CHAPTER XI.—Vv. 1, 2. ‘*And I wa given a rod (ADT 773?) like a staff,
416
. 3 Ν A ~ c Ezek, xli. Ἔγειρε καὶ " µέτρησον τὸν *vadv τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον, καὶ
1-5.
d John viii. τοὺς προσκυνοῦντας "ἐν αὐτῷ: 2. καὶ τὴν αὐλὴν τὴν ἔξωθεν τοῦ
20. e See on XVii. 17,
ναοῦ ἔκβαλε έξωθεν, καὶ μὴ αὐτὴν µετρήσῃς, ὅτι ° ἐδόθη τοῖς ἔθνεσι'
f Nes SAN aN ‘ fie # ε , a s , prophetic και την πολιν την αγιαν πατησουσι μηνας τεσσερακοντα δύο.
pertect.
fxxi.2,xxii. 3. Kat ᾿ δώσω τοῖς δυσὶ µάρτυσί ‘pou, "καὶ “ προφητεύσουσιν
19, Matt. XXVIl. 53 (title of Jer. in later , a eye) 2 a Judaism), κυρίου της γῆς " ἑστῶτες. g Ps. Sol. Vii. 2,
XVii. 25, Luke xxi. 24; see wail of 4 Esd. vi. 56f.
Xiv. 3, 24. 1 ver.+2, xii. 6. ο Cf. Win. § 23, 50.
m Isa. xxii. 12, Jer. vi. 26, Jas. iii. 5. p Grammat. irregularity, to emphasise personality of witnesses.
1 , , ἡμέρας χιλίας διακοσίας | ἑξήκοντα, περιβεβλημένοι] ™ σάκκους. 4. " Οὗτοί εἶσιν at δύο ἐλαῖαι καὶ "αἱ δύο λυχνίαι αἱ ἐνώπιον τοῦ
h Cf. on ix. 5. Lil. τῇ. k Ast Cor.
n From Zech. iv. 3, 11-14.
1For περιβεβληµενοι (NCC, 1, S., vg., And., Areth., Vict., Hipp., etc., so Al., Ti., Ws., Bs., Bj., Sw.) Lach., Tr., WH read the primitive corruption περιβεβλη- µενους (8 ΑΩΡ, min.), though WH suggest it may be an early error for περιβεβλη-
μενοις.
with the words” (λέγων by a harsh at- traction, cf. LXX of 1 Kings xx. 9, Josh. ii. 2, is left in apposition to the subject implied in ἐδόθη), “ Up (or come=})9) and measure the temple of God and the altar (of burnt-offering, which stood out- side the inner shrine) and (sc. number) those who worship there” (i.e., in the inner courts, xiii. 6; for constr. cf. 2Sam. viii. 3). The outer court (Ezek. x. 5) is to be left out of account (é«B.=“‘omit” or exclude as unworthy of attention), ‘‘ for it has been abandoned (or, assigned in the divine counsel) to the heathen, and (indeed) they shall trample on the holy city itself (emphatic by position, = Jeru- salem) for two and forty months.” In Asc. Isa. iv. 12 antichrist’s sway lasts for three years, seven months, and twenty-seven days, but three and a half years is the conventional period for the godless persecutor to get the upper hand (cf. iii. 5, after Daniel’s “time, and times, and the dividing of time,” {.6., three and a half years, vii. 25, xii. 7). Originally this broken seven as the period of oppression reflected the Baby- lonian three and a half winter months (S. C. 309 f£.; Cheyne’s Bible Problems, 111 f.), preceding the festival of Marduk in the vernal equinox, a solstice during which Tiamat reigned supreme. Here it is the stereotyped period of the καιροὶ τῶν ἐθνῶν (Luke xxi. 24), extending to the second advent.—petpyoys. To mea- sure is here not a prelude to ruin but a guarantee of preservation and restoration (Zech. ii. 1 f.). Failure to satisfy God’s standard or test means calamity for men, but when he surveys their capacities
and needs in peril, it implies protection. As the context implies, this is the idea of the present measuring. It is not to be identified prosaically with “' orders given to the Roman soldiers, who were en- camped in Jerusalem after its destruc- tion, not to set foot in what had been the Holy of Holies” (Mommsen).
Ver. 3. σάκκους, the simple, archaic garb of prophets, especially appropriate to humiliation (reff.). The faithful pro- phets who withdraw from the local apos- tacy to the desert in company with Isaiah (Asc. Isa. ii. 9 f.) are also clothed in this black hair-cloth. The voice of the divine speaker here “melts imperceptibly into the narrative of the vision”’ (Alford, cf. ver. 12). Contemporary Jewish belief (4 Esd. vi. 26) made these ‘‘ witnesses” (men “who have not tasted death from their birth,” z.e., Enoch, Elijah) appear before the final judgment and preach successfully, but the only trace of any analogous feature in rabbinical prophecy seems to be the appearance of Moses and Messiah during the course of the Gog and Magog campaign. The repro- duction of this oracle, long after its ori- ginal period in 70 Α.Ρ., would be facili- tated by the fact that the visions of Ezekiel and Zechariah, upon which it was modelled, both presupposed the fall of the city and temple in ancient Jeru- salem (Abbott, pp. 84-88).