national\nenergies were fresh and unimpaired, it was but a weak nation, incapable of\nattaining the dignity of a great power. But now the strength of the nation\nhas been worn away by a long succession of disasters, until only a shadow\nof her former glory remains. Israel is no longer like a green and living\nvine, but like a branch burned at both ends and charred in the middle, and\ntherefore doubly unfit for any worthy function in the affairs of the\nworld. By the help of this illustration men may read in the present state\nof the nation the irrevocable sentence of rejection which Jehovah has\npassed on His people.\n\nWe now turn to the striking allegory of ch. xvi., where the same subject\nis treated with far greater penetration and depth of feeling. There is no\npassage in the book of Ezekiel at once so powerful and so full of\nreligious significance as the picture of Jerusalem, the foundling child,\nthe unfaithful spouse, and the abandoned prostitute, which is here\npresented. The general conception is one that might have been presented in\na form as beautiful as it is spiritually true. But the features which\noffend our sense of propriety are perhaps introduced with a stern purpose.\nIt is the deliberate intention of Ezekiel to present Jerusalem\u2019s\nwickedness in the most repulsive light, in order that if possible he might\nstartle men into abhorrence of their national sin. In his own mind the\nfeelings of moral indignation and physical disgust were very close\ntogether, and here he seems to work on the minds of his readers, so that\nthe feeling excited by the image may call forth the feeling appropriate to\nthe reality.\n\nThe allegory is a highly idealised history of the city of Jerusalem from\nits origin to its destruction, and then onward to its future restoration.\nIt falls naturally into four divisions:\u2014\n\ni. Vv. 1\u201014.\u2014The first emergence of Jerusalem into civic life is compared\nto a new\u2010born female infant, exposed to perish, after a cruel custom which\nis known to have prevailed among some Semitic tribes. None of the offices\ncustomary on the birth of a child were performed in her case, whether\nthose necessary to preserve life or those which had a merely ceremonial\nsignificance. Unblessed and unpitied she lay in the open field, weltering\nin blood, exciting only repugnance in all who passed by, until Jehovah\nHimself passed by, and pronounced over her the decree that she should\nlive. Thus saved from death, she grew up and reached maturity, but still\n\u201cnaked and bare,\u201d destitute of wealth and the refinements of civilisation.\nThese were bestowed on her when a second time Jehovah passed by and spread\nHis skirt over her, and claimed her for His own. Not till then had she\nbeen treated as a human being, with the possibilities of honourable life\nbefore her. But now she becomes the bride of her protector, and is\nprovided for as a high\u2010born maiden might be, with all the ornaments and\nluxuries befitting her new rank. Lifted from the lowest depth of\ndegradation, she is now transcendently beautiful, and has \u201cattained to\nroyal estate.\u201d The fame of her loveliness went abroad among the nations:\n\u201cfor it was perfect through My glory, which I put upon thee, saith\nJehovah\u201d (ver. 14).\n\nIt will be seen that the points of contact with actual history are here\nextremely few as well as vague. It is indeed doubtful whether the subject\nof the allegory be the city of Jerusalem conceived as one through all its\nchanges of population, or the Hebrew nation of which Jerusalem ultimately\nbecame the capital. The latter interpretation is certainly favoured by ch.\nxxiii., where both Jerusalem and Samaria are represented as having spent\ntheir youth in Egypt. That parallel may not be decisive as to the meaning\nof ch. xvi.; and the statement \u201cthy father was the Amorite and thy mother\nan Hittite\u201d may be thought to support the other alternative. Amorite and\nHittite are general names for the pre\u2010Israelite population of Canaan, and\nit is a well\u2010known fact that Jerusalem was originally a Canaanitish city.\nIt is not necessary to suppose that the prophet has any information about\nthe early fortunes of Jerusalem when he describes the stages of the\nprocess by which she was raised to royal magnificence. The chief question\nis whether these details can be fairly applied to the history of the\nnation before it had Jerusalem as its metropolis. It is usually held that\nthe first \u201cpassing by\u201d of Jehovah refers to the preservation of the people\nin the patriarchal period, and the second to the events of the Exodus and\nthe Sinaitic covenant. Against this it may be urged that Ezekiel would\nhardly have presented the patriarchal period in a hateful light, although\nhe does go further in discrediting antiquity than any other prophet.\nBesides, the description of Jerusalem\u2019s betrothal to Jehovah contains\npoints which are more naturally understood of the glories of the age of\nDavid and Solomon than of the events of Sinai, which were not accompanied\nby an access of material prosperity such as is suggested. It may be\nnecessary to leave the matter in the vagueness with which the prophet has\nsurrounded it, and accept as the teaching of the allegory the simple truth\nthat Jerusalem in herself was nothing, but had been preserved in existence\nby Jehovah\u2019s will, and owed all her splendour to her association with His\ncause and His kingdom.\n\nii. Vv. 15\u201034.\u2014The dainties and rich attire enjoyed by the highly favoured\nbride become a snare to her. These represent blessings of a material order\nbestowed by Jehovah on Jerusalem. Throughout the chapter nothing is said\nof the imparting of spiritual privileges, or of a moral change wrought in\nthe heart of Jerusalem. The gifts of Jehovah are conferred on one\nincapable of responding to the care and affection that had been lavished\non her. The inborn taint of her nature, the hereditary immorality of her\nheathen ancestors, breaks out in a career of licentiousness in which all\nthe advantages of her proud position are prostituted to the vilest ends.\n\u201cAs is the mother, so is her daughter\u201d (ver. 44); and Jerusalem betrayed\nher true origin by the readiness with which she took to evil courses as\nsoon as she had the opportunity. The \u201cwhoredom\u201d in which the prophet sums\nup his indictment against his people is chiefly the sin of idolatry. The\nfigure may have been suggested by the fact that actual lewdness of the\nmost flagrant kind was a conspicuous element in the form of idolatry to\nwhich Israel first succumbed\u2014the worship of the Canaanite Baals. But in\nthe hands of the prophets it has a deeper and more spiritual import than\nthis. It signified the violation of all the sacred moral obligations which\nare enshrined in human marriage, or, in other words, the abandonment of an\nethical religion for one in which the powers of nature were regarded as\nthe highest revelation of the divine. To the mind of the prophet it made\nno difference whether the object of worship was called by the name of\nJehovah or of Baal: the character of the worship determined the quality of\nthe religion; and in the one case, as in the other, it was idolatry, or\n\u201cwhoredom.\u201d\n\nTwo stages in the idolatry of Israel appear to be distinguished in this\npart of the chapter. The first is the na\u00efve, half\u2010conscious heathenism\nwhich crept in insensibly through contact with Ph\u0153nician and Canaanite\nneighbours (vv. 15\u201025). The tokens of Jerusalem\u2019s implication in this sin\nwere everywhere. The \u201chigh places\u201d with their tents and clothed images\n(ver. 17), and the offerings set forth before these objects of adoration,\nwere undoubtedly of Canaanitish origin, and their preservation to the fall\nof the kingdom was a standing witness to the source to which Israel owed\nher earliest and dearest \u201cabominations.\u201d We learn that this phase of\nidolatry culminated in the atrocious rite of human sacrifice (vv. 20, 21).\nThe immolation of children to Baal or Molech was a common practice amongst\nthe nations surrounding Israel, and when introduced there seems to have\nbeen regarded as part of the worship of Jehovah.(42) What Ezekiel here\nasserts is that the practice came through Israel\u2019s illicit commerce with\nthe gods of Canaan, and there is no question that this is historically\ntrue. The allegory exhibits the sin in its unnatural heinousness. The\nidealised city is the mother of her citizens, the children are Jehovah\u2019s\nchildren and her own, yet she has taken them and offered them up to the\nfalse lovers she so madly pursued. Such was her feverish passion for\nidolatry that the dearest and most sacred ties of nature were ruthlessly\nsevered at the bidding of a perverted religious sense.\n\nThe second form of idolatry in Israel was of a more deliberate and politic\nkind (vv. 23\u201034). It consisted in the introduction of the deities and\nreligious practices of the great world\u2010powers\u2014Egypt, Assyria, and Chald\u00e6a.\nThe attraction of these foreign rites did not lie in the fascination of a\nsensuous type of religion, but rather in the impression of power produced\nby the gods of the conquering peoples. The foreign gods came in mostly in\nconsequence of a political alliance with the nations whose patrons they\nwere; in other cases a god was worshipped simply because he had shown\nhimself able to do great things for his servants. Jerusalem as Ezekiel\nknew it was full of monuments of this comparatively recent type of\nidolatry. In every street and at the head of every way there were\nerections (here called \u201carches\u201d or \u201cheights\u201d) which, from the connection\nin which they are mentioned, must have been shrines devoted to the strange\ngods from abroad. It is characteristic of the political idolatry here\nreferred to that its monuments were found in the capital, while the more\nancient and rustic worship was typified by the \u201chigh places\u201d throughout\nthe provinces. It is probable that the description applies mainly to the\nlater period of the monarchy, when Israel, and especially Judah, began to\nlean for support on one or other of the great empires on either side of\nher. At the same time it must be remembered that Ezekiel elsewhere teaches\ndistinctly that the influence of Egyptian religion had been continuous\nfrom the days of the Exodus (ch. xxiii.). There may, however, have been a\nrevival of Egyptian influence, due to the political exigencies which arose\nin the eighth century.\n\nThus Jerusalem has \u201cplayed the harlot\u201d; nay, she has done worse\u2014\u201cshe has\nbeen as a wife that committeth adultery, who though under her husband\ntaketh strangers.\u201d(43) And the result has been simply the impoverishment\nof the land. The heavy exactions levied on the country by Egypt and\nAssyria were the hire she had paid to her lovers to come to her. If false\nreligion had resulted in an increase of wealth or material prosperity,\nthere might have been some excuse for the eagerness with which she plunged\ninto it. But certainly Israel\u2019s history bore the lesson that false\nreligion means waste and ruin. Strangers had devoured her strength from\nher youth, yet she never would heed the voice of her prophets when they\nsought to guide her into the ways of peace. Her infatuation was unnatural;\nit goes almost beyond the bounds of the allegory to exhibit it: \u201cThe\ncontrary is in thee from other women, in that thou committest whoredoms,\nand none goeth awhoring after thee: and in that thou givest hire, and no\nhire is given to thee, therefore thou art contrary\u201d (ver. 34).\n\niii. Vv. 35\u201058.\u2014Having thus made Jerusalem to \u201cknow her abominations\u201d\n(ver. 2), the prophet proceeds to announce the doom which must inevitably\nfollow such a career of wickedness. The figures under which the judgment\nis set forth appear to be taken from the punishment meted out to\nprofligate women in ancient Israel. The public exposure of the adulteress\nand her death by stoning in the presence of \u201cmany women\u201d supply images\nterribly appropriate of the fate in store for Jerusalem.(44) Her\npunishment is to be a warning to all surrounding nations, and an\nexhibition of the jealous wrath of Jehovah against her infidelity. These\nnations, some of them hereditary enemies, others old allies, are\nrepresented as assembled to witness and to execute the judgment of the\ncity. The remorseless realism of the prophet spares no detail which could\nenhance the horror of the situation. Abandoned to the ruthless violence of\nher former lovers, Jerusalem is stripped of her royal attire, the emblems\nof her idolatry are destroyed, and so, left naked to her enemies, she\nsuffers the ignominious death of a city that has been false to her\nreligion. The root of her sin had been the forgetfulness of what she owed\nto the goodness of Jehovah, and the essence of her punishment lies in the\nwithdrawal of the gifts He had lavished upon her and the protection which\namid all her apostasies she had never ceased to expect.\n\nAt this point (ver. 44 ff.) the allegory takes a new turn through the\nintroduction of the sister cities of Samaria and Sodom. Samaria, although\nas a city much younger than Jerusalem, is considered the elder sister\nbecause she had once been the centre of a greater political power than\nJerusalem, and Sodom, which was probably older than either, is treated as\nthe youngest because of her relative insignificance. The order, however,\nis of no importance. The point of the comparison is that all three had\nmanifested in different degrees the same hereditary tendency to immorality\n(ver. 45). All three were of heathen origin\u2014their mother a Hittite and\ntheir father an Amorite\u2014a description which it is even more difficult to\nunderstand in the case of Samaria than in that of Jerusalem. But Ezekiel\nis not concerned about history. What is prominent in his mind is the\nfamily likeness observed in their characters, which gave point to the\nproverb \u201cLike mother, like daughter\u201d when applied to Jerusalem. The\nprophet affirms that the wickedness of Jerusalem had so far exceeded that\nof Samaria and Sodom that she had \u201cjustified\u201d her sisters\u2014_i.e._, she had\nmade their moral condition appear pardonable by comparison with hers. He\nknows that he is saying a bold thing in ranking the iniquity of Jerusalem\nas greater than that of Sodom, and so he explains his judgment on Sodom by\nan analysis of the cause of her notorious corruptness. The name of Sodom\nlived in tradition as that of the foulest city of the old world, a _ne\nplus ultra_ of wickedness. Yet Ezekiel dares to raise the question, What\n_was_ the sin of Sodom? \u201cThis was the sin of Sodom thy sister, pride,\nsuperabundance of food, and careless ease was the lot of her and her\ndaughters, but they did not succour the poor and needy. But they became\nproud, and committed abominations before Me: therefore I took them away as\nthou hast seen\u201d (vv. 49, 50). The meaning seems to be that the corruptions\nof Sodom were the natural outcome of the evil principle in the Canaanitish\nnature, favoured by easy circumstances and unchecked by the saving\ninfluences of a pure religion. Ezekiel\u2019s judgment is like an anticipation\nof the more solemn sentence uttered by One who knew what was in man when\nHe said, \u201cIf the mighty works which have been done in you had been done in\nSodom and Gomorrha, they would have remained until this day.\u201d\n\nIt is remarkable to observe how some of the profoundest ideas in this\nchapter attach themselves to the strange conception of these two vanished\ncities as still capable of being restored to their place in the world. In\nthe ideal future of the prophet\u2019s vision Sodom and Samaria shall rise from\ntheir ruins through the same power which restores Jerusalem to her ancient\nglory. The promise of a renewed existence to Sodom and Samaria is perhaps\nconnected with the fact that they lay within the sacred territory of which\nJerusalem is the centre. Hence Sodom and Samaria are no longer sisters,\nbut daughters of Jerusalem, receiving through her the blessings of the\ntrue religion. And it is her relation to these her sisters that opens the\neyes of Jerusalem to the true nature of her own relation to Jehovah.\nFormerly she had been proud and self\u2010sufficient, and counted her\nexceptional prerogatives the natural reward of some excellence to which\nshe could lay claim. The name of Sodom, the disgraced sister of the\nfamily, was not heard in her mouth in the days of her pride, when her\nwickedness had not been disclosed as it is now (ver. 57). But when she\nrealises that her conduct has justified and comforted her sister, and when\nshe has to take guilty Sodom to her heart as a daughter, she will\nunderstand that she owes all her greatness to the same sovereign grace of\nJehovah which is manifested in the restoration of the most abandoned\ncommunity known to history. And out of this new consciousness of grace\nwill spring the chastened and penitent temper of mind which makes possible\nthe continuance of the bond which unites her to Jehovah.\n\niv. Vv. 59\u201063.\u2014The way is thus prepared for the final promise of\nforgiveness with which the chapter closes. The reconciliation between\nJehovah and Jerusalem will be effected by an act of recollection on both\nsides: \u201c_I_ will remember My covenant with thee.... _Thou_ shalt remember\nthy ways\u201d (vv. 60, 61). The mind of Jehovah and the mind of Jerusalem both\ngo back on the past; but while Jehovah thinks only of the purpose of love\nwhich he had entertained towards Jerusalem in the days of her youth and\nthe indissoluble bond between them, Jerusalem retains the memory of her\nown sinful history, and finds in the remembrance the source of abiding\ncontrition and shame. It does not fall within the scope of the prophet\u2019s\npurpose to set forth in this place the blessed consequences which flow\nfrom this renewal of loving intercourse between Israel and her God. He has\naccomplished his object when he has shown how the electing love of Jehovah\nreaches its end in spite of human sin and rebellion, and how through the\ncrushing power of divine grace the failures and transgressions of the past\nare made to issue in a relation of perfect harmony between Jehovah and His\npeople. The permanence of that relation is expressed by an idea borrowed\nfrom Jeremiah\u2014the idea of an everlasting covenant, which cannot be broken\nbecause based on the forgiveness of sin and a renewal of heart. The\nprophet knows that when once the power of evil has been broken by a full\ndisclosure of redeeming love it cannot resume its old ascendency in human\nlife. So he leaves us on the threshold of the new dispensation with the\npicture of Jerusalem humbled and bearing her shame, yet in the abjectness\nof her self\u2010accusation realising the end towards which the love of Jehovah\nhad guided her from the beginning: \u201cI will establish My covenant with\nthee; and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah: that thou mayest remember,\nand be ashamed, and not open thy mouth any more for very shame, when I\nexpiate for thee all that thou hast done, saith the Lord Jehovah\u201d (vv. 62,\n63).\n\nThroughout this chapter we see that the prophet moves in the region of\nnational religious ideas which are distinctive of the Old Testament. Of\nthe influences that formed his conceptions that of Hosea is perhaps most\ndiscernible. The fundamental thoughts embodied in the allegory are the\nsame as those by which the older prophet learned to interpret the nature\nof God and the sin of Israel through the bitter experiences of his family\nlife. These thoughts are developed by Ezekiel with a fertility of\nimagination and a grasp of theological principles which were adapted to\nthe more complex situation with which he had to deal. But the conception\nof Israel as the unfaithful wife of Jehovah, of the false gods and the\nworld\u2010powers as her lovers, of her conversion through affliction, and her\nfinal restoration by a new betrothal which is eternal, are all expressed\nin the first three chapters of Hosea. And the freedom with which Ezekiel\nhandles and expands these conceptions shows how thoroughly he was at home\nin that national view of religion which he did much to break through. In\nthe next lecture we shall have occasion to examine his treatment of the\nproblem of the individual\u2019s relation to God, and we cannot fail to be\nstruck by the contrast. The analysis of individual religion may seem\nmeagre by the side of this most profound and suggestive chapter. This\narises from the fact that the full meaning of religion could not then be\nexpressed as an experience of the individual soul. The subject of religion\nbeing the nation of Israel, the human side of it could only be unfolded in\nterms of what we should call the national consciousness. The time was not\nyet come when the great truths which the prophets and psalmists saw\nembodied in the history of their people could be translated in terms of\nindividual fellowship with God. Yet the God who spake to the fathers by\nthe prophets is the same who has spoken to us in His Son; and when from\nthe standpoint of a higher revelation we turn back to the Old Testament,\nit is to find in the form of a nation\u2019s history the very same truths which\nwe realise as matters of personal experience.\n\nFrom this point of view the chapter we have considered is one of the most\nevangelical passages in the writings of Ezekiel. The prophet\u2019s conception\nof sin, for example, is singularly profound and true. He has been charged\nwith a somewhat superficial conception of sin, as if he saw nothing more\nin it than the transgression of a law arbitrarily imposed by divine\nauthority. There are aspects of Ezekiel\u2019s teaching which give some\nplausibility to that charge, especially those which deal with the duties\nof the individual. But we see that to Ezekiel the real nature of sin could\nnot possibly be manifested except as a factor in the national life. Now in\nthis allegory it is obvious that he sees something far deeper in it than\nthe mere transgression of positive commandments. Behind all the outward\noffences of which Israel had been guilty there plainly lies the spiritual\nfact of national selfishness, unfaithfulness to Jehovah, insensibility to\nHis love, and ingratitude for His benefits. Moreover, the prophet, like\nJeremiah before him, has a strong sense of sin as a tendency in human\nlife, a power which is ineradicable save by the mingled severity and\ngoodness of God. Through the whole history of Israel it is one evil\ndisposition which he sees asserting itself, breaking out now in one form\nand then in another, but continually gaining strength, until at last the\nspirit of repentance is created by the experience of God\u2019s forgiveness. It\nis not the case, therefore, that Ezekiel failed to comprehend the nature\nof sin, or that in this respect he falls below the most spiritual of the\nprophets who had gone before him.\n\nIn order that this tendency to sin may be destroyed, Ezekiel sees that the\nconsciousness of guilt must take its place. In the same way the apostle\nPaul teaches that \u201cevery mouth must be stopped, and all the world become\nguilty before God.\u201d Whether the subject be a nation or an individual, the\ndominion of sin is not broken till the sinner has taken home to himself\nthe full responsibility for his acts and felt himself to be \u201cwithout\nexcuse.\u201d But the most striking thing in Ezekiel\u2019s representation of the\nprocess of conversion is the thought that this saving sense of sin is\nproduced less by judgment than by free and undeserved forgiveness.\nPunishment he conceives to be necessary, being demanded alike by the\nrighteousness of God and the good of the sinful people. But the heart of\nJerusalem is not changed till she finds herself restored to her former\nrelation to God, with all the sin of her past blotted out and a new life\nbefore her. It is through the grace of forgiveness that she is overwhelmed\nwith shame and sorrow for sin, and learns the humility which is the germ\nof a new hope towards God. Here the prophet strikes one of the deepest\nnotes of evangelical doctrine. All experience confirms the lesson that\ntrue repentance is not produced by the terrors of the law, but by the view\nof God\u2019s love in Christ going forth to meet the sinner and bring him back\nto the Father\u2019s heart and home.\n\nAnother question of great interest and difficulty is the attitude towards\nthe heathen world assumed by Ezekiel. The prophecy of the restoration of\nSodom is certainly one of the most remarkable things in the book. It is\ntrue that Ezekiel as a rule concerns himself very little with the\nreligious state of the outlying world under the Messianic dispensation.\nWhere he speaks of foreign nations it is only to announce the\nmanifestation of Jehovah\u2019s glory in the judgments He executes upon them.\nThe effect of these judgments is that \u201cthey shall know that I am Jehovah\u201d;\nbut how much is included in the expression as applied to the heathen it is\nimpossible to say. This, however, may be due to the peculiar limitation of\nview which leads him to concentrate his attention on the Holy Land in his\nvisions of the perfect kingdom of God. We can hardly suppose that he\nconceived all the rest of the world as a blank or filled with a seething\nmass of humanity outside the government of the true God. It is rather to\nbe supposed that Canaan itself appeared to his mind as an epitome of the\nworld such as it must be when the latter\u2010day glory was ushered in. And in\nCanaan he finds room for Sodom, but Sodom turned to the knowledge of the\ntrue God and sharing in the blessings bestowed on Jerusalem. It is surely\nallowable to see in this the symptom of a more hopeful view of the future\nof the world at large than we should gather from the rest of the prophecy.\nIf Ezekiel could think of Sodom as raised from the dead and sharing the\nglories of the people of God, the idea of the conversion of heathen\nnations could not have been altogether foreign to his mind. It is at all\nevents significant that when he meditates most profoundly on the nature of\nsin and God\u2019s method of dealing with it, he is led to the thought of a\ndivine mercy which embraces in its sweep those communities which had\nreached the lowest depths of moral corruption.\n\n\n\n\nChapter X. The Religion Of The Individual. Chapter xviii.\n\n\nIn the sixteenth chapter, as we have seen, Ezekiel has asserted in the\nmost unqualified terms the validity of the principle of national\nretribution. The nation is dealt with as a moral unity, and the\ncatastrophe which closes its history is the punishment for the accumulated\nguilt incurred by the past generations. In the eighteenth chapter he\nteaches still more explicitly the freedom and the independent\nresponsibility of each individual before God. No attempt is made to\nreconcile the two principles as methods of the divine government; from the\nprophet\u2019s standpoint they do not require to be reconciled. They belong to\ndifferent dispensations. So long as the Jewish state existed the principle\nof solidarity remained in force. Men suffered for the sins of their\nancestors; individuals shared the punishment incurred by the nation as a\nwhole. But as soon as the nation is dead, when the bonds that unite men in\nthe organism of national life are dissolved, then the idea of individual\nresponsibility comes into immediate operation. Each Israelite stands\nisolated before Jehovah, the burden of hereditary guilt falls away from\nhim, and he is free to determine his own relation to God. He need not fear\nthat the iniquity of his fathers will be reckoned against him; he is held\naccountable only for his own sins, and these can be forgiven on the\ncondition of his own repentance.\n\nThe doctrine of this chapter is generally regarded as Ezekiel\u2019s most\ncharacteristic contribution to theology. It might be nearer the truth to\nsay that he is dealing with one of the great religious problems of the age\nin which he lived. The difficulty was perceived by Jeremiah, and treated\nin a manner which shows that his thoughts were being led in the same\ndirection as those of Ezekiel (Jer. xxxi. 29, 30). If in any respect the\nteaching of Ezekiel makes an advance on that of Jeremiah, it is in his\napplication of the new truth to the duty of the present: and even here the\ndifference is more apparent than real. Jeremiah postpones the introduction\nof personal religion to the future, regarding it as an ideal to be\nrealised in the Messianic age. His own life and that of his contemporaries\nwas bound up with the old dispensation which was passing away, and he knew\nthat he was destined to share the fate of his people. Ezekiel, on the\nother hand, lives already under the powers of the world to come. The one\nhindrance to the perfect manifestation of Jehovah\u2019s righteousness has been\nremoved by the destruction of Jerusalem, and henceforward it will be made\napparent in the correspondence between the desert and the fate of each\nindividual. The new Israel must be organised on the basis of personal\nreligion, and the time has already come when the task of preparing the\nreligious community of the future must be earnestly taken up. Hence the\ndoctrine of individual responsibility has a peculiar and practical\nimportance in the mission of Ezekiel. The call to repentance, which is the\nkeynote of his ministry, is addressed to individual men, and in order that\nit may take effect their minds must be disabused of all fatalistic\npreconceptions which would induce paralysis of the moral faculties. It was\nnecessary to affirm in all their breadth and fulness the two fundamental\ntruths of personal religion\u2014the absolute righteousness of God\u2019s dealings\nwith individual men, and His readiness to welcome and pardon the penitent.\n\nThe eighteenth chapter falls accordingly into two divisions. In the first\nthe prophet sets the individual\u2019s immediate relation to God against the\nidea that guilt is transmitted from father to children (vv. 2\u201020). In the\nsecond he tries to dispel the notion that a man\u2019s fate is so determined by\nhis own past life as to make a change of moral condition impossible (vv.\n21\u201032).\n\n\n\nI\n\n\nIt is noteworthy that both Jeremiah and Ezekiel, in dealing with the\nquestion of retribution, start from a popular proverb which had gained\ncurrency in the later years of the kingdom of Judah: \u201cThe fathers have\neaten sour grapes, and the children\u2019s teeth are set on edge.\u201d In whatever\nspirit this saying may have been first coined, there is no doubt that it\nhad come to be used as a witticism at the expense of Providence. It\nindicates that influences were at work besides the word of prophecy which\ntended to undermine men\u2019s faith in the current conception of the divine\ngovernment. The doctrine of transmitted guilt was accepted as a fact of\nexperience, but it no longer satisfied the deeper moral instincts of men.\nIn early Israel it was otherwise. There the idea that the son should bear\nthe iniquity of the father was received without challenge and applied\nwithout misgiving in judicial procedure. The whole family of Achan\nperished for the sin of their father; the sons of Saul expiated their\nfather\u2019s crime long after he was dead. These are indeed but isolated\nfacts, yet they are sufficient to prove the ascendency of the antique\nconception of the tribe or family as a unity whose individual members are\ninvolved in the guilt of the head. With the spread of purer ethical ideas\namong the people there came a deeper sense of the value of the individual\nlife, and at a later time the principle of vicarious punishment was\nbanished from the administration of human justice (cf. 2 Kings xiv. 6 with\nDeut. xxiv. 16). Within that sphere the principle was firmly established\nthat each man shall be put to death for his own sin. But the motives which\nmade this change intelligible and necessary in purely human relations\ncould not be brought to bear immediately on the question of divine\nretribution. The righteousness of God was thought to act on different\nlines from the righteousness of man. The experience of the last generation\nof the state seemed to furnish fresh evidence of the operation of a law of\nprovidence by which men were made to inherit the iniquity of their\nfathers. The literature of the period is filled with the conviction that\nit was the sins of Manasseh that had sealed the doom of the nation. These\nsins had never been adequately punished, and subsequent events showed that\nthey were not forgiven. The reforming zeal of Josiah had postponed for a\ntime the final visitation of Jehovah\u2019s anger; but no reformation and no\nrepentance could avail to roll back the flood of judgment that had been\nset in motion by the crimes of the reign of Manasseh. \u201cNotwithstanding\nJehovah turned not from the fierceness of His great wrath, wherewith His\nanger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that\nManasseh had provoked Him withal\u201d (2 Kings xxiii. 26).\n\nThe proverb about the sour grapes shows the effect of this interpretation\nof providence on a large section of the people. It means no doubt that\nthere is an irrational element in God\u2019s method of dealing with men,\nsomething not in harmony with natural laws. In the natural sphere if a man\neats sour grapes his own teeth are blunted or set on edge; the\nconsequences are immediate, and they are transitory. But in the moral\nsphere a man may eat sour grapes all his life and suffer no evil\nconsequences whatever; the consequences, however, appear in his children\nwho have committed no such indiscretion. There is nothing there which\nanswers to the ordinary sense of justice. Yet the proverb appears to be\nless an arraignment of the divine righteousness than a mode of self\u2010\nexculpation on the part of the people. It expresses the fatalism and\ndespair which settled down on the minds of that generation when they\nrealised the full extent of the calamity that had overtaken them: \u201cIf our\ntransgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how then\nshould we live?\u201d (ch. xxxiii. 10). So the exiles reasoned in Babylon,\nwhere they were in no mood for quoting facetious proverbs about the ways\nof Providence; but they accurately expressed the sense of the adage that\nhad been current in Jerusalem before its fall. The sins for which they\nsuffered were not their own, and the judgment that lay on them was no\nsummons to repentance, for it was caused by sins of which they were not\nguilty and for which they could not in any real sense repent.\n\nEzekiel attacks this popular theory of retribution at what must have been\nregarded as its strongest point\u2014the relation between the father and son.\n\u201cWhy should the son _not_ bear the iniquity of his father?\u201d the people\nasked in astonishment (ver. 19). \u201cIt is good traditional theology, and it\nhas been confirmed by our own experience.\u201d Now Ezekiel would probably not\nhave admitted that in any circumstances a son suffers because his father\nhas sinned. With that notion he appears to have absolutely broken. He did\nnot deny that the Exile was the punishment for all the sins of the past as\nwell as for those of the present; but that was because the nation was\ntreated as a moral unity, and not because of any law of heredity which\nbound up the fate of the child with that of the father. It was essential\nto his purpose to show that the principle of social guilt or collective\nretribution came to an end with the fall of the state; whereas in the form\nin which the people held to it, it could never come to an end so long as\nthere are parents to sin and children to suffer. But the important point\nin the prophet\u2019s teaching is that whether in one form or in another the\nprinciple of solidarity is now superseded. God will no longer deal with\nmen in the mass, but as individuals; and facts which gave plausibility and\na relative justification to cynical views of God\u2019s providence shall no\nmore occur. There will be no more occasion to use that objectionable\nproverb in Israel. On the contrary, it will be manifest in the case of\neach separate individual that God\u2019s righteousness is discriminating, and\nthat each man\u2019s destiny corresponds with his own character. And the new\nprinciple is embodied in words which may be called the charter of the\nindividual soul\u2014words whose significance is fully revealed only in\nChristianity: \u201cAll souls are Mine.... The soul that sinneth, it shall\ndie.\u201d\n\nWhat is here asserted is of course not a distinction between the soul or\nspiritual part of man\u2019s being and another part of his being which is\nsubject to physical necessity, but one between the individual and his\nmoral environment. The former distinction is real, and it may be necessary\nfor us in our day to insist on it, but it was certainly not thought of by\nEzekiel or perhaps by any other Old Testament writer. The word \u201csoul\u201d\ndenotes simply the principle of individual life. \u201cAll persons are Mine\u201d\nexpresses the whole meaning which Ezekiel meant to convey. Consequently\nthe death threatened to the sinner is not what we call spiritual death,\nbut death in the literal sense\u2014the death of the individual. The truth\ntaught is the independence and freedom of the individual, or his moral\npersonality. And that truth involves two things. First, each individual\nbelongs to God, stands in immediate personal relation to Him. In the old\neconomy the individual belonged to the nation or the family, and was\nrelated to God only as a member of a larger whole. Now he has to deal with\nGod directly\u2014possesses independent personal worth in the eye of God.\nSecondly, as a result of this, each man is responsible for his own acts,\nand for these alone. So long as his religious relations are determined by\ncircumstances outside of his own life his personality is incomplete. The\nideal relation to God must be one in which the destiny of every man\ndepends on his own free actions. These are the fundamental postulates of\npersonal religion as formulated by Ezekiel.\n\nThe first part of the chapter is nothing more than an illustration of the\nsecond of these truths in a sufficient number of instances to show both\nsides of its operation. There is first the case of a man perfectly\nrighteous, who as a matter of course lives by his righteousness, the state\nof his father not being taken into account. Then this good man is supposed\nto bear a son who is in all respects the opposite of his father, who\nanswers none of the tests of a righteous man; he must die for his own\nsins, and his father\u2019s righteousness avails him nothing. Lastly, if the\nson of this wicked man takes warning by his father\u2019s fate and leads a good\nlife, he lives just as the first man did because of his own righteousness,\nand suffers no diminution of his reward because his father was a sinner.\nIn all this argument there is a tacit appeal to the conscience of the\nhearers, as if the case only required to be put clearly before them to\ncommand their assent. This is what shall be, the prophet says; and it is\nwhat ought to be. It is contrary to the idea of perfect justice to\nconceive of Jehovah as acting otherwise than as here represented. To cling\nto the idea of collective retribution as a permanent truth of religion, as\nthe exiles were disposed to do, destroys belief in the divine\nrighteousness by making it different from the righteousness which\nexpresses itself in the moral judgments of men.\n\nBefore we pass from this part of the chapter we may take note of some\ncharacteristics of the moral ideal by which Ezekiel tests the conduct of\nthe individual man. It is given in the form of a catalogue of virtues, the\npresence or absence of which determines a man\u2019s fitness or unfitness to\nenter the future kingdom of God. Most of these virtues are defined\nnegatively; the code specifies sins to be avoided rather than duties to be\nperformed or graces to be cultivated. Nevertheless they are such as to\ncover a large section of human life, and the arrangement of them embodies\ndistinctions of permanent ethical significance. They may be classed under\nthe three heads of piety, chastity, and beneficence. Under the first head,\nthat of directly religious duties, two offences are mentioned which are\nclosely connected with each other, although to our minds they may seem to\ninvolve different degrees of guilt (ver. 6). One is the acknowledgment of\nother gods than Jehovah, and the other is participation in ceremonies\nwhich denoted fellowship with idols.(45) To us who \u201cknow that an idol is\nnothing in the world\u201d the mere act of eating with the blood has no\nreligious significance. But in Ezekiel\u2019s time it was impossible to divest\nit of heathen associations, and the man who performed it stood convicted\nof a sin against Jehovah. Similarly the idea of sexual purity is\nillustrated by two outstanding and prevalent offences (ver. 6). The third\nhead, which includes by far the greater number of particulars, deals with\nthe duties which we regard as moral in a stricter sense. They are\nembodiments of the love which \u201cworketh no ill to his neighbour,\u201d and is\ntherefore \u201cthe fulfilling of the law.\u201d It is manifest that the list is not\nmeant to be an exhaustive enumeration of all the virtues that a good man\nmust practise, or all the vices he must shun. The prophet has before his\nmind two broad classes of men\u2014those who feared God, and those who did not;\nand what he does is to lay down outward marks which were practically\nsufficient to discriminate between the one class and the other.\n\nThe supreme moral category is Righteousness, and this includes the two\nideas of right character and a right relation to God. The distinction\nbetween an active righteousness manifested in the life and a\n\u201crighteousness which is by faith\u201d is not explicitly drawn in the Old\nTestament. Hence the passage contains no teaching on the question whether\na man\u2019s relation to God is determined by his good works, or whether good\nworks are the fruit and outcome of a right relation to God. The essence of\nmorality, according to the Old Testament, is loyalty to God, expressed by\nobedience to His will; and from that point of view it is self\u2010evident that\nthe man who is loyal to Jehovah stands accepted in His sight. In other\nconnections Ezekiel makes it abundantly clear that the state of grace does\nnot depend on any merit which man can have towards God.\n\nThe fact that Ezekiel defines righteousness in terms of outward conduct\nhas led to his being accused of the error of legalism in his moral\nconceptions. He has been charged with resolving righteousness into \u201ca sum\nof separate _tzed\u0101q\u00f4th_,\u201d or virtues. But this view strains his language\nunduly, and seems moreover to be negatived by the presuppositions of his\nargument. As a man must either live or die at the day of judgment, so he\nmust at any moment be either righteous or wicked. The problematic case of\na man who should conscientiously observe some of these requirements and\ndeliberately violate others would have been dismissed by Ezekiel as an\nidle speculation: \u201cWhosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in\none point, he is guilty of all\u201d (James ii. 10). The very fact that former\ngood deeds are not remembered to a man in the day when he turns from his\nrighteousness shows that the state of righteousness is something different\nfrom an average struck from the statistics of his moral career. The bent\nof the character towards or away from goodness is no doubt spoken of as\nsubject to sudden fluctuations, but for the time being each man is\nconceived as dominated by the one tendency or the other; and it is the\nbent of the whole nature towards the good that constitutes the\nrighteousness by which a man shall live. It is at all events a mistake to\nsuppose that the prophet is concerned only about the external act and\nindifferent to the state of heart from which it proceeds. It is true that\nhe does not attempt to penetrate beneath the surface of the outward life.\nHe does not analyse motives. But this is because he assumes that if a man\nkeeps God\u2019s law he does it from a sincere desire to please God and with a\nsense of the rightness of the law to which he subjects his life. When we\nrecognise this the charge of externalism amounts to very little. We can\nnever get behind the principle that \u201che that doeth righteousness is\nrighteous\u201d (1 John iii. 7), and that principle covers all that Ezekiel\nreally teaches. Compared with the more spiritual teaching of the New\nTestament his moral ideal is no doubt defective in many directions, but\nhis insistence on action as a test of character is hardly one of them. We\nmust remember that the New Testament itself contains as many warnings\nagainst a false spirituality as it does against the opposite error of\nreliance on good works.\n\n\n\nII\n\n\nThe second great truth of personal religion is the moral freedom of the\nindividual to determine his own destiny in the day of judgment. This is\nillustrated in the latter part of the chapter by the two opposite cases of\na wicked man turning from his wickedness (vv. 21, 22) and a righteous man\nturning from his righteousness (ver. 24). And the teaching of the passage\nis that the effect of such a change of mind, as regards a man\u2019s relation\nto God, is absolute. The good life subsequent to conversion is not weighed\nagainst the sins of past years; it is the index of a new state of heart in\nwhich the guilt of former transgressions is entirely blotted out: \u201cAll his\ntransgressions that he hath committed shall not be remembered in regard to\nhim; in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live.\u201d But in like\nmanner the act of apostasy effaces the remembrance of good deeds done in\nan earlier period of the man\u2019s life. The standing of each soul before God,\nits righteousness or its wickedness, is thus wholly determined by its\nfinal choice of good or evil, and is revealed by the conduct which follows\nthat great moral decision. There can be no doubt that Ezekiel regards\nthese two possibilities as equally real, falling away from righteousness\nbeing as much a fact of experience as repentance. In the light of the New\nTestament we should perhaps interpret both cases somewhat differently. In\ngenuine conversion we must recognise the imparting of a new spiritual\nprinciple which is ineradicable, containing the pledge of perseverance in\nthe state of grace to the end. In the case of final apostasy we are\ncompelled to judge that the righteousness which is renounced was only\napparent, that it was no true indication of the man\u2019s character or of his\ncondition in the sight of God. But these are not the questions with which\nthe prophet is directly dealing. The essential truth which he inculcates\nis the emancipation of the individual, through repentance, from his own\npast. In virtue of his immediate personal relation to God each man has the\npower to accept the offer of salvation, to break away from his sinful life\nand escape the doom which hangs over the impenitent. To this one point the\nwhole argument of the chapter tends. It is a demonstration of the\npossibility and efficacy of individual repentance, culminating in the\ndeclaration which lies at the very foundation of evangelical religion,\nthat God has no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, but will have all\nmen to repent and live (ver. 32).\n\nIt is not easy for us to conceive the effect of this revelation on the\nminds of people so utterly unprepared for it as the generation in which\nEzekiel lived. Accustomed as they were to think of their individual fate\nas bound up in that of their nation, they could not at once adjust\nthemselves to a doctrine which had never previously been enunciated with\nsuch incisive clearness. And it is not surprising that one effect of\nEzekiel\u2019s teaching was to create fresh doubts of the rectitude of the\ndivine government. \u201cThe way of the Lord is not equal,\u201d it was said (vv.\n25, 29). So long as it was admitted that men suffered for the sins of\ntheir ancestors or that God dealt with them in the mass, there was at\nleast an appearance of consistency in the methods of Providence. The\njustice of God might not be visible in the life of the individual, but it\ncould be roughly traced in the history of the nation as a whole. But when\nthat principle was discarded, then the question of the divine\nrighteousness was raised in the case of each separate Israelite, and there\nimmediately appeared all those perplexities about the lot of the\nindividual which so sorely exercised the faith of Old Testament believers.\nExperience did not show that correspondence between a man\u2019s attitude\ntowards God and his earthly fortunes which the doctrine of individual\nfreedom seemed to imply; and even in Ezekiel\u2019s time it must have been\nevident that the calamities which overtook the state fell indiscriminately\non the righteous and the wicked. The prophet\u2019s purpose, however, is a\npractical one, and he does not attempt to offer a theoretical solution of\nthe difficulties which thus arose. There were several considerations in\nhis mind which turned aside the edge of the people\u2019s complaint against the\nrighteousness of Jehovah. One was the imminence of the final judgment, in\nwhich the absolute rectitude of the divine procedure would be clearly\nmanifested. Another seems to be the irresolute and unstable attitude of\nthe people themselves towards the great moral issues which were set before\nthem. While they professed to be more righteous than their fathers, they\nshowed no settled purpose of amendment in their lives. A man might be\napparently righteous to\u2010day and a sinner to\u2010morrow; the \u201cinequality\u201d of\nwhich they complained was in their own ways, and not in the way of the\nLord (vv. 25, 29). But the most important element in the case was the\nprophet\u2019s conception of the character of God as one who, though strictly\njust, yet desired that men should live. The Lord is longsuffering, not\nwilling that any should perish; and He postpones the day of decision that\nHis goodness may lead men to repentance. \u201cHave I any pleasure in the death\nof the wicked? saith the Lord: and not that he should turn from his ways,\nand live?\u201d (ver. 23). And all these considerations lead up to the urgent\ncall to repentance with which the chapter closes.\n\nThe importance of the questions dealt with in this eighteenth chapter is\nshown clearly enough by the hold which they have over the minds of men in\nthe present day. The very same difficulties which Ezekiel had to encounter\nin his time confront us still in a somewhat altered form, and are often\nkeenly felt as obstacles to faith in God. The scientific doctrine of\nheredity, for example, seems to be but a more precise modern rendering of\nthe old proverb about the eating of sour grapes. The biological\ncontroversy over the possibility of the transmission of acquired\ncharacteristics scarcely touches the moral problem. In whatever way that\ncontroversy may be ultimately settled, it is certain that in all cases a\nman\u2019s life is affected both for good and evil by influences which descend\nupon him from his ancestry. Similarly within the sphere of the individual\nlife the law of habit seems to exclude the possibility of complete\nemancipation from the penalty due to past transgressions. Hardly anything,\nin short, is better established by experience than that the consequences\nof past actions persist through all changes of spiritual condition, and,\nfurther, that children do suffer from the consequences of their parents\u2019\nsin.\n\nDo not these facts, it may be asked, amount practically to a vindication\nof the theory of retribution against which the prophet\u2019s argument is\ndirected? How can we reconcile them with the great principles enunciated\nin this chapter? Dictates of morality, fundamental truths of religion,\nthese may be; but can we say in the face of experience that they are true?\n\nIt must be admitted that a complete answer to these questions is not given\nin the chapter before us, nor perhaps anywhere in the Old Testament. So\nlong as God dealt with men mainly by temporal rewards and punishments, it\nwas impossible to realise fully the separateness of the soul in its\nspiritual relations to God; the fate of the individual is necessarily\nmerged in that of the community, and Ezekiel\u2019s doctrine remains a prophecy\nof better things to be revealed. This indeed is the light in which he\nhimself teaches us to regard it; although he applies it in all its\nstrictness to the men of his own generation, it is nevertheless\nessentially a feature of the ideal kingdom of God, and is to be exhibited\nin the judgment by which that kingdom is introduced. The great value of\nhis teaching therefore lies in his having formulated with unrivalled\nclearness principles which are eternally true of the spiritual life,\nalthough the perfect manifestation of these principles in the experience\nof believers was reserved for the final revelation of salvation in Christ.\n\nThe solution of the contradiction referred to lies in the separation\nbetween the natural and the penal consequences of sin. There is a sphere\nwithin which natural laws have their course, modified, it may be, but not\nwholly suspended by the law of the spirit of life in Christ. The physical\neffects of vicious indulgence are not turned aside by repentance, and a\nman may carry the scars of sin upon him to the grave. But there is also a\nsphere into which natural law does not enter. In his immediate personal\nrelation to God a believer is raised above the evil consequences which\nflow from his past life, so that they have no power to separate him from\nthe love of God. And within that sphere his moral freedom and independence\nare as much matter of experience as is his subjection to law in another\nsphere. He knows that all things work together for his good, and that\ntribulation itself is a means of bringing him nearer to God. Amongst those\ntribulations which work out his salvation there may be the evil conditions\nimposed on him by the sin of others, or even the natural consequences of\nhis own former transgressions. But tribulations no longer bear the aspect\nof penalty, and are no longer a token of the wrath of God. They are\ntransformed into chastisements by which the Father of spirits makes His\nchildren perfect in holiness. The hardest cross to bear will always be\nthat which is the result of one\u2019s own sin; but He who has borne the guilt\nof it can strengthen us to bear even this and follow Him.(46)\n\n\n\n\nChapter XI. The Sword Unsheathed. Chapter xxi.\n\n\nThe date at the beginning of ch. xx. introduces the fourth and last\nsection of the prophecies delivered before the destruction of Jerusalem.\nIt also divides the first period of Ezekiel\u2019s ministry into two equal\nparts. The time is the month of August, 590 B.C., two years after his\nprophetic inauguration and two years before the investment of Jerusalem.\nIt follows that if the book of Ezekiel presents anything like a faithful\npicture of his actual work, by far his most productive year was that which\nhad just closed. It embraces the long and varied series of discourses from\nch. viii. to ch. xix.; whereas five chapters are all that remain as a\nrecord of his activity during the next two years. This result is not so\nimprobable as at first sight it might appear. From the character of\nEzekiel\u2019s prophecy, which consists largely of homiletic amplifications of\none great theme, it is quite intelligible that the main lines of his\nteaching should have taken shape in his mind at an early period of his\nministry. The discourses in the earlier part of the book may have been\nexpanded in the act of committing them to writing; but there is no reason\nto doubt that the ideas they contain were present to the prophet\u2019s mind\nand were actually delivered by him within the period to which they are\nassigned. We may therefore suppose that Ezekiel\u2019s public exhortations\nbecame less frequent during the two years that preceded the siege, just as\nwe know that for two years after that event they were altogether\ndiscontinued.\n\nIn this last division of the prophecies relating to the destruction of\nJerusalem we can easily distinguish two different classes of oracles. On\nthe one hand we have two chapters dealing with contemporary incidents\u2014the\nmarch of Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s army against Jerusalem (ch. xxi.), and the\ncommencement of the siege of the city (ch. xxiv.). In spite of the\nconfident opinion of some critics that these prophecies could not have\nbeen composed till after the fall of Jerusalem, they seem to me to bear\nthe marks of having been written under the immediate influence of the\nevents they describe. It is difficult otherwise to account for the\nexcitement under which the prophet labours, especially in ch. xxi., which\nstands by the side of ch. vii. as the most agitated utterance in the whole\nbook. On the other hand we have three discourses of the nature of formal\nindictments\u2014one directed against the exiles (ch. xx.), one against\nJerusalem (ch. xxii.), and one against the whole nation of Israel (ch.\nxxiii.). It is impossible in these chapters to discover any advance in\nthought upon similar passages that have already been before us. Two of\nthem (chs. xx. and xxiii.) are historical retrospects after the manner of\nch. xvi., and there is no obvious reason why they should be placed in a\ndifferent section of the book. The key to the unity of the section must\ntherefore be sought in the two historical prophecies and in the situation\ncreated by the events they describe.(47) It will therefore help to clear\nthe ground if we commence with the oracle which throws most light on the\nhistorical background of this group of prophecies\u2014the oracle of Jehovah\u2019s\nsword against Jerusalem in ch. xxi.(48)\n\nThe long\u2010projected rebellion has at length broken out. Zedekiah has\nrenounced his allegiance to the king of Babylon, and the army of the\nChald\u00e6ans is on its way to suppress the insurrection. The precise date of\nthese events is not known. For some reason the conspiracy of the\nPalestinian states had hung fire; many years had been allowed to slip away\nsince the time when their envoys had met in Jerusalem to concert measures\nof united resistance (Jer. xxvii.). This procrastination was, as usual, a\nsure presage of disaster. In the interval the league had dissolved. Some\nof its members had made terms with Nebuchadnezzar; and it would appear\nthat only Tyre, Judah, and Ammon ventured on open defiance of his power.\nThe hope was cherished in Jerusalem, and probably also among the Jews in\nBabylon, that the first assault of the Chald\u00e6ans would be directed against\nthe Ammonites, and that time would thus be gained to complete the defences\nof Jerusalem. To dispel this illusion is one obvious purpose of the\nprophecy before us. The movements of Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s army are directed by\na wisdom higher than his own; he is the unconscious instrument by which\nJehovah is executing His own purpose. The real object of his expedition is\nnot to punish a few refractory tribes for an act of disloyalty, but to\nvindicate the righteousness of Jehovah in the destruction of the city\nwhich had profaned His holiness. No human calculations will be allowed\neven for a moment to turn aside the blow which is aimed directly at\nJerusalem\u2019s sins, or to obscure the lesson taught by its sure and unerring\naim.\n\nWe can imagine the restless suspense and anxiety with which the final\nstruggle for the national cause was watched by the exiles in Babylon. In\nimagination they would follow the long march of the Chald\u00e6an hosts by the\nEuphrates and their descent by the valleys of the Orontes and Leontes upon\nthe city. Eagerly would they wait for some tidings of a reverse which\nwould revive their drooping hope of a speedy collapse of the great world\u2010\nempire and a restoration of Israel to its ancient freedom. And when at\nlength they heard that Jerusalem was enclosed in the iron grip of these\nvictorious legions, from which no human deliverance was possible, their\nmood would harden into one in which fanatical hope and sullen despair\ncontended for the mastery. Into an atmosphere charged with such excitement\nEzekiel hurls the series of predictions comprised in chs. xxi. and xxiv.\nWith far other feelings than his fellows, but with as keen an interest as\ntheirs, he follows the development of what he knows to be the last act in\nthe long controversy between Jehovah and Israel. It is his duty to repeat\nonce more the irrevocable decree\u2014the divine _delenda est_ against the\nguilty Jerusalem. But he does so in this instance in language whose\nvehemence betrays the agitation of his mind, and perhaps also the\nrestlessness of the society in which he lived. The twenty\u2010first chapter is\na series of rhapsodies, the product of a state bordering on ecstasy, where\ndifferent aspects of the impending judgment are set forth by the help of\nvivid images which pass in quick succession through the prophet\u2019s mind.\n\n\n\nI\n\n\nThe first vision which the prophet sees of the approaching catastrophe\n(vv. 1\u20104) is that of a forest conflagration, an occurrence which must have\nbeen as frequent in Palestine as a prairie fire in America. He sees a fire\nbreak out in the \u201cforest of the south,\u201d and rage with such fierceness that\n\u201cevery green tree and every dry tree\u201d is burned up; the faces of all who\nare near it are scorched, and all men are convinced that so terrible a\ncalamity must be the work of Jehovah Himself. This we may suppose to have\nbeen the form in which the truth first laid hold of Ezekiel\u2019s imagination;\nbut he appears to have hesitated to proclaim his message in this form. His\nfigurative manner of speech had become notorious among the exiles (ver.\n5), and he was conscious that a \u201cparable\u201d so vague and general as this\nwould be dismissed as an ingenious riddle which might mean anything or\nnothing. What follows (vv. 7\u201010) gives the key to the original vision.\nAlthough it is in form an independent oracle, it is closely parallel to\nthe preceding and elucidates each feature in detail. The \u201cforest of the\nsouth\u201d is explained to mean the land of Israel; and the mention of the\nsword of Jehovah instead of the fire intimates less obscurely that the\ninstrument of the threatened calamity is the Babylonian army. It is\ninteresting to observe that Ezekiel expressly admits that there were\nrighteous men even in the doomed Israel. Contrary to his conception of the\nnormal methods of the divine righteousness, he conceives of _this_\njudgment as one which involves righteous and wicked in a common ruin. Not\nthat God is less than righteous in this crowning act of vengeance, but His\njustice is not brought to bear on the fate of individuals. He is dealing\nwith the nation as a whole, and in the exterminating judgment of the\nnation good men will no more be spared than the green tree of the forest\nescapes the fate of the dry. It was the fact that righteous men perished\nin the fall of Jerusalem; and Ezekiel does not shut his eyes to it, firmly\nas he believed that the time was come when God would reward every man\naccording to his own character. The indiscriminateness of the judgment in\nits bearing on different classes of persons is obviously a feature which\nEzekiel here seeks to emphasise.\n\nBut the idea of the sword of Jehovah drawn from its scabbard, to return no\nmore till it has accomplished its mission, is the one that has fixed\nitself most deeply in the prophet\u2019s imagination, and forms the connecting\nlink between this vision and the other amplifications of the same theme\nwhich follow.\n\n\n\nII\n\n\nPassing over the symbolic action of vv. 11\u201013, representing the horror and\nastonishment with which the dire tidings of Jerusalem\u2019s fall will be\nreceived, we come to the point where the prophet breaks into the wild\nstrain of dithyrambic poetry, which has been called the \u201cSong of the\nSword\u201d (vv. 14\u201022). The following translation, although necessarily\nimperfect and in some places uncertain, may convey some idea both of the\nstructure and the rugged vigour of the original. It will be seen that\nthere is a clear division into four stanzas:(49)\u2014\n\n(i) Vv. 14\u201016.\n\nA sword, a sword! It is sharpened and burnished withal.\nFor a work of slaughter is it sharpened!\nTo gleam like lightning burnished!\n\n                  \u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\n\nAnd \u2019twas given to be smoothed for the grip of the hand,\n\u2014Sharpened is it, and furbished\u2014\nTo put in the hand of the slayer.\n\n(ii) Vv. 17, 18.\n\nCry and howl, son of man!\nFor it has come among my people;\nCome among all the princes of Israel!\nVictims of the sword are they, they and my people;\nTherefore smite upon thy thigh!\n\n                  \u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\n\nIt shall not be, saith Jehovah the Lord.\n\n(iii) Vv. 19, 20.\n\nBut, thou son of man, prophesy, and smite hand on hand;\nLet the sword be doubled and tripled (?).\nA sword of the slain is it, the great sword of the slain whirling around\n            them,\u2014\nThat hearts may fail, and many be the fallen in all their gates.\n\n                  \u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\n\nIt is made like lightning, furbished for slaughter!\n\n(iv) Vv. 21, 22.\n\nGather thee together! Smite to the right, to the left,\nWhithersoever thine edge is appointed!\nAnd I also will smite hand on hand,\nAnd appease My wrath:\nI Jehovah have spoken it.\n\nIn spite of its obscurity, its abrupt transitions, and its strange\nblending of the divine with the human personality, the ode exhibits a\ndefinite poetic form and a real progress of thought from the beginning to\nthe close. Throughout the passage we observe that the prophet\u2019s gaze is\nfascinated by the glittering sword which symbolised the instrument of\nJehovah\u2019s vengeance. In the opening stanza (i) he describes the\n_preparation_ of the sword; he notes the keenness of its edge and its\nglittering sheen with an awful presentiment that an implement so\nelaborately fashioned is destined for some terrible day of slaughter. Then\n(ii) he announces the _purpose_ for which the sword is prepared, and\nbreaks into loud lamentation as he realises that its doomed victims are\nhis own people and the princes of Israel. In the next stanza (iii) he sees\nthe sword _in action_; wielded by an invisible hand, it flashes hither and\nthither, circling round its hapless victims as if two or three swords were\nat work instead of one. All hearts are paralysed with fear, but the sword\ndoes not cease its ravages until it has filled the ground with slain. Then\nat length the sword is _at rest_ (iv), having accomplished its work. The\ndivine Speaker calls on it in a closing apostrophe \u201cto gather itself\ntogether\u201d as if for a final sweep to right and left, indicating the\nthoroughness with which the judgment has been executed. In the last verse\nthe vision of the sword fades away, and the poem closes with an\nannouncement, in the usual prophetic manner, of Jehovah\u2019s fixed purpose to\n\u201cassuage\u201d His wrath against Israel by the crowning act of retribution.\n\n\n\nIII\n\n\nIf any doubt still remained as to what the sword of Jehovah meant, it is\nremoved in the next section (vv. 23\u201032), where the prophet indicates the\nway by which the sword is to come on the kingdom of Judah. The Chald\u00e6an\nmonarch is represented as pausing on his march, perhaps at Riblah or some\nplace to the north of Palestine, and deliberating whether he shall advance\nfirst against Judah or the Ammonites. He stands at the parting of the\nways\u2014on the left hand is the road to Rabbath\u2010ammon, on the right that to\nJerusalem. In his perplexity he invokes supernatural guidance, resorting\nto various expedients then in use for ascertaining the will of the gods\nand the path of good fortune. He \u201crattles the arrows\u201d (two of them in some\nkind of vessel, one for Jerusalem and the other for Riblah); he consults\nthe teraphim and inspects the entrails of a sacrificial victim. This\nconsulting of the omens was no doubt an invariable preliminary to every\ncampaign, and was resorted to whenever an important military decision had\nto be made. It might seem a matter of indifference to a powerful monarch\nlike Nebuchadnezzar which of two petty opponents he determined to crush\nfirst. But the kings of Babylon were religious men in their way, and never\ndoubted that success depended on their following the indications that were\ngiven by the higher powers. In this case Nebuchadnezzar gets a true\nanswer, but not from the deities whose aid he had invoked. In his right\nhand he finds the arrow marked \u201cJerusalem.\u201d The die is cast, his\nresolution is taken, but it is Jehovah\u2019s sentence sealing the fate of\nJerusalem that has been uttered.\n\nSuch is the situation which Ezekiel in Babylon is directed to represent\nthrough a piece of obvious symbolism. A road diverging into two is drawn\non the ground, and at the meeting\u2010point a sign\u2010post is erected indicating\nthat the one leads to Ammon and the other to Judah. It is of course not\nnecessary to suppose that the incident so graphically described actually\noccurred. The divination scene may only be imaginary, although it is\ncertainly a true reflection of Babylonian ideas and customs. The truth\nconveyed is that the Babylonian army is moving under the immediate\nguidance of Jehovah, and that not only the political projects of the king,\nbut his secret thoughts and even his superstitious reliance on signs and\nomens, are all overruled for the furtherance of the one purpose for which\nJehovah has raised him up.\n\nMeanwhile Ezekiel is well aware that in Jerusalem a very different\ninterpretation is put on the course of events. When the news of the great\nking\u2019s decision reaches the men at the head of affairs they are not\ndismayed. They view the decision as the result of \u201cfalse divination\u201d; they\nlaugh to scorn the superstitious rites which have determined the course of\nthe campaign,\u2014not that they suppose the king will not act on his omens,\nbut they do not believe they are an augury of success. They had hoped for\na short breathing space while Nebuchadnezzar was engaged on the east of\nthe Jordan, but they will not shrink from the conflict whether it be to\u2010\nday or to\u2010morrow. Addressing himself to this state of mind, Ezekiel once\nmore(50) reminds those who hear him that these men are fighting against\nthe moral laws of the universe. The existing kingdom of Judah occupies a\nfalse position before God and in the eyes of just men. It has no religious\nfoundation; for the hope of the Messiah does not lie with that wearer of a\ndishonoured crown, the king Zedekiah, but with the legitimate heir of\nDavid now in exile. The state has no right to be except as part of the\nChald\u00e6an empire, and this right it has forfeited by renouncing its\nallegiance to its earthly superior. These men forget that in this quarrel\nthe just cause is that of Nebuchadnezzar, whose enterprise only seems to\n\u201ccall to mind their iniquity\u201d (ver. 28)\u2014_i.e._, their political crime. In\nprovoking this conflict, therefore, they have put themselves in the wrong;\nthey shall be caught in the toils of their own villainy.\n\nThe heaviest censure is reserved for Zedekiah, the \u201cwicked one, the prince\nof Israel, whose day is coming in the time of final retribution.\u201d This\npart of the prophecy has a close resemblance to the latter part of ch.\nxvii. The prophet\u2019s sympathies are still with the exiled king, or at least\nwith that branch of the royal family which he represents. And the sentence\nof rejection on Zedekiah is again accompanied by a promise of the\nrestoration of the kingdom in the person of the Messiah. The crown which\nhas been dishonoured by the last king of Judah shall be taken from his\nhead; that which is low shall be exalted (the exiled branch of the Davidic\nhouse), and that which is high shall be abased (the reigning king); the\nwhole existing order of things shall be overturned \u201cuntil _He_ comes who\nhas the right.\u201d(51)\n\n\n\nIV\n\n\nThe last oracle is directed against the children of Ammon. By\nNebuchadnezzar\u2019s decision to subdue Jerusalem first the Ammonites had\ngained a short respite. They even exulted in the humiliation of their\nformer ally, and had apparently drawn the sword in order to seize part of\nthe land of Judah. Misled by false diviners, they had dared to seek their\nown advantage in the calamities which Jehovah had brought on His own\npeople. The prophet threatens the complete annihilation of Ammon, even in\nits own land, and the blotting out of its remembrance among the nations.\nThat is the substance of the prophecy; but its form presents several\npoints of difficulty. It begins with what appears to be an echo of the\n\u201cSong of the Sword\u201d in the earlier part of the chapter:\u2014\n\nA sword! a sword!\nIt is drawn for slaughter; it is furbished to shine like lightning (ver.\n            33).\n\nBut as we proceed we find that it is the sword of the Ammonites that is\nmeant, and they are ordered to return it to its sheath. If this be so, the\ntone of the passage must be ironical. It is in mockery that the prophet\nuses such magnificent language of the puny pretensions of Ammon to take a\nshare in the work for which Jehovah has fashioned the mighty weapon of the\nChald\u00e6an army. There are other reminiscences of the earlier part of the\nchapter, such as the \u201clying divination\u201d of ver. 34, and the \u201ctime of final\nretribution\u201d in the same verse. The allusion to the \u201creproach\u201d of Ammon\nand its aggressive attitude seems to point to the time after the\ndestruction of Jerusalem and the withdrawal of the army of Nebuchadnezzar.\nWhether the Ammonites had previously made their submission or not we\ncannot tell; but the fortieth and forty\u2010first chapters of Jeremiah show\nthat Ammon was still a hotbed of conspiracy against the Babylonian\ninterest in the days after the fall of Jerusalem. These appearances make\nit probable that this part of the chapter is an appendix, added at a later\ntime, and dealing with a situation which was developed after the\ndestruction of the city. Its insertion in its present place is easily\naccounted for by the circumstance that the fate of Ammon had been linked\nwith that of Jerusalem in the previous part of the chapter. The vindictive\nlittle nationality had used its respite to gratify its hereditary hatred\nof Israel, and now the judgment, suspended for a time, shall return with\nredoubled fury and sweep it from the earth.\n\nLooking back over this series of prophecies, there seems reason to believe\nthat, with the exception of the last, they are really contemporaneous with\nthe events they deal with. It is true that they do not illuminate the\nhistorical situation to the same degree as those in which Isaiah depicts\nthe advance of another invader and the development of another crisis in\nthe people\u2019s history. This is due partly to the bent of Ezekiel\u2019s genius,\nbut partly also to the very peculiar circumstances in which he was placed.\nThe events which form the theme of his prophecy were transacted on a\ndistant stage; neither he nor his immediate hearers were actors in the\ndrama. He addresses himself to an audience wrought to the highest pitch of\nexcitement, but swayed by hopes and rumours and vague surmises as to the\nprobable issue of events. It was inevitable in these circumstances that\nhis prophecy, even in those passages which deal with contemporary facts,\nshould present but a pale reflection of the actual situation. In the case\nbefore us the one historical event which stands out clearly is the\ndeparture of Nebuchadnezzar with his army to Jerusalem. But what we read\nis genuine prophecy; not the artifice of a man using prophetic speech as a\nliterary form, but the utterance of one who discerns the finger of God in\nthe present, and interprets His purpose beforehand to the men of his day.\n\n\n\n\nChapter XII. Jehovah\u2019s Controversy With Israel. Chapter xx.\n\n\nBy far the hardest trial of Ezekiel\u2019s faith must have been the conduct of\nhis fellow\u2010exiles. It was amongst them that he looked for the great\nspiritual change which must precede the establishment of the kingdom of\nGod; and he had already addressed to them words of consolation based on\nthe knowledge that the hope of the future was theirs (ch. xi. 18). Yet the\ntime passed on without bringing any indications that the promise was about\nto be fulfilled. There were no symptoms of national repentance; there was\nnothing even to show that the lessons of the Exile as interpreted by the\nprophet were beginning to be laid to heart. For these men, among whom he\nlived, were still inveterately addicted to idolatry. Strange as it must\nseem to us, the very men who cherished a fanatical faith in Jehovah\u2019s\npower to save His people were assiduously practising the worship of other\ngods. It is too readily assumed by some writers that the idolatry of the\nexiles was of the ambiguous kind which had prevailed so long in the land\nof Israel, that it was the worship of Jehovah under the form of images\u2014a\nbreach of the second commandment, but not of the first. The people who\ncarried Jeremiah down to Egypt were as eager as Ezekiel\u2019s companions to\nhear a word from Jehovah; yet they were devoted to the worship of the\n\u201cQueen of Heaven,\u201d and dated all their misfortunes from the time when\ntheir women had ceased to pay court to her. There is no reason to believe\nthat the Jews in Babylon were less catholic in their superstitions than\nthose of Jud\u00e6a; and indeed the whole drift of Ezekiel\u2019s expostulations\ngoes to show that he has the worship of false gods in view. The ancient\nbelief that the worship of Jehovah was specially associated with the land\nof Canaan is not likely to have been without influence on the minds of\nthose who felt the fascination of idolatry, and must have strengthened the\ntendency to seek the aid of foreign gods in a foreign land.\n\nThe twentieth chapter deals with this matter of idolatry; and the fact\nthat this important discourse was called forth by a visit from the elders\nof Israel shows how heavily the subject weighed on the prophet\u2019s mind.\nWhatever the purpose of the deputation may have been (and of that we have\nno information), it was certainly not to consult Ezekiel about the\npropriety of worshipping false gods. It is only because this great\nquestion dominates all his thoughts concerning them and their destiny that\nhe connects the warning against idolatry with a casual inquiry addressed\nto him by the elders. The circumstances are so similar to those of ch.\nxiv. that Ewald was led to conjecture that both oracles originated in one\nand the same incident, and were separated from each other in writing\nbecause of the difference of their subjects. Ch. xiv. on that view\njustifies the refusal of an answer from a consideration of the true\nfunction of prophecy, while ch. xx. expands the admonition of the sixth\nverse of ch. xiv. into an elaborate review of the religious history of\nIsrael. But there is really no good reason for identifying the two\nincidents. In neither passage does the prophet think it worth while to\nrecord the object of the inquiry addressed to him, and therefore\nconjecture is useless.\n\nBut the very fact that a definite date is given for this visit leads us to\nconsider whether it had not some peculiar significance to lodge it so\nfirmly in Ezekiel\u2019s mind. Now the most suggestive hint which the chapter\naffords is the idea put into the lips of the exiles in ver. 32: \u201cAnd as\nfor the thought which arises in your mind, it shall not be, in that ye are\nthinking, We will become like the heathen, like the families of the lands,\nin worshipping wood and stone.\u201d These words contain the key to the whole\ndiscourse. It is difficult, no doubt, to decide how much exactly is\nimplied in them. They may mean no more than the determination to keep up\nthe external conformity to heathen customs which already existed in\nmatters of worship\u2014as, for example, in the use of images. But the form of\nexpression used, \u201cthat which is coming up in your mind,\u201d almost suggests\nthat the prophet was face to face with an incipient tendency among the\nexiles, a deliberate resolve to apostatise and assimilate themselves for\nall religious purposes to the surrounding heathen. It is by no means\nimprobable that, amidst the many conflicting tendencies that distracted\nthe exiled community, this idea of a complete abandonment of the national\nreligion should have crystallised into a settled purpose in the event of\ntheir last hope being disappointed. If this was the situation with which\nEzekiel had to deal, we should be able to understand how his denunciation\ntakes the precise form which it assumes in this chapter.\n\nFor what is, in the main, the purport of the chapter? Briefly stated the\nargument is as follows. The religion of Jehovah had never been the true\nexpression of the national genius of Israel. Not now for the first time\nhas the purpose of Israel come into conflict with the immutable purpose of\nJehovah; but from the very beginning the history had been one long\nstruggle between the natural inclinations of the people and the destiny\nwhich was forced on it by the will of God. The love of idols had been the\ndistinguishing feature of the national character from the beginning; and\nif it had been suffered to prevail, Israel would never have been known as\nJehovah\u2019s people. Why had it not been suffered to prevail? Because of\nJehovah\u2019s regard for the honour of His name; because in the eyes of the\nheathen His glory was identified with the fortunes of this particular\npeople, to whom He had once revealed Himself. And as it has been in the\npast, so it will be in the future. The time has come for the age\u2010long\ncontroversy to be brought to an issue, and it cannot be doubtful what the\nissue will be. \u201cThat which comes up in their mind\u201d\u2014this new resolve to\nlive like the heathen\u2014cannot turn aside the purpose of Jehovah to make of\nIsrael a people for His own glory. Whatever further judgments may be\nnecessary for that end, the land of Israel shall yet be the seat of a pure\nand acceptable worship of the true God, and the people shall recognise\nwith shame and contrition that the goal of all its history has been\naccomplished in spite of its perversity by the \u201cirresistible grace\u201d of its\ndivine King.\n\n\n\nI\n\n\nTHE LESSON OF HISTORY (vv. 5\u201029).\u2014It is a magnificent conception of\nnational election which the prophet here unfolds. It takes the form of a\nparallel between two desert scenes, one at the beginning and the other at\nthe close of Israel\u2019s history. The first part of the chapter deals with\nthe religious significance of the transactions in the wilderness of Sinai\nand the events in Egypt which were introductory to them. It starts from\nJehovah\u2019s free choice of the people while they were still living as\nidolaters in Egypt. Jehovah there revealed Himself to them as their God,\nand entered into a covenant(52) with them; and the covenant included on\nthe one hand the promise of the land of Canaan, and on the other hand a\nrequirement that the people should separate themselves from all forms of\nidolatry whether native or Egyptian. \u201cIn the day that I chose Israel, ...\nand made Myself known to them in the land of Egypt, ... saying, I am\nJehovah your God; in that day I lifted up My hand to them, to bring them\nout of the land of Egypt, into a land which I had sought out for them. And\nI said to them, Cast away each man the abomination of his eyes, and defile\nnot yourselves with the block\u2010gods of Egypt. I am Jehovah your God\u201d (vv.\n5\u20107). The point which Ezekiel specially emphasises is that this vocation\nto be the people of the true God was thrust on Israel without its consent,\nand that the revelation of Jehovah\u2019s purpose evoked no response in the\nheart of the people. By persistence in idolatry they had virtually\nrenounced the kingship of Jehovah and forfeited their right to the\nfulfilment of the promise He had given them. And only from regard to His\nname, that it might not be profaned in the sight of the nations, before\nwhose eyes He had made Himself known to them, did He turn from the purpose\nHe had formed to destroy them in the land of Egypt.\n\nIn several respects this account of the occurrences in Egypt goes beyond\nwhat we learn from any other source. The historical books contain no\nreference to the prevalence of specifically Egyptian forms of idolatry\namong the Hebrews, nor do they mention any threat to exterminate the\npeople for their rebellion. It is not to be supposed, however, that\nEzekiel possessed other records of the period before the Exodus than those\npreserved in the Pentateuch. The fundamental conceptions are those\nattested by the history, that God first revealed Himself to Israel by the\nname Jehovah through Moses, and that the revelation was accompanied by a\npromise of deliverance from Egypt. That the people in spite of this\nrevelation continued to worship idols is an inference from the whole of\ntheir subsequent history. And the conflict in the mind of Jehovah between\nanger against the people\u2019s sin and jealousy for His own name is not a\nmatter of history at all, but is an inspired interpretation of the history\nin the light of the divine holiness, which embraces both these elements.\n\nIn the wilderness Israel entered on the second and decisive stage of its\nprobation which falls into two acts, and whose determining factor was the\nlegislation. To the generation of the Exodus Jehovah made known the way of\nlife in a code of law which on its own intrinsic merits ought to have\ncommended itself to their moral sense. The statutes and judgments that\nwere then given were such that \u201cif a man do them he shall live by them\u201d\n(ver. 11). This thought of the essential goodness of the law as originally\ngiven reveals Ezekiel\u2019s view of God\u2019s relation to men. It derives its\nsignificance no doubt from the contrast with legislation of an opposite\ncharacter afterwards mentioned. Yet even that contrast expresses a\nconviction in the prophet\u2019s mind that morality is not constituted by\narbitrary enactments on the part of God, but that there are eternal\nconditions of ethical fellowship between God and man, and that the law\nfirst offered for Israel\u2019s acceptance was the embodiment of those ethical\nrelations which flow from the nature of Jehovah. It is probable that\nEzekiel has in view the moral precepts of the Decalogue. If so, it is\ninstructive to notice that the Sabbath law is separately mentioned, not as\none of the laws by which a man lives, but as a sign of the covenant\nbetween Jehovah and Israel. The divine purpose was again defeated by the\nidolatrous proclivities of the people: \u201cThey despised My judgments, and\nthey did not walk in My statutes, and they profaned My Sabbaths, _because_\ntheir heart went after their idols\u201d (ver. 16).