The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 1 — Section 18

fun tribes had bec-n deported (whether, with God" which he relates, the guidance tlmt Rawlinson, we think of that river as identical he needed. They did not brce.lc in, wo may with the Chaboras, or still further north, well believe, suddenly e.nd without propnru- near an offluent of the Tigris of the same tiou on the normal order of his life. Liko name), must, for like reasons, be rejected. other prophets, he felt, even before his call, The two names are, indeed, spelt differently, the burdens of his time, and voxod his soul with initittl lC'tters that do not interche.nge. with tho ungodly deeds of thoso among The heavens were opened. The phre.se, not whom he lived. found elsewhere in the Old Testament, Ver. 3.-The word of the Lord oame appears in Matt. iii. 16; John i. 51; Acts eJ:pressly, etc.; literally, coming, there came Tii. 56; x. II; Rev. iv. I. Visiollll of God, the word of the Lord; the iteration having The words admit of three interpretations : (a.s commonly in this combination in Hebrew) (1) Great, or wonderful, Yisions ; e.s in the the force of emphasis. The phrase stands, as "mountains of God" (Pa. xxxvi. 6), the elsewhere, for the conscious inspiration which "oedars of God" (Ps. lxxx. 10), the" river made men feel thnt Jehovah had indeed of God" (Ps. !xv. 9); (2) visions sent from spoken unto them, and that they had a God; or (3) actual theophe.nies or me.nifeste.- message from him to deliver. To give tions of the Divine glory. Of these (3) is parallel passages would be to copy several most in harmony with whe.t follows, here and pages from a concordance, but it may not be elsewhere. on the phrase (comp. eh. viii. 3; without interest to note its first (Gen. xv. l) xl. 2; xliii. 3). Such a theophany consti- and last (Mal. i. 1) occurrences in the Old tuted in his case, as in that of Isaiah (vi. 1 ), Testament, and its reappearance in the New Jeremiah (i. 9), Zechariah (i. 8-14), his call Testament (Luke ill. 2). Unto Ezekiel. We to the office of a prophet. The visions may note the transition from the first person to be thought of as manifested. to his waking the third; but it does not give sufficient consciousness in an ecstatic state, and are ground for rejecting either ver. 1 or vers. thus distingnished from the dreams of sleep 2, 3 as an interpolation, (For the prophet's (comp. Joel ii. 28 for the distinction between name, which e.ppears only here and in oh. the two-" visions" belonging to the young, xxiv. 24, see Introduction; and for" land of and "dreams" to the old). The visions of Che.ldee.ns," note on ver. 1.) The hand of the Be.le.am, seen in a "trance," but with his Lord. Here a.go.in we have a phrnse of "eyes open" (Numb. xxiv. 3, 4), and of St. frequent occurrence, used of Elijah (1 Kings Paul, "wliether iu the body or out of the xviii. 46), of Elisha (2 Kings iii. 15), of body" he could not tell (2 Cor. :xii. 2, 3), Daniel (viii. 18; x. 10), of Isaiah (viii. 11), present suggestive parallels. of St. John (Rev. i. 17). The "hand" of Ver. 2.-The fifth year of King J'ehoiachin's the Lord is the natural symbol of his power, captivity. The date of this deportation and the phrase seems to be used to add to stands as B.C. 599 (2 Kings xxiv. 8-16; the consciousness of inspiration, that of a 2 Chron. mvi. 9, 10), and thus brings us to constre.ining, irresistible power. Ezekiel B.C. 595-4 as the time of Ezekiel's first continually uses it (eh, iii. 14, 22; viii. 1; vision. It was for him and for his fellow- xxxiii. 22; x..x.xvii. 1 ; xl. 1). exiles a natural starting-.point to reckon Ver. 4.-A whirlwind came out of the from. It would have been, in one sense, north. What, we ask, was the meaning of as natural to reckon from the beginning this symbolism? In Jer. i. 13, 14 a like of Zedekie.h's reign, as Jeremiah does symbol is explained as meaning that the (mix. 1, 2), but Ezekiel does not recognize judgments which Judah was to suffer were to that prince-who was, as it were, a mere come from the north, the.t is, from Chaldoa, satrap under Nebuchaduezzar-as a true upon the prophet's countrymen. Here the king, and throughout his book systemati- prophet is himself in Che.Idea, and what he cally ru:l.heres to this era (eh. viii. 1 ; xx. 1 ; sees is the symbol, not of calamities, but of xxi.Y. 1, et al.). About this time, but e. year the Divine glory, and that explanation is, before, the false prophets of Judah were accordingly, inapplicable. Probably the prophesying the overthrow of Babylon and leading thought here is that the Divine the return of Jeconiah within two years presence is no longer in the temple at (Jer. xxvili. 3), and the expectations thus Jerusalem. It me.y return for e. time to raised were probably shared by many of execute judgment ( eh. viii. 4; x. 1, 19, 20), Ezekicl's companions in exile, while he him- and may age.in depart (eh. xi. 23), but the self aJhred to the counsels of the letter abiding glory is elsewhere, aud the templo which Jeremiah had sent (Jer. xxix. 1-23) is as Shiloh had been of old (Ps. lxxviii. 60). to tht Jews of 1.he Captivity. 'l'o one who Ezekiel was looking on the visihlo symbol felt himself thus apart from bis brethren, of what had been declared in unfigurntive rum,ing over many tl,iugs, and perhaps language by Jeremiah (vii. 12, 14; xxvi. perplexed with the conflict of prophetic 6, 9). That the north should have been voice&, there was given, io the "visions of cboson rather than any other quarter of tho on. 1. 1-28.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 3