THE
PULPIT COMMENTARY, EDITED BY THE
VERY REV. H. D. M. SPENCE, D.D., DEAN OF GLOUCESTER;
AND BY THE
REV. JOSEPH S, EXELL, M.A.
WITH
INTRODUCTIONS BY THE
VERY REV. F. W. FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S., DEAN OF CANTERBURY. RIGHT REV. H. COTTERILL, D.D., F.R.S.E. VERY REV. PRINCIPAL J. TULLOCH, D.D. REV. CANON G. RAWLINSON, M.A. REV. A. PLUMMER, M.A., D.D.
NEW EDlTION.
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY LONDON AND NEW YORK 1906 PRINT~ BY l\'lLLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES,
(TAe rirhts oftrans!atitm and reJrorlu&titJ11 are r'tJtrverl.) THE
PULPIT COMMENTARY, EDITED BT TJIJll
VERY REV. H. D. M. SPENCE, D.D., Dlill' or GLOUCE8TllB;
AND DY THB
REV. JOSEPH S. EXELL, M.A.
EZEKIEL. JfntrolJuctfon BY REV. T. WHITELAW, D.D.
e!xposftion IlY VERY REV.' E. H. PLUMPTRE, D.D., DEAN or WELUI.
~omiletfcs BY REV. PROFESSOR W. F . .A.DENEY, M.A.
J1;1omilfes bi} Farfous ~utbors. RF.V. PROF. J. R. THOMSON, M.A. REV. W. JONES. IUW. J. D. DAVIES, M.A. REV. W. CLARKSON, B.A.
VOL. L
NEW EDITION,
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY LONDON AND NEW YORK 1906 THE
:BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. -- INTRODUCTION.
THE topics requiring to be treated in an introduction to this remarkable writing may be conveniently arranged under two main divisions-the person of the prophet, and the book of his prophecies. Under the first will fall to be noticed the life of the prophet, the characteristics of the times in which he flourished, the special mission with which he was entrusted, and the qualities he exhibited both as a man and as a seer; under the second will arise for investigation the arrangement and contents of the book, its com- position, collection, and canonicity, its literary style, and the principle or principles of its interpretation, with a glance at its underlying theology,
J. EZEKIEL-THE PROPHET, 1. The Life of the Prophet. The sole information available for constructing a biography of Ezekiel is furnished by his own writings. Outside of these he is mentioned only by Josephus (' Ant.,' x. 5. 1; 6. 3; 7. 2; B. 2), and Sirach's son Jesus (Ecclus. xlix. 8), neither of whom communicates any item of importance. Whether Ezekiel was the prophet's birth-name conferred on him by his parents, or, as Hengstenberg suggests, an official title assumed by himself on commencing his vocation as a seer, cannot be determined, although the former is by far the more probable hypothesis. In either case it can hardly be questioned that the appellation was providentially designed to be symbolic of his character and calling. The Hebrew term ';,Ni?.tt?- in the LXX. and in Sirach 'I£tm~A, in the Vulgate Ezechiel, in Ge~~an Ezecltiel, or Hezelciel-is a compound either of,~ P:l".1'. (Gesenius), meaning "whom God will strengthen," or "he whose character is a personal proof EZEKIEL. b ii INTRODUCTION TO
of t.he strengthening of God" (Baumgarten), or of ,~ i'l~) (Ewald), :signifying "God is strong," or "he in relation to whom God is strong" ( Hongstenberg). As regards suitability the two interpretations stand upon a leYel ; for while Ezekiel was commissioned to a rebellious house whose children were "stiff-hearted " (:i?.-1i?.~1'.1'.) and " of a hard forehead" (il~t,?"""i?.l1'.I), on the other hand he , was assured that God had made his face hard (t:l 1j:!!r]) against their faces, and his forehead hard (PtO) against their foreheads ( eh. ii. 5; iii. 7, 8). In respeot of social rank Ezekiel belonged to the priestly order, being the son of Buzi,1 of whom nothing further is reported, though it is interesting to note that il1e name Ezekiel bad been borne by one of sacerdotal dignity as far baok as the time of David (1 Chron. xxiv. 16). Unlike Hilkiah's son Jeremiah of Anathoth, who, as a priest of the line of Ithamar, sprang from the lower or middle classes of the community, Ezekiel, as a Zadokite ( eh. x:l. 46; xliii. 19; xliv. 15, 16; 1 Kings ii. 35), deriving from the superior line of Eleazar the son of Aaron, was properly a member of the Jerusalem aristocracy-a circum- stance which will account for his having been carried off in Jehoiachin's captivity, while Jeremiah was left behind (2 Kings xxiv. 14), as well as explain the readiness with which in one of his visions ( eh. xi. 1) he recog- nized two of the princes of the people. How old the prophet was when the doom of exile fell on him and the other magnates of Jerusalem can only be conjecturally ascertained. Josephus affirms that Ezekiel was then a youth ( ,,.a,~ Jv); but, if Hengstenberg be correct in regarding the thirtieth year ( eh. i. 1 ), corresponding to the fifth year of exile, as the thirtieth year of the prophet's life, he must have been twenty-five years of age when he bade farewell to his native land. Other explanations have been offered of the date fixed upon by Ezekiel as the chronological starting-point of his prophetical activity. The thirtieth year has been declared to date from Nabopolas- sar's ascension of the Babylonian throne, which is usually set down at B.C. 625 (Ewald, Smend), or from the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign, rendered memorable by the finding of Hilkiah's book of the Law (Hii.ver- nick), or from the preceding year of jubilee (Calvin, Hitzig); and manifestly if either of these modes of reckoajng be adopted, the number thirty will afford no clue whatever to the prophet's age. All of them, however, lie open to objections as strong as those directed against the proposal to count from the prophet's birth, which, to say the least, is as natural a mode of reckoning as either of the others, and in any case may be provisionally adopted (Plumptre ), since it practically synchronizes with the so-called Babylonian and Jewish eras above named, and harmonizes with indications given by the prophet's writing, as e.g. with his accurate knowledge of the i;anctuary, as well as with his mature priestly spirit, that when he entered on his calling he was no longer a stripling. 1 Au iugenious Jewish tre.dition makes Ezekiel to he.ve been the son of Jeremie.h, whose
name it finds in Buzi, "the despised one." ·rHE BOOK O}' Tm~ PROPHET EZEKlEL. iii