\n\nTo the second generation in the wilderness the offer of the covenant was\nrenewed, with the same result (vv. 18\u201024). It should be observed that in\nboth cases the disobedience of the people is answered by two distinct\nutterances of Jehovah\u2019s wrath. The first is a threat of immediate\nextermination, which is expressed as a momentary purpose of Jehovah, no\nsooner formed than withdrawn for the sake of His honour (vv. 14, 21). The\nother is a judgment of a more limited character, uttered in the form of an\noath, and in the first case at least actually carried out. For the threat\nof exclusion from the Promised Land (ver. 15) was enforced so far as the\nfirst generation was concerned. Now the parallelism between the two\nsections leads us to expect that the similar threat of dispersion in ver.\n23 is meant to be understood of a judgment actually inflicted. We may\nconclude, therefore, that ver. 23 refers to the Babylonian exile and the\ndispersion among the nations, which hung like a doom over the nation\nduring its whole history in Canaan, and is represented as a direct\nconsequence of their transgressions in the wilderness. There seems reason\nto believe that the particular allusion is to the twenty\u2010eighth chapter of\nDeuteronomy, where the threat of a dispersion among the nations concludes\nthe long list of curses which will follow disobedience to the law (Deut.\nxxviii. 64\u201068). It is true that in that chapter the threat is only\nconditional; but in the time of Ezekiel it had already been fulfilled, and\nit is in accordance with his whole conception of the history to read the\nfinal issue back into the early period when the national character was\ndetermined.\n\nBut in addition to this, as if effectually to \u201cconclude them under sin,\u201d\nJehovah met the hardness of their hearts by imposing on them laws of an\nopposite character to those first given, and laws which accorded only too\nwell with their baser inclinations: \u201cAnd I also gave them statutes that\nwere not good, and judgments by which they should not live; and I rendered\nthem unclean in their offerings, by making over all that opened the womb,\nthat I might horrify them\u201d (vv. 25, 26).\n\nThis division of the wilderness legislation into two kinds, one good and\nlife\u2010giving and the other not good, presents difficulties both moral and\ncritical which cannot perhaps be altogether removed. The general direction\nin which the solution must be sought is indeed tolerably clear. The\nreference is to the law which required the consecration of the firstborn\nof all animals to Jehovah. This was interpreted in the most rigorous sense\nas dedication in sacrifice; and then the principle was extended to the\ncase of human beings. The divine purpose in appearing to sanction this\natrocious practice was to \u201chorrify\u201d the people\u2014that is to say, the\npunishment of their idolatry consisted in the shock to their natural\ninstincts and affections caused by the worst development of the idolatrous\nspirit to which they were delivered. We are not to infer from this that\nhuman sacrifice was an element of the original Hebrew religion, and that\nit was actually based on legislative enactment. The truth appears to be\nthat the sacrifice of children was originally a feature of Canaanitish\nworship, particularly of the god Melek or Molech, and was only introduced\ninto the religion of Israel in the evil days which preceded the fall of\nthe state.(53) The idea took hold of men\u2019s minds that this terrible rite\nalone revealed the full potency of the sacrificial act; and when the\nordinary means of propitiation seemed to fail, it was resorted to as the\nlast desperate expedient for appeasing an offended deity. All that\nEzekiel\u2019s words warrant us in assuming is that when once the practice was\nestablished it was defended by an appeal to the ancient law of the\nfirstborn, the principle of which was held to cover the case of human\nsacrifices. These laws, relating to the consecration of firstborn animals,\nare therefore the statutes referred to by Ezekiel; and their defect lies\nin their being open to such an immoral misinterpretation. This view is in\naccordance with the probabilities of the case. When we consider the\ntendency of the Old Testament writers to refer all actual events\nimmediately to the will of God, we can partly understand the form in which\nEzekiel expresses the facts; and this is perhaps all that can be said on\nthe moral aspect of the difficulty. It is but an application of the\nprinciple that sin is punished by moral obliquity, and precepts which are\naccommodated to the hardness of men\u2019s hearts are by that same hardness\nperverted to fatal issues. It cannot even be said that there is a radical\ndivergence of view between Ezekiel and Jeremiah on this subject. For when\nthe older prophet, speaking of child\u2010sacrifice, says that Jehovah\n\u201ccommanded it not, neither came it into His mind\u201d (ch. vii. 31 and ch.\nxix. 5), he must have in view men who justified the custom by an appeal to\nancient legislation. And although Jeremiah indignantly repudiates the\nsuggestion that such horrors were contemplated by the law of Jehovah, he\nhardly in this goes beyond Ezekiel, who declares that the ordinance in\nquestion does not represent the true mind of Jehovah, but belongs to a\npart of the law which was intended to punish sin by delusion.(54)\n\nIn consequence of these transactions in the desert Israel entered the land\nof Canaan under the threat of eventual exile and under the curse of a\npolluted worship. The subsequent history has little significance from the\npoint of view occupied throughout this discourse; and accordingly Ezekiel\ndisposes of it in three verses (27\u201029). The entrance on the Promised Land,\nhe says, furnished the opportunity for a new manifestation of disloyalty\nto Jehovah. He refers to the multiplication of heathen or semi\u2010heathen\nsanctuaries throughout the land. Wherever they saw a high hill or a leafy\ntree, they made it a place of sacrifice, and there they practised the\nimpure rites which were the outcome of their false conception of the\nDeity. To the mind of Ezekiel the unity of Jehovah and the unity of the\nsanctuary were inseparable ideas: the offence here alluded to is therefore\nof the same kind as the abominations practised in Egypt and the desert; it\nis a violation of the holiness of Jehovah. The prophet condenses his scorn\nfor the whole system of religion which led to a multiplication of\nsanctuaries into a play on the etymology of the word _b\u0101mah_ (high\nplaces), the point of which, however, is obscure.(55)\n\n\n\nII\n\n\nTHE APPLICATION (vv. 30\u201044).\u2014Having thus described the origin of idolatry\nin Israel, and having shown that the destiny of the nation had been\ndetermined neither by its deserts nor by its inclinations, but by\nJehovah\u2019s consistent regard for the honour of His name, the prophet\nproceeds to bring the lesson of the history to bear on his contemporaries.\nThe Captivity has as yet produced no change in their spiritual condition;\nin Babylon they still defile themselves with the same abominations as\ntheir ancestors, even to the crowning atrocity of child\u2010sacrifice. Their\nidolatry is if anything more conscious than before, for it takes the shape\nof a deliberate intention to be as other nations, worshipping wood and\nstone. It is necessary therefore that once for all Jehovah should assert\nHis sovereignty over Israel, and bend their stubborn will to the\naccomplishment of His purpose. \u201cAs I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, surely\nwith a strong hand, and with an outstretched arm, and wrath poured out,\nwill I be king over you\u201d (ver. 33). But how was this to be done? A heavier\nchastisement than that which had been inflicted on the exiles could hardly\nbe conceived, yet it had effected nothing for the regeneration of Israel.\nSurely the time is come when the divine method must be changed, when those\nwho have hardened themselves against the severity of God must be won by\nHis goodness? Such, however, is not the thought expressed in Ezekiel\u2019s\ndelineation of the future. It is possible that the description which\nfollows (vv. 34\u201038) may only be meant as an ideal picture of spiritual\nprocesses to be effected by ordinary providential agencies. But certain it\nis that what Ezekiel is chiefly convinced of is the necessity for further\nacts of judgment\u2014judgment which shall be decisive, because discriminating,\nand issuing in the annihilation of all who cling to the evil traditions of\nthe past. This idea, indeed, of further chastisement in store for the\nexiles is a fixed element of Ezekiel\u2019s prophecy. It appears in his\nearliest public utterance (ch. v.), although it is perhaps only in this\nchapter that we perceive its full significance.\n\nThe scene of God\u2019s final dealings with Israel\u2019s sin is to be the \u201cdesert\nof the nations.\u201d That great barren plateau which stretches between the\nJordan and the Euphrates valley, round which lay the nations chiefly\nconcerned in Israel\u2019s history, occupies a place in the restoration\nanalogous to that of the wilderness of Sinai (here called the \u201cwilderness\nof Egypt\u201d) at the time of the Exodus. Into that vast solitude Jehovah will\ngather His people from the lands of their exile, and there He will once\nmore judge them face to face. This judgment will be conducted on the\nprinciple laid down in ch. xviii. Each individual shall be dealt with\naccording to his own character as a righteous man or a wicked. They shall\nbe made to \u201cpass under the rod,\u201d like sheep when they are counted by the\nshepherd.(56) The rebels and transgressors shall perish in the wilderness;\nfor \u201cout of the land of their sojournings will I bring them, and into the\nland of Israel they shall not come\u201d (ver. 38). Those that emerge from the\ntrial are the righteous remnant, who are to be brought into the land by\nnumber:(57) these constitute the new Israel, for whom is reserved the\nglory of the latter days.\n\nThe idea that the spiritual transformation of Israel was to be effected\n_during a second sojourn in the wilderness_, although a very striking one,\noccurs only here in the book of Ezekiel, and it can hardly be considered\nas one of the cardinal ideas of his eschatology. It is in all probability\nderived from the prophecies of Hosea, although it is modified in\naccordance with the very different estimate of the nation\u2019s history\nrepresented by Ezekiel. It is instructive to compare the teaching of these\ntwo prophets on this point. To Hosea the idea of a return to the desert\npresents itself naturally as an element of the process by which Israel is\nto be brought back to its allegiance to Jehovah. The return to the desert\nrestores the conditions under which the nation had first known and\nfollowed Jehovah. He looks back to the sojourn in the wilderness of Sinai\nas the time of uninterrupted communion between Jehovah and Israel\u2014a time\nof youthful innocence, when the sinful tendencies which may have been\nlatent in the nation had not developed into actual infidelity. The decay\nof religion and morality dates from the possession of the land of Canaan,\nand is traced to the corrupting influence of Canaanitish idolatry and\ncivilisation. It was at Baal\u2010peor that they first succumbed to the\nattractions of a false religion and became contaminated with the spirit of\nheathenism. Then the rich produce of the land came to be regarded as the\ngift of the deities who were worshipped at the local sanctuaries, and this\nworship with its sensuous accompaniments was the means of estranging the\npeople more and more from the knowledge of Jehovah. Hence the first step\ntowards a renewal of the relation between God and Israel is the withdrawal\nof the gifts of nature, the suppression of religious ordinances and\npolitical institutions; and this is represented as effected by a return to\nthe primitive life of the desert. Then in her desolation and affliction\nthe heart of Israel shall respond once more to the love of Jehovah, who\nhas never ceased to yearn after His unfaithful people. \u201cI will allure her,\nand bring her into the wilderness, and speak to her heart: ... and she\nshall make answer there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day\nwhen she came up out of the land of Egypt\u201d (Hos. ii. 14, 15). Here there\nmay be a doubt whether the wilderness is to be taken literally or as a\nfigure for exile, but in either case the image naturally arises out of\nHosea\u2019s profoundly simple conception of religion.\n\nTo Ezekiel, on the other hand, the \u201cwilderness\u201d is a synonym for\ncontention and judgment. It is the scene where the meanness and perversity\nof man stand out in unrelieved contrast with the majesty and purity of\nGod. He recognises no glad springtime of promise and hope in the history\nof Israel, no \u201ckindness of her youth\u201d or \u201clove of her espousals\u201d when she\nwent after Jehovah in the land that was not sown (Jer. ii. 2). The\ndifference between Hosea\u2019s conception and Ezekiel\u2019s is that in the view of\nthe exilic prophet there never has been any true response on the part of\nIsrael to the call of God. Hence a return to the desert can only mean a\nrepetition of the judgments that had marked the first sojourn of the\npeople in the wilderness of Sinai, and the carrying of them to the point\nof a final decision between the claims of Jehovah and the stubbornness of\nHis people.\n\nIf it be asked which of these representations of the past is the true one,\nthe only answer possible is that from the standpoint from which the\nprophets viewed history both are true. Israel did follow Jehovah through\nthe wilderness, and took possession of the land of Canaan animated by an\nardent faith in His power. It is equally true that the religious condition\nof the people had its dark side, and that they were far from understanding\nthe nature of the God whose name they bore. And a prophet might emphasise\nthe one truth or the other according to the idea of God which it was given\nhim to teach. Hosea, reading the religious symptoms of his own time, sees\nin it a contrast to the happier period when life was simple and religion\ncomparatively pure, and finds in the desert sojourn an image of the\npurifying process by which the national life must be renewed. Ezekiel had\nto do with a more difficult problem. He saw that there was a power of evil\nwhich could not be eradicated merely by banishment from the land of\nIsrael\u2014a hard bed\u2010rock of unbelief and superstition in the national\ncharacter which had never yielded to the influence of revelation; and he\ndwells on all the manifestations of this which he read in the past. His\nhope for the future of the cause of God rests no longer on the moral\ninfluence of the divine love on the heart of man, but on the power of\nJehovah to accomplish His purpose in spite of the resistance of human sin.\nThat was not the whole truth about God\u2019s relation to Israel, but it was\nthe truth that needed to be impressed on the generation of the Exile.\n\nOf the final issue at all events Ezekiel is not doubtful. He is a man who\nis \u201cvery sure of God\u201d and sure of nothing else. In man he finds nothing to\ninspire him with confidence in the ultimate victory of the true religion\nover polytheism and superstition. His own generation has shown itself fit\nonly to perpetuate the evils of the past\u2014the love of sensuous worship, the\ninsensibility to the claims and nature of Jehovah, which had marked the\nwhole history of Israel. He is compelled for the present to abandon them\nto their corrupt inclinations,(58) expecting no signs of amendment until\nhis appeal is enforced by signal acts of judgment.\n\nBut all this does not shake his sublime faith in the fulfilment of\nIsrael\u2019s destiny. Despairing of men, he falls back on what St. Paul calls\nthe \u201cpurpose of God according to election\u201d (Rom. ix. 11). And with an\ninsight akin to that of the apostle of the Gentiles, he discerns through\nall Jehovah\u2019s dealings with Israel a principle and an ideal which must in\nthe end prevail over the sin of men. The goal to which the history points\nstands out clear before the mind of the prophet; and already he sees in\nvision the restored Israel\u2014a holy people in a renovated land\u2014rendering\nacceptable worship to the one God of heaven and earth. \u201cFor in My holy\nmountain, in the mountain heights of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah,\n_there_ shall serve Me the whole house of Israel: there will I be gracious\nto them, and there will I require your oblations, and the firstfruits of\nyour offerings, in all your holy things\u201d (ver. 40).\n\nThere we have the thought which is expanded in the vision of the purified\ntheocracy which occupies the closing chapters of the book. And it is\nimportant to notice this indication that the idea of that vision was\npresent to Ezekiel during the earlier part of his ministry.\n\n\n\n\nChapter XIII. Ohola And Oholibah. Chapter xxiii.\n\n\nThe allegory of ch. xxiii. adds hardly any new thought to those which have\nalready been expounded in connection with ch. xvi. and ch. xx. The ideas\nwhich enter into it are all such as we are now familiar with. They are:\nthe idolatry of Israel, learned in Egypt and persisted in to the end of\nher history; her fondness for alliances with the great Oriental empires,\nwhich was the occasion of new developments of idolatry; the corruption of\nreligion by the introduction of human sacrifice into the service of\nJehovah; and, finally, the destruction of Israel by the hands of the\nnations whose friendship she had so eagerly courted. The figure under\nwhich these facts are presented is the same as in ch. xvi., and many of\nthe details of the earlier prophecy are reproduced here with little\nvariation. But along with these resemblances we find certain\ncharacteristic features in this chapter which require attention, and\nperhaps some explanation.\n\nIn its treatment of the history this passage is distinguished from the\nother two by the recognition of the separate existence of the northern and\nsouthern kingdoms. In the previous retrospects Israel has either been\ntreated as a unity (as in ch. xx.), or attention has been wholly\nconcentrated on the fortunes of Judah, Samaria being regarded as on a\nlevel with a purely heathen city like Sodom (ch. xvi.). Ezekiel may have\nfelt that he has not yet done justice to the truth that the history of\nIsrael ran in two parallel lines, and that the full significance of God\u2019s\ndealings with the nation can only be understood when the fate of Samaria\nis placed alongside of that of Jerusalem. He did not forget that he was\nsent as a prophet to the \u201cwhole house of Israel,\u201d and indeed all the great\npre\u2010exilic prophets realised that their message concerned \u201cthe whole\nfamily which Jehovah had brought up out of Egypt\u201d (Amos iii. 1). Besides\nthis the chapter affords in many ways an interesting illustration of the\nworkings of the prophet\u2019s mind in the effort to realise vividly the nature\nof his people\u2019s sin and the meaning of its fate. In this respect it is\nperhaps the most finished and comprehensive product of his imagination,\nalthough it may not reveal the depth of religious insight exhibited in the\nsixteenth chapter.\n\nThe main idea of the allegory is no doubt borrowed from a prophecy of\nJeremiah belonging to the earlier part of his ministry (Jer. iii. 6\u201013).\nThe fall of Samaria was even then a somewhat distant memory, but the use\nwhich Jeremiah makes of it seems to show that the lesson of it had not\naltogether ceased to impress the mind of the southern kingdom. In the\nthird chapter he reproaches Judah the \u201ctreacherous\u201d for not having taken\nwarning from the fate of her sister the \u201capostate\u201d Israel, who has long\nsince received the reward of her infidelities. The same lesson is implied\nin the representation of Ezekiel (ver. 11); but as is usual with our\nprophet, the simple image suggested by Jeremiah is drawn out in an\nelaborate allegory, into which as many details are crowded as it will\nbear. In place of the epithets by which Jeremiah characterises the moral\ncondition of Israel and Judah, Ezekiel coins two new and somewhat obscure\nnames\u2014_Ohola_ for Samaria, and _Oholibah_ for Jerusalem.(59)\n\nThese women are children of one mother, and afterwards become wives of one\nhusband\u2014Jehovah. This need occasion no surprise in an allegorical\nrepresentation, although it is contrary to a law which Ezekiel doubtless\nknew (Lev. xviii. 18). Nor is it strange, considering the freedom with\nwhich he handles the facts of history, that the division between Israel\nand Judah is carried back to the time of the oppression in Egypt. We have\nindeed no certainty that this view is not historical. The cleavage between\nthe north and the south did not originate with the revolt of Jeroboam.\nThat great schism only brought out elements of antagonism which were\nlatent in the relations of the tribe of Judah to the northern tribes. Of\nthis there are many indications in the earlier history, and for what we\nknow the separation might have existed among the Hebrews in Goshen. Still,\nit is not probable that Ezekiel was thinking of any such thing. He is\nbound by the limits of his allegory; and there was no other way by which\nhe could combine the presentation of the two essential elements of his\nconception\u2014that Samaria and Jerusalem were branches of the one people of\nJehovah, and that the idolatry which marked their history had been learned\nin the youth of the nation in the land of Egypt.\n\nThat neither Israel nor Judah ever shook off the spell of their adulterous\nconnection with Egypt, but returned to it again and again down to the\nclose of their history, is certainly one point which the prophet means to\nimpress on the minds of his readers (vv. 8, 19, 27). With this exception\nthe earlier part of the chapter (to ver. 35) deals exclusively with the\nlater developments of idolatry from the eighth century and onwards. And\none of the most remarkable things in it is the description of the manner\nin which first Israel and then Judah was entangled in political relations\nwith the Oriental empires. There seems to be a vein of sarcasm in the\nsketch of the gallant Assyrian officers who turned the heads of the giddy\nand frivolous sisters and seduced them from their allegiance to Jehovah:\n\u201cOhola doted on her lovers, on the Assyrian warriors(60) clad in purple,\ngovernors and satraps, charming youths all of them, horsemen riding on\nhorses; and she lavished on them her fornications, the _\u00e9lite_ of the sons\nof Asshur all of them, and with all the idols of all on whom she doted she\ndefiled herself\u201d (vv. 6, 7). The first intimate contact of North Israel\nwith Assyria was in the reign of Menahem (2 Kings xv. 19), and the\nexplanation of it given in these words of Ezekiel must be historically\ntrue. It was the magnificent equipment of the Assyrian armies, the\nimposing display of military power which their appearance suggested, that\nimpressed the politicians of Samaria with a sense of the value of their\nalliance. The passage therefore throws light on what Ezekiel and the\nprophets generally mean by the figure of \u201cwhoredom.\u201d What he chiefly\ndeplores is the introduction of Assyrian idolatry, which was the\ninevitable sequel to a political union. But that was a secondary\nconsideration in the intention of those who were responsible for the\nalliance. The real motive of their policy was undoubtedly the desire of\none party in the state to secure the powerful aid of the king of Assyria\nagainst the rival party. None the less it was an act of infidelity and\nrebellion against Jehovah.\n\nStill more striking is the account of the first approaches of the southern\nkingdom to Babylon. After Samaria had been destroyed by the lovers whom\nshe had gathered to her side, Jerusalem still kept up the illicit\nconnection with the Assyrian empire. After Assyria had vanished from the\nstage of history, she eagerly sought an opportunity to enter into friendly\nrelations with the new Babylonian empire. She did not even wait till she\nhad made their acquaintance, but \u201cwhen she saw men portrayed on the wall,\npictures of Chald\u00e6ans portrayed in vermilion, girt with waist\u2010cloths on\ntheir loins, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them champions to\nlook upon, the likeness of the sons of Babel whose native land is\nChald\u00e6a\u2014then she doted upon them when she saw them with her eyes, and sent\nmessengers to them to Chald\u00e6a\u201d (vv. 14\u201016). The brilliant pictures\nreferred to are those with which Ezekiel must have been familiar on the\nwalls of the temples and palaces of Babylon. The representation, however,\ncannot be understood literally, since the Jews could have had no\nopportunity of even seeing the Babylonian pictures \u201con the wall\u201d until\nthey had sent ambassadors there.(61)\n\nThe meaning of the prophet is clear. The mere report of the greatness of\nBabylon was sufficient to excite the passions of Oholibah, and she began\nwith blind infatuation to court the advances of the distant strangers who\nwere to be her ruin. The exact historic reference, however, is uncertain.\nIt cannot be to the compact between Merodach\u2010baladan and Hezekiah, since\nat that time the initiative seems to have been taken by the rebel prince,\nwhose sovereignty over Babylon proved to be of short duration. It may\nrather be some transaction about the time of the battle of Carchemish\n(604) that Ezekiel is thinking of; but we have not as yet sufficient\nknowledge of the circumstances to clear up the allusion.\n\nBefore the end came the soul of Jerusalem was alienated from her latest\nlovers\u2014another touch of fidelity to the historical situation. But it was\nnow too late. The soul of Jehovah is alienated from Oholibah (vv. 17, 18),\nand she is already handed over to the fate which had overtaken her less\nguilty sister Ohola. The principal agents of her punishment are the\nBabylonians and all the Chald\u00e6ans; but under their banner marches a host\nof other nations\u2014Pekod and Shoa and Koa,(62) and, somewhat strangely, the\nsons of Asshur. In the pomp and circumstance of war which had formerly\nfascinated her imagination, they shall come against her, and after their\ncruel manner execute upon her the judgment meted out to adulterous women:\n\u201cThou hast walked in the way of thy sister, and I will put her cup into\nthy hand. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, The cup of thy sister shalt thou\ndrink,\u2014deep and wide, and of large content,\u2014filled with drunkenness and\nanguish\u2014the cup of horror and desolation, the cup of thy sister Samaria.\nAnd thou shalt drink it and drain it out,(63) ... for I have spoken it,\nsaith the Lord Jehovah\u201d (vv. 31\u201034).\n\nUp to this point the allegory has closely followed the actual history of\nthe two kingdoms. The remainder of the chapter (vv. 36\u201049) forms a pendant\nto the principal picture, and works out the central theme from a different\npoint of view. Here Samaria and Jerusalem are regarded as still existent,\nand judgment is pronounced on both as if it were still future. This is\nthoroughly in keeping with Ezekiel\u2019s ideal delineations. The limitations\nof space and time are alike transcended. The image, once clearly\nconceived, fixes itself in the writer\u2019s mind, and must be allowed to\nexhaust its meaning before it is finally dismissed. The distinctions of\nfar and near, of past and present and future, are apt to disappear in the\nintensity of his reverie. It is so here. The figures of Ohola and Oholibah\nare so real to the prophet that they are summoned once more to the\ntribunal to hear the recital of their \u201cabominations\u201d and receive the\nsentence which has in fact been already partly executed. Whether he is\nthinking at all of the ten tribes then in exile and awaiting further\npunishment it would be difficult to say. We see, however, that the picture\nis enriched with many features for which there was no room in the more\nhistoric form of the allegory, and perhaps the desire for completeness was\nthe chief motive for thus amplifying the figure. The description of the\nconduct of the two harlots (vv. 40\u201044) is exceedingly graphic,(64) and is\nno doubt a piece of realism drawn from life. Otherwise the section\ncontains nothing that calls for elucidation. The ideas are those which we\nhave already met with in other connections, and even the setting in which\nthey are placed presents no element of novelty.\n\nThus with words of judgment, and without a ray of hope to lighten the\ndarkness of the picture, the prophet closes this last survey of his\npeople\u2019s history.\n\n\n\n\nChapter XIV. Final Oracles Against Jerusalem. Chapters xxii., xxiv.\n\n\nThe close of the first period of Ezekiel\u2019s work was marked by two dramatic\nincidents, which made the day memorable both in the private life of the\nprophet and in the history of the nation. In the first place it coincided\nexactly with the commencement of the siege of Jerusalem. The prophet\u2019s\nmysterious knowledge of what was happening at a distance was duly\nrecorded, in order that its subsequent confirmation through the ordinary\nchannels of intelligence might prove the divine origin of his message (ch.\nxxiv. 1, 2). That Ezekiel actually did this we have no reason to doubt.\nThen the sudden death of his wife on the evening of the same day, and his\nunusual behaviour under the bereavement, caused a sensation among the\nexiles which the prophet was instructed to utilise as a means of driving\nhome the appeal just made to them. These transactions must have had a\nprofound effect on Ezekiel\u2019s fellow\u2010captives. They made his personality\nthe centre of absorbing interest to the Jews in Babylon; and the two years\nof silence on his part which ensued were to them years of anxious\nforeboding about the result of the siege.\n\nAt this juncture the prophet\u2019s thoughts naturally are occupied with the\nsubject which hitherto formed the principal burden of his prophecy. The\nfirst part of his career accordingly closes, as it had begun, with a\nsymbol of the fall of Jerusalem. Before this, however, he had drawn out\nthe solemn indictment against Jerusalem which is given in ch. xxii.,\nalthough the finishing touches were probably added after the destruction\nof the city. The substance of that chapter is so closely related to the\nsymbolic representation in the first part of ch. xxiv. that it will be\nconvenient to consider it here as an introduction to the concluding\noracles addressed more directly to the exiles of Tel\u2010abib.\n\n\n\nI\n\n\nThe purpose of this arraignment\u2014the most stately of Ezekiel\u2019s orations\u2014is\nto exhibit Jerusalem in her true character as a city whose social\ncondition is incurably corrupt. It begins with an enumeration of the\nprevalent sins of the capital (vv. 2\u201016); it ends with a denunciation of\nthe various classes into which society was divided (vv. 23\u201031); while the\nshort intervening passage is a figurative description of the judgment\nwhich is now inevitable (vv. 17\u201022).\n\n1. The first part of the chapter, then, is a catalogue of the\n\u201cabominations\u201d which called down the vengeance of Heaven upon the city of\nJerusalem. The offences enumerated are nearly the same as those mentioned\nin the definitions of personal righteousness and wickedness given in ch.\nxviii. It is not necessary to repeat what was there said about the\ncharacteristics of the moral ideal which had been formed in the mind of\nEzekiel. Although he is dealing now with a society, his point of view is\nquite different from that represented by purely allegorical passages like\nchs. xvi. and xxiii. The city is not idealised and treated as a moral\nindividual, whose relations to Jehovah have to be set forth in symbolic\nand figurative language. It is conceived as an aggregate of individuals\nbound together in social relations; and the sins charged against it are\nthe actual transgressions of the men who are members of the community.\nHence the standard of public morality is precisely the same as that which\nis elsewhere applied to the individual in his personal relation to God;\nand the sins enumerated are attributed to the city merely because they are\ntolerated and encouraged in individuals by laxity of public opinion and\nthe force of evil example. Jerusalem is a community in which these\ndifferent crimes are perpetrated: \u201cFather and mother are despised _in\nthee_; the stranger is oppressed _in the midst of thee_; orphan and widow\nare wronged _in thee_; slanderous men seeking blood have been _in thee_;\nflesh with the blood is eaten _in thee_; lewdness is committed _in the\nmidst of thee_; the father\u2019s shame is uncovered _in thee_; she that was\nunclean in her separation hath been humbled _in thee_.\u201d So the grave and\nmeasured indictment runs on. It is because of these things that Jerusalem\nas a whole is \u201cguilty\u201d and \u201cunclean\u201d and has brought near her day of\nretribution (ver. 4). Such a conception of corporate guilt undoubtedly\nappeals more directly to our ordinary conscience of public morality than\nthe more poetic representations where Jerusalem is compared to a faithless\nand treacherous woman. We have no difficulty in judging of any modern city\nin the very same way as Ezekiel here judges Jerusalem; and in this respect\nit is interesting to notice the social evils which he regards as marking\nout that city as ripe for destruction.\n\nThere are three features of the state of things in Jerusalem in which the\nprophet recognises the symptoms of an incurable social condition. The\nfirst is the loss of a true conception of God. In ancient Israel this\ndefect necessarily assumed the form of idolatry. Hence the multiplication\nof idols appropriately finds a place among the marks of the \u201cuncleanness\u201d\nwhich made Jerusalem hateful in the eyes of Jehovah (ver. 3). But the root\nof idolatry in Israel was the incapacity or the unwillingness of the\npeople to live up to the lofty conception of the divine nature which was\ntaught by the prophets. Throughout the ancient world religion was felt to\nbe the indispensable bond of society, and the gods that were worshipped\nreflected more or less fully the ideals that swayed the life of the\ncommunity. To Israel the religion of Jehovah represented the highest\nsocial ideal that was then known on earth. It meant righteousness, and\npurity, and brotherhood, and compassion for the poor and distressed. When\nthese virtues decayed she forgot Jehovah (ver. 12)\u2014forgot His character\neven if she remembered His name\u2014and the service of false gods was the\nnatural and obvious expression of the fact. There is therefore a profound\ntruth in Ezekiel\u2019s mind when he numbers the idols of Jerusalem amongst the\nindications of a degenerate society. They were the evidence that she had\nlost the sense of God as a holy and righteous spiritual presence in her\nmidst, and that loss was at once the source and the symptom of widespread\nmoral declension. It is one of the chief lessons of the Old Testament that\na religion which was neither the product of national genius nor the\nembodiment of national aspiration, but was based on supernatural\nrevelation, proved itself in the history of Israel to be the only possible\nsafeguard against the tendencies which made for social disintegration.\n\nA second mark of depravity which Ezekiel discovers in the capital is the\nperversion of certain moral instincts which are just as essential to the\npreservation of society as a true conception of God. For if society rests\nat one end on religion, it rests at the other on instinct. The closest and\nmost fundamental of human relations depend on innate perceptions which may\nbe easily destroyed, but which when destroyed can scarcely be recovered.\nThe sanctities of marriage and the family will hardly bear the coarse\nscrutiny of utilitarian ethics; yet they are the foundation on which the\nwhole social fabric is built. And there is no part of Ezekiel\u2019s indictment\nof Jerusalem which conveys to our minds a more vivid sense of utter\ncorruption than where he speaks of the loss of filial piety and revolting\nforms of sexual impurity as prevalent sins in the city. Here at least he\ncarries the conviction of every moralist with him. He instances no offence\nof this kind which would not be branded as unnatural by any system of\nethics as heartily as it is by the Old Testament. It is possible, on the\nother hand, that he ranks on the same level with these sins ceremonial\nimpurities appealing to feelings of a different order, to which no\npermanent moral value can be attached. When, for example, he instances\neating with the blood(65) as an \u201cabomination,\u201d he appeals to a law which\nis no longer binding on us. But even that regulation was not so worthless,\nfrom a moral point of view, at that time as we are apt to suppose. The\nabhorrence of eating blood was connected with certain sacrificial ideas\nwhich attributed a mystic significance to the blood as the seat of animal\nlife. So long as these ideas existed no man could commit this offence\nwithout injuring his moral nature and loosening the divine sanctions of\nmorality as a whole. It is a false illuminism which seeks to disparage the\nmoral insight of the prophet on the ground that he did not teach an\nabstract system of ethics in which ceremonial precepts were sharply\ndistinguished from duties which we consider moral.(66)\n\nThe third feature of Jerusalem\u2019s guilty condition is lawless violation of\nhuman rights. Neither life nor property was secure. Judicial murders were\nfrequent in the city, and minor forms of oppression, such as usury,\nspoliation of the unprotected, and robbery, were of daily occurrence. The\nadministration of justice was corrupted by systematic bribery and perjury,\nand the lives of innocent men were ruthlessly sacrificed under the forms\nof law. This after all is the aspect of things which bulks most largely in\nthe prophet\u2019s indictment. Jerusalem is addressed as a \u201ccity shedding blood\nin her midst,\u201d and throughout the accusation the charge of bloodshed is\nthat which constantly recurs. Misgovernment and party strife, and perhaps\nreligious persecution, had converted the city into a vast human shambles,\nand the blood of the innocent slain cried aloud to heaven for vengeance.\n\u201cOf what avail,\u201d asks the prophet, \u201care the stores of wealth piled up in\nthe hands of a few against this damning witness of blood? Jehovah smites\nHis hand [in derision] against her gains that she has made, and against\nher blood which is in her midst. How can her heart stand or her hands be\nstrong in the days when He deals with her?\u201d (vv. 13, 14). Drained of her\nbest blood, given over to internecine strife, and stricken with the\ncowardice of conscious guilt, Jerusalem, already disgraced among the\nnations, must fall an easy victim to the Chald\u00e6an invaders, who are the\nagents of Jehovah\u2019s judgments.\n\n2. But the most serious aspect of the situation is that which is dealt\nwith in the peroration of the chapter (vv. 23\u201031). Outbursts of vice and\nlawlessness such as has been described may occur in any society, but they\nare not necessarily fatal to a community so long as it possesses a\nconscience which can be roused to effective protest against them. Now the\nworst thing about Jerusalem was that she lacked this indispensable\ncondition of recovery. No voice was raised on the side of righteousness,\nno man dared to stem the tide of wickedness that swept through her\nstreets. Not merely that she harboured within her walls men guilty of\nincest and robbery and murder, but that her leading classes were\ndemoralised, that public spirit had decayed among her citizens, marked her\nas incapable of reformation. She was \u201ca land not watered,\u201d(67) \u201cand not\nrained upon in a day of indignation\u201d (ver. 24); the springs of her civic\nvirtue were dried up, and a blight spread through all sections of her\npopulation.(68) Ezekiel\u2019s impeachment of different classes of society\nbrings out this fact with great force. First of all the ancient\ninstitutions of social order, government, priesthood, and prophecy were in\nthe hands of men who had lost the spirit of their office and abused their\nposition for the advancement of private interests. Her princes(69) have\nbeen, instead of humane rulers and examples of noble living, cruel and\nrapacious tyrants, enriching themselves at the cost of their subjects\n(ver. 25). The priests, whose function was to maintain the outward\nordinances of religion and foster the spirit of reverence, have done their\nutmost, by falsification of the _Torah_, to bring religion into contempt\nand obliterate the distinction between the holy and the profane (ver. 26).\nThe nobles had been a pack of ravening wolves, imitating the rapacity of\nthe court, and hunting down prey which the royal lion would have disdained\nto touch (ver. 27). As for the professional prophets\u2014those degenerate\nrepresentatives of the old champions of truth and mercy\u2014we have already\nseen what they were worth (ch. xiii.). They who should have been foremost\nto denounce civil wrong are fit for nothing but to stand by and bolster up\nwith lying oracles in the name of Jehovah a constitution which sheltered\ncrimes like these (ver. 28).\n\nFrom the ruling classes the prophet\u2019s glance turns for a moment to the\n\u201cpeople of the land,\u201d the dim common population, where virtue might have\nbeen expected to find its last retreat. It is characteristic of the age of\nEzekiel that the prophets begin to deal more particularly with the sins of\nthe masses as distinct from the classes. This was due partly perhaps to a\nreal increase of ungodliness in the body of the people, but partly also to\na deeper sense of the importance of the individual apart from his position\nin the state. These prophets seem to feel that if there had been anywhere\namong rich or poor an honest response to the will of Jehovah it would have\nbeen a token that God had not altogether rejected Israel. Jeremiah puts\nthis view very strongly when in the fifth chapter he says that if one man\ncould be found in Jerusalem who did justice and sought truth the Lord\nwould pardon her; and his vain search for that man begins among the poor.\nIt is this same motive that leads Ezekiel to include the humble citizen in\nhis survey of the moral condition of Jerusalem. It is little wonder that\nunder such leaders they had cast off the restraints of humanity, and\noppressed those who were still more defenceless than themselves. But it\nshowed nevertheless that real religion had no longer a foothold in the\ncity. It proved that the greed of gain had eaten into the very heart of\nthe people and destroyed the ties of kindred and mutual sympathy, through\nwhich alone the will of Jehovah could be realised. No matter although they\nwere obscure householders, without political power or responsibility; if\nthey had been good men in their private relations, Jerusalem would have\nbeen a better place to live in. Ezekiel indeed does not go so far as to\nsay that a single good life would have saved the city. He expects of a\ngood man that he be a man in the full sense\u2014a man who speaks boldly on\nbehalf of righteousness and resists the prevalent evils with all his\nstrength: \u201cI sought among them a man to build up a fence, and to stand in\nthe breach before Me on behalf of the land, that it might not be\ndestroyed; and I found none. So I poured out My indignation upon them;\nwith the fire of My wrath I consumed them: I have returned their way upon\ntheir head, saith the Lord Jehovah\u201d (vv. 30, 31).\n\n3. But we should misunderstand Ezekiel\u2019s position if we supposed that his\nprediction of the speedy destruction of Jerusalem was merely an inference\nfrom his clear insight into the necessary conditions of social welfare\nwhich were being violated by her rulers and her citizens. That is one part\nof his message, but it could not stand alone. The purpose of the\nindictment we have considered is simply to explain the moral\nreasonableness of Jehovah\u2019s action in the great act of judgment which the\nprophet knows to be approaching. It is no doubt a general law of history\nthat moribund communities are not allowed to die a natural death. Their\nusual fate is to perish in the struggle for existence before some other\nand sounder nation. But no human sagacity can foresee how that law will be\nverified in any particular case. It may seem clear to us now that Israel\nmust have fallen sooner or later before the advance of the great Eastern\nempires, but an ordinary observer could not have foretold with the\nconfidence and precision which mark the predictions of Ezekiel in what\nmanner and within what time the end would come. Of that aspect of the\nprophet\u2019s mind no explanation can be given save that God revealed His\nsecret to His servants the prophets.\n\nNow this element of the prophecy seems to be brought out by the image of\nJerusalem\u2019s fate which occupies the middle verses of the chapter (vv.\n17\u201022). The city is compared to the crucible in which all the refuse of\nIsrael\u2019s national life is to undergo its final trial by fire. The prophet\nsees in imagination the terror\u2010stricken provincial population swept into\nthe capital before the approach of the Chald\u00e6ans; and he says, \u201cThus does\nJehovah cast His ore into the furnace\u2014the silver, the brass, the iron, the\nlead, and the tin; and He will kindle the fire with His anger, and blow\nupon it till He have consumed the impurities of the land.\u201d The image of\nthe smelting\u2010pot had been used by Isaiah as an emblem of purifying\njudgment, the object of which was the removal of injustice and the\nrestoration of the state to its former splendour: \u201cI will again bring My\nhand upon thee, smelting out thy dross with lye and taking away all thine\nalloy; and I will make thy judges to be again as aforetime, and thy\ncounsellors as at the beginning: thereafter thou shalt be called the city\nof righteousness, the faithful city\u201d (Isa. i. 25, 26). Ezekiel, however,\ncan hardly have contemplated such a happy result of the operation. The\nwhole house of Israel has become dross, from which no precious metal can\nbe extracted; and the object of the smelting is only the demonstration of\nthe utter worthlessness of the people for the ends of God\u2019s kingdom. The\nmore refractory the material to be dealt with the fiercer must be the fire\nthat tests it; and the severity of the exterminating judgment is the only\nthing symbolised by the metaphor as used by Ezekiel. In this he follows\nJeremiah, who applies the figure in precisely the same sense: \u201cThe bellows\nsnort, the lead is consumed of the fire; in vain he smelts and smelts: but\nthe wicked are not taken away. Refuse silver shall men call them, for the\nLord hath rejected them\u201d (Jer. vi. 29, 30). In this way the section\nsupplements the teaching of the rest of the chapter. Jerusalem is full of\ndross\u2014that has been proved by the enumeration of her crimes and the\nestimate of her social condition. But the fire which consumes the dross\nrepresents a special providential intervention bringing the history of the\nstate to a summary and decisive conclusion. And the Refiner who\nsuperintends the process is Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, whose\nrighteous will is executed by the march of conquering hosts, and revealed\nto men in His dealings with the people whom He had known of all the\nfamilies of the earth.\n\n\n\nII\n\n\nThe chapter we have just studied was evidently not composed with a view to\nimmediate publication. It records the view of Jerusalem\u2019s guilt and\npunishment which was borne in upon the mind of the prophet in the solitude\nof his chamber, but it was not destined to see the light until the whole\nof his teaching could be submitted in its final form to a wider and more\nreceptive audience. It is equally obvious that the scenes described in ch.\nxxiv. were really enacted in the full view of the exiled community. We\nhave reached the crisis of Ezekiel\u2019s ministry. For the last time until his\nwarnings of doom shall be fulfilled he emerges from his partial seclusion,\nand in symbolism whose vivid force could not have failed to impress the\nmost listless hearer he announces once more the destruction of the Hebrew\nnation. The burden of his message is that that day\u2014the tenth day of the\ntenth month of the ninth year\u2014marked the beginning of the end. \u201cOn that\nvery day\u201d\u2014a day to be commemorated for seventy long years by a national\nfast (Zech. viii. 19; cf. vii. 5)\u2014Nebuchadnezzar was drawing his lines\nround Jerusalem. The bare announcement to men who knew what a Chald\u00e6an\nsiege meant must have sent a thrill of consternation through their minds.\nIf this vision of what was happening in a distant land should prove true,\nthey must have felt that all hope of deliverance was now cut off.\nSceptical as they may have been of the moral principles that lay behind\nEzekiel\u2019s prediction, they could not deny that the issue he foresaw was\nonly the natural sequel to the fact he so confidently announced.\n\nThe image here used of the fate of Jerusalem would recall to the minds of\nthe exiles the ill\u2010omened saying which expressed the reckless spirit\nprevalent in the city: \u201cThis city is the pot, and we are the flesh\u201d (ch.\nxi. 3). It was well understood in Babylon that these men were playing a\ndesperate game, and did not shrink from the horrors of a siege. \u201cSet on\nthe pot,\u201d then, cries the prophet to his listeners, \u201cset it on, and pour\nin water also, and gather the pieces into it, every good joint, leg and\nshoulder; fill it with the choicest bones. Take them from the best of the\nflock, and then pile up the wood(70) under it; let its pieces be boiled\nand its bones cooked within it\u201d (vv. 3\u20105). This part of the parable\nrequired no explanation; it simply represents the terrible miseries\nendured by the population of Jerusalem during the siege now commencing.\nBut then by a sudden transition the speaker turns the thoughts of his\nhearers to another aspect of the judgment (vv. 6\u20108). The city itself is\nlike a rusty caldron, unfit for any useful purpose until by some means it\nhas been cleansed from its impurity. It is as if the crimes that had been\nperpetrated in Jerusalem had stained her very stones with blood. She had\nnot even taken steps to conceal the traces of her wickedness; they lie\nlike blood on the bare rock, an open witness to her guilt. Often Jehovah\nhad sought to purify her by more measured chastisements, but it has now\nbeen proved that \u201cher much rust will not go from her except by fire\u201d(71)\n(ver. 12). Hence the end of the siege will be twofold. First of all the\ncontents of the caldron will be indiscriminately thrown out\u2014a figure for\nthe dispersion and captivity of the inhabitants; and then the pot must be\nset empty on the glowing coals till its rust is thoroughly burned out\u2014a\nsymbol of the burning of the city and its subsequent desolation (ver. 11).\nThe idea that the material world may contract defilement through the sins\nof those who live in it is one that is hard for us to realise, but it is\nin keeping with the view of sin presented by Ezekiel, and indeed by the\nOld Testament generally. There are certain natural emblems of sin, such as\nuncleanness or disease or uncovered blood, etc., which had to be largely\nused in order to educate men\u2019s moral perceptions. Partly these rest on the\nanalogy between physical defect and moral evil; but partly, as here, they\nresult from a strong sense of association between human deeds and their\neffects or circumstances. Jerusalem is unclean as a place where wicked\ndeeds have been done, and even the destruction of the sinners cannot in\nthe mind of Ezekiel clear her from the unhallowed associations of her\nhistory. She must lie empty and dreary for a generation, swept by the\nwinds of heaven before devout Israelites can again twine their affections\nround the hope of her glorious future.(72)\n\nEven while delivering this message of doom to the people the prophet\u2019s\nheart was burdened by the presentiment of a great personal sorrow. He had\nreceived an intimation that his wife was to be taken from him by a sudden\nstroke, and along with the intimation a command to refrain from all the\nusual signs of mourning. \u201cSo I spake to the people\u201d (as recorded in vv.\n1\u201014) \u201cin the morning, and my wife died in the evening\u201d (ver. 18). Just\none touch of tenderness escapes him in relating this mysterious\noccurrence. She was the \u201cdelight of his eyes\u201d: that phrase alone reveals\nthat there was a fountain of tears sealed up within the breast of this\nstern preacher. How the course of his life may have been influenced by a\nbereavement so strangely coincident with a change in his whole attitude to\nhis people we cannot even surmise. Nor is it possible to say how far he\nmerely used the incident to convey a lesson to the exiles, or how far his\nprivate grief was really swallowed up in concern for the calamity of his\ncountry. All we are told is that \u201cin the morning he did as he was\ncommanded.\u201d He neither uttered loud lamentations, nor disarranged his\nraiment, nor covered his head, nor ate the \u201cbread of men,\u201d(73) nor adopted\nany of the customary signs of mourning for the dead. When the astonished\nneighbours inquire the meaning of his strange demeanour, he assures them\nthat his conduct _now_ is a sign of what theirs will be when his words\nhave come true. When the tidings reach them that Jerusalem has actually\nfallen, when they realise how many interests dear to them have\nperished\u2014the desolation of the sanctuary, the loss of their own sons and\ndaughters\u2014they will experience a sense of calamity which will\ninstinctively discard all the conventional and even the natural\nexpressions of grief. They shall neither mourn nor weep, but sit in dumb\nbewilderment, haunted by a dull consciousness of guilt which yet is far\nremoved from genuine contrition of heart. They shall pine away in their\niniquities. For while their sorrow will be too deep for words, it will not\nyet be the godly sorrow that worketh repentance. It will be the sullen\ndespair and apathy of men disenchanted of the illusions on which their\nnational life was based, of men left without hope and without God in the\nworld.\n\nHere the curtain falls on the first act of Ezekiel\u2019s ministry. He appears\nto have retired for the space of two years into complete privacy, ceasing\nentirely his public appeals to the people, and waiting for the time of his\nvindication as a prophet. The sense of restraint under which he has\nhitherto exercised the function of a public teacher cannot be removed\nuntil the tidings have reached Babylon that the city has fallen.\nMeanwhile, with the delivery of this message, his contest with the\nunbelief of his fellow\u2010captives comes to an end. But when that day arrives\n\u201chis mouth shall be open, and he shall be no more dumb.\u201d A new career will\nopen out before him, in which he can devote all his powers of mind and\nheart to the inspiring work of reviving faith in the promises of God, and\nso building up a new Israel out of the ruins of the old.\n\n\n\n\n\nPART III. PROPHECIES AGAINST FOREIGN NATIONS.\n\n\n\n\nChapter XV. Ammon, Moab, Edom, And Philistia. Chapter xxv.\n\n\nThe next eight chapters (xxv.\u2010xxxii.) form an intermezzo in the book of\nEzekiel. They are inserted in this place with the obvious intention of\nseparating the two sharply contrasted situations in which our prophet\nfound himself before and after the siege of Jerusalem. The subject with\nwhich they deal is indeed an essential part of the prophet\u2019s message to\nhis time, but it is separate from the central interest of the narrative,\nwhich lies in the conflict between the word of Jehovah in the hands of\nEzekiel and the unbelief of the exiles among whom he lived. The perusal of\nthis group of chapters is intended to prepare the reader for the\ncompletely altered conditions under which Ezekiel was to resume his public\nministrations. The cycle of prophecies on foreign peoples is thus a sort\nof literary analogue of the period of suspense which interrupted the\ncontinuity of Ezekiel\u2019s work in the way we have seen. It marks the\nshifting of the scenes behind the curtain before the principal actors\nagain step on the stage.\n\nIt is natural enough to suppose that the prophet\u2019s mind was really\noccupied during this time with the fate of Israel\u2019s heathen neighbours;\nbut that alone does not account for the grouping of the oracles before us\nin this particular section of the book. Not only do some of the\nchronological notices carry us far past the limit of the time of silence\nreferred to, but it will be found that nearly all these prophecies assume\nthat the fall of Jerusalem is already known to the nations addressed. It\nis therefore a mistaken view which holds that in these chapters we have\nsimply the result of Ezekiel\u2019s meditations during his period of enforced\nseclusion from public duty. Whatever the nature of his activity at this\ntime may have been, the principle of arrangement here is not\nchronological, but literary; and no better motive for it can be suggested\nthan the writer\u2019s sense of dramatic propriety in unfolding the\nsignificance of his prophetic life.\n\nIn uttering a series of oracles against heathen nations, Ezekiel follows\nthe example set by some of his greatest predecessors. The book of Amos,\nfor example, opens with an impressive chapter of judgments on the peoples\nlying immediately round the borders of Palestine. The thundercloud of\nJehovah\u2019s anger is represented as moving over the petty states of Syria\nbefore it finally breaks in all its fury over the two kingdoms of Judah\nand Israel. Similarly the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah contain continuous\nsections dealing with various heathen powers, while the book of Nahum is\nwholly occupied with a prediction of the ruin of the Assyrian empire. And\nthese are but a few of the more striking instances of a phenomenon which\nis apt to cause perplexity to close and earnest students of the Old\nTestament. We have here to do, therefore, with a standing theme of Hebrew\nprophecy; and it may help us better to understand the attitude of Ezekiel\nif we consider for a moment some of the principles involved in this\nconstant preoccupation of the prophets with the affairs of the outer\nworld.\n\nAt the outset it must be understood that prophecies of this kind form part\nof Jehovah\u2019s message to Israel. Although they are usually cast in the form\nof direct address to foreign peoples, this must not lead us to imagine\nthat they were intended for actual publication in the countries to which\nthey refer. A prophet\u2019s real audience always consisted of his own\ncountrymen, whether his discourse was about themselves or about their\nneighbours. And it is easy to see that it was impossible to declare the\npurpose of God concerning Israel in words that came home to men\u2019s business\nand bosoms, without taking account of the state and the destiny of other\nnations. Just as it would not be possible nowadays to forecast the future\nof Egypt without alluding to the fate of the Ottoman empire, so it was not\npossible then to describe the future of Israel in the concrete manner\ncharacteristic of the prophets without indicating the place reserved for\nthose peoples with whom it had close intercourse. Besides this, a large\npart of the national consciousness of Israel was made up of interests,\nfriendly or the reverse, in neighbouring states. The Hebrews had a keen\neye for national idiosyncrasies, and the simple international relations of\nthose days were almost as vivid and personal as of neighbours living in\nthe same village. To be an Israelite was to be something\ncharacteristically different from a Moabite, and that again from an\nEdomite or a Philistine, and every patriotic Israelite had a shrewd sense\nof what the difference was. We cannot read the utterances of the prophets\nwith regard to any of these nationalities without seeing that they often\nappeal to perceptions deeply lodged in the popular mind, which could be\nutilised to convey the spiritual lessons which the prophets desired to\nteach.\n\nIt must not be supposed, however, that such prophecies are in any degree\nthe expression of national vanity or jealousy. What the prophets aim at is\nto elevate the thoughts of Israel to the sphere of eternal truths of the\nkingdom of God; and it is only in so far as these can be made to touch the\nconscience of the nation at this point that they appeal to what we may\ncall its international sentiments. Now the question we have to ask is,\nWhat spiritual purpose for Israel is served by the announcements of the\ndestiny of the outlying heathen populations? There are of course special\ninterests attaching to each particular prophecy which it would be\ndifficult to classify. But, speaking generally, prophecies of this class\nhad a moral value for two reasons. In the first place they re\u2010echo and\nconfirm the sentence of judgment passed on Israel herself. They do this in\ntwo ways: they illustrate the principle on which Jehovah deals with His\nown people, and His character as the righteous judge of men. Israel was to\nbe destroyed for her national sins, her contempt of Jehovah, and her\nbreaches of the moral law. But other nations, though more excusable, were\nnot less guilty than Israel. The same spirit of ungodliness, in different\nforms, was manifested by Tyre, by Egypt, by Assyria, and by the petty\nstates of Syria. Hence, if Jehovah was really the righteous ruler of the\nworld, He must visit upon these nations their iniquities. Wherever a\n\u201csinful kingdom\u201d was found, whether in Israel or elsewhere, that kingdom\nmust be removed from its place among the nations. This appears most\nclearly in the book of Amos, who, though he enunciates the paradoxical\ntruth that Israel\u2019s sin must be punished just because it was the only\npeople that Jehovah had known, nevertheless, as we have seen, thundered\nforth similar judgments on other nations for their flagrant violation of\nthe universal law written in the human heart. In this way therefore the\nprophets enforced on their contemporaries the fundamental lesson of their\nteaching that the disasters which were coming on them were not the result\nof the caprice or impotence of their Deity, but the execution of His moral\npurpose, to which all men everywhere are subject. But again, not only was\nthe principle of the judgment emphasised, but the manner in which it was\nto be carried out was more clearly exhibited. In all cases the pre\u2010exilic\nprophets announce that the overthrow of the Hebrew states was to be\neffected either by the Assyrians or the Babylonians. These great world\u2010\npowers were in succession the instruments fashioned and used by Jehovah\nfor the performance of His great work in the earth. Now it was manifest\nthat if this anticipation was well founded it involved the overthrow of\nall the nations in immediate contact with Israel. The policy of the\nMesopotamian monarchs was well understood; and if their wonderful\nsuccesses were the revelation of the divine purpose, then Israel would not\nbe judged alone. Accordingly we find in most instances that the\nchastisement of the heathen is either ascribed directly to the invaders or\nelse to other agencies set in motion by their approach. The people of\nIsrael or Judah were thus taught to look on their fate as involved in a\ngreat scheme of divine providence, overturning all the existing relations\nwhich gave them a place among the nations of the world and preparing for a\nnew development of the purpose of Jehovah in the future.\n\nWhen we turn to that ideal future we find a second and more suggestive\naspect of these prophecies against the heathen. All the prophets teach\nthat the destiny of Israel is inseparably bound up with the future of\nGod\u2019s kingdom on earth. The Old Testament never wholly shakes off the idea\nthat the preservation and ultimate victory of the true religion demands\nthe continued existence of the one people to whom the revelation of the\ntrue God had been committed. The indestructibility of Israel\u2019s national\nlife depends on its unique position in relation to the purposes of\nJehovah, and it is for this reason that the prophets look forward with\nunwavering confidence to a time when the knowledge of Jehovah shall go\nforth from Israel to all the nations of mankind. And this point of view we\nmust try to enter into if we are to understand the meaning of their\ndeclarations concerning the fate of the surrounding nations. If we ask\nwhether an independent future is reserved in the new dispensation for the\npeoples with whom Israel had dealings in the past, we find that different\nand sometimes conflicting answers are given. Thus Isaiah predicts a\nrestoration of Tyre after the lapse of seventy years, while Ezekiel\nannounces its complete and final destruction. It is only when we consider\nthese utterances in the light of the prophets\u2019 general conception of the\nkingdom of God that we discern the spiritual truth that gives them an\nabiding significance for the instruction of all ages. It was not a matter\nof supreme religious importance to know whether Ph\u0153nicia or Egypt or\nAssyria would retain their old place in the world, and share indirectly in\nthe blessings of the Messianic age. What men needed to be taught then, and\nwhat we need to remember still, is that each nation holds its position in\nsubordination to the ends of God\u2019s government, that no power or wisdom or\nrefinement will save a state from destruction when it ceases to serve the\ninterests of His kingdom. The foreign peoples that come under the survey\nof the prophets are as yet strangers to the true God, and are therefore\ndestitute of that which could secure them a place in the reconstruction of\npolitical relationships of which Israel is to be the religious centre.\nSometimes they are represented as having by their hostility to Israel or\ntheir pride of heart so encroached on the sovereignty of Jehovah that\ntheir doom is already sealed. At other times they are conceived as\nconverted to the knowledge of the true God, and as gladly accepting the\nplace assigned to them in the humanity of the future by consecrating their\nwealth and power to the service of His people Israel. In all cases it is\ntheir attitude to Israel and the God of Israel that determines their\ndestiny: that is the great truth which the prophets design to impress on\ntheir countrymen. So long as the cause of religion was identified with the\nfortunes of the people of Israel no higher conception of the redemption of\nmankind could be formed than that of a willing subjection of the nations\nof the earth to the word of Jehovah which went forth from Jerusalem (cf.\nIsa. ii. 2\u20104). And whether any particular nation should survive to\nparticipate in the glories of that latter day depends on the view taken of\nits present condition and its fitness for incorporation in the universal\nempire of Jehovah soon to be established.\n\nWe now know that this was not the form in which Jehovah\u2019s purpose of\nsalvation was destined to be realised in the history of the world. Since\nthe coming of Christ the people of Israel has lost its distinctive and\ncentral position as the bearer of the hopes and promises of the true\nreligion. In its place we have a spiritual kingdom of men united by faith\nin Jesus Christ, and in the worship of one Father in spirit and in truth\u2014a\nkingdom which from its very nature can have no local centre or political\norganisation. Hence the conversion of the heathen can no longer be\nconceived as national homage paid to the seat of Jehovah\u2019s sovereignty on\nZion; nor is the unfolding of the divine plan of universal salvation bound\nup with the extinction of the nationalities which once symbolised the\nhostility of the world to the kingdom of God. This fact has an important\nbearing on the question of the fulfilment of the foreign prophecies of the\nOld Testament. Literal fulfilment is not to be looked for in this case any\nmore than in the delineations of Israel\u2019s future, which are after all the\npredominant element of Messianic prediction. It is true that the nations\npassed under review have now vanished from history, and in so far as their\nfall was brought about by causes operating in the world in which the\nprophets moved, it must be recognised as a partial but real vindication of\nthe truth of their words. But the details of the prophecies have not been\nhistorically verified. All attempts to trace their accomplishment in\nevents that took place long afterwards and in circumstances which the\nprophets themselves never contemplated only lead us astray from the real\ninterest which belongs to them. As concrete embodiments of the eternal\nprinciples exhibited in the rise and fall of nations they have an abiding\nsignificance for the Church in all ages; but the actual working out of\nthese principles in history could not in the nature of things be complete\nwithin the limits of the world known to the inhabitants of Jud\u00e6a. If we\nare to look for their ideal fulfilment, we shall only find it in the\nprogressive victory of Christianity over all forms of error and\nsuperstition, and in the dedication of all the resources of human\ncivilisation\u2014its wealth, its commercial enterprise, its political power\u2014to\nthe advancement of the kingdom of our God and His Christ.\n\n                  \u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\n\nIt was natural from the special circumstances in which he wrote, as well\nas from the general character of his teaching, that Ezekiel, in his\noracles against the heathen powers, should present only the dark side of\nGod\u2019s providence. Except in the case of Egypt, the nations addressed are\nthreatened with annihilation, and even Egypt is to be reduced to a\ncondition of utter impotence and humiliation. Very characteristic also is\nhis representation of the purpose which comes to light in this series of\njudgments. It is to be a great demonstration to all the earth of the\nabsolute sovereignty of Jehovah. \u201cYe shall know that I am Jehovah\u201d is the\nformula that sums up the lesson of each nation\u2019s fall. We observe that the\nprophet starts from the situation created by the fall of Jerusalem. That\ngreat calamity bore in the first instance the appearance of a triumph of\nheathenism over Jehovah the God of Israel. It was, as the prophet\nelsewhere expresses it, a profanation of His holy name in the eyes of the\nnations. And in this light it was undoubtedly regarded by the petty\nprincipalities around Palestine, and perhaps also by the more distant and\npowerful spectators, such as Tyre and Egypt. From the standpoint of\nheathenism the downfall of Israel meant the defeat of its tutelary Deity;\nand the neighbouring nations, in exulting over the tidings of Jerusalem\u2019s\nfate, had in their minds the idea of the prostrate Jehovah unable to save\nHis people in their hour of need. It is not necessary to suppose that\nEzekiel attributes to them any consciousness of Jehovah\u2019s claim to be the\nonly living and true God. It is the paradox of revelation that He who is\nthe Eternal and Infinite first revealed Himself to the world as the God of\nIsrael; and all the misconceptions that sprang out of that fact had to be\ncleared away by His self\u2010manifestation in historical acts that appealed to\nthe world at large. Amongst these acts the judgment of the heathen nations\nholds the first place in the mind of Ezekiel. A crisis has been reached at\nwhich it becomes necessary for Jehovah to vindicate His divinity by the\ndestruction of those who have exalted themselves against Him. The world\nmust learn once for all that Jehovah is no mere tribal god, but the\nomnipotent ruler of the universe. And this is the preparation for the\nfinal disclosure of His power and Godhead in the restoration of Israel to\nits own land, which will speedily follow the overthrow of its ancient\nfoes. This series of prophecies forms thus an appropriate introduction to\nthe third division of the book, which deals with the formation of the new\npeople of Jehovah.\n\nIt is somewhat remarkable that Ezekiel\u2019s survey of the heathen nations is\nrestricted to those in the immediate vicinity of the land of Canaan.\nAlthough he had unrivalled opportunities of becoming acquainted with the\nremote countries of the East, he confines his attention to the\nMediterranean states which had long played a part in Hebrew history. The\npeoples dealt with are seven in number\u2014Ammon, Moab, Edom, the Philistines,\nTyre, Sidon, and Egypt. The order of the enumeration is geographical:\nfirst the inner circle of Israel\u2019s immediate neighbours, from Ammon on the\neast round to Sidon in the extreme north; then outside the circle the\npreponderating world\u2010power of Egypt. It is not altogether an accidental\ncircumstance that five of these nations are named in the twenty\u2010seventh\nchapter of Jeremiah as concerned in the project of rebellion against\nNebuchadnezzar in the early part of Zedekiah\u2019s reign. Egypt and Philistia\nare not mentioned there, but we may surmise at least that Egyptian\ndiplomacy was secretly at work pulling the wires which set the puppets in\nmotion. This fact, together with the omission of Babylon from the list of\nthreatened nations, shows that Ezekiel regards the judgment as falling\nwithin the period of Chald\u00e6an supremacy, which he appears to have\nestimated at forty years. What is to be the fate of Babylon itself he\nnowhere intimates, a conflict between that great world\u2010power and Jehovah\u2019s\npurpose being no part of his system. That Nebuchadnezzar is to be the\nagent of the overthrow of Tyre and the humiliation of Egypt is expressly\nstated; and although the crushing of the smaller states is ascribed to\nother agencies, we can hardly doubt that these were conceived as indirect\nconsequences of the upheaval caused by the Babylonian invasion.\n\n                  \u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\n\nCh. xxv., then, consists of four brief prophecies addressed respectively\nto Ammon, Moab, Edom, and the Philistines. A few words on the fate\nprefigured for each of these countries will suffice for the explanation of\nthe chapter.\n\n1. AMMON (vv. 2\u20107) lay on the edge of the desert, between the upper waters\nof the Jabbok and the Arnon, separated from the Jordan by a strip of\nIsraelitish territory from twenty to thirty miles wide. Its capital,\nRabbah, mentioned here (ver. 5), was situated on a southern tributary of\nthe Jabbok, and its ruins still bear amongst the Arabs the ancient\nnational name _Amm\u00e2n_. Although their country was pastoral (milk is\nreferred to in ver. 4 as one of its chief products), the Ammonites seem to\nhave made some progress in civilisation. Jeremiah (ch. xlix. 4) speaks of\nthem as trusting in their treasures; and in this chapter Ezekiel announces\nthat they shall be for a spoil to the nations (ver. 7). After the\ndeportation of the transjordanic tribes by Tiglath\u2010pileser, Ammon seized\nthe country that had belonged to the tribe of Gad, its nearest neighbour\non the west. This encroachment is denounced by the prophet Jeremiah in the\nopening words of his oracle against Ammon: \u201cHath Israel no children? or\nhas he no heir? why doth Milcom [the national deity of the Ammonites]\ninherit Gad, why hath his [Milcom\u2019s] folk settled in his [Gad\u2019s] cities\u201d\n(Jer. xlix. 1). We have already seen (ch. xxi.) that the Ammonites took\npart in the rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, and stood out after the\nother members of the league had gone back from their purpose. But this\ntemporary union with Jerusalem did nothing to abate the old national\nanimosity, and the disaster of Judah was the signal for an exhibition of\nmalignant satisfaction on the part of Ammon. \u201cBecause thou hast said, Aha,\nagainst My sanctuary when it was profaned, and the land of Israel when it\nwas laid waste, and the house of Judah when it went into captivity,\u201d etc.\n(ver. 3)\u2014for this crowning offence against the majesty of Jehovah, Ezekiel\ndenounces an exterminating judgment on Ammon. The land shall be given up\nto the \u201cchildren of the East\u201d\u2014_i.e._, the Bedouin Arabs\u2014who shall pitch\ntheir tent encampments in it, eating its fruits and drinking its milk, and\nturning the \u201cgreat city\u201d Rabbah itself into a resting\u2010place for camels\n(vv. 4, 5). It is not quite clear (though it is commonly assumed) that the\nchildren of the East are regarded as the actual conquerors of Ammon. Their\npossession of the country may be the consequence rather than the cause of\nthe destruction of civilisation, the encroachment of the nomads being as\ninevitable under these circumstances as the extension of the desert itself\nwhere water fails.\n\n2. MOAB(74) (vv. 8\u201011) comes next in order. Its proper territory, since\nthe settlement of Israel in Canaan, was the elevated tableland south of\nthe Arnon, along the lower part of the Dead Sea. But the tribe of Reuben,\nwhich bordered it on the north, was never able to hold its ground against\nthe superior strength of Moab, and hence the latter nation is found in\npossession of the lower and more fertile district stretching northwards\nfrom the Arnon, now called the Belka. All the cities, indeed, which are\nmentioned in this chapter as belonging to Moab\u2014Beth\u2010jeshimoth, Baal\u2010meon,\nand Kirjathaim\u2014were situated in this northern and properly Israelite\nregion. These were the \u201cglory of the land,\u201d which were now to be taken\naway from Moab (ver. 9). In Israel Moab appears to have been regarded as\nthe incarnation of a peculiarly offensive form of national pride,(75) of\nwhich we happen to have a monument in the famous Moabite Stone, which was\nerected by Mesha in the ninth century B.C. to commemorate the victories of\nChemosh over Jehovah and Israel. The inscription shows, moreover, that in\nthe arts of civilised life Moab was at that early time no unworthy rival\nof Israel itself. It is for a special manifestation of this haughty and\narrogant spirit in the day of Jerusalem\u2019s calamity that Ezekiel pronounces\nJehovah\u2019s judgment on Moab: \u201cBecause Moab hath said, Behold, the house of\nJudah is like all the nations\u201d (ver. 8). These words no doubt reflect\naccurately the sentiment of Moab towards Israel, and they presuppose a\nconsciousness on the part of Moab of some unique distinction pertaining to\nIsrael in spite of all the humiliations it had undergone since the time of\nDavid. And the thought of Moab may have been more widely disseminated\namong the nations than we are apt to suppose: \u201cThe kings of the earth\nbelieved not, neither all the inhabitants of the world, that the adversary\nand the enemy should enter into the gates of Jerusalem\u201d (Lam. iv. 12). The\nMoabites at all events breathed a sigh of relief when Israel\u2019s pretensions\nto religious ascendency seemed to be confuted, and thereby they sealed\ntheir own doom. They share the fate of the Ammonites, their land being\nhanded over for a possession to the sons of the East (ver. 10).\n\nBoth these nations, Ammon and Moab, were absorbed by the Arabs, as Ezekiel\nhad foretold; but Ammon at least preserved its separate name and\nnationality through many changes of fortune down to the second century\nafter Christ.\n\n3. EDOM (vv. 12\u201014), famous in the Old Testament for its wisdom (Jer.\nxlix. 7; Obad. 8), occupied the country to the south of Moab from the Dead\nSea to the head of the Gulf of Akaba. In Old Testament times the centre of\nits power was in the region to the east of the Arabah Valley, a position\nof great commercial importance, as commanding the caravan route from the\nRed Sea port of Elath to Northern Syria. From this district the Edomites\nwere afterwards driven (about 300 B.C.) by the Arabian tribe of the\nNabat\u00e6ans, when they took up their abode in the south of Judah. None of\nthe surrounding nations were so closely akin to Israel as Edom, and with\nnone were its relations more embittered and hostile. The Edomites had been\nsubjugated and nearly exterminated by David, had been again subdued by\nAmaziah and Uzziah, but finally recovered their independence during the\nattack of the Syrians and Ephraimites on Judah in the reign of Ahaz. The\nmemory of this long struggle produced in Edom a \u201cperpetual enmity,\u201d an\nundying hereditary hatred towards the kingdom of Judah. But that which\nmade the name of Edom to be execrated by the later Jews was its conduct\nafter the fall of Jerusalem. The prophet Obadiah represents it as sharing\nin the spoil of Jerusalem (ver. 10), and as \u201cstanding in the crossway to\ncut off those that escaped\u201d (ver. 14). Ezekiel also alludes to this in the\nthirty\u2010fifth chapter (ver. 5), and tells us further that in the time of\nthe captivity the Edomites seized part of the territory of Israel (vv.\n10\u201012), from which indeed the Jews were never able altogether to dislodge\nthem. For the guilt they thus incurred by taking advantage of the\nhumiliation of Jehovah\u2019s people, Ezekiel here threatens them with\nextinction; and the execution of the divine vengeance is in their case\nentrusted to the children of Israel themselves (vv. 13, 14). They were, in\nfact, finally subdued by John Hyrcanus in 126 B.C., and compelled to adopt\nthe Jewish religion. But long before then they had lost their prestige and\ninfluence, their ancient seats having passed under the dominion of the\nArabs in common with all the neighbouring countries.\n\n4. The PHILISTINES (vv. 15\u201017)\u2014the \u201cimmigrants\u201d who had settled along the\nMediterranean coast, and who were destined to leave their name to the\nwhole country\u2014had evidently played a part very similar to the Edomites at\nthe time of the destruction of Jerusalem; but of this nothing is known\nbeyond what is here said by Ezekiel. They were at this time a mere\n\u201cremnant\u201d (ver. 16), having been exhausted by the Assyrian and Egyptian\nwars. Their fate is not precisely indicated in the prophecy. They were in\npoint of fact gradually extinguished by the revival of Jewish domination\nunder the Asmonean dynasty.\n\nOne other remark may here be made, as showing the discrimination which\nEzekiel brought to bear in estimating the characteristics of each separate\nnation. He does not ascribe to the greater powers, Tyre and Sidon and\nEgypt, the same petty and vindictive jealousy of Israel which actuated the\ndiminutive nationalities dealt with in this chapter. These great heathen\nstates, which played so imposing a part in ancient civilisation, had a\nwide outlook over the affairs of the world; and the injuries they\ninflicted on Israel were due less to the blind instinct of national hatred\nthan to the pursuit of far\u2010reaching schemes of selfish interest and\naggrandisement. If Tyre rejoices over the fall of Jerusalem, it is because\nof the removal of an obstacle to the expansion of her commercial\nenterprise. When Egypt is described as having been an occasion of sin to\nthe people of God, what is meant is that she had drawn Israel into the net\nof her ambitious foreign policy, and led her away from the path of safety\npointed out by Jehovah\u2019s will through the prophets. Ezekiel pays a tribute\nto the grandeur of their position by the care he bestows on the\ndescription of their fate. The smaller nations embodying nothing of\npermanent value for the advancement of humanity, he dismisses each with a\nshort and pregnant oracle announcing its doom. But when he comes to the\nfall of Tyre and of Egypt his imagination is evidently impressed; he\nlingers over all the details of the picture, he returns to it again and\nagain, as if he would penetrate the secret of their greatness and\nunderstand the potent fascination which their names exercised throughout\nthe world. It would be entirely erroneous to suppose that he sympathises\nwith them in their calamity, but certainly he is conscious of the blank\nwhich will be caused by their disappearance from history; he feels that\nsomething will have vanished from the earth whose loss will be mourned by\nthe nations far and near. This is most apparent in the prophecy on Tyre,\nto which we now proceed.\n\n\n\n\nChapter XVI. Tyre. Chapters xxvi., xxix. 17\u201021.\n\n\nIn the time of Ezekiel Tyre was still at the height of her commercial\nprosperity. Although not the oldest of the Ph\u0153nician cities, she held a\nsupremacy among them which dated from the thirteenth century B.C.,(76) and\nshe had long been regarded as the typical embodiment of the genius of the\nremarkable race to which she belonged. The Ph\u0153nicians were renowned in\nantiquity for a combination of all the qualities on which commercial\ngreatness depends. Their absorbing devotion to the material interests of\ncivilisation, their amazing industry and perseverance, their\nresourcefulness in assimilating and improving the inventions of other\npeoples, the technical skill of their artists and craftsmen, but above all\ntheir adventurous and daring seamanship, conspired to give them a position\nin the old world such as has never been quite rivalled by any other nation\nof ancient or modern times. In the grey dawn of European history we find\nthem acting as pioneers of art and culture along the shores of the\nMediterranean, although even then they had been displaced from their\nearliest settlements in the \u00c6gean and the coast of Asia Minor by the\nrising commerce of Greece. Matthew Arnold has drawn a brilliant\nimaginative picture of this collision between the two races, and the\neffect it had on the dauntless and enterprising spirit of Ph\u0153nicia:\u2014\n\n\n      As some grave Tyrian trader, from the sea,\n        Descried at sunrise an emerging prow\n      Lifting the cool\u2010hair\u2019d creepers stealthily,\n        The fringes of a southward\u2010facing brow\n                  Among the \u00c6g\u00e6an isles;\n      And saw the merry Grecian coaster come,\n        Freighted with amber grapes, and Chian wine,\n        Green, bursting figs, and tunnies steep\u2019d in brine\u2014\n      And knew the intruders on his ancient home,\n    The young light\u2010hearted masters of the waves\u2014\n      And snatch\u2019d his rudder and shook out more sail;\n        And day and night held on indignantly\n      O\u2019er the blue Midland waters with the gale,\n        Betwixt the Syrtes and soft Sicily,\n                  To where the Atlantic raves\n      Outside the western straits; and unbent sails\n        There, where down cloudy cliffs, through sheets of foam,\n        Shy traffickers, the dark Iberians, come;\n      And on the beach undid his corded bales.