Section Fourth. Ch. xxiv. (Ninth year, tenth month, tenth day, B.C, 591.) J. The symbol of the boiling pot. Ch. xxiv. 1-14. ' II. Tho death of Ezckiel's wife. Ch. xxiv. 15-27. p ART SECOND, Concerning foreign nations: prophecies of judgrncnt. Ch. xxv.-xxxii. I. Against the Ammonites. Cb. xxv. 1-7. Against the Moabites. Ch. xxv. 8-11. Against ·the Edomites, Ch. xxv. 12-14. Against the Philistines. Ch. xxv. 15-17. (Date uncertain; probably same as above.) II. .Against Tyre. 1. Her fall predicted, Ch. xxvi. 1. 2. Her lamentation sounded. Ch. xxvii. 3. Her king bewailed. Cb. xxviii. 1-20. III. .Against Zidon. Cb. xxviii. 21-26. (Date: eleveuth year, - month, first day, n.o. 589.) IV. Against Egypt. 1. The judgment of Pharaoh-two oracles. Ch. xxix. (Dates: tenth year, tenth month, twelfth day; and twenty-seventh year, first month, first day.) 2. The desolation of Egypt-two oracles. Ch. xxx. (Dates: tenth year, tenth month, twelfth day; and eleventh year, first month, seventh day.) 3. The glory of Pharaoh. Ch. xxxi. (Date: eleventh year, third month, first day.) 4. Lamentations for Egypt-two oracles, Ch. xxx.ii. (Dates: twelfth year, twelfth month, first day; and twelfth year, twelfth month, fifteenth day.) PART TnmD. Concerning Israel-prophecies of mercy. Ch. xxxiii.-xlviii. (From twelfth year, tenth month, fifth day, to twenty-fifth year, first month, tenth day, B.c. 588-575.) I. Ezekiel's commission renewed. Ch. xxxiii. 1. II. The shepherds of Israel reproved. Ch. :xxxiv. III, Prophecy against Edom. Cb. xxxv. IV. The mountains of Israel comforted. Ch. xx::xvi. V. 'fhe vision of dry bones. Ch. xxxvii. 1-14. VI. The union of Israel and Judah. Ch. xxxvii. 15-28. VII. Prophecies against Gog and Magog. Ch. x.xxviii., :xxxix. VIII. Visions of the future restoration- !. Of the temple. Ch. xl.-xliii. 2. Of the worship. Ch. xliv.-xlvi. 3. Of the land. Ch. xlvii., xlviii.
2. Composition, Collection, and Canonicity.' The genuineness of Ezekiel has never been seriously challenged. The earlier attacks of Gabler, Oeder and Vogel, and Corrodi on its individual portions, equally with the contention of Zunz that, as a whole, it belongs to the Persian age, are dismissed by the best criticism as unworthy of consideration; while De Wette's opinion is endorsed by a.11 competent scholars, that Ezekiel wrote down everything with hii, own hand. Even Kuenen, who suspects the historicity of several of ifiwi paragraphs, admits ll INTRODUCTION TO
that " we possess in the Book of Ezekiel a review written by the prophet himself" (' The Religion of Israel,' ii. 105); in this agreeing with Bleok, who regards it as "tolerably certain that Ezekiel himself prepared this compilation, and that therefore no utterances are admitted into it which are not Ezekiel's own" (' Introduction to the Old Testament,' ii. 117). The only points with reference to which divergence of sentiment exists are the dates at which and the manner in which this compilation was formed-whether its various utterances were written down before or after they were published, and whether all or only some or (10110 were orally delivered. Examining these points in reverse order, it is probably less wide of the mark, with Bleak, Havernick, Keil, and others, to maintain that Ezekiel's oracles were all orally delivered, than to assert, with Gramberg and Hit- zig, that none were. Ewald's conception of the prophet as a literary person sitting in his study and writing "oracles" because of the felt decay of the prophetic spirit (' The Prophets of the Old Testament,' iv. 2, 9) cannot be sustained, if by this is intended that Ezekiel did not exercisfl his calling after the fashion of the older prophets, but restricted bis efforts to the preparation of prophetic "fly-sheets." That some of his discourses, as e.g. those directed against foreign nations and those relating to the temple, may never have been spoken, but only circulated as written documents, is conceivable, though it is travelling beyond the evidence to allege that any- thing in either of these collections renders it certain they could not have been, and were not, read to the exiles. Smend, who holds the two parts referred to as free reproductions, and not at all as verbatim reports of what the prophet spoke, nevertheless concedes that the prophet " may have orally expressed the same thoughts" (' Der Prophet Ezechiel,' xxxii.). As to whether his "oracles" were committed to writing before being read or spoken to the exiles, or were first spoken and afterwards recorded, cannot be ascertained in the absence of the prophet himself, and in defect of information on the subject from his or another's hand; so that the one assumption stands upon the same footing with and is as good as the other. The sole questions of interest are as to whether the "oracles" were penned exactly as spoken or freely reproduced in such a style as to deprive them of all claim to complete accuracy; and whether they were written down at a time when the incidents and experiences, being fresh in the prophet's memory, could be easily and vividly recalled, or at a later period when, his impressions of what had occurred having considerably faded, the reminiscences of the past which floated before his mind's eye required to he touched up by poetic fancy and literary skill. The two questions hang together. The later the period, the less likely the prophet's recollection to have been fresh; the earlier the period, the more difficult to fix upon the JJrophet a charge of " great carelessness in carrying out of details" (Smend). (1) With reference to the probable date of composition, the latest fixed THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. xxl