The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 1 — Section 62

the de.rlcest hour of his ministry (xv. 16). Ezekiel'e name was at once nomen et omen. Tboy a.re reproduced yet moro closely by Harr! e.s Israel might be, he could be made St. John (Rev. x. 9), There is, after the harder, i.e. stronger, than they, and should first terror is over, o.n infinite sweetness in prevail against them ( compare the parallels the thought of being e. fellow-worker with of Isa. 1. 7; Jer. i. 18; xv. 20). The bold- God, of speo.king his words and not our own. ness of God's prophets is a strictly super- In the case of St. John, the first sweetness natural gift. ,Whatever persistency there was cha.aged to bitterness as soon as he had may he in evil, they will be able to meet it, enten it ; and this is, perhaps, implied here perhaps to overcome it, by a greater per- also in ver. 14. The first ecstatic joy passed sistency in good. away, and the former sense of the awfulness Ver. 9.-Adame.nt. The Hebrew word of the work returned. shemir is used in Jer. xvii. I (where the Ver. 5.-0f e. strange epeeoh e.nd of a hard Authorized Version gives "diamon<l " for a language, etc.; literally, as in margin, both stone used in engraving on gems. In Zech. of Authorized Version and Revised Version, vii. 12 it appears, as it does here, as a type to a people deep of lip and heavy of 1-0ngue; of exceeding hardness. It is not fonnd i.e. to a barbarous people outside the cove- elsewhere in the Old Testament. It is nant, Cbaldeans, Aasyrians, Scythians; not commonly identified with the stone known speaking the familiar sacred speech of Israel as corundum, which appears in some of ita (compare the" stammering lips and another forms as the sapphire and the Oriental ruby, tongue" of Iso.. xxviii. 11 ; xxxiii. 19). and also as the stone the powder of which The thought implied is tho.t Ezekiel's mis- is used as emery. The special point of the sion, as to "the lost sheep of the house of comparison is, of coarse, that the adamant Israel" (Matt. xv. 24), was outwardly easier was actually used to cut either flint itself than if he had been sent to the heathen. or stones as hard as flint. Neither be dis- With Israel there was at least the medium mayed at their looks. The words indicate of a speech common both to the prophet the extreme sensitiveness of the prophet's and his hearers. In ver. 6 the thought ill natural temperament. He had shrunk not enlarged by the use of "many peoples." only from the tlireats and revilings of the Ver. 6.-Surely,if I sent thee to them, etc. rebellious house, but even from their scowls The "surely" represents the Hebrew "if of hatred. not" taken as a stroug affh·mation, just as Ver. 10.-All my words, etc. The streBB " if" in Pa. xcv. 11 represents a strong lies on the first word. The prophet was not negation ; compare the use of the fuller to pick and choose out of the message, but fonnula jurandi in 1 Sam. iii. 17 ; 2 Sam. was to deliver "all the counsel of God" iii. 35 ; xix. 13 ; and of tile same in Deut. ( Acts xx. 27). Take into thine heart, etc. i. 35; Isa. lxii. S ; and in Ezekiel himself An inverted order of tile two commands (xvii. 19). '.rhe margin of the Authorized would, perhaps, have seemed more natural. Version, If I had sent thee to them, would What we actuallyfind,however,is sufficiently they not have hearkened, etc.? expresses the suggestive. Tile message of Jehovah is first same meaning, but is less tenable as a received into the inner depths of the soul, trnnslation. The thought in either case but in that stage it is vague, undefined, in- finds its analogue in our Lord's reference communico.ble. It needs to be clotlled in to Sodom and Gomorrah, to Tyre and Sidon articulate speech before it can be heard (Matt. xi. 21-24; Luke x.12-14). Israel with the mental ear and passed on to otl.iers. was more hardened than the worst of the The mouth speaks out of tile fulness of the nations round her. heart. Ver. 7.-For they will not hearken unto Ver. 11.-Get thee to them of the Cap- me, etc. The words are, as it were, an a tivity, eto. In eh. ii. 3 aud iii. 1, 4 the fortiori argument. Those wllo had despised mission had been to "the house of Isruel" the voice of Jehovah, speaking in his Law, generally; now it is speciRlized. He is ~eut or directly to the hearts of his people, were "to them of the Captivity.'' Ti,ey are the n?t likely to listen with a willing ear to rebellious house. There is an obvious sig- his messenger. We are reminded of our nificance in tile phrase, "thy people." J e- Lord's words to his dillciples in Matt. x. 24, hove.h can no longer recognize th~m as his. 25. Impudent and hard-hearted; literally Tile words of eh. ii. 7 are repeated. Here (the word is not tile same as in eh. ii. 4), in also, even among the exiles, who were better Revised Version, of an Jiard forehead and tllan those that remained in Jud11h, ho was of a st{ff heart. 'l'he word " hard" is tile to expect partial failure, but he was uot, on same word as the first half of Ezekiel's that account, to shirk the completion of his name, and is probably used with rofercnco fosk. Thus se.ith tho Lord God; Adonai to it us in the next verse. Jehovah, ns in eh. ii. 4. . Ver. 8.-1 have made thy face strong; Ver. 12.-Then the Spirit took me up, etc. htero.lly, a.s iu tho Revised Version, hard. The words e.w to bo interpreted as in eh. ii. 2. 48 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [orr. m.1-27.