(77)\n\n\nIt is that spirit of masterful and untiring ambition kept up for so many\ncenturies that throws a halo of romance round the story of Tyre.\n\nIn the oldest Greek literature, however, Tyre is not mentioned, the place\nwhich she afterwards held being then occupied by Sidon. But after the\ndecay of Sidon the rich harvest of her labours fell into the lap of Tyre,\nwhich thenceforth stands out as the foremost city of Ph\u0153nicia. She owed\nher pre\u2010eminence partly to the wisdom and energy with which her affairs\nwere administered, but partly also to the strength of her natural\nsituation. The city was built both on the mainland and on a row of islets\nabout half a mile from the shore. This latter portion contained the\nprincipal buildings (temples and palaces), the open place where business\nwas transacted, and the two harbours. It was no doubt from it that the\ncity derived its name (\u05e6\u05d5\u05b9\u05e8 = Rock); and it always was looked on as the\ncentral part of Tyre. There was something in the appearance of the island\ncity\u2014the Venice of antiquity, rising from mid\u2010ocean with her \u201ctiara of\nproud towers\u201d\u2014which seemed to mark her out as destined to be mistress of\nthe sea. It also made a siege of Tyre an arduous and a tedious\nundertaking, as many a conqueror found to his cost. Favoured then by these\nadvantages, Tyre speedily gathered the traffic of Ph\u0153nicia into her own\nhands, and her wealth and luxury were the wonder of the nations. She was\nknown as \u201cthe crowning city, whose merchants were princes, and her\ntraffickers the honourable of the earth\u201d (Isa. xxiii. 8). She became the\ngreat commercial emporium of the world. Her colonies were planted all over\nthe islands and coasts of the Mediterranean, and the one most frequently\nmentioned in the Bible, Tarshish, was in Spain, beyond Gibraltar. Her\nseamen had ventured beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and undertook distant\nAtlantic voyages to the Canary Islands on the south and the coasts of\nBritain on the north. The most barbarous and inhospitable regions were\nransacked for the metals and other products needed to supply the\nrequirements of civilisation, and everywhere she found a market for her\nown wares and manufactures. The carrying trade of the Mediterranean was\nalmost entirely conducted in her ships, while her richly laden caravans\ntraversed all the great routes that led into the heart of Asia and Africa.\n\nIt so happens that the twenty\u2010seventh chapter of Ezekiel is one of the\nbest sources of information we possess as to the varied and extensive\ncommercial relations of Tyre in the sixth century B.C.(78) It will\ntherefore be better to glance shortly at its contents here rather than in\nits proper connection in the development of the prophet\u2019s thought. It will\neasily be seen that the description is somewhat idealised; no details are\ngiven of the commodities which Tyre _sold_ to the nations\u2014only as an\nafterthought (ver. 33) is it intimated that by sending forth her wares she\nhas enriched and satisfied many nations. So the goods which she _bought_\nof them are not represented as given in exchange for anything else; Tyre\nis poetically conceived as an empress ruling the peoples by the potent\nspell of her influence, compelling them to drudge for her and bring to her\nfeet the gains they have acquired by their heavy labour. Nor can the list\nof nations(79) or their gifts be meant as exhaustive; it only includes\nsuch things as served to exhibit the immense variety of useful and costly\narticles which ministered to the wealth and luxury of Tyre. But making\nallowance for this, and for the numerous difficulties which the text\npresents, the passage has evidently been compiled with great care; it\nshows a minuteness of detail and fulness of knowledge which could not have\nbeen got from books, but displays a lively personal interest in the\naffairs of the world which is surprising in a man like Ezekiel.\n\nThe order followed in the enumeration of nations is not quite clear, but\nis on the whole geographical. Starting from Tarshish in the extreme west\n(ver. 12), the prophet mentions in succession Javan (Ionia), Tubal, and\nMeshech (two tribes to the south\u2010east of the Black Sea), and Togarmah\n(usually identified with Armenia) (vv. 13, 14). These represent the\nnorthern limit of the Ph\u0153nician markets. The reference in the next verse\n(v. 15) is doubtful, on account of a difference between the Septuagint and\nthe Hebrew text. If with the former we read \u201cRhodes\u201d instead of \u201cDedan,\u201d\nit embraces the nearer coasts and islands of the Mediterranean, and this\nis perhaps on the whole the more natural sense. In this case it is\npossible that up to this point the description has been confined to the\nsea trade of Ph\u0153nicia, if we may suppose that the products of Armenia\nreached Tyre by way of the Black Sea. At all events the overland traffic\noccupies a space in the list out of proportion to its actual importance, a\nfact which is easily explained from the prophet\u2019s standpoint. First, in a\nline from south to north, we have the nearer neighbours of Ph\u0153nicia\u2014Edom,\nJudah, Israel, and Damascus (vv. 16\u201018). Then the remoter tribes and\ndistricts of Arabia\u2014Uzal(80) (the chief city of Yemen), Dedan (on the\neastern side of the Gulf of Akaba), Arabia and Kedar (nomads of the\neastern desert), Havilah,(81) Sheba, and Raamah (in the extreme south of\nthe Arabian peninsula) (vv. 19\u201022). Finally the countries tapped by the\neastern caravan route\u2014Haran (the great trade centre in Mesopotamia),\nCanneh (? Calneh, unknown), Eden (differently spelt from the garden of\nEden, also unknown), Assyria, and Chilmad (unknown) (ver. 23). These were\nthe \u201cmerchants\u201d and \u201ctraders\u201d of Tyre, who are represented as thronging\nher market\u2010place with the produce of their respective countries.\n\nThe imports, so far as we can follow the prophet\u2019s enumeration, are in\nnearly all cases characteristic products of the regions to which they are\nassigned. Spain is known to have furnished all the metals here\nmentioned\u2014silver, iron, lead, and tin. Greece and Asia Minor were centres\nof the slave traffic (one of the darkest blots on the commerce of\nPh\u0153nicia), and also supplied hardware. Armenia was famous as a horse\u2010\nbreeding country, and thence Tyre procured her supply of horses and mules.\nThe ebony and tusks of ivory must have come from Africa; and if the\nSeptuagint is right in reading \u201cRhodes\u201d in ver. 15, these articles can\nonly have been collected there for shipment to Tyre.(82) Through Edom come\npearls and precious stones.(83) Judah and Israel furnish Tyre with\nagricultural and natural produce, as they had done from the days of David\nand Solomon\u2014wheat and oil, wax and honey, balm and spices. Damascus yields\nthe famous \u201cwine of Helbon\u201d\u2014said to be the only vintage that the Persian\nkings would drink\u2014perhaps also other choice wines.(84) A rich variety of\nmiscellaneous articles, both natural and manufactured, is contributed by\nArabia,\u2014wrought iron (perhaps sword\u2010blades) from Yemen; saddle\u2010cloths from\nDedan; sheep and goats from the Bedouin tribes; gold, precious stones, and\naromatic spices from the caravans of Sheba. Lastly, the Mesopotamian\ncountries provide the costly textile fabrics from the looms of Babylon so\nhighly prized in antiquity\u2014\u201ccostly garments, mantles of blue, purple, and\nbroidered work,\u201d \u201cmany\u2010coloured carpets,\u201d and \u201ccords twisted and\ndurable.\u201d(85)\n\nThis survey of the ramifications of Tyrian commerce will have served its\npurpose if it enables us to realise in some measure the conception which\nEzekiel had formed of the power and prestige of the maritime city, whose\ndestruction he so confidently announced. He knew, as did Isaiah before\nhim, how deeply Tyre had struck her roots in the life of the old world,\nhow indispensable her existence seemed to be to the whole fabric of\ncivilisation as then constituted. Both prophets represent the nations as\nlamenting the downfall of the city which had so long ministered to their\nmaterial welfare. The overthrow of Tyre would be felt as a world\u2010wide\ncalamity; it could hardly be contemplated except as part of a radical\nsubversion of the established order of things. This is what Ezekiel has in\nview, and his attitude towards Tyre is governed by his expectation of a\ngreat shaking of the nations which is to usher in the perfect kingdom of\nGod. In the new world to which he looks forward no place will be found for\nTyre, not even the subordinate position of a handmaid to the people of God\nwhich Isaiah\u2019s vision of the future had assigned to her. Beneath all her\nopulence and refinement the prophet\u2019s eye detected that which was opposed\nto the mind of Jehovah\u2014the irreligious spirit which is the temptation of a\nmercantile community, manifesting itself in overweening pride and self\u2010\nexaltation, and in sordid devotion to gain as the highest end of a\nnation\u2019s existence.\n\nThe twenty\u2010sixth chapter is in the main a literal prediction of the siege\nand destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. It is dated from the year in\nwhich Jerusalem was captured, and was certainly written after that event.\nThe number of the month has accidentally dropped out of the text, so that\nwe cannot tell whether at the time of writing the prophet had received\nactual intelligence of the fall of the city. At all events it is assumed\nthat the fate of Jerusalem is already known in Tyre, and the manner in\nwhich the tidings were sure to have been received there is the immediate\noccasion of the prophecy. Like many other peoples, Tyre had rejoiced over\nthe disaster which had befallen the Jewish state; but her exultation had a\npeculiar note of selfish calculation, which did not escape the notice of\nthe prophet. Ever mindful of her own interest, she sees that a barrier to\nthe free development of her commerce has been removed, and she\ncongratulates herself on the fortunate turn which events have taken: \u201cAha!\nthe door of the peoples is broken, it is turned towards me; she that was\nfull hath been laid waste!\u201d(86) (ver. 2). Although the relations of the\ntwo countries had often been friendly and sometimes highly advantageous to\nTyre, she had evidently felt herself hampered by the existence of an\nindependent state on the mountain ridge of Palestine. The kingdom of\nJudah, especially in days when it was strong enough to hold Edom in\nsubjection, commanded the caravan routes to the Red Sea, and doubtless\nprevented the Ph\u0153nician merchants from reaping the full profit of their\nventures in that direction. It is probable that at all times a certain\nproportion of the revenue of the kings of Judah was derived from toll\nlevied on the Tyrian merchandise that passed through their territory; and\nwhat they thus gained represented so much loss to Tyre. It was, to be\nsure, a small item in the mass of business transacted on the exchange of\nTyre. But nothing is too trivial to enter into the calculations of a\ncommunity given over to the pursuit of gain; and the satisfaction with\nwhich the fall of Jerusalem was regarded in Tyre showed how completely she\nwas debased by her selfish commercial policy, how oblivious she was to the\nspiritual interests bound up with the future of Israel.\n\nHaving thus exposed the sinful cupidity and insensibility of Tyre, the\nprophet proceeds to describe in general terms the punishment that is to\novertake her. Many nations shall be brought up against her, irresistible\nas the sea when it comes up with its waves; her walls and fortifications\nshall be rased; the very dust shall be scraped from her site, so that she\nis left \u201ca naked rock\u201d rising out of the sea, a place where fishermen\nspread their nets to dry, as in the days before the city was built.\n\nThen follows (vv. 7\u201014) a specific announcement of the manner in which\njudgment shall be executed on Tyre. The recent political attitude of the\ncity left no doubt as to the quarter from which immediate danger was to be\napprehended. The Ph\u0153nician states had been the most powerful members of\nthe confederacy that was formed about 596 to throw off the yoke of the\nChald\u00e6ans, and they were in open revolt at the time when Ezekiel wrote.\nThey had apparently thrown in their lot with Egypt, and a conflict with\nNebuchadnezzar was therefore to be expected. Tyre had every reason to\navoid a war with a first\u2010rate power, which could not fail to be disastrous\nto her commercial interests. But her inhabitants were not destitute of\nmartial spirit; they trusted in the strength of their position and their\ncommand of the sea, and they were in the mood to risk everything rather\nthan again renounce their independence and their freedom. But all this\navails nothing against the purpose which Jehovah has purposed concerning\nTyre. It is He who brings Nebuchadnezzar, the king of kings, from the\nnorth with his army and his siege\u2010train, and Tyre shall fall before his\nassault, as Jerusalem has already fallen. First of all, the Ph\u0153nician\ncities on the mainland shall be ravaged and laid waste, and then\noperations commence against the mother\u2010city herself. The description of\nthe siege and capture of the island fortress is given with an abundance of\ngraphic details, although, strangely enough, without calling attention to\nthe peculiar method of attack that was necessary for the reduction of\nTyre. The great feature of the siege would be the construction of a huge\nmole between the shore and the island; once the wall was reached the\nattack would proceed precisely as in the case of an inland town, in the\nmanner depicted on Assyrian monuments. When the breach is made in the\nfortifications the whole army pours into the city, and for the first time\nin her history the walls of Tyre shake with the rumbling of chariots in\nher streets. The conquered city is then given up to slaughter and pillage,\nher songs and her music are stilled for ever, her stones and timber and\ndust are cast into the sea, and not a trace remains of the proud mistress\nof the waves.\n\nIn the third strophe (vv. 15\u201021) the prophet describes the dismay which\nwill be caused when the crash of the destruction of Tyre resounds along\nthe coasts of the sea. All the \u201cprinces of the sea\u201d (perhaps the rulers of\nthe Ph\u0153nician colonies in the Mediterranean) are represented as rising\nfrom their thrones, and putting off their stately raiment, and sitting in\nthe dust bewailing the fate of the city. The dirge in which they lift up\ntheir voices (vv. 17, 18) is given by the Septuagint in a form which\npreserves more nearly than the Hebrew the structure as well as the beauty\nwhich we should expect in the original:\u2014\n\n\n    How is perished from the sea\u2014\n                  The city renowned!\n    She that laid her terror\u2014\n                  On all its inhabitants!\n    [Now] are the isles affrighted\u2014\n                  In the day of thy falling!\n\n\nBut this beautiful image is not strong enough to express the prophet\u2019s\nsense of the irretrievable ruin that hangs over Tyre. By a bold flight of\nimagination he turns from the mourners on earth to follow in thought the\ndescent of the city into the under\u2010world (vv. 19\u201021). The idea that Tyre\nmight rise from her ruins after a temporary eclipse and recover her old\nplace in the world was one that would readily suggest itself to any one\nwho understood the real secret of her greatness. To the mind of Ezekiel\nthe impossibility of her restoration lies in the fixed purpose of Jehovah,\nwhich includes, not only her destruction, but her perpetual desolation.\n\u201cWhen I make thee a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited;\nwhen I bring up against thee the deep, and the great waters cover thee;\nthen I will bring thee down with them that go down to the pit, with the\npeople of old time, and I will make thee dwell in the lowest parts of the\nearth, like the immemorial waste places, with them that go down to the\npit, that thou be not inhabited nor establish thyself in the land of the\nliving.\u201d The whole passage is steeped in weird poetic imagery. The\n\u201cdeep\u201d(87) suggests something more than the blue waters of the\nMediterranean: it is the name of the great primeval Ocean, out of which\nthe habitable world was fashioned, and which is used as an emblem of the\nirresistible judgments of God.(88) The \u201cpit\u201d is the realm of the dead,\nShe\u00f4l, conceived as situated under the earth, where the shades of the\ndeparted drag out a feeble existence from which there is no deliverance.\nThe idea of She\u00f4l is a frequent subject of poetical embellishment in the\nlater books of the Old Testament; and of this we have an example here when\nthe prophet represents the once populous and thriving city as now a\ndenizen of that dreary place. But the essential meaning he wishes to\nconvey is that Tyre is numbered among the things that were. She \u201cshall be\nsought, and shall not be found any more for ever,\u201d because she has entered\nthe dismal abode of the dead, whence there is no return to the joys and\nactivities of the upper world.\n\nSuch then is the anticipation which Ezekiel in the year 586 had formed of\nthe fate of Tyre. No candid reader will suppose that the prophecy is\nanything but what it professes to be\u2014a _bon\u00e2\u2010fide_ prediction of the total\ndestruction of the city in the immediate future and by the hands of\nNebuchadnezzar. When Ezekiel wrote, the siege of Tyre had not begun; and\nhowever clear it may have been to observant men that the next stage in the\ncampaign would be the reduction of the Ph\u0153nician cities, the prophet is at\nleast free from the suspicion of having prophesied after the event. The\nremarkable absence of characteristic and special details from the account\nof the siege is the best proof that he is dealing with the future from the\ntrue prophetic standpoint and clothing a divinely imparted conviction in\nimages supplied by a definite historical situation. Nor is there any\nreason to doubt that in some form the prophecy was actually published\namong his fellow\u2010exiles at the date to which it is assigned. On these\npoints critical opinion is fairly unanimous. But when we come to the\nquestion of the fulfilment of the prediction we find ourselves in the\nregion of controversy, and, it must be admitted, of uncertainty. Some\nexpositors, determined at all hazards to vindicate Ezekiel\u2019s prophetic\nauthority, maintain that Tyre was actually devastated by Nebuchadnezzar in\nthe manner described by the prophet, and seek for confirmations of their\nview in the few historical notices we possess of this period of\nNebuchadnezzar\u2019s reign. Others, reading the history differently, arrive at\nthe conclusion that Ezekiel\u2019s calculations were entirely at fault, that\nTyre was not captured by the Babylonians at all, and that his oracle\nagainst Tyre must be reckoned amongst the unfulfilled prophecies of the\nOld Testament. Others again seek to reconcile an impartial historical\njudgment with a high conception of the function of prophecy, and find in\nthe undoubted course of events a real though not an exact verification of\nthe words uttered by Ezekiel. It is indeed almost by accident that we have\nany independent corroboration of Ezekiel\u2019s anticipation with regard to the\nimmediate future of Tyre. Oriental discoveries have as yet brought to\nlight no important historical monuments of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar;\nand outside of the book of Ezekiel itself we have nothing to guide us\nexcept the statement of Josephus, based on Ph\u0153nician and Greek\nauthorities,(89) that Tyre underwent a thirteen years\u2019 siege by the\nBabylonian conqueror. There is no reason whatever to call in question the\nreliability of this important information, although the accompanying\nstatement that the siege began in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar is\ncertainly erroneous. But unfortunately we are not told how the siege\nended. Whether it was successful or unsuccessful, whether Tyre was reduced\nor capitulated, or was evacuated or beat off her assailants, is nowhere\nindicated. To argue from the silence of the historians is impossible; for\nif one man argues that a catastrophe that took place \u201cbefore the eyes of\nall Asia\u201d would not have passed unrecorded in historical books, another\nmight urge with equal force that a repulse of Nebuchadnezzar was too\nuncommon an event to be ignored in the Ph\u0153nician annals.(90) On the whole\nthe most reasonable hypothesis is perhaps that after the thirteen years\nthe city surrendered on not unfavourable terms; but this conclusion is\nbased on other considerations than the data or the silence of Josephus.\n\nThe chief reason for believing that Nebuchadnezzar was not altogether\nsuccessful in his attack on Tyre is found in a supplementary prophecy of\nEzekiel\u2019s, given in the end of the twenty\u2010ninth chapter (vv. 17\u201021). It\nwas evidently written after the siege of Tyre was concluded, and so far as\nit goes it confirms the accuracy of Josephus\u2019 sources. It is dated from\nthe year 570, sixteen years after the fall of Jerusalem; and it is, in\nfact, the latest oracle in the whole book. The siege of Tyre therefore,\nwhich had not commenced in 586, when ch. xxvi. was written, was finished\nbefore 570; and between these terminal dates there is just room for the\nthirteen years of Josephus. The invasion of Ph\u0153nicia must have been the\nnext great enterprise of the Babylonian army in Western Asia after the\ndestruction of Judah, and it was only the extraordinary strength of Tyre\nthat enabled it to protract the struggle so long. Now what light does\nEzekiel throw on the issue of the siege? His words are: \u201cNebuchadnezzar,\nking of Babylon, has made his army to serve a great service against Tyre;\nevery head made bald and every shoulder peeled, yet _he and his army got\nno wages out of Tyre_ for the service which he served against her.\u201d The\nprophet then goes on to announce that the spoils of Egypt should be the\nrecompense to the army for their unrequited labour against Tyre, inasmuch\nas it was work done for Jehovah. Here then, we have evidence first of all\nthat the long siege of Tyre had taxed the resources of the besiegers to\nthe utmost. The \u201cpeeled shoulders\u201d and the \u201cheads made bald\u201d is a graphic\ndetail which alludes not obscurely to the monotonous navvy work of\ncarrying loads of stones and earth to fill up the narrow channel between\nthe mainland and the island,(91) so as to allow the engines to be brought\nup to the walls. Ezekiel was well aware of the arduous nature of the\nundertaking, the expenditure of human effort and life which was involved,\nin the struggle with natural obstacles; and his striking conception of\nthese obscure and toiling soldiers as unconscious servants of the Almighty\nshows how steadfast was his faith in the word he proclaimed against Tyre.\nBut the important point is that they obtained from Tyre no reward\u2014at least\nno adequate reward\u2014for their herculean labours. The expression used is no\ndoubt capable of various interpretations. It might mean that the siege had\nto be abandoned, or that the city was able to make extremely easy terms of\ncapitulation, or, as Jerome suggests, that the Tyrians had carried off\ntheir treasures by sea and escaped to one of their colonies. In any case\nit shows that the historical event was not in accordance with the details\nof the earlier prophecy. That the wealth of Tyre would fall to the\nconquerors is there assumed as a natural consequence of the capture of the\ncity. But whether the city was actually captured or not, the victors were\nsomehow disappointed in their expectation of plunder. The rich spoil of\nTyre, which was the legitimate reward of their exhausting toil, had\nslipped from their eager grasp; to this extent at least the reality fell\nshort of the prediction, and Nebuchadnezzar had to be compensated for his\nlosses at Tyre by the promise of an easy conquest of Egypt.\n\nBut if this had been all it is not probable that Ezekiel would have deemed\nit necessary to supplement his earlier prediction in the way we have seen\nafter an interval of sixteen years. The mere circumstance that the sack of\nTyre had failed to yield the booty that the besiegers counted on was not\nof a nature to attract attention amongst the prophet\u2019s auditors, or to\nthrow doubt on the genuineness of his inspiration. And we know that there\nwas a much more serious difference between the prophecy and the event than\nthis. It is from what has just been said extremely doubtful whether\nNebuchadnezzar actually destroyed Tyre, but even if he did she very\nquickly recovered much of her former prosperity and glory. That her\ncommerce was seriously crippled during the struggle with Babylonia we may\nwell believe, and it is possible that she never again was what she had\nbeen before this humiliation came upon her. But for all that the\nenterprise and prosperity of Tyre continued for many ages to excite the\nadmiration of the most enlightened nations of antiquity. The destruction\nof the city, therefore, if it took place, had not the finality which\nEzekiel had anticipated. Not till after the lapse of eighteen centuries\ncould it be said with approximate truth that she was like \u201ca bare rock in\nthe midst of the sea.\u201d\n\nThe most instructive fact for us, however, is that Ezekiel reissued his\noriginal prophecy, knowing that it had not been literally fulfilled. In\nthe minds of his hearers the apparent falsification of his predictions had\nrevived old prejudices against him which interfered with the prosecution\nof his work. They reasoned that a prophecy so much out of joint with the\nreality was sufficient to discredit his claim to be an authoritative\nexponent of the mind of Jehovah; and so the prophet found himself\nembarrassed by a recurrence of the old unbelieving attitude which had\nhindered his public activity before the destruction of Jerusalem. He has\nnot for the present \u201can open mouth\u201d amongst them, and he feels that his\nwords will not be fully received until they are verified by the\nrestoration of Israel to its own land. But it is evident that he himself\ndid not share the view of his audience, otherwise he would certainly have\nsuppressed a prophecy which lacked the mark of authenticity. On the\ncontrary he published it for the perusal of a wider circle of readers, in\nthe conviction that what he had spoken was a true word of God, and that\nits essential truth did not depend on its exact correspondence with the\nfacts of history. In other words, he believed in it as a true reading of\nthe principles revealed in God\u2019s moral government of the world\u2014a reading\nwhich had received a partial verification in the blow which had been dealt\nat the pride of Tyre, and which would receive a still more signal\nfulfilment in the final convulsions which were to introduce the day of\nIsrael\u2019s restoration and glory. Only we must remember that the prophet\u2019s\nhorizon was necessarily limited; and as he did not contemplate the slow\ndevelopment and extension of the kingdom of God through long ages, so he\ncould not have taken into account the secular operation of historic causes\nwhich eventually brought about the ruin of Tyre.\n\n\n\n\nChapter XVII. Tyre (Continued): Sidon. Chapters xxvii., xxviii.\n\n\nThe remaining oracles on Tyre (chs. xxvii., xxviii. 1\u201019) are somewhat\ndifferent both in subject and mode of treatment from the chapter we have\njust finished. Ch. xxvi. is in the main a direct announcement of the fall\nof Tyre, delivered in the oratorical style which is the usual vehicle of\nprophetic address. She is regarded as a state occupying a definite place\namong the other states of the world, and sharing the fate of other peoples\nwho by their conduct towards Israel or their ungodliness and arrogance\nhave incurred the anger of Jehovah. The two great odes which follow are\npurely ideal delineations of what Tyre is in herself; her destruction is\nassumed as certain rather than directly predicted, and the prophet gives\nfree play to his imagination in the effort to set forth the conception of\nthe city which was impressed on his mind. In ch. xxvii. he dwells on the\nexternal greatness and magnificence of Tyre, her architectural splendour,\nher political and military power, and above all her amazing commercial\nenterprise. Ch. xxviii., on the other hand, is a meditation on the\npeculiar genius of Tyre, her inner spirit of pride and self\u2010sufficiency,\nas embodied in the person of her king. From a literary point of view the\ntwo chapters are amongst the most beautiful in the whole book. In the\ntwenty\u2010seventh chapter the fiery indignation of the prophet almost\ndisappears, giving place to the play of poetic fancy, and a flow of lyric\nemotion more perfectly rendered than in any other part of Ezekiel\u2019s\nwritings. The distinctive feature of each passage is the elegy pronounced\nover the fall of Tyre; and although the elegy seems just on the point of\npassing into the taunt\u2010song, yet the accent of triumph is never suffered\nto overwhelm the note of sadness to which these poems owe their special\ncharm.\n\n\n\nI\n\n\nCh. xxvii. is described as a dirge over Tyre. In the previous chapter the\nnations were represented as bewailing her fall, but here the prophet\nhimself takes up a lamentation for her; and, as may have been usual in\nreal funereal dirges, he commences by celebrating the might and riches of\nthe doomed city. The fine image which is maintained throughout the chapter\nwas probably suggested to Ezekiel by the picturesque situation of Tyre on\nher sea\u2010girt rock at \u201cthe entries of the sea.\u201d He compares her to a\nstately vessel riding at anchor(92) near the shore, taking on board her\ncargo of precious merchandise, and ready to start on the perilous voyage\nfrom which she is destined never to return. Meanwhile the gallant ship\nsits proudly in the water, tight and seaworthy and sumptuously furnished;\nand the prophet\u2019s eye runs rapidly over the chief points of her elaborate\nconstruction and equipment (vv. 3\u201011). Her timbers are fashioned of\ncypress from Hermon,(93) her mast is a cedar of Lebanon, her oars are made\nof the oak of Bashan, her deck of sherb\u00een\u2010wood(94) (a variety of cedar)\ninlaid with ivory imported from Cyprus. Her canvas fittings are still more\nexquisite and costly. The sail is of Egyptian byssus with embroidered\nwork, and the awning over the deck was of cloth resplendent in the two\npurple dyes procured from the coasts of Elishah.(95) The ship is fitted up\nfor pleasure and luxury as well as for traffic, the fact symbolised being\nobviously the architectural and other splendours which justified the\ncity\u2019s boast that she was \u201cthe perfection of beauty.\u201d\n\nBut Tyre was wise and powerful as well as beautiful; and so the prophet,\nstill keeping up the metaphor, proceeds to describe how the great ship is\nmanned. Her steersmen are the experienced statesmen whom she herself has\nbred and raised to power; her rowers are the men of Sidon and Aradus, who\nspend their strength in her service. The elders and wise men of Gebal are\nher shipwrights (literally \u201cstoppers of leaks\u201d); and so great is her\ninfluence that all the naval resources of the world are subject to her\ncontrol. Besides this Tyre employs an army of mercenaries drawn from the\nremotest quarters of the earth\u2014from Persia and North Africa, as well as\nthe subordinate towns of Ph\u0153nicia; and these, represented as hanging their\nshields and helmets on her sides, make her beauty complete.(96) In these\nverses the prophet pays a tribute of admiration to the astuteness with\nwhich the rulers of Tyre used their resources to strengthen her position\nas the head of the Ph\u0153nician confederacy. Three of the cities\nmentioned\u2014Sidon, Aradus, and Gebal or Byblus\u2014were the most important in\nPh\u0153nicia; two of them at least had a longer history than herself, yet they\nare here truly represented as performing the rough menial labour which\nbrought wealth and renown to Tyre. It required no ordinary statecraft to\npreserve the balance of so many complex and conflicting interests, and\nmake them all co\u2010operate for the advancement of the glory of Tyre; but\nhitherto her \u201cwise men\u201d had proved equal to the task.\n\nThe second strophe (vv. 12\u201025) contains the survey of Tyrian commerce,\nwhich has already been analysed in another connection.(97) At first sight\nit appears as if the allegory were here abandoned, and the impression is\npartly correct. In reality the city, although personified, is regarded as\nthe emporium of the world\u2019s commerce, to which all the nations stream with\ntheir produce. But at the end it appears that the various commodities\nenumerated represent the cargo with which the ship is laden. Ships of\nTarshish\u2014_i.e._, the largest class of merchant vessels then afloat, used\nfor the long Atlantic voyage\u2014wait upon her, and fill her with all sorts of\nprecious things (ver. 25). Then in the last strophe (vv. 26\u201036), which\nspeaks of the destruction of Tyre, the figure of the ship is boldly\nresumed. The heavily freighted vessel is rowed into the open sea; there\nshe is struck by an east wind and founders in deep water. The image\nsuggests two ideas, which must not be pressed, although they may have an\nelement of historic truth in them: one is that Tyre perished under the\nweight of her own commercial greatness, and the other that her ruin was\nhastened through the folly of her rulers. But the main idea is that the\ndestruction of the city was wrought by the power of God, which suddenly\noverwhelmed her at the height of her prosperity and activity. As the waves\nclose over the doomed vessel the cry of anguish that goes up from the\ndrowning mariners and passengers strikes terror into the hearts of all\nseafaring men. They forsake their ships, and having reached the safety of\nthe shore abandon themselves to frantic demonstrations of grief, joining\ntheir voices in a lamentation over the fate of the goodly ship which\nsymbolised the mistress of the sea (vv. 32\u201036)(98):\u2014\n\n\n    Who was like Tyre [so glorious]\u2014\n                  In the midst of the sea?\n    When thy wares went forth from the seas\u2014\n                  Thou filledst the peoples;\n    With thy wealth and thy merchandise\u2014\n                  Thou enrichedst the earth.\n    Now art thou broken from the seas\u2014\n                  In depths of the waters;\n    Thy merchandise and all thy multitude\u2014\n                  Are fallen therein.\n    All the inhabitants of the islands\u2014\n                  Are shocked at thee,\n    And their kings shudder greatly\u2014\n                  With tearful countenances.\n    They that trade among the peoples ...\u2014\n                  Hiss over thee;\n    Thou art become a terror\u2014\n                  And art no more for ever.\n\n\nSuch is the end of Tyre. She has vanished utterly from the earth; the\nimposing fabric of her greatness is like an unsubstantial pageant faded;\nand nothing remains to tell of her former glory but the mourning of the\nnations who were once enriched by her commerce.\n\n\n\nII\n\n\nCh. xxviii. 1\u201019.\u2014Here the prophet turns to the prince of Tyre, who is\naddressed throughout as the impersonation of the consciousness of a great\ncommercial community. We happen to know from Josephus that the name of the\nreigning king at this time was Ithobaal or Ethbaal II. But it is manifest\nthat the terms of Ezekiel\u2019s message have no reference to the individuality\nof this or any other prince of Tyre. It is not likely that the king could\nhave exercised any great political influence in a city \u201cwhose merchants\nwere all princes\u201d; indeed, we learn from Josephus that the monarchy was\nabolished in favour of some sort of elective constitution not long after\nthe death of Ithobaal. Nor is there any reason to suppose that Ezekiel has\nin view any special manifestation of arrogance on the part of the royal\nhouse, such as a pretension to be descended from the gods. The king here\nis simply the representative of the genius of the community, the sins of\nheart charged against him are the expression of the sinful principle which\nthe prophet detected beneath the refinement and luxury of Tyre, and his\nshameful death only symbolises the downfall of the city. The prophecy\nconsists of two parts: first, an accusation against the prince of Tyre,\nending with a threat of destruction (vv. 2\u201010); and second, a lament over\nhis fall (vv. 11\u201019). The point of view is very different in these two\nsections. In the first the prince is still conceived as a man; and the\nlanguage put into his mouth, although extravagant, does not exceed the\nlimits of purely human arrogance. In the second, however, the king appears\nas an angelic being, an inhabitant of Eden and a companion of the cherub,\nsinless at first, and falling from his high estate through his own\ntransgression. It almost seems as if the prophet had in his mind the idea\nof a tutelary spirit or genius of Tyre, like the angelic princes in the\nbook of Daniel who preside over the destinies of different nations.(99)\nBut in spite of its enhanced idealism, the passage only clothes in forms\ndrawn from Babylonian mythology the boundless self\u2010glorification of Tyre;\nand the expulsion of the prince from paradise is merely the ideal\ncounterpart of the overthrow of the city which is his earthly abode.\n\nThe sin of Tyre is an overweening pride, which culminated in an attitude\nof self\u2010deification on the part of its king. Surrounded on every hand by\nthe evidences of man\u2019s mastery over the world, by the achievements of\nhuman art and industry and enterprise, the king feels as if his throne on\nthe sea\u2010girt island were a veritable seat of the gods, and as if he\nhimself were a being truly divine. His heart is lifted up; and, forgetful\nof the limits of his mortality, he \u201csets his mind like the mind of a god.\u201d\nThe godlike quality on which he specially prides himself is the superhuman\nwisdom evinced by the extraordinary prosperity of the city with which he\nidentifies himself. Wiser than Daniel! the prophet ironically exclaims;\n\u201cno secret thing is too dark for thee!\u201d \u201cBy thy wisdom and thine insight\nthou hast gotten thee wealth, and hast gathered gold and silver into thy\ntreasuries: by thy great wisdom in thy commerce thou hast multiplied thy\nwealth, and thy heart is lifted up because of thy riches.\u201d The prince sees\nin the vast accumulation of material resources in Tyre nothing but the\nreflection of the genius of her inhabitants; and being himself the\nincarnation of the spirit of the city, he takes the glory of it to himself\nand esteems himself a god. Such impious self\u2010exaltation must inevitably\ncall down the vengeance of Him who is the only living God; and Ezekiel\nproceeds to announce the humiliation of the prince by the \u201cmost ruthless\nof the nations\u201d\u2014_i.e._, the Chald\u00e6ans. He shall then know how much of\ndivinity doth hedge a king. In face of them that seek his life he shall\nlearn that he is man and not God, and that there are forces in the world\nagainst which the vaunted wisdom of Tyre is of no avail. An ignominious\ndeath(100) at the hand of strangers is the fate reserved for the mortal\nwho so proudly exalted himself against all that is called God.\n\nThe thought thus expressed, when disengaged from its peculiar setting, is\none of permanent importance. To Ezekiel, as to the prophets generally,\nTyre is the representative of commercial greatness, and the truth which he\nhere seeks to illustrate is that the abnormal development of the\nmercantile spirit had in her case destroyed the capacity of faith in that\nwhich is truly divine. Tyre no doubt, like every other ancient state,\nstill maintained a public religion of the type common to Semitic paganism.\nShe was the sacred seat of a special cult, and the temple of Melkarth was\nconsidered the chief glory of the city. But the public and perfunctory\nworship which was there celebrated had long ceased to express the highest\nconsciousness of the community. The real god of Tyre was not Baal nor\nMelkarth, but the king, or any other object that might serve as a symbol\nof her civic greatness. Her religion was one that embodied itself in no\noutward ritual; it was the enthusiasm which was kindled in the heart of\nevery citizen of Tyre by the magnificence of the imperial city to which he\nbelonged. The state of mind which Ezekiel regards as characteristic of\nTyre was perhaps the inevitable outcome of a high civilisation informed by\nno loftier religious conceptions than those common to heathenism. It is\nthe idea which afterwards found expression in the deification of the Roman\nemperors\u2014the idea that the state is the only power higher than the\nindividual to which he can look for the furtherance of his material and\nspiritual interests, the only power, therefore, which rightly claims his\nhomage and his reverence. None the less it is a state of mind which is\ndestructive of all that is essential to living religion; and Tyre in her\nproud self\u2010sufficiency was perhaps further from a true knowledge of God\nthan the barbarous tribes who in all sincerity worshipped the rude idols\nwhich represented the invisible power that ruled their destinies. And in\nexposing the irreligious spirit which lay at the heart of the Tyrian\ncivilisation the prophet lays his finger on the spiritual danger which\nattends the successful pursuit of the finite interests of human life. The\nthought of God, the sense of an immediate relation of the spirit of man to\nthe Eternal and the Infinite, are easily displaced from men\u2019s minds by\nundue admiration for the achievements of a culture based on material\nprogress, and supplying every need of human nature except the very\ndeepest, the need of God. \u201cFor that is truly a man\u2019s religion, the object\nof which fills and holds captive his soul and heart and mind, in which he\ntrusts above all things, which above all things he longs for and hopes\nfor.\u201d(101) The commercial spirit is indeed but one of the forms in which\nmen devote themselves to the service of this present world; but in any\ncommunity where it reigns supreme we may confidently look for the same\nsigns of religious decay which Ezekiel detected in Tyre in his own day. At\nall events his message is not superfluous in an age and country where\nenergies are well\u2010nigh exhausted in the accumulation of the means of\nliving, and whose social problems all run up into the great question of\nthe distribution of wealth. It is essentially the same truth which Ruskin,\nwith something of the power and insight of a Hebrew prophet, has so\neloquently enforced on the men who make modern England\u2014that the true\nreligion of a community does not live in the venerable institutions to\nwhich it yields a formal and conventional deference, but in the objects\nwhich inspire its most eager ambitions, the ideals which govern its\nstandard of worth, in those things wherein it finds the ultimate ground of\nits confidence and the reward of its work.(102)\n\nThe lamentation over the fall of the prince of Tyre (vv. 11\u201019) reiterates\nthe same lesson with a boldness and freedom of imagination not usual with\nthis prophet. The passage is full of obscurities and difficulties which\ncannot be adequately discussed here, but the main lines of the conception\nare easily grasped. It describes the original state of the prince as a\nsemi\u2010divine being, and his fall from that state on account of sin that was\nfound in him. The picture is no doubt ironical; Ezekiel actually means\nnothing more than that the soaring pride of Tyre enthroned its king or its\npresiding genius in the seat of the gods, and endowed him with attributes\nmore than mortal. The prophet accepts the idea, and shows that there was\nsin in Tyre enough to hurl the most radiant of celestial creatures from\nheaven to hell. The passage presents certain obvious affinities with the\naccount of the Fall in the second and third chapters of Genesis; but it\nalso contains reminiscences of a mythology the key to which is now lost.\nIt can hardly be supposed that the vivid details of the imagery, such as\nthe \u201cmountain of God,\u201d the \u201cstones of fire,\u201d \u201cthe precious gems,\u201d are\naltogether due to the prophet\u2019s imagination. The mountain of the gods is\nnow known to have been a prominent idea of the Babylonian religion; and\nthere appears to have been a widespread notion that in the abode of the\ngods were treasures of gold and precious stones, jealously guarded by\ngriffins, of which small quantities found their way into the possession of\nmen. It is possible that fragments of these mythical notions may have\nreached the knowledge of Ezekiel during his sojourn in Babylon and been\nused by him to fill up his picture of the glories which surrounded the\nfirst estate of the king of Tyre. It should be observed, however, that the\nprince is not to be identified with the cherub or one of the cherubim. The\nwords \u201cThou art the anointed cherub that covereth, and I have set thee so\u201d\n(ver. 14) may be translated \u201cWith the ... cherub I set thee\u201d; and\nsimilarly the words of ver. 16, \u201cI will destroy thee, O covering cherub,\u201d\nshould probably be rendered \u201cAnd the cherub hath destroyed thee.\u201d The\nwhole conception is greatly simplified by these changes, and the principal\nfeatures of it, so far as they can be made out with clearness, are as\nfollows: The cherub is the warden of the \u201choly mountain of God,\u201d and no\ndoubt also (as in ch. i.) the symbol and bearer of the divine glory. When\nit is said that the prince of Tyre was placed with the cherub, the meaning\nis that he had his place in the abode of God, or was admitted to the\npresence of God, so long as he preserved the perfection in which he was\ncreated (ver. 15). The other allusions to his original glory, such as the\n\u201ccovering\u201d of precious stones and the \u201cwalking amidst fiery stones,\u201d\ncannot be explained with any degree of certainty.(103) When iniquity is\nfound in him so that he must be banished from the presence of God, the\ncherub is said to destroy him from the midst of the stones of fire\u2014_i.e._,\nis the agent of the divine judgment which descends on the prince. It is\nthus doubtful whether the prince is conceived as a perfect human being,\nlike Adam before his fall, or as an angelic, superhuman creature; but the\npoint is of little importance in an ideal delineation such as we have\nhere. It will be seen that even on the first supposition there is no very\nclose correspondence with the story of Eden in the book of Genesis, for\nthere the cherubim are placed to guard the way of the tree of life only\nafter man has been expelled from the garden.\n\nBut what is the sin that tarnished the sanctity of this exalted personage\nand cost him his place among the immortals? Ideally, it was an access of\npride that caused his ruin, a spiritual sin, such as might originate in\nthe heart of an angelic being.\n\n\n    By that sin fell the angels: how can man, then,\n    The image of his Maker, hope to win by it?\n\n\nHis heart was lifted up because of his beauty, and he forfeited his\ngodlike wisdom over his brilliance (ver. 17). But really, this change\npassing over the spirit of the prince in the seat of God is only the\nreflection of what is done on earth in Tyre. As her commerce increased,\nthe proofs of her unjust and unscrupulous use of wealth were accumulated\nagainst her, and her midst was filled with violence (ver. 16). This is the\nonly allusion in the three chapters to the wrong and oppression and the\noutrages on humanity which were the inevitable accompaniments of that\ngreed of gain which had taken possession of the Tyrian community. And\nthese sins are regarded as a demoralisation taking place in the nature of\nthe prince who is the representative of the city; by the \u201ciniquity of his\ntraffic he has profaned his holiness,\u201d and is cast down from his lofty\nseat to the earth, a spectacle of abject humiliation for kings to gloat\nover. By a sudden change of metaphor the destruction of the city is also\nrepresented as a fire breaking out in the vitals of the prince and\nreducing his body to ashes\u2014a conception which has not unnaturally\nsuggested to some commentators the fable of the ph\u0153nix which was supposed\nperiodically to immolate herself in a fire of her own kindling.\n\n\n\nIII\n\n\nA short oracle on Sidon completes the series of prophecies dealing with\nthe future of Israel\u2019s immediate neighbours (vv. 20\u201023). Sidon lay about\ntwenty miles farther north than Tyre, and was, as we have seen, at this\ntime subject to the authority of the younger and more vigorous city. From\nthe book of Jeremiah,(104) however, we see that Sidon was an autonomous\nstate, and preserved a measure of independence even in matters of foreign\npolicy. There is therefore nothing arbitrary in assigning a separate\noracle to this most northerly of the states in immediate contact with the\npeople of Israel, although it must be admitted that Ezekiel has nothing\ndistinctive to say of Sidon. Ph\u0153nicia was in truth so overshadowed by Tyre\nthat all the characteristics of the people have been amply illustrated in\nthe chapters that have dealt with the latter city. The prophecy is\naccordingly delivered in the most general terms, and indicates rather the\npurpose and effect of the judgment than the manner in which it is to come\nor the character of the people against whom it is directed. It passes\ninsensibly into a prediction of the glorious future of Israel, which is\nimportant as revealing the underlying motive of all the preceding\nutterances against the heathen nations. The restoration of Israel and the\ndestruction of her old neighbours are both parts of one comprehensive\nscheme of divine providence, the ultimate object of which is a\ndemonstration before the eyes of the world of the holiness of Jehovah.\nThat men might know that He is Jehovah, God alone, is the end alike of His\ndealings with the heathen and with His own people. And the two parts of\nGod\u2019s plan are in the mind of Ezekiel intimately related to each other;\nthe one is merely a condition of the realisation of the other. The\ncrowning proof of Jehovah\u2019s holiness will be seen in His faithfulness to\nthe promise made to the patriarchs of the possession of the land of\nCanaan, and in the security and prosperity enjoyed by Israel when brought\nback to their land a purified nation. Now in the past Israel had been\nconstantly interfered with, crippled, humiliated, and seduced by the petty\nheathen powers around her borders. These had been a pricking brier and a\nstinging thorn (ver. 24), constantly annoying and harassing her and\nimpeding the free development of her national life. Hence the judgments\nhere denounced against them are no doubt in the first instance a\npunishment for what they had been and done in the past; but they are also\na clearing of the stage that Israel might be isolated from the rest of the\nworld, and be free to mould her national life and her religious\ninstitutions in accordance with the will of her God. That is the substance\nof the last three verses of the chapter; and while they exhibit the\npeculiar limitations of the prophet\u2019s thinking, they enable us at the same\ntime to do justice to the singular unity and consistency of aim which\nguided him in his great forecast of the future of the kingdom of God.\nThere remains now the case of Egypt to be dealt with; but Egypt\u2019s\nrelations to Israel and her position in the world were so unique that\nEzekiel reserves consideration of her future for a separate group of\noracles longer than those on all the other nations put together.\n\n\n\n\nChapter XVIII. Egypt. Chapters xxix.\u2010xxxii.\n\n\nEgypt figures in the prophecies of Ezekiel as a great world\u2010power\ncherishing projects of universal dominion. Once more, as in the age of\nIsaiah, the ruling factor in Asiatic politics was the duel for the mastery\nof the world between the rival empires of the Nile and the Euphrates. The\ninfluence of Egypt was perhaps even greater in the beginning of the sixth\ncentury than it had been in the end of the eighth, although in the\ninterval it had suffered a signal eclipse. Isaiah (ch. xix.) had predicted\na subjugation of Egypt by the Assyrians, and this prophecy had been\nfulfilled in the year 672, when Esarhaddon invaded the country and\nincorporated it in the Assyrian empire. He divided its territory into\ntwenty petty principalities governed by Assyrian or native rulers, and\nthis state of things had lasted with little change for a generation.\nDuring the reign of Asshurbanipal Egypt was frequently overrun by Assyrian\narmies, and the repeated attempts of the Ethiopian monarchs, aided by\nrevolts among the native princes, to reassert their sovereignty over the\nNile Valley were all foiled by the energy of the Assyrian king or the\nvigilance of his generals. At last, however, a new era of prosperity\ndawned for Egypt about the year 645. Psammetichus, the ruler of Sa\u00efs, with\nthe help of foreign mercenaries, succeeded in uniting the whole land under\nhis sway; he expelled the Assyrian garrison, and became the founder of the\nbrilliant twenty\u2010sixth (Sa\u00efte) dynasty. From this time Egypt possessed in\na strong central administration the one indispensable condition of her\nmaterial prosperity. Her power was consolidated by a succession of\nvigorous rulers, and she immediately began to play a leading part in the\naffairs of Asia. The most distinguished king of the dynasty was Necho II.,\nthe son and successor of Psammetichus. Two striking facts mentioned by\nHerodotus are worthy of mention, as showing the originality and vigour\nwith which the Egyptian administration was at this time conducted. One is\nthe project of cutting a canal between the Nile and the Red Sea, an\nundertaking which was abandoned by Necho in consequence of an oracle\nwarning him that he was only working for the advantage of\nforeigners\u2014meaning no doubt the Ph\u0153nicians. Necho, however, knew how to\nturn the Ph\u0153nician seamanship to good account, as is proved by the other\ngreat stroke of genius with which he is credited\u2014the circumnavigation of\nAfrica. It was a Ph\u0153nician fleet, despatched from Suez by his orders,\nwhich first rounded the Cape of Good Hope, returning to Egypt by the\nStraits of Gibraltar after a three years\u2019 voyage. And if Necho was less\nsuccessful in war than in the arts of peace, it was not from want of\nactivity. He was the Pharaoh who defeated Josiah in the plain of Megiddo,\nand afterwards contested the lordship of Syria with Nebuchadnezzar. His\ndefeat at Carchemish in 604 compelled him to retire to his own land; but\nthe power of Egypt was still unbroken, and the Chald\u00e6an king knew that he\nwould yet have to reckon with her in his schemes for the conquest of\nPalestine.\n\nAt the time to which these prophecies belong the king of Egypt was Pharaoh\nHophra (in Greek, Apries), the grandson of Necho II. Ascending the throne\nin 588 B.C., he found it necessary for the protection of his own interests\nto take an active part in the politics of Syria. He is said to have\nattacked Ph\u0153nicia by sea and land, capturing Sidon and defeating a Tyrian\nfleet in a naval engagement. His object must have been to secure the\nascendency of the Egyptian party in the Ph\u0153nician cities; and the stubborn\nresistance which Nebuchadnezzar encountered from Tyre was no doubt the\nresult of the political arrangements made by Hophra after his victory. No\narmed intervention was needed to ensure a spirited defence of Jerusalem;\nand it was only after the Babylonians were encamped around the city that\nHophra sent an Egyptian army to its relief. He was unable, however, to\neffect more than a temporary suspension of the siege, and returned to\nEgypt, leaving Judah to its fate, apparently without venturing on a battle\n(Jer. xxxvii. 5\u20107). No further hostilities between Egypt and Babylon are\nrecorded during the lifetime of Hophra. He continued to reign with vigour\nand success till 571, when he was dethroned by Amasis, one of his own\ngenerals.\n\nThese circumstances show a remarkable parallel to the political situation\nwith which Isaiah had to deal at the time of Sennacherib\u2019s invasion. Judah\nwas again in the position of the \u201cearthen pipkin between two iron pots.\u201d\nIt is certain that neither Jehoiakim nor Zedekiah, any more than the\nadvisers of Hezekiah in the earlier period, would have embarked on a\nconflict with the Mesopotamian empire but for delusive promises of\nEgyptian support. There was the same vacillation and division of counsels\nin Jerusalem, the same dilatoriness on the part of Egypt, and the same\nfutile effort to retrieve a desperate situation after the favourable\nmoment had been allowed to slip. In both cases the conflict was\nprecipitated by the triumph of an Egyptian party in the Jud\u00e6an court; and\nit is probable that in both cases the king was coerced into a policy of\nwhich his judgment did not approve. And the prophets of the later period,\nJeremiah and Ezekiel, adhere closely to the lines laid down by Isaiah in\nthe time of Sennacherib, warning the people against putting their trust in\nthe vain help of Egypt, and counselling passive submission to the course\nof events which expressed the unalterable judgment of the Almighty.\nEzekiel indeed borrows an image that had been current in the days of\nIsaiah in order to set forth the utter untrustworthiness and dishonesty of\nEgypt towards the nations who were induced to rely on her power. He\ncompares her to a staff of reed, which breaks when one grasps it, piercing\nthe hand and making the loins to totter when it is leant upon.(105) Such\nhad Egypt been to Israel through all her history, and such she will again\nprove herself to be in her last attempt to use Israel as the tool of her\nselfish designs. The great difference between Ezekiel and Isaiah is that,\nwhereas Isaiah had access to the councils of Hezekiah and could bring his\ninfluence to bear on the inception of schemes of state, not without hope\nof averting what he saw to be a disastrous decision, Ezekiel could only\nwatch the development of events from afar, and throw his warnings into the\nform of predictions of the fate in store for Egypt.\n\nThe oracles against Egypt are seven in number: (i) ch. xxix. 1\u201016; (ii)\n17\u201021; (iii) xxx. 1\u201019; (iv) 20\u201026; (v) xxxi.; (vi) xxxii. 1\u201016; (vii)\n17\u201032. They are all variations of one theme, the annihilation of the power\nof Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar, and little progress of thought can be traced\nfrom the first to the last. Excluding the supplementary prophecy of ch.\nxxix. 17\u201021, which is a later addition, the order appears to be strictly\nchronological.(106) The series begins seven months before the capture of\nJerusalem (ch. xxix. 1), and ends about eight months after that\nevent.(107) How far the dates refer to actual occurrences coming to the\nknowledge of the prophet it is impossible for us to say. It is clear that\nhis interest is centred on the fate of Jerusalem then hanging in the\nbalance; and it is possible that the first oracles (chs. xxix. 1\u201016, xxx.\n1\u201019) may be called forth by the appearance of Hophra\u2019s army on the scene,\nwhile the next (ch. xxx. 20\u201026) plainly alludes to the repulse of the\nEgyptians by the Chald\u00e6ans. But no attempt can be made to connect the\nprophecies with incidents of the campaign; the prophet\u2019s thoughts are\nwholly occupied with the moral and religious issues involved in the\ncontest, the vindication of Jehovah\u2019s holiness in the overthrow of the\ngreat world\u2010power which sought to thwart His purposes.\n\n                  \u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\n\nCh. xxix. 1\u201016 is an introduction to all that follows, presenting a\ngeneral outline of the prophet\u2019s conceptions of the fate of Egypt. It\ndescribes the sin of which she has been guilty, and indicates the nature\nof the judgment that is to overtake her and her future place among the\nnations of the world. The Pharaoh is compared to a \u201cgreat dragon,\u201d\nwallowing in his native waters, and deeming himself secure from\nmolestation in his reedy haunts. The crocodile was a natural symbol of\nEgypt, and the image conveys accurately the impression of sluggish and\nunwieldy strength which Egypt in the days of Ezekiel had long produced on\nshrewd observers of her policy. Pharaoh is the incarnate genius of the\ncountry; and as the Nile was the strength and glory of Egypt, he is here\nrepresented as arrogating to himself the ownership and even the creation\nof the wonderful river. \u201cMy river is mine, and I have made it\u201d is the\nproud and blasphemous thought which expresses his consciousness of a power\nthat owns no superior in earth or heaven. That the Nile was worshipped by\nthe Egyptians with divine honours did not alter the fact that beneath all\ntheir ostentatious religious observances there was an immoral sense of\nirresponsible power in the use of the natural resources to which the land\nowed its prosperity. For this spirit of ungodly self\u2010exaltation the king\nand people of Egypt are to be visited with a signal judgment, from which\nthey shall learn who it is that is God over all. The monster of the Nile\nshall be drawn from his waters with hooks, with all his fishes sticking to\nhis scales, and left to perish ignominiously on the desert sands. The rest\nof the prophecy (vv. 8\u201016) gives the explanation of the allegory in\nliteral, though still general, terms. The meaning is that Egypt shall be\nlaid waste by the sword, its teeming population led into captivity, and\nthe land shall lie desolate, untrodden by the foot of man or beast for the\nspace of forty years. \u201cFrom Migdol to Syene\u201d(108)\u2014the extreme limits of\nthe country\u2014the rich valley of the Nile shall be uncultivated and\nuninhabited for that period of time.\n\nThe most interesting feature of the prophecy is the view which is given of\nthe final condition of the Egyptian empire (vv. 13\u201016). In all cases the\nprophetic delineations of the future of different nations are coloured by\nthe present circumstances of those nations as known to the writers.\nEzekiel knew that the fertile soil of Egypt would always be capable of\nsupporting an industrious peasantry, and that her existence did not depend\non her continuing to play the _r\u00f4le_ of a great power. Tyre depended on\nher commerce, and apart from that which was the root of her sin could\nnever be anything but the resort of poor fishermen, who would not even\nmake their dwelling on the barren rock in the midst of the sea. But Egypt\ncould still be a country, though shorn of the glory and power which had\nmade her a snare to the people of God. On the other hand the geographical\nisolation of the land made it impossible that she should lose her\nindividuality amongst the nations of the world. Unlike the small states,\nsuch as Edom and Ammon, which were obviously doomed to be swallowed up by\nthe surrounding population as soon as their power was broken, Egypt would\nretain her distinct and characteristic life as long as the physical\ncondition of the world remained what it was. Accordingly the prophet does\nnot contemplate an utter annihilation of Egypt, but only a temporary\nchastisement succeeded by her permanent degradation to the lowest rank\namong the kingdoms. The forty years of her desolation represent in round\nnumbers the period of Chald\u00e6an supremacy during which Jerusalem lies in\nruins. Ezekiel at this time expected the invasion of Egypt to follow soon\nafter the capture of Jerusalem, so that the restoration of the two peoples\nwould be simultaneous. At the end of forty years the whole world will be\nreorganised on a new basis, Israel occupying the central position as the\npeople of God, and in that new world Egypt shall have a separate but\nsubordinate place. Jehovah will bring back the Egyptians from their\ncaptivity, and cause them to return to \u201cPathros,(109) the land of their\norigin,\u201d and there make them a \u201clowly state,\u201d no longer an imperial power,\nbut humbler than the surrounding kingdoms. The righteousness of Jehovah\nand the interest of Israel alike demand that Egypt should be thus reduced\nfrom her former greatness. In the old days her vast and imposing power had\nbeen a constant temptation to the Israelites, \u201ca confidence, a reminder of\niniquity,\u201d leading them to put their trust in human power and luring them\ninto paths of danger by deceitful promises (vv. 6\u20107). In the final\ndispensation of history this shall no longer be the case: Israel shall\nthen know Jehovah, and no form of human power shall be suffered to lead\ntheir hearts astray from Him who is the rock of their salvation.\n\n                  \u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\n\nCh. xxx. 1\u201019.\u2014The judgment on Egypt spreads terror and dismay among all\nthe neighbouring nations. It signalises the advent of the great day of\nJehovah, the day of His final reckoning with the powers of evil\neverywhere. It is the \u201ctime of the heathen\u201d that has come (ver. 3). Egypt\nbeing the chief embodiment of secular power on the basis of pagan\nreligion, the sudden collapse of her might is equivalent to a judgment on\nheathenism in general, and the moral effect of it conveys to the world a\ndemonstration of the omnipotence of the one true God whom she had ignored\nand defied. The nations immediately involved in the fall of Egypt are the\nallies and mercenaries whom she has called to her aid in the time of her\ncalamity. Ethiopians, and Lydians, and Libyans, and Arabs, and\nCretans,(110) the \u201chelpers of Egypt,\u201d who have furnished contingents to\nher motley army, fall by the sword along with her, and their countries\nshare the desolation that overtakes the land of Egypt. Swift messengers\nare then seen speeding up the Nile in ships to convey to the careless\nEthiopians the alarming tidings of the overthrow of Egypt (ver. 9). From\nthis point the prophet confines his attention to the fate of Egypt, which\nhe describes with a fulness of detail that implies a certain acquaintance\nboth with the topography and the social circumstances of the country. In\nver. 10 Nebuchadnezzar and the Chald\u00e6ans are for the first time mentioned\nby name as the human instruments employed by Jehovah to execute His\njudgment on Egypt. After the slaughter of the inhabitants, the next\nconsequence of the invasion is the destruction of the canals and\nreservoirs and the decay of the system of irrigation on which the\nproductiveness of the country depended. \u201cThe rivers [canals] are dried up,\nand the land is made waste, and the fulness thereof, by the hand of\nstrangers\u201d (ver. 12). And with the material fabric of her prosperity the\ncomplicated system of religious and civil institutions which was entwined\nwith the hoary civilisation of Egypt vanishes for ever. \u201cThe idols are\ndestroyed; the potentates(111) are made to cease from Memphis, and princes\nfrom the land of Egypt, so that they shall be no more\u201d (ver. 13). Faith in\nthe native gods shall be extinguished, and a trembling fear of Jehovah\nshall fill the whole land. The passage ends with an enumeration of various\ncentres of the national life, which formed as it were the sensitive\nganglia where the universal calamity was most acutely felt. On these\ncities,(112) each of which was identified with the worship of a particular\ndeity, Jehovah executes the judgments in which He makes known to the\nEgyptians His sole divinity and destroys their confidence in false gods.\nThey also possessed some special military or political importance, so that\nwith their destruction the sceptres of Egypt were broken and the pride of\nher strength was laid low (ver. 18).\n\n                  \u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\n\nCh. xxx. 20\u201026.\u2014A new oracle, dated three months later than the preceding.\nPharaoh is represented as a combatant, already disabled in one arm and\nsore pressed by his powerful antagonist the king of Babylon. Jehovah\nannounces that the wounded arm cannot be healed, although he has retired\nfrom the contest for that purpose. On the contrary, both his arms shall be\nbroken and the sword struck from his grasp, while the arms of\nNebuchadnezzar are strengthened by Jehovah, who puts His own sword into\nhis hand. The land of Egypt, thus rendered defenceless, falls an easy prey\nto the Chald\u00e6ans, and its people are dispersed among the nations. The\noccasion of the prophecy is the repulse of Hophra\u2019s expedition for the\nrelief of Jerusalem, which is referred to as a past event. The date may\neither mark the actual time of the occurrence (as in ch. xxiv. 1), or the\ntime when it came to the knowledge of Ezekiel. The prophet at all events\naccepts this reverse to the Egyptian arms as an earnest of the speedy\nrealisation of his predictions in the total submission of the proud empire\nof the Nile.\n\n                  \u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\n\nCh. xxxi. occupies the same position in the prophecies against Egypt as\nthe allegory of the richly laden ship in those against Tyre (ch. xxvii.).\nThe incomparable majesty and overshadowing power of Egypt are set forth\nunder the image of a lordly cedar in Lebanon, whose top reaches to the\nclouds and whose branches afford shelter to all the beasts of the earth.\nThe exact force of the allegory is somewhat obscured by a slight error of\nthe text, which must have crept in at a very early period. As it stands in\nthe Hebrew and in all the ancient versions the whole chapter is a\ndescription of the greatness not of Egypt but of Assyria. \u201cTo whom art\nthou like in thy greatness?\u201d asks the prophet (ver. 2); and the answer is,\n\u201cAssyria was great as thou art, yet Assyria fell and is no more.\u201d There is\nthus a double comparison: Assyria is compared to a cedar, and then Egypt\nis tacitly compared to Assyria. This interpretation may not be altogether\nindefensible. That the fate of Assyria contained a warning against the\npride of Pharaoh is a thought in itself intelligible, and such as Ezekiel\nmight very well have expressed. But if he had wished to express it, he\nwould not have done it so awkwardly as this interpretation supposes. When\nwe follow the connection of ideas we cannot fail to see that Assyria is\nnot in the prophet\u2019s thoughts at all. The image is consistently pursued\nwithout a break to the end of the chapter, and then we learn that the\nsubject of the description is \u201cPharaoh and all his multitude\u201d (ver. 18).\nBut if the writer is thinking of Egypt at the end, he must have been\nthinking of it from the beginning, and the mention of Assyria is out of\nplace and misleading. The confusion has been caused by the substitution of\nthe word _Asshur_ (in ver. 3) for _T\u2019asshur_, the name of the sherb\u00een\ntree, itself a species of cedar. We should therefore read, \u201cBehold a\nT\u2019asshur, a cedar in Lebanon,\u201d etc.;(113) and the answer to the question\nof ver. 2 is that the position of Egypt is as unrivalled among the\nkingdoms of the world as this stately tree among the trees of the forest.\n\nWith this alteration the course of thought is perfectly clear, although\nincongruous elements are combined in the representation. The towering\nheight of the cedar with its top in the clouds symbolises the imposing\nmight of Egypt and its ungodly pride (cf. vv. 10, 14). The waters of the\nflood which nourish its roots are those of the Nile, the source of Egypt\u2019s\nwealth and greatness. The birds that build their nests in its branches and\nthe beasts that bring forth their young under its shadow are the smaller\nnations that looked to Egypt for protection and support. Finally, the\ntrees in the garden of God who envy the luxuriant pride of this monarch of\nthe forest represent the other great empires of the earth who vainly\naspired to emulate the prosperity and magnificence of Egypt (vv. 3\u20109).\n\nIn the next strophe (vv. 10\u201014) we see the great trunk lying prone across\nmountain and valley, while its branches lie broken in all the water\u2010\ncourses. A \u201cmighty one of the nations\u201d (Nebuchadnezzar) has gone up\nagainst it, and felled it to the earth. The nations have been scared from\nunder its shadow; and the tree which \u201cbut yesterday might have stood\nagainst the world\u201d now lies prostrate and dishonoured\u2014\u201cnone so poor as do\nit reverence.\u201d And the fall of the cedar reveals a moral principle and\nconveys a moral lesson to all other proud and stately trees. Its purpose\nis to remind the other great empires that they too are mortal, and to warn\nthem against the soaring ambition and lifting up of the heart which had\nbrought about the humiliation of Egypt: \u201cthat none of the trees by the\nwater should exalt themselves in stature or shoot their tops between the\nclouds, and that their mighty ones should not stand proudly in their\nloftiness (all who are fed by water); for they are all delivered to death,\nto the under\u2010world with the children of men, to those that go down to the\npit.\u201d In reality there is no more impressive intimation of the vanity of\nearthly glory than the decay of those mighty empires and civilisations\nwhich once stood in the van of human progress; nor is there a fitter\nemblem of their fate than the sudden crash of some great forest tree\nbefore the woodman\u2019s axe.\n\nThe development of the prophet\u2019s thought, however, here reaches a point\nwhere it breaks through the allegory, which has been hitherto consistently\nmaintained. All nature shudders in sympathy with the fallen cedar: the\ndeep mourns and withholds her streams from the earth; Lebanon is clothed\nwith blackness, and all the trees languish. Egypt was so much a part of\nthe established order that the world does not know itself when she has\nvanished. While this takes place on earth, the cedar itself has gone down\nto She\u00f4l, where the other shades of vanished dynasties are comforted\nbecause this mightiest of them all has become like to the rest. This is\nthe answer to the question that introduced the allegory. To whom art thou\nlike? None is fit to be compared to thee; yet \u201cthou shalt be brought down\nwith the trees of Eden to the lower parts of the earth, thou shalt lie in\nthe midst of the uncircumcised, with them that are slain of the sword.\u201d It\nis needless to enlarge on this idea, which is out of keeping here, and is\nmore adequately treated in the next chapter.\n\n                  \u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\n\nCh. xxxii. consists of two lamentations to be chanted over the fall of\nEgypt by the prophet and the daughters of the nations (vv. 16, 18). The\nfirst (vv. 1\u201016) describes the destruction of Pharaoh, and the effect\nwhich is produced on earth; while the second (vv. 17\u201032) follows his shade\ninto the abode of the dead, and expatiates on the welcome that awaits him\nthere. Both express the spirit of exultation over a fallen foe, which was\none of the uses to which elegiac poetry was turned amongst the Hebrews.\nThe first passage, however, can hardly be considered a dirge in any proper\nsense of the word. It is essential to a true elegy that the subject of it\nshould be conceived as dead, and that whether serious or ironical it\nshould celebrate a glory that has passed away. In this case the elegiac\nnote (of the elegiac _measure_ there is hardly a trace) is just struck in\nthe opening line: \u201cO young lion of the nations! [How] art thou undone!\u201d\nBut this is not sustained: the passage immediately falls into the style of\ndirect prediction and threatening, and is indeed closely parallel to the\nopening prophecy of the series (ch. xxix.). The fundamental image is the\nsame: that of a great Nile monster spouting from his nostrils and fouling\nthe waters with his feet (ver. 2). His capture by many nations and his\nlingering death on the open field are described with the realistic and\nghastly details naturally suggested by the figure (vv. 3\u20106). The image is\nthen abruptly changed in order to set forth the effect of so great a\ncalamity on the world of nature and of mankind. Pharaoh is compared to a\nbrilliant luminary, whose sudden extinction is followed by a darkening of\nall the lights of heaven and by consternation amongst the nations and\nkings of earth (vv. 7\u201010). It is thought by some that the violence of the\ntransition is to be explained by the idea of the heavenly constellation of\nthe dragon, answering to the dragon of the Nile, to which Egypt had just\nbeen likened.(114) Finally all metaphors are abandoned, and the desolation\nof Egypt is announced in literal terms as accomplished by the sword of the\nking of Babylon and the \u201cmost terrible of the nations\u201d (vv. 11\u201016).\n\nBut all the foregoing oracles are surpassed in grandeur of conception by\nthe remarkable Vision of Hades which concludes the series\u2014\u201cone of the most\nweird passages in literature\u201d (Davidson). In form it is a dirge supposed\nto be sung at the burial of Pharaoh and his host by the prophet along with\nthe daughters of famous nations (ver. 18). But the theme, as has been\nalready observed, is the entrance of the deceased warriors into the under\u2010\nworld, and their reception by the shades that have gone down thither\nbefore them. In order to understand it we must bear in mind some features\nof the conception of the under\u2010world, which it is difficult for the modern\nmind to realise distinctly. First of all, She\u00f4l or the \u201cpit,\u201d the realm of\nthe dead, is pictured to the imagination as an adumbration of the grave or\nsepulchre, in which the body finds its last resting\u2010place; or rather it is\nthe aggregate of all the burying\u2010grounds scattered over the earth\u2019s\nsurface. There the shades are grouped according to their clans and\nnationalities, just as on earth the members of the same family would\nusually be interred in one burying\u2010place. The grave of the chief or king,\nthe representative of the nation, is surrounded by those of his vassals\nand subjects, earthly distinctions being thus far preserved. The condition\nof the dead appears to be one of rest or sleep; yet they retain some\nconsciousness of their state, and are visited at least by transient gleams\nof human emotion, as when in this chapter the heroes rouse themselves to\naddress the Pharaoh when he comes among them. The most material point is\nthat the state of the soul in Hades reflects the fate of the body after\ndeath. Those who have received the honour of decent burial on earth enjoy\na corresponding honour among the shades below. They have as it were a\ndefinite status and individuality in their eternal abode, whilst the\nspirits of the unburied slain are laid in the lowest recesses of the pit,\nin the limbo of the uncircumcised. On this distinction the whole\nsignificance of the passage before us seems to depend. The dead are\ndivided into two great classes: on the one hand the \u201cmighty ones,\u201d who lie\nin state with their weapons of war around them; and on the other hand the\nmultitude of \u201cthe uncircumcised,(115) slain by the sword\u201d\u2014_i.e._, those\nwho have perished on the field of battle and been buried promiscuously\nwithout due funereal rites.(116) There is, however, no moral distinction\nbetween the two classes. The heroes are not in a state of blessedness; nor\nis the condition of the uncircumcised one of acute suffering. The whole of\nexistence in She\u00f4l is essentially of one character; it is on the whole a\npitiable existence, destitute of joy and of all that makes up the fulness\nof life on earth. Only there is \u201cwithin that deep a lower deep,\u201d and it is\nreserved for those who in the manner of their death have experienced the\npenalty of great wickedness. The moral truth of Ezekiel\u2019s representation\nlies here. The real judgment of Egypt was enacted in the historical scene\nof its final overthrow; and it is the consciousness of this tremendous\nvisitation of divine justice, perpetuated amongst the shades to all\neternity, that gives ethical significance to the lot assigned to the\nnation in the other world. At the same time it should not be overlooked\nthat the passage is in the highest degree poetical, and cannot be taken as\nan exact statement of what was known or believed about the state after\ndeath in Old Testament times. It deals only with the fate of armies and\nnationalities and great warriors who filled the earth with their renown.\nThese, having vanished from history, preserve through all time in the\nunder\u2010world the memory of Jehovah\u2019s mighty acts of judgment; but it is\nimpossible to determine whether this sublime vision implies a real belief\nin the persistence of national identities in the region of the dead.\n\nThese, then, are the principal ideas on which the ode is based, and the\ncourse of thought is as follows. Ver. 18 briefly announces the occasion\nfor which the dirge is composed; it is to celebrate the passage of Pharaoh\nand his host to the lower world, and consign him to his appointed place\nthere. Then follows a scene which has a certain resemblance to a well\u2010\nknown representation in the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah (vv. 9\u201011). The\nheroes who occupy the place of honour among the dead are supposed to rouse\nthemselves at the approach of this great multitude, and hailing them from\nthe midst of She\u00f4l, direct them to their proper place amongst the\ndishonoured slain. \u201cThe mighty ones speak to him: \u2018Be thou in the recesses\nof the pit: whom dost thou excel in beauty? Go down and be laid to rest\nwith the uncircumcised, in the midst of them that are slain with the\nsword.\u2019 \u201d(117) Thither Pharaoh has been preceded by other great conquerors\nwho once set their terror in the earth, but now bear their shame amongst\nthose that go down to the pit. For there is Asshur and all his company:\nthere too are Elam and Meshech and Tubal, each occupying its own allotment\namongst nations that have perished by the sword (vv. 22\u201026). Not theirs is\nthe enviable lot of the heroes of old time(118) who went down to She\u00f4l in\ntheir panoply of war, and rest with their swords under their heads and\ntheir shields(119) covering their bones. And so Egypt, which has perished\nlike these other nations, must be banished with them into the bottom of\nthe pit (vv. 27, 28). The enumeration of the nations of the uncircumcised\nis then resumed; Israel\u2019s immediate neighbours are amongst them\u2014Edom and\nthe dynasties of the north (the Syrians), and the Ph\u0153nicians, inferior\nstates which played no great part as conquerors, but nevertheless perished\nin battle and bear their humiliation along with the others (vv. 29, 30).\nThese are to be Pharaoh\u2019s companions in his last resting\u2010place, and at the\nsight of them he will lay aside his presumptuous thoughts and comfort\nhimself over the loss of his mighty army (vv. 31 f.).\n\n                  \u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\n\nIt is necessary to say a few words in conclusion about the historical\nevidence for the fulfilment of these prophecies on Egypt. The\nsupplementary oracle of ch. xxix. 17\u201021 shows us that the threatened\ninvasion by Nebuchadnezzar had not taken place sixteen years after the\nfall of Jerusalem. Did it ever take place at all? Ezekiel was at that time\nconfident that his words were on the point of being fulfilled, and indeed\nhe seems to stake his credit with his hearers on their verification. Can\nwe suppose that he was entirely mistaken? Is it likely that the remarkably\ndefinite predictions uttered both by him and Jeremiah(120) failed of even\nthe partial fulfilment which that on Tyre received? A number of critics\nhave strongly maintained that we are shut up by the historical evidence to\nthis conclusion. They rely chiefly on the silence of Herodotus, and on the\nunsatisfactory character of the statement of Josephus. The latter writer\nis indeed sufficiently explicit in his affirmations. He tells us(121) that\nfive years after the capture of Jerusalem Nebuchadnezzar invaded Egypt,\nput to death the reigning king, appointed another in his stead, and\ncarried the Jewish refugees in Egypt captive to Babylon. But it is pointed\nout that the date is impossible, being inconsistent with Ezekiel\u2019s own\ntestimony, that the account of the death of Hophra is contradicted by what\nwe know of the matter from other sources (Herodotus and Diodorus), and\nthat the whole passage bears the appearance of a translation into history\nof the prophecies of Jeremiah which it professes to substantiate. That is\nvigorous criticism, but the vigour is perhaps not altogether\nunwarrantable, especially as Josephus does not mention any authority.\nOther allusions by secular writers hardly count for much, and the state of\nthe question is such that historians would probably have been content to\nconfess their ignorance if the credit of a prophet had not been mixed up\nwith it.\n\nWithin the last seventeen years, however, a new turn has been given to the\ndiscussion through the discovery of monumental evidence which was thought\nto have an important bearing on the point in dispute. In the same volume\nof an Egyptological magazine(122) Wiedemann directed the attention of\nscholars to two inscriptions, one in the Louvre and the other in the\nBritish Museum, both of which he considered to furnish proof of an\noccupation of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar. The first was an Egyptian\ninscription of the reign of Hophra. It was written by an official of the\nhighest rank, named _Nes\u2010hor_, to whom was entrusted the responsible task\nof defending Egypt on its southern or Ethiopian frontier. According to\nWiedemann\u2019s translation, it relates among other things an irruption of\nAsiatic bands (Syrians, people of the north, Asiatics), which penetrated\nas far as the first cataract, and did some damage to the temple of Chnum\nin Elephantine. There they were checked by Nes\u2010hor, and afterwards they\nwere crushed or expelled by Hophra himself. Now the most natural\nexplanation of this incident, in connection with the circumstances of the\ntime, would seem to be that Nebuchadnezzar, finding himself fully occupied\nfor the present with the siege of Tyre, incited roving bands of Arabs and\nSyrians to plunder Egypt, and that they succeeded so far as to penetrate\nto the extreme south of the country. But a more recent examination of the\ntext, by Maspero and Brugsch,(123) reduces the incident to much smaller\ndimensions. They find that it refers to a mutiny of Egyptian mercenaries\n(Syrians, Ionians, and Bedouins) stationed on the southern frontier. The\ngovernor, Nes\u2010hor, congratulates himself on a successful stratagem by\nwhich he got the rebels into a position where they were cut down by the\nking\u2019s troops. In any case it is evident that it falls very far short of a\nconfirmation of Ezekiel\u2019s prophecy. Not only is there no mention of\nNebuchadnezzar or a regular Babylonian army, but the invaders or mutineers\nare actually said to have been annihilated by Hophra. It may be said, no\ndoubt, that an Egyptian governor was likely to be silent about an event\nwhich cast discredit on his country\u2019s arms, and would be tempted to\nmagnify some temporary success into a decisive victory. But still the\ninscription must be taken for what it is worth, and the story it tells is\ncertainly not the story of a Chald\u00e6an supremacy in the valley of the Nile.\nThe only thing that suggests a connection between the two is the general\nprobability that a campaign against Egypt must have been contemplated by\nNebuchadnezzar about that time.\n\nThe second and more important document is a cuneiform fragment of the\nannals of Nebuchadnezzar. It is unfortunately in a very mutilated\ncondition, and all that the Assyriologists have made out is that in the\nthirty\u2010seventh year of his reign Nebuchadnezzar fought a battle with the\nking of Egypt. As the words of the inscription are those of Nebuchadnezzar\nhimself, we may presume that the battle ended in a victory for him, and a\nfew disconnected words in the later part are thought to refer to the\ntribute or booty which he acquired.(124) The thirty\u2010seventh year of\nNebuchadnezzar is the year 568 B.C., about two years after the date of\nEzekiel\u2019s last utterance against Egypt. The Egyptian king at this time was\nAmasis, whose name (only the last syllable of which is legible) is\nsupposed to be that mentioned in the inscription.(125) What the ulterior\nconsequences of this victory were on Egyptian history, or how long the\nBabylonian domination lasted, we cannot at present say. These are\nquestions on which we may reasonably look for further light from the\nresearches of Assyriology. In the meantime it appears to be established\nbeyond reasonable doubt that Nebuchadnezzar did attack Egypt, and the\nprobable issue of his expedition was in accordance with Ezekiel\u2019s latest\nprediction: \u201cBehold, I give to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the land\nof Egypt; and he shall spoil her spoil, and plunder her plunder, and it\nshall be the wages for his army\u201d (ch. xxix. 19). There can of course be no\nquestion of a fulfilment of the earlier prophecies in their literal terms.\nHistory knows nothing of a total captivity of the population of Egypt or a\nblank of forty years in her annals when her land was untrodden by the foot\nof man or of beast. These are details belonging to the dramatic form in\nwhich the prophet clothed the spiritual lesson which it was necessary to\nimpress on his countrymen\u2014the inherent weakness of the Egyptian empire as\na power based on material resources and rearing itself in opposition to\nthe great ends of God\u2019s kingdom. And it may well have been that for the\nillustration of that truth the humiliation that Egypt endured at the hands\nof Nebuchadnezzar was as effective as her total destruction would have\nbeen.\n\n\n\n\n\nPART IV. THE FORMATION OF THE NEW ISRAEL.\n\n\n\n\nChapter XIX. The Prophet A Watchman. Chapter xxxiii.\n\n\nOne day in January of the year 586 the tidings circulated through the\nJewish colony at Tel\u2010abib that \u201cthe city was smitten.\u201d The rapidity with\nwhich in the East intelligence is transmitted through secret channels has\noften excited the surprise of European observers. In this case there is no\nextraordinary rapidity to note, for the fate of Jerusalem had been decided\nnearly six months before it was known in Babylon.(126) But it is\nremarkable that the first intimation of the issue of the siege was brought\nto the exiles by one of their own countrymen, who had escaped at the\ncapture of the city. It is probable that the messenger did not set out at\nonce, but waited until he could bring some information as to how matters\nwere settling down after the war. Or he may have been a captive who had\ntrudged the weary road to Babylon in chains under the escort of\nNebuzaradan, captain of the guard,(127) and afterwards succeeded in making\nhis escape to the older settlement where Ezekiel lived. All we know is\nthat his message was not delivered with the despatch which would have been\npossible if his journey had been unimpeded, and that in the meantime the\nofficial intelligence which must have already reached Babylon had not\ntranspired among the exiles who were waiting so anxiously for tidings of\nthe fate of Jerusalem.(128)\n\nThe immediate effect of the announcement on the mind of the exiles is not\nrecorded. It was doubtless received with all the signs of public mourning\nwhich Ezekiel had anticipated and foretold.(129) They would require some\ntime to adjust themselves to a situation for which, in spite of all the\nwarnings that had been sent them, they were utterly unprepared; and it\nmust have been uncertain at first what direction their thoughts would\ntake. Would they carry out their half\u2010formed intention of abandoning their\nnational faith and assimilating themselves to the surrounding heathenism?\nWould they sink into the lethargy of despair, and pine away under a\nconfused consciousness of guilt? Or would they repent of their unbelief,\nand turn to embrace the hope which God\u2019s mercy held out to them in the\nteaching of the prophet whom they had despised? All this was for the\nmoment uncertain; but one thing was certain\u2014they could no more return to\nthe attitude of complacent indifference and incredulity in which they had\nhitherto resisted the word of Jehovah. The day on which the tidings of the\ncity\u2019s destruction fell like a thunderbolt in the community of Tel\u2010abib\nwas the turning\u2010point of Ezekiel\u2019s ministry. In the arrival of the\n\u201cfugitive\u201d he recognises the sign which was to break the spell of silence\nwhich had lain so long upon him, and set him free for the ministry of\nconsolation and upbuilding which was henceforth to be his chief vocation.\nA presentiment of what was coming had visited him the evening before his\ninterview with the messenger, and from that time \u201chis mouth was opened,\nand he was no more dumb\u201d (ver. 22). Hitherto he had preached to deaf ears,\nand the echo of his ineffectual appeals had come back in a deadening sense\nof failure which had paralysed his activity. But now in one moment the\nveil of prejudice and vain self\u2010confidence is torn from the heart of his\nhearers, and gradually but surely the whole burden of his message must\ndisclose itself to their intelligence. The time has come to work for the\nformation of a new Israel, and a new spirit of hopefulness stimulates the\nprophet to throw himself eagerly into the career which is thus opened up\nbefore him.\n\nIt may be well at this point to try to realise the state of mind which\nemerged amongst Ezekiel\u2019s hearers after the first shock of consternation\nhad passed away. The seven chapters (xxxiii.\u2010xxxix.) with which we are to\nbe occupied in this section all belong to the second period of the\nprophet\u2019s work, and in all probability to the earlier part of that period.\nIt is obvious, however, that they were not written under the first impulse\nof the tidings of the fall of Jerusalem. They contain allusions to certain\nchanges which must have occupied some time; and simultaneously a change\ntook place in the temper of the people resulting ultimately in a definite\nspiritual situation to which the prophet had to address himself. It is\nthis situation which we have to try to understand. It supplies the\nexternal conditions of Ezekiel\u2019s ministry, and unless we can in some\nmeasure interpret it we shall lose the full meaning of his teaching in\nthis important period of his ministry.\n\nAt the outset we may glance at the state of those who were left in the\nland of Israel, who in a sense formed part of Ezekiel\u2019s audience. The very\nfirst oracle uttered by him after he had received his emancipation was a\nthreat of judgment against these survivors of the nation\u2019s calamity (vv.\n23\u201029). The fact that this is recorded in connection with the interview\nwith the \u201cfugitive\u201d may mean that the information on which it is based was\nobtained from that somewhat shadowy personage. Whether in this way or\nthrough some later channel, Ezekiel had apparently some knowledge of the\ndisastrous feuds which had followed the destruction of Jerusalem. These\nevents are minutely described in the end of the book of Jeremiah (chs.\nxl.\u2010xliv.). With a clemency which in the circumstances is surprising the\nking of Babylon had allowed a small remnant of the people to settle in the\nland, and had appointed over them a native governor, Gedaliah, the son of\nAhikam, who fixed his residence at Mizpah. The prophet Jeremiah elected to\nthrow in his lot with this remnant, and for a time it seemed as if through\npeaceful submission to the Chald\u00e6an supremacy all might go well with the\nsurvivors. The chiefs who had conducted the guerilla warfare in the open\nagainst the Babylonian army came in and placed themselves under the\nprotection of Gedaliah, and there was every prospect that by refraining\nfrom projects of rebellion they might be left to enjoy the fruits of the\nland without disturbance. But this was not to be. Certain turbulent\nspirits under Ishmael, a member of the royal family, entered into a\nconspiracy with the king of Ammon to destroy this last refuge of peace\u2010\nloving Israelites. Gedaliah was treacherously murdered; and although the\nmurder was partially avenged, Ishmael succeeded in making his escape to\nthe Ammonites, while the remains of the party of order, dreading the\nvengeance of Nebuchadnezzar, took their departure for Egypt and carried\nJeremiah forcibly with them. What happened after this we do not know; but\nit is not improbable that Ishmael and his followers may have held\npossession of the land by force for some years. We read of a fresh\ndeportation of Jud\u00e6an captives to Babylon five years after the capture of\nJerusalem (Jer. lii. 30); and this may have been the result of an\nexpedition to suppress the depredations of the robber band that Ishmael\nhad gathered round him. How much of this story had reached the ears of\nEzekiel we do not know; but there is one allusion in his oracle which\nmakes it probable that he had at least heard of the assassination of\nGedaliah. Those he addresses are men who \u201cstand upon their sword\u201d\u2014that is\nto say, they hold that might is right, and glory in deeds of blood and\nviolence that gratify their passionate desire for revenge. Such language\ncould hardly be used of any section of the remaining population of Jud\u00e6a\nexcept the lawless banditti that enrolled themselves under the banner of\nIshmael, the son of Nethaniah.\n\nWhat Ezekiel is mainly concerned with, however, is the moral and religious\ncondition of those to whom he speaks. Strange to say, they were animated\nby a species of religious fanaticism, which led them to regard themselves\nas the legitimate heirs to whom the reversion of the land of Israel\nbelonged. \u201cAbraham was one,\u201d so reasoned these desperadoes, \u201cand yet he\ninherited the land: but we are many; to us the land is given for a\npossession\u201d (ver. 24). Their meaning is that the smallness of their number\nis no argument against the validity of their claim to the heritage of the\nland. They are still many in comparison with the solitary patriarch to\nwhom it was first promised; and if he was multiplied so as to take\npossession of it, why should they hesitate to claim the mastery of it?\nThis thought of the wonderful multiplication of Abraham\u2019s seed after he\nhad received the promise seems to have laid fast hold of the men of that\ngeneration. It is applied by the great teacher who stands next to Ezekiel\nin the prophetic succession to comfort the little flock who followed after\nrighteousness and could hardly believe that it was God\u2019s good pleasure to\ngive them the kingdom. \u201cLook unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that\nbare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him\u201d\n(Isa. li. 2). The words of the infatuated men who exulted in the havoc\nthey were making on the mountains of Jud\u00e6a may sound to us like a\nblasphemous travesty of this argument; but they were no doubt seriously\nmeant. They afford one more instance of the boundless capacity of the\nJewish race for religious self\u2010delusion, and their no less remarkable\ninsensibility to that in which the essence of religion lay. The men who\nuttered this proud boast were the precursors of those who in the days of\nthe Baptist thought to say within themselves, \u201cWe have Abraham to our\nfather,\u201d not understanding that God was able \u201cof these stones to raise up\nchildren to Abraham\u201d (Matt. iii. 9). All the while they were perpetuating\nthe evils for which the judgment of God had descended on the city and the\nHebrew state. Idolatry, ceremonial impurity, bloodshed, and adultery were\nrife amongst them (vv. 25, 26); and no misgiving seems to have entered\ntheir minds that because of these things the wrath of God comes on the\nchildren of disobedience. And therefore the prophet repudiates their\npretensions with indignation. \u201cShall ye possess the land?\u201d Their conduct\nsimply showed that judgment had not had its perfect work, and that\nJehovah\u2019s purpose would not be accomplished until \u201cthe land was laid waste\nand desolate, and the pomp of her strength should cease, and the mountains\nof Israel be desolate, so that none passed through\u201d (ver. 28). We have\nseen that in all likelihood this prediction was fulfilled by a punitive\nexpedition from Babylonia in the twenty\u2010third year of Nebuchadnezzar.\n\nBut we knew before that Ezekiel expected no good thing to come of the\nsurvivors of the judgment in Jud\u00e6a. His hope was in those who had passed\nthrough the fires of banishment, the men amongst whom his own work lay,\nand amongst whom he looked for the first signs of the outpouring of the\ndivine Spirit. We must now return to the inner circle of Ezekiel\u2019s\nimmediate hearers, and consider the change which the calamity had produced\non them. The chapter now before us yields two glimpses into the inner life\nof the people which help us to realise the kind of men with whom the\nprophet had to do.\n\nIn the first place it is interesting to learn that in his more frequent\npublic appearances the prophet rapidly acquired a considerable reputation\nas a popular preacher (vv. 30\u201033). It is true that the interest which he\nexcited was not of the most wholesome kind. It became a favourite\namusement of the people hanging about the walls and doors to come and\nlisten to the fervid oratory of their one remaining prophet as he declared\nto them \u201cthe word that came forth from Jehovah.\u201d It is to be feared that\nthe substance of his message counted for little in their appreciative and\ncritical listening. He was to them \u201cas a very lovely song of one that hath\na pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument\u201d: \u201cthey heard his\nwords, but did them not.\u201d It was pleasant to subject oneself now and then\nto the influence of this powerful and heart\u2010searching preacher; but\nsomehow the heart was never searched, the conscience was never stirred,\nand the hearing never ripened into serious conviction and settled purpose\nof amendment. The people were thoroughly respectful in their demeanour and\napparently devout, coming in crowds and sitting before him as God\u2019s people\nshould. But they were preoccupied: \u201ctheir heart went after their gain\u201d\n(ver. 31) or their advantage. Self\u2010interest prevented them from receiving\nthe word of God in honest and good hearts, and no change was visible in\ntheir conduct. Hence the prophet is not disposed to regard the evidences\nof his newly acquired popularity with much satisfaction. It presents\nitself to his mind as a danger against which he has to be on his guard. He\nhas been tried by opposition and apparent failure; now he is exposed to\nthe more insidious temptation of a flattering reception and superficial\nsuccess. It is a tribute to his power, and an opportunity such as he had\nnever before enjoyed. Whatever may have been the case heretofore, he is\nnow sure of an audience, and his position has suddenly become one of great\ninfluence in the community. But the same resolute confidence in the truth\nof his message which sustained Ezekiel amidst the discouragements of his\nearlier career saves him now from the fatal attractions of popularity to\nwhich many men in similar circumstances have yielded. He is not deceived\nby the favourable disposition of the people towards himself, nor is he\ntempted to cultivate his oratorical gifts with a view to sustaining their\nadmiration. His one concern is to utter the word that shall come to pass,\nand so to declare the counsel of God that men shall be compelled in the\nend to acknowledge that he has been \u201ca prophet among them\u201d (ver. 33). We\nmay be thankful to the prophet for this little glimpse from a vanished\npast\u2014one of those touches of nature that make the whole world kin. But we\nought not to miss its obvious moral. Ezekiel is the prototype of all\npopular preachers, and he knew their peculiar trials. He was perhaps the\nfirst man who ministered regularly to an attached congregation, who came\nto hear him because they liked it and because they had nothing better to\ndo. If he passed unscathed through the dangers of the position, it was\nthrough his overpowering sense of the reality of divine things and the\nimportance of men\u2019s spiritual destiny; and also we may add through his\nfidelity in a department of ministerial duty which popular preachers are\nsometimes apt to neglect\u2014the duty of close personal dealing with\nindividual men about their sins and their state before God. To this\nsubject we shall revert by\u2010and\u2010by.\n\nThis passage reveals to us the people in their lighter moods, when they\nwere able to cast off the awful burden of life and destiny and take\nadvantage of such sources of enjoyment as their circumstances afforded.\nMental dejection in a community, from whatever cause it originates, is\nrarely continuous. The natural elasticity of the mind asserts itself in\nthe most depressing circumstances; and the tension of almost unendurable\nsorrow is relieved by outbursts of unnatural gaiety. Hence we need not be\nsurprised to find that beneath the surface levity of these exiles there\nlurked the feeling of despair expressed in the words of ver. 10 and more\nfully in those of ch. xxxvii. 11: \u201cOur transgressions and our sins are\nupon us, and we waste away in them: how should we then live?\u201d \u201cOur bones\nare dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off.\u201d These accents of\ndespondency reflect the new mood into which the more serious\u2010minded\nportion of the community had been plunged by the calamities that had\nbefallen them. The bitterness of unavailing remorse, the consciousness of\nnational death, had laid fast hold of their spirits and deprived them of\nthe power of hope. In sober truth the nation was dead beyond apparent hope\nof revival; and to an Israelite, whose spiritual interests were all\nidentified with those of his nation, religion had no power of consolation\napart from a national future. The people therefore abandoned themselves to\ndespair, and hardened themselves against the appeals which the prophet\naddressed to them in the name of Jehovah. They looked on themselves as the\nvictims of an inexorable fate, and were disposed perhaps to resent the\ncall to repentance as a trifling with the misery of the unfortunate.\n\nAnd yet, although this state of mind was as far removed as possible from\nthe godly sorrow that worketh repentance, it was a step towards the\naccomplishment of the promise of redemption. For the present, indeed, it\nrendered the people more impenetrable than ever to the word of God. But it\nmeant that they had accepted in principle the prophetic interpretation of\ntheir history. It was no longer possible to deny that Jehovah the God of\nIsrael had revealed His secret to His servants the prophets. He was not\nsuch a Being as the popular imagination had figured. Israel had not known\nHim; only the prophets had spoken of Him the thing that was right. Thus\nfor the first time a general conviction of sin, a sense of being in the\nwrong, was produced in Israel. That this conviction should at first lead\nto the verge of despair was perhaps inevitable. The people were not\nfamiliar with the idea of the divine righteousness, and could not at once\nperceive that anger against sin was consistent in God with pity for the\nsinner and mercy towards the contrite. The chief task that now lay before\nthe prophet was to transform their attitude of sullen impenitence into one\nof submission and hope by teaching them the efficacy of repentance. They\nhave learned the meaning of judgment; they have now to learn the\npossibility and the conditions of forgiveness. And this can only be taught\nto them through a revelation of the free and infinite grace of God, who\nhas \u201cno pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked should\nturn from his way and live\u201d (ver. 11). Only thus can the hard and stony\nheart be taken away from their flesh and a heart of flesh given to them.\n\nWe can now understand the significance of the striking passage which\nstands as the introduction to this whole section of the book (ch. xxxiii.\n1\u201020). At this juncture of his ministry Ezekiel\u2019s thoughts went back on an\naspect of his prophetic vocation which had hitherto been in abeyance. From\nthe first he had been conscious of a certain responsibility for the fate\nof each individual within reach of his words (ch. iii. 16\u201021). This truth\nhad been one of the keynotes of his ministry; but the practical\ndevelopments which it suggested had been hindered by the solidarity of the\nopposition which he had encountered. As long as Jerusalem stood the exiles\nhad been swayed by one common current of feeling\u2014their thoughts were\nwholly occupied by the expectation of an issue that would annul the gloomy\npredictions of Ezekiel; and no man dared to break away from the general\nsentiment and range himself on the side of God\u2019s prophet. In these\ncircumstances anything of the nature of pastoral activity was obviously\nout of the question. But now that this great obstacle to faith was removed\nthere was a prospect that the solidity of popular opinion would be broken\nup, so that the word of God might find an entrance here and there into\nsusceptible hearts. The time was come to call for personal decisions, to\nappeal to each man to embrace for himself the offer of pardon and\nsalvation. Its watchword might have been found in words uttered in another\ngreat crisis of religious destiny: \u201cThe kingdom of heaven suffereth\nviolence, and the violent take it by force.\u201d Out of such \u201cviolent men\u201d who\nact for themselves and have the courage of their convictions the new\npeople of God must be formed; and the mission of the prophet is to gather\nround him all those who are warned by his words to \u201cflee from the wrath to\ncome.\u201d\n\nLet us look a little more closely at the teaching of these verses. We find\nthat Ezekiel restates in the most emphatic manner the theological\nprinciples which underlie this new development of his prophetic duties\n(vv. 10\u201020). These principles have been considered already in the\nexposition of ch. xviii.; and it is not necessary to do more than refer to\nthem here. They are such as these: the exact and absolute righteousness of\nGod in His dealings with individuals; His unwillingness that any should\nperish, and His desire that all should be saved and live; the necessity of\npersonal repentance; the freedom and independence of the individual soul\nthrough its immediate relation to God. On this closely connected body of\nevangelical doctrine Ezekiel bases the appeal which he now makes to his\nhearers. What we are specially concerned with here, however, is the\ndirection which they imparted to his activity. We may study in the light\nof Ezekiel\u2019s example the manner in which these fundamental truths of\npersonal religion are to be made effective in the ministry of the gospel\nfor the building up of the Church of Christ.\n\nThe general conception is clearly set forth in the figure of the watchman,\nwith which the chapter opens (vv. 1\u20109). The duties of the watchman are\nsimple, but responsible. He is set apart in a time of public danger to\nwarn the city of the approach of an enemy. The citizens trust him and go\nabout their ordinary occupations in security so long as the trumpet is not\nsounded. Should he sleep at his post or neglect to give the signal, men\nare caught unprepared and lives are lost through his fault. Their blood is\nrequired at the watchman\u2019s hand. If, on the other hand, he gives the alarm\nas soon as he sees the sword coming, and any man disregards the warning\nand is cut down in his iniquity, his blood is upon his own head. Nothing\ncould be clearer than this. Office always involves responsibility, and no\nresponsibility could be greater than that of a watchman in time of\ninvasion. Those who suffer are in either case the citizens whom the sword\ncuts off; but it makes all the difference in the world whether the blame\nof their death rests on themselves for their foolhardiness or on the\nwatchman for his unfaithfulness. Such then, as Ezekiel goes on to explain,\nis his own position as a prophet. The prophet is one who sees further into\nthe spiritual issues of things than other men, and discovers the coming\ncalamity which is to them invisible. We must notice that a background of\ndanger is presupposed. In what form it was to come is not indicated; but\nEzekiel knows that judgment follows hard at the heels of sin, and seeing\nsin in his fellow\u2010men he knows that their state is one of spiritual peril.\nThe prophet\u2019s course therefore is clear. His business is to announce as in\ntrumpet tones the doom that hangs over every man who persists in his\nwickedness, to re\u2010echo the divine sentence which he alone may have heard,\n\u201cO wicked man, thou shalt surely die.\u201d And again the main question is one\nof responsibility. The watchman cannot ensure the safety of every citizen,\nbecause any man may refuse to take the warning he gives. No more can the\nprophet ensure the salvation of all his hearers, for each one is free to\naccept or despise the message. But whether men hear or whether they\nforbear, it is of the utmost moment for himself that that warning should\nbe faithfully proclaimed and that he should thus \u201cdeliver his soul.\u201d\nEzekiel seems to feel that it is only by frankly accepting the\nresponsibility which thus devolves on himself that he can hope to impress\non his hearers the responsibility that rests on them for the use they make\nof his message.\n\nThese thoughts appear to have occupied the mind of Ezekiel on the eve of\nhis emancipation, and must have influenced his subsequent action to an\nextent which we can but vaguely estimate. It is generally considered that\nthis description of the prophet\u2019s functions covers a whole department of\nwork of which no express account is given. Ezekiel writes no \u201cPastor\u2019s\nSketches,\u201d and records no instances of individual conversion through his\nministry. The unwritten history of the Babylonian captivity must have been\nrich in such incidents of spiritual experience, and nothing could have\nbeen more instructive to us than the study of a few typical cases had it\nbeen possible. One of the most interesting features of the early history\nof Mohammedanism is found in the narratives of personal adhesion to the\nnew religion; and the formation of the new Israel in the age of the Exile\nis a process of infinitely greater importance for humanity at large than\nthe genesis of Islam. But neither in this book nor elsewhere are we\npermitted to follow that process in its details. Ezekiel may have\nwitnessed the beginnings of it, but he was not called upon to be its\nhistorian. Still, the inference is probably correct that a conception of\nthe prophet\u2019s office which holds him accountable to God for the fate of\nindividuals led to something more than mere general exhortations to\nrepentance. The preacher must have taken a personal interest in his\nhearers; he must have watched for the first signs of a response to his\nmessage, and been ready to advise and encourage those who turned to him\nfor guidance in their perplexities. And since the sphere of his influence\nand responsibility included the whole Hebrew community in which he lived,\nhe must have been eager to seize every opportunity to warn individual\nsinners of the error of their ways, lest their blood should be required at\nhis hand. To this extent we may say that Ezekiel held a position amongst\nthe exiles somewhat analogous to that of a spiritual director in the\nCatholic Church or the pastor of a Protestant congregation. But the\nanalogy must not be pressed too far. The nurture of the spiritual life of\nindividuals could not have presented itself to him as the chief end of his\nministrations. His business was first to lay down the conditions of\nentrance into the new kingdom of God, and then out of the ruins of the old\nIsrael to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Perhaps the nearest\nparallel to this department of his work which history affords is the\nmission of the Baptist. The keynote of Ezekiel\u2019s preaching was the same as\nthat of John: \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u201d Both\nprophets were alike animated by a sense of crisis and urgency, based on\nthe conviction that the impending Messianic age would be ushered in by a\nsearching judgment in which the chaff would be separated from the wheat.\nBoth laboured for the same end\u2014the formation of a new circle of religious\nfellowship, in anticipation of the advent of the Messianic kingdom. And as\nJohn, by an inevitable spiritual selection, gathered round him a band of\ndisciples, amongst whom our Lord found some of His most devoted followers,\nso we may believe that Ezekiel, by a similar process, became the\nacknowledged leader of those whom he taught to wait for the hope of\nIsrael\u2019s restoration.\n\nThere is nothing in Ezekiel\u2019s ministry that appeals more directly to the\nChristian conscience than the serious and profound sense of pastoral\nresponsibility to which this passage bears witness. It is a feeling which\nwould seem to be inseparable from the right discharge of the ministerial\noffice. In this, as in many other respects, Ezekiel\u2019s experience is\nrepeated, on a higher level, in that of the apostle of the Gentiles, who\ncould take his hearers to record that he was \u201cpure from the blood of all\nmen,\u201d inasmuch as he had \u201ctaught them publicly and from house to house,\u201d\nand \u201cceased not to warn every one night and day with tears\u201d (Acts xx.\n17\u201035). That does not mean, of course, that a preacher is to occupy\nhimself with nothing else than the personal salvation of his hearers. St.\nPaul would have been the last to agree to such a limitation of the range\nof his teaching. But it does mean that the salvation of men and women is\nthe supreme end which the minister of Christ is to set before him, and\nthat to which all other instruction is subordinated. And unless a man\nrealises that the truth he utters is of tremendous importance on the\ndestiny of those to whom he speaks, he can hardly hope to approve himself\nas an ambassador for Christ. There are doubtless temptations, not in\nthemselves ignoble, to use the pulpit for other purposes than this. The\ndesire for public influence may be one of them, or the desire to utter\none\u2019s mind on burning questions of the day. To say that these are\ntemptations is not to say that matters of public interest are to be\nrigorously excluded from treatment in the pulpit. There are many questions\nof this kind on which the will of God is as clear and imperative as it can\npossibly be on any point of private conduct; and even in matters as to\nwhich there is legitimate difference of opinion amongst Christian men\nthere are underlying principles of righteousness which may need to be\nfearlessly enunciated at the risk of obloquy and misunderstanding.\nNevertheless it remains true that the great end of the gospel ministry is\nto reconcile men to God and to cultivate in individual lives the fruits of\nthe Spirit, so as at the last to present every man perfect in Christ. And\nthe preacher who may be most safely entrusted with the handling of all\nother questions is he who is most intent on the formation of Christian\ncharacter and most deeply conscious of his responsibility for the effect\nof his teaching on the eternal destiny of those to whom he ministers. What\nis called preaching to the age may certainly become a very poor and empty\nthing if it is forgotten that the age is made up of individuals each of\nwhom has a soul to save or lose. What shall it profit a man if the\npreacher teaches him how to win the whole world and lose his own life? It\nis fashionable to hold up the prophets of Israel as models of all that a\nChristian minister ought to be. If that is true, prophecy must at least be\nallowed to speak its whole lesson; and amongst other elements Ezekiel\u2019s\nconsciousness of responsibility for the individual life must receive due\nrecognition.\n\n\n\n\nChapter XX. The Messianic Kingdom. Chapter xxxiv.\n\n\nThe term \u201cMessianic\u201d as commonly applied to Old Testament prophecy bears\ntwo different senses, a wider and a narrower. In its wider use it is\nalmost equivalent to the modern word \u201ceschatological.\u201d It denotes that\nunquenchable hope of a glorious future for Israel and the world which is\nan all but omnipresent feature of the prophetic writings, and includes all\npredictions of the kingdom of God in its final and perfect manifestation.\nIn its stricter sense it is applied only to the promise of the ideal king\nof the house of David, which, although a very conspicuous element of\nprophecy, is by no means universal, and perhaps does not bulk quite so\nlargely in the Old Testament as is generally supposed. The later Jews were\nguided by a true instinct when they seized on this figure of the ideal\nruler as the centre of the nation\u2019s hope; and to them we owe this special\napplication of the name \u201cMessiah,\u201d the \u201cAnointed,\u201d which is never used of\nthe Son of David in the Old Testament itself. To a certain extent we\nfollow in their steps when we enlarge the meaning of the word \u201cMessianic\u201d\nso as to embrace the whole prophetic delineation of the future glories of\nthe kingdom of God.\n\nThis distinction may be illustrated from the prophecies of Ezekiel. If we\ntake the word in its more general sense, we may say that all the chapters\nfrom the thirty\u2010fourth to the end of the book are Messianic in character.\nThat is to say, they describe under various aspects the final condition of\nthings which is introduced by the restoration of Israel to its own land.\nLet us glance for a moment at the elements which enter into this general\nconception of the last things as they are set forth in the section of the\nbook with which we are now dealing. We exclude from view for the present\nthe last nine chapters, because there the prophet\u2019s point of view is\nsomewhat different, and it is better to reserve them for separate\ntreatment.\n\nThe chapters from the thirty\u2010fourth to the thirty\u2010seventh are the\nnecessary complement of the call to repentance in the first part of ch.\nxxxiii. Ezekiel has enunciated the conditions of entrance to the new\nkingdom of God, and has urged his hearers to prepare for its appearing. He\nnow proceeds to unfold the nature of that kingdom, and the process by\nwhich Jehovah is to bring it to pass. As has been said, the central fact\nis the restoration of Israel to the land of Canaan. Here the prophet found\na point of contact with the natural aspirations of his fellow\u2010exiles.\nThere was no prospect to which they had clung with more eager longing than\nthat of a return to national independence in their own land; and the\nfeeling that this was no longer possible was the source of the abject\ndespair from which the prophet sought to rouse them. How was this to be\ndone? Not simply by asserting in the face of all human probability that\nthe restoration would take place, but by presenting it to their minds in\nits religious aspects as an object worthy of the exercise of almighty\npower, and an object in which Jehovah was interested for the glory of His\ngreat name. Only by being brought round to Ezekiel\u2019s faith in God could\nthe exiles recover their lost hope in the future of the nation. Thus the\nreturn to which Ezekiel looks forward has a Messianic significance; it is\nthe establishment of the kingdom of God, a symbol of the final and perfect\nunion between Jehovah and Israel.\n\nNow in the chapters before us this general conception is exhibited in\nthree separate pictures of the Restoration, the leading ideas being the\nMonarchy (ch. xxxiv.), the Land (chs. xxxv., xxxvi.), and the Nation (ch.\nxxxvii.). The order in which they are arranged is not that which might\nseem most natural. We should have expected the prophet to deal first with\nthe revival of the nation, then with its settlement on the soil of\nPalestine, and last of all with its political organisation under a Davidic\nking. Ezekiel follows the reverse order. He begins with the kingdom, as\nthe most complete embodiment of the Messianic salvation, and then falls\nback on its two presuppositions\u2014the recovery and purification of the land\non the one hand, and the restitution of the nation on the other. It is\ndoubtful, indeed, whether any logical connection between the three\npictures is intended. It is perhaps better to regard them as expressing\nthree distinct and collateral aspects of the idea of redemption, to each\nof which a certain permanent religious significance is attached. They are\nat all events the outstanding elements of Ezekiel\u2019s eschatology so far as\nit is expounded in this section of his prophecies.\n\nWe thus see that the promise of the perfect king\u2014the Messianic idea in its\nmore restricted signification\u2014holds a distinct but not a supreme place in\nEzekiel\u2019s vision of the future. It appears for the first time in ch. xvii.\nat the end of an oracle denouncing the perfidy of Zedekiah and foretelling\nthe overthrow of his kingdom; and again, in a similar connection, in an\nobscure verse of ch. xxi.(130) Both these prophecies belong to the time\nbefore the fall of the state, when the prophet\u2019s thoughts were not\ncontinuously occupied with the hope of the future. The former is\nremarkable, nevertheless, for the glowing terms in which the greatness of\nthe future kingdom is depicted. From the top of the lofty cedar which the\ngreat eagle had carried away to Babylon Jehovah will take a tender shoot\nand plant it in the mountain height of Israel. There it will strike root\nand grow up into a lordly cedar, under whose branches all the birds of the\nair find refuge. The terms of the allegory have been explained in the\nproper place.(131) The great cedar is the house of David; the topmost\nbough which was taken to Babylon is the family of Jehoiachin, the direct\nheirs to the throne. The planting of the tender shoot in the land of\nIsrael represents the founding of the Messiah\u2019s kingdom, which is thus\nproclaimed to be of transcendent earthly magnificence, overshadowing all\nthe other kingdoms of the world, and convincing the nations that its\nfoundation is the work of Jehovah Himself. In this short passage we have\nthe Messianic idea in its simplest and most characteristic expression. The\nhope of the future is bound up with the destiny of the house of David; and\nthe re\u2010establishment of the kingdom in more than its ancient splendour is\nthe great divine act to which all the blessings of the final dispensation\nare attached.\n\nBut it is in the thirty\u2010fourth chapter that we find the most comprehensive\nexposition of Ezekiel\u2019s teaching on the subject of the monarchy and the\nMessianic kingdom. It is perhaps the most political of all his prophecies.\nIt is pervaded by a spirit of genuine sympathy with the sufferings of the\ncommon people, and indignation against the tyranny practised and tolerated\nby the ruling classes. The disasters that have befallen the nation down to\nits final dispersion among the heathen are all traced to the misgovernment\nand anarchy for which the monarchy was primarily responsible. In like\nmanner the blessings of the coming age are summed up in the promise of a\nperfect king, ruling in the name of Jehovah and maintaining order and\nrighteousness throughout his realm. Nowhere else does Ezekiel approach so\nnearly to the political ideal foreshadowed by the statesman\u2010prophet Isaiah\nof a \u201cking reigning in righteousness and princes ruling in judgment\u201d (Isa.\nxxxii. 1), securing the enjoyment of universal prosperity and peace to the\nredeemed people of God. It must be remembered of course that this is only\na partial expression of Ezekiel\u2019s conception both of the past condition of\nthe nation and of its future salvation. We have had abundant evidence(132)\nto show that he considered all classes of the community to be corrupt, and\nthe people as a whole implicated in the guilt of rebellion against\nJehovah. The statement that the kings have brought about the dispersion of\nthe nation must not therefore be pressed to the conclusion that civic\ninjustice was the sole cause of Israel\u2019s calamities. Similarly we shall\nfind that the redemption of the people depends on other and more\nfundamental conditions than the establishment of good government under a\nrighteous king. But that is no reason for minimising the significance of\nthe passage before us as an utterance of Ezekiel\u2019s profound interest in\nsocial order and the welfare of the poor. It shows moreover that the\nprophet at this time attached real importance to the promise of the\nMessiah as the organ of Jehovah\u2019s rule over His people. If civil wrongs\nand legalised tyranny were not the only sins which had brought about the\ndestruction of the state, they were at least serious evils, which could\nnot be tolerated in the new Israel; and the chief safeguard against their\nrecurrence is found in the character of the ideal ruler whom Jehovah will\nraise up from the seed of David. How far this high conception of the\nfunctions of the monarchy was modified in Ezekiel\u2019s subsequent teaching we\nshall see when we come to consider the position assigned to the prince in\nthe great vision at the end of the book.(133)\n\nIn the meantime let us examine somewhat more closely the contents of ch.\nxxxiv. Its leading ideas seem to have been suggested by a Messianic\nprophecy of Jeremiah\u2019s with which Ezekiel was no doubt acquainted: \u201cWoe to\nthe shepherds that destroy and scatter the flock of My pasture! saith\nJehovah. Therefore thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, against the\nshepherds that tend My people, Ye have scattered My flock, and dispersed\nthem, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of\nyour doings, saith Jehovah. And I will gather the remnant of My flock from\nall the lands whither I have dispersed them, and will restore them to\ntheir folds; and they shall be fruitful and multiply. And I will set\nshepherds over them who shall feed them: and they shall not fear any more,\nnor be frightened, nor be lacking, saith Jehovah\u201d (Jer. xxiii. 1\u20104). Here\nwe have the simple image of the flock and its shepherds, which Ezekiel, as\nhis manner is, expands into an allegory of the past history and future\nprospects of the nation. How closely he follows the guidance of his\npredecessor will be seen from the analysis of the chapter. It may be\ndivided into four parts.\n\ni. The first ten verses are a strongly worded denunciation of the\nmisgovernment to which the people of Jehovah had been subjected in the\npast. The prophet goes straight to the root of the evil when he\nindignantly asks, \u201cShould not the shepherds feed the flock?\u201d (ver. 2). The\nfirst principle of all true government is that it must be in the interest\nof the governed. But the universal vice of Oriental despotism, as we see\nin the case of the Turkish empire at the present day, or Egypt before the\nEnglish occupation, is that the rulers rule for their own advantage, and\ntreat the people as their lawful spoil. So it had been in Israel: the\nshepherds had fed themselves, and not the flock. Instead of carefully\ntending the sick and the maimed, and searching out the strayed and the\nlost, they had been concerned only to eat the milk(134) and clothe\nthemselves with the wool and slaughter the fat; they had ruled with\n\u201cviolence and rigour.\u201d That is to say, instead of healing the sores of the\nbody politic, they had sought to enrich themselves at the expense of the\npeople. Such misconduct in the name of government always brings its own\npenalty; it kills the goose that lays the golden eggs. The flock which is\nspoiled by its own shepherds is scattered on the mountains and becomes the\nprey of wild beasts; and so the nation that is weakened by internal\nmisrule loses its powers of defence and succumbs to the attacks of some\nforeign invader. But the shepherds of Israel have to reckon with Him who\nis the owner of the flock, whose affection still watches over them, and\nwhose compassion is stirred by the hapless condition of His people.\n\u201cTherefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of Jehovah; ... Behold, I am\nagainst the shepherds; and I will require My flock at their hand; and I\nwill make them to cease from feeding [My] flock, that they who feed\nthemselves may no longer shepherd them; and I will deliver My flock from\ntheir mouth, that they be not food for them\u201d (vv. 9, 10).\n\nii. But Jehovah not only removes the unworthy shepherds; He Himself takes\non Him the office of shepherd to the flock that has been so mishandled\n(vv. 11\u201016). As the shepherd goes out after the thunderstorm to call in\nhis frightened sheep, so will Jehovah after the storm of judgment is over\ngo forth to \u201cgather together the outcasts of Israel\u201d (Psalm cxlvii. 2). He\nwill seek them out and deliver them from all places whither they were\nscattered in the day of clouds and darkness; then He will lead them back\nto the mountain height of Israel, where they shall enjoy abundant\nprosperity and security under His just and beneficent rule. By what\nagencies this deliverance is to be accomplished is nowhere indicated. It\nis the unanimous teaching of the prophets that the final salvation of\nIsrael will be effected in a \u201cday of Jehovah\u201d\u2014_i.e._, a day in which\nJehovah\u2019s own power will be specially manifested. Hence there is no need\nto describe the process by which the Almighty works out His purpose of\nsalvation; it is indescribable: the results are certain, but the\nintermediate agencies are supernatural, and the precise method of\nJehovah\u2019s intervention is as a rule left indefinite. It is particularly to\nbe noted that the Messiah plays no part in the actual work of deliverance.\nHe is not the hero of a national struggle for independence, but comes on\nthe scene and assumes the reins of government after Jehovah has gotten the\nvictory and restored peace to Israel.(135)\n\niii. The next six verses (17\u201022) add a feature to the allegory which is\nnot found in the corresponding passage in Jeremiah. Jehovah will judge\nbetween one sheep and another, especially between the rams and he\u2010goats on\nthe one hand and the weaker animals on the other. The strong cattle had\nmonopolised the fat meadows and clear settled waters, and as if this were\nnot enough, they had trampled down the residue of the pastures and fouled\nthe waters with their feet. Those addressed are the wealthy and powerful\nupper class, whose luxury and wanton extravagance had consumed the\nresources of the country, and left no sustenance for the poorer members of\nthe community. Allusions to this kind of selfish tyranny are frequent in\nthe older prophets. Amos speaks of the nobles as panting after the dust on\nthe head of the poor, and of the luxurious dames of Samaria as oppressing\nthe poor and crushing the needy, and saying to their lords, \u201cBring us to\ndrink\u201d (Amos ii. 7, iv. 1). Micah says of the same class in the southern\nkingdom that they cast out the women of Jehovah\u2019s people from their\npleasant houses, and robbed their children of His glory for ever (Micah\nii. 9). And Isaiah, to take one other example, denounces those who \u201ctake\naway the right from the poor of My people, that widows may be their prey,\nand that they may rob the orphans\u201d (Isa. x. 2). Under the corrupt\nadministration of justice which the kings had tolerated for their own\nconvenience litigation had been a farce; the rich man had always the ear\nof the judge, and the poor found no redress. But in Israel the true\nfountain of justice could not be polluted; it was only its channels that\nwere obstructed. For Jehovah Himself was the supreme judge of His people;\nand in the restored commonwealth to which Ezekiel looks forward all civil\nrelations will be regulated by a regard to His righteous will. He will\n\u201csave His flock that they be no more a prey, and will judge between cattle\nand cattle.\u201d\n\niv. Then follows in the last section (vv. 23\u201031) the promise of the\nMessianic king, and a description of the blessings that accompany his\nreign: \u201cI will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them\u2014My\nservant David: he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I\nJehovah will be their God, and My servant David shall be a prince in their\nmidst: I Jehovah have spoken it.\u201d There are one or two difficulties\nconnected with the interpretation of this passage, the consideration of\nwhich may be postponed till we have finished our analysis of the chapter.\nIt is sufficient in the meantime to notice that a Davidic kingdom in some\nsense is to be the foundation of social order in the new Israel. A prince\nwill arise, endowed with the spirit of his exalted office, to discharge\nperfectly the royal functions in which the former kings had so lamentably\nfailed. Through him the divine government of Israel will become a reality\nin the national life. The Godhead of Jehovah and the kingship of the\nMessiah will be inseparably associated in the faith of the people:\n\u201cJehovah their God, and David their king\u201d (Hosea iii. 5) is the expression\nof the ground of Israel\u2019s confidence in the latter days. And this kingdom\nis the pledge of the fulness of divine blessing descending on the land and\nthe people. The people shall dwell in safety, none making them afraid,\nbecause of the covenant of peace which Jehovah will make for them,\nsecuring them against the assaults of other nations.(136) The heavens\nshall pour forth fertilising \u201cshowers of blessing\u201d; and the land shall be\nclothed with a luxuriant vegetation which shall be the admiration of the\nwhole earth.(137) Thus happily situated Israel shall shake off the\nreproach of the heathen, which they had formerly to endure because of the\npoverty of their land and their unfortunate history. In the plenitude of\nmaterial prosperity they shall recognise that Jehovah their God is with\nthem, and they shall know what it is to be His people and the flock of His\npasture.(138)\n\nWe have now before us the salient features of the Messianic hope, as it is\npresented in the pages of Ezekiel. We see that the idea is developed in\ncontrast with the abuses that had characterised the historic monarchy in\nIsrael. It represents the ideal of the kingdom as it exists in the mind of\nJehovah, an ideal which no actual king had fully realised, and which most\nof them had shamefully violated. The Messiah is the vicegerent of Jehovah\non earth, and the representative of His kingly authority and righteous\ngovernment over Israel. We see further that the promise is based on the\n\u201csure mercies of David,\u201d the covenant which secured the throne to David\u2019s\ndescendants for ever. Messianic prophecy is legitimist, the ideal king\nbeing regarded as standing in the direct line of succession to the crown.\nAnd to these features we may add another, which is explicitly developed in\nch. xxxvii. 22\u201026, although it is implied in the expression \u201cone shepherd\u201d\nin the passage with which we have been dealing. The Messianic kingdom\nrepresents the unity of all Israel, and particularly the reunion of the\ntwo kingdoms under one sceptre. The prophets attach great importance to\nthis idea.(139) The existence of two rival monarchies, divided in interest\nand often at war with each other, although it had never effaced the\nconsciousness of the original unity of the nation, was felt by the\nprophets to be an anomalous state of things, and seriously detrimental to\nthe national religion. The ideal relation of Jehovah to Israel was as\nincompatible with two kingdoms as the ideal of marriage is incompatible\nwith two wives to one husband. Hence in the glorious future of the\nMessianic age the schism must be healed, and the Davidic dynasty restored\nto its original position at the head of an undivided empire. The\nprominence given to this thought in the teaching of Hosea shows that even\nin the northern kingdom devout Israelites cherished the hope of reunion\nwith their brethren under the house of David as the only form in which the\nredemption of the nation could be achieved. And although, long before\nEzekiel\u2019s day, the kingdom of Samaria had disappeared from history, he too\nlooks forward to a restoration of the ten tribes as an essential element\nof the Messianic salvation.\n\nIn these respects the teaching of Ezekiel reflects the general tenor of\nthe Messianic prophecy of the Old Testament. There are just two questions\non which some obscurity and uncertainty must be felt to rest. In the first\nplace, what is the precise meaning of the expression \u201cMy servant David\u201d?\nIt will not be supposed that the prophet expected David, the founder of\nthe Hebrew monarchy, to reappear in person and inaugurate the new\ndispensation. Such an interpretation would be utterly false to Eastern\nmodes of thought and expression, besides being opposed to every indication\nwe have of the prophetic conception of the Messiah. Even in popular\nlanguage the name of David was current, after he had been long dead, as\nthe name of the dynasty which he had founded. When the ten tribes revolted\nfrom Rehoboam they said, exactly as they had said in David\u2019s lifetime,\n\u201cWhat portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of\nJesse: to your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David.\u201d(140)\nIf the name of David could thus be invoked in popular speech at a time of\ngreat political excitement, we need not be surprised to find it used in a\nsimilar sense in the figurative style of the prophets. All that the word\nmeans is that the Messiah will be one who comes in the spirit and power of\nDavid, a representative of the ancient family who carries to completion\nthe work so nobly begun by his great ancestor.\n\nThe real difficulty is whether the title \u201cDavid\u201d denotes a unique\nindividual or a line of Davidic kings. To that question it is hardly\npossible to return a decided answer. That the idea of a succession of\nsovereigns is a possible form of the Messianic hope is shown by a passage\nin the thirty\u2010third chapter of Jeremiah. There the promise of the\nrighteous sprout of the house of David is supplemented by the assurance\nthat David shall never want a man to sit on the throne of Israel;(141) the\nallusion therefore appears to be to the dynasty, and not to a single\nperson. And this view finds some support in the case of Ezekiel from the\nfact that in the later vision of chs. xl.\u2010xlviii. the prophet undoubtedly\nanticipates a perpetuation of the dynasty through successive\ngenerations.(142) On the other hand it is difficult to reconcile this view\nwith the expressions used in this and the thirty\u2010seventh chapters. When we\nread that \u201cMy servant David shall be their prince for ever,\u201d(143) we can\nscarcely escape the impression that the prophet is thinking of a personal\nMessiah reigning eternally. If it were necessary to decide between these\ntwo alternatives, it might be safest to adhere to the idea of a personal\nMessiah, as conveying the fullest rendering of the prophet\u2019s thought.\nThere is reason to think that in the interval between this prophecy and\nhis final vision Ezekiel\u2019s conception of the Messiah underwent a certain\nmodification, and therefore the teaching of the later passage cannot be\nused to control the explanation of this. But the obscurity is of such a\nnature that we cannot hope to remove it. In the prophets\u2019 delineations of\nthe future there are many points on which the light of revelation had not\nbeen fully cast; for they, like the Christian apostle, \u201cknew in part and\nprophesied in part.\u201d And the question of the way in which the Messiah\u2019s\noffice is to be prolonged is precisely one of those which did not greatly\noccupy the mind of the prophets. There is no perspective in Messianic\nprophecy: the future kingdom of God is seen, as it were, in one plane, and\nhow it is to be transmitted from one age to another is never thought of.\nThus it may become difficult to say whether a particular prophet, in\nspeaking of the Messiah, has a single individual in view or whether he is\nthinking of a dynasty or a succession. To Ezekiel the Messiah was a\ndivinely revealed ideal, which was to be fulfilled in a person; whether\nthe prophet himself distinctly understood this is a matter of inferior\nimportance.\n\nThe second question is one that perhaps would not readily occur to a plain\nman. It relates to the meaning of the word \u201cprince\u201d as applied to the\nMessiah. It has been thought by some critics that Ezekiel had a special\nreason for avoiding the title \u201cking\u201d; and from this supposed reason a\nsomewhat sweeping conclusion has been deduced. We are asked to believe\nthat Ezekiel had in principle abandoned the Messianic hope of his earlier\nprophecies\u2014_i.e._, the hope of a restoration of the Davidic kingdom in its\nancient splendour. What he really contemplates is the abolition of the\nHebrew monarchy, and the institution of a new political system entirely\ndifferent from anything that had existed in the past. Although the Davidic\nprince will hold the first place in the restored community, his dignity\nwill be less than royal; he will only be a titular monarch, his power\nbeing overshadowed by the presence of Jehovah, the true king of Israel.\nNow so far as this view is suggested by the use of the word \u201cprince\u201d\n(literally \u201cleader\u201d or \u201cpresident\u201d) in preference to \u201cking,\u201d(144) it is\nsufficiently answered by pointing to the Messianic passage in ch. xxxvii.,\nwhere the name \u201cking\u201d is used three times and in a peculiarly emphatic\nmanner of the Messianic prince.(145) There is no reason to suppose that\nEzekiel drew a distinction between \u201cprincely\u201d and \u201ckingly\u201d rank, and\ndeliberately withheld the higher dignity from the Messiah. Whatever may be\nthe exact relation of the Messiah to Jehovah, there is no doubt that he is\nconceived as a king in the full sense of the term, possessed of all regal\nqualities, and shepherding his people with the authority which belonged to\na true son of David.\n\nBut there is another consideration which weighs more seriously with the\nwriters referred to. There is reason to believe that Ezekiel\u2019s conception\nof the final kingdom of God underwent a change which might not unfairly be\ndescribed as an abandonment of the Messianic expectation in its more\nrestricted sense. In his latest vision the functions of the prince are\ndefined in such a way that his position is shorn of the ideal significance\nwhich properly invests the office of the Messiah. The change does not\nindeed affect his merely political status. He is still son of David and\nking of Israel, and all that is here said about his duty towards his\nsubjects is there presupposed. But his character seems to be no longer\nregarded as thoroughly reliable, or equal to all the temptations that\narise wherever absolute power is lodged in human hands. The possibility\nthat the king may abuse his authority for his private advantage is\ndistinctly contemplated, and provision is made against it in the statutory\nconstitution to which the king himself is subject. Such precautions are\nobviously inconsistent with the ideal of the Messianic kingdom which we\nfind, for example, in the prophecy of Isaiah. The important question\ntherefore comes to be, whether this lower view of the monarchy is\nanticipated in the thirty\u2010fourth and thirty\u2010seventh chapters. This does\nnot appear to be the case. The prophet still occupies the same standpoint\nas in ch. xvii., regarding the Davidic monarchy as the central religious\ninstitution of the restored state. The Messiah of these chapters is a\nperfect king, endowed with the Spirit of God for the discharge of his\ngreat office, one whose personal character affords an absolute security\nfor the maintenance of public righteousness, and who is the medium of\ncommunication between God and the nation. In other words, what we have to\ndo with is a Messianic prediction in the fullest sense of the term.\n\nIn concluding our study of Ezekiel\u2019s Messianic teaching, we may make one\nremark bearing on its typological interpretation. The attempt is sometimes\nmade to trace a gradual development and enrichment of the Messianic idea\nin the hands of successive prophets. From that point of view Ezekiel\u2019s\ncontribution to the doctrine of the Messiah must be felt to be\ndisappointing. No one can imagine that his portrait of the coming king\npossesses anything like the suggestiveness and religious meaning conveyed\nby the ideal which stands out so clearly from the pages of Isaiah. And,\nindeed, no subsequent prophet excels or even equals Isaiah in the\nclearness and profundity of his directly Messianic conceptions. This fact\nshows us that the endeavour to find in the Old Testament a regular\nprogress along one particular line proceeds on too narrow a view of the\nscope of prophecy. The truth is that the figure of the king is only one of\nmany types of the Christian dispensation which the religious institutions\nof Israel supplied to the prophets. It is the most perfect of all types,\npartly because it is personal, and partly because the idea of kingship is\nthe most comprehensive of the offices which Christ executes as our\nRedeemer. But, after all, it expresses only one aspect of the glorious\nfuture of the kingdom of God towards which prophecy steadily points. We\nmust remember also that the order in which these types emerge is\ndetermined not altogether by their intrinsic importance, but partly by\ntheir adaptation to the needs of the age in which the prophet lived. The\nmain function of prophecy was to furnish present and practical direction\nto the people of God; and the form under which the ideal was presented to\nany particular generation was always that best fitted to help it onwards,\none stage nearer to the great consummation. Thus while Isaiah idealises\nthe figure of the king, Jeremiah grasps the conception of a new religion\nunder the form of a covenant, the second Isaiah unfolds the idea of the\nprophetic servant of Jehovah, Zechariah and the writer of the 110th Psalm\nidealise the priesthood. All these are Messianic prophecies, if we take\nthe word in its widest acceptation; but they are not all cast in one\nmould, and the attempt to arrange them in a single series is obviously\nmisleading. So with regard to Ezekiel we may say that his chief Messianic\nideal (still using the expression in a general sense) is the sanctuary,\nthe symbol of Jehovah\u2019s presence in the midst of His people. At the end of\nch. xxxvii. the kingdom and the sanctuary are mentioned together as\npledges of the glory of the latter days. But while the idea of the\nMessianic monarchy was a legacy inherited from his prophetic precursors,\nthe Temple was an institution whose typical significance Ezekiel was the\nfirst to unfold. It was moreover the one that met the religious\nrequirements of the age in which Ezekiel lived. Ultimately the hope of the\npersonal Messiah loses the importance which it still has in the present\nsection of the book; and the prophet\u2019s vision of the future concentrates\nitself on the sanctuary as the centre of the restored theocracy, and the\nsource from which the regenerating influences of the divine grace flow\nforth to Israel and the world.\n\n\n\n\nChapter XXI. Jehovah\u2019s Land. Chapters xxxv., xxxvi.\n\n\nThe teaching of this important passage turns on certain ideas regarding\nthe land of Canaan which enter very deeply into the religion of Israel.\nThese ideas are no doubt familiar in a general way to all thoughtful\nreaders of the Old Testament; but their full import is scarcely realised\nuntil we understand that they are not peculiar to the Bible, but form part\nof the stock of religious conceptions common to Israel and its heathen\nneighbours.(146) In the more advanced Semitic religions of antiquity each\nnation had its own god as well as its own land, and the bond between the\ngod and the land was supposed to be quite as strong as that between the\ngod and the nation. The god, the land, and the people formed a triad of\nreligious relationship, and so closely were these three elements\nassociated that the expulsion of a people from its land was held to\ndissolve the bond between it and the god. Thus while in practice the land\nof a god was coextensive with the territory inhabited by his worshippers,\nyet in theory the relation of the god to his land is independent of his\nrelation to the inhabitants; it was _his_ land whether the people in it\nwere his worshippers or not. The peculiar confusion of ideas that arose\nwhen the people of one god came to reside permanently in the territory of\nanother is well illustrated by the case of the heathen colony which the\nking of Assyria planted in Samaria after the exile of the ten tribes.\nThese settlers brought their own gods with them; but when some of them\nwere slain by lions, they perceived that they were making a mistake in\nignoring the rights of the god of the land. They sent accordingly for a\npriest to instruct them in the religion of the god of the land; and the\nresult was that they \u201cfeared Jehovah and served their own gods\u201d (2 Kings\nxvii. 24\u201041). It was expected no doubt that in course of time the foreign\ndeities would be acclimatised.\n\nIn the Old Testament we find many traces of the influence of this\nconception on the Hebrew religion. Canaan was the land of Jehovah (Hosea\nix. 3) apart altogether from its possession by Israel, the people of\nJehovah. It was Jehovah\u2019s land before Israel entered it, the inheritance\nwhich He had selected for His people out of all the countries of the\nworld, the Land of Promise, given to the patriarchs while as yet they were\nbut strangers and sojourners in it. Although the Israelites took\npossession of it as a nation of conquerors, they did so in the\nconsciousness that they were expelling from Jehovah\u2019s dwelling\u2010place a\npopulation which had polluted it by their abominations. From that time\nonwards the tenure of the soil of Palestine was regarded as an essential\nfactor of the national religion. The idea that Jehovah could not be\nrightly worshipped outside of Hebrew territory was firmly rooted in the\nmind of the people, and was accepted by the prophets as a principle\ninvolved in the special relations that Jehovah maintained with the people\nof Israel.(147) Hence no threat could be more terrible in the ears of the\nIsraelites than that of expatriation from their native soil; for it meant\nnothing less than the dissolution of the tie that subsisted between them\nand their God. When that threat was actually fulfilled there was no\nreproach harder to bear than the taunt which Ezekiel here puts into the\nmouth of the heathen: \u201cThese are Jehovah\u2019s people\u2014and yet they are gone\nforth out of His land\u201d (ch. xxxvi. 20). They felt all that was implied in\nthat utterance of malicious satisfaction over the collapse of a religion\nand the downfall of a deity.\n\nThere is another way in which the thought of Canaan as Jehovah\u2019s land\nenters into the religious conceptions of the Old Testament, and very\nmarkedly into those of Ezekiel. As the God of the land Jehovah is the\nsource of its productiveness and the author of all the natural blessings\nenjoyed by its inhabitants. It is He who gives the rain in its season or\nelse withholds it in token of His displeasure; it is He who multiplies or\ndiminishes the flocks and herds which feed on its pastures, as well as the\nhuman population sustained by its produce. This view of things was a\nprimary factor in the religious education of an agricultural people, as\nthe ancient Hebrews mainly were. They felt their dependence on God most\ndirectly in the influences of their uncertain climate on the fertility of\ntheir land, with its great possibilities of abundant provision for man and\nbeast, and on the other hand its extreme risk of famine and all the\nhardships that follow in its train. In the changeful aspects of nature\nthey thus read instinctively the disposition of Jehovah towards\nthemselves. Fruitful seasons and golden harvests, diffusing comfort and\naffluence through the community, were regarded as proofs that all was well\nbetween them and their God; while times of barrenness and scarcity brought\nhome to them the conviction that Jehovah was alienated. From the allusions\nin the prophets to droughts and famines, to blastings and mildew, to the\nscourge of locusts, we seem to gather that on the whole the later history\nof Israel had been marked by agricultural distress. The impression is\nconfirmed by a hint of Ezekiel\u2019s in the passage now before us. The land of\nCanaan had apparently acquired an unenviable reputation for barrenness.\nThe reproach of the heathen lay upon it as a land that \u201cdevoured men and\nbereaved its population.\u201d(148) The reference may be partly (as Smend\nthinks) to the ravages of war, to which Palestine was peculiarly exposed\non account of its important strategic situation. But the \u201creproach of\nfamine\u201d(149) was certainly one point in its ill fame among the surrounding\nnations, and it is quite sufficient to explain the strong language in\nwhich they expressed their contempt. Now this state of things was plainly\ninconsistent with amicable relations between the nation and its God. It\nwas evidence that the land lay under the blight of Jehovah\u2019s displeasure,\nand the ground of that displeasure lay in the sin of the people. Where the\nland counted for so much as an index to the mind of God, it was a\npostulate of faith that in the ideal future when God and Israel were\nperfectly reconciled the physical condition of Canaan should be worthy of\nHim whose land it was. And we have already seen that amongst the glories\nof the Messianic age the preternatural fertility of the Holy Land holds a\nprominent place.\n\nThis conception of Canaan as the land of Jehovah undoubtedly has its\nnatural affinities with religious notions of a somewhat primitive kind. It\nbelongs to the stage of thought at which the power of a god is habitually\nregarded as subject to local limitations, and in which accordingly a\nparticular territory is assigned to every deity as the sphere of his\ninfluence. It is probable that the great mass of the Hebrew people had\nnever risen above this idea, but continued to think of their country as\nJehovah\u2019s land in precisely the same way as Assyria was Asshur\u2019s land and\nMoab the land of Chemosh. The monotheism of the Old Testament revelation\nbreaks through this system of ideas, and interprets Jehovah\u2019s relation to\nthe land in an entirely different sense. It is not as the exclusive sphere\nof His influence that Canaan is peculiarly associated with Jehovah\u2019s\npresence, but mainly because it is the scene of His historical\nmanifestation of Himself, and the stage on which events were transacted\nwhich revealed His Godhead to all the world. No prophet has a clearer\nperception of the universal sweep of the divine government than Ezekiel,\nand yet no prophet insists more strongly than he on the possession of the\nland of Canaan as an indispensable symbol of communion between God and His\npeople. He has met with God in the \u201cunclean land\u201d of his exile, and he\nknows that the moral government of the universe is not suspended by the\ndeparture of Jehovah from His earthly sanctuary. Nevertheless he cannot\nthink of this separation as other than temporary. The final reconciliation\nmust take place on the soil of Palestine. The kingdom of God can only be\nestablished by the return both of Israel and Jehovah to their own land;\nand their joint possession of that land is the seal of the everlasting\ncovenant of peace that subsists between them.\n\nWe must now proceed to study the way in which these conceptions influenced\nthe Messianic expectations of Ezekiel at this period of his life. The\npassage we are to consider consists of three sections. The thirty\u2010fifth\nchapter is a prophecy of judgment on Edom. The first fifteen verses of ch.\nxxxvi. contain a promise of the restoration of the land of Israel to its\nrightful owner. And the remainder of that chapter presents a comprehensive\nview of the divine necessity for the restoration and the power by which\nthe redemption of the people is to be accomplished.\n\n\n\nI\n\n\nAt the time when these prophecies were written the land of Israel was in\nthe possession of the Edomites. By what means they had succeeded in\neffecting a lodgment in the country we do not know. It is not unlikely\nthat Nebuchadnezzar may have granted them this extension of their\nterritory as a reward for their services to his army during the last siege\nof Jerusalem. At all events their presence there was an accomplished fact,\nand it appeals to the mind of the prophet in two aspects. In the first\nplace it was an outrage on the majesty of Jehovah which filled the cup of\nEdom\u2019s iniquity to the brim. In the second place it was an obstacle to the\nrestoration of Israel which had to be removed by the direct intervention\nof the Almighty. These are the two themes which occupy the thoughts of\nEzekiel, the one in ch. xxxv. and the other in ch. xxxvi. Hitherto he has\nspoken of the return to the land of Canaan as a matter of course, as a\nthing necessary and self\u2010evident and not needing to be discussed in\ndetail. But as the time draws near he is led to think more clearly of the\nhistorical circumstances of the return, and especially of the hindrances\narising from the actual situation of affairs.\n\nBut besides this one cannot fail to be struck by the effective contrast\nwhich the two pictures\u2014one of the mountain land of Israel, and the other\nof the mountain land of Seir\u2014present to the imagination. It is like a\nprophetic amplification of the blessing and curse which Isaac pronounced\non the progenitors of these two nations. Of the one it is said:\u2014\n\n\n    God give thee of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the\n                earth,\n    And abundance of corn and wine.\n\n\nAnd of the other:\u2014\n\n\n    Surely far from the fatness of the earth shall thy dwelling be,\n    And far from the dew of heaven from above.(150)\n\n\nIn that forecast of the destiny of the two brothers the actual\ncharacteristics of their respective countries are tersely and accurately\nexpressed. But now, when the history of both nations is about to be\nbrought to an issue, the contrast is emphasised and perpetuated. The\nblessing of Jacob is confirmed and expanded into a promise of unimagined\nfelicity, and the equivocal blessing on Esau is changed into an\nunqualified and permanent curse. Thus, when the mountains of Israel break\nforth into singing, and are clothed with all the luxuriance of vegetation\nin which the Oriental imagination revels, and cultivated by a happy and\ncontented people, those of Seir are doomed to perpetual sterility and\nbecome a horror and desolation to all that pass by.\n\nConfining ourselves, however, to the thirty\u2010fifth chapter, what we have\nfirst to notice is the sins by which the Edomites had incurred this\njudgment. These may be summed up under three heads: first, their\nunrelenting hatred of Israel, which in the day of Judah\u2019s calamity had\nbroken out in savage acts of revenge (ver. 5); second, their rejoicing\nover the misfortunes of Israel and the desolation of its land (ver. 15);\nand third, their eagerness to seize the land as soon as it was vacant\n(ver. 10). The first and second of these have been already spoken of under\nthe prophecies on foreign nations; it is only the last that is of special\ninterest in the present connection. Of course the motive that prompted\nEdom was natural, and it may be difficult to say how far real moral guilt\nwas involved in it. The annexation of vacant territory, as the land of\nIsrael practically was at this time, would be regarded according to modern\nideas as not only justifiable but praiseworthy. Edom had the excuse of\nseeking to better its condition by the possession of a more fertile\ncountry than its own, and perhaps also the still stronger plea of pressure\nby the Arabs from behind. But in the consciousness of an ancient people\nthere was always another thought present; and it is here if anywhere that\nthe sin of Edom lies. The invasion of Israel did not cease to be an act of\naggression because there were no human defenders to bar the way. It was\nstill Jehovah\u2019s land, although it was unoccupied; and to intrude upon it\nwas a conscious defiance of His power. The arguments by which the Edomites\njustified their seizure of it were none of those which a modern state\nmight use in similar circumstances, but were based on the religious ideas\nwhich were common to all the world in those days. They were aware that by\nthe unwritten law which then prevailed the step they meditated was\nsacrilege; and the spirit that animated them was arrogant exultation over\nwhat was esteemed the humiliation of Israel\u2019s national deity: \u201cThe two\nnations and the two countries shall be mine, and I will possess them,\nalthough Jehovah was there\u201d (ver. 10: cf. vv. 12, 13). That is to say, the\ndefeat and captivity of Israel have proved the impotence of Jehovah to\nguard His land; His power is broken, and the two countries called by His\nname lie open to the invasion of any people that dares to trample\nreligious scruples underfoot. This was the way in which the action of Edom\nwould be interpreted by universal consent; and the prophet is only\nreflecting the general sense of the age when he charges them with this\nimpiety. Now it is true that the Edomites could not be expected to\nunderstand all that was involved in a defiance of the God of Israel. To\nthem He was only one among many national gods, and their religion did not\nteach them to reverence the gods of a foreign state. But though they were\nnot fully conscious of the degree of guilt they incurred, they\nnevertheless sinned against the light they had; and the consequences of\ntransgression are never measured by the sinner\u2019s own estimate of his\nculpability. There was enough in the history of Israel to have impressed\nthe neighbouring peoples with a sense of the superiority of its religion\nand the difference in character between Jehovah and all other gods. If the\nEdomites had utterly failed to learn that lesson, they were themselves\npartly to blame; and the spiritual insensibility and dulness of conscience\nwhich everywhere suppressed the knowledge of Jehovah\u2019s name is the very\nthing which in the view of Ezekiel needs to be removed by signal and\nexemplary acts of judgment.\n\nIt is not necessary to enter minutely into the details of the judgment\nthreatened against Edom. We may simply note that it corresponds point for\npoint with the demeanour exhibited by the Edomites in the time of Israel\u2019s\nfinal retribution. The \u201cperpetual hatred\u201d is rewarded by perpetual\ndesolation (ver. 9); their seizure of Jehovah\u2019s land is punished by their\nannihilation in the land that was their own (vv. 6\u20108); and their malicious\nsatisfaction over the depopulation of Palestine recoils on their own heads\nwhen their mountain land is made desolate \u201cto the rejoicing of the whole\nearth\u201d (vv. 14, 15). And the lesson that will be taught to the world by\nthe contrast between the renewed Israel and the barren mountain of Seir\nwill be the power and holiness of the one true God: \u201cthey shall know that\nI am Jehovah.\u201d\n\n\n\nII\n\n\nThe prophet\u2019s mind is still occupied with the sin of Edom as he turns in\nthe thirty\u2010sixth chapter to depict the future of the land of Israel. The\nopening verses of the chapter (vv. 1\u20107) betray an intensity of patriotic\nfeeling not often expressed by Ezekiel. The utterance of the single idea\nwhich he wishes to express seems to be impeded by the multitude of\nreflections that throng upon him as he apostrophises \u201cthe mountains and\nthe hills, the watercourses and the valleys, the desolate ruins and\ndeserted cities\u201d of his native country (ver. 4). The land is conceived as\nconscious of the shame and reproach that rest upon it; and all the\nelements that might be supposed to make up the consciousness of the\nland\u2014its naked desolation, the tread of alien feet, the ravages of war,\nand the derisive talk of the surrounding heathen (Edom being specially in\nview)\u2014present themselves to the mind of the prophet before he can utter\nthe message with which he is charged: \u201cThus saith the Lord Jehovah;\nBehold, I speak in My jealousy and My anger, because ye have borne the\nshame of the heathen: therefore ... I lift up My hand, Surely the nations\nthat are round about you\u2014even they shall bear their shame\u201d (vv. 6, 7).\n\nThe jealousy of Jehovah is here His holy resentment against indignities\ndone to Himself, and this attribute of the divine nature is now enlisted\non the side of Israel because of the despite which the heathen had heaped\non His land. But it is noteworthy that it is through the land and not the\npeople that this feeling is first called into operation. Israel is still\nsinful and alienated from God; but the honour of Jehovah is bound up with\nthe land not less than with the nation, and it is in reference to it that\nthe necessity of vindicating His holy name first becomes apparent. There\nis what we might almost venture to call a divine patriotism, which is\nstirred into activity by the desolate condition of the land where the\nworship of the true God should be celebrated. On this feature of Jehovah\u2019s\ncharacter Ezekiel builds the assurance of his people\u2019s redemption. The\nidea expressed by the verses is simply the certainty that Canaan shall be\nrecovered from the heathen dominion for the purposes of the kingdom of\nGod.\n\nThe following verses (8\u201015) speak of the positive aspects of the\napproaching deliverance. Continuing his apostrophe to the mountains of\nIsrael, the prophet describes the transformation which is to pass over\nthem in view of the return of the exiled nation, which is now on the eve\nof accomplishment (ver. 8). It might almost seem as if the return of the\ninhabitants were here treated as a mere incident of the rehabilitation of\nthe land. That of course is only an appearance, caused by the peculiar\nstandpoint assumed throughout these chapters. Ezekiel was not one who\ncould look on complacently\n\n\n    Where wealth accumulates and men decay;\n\n\nnor was he indifferent to the social welfare of his people. On the\ncontrary we have seen from ch. xxxiv. that he regards that as a supreme\ninterest in the future kingdom of God. And even in this passage he does\nnot make the interests of humanity subservient to those of nature. His\nleading idea is a reunion of land and people under happier auspices than\nhad obtained of old. Formerly the land, in mysterious sympathy with the\nmind of Jehovah, had seemed to be animated by a hostile disposition\ntowards its inhabitants. The reluctant and niggardly subsistence that had\nbeen wrung from the soil justified the evil report which the spies had\nbrought up of it at the first as a \u201cland that eateth up the inhabitants\nthereof.\u201d(151) Its inhospitable character was known among the heathen, so\nthat it bore the reproach of being a land that \u201cdevoured men and bereaved\nits nation.\u201d But in the glorious future all this will be changed in\nharmony with Jehovah\u2019s altered relations with His people. In the language\nof a later prophet,(152) the land shall be \u201cmarried\u201d to Jehovah, and\nendowed with exuberant fertility. Yielding its fruits freely and\ngenerously, it will wipe off the reproach of the heathen; its cities shall\nbe inhabited, its ruins rebuilt, and man and beast multiplied on its\nsurface, so that its last state shall be better than its first (ver. 11).\nAnd those who till it and enjoy the benefits of its wonderful\ntransformation shall be none other than the house of Israel, for whose\nsins it had borne the reproach of barrenness in the past (vv. 12\u201015).\n\n\n\nIII\n\n\nThe next passage (vv. 16\u201038) deals more with the renewal of the nation\nthan with that of the land; and thus forms a link of connection between\nthe main theme of this chapter and that of ch. xxxvii. It contains the\nclearest and most comprehensive statement of the process of redemption to\nbe found in the whole book, exhibiting as it does in logical order all the\nelements which enter into the divine scheme of salvation. The fact that it\nis inserted just at this point affords a fresh illustration of the\nimportance attached by the prophet to the religious associations which\ngathered round the Holy Land. The land indeed is still the pivot on which\nhis thoughts turn; he starts from it in his short review of God\u2019s past\njudgments on His people, and finally returns to it in summing up the\nworld\u2010wide effects of His gracious dealings with them in the immediate\nfuture. Although the connection of ideas is singularly clear, the passage\nthrows so much light on the deepest theological conceptions of Ezekiel\nthat it will be well to recapitulate the principal steps of the argument.\n\nWe need not linger on the cause of the rejection of Israel, for here the\nprophet only repeats the main lesson which we have found so often enforced\nin the first part of his book. Israel went into exile because its manner\nof life as a nation had been abhorrent to Jehovah, and it had defiled the\nland which was Jehovah\u2019s house. As in ch. xxii. and elsewhere bloodshed\nand idols are the chief emblems of the people\u2019s sinful condition; these\nconstitute a real physical defilement of the land, which must be punished\nby the eviction of its inhabitants: \u201cSo I poured out My wrath upon them\n[on account of the blood which they had shed upon the land, and the idols\nwherewith they had polluted it]: and I scattered them among the nations,\nand they were dispersed through the countries.\u201d(153)\n\nThus the Exile was necessary for the vindication of Jehovah\u2019s holiness as\nreflected in the sanctity of His land. But the effect of the dispersion on\nother nations was such as to compromise the honour of Israel\u2019s God in\nanother direction. Knowing Jehovah only as a tribal god, the heathen\nnaturally concluded that He had been too feeble to protect His land from\ninvasion and His people from captivity. They could not penetrate to the\nmoral reasons which rendered the chastisement inevitable; they only saw\nthat these were Jehovah\u2019s people, and yet they were gone forth out of His\nland (ver. 20), and drew the natural inference. The impression thus\nproduced by the presence of Israelites amongst the heathen was derogatory\nto the majesty of Jehovah, and obscured the knowledge of the true\nprinciples of His government which was destined to extend to all the\nearth. This is all that seems to be meant by the expression \u201cprofaned My\nholy name.\u201d(154) It is not implied that the exiles scandalised the heathen\nby their vicious lives, and so brought disgrace on \u201cthat glorious name by\nwhich they were called,\u201d(155) although that idea is implied in ch. xii.\n16. The profanation spoken of here was caused directly not by the sin but\nby the calamities of Israel. Yet it was their sins which brought down\njudgment upon them, and so indirectly gave occasion to the enemies of the\nLord to blaspheme. There were probably already some of Ezekiel\u2019s\ncompatriots who realised the bitterness of the thought that their fate was\nthe means of bringing discredit on their God. Their experience would be\nsimilar to that of the lonely exile who composed the forty\u2010second psalm:\u2014\n\n\n    As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me;\n    While they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?(156)\n\n\nNow in this fact the prophet recognises an absolute ground of confidence\nin Israel\u2019s restoration. Jehovah cannot endure that His name should thus\nbe held up to derision before the eyes of mankind. To allow this would be\nto frustrate the end of His government of the world, which is to manifest\nHis Godhead in such a way that all men shall be brought to acknowledge it.\nAlthough He is known as yet only as the national God of a particular\npeople, He must be disclosed to the world as all that the inspired\nteachers of Israel know Him to be\u2014the one Being worthy of the homage of\nthe human heart. There must be some way by which His name can be\nsanctified before the heathen, some means of reconciling the partial\nrevelation of His holiness in Israel\u2019s dispersion with the complete\nmanifestation of His power to the world at large. And this reconciliation\ncan only be effected through the redemption of Israel. God cannot disown\nHis ancient people, for that would be to stultify the whole past\nrevelation of His character and leave the name by which He had made\nHimself known to contempt. That is divinely impossible; and therefore\nJehovah must carry through His purpose by sanctifying Himself in the\nsalvation of Israel. The outward token of salvation will be their\nrestoration to their own land (ver. 24); but the inward reality of it will\nbe a change in the national character which will make their dwelling in\nthe land consistent with the revelation of Jehovah\u2019s holiness already\ngiven by their banishment from it.\n\nAt this point accordingly (ver. 25) Ezekiel passes to speak of the\nspiritual process of regeneration by which Israel is to be transformed\ninto a true people of God. This is a necessary part of the sanctification\nof the divine name before the world. The new life of the people will\nreveal the character of the God whom they serve, and the change will\nexplain the calamities that had befallen them in the past. The world will\nthus see \u201cthat the house of Israel went into captivity for their\niniquity,\u201d(157) and will understand the holiness which the true God\nrequires in His worshippers. But for the present the prophet\u2019s thoughts\nare concentrated on the operations of the divine grace by which the\nrenewal is effected. His analysis of the process of conversion is\nprofoundly instructive, and anticipates to a remarkable degree the\nteaching of the New Testament. We shall content ourselves at present with\nmerely enumerating the different parts of the process. The first step is\nthe removal of the impurities contracted by past transgressions. This is\nrepresented under the figure of sprinkling with clean water, suggested by\nthe ablutions or lustrations which are so common a feature of the\nLevitical ritual (ver. 25). The truth symbolised is the forgiveness of\nsins, the act of grace which takes away the effect of moral uncleanness as\na barrier to fellowship with God. The second point is what is properly\ncalled regeneration, the giving of a new heart and spirit (ver. 26). The\nstony heart of the old nation, whose obduracy had dismayed so many\nprophets, making them feel that they had spent their labour for nought and\nin vain, shall be taken away, and instead of it they shall receive a heart\nof flesh, sensitive to spiritual influences and responsive to the divine\nwill. And to this is added in the third place the promise of the Spirit of\nGod to be in them as the ruling principle of a new life of obedience to\nthe law of God (ver. 27). The law, both moral and ceremonial, is the\nexpression of Jehovah\u2019s holy nature, and both the will and the power to\nkeep it perfectly must proceed from the indwelling of His holy Spirit in\nthe people.(158) It is thus Jehovah Himself who \u201csaves\u201d the people \u201cout of\nall their uncleannesses\u201d (ver. 29), caused by the depravity and infirmity\nof their natural hearts. When these conditions are realised the harmony\nbetween Jehovah and Israel will be completely restored: He will be their\nGod, and they shall be His people. They shall dwell for ever in the land\npromised to their fathers; and the blessing of God resting on land and\npeople will multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field,\nso that they receive no more the reproach of famine among the nations (vv.\n28\u201030).\n\nHaving thus described the process of salvation as from first to last the\nwork of Jehovah, the prophet proceeds to consider the impression which it\nwill produce first on Israel and then on the surrounding nations (vv.\n31\u201036). On Israel the effect of the goodness of God will be to lead them\nto repentance. Remembering what their past history has been, and\ncontrasting it with the blessedness they now enjoy, they shall be filled\nwith shame and self\u2010contempt, loathing themselves for their iniquities and\ntheir abominations. It is not meant that all feelings of joy and gratitude\nwill be swallowed up in the consciousness of unworthiness; but this is the\nfeeling that will be called forth by the memory of their past\ntransgressions. Their horror of sin will be such that they cannot think of\nwhat they have been without the deepest compunction and self\u2010abasement.\nAnd this sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, reacting on their\nconsciousness of themselves, will be the best moral guarantee against\ntheir relapse into the uncleanness from which they have been delivered.\n\nTo the heathen, on the other hand, the state of Israel will be a\nconvincing demonstration of the power and godhead of Jehovah. Men will\nsay, \u201cYonder land, which was desolate, has become like the garden of Eden;\nand the cities that were ruined and waste and destroyed are fenced and\ninhabited\u201d (ver. 35). They will know that it is Jehovah\u2019s doing, and it\nwill be marvellous in their eyes.\n\nThe last two verses seem to be an appendix. They deal with a special\nfeature of the restoration, about which the minds of the exiles may have\nbeen exercised in thinking of the possibility of their deliverance. Where\nwas the population of the new Israel to come from? The population of Judah\nmust have been terribly reduced by the disastrous wars that had desolated\nthe country since the time of Hezekiah. How was it possible, with a few\nthousands in exile, and a miserable remnant left in the land, to build up\na strong and prosperous nation? This thought of theirs is met by the\nannouncement of a great increase of the inhabitants of the land. Jehovah\nis ready to meet the questionings of human anxiety on this point: He will\n\u201clet Himself be inquired of\u201d for this.(159) The remembrance of the\nsacrificial flocks that used to throng the streets leading to the Temple\nat the time of the great festivals supplies Ezekiel with an image of the\nteeming population that shall be in all the cities of Canaan when this\nprophecy is fulfilled.\n\nSuch is in outline the scheme of redemption which Ezekiel presents to the\nminds of his readers. We shall reserve a fuller consideration of its more\nimportant doctrines for a separate chapter.(160) One general application\nof its teaching, however, may be pointed out before leaving the subject.\nWe see that for Ezekiel the mysteries and perplexities of the divine\ngovernment find their solution in the idea of redemption. He is aware of\nthe false impression necessarily produced on the heathen mind by God\u2019s\ndealings with His people, as long as the process is incomplete. On account\nof Israel\u2019s sin the revelation of God in providence is gradual and\nfragmentary, and seems even for a time to defeat its own end. The\nomnipotence of God was obscured by the very act of vindicating His\nholiness; and what was in itself a great step towards the complete\nrevelation of His character came on the world in the first instance as an\nevidence of His impotence. But the prophet, looking beyond this to the\nfinal effect of God\u2019s work upon the world, sees that Jehovah can be truly\nknown only in the manifestation of His redeeming grace. All the enigmas\nand contradictions that arise from imperfect comprehension of His purpose\nfind their answer in this truth, that God will yet redeem Israel from its\niniquities. God is His own interpreter, and when His work of salvation is\nfinished the result will be a conclusive demonstration of that lofty\nconception of God to which the prophet had attained.\n\nNow this argument of Ezekiel\u2019s illustrates a principle of wide\napplication. Many objections that are advanced against the theistic view\nof the universe seem to proceed on the assumption that the actual state of\nthe world adequately represents the mind of its Creator. The heathen of\nEzekiel\u2019s day have their modern representatives amongst dispassionate\ncritics of Providence like J. S. Mill, who prove to their own satisfaction\nthat the world cannot be the work of a being answering to the Christian\nidea of God. Do what you will, they say, to minimise the evils of\nexistence, there is still an amount of undeniable pain and misery in the\nworld which is fatal to your doctrine of an all\u2010powerful and perfectly\ngood Creator. Omnipotence could, and benevolence would, find a remedy; the\nAuthor of the universe, therefore, cannot possess both. God, in short, if\nthere be a God, may be benevolent, or He may be omnipotent; but if\nbenevolent He is not omnipotent, and if omnipotent He cannot be\nbenevolent. How very convincing this is\u2014from the standpoint of the\nneutral, non\u2010Christian observer! And how poor a defence is sometimes made\nby the optimism which tries to make out that most evils are blessings in\ndisguise, and the rest not worth minding! The Christian religion rises\nsuperior to such criticism, mainly in virtue of its living faith in\nredemption. It does not explain away evil, nor does it profess to account\nfor its origin. It speaks of the whole creation groaning and travailing in\npain together even until now. But it also describes the creation as\nwaiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. It teaches us to\ndiscover in history the unfolding of a purpose of redemption, the end of\nwhich will be the deliverance of mankind from the dominion of sin and\ntheir eternal blessedness in the kingdom of our God and His Christ. What\nEzekiel foresaw in the form of a national restoration will be accomplished\nin a world\u2010wide salvation, in a new heavens and a new earth, where there\nshall be no more curse. But meanwhile to judge of God from what is, apart\nfrom what is yet to be revealed, is to repeat the mistake of those who\njudged Jehovah to be an effete tribal deity because He had suffered His\npeople to go forth out of their land. Those who have been brought into\nsympathy with the divine purpose, and have experienced the power of the\nSpirit of God in subduing the evil of their own hearts, can hold with\nunwavering confidence the hope of a universal victory of good over evil;\nand in the light of that hope the mysteries that surround the moral\ngovernment of God cease to disturb their faith in the eternal Love which\nlabours patiently and unceasingly for the redemption of man.\n\n\n\n\nChapter XXII. Life From The Dead. Chapter xxxvii.\n\n\nThe most formidable obstacle to faith on the part of the exiles in the\npossibility of a national redemption was the complete disintegration of\nthe ancient people of Israel. Hard as it was to realise that Jehovah still\nlived and reigned in spite of the cessation of His worship, and hard to\nhope for a recovery of the land of Canaan from the dominion of the\nheathen, these things were still conceivable. What almost surpassed\nconception was the restoration of national life to the feeble and\ndemoralised remnant who had survived the fall of the state. It was no mere\nfigure of speech that these exiles employed when they thought of their\nnation as dead. Cast off by its God, driven from its land, dismembered and\ndeprived of its political organisation, Israel as a people had ceased to\nexist. Not only were the outward symbols of national unity destroyed, but\nthe national spirit was extinct. Just as the destruction of the bodily\norganism implies the death of each separate member and organ and cell, so\nthe individual Israelites felt themselves to be as dead men, dragging out\nan aimless existence without hope in the world. While Israel was alive\nthey had lived in her and for her; all the best part of their life,\nreligion, duty, liberty, and loyalty had been bound up with the\nconsciousness of belonging to a nation with a proud history behind them\nand a brilliant future for their posterity. Now that Israel had perished\nall spiritual and ideal significance had gone out of their lives; there\nremained but a selfish and sordid struggle for existence, and this they\nfelt was not life, but death in life. And thus a promise of deliverance\nwhich appealed to them as members of a nation seemed to them a mockery,\nbecause they felt in themselves that the bond of national life was\nirrevocably broken.\n\nThe hardest part of Ezekiel\u2019s task at this time was therefore to revive\nthe national sentiment, so as to meet the obvious objection that even if\nJehovah were able to drive the heathen from His land there was still no\npeople of Israel to whom He could give it. If only the exiles could be\nbrought to believe that Israel had a future, that although now dead it\ncould be raised from the dead, the spiritual meaning of their life would\nbe given back to them in the form of hope, and faith in God would be\npossible. Accordingly the prophet\u2019s thoughts are now directed to the idea\nof the nation as the third factor of the Messianic hope. He has spoken of\nthe kingdom and the land, and each of these ideals has led him on to the\ncontemplation of the final condition of the world, in which Jehovah\u2019s\npurpose is fully manifested. So in this chapter he finds in the idea of\nthe nation a new point of departure, from which he proceeds to delineate\nonce more the Messianic salvation in its completeness.\n\n\n\nI\n\n\nThe vision of the valley of dry bones described in the first part of the\nchapter contains the answer to the desponding thoughts of the exiles, and\nseems indeed to be directly suggested by the figure in which the popular\nfeeling was currently expressed: \u201cOur bones are dried; our hope is lost:\nwe feel ourselves cut off\u201d (ver. 11). The fact that the answer came to the\nprophet in a state of trance may perhaps indicate that his mind had\nbrooded over these words of the people for some time before the moment of\ninspiration. Recognising how faithfully they represented the actual\nsituation, he was yet unable to suggest an adequate solution of the\ndifficulty by means of the prophetic conceptions hitherto revealed to him.\nSuch a vision as this seems to presuppose a period of intense mental\nactivity on the part of Ezekiel, during which the despairing utterance of\nhis compatriots sounded in his ears; and the image of the dried bones of\nthe house of Israel so fixed itself in his mind that he could not escape\nits gloomy associations except by a direct communication from above. When\nat last the hand of the Lord came upon him, the revelation clothed itself\nin a form corresponding to his previous meditations; the emblem of death\nand despair is transformed into a symbol of assured hope through the\nastounding vision which unfolds itself before his inner eye.\n\nIn the ecstasy he feels himself led out in spirit to the plain which had\nbeen the scene of former appearances of God to His prophet. But on this\noccasion he sees it covered with bones\u2014\u201cvery many on the surface of the\nvalley, and very dry.\u201d He is made to pass round about them, in order that\nthe full impression of this spectacle of desolation might sink into his\nmind. His attention is engrossed by two facts\u2014their exceeding great\nnumber, and their parched appearance, as if they had lain there long. In\nother circumstances the question might have suggested itself, How came\nthese bones there? What countless host has perished here, leaving its\nunburied bones to bleach and wither on the open plain? But the prophet has\nno need to think of this. They are the bones which had been familiar to\nhis waking thoughts, the dry bones of the house of Israel. The question he\nhears addressed to him is not, Whence are these bones? but, Can these\nbones live? It is the problem which had exercised his faith in thinking of\na national restoration which thus comes back to him in vision, to receive\nits final solution from Him who alone can give it.\n\nThe prophet\u2019s hesitating answer probably reveals the struggle between\nfaith and sight, between hope and fear, which was latent in his mind. He\ndare not say No, for that would be to limit the power of Him whom he knows\nto be omnipotent, and also to shut out the last gleam of hope from his own\nmind. Yet in presence of that appalling scene of hopeless decay and death\nhe cannot of his own initiative assert the possibility of resurrection. In\nthe abstract all things are possible with God; but whether this particular\nthing, so inconceivable to men, is within the active purpose of God, is a\nquestion which none can answer save God Himself. Ezekiel does what man\nmust always do in such a case\u2014he throws himself back on God, and\nreverently awaits the disclosure of His will, saying, \u201cO Jehovah God, Thou\nknowest.\u201d\n\nIt is instructive to notice that the divine answer comes through the\nconsciousness of a duty. Ezekiel is commanded first of all to prophesy\nover these dry bones; and in the words given him to utter the solution of\nhis own inward perplexity is wrapped up. \u201cSay unto them, O ye dry bones,\nhear the word of Jehovah.... Behold, I will cause breath to enter into\nyou, and ye shall live\u201d (vv. 4, 5). In this way he is not only taught that\nthe agency by which Jehovah will effect His purpose is the prophetic word,\nbut he is also reminded that the truth now revealed to him is to be the\nguide of his practical ministry, and that only in the steadfast discharge\nof his prophetic duty can he hold fast the hope of Israel\u2019s resurrection.\nThe problem that has exercised him is not one that can be settled in\nretirement and inaction. What he receives is not a mere answer, but a\nmessage, and the delivery of the message is the only way in which he can\nrealise the truth of it, his activity as a prophet being indeed a\nnecessary element in the fulfilment of his words. Let him preach the word\nof God to these dry bones, and he will know that they can live; but if he\nfails to do this, he will sink back into the unbelief to which all things\nare impossible. Faith comes in the act of prophesying.\n\nEzekiel did as he was commanded; he prophesied over the dry bones, and\nimmediately he was sensible of the effect of his words. He heard a\nrustling, and looking he saw that the bones were coming together, bone to\nhis bone. He does not need to tell us how his heart rejoiced at this first\nsign of life returning to these dead bones, and as he watched the whole\nprocess by which they were built up into the semblance of men. It is\ndescribed in minute detail, so that no feature of the impression produced\nby the stupendous miracle may be lost. It is divided into two stages, the\nrestoration of the bodily frame and the imparting of the principle of\nlife.\n\nThis division cannot have any special significance when applied to the\nactual nation, such as that the outward order of the state must be first\nestablished, and then the national consciousness renewed. It belongs to\nthe imagery of the vision, and follows the order observed in the original\ncreation of man as described in the second chapter of Genesis. God first\nformed man of the dust of the ground, and afterwards breathed into his\nnostrils the breath of life, so that he became a living soul. So here we\nhave first a description of the process by which the bodies were built up,\nthe skeletons being formed from the scattered bones, and then clothed\nsuccessively with sinews and flesh and skin. The reanimation of these\nstill lifeless bodies is a separate act of creative energy, in which,\nhowever, the agency is still the word of God in the mouth of the prophet.\nHe is bidden call for the breath to \u201ccome from the four winds of heaven,\nand breathe upon these slain that they may live.\u201d In Hebrew the words for\nwind, breath, and spirit are identical; and thus the wind becomes a symbol\nof the universal divine Spirit which is the source of all life, while the\nbreath is a symbol of that Spirit as so to speak specialised in the\nindividual man, or in other words of his personal life. In the case of the\nfirst man Jehovah breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the\nidea here is precisely the same. The wind from the four quarters of heaven\nwhich becomes the breath of this vast assemblage of men is conceived as\nthe breath of God, and symbolises the life\u2010giving Spirit which makes each\nof them a living person. The resurrection is complete. The men live, and\nstand up upon their feet an exceeding great army.\n\nThis is the simplest, as well as the most suggestive, of Ezekiel\u2019s\nvisions, and carries its interpretation on the face of it. The single idea\nwhich it expresses is the restoration of the Hebrew nationality through\nthe quickening influence of the Spirit of Jehovah on the surviving members\nof the old house of Israel. It is not a prophecy of the resurrection of\nindividual Israelites who have perished. The bones are \u201cthe whole house of\nIsrael\u201d now in exile; they are alive as individuals, but as members of a\nnation they are dead and hopeless of revival. This is made clear by the\nexplanation of the vision given in vv. 11\u201014. It is addressed to those who\nthink of themselves as cut off from the higher interests and activities of\nthe national life. By a slight change of figure they are conceived as dead\nand buried; and the resurrection is represented as an opening of their\ngraves. But the grave is no more to be understood literally than the dry\nbones of the vision itself; both are symbols of the gloomy and despairing\nview which the exiles take of their own condition. The substance of the\nprophet\u2019s message is that the God who raises the dead and calls the things\nthat are not as though they were is able to bring together the scattered\nmembers of the house of Israel and form them into a new people through the\noperation of His life\u2010giving Spirit.\n\nIt has often been supposed that, although the passage may not directly\nteach the resurrection of the body, it nevertheless implies a certain\nfamiliarity with that doctrine on the part of Ezekiel, if not of his\nhearers likewise. If the raising of dead men to life could be used as an\nanalogy of a national restoration, the former conception must have been at\nleast more obvious than the latter, otherwise the prophet would be\nexplaining _obscurum per obscurius_. This argument, however, has only a\nsuperficial plausibility. It confounds two things which are distinct\u2014the\nmere conception of resurrection, which is all that was necessary to make\nthe vision intelligible, and settled faith in it as an element of the\nMessianic expectation. That God by a miracle could restore the dead to\nlife no devout Israelite ever doubted.(161) But it is to be noted that the\nrecorded instances of such miracles are all of those recently dead; and\nthere is no evidence of a general belief in the possibility of\nresurrection for those whose bones were scattered and dry. It is this very\nimpossibility, indeed, that gives point to the metaphor under which the\npeople here express their sense of hopelessness. Moreover, if the prophet\nhad presupposed the doctrine of individual resurrection, he could hardly\nhave used it as an illustration in the way he does. The mere prospect of a\nresuscitation of the multitudes of Israelites who had perished would of\nitself have been a sufficient answer to the despondency of the exiles; and\nit would have been an anti\u2010climax to use it as an argument for something\nmuch less wonderful. We must also bear in mind that while the resurrection\nof a nation may be to us little more than a figure of speech, to the\nHebrew mind it was an object of thought more real and tangible than the\nidea of personal immortality.\n\nIt would appear therefore that in the order of revelation the hope of the\nresurrection is first presented in the promise of a resurrection of the\ndead nation of Israel, and only in the second instance as the resurrection\nof individual Israelites who should have passed away without sharing in\nthe glory of the latter days. Like the early converts to Christianity, the\nOld Testament believers sorrowed for those who fell asleep when the\nMessiah\u2019s kingdom was supposed to be just at hand, until they found\nconsolation in the blessed hope of a resurrection with which Paul\ncomforted the Church at Thessalonica.(162) In Ezekiel we find that\ndoctrine as yet only in its more general form of a national resurrection;\nbut it can hardly be doubted that the form in which he expressed it\nprepared the way for the fuller revelation of a resurrection of the\nindividual. In two later passages of the prophetic Scriptures we seem to\nfind clear indications of progress in this direction. One is a difficult\nverse in the twenty\u2010sixth chapter of Isaiah\u2014part of a prophecy usually\nassigned to a period later than Ezekiel\u2014where the writer, after a\nlamentation over the disappointments and wasted efforts of the present,\nsuddenly breaks into a rapture of hope as he thinks of a time when\ndeparted Israelites shall be restored to life to join the ranks of the\nransomed people of God: \u201cLet thy dead live again! Let my dead bodies\narise! Awake and rejoice, ye that dwell in the dust, for thy dew is a dew\nof light, and the earth shall yield up [her] shades.\u201d(163) There does not\nseem to be any doubt that what is here predicted is the actual\nresurrection of individual members of the people of Israel to share in the\nblessings of the kingdom of God. The other passage referred to is in the\nbook of Daniel, where we have the first explicit prediction of a\nresurrection both of the just and the unjust. In the time of trouble when\nthe people is delivered \u201cmany of them that sleep in the dust of the earth\nshall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting\ncontempt.\u201d(164)\n\nThese remarks are made merely to show in what sense Ezekiel\u2019s vision may\nbe regarded as a contribution to the Old Testament doctrine of personal\nimmortality. It is so not by its direct teaching, nor yet by its\npresuppositions, but by the suggestiveness of its imagery, opening out a\nline of thought which under the guidance of the Spirit of truth led to a\nfuller disclosure of the care of God for the individual life, and His\npurpose to redeem from the power of the grave those who had departed this\nlife in His faith and fear.\n\nBut this line of inquiry lies somewhat apart from the main teaching of the\npassage before us as a message for the Church in all ages. The passage\nteaches with striking clearness the continuity of God\u2019s redeeming work in\nthe world, in spite of hindrances which to human eyes seem insurmountable.\nThe gravest hindrance, both in appearance and in reality, is the decay of\nfaith and vital religion in the Church itself. There are times when\nearnest men are tempted to say that the Church\u2019s hope is lost and her\nbones are dried\u2014when laxity of life and lukewarmness in devotion pervade\nall her members, and she ceases to influence the world for good. And yet\nwhen we consider that the whole history of God\u2019s cause is one long process\nof raising dead souls to spiritual life and building up a kingdom of God\nout of fallen humanity, we see that the true hope of the Church can never\nbe lost. It lies in the life\u2010giving, regenerating power of the divine\nSpirit, and the promise that the word of God does not return to Him void\nbut prospers in the thing whereto He sends it. That is the great lesson of\nEzekiel\u2019s vision, and although its immediate application may be limited to\nthe occasion that called it forth, yet the analogy on which it is founded\nis taken up by our Lord Himself and extended to the proclamation of His\ntruth to the world at large: \u201cThe hour is coming, and now is, when the\ndead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall\nlive.\u201d(165) We perhaps too readily empty these strong terms of their\nmeaning. The Spirit of God is apt to become a mere expression for the\nreligious and moral influences lodged in a Christian society, and we come\nto rely on these agencies for the dissemination of Christian principles\nand the formation of Christian character. We forget that behind all this\nthere is something which is compared to the imparting of life where there\nwas none, something which is the work of the Spirit of which we cannot\ntell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. But in times of low\nspirituality, when the love of many waxes cold, and there are few signs of\nzeal and activity in the service of Christ, men learn to fall back in\nfaith on the invisible power of God to make His word effectual for the\nrevival of His cause among men. And this happens constantly in narrow\nspheres which may never attract the notice of the world. There are\npositions in the Church still where Christ\u2019s servants are called to labour\nin the faith of Ezekiel, with appearances all against them, and nothing to\ninspire them but the conviction that the word they preach is the power of\nGod and able even to bring life to the dead.\n\n\n\nII\n\n\nThe second half of the chapter speaks of a special feature of the national\nrestoration, the reunion of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel under one\nsceptre. This is represented first of all by a symbolic action. The\nprophet is directed to take two pieces of wood, apparently in the form of\nsceptres, and to write upon them inscriptions dedicating them respectively\nto Judah and Joseph, the heads of the two confederacies out of which the\nrival monarchies were formed. The \u201ccompanions\u201d (ver. 16)\u2014_i.e._, allies\u2014of\nJudah are the two tribes of Benjamin and Simeon; those of Joseph are all\nthe other tribes, who stood under the hegemony of Ephraim. If the second\ninscription is rather more complicated than the first, it is because of\nthe fact that there was no actual tribe of Joseph. It therefore runs thus:\n\u201cFor Joseph, the staff of Ephraim, and all the house of Israel his\nconfederates.\u201d These two staves then he is to put together so that they\nbecome one sceptre in his hand. It is a little difficult to decide whether\nthis was a sign that was actually performed before the people, or one that\nis only imagined. It depends partly on what we take to be meant by the\njoining of the two pieces. If Ezekiel merely took two sticks, put them end\nto end, and made them look like one, then no doubt he did this in public,\nfor otherwise there would be no use in mentioning the circumstance at all.\nBut if the meaning is, as seems more probable, that when the rods are put\ntogether they miraculously grow into one, then we see that such a sign has\na value for the prophet\u2019s own mind as a symbol of the truth revealed to\nhim, and it is no longer necessary to assume that the action was really\nperformed. The purpose of the sign is not merely to suggest the idea of\npolitical unity, which is too simple to require any such illustration, but\nrather to indicate the completeness of the union and the divine force\nneeded to bring it about. The difficulty of conceiving a perfect fusion of\nthe two parts of the nation was really very great, the cleavage between\nJudah and the North being much older than the monarchy, and having been\naccentuated by centuries of political separation and rivalry.\n\nTo us the most noteworthy fact is the steadfastness with which the\nprophets of this period cling to the hope of a restoration of the northern\ntribes, although nearly a century and a half had now elapsed since\n\u201cEphraim was broken from being a people.\u201d(166) Ezekiel, like Jeremiah, is\nunable to think of an Israel which does not include the representatives of\nthe ten northern tribes. Whether any communication was kept up with the\ncolonies of Israelites that had been transported from Samaria to Assyria\nwe do not know, but they are regarded as still existing, and still\nremembered by Jehovah. The resurrection of the nation which Ezekiel has\njust predicted is expressly said to apply to the whole house of Israel,\nand now he goes on to announce that this \u201cexceeding great army\u201d shall\nmarch to its land not under two banners, but under one.\n\nWe have touched already, in speaking of the Messianic idea, on the reasons\nwhich lead the prophets to put so much emphasis on this union. They felt\nas strongly on the point as a High Churchman does about the sin of schism,\nand it would not be difficult for the latter to show that his point of\nview and his ideals closely resemble those of the prophets. The rending of\nthe body of Christ which is supposed to be involved in a breach of\nexternal unity is paralleled by the disruption of the Hebrew state, which\nviolates the unity of the one people of Jehovah. The idea of the Church as\nthe bride of Christ, is the same idea under which Hosea expresses the\nrelations between Jehovah and Israel, and it necessarily carries with it\nthe unity of the people of Israel in the one case and of the Church in the\nother. It must be admitted also that the evils resulting from the division\nbetween Judah and Israel have been reproduced, with consequences a\nthousand times more disastrous to religion, in the strife and\nuncharitableness, the party spirit and jealousies and animosities, which\ndifferent denominations of Christians have invariably exhibited towards\neach other when they were close enough for mutual interest. But granting\nall this, and granting that what is called schism is essentially the same\nthing that the prophets desired to see removed, it does not at once follow\nthat dissent is in itself sinful, and still less that the sin is\nnecessarily on the side of the Dissenter. The question is whether the\nnational standpoint of the prophets is altogether applicable to the\ncommunion of saints in Christ, whether the body of Christ is really torn\nasunder by differences in organisation and opinion, whether, in short,\nanything is necessary to avoid the guilt of schism beyond keeping the\nunity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The Old Testament dealt with men\nin the mass, as members of a nation, and its standards can hardly be\nadequate to the polity of a religion which has to provide for the freedom\nof the individual conscience before God. At the worst the Dissenter may\npoint out that the Old Testament schism was necessary as a protest against\ntyranny and despotism, that in this aspect it was sanctioned by the\ninspired prophets of the age, that its undoubted evils were partly\ncompensated by a freer expansion of religious life, and finally that even\nthe prophets did not expect it to be healed before the millennium.\n\nFrom the idea of the reunited nation Ezekiel returns easily to the promise\nof the Davidic king and the blessings of the Messianic dispensation. The\none people implies one shepherd, and also one land, and one spirit to walk\nin Jehovah\u2019s judgments and to observe His statutes to do them. The various\nelements which enter into the conception of national salvation are thus\ngathered up and combined in one picture of the people\u2019s everlasting\nfelicity. And the whole is crowned by the promise of Jehovah\u2019s presence\nwith the people, sanctifying and protecting them from His sanctuary. This\nfinal condition of things is permanent and eternal. The sources of\ninternal dispeace are removed by the washing away of Israel\u2019s iniquities,\nand the impossibility of any disturbance from without is illustrated by\nthe onslaught of the heathen nations described in the following chapters.\n\n\n\n\nChapter XXIII. The Conversion Of Israel.\n\n\nIn an early chapter of this volume(167) we had occasion to notice some\ntheological principles which appear to have guided the prophet\u2019s thinking\nfrom the first. It was evident even then that these principles pointed\ntowards a definite theory of the conversion of Israel and the process by\nwhich it was to be effected. In subsequent prophecies we have seen how\nconstantly Ezekiel\u2019s thoughts revert to this theme, as now one aspect of\nit and then another is disclosed to him. We have also glanced at one\npassage(168) which seemed to be a connected statement of the divine\nprocedure as bearing on the restoration of Israel. But we have now reached\na stage in the exposition where all this lies behind us. In the chapters\nthat remain to be considered the regeneration of the people is assumed to\nhave taken place; their religion and their morality are regarded as\nestablished on a stable and permanent basis, and all that has to be done\nis to describe the institutions by which the benefits of salvation may be\nconserved and handed down from age to age of the Messianic dispensation.\nThe present is therefore a fitting opportunity for an attempt to describe\nEzekiel\u2019s doctrine of conversion as a whole. It is all the more desirable\nthat the attempt should be made because the national salvation is the\ncentral interest of the whole book; and if we can understand the prophet\u2019s\nteaching on this subject, we shall have the key to his whole system of\ntheology.\n\n1. The first point to be noticed, and the one most characteristic of\nEzekiel, is the divine motive for the redemption of Israel\u2014Jehovah\u2019s\nregard for His own name. This thought finds expression in many parts of\nthe book, but nowhere more clearly than in the twenty\u2010second verse of the\nthirty\u2010sixth chapter: \u201cNot for your sakes do I act, O house of Israel, but\nfor My holy name, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye\nwent.\u201d Similarly in the thirty\u2010second verse: \u201cNot for your sakes do I act,\nsaith the Lord Jehovah, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded\nfor your own ways, O house of Israel.\u201d There is an apparent harshness in\nthese declarations which makes it easy to present them in a repellent\nlight. They have been taken to mean that Jehovah is absolutely indifferent\nto the weal or woe of the people except in so far as it reflects on His\nown credit with the world; that He accepts the relationship between Him\nand Israel, but does so in the spirit of a selfish parent who exerts\nhimself to save his child from disgrace merely in order to prevent his own\nname from being dragged in the mire. It would be difficult to explain how\nsuch a Being should be at all concerned about what men think of Him. If\nJehovah has no interest in Israel, it is hard to see why He should be\nsensitive to the opinion of the rest of mankind. That is an idea of God\nwhich no man can seriously hold, and we may be certain that it is a\nperversion of Ezekiel\u2019s meaning. Everything depends on how much is\nincluded in the \u201cname\u201d of Jehovah. If it denotes mere arbitrary power,\ndelighting in its own exercise and the awe which it excites, then we might\nconceive of the divine action as ruled by a boundless egoism, to which all\nhuman interests are alike indifferent. But that is not the conception of\nGod which Ezekiel has. He is a moral Being, one who has compassion on\nother things besides His own name,(169) one who has no pleasure in the\ndeath of the wicked, but that he should turn from his way and live.(170)\nBut when this aspect of His character is included in the name of God, we\nsee that regard for His name cannot mean mere regard for His own\ninterests, as if these were opposed to the interests of His creatures; but\nmeans the desire to be known as He is, as a God of mercy and righteousness\nas well as of infinite power.\n\nThe name of God is that by which He is known amongst men. It is more than\nHis honour or reputation, although that is included in it according to\nHebrew idiom; it is the expression of His character or His personality. To\nact for His name\u2019s sake, therefore, is to act so that His true character\nmay be more fully revealed, and so that men\u2019s thoughts of Him may more\ntruly correspond to that which in Himself He is. There is plainly nothing\nin this inconsistent with the deepest interest in men\u2019s spiritual well\u2010\nbeing. Jehovah is the God of salvation, and desires to reveal Himself as\nsuch; and whether we say that He saves men in order that He may be known\nas a Saviour, or that He makes Himself known in order to save them, does\nnot make any real difference. Revelation and redemption are one thing. And\nwhen Ezekiel says that regard for His own name is the supreme motive of\nJehovah\u2019s action, he does not teach that Jehovah is uninfluenced by care\nfor man; if the question had been put to him, he would have said that care\nfor man is one of the attributes included in the Name which Jehovah is\nconcerned to reveal.\n\nThe real meaning of Ezekiel\u2019s doctrine will perhaps be best understood\nfrom its negative statement. What is meant to be excluded by the\nexpression \u201cnot for your sakes\u201d? It _might_ no doubt mean, \u201cnot because I\ncare at all for you\u201d; but that we have seen to be inconsistent with other\naspects of Ezekiel\u2019s teaching about the divine character. All that it\nnecessarily implies is \u201cnot for any good that I find in you.\u201d It is a\nprotest against the idea of Pharisaic self\u2010righteousness that a man may\nhave a legal claim upon God through his own merits. It is true that that\nwas not a prevalent notion amongst the people in the time of Ezekiel. But\ntheir state of mind was one in which such a thought might easily arise.\nThey were convinced of having been entirely in the wrong in their\nconceptions of the relation between them and Jehovah. The pagan notion\nthat the people is indispensable to the god on account of a physical bond\nbetween them had broken down in the recent experience of Israel, and with\nit had vanished every natural ground for the hope of salvation. In such\ncircumstances the promise of deliverance would naturally raise the thought\nthat there must after all be something in Israel that was pleasing to\nJehovah, and that the prophet\u2019s denunciations of their past sins were\noverdone. In order to guard against that error Ezekiel explicitly asserts,\nwhat was involved in the whole of his teaching, that the mercy of God was\nnot called forth by any good in Israel, but that nevertheless there are\nimmutable reasons in the divine nature on which the certainty of Israel\u2019s\nredemption may be built.\n\nThe truth here taught is therefore, in theological language, the\nsovereignty of the divine grace. Ezekiel\u2019s statement of it is liable to\nall the distortions and misrepresentations to which that doctrine has been\nsubjected at the hands both of its friends and its enemies; but when\nfairly treated it is no more objectionable than any other expression of\nthe same truth to be found in Scripture. In Ezekiel\u2019s case it was the\nresult of a penetrating analysis of the moral condition of his people\nwhich led him to see that there was nothing in them to suggest the\npossibility of their being restored. It is only when he falls back on the\nthought of what God is, on the divine necessity of vindicating His\nholiness in the salvation of His people, that his faith in Israel\u2019s future\nfinds a sure point of support. And so in general a profound sense of human\nsinfulness will always throw the mind back on the idea of God as the one\nimmovable ground of confidence in the ultimate redemption of the\nindividual and the world. When the doctrine is pressed to the conclusion\nthat God saves men in spite of themselves, and merely to display His power\nover them, it becomes false and pernicious, and indeed self\u2010contradictory.\nBut so long as we hold fast to the truth that God is love, and that the\nglory of God is the manifestation of His love, the doctrine of the divine\nsovereignty only expresses the unchangeableness of that love and its final\nvictory over the sin of the world.\n\n2. The intellectual side of the conversion of Israel is the acceptance of\nthat idea of God which to the prophet is summed up in the name of Jehovah.\nThis is expressed in the standing formula which denotes the effect of all\nGod\u2019s dealings with men, \u201cThey shall know that I am Jehovah.\u201d We need not,\nhowever, repeat what has been already said as to the meaning of these\nwords.(171) Nor shall we dwell on the effect of the national judgment as a\nmeans towards producing a right impression of Jehovah\u2019s nature. It is\npossible that as time went on Ezekiel came to see that chastisement alone\nwould not effect the moral change in the exiles which was necessary to\nbring them into sympathy with the divine purposes. In the early prophecy\nof ch. vi. the knowledge of Jehovah and the self\u2010condemnation which\naccompanies it are spoken of as the direct result of His judgment on\nsin,(172) and this undoubtedly was one element in the conversion of the\npeople to right thoughts about God. But in all other passages this feeling\nof self\u2010loathing is not the beginning but the end of conversion; it is\ncaused by the experience of pardon and redemption following upon\npunishment.(173) There is also another aspect of judgment which may be\nmentioned in passing for the sake of completeness. It is that which is\nexpounded in the end of the twentieth chapter. There the judgment which\nstill stands between the exiles and the return to their own land is\nrepresented as a sifting process, in which those who have undergone a\nspiritual change are finally separated from those who perish in their\nimpenitence. This idea does not occur in the prophecies subsequent to the\nfall of Jerusalem, and it may be doubtful how it fits into the scheme of\nredemption there unfolded. The prophet here regards conversion as a\nprocess wholly carried through by the operation of Jehovah on the mind of\nthe people; and what we have next to consider is the steps by which this\ngreat end is accomplished. They are these two\u2014forgiveness and\nregeneration.\n\n3. The forgiveness of sins is denoted in the thirty\u2010sixth chapter, as we\nhave already seen, by the symbol of sprinkling with clean water. But it\nmust not be supposed that this isolated figure is the only form in which\nthe doctrine appears in Ezekiel\u2019s exposition of the process of salvation.\nOn the contrary forgiveness is the fundamental assumption of the whole\nargument, and is present in every promise of future blessedness to the\npeople. For the Old Testament idea of forgiveness is extremely simple,\nresting as it does on the analogy of forgiveness in human life. The\nspiritual fact which constitutes the essence of forgiveness is the change\nin Jehovah\u2019s disposition towards His people which is manifested by the\nrenewal of those indispensable conditions of national well\u2010being which in\nHis anger He had taken away. The restoration of Israel to its own land is\nthus not simply a token of forgiveness, but the act of forgiveness itself,\nand the only form in which the fact could be realised in the experience of\nthe nation. In this sense the whole of Ezekiel\u2019s predictions of the\nMessianic deliverance and the glories that follow it are one continuous\npromise of forgiveness, setting forth the truth that Jehovah\u2019s love to His\npeople persists in spite of their sin, and works victoriously for their\nredemption and restoration to the full enjoyment of His favour. There is\nperhaps one point in which we discover a difference between Ezekiel\u2019s\nconception and that of his predecessors. According to the common prophetic\ndoctrine penitence, including amendment, is the moral effect of Jehovah\u2019s\nchastisement, and is the necessary condition of pardon. We have seen that\nthere is some doubt whether Ezekiel regarded repentance as the result of\njudgment, and the same doubt exists as to whether in the order of\nsalvation repentance is a preliminary or a consequence of forgiveness. The\ntruth is that the prophet appears to combine both conceptions. In urging\nindividuals to prepare for the coming of the kingdom of God he makes\nrepentance a necessary condition of entering it; but in describing the\nwhole process of salvation as the work of God he makes contrition for sin\nthe result of reflection on the goodness of Jehovah already experienced in\nthe peaceful occupation of the land of Canaan.\n\n4. The idea of regeneration is very prominent in Ezekiel\u2019s teaching. The\nneed for a radical change in the national character was impressed on him\nby the spectacle which he witnessed daily of evil tendencies and practices\npersisted in, in spite of the clearest demonstration that they were\nhateful to Jehovah and had been the cause of the nation\u2019s calamities. And\nhe does not ascribe this state of things merely to the influence of\ntradition and public opinion and evil example, but traces it to its source\nin the hardness and corruption of the individual nature. It was evident\nthat no mere change of intellectual conviction would avail to alter the\ncurrents of life among the exiles; the heart must be renewed, out of which\nare the issues both of personal and national life. Hence the promise of\nregeneration is expressed as a taking away of the stony, unimpressible\nheart that was in them, and putting within them a heart of flesh, a new\nheart and a new spirit. In exhorting individuals to repentance Ezekiel\ncalls on them to make themselves a new heart and a new spirit,(174)\nmeaning that their repentance must be genuine, extending to the inner\nmotives and springs of action, and not be confined to outward signs of\nmourning.(175) But in other connections the new heart and spirit is\nrepresented as a gift, the result of the operation of the divine\ngrace.(176)\n\nClosely connected with this, perhaps only the same truth in another form,\nis the promise of the outpouring of the Spirit of God.(177) The general\nexpectation of a new supernatural power infused into the national life in\nthe latter days is common in the prophets. It appears in Hosea under the\nbeautiful image of the dew,(178) and in Isaiah it is expressed in the\nconsciousness that the desolation of the land must continue \u201cuntil spirit\nbe poured upon us from on high.\u201d(179) But no earlier prophet presents the\nidea of the Spirit as a principle of regeneration with the precision and\nclearness which the doctrine assumes in the hands of Ezekiel. What in\nHosea and Isaiah may be only a divine influence, quickening and developing\nthe flagging spiritual energies of the people, is here revealed as a\ncreative power, the source of a new life, and the beginning of all that\npossesses moral or spiritual worth in the people of God.\n\n5. It only remains for us now to note the twofold effect of these\noperations of Jehovah\u2019s grace in the religious and moral condition of the\nnation. There will be produced, in the first place, a new readiness and\npower of obedience to the divine commandments.(180) Like the apostle, they\nwill not only \u201cconsent unto the law that it is good\u201d;(181) but in virtue\nof the new \u201cSpirit of life\u201d given to them, they will be in a real sense\n\u201cfree from the law,\u201d(182) because the inward impulse of their own\nregenerate nature will lead them to fulfil it perfectly. The inefficiency\nof law as a mere external authority acting on men by hope of reward and\nfear of punishment was perceived both by Jeremiah and Ezekiel almost as\nclearly as by Paul, although this conviction on the part of the prophets\nwas based on observation of national depravity rather than on their\npersonal experience. It led Jeremiah to the conception of a new covenant\nunder which Jehovah will write His law on men\u2019s hearts;(183) and Ezekiel\nexpresses the same truth in the promise of a new Spirit inclining the\npeople to walk in Jehovah\u2019s statutes and to keep His judgments.\n\nThe second inward result of salvation is shame and self\u2010loathing on\naccount of past transgressions.(184) It seems strange that the prophet\nshould dwell so much on this as a mark of Israel\u2019s saved condition. His\nstrong protest against the doctrine of inherited guilt in the eighteenth\nchapter would have led us to expect that the members of the new Israel\nwould not be conscious of any responsibility for the sins of the old. But\nhere, as in other instances, the conception of the personified nation\nproves itself a better vehicle of religious truth from the Old Testament\nstandpoint than the religious relations of the individual. The continuity\nof the national consciousness sustains that profound sense of unworthiness\nwhich is an essential element of true reconciliation to God, although each\nindividual Israelite in the kingdom of God knows that he is not\naccountable for the iniquity of his fathers.\n\n                  \u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\n\nThis outline of the prophet\u2019s conception of salvation illustrates the\ntruth of the remark that Ezekiel is the first dogmatic theologian. In so\nfar as it is the business of a theologian to exhibit the logical\nconnection of the ideas which express man\u2019s relation to God, Ezekiel more\nthan any other prophet may claim the title. Truths which are the\npresuppositions of all prophecy are to him objects of conscious\nreflection, and emerge from his hands in the shape of clearly formulated\ndoctrines. There is probably no single element of his teaching which may\nnot be traced in the writings of his predecessors, but there is none which\nhas not gained from him a more distinct intellectual expression. And what\nis specially remarkable is the manner in which the doctrines are bound\ntogether in the unity of a system. In grounding the necessity of\nredemption in the divine nature, Ezekiel may be said to foreshadow the\ntheology which is often called Calvinistic or Augustinian, but which might\nmore truly be called Pauline. Although the final remedy for the sin of the\nworld had not yet been revealed, the scheme of redemption disclosed to\nEzekiel agrees with much of the teaching of the New Testament regarding\nthe effects of the work of Christ on the individual. Speaking of the\npassage ch. xxxvi. 16\u201038 Dr. Davidson writes as follows:\u2014\n\n\u201cProbably no passage in the Old Testament of the same extent offers so\ncomplete a parallel to New Testament doctrine, particularly to that of St.\nPaul. It is doubtful if the apostle quotes Ezekiel anywhere, but his line\nof thought entirely coincides with his. The same conceptions and in the\nsame order belong to both,\u2014forgiveness (ver. 25); regeneration, a new\nheart and spirit (ver. 26); the Spirit of God as the ruling power in the\nnew life (ver. 27); the issue of this, the keeping of the requirements of\nGod\u2019s law (ver. 27; Rom. viii. 4); the effect of being \u2018under grace\u2019 in\nsoftening the human heart and leading to obedience (ver. 31; Rom. vi.,\nvii.); and the organic connection of Israel\u2019s history with Jehovah\u2019s\nrevelation of Himself to the nations (vv. 33\u201036; Rom. xi.).\u201d\n\n\n\n\nChapter XXIV. Jehovah\u2019s Final Victory. Chapters xxxviii., xxxix.\n\n\nThese chapters give the impression of having been intended to stand at the\nclose of the book of Ezekiel. Their present position is best explained on\nthe supposition that the original collection of Ezekiel\u2019s prophecies\nactually ended here, and that the remaining chapters (xl.\u2010xlviii.) form an\nappendix, added at a later period without disturbing the plan on which the\nbook had been arranged. In chronological order, at all events, the oracle\non Gog comes after the vision of the last nine chapters. It marks the\nutmost limit of Ezekiel\u2019s vision of the future of the kingdom of God. It\nrepresents the _d\u00e9nouement_ of the great drama of Jehovah\u2019s self\u2010\nmanifestation to the nations of the world. It describes an event which is\nto take place in the far\u2010distant future, long after the Messianic age has\nbegun and after Israel has long been settled peacefully in its own land.\nCertain considerations, which we shall notice at the end of this lecture,\nbrought home to the prophet\u2019s mind the conviction that the lessons of\nIsrael\u2019s restoration did not afford a sufficient illustration of Jehovah\u2019s\nglory or of the meaning of His past dealings with His people. The\nconclusive demonstration of this is therefore to be furnished by the\ndestruction of Gog and his myrmidons when in the latter days they make an\nonslaught on the Holy Land.\n\nThe idea of a great world\u2010catastrophe, following after a long interval the\nestablishment of the kingdom of God, is peculiar to Ezekiel amongst the\nprophets of the Old Testament. According to other prophets the judgment of\nthe nations takes place in a \u201cday of Jehovah\u201d which is the crisis of\nhistory; and the Messianic era which follows is a period of undisturbed\ntranquillity in which the knowledge of the true God penetrates to the\nremotest regions of the earth. In Ezekiel, on the other hand, the judgment\nof the world is divided into two acts. The nearer nations which have\nplayed a part in the history of Israel in the past form a group by\nthemselves; their punishment is a preliminary to the restoration of\nIsrael, and the impression produced by that restoration is for them a\nsignal, though not perhaps a complete,(185) vindication of the Godhead of\nJehovah. But the outlying barbarians, who hover on the outskirts of\ncivilisation, are not touched by this revelation of the divine power and\ngoodness; they seem to be represented as utterly ignorant of the\nmarvellous course of events by which Israel has been brought to dwell\nsecurely in the midst of the nations.(186) These, accordingly, are\nreserved for a final reckoning, in which the power of Jehovah will be\ndisplayed with the terrible physical convulsions which mark the great day\nof the Lord.(187) Only then will the full meaning of Israel\u2019s history be\ndisclosed to the world; in particular it will be seen that it was for\ntheir sin that they had fallen under the power of the heathen, and not\nbecause of Jehovah\u2019s inability to protect them.(188)\n\nThese are some general features of the prophecy which at once attract\nattention. We shall now examine the details of the picture, and then\nproceed to consider its significance in relation to other elements of\nEzekiel\u2019s teaching.\n\n\n\nI\n\n\nThe thirty\u2010eighth chapter may be divided into three sections of seven\nverses each.\n\ni. Vv. 3\u20109.\u2014The prophet having been commanded to direct his face towards\nGog in the land of Magog, is commissioned to announce the fate that is in\nstore for him and his hosts in the latter days. The name of this\nmysterious and formidable personage was evidently familiar to the Jewish\nworld of Ezekiel\u2019s time, although to us its origin is altogether obscure.\nThe most plausible suggestion, on the whole, is perhaps that which\nidentifies it with the name of the Lydian monarch Gyges, which appears on\nthe Assyrian monuments in the form _Gugu_, corresponding as closely as is\npossible to the Hebrew Gog.(189) But in the mind of Ezekiel Gog is hardly\nan historical figure. He is but the impersonation of the dreaded power of\nthe northern barbarians, already recognised as a serious danger to the\npeace of the world. His designation as prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal\npoints to the region east of the Black Sea as the seat of his power.(190)\nHe is the captain of a vast multitude of horsemen, gorgeously arrayed, and\narmed with shield, helmet, and sword. But although Gog himself belongs to\nthe \u201cuttermost north,\u201d he gathers under his banner all the most distant\nnations both of the north and the south. Not only northern peoples like\nthe Cimmerians and Armenians,(191) but Persians and Africans,(192) all of\nthem with shield and helmet, swell the ranks of his motley army. The name\nof Gog is thus on the way to become a symbol of the implacable enmity of\nthis world to the kingdom of God; as in the book of the Revelation it\nappears as the designation of the ungodly world\u2010power which perishes in\nconflict with the saints of God (Rev. xx. 7 ff.).\n\nGog therefore is summoned to hold himself in readiness, as Jehovah\u2019s\nreserve,(193) against the last days, when the purpose for which he has\nbeen raised up will be made manifest. After many days he shall receive his\nmarching orders; Jehovah Himself will lead forth his squadrons and the\ninnumerable hosts of nations that follow in his train,(194) and bring them\nup against the mountains of Israel, now reclaimed from desolation, and\nagainst a nation gathered from among many peoples, dwelling in peace and\nsecurity. The advance of these destructive hordes is likened to a tempest,\nand their innumerable multitude is pictured as a cloud covering all the\nland (ver. 9).\n\nii. Vv. 10\u201016.\u2014But like the Assyrian in the time of Isaiah, Gog \u201cmeaneth\nnot so\u201d; he is not aware that he is Jehovah\u2019s instrument, his purpose\nbeing to \u201cdestroy and cut off nations not a few.\u201d(195) Hence the prophet\nproceeds to a new description of the enterprise of Gog, laying stress on\nthe \u201cevil thought\u201d that will arise in his heart and lure him to his doom.\nWhat urges him on is the lust of plunder. The report of the people of\nIsrael as a people that has amassed wealth and substance, and is at the\nsame time defenceless, dwelling in a land without walls or bolts or gates,\nwill have reached him. These two verses (11, 12) are interesting as giving\na picture of Ezekiel\u2019s conception of the final state of the people of God.\nThey dwell in the \u201cnavel of the world\u201d; they are rich and prosperous, so\nthat the fame of them has gone forth through all lands; they are destitute\nof military resources, yet are unmolested in the enjoyment of their\nfavoured lot because of the moral effect of Jehovah\u2019s name on all nations\nthat know their history. To Gog, however, who knows nothing of Jehovah,\nthey will seem an easy conquest, and he will come up confident of victory\nto seize spoil and take booty and lay his hand on waste places reinhabited\nand a people gathered out of the heathen. The news of the great expedition\nand the certainty of its success will rouse the cupidity of the trading\ncommunities from all the ends of the earth, and they will attach\nthemselves as camp\u2010followers to the army of Gog. In historic times this\n_r\u00f4le_ would naturally have fallen to the Ph\u0153nicians, who had a keen eye\nfor business of this description.(196) But Ezekiel is thinking of a time\nwhen Tyre shall be no more; and its place is taken by the mercantile\ntribes of Arabia and the ancient Ph\u0153nician colony of Tarshish. The whole\nworld will then resound with the fame of Gog\u2019s expedition, and the most\ndistant nations will await its issue with eager expectation. This then is\nthe meaning of Gog\u2019s destiny. In the time when Israel dwells peacefully he\nwill be restless and eager for spoil;(197) his multitudes will be set in\nmotion, and throw themselves on the land, covering it like a cloud. But\nthis is Jehovah\u2019s doing, and the purpose of it is that the nations may\nknow Him and that He may be sanctified in Gog before their eyes.\n\niii. Vv. 17\u201023.\u2014These verses are in the main a description of the\nannihilation of Gog\u2019s host by the fierce wrath of Jehovah; but this is\nintroduced by a reference to unfulfilled prophecies which are to receive\ntheir accomplishment in this great catastrophe. It is difficult to say\nwhat particular prophecies are meant. Those which most readily suggest\nthemselves are perhaps the fourth chapter of Joel and the twelfth and\nfourteenth of Zechariah; but these probably belong to a later date than\nEzekiel. The prophecies of Zephaniah and Jeremiah, called forth by the\nScythian invasion,(198) have also been thought of, although the point of\nview there is different from that of Ezekiel. In Jeremiah and Zephaniah\nthe Scythians are the scourge of God, appointed for the chastisement of\nthe sinful nation; whereas Gog is brought up against a holy people, and\nfor the express purpose of having judgment executed on himself. On the\nsupposition that Ezekiel\u2019s vision was coloured by his recollection of the\nScythians, this view has no doubt the greatest likelihood. It is possible,\nhowever, that the allusion is not to any particular group of prophecies,\nbut to a general idea which pervades prophecy\u2014the expectation of a great\nconflict in which the power of the world shall be arrayed against Jehovah\nand Israel, and the issue of which shall exhibit the sole sovereignty of\nthe true God to all mankind.(199) It is of course unnecessary to suppose\nthat any prophet had mentioned Gog by name in a prediction of the future.\nAll that is meant is that Gog is the person in whom the substance of\nprevious oracles is to be accomplished.\n\nThe question of ver. 17 leads thus to the announcement of the outpouring\nof Jehovah\u2019s indignation on the violators of His territory. As soon as Gog\nsets foot on the soil of Israel, Jehovah\u2019s wrath is kindled against him. A\nmighty earthquake shall shatter the mountains and level every wall to the\nground and strike terror into the hearts of all creatures. The host of Gog\nshall be panic\u2010stricken,(200) each man turning his sword against his\nfellow; while Jehovah completes the slaughter by pestilence and blood,\nrain and hailstones, fire and brimstone. The deliverance of Israel is\neffected without the help of any human arm; it is the doing of Jehovah,\nwho thus magnifies and sanctifies Himself and makes Himself known before\nthe eyes of many peoples, so that they may know Him to be Jehovah.\n\niv. Ch. xxxix. 1\u20108.\u2014Commencing afresh with a new apostrophe to Gog,\nEzekiel here recapitulates the substance of the previous chapter\u2014the\nbringing up of Gog from the farthest north, his destruction on the\nmountains of Israel, and the effect of this on the surrounding nations.\nMention is expressly made of the bow and arrows which were the distinctive\nweapons of the Scythian horsemen.(201) These are struck from the grasp of\nGog, and the mighty host falls on the open field to be devoured by wild\nbeasts and by ravenous birds of every feather. But the judgment is\nuniversal in its extent; it reaches to Magog, the distant abode of Gog,\nand all the remote lands whence his auxiliaries were drawn. This is the\nday whereof Jehovah has spoken by His servants the prophets of Israel, the\nday which finally manifests His glory to all the ends of the earth.\n\nv. Vv. 9\u201016.\u2014Here the prophet falls into a more prosaic strain, as he\nproceeds to describe with characteristic fulness of detail the sequel of\nthe great invasion. As the English story of the Invincible Armada would be\nincomplete without a reference to the treasures cast ashore from the\nwrecked galleons on the Orkneys and the Hebrides, so the fate of Gog\u2019s\nill\u2010starred enterprise is vividly set forth by the minute description of\nthe traces it left behind in the peaceful life of Israel. The irony of the\nsituation is unmistakable, and perhaps a touch of conscious exaggeration\nis permissible in such a picture. In the first place the weapons of the\nslain warriors furnish wood enough to serve for fuel to the Israelites for\nthe space of seven years. Then follows a picture of the process of\ncleansing the land from the corpses of the fallen enemy. A burying\u2010place\nis assigned to them in the valley of Abarim(202) on the eastern side of\nthe Dead Sea, outside of the sacred territory. The whole people of Israel\nwill be engaged for seven months in the operation of burying them; after\nthis the mouth of the valley will be sealed,(203) and it will be known\never afterwards as the Valley of the Host of Gog. But even after the seven\nmonths have expired the scrupulous care of the people for the purity of\ntheir land will be shown by the precautions they take against its\ncontinued defilement by any fragment of a skeleton that may have been\noverlooked. They will appoint permanent officials, whose business will be\nto search for and remove relics of the dead bodies, that the land may be\nrestored to its purity. Whenever any passer\u2010by lights on a bone he will\nset up a mark beside it to attract the attention of the buriers. \u201cThus [in\ncourse of time] they shall cleanse the land.\u201d\n\nvi. Vv. 17\u201024.\u2014The overwhelming magnitude of the catastrophe is once more\nset forth under the image of a sacrificial feast, to which Jehovah summons\nall the birds of the air and every beast of the field (vv. 17\u201020). The\nfeast is represented as a sacrifice not in any religious sense, but simply\nin accordance with ancient usage, in which the slaughtering of animals was\ninvariably a sacrificial act. The only idea expressed by the figure is\nthat Jehovah has decreed this slaughter of Gog and his host, and that it\nwill be so great that all ravenous beasts and birds will eat flesh to the\nfull and drink the blood of princes of the earth to intoxication. But we\nturn with relief from these images of carnage and death to the moral\npurpose which they conceal (vv. 21\u201024). This is stated more distinctly\nhere than in earlier passages of this prophecy. It will teach Israel that\nJehovah is indeed their God; the lingering sense of insecurity caused by\nthe remembrance of their former rejection will be finally taken away by\nthis signal deliverance. And through Israel it will teach a lesson to the\nheathen. They will learn something of the principles on which Jehovah has\ndealt with His people when they contrast this great salvation with His\nformer desertion of them. It will then fully appear that it was for their\nsins that they went into captivity; and so the knowledge of God\u2019s holiness\nand His displeasure against sin will be extended to the nations of the\nworld.\n\nvii. Vv. 25\u201029.\u2014The closing verses do not strictly belong to the oracle on\nGog. The prophet returns to the standpoint of the present, and predicts\nonce more the restoration of Israel, which has heretofore been assumed as\nan accomplished fact. The connection with what precedes is, however, very\nclose. The divine attributes, whose final manifestation to the world is\nreserved for the far\u2010off day of Gog\u2019s defeat, are already about to be\nrevealed to Israel. Jehovah\u2019s compassion for His people and His jealousy\nfor His own name will speedily be shown in \u201cturning the fortunes\u201d of\nIsrael, bringing them back from the peoples, and gathering them from the\nland of their enemies. The consequences of this upon the nation itself are\ndescribed in more gracious terms than in any other passage. They shall\nforget their shame and all their trespasses when they dwell securely in\ntheir own land, none making them afraid.(204) The saving knowledge of\nJehovah as their God, who led them into captivity and brought them back\nagain, will as far as Israel is concerned be complete; and the gracious\nrelation thus established shall no more be interrupted, because of the\ndivine Spirit which has been poured out on the house of Israel.\n\n\n\nII\n\n\nIt will be seen from this summary of the contents of the prophecy that,\nwhile it presents many features peculiar to itself, it also contains much\nin common with the general drift of the prophet\u2019s thinking. We must now\ntry to form an estimate of its significance as an episode in the great\ndrama of Providence which unfolded itself before his inspired imagination.\n\nThe ideas peculiar to the passage are for the most part such as might have\nbeen suggested to the mind of Ezekiel by the remembrance of the great\nScythian invasion in the reign of Josiah. Although it is not likely that\nhe had himself lived through that time of terror, he must have grown up\nwhilst it was still fresh in the public recollection, and the rumour of it\nhad apparently left upon him impressions never afterwards effaced. Several\ncircumstances, none of them perhaps decisive by itself, conspire to show\nthat at least in its imagery the oracle on Gog is based on the conception\nof an irruption of Scythian barbarians. The name of Gog may be too obscure\nto serve as an indication; but his location in the extreme north, the\ndescription of his army as composed mainly of cavalry armed with bow and\narrows, their innumerable multitude, and the love of pillage and\ndestruction by which they are animated, all point to the Scythians as the\noriginals from whom the picture of Gog\u2019s host is drawn. Besides the light\nwhich it casts on the genesis of the prophecy, this fact has a certain\nbiographical interest for the reader of Ezekiel. That the prophet\u2019s\nfurthest vista into the future should be a reflection of his earliest\nmemory reminds us of a common human experience. \u201cThe thoughts of youth are\nlong, long thoughts,\u201d reaching far into manhood and old age; and the mind\nas it turns back upon them may often discover in them that which carries\nit furthest in reading the divine mysteries of life and destiny.\n\n\n    Thus while the Sun sinks down to rest\n    Far in the regions of the west,\n    Though to the vale no parting beam\n    Be given, not one memorial gleam,\n    A lingering light he fondly throws\n    On the dear hills where first he rose.\n\n\nFor it is not merely the imagery of the prophecy that reveals the\ninfluence of these early associations; the thoughts which it embodies are\nthemselves partly the result of the prophet\u2019s meditation on questions\nsuggested by the invasion. His youthful impressions of the descent of the\nnorthern hordes were afterwards illuminated, as we see from his own words,\nby the study of contemporary prophecies of Jeremiah and Zephaniah called\nforth by the event. From these and other predictions he learned that\nJehovah had a purpose with regard to the remotest nations of the earth\nwhich yet awaited its accomplishment. That purpose, in accordance with his\ngeneral conception of the ends of the divine government, could be nothing\nelse than the manifestation of Jehovah\u2019s glory before the eyes of the\nworld. That this involved an act of judgment was only too certain from the\nuniversal hostility of the heathen to the kingdom of God. Hence the\nprophet\u2019s reflections would lead directly to the expectation of a final\nonslaught of the powers of this world on the people of Israel, which would\ngive occasion for a display of Jehovah\u2019s might on a grander scale than had\nyet been seen. And this presentiment of an impending conflict between\nJehovah and the pagan world headed by the Scythian barbarians forms the\nkernel of the oracle against Gog.\n\nBut we must further observe that this idea, from Ezekiel\u2019s point of view,\nnecessarily presupposes the restoration of Israel to its own land. The\npeoples assembled under the standard of Gog are those which have never as\nyet come in contact with the true God, and consequently have had no\nopportunity of manifesting their disposition towards Him. They have not\nsinned as Edom and Tyre, as Egypt and Assyria have sinned, by injuries\ndone to Jehovah through His people. Even the Scythians themselves,\nalthough they had approached the confines of the sacred territory, do not\nseem to have invaded it. Nor could the opportunity present itself so long\nas Israel was in Exile. While Jehovah was without an earthly sanctuary or\na visible emblem of His government, there was no possibility of such an\ninfringement of His holiness on the part of the heathen as would arrest\nthe attention of the world. The judgment of Gog, therefore, could not be\nconceived as a preliminary to the restoration of Israel, like that on\nEgypt and the nations immediately surrounding Palestine. It could only\ntake place under a state of things in which Israel was once more \u201choliness\nto the Lord, and the firstfruits of His increase,\u201d so that \u201call that\ndevoured him were counted guilty\u201d (Jer. ii. 3). This enables us partly to\nunderstand what appears to us the most singular feature of the prophecy,\nthe projection of the final manifestation of Jehovah into the remote\nfuture, when Israel is already in possession of all the blessings of the\nMessianic dispensation. It is a consequence of the extension of the\nprophetic horizon, so as to embrace the distant peoples that had hitherto\nbeen beyond the pale of civilisation.\n\nThere are other aspects of Ezekiel\u2019s teaching on which light is thrown by\nthis anticipation of a world\u2010judgment as the final scene of history. The\nprophet was evidently conscious of a certain inconclusiveness and want of\nfinality in the prospect of the restoration as a justification of the ways\nof God to men. Although all the forces of the world\u2019s salvation were\nwrapped up in it, its effects were still limited and measurable, both as\nto their range of influence and their inherent significance. Not only did\nit fail to impress the more distant nations, but its own lessons were\nincompletely taught. He felt that it had not been made clear to the dull\nperceptions of the heathen why the God of Israel had ever suffered His\nland to be desecrated and His people to be led into captivity. Even Israel\nitself will not fully know all that is meant by having Jehovah for its God\nuntil the history of revelation is finished. Only in the summing up of the\nages, and in the light of the last judgment, will men truly realise all\nthat is implied in the terms God and sin and redemption. The end is needed\nto interpret the process; and all religious conceptions await their\nfulfilment in the light of eternity which is yet to break on the issues of\nhuman history.\n\n\n\n\n\nPART V. THE IDEAL THEOCRACY.\n\n\n\n\nChapter XXV. The Import Of The Vision.\n\n\nWe have now reached the last and in every way the most important section\nof the book of Ezekiel. The nine concluding chapters record what was\nevidently the crowning experience of the prophet\u2019s life. His ministry\nbegan with a vision of God; it culminates in a vision of the people of\nGod, or rather of God in the midst of His people, reconciled to them,\nruling over them, and imparting the blessings and glories of the final\ndispensation. Into that vision are thrown the ideals which had been\ngradually matured through twenty years of strenuous action and intense\nmeditation. We have traced some of the steps by which the prophet was led\ntowards this consummation of his work. We have seen how, under the idea of\nGod which had been revealed to him, he was constrained to announce the\ndestruction of that which called itself the people of Jehovah, but was in\nreality the means of obscuring His character and profaning His holiness\n(chs. iv.\u2010xxiv.). We have seen further how the same fundamental conception\nled him on in his prophecies against foreign nations to predict a great\nclearing of the stage of history for the manifestation of Jehovah (chs.\nxxv.\u2010xxxii.). And we have seen from the preceding section what are the\nprocesses by which the divine Spirit breathes new life into a dead nation\nand creates out of its scattered members a people worthy of the God whom\nthe prophet has seen.\n\nBut there is still something more to accomplish before his task is\nfinished. All through, Ezekiel holds fast the truth that Jehovah and\nIsrael are necessarily related to each other, and that Israel is to be the\nmedium through which alone the nature of Jehovah can be fully disclosed to\nmankind. It remains, therefore, to sketch the outline of a perfect\ntheocracy\u2014in other words, to describe the permanent forms and institutions\nwhich shall express the ideal relation between God and men. To this task\nthe prophet addresses himself in the chapters now before us. That great\nNew Year\u2019s Vision may be regarded as the ripe fruit of all God\u2019s training\nof His prophet, as it is also the part of Ezekiel\u2019s work which most\ndirectly influenced the subsequent development of religion in Israel.\n\nIt cannot be doubted, then, that these chapters are an integral part of\nthe book, considered as a record of Ezekiel\u2019s work. But it is certainly a\nsignificant circumstance that they are separated from the body of the\nprophecies by an interval of thirteen years. For the greater part of that\ntime Ezekiel\u2019s literary activity was suspended. It is probable, at all\nevents, that the first thirty\u2010nine chapters had been committed to writing\nsoon after the latest date they mention, and that the oracle on Gog, which\nmarks the extreme limit of Ezekiel\u2019s prophetic vision, was really the\nconclusion of an earlier form of the book. And we may be certain that,\nsince the eventful period that followed the arrival of the fugitive from\nJerusalem, no new divine communication had visited the prophet\u2019s mind. But\nat last, in the twenty\u2010fifth year of the captivity, and on the first day\nof a new year,(205) he falls into a trance more prolonged than any he had\nyet passed through, and he emerged from it with a new message for his\npeople.\n\nIn what direction were the prophet\u2019s thoughts moving as Israel passed into\nthe midnight of her exile? That they have moved in the interval\u2014that his\nstandpoint is no longer quite identical with that represented in his\nearlier prophecies\u2014seems to be shown by one slight modification of his\nprevious conceptions, which has been already mentioned.(206) I refer to\nthe position of the prince in the theocratic state. We find that the king\nis still the civil head of the commonwealth, but that his position is\nhardly reconcilable with the exalted functions assigned to the Messianic\nking in ch. xxxiv. The inference seems irresistible that Ezekiel\u2019s point\nof view has somewhat changed, so that the objects in his picture present\nthemselves in a different perspective.\n\nIt is true that this change was effected by a vision, and it may be said\nthat that fact forbids our regarding it as indicating a progress in\nEzekiel\u2019s thoughts. But the vision of a prophet is never out of relation\nto his previous thinking. The prophet is always prepared for his vision;\nit comes to him as the answer to questions, as the solution of\ndifficulties, whose force he has felt, and apart from which it would\nconvey no revelation of God to his mind. It marks the point at which\nreflection gives place to inspiration, where the incommunicable certainty\nof the divine word lifts the soul into the region of spiritual and eternal\ntruth. And hence it may help us, from our human point of view, to\nunderstand the true import of this vision, if from the answer we try to\ndiscover the questions which were of pressing interest to Ezekiel in the\nlater part of his career.\n\nSpeaking generally, we may say that the problem that occupied the mind of\nEzekiel at this time was the problem of a religious constitution. How to\nsecure for religion its true place in public life, how to embody it in\ninstitutions which shall conserve its essential ideas and transmit them\nfrom one generation to another, how a people may best express its national\nresponsibility to God\u2014these and many kindred questions are real and vital\nto\u2010day amongst the nations of Christendom, and they were far more vital in\nthe age of Ezekiel. The conception of religion as an inward spiritual\npower, moulding the life of the nation and of each individual member, was\nat least as strong in him as in any other prophet; and it had been\nadequately expressed in the section of his book dealing with the formation\nof the new Israel. But he saw that this was not for that time sufficient.\nThe mass of the community were dependent on the educative influence of the\ninstitutions under which they lived, and there was no way of impressing on\na whole people the character of Jehovah except through a system of laws\nand observances which should constantly exhibit it to their minds. The\ntime was not yet come when religion could be trusted to work as a hidden\nleaven, transforming life from within and bringing in the kingdom of God\nsilently by the operation of spiritual forces. Thus, while the last\nsection insists on the moral change that must pass over Israel, and the\nneed of a direct influence from God on the heart of the people, that which\nnow lies before us is devoted to the religious and political arrangements\nby which the sanctity of the nation must be preserved.\n\nStarting from this general notion of what the prophet sought, we can see,\nin the next place, that his attention must be mainly concentrated on\nmatters belonging to public worship and ritual. Worship is the direct\nexpression in word and act of man\u2019s attitude to God, and no public\nreligion can maintain a higher level of spirituality than the symbolism\nwhich gives it a place in the life of the people. That fact had been\nabundantly illustrated by the experience of centuries before the Exile.\nThe popular worship had always been a stronghold of false religion in\nIsrael. The high places were the nurseries of all the corruptions against\nwhich the prophets had to contend, not simply because of the immoral\nelements that mingled with their worship, but because the worship itself\nwas regulated by conceptions of the deity which were opposed to the\nreligion of revelation. Now the idea of using ritual as a vehicle of the\nhighest spiritual truth is certainly not peculiar to Ezekiel\u2019s vision. But\nit is there carried through with a thoroughness which has no parallel\nelsewhere except in the priestly legislation of the Pentateuch. And this\nbears witness to a clear perception on the part of the prophet of the\nvalue of that whole side of things for the future development of religion\nin Israel. No one was more deeply impressed with the evils that had flowed\nfrom a corrupt ritual in the past, and he conceives the final form of the\nkingdom of God to be one in which the blessings of salvation are\nsafeguarded by a carefully regulated system of religious ordinances. It\nwill become manifest as we proceed that he regards the Temple ritual as\nthe very centre of theocratic life, and the highest function of the\ncommunity of the true religion.\n\nBut Ezekiel was prepared for the reception of this vision, not only by the\npractical reforming bent of his mind, but also by a combination in his own\nexperience of the two elements which must always enter into a conception\nof this nature. If we may employ philosophical language to express a very\nobvious distinction, we have to recognise in the vision a material and a\nformal element. The matter of the vision is derived from the ancient\nreligious and political constitution of the Hebrew state. All true and\nlasting reformations are conservative at heart; their object never is to\nmake a clean sweep of the past, but so to modify what is traditional as to\nadapt it to the needs of a new era. Now Ezekiel was a priest, and\npossessed all a priest\u2019s reverence for antiquity, as well as a priest\u2019s\nprofessional knowledge of ceremonial and of consuetudinary law. No man\ncould have been better fitted than he to secure the continuity of Israel\u2019s\nreligious life along the particular line on which it was destined to move.\nAccordingly we find that the new theocracy is modelled from beginning to\nend after the pattern of the ancient institutions which had been destroyed\nby the Exile. If we ask, for example, what is the meaning of some detail\nof the Temple building, such as the cells surrounding the main sanctuary,\nthe obvious and sufficient answer is that these things existed in\nSolomon\u2019s Temple, and there was no reason for altering them. On the other\nhand, whenever we find the vision departing from what had been\ntraditionally established, we may be sure that there is a reason for it,\nand in most cases we can see what that reason was. In such departures we\nrecognise the working of what we have called the formal element of the\nvision, the moulding influence of the ideas which the system was intended\nto express. What these ideas were we shall consider in subsequent\nchapters; here it is enough to say that they were the fundamental ideas\nwhich had been communicated to Ezekiel in the course of his prophetic\nwork, and which have found expression in various forms in other parts of\nhis writings. That they are not peculiar to Ezekiel, but are shared by\nother prophets, is true, just as it is true on the other hand that the\npriestly conceptions which occupy so large a place in his mind were an\ninheritance from the whole past history of the nation. Nor was this the\nfirst time when an alliance between the ceremonialism of the priesthood\nand the more ethical and spiritual teaching of prophecy had proved of the\nutmost advantage to the religious life of Israel.(207) The unique\nimportance of Ezekiel\u2019s vision lies in the fact that the great development\nof prophecy was now almost complete, and that the time was come for its\nresults to be embodied in institutions which were in the main of a\npriestly character. And it was fitting that this new era of religion\nshould be inaugurated through the agency of one who combined in his own\nperson the conservative instincts of the priest with the originality and\nthe spiritual intuition of the prophet.\n\nIt is not suggested for a moment that these considerations account for the\ninception of the vision in the prophet\u2019s mind. We are not to regard it as\nmerely the brilliant device of an ingenious man, who was exceptionally\nqualified to read the signs of the times, and to discover a solution for a\npressing religious problem. In order that it might accomplish the end in\nview, it was absolutely necessary that it should be invested with a\nsupernatural sanction and bear the stamp of divine authority. Ezekiel\nhimself was well aware of this, and would never have ventured to publish\nhis vision if he had thought it all out for himself. He had to wait for\nthe time when \u201cthe hand of the Lord was upon him,\u201d and he saw in vision\nthe new Temple and the river of life proceeding from it, and the renovated\nland, and the glory of God taking up its everlasting abode in the midst of\nHis people. Until that moment arrived he was without a message as to the\nform which the life of the restored Israel must assume. Nevertheless the\npsychological conditions of the vision were contained in those parts of\nthe prophet\u2019s experience which have just been indicated. Processes of\nthought which had long occupied his mind suddenly crystallised at the\ntouch of the divine hand, and the result was the marvellous conception of\na theocratic state which was Ezekiel\u2019s greatest legacy to the faith and\nhopes of his countrymen.\n\nThat this vision of Ezekiel\u2019s profoundly influenced the development of\npost\u2010exilic Judaism may be inferred from the fact that all the best\ntendencies of the restoration period were towards the realisation of the\nideals which the vision sets forth with surpassing clearness. It is\nimpossible, indeed, to say precisely how far Ezekiel\u2019s influence extended,\nor how far the returning exiles consciously aimed at carrying out the\nideas contained in his sketch of a theocratic constitution. That they did\nso to some extent is inferred from a consideration of some of the\narrangements established in Jerusalem soon after the return from\nBabylon.(208) But it is certain that from the nature of the case the\nactual institutions of the restored community must have differed very\nwidely in many points from those described in the last nine chapters of\nEzekiel. When we look more closely at the composition of this vision, we\nsee that it contains features which neither then nor at any subsequent\ntime have been historically fulfilled. The most remarkable thing about it\nis that it unites in one picture two characteristics which seem at first\nsight difficult to combine. On the one hand it bears the aspect of a rigid\nlegislative system intended to regulate human conduct in all matters of\nvital moment to the religious standing of the community; on the other hand\nit assumes a miraculous transformation of the physical aspect of the\ncountry, a restoration of all the twelve tribes of Israel under a native\nking, and a return of Jehovah in visible glory to dwell in the midst of\nthe children of Israel for ever. Now these supernatural conditions of the\nperfect theocracy could not be realised by any effort on the part of the\npeople, and as a matter of fact were never literally fulfilled at all. It\nmust have been plain to the leaders of the Return that for this reason\nalone the details of Ezekiel\u2019s legislation were not binding for them in\nthe actual circumstances in which they were placed. Even in matters\nclearly within the province of human administration we know that they\nconsidered themselves free to modify his regulations in accordance with\nthe requirements of the situation in which they found themselves. It does\nnot follow from this, however, that they were ignorant of the book of\nEzekiel, or that it gave them no help in the difficult task to which they\naddressed themselves. It furnished them with an ideal of national\nholiness, and the general outline of a constitution in which that ideal\nshould be embodied; and this outline they seem to have striven to fill up\nin the way best adapted to the straitened and discouraging circumstances\nof the time.\n\nBut this throws us back on some questions of fundamental importance for\nthe right understanding of Ezekiel\u2019s vision. Taking the vision as a whole,\nwe have to ask whether a fulfilment of the kind just indicated was the\nfulfilment that the prophet himself anticipated. Did he lay stress on the\nlegislative or the supernatural aspect of the vision\u2014on man\u2019s agency or on\nGod\u2019s? In other words, does he issue it as a programme to be carried out\nby the people as soon as the opportunity is presented by their return to\nthe land of Canaan? or does he mean that Jehovah Himself must take the\ninitiative by miraculously preparing the land for their reception, and\ntaking up His abode in the finished Temple, the \u201cplace of His throne, and\nthe place of the soles of His feet\u201d? The answer to these questions is not\ndifficult, if only we are careful to look at things from the prophet\u2019s\npoint of view, and disregard the historical events in which his\npredictions were partly realised. It is frequently assumed that the\nelaborate description of the Temple buildings in chs. xl.\u2010xlii. is\nintended as a guide to the builders of the second Temple, who are to make\nit after the fashion of that which the prophet saw on the mount. It is\nquite probable that in some degree it may have served that purpose; but it\nseems to me that this view is not in keeping with the fundamental idea of\nthe vision. The Temple that Ezekiel saw, and the only one of which he\nspeaks, is a house not made with hands; it is as much a part of the\nsupernatural preparation for the future theocracy as the \u201cvery high\nmountain\u201d on which it stands, or the river that flows from it to sweeten\nthe waters of the Dead Sea. In the important passage where the prophet is\ncommanded to exhibit the plan of the house to the children of Israel (ch.\nxliii. 10, 11), there is unfortunately a discrepancy between the Hebrew\nand Greek texts which throws some obscurity on this particular point.\nAccording to the Hebrew there can hardly be a doubt that a sketch is shown\nto them which is to be used as a builder\u2019s plan at the time of the\nRestoration.(209) But in the Septuagint, which seems on the whole to give\na more correct text, the passage runs thus: \u201cAnd, thou son of man,\ndescribe the house to the house of Israel (and let them be ashamed of\ntheir iniquities), and its form, and its construction: and they shall be\nashamed of all that they have done. And do thou sketch the house, and its\nexits, and its outline; and all its ordinances and all its laws make known\nto them; and write it before them, that they may keep all its commandments\nand all its ordinances, and do them.\u201d There is nothing here to suggest\nthat the construction of the Temple was left for human workmanship. The\noutline of it is shown to the people only that they may be ashamed of all\ntheir iniquities. When the arrangements of the ideal Temple are explained\nto them, they will see how far those of the first Temple transgressed the\nrequirements of Jehovah\u2019s holiness, and this knowledge will produce a\nsense of shame for the dulness of heart which tolerated so many abuses in\nconnection with His worship. No doubt that impression sank deep into the\nminds of Ezekiel\u2019s hearers, and led to certain important modifications in\nthe structure of the Temple when it had to be built; but that is not what\nthe prophet is thinking of. At the same time we see clearly that he is\nvery much in earnest with the legislative part of his vision. Its laws are\nreal laws, and are given that they may be obeyed\u2014only they do not come\ninto force until all the institutions of the theocracy, natural and\nsupernatural alike, are in full working order. And apart from the doubtful\nquestion as to the erection of the Temple, that general conclusion holds\ngood for the vision as a whole. Whilst it is pervaded throughout by the\nlegislative spirit, the miraculous features are after all its central and\nessential elements. When these conditions are realised, it will be the\nduty of Israel to guard her sacred institutions by the most scrupulous and\ndevoted obedience; but till then there is no kingdom of God established on\nearth, and therefore no system of laws to conserve a state of salvation,\nwhich can only be brought about by the direct and visible interposition of\nthe Almighty in the sphere of nature and history.\n\nThis blending of seemingly incongruous elements reveals to us the true\ncharacter of the vision with which we have to deal. It is in the strictest\nsense a Messianic prophecy\u2014that is, a picture of the kingdom of God in its\nfinal state as the prophet was led to conceive it. It is common to all\nsuch representations that the human authors of them have no idea of a long\nhistorical development gradually leading up to the perfect manifestation\nof God\u2019s purpose with the world. The impending crisis in the affairs of\nthe people of Israel is always regarded as the consummation of human\nhistory and the establishment of God\u2019s kingdom in the plenitude of its\npower and glory. In the time of Ezekiel the next step in the unfolding of\nthe divine plan of redemption was the restoration of Israel to its own\nland; and in so far as his vision is a prophecy of that event, it was\nrealised in the return of the exiles with Zerubbabel in the first year of\nCyrus. But to the mind of Ezekiel this did not present itself as a mere\nstep towards something immeasurably higher in the remote future. It is to\ninclude everything necessary for the complete and final inbringing of the\nMessianic dispensation, and all the powers of the world to come are to be\ndisplayed in the acts by which Jehovah brings back the scattered members\nof Israel to the enjoyment of blessedness in His own presence.\n\nThe thing that misleads us as to the real nature of the vision is the\nemphasis laid on matters which seem to us of merely temporal and earthly\nsignificance. We are apt to think that what we have before us can be\nnothing else than a legislative scheme to be carried out more or less\nfully in the new state that should arise after the Exile. The miraculous\nfeatures in the vision are apt to be dismissed as mere symbolisms to which\nno great significance attaches. Legislating for the millennium seems to us\na strange occupation for a prophet, and we are hardly prepared to credit\neven Ezekiel with so bold a conception. But that depends entirely on his\nidea of what the millennium will be. If it is to be a state of things in\nwhich religious institutions are of vital importance for the maintenance\nof the spiritual interests of the community of the people of God, then\nlegislation is the natural expression for the ideals which are to be\nrealised in it. And we must remember, too, that what we have to do with is\na vision. Ezekiel is not the ultimate source of this legislation, however\nmuch it may bear the impress of his individual experience. He has seen the\ncity of God, and all the minute and elaborate regulations with which these\nnine chapters are filled are but the exposition of principles that\ndetermine the character of a people amongst whom Jehovah can dwell.\n\nAt the same time we see that a separation of different aspects of the\nvision was inevitably effected by the teaching of history. The return from\nBabylon was accomplished without any of those supernatural adjuncts with\nwhich it had been invested in the rapt imagination of the prophet. No\ntransformation of the land preceded it; no visible presence of Jehovah\nwelcomed the exiles back to their ancient abode. They found Jerusalem in\nruins, the holy and beautiful house a desolation, the land occupied by\naliens, the seasons unproductive as of old. Yet in the hearts of these men\nthere was a vision even more impressive than that of Ezekiel in his\nsolitude. To lay the foundations of a theocratic state in the dreary,\ndiscouraging daylight of the present was an act of faith as heroic as has\never been performed in the history of religion. The building of the Temple\nwas undertaken amidst many difficulties, the ritual was organised, the\nrudiments of a religious constitution appeared, and in all this we see the\ninfluence of those principles of national holiness that had been\nformulated by Ezekiel. But the crowning manifestation of Jehovah\u2019s glory\nwas deferred. Prophet after prophet appeared to keep alive the hope that\nthis Temple, poor in outward appearance as it was, would yet be the centre\nof a new world, and the dwelling\u2010place of the Eternal. Centuries rolled\npast, and still Jehovah did not come to His Temple, and the eschatological\nfeatures which had bulked so largely in Ezekiel\u2019s vision remained an\nunfulfilled aspiration. And when at length in the fulness of time the\ncomplete revelation of God was given, it was in a form that superseded the\nold economy entirely, and transformed its most stable and cherished\ninstitutions into adumbrations of a spiritual kingdom which knew no\nearthly Temple and had need of none.\n\n                  \u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\n\nThis brings us to the most difficult and most important of all the\nquestions arising in connection with Ezekiel\u2019s vision\u2014What is its relation\nto the Pentateuchal Legislation? It is obvious at once that the\nsignificance of this section of the book of Ezekiel is immensely enhanced\nif we accept the conclusion to which the critical study of the Old\nTestament has been steadily driven, that in the chapters before us we have\nthe first outline of that great conception of a theocratic constitution\nwhich attained its finished expression in the priestly regulations of the\nmiddle books of the Pentateuch. The discussion of this subject is so\nintricate, so far\u2010reaching in its consequences, and ranges over so wide an\nhistorical field, that one is tempted to leave it in the hands of those\nwho have addressed themselves to its special treatment, and to try to get\non as best one may without assuming a definite attitude on one side or the\nother. But the student of Ezekiel cannot altogether evade it. Again and\nagain the question will force itself on him as he seeks to ascertain the\nmeaning of the various details of Ezekiel\u2019s legislation, How does this\nstand related to corresponding requirements in the Mosaic law? It is\nnecessary, therefore, in justice to the reader of the following pages,\nthat an attempt should be made, however imperfectly, to indicate the\nposition which the present phase of criticism assigns to Ezekiel in the\nhistory of the Old Testament legislation.\n\nWe may begin by pointing out the kind of difficulty that is felt to arise\non the supposition that Ezekiel had before him the entire body of laws\ncontained in our present Pentateuch. We should expect in that case that\nthe prophet would contemplate a restoration of the divine institutions\nestablished under Moses, and that his vision would reproduce with\nsubstantial fidelity the minute provisions of the law by which these\ninstitutions were to be maintained. But this is very far from being the\ncase. It is found that while Ezekiel deals to a large extent with the\nsubjects for which provision is made by the law, there is in no instance\nperfect correspondence between the enactments of the vision and those of\nthe Pentateuch, while on some points they differ very materially from one\nanother. How are we to account for these numerous and, on the supposition,\nevidently designed divergencies? It has been suggested that the law was\nfound to be in some respects unsuitable to the state of things that would\narise after the Exile, and that Ezekiel in the exercise of his prophetic\nauthority undertook to adapt it to the conditions of a late age. The\nsuggestion is in itself plausible, but it is not confirmed by the history.\nFor it is agreed on all hands that the law as a whole had never been put\nin force for any considerable period of Israel\u2019s history previous to the\nExile. On the other hand, if we suppose that Ezekiel judged its provisions\nunsuitable for the circumstances that would emerge after the Exile, we are\nconfronted by the fact that where Ezekiel\u2019s legislation differs from that\nof the Pentateuch it is the latter and not the former that regulated the\npractice of the post\u2010exilic community. So far was the law from being out\nof date in the age of Ezekiel that the time was only approaching when the\nfirst effort would be made to accept it in all its length and breadth as\nthe authoritative basis of an actual theocratic polity. Unless, therefore,\nwe are to hold that the legislation of the vision is entirely in the air,\nand that it takes no account whatever of practical considerations, we must\nfeel that a certain difficulty is presented by its unexplained deviations\nfrom the carefully drawn ordinances of the Pentateuch.\n\nBut this is not all. The Pentateuch itself is not a unity. It consists of\ndifferent strata of legislation which, while irreconcilable in details,\nare held to exhibit a continuous progress towards a clearer definition of\nthe duties that devolve on different classes in the community, and a\nfuller exposition of the principles that underlay the system from the\nbeginning. The analysis of the Mosaic writings into different legislative\ncodes has resulted in a scheme which in its main outlines is now accepted\nby critics of all shades of opinion. The three great codes which we have\nto distinguish are: (1) the so\u2010called Book of the Covenant (Exod. xx.\n24\u2010xxiii., with which may be classed the closely allied code of Exod.\nxxxiv. 10\u201028); (2) the Book of Deuteronomy; and (3) the Priestly Code\n(found in Exod. xxv.\u2010xxxi., xxxv.\u2010xl., the whole book of Leviticus, and\nnearly the whole of the book of Numbers).(210) Now of course the mere\nseparation of these different documents tells us nothing, or not much, as\nto their relative priority or antiquity. But we possess at least a certain\namount of historical and independent evidence as to the times when some of\nthem became operative in the actual life of the nation. We know, for\nexample, that the Book of Deuteronomy attained the force of statute law\nunder the most solemn circumstances by a national covenant in the\neighteenth year of Josiah. The distinctive feature of that book is its\nimpressive enforcement of the principle that there is but one sanctuary at\nwhich Jehovah can be legitimately worshipped. When we compare the list of\nreforms carried out by Josiah, as given in the twenty\u2010third chapter of 2\nKings, with the provisions of Deuteronomy, we see that it must have been\nthat book and it alone that had been found in the Temple and that governed\nthe reforming policy of the king. Before that time the law of the one\nsanctuary, if it was known at all, was certainly more honoured in the\nbreach than the observance. Sacrifices were freely offered at local altars\nthroughout the country, not merely by the ignorant common people and\nidolatrous kings, but by men who were the inspired religious leaders and\nteachers of the nation. Not only so, but this practice is sanctioned by\nthe Book of the Covenant, which permits the erection of an altar in every\nplace where Jehovah causes His name to be remembered, and only lays down\ninjunctions as to the kind of altar that might be used (Exod. xx. 24\u201026).\nThe evidence is thus very strong that the Book of Deuteronomy, at whatever\ntime it may have been written, had not the force of public law until the\nyear 621 B.C., and that down to that time the accepted and authoritative\nexpression of the divine will for Israel was the law embraced in the Book\nof the Covenant.\n\nTo find similar evidence of the practical adoption of the Priestly Code we\nhave to come down to a much later period. It is not till the year 444\nB.C., in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, that we read of the people\npledging themselves by a solemn covenant to the observance of regulations\nwhich are clearly those of the finished system of Pentateuchal law (Neh.\nviii.\u2010x.). It is there expressly stated that this law had not been\nobserved in Israel up to that time (Neh. ix. 34), and in particular that\nthe great Feast of Tabernacles had not been celebrated in accordance with\nthe requirements of the law since the days of Joshua (Neh. viii. 17). This\nis quite conclusive as to actual practice in Israel; and the fact that the\nobservance of the law was thus introduced by instalments and on occasions\nof epoch\u2010making importance in the history of the community raises a strong\npresumption against the hypothesis that the Pentateuch was an inseparable\nliterary unity which must be known in its entirety where it was known at\nall.\n\nNow the date of Ezekiel\u2019s vision (572) lies between these two historic\ntransactions\u2014the inauguration of the law of Deuteronomy in 621, and that\nof the Priestly Code in 444; and in spite of the ideal character which\nbelongs to the vision as a whole, it contains a system of legislation\nwhich admits of being compared point by point with the provisions of the\nother two codes on a variety of subjects common to all three. Some of the\nresults of this comparison will appear as we proceed with the exposition\nof the chapters before us. But it will be convenient to state here the\nimportant conclusion to which a number of critics have been led by\ndiscussion of this question. It is held that Ezekiel\u2019s legislation\nrepresents on the whole a transition from the law of Deuteronomy to the\nmore complex system of the Priestly document. The three codes exhibit a\nregular progression, the determining factor of which is a growing sense of\nthe importance of the Temple worship and of the necessity for a careful\nregulation of the acts which express the religious standing and privileges\nof the community. On such matters as the feasts, the sacrifices, the\ndistinction between priests and Levites, the Temple dues, and the\nprovision for the maintenance of ordinances, it is found that Ezekiel lays\ndown enactments which go beyond those of Deuteronomy and anticipate a\nfurther development in the same direction in the Levitical\nlegislation.(211) The legislation of Ezekiel is accordingly regarded as a\nfirst step towards the codification of the ritual laws which regulated the\nusage of the first Temple. It is not of material consequence to know how\nfar these laws had been already committed to writing, or how far they had\nbeen transmitted by oral tradition. The important point is that down to\nthe time of Ezekiel the great body of ritual law had been the possession\nof the priests, who communicated it to the people in the shape of\nparticular decisions as occasion demanded. Even the book of Deuteronomy,\nexcept on one or two points, such as the law of leprosy and of clean and\nunclean animals, does not encroach on matters of ritual, which it was the\nspecial province of the priesthood to administer. But now that the time\nwas drawing near when the Temple and its worship were to be the very\ncentre of the religious life of the nation, it was necessary that the\nessential elements of the ceremonial law should be systematised and\npublished in a form understood of the people. The last nine chapters of\nEzekiel, then, contain the first draft of such a scheme, drawn from an\nancient priestly tradition which in its origin went back to the time of\nMoses. It is true that this was not the precise form in which the law was\ndestined to be put in practice in the post\u2010exilic community. But Ezekiel\u2019s\nlegislation served its purpose when it laid down clearly, with the\nauthority of a prophet, the fundamental ideas that underlie the conception\nof ritual as an aid to spiritual religion. And these ideas were not lost\nsight of, though it was reserved for others, working under the impulse\nsupplied by Ezekiel, to perfect the details of the system, and to adopt\nthe principles of the vision to the actual circumstances of the second\nTemple. Through what subsequent stages the work was carried we can hardly\nhope to determine with exactitude; but it was finished in all essential\nrespects before the great covenant of Ezra and Nehemiah in the year\n444.(212)\n\nLet us now consider the bearing of this theory on the interpretation of\nEzekiel\u2019s vision. It enables us to do justice to the unmistakable\npractical purpose which pervades its legislation. It frees us from the\ngrave difficulties involved in the assumption that Ezekiel wrote with the\nfinished Pentateuch before him. It vindicates the prophet from the\nsuspicion of arbitrary deviations from a standard of venerable antiquity\nand of divine authority which was afterwards proved by experience to be\nsuited to the requirements of that restored Israel in whose interest\nEzekiel legislated. And in doing so it gives a new meaning to his claim to\nspeak as a prophet ordaining a new system of laws with divine authority.\nWhilst perfectly consistent with the inspiration of the Mosaic books, it\nplaces that of Ezekiel on a surer footing than does the supposition that\nthe whole Pentateuch was of Mosaic authorship. It involves, no doubt, that\nthe details of the Priestly law were in a more or less fluid condition\ndown to the time of the Exile; but it explains the otherwise unaccountable\nfact that the several parts of the law became operative at different times\nin Israel\u2019s history, and explains it in a manner that reveals the working\nof a divine purpose through all the ages of the national existence. It\nbecomes possible to see that Ezekiel\u2019s legislation and that of the\nLevitical books are in their essence alike Mosaic, as being founded on the\ninstitutions and principles established by Moses at the beginning of the\nnation\u2019s history. And an altogether new interest is imparted to the former\nwhen we learn to regard it as an epoch\u2010making contribution to the task\nwhich laid the foundation of the post\u2010exilic theocracy\u2014the task of\ncodifying and consolidating the laws which expressed the character of the\nnew nation as a holy people consecrated to the service of Jehovah, the\nHoly One of Israel.\n\n\n\n\nChapter XXVI. The Sanctuary. Chapters xl.\u2010xliii.\n\n\nThe fundamental idea of the theocracy as conceived by Ezekiel is the\nliteral dwelling of Jehovah in the midst of His people. The Temple is in\nthe first instance Jehovah\u2019s palace, where He manifests His gracious\npresence by receiving the gifts and homage of His subjects. But the\nenjoyment of this privilege of access to the presence of God depends on\nthe fulfilment of certain conditions which, in the prophet\u2019s view, had\nbeen systematically violated in the arrangements that prevailed under the\nfirst Temple. Hence the vision of Ezekiel is essentially the vision of a\nTemple corresponding in all respects to the requirements of Jehovah\u2019s\nholiness, and then of Jehovah\u2019s entrance into the house so prepared for\nHis reception. And the first step towards the realisation of the great\nhope of the future was to lay before the exiles a full description of this\nbuilding, so that they might understand the conditions on which alone\nIsrael could be restored to its own land.\n\nTo this task the prophet addresses himself in the first four of the\nchapters before us, and he executes it in a manner which, considering the\ngreat technical difficulties to be surmounted, must excite our admiration.\nHe tells us first in a brief introduction how he was transported in\nprophetic ecstasy to the land of Israel, and there on the site of the old\nTemple, now elevated into a \u201cvery high mountain,\u201d he sees before him an\nimposing pile of buildings like the building of a city (ver. 2). It is the\nfuture Temple, the city itself having been removed nearly two miles to the\nsouth. At the east gate he is met by an angel, who conducts him from point\nto point of the buildings, calling his attention to significant structural\ndetails, and measuring each part as he goes along with a measuring\u2010line\nwhich he carries in his hand. It is probable that the whole description\nwould be perfectly intelligible but for the state of the text, which is\ndefective throughout and in some places hopelessly corrupt. This is hardly\nsurprising when we consider the technical and unfamiliar nature of the\nterms employed; but it has been suspected that some parts have been\ndeliberately tampered with in order to bring them into harmony with the\nactual construction of the second Temple. Whether that is so or not, the\ndescription as a whole remains in its way a masterpiece of literary\nexposition, and a remarkable proof of the versatility of Ezekiel\u2019s\naccomplishments. When it is necessary to turn himself into an\narchitectural draughtsman he discharges the duty to perfection. No one can\nstudy the detailed measurements of the buildings without being convinced\nthat the prophet is working from a ground plan which he has himself\nprepared; indeed his own words leave no doubt that this was the case (see\nch. xliii. 10, 11). And it is a convincing demonstration of his\ndescriptive powers that we are able, after the labours of many generations\nof scholars, to reproduce this plan with a certainty which, except with\nregard to a few minor features, leaves little to be desired. It has been\nremarked as a curious fact that of the three temples mentioned in the Old\nTestament the only one of whose construction we can form a clear\nconception is the one that was never built;(213) and certainly the\nknowledge we have of Solomon\u2019s Temple from the first book of Kings is very\nincomplete compared with what we know of the Temple which Ezekiel saw only\nin vision.\n\nIt is impossible in this chapter to enter into all the minuti\u00e6 of the\ndescription, or even to discuss all the difficulties of interpretation\nwhich arise in connection with different parts. Full information on these\npoints will be found in short compass in Dr. Davidson\u2019s commentary on the\npassage. All that can be attempted here is to convey a general idea of the\narrangements of the various buildings and courts of the sanctuary, and the\nextreme care with which they have been thought out by the prophet. After\nthis has been done we shall try to discover the meaning of these\narrangements in so far as they differ from the model supplied by the first\nTemple.\n\n\n\nI\n\n\nLet the reader, then, after the manner of Euclid, draw a straight line A\nB, and describe thereon a square A B C D. Let him divide two adjacent\nsides of the square (say A B and A D) into ten equal parts, and let lines\nbe drawn from the points of section parallel to the sides of the square in\nboth directions. Let a side of the small squares represent a length of\nfifty cubits, and the whole consequently a square of five hundred\ncubits.(214) It will now be found that the bounding lines of Ezekiel\u2019s\nplan run throughout on the lines of this diagram;(215) and this fact gives\na better idea than anything else of the symmetrical structure of the\nTemple and of the absolute accuracy of the measurements.\n\nThe sides of the large square represent of course the outer boundary of\nthe enclosure, which is formed by a wall six cubits thick and six\nhigh.(216) Its sides are directed to the four points of the compass, and\nat the middle of the north, east and south sides the wall is pierced by\nthe three gates, each with an ascent of seven steps outside. The gates,\nhowever, are not mere openings in the wall furnished with doors, but\ncovered gateways similar to those that penetrate the thick wall of a\nfortified town. In this case they are large separate buildings projecting\ninto the court to a distance of fifty cubits, and twenty\u2010five cubits\nbroad, exactly half the size of the Temple proper. On either side of the\npassage are three recesses in the wall six cubits square, which were to be\nused as guard\u2010rooms by the Temple police. Each gateway terminates towards\nthe court in a large hall called \u201cthe porch,\u201d eight cubits broad (along\nthe line of entry) by twenty long (across): the porch of the east gate was\nreserved for the use of the prince; the purpose of the other two is\nnowhere specified.\n\nPassing through the eastern gateway, the prophet stands in the outer court\nof the Temple, the place where the people assembled for worship. It seems\nto have been entirely destitute of buildings, with the exception of a row\nof thirty cells along the three walls in which the gates were. The outer\nmargin of the court was paved with stone up to the line of the inside of\nthe gateways (_i.e._, fifty cubits, less the thickness of the outer wall);\nand on this pavement stood the cells, the dimensions of which, however,\nare not given. There were, moreover, in the four corners of the court\nrectangular enclosures forty cubits by thirty, where the Levites were to\ncook the sacrifices of the people (ch. xlvi. 21\u201024). The purpose of the\ncells is nowhere specified; but there is little doubt that they were\nintended for those sacrificial feasts of a semi\u2010private character which\nhad always been a prominent feature of the Temple worship. From the edge\nof the pavement to the inner court was a distance of a hundred cubits; but\nthis space was free only on three sides, the western side being occupied\nby buildings to be afterwards described.\n\nThe inner court was a terrace standing probably about five feet above the\nlevel of the outer, and approached by flights of eight steps at the three\ngates. It was reserved for the exclusive use of the priests. It had three\ngateways in a line with those of the outer court, and precisely similar to\nthem, with the single exception that the porches were not, as we might\nhave expected, towards the inside, but at the ends next to the outer\ncourt. The free space of the inner court, within the line of the gateways,\nwas a square of a hundred cubits, corresponding to the four middle squares\nof the diagram. Right in the middle, so that it could be seen through the\ngates, was the great altar of burnt\u2010offering, a huge stone structure\nrising in three terraces to a height apparently of twelve cubits, and\nhaving a breadth and length of eighteen cubits at the base. That this,\nrather than the Temple, should be the centre of the sanctuary, corresponds\nto a consciousness in Israel that the altar was the one indispensable\nrequisite for the performance of sacrificial worship acceptable to\nJehovah. Accordingly, when the first exiles returned to Jerusalem, before\nthey were in a position to set about the erection of the Temple, they\nreared the altar in its place, and at once instituted the daily sacrifice\nand the stated order of the festivals. And even in Ezekiel\u2019s vision we\nshall find that the sacrificial consecration of the altar is considered as\nequivalent to the dedication of the whole sanctuary to the chief purpose\nfor which it was erected. Besides the altar there were in the inner court\ncertain other objects of special significance for the priestly and\nsacrificial service. By the side of the north and south gates were two\ncells or chambers opening towards the middle space. The purpose for which\nthese cells were intended clearly points to a division of the priesthood\n(which, however, may have been temporary and not permanent) into two\nclasses\u2014one of which was entrusted with the service of the Temple, and the\nother with the service of the altar. The cell on the north, we are told,\nwas for the priests engaged in the service of the house, and that on the\nsouth for those who officiated at the altar (ch. xl. 45, 46). There is\nmention also of tables on which different classes of sacrificial victims\nwere slaughtered, and of a chamber in which the burnt\u2010offering was washed\n(ch. xl. 38\u201043); but so obscure is the text of this passage that it cannot\neven be certainly determined whether these appliances were situated at the\neast gate or the north gate, or at each of the three gates.\n\nThe four small squares immediately adjoining the inner court on the west\nare occupied by the Temple proper and its adjuncts. The Temple itself\nstands on a solid basement six cubits above the level of the inner court,\nand is reached by a flight of ten steps. The breadth of the basement\n(north to south) is sixty cubits: this leaves a free space of twenty\ncubits on either side, which is really a continuation of the inner court,\nalthough it bears the special name of the _gizra_ (\u201cseparate place\u201d). In\nlength the basement measures a hundred and five cubits, projecting, as we\nimmediately see, five cubits into the inner court in front.(217) The inner\nspace of the Temple was divided, as in Solomon\u2019s Temple, into three\ncompartments, communicating with each other by folding\u2010doors in the middle\nof the partitions that separated them. Entering by the outer door on the\neast, we come first to the vestibule, which is twenty cubits broad (north\nto south) by twelve cubits east to west. Next to this is the hall or\n\u201cpalace\u201d (_h\u00eak\u0101l_), twenty cubits by forty. Beyond this again is the\ninnermost shrine of the Temple, the Most Holy Place, where the glory of\nthe God of Israel is to take the place occupied by the ark and cherubim of\nthe first Temple. It is a square of twenty cubits; but Ezekiel, although\nhimself a priest, is not allowed to enter this sacred space; the angel\ngoes in alone, and announces the measurements to the prophet, who waits\nwithout in the great hall of the Temple. The only piece of furniture\nmentioned in the Temple is an altar or table in the hall, immediately in\nfront of the Most Holy Place (ch. xli. 22). The reference is no doubt to\nthe table on which the shewbread was laid out before Jehovah (cf. Exod.\nxxv. 23\u201030). Some details are also given of the wood\u2010carving with which\nthe interior was decorated (ch. xli. 16\u201020, 25), consisting apparently of\ncherubs and palm trees in alternate panels. This appears to be simply a\nreminiscence of the ornamentation of the old Temple, and to have no direct\nreligious significance in the mind of the prophet.\n\nThe Temple was enclosed first by a wall six cubits thick, and then on each\nside except the east by an outer wall of five cubits, separated from the\ninner by an interval of four cubits. This intervening space was divided\ninto three ranges of small cells rising in three stories one over another.\nThe second and third stories were somewhat broader than the lowest, the\ninner wall of the house being contracted so as to allow the beams to be\nlaid upon it without breaking into its surface. We must further suppose\nthat the inner wall rose above the cells and the outer wall, so as to\nleave a clear space for the windows of the Temple. The entire length of\nthe Temple on the outside is a hundred cubits, and the breadth fifty\ncubits. This leaves room for a passage of five cubits broad round the edge\nof the elevated platform on which the main building stood. The two doors\nwhich gave access to the cells opened on this passage, and were placed in\nthe north and south sides of the outer wall. There was obviously no need\nto continue the passage round the west side of the house, and this does\nnot appear to be contemplated.\n\nIt will be seen that there still remains a square of a hundred cubits\nbehind the Temple, between it and the west wall. The greater part of this\nwas taken up by a structure vaguely designated as the \u201cbuilding\u201d (_biny\u0101_\nor _binyan_), which is commonly supposed to have been a sort of lumber\u2010\nroom, although its function is not indicated. Nor does it appear whether\nit stood on the level of the inner court or of the outer. But while this\nbuilding fills the whole breadth of the square from north to south (a\nhundred cubits), the other dimension (east to west) is curtailed by a\nspace of twenty cubits left free between it and the Temple, the _gizra_\n(see p. 410) being thus continuous round three sides of the house.\n\nThe most troublesome part of the description is that of two blocks of\ncells(218) situated north and south of the Temple building (ch. xlii.\n1\u201014). It seems clear that they occupied the oblong spaces between the\n_gizra_ north and south of the Temple and the walls of the inner court.\nTheir length is said to be a hundred cubits, and their breadth fifty\ncubits. But room has to be found for a passage ten cubits broad and a\nhundred long, so that the measurements do not exhibit in this case\nEzekiel\u2019s usual accuracy. Moreover, we are told that while their length\nfacing the Temple was a hundred cubits, the length facing the outer court\nwas only fifty cubits. It is extremely difficult to gain a clear idea of\nwhat the prophet meant. Smend and Davidson suppose that each block was\ndivided longitudinally into two sections, and that the passage of ten\ncubits ran between them from east to west. The inner section would then be\na hundred cubits in length and twenty in breadth. But the other section\ntowards the outer court would have only half this length, the remaining\nfifty cubits along the edge of the inner court being protected by a wall.\nThis is perhaps the best solution that has been proposed, but one can\nhardly help thinking that if Ezekiel had had such an arrangement in view\nhe would have expressed himself more clearly. The one thing that is\nperfectly unambiguous is the purpose for which these cells were to be\nused. Certain sacrifices to which a high degree of sanctity attached were\nconsumed by the priests, and being \u201cmost holy\u201d things they had to be eaten\nin a holy place. These chambers, then, standing within the sacred\nenclosure of the inner court, were assigned to the priests for this\npurpose.(219) In them also the priests were to deposit the sacred garments\nin which they ministered, before leaving the inner court to mingle with\nthe people.\n\n\n\nII\n\n\nSuch, then, are the leading features presented by Ezekiel\u2019s description of\nan ideal sanctuary. What are the chief impressions suggested to the mind\nby its perusal? The fact no doubt that surprises us most is that our\nattention is almost exclusively directed to the ground\u2010plan of the\nbuildings. It is evident that the prophet is indifferent to what seems to\nus the noblest element of ecclesiastical architecture, the effect of lofty\nspaces on the imagination of the worshipper. It is no part of his purpose\nto inspire devotional feeling by the aid of purely \u00e6sthetic impressions.\n\u201cThe height, the span, the gloom, the glory\u201d of some venerable Gothic\ncathedral do not enter into his conception of a place of worship. The\nimpressions he wishes to convey, although religious, are intellectual\nrather than \u00e6sthetic, and are such as could be expressed by the sharp\noutlines and mathematical precision of a ground\u2010plan. Now of course the\nsanctuary was, to begin with, a place of sacrifice, and to a large extent\nits arrangements were necessarily dictated by a regard for practical\nconvenience and utility. But leaving this on one side, it is obvious\nenough that the design is influenced by certain ruling principles, of\nwhich the most conspicuous are these three: separation, gradation, and\nsymmetry. And these again symbolise three aspects of the one great idea of\nholiness, which the prophet desired to see embodied in the whole\nconstitution of the Hebrew state as the guarantee of lasting fellowship\nbetween Jehovah and Israel.\n\nIn Ezekiel\u2019s teaching on the subject of holiness there is nothing that is\nabsolutely new or peculiar to himself. That Jehovah is the one truly holy\nBeing is the common doctrine of the prophets, and it means that He alone\nunites in Himself all the attributes of true Godhead. The Hebrew language\ndoes not admit of the formation of an adjective from the name for God like\nour word \u201cdivine,\u201d or an abstract noun corresponding to \u201cdivinity.\u201d What\nwe denote by these terms the Hebrews expressed by the words _q\u0101d\u00f4sh_ ,\n\u201choly,\u201d and _q\u014ddesh_, \u201choliness.\u201d All that constitutes true divinity is\ntherefore summed up in the Old Testament idea of the holiness of God. The\nfundamental thought expressed by the word when applied to God appears to\nbe the separation or contrast between the divine and the human\u2014that in God\nwhich inspires awe and reverence on the part of man, and forbids approach\nto Him save under restrictions which flow from the nature of the Deity. In\nthe light of the New Testament revelation we see that the only barrier to\ncommunion with God is sin; and hence to us holiness, both in God and man,\nis a purely ethical idea denoting moral purity and perfectness. But under\nthe Old Testament access to God was hindered not only by sin, but also by\nnatural disabilities to which no moral guilt attaches. The idea of\nholiness is therefore partly ethical and partly ceremonial, physical\nuncleanness being as really a violation of the divine holiness, as\noffences against the moral law. The consequences of this view appear\nnowhere more clearly than in the legislation of Ezekiel. His mind was\npenetrated with the prophetic idea of the unique divinity or holiness of\nJehovah, and no one can doubt that the moral attributes of God occupied\nthe supreme place in his conception of what true Godhead is. But along\nwith this he has a profound sense of what the nature of Jehovah demands in\nthe way of ceremonial purity. The divine holiness, in fact, contains a\nphysical as well as an ethical element; and to guard against the intrusion\nof anything unclean into the sphere of Jehovah\u2019s worship is the chief\ndesign of the elaborate system of ritual laws laid down in the closing\nchapters of Ezekiel. Ultimately no doubt the whole system served a moral\npurpose by furnishing a safeguard against the introduction of heathen\npractices into the worship of Israel. But its immediate effect was to give\nprominence to that aspect of the idea of holiness which seems to us of\nleast value, although it could not be dispensed with so long as the\nworship of God took the form of material offerings at a local sanctuary.\n\nNow in reducing this idea to practice it is obvious that everything\ndepends on the strict enforcement of the principle of separation that lies\nat the root of the Hebrew conception of holiness. The thought that\nunderlies Ezekiel\u2019s legislation is that the holiness of Jehovah is\ncommunicated in different degrees to everything connected with His\nworship, and in the first instance to the Temple, which is sanctified by\nHis presence. The sanctity of the place is of course not fully\nintelligible apart from the ceremonial rules which regulate the conduct of\nthose who are permitted to enter it. Throughout the ancient world we find\nevidence of the existence of sacred enclosures which could only be entered\nby those who fulfilled certain conditions of physical purity. The\nconditions might be extremely simple, as when Moses was commanded to take\nhis shoes off his feet as he stood within the holy ground on Mount Sinai.\nBut obviously the first essential of a permanently sacred place was that\nit should be definitely marked off from common ground, as the sphere\nwithin which superior requirements of holiness became binding. A holy\nplace is necessarily a place \u201ccut off,\u201d separated from ordinary use and\nguarded from intrusion by supernatural sanctions. The idea of the\nsanctuary as a separate place was therefore perfectly familiar to the\nIsraelites long before the time of Ezekiel, and had been exhibited in a\nlax and imperfect way in the construction of the first Temple. But what\nEzekiel did was to carry out the idea with a thoroughness never before\nattempted, and in such a way as to make the whole arrangements of the\nsanctuary an impressive object lesson on the holiness of Jehovah.\n\nHow important this notion of separateness was to Ezekiel\u2019s conception of\nthe sanctuary is best seen from the emphatic condemnation of the\narrangement of the old Temple pronounced by Jehovah Himself on His\nentrance into the house: \u201cSon of man, [hast thou seen](220) the place of\nMy throne, and the place of the soles of My feet, where I shall dwell in\nthe midst of the children of Israel for ever? No longer shall the house of\nIsrael defile My holy name, they and their kings, by their whoredom\n[idolatry], and by the corpses of their kings in their death; by placing\ntheir threshold alongside of My threshold, and their post beside My post,\nwith only the wall between Me and them, and defiling My holy name by their\nabominations which they committed; so that I consumed them in My anger.\nBut now they must remove their whoredom and the corpses of their kings\nfrom Me, and I will dwell amongst them for ever\u201d (ch. xliii. 7\u20109). There\nis here a clear allusion to defects in the structure of the Temple which\nwere inconsistent with a due recognition of the necessary separation\nbetween the holy and the profane (ch. xlii. 20). It appears that the first\nTemple had only one court, corresponding to the inner court of Ezekiel\u2019s\nvision. What answered to the outer court was simply an enclosure\nsurrounding, not only the Temple, but also the royal palace and the other\nbuildings of state. Immediately adjoining the Temple area on the south was\nthe court in which the palace stood, so that the only division between the\ndwelling\u2010place of Jehovah and the residence of the kings of Judah was the\nsingle wall separating the two courts. This of itself was derogatory to\nthe sanctity of the Temple, according to the enhanced idea of holiness\nwhich it was Ezekiel\u2019s mission to enforce. But the prophet touches on a\nstill more flagrant transgression of the law of holiness when he speaks of\nthe dead bodies of the kings as being interred in the neighbourhood of the\nTemple. Contact with a dead body produced under all circumstances the\nhighest degree of ceremonial uncleanness, and nothing could have been more\nabhorrent to Ezekiel\u2019s priestly sense of propriety than the close\nproximity of dead men\u2019s bones to the house in which Jehovah was to dwell.\nIn order to guard against the recurrence of these abuses in the future it\nwas necessary that all secular buildings should be removed to a safe\ndistance from the Temple precincts. The \u201claw of the house\u201d is that \u201cupon\nthe top of the mountain it shall stand, and all its precincts round about\nshall be most holy\u201d (ch. xliii. 12). And it is characteristic of Ezekiel\nthat the separation is effected, not by changing the situation of the\nTemple, but by transporting the city bodily to the southward; so that the\nnew sanctuary stood on the site of the old, but isolated from the contact\nof that in human life which was common and unclean.(221)\n\nThe effect of this teaching, however, is immensely enhanced by the\nprinciple of gradation, which is the second feature exhibited in Ezekiel\u2019s\ndescription of the sanctuary. Holiness, as a predicate of persons or\nthings, is after all a relative idea. That which is \u201cmost holy\u201d in\nrelation to the profane every\u2010day life of men may be less holy in\ncomparison with something still more closely associated with the presence\nof God. Thus the whole land of Israel was holy in contrast with the world\nlying outside. But it was impossible to maintain the whole land in a state\nof ceremonial purity corresponding to the sanctity of Jehovah. The full\ncompass of the idea could only be illustrated by a carefully graded series\nof sacred spaces, each of which entailed provisions of sanctity peculiar\nto itself. First of all an \u201coblation\u201d is set apart in the middle of the\ntribes; and of this the central portion is assigned for the residence of\nthe priestly families. In the midst of this, again, stands the sanctuary\nwith its wall and precinct, dividing the holy from the profane (ch. xlii.\n20). Within the wall are the two courts, of which the outer could only be\ntrodden by circumcised Israelites and the inner only by the priests.\nBehind the inner court stands the Temple house, cut off from the adjoining\nbuildings by a \u201cseparate place,\u201d and elevated on a platform, which still\nfurther guards its sanctity from profane contact. And finally the interior\nof the house is divided into three compartments, increasing in holiness in\nthe order of entrance\u2014first the porch, then the main hall, and then the\nMost Holy Place, where Jehovah Himself dwells. It is impossible to mistake\nthe meaning of all this. The practical object is to secure the presence of\nJehovah against the possibility of contact with those sources of impurity\nwhich are inseparably bound up with the incidents of man\u2019s natural\nexistence on earth.(222)\n\nBefore we pass on let us return for a moment to the primary notion of\nseparation in space as an emblem of the Old Testament conception of\nholiness. What is the permanent religious truth underlying this\nrepresentation? We may find it in the idea conveyed by the familiar phrase\n\u201cdraw near to God.\u201d What we have just seen reminds us that there was a\nstage in the history of religion when these words could be used in the\nmost literal sense of every act of complete worship. The worshipper\nactually came to the place where God was; it was impossible to realise His\npresence in any other way. To us the expression has only a metaphorical\nvalue; yet the metaphor is one that we cannot dispense with, for it covers\na fact of spiritual experience. It may be true that with God there is no\nfar or near, that He is omnipresent, that His eyes are in every place\nbeholding the evil and the good. But what does that mean? Not surely that\nall men everywhere and at all times are equally under the influence of the\ndivine Spirit? No; but only that God _may_ be found in any place by the\nsoul that is open to receive His grace and truth, that place has nothing\nto do with the conditions of true fellowship with Him. Translated into\nterms of the spiritual life, drawing near to God denotes the act of faith\nor prayer or consecration, through which we seek the manifestation of His\nlove in our experience. Religion knows nothing of \u201caction at a distance\u201d;\nGod is near in every place to the soul that knows Him, and distant in\nevery place from the heart that loves darkness rather than light.\n\nNow when the idea of access to God is thus spiritualised the conception of\nholiness is necessarily transformed, but it is not superseded. At every\nstage of revelation holiness is that \u201cwithout which no man shall see the\nLord.\u201d(223) In other words, it expresses the conditions that regulate all\ntrue fellowship with God. So long as worship was confined to an earthly\nsanctuary these conditions were so to speak materialised. They resolved\nthemselves into a series of \u201ccarnal ordinances\u201d\u2014gifts and sacrifices,\nmeats, drinks, and divers washings\u2014that could never make the worshipper\nperfect as touching the conscience. These things were \u201cimposed until a\ntime of reformation,\u201d the \u201cHoly Ghost this signifying, that the way into\nthe holy place had not been made manifest while as the first tabernacle\nwas yet standing.\u201d(224) And yet when we consider what it was that gave\nsuch vitality to that persistent sense of distance from God, of His\nunapproachableness, of danger in contact with Him, what it was that\ninspired such constant attention to ceremonial purity in all ancient\nreligions, we cannot but see that it was the obscure workings of the\nconscience, the haunting sense of moral defect cleaving to a man\u2019s common\nlife and all his common actions. In heathenism this feeling took an\nentirely wrong direction; in Israel it was gradually liberated from its\nmaterial associations and stood forth as an ethical fact. And when at last\nChrist came to reveal God as He is, He taught men to call nothing common\nor unclean. But He taught them at the same time that true holiness can\nonly be attained through His atoning sacrifice, and by the indwelling of\nthat Spirit which is the source of moral purity and perfection in all His\npeople. These are the abiding conditions of fellowship with the Father of\nour spirits; and under the influence of these great Christian facts it is\nour duty to perfect holiness in the fear of God.\n\n\n\nIII\n\n\nNo sooner has the prophet completed his tour of inspection of the sacred\nbuildings than he is conducted to the eastern gate to witness the\ntheophany by which the Temple is consecrated to the service of the true\nGod. \u201cHe (the angel) led me to the gate that looks eastward, and, lo, the\nglory of the God of Israel came from the east; its sound was as the sound\nof many waters, and the earth shone with its glory. The appearance which I\nsaw was like that which I had seen when He came to destroy the city, and\nlike the appearance which I saw by the river Kebar, and I fell on my face.\nAnd the glory of Jehovah entered the house by the gate that looks towards\nthe east. The Spirit caught me up, and brought me to the inner court; and,\nbehold, the glory of Jehovah filled the house. Then I heard a voice from\nthe house speaking to me\u2014the man was standing beside me\u2014and saying, Son of\nman, hast thou seen the place of My throne, and the place of the soles of\nMy feet, where I shall dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for\never?\u201d (ch. xliii. 1\u20107).\n\nThis great scene, so simply described, is really the culmination of\nEzekiel\u2019s prophecy. Its spiritual meaning is suggested by the prophet\nhimself when he recalls the terrible act of judgment which he had seen in\nvision on that very spot some twenty years before (chs. ix.\u2010xi.). The two\nepisodes stand in clear and conscious parallelism with each other. They\nrepresent in dramatic form the sum of Ezekiel\u2019s teaching in the two\nperiods into which his ministry was divided. On the former occasion he had\nwitnessed the exit of Jehovah from a Temple polluted by heathen\nabominations and profaned by the presence of men who had disowned the\nknowledge of the Holy One of Israel. The prophet had read in this the\ndeath sentence of the old Hebrew state, and the truth of his vision had\nbeen established in the tale of horror and disaster which the subsequent\nyears had unfolded. Now he has been privileged to see the return of\nJehovah to a new Temple, corresponding in all respects to the requirements\nof His holiness; and he recognises it as the pledge of restoration and\npeace and all the blessings of the Messianic age. The future worshippers\nare still in exile bearing the chastisement of their former iniquities;\nbut \u201cthe Lord is in His holy Temple,\u201d and the dispersed of Israel shall\nyet be gathered home to enter His courts with praise and thanksgiving.\n\nTo us this part of the vision symbolises, under forms derived from the Old\nTestament economy, the central truth of the Christian dispensation. We do\nno injustice to the historic import of Ezekiel\u2019s mission when we say that\nthe dwelling of Jehovah in the midst of His people is an emblem of\nreconciliation between God and man, and that his elaborate system of\nritual observances points towards the sanctification of human life in all\nits relations through spiritual communion with the Father revealed in our\nLord Jesus Christ. Christian interpreters have differed widely as to the\nmanner in which the vision is to be realised in the history of the Church;\nbut on one point at least they are agreed, that through the veil of legal\ninstitutions the prophet saw the day of Christ. And although Ezekiel\nhimself does not distinguish between the symbol and the reality, it is\nnevertheless possible for us to see, in the essential ideas of his vision,\na prophecy of that eternal union between God and man which is brought to\npass by the work of Christ.\n\n\n\n\nChapter XXVII. The Priesthood. Chapter xliv.\n\n\nIn the last chapter we saw how the principle of holiness through\nseparation was exhibited in the plan of a new Temple, round which the\nTheocracy of the future was to be constituted. We have now to consider the\napplication of the same principle to the _personnel_ of the Sanctuary, the\npriests and others who are to officiate within its courts. The connection\nbetween the two is obvious. As has been already remarked, the sanctity of\nthe Temple is not intelligible apart from the ceremonial purity required\nof the persons who are permitted to enter it. The degrees of holiness\npertaining to its different areas imply an ascending scale of restrictions\non access to the more sacred parts. We may expect to find that in the\nobservance of these conditions the usage of the first Temple left much to\nbe desired from the point of view represented by Ezekiel\u2019s ideal. Where\nthe very construction of the sanctuary involved so many departures from\nthe strict idea of holiness it was inevitable that a corresponding laxity\nshould prevail in the discharge of sacred functions. Temple and priesthood\nin fact are so related that a reform of the one implies of necessity a\nreform of the other. It is therefore not in itself surprising that\nEzekiel\u2019s legislation should include a scheme for the reorganisation of\nthe Temple priesthood. But these general considerations hardly prepare us\nfor the sweeping and drastic changes contemplated in the forty\u2010fourth\nchapter of the book. It requires an effort of imagination to realise the\nsituation with which the prophet has to deal. The abuses for which he\nseeks a remedy and the measures which he adopts to counteract them are\nalike contrary to preconceived notions of the order of worship in an\nIsraelite sanctuary. Yet there is no part of the prophet\u2019s programme which\nshows the character of the earnest practical reformer more clearly than\nthis. If we might regard Ezekiel as a mere legislator we should say that\nthe boldest task to which he set his hand was a reformation of the Temple\nministry, involving the degradation of an influential class from the\npriestly status and privileges to which they aspired.\n\n\n\nI\n\n\nThe first and most noteworthy feature of the new scheme is the distinction\nbetween priests and Levites. The passage in which this instruction is\ngiven is so important that it may be quoted here at length. It is an\noracle communicated to the prophet in a peculiarly impressive manner. He\nhas been brought into the inner court in front of the Temple, and there,\nin full view of the glory of God, he falls on his face, when Jehovah\nspeaks to him as follows:\u2014\n\n\u201cSon of man, give heed and see with thine eyes and hear with thine ears\nall that I speak to thee concerning all the ordinances and all the laws of\nJehovah\u2019s house. Mark well the [rule of] entrance into the house, and all\nthe outgoings in the sanctuary. And say to the house of rebellion, the\nhouse of Israel: Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, It is high time to desist\nfrom all your abominations, O house of Israel, in that ye bring in aliens\nuncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh to be in My sanctuary,\nprofaning it, while ye offer My bread, the fat and the blood; thus ye have\nbroken My covenant, in addition to all your [other] abominations; and ye\nhave not kept the charge of My holy things, but have appointed them as\nkeepers of My charge in My sanctuary. Therefore thus saith the Lord\nJehovah, No alien uncircumcised in heart and flesh shall enter into My\nsanctuary, of all the foreigners who are amongst the Israelites. But the\nLevites who departed from Me when Israel went astray from Me after their\nidols, _they_ shall bear their guilt, and shall minister in My sanctuary\nin charge at the gates of the house and as ministers of the house; they\nshall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and stand\nbefore them to minister to them. Because they ministered to them before\ntheir idols, and were to the house of Israel an occasion of guilt,\ntherefore I lift My hand against them, saith the Lord Jehovah, and they\nshall bear their guilt, and shall not draw near to Me to act as priests to\nMe or to touch any of My holy things, the most holy things, but shall bear\ntheir shame and the abominations which they have committed. I will make\nthem keepers of the charge of the house, for all its servile work and all\nthat has to be done in it. But the priest\u2010Levites, the sons of Zadok, who\nkept the charge of My sanctuary when the Israelites strayed from Me\u2014they\nshall draw near to Me to minister to Me, and shall stand before Me to\npresent to Me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord Jehovah. They shall\nenter into My sanctuary, and they shall draw near to My table to minister\nto Me, and shall keep My charge\u201d (xliv. 5\u201016).\n\nNow the first thing to be noticed here is that the new law of the\npriesthood is aimed directly against a particular abuse in the practice of\nthe first Temple. It appears that down to the time of the Exile\nuncircumcised aliens were not only admitted to the Temple, but were\nentrusted with certain important functions in maintaining order in the\nsanctuary (ver. 8). It is not expressly stated that they took any part in\nthe performance of the worship, although this is suggested by the fact\nthat the Levites who are installed in their place had to slay the\nsacrifices for the people and render other necessary services to the\nworshippers (ver. 11). In any case the mere presence of foreigners while\nsacrifice was being offered (ver. 7) was a profanation of the sanctity of\nthe Temple which was intolerable to a strict conception of Jehovah\u2019s\nholiness. It is therefore of some consequence to discover who these aliens\nwere, and how they came to be engaged in the Temple.\n\nFor a partial answer to this question, we may turn first to the memorable\nscene of the coronation of the young king Joash as described in the\neleventh chapter of the second book of Kings (_c._ B.C. 837). The moving\nspirit in that transaction was the chief priest Jehoiada, a man who was\nhonourably distinguished by his zeal for the purity of the national\nreligion. But although the priest\u2019s motives were pure he could only\naccomplish his object by a palace revolution, carried out with the\nassistance of the captains of the royal bodyguard. Now from the time of\nDavid the royal guard had contained a corps of foreign mercenaries\nrecruited from the Philistine country; and on the occasion with which we\nare dealing we find mention of a body of Carians, showing that the custom\nwas kept up in the end of the ninth century. During the coronation\nceremony these guards were drawn up in the most sacred part of the inner\ncourt, the space between the Temple and the altar, with the new king in\ntheir midst (ver. 11). Moreover we learn incidentally that keeping watch\nin the Temple was part of the regular duty of the king\u2019s bodyguard, just\nas much as the custody of the palace (vv. 5\u20107). In order to understand the\nfull significance of this arrangement, it must be borne in mind that the\nTemple was in the first instance the royal sanctuary, maintained at the\nking\u2019s expense and subject to his authority. Hence the duty of keeping\norder in the Temple courts naturally devolved on the troops that attended\nthe king\u2019s person and acted as the palace guard. So at an earlier period\nof the history we read that as often as the king went into the house of\nJehovah, he was accompanied by the guard that kept the door of the king\u2019s\nhouse (1 Kings xiv. 27, 28).\n\nHere, then, we have historical evidence of the admission to the sanctuary\nof a class of foreigners answering in all respects to the uncircumcised\naliens of Ezekiel\u2019s legislation. That the practice of enlisting foreign\nmercenaries for the guard continued till the reign of Josiah seems to be\nindicated by an allusion in the book of Zephaniah, where the prophet\ndenounces a body of men in the service of the king who observed the\nPhilistine custom of \u201cleaping over the threshold\u201d (Zeph. i. 9: cf. 1 Sam.\nv. 5). We have only to suppose that this usage, along with the\nsubordination of the Temple to the royal authority, persisted to the close\nof the monarchy, in order to explain fully the abuse which excited the\nindignation of our prophet. It is possible no doubt that he had in view\nother uncircumcised persons as well, such as the Gibeonites (Josh. ix.\n27), who were employed in the menial service of the sanctuary. But we have\nseen enough to show at all events that pre\u2010exilic usage tolerated a\nfreedom of access to the sanctuary and a looseness of administration\nwithin it which would have been sacrilegious under the law of the second\nTemple. It need not be supposed that Ezekiel was the only one who felt\nthis state of things to be a scandal and an injury to religion. We may\nbelieve that in this respect he only expressed the higher conscience of\nhis order. Amongst the more devout circles of the Temple priesthood there\nwas probably a growing conviction similar to that which animated the early\nTractarian party in the Church of England, a conviction that the whole\necclesiastical system with which their spiritual interests were bound up\nfell short of the ideal of sanctity essential to it as a divine\ninstitution. But no scheme of reform had any chance of success so long as\nthe palace of the kings stood hard by the Temple, with only a wall between\nthem. The opportunity for reconstruction came with the Exile, and one of\nthe leading principles of the reformed Temple is that here enunciated by\nEzekiel, that no \u201calien uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh\u201d\nshall henceforth enter the sanctuary.\n\nIn order to prevent a recurrence of these abuses Ezekiel ordains that for\nthe future the functions of the Temple guard and other menial offices\nshall be discharged by the Levites who had hitherto acted as priests of\nthe idolatrous shrines throughout the kingdom (vv. 11\u201014). This singular\nenactment becomes at once intelligible when we understand the peculiar\ncircumstances brought about by the enforcement of the Deuteronomic Law in\nthe reformation of the year 621. Let us once more recall the fact that the\nchief object of that reformation was to do away with all the provincial\nsanctuaries and to concentrate the worship of the nation in the Temple at\nJerusalem. It is obvious that by this measure the priests of the local\nsanctuaries were deprived of their means of livelihood. The rule that they\nwho serve the altar shall live by the altar applied equally to the priests\nof the high places and to those in the Temple at Jerusalem. All the\npriests indeed throughout the country were members of a landless caste or\ntribe; the Levites had no portion or inheritance like the other tribes,\nbut subsisted on the offerings of the worshippers at the various shrines\nwhere they ministered. Now the law of Deuteronomy recognises the principle\nof compensation for the vested interests that were thus abolished. Two\nalternatives were offered to the Levites of the high places: they might\neither remain in the villages or townships where they were known, or they\nmight proceed to the central sanctuary and obtain admission to the ranks\nof the priesthood there. In the former case, the Lawgiver commends them\nearnestly, along with other destitute members of the community, to the\ncharity of their well\u2010to\u2010do fellow\u2010townsmen and neighbours. If, on the\nother hand, they elected to try their fortunes in the Temple at Jerusalem,\nhe secures their full priestly status and equal rights with their brethren\nwho regularly officiated there. On this point the legislation is quite\nexplicit. Any Levite from any district of Israel who came of his own free\nwill to the place which Jehovah had chosen might minister in the name of\nJehovah his God, as all his brethren the Levites did who stood there\nbefore Jehovah, and have like portions to eat (Deut. xviii. 6\u20108). In this\nmatter, however, the humane intention of the law was partly frustrated by\nthe exclusiveness of the priests who were already in possession of the\nsacred offices in the Temple. The Levites who were brought up from the\nprovinces to Jerusalem were allowed their proper share of the priestly\ndues, but were not permitted to officiate at the altar.(225) It is not\nprobable that a large number of the provincial Levites availed themselves\nof this grudging provision for their maintenance. In the idolatrous\nreaction which set in after the death of Josiah the worship of the high\nplaces was revived, and the great body of the Levites would naturally be\nfavourable to the re\u2010establishment of the old order of things with which\ntheir professional interests were identified. Still, there would be a\ncertain number who for conscientious motives attached themselves to the\nmovement for a purer and stricter conception of the worship of Jehovah,\nand were willing to submit to the irksome conditions which this movement\nimposed on them. They might hope for a time when the generous provisions\nof the Deuteronomic Code would be applied to them; but their position in\nthe meantime was both precarious and humiliating. They had to bear the\ndoom pronounced long ago on the sinful house of Eli: \u201cEvery one that is\nleft in thine house shall come and bow down to him (the high priest of the\nline of Zadok) for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread, and shall say,\nThrust me, I pray thee, into one of the priests\u2019 offices, that I may eat a\nmorsel of bread.\u201d(226)\n\nWe see thus that Ezekiel\u2019s legislation on the subject of the Levites\nstarts from a state of things created by Josiah\u2019s reformation, and, let us\nremember, a state of things with which the prophet was familiar in his\nearlier days when he was himself a priest in the Temple. On the whole he\njustifies the exclusive attitude of the Temple priesthood towards the new\u2010\ncomers, and carries forward the application of the idea of sanctity from\nthe point where it had been left by the law of Deuteronomy. That law\nrecognises no sacerdotal distinctions within the ranks of the priesthood.\nIts regular designation of the priests of the Temple is \u201cthe priests, the\nLevites\u201d; that of the provincial priests is simply \u201cthe Levites.\u201d All\npriests are brethren, all belong to the same tribe of Levi; and it is\nassumed, as we have seen, that any Levite, whatever his antecedents, is\nqualified for the full privileges of the priesthood in the central\nsanctuary if he choose to claim them. But we have also seen that the\ndistinction emerged as a consequence of the enforcement of the fundamental\nlaw of the single sanctuary. There came to be a class of Levites in the\nTemple whose position was at first indeterminate. They themselves claimed\nthe full standing of the priesthood, and they could appeal in support of\ntheir claim to the authority of the Deuteronomic legislation. But the\nclaim was never conceded in practice, the influence of the legitimate\nTemple priests being strong enough to exclude them from the supreme\nprivilege of ministering at the altar. This state of things could not\ncontinue. Either the disparity of the two orders must be effaced by the\nadmission of the Levites to a footing of equality with the other priests,\nor else it must be emphasised and based on some higher principle than the\njealousy of a close corporation for its traditional rights. Now such a\nprinciple is supplied by the section of Ezekiel\u2019s vision with which we are\ndealing. The permanent exclusion of the Levites from the priesthood is\nfounded on the unassailable moral ground that they had forfeited their\nrights by their unfaithfulness to the fundamental truths of the national\nreligion. They had been a \u201cstumbling\u2010block of iniquity\u201d to the house of\nIsrael through their disloyalty to Jehovah\u2019s cause during the long period\nof national apostasy, when they lent themselves to the popular inclination\ntowards impure and idolatrous worship. For this great betrayal of their\ntrust they must bear the guilt and shame in their degradation to the\nlowest offices in the service of the new sanctuary. They are to fill the\nplace formerly occupied by uncircumcised foreigners, as keepers of the\ngates and servants of the house and the worshipping congregation; but they\nmay not draw near to Jehovah in the exercise of priestly prerogatives, nor\nput their hands to the most holy things. The priesthood of the new Temple\nis finally vested in the \u201csons of Zadok\u201d\u2014_i.e._, the body of Levitical\npriests who had ministered in the Temple since its foundation by Solomon.\nWhatever the faults of these Zadokites had been\u2014and Ezekiel certainly does\nnot judge them leniently(227)\u2014they had at least steadfastly maintained the\nideal of a central sanctuary, and in comparison with the rural clergy they\nwere doubtless a purer and better\u2010disciplined body. The judgment is only a\nrelative one, as all class judgments necessarily are. There must have been\nindividual Zadokites worse than an ordinary Levite from the country, as\nwell as individual Levites who were superior to the average Temple priest.\nBut if it was necessary that in the future the interests of religion\nshould be mainly confided to a priesthood, there could be no question that\nas a class the old priestly aristocracy of the central sanctuary were\nthose best qualified for spiritual leadership.\n\nIn Ezekiel\u2019s vision we thus seem to find the beginning of a statutory and\nofficial distinction between priests and Levites. This fact forms one of\nthe arguments chiefly relied on by those who hold that the book of Ezekiel\nprecedes the introduction of the Priestly Code of the Pentateuch. Two\nthings, indeed, appear to be clearly established. In the first place the\ntendency and significance of Ezekiel\u2019s legislation is adequately explained\nby the historical situation that existed in the generation immediately\npreceding the Exile. In the second place the Mosaic books, apart from\nDeuteronomy, had no influence on the scheme propounded in the vision. It\nis felt that these results are difficult to reconcile with the view that\nthe middle books of the Pentateuch were known to the prophet as part of a\ndivinely ordained constitution for the Israelite theocracy. We should have\nexpected in that case that the prophet would simply have fallen back on\nthe provisions of the earlier legislation, where the division between\npriests and Levites is formulated with perfect clearness and precision.\nOr, looking at the matter from the divine point of view, we should have\nexpected that the revelation given to Ezekiel would endorse the principles\nof the revelation that had already been given. It is equally hard to\nsuppose that any existing law should have been unknown to Ezekiel, or to\nsuggest a reason for his ignoring it if it was known. The facts that have\ncome before us seem thus, so far as they go, to be in favour of the theory\nthat Ezekiel stands midway between Deuteronomy and the Priestly Code, and\nthat the final codification and promulgation of the latter took place\nafter his time.\n\nIt is nearer our purpose, however, to note the probable effect of these\nregulations on the _personnel_ of the second Temple. In the book of Ezra\nwe are told that in the first colony of returning exiles there were four\nthousand two hundred and eighty\u2010nine priests and only seventy\u2010four\nLevites.(228) One man in every ten was a priest, and the total number was\nprobably in excess of the requirements of a fully equipped Temple. The\nnumber of Levites, on the other hand, would have been quite insufficient\nfor the duties required of them under the new arrangements, had there not\nbeen a contingent of nearly four hundred of the old Temple servants to\nsupply their lack of service.(229) Again, when Ezra came up from Babylon\nin the year 458, we find that not a single Levite volunteered to accompany\nhim. It was only after some negotiations that about forty Levites were\ninduced to go up with him to Jerusalem; and again they were far\noutnumbered by the Nethinim or Temple slaves.(230) These figures cannot\npossibly represent the proportionate strength of the tribe of Levi under\nthe old monarchy. They indicate unmistakably that there was a great\nreluctance on the part of the Levites to share the perils and glory of the\nfounding of the new Jerusalem. Is it not probable that the new conditions\nlaid down by Ezekiel\u2019s legislation were the cause of this reluctance?\nThat, in short, the prospect of being servants in a Temple where they had\nonce claimed to be priests was not sufficiently attractive to the majority\nto lead them to break up their comfortable homes in exile, and take their\nproper place in the ranks of those who were forming the new community of\nIsrael? And ought we not to spare a moment\u2019s admiration even at this\ndistance of time for the public\u2010spirited few who in self\u2010sacrificing\ndevotion to the cause of God willingly accepted a position which was\nscorned by the great mass of their tribesmen? If this was their spirit,\nthey had their reward. Although the position of a Levite was at first a\nsymbol of inferiority and degradation, it ultimately became one of very\ngreat honour. When the Temple service was fully organised, the Levites\nwere a large and important order, second in dignity in the community only\nto the priests. Their ranks were swelled by the incorporation of the\nTemple musicians, as well as other functionaries; and thus the Levites are\nfor ever associated in our minds with the magnificent service of praise\nwhich was the chief glory of the second Temple.\n\n\n\nII\n\n\nThe remainder of the forty\u2010fourth chapter lays down the rules of\nceremonial holiness to be observed by the priests, the duties they have to\nperform towards the community, and the provision to be made for their\nmaintenance. A few words must here suffice on each of these topics.\n\n1. The sanctity of the priests is denoted, first of all, by the obligation\nto wear special linen garments when they enter the inner court, which is\nthe sphere of their peculiar ministrations. Vestries were provided, as we\nhave seen from the description of the Temple, between the inner and outer\ncourts, where these garments were to be put on and off as the priests\npassed to and from the discharge of their sacred duties. The general idea\nunderlying this regulation is too obvious to require explanation. It is\nbut an application of the fundamental principle that approach to the\nDeity, or entrance into a place sanctified by His presence, demands a\ncondition of ceremonial purity which cannot be maintained and must not be\nimitated by persons of a lower degree of religious privilege. A strange\nbut very suggestive extension of the principle is found in the injunction\nto put off the garments before going into the outer court, lest the\nordinary worshipper should be sanctified by chance contact with them. That\nboth holiness and uncleanness are propagated by contagion is of the very\nessence of the ancient idea of sanctity; but the remarkable thing is that\nin some circumstances communicated holiness is as much to be dreaded as\ncommunicated uncleanness. It is not said what would be the fate of an\nIsraelite who should by chance touch the sacred vestments, but evidently\nhe must be disqualified for participation in worship until he had purged\nhimself of his illegitimate sanctity.(231)\n\nIn the next place the priests are under certain permanent obligations with\nregard to signs of mourning, marriage, and contact with death, which again\nare the mark of the peculiar sanctity of their caste. The rules as to\nmourning\u2014prohibition of shaving the head and letting the hair flow\ndishevelled(232)\u2014have been thought to be directed against heathen customs\narising out of the worship of the dead. In marriage the priest may only\ntake a virgin of the house of Israel or the widow of a priest. And only in\nthe case of his nearest relatives\u2014parent, child, brother, and unmarried\nsister\u2014may he defile himself by rendering the last offices to the\ndeparted, and even these exceptions involve exclusion from the sacred\noffice for seven days.(233)\n\nThe relations of these requirements to the corresponding parts of the\nLevitical law are somewhat complicated. The great point of difference is\nthat Ezekiel knows nothing of the unique privileges and sanctity of the\nhigh priest. It might seem at first sight as if this implied a deliberate\ndeparture from the known usage of the first Temple. It is certain that\nthere were high priests under the monarchy, and indeed we can discover the\nrudiments of a hierarchy in a distribution of authority between the high\npriest, second priest, keepers of the threshold, and chief officers of the\nhouse.(234) But the silence of Ezekiel does not necessarily mean that he\ncontemplated any innovation on the established order of things. The\nhistorical books afford no ground for supposing that the high priest in\nthe old Temple had a religious standing distinguished from that of his\ncolleagues. He was _primus __ inter pares_, the president of the priestly\ncollege and the supreme authority in the internal administration of the\nTemple affairs, but probably nothing more. Such an office was almost\nnecessary in the interest of order and authority, and there is nothing in\nEzekiel\u2019s regulations inconsistent with its continuance.(235) On the other\nhand it must be admitted that his silence would be strange if he had in\nview the position assigned to the high priest under the law. For there the\nhigh priest is as far elevated above his colleagues as these are above the\nLevites. He is the concentration of all that is holy in Israel, and the\nsole mediator of the nearest approach to God which the symbolism of Temple\nworship permitted. He is bound by the strictest conditions of ceremonial\nsanctity, and any transgression on his part has to be atoned for by a rite\nsimilar to that required for a transgression of the whole\ncongregation.(236) The omission of this striking figure from the pages of\nEzekiel makes a comparison between his enactments concerning the\npriesthood and those of the law difficult and in some degree uncertain.\nNevertheless there are points both of likeness and contrast which cannot\nescape observation. Thus the laws of this chapter on defilement by a dead\nbody are identical with those enjoined in Lev. xxi. 1\u20103 (the \u201cLaw of\nHoliness\u201d) for ordinary priests; while the high priest is there forbidden\nto touch any dead body whatsoever. On the other hand Ezekiel\u2019s regulations\nas to priestly marriages seem as it were to strike an average between the\nrestrictions imposed in the law on ordinary priests and those binding on\nthe high priest. The former may marry any woman that is not violated or a\nharlot or a divorced wife; but the high priest is forbidden to marry any\none but a virgin of his own people. Again, the priestly garments,\naccording to Exod. xxviii. 39\u201042, xxxix. 27, are made partly of linen and\npartly of byssus (? cotton), which certainly looks like a refinement on\nthe simpler attire prescribed by Ezekiel. But it is impossible to pursue\nthis subject further here.\n\n2. The duties of the priests towards the people are few, but exceedingly\nimportant. In the first place they have to instruct the people in the\ndistinctions between the holy and the profane and between the clean and\nthe unclean. It will not be supposed that this instruction took the form\nof set lectures or homilies on the principles of ceremonial religion. The\nverb translated \u201cteach\u201d in ver. 23 means to give an authoritative decision\nin a special case; and this had always been the form of priestly\ninstruction in Israel. The subject of the teaching was of the utmost\nimportance for a community whose whole life was regulated by the idea of\nholiness in the ceremonial sense. To preserve the land in a state of\npurity befitting the dwelling\u2010place of Jehovah required the most\nscrupulous care on the part of all its inhabitants; and in practice\ndifficult questions would constantly occur which could only be settled by\nan appeal to the superior knowledge of the priest. Hence Ezekiel\ncontemplates a perpetuation of the old ritual Torah or direction of the\npriests even in the ideal state of things to which his vision looks\nforward. Although the people are assumed to be all righteous in heart and\nresponsive to the will of Jehovah, yet they could not all have the\nprofessional knowledge of ritual laws which was necessary to guide them on\nall occasions, and errors of inadvertence were unavoidable. Jeremiah could\nlook forward to a time when none should teach his neighbour or his\nbrother, saying, Know Jehovah, because the religion which consists in\nspiritual emotions and affections becomes the independent possession of\nevery one who is the subject of saving grace. But Ezekiel, from his point\nof view, could not anticipate a time when all the Lord\u2019s people should be\npriests; for ritual is essentially an affair of tradition and technique,\nand can only be maintained by a class of experts specially trained for\ntheir office. Ritualism and sacerdotalism are natural allies; and it is\nnot wholly accidental that the great ritualistic Churches of Christendom\nare those organised on the sacerdotal principle.\n\nBut, secondly, the priests have to act as judges or arbitrators in cases\nof disagreement between man and man (ver. 24). This again was an important\ndepartment of priestly Torah in ancient Israel, the origin of which went\nback to the personal legislation of Moses in the wilderness.(237) Cases\ntoo hard for human judgment were referred to the decision of God at the\nsanctuary, and the judgment was conveyed through the agency of the priest.\nIt is impossible to over\u2010estimate the service thus rendered by the\npriesthood to the cause of religion in Israel; and Hosea bitterly\ncomplains of the defection of the priests from the Torah of their God as\nthe source of the widespread moral corruption of his time.(238) In the\nbook of Deuteronomy the Levitical priests of the central sanctuary are\nassociated with the civil magistrate as a court of ultimate appeal in\nmatters of controversy that arise within the community; and this is by no\nmeans a tribute to the superior legal acumen of the clerical mind, but a\nreassertion of the old principle that the priest is the mouthpiece of\nJehovah\u2019s judgment.(239) That the priests should be the sole judges in\nEzekiel\u2019s ideal polity was to be expected from the high position assigned\nto the order generally; but there is another reason for it. We have once\nmore to keep in mind that we are dealing with the Messianic community,\nwhen the people are anxious to do the right when they know it, and only\ncases of honest perplexity require to be resolved. The priests\u2019 decision\nhad never been backed up by executive authority, and in the kingdom of God\nno such sanction will be necessary. By this simple judicial arrangement\nthe ethical demands of Jehovah\u2019s holiness will be made effective in the\nordinary life of the community.\n\nFinally, the priests have complete control of public worship, and are\nresponsible for the due observance of the festivals and for the\nsanctification of the Sabbath (ver. 24).\n\n3. With regard to the provisions for the support of the priesthood, the\nold law continues in force that the priests can hold no landed property\nand have no possession like the other tribes of Israel (ver. 28). It is\ntrue that a strip of land, measuring about twenty\u2010seven square miles, was\nset apart for their residence;(240) but this was probably not to be\ncultivated, and at all events it is not reckoned as a possession yielding\nrevenue for their maintenance. The priests\u2019 inheritance is Jehovah\nHimself, which means that they are to live on the offerings of the\ncommunity presented to Jehovah at the sanctuary. In the practice of the\nfirst Temple this ancient rule appears to have been interpreted in a broad\nand liberal spirit, greatly to the advantage of the Zadokite priests. The\nTemple dues consisted partly of money payments by the worshippers; and at\nleast the fines for ceremonial trespasses which took the place of the sin\u2010\nand guilt\u2010offerings were counted the lawful perquisites of the\npriests.(241) Ezekiel knows nothing of this system; and if it remained in\nforce down to his time, he undoubtedly meant to abolish it. The tribute of\nthe sanctuary is to be paid wholly in kind, and out of this the priests\nare to receive a stated allowance. In the first place those sacrifices\nwhich are wholly made over to the Deity, and yet are not consumed on the\naltar, have to be eaten by the priests in a holy place. These are the\nmeal\u2010offering, the sin\u2010offering, and the guilt\u2010offering; of which more\nhereafter. For precisely the same reason all that is _\u1e25erem_\u2014_i.e._,\n\u201cdevoted\u201d irrevocably to Jehovah\u2014becomes the possession of the priests,\nHis representatives, except in the cases where it had to be absolutely\ndestroyed. Besides this they have a claim to the best (an indefinite\nportion) of the firstfruits and \u201coblations\u201d (_ter\u00fbmah_) brought to the\nsanctuary in accordance with ancient custom to be consumed by the\nworshipper and his friends.(242)\n\nThese regulations are undoubtedly based on pre\u2010exilic usages, and\nconsequently leave much to be supplied from the people\u2019s knowledge of use\nand wont. They do not differ very greatly from the enumeration of the\npriestly dues in the eighteenth chapter of Deuteronomy. There, as in\nEzekiel, we find that the two great sources from which the priests derive\ntheir maintenance are the sacrifices and the firstfruits. The Deuteronomic\nCode, however, knows nothing of the special class of sacrifices called\nsin\u2010 and guilt\u2010offerings, but simply assigns to the priest certain\nportions of each victim,(243) except of course the burnt\u2010offerings, which\nwere consumed entire on the altar. The priest\u2019s share of natural produce\nis the \u201cbest\u201d of corn, new wine, oil, and wool,(244) and would be selected\nas a matter of course from the tithe and _ter\u00fbmah_ brought to the\nsanctuary; so that on this point there is practically complete agreement\nbetween Ezekiel and Deuteronomy. On the other hand the differences of the\nLevitical legislation are considerable, and all in the direction of a\nfuller provision for the Temple establishment. Such an increased provision\nwas called for by the peculiar circumstances of the second Temple. The\nrevenue of the sanctuary obviously depended on the size and prosperity of\nthe constituency to which it ministered. The stipulations of Deut. xviii.\nwere no doubt sufficient for the maintenance of the priesthood in the old\nkingdom of Judah; and similarly those of Ezekiel\u2019s legislation would amply\nsuffice in the ideal condition of the people and land presupposed by the\nvision. But neither could have been adequate for the support of a costly\nritual in a small community like that which returned from Babylon where\none man in ten was a priest. Accordingly we find that the arrangements\nmade under Nehemiah for the endowment of the Temple ministry are conformed\nto the extended provisions of the Priestly Code (Neh. x. 32\u201039).(245)\n\n\n\nIII\n\n\nIn conclusion, let us briefly consider the significance of this great\ninstitution of the priesthood in Ezekiel\u2019s scheme of an ideal theocracy.\nIt would of course be an utter mistake to suppose that the prophet is\nmerely legislating in the interests of the sacerdotal order to which he\nhimself belonged. It was necessary for him to insist on the peculiar\nsanctity and privileges of the priests, and to draw a sharp line of\ndivision between them and ordinary members of the community. But he does\nthis, not in the interest of a privileged caste within the nation, but in\nthe interest of a religious ideal which embraced priests and people alike\nand had to be realised in the life of the nation as a whole. That ideal is\nexpressed by the word \u201choliness,\u201d and we have already seen how the idea of\nholiness demanded ceremonial conditions of immediate access to Jehovah\u2019s\npresence which the ordinary Israelite could not observe. But \u201cexclusion\u201d\ncould not possibly be the last word of a religion which seeks to bring men\ninto fellowship with God. Access to God might be hedged about by\nrestrictions and conditions of the most onerous kind, but access there\nmust be if worship was to have any meaning and value for the nation or the\nindividual. Although the worshipper might not himself lay his victim on\nthe altar, he must at least be permitted to offer his gift and receive the\nassurance that it was accepted. If the priest stood between him and God,\nit was not merely to separate but also to mediate between them, and\nthrough the fulfilment of superior conditions of holiness to establish a\ncommunication between him and the holy Being whose face he sought. Hence\nthe great function of the priesthood in the theocracy is to maintain the\nintercourse between Jehovah and Israel which was exhibited in the Temple\nritual by acts of sacrificial worship.\n\nNow it is manifest that this system of ideas rests on the representative\ncharacter of the priestly office. If the principal idea symbolised in the\nsanctuary is that of holiness through separation, the fundamental idea of\npriesthood is holiness through representation. It is the holiness of\nIsrael concentrated in the priesthood which qualifies the latter for\nentrance within the inner circle of the divine presence. Or perhaps it\nwould be more correct to say that the presence of Jehovah first sanctifies\nthe priests in an eminent degree, and then through them, though in a less\ndegree, the whole body of the people. The idea of national solidarity was\ntoo deeply rooted in the Hebrew consciousness to admit of any other\ninterpretation of the priesthood than this. The Israelite did not need to\nbe told that his standing before God was secured by his membership in the\nreligious community on whose behalf the priests ministered at the altar\nand before the Temple. It would not occur to him to think of his personal\nexclusion from the most sacred offices as a religious disability; it was\nenough for him to know that the nation to which he belonged was admitted\nto the presence of Jehovah in the persons of its representatives, and that\nhe as an individual shared in the blessings which accrued to Israel\nthrough the privileged ministry of the priests. Thus to a Temple poet of a\nlater age than Ezekiel\u2019s the figure of the high priest supplies a striking\nimage of the communion of saints and the blessing of Jehovah resting on\nthe whole people:\u2014\n\n\n    Behold, how good and how pleasant it is\n    That they who are brethren should also dwell together!\n    Like the precious oil on the head,\n    That flows down on the beard,\n    The beard of Aaron,\n    That flows down on the hem of his garments\u2014\n    Like the Hermon\u2010dew that descends on the hills of Zion;\n    For there hath Jehovah ordained the blessing,\n    Life for evermore.(246)\n\n\n\n\nChapter XXVIII. Prince And People. Chapters xliv.\u2010xlvi. _passim_.\n\n\nIt was remarked in a previous lecture that the \u201cprince\u201d of the closing\nvision appears to occupy a less exalted position than the Messianic king\nof ch. xxxiv. or ch. xxxvii. The grounds on which this impression rests\nrequire, however, to be carefully considered, if we are not to carry away\na thoroughly false conception of the theocratic state foreshadowed by\nEzekiel. It must not be supposed that the prince is a personage of less\nthan royal rank, or that his authority is overshadowed by that of a\npriestly caste. He is undoubtedly the civil head of the nation, owing no\nallegiance within his own province to any earthly superior. Nor is there\nany reason to doubt that he is the heir of the Davidic house and holds his\noffice in virtue of the divine promise which secured the throne to David\u2019s\ndescendants. It would therefore be a mistake to imagine that we have here\nan anticipation of the Romish theory of the subordination of the secular\nto the spiritual power. It may be true that in the state of things\npresupposed by the vision very little is left for the king to do, whilst a\nvariety of important duties falls to the priesthood; but at all events the\nking is there and is supreme in his own sphere. Ezekiel does not show the\nroad to Canossa. If the king is overshadowed, it is by the personal\npresence of Jehovah in the midst of His people; and that which limits his\nprerogative is not the sacerdotal power, but the divine constitution of\nthe theocracy as revealed in the vision itself, under which both king and\npriests have their functions defined and regulated with a view to the\nreligious ends for which the community as a whole exists.\n\nOur purpose in the present chapter is to put together the scattered\nreferences to the duties of the prince which occur in chs. xliv.\u2010xlvi., so\nas to gain as clear a picture as possible of the position of the monarchy\nin the theocratic state. It must be remembered, however, that the picture\nwill necessarily be incomplete. National life in its secular aspects, with\nwhich the king is chiefly concerned, is hardly touched on in the vision.\nEverything being looked upon from the point of view of the Temple and its\nworship, there are but few allusions in which we can detect anything of\nthe nature of a civil constitution. And these few are introduced\nincidentally, not for their own sake, but to explain some arrangement for\nsecuring the sanctity of the land or the community. This fact must never\nbe lost sight of in judging of Ezekiel\u2019s conception of the monarchy. From\nall that appears in these pages we might conclude that the prince is a\nmere ornamental figurehead of the constitution, and that the few real\nduties assigned to him could have been equally well performed by a\ncommittee of priests or laymen elected for the purpose. But this is to\nforget that outside the range of subjects here touched upon there is a\nwhole world of secular interests, of political and social action, where\nthe king has his part to play in accordance with the precedents furnished\nby the best days of the ancient monarchy.\n\nLet us glance first of all at Ezekiel\u2019s institutes of the kingdom in its\nmore political relations. The notices here are all in the form of\nconstitutional checks and safeguards against an arbitrary and oppressive\nexercise of the royal authority. They are instructive, not only as showing\nthe interest which the prophet had in good government and his care for the\nrights of the subject, but also for the light they cast on certain\nadministrative methods in force previous to the Exile.\n\nThe first point that calls for attention is the provision made for the\nmaintenance of the prince and his court. It would seem that the revenue of\nthe prince was to be derived mainly, if not wholly, from a portion of\nterritory reserved as his exclusive property in the division of the\ncountry among the tribes.(247) These crown lands are situated on either\nside of the sacred \u201coblation\u201d around the sanctuary, set apart for the use\nof the priests and Levites; and they extend to the sea on the west and to\nthe Jordan Valley on the east. Out of these he is at liberty to assign a\npossession to his sons in perpetuity, but any estate bestowed on his\ncourtiers reverts to the prince in the \u201cyear of liberty.\u201d(248) The object\nof this last regulation apparently is to prevent the formation of a new\nhereditary aristocracy between the royal family and the peasantry. A life\npeerage, so to speak, or something less, is deemed a sufficient reward for\nthe most devoted service to the king or the state. And no doubt the\ncertainty of a revision of all royal grants every seventh year would tend\nto keep some persons mindful of their duty. The whole system of royal\ndemesnes which the king might dispose of as appanages for his younger\nchildren or his faithful retainers presents a curious resemblance to a\nwell\u2010known feature of feudalism in the Middle Ages; but it was never\npractically enforced in Israel. Before the Exile it was evidently unknown,\nand after the Exile there was no king to provide for. But why does the\nprophet bestow so much care on a mere detail of a political system in\nwhich, as a whole, he takes so little interest? It is because of his\nconcern for the rights of the common people against the high\u2010handed\ntyranny of the king and his nobles. He recalls the bad times of the old\nmonarchy when any man was liable to be ejected from his land for the\nbenefit of some court favourite, or to provide a portion for a younger son\nof the king. The cruel evictions of the poorer peasant proprietors, which\nall the early prophets denounce as an outrage against humanity, and of\nwhich the story of Naboth furnished a typical example, must be rendered\nimpossible in the new Israel; and as the king had no doubt been the\nprincipal offender in the past, the rule is firmly laid down in his case\nthat on no pretext must he take the people\u2019s inheritance. And this, be it\nobserved, is an application of the religious principle which underlies the\nconstitution of the theocracy. The land is Jehovah\u2019s, and all interference\nwith the ancient landmarks which guard the rights of private ownership is\nan offence against the holiness of the true divine King who has His abode\namongst the tribes of Israel. This suggests developments of the idea of\nholiness which reach to the very foundations of social well\u2010being. A\nconception of holiness which secures each man in the possession of his own\nvine and fig tree is at all events not open to the charge of ignoring the\npractical interests of common life for the sake of an unprofitable\nceremonialism.\n\nIn the next place, we come across a much more startling revelation of the\ninjustice habitually practised by the Hebrew monarchs. Just as later\nsovereigns were wont to meet their deficits by debasing the currency, so\nthe kings of Judah had learned to augment their revenue by a systematic\nfalsification of weights and measures. We know from the prophet Amos(249)\nthat this was a common trick of the wealthy landowners who sold grain at\nexorbitant prices to the poor whom they had driven from their possessions.\nThey \u201cmade the ephah small and the shekel great, and dealt falsely with\nbalances of deceit.\u201d But it was left for Ezekiel to tell us that the same\nfraud was a regular part of the fiscal system of the Jud\u00e6an kingdom. There\nis no mistaking the meaning of his accusation: \u201cHave done, O princes of\nIsrael, with your violent and oppressive rule; execute judgment and\njustice, and take away your exactions from My people, saith Jehovah God.\n_Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath._\u201d(250)\nThat is to say, the taxes were surreptitiously increased by the use of a\nlarge shekel (for weighing out money payments) and a large bath and ephah\n(for measuring tribute paid in kind). And if it was impossible for the\npoor to protect themselves against the rapacity of private dealers, poor\nand rich alike were helpless when the fraud was openly practised in the\nking\u2019s name. This Ezekiel had seen with his own eyes, and the shameful\ninjustice of it was so branded on his spirit that even in a vision of the\nlast days it comes back to him as an evil to be sedulously guarded\nagainst. It was eminently a case for legislation. If there was to be such\na thing as fair dealing and commercial probity in the community, the\nsystem of weights and measurement must be fixed beyond the power of the\nroyal caprice to alter it. It was as sacred as any principle of the\nconstitution. Accordingly he finds a place in his legislation for a\ncorrected scale of weights and measures, restored no doubt to their\noriginal values. The ephah for dry measure and the bath for liquid measure\nare each fixed at the tenth part of a homer. \u201cThe shekel shall be twenty\ngeras:(251) five shekels shall be five, and ten shekels shall be ten, and\nfifty shekels shall be your maneh.\u201d(252)\n\nThese regulations extend far beyond the immediate object for which they\nare introduced, and have both a moral and a religious bearing. They\nexpress a truth often insisted on in the Old Testament, that commercial\nmorality is a matter in which the holiness of Jehovah is involved: \u201cA\nfalse balance is an abomination to Jehovah, but a just weight is His\ndelight.\u201d(253) In the Law of Holiness an ordinance very similar to\nEzekiel\u2019s occurs amongst the conditions by which the precept is to be\nfulfilled: \u201cBe ye holy, for I am holy.\u201d(254) It is evident that the\nIsraelites had learned to regard with a religious abhorrence all tampering\nwith the fixed standards of value on which the purity of commercial life\ndepended. To overreach by lying words was a sin; but to cheat by the use\nof a false balance was a species of profanity comparable to a false oath\nin the name of Jehovah.\n\nThese rules about weights and measures required, however, to be\nsupplemented by a fixed tariff, regulating the taxes which the prince\nmight impose on the people.(255) It is not quite clear whether any part of\nthe prince\u2019s own income was to be derived from taxation. The tribute is\ncalled an \u201coblation,\u201d and there is no doubt that it was intended\nprincipally for the support of the Temple ritual, which in any case must\nhave been the heaviest charge on the royal exchequer. But the oblation was\nrendered to the prince in the first instance; and the prophet\u2019s anxiety to\nprevent unjust exactions springs from a fear that the king might make the\nTemple tax a pretext for increasing his own revenue. At all events the\npeople\u2019s duty to contribute to the support of public ordinances according\nto their ability is here explicitly recognised. Compared with the\nprovision of the Levitical law the scale of charges here proposed must be\npronounced extremely moderate. The contribution of each householder varies\nfrom one\u2010sixtieth to one\u2010twohundredth of his income and is wholly paid in\nkind.(256) The proper equivalent under the second Temple of Ezekiel\u2019s\n\u201coblation\u201d was a poll\u2010tax of one\u2010third of a shekel, voluntarily undertaken\nat the time of Nehemiah\u2019s covenant \u201cfor the service of the house of our\nGod; for the shewbread and for the continual meal\u2010offering, and for the\ncontinual burnt\u2010offering, of the Sabbaths, of the new moons, for the set\nfeasts, and for the holy things, and for the sin\u2010offerings to make\natonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God.\u201d(257)\nIn the Priestly Code this tax is fixed at half a shekel for each man.(258)\nBut in addition to this money payment the law required a tenth of all\nproduce of the soil and the flock to be given to the priests and Levites.\nIn Ezekiel\u2019s legislation the tithes and firstfruits are still left for the\nuse of the owner, who is expected to consume them in sacrificial feasts at\nthe sanctuary. The only charge, therefore, of the nature of a fixed\ntribute for religious purposes is the oblation here required for the\nregular sacrifices which represent the stated worship rendered on behalf\nof the community as a whole.\n\nThis brings us now to the more important aspect of the kingly office\u2014its\nreligious privileges and duties. Here there are three points which require\nto be noticed.\n\n1. In the first place it is the duty of the prince to supply the material\nof the public sacrifices offered in the name of the people.(259) Out of\nthe tribute levied on the people for this purpose he has to furnish the\naltar with the stated number of victims for the daily service, the\nSabbaths, and new moons, and the great yearly festivals. It is clear that\nsome one must be charged with the responsibility of this important part of\nthe worship, and it is significant of Ezekiel\u2019s relations to the past that\nthe duty does not yet devolve directly on the priests. They seem to\nexercise no authority outside of the Temple, the king standing between\nthem and the community as a sort of patron of the sanctuary. But the\nposition of the prince is not simply that of an official receiver,\ncollecting the tribute, and then handing it over to the Temple as it was\nrequired. He is the representative of the religious unity of the nation,\nand in this capacity he presents in person the regular sacrifices offered\non behalf of the community. Thus on the day of the Passover he presents a\nsin\u2010offering for himself and the people,(260) as the high priest does in\nthe ceremonial of the Great Day of Atonement.(261) And so all the\nsacrifices of the stated ritual are his sacrifices, officiating as the\nhead of the nation in its acts of common worship. In this respect the\nprince succeeds to the rights exercised by the kings of Judah in the\nritual of the first Temple, although on a different footing. Before the\nExile the king had a proprietary interest in the central sanctuary, and\nthe expense of the stated service was defrayed as a matter of course out\nof the royal revenues. Part of this revenue, as we see in the case of\nJoash, was raised by a system of Temple dues paid by the worshippers and\nexpended on the repairs of the house; but at a much later date than this\nwe find Ahaz assuming absolute control over the daily sacrifices,(262)\nwhich were doubtless maintained at his expense.\n\nNow the tendency of Ezekiel\u2019s legislation is to bring the whole community\ninto a closer and more personal connection with the worship of the\nsanctuary, and to leave no part of it subject to the arbitrary will of the\nprince. But still the idea is preserved that the prince is the religious\nas well as the civil representative of the nation; and although he is\ndeprived of all control over the performance of the ritual, he is still\nrequired to provide the public sacrifices and to offer them in the name of\nhis people.\n\n2. In virtue of his representative character the prince possesses certain\nprivileges in his approaches to God in the sanctuary not accorded to\nordinary worshippers. In this connection it is necessary to explain some\ndetails regulating the use of the sanctuary by the people. The outer court\nmight be entered by prince or people either through the north or south\ngate, but not from the east. The eastern gate was that by which Jehovah\nhad entered His dwelling\u2010place, and the doors of it are for ever closed.\nNo foot might cross its threshold. But the prince\u2014and this is one of his\npeculiar rights\u2014might enter the gateway from the court to eat his\nsacrificial meals.(263) It seems therefore to have served the same purpose\nfor the prince as the thirty cells along the wall did for common\nworshippers. The east gate of the inner court was also shut as a rule, and\nwas probably never used as a passage even by the priests. But on the\nSabbaths and new moons it was thrown open to receive the sacrifices which\nthe prince had to bring on these days, and it remained open till the\nevening. On days when the gate was open the worshipping congregation\nassembled at its door, while the prince entered as far as the threshold\nand looked on while the priests presented his offering; then he went out\nby the way he had entered. If on any other occasion he presented a\nvoluntary sacrifice in his private capacity, the east gate was opened for\nhim as before, but was shut as soon as the ceremony was over. On those\noccasions when the eastern gate was not opened, as at the great annual\nfestivals, the people probably gathered round the north and south gates,\nfrom which they could see the altar; and at these seasons the prince\nenters and departs in the common throng of worshippers. A very peculiar\nregulation, for which no obvious reason appears, is that each man must\nleave the Temple by the gate opposite to that at which he entered; if he\nentered by the north, he must leave by the south, and _vice vers\u00e2_.(264)\n\nMany of these arrangements were no doubt suggested by Ezekiel\u2019s\nacquaintance with the practice in the first Temple, and their precise\nobject is lost to us. But one or two facts stand out clearly enough, and\nare very instructive as to the whole conception of Temple worship. The\nchief thing to be noticed is that the principal sacrifices are\nrepresentative. The people are merely spectators of a transaction with God\non their behalf, the efficacy of which in no way depends on their co\u2010\noperation. Standing at the gates of the inner court, they see the priests\nperforming the sacred ministrations; they bow themselves in humble\nreverence before the presence of the Most High; and these acts of devotion\nmay have been of the utmost importance for the religious life of the\nindividual Israelite. But the congregation takes no real part in the\nworship; it is done for them, but not by them; it is an _opus operatum_\nperformed by the prince and the priests for the good of the community, and\nis equally necessary and equally valid whether there is a congregation\npresent to witness it or not. Those who attend are themselves but\nrepresentatives of the nation of Israel, in whose interest the ritual is\nkept up. But the supreme representative of the people is the king, and we\nnote how everything is done to emphasise his peculiar dignity within the\nsanctuary. It was necessary perhaps to do something to compensate for the\nloss of distinction caused by the exclusion of the royal body\u2010guard from\nthe Temple. The prince is still the one conspicuous figure in the outer\ncourt. Even his private sacrificial meals are eaten in solitary state, in\nthe eastern gateway, which is used for no other purpose. And in the great\nfunctions where the prince appears in his representative character he\napproaches nearer to the altar than is permitted to any other layman. He\nascends the steps of the eastern gateway in the sight of the people, and\npassing through he presents his offerings on the verge of the inner court\nwhich none but the priests may enter. His whole position is thus one of\ngreat importance in the celebration of public ordinances. In detail his\nfunctions are no doubt determined by ancient prescriptive usages not known\nto us, but modified in accordance with the stricter ideal of holiness\nwhich Ezekiel\u2019s vision was intended to enforce.\n\n3. Finally, we have to observe that the prince is rigorously excluded from\nproperly priestly offices. It is true that in some respects his position\nis analogous to that of the high priest under the law. But the analogy\nextends only to that aspect of the high priest\u2019s functions in which he\nappears as the head and representative of the religious community, and\nceases the moment he enters upon priestly duties. So far as the special\ndegree of sanctity which characterises the priesthood is concerned, the\nprince is a layman, and as such he is jealously debarred from approaching\nthe altar, and even from intruding into the sacred inner court where the\npriests minister. Now this fact has perhaps a deeper historical importance\nthan we are apt to imagine. There is good reason to believe that in the\nold Temple the kings of Judah frequently officiated in person at the\naltar. At the time when the monarchy was established it was the rule that\nany man might sacrifice for himself and his household, and that the king\nas the representative of the nation should sacrifice on its behalf was an\nextension of the principle too obvious to require express sanction.\nAccordingly we find that both Saul and David on public occasions built\naltars and offered sacrifice to Jehovah. The older theory indeed seems to\nhave been that priestly rights were inherent in the kingly office, and\nthat the acting priests were the ministers to whom the king delegated the\ngreater part of his priestly functions. Although the king might not\nappoint any one to this duty without respect to the Levitical\nqualification, he exercised within certain limits the right of deposing\none family and installing another in the priesthood of the royal\nsanctuary. The house of Zadok itself owed its position to such an act of\necclesiastical authority on the part of David and Solomon.\n\nThe last occasion on which we read of a king of Judah officiating in\nperson in the Temple is at the dedication of the new altar of Ahaz, when\nthe king not only himself sacrificed, but gave directions to the priests\nas to the future observance of the ritual. The occasion was no doubt\nunusual, but there is not a word in the narrative to indicate that the\nking was committing an irregular action or exceeding the recognised\nprerogatives of his position. It would be unsafe, however, to conclude\nthat this state of things continued unchanged till the close of the\nmonarchy. After the time of Isaiah the Temple rose greatly in the\nreligious estimation of the people, and a very probable result of this\nwould be an increasing sense of the importance of the ministration of the\nofficial priesthood. The silence of the historical books and of\nDeuteronomy may not count for much in an argument on this question; but\nEzekiel\u2019s own decisions lack the emphasis and solemnity with which he\nintroduces an absolute innovation like the separation between priests and\nLevites in ch. xliv. It is at least possible that the later kings had\ngradually ceased to exercise the right of sacrifice, so that the privilege\nhad lapsed through desuetude. Nevertheless it was a great step to have the\nprinciple affirmed as a fundamental law of the theocracy; and this Ezekiel\nundoubtedly does. If no other practical object were gained, it served at\nleast to illustrate in the most emphatic way the idea of holiness, which\ndemanded the exclusion of every layman from unhallowed contact with the\nmost sacred emblems of Jehovah\u2019s presence.\n\n                  \u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\u2010\n\nIt will be seen from all that has been said that the real interest of\nEzekiel\u2019s treatment of the monarchy lies far apart from modern problems\nwhich might seem to have a superficial affinity with it. No lessons can\nfairly be deduced from it on the relations between Church and State, or\nthe propriety of endowing and establishing the Christian religion, or the\nduty of rulers to maintain ordinances for the benefit of their subjects.\nIts importance lies in another direction. It shows the transition in\nIsrael from a state of things in which the king is both _de jure_ and _de\nfacto_ the source of power and the representative of the nation and where\nhis religious status is the natural consequence of his civic dignity, to a\nvery different state of things, where the forms of the ancient\nconstitution are retained although the power has largely vanished from\nthem. The prince now requires to have his religious duties imposed on him\nby an abstract political system whose sole sanction is the authority of\nthe Deity. It is a transition which has no precise parallel anywhere else,\nalthough resemblances more or less instructive might doubtless be\ninstanced from the history of Catholicism. Nowhere does Ezekiel\u2019s idealism\nappear more wonderfully blended with his equally characteristic\nconservatism than here. There is no real trace of the tendency attributed\nto the prophet to exalt the priesthood at the expense of the monarchy. The\nprince is after all a much more imposing personage even in the ceremonial\nworship than any priest. Although he lacks the priestly quality of\nholiness, his duties are quite as important as those of the priests, while\nhis dignity is far greater than theirs. The considerations that enter in\nto limit his power and importance come from another quarter. They are such\nas these: first, the loss of military leadership, which is at least to be\npresumed in the circumstances of the Messianic kingdom; second, the\nwelfare of the people at large; and third, the principle of holiness,\nwhose supremacy has to be vindicated in the person of the king no less\nthan in that of his meanest subject.\n\nPerhaps the most remarkable thing is that the transition referred to was\nnot actually accomplished even in the history of Israel itself. It was\nonly in a vision that the monarchy was ever to be represented in the form\nwhich it bears here. From the time of Ezekiel no native king was ever to\nrule over Israel again save the priest\u2010princes of the Asmonean dynasty,\nwhose constitutional position was defined by their high\u2010priestly dignity.\nEzekiel\u2019s vision is therefore a preparation for the kingless state of\npost\u2010exilic Judaism. The foreign potentates to whom the Jews were subject\ndid in some instances provide materials for the Temple worship, but their\nlocal representatives were of course unqualified to fill the position\nassigned to the prince by the great prophet of the Exile. The community\nhad to get along as best it could without a king, and the task was not\ndifficult. The Temple dues were paid directly to the priests and Levites,\nand the function of representing the community before the altar was\nassigned to the High Priest. It was then indeed that the High Priesthood\ncame to the front and blossomed out into all the magnificence of its legal\nposition. It was not only the religious part of the prince\u2019s duties that\nfell to it, but a considerable share of his political importance as well.\nAs the only hereditary institution that had survived the Exile, it\nnaturally became the chief centre of social order in the community. By\ndegrees the Persian and Greek kings found it expedient to deal with the\nJews through the High Priest, whose authority they were bound to respect,\nand thus to leave him a free hand in the internal affairs of the\ncommonwealth. The High Priesthood, in fact, was a civil as well as a\npriestly dignity. We can see that this great revolution would have broken\nthe continuity of Hebrew history far more violently than it did, but for\nthe stepping\u2010stone furnished by the ideal \u201cprince\u201d of Ezekiel\u2019s vision.\n\n\n\n\nChapter XXIX. The Ritual. Chapters xlv., xlvi.\n\n\nIt is difficult to go back in imagination to a time when sacrifice was the\nsole and sufficient form of every complete act of worship.(265) That the\nslaughter of an animal, or at least the presentation of a material\noffering of some sort, should ever have been considered of the essence of\nintercourse with the Deity may seem to us incredible in the light of the\nidea of God which we now possess. Yet there can be no doubt that there was\na stage of religious development which recognised no true approach to God\nexcept as consummated in a sacrificial action. The word \u201csacrifice\u201d itself\npreserves a memorial of this crude and early type of religious service.\nEtymologically it denotes nothing more than a sacred act. But amongst the\nRomans, as amongst ourselves, it was regularly applied to the offerings at\nthe altar, which were thus marked out as _the_ sacred actions _par\nexcellence_ of ancient religion. It would be impossible to explain the\nextraordinary persistence and vitality of the institution amongst races\nthat had attained a relatively high degree of civilisation, unless we\nunderstand that the ideas connected with it go back to a time when\nsacrifice was the typical and fundamental form of primitive worship.\n\nBy the time of Ezekiel, however, the age of sacrifice in this strict and\nabsolute sense may be said to have passed away, at least in principle.\nDevout Jews who had lived through the captivity in Babylon and found that\nJehovah was there to them \u201ca little of a sanctuary,\u201d(266) could not\npossibly fall back into the belief that their God was only to be\napproached and found through the ritual of the altar. And long before the\nExile, the ethical teaching of the prophets had led Israel to appreciate\nthe external rites of sacrifice at their true value.\n\n\n    Wherewithal shall I come before Jehovah\n    Or bow myself before God on high?\n    Shall I come before Him with burnt\u2010offerings,\n    With calves of a year old?\n    Is Jehovah pleased with thousands of rams,\n    With myriads of rivers of oil?\n    Shall I give my firstborn as an atonement for me,\n    The fruit of my body as a sin\u2010offering for my life?\n    He hath showed thee, O man, what is good;\n    And what does Jehovah require of thee,\n    But to do justice and to love mercy,\n    And to walk humbly with thy God?(267)\n\n\nThis great word of spiritual religion had been uttered long before\nEzekiel, as a protest against the senseless multiplication of sacrifices\nwhich came in in the reign of Manasseh. Nor can we suppose that Ezekiel,\nwith all his engrossment in matters of ritual, was insensible to the lofty\nteaching of his predecessors, or that his conception of God was less\nspiritual than theirs. As a matter of fact the worship of Israel was never\nafterwards wholly absorbed in the routine of the Temple ceremonies. The\ninstitution of the synagogue with its purely devotional exercises of\nprayer and reading of the Scriptures must have been nearly coeval with the\nsecond Temple, and prepared the way far more than the latter for the\nspiritual worship of the New Testament. But even the Temple worship was\nspiritualised by the service of praise and the marvellous development of\ndevotional poetry which it called forth. \u201cThe emotion with which the\nworshipper approaches the second Temple, as recorded in the Psalter, has\nlittle to do with sacrifice, but rests rather on the fact that the whole\nwondrous history of Jehovah\u2019s grace to Israel is vividly and personally\nrealised as he stands amidst the festal crowd at the ancient seat of God\u2019s\nthrone, and adds his voice to the swelling song of praise.\u201d(268)\n\nHow then, it may be asked, are we to account for the fact that the prophet\nshows such intense interest in the details of a system which was already\nlosing its religious significance? If sacrifice was no longer of the\nessence of worship, why should he be so careful to legislate for a scheme\nof ritual in which sacrifice is the prominent feature, and say nothing of\nthe inward state of heart which alone is an acceptable offering to God?\nThe chief reason no doubt is that the ritual elements of religion were the\nonly matters, apart from moral duties, which admitted of being reduced to\na legal system, and that the formation of such a system was demanded by\nthe circumstances with which the prophet had to deal. The time was not yet\ncome when the principle of a central national sanctuary could be\nabandoned, and if such a sanctuary was to be maintained without danger to\nthe highest interests of religion it was necessary that its service should\nbe regulated with a view to preserve the deposit of revealed truth that\nhad been committed to the nation through the prophets. The essential\nfeatures of the sacrificial institutions were charged with a deep\nreligious significance, and there existed in the popular mind a great mass\nof sound religious impression and sentiment clustering around that central\nrite. To dispense with the institution of sacrifice would have rendered\nworship entirely impossible for the great body of the people, while to\nleave it unregulated was to invite a recurrence of the abuses which had\nbeen so fruitful a source of corruption in the past. Hence the object of\nthe ritual ordinances which we are about to consider is twofold: in the\nfirst place to provide an authorised code of ritual free from everything\nthat savoured of pagan usages, and in the second to utilise the public\nworship as a means of deepening and purifying the religious conceptions of\nthose who could be influenced in no other way. Ezekiel\u2019s legislation has a\nspecial regard for the wants of the \u201ccommon rude man\u201d whose religious life\nneeds all the help it can get from external observances. Such persons form\nthe majority of every religious society; and to train their minds to a\ndeeper sense of sin and a more vivid apprehension of the divine holiness\nproved to be the only way in which the spiritual teaching of the prophets\ncould be made a practical power in the community at large. It is true that\nthe highest spiritual needs were not satisfied by the legal ritual. But\nthe irrepressible longings of the soul for nearer fellowship with God\ncannot be dealt with by rigid formal enactments. Ezekiel is content to\nleave them to the guidance of that Spirit whose saving operations will\nhave changed the heart of Israel and made it a true people of God. The\nsystem of external observances which he foreshadows in his vision was not\nmeant to be the life of religion, but it was, so to speak, the trellis\u2010\nwork which was necessary to support the delicate tendrils of spiritual\npiety until the time when the spirit of filial worship should be the\npossession of every true member of the Church of God.\n\nBearing these facts in mind, we may now proceed to examine the scheme of\nsacrificial worship contained in chapters xlv. and xlvi. Only its leading\nfeatures can here be noticed, and the points most deserving of attention\nmay be grouped under three heads: the Festivals, the Representative\nService, and the Idea of Atonement.\n\nI. THE YEARLY FEASTS.\u2014The most striking thing in Ezekiel\u2019s festal\ncalendar(269) is the division of the ecclesiastical year into two\nprecisely similar parts. Each half of the year commences with an atoning\nsacrifice for the purification of the sanctuary from defilement contracted\nduring the previous half.(270) Each contains a great festival\u2014in the one\ncase the Passover, beginning on the fourteenth day of the first month and\nlasting seven days, and in the other the Feast of Tabernacles (simply\ncalled the Feast), beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month and\nalso lasting for seven days.(271) The passage is chiefly devoted to a\nminute regulation of the public sacrifices to be offered on these\noccasions, other and more characteristic features of the celebration being\nassumed as well known from tradition.\n\nIt is difficult to see what is the precise meaning of the proposed\nrearrangement of the feasts in two parallel series. It may be due simply\nto the prophet\u2019s love of symmetry in all departments of public life, or it\nmay have been suggested by the fact that at this time the Babylonian\ncalendar, according to which the year begins in spring, was superimposed\non the old Hebrew year commencing in the autumn.(272) At all events it\ninvolved a breach with pre\u2010exilic tradition, and was never carried out in\npractice. The earlier legislation of the Pentateuch recognises a cycle of\nthree festivals\u2014Passover and Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Harvest or of\nWeeks (Pentecost), and the Feast of Ingathering or of Tabernacles.(273) In\norder to carry through his symmetrical division of the sacred year Ezekiel\nhas to ignore one of these, the Feast of Pentecost, which seems to have\nalways been counted the least important of the three. It is not to be\nsupposed that he contemplated its abolition, for he is careful not to\nalter in any particular the positive regulations of Deuteronomy; only it\ndid not fall into his scheme, and so he does not think it of sufficient\nimportance to prescribe regular public sacrifices for it. After the Exile,\nhowever, Jewish practice was regulated by the canons of the Priestly Code,\nin which, along with other festivals, the ancient threefold cycle is\ncontinued, and stated sacrifices are prescribed for Pentecost, just as for\nthe other two.(274) Similarly, the two atoning ceremonies in the beginning\nof the first and seventh months,(275) which are not mentioned in the older\nlegislation, are replaced in the Priests\u2019 Code by the single Day of\nAtonement on the tenth day of the seventh month, whilst the beginning of\nthe year is celebrated by the Feast of Trumpets on the first day of the\nsame month.(276)\n\nBut although the details of Ezekiel\u2019s system thus proved to be\nimpracticable in the circumstances of the restored Jewish community, it\nsucceeded in the far more important object of infusing a new spirit into\nthe celebration of the feasts, and impressing on them a different\ncharacter. The ancient Hebrew festivals were all associated with joyous\nincidents of the agricultural year. The Feast of Unleavened Bread marked\nthe beginning of harvest, when \u201cthe sickle was first put into the\ncorn.\u201d(277) At this time also the firstlings of the flock and herd were\nsacrificed. The seven weeks which elapse till Pentecost are the season of\nthe cereal harvest, which is then brought to a close by the Feast of\nHarvest, when the goodness of Jehovah is acknowledged by the presentation\nof part of the produce at the sanctuary. Finally the Feast of Tabernacles\ncelebrates the most joyous occasion of the year, the storing of the\nproduce of the winepress and the threshing\u2010floor.(278) The nature of the\nfestivals is easily seen from the events with which they are thus\nassociated. They are occasions of social mirth and festivity, and the\nreligious rites observed are the expressions of the nation\u2019s heart\u2010felt\ngratitude to Jehovah for the blessing that has rested on the labours of\nhusbandman and shepherd throughout the year. The Passover with its\nmemories of anxiety and escape was no doubt of a more sombre character\nthan the others, but the joyous and festive nature of Pentecost and\nTabernacles is strongly insisted on in the book of Deuteronomy. By these\ninstitutions religion was closely intertwined with the great interests of\nevery\u2010day life, and the fact that the sacred seasons of the Israelites\u2019\nyear were the occasions on which the natural joy of life was at its\nfullest, bears witness to the simple\u2010minded piety which was fostered by\nthe old Hebrew worship. There was, however, a danger that in such a state\nof things religion should be altogether lost sight of in the exuberance of\nnatural hilarity and expressions of social good\u2010will. And indeed no great\nheight of spirituality could be nourished by a type of worship in which\ndevotional feeling was concentrated on the expression of gratitude to God\nfor the bountiful gifts of His providence. It was good for the childhood\nof the nation, but when the nation became a man it must put away childish\nthings.\n\nThe tendency of the post\u2010exilic ritual was to detach the sacred seasons\nmore and more from the secular associations which had once been their\nchief significance. This was done partly by the addition of new festivals\nwhich had no such natural occasion, and partly by a change in the point of\nview from which the older celebrations were regarded. No attempt was made\nto obliterate the traces of the affinity with events of common life which\nendeared them to the hearts of the people, but increasing importance was\nattached to their historic significance as memorials of Jehovah\u2019s gracious\ndealings with the nation in the period of the Exodus. At the same time\nthey take on more and more the character of religious symbols of the\npermanent relations between Jehovah and His people. The beginnings of this\nprocess can be clearly discerned in the legislation of Ezekiel. Not indeed\nin the direction of a historic interpretation of the feasts, for this is\nignored even in the case of the Passover, where it was already firmly\nestablished in the national consciousness. But the institution of a\nspecial series of public sacrifices, which was the same for the Passover\nand the Feast of Tabernacles, and particularly the prominence given to the\nsin\u2010offering, obviously tended to draw the mind of the people away from\nthe passing interest of the occasion, and fix it on those standing\nobligations imposed by the holiness of Jehovah on which the continuance of\nall His bounties depended. We cannot be mistaken in thinking that one\ndesign of the new ritual was to correct the excesses of unrestrained\nanimal enjoyment by deepening the sense of guilt and the fear of possible\noffences against the sanctity of the divine presence. For it was at these\nfestivals that the prince was required to offer the atoning sacrifice for\nhimself and the people.(279) Thus the effect of the whole system was to\nfoster the sensitive and tremulous tone of piety which was characteristic\nof Judaism, in contrast to the hearty, if undisciplined, religion of the\nancient Hebrew feasts.\n\nII. THE STATED SERVICE.\u2014In the course of this chapter we have had occasion\nmore than once to touch on the prominence given in Ezekiel\u2019s vision to\nsacrifices offered in accordance with a fixed rubric in the name of the\nwhole community. The significance of this fact may best be seen from a\ncomparison with the sacrificial regulations of the book of Deuteronomy.\nThese are not numerous, but they deal exclusively with private sacrifices.\nThe person addressed is the individual householder, and the sacrifices\nwhich he is enjoined to render are for himself and his family. There is no\nexplicit allusion in the whole book to the official sacrifices which were\noffered by the regular priesthood and maintained at the king\u2019s expense. In\nEzekiel\u2019s scheme of Temple worship the case is exactly the reverse. Here\nthere is no mention of private sacrifice except in the incidental notices\nas to the free\u2010will offerings and the sacrificial meal of the prince,(280)\nwhile on the other hand great attention is paid to the maintenance of the\nregular offerings provided by the prince for the congregation. This of\ncourse does not mean that there were no statutory sacrifices in the old\nTemple, or that Ezekiel contemplated the cessation of private sacrifice in\nthe new. Deuteronomy passes over the public sacrifices because they were\nunder the jurisdiction of the king, and the people at large were not\ndirectly responsible for them; and similarly Ezekiel is silent as to\nprivate offerings because their observance was assured by all the\ntraditions of the sanctuary. Still it is a noteworthy fact that of two\ncodes of Temple worship, separated by only half a century, each legislates\nexclusively for that element of the ritual which is taken for granted by\nthe other.\n\nWhat it indicates is nothing less than a change in the ruling conception\nof public worship. Before the Exile the idea that Jehovah could desert His\nsanctuary hardly entered into the mind of the people, and certainly did\nnot in the least affect the confidence with which they availed themselves\nof the privileges of worship. The Temple was there and God was present\nwithin it, and all that was necessary was that the spontaneous devotion of\nthe worshippers should be regulated by the essential conditions of\nceremonial propriety. But the destruction of the Temple had proved that\nthe mere existence of a sanctuary was no guarantee of the favour and\nprotection of the God who was supposed to dwell within it. Jehovah might\nbe driven from His Temple by the presence of sin among the people, or even\nby a neglect of the ceremonial precautions which were necessary to guard\nagainst the profanation of His holiness. On this idea the whole edifice of\nthe later ritual is built up, and here as in other respects Ezekiel has\nshown the way. In his view the validity and efficiency of the whole Temple\nservice hangs on the due performance of the public rites which preserve\nthe nation in a condition of sanctity and continually represent it as a\nholy people before God. Under cover of this representative service the\nindividual may draw near with confidence to seek the face of his God in\nacts of private homage, but apart from the regular official ceremonial his\nworship has no reality, because he can have no assurance that Jehovah will\naccept his offering. His right of access to God springs from his\nfellowship with the religious community of Israel, and hence the\nindispensable presupposition of every act of worship is that the standing\nof the community before Jehovah be preserved intact by the rites appointed\nfor that purpose. And, as has been already said, these rites are\nrepresentative in character. Being performed on behalf of the nation, the\nobligation of presenting them rests with the prince in his representative\ncapacity, and the share of the people in them is indicated by the tribute\nwhich the prince is empowered to levy for this end. In this way the ideal\nunity of the nation finds continual expression in the worship of the\nsanctuary, and the supreme interest of religion is transferred from the\nmere act of personal homage to the abiding conditions of acceptance with\nGod symbolised by the stated service.\n\nLet us now look at some details of the scheme in which this important idea\nis embodied. The foundation of the whole system is the daily burnt\u2010\noffering\u2014the _t\u0101m\u00eed_. Under the first Temple the daily offering seems to\nhave been a burnt\u2010offering in the morning and a meal\u2010offering (_minhah_)\nin the evening,(281) and this practice seems to have continued down to the\ntime of Ezra.(282) According to the Levitical law it consists of a lamb\nmorning and evening, accompanied on each occasion by a minhah and a\nlibation of wine.(283) Ezekiel\u2019s ordinance occupies a middle position\nbetween these two. Here the tam\u00eed is a lamb for a burnt\u2010offering in the\nmorning, along with a minhah of flour mingled with oil; and there is no\nprovision for an evening sacrifice.(284) The presentation of this\nsacrifice on the altar in the morning, as the basis on which all other\nofferings through the day were laid, may be taken to symbolise the truth\nthat the acceptance of all ordinary acts of worship depended on the\nrepresentation of the community before God in the regular service. To the\nspiritual perception of a Psalmist it may have suggested the duty of\ncommencing each day\u2019s work with an act of devotion:\u2014\n\n\n    Jehovah, in the morning shalt Thou hear my voice;\n    In the morning will I set [my prayer] in order before Thee, and\n                will look out.(285)\n\n\nThe offerings for the Sabbaths and new moons may be considered as\namplifications of the daily sacrifice. They consist exclusively of burnt\u2010\nofferings. On the Sabbath six lambs are presented, perhaps one for each\nworking day of the week, together with a ram for the Sabbath itself\n(Smend). At the new moon feast this offering is repeated with the addition\nof a bullock. It may be noted here once for all that each burnt sacrifice\nis accompanied by a corresponding minhah, according to a fixed scale. For\nsin\u2010offerings, on the other hand, no minhah seems to be appointed.\n\nAt the annual (or rather half\u2010yearly) celebrations the sin\u2010offering\nappears for the first time among the stated sacrifices. The sacrifice for\nthe cleansing of the sanctuary at the beginning of each half of the year\nconsists of a young bullock for a sin\u2010offering, in addition of course to\nthe burnt\u2010offerings which were prescribed for the first day of the month.\nFor the Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles the daily offering is a he\u2010\ngoat for a sin\u2010offering, and seven bullocks and seven rams for a burnt\u2010\noffering during the week covered by these festivals. Besides this, at\nPassover, and probably also at Tabernacles, the prince presents a bullock\nas a sin\u2010offering for himself and the people. We have now to consider more\nparticularly the place which this class of sacrifices occupies in the\nritual.\n\nIII. ATONING SACRIFICES.\u2014It is evident, even from this short survey, that\nthe idea of atonement holds a conspicuous place in the symbolism of\nEzekiel\u2019s Temple. He is, indeed, the earliest writer (setting aside the\nLevitical Code) who mentions the special class of sacrifices known as sin\u2010\nand guilt\u2010offerings. Under the first Temple ceremonial offences were\nregularly atoned for at one time by money payments to the priests, and\nthese fines are called by the names afterwards applied to the expiatory\nsacrifices.(286) It does not follow, of course, that such sacrifices were\nunknown before the time of Ezekiel, nor is such a conclusion probable in\nitself. The manner in which the prophet alludes to them rather shows that\nthe idea was perfectly familiar to his contemporaries. But the prominence\nof the sin\u2010offering in the public ritual may be safely set down as a new\ndeparture in the Temple service, as it is one of the most striking\nsymptoms of the change that passed over the spirit of Israel\u2019s religion at\nthe time of the Exile.\n\nOf the elements that contributed to this change the most important was the\ndeepened consciousness of sin that had been produced by the teaching of\nthe prophets as verified in the terrible calamity of the Exile. We have\nseen how frequently Ezekiel insists on this effect of the divine judgment;\nhow, even in the time of her pardon and restoration, he represents Israel\nas ashamed and confounded, not opening her mouth any more for the\nremembrance of all that she had done. We are therefore prepared to find\nthat full provision is made for the expression of this abiding sense of\nguilt in the revised scheme of worship. This was done not by new rites\ninvented for the purpose, but by seizing on those elements of the old\nritual which represented the wiping out of iniquity, and by so remodelling\nthe whole sacrificial system as to place these prominently in the\nforeground. Such elements were found chiefly in the sin\u2010offering and\nguilt\u2010offering, which occupied a subsidiary position in the old Temple,\nbut are elevated to a place of commanding importance in the new. The\nprecise distinction between these two kinds of sacrifice is an obscure\npoint of the Levitical ritual which has never been perfectly cleared up.\nIn the system of Ezekiel, however, we observe that the guilt\u2010offering\nplays no part in the stated service, and must therefore have been reserved\nfor private transgressions of the law of holiness. And in general it may\nbe remarked that the atoning sacrifices differ from others, not in their\nmaterial, but in certain features of the sacred actions to be observed\nwith regard to them. We cannot here enter upon the details of the\nsymbolism, but the most important fact is that the flesh of the victims is\nneither offered on the altar as in the burnt\u2010offering, nor eaten by the\nworshippers as in the peace\u2010offering, but belongs to the category of most\nholy things, and must be consumed by the priests in a holy place. In\ncertain extreme cases, however, it has to be burned without the\nsanctuary.(287)\n\nNow in the chapters before us the idea of sacrificial atonement is chiefly\ndeveloped in connection with the material fabric of the sanctuary. The\nsanctuary may contract defilement by involuntary lapses from the stringent\nrules of ceremonial purity on the part of those who use it, whether\npriests or laymen. Such errors of inadvertence were almost unavoidable\nunder the complicated set of formal regulations into which the fundamental\nidea of holiness branched out, yet they are regarded as endangering the\nsanctity of the Temple, and require to be carefully atoned for from time\nto time, lest by their accumulation the worship should be invalidated and\nJehovah driven from His dwelling\u2010place. But besides this the Temple (or at\nleast the altar) is unfit for its sacred functions until it has undergone\nan initial process of purification. The principle involved still survives\nin the consecration of ecclesiastical buildings in Christendom, although\nits application had doubtless a much more serious import under the old\ndispensation than it can possibly have under the new.\n\nA full account of this initial ceremony of purification is given in the\nend of the forty\u2010third chapter, and a glance at the details of the ritual\nmay be enough to impress on us the conceptions that underlie the process.\nIt is a protracted operation, extending apparently over eight days.(288)\nThe first and fundamental act is the offering of a sin\u2010offering of the\nhighest degree of sanctity, the victim being a bullock and the flesh being\nburned outside the sanctuary. The blood alone is sprinkled on the four\nhorns of the altar, the four corners of the \u201csettle,\u201d and the \u201cborder\u201d:\nthis is the first stage in the dedication of the altar. Then for seven\ndays a he\u2010goat is offered for a sin\u2010offering, the same rites being\nobserved, and after it a burnt\u2010offering consisting of a bullock and a ram.\nThese sacrifices are intended only for the purification of the altar, and\nonly on the day after their completion is the altar ready to receive\nordinary public or private gifts\u2014burnt\u2010offerings and peace\u2010offerings. Now\nfour expressions are used to denote the effect of these ceremonies on the\naltar. The most general is \u201cconsecrate,\u201d literally \u201cfill its hand\u201d(289)\u2014a\nphrase used originally of the installation of a priest into his office,\nand then applied metaphorically to consecration or initiation in general.\nThe others are \u201cpurify,\u201d(290) \u201cunsin,\u201d(291) (the special effect of the\n_sin\u2010offering_) and \u201cexpiate.\u201d(292) Of these the last is the most\nimportant. It is the technical priestly term for atonement for sin, the\nreference being of course generally to persons. As to the fundamental\nmeaning of the word, there has been a great deal of discussion, which has\nnot yet led to a decisive result. The choice seems to lie between two\nradical ideas, either to \u201cwipe out\u201d or to \u201ccover,\u201d and so render\ninoperative.(293) But either etymology enables us to understand the use of\nthe word in legal terminology. It means to undo the effect of a\ntransgression on the religious status of the offender, or, as in the case\nbefore us, to remove natural or contracted impurity from a material\nobject. And whether this is conceived as a covering up of the fault so as\nto conceal it from view, or a wiping out of it, amounts in the end to the\nsame thing. The significant fact is that the same word is applied both to\npersons and things. It furnishes another illustration of the intimate way\nin which the ideas of moral guilt and physical defect are blended in the\nceremonial of the Old Testament.\n\nThe meaning of the two atoning services appointed for the beginning of the\nfirst and the seventh month is now clear. They are intended to renew\nperiodically the holiness of the sanctuary established by the initiatory\nrites just described. For it is evident that no indelible character can\nattach to the kind of sanctity with which we are here dealing. It is apt\nto be lost, if not by mere lapse of time, at least by the repeated contact\nof frail men who with the best intentions are not always able to fulfil\nthe conditions of a right use of sacred things. Every failure and mistake\ndetracts from the holiness of the Temple, and even unnoticed and\naltogether unconscious offences would in course of time profane it if not\npurged away. Hence \u201cfor every one that erreth and for him that is\nsimple\u201d(294) atonement has to be made for the house twice a year. The\nritual to be observed on these occasions bears a general resemblance to\nthat of the inaugural ceremony, but is simpler, only a single bullock\nbeing presented for a sin\u2010offering. On the other hand, it expressly\nsymbolises a purification of the Temple as well as of the altar. The blood\nis sprinkled not only on the \u201csettle\u201d of the altar, but also on the\ndoorposts of the house, and the posts of the eastern gate of the inner\ncourt.\n\nWe may now pass on to the second application made by Ezekiel of the idea\nof sacrificial atonement. These purifications of the sanctuary, which bulk\nso largely in his system, have their counterpart in atonements made\ndirectly for the faults of the people. For this purpose, as we have\nalready seen, a sin\u2010offering was to be presented at each of the great\nannual festivals by the prince, for himself and the nation which he\nrepresented. But it is important to observe that the idea of atonement is\nnot confined to one particular class of sacrifices. It lies at the\nfoundation of the whole system of the stated service, the purpose of which\nis expressly said to be \u201cto make atonement for the house of Israel.\u201d(295)\nThus while the half\u2010yearly sin\u2010offering afforded a special opportunity for\nconfession of sin on the part of the people, we are to understand that the\nholiness of the nation was secured by the observance of every part of the\nprescribed ritual which regulated its intercourse with God. And since the\nnation is in itself imperfectly holy and stands in constant need of\nforgiveness, the maintenance of its sanctity by sacrificial rites was\nequivalent to a perpetual act of atonement. Special offences of\nindividuals had of course to be expiated by special sacrifices, but\nbeneath all particular transgressions lay the broad fact of human impurity\nand infirmity; and in the constant \u201ccovering up\u201d of this by a divinely\ninstituted system of religious ordinances we recognise an atoning element\nin the regular Temple service.\n\nThe sacrificial ritual may therefore be regarded as a barrier interposed\nbetween the natural uncleanness of the people and the awful holiness of\nJehovah seated in His Temple. That men should be permitted to approach Him\nat all is an unspeakable privilege conferred on Israel in virtue of its\ncovenant relation to God. But that the approach is surrounded by so many\nprecautions and restrictions is a perpetual witness to the truth that God\nis of purer eyes than to behold iniquity and one with whom evil cannot\ndwell. If these precautions could have been always perfectly observed, it\nis probable that no periodical purification of the sanctuary would have\nbeen enjoined. The ordinary ritual would have sufficed to maintain the\nnation in a state of holiness corresponding with the requirements of\nJehovah\u2019s nature. But this was impossible on account of the slowness of\nmen\u2019s minds and their liability to err in their most sacred duties. Sin is\nso subtle and pervasive that it is conceived as penetrating the network of\nordinances destined to intercept it, and reaching even to the dwelling\u2010\nplace of Jehovah Himself. It is to remove such accidental, though\ninevitable, violations of the majesty of God that the ritual edifice is\ncrowned by ceremonies for the purification of the sanctuary. They are, so\nto speak, atonements in the second degree. Their object is to compensate\nfor defects in the ordinary routine of worship, and to remove the arrears\nof guilt which had accumulated through neglect of some part of the\nceremonial scheme. This idea appears quite clearly in Ezekiel\u2019s\nlegislation, but it is far more impressively exhibited in the Levitical\nlaw, where different elements of Ezekiel\u2019s ritual are gathered up into one\ncelebration in the Great Day of Atonement, the most solemn and imposing of\nthe whole year.\n\nHence we see that the whole system of sacrificial worship is firmly knit\ntogether, being pervaded from end to end by the one principle of\nexpiation, behind which lay the assurance of pardon and acceptance to all\nwho approached God in the use of the appointed means of grace. Herein lay\nthe chief value of the Temple ritual for the religious life of Israel. It\nserved to impress on the mind of the people the great realities of sin and\nforgiveness, and so to create that profound consciousness of sin which has\npassed over, spiritualised but not weakened, into Christian experience.\nThus the law proved itself a schoolmaster to bring men to Christ, in whose\natoning death the evil of sin and the eternal conditions of forgiveness\nare once for all and perfectly revealed.\n\nThe positive truths taught or suggested by the ritual of atonement are too\nnumerous to be considered here. It is a remarkable fact that neither in\nEzekiel nor in any other part of the Old Testament is an authoritative\ninterpretation given of the most essential features of the ritual. The\npeople seem to have been left to explain the symbolism as best they could,\nand many points which are obscure and uncertain to us must have been\nperfectly intelligible to the least instructed amongst them. For us the\nonly safe rule is to follow the guidance of the New Testament writers in\ntheir use of sacrificial institutions as types of the death of Christ. The\ninvestigation is too large and intricate to be attempted in this place.\nBut it may be well in conclusion to point out one or two general\nprinciples, which ought never to be overlooked in the typical\ninterpretation of the expiatory sacrifices of the Old Testament.\n\nIn the first place atonement is provided only for sins committed in\nignorance; and moral and ceremonial offences stand precisely on the same\nfooting in the eye of the law. In Ezekiel\u2019s system, indeed, it was only\nsins of inadvertence that needed to be considered. He has in view the\nfinal state of things in which the people, though not perfect nor exempt\nfrom liability to error, are wholly inclined to obey the law of Jehovah so\nfar as their knowledge and ability extend. But even in the Levitical\nlegislation there is no legal dispensation for guilt incurred through\nwanton and deliberate defiance of the law of Jehovah. To sin thus is to\nsin \u201cwith a high hand,\u201d(296) and such offences have to be expiated by the\ndeath of the sinner, or at least his exclusion from the religious\ncommunity. And whether the precept belong to what we call the ceremonial\nor to the moral side of the law, the same principle holds good, although\nof course its application is one\u2010sided, strictly moral transgressions\nbeing for the most part voluntary, while ritual offences may be either\nvoluntary or inadvertent. But for wilful and high\u2010handed departure from\nany precept, whether ethical or ceremonial, no atonement is provided by\nthe law; the guilty person \u201cfalls into the hands of the living God,\u201d and\nforgiveness is possible only in the sphere of personal relations between\nman and God, into which the law does not enter.\n\nThis leads to a second consideration. Atoning sacrifices do not purchase\nforgiveness. That is to say, they are never regarded as exercising any\ninfluence on God, moving Him to mercy towards the sinner. They are simply\nthe forms to which, by Jehovah\u2019s own appointment, the promise of\nforgiveness is attached. Hence sacrifice has not the fundamental\nsignificance in Old Testament religion that the death of Christ has in the\nNew. The whole sacrificial system, as we see quite clearly from Ezekiel\u2019s\nprophecy, presupposes redemption; the people are already restored to their\nland and sanctified by Jehovah\u2019s presence amongst them before these\ninstitutions come into operation. The only purpose that they serve in the\nsystem of religion to which they belong is to secure that the blessings of\nsalvation shall not be lost. Both in this vision and throughout the Old\nTestament the ultimate ground of confidence in God lies in historic acts\nof redemption in which Jehovah\u2019s sovereign grace and love to Israel are\nrevealed. Through the sacrifices the individual was enabled to assure\nhimself of his interest in the covenant blessings promised to his nation.\nThey were the sacraments of his personal acceptance with Jehovah, and as\nsuch were of the highest importance for his normal religious life. But\nthey were not and could not be the basis of the forgiveness of sins, nor\ndid later Judaism ever fall into the error of seeking to appease the Deity\nby a multiplication of sacrificial gifts. When the insufficiency of the\nritual system to give true peace of conscience or to bring back the\noutward tokens of God\u2019s favour is dwelt upon, the ancient Church falls\nback on the spiritual conditions of forgiveness already enunciated by the\nprophets.\n\n\n    Thou desirest not sacrifice that I should give it,\n    Thou delightest not in burnt\u2010offering.\n    The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit:\n    A broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.(297)\n\n\nFinally, we have learned from Ezekiel that the idea of atonement is not\nlodged in any particular rite, but pervades the sacrificial system as a\nwhole. Suggestive as the ritual of the sin\u2010offering is to the Christian\nconscience, it must not be isolated from other developments of the\nsacrificial idea or taken to embody the whole permanent meaning of the\ninstitution. There are at least two other aspects of sacrifice which are\nclearly expressed in the ritual legislation of the Old Testament\u2014that of\nhomage, chiefly symbolised by the burnt\u2010offering, and that of communion,\nsymbolised by the peace\u2010offering and the sacrificial feast observed in\nconnection with it. And although, both in Ezekiel and the Levitical law,\nthese two elements are thrown into the shade by the idea of expiation, yet\nthere are subtle links of affinity between all three, which will have to\nbe traced out before we are in a position to understand the first\nprinciples of sacrificial worship. The brilliant and learned researches of\nthe late Professor Robertson Smith have thrown a flood of light on the\noriginal rite of sacrifice and the important place which it occupies in\nancient religion.(298) He has sought to explain the intricate system of\nthe Levitical legislation as an unfolding, under varied historical\ninfluences, of different aspects of the idea of communion between God and\nmen, which is the essence of primitive sacrifice. In particular he has\nshown how special atoning sacrifices arise through emphasising by\nappropriate symbolism the element of reconciliation which is implicitly\ncontained in every act of religious communion with God. This at least\nenables us to understand how the atoning ritual with all its distinctive\nfeatures yet resembles so closely that which is common to all types of\nsacrifice, and how the idea of expiation, although concentrated in a\nparticular class of sacrifices, is nevertheless spread over the whole\nsurface of the sacrificial ritual. It would be premature as well as\npresumptuous to attempt here to estimate the consequences of this theory\nfor Christian theology. But it certainly seems to open up the prospect of\na wider and deeper apprehension of the religious truths which are\ndifferentiated and specialised in the Old Testament dispensation, to be\nreunited in that great Atoning Sacrifice, in which the blood of the new\ncovenant has been shed for many for the remission of sins.\n\n\n\n\nChapter XXX. Renewal And Allotment Of The Land. Chapters xlvii., xlviii.\n\n\nIn the first part of the forty\u2010seventh chapter the visionary form of the\nrevelation, which had been interrupted by the important series of\ncommunications on which we have been so long engaged, is again resumed.\nThe prophet, once more under the direction of his angelic guide, sees a\nstream of water issuing from the Temple buildings and flowing eastward\ninto the Dead Sea.(299) Afterwards he receives another series of\ndirections relating to the boundaries of the land and its division among\nthe twelve tribes.(300) With this the vision and the book find their\nappropriate close.\n\n\n\nI\n\n\nThe Temple stream, to which Ezekiel\u2019s attention is now for the first time\ndirected, is a symbol of the miraculous transformation which the land of\nCanaan is to undergo in order to fit it for the habitation of Jehovah\u2019s\nransomed people. Anticipations of a renewal of the face of nature are a\ncommon feature of Messianic prophecy. They have their roots in the\nreligious interpretation of the possession of the land as the chief token\nof the divine blessing on the nation. In the vicissitudes of agricultural\nor pastoral life the Israelite read the reflection of Jehovah\u2019s attitude\ntowards Himself and His people: fertile seasons and luxuriant harvests\nwere the sign of His favour; drought and famine were the proof that He was\noffended. Even at the best of times, however, the condition of Palestine\nleft much to be desired from the husbandman\u2019s point of view, especially in\nthe kingdom of Judah. Nature was often stern and unpropitious, the\ncultivation of the soil was always attended with hardship and uncertainty,\nlarge tracts of the country were given over to irreclaimable barrenness.\nThere was always a vision of better things possible, and in the last days\nthe prophets cherished the expectation that that vision would be realised.\nWhen all causes of offence are removed from Israel and Jehovah smiles on\nHis people, the land will blossom into supernatural fertility, the\nploughman overtaking the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth\nseed, the mountains dropping new wine and the hills melting.(301) Such\nidyllic pictures of universal plenty and comfort abound in the writings of\nthe prophets, and are not wanting in the pages of Ezekiel. We have already\nhad one in the description of the blessings of the Messianic kingdom;(302)\nand we shall see that in this closing vision a complete remodelling of the\nland is presupposed, rendering it all alike suitable for the habitation of\nthe tribes of Israel.\n\nThe river of life is the most striking presentation of this general\nconception of Messianic felicity. It is one of those vivid images from\nEastern life which, through the Apocalypse, have passed into the symbolism\nof Christian eschatology. \u201cAnd he showed me a pure river of water of life,\nclear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In\nthe midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there\nthe tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her\nfruits every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the\nnations.\u201d(303) So writes the seer of Patmos, in words whose music charms\nthe ear even of those to whom running water means much less than it did to\na native of thirsty Palestine. But John had read of the mystic river in\nthe pages of his favourite prophet before he saw it in vision. The close\nresemblance between the two pictures leaves no doubt that the origin of\nthe conception is to be sought in Ezekiel\u2019s vision. The underlying\nreligious truth is the same in both representations, that the presence of\nGod is the source from which the influences flow forth that renew and\npurify human existence. The tree of life on each bank of the river, which\nyields its fruit every month and whose leaves are for healing, is a detail\ntransferred directly from Ezekiel\u2019s imagery to fill out the description of\nthe glorious city of God into which the nations of them that are saved are\ngathered.\n\nBut with all its idealism, Ezekiel\u2019s conception presents many points of\ncontact with the actual physiography of Palestine; it is less universal\nand abstract in its significance than that of the Apocalypse. The first\nthing that might have suggested the idea to the prophet is that the Temple\nmount had at least one small stream, whose \u201csoft\u2010flowing\u201d waters were\nalready regarded as a symbol of the silent and unobtrusive influence of\nthe divine presence in Israel.(304) The waters of this stream flowed\neastward, but they were too scanty to have any appreciable effect on the\nfertility of the region through which they passed. Further, to the south\u2010\neast of Jerusalem, between it and the Dead Sea, stretched the great\nwilderness of Judah, the most desolate and inhospitable tract in the whole\ncountry. There the steep declivity of the limestone range refuses to\ndetain sufficient moisture to nourish the most meagre vegetation, although\nthe few spots where wells are found, as at Engedi, are clothed with almost\ntropical luxuriance. To reclaim these barren slopes and render them fit\nfor human industry, the Temple waters are sent eastward, making the desert\nto blossom as the rose. Lastly, there was the Dead Sea itself, in whose\nbitter waters no living thing can exist, the natural emblem of resistance\nto the purposes of Him who is the God of life. These different elements of\nthe physical reality were familiar to Ezekiel, and come back to mind as he\nfollows the course of the new Temple river, and observes the wonderful\ntransformation which it is destined to effect. He first sees it breaking\nforth from the wall of the Temple at the right\u2010hand side of the entrance,\nand flowing eastward through the courts by the south side of the altar.\nThen at the outer wall he meets it rushing from the south side of the\neastern gate, and still pursuing its easterly course. At a thousand cubits\nfrom the sanctuary it is only ankle deep, but at successive distances of a\nthousand cubits it reaches to the knees, to the loins, and becomes finally\nan impassable river. The stream is of course miraculous from source to\nmouth. Earthly rivers do not thus broaden and deepen as they flow, except\nby the accession of tributaries, and tributaries are out of the question\nhere. Thus it flows on, with its swelling volume of water, through \u201cthe\neastern circuit,\u201d \u201cdown to the Arabah\u201d (the trough of the Jordan and the\nDead Sea), and reaching the sea it sweetens its waters so that they teem\nwith fishes of all kinds like those of the Mediterranean. Its uninviting\nshores become the scene of a busy and thriving industry; fishermen ply\ntheir craft from Engedi to Eneglaim,(305) and the food supply of the\ncountry is materially increased. The prophet may not have been greatly\nconcerned about this, but one characteristic detail illustrates his\ncareful forethought in matters of practical utility. It is from the Dead\nSea that Jerusalem has always obtained its supply of salt. The\npurification of this lake might have its drawbacks if the production of\nthis indispensable commodity should be interfered with. Salt, besides its\nculinary uses, played an important part in the Temple ritual, and Ezekiel\nwas not likely to forget it. Hence the strange but eminently practical\nprovision that the shallows and marshes at the south end of the lake shall\nbe exempted from the influence of the healing waters. \u201cThey are given for\nsalt.\u201d(306)\n\nWe may venture to draw one lesson for our own instruction from this\nbeautiful prophetic image of the blessings that flow from a pure religion.\nThe river of God has its source high up in the mount where Jehovah dwells\nin inaccessible holiness, and where the white\u2010robed priests minister\nceaselessly before Him; but in its descent it seeks out the most desolate\nand unpromising region in the country, and turns it into a garden of the\nLord. While the whole land of Israel is to be renewed and made to minister\nto the good of man in fellowship with God, the main stream of fertility is\nexpended in the apparently hopeless task of reclaiming the Jud\u00e6an desert\nand purifying the Dead Sea. It is an emblem of the earthly ministry of Him\nwho made Himself the friend of publicans and sinners, and lavished the\nresources of His grace and the wealth of His affection on those who were\ndeemed beyond ordinary possibility of salvation. It is to be feared,\nhowever, that the practice of most Churches has been too much the reverse\nof this. They have been tempted to confine the water of life within fairly\nrespectable channels, amongst the prosperous and contented, the occupants\nof happy homes, where the advantages of religion are most likely to be\nappreciated. That seems to have been found the line of least resistance,\nand in times when spiritual life has run low it has been counted enough to\nkeep the old ruts filled and leave the waste places and stagnant waters of\nour civilisation ill provided with the means of grace. Nowadays we are\nsometimes reminded that the Dead Sea must be drained before the gospel can\nhave a fair chance of influencing human lives, and there may be much\nwisdom in the suggestion. A vast deal of social drainage may have to be\naccomplished before the word of God has free course. Unhealthy and impure\nconditions of life may be mitigated by wise legislation, temptations to\nvice may be removed, and vested interests that thrive on the degradation\nof human lives may be crushed by the strong arm of the community. But the\ntrue spirit of Christianity can neither be confined to the watercourses of\nreligious habit, nor wait for the schemes of the social reformer. Nor will\nit display its powers of social salvation until it carries the energies of\nthe Church into the lowest haunts of vice and misery with an earnest\ndesire to seek and to save that which is lost. Ezekiel had his vision, and\nhe believed in it. He believed in the reality of God\u2019s presence in the\nsanctuary and in the stream of blessings that flowed from His throne, and\nhe believed in the possibility of reclaiming the waste places of his\ncountry for the kingdom of God. When Christians are united in like faith\nin the power of Christ and the abiding presence of His Spirit, we may\nexpect to see times of refreshing from the presence of God and the whole\nearth filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.\n\n\n\nII\n\n\nEzekiel\u2019s map of Palestine is marked by something of the same mathematical\nregularity which was exhibited in his plan of the Temple. His boundaries\nare like those we sometimes see on the map of a newly settled country like\nAmerica or Australia\u2014that is to say, they largely follow the meridian\nlines and parallels of latitude, but take advantage here and there of\nnatural frontiers supplied by rivers and mountain ranges. This is\nabsolutely true of the internal divisions of the land between the tribes.\nHere the northern and southern boundaries are straight lines running east\nand west over hill and dale, and terminating at the Mediterranean Sea and\nthe Jordan Valley, which form of course the western and eastern limits. As\nto the external delimitation of the country it is unfortunately not\npossible to speak with certainty. The eastern frontier is fixed by the\nJordan and the Dead Sea so far as they go, and the western is the sea. But\non the north and south the lines of demarcation cannot be traced, the\nplaces mentioned being nearly all unknown. The north frontier extends from\nthe sea to a place called Hazar\u2010enon, said to lie on the border of Hauran.\nIt passes the \u201centrance to Hamath,\u201d and has to the north not only Hamath,\nbut also the territory of Damascus. But none of the towns through which it\npasses\u2014Hethlon, Berotha, Sibraim\u2014can be identified, and even its general\ndirection is altogether uncertain.(307)\n\nFrom Hazar\u2010enon the eastern border stretches southward till it reaches the\nJordan, and is prolonged south of the Dead Sea to a place called Tamar,\nalso unknown. From this we proceed westwards by Kadesh till we strike the\nriver of Egypt, the Wady el\u2010Arish, which carries the boundary to the sea.\nIt will be seen that Ezekiel, for reasons on which it is idle to\nspeculate, excludes the transjordanic territory from the Holy Land.\nSpeaking broadly, we may say that he treats Palestine as a rectangular\nstrip of country, which he divides into transverse sections of\nindeterminate breadth, and then proceeds to parcel out these amongst the\ntwelve tribes.\n\nA similar obscurity rests on the motives which determined the disposition\nof the different tribes within the sacred territory. We can understand,\nindeed, why seven tribes are placed to the north and only five to the\nsouth of the capital and the sanctuary. Jerusalem lay much nearer the\nsouth of the land, and in the original distribution all the tribes had\ntheir settlements to the north of it except Judah and Simeon. Ezekiel\u2019s\narrangement seems thus to combine a desire for symmetry with a recognition\nof the claims of historical and geographic reality. We can also see that\nto a certain extent the relative positions of the tribes correspond with\nthose they held before the Exile, although of course the system requires\nthat they shall lie in a regular series from north to south. Dan, Asher,\nand Naphtali are left in the extreme north, Manasseh and Ephraim to the\nsouth of them, while Simeon lies as of old in the south with one tribe\nbetween it and the capital. But we cannot tell why Benjamin should be\nplaced to the south and Judah to the north of Jerusalem, why Issachar and\nZebulun are transferred from the far north to the south, or why Reuben and\nGad are taken from the east of the Jordan to be settled one to the north\nand the other to the south of the city. Some principle of arrangement\nthere must have been in the mind of the prophet, and several have been\nsuggested; but it is perhaps better to confess that we have lost the key\nto his meaning.(308)\n\nThe prophet\u2019s interest is centred on the strip of land reserved for the\nsanctuary and public purposes, which is subdivided and measured out with\nthe utmost precision. It is twenty\u2010five thousand cubits (about 8\u20101/3\nmiles) broad, and extends right across the country. The two extremities\neast and west are the crown lands assigned to the prince for the purposes\nwe have already seen. In the middle a square of twenty\u2010five thousand\ncubits is marked off; this is the \u201coblation\u201d or sacred offering of land,\nin the middle of which the Temple stands. This again is subdivided into\nthree parallel sections, as shown in the accompanying diagram. The most\nnortherly, ten thousand cubits in breadth, is assigned to the Levites; the\ncentral portion, including the sanctuary, to the priests; and the\nremaining five thousand cubits is a \u201cprofane place\u201d for the city and its\ncommon lands. The city itself is a square of four thousand five hundred\ncubits, situated in the middle of this southmost section of the oblation.\nWith its free space of two hundred and fifty cubits in width belting the\nwall it fills the entire breadth of the section; the communal possessions\nflanking it on either hand, just as the prince\u2019s domain does the\n\u201coblation\u201d as a whole. The produce of these lands is \u201cfor food to them\nthat \u2018serve\u2019 [_i.e._, inhabit] the city.\u201d(309) Residence in the capital,\nit appears, is to be regarded as a public service. The maintenance of the\ncivic life of Jerusalem was an object in which the whole nation was\ninterested, a truth symbolised by naming its twelve gates after the twelve\nsons of Jacob.(310) Hence, also, its population is to be representative of\nall the tribes of Israel, and whoever comes to dwell there is to have a\nshare in the land belonging to the city.(311) But evidently the\nlegislation on this point is incomplete. How were the inhabitants of the\ncapital to be chosen out of all the tribes? Would its citizenship be\nregarded as a privilege or as an onerous responsibility? Would it be\nnecessary to make a selection out of a host of applications, or would\nspecial inducements have to be offered to procure a sufficient population?\nTo these questions the vision furnishes no answer, and there is nothing to\nshow whether Ezekiel contemplated the possibility that residence in the\nnew city might present few attractions and many disadvantages to an\nagricultural community such as he had in view. It is a curious incident of\nthe return from the Exile that the problem of peopling Jerusalem emerged\nin a more serious form than Ezekiel from his ideal point of view could\nhave foreseen. We read that \u201cthe rulers of the people dwelt at Jerusalem:\nthe rest of the people also cast lots, to bring one of ten to dwell in\nJerusalem, the holy city, and nine parts in [other] cities. And the people\nblessed all the men that willingly offered themselves to dwell at\nJerusalem.\u201d(312) There may have been causes for this general reluctance\nwhich are unknown to us, but the principal reason was doubtless the one\nwhich has been hinted at, that the new colony lived mainly by agriculture,\nand the district in the immediate vicinity of the capital was not\nsufficiently fertile to support a large agricultural population. The new\nJerusalem was at first a somewhat artificial foundation, and a city too\nlargely developed for the resources of the community of which it was the\ncentre. Its existence was necessary more for the protection and support of\nthe Temple than for the ordinary ends of civilisation; and hence to dwell\nin it was for the majority an act of self\u2010sacrifice by which a man was\nfelt to deserve well of his country. And the only important difference\nbetween the actual reality and Ezekiel\u2019s ideal is that in the latter the\nsupernatural fertility of the land and the reign of universal peace\nobviate the difficulties which the founders of the post\u2010exilic theocracy\nhad to encounter.\n\nThis seeming indifference of the prophet to the secular interests\nrepresented by the metropolis strikes us as a singular feature in his\nprogramme. It is strange that the man who was so thoughtful about the\nsalt\u2010pans of the Dead Sea should pass so lightly over the details of the\nreconstruction of a city. But we have had several intimations that this is\nnot the department of things in which Ezekiel\u2019s hold on reality is most\nconspicuous. We have already remarked on the boldness of the conception\nwhich changes the site of the capital in order to guard the sanctity of\nthe Temple. And now, when its situation and form are accurately defined,\nwe have no sketch of municipal institutions, no hint of the purposes for\nwhich the city exists, and no glimpse of the busy and varied activities\nwhich we naturally connect with the name. If Ezekiel thought of it at all,\nexcept as existing on paper, he was probably interested in it as\nfurnishing the representative congregation on minor occasions of public\nworship, such as the Sabbaths and new moons, when the whole people could\nnot be expected to assemble. The truth is that the idea of the city in the\nvision is simply an abstract religious symbol, a sort of epitome and\nconcentration of theocratic life. Like the figure of the prince in earlier\nchapters, it is taken from the national institutions which perished at the\nExile; the outline is retained, the typical significance is enhanced, but\nthe form is shadowy and indistinct, the colour and variety of concrete\nreality are absent. It was perhaps a stage through which political\nconceptions had to pass before their religious meaning could be\napprehended. And yet the fact that the symbol of the Holy City is\npreserved is deeply suggestive and indeed scarcely less important in its\nown way than the retention of the type of the king. Ezekiel can no more\nthink of the land without a capital than of the state without a prince.\nThe word \u201ccity\u201d\u2014synonym of the fullest and most intense form of life, of\nlife regulated by law and elevated by devotion to a common ideal, in which\nevery worthy faculty of human nature is quickened by the close and varied\nintercourse of men with each other\u2014has definitely taken its place in the\nvocabulary of religion. It is there, not to be superseded, but to be\nrefined and spiritualised, until the city of God, glorified in the praises\nof Israel, becomes the inspiration of the loftiest thought and the most\nardent longing of Christendom. And even for the perplexing problems that\nthe Church has to face at this day there is hardly a more profitable\nexercise of the Christian imagination than to dream with practical intent\nof the consecration of civic life through the subjection of all its\ninfluences to the ends of the Redeemer\u2019s kingdom.\n\nOn the other hand we must surely recognise that this vision of a Temple\nand a city separated from each other\u2014where religious and secular interests\nare as it were concentrated at different points, so that the one may be\nmore effectually subordinated to the other\u2014is not the final and perfect\nvision of the kingdom of God. That ideal has played a leading and\ninfluential part in the history of Christianity. It is essentially the\nideal formulated in Augustine\u2019s great work on the city of God, which ruled\nthe ecclesiastical polity of the medi\u00e6val Church. The State is an unholy\ninstitution; it is an embodiment of the power of this present evil world:\nthe true city of God is the visible Catholic Church, and only by\nsubjection to the Church can the State be redeemed from itself and be made\na means of blessing. That theory served a providential purpose in\npreserving the traditions of Christianity through dark and troubled ages,\nand training the rude nations of Europe in purity and righteousness and\nreverence for that by which God makes Himself known. But the Reformation\nwas, amongst other things, a protest against this conception of the\nrelation of Church to State, of the sacred to the secular. By asserting\nthe right of each believer to deal with Christ directly without the\nmediation of Church or priest it broke down the middle wall of partition\nbetween religion and every\u2010day duty; it sanctified common life by showing\nhow a man may serve God as a citizen in the family or the workshop better\nthan in the cloister or at the altar. It made the kingdom of God to be a\npresent power wherever there are lives transformed by love to Christ and\nserving their fellow\u2010men for His sake. And if Catholicism may find some\nplausible support for its theory in Ezekiel and the Old Testament\ntheocracy in general, Protestants may perhaps with better right appeal to\nthe grander ideal represented by the new Jerusalem of the Apocalypse\u2014the\ncity that needs no Temple, because the Lord Himself is in her midst.\n\n\u201cAnd I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of\nheaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great\nvoice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and\nHe will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself\nshall be with them, and be their God.... And I saw no temple therein: for\nthe Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had\nno need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of\nGod did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.\u201d(313)\n\nIt may be difficult for us amid the entanglements of the present to read\nthat vision aright\u2014difficult to say whether it is on earth or in heaven\nthat we are to look for the city in which there is no Temple. Worship is\nan essential function of the Church of Christ; and so long as we are in\nour earthly abode worship will require external symbols and a visible\norganisation. But this at least we know, that the will of God must be done\non earth as it is in heaven. The true kingdom of God is within us; and His\npresence with men is realised, not in special religious services which\nstand apart from our common life, but in the constant influence of His\nSpirit, forming our characters after the image of Christ, and permeating\nall the channels of social intercourse and public action, until everything\ndone on earth is to the glory of our Father which is in heaven. That is\nthe ideal set forth by the coming of the holy city of God, and only in\nthis way can we look for the fulfilment of the promise embodied in the new\nname of Ezekiel\u2019s city, Jehovah\u2010shammah,\u2014\n\nTHE LORD IS THERE.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES\n\n\n    1 Herodotus, i. 103\u2010106.\n\n    2 If the \u201cthirtieth year\u201d of ch. i. 1 could refer to the prophet\u2019s age\n      at the time of his call, his birth would fall in the very year in\n      which the Law Book was found. Although that interpretation is\n      extremely improbable, he can hardly have been much more, or less,\n      than thirty years old at the time.\n\n    3 The opinion, once prevalent, that it was the Chaboras in Northern\n      Mesopotamia, where colonies of Northern Israelites had been settled\n      a century and a half before, has nothing to justify it, and is now\n      universally abandoned.\n\n    4 This, however, is not certain. Although Jeremiah\u2019s property and\n      residence were in Anathoth, his official connection may have been\n      with the Temple in Jerusalem.\n\n    5 The passage xxxiii. 14\u201026 is wanting in the LXX., and may possibly\n      be a later insertion. Even if genuine it would hardly alter the\n      general estimate of the prophet\u2019s teaching expressed above.\n\n    6 Jer. xv. 4; 2 Kings xxiii. 26.\n\n    7 In the superscription of the book (ch. i. 1\u20103) a double date is\n      given for this occurrence. In ver. 1 it is said to have taken place\n      \u201cin the thirtieth year\u201d; but this expression has never been\n      satisfactorily explained. The principal suggestions are: (1) that it\n      is the year of Ezekiel\u2019s life; (2) that the reckoning is from the\n      year of Josiah\u2019s reformation; and (3) that it is according to some\n      Babylonian era. But none of these has much probability, unless, with\n      Klostermann, we go further and assume that the explanation was given\n      in an earlier part of the prophet\u2019s autobiography now lost\u2014a view\n      which is supported by no evidence and is contrary to all analogy.\n      Cornill proposes to omit ver. 1 entirely, chiefly on the ground that\n      the use of the first person before the writer\u2019s name has been\n      mentioned is unnatural. That the superscription does not read\n      smoothly as it stands has been felt by many critics; but the\n      rejection of the verse is perhaps a too facile solution.\n\n    8 Not \u201camber,\u201d but a natural alloy of silver and gold, highly esteemed\n      in antiquity.\n\n    9 Cf. Exod. xxiv. 10: \u201clike the very heavens for pureness.\u201d\n\n   10 Duhm on Isa. xxx. 27.\n\n   11 _B\u00eath m\u0115ri_, or simply _m\u0115r\u00ee_, occurring about fifteen times in the\n      first half of the book, but only once after ch. xxiv.\n\n   12 Klostermann.\n\n   13 In ch. iii. 12 read \u201cAs the glory of Jehovah arose from its place\u201d\n      instead of \u201cBlessed be the glory,\u201d etc. (\u05d1\u05e8\u05d5\u05dd for \u05d1\u05e8\u05d5\u05da).\n\n   14 A somewhat similar episode seems to have occurred in the life of\n      Isaiah. See the commentaries on Isa. viii. 16\u201018.\n\n   15 These verses (ch. iii. 22\u201027) furnish one of the chief supports of\n      Klostermann\u2019s peculiar theory of Ezekiel\u2019s condition during the\n      first period of his career. Taking the word \u201cdumb\u201d in its literal\n      sense, he considers that the prophet was afflicted with the malady\n      known as _alalia_, that this was intermittent down to the date of\n      ch. xxiv., and then became chronic till the fugitive arrived from\n      Jerusalem (ch. xxxiii. 21), when it finally disappeared. This is\n      connected with the remarkable series of symbolic actions related in\n      ch. iv., which are regarded as exhibiting all the symptoms of\n      catalepsy and hemiplegia. These facts, together with the prophet\u2019s\n      liability to ecstatic visions, justify, in Klostermann\u2019s view, the\n      hypothesis that for seven years Ezekiel laboured under serious\n      nervous disorders. The partiality shown by a few writers to this\n      view probably springs from a desire to maintain the literal accuracy\n      of the prophet\u2019s descriptions. But in that aspect the theory breaks\n      down. Even Klostermann admits that the binding with ropes had no\n      existence save in Ezekiel\u2019s imagination. But if we are obliged to\n      take into account what _seemed_ to the prophet, it is better to\n      explain the whole phenomena on the same principle. There can be no\n      good grounds for taking the dumbness as real and the ropes as\n      imaginary. Besides, it is surely a questionable expedient to\n      vindicate a prophet\u2019s literalism at the expense of his sanity. In\n      the hands of Klostermann and Orelli the hypothesis assumes a\n      stupendous miracle; but it is obvious that a critic of another\n      school might readily \u201cwear his rue with a difference,\u201d and treat the\n      whole of Ezekiel\u2019s prophetic experiences as hallucinations of a\n      deranged intellect.\n\n   16 An ingenious attempt has been made by Professor Cornill to rearrange\n      the verses so as to bring out two separate series of actions, one\n      referring exclusively to the exile and the other to the siege. But\n      the proposed reading requires a somewhat violent handling of the\n      text, and does not seem to have met with much acceptance. The\n      blending of diverse elements in a single image appears also in ch.\n      xii. 3\u201016.\n\n   17 The correspondence would be almost exact if we date the commencement\n      of the northern captivity from 734, when Tiglath\u2010pileser carried\n      away the inhabitants of the northern and eastern parts of the\n      country. This is a possible view, although hardly necessary.\n\n   18 Or, with a different pointing, \u201cShe changed My judgments to\n      wickedness.\u201d\n\n   19 See ch. xxvii.\n\n   20 _Hamm\u00e2nim_\u2014a word of doubtful meaning, however. The word for idols,\n      _gill\u00fbl\u00eem_, is all but peculiar to Ezekiel. It is variously\n      explained as _block\u2010gods_ or _dung\u2010gods_\u2014in any case an epithet of\n      contempt. The _ash\u0113rah_, or sacred pole, is never referred to by\n      Ezekiel.\n\n   21 In ver. 14 the true sense has been lost by the corruption of the\n      word Riblah into Diblah.\n\n   22 The reason may be that two different recensions of the text have\n      been combined and mixed up. So Hitzig and Cornill.\n\n   23 Amos viii. 2.\n\n   24 Cf. Luke xvii. 26\u201030.\n\n   25 Ezekiel\u2019s use of the divine names would hardly be satisfactory to\n      Renan. Outside of the prophecies addressed to heathen nations the\n      generic name \u05d0\u05dc\u05d4\u05d9\u05dd is never used absolutely, except in the phrases\n      \u201cvisions of God\u201d (three times) and \u201cspirit of God\u201d (once, in ch. xi.\n      24, where the text may be doubtful). Elsewhere it is used only of\n      God in His relation to men, as, _e.g._, in the expression \u201cbe to you\n      for a God.\u201d \u05d0\u05dc \u05e9\u05d3\u05d9 occurs once (ch. x. 5) and \u05d0\u05dc alone three times\n      in ch. xxviii. (addressed to the prince of Tyre). The prophet\u2019s\n      word, when he wishes to express absolute divinity, is just the\n      \u201cproper\u201d name \u05d9\u05d4\u05d5\u05d4, in accordance no doubt with the interpretation\n      given in Exod. iii. 13, 14.\n\n   26 Of what nature this idolatrous symbol was we cannot certainly\n      determine. The word used for \u201cimage\u201d (_semel_) occurs in only two\n      other passages. The writer of the books of Chronicles uses it of the\n      _asherah_ which was set up by Manasseh in the Temple, and it is\n      possible that he means thus to identify that object with what\n      Ezekiel saw (cf. 2 Chron. xxxiii. 7, and 2 Kings xxi. 7). This\n      interpretation is as satisfactory as any that has been proposed.\n\n   27 The nature of the cults is best explained by Professor Robertson\n      Smith, who supposes that they are a survival of aboriginal\n      totemistic superstitions which had been preserved in secret circles\n      till now, but suddenly assumed a new importance with the collapse of\n      the national religion and the belief that Jehovah had left the land.\n      Others, however, have thought that it is Egyptian rites which are\n      referred to. This view might best explain its prevalence among the\n      elders, but it has little positive support.\n\n   28 It has been supposed, however, that the sun\u2010worship referred to here\n      is of Persian origin, chiefly because of the obscure expression in\n      ver. 17: \u201cBehold they put the twig to their nose.\u201d This has been\n      explained by a Persian custom of holding up a branch before the\n      face, lest the breath of the worshipper should contaminate the\n      purity of the deity. But Persia had not yet played any great part in\n      history, and it is hardly credible that a distinctively Persian\n      custom should have found its way into the ritual of Jerusalem.\n      Moreover, the words do not occur in the description of the sun\u2010\n      worshippers, nor do they refer particularly to them.\n\n   29 Following the LXX.\n\n   30 It is noteworthy that in the dirge of ch. xix. Ezekiel ignores the\n      reign of Jehoiakim. Is this because he too owed his elevation to the\n      intervention of a foreign power?\n\n   31 Especially if we read ver. 12, as in LXX., \u201cThat he may not be seen\n      by any eye, and he shall not see the earth.\u201d\n\n   32 By this name for Chald\u00e6a Ezekiel seems to express his contempt for\n      the commercial activity which formed so large an element in the\n      greatness of Babylon (ch. xvi. 29 R.V.), perhaps also his sense of\n      the uncongenial environment in which the disinherited king and the\n      nobility of Judah now found themselves.\n\n   33 Jehoiakim.\n\n   34 The long line is divided into two unequal parts by a c\u00e6sura over the\n      end.\n\n   35 Mostly adopted from Cornill. The English reader may refer to Dr.\n      Davidson\u2019s commentary.\n\n   36 This word is uncertain.\n\n   37 _Ezekiel_, p. 85.\n\n   38 Translating with LXX.\n\n   39 The exact force of the reflexive form used (_na\u2019 \u0103n\u00eathi_, niphal) is\n      doubtful. The translation given is that of Cornill, which is\n      certainly forcible.\n\n   40 The same rule is applied to direct communion with God in prayer in\n      Psalm lxvi. 18: \u201cIf I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not\n      hear.\u201d\n\n   41 See above, p. 97 f.\n\n   42 See below, pp. 179 f.\n\n   43 Ver. 33 may, however, be an interpolation (Cornill).\n\n   44 In ver. 41 the Syriac Version reads, with a slight alteration of the\n      text, \u201cthey shall burn thee in the midst of the fire.\u201d The reading\n      has something to recommend it. Death by burning was an ancient\n      punishment of harlotry (Gen. xxxviii. 24), although it is not likely\n      that it was still inflicted in the time of Ezekiel.\n\n   45 \u201cTo eat upon the mountains\u201d (if that reading can be retained) must\n      mean to take part in the sacrificial feasts which were held on the\n      high places in honour of idols. But if with W. R. Smith and others\n      we substitute the phrase \u201ceat with the blood,\u201d assimilating the\n      reading to that of ch. xxxiii. 25, the offence is still of the same\n      nature. In the time of Ezekiel to eat with the blood probably meant\n      not merely to eat that which had not been sacrificed to Jehovah, but\n      to engage in a rite of distinctly heathenish character. Cf. Lev.\n      xix. 20, and see the note in Smith\u2019s _Kinship and Marriage in Early\n      Arabia_, p. 310.\n\n   46 In the striking passage ch. xiv. 12\u201023 the application of the\n      doctrine of individual retribution to the destruction of Jerusalem\n      is discussed. It is treated as \u201can exception to the rule\u201d\n      (Smend)\u2014perhaps the exception which proves the rule. The rule is\n      that in a national judgment the most eminent saints save neither son\n      nor daughter by their righteousness, but only their own lives (vv.\n      13\u201020). At the fall of Jerusalem, however, a remnant escapes and\n      goes into captivity with sons and daughters, in order that their\n      corrupt lives may prove to the earlier exiles how necessary the\n      destruction of the city was (vv. 21\u201023). The argument is an\n      admission that the judgment on Israel was not carried out in\n      accordance with the strict principle laid down in ch. xviii. It is\n      difficult, indeed, to reconcile the various utterances of Ezekiel on\n      this subject. In ch. xxi. 3, 4 he expressly announces that in the\n      downfall of the state righteous and wicked shall perish together. In\n      the vision of ch. ix., on the other hand, the righteous are marked\n      for exemption from the fate of the city. The truth appears to be\n      that the prophet is conscious of standing between two dispensations,\n      and does not hold a consistent view regarding the time when the law\n      proper to the perfect dispensation comes into operation. The point\n      on which there is no ambiguity is that in the final judgment which\n      ushers in the Messianic age the principle of individual retribution\n      shall be fully manifested.\n\n   47 This is true whether (as some expositors think) the date in ch. xx.\n      is merely an external mark introducing a new division of the book,\n      or whether (as seems more natural) it is due to the fact that here\n      Ezekiel recognised a turning\u2010point of his ministry. Such visits of\n      the elders as that here recorded must have been of frequent\n      occurrence. Two others are mentioned, and of these one is undated\n      (ch. xiv. 1); the other at least admits the supposition that it was\n      connected with a very definite change of opinion among the exiles\n      (ch. viii. 1: see above, p. 80). We may therefore reasonably suppose\n      that the precise note of time here introduced marks this particular\n      incident as having possessed a peculiar significance in the\n      relations between the prophet and his fellow\u2010exiles. What its\n      significance may have been we shall consider in the next lecture,\n      see p. 174.\n\n   48 The verses xx. 45\u201049 of the English Version really belong to ch.\n      xxi., and are so placed in the Hebrew. In what follows the verses\n      will be numbered according to the Hebrew text.\n\n   49 At three places the meaning is entirely lost, through corruption of\n      the text.\n\n   50 Cf. ch. xvii.\n\n   51 The reference is to the Messiah, and seems to be based on the\n      ancient prophecy of Gen. xlix. 10, reading there \u05e9\u05b6\u05c1\u05dc\u05bc\u05d4 instead of\n      \u05e9\u05b4\u05c1\u05dc\u05d4.\n\n   52 The word \u201ccovenant\u201d is not here used.\n\n   53 Apart from the case of Jephthah, which is entirely exceptional, the\n      first historical instance is that of Ahaz (2 Kings xvi. 3).\n\n   54 There still remain the critical difficulties. What are the ambiguous\n      laws to which the prophet refers? It is of course not to be assumed\n      as certain that they are to be found in the Pentateuch, at least in\n      the exact form which Ezekiel has in view. There may have been at\n      that time a considerable amount of uncodified legislative material\n      which passed vaguely as the law of Jehovah. The \u201clying pen of the\n      scribes\u201d seems to have been busy in the multiplication of such\n      enactments (Jer. viii. 8). Still, it is a legitimate inquiry whether\n      any of the extant laws of the Pentateuch are open to the\n      interpretation which Ezekiel seems to have in view. The parts of the\n      Pentateuch in which the regulation about the dedication of the\n      firstborn occurs are the so\u2010called Book of the Covenant (Exod. xxii.\n      29, 30), the short code of Exod. xxxiv. 17\u201026 (vv. 19 f.), the\n      enactment connected with the institution of the Passover (Exod.\n      xiii. 12 f.), and the priestly ordinance (Numb. xviii. 15). Now, in\n      three of these four passages, the inference to which Ezekiel refers\n      is expressly excluded by the provision that the firstborn of men\n      shall be redeemed. The only one which bears the appearance of\n      ambiguity is that in the Book of the Covenant, where we read: \u201cThe\n      firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto Me; likewise shalt thou\n      do with thine oxen and thy sheep: seven days it shall be with its\n      dam, on the eighth day thou shalt give it to Me.\u201d Here the firstborn\n      children and the firstlings of animals are put on a level; and if\n      any passage in our present Pentateuch would lend itself to the false\n      construction which the later Israelites favoured, it would be this.\n      On the other hand this passage does not contain the particular\n      technical word (_he\u2019eb\u00eer_) used by Ezekiel. The word probably means\n      simply \u201cdedicate,\u201d although this was understood in the sense of\n      dedication by sacrifice. The only passage of the four where the verb\n      occurs is Exod. xiii. 12; and this accordingly is the one generally\n      fixed on by critics as having sanctioned the abuse in question. But\n      apart from its express exemption of firstborn children from the\n      rule, the passage fails in another respect to meet the requirements\n      of the case. The prophet appears to speak here of legislation\n      addressed to the second generation in the wilderness, and this could\n      not refer to the Passover ordinance in its present setting. On the\n      whole we seem to be driven to the conclusion that Ezekiel is not\n      thinking of any part of our present Pentateuch, but to some other\n      law similar in its terms to that of Exod. xiii. 12 f., although\n      equivocal in the same way as Exod. xxii. 29 f.\n\n      In the text above I have given what appears to me the most natural\n      interpretation of the passage, without referring to the numerous\n      other views which have been put forward. Van Hoonacker, in _Le\n      Museon_ (1893), subjects the various theories to a searching\n      criticism, and arrives himself at the nebulous conclusion that the\n      \u201cstatutes which were not good\u201d are not statutes at all, but\n      providential chastisements. That cuts the knot, it does not untie\n      it.\n\n   55 None of the interpretations of ver. 29 gives a satisfactory sense.\n      Cornill rejects it as \u201cabsonderlich und aus dem Tenor des ganzen\n      Cap. herausfallend.\u201d\n\n   56 See Dillmann\u2019s note on Lev. xxvii. 32, quoted by Davidson.\n\n   57 Reading \u05d1\u05de\u05e1\u05e4\u05e8 for \u05d1\u05de\u05e1\u05e8\u05ea with the LXX.\n\n   58 The transition ver. 39 is, however, very difficult. As it stands in\n      the Hebrew text it contains an ironical concession (a good\u2010natured\n      one, Smend thinks) to the persistent advocates of idolatry, the only\n      tolerable translation being, \u201cSo serve ye every man his idols, but\n      hereafter ye shall surely hearken to Me, and My holy name ye shall\n      no longer profane with your gifts and your idols.\u201d But this sense is\n      not in itself very natural, and the Hebrew construction by which it\n      is expressed would be somewhat strained. The most satisfactory\n      rendering is perhaps that given in the Syriac Version, where two\n      clauses of our Hebrew text are transposed: \u201cBut as for you, O house\n      of Israel, if ye will not hearken to Me, go serve every man his\n      idols! Yet hereafter ye shall no more profane My holy name in you,\u201d\n      etc.\n\n   59 It is not certain what is the exact meaning wrapped up in these\n      designations. A very slight change in the pointing of the Hebrew\n      would give the sense \u201c_her_ tent\u201d for Ohola and \u201c_my_ tent in her\u201d\n      for Oholibah. This is the interpretation adopted by most\n      commentators, the idea being that while the tent or temple of\n      Jehovah was in Judah, Samaria\u2019s \u201ctent\u201d (religious system) was of her\n      own making. It is not likely, however, that Ezekiel has any such\n      sharp contrast in his mind, since the whole of the argument proceeds\n      on the similarity of the course pursued by the two kingdoms. It is\n      simpler to take the word Ohola as meaning \u201ctent,\u201d and Oholibah as\n      \u201ctent in her,\u201d the signification of the names being practically\n      identical. The allusion is supposed to be to the tents of the high\n      places which formed a marked feature of the idolatrous worship\n      practised in both divisions of the country (cf. ch. xvi. 16). This\n      is better, though not entirely convincing, since it does not explain\n      how Ezekiel came to fix on this particular emblem as a mark of the\n      religious condition of Israel. It may be worth noting that the word\n      \u05d0\u05d4\u05dc\u05d4 contains the same number of consonants as \u05e9\u05c2\u05de\u05e8\u05df (= Samaria,\n      although the word is always written \u05e9\u05c2\u05de\u05e8\u05d5\u05df in the Old Testament),\n      and \u05d0\u05d4\u05dc\u05d9\u05d1\u05d4 the same number as \u05d9\u05e8\u05d5\u05e9\u05dc\u05dd. The Eastern custom of giving\n      similar names to children of the same family (like Hasan and Husein)\n      is aptly instanced by Smend and Davidson.\n\n   60 This word is of doubtful meaning.\n\n   61 Smend thinks that the illustration is explained by the secluded life\n      of females in the East, which makes it quite intelligible that a\n      woman might be captivated by the picture of a man she had never\n      seen, and try to induce him to visit her.\n\n   62 On these names of nations see Davidson\u2019s Commentary, p. 168, and the\n      reference there to Delitzsch.\n\n   63 The words rendered in E.V., \u201cthou shalt be laughed to scorn and had\n      in derision\u201d (ver. 32), \u201cand pluck off thy own breasts\u201d (ver. 34),\n      are wanting in the LXX. The passage gains in force by the omission.\n      The words translated \u201cbreak the sherds thereof\u201d (ver. 34) are\n      unintelligible.\n\n   64 Although the text in parts of vv. 42, 43 is very imperfect.\n\n   65 On the reading here see above, p. 150.\n\n   66 The eighth verse, referring to the Sabbath and the sanctuary, is\n      rejected by Cornill on internal grounds, but for that there is no\n      justification. If the verse is retained, it will be seen that the\n      enumeration of sins corresponds pretty closely in substance, though\n      not in arrangement, with the precepts of the Decalogue.\n\n   67 Read with the LXX. \u05de\u05d8\u05bc\u05e8\u05d4, instead of \u05de\u05d8\u05d4\u05e8\u05d4, \u201cpurified.\u201d\n\n   68 This appears to be the meaning of the simile in ver. 24; the\n      judgment is conceived as a parching drought, and the point of the\n      comparison is that its severity is not tempered by the fertilising\n      streams which should have descended on the people in the shape of\n      sound political and religious guidance.\n\n   69 Following the LXX. we should read \u201cwhose princes\u201d (\u05d0\u05e9\u05e8 \u05e0\u05e9\u05d9\u05d0\u05d9\u05d4) for\n      \u201cthe conspiracy of her prophets\u201d (\u05e7\u05e9\u05e8 \u05e0\u05d1\u05d9\u05d0\u05d9\u05d4) in ver. 25.\n\n   70 Read \u05e2\u05e6\u05d9\u05dd, \u201cwood,\u201d instead of \u05e2\u05e6\u05de\u05d9\u05dd, \u201cbones\u201d (Boettcher and others).\n\n   71 The words \u201cexcept by fire\u201d represent an emendation proposed by\n      Cornill, which may be somewhat bold, but certainly expresses an idea\n      in the passage.\n\n   72 Cf. Jer. xiii. 27: \u201cThou shalt not be pronounced clean, for how long\n      a time yet!\u201d\n\n   73 _I.e._, as generally explained, bread brought by sympathising\n      friends, to be shared with the mourning household: cf. Jer. xvi. 7;\n      2 Sam. iii. 35. Wellhausen, however, proposes to read \u201cbread of\n      mourners\u201d (\u05d0\u05b2\u05e0\u05b4\u05e9\u05bb\u05c1\u05d9\u05dd for \u05d0\u05b2\u05e0\u05b8\u05e9\u05b4\u05c1\u05d9\u05dd).\n\n   74 The words \u201cand Seir\u201d in ver. 8 are wanting in the true text of the\n      LXX., and should probably be omitted.\n\n   75 Isa. xvi. 6, xxv. 11; Jer. xlviii. 29, 42.\n\n   76 Rawlinson, _History of Ph\u0153nicia_.\n\n   77 Closing stanzas of _The Scholar Gipsy_.\n\n   78 Both Movers and Rawlinson make it the basis of their survey of\n      Tyrian commerce.\n\n   79 Babylon and Egypt are probably omitted because of the peculiar point\n      of view assumed by the prophet. They were too powerful to be\n      represented as slaves of Tyre, even in poetry.\n\n   80 E.V., \u201cgoing to and fro.\u201d\n\n   81 So Cornill, \u05d7\u05d5\u05d9\u05dc\u05d4 for \u05e8\u05db\u05dc\u05d9 ( = merchants).\n\n   82 See ch. xxvii. 6, where ivory is said to come from Chittim or\n      Cyprus.\n\n   83 The Hebrew text adds \u201cpurple, embroidered work, and byssus\u201d; but\n      most of these things are omitted in the LXX.\n\n   84 The text of vv. 18, 19 is in confusion, and Cornill, from a\n      comparison with a contemporary wine\u2010list of Nebuchadnezzar, and also\n      an Assyrian one from the library of Asshurbanipal, makes it read\n      thus: \u201cWine of Helbon and Zimin and Arnaban they furnished in thy\n      markets. From Uzal,\u201d etc. Both lists are quoted in Schrader\u2019s\n      _Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament_, under this verse.\n\n   85 The latter half of this verse, however, is of very uncertain\n      interpretation. For full explanation of the arch\u00e6ological details in\n      this chapter it will be necessary to consult the commentaries and\n      the lexicon. See also Rawlinson\u2019s _History of Ph\u0153nicia_, pp. 285 ff.\n\n   86 With a change of one letter in the Hebrew text, \u05d4\u05de\u05dc\u05d0\u05d4 for \u05d0\u05de\u05dc\u05d0\u05d4, as\n      in the LXX. and Targum.\n\n   87 Hebrew, _T\u0115h\u00f4m_; Babylonian, _Tiamat_.\n\n   88 Psalm xxxvi. 6: cf. Gen. vii, 11.\n\n   89 _Contra Ap._, I. 21; _Ant._, X. xi. 1.\n\n   90 Cf. H\u00e4vernick against Hitzig and Winer, _Ezekiel_, pp. 436 f.\n\n   91 The same engineering feat was accomplished by Alexander the Great in\n      seven months, but the Greek general probably adopted more scientific\n      methods (such as pile\u2010driving) than the Babylonians; and, besides,\n      it is possible that the remains of Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s embankment may\n      have facilitated the operation.\n\n   92 For the word \u05d2\u05d1\u05d5\u05dc\u05d9\u05da, rendered \u201cthy borders,\u201d Cornill proposes to\n      read \u05d6\u05d1\u05d5\u05dc\u05da, which he thinks might mean \u201cthine anchorage.\u201d The\n      translation is doubtful, but the sense is certainly appropriate.\n\n   93 Senir was the Amorite name of Mount Hermon, the Ph\u0153nician name being\n      Sirion (Deut. iii. 9). Senir, however, occurs on the Assyrian\n      monuments, and was probably widely known.\n\n   94 _Teasshur_ (read \u05d1\u05b4\u05bc\u05d7\u05b0\u05d0\u05b7\u05e9\u05bb\u05c1\u05e8\u05b4\u05d9\u05dd instead of \u05d1\u05b7\u05bc\u05ea\u2010\u05d0\u05b7\u05e9\u05c1\u05d5\u05bc\u05e8\u05b4\u05d9\u05dd), a kind\n      of tree mentioned several times in the Old Testament, is generally\n      identified with the sherb\u00een tree.\n\n   95 Elishah is one of the sons of Javan (Ionia) (Gen. x. 4), and must\n      have been some part of the Mediterranean coast, subject to the\n      influence of Greece. Italy, Sicily, and the Peloponnesus have been\n      suggested.\n\n   96 The details of the description are nearly all illustrated in\n      pictures of Ph\u0153nician war\u2010galleys found on Assyrian monuments. They\n      show the single mast with its square sail, the double row of oars,\n      the fighting men on the deck, and the row of shields along the\n      bulwarks. In an Egyptian picture we have a representation of the\n      embroidered _sail_ (ancient ships are said not to have carried a\n      _flag_). The canvas is richly ornamented with various devices over\n      its whole surface, and beneath the sail we see the cabin or awning\n      of coloured stuff mentioned in the text.\n\n   97 See above, pp. 232 ff.\n\n   98 It is not clear whether the dirge is continued to the end of the\n      chapter, or whether vv. 33 ff. are spoken by the prophet in\n      explanation of the distress of the nations. The proper elegiac\n      measure cannot be made out without some alteration of the text.\n\n   99 Dan. x. 20, 21, xii. 1.\n\n  100 \u201cThe death of the uncircumcised\u201d\u2014_i.e._, a death which involves\n      exclusion from the rites of honourable burial; like burial in\n      unconsecrated ground among Christian nations.\n\n  101 Dean Church, _Cathedral and University Sermons_, p. 150.\n\n  102 \u201cWe have, indeed, a nominal religion, to which we pay tithes of\n      property and sevenths of time; but we have also a practical and\n      earnest religion, to which we devote nine\u2010tenths of our property,\n      and six\u2010sevenths of our time. And we dispute a great deal about the\n      nominal religion: but we are all unanimous about this practical one;\n      of which I think you will admit that the ruling goddess may be best\n      generally described as the \u2018Goddess of Getting\u2010on,\u2019 or \u2018Britannia of\n      the Market.\u2019 The Athenians had an \u2018Athena Agoraia,\u2019 or Athena of the\n      Market; but she was a subordinate type of their goddess, while our\n      Britannia Agoraia is the principal type of ours. And all your great\n      architectural works are, of course, built to her. It is long since\n      you built a great cathedral; and how you would laugh at me if I\n      proposed building a cathedral on the top of one of these hills of\n      yours, to make it an Acropolis! But your railroad mounds, vaster\n      than the walls of Babylon; your railroad stations, vaster than the\n      temple of Ephesus, and innumerable; your chimneys, how much more\n      mighty and costly than cathedral spires! your harbour\u2010piers; your\n      warehouses; your exchanges!\u2014all these are built to your great\n      Goddess of \u2018Getting\u2010on;\u2019 and she has formed, and will continue to\n      form, your architecture, as long as you worship her; and it is quite\n      vain to ask me to tell you how to build to _her_; you know far\n      better than I.\u201d\u2014_The Crown of Wild Olive._\n\n  103 The \u201cfiery stones\u201d may represent the thunderbolts, which were\n      harmless to the prince in virtue of his innocence. It may be noted\n      that the \u201cprecious stones\u201d that were his covering (ver. 13)\n      correspond with nine out of the twelve jewels that covered the high\u2010\n      priestly breastplate (Exod. xxviii. 17\u201019), the stones of the third\n      row being those not here represented. This suggests that the\n      allusion is rather to bejewelled garments than to the plumage of the\n      wings of the cherub with whom the prince has been wrongly\n      identified.\n\n  104 Jer. xxv. 22, xxvii. 3.\n\n  105 Ezek. xxix. 6, 7: cf. Isa. xxxvi. 6 (the words of Rabshakeh). In\n      ver. 7 read \u05db\u05e3, \u201chand,\u201d for \u05db\u05ea\u05e3, \u201cshoulder,\u201d and \u05d4\u05de\u05e2\u05d3\u05ea, \u201cmadest to\n      totter,\u201d for \u05d4\u05e2\u05de\u05d3\u05ea, \u201cmadest to stand.\u201d\n\n  106 This is probable according to the Hebrew text, which, however, omits\n      the number of the _month_ in ch. xxxii. 17. The Septuagint reads \u201cin\n      the _first_ month\u201d; if this is accepted, it would be better to read\n      the _eleventh_ year instead of the twelfth in ch. xxxii. 1, as is\n      done by some ancient versions and Hebrew codices. The change\n      involves a difference of only one letter in Hebrew.\n\n  107 Ch. xxxii. 17, following the LXX. reading.\n\n  108 Migdol was on the north\u2010east border of Egypt, twelve miles south of\n      Pelusium (Sin), at the mouth of the eastern arm of the Nile. Syene\n      is the modern Assouan, at the first cataract of the Nile, and has\n      always been the boundary between Egypt proper and Ethiopia.\n\n  109 Pathros is the name of Upper Egypt, the narrow valley of the Nile\n      above the Delta. In the Egyptian tradition it was regarded as the\n      original home of the nation and the seat of the oldest dynasties.\n      Whether Ezekiel means that the Egyptians shall recover only Pathros,\n      while the Delta is allowed to remain uncultivated, is a question\n      that must be left undecided.\n\n  110 Hebrew, \u201cCush, and Put, and Lud, and all the mixed multitude, and\n      Chub, and the sons of the land of the covenant.\u201d Cornill reads,\n      \u201cCush, and Put, and Lud, and Lub, and all Arabia, and the sons of\n      Crete.\u201d The emendations are partly based on somewhat intricate\n      reasoning from the text of the Greek and Ethiopic versions; but they\n      have the advantage of yielding a series of proper names, as the\n      context seems to demand. Put and Lud are tribes lying to the west of\n      Egypt, and so also is Lub, which may be safely substituted for the\n      otherwise unknown Chub of the Hebrew text.\n\n  111 Reading \u05d0\u05dc\u05d9\u05dd, \u201cstrong ones,\u201d instead of \u05d0\u05dc\u05d9\u05dc\u05d9\u05dd, \u201cnot\u2010gods,\u201d as in\n      the LXX. The latter term is common in Isaiah, but does not occur\n      elsewhere in Ezekiel, although he had constant occasion to use it.\n\n  112 The cities are not mentioned in any geographical order. Memphis\n      (Noph) and Thebes (No) are the ancient and populous capitals of\n      Lower and Upper Egypt respectively; Tanis (Zoan) was the city of the\n      Hyksos, and subsequently a royal seat; Pelusium (Sin), \u201cthe bulwark\n      of Egypt,\u201d and Daphne (Tahpanhes) guarded the approach to the Delta\n      from the East; Heliopolis (On, wrongly pointed Aven) was the famous\n      centre of Egyptian wisdom, and the chief seat of the worship of the\n      sun\u2010god Ra; and Bubastis (Pi\u2010beseth), besides being a celebrated\n      religious centre, was one of the possessions of the Egyptian\n      military caste.\n\n  113 It is only fair to say that the construction \u201ca T\u2019asshur, a cedar,\u201d\n      or, still more, \u201ca T\u2019asshur of a cedar,\u201d is somewhat harsh. It is\n      not unlikely that the word \u201ccedar\u201d may have been added after the\n      reading \u201cAssyrian\u201d had been established, in order to complete the\n      sense.\n\n  114 See Smend on the passage. Dr. Davidson, however, doubts the\n      possibility of this: see his commentary.\n\n  115 This use of the word \u201cuncircumcised\u201d is peculiar. The idea seems to\n      be that circumcision, among nations which like the Israelites\n      practised the rite, was an indispensable mark of membership in the\n      community; and those who lacked this mark were treated as social\n      outcasts, not entitled to honourable sepulture. Hence the word could\n      be used, as here, in the sense of unhallowed.\n\n  116 Cf. Isa. xiv. 18\u201020: \u201cAll of the kings of the nations, all of them,\n      sleep in glory, every one in his own house. But thou art cast forth\n      away from thy sepulchre, like an abominable branch, clothed with the\n      slain, that are thrust through with the sword, that go down to the\n      stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden underfoot. Thou shalt not be\n      joined with them in burial,\u201d etc.\n\n  117 The text of these verses (19\u201021) is in some confusion. The above is\n      a translation of the reading proposed by Cornill, who in the main\n      follows the LXX.\n\n  118 LXX. \u05de\u05e2\u05d5\u05dc\u05dd for \u05de\u05e2\u05e8\u05dc\u05dd = \u201cof the uncircumcised.\u201d\n\n  119 \u201cShields,\u201d a conjecture of Cornill, seems to be demanded by the\n      parallelism.\n\n  120 Jer. xliii. 8\u201013; xliv. 12\u201014, 27\u201030; xlvi. 13\u201026.\n\n  121 _Ant._, X. ix. 7.\n\n  122 _Zeitschrift f\u00fcr Aegyptische Sprache_, 1878, pp. 2 ff. and pp. 87\n      ff.\n\n  123 _Ibid._, 1884, pp. 87 ff., 93 ff.\n\n  124 See Schrader, _Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek_, III. ii., pp. 140 f.\n\n  125 The hypothesis of a joint reign of Hophra and Amasis from 570 to 564\n      (Wiedemann) may or may not be necessary to establish a connection\n      between the Babylonian inscription and that of Nes\u2010hor; it is\n      certain that Amasis began to reign in 570, and that Hophra is _not_\n      the Pharaoh mentioned by Nebuchadnezzar.\n\n  126 Jerusalem was taken in the fourth month of the eleventh year of\n      Zedekiah or of Ezekiel\u2019s captivity. The announcement reached\n      Ezekiel, according to the reading of the Hebrew text, in the tenth\n      month of the twelfth year (ch. xxxiii. 21)\u2014that is, about eighteen\n      months after the event. It is hardly credible that the transmission\n      of the news should have been delayed so long as this; and therefore\n      the reading \u201celeventh year,\u201d found in some manuscripts and in the\n      Syriac Version, is now generally regarded as correct.\n\n  127 Jer. xxxix. 9.\n\n  128 It is possible, however, that the word _happ\u0101l\u00eet_, \u201cthe fugitive,\u201d\n      may be used in a collective sense, of the whole body of captives\n      carried away after the destruction of the city.\n\n  129 Ch. xxiv. 21\u201024.\n\n  130 Chs. xvii. 22\u201024, xxi. 26, 27.\n\n  131 See pp. 102 ff.\n\n  132 Cf. especially ch. xxii.\n\n  133 See below, pp. 318 f., and ch. xxviii.\n\n  134 Pointing the Hebrew text in accordance with the rendering of the\n      LXX.\n\n  135 This seems to me to be the clear meaning of Isaiah\u2019s prophecy of the\n      Messiah in the beginning of the ninth chapter, although the contrary\n      is often asserted. Micah v. 1\u20106 may, however, be an exception to the\n      rule stated above.\n\n  136 Ver. 25. The idea is based on Hosea ii. 18, where God promises to\n      make a covenant for Israel \u201cwith the beasts of the field, and the\n      birds of heaven, and the creeping things of the ground.\u201d This is to\n      be understood quite literally: it means immunity from the ravages of\n      wild beasts and other noxious creatures. Ezekiel\u2019s promise, however,\n      is probably to be explained in accordance with the terms of the\n      allegory: the \u201cevil beasts\u201d are the foreign nations from whom Israel\n      had suffered so severely in the past.\n\n  137 This is the sense of the expression \u05de\u05d8\u05e2 \u05dc\u05e9\u05c2\u05dd in ver. 29 (literally\n      \u201ca plantation for a name\u201d). The LXX., however, read \u05de\u05d8\u05e2 \u05e9\u05c1\u05dc\u05dd, which\n      may be translated \u201ca perfect vegetation.\u201d At all events the phrase\n      is not a title of the Messiah.\n\n  138 The word \u201cmen\u201d in ver. 31 should be omitted, as in the LXX.\n\n  139 Cf. Amos ix. 11 f.; Hosea ii. 2, iii. 5; Isa. xi. 13; Micah ii. 12\n      f., v. 3.\n\n  140 1 Kings xii. 16 (cf. 2 Sam. xx. 1). It should be mentioned, however,\n      that the last clause in the LXX. is replaced by a more prosaic\n      sentence: \u201cfor this man is not fit to be a ruler nor a prince.\u201d\n\n  141 Jer. xxxiii. 15\u201017.\n\n  142 Cf. ch. xliii. 7, xlv. 8, xlvi. 16 ff.\n\n  143 Ch. xxxvii. 25.\n\n  144 \u201cDas K\u00f6nigthum wird diese [the Davidic] Familie nicht wieder\n      erhalten, denn Ezechiel f\u00e4hrt fort: \u2018Ich Iahwe werde ihnen Gott sein\n      und mein Knecht David wird _n\u00e2s\u00ee_ d. h. F\u00fcrst in ihrer Mitte sein.\u2019\n      Also _nur ein F\u00fcrstenthum_ wird der Familie Davids in der besseren\n      Zukunft Israel\u2019s zu Theil.\u201d\u2014STADE, _Geschichte des Volkes Israel_,\n      vol. ii., p. 39.\n\n  145 Ch. xxxvii. 22\u201024.\n\n  146 On the whole subject of the relation of the gods to the land see\n      Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, pp. 91 ff.\n\n  147 Josh. xxii. 19; 1 Sam. xxvi. 19; Hosea ix. 3\u20105.\n\n  148 Ch. xxxvi. 13.\n\n  149 Ch. xxxvi. 30: cf. xxxiv. 29.\n\n  150 Gen. xxvii. 28, 39.\n\n  151 Numb. xiii. 32.\n\n  152 Isa. lxii. 4.\n\n  153 Vv. 18, 19. The words in brackets are wanting in the LXX.\n\n  154 Vv. 20, 22, 23.\n\n  155 James ii. 7.\n\n  156 Psalm xlii. 10.\n\n  157 Ch. xxxix. 23.\n\n  158 The phrase \u201ccause you to walk\u201d (ver. 27) is very strong in the\n      Hebrew, almost \u201cI will bring it about that ye walk.\u201d\n\n  159 The thirty\u2010seventh verse hardly bears the sense which is sometimes\n      put upon it: \u201cI am ready to do this for the house of Israel, yet I\n      will not do it until they have learned to pray for it.\u201d That is true\n      of spiritual blessings generally; but Ezekiel\u2019s idea is simpler. The\n      particle \u201cyet\u201d is not adversative but temporal, and the \u201cthis\u201d\n      refers to what follows, and not to what precedes. The meaning is,\n      \u201cThe time shall come when I will answer the prayer of the house of\n      Israel,\u201d etc.\n\n  160 Chapter XXIII. below.\n\n  161 Cf. 1 Kings xvii.; 2 Kings iv. 13 ff., xiii. 21.\n\n  162 1 Thess. iv. 13 ff.\n\n  163 Isa. xxvi. 19.\n\n  164 Dan. xii. 2.\n\n  165 John v. 25: cf. vv. 28, 29.\n\n  166 Isa. vii. 8.\n\n  167 Chapter V., above.\n\n  168 Ch. xxxvi. 16\u201038.\n\n  169 Ch. xxxvi. 21.\n\n  170 Chs. xviii. 23, xxxiii. 11.\n\n  171 See pp. 75 f. above.\n\n  172 Ch. vi. 8\u201010.\n\n  173 Chs. xvi. 61\u201063, xx. 43, 44, xxxvi. 31, 32.\n\n  174 Ch. xviii. 31.\n\n  175 Cf. Joel\u2019s \u201cRend your heart, and not your garments\u201d (Joel ii. 13).\n\n  176 Chs. xi. 19, xxxvi. 26, 27.\n\n  177 Chs. xxxvi. 27, xxxvii. 14.\n\n  178 Hosea xiv. 5.\n\n  179 Isa. xxxii. 15.\n\n  180 Chs. xi. 20, xxxvi. 27.\n\n  181 Rom. vii. 16.\n\n  182 Rom. viii. 2.\n\n  183 Jer. xxxi. 33.\n\n  184 Chs. vi. 9, xvi. 63, xx. 43, xxxvi. 31, 32.\n\n  185 Cf. ch. xxxix. 23.\n\n  186 See ch. xxxviii. 11, 12.\n\n  187 Ch. xxxviii. 19\u201023.\n\n  188 Ch. xxxix. 23.\n\n  189 See E. Meyer, _Geschichte des Alterthums_, p. 558; Schrader,\n      _Cuneiform Inscriptions_, etc., on this passage.\n\n  190 Meshech and Tubal are the Moschi and Tibareni of the Greek\n      geographers, lying south\u2010east of the Black Sea. A country or tribe\n      Rosh has not been found.\n\n  191 Gomer (according to others, however, Cappadocia) and Togarmah (ver.\n      6).\n\n  192 Cush and Put (ver. 5).\n\n  193 Ver. 7. The LXX. reads \u201cfor me\u201d instead of \u201cunto them,\u201d giving to\n      the word _mishmar_ the sense of \u201creserve force.\u201d\n\n  194 The words of ver. 4, \u201cI will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy\n      jaws,\u201d are wanting in the best manuscripts of the LXX., and are\n      perhaps better omitted. Gog does not need to be dragged forth with\n      hooks; he comes up willingly enough, as soon as the opportunity\n      presents itself (vv. 11, 12).\n\n  195 Isa. x. 7.\n\n  196 An actual parallel is furnished by the crowds of slave\u2010dealers who\n      followed the army of Antiochus Epiphanes when it set out to crush\n      the Maccab\u00e6an insurrection in 166 B.C.\n\n  197 In ver. 14 the LXX. has \u201che stirred up\u201d instead of \u201cknow,\u201d and gives\n      a more forcible sense.\n\n  198 Zeph. i.\u2010iii. 8; Jer. iv.\u2010vi.\n\n  199 Cf. besides the passages already cited, Isa. x. 5\u201034, xvii. 12\u201014;\n      Micah iv. 11\u201013.\n\n  200 Ver. 21. LXX.: \u201cI will summon against him every terror.\u201d\n\n  201 \u1f31\u03c0\u03c0\u03bf\u03c4\u03bf\u03be\u03cc\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9 (mounted archers) is the term applied to them by\n      Herodotus (iv. 46).\n\n  202 This translation, which is given by Hitzig and Cornill, is obtained\n      by a change in the punctuation of the word rendered \u201cpassengers\u201d in\n      ver. 11: cf. the \u201cmountains of Abarim,\u201d Numb. xxxiii. 47, 48; Deut.\n      xxxii. 49.\n\n  203 \u201cIt shall stop the noses of the passengers\u201d (ver. 11) gives no\n      sense; and the text, as it stands, is almost untranslatable. The\n      LXX. reads, \u201cand they shall seal up the valley,\u201d which gives a good\n      enough meaning, so far as it goes.\n\n  204 Ver. 26. The choice between the rendering \u201cforget\u201d and that of the\n      English Version, \u201cbear,\u201d depends on the position of a single dot in\n      the Hebrew. In the former case \u201cshame\u201d must be taken in the sense of\n      reproach (_schande_); in the latter it means the inward feeling of\n      self\u2010abasement (_schaam_). The forgetting of past trespasses, if\n      that is the right reading, can only mean that they are entirely\n      broken off and dismissed from mind; there is nothing inconsistent\n      with passages like ch. xxxvi. 31. It must be understood that in any\n      event the reference is to the future; \u201c_after that_ they have borne\u201d\n      is altogether wrong.\n\n  205 The beginning of the year is that referred to in Lev. xxv. 9, the\n      tenth day of the seventh month (September\u2010October). From the Exile\n      downwards two calendars were in use, the beginning of the sacred\n      year falling in the seventh month of the civil year. It was not\n      necessary for Ezekiel to mention the number of the month.\n\n  206 See pp. 318 f.\n\n  207 Cf. Davidson, _Ezekiel_, pp. liv. f.\n\n  208 See Prof. W. R. Smith, _The Old Testament in the Jewish Church_, pp.\n      442 f.\n\n  209 See ver. 10, \u201clet them measure the pattern\u201d; ver. 11, \u201cthat they may\n      keep the whole form thereof.\u201d\n\n  210 This last group is considered to be composed of several layers of\n      legislation, and one of its sections is of particular interest for\n      us because of its numerous affinities with the book of Ezekiel. It\n      is the short code contained in Lev. xvii.\u2010xxvi., now generally known\n      as the Law of Holiness.\n\n  211 This argument is most fully worked out by Wellhausen in the first\n      division of his _Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels_: I.,\n      \u201cGeschichte des Cultus.\u201d\n\n  212 It should perhaps be stated, even in so incomplete a sketch as this,\n      that there is still some difference of opinion among critics as to\n      Ezekiel\u2019s relation to the so\u2010called \u201cLaw of Holiness\u201d in Lev.\n      xvii.\u2010xxvi. It is agreed that this short but extremely interesting\n      code is the earliest complete, or nearly complete, document that has\n      been incorporated in the body of the Levitical legislation. Its\n      affinities with Ezekiel both in thought and style are so striking\n      that Colenso and others have maintained the theory that the author\n      of the Law of Holiness was no other than the prophet himself. This\n      view is now seen to be untenable; but whether the code is older or\n      more recent than the vision of Ezekiel is still a subject of\n      discussion among scholars. Some consider that it is an advance upon\n      Ezekiel in the direction of the Priests\u2019 Code; while others think\n      that the book of Ezekiel furnishes evidence that the prophet was\n      acquainted with the Law of Holiness, and had it before him as he\n      wrote. That he was acquainted with its _laws_ seems certain; the\n      question is whether he had them before him in their present written\n      form. For fuller information on this and other points touched on in\n      the above pages, the reader may consult Driver\u2019s _Introduction_ and\n      Robertson Smith\u2019s _Old Testament in the Jewish Church_.\n\n  213 Gautier, _La Mission du Proph\u00e8te Ezekiel_, p. 118.\n\n  214 The cubit which is the unit of measurement is said to be a\n      handbreadth longer than the cubit in common use (ver. 5). The length\n      of the larger cubit is variously estimated at from eighteen to\n      twenty\u2010two inches. If we adopt the smaller estimate, we have only to\n      take the half of Ezekiel\u2019s dimensions to get the measurement in\n      English yards. The other, however, is more probable. Both the\n      Egyptians and Babylonians had a larger and a smaller cubit, their\n      respective lengths being approximately as follows:\u2014\n\n      Common cubit: Egypt 17.8 in., Babylon 19.5 in.\n      Royal cubit: Egypt 20.7 in., Babylon 21.9 in.\n\n      In Egypt the royal cubit exceeded the common by a handbreadth, just\n      as in Ezekiel. It is probable in any case that the large cubit used\n      by the angel was of the same order of magnitude as the royal cubit\n      of Egypt and Babylon\u2014_i.e._, was between twenty and a half and\n      twenty\u2010two inches long. Cf. Benzinger, _Hebr\u00e4ische Arch\u00e4ologie_, pp.\n      178 ff.\n\n  215 See the plan in Benzinger, _Arch\u00e4ologie_, p. 394.\n\n  216 The outer court, however, is some feet higher than the level of the\n      ground, being entered by an ascent of seven steps; the height of the\n      wall inside must therefore be less by this amount than the six\n      cubits, which is no doubt an outside measurement.\n\n  217 Smend and Stade assume that it was a hundred and ten cubits long,\n      and extended five cubits to the west beyond the line of the square\n      to which it belongs. This was not necessary, and it would imply that\n      the _biny\u0101_ behind the Temple, to be afterwards described, was\n      without a wall on its eastern side, which is extremely improbable.\n      (So Davidson.)\n\n  218 According to the Septuagint they were either five or fifteen in\n      number in each block.\n\n  219 From a later passage (ch. xlvi. 19, 20) we learn that in some recess\n      to the west of the northern block of cells there was a place where\n      these sacrifices (the sin\u2010, guilt\u2010, and meal\u2010offerings) were cooked,\n      so that the people in the outer court might not run any risk of\n      being brought in contact with them.\n\n  220 So in the LXX.\n\n  221 The actual building of the second Temple had of course to be carried\n      out irrespective of the bold idealism of Ezekiel\u2019s vision. The\n      miraculous transformation of the land had not taken place, and it\n      was altogether impossible to build a new metropolis in the region\n      marked out for it by the vision. The Temple had to be erected on its\n      old site, and in the immediate neighbourhood of the city. To a\n      certain extent, however, the requirements of the ideal sanctuary\n      could be complied with. Since the new community had no use for royal\n      buildings, the whole of the old Temple plateau was available for the\n      sanctuary, and was actually devoted to this purpose. The new Temple\n      accordingly had two courts, set apart for sacred uses; and in all\n      probability these were laid out in a manner closely corresponding to\n      the plan prepared by Ezekiel.\n\n  222 It is not necessary to dwell on the third feature of the Temple\n      plan, its symmetry. Although this has not the same direct religious\n      significance as the other two, it is nevertheless a point to which\n      considerable importance is attached even in matters of minute\n      detail. Solomon\u2019s Temple had, for example, only one door to the side\n      chambers, in the wall facing the south, and this was sufficient for\n      all practical purposes. But Ezekiel\u2019s plan provides for two such\n      doors, one in the south and the other in the north, for no\n      assignable reason but to make the two sides of the house exactly\n      alike. There are just two slight deviations from a strictly\n      symmetrical arrangement that can be discerned; one is the washing\u2010\n      chamber by the side of one of the gates of the inner court, and the\n      other the space for cooking the most holy class of sacrifices near\n      the block of cells on the north side of the Temple. With these\n      insignificant exceptions, all the parts of the sanctuary are\n      disposed with mathematical regularity; nothing is left to chance,\n      regard for convenience is everywhere subordinated to the sense of\n      proportion which expresses the ideal order and perfection of the\n      whole.\n\n  223 Heb. xii. 14.\n\n  224 Heb. ix. 8\u201010.\n\n  225 2 Kings xxiii. 9. The sense of the passage is undoubtedly that given\n      above; but the expression \u201cunleavened bread\u201d as a general name for\n      the priests\u2019 portion is peculiar. It has been proposed to read, with\n      a change merely of the punctuation, instead of \u05de\u05b7\u05e6\u05bc\u05d5\u05b9\u05ea, \u05de\u05b4\u05e6\u05b0\u05d5\u05b9\u05ea =\n      \u201cstatutory portions,\u201d as in Neh. xiii. 5.\n\n  226 1 Sam. ii. 36.\n\n  227 Cf. ch. xxii. 26.\n\n  228 Ezra ii. 36\u201040.\n\n  229 Ezra ii. 58.\n\n  230 Ezra viii. 15\u201020.\n\n  231 On this peculiar affinity between holiness and uncleanness see the\n      interesting argument in Robertson Smith\u2019s _Religion of the Semites_,\n      pp. 427 ff. The passage Hag. ii. 12\u201014 does not appear to be\n      inconsistent with what is there said. The meaning is that \u201cvery\n      indirect contact with the holy does not make holy, but very direct\n      contact with the unclean makes unclean\u201d (Wellhausen, _Die Kleinen\n      Propheten_, p. 170).\n\n  232 Cf. ch. xxiv. 17; Lev. x. 6, xxi. 5, 10.\n\n  233 It is remarkable that neither here nor in Leviticus (ch. xxi. 1\u20103)\n      is the priest\u2019s wife mentioned as one for whom he may defile himself\n      at her death.\n\n  234 Cf. 2 Kings xii. 11, xxiii. 14, xxv. 18; Jer. xx. 1.\n\n  235 Hence it does not seem to me that any argument can be based on the\n      fact that a high priest was at the head of the returning exiles\n      either for or against the existence of the Priestly Code at that\n      date.\n\n  236 Lev. iv. 3, 13: cf. Lev. xvi. 6.\n\n  237 Exod. xviii. 25 ff.\n\n  238 Hosea iv. 6.\n\n  239 Cf. Deut. i. 17: \u201cjudgment is God\u2019s.\u201d\n\n  240 See below, p. 493.\n\n  241 2 Kings xii. 4\u201016.\n\n  242 They also receive the best of the _ar\u00eesoth_, a word of uncertain\n      meaning, probably either dough or coarse meal. This offering is said\n      to bring a blessing on the household.\n\n  243 Deut. xviii. 3.\n\n  244 Deut. xviii. 4.\n\n  245 The regulations of the Priests\u2019 Code with regard to the revenues of\n      the Temple clergy are most comprehensively given in Numb. xviii.\n      8\u201032. The first thing that strikes us there is the distinction\n      between the due of the priests and that of the Levites. The absence\n      of any express provision for the latter is a somewhat remarkable\n      feature in Ezekiel\u2019s legislation, when we consider the care with\n      which he has defined the status and duties of the order. It is\n      evident, however, that no complete arrangements could be made for\n      the Temple service without some law on this point such as is\n      contained in the passage Num. xviii. and referred to in Neh. x.\n      37\u201039; and this is closely connected with a disposition of the\n      tithes and firstlings different from the directions of Deuteronomy,\n      and probably also from the tacit assumption of Ezekiel. The book of\n      Deuteronomy leaves no doubt that both the tithes of natural produce\n      and the firstlings of the flock and herd were intended to furnish\n      the material for sacrificial feasts at the sanctuary (cf. chs. xii.\n      6, 7, 11, 12, xiv. 22\u201027). The priest received the usual portions of\n      the firstlings (ch. xviii. 3), and also a share of the tithe; but\n      the rest was eaten by the worshipper and his guests. In Numb.\n      xviii., on the other hand, all the firstlings are the property of\n      the priest (ver. 15), and the whole of the tithes is assigned to the\n      Levites, who in turn are required to hand over a tenth of the tithe\n      to the priests (vv. 24\u201032). The portion of the priests consists of\n      the following items: (1) The meal\u2010offering, sin\u2010offering, and guilt\u2010\n      offering (as in Ezekiel); (2) the best of oil, new wine, and corn\n      (as in Deuteronomy) (ver. 12); (3) all the firstfruits (an advance\n      on Ezekiel) (ver. 13); (4) every devoted thing (Ezekiel) (ver. 14);\n      (5) all the firstlings (vv. 15\u201018); (6) the breast and right thigh\n      of all ordinary private sacrifices (ver. 18: cf. Lev. vii. 31\u201034)\n      (like Deuteronomy, but choicer portions); (7) the tenth of the\n      Levites\u2019 tithe. It will be seen from this enumeration that the\n      Temple tariff of the Priestly law includes, with some slight\n      modification, all the requirements of Deuteronomy and Ezekiel,\n      besides the two important additions referred to above.\n\n  246 Psalm cxxxiii.\n\n  247 Chs. xlv. 7, 8, xlviii. 21, 22.\n\n  248 _I.e._, either the seventh year, as in Jer. xxxiv. 14, or the year\n      of Jubilee, the fiftieth year (Lev. xxv. 10); more probably the\n      former.\n\n  249 Amos viii. 5.\n\n  250 Ezek. xlv. 9, 10. In the translation of ver. 9 I have followed an\n      emendation proposed by Cornill. The sense is not affected, but the\n      grammatical construction seems to demand some alteration on the\n      Massoretic text.\n\n  251 In Exod. xxx. 13, Lev. xxvii. 25, Numb. iii. 47 (Priests\u2019 Code) the\n      shekel of twenty geras is described as the \u201cshekel of the\n      sanctuary,\u201d or \u201csacred shekel,\u201d clearly implying that another shekel\n      was in common use.\n\n  252 Ezek. xlv. 12, according to the LXX.\n\n  253 Prov. xi. 1.\n\n  254 Lev. xix. 35, 36.\n\n  255 Ezek. xlv. 13\u201016.\n\n  256 The exact figures are, one part in sixty of cereal produce (wheat\n      and barley), one share in a hundred of oil, and one animal out of\n      every two hundred from the flock (ch. xlv. 13\u201015).\n\n  257 Neh. x. 32, 33: cf. Ezek. xlv. 15.\n\n  258 Exod. xxx. 11\u201016. Whether the third of a shekel in the book of\n      Nehemiah is a concession to the poverty of the people, or whether\n      the law represents an increased charge found necessary for the full\n      Temple service, is a question that need not be discussed here.\n\n  259 Ch. xlv. 17.\n\n  260 Ch. xlv. 22.\n\n  261 Lev. xvi. 11, 15.\n\n  262 2 Kings xvi. 15, 16.\n\n  263 Ch. xliv. 1\u20103.\n\n  264 See ch. xlvi. 1\u201012. The Syriac Version indeed makes an exception to\n      this rule in the case of the prince. Ver. 10 reads: \u201cBut the prince\n      in their midst shall go out by the gate by which he entered.\u201d But\n      why the prince more than any other body should go back by the road\n      he came, or what particular honour there was in that, is a mystery;\n      and it is probable that the reading is an error originating in\n      repetition of ver. 8. The real meaning of the verse seems to be that\n      the prince must go in and out without the retinue of foreigners who\n      used to give _\u00e9clat_ to royal visits to the sanctuary.\n\n  265 Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, pp. 196 f.\n\n  266 Ch. xi. 16.\n\n  267 Micah vi. 6\u20108.\n\n  268 Smith, _Old Testament in Jewish Church_, p. 379.\n\n  269 Ch. xlv. 18\u201025.\n\n  270 Vv. 18\u201020. In ver. 20 we should read with the LXX. \u201cin the seventh\n      month, on the first day of the month,\u201d etc.\n\n  271 Vv. 21\u201025. Some critics, as Smend and Cornill, think that in ver. 14\n      we should read fifteenth instead of fourteenth, to perfect the\n      symmetry of the two halves of the year. There is no MS. authority\n      for the proposed change.\n\n  272 Smend.\n\n  273 Exod. xxiii. 14\u201017 (Book of the Covenant, with which the other\n      code\u2014Exod. xxxiv. 18\u201022\u2014agrees); Deut. xvi. 1\u201017.\n\n  274 Cf. Lev. xxiii. 4\u201044 (Law of Holiness); Numb. xxviii., xxix.\n\n  275 It is usual to speak of these ceremonies in Ezekiel as festivals.\n      But this seems to go beyond the prophet\u2019s meaning. Only a single\n      sacrifice, a sin\u2010offering, is mentioned; and there is no hint of any\n      public assemblage of the people on these days. It was the priests\u2019\n      business to see that the sanctuary was purified, and there was no\n      occasion for the people to be present at the ceremony. The\n      congregation would be the ordinary congregation at the new moon\n      feast, which of course did not represent the whole population of the\n      country. No doubt, as we see from the references below, the ceremony\n      developed into a special feast after the Exile.\n\n  276 Cf. Lev. xxiii. 23\u201032; Numb. xxix. 1\u201011.\n\n  277 Cf. Deut. xvi. 9, with Lev. xxiii. 10 f., 15 t. In the one case the\n      seven weeks to Pentecost are reckoned from the putting of the sickle\n      into the corn, in the other from the presentation of a first sheaf\n      of ripe corn in the Temple, which falls within the Passover week.\n      The latter can only be regarded as a more precise determination of\n      the former, and thus Unleavened Bread must have coincided with the\n      beginning of barley harvest.\n\n  278 Deut. xvi. 13.\n\n  279 Ch. xlv. 22.\n\n  280 Ch. xlvi. 12: cf. xliv. 3.\n\n  281 2 Kings xvi. 15: cf. 1 Kings xviii. 29, 36.\n\n  282 Ezra ix. 5.\n\n  283 Numb. xxviii. 3\u20108; Exod. xxix. 38\u201042.\n\n  284 Ch. xlvi. 13\u201015.\n\n  285 Psalm v. 3, probably used at the presentation of the morning tam\u00eed.\n      A more distinct recognition of the spiritual significance of the\n      _evening_ sacrifice is found in Psalm cxli. 2.\n\n  286 2 Kings xii. 17.\n\n  287 Cf. ch. xliii. 21.\n\n  288 Another explanation, however, is possible, and is adopted by Smend\n      and Davidson. Assuming that a burnt\u2010offering was offered on the\n      first day, and holding the whole description to be somewhat\n      elliptical, they bring the entire process within the limits of the\n      week. This certainly looks more satisfactory in itself. But would\n      Ezekiel be likely to admit an ellipsis in describing so important a\n      function? I have taken for granted above that the seven days of the\n      double sacrifice are counted from the \u201csecond day\u201d of ver. 22.\n\n  289 Ver. 26.\n\n  290 \u05d8\u05b4\u05d4\u05b5\u05e8 (ver. 20).\n\n  291 \u05d4\u05b4\u05d8\u05b5\u05bc\u05d0 a denominative form from \u05d4\u05b5\u05d8\u05b0\u05d0 = sin (ver. 22).\n\n  292 \u05db\u05b4\u05bc\u05e4\u05b5\u05bc\u05e8 (ver. 26).\n\n  293 See Smith, _Old Testament in Jewish Church_, p. 381.\n\n  294 Ch. xlv. 20.\n\n  295 Ch. xlv. 15, 17.\n\n  296 As distinguished from sins, \u05d1\u05b4\u05bc\u05e9\u05b4\u05c1\u05e0\u05b8\u05e0\u05b8\u05d4, or through inadvertence.\n      See Numb. xv. 30, 31.\n\n  297 Psalm li. 16, 17.\n\n  298 See his Burnet Lectures on the _Religion of the Semites_, to which,\n      as well as to his _Old Testament in the Jewish Church_, the present\n      chapter is largely indebted.\n\n  299 Ch. xlvii. 1\u201012.\n\n  300 Chs. xlvii. 13\u2010xlviii. 35.\n\n  301 Amos ix. 13.\n\n  302 Ch. xxxiv. 25\u201029.\n\n  303 Rev. xxii. 1, 2.\n\n  304 Isa. viii. 6.\n\n  305 Engedi, \u201cwell of the kid,\u201d is at the middle of the western shore;\n      Eneglaim, \u201cwell of two calves,\u201d is unknown, but probably lay at the\n      north end. The eastern side is left to the Arabian nomads.\n\n  306 Ver. 11.\n\n  307 I do not myself see much objection to supposing that it leaves the\n      sea near Tyre and proceeds about due east to Hazar\u2010enon, which may\n      be near the foot of Hermon, where Robinson located it. In this case\n      the \u201centrance to Hamath\u201d would be the south end of the _Be\u1e33a\u2019_,\n      where one strikes north to go to Hamath. This would correspond\n      nearly to the extent of the country actually occupied by the Hebrews\n      under the judges and the monarchy. The statement that the territory\n      of Damascus lies to the north presents some difficulty on any\n      theory. It may be added that Hazar\u2010hattikon in ver. 16 is the same\n      as Hazar\u2010enon; it is probably, as Cornill suggests, a scribe\u2019s error\n      for \u05e0\u05e6\u05e8\u05d4 \u05e2\u05e0\u05d5\u05df (the locative ending being mistaken for the article).\n\n  308 Smend, for example, points out that if we count the Levites\u2019 portion\n      as a tribal inheritance, and include Manasseh and Ephraim under the\n      house of Joseph (as is done in the naming of the gates of the city),\n      we have the sons of Rachel and Leah evenly distributed on either\n      side of the \u201coblation.\u201d Then at the farthest distance from the\n      Temple are the sons of Jacob\u2019s handmaids, Gad in the extreme south,\n      and Dan, Asher, and Naphtali in the north. This is ingenious, but\n      not in the least convincing.\n\n  309 Ver. 18.\n\n  310 Vv. 31\u201034. It is difficult to trace a clear connection between the\n      positions of the gates and the geographical distribution of the\n      tribes in the country. The fact that here Levi is counted as a tribe\n      and Ephraim and Manasseh are united under the name of Joseph\n      indicates perhaps that none was intended.\n\n  311 Ver. 19.\n\n  312 Neh. xi. 1, 2.\n\n  313 Rev. xxi. 2, 3, 22, 23.","title":"The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Ezekiel","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":155719}