The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 1 — Section 86

Jer. lii. 4; eh. xvii. 17; xxi. 22; xxvi. 8), with the context. This shall be a sign, eto, or, perhaps, the wall of cfrcumvallation, (comp. like forms iu eh. xii. 6, 11 ; xxiv. whieh the besiegers erected that they might 24, 27). The exiles of Tel-Abib, who were carry on their operations in safety; (2) then the only speotntors of the prophet's ucts, are the mount, or mound (the English of the taken as representatives of "the houso of Authorized Version does not distiuguish Israel," that phrase being commonly used between the two) of earth from which they by Ezekiel, unless, as in vers. 5, 6, and oh, plied the bows or catapults ( Jer. vi. 6 : xxxvii. 16, there is a special reasou for ::u.xii. 24; xxxiii. 4; Ezekiel, td rupra); noting a distinction for J ude.h e.s repre- (8) the camps (plural in the Hebrew and sentiug the whole nation. Rensed Version), or encampments, in which Ver. 4.-Lie thou also upon thy left sid~ they were stationed in various positions etc. We find the explanation of the atti- round the city; (4) the battering-rams. tude in eh. xvi. 46. Se.maria was on the Here the hist.orv both of the word and the " left hand," i.e. to the north, BS e. man thing hs.s a special interest. The primary looked to the east. So the same word meaning of the Hebrew word is "lamb" yamin is both "the south'' (1 Sam. xxiii. (as in Deut. xxxii. 14; 1 Sam. xv. 9, 19, 24; Ps. lxxxiv. 12) and "the right et al., Revised Version), or, better, "full- hand." Here, accordingly, the "house of grown wethers or rams" (Fiirst). Like the Israel" is taken in its specific sense, as the Greek ,cplos (Xen., • Cyrop.,' vii. 4. 1 ; 2 Mace. northern kingdom e.s distinguished from the xii. 15). and the Latin aries (Livy, xxi. 12; "house of Judah" in ver. 6. Thon she.It :xxxi. 82, et al.), it was transferred to the bear their iniquity; i.e., e.s in e.11 similar engine which was used to '' butt," like a ram, passages (Exod. xxviii. 43; Lev. v. 17; against the walls of e. besieged city, and vii 18; Numb. xviii. 1, et al.), the punish- which, in Roman warfare, commonly termi- ment of their iniquity. The words so taken nated in e. ram's head in bronze or iron. will help us to understand the numerical Ezekiel is the only Old Testament writer symbolism of the words that followed, The who, here and in eh. xxi. 22, uses the word, prophet was by this act to identify himself for which the LXX. gives /J•Aotrrdcr«s, and with both divisions of the nation, by repre- the Vulgate arietes. The margin of tho senting in this strange form e.t once the Authorized Version in both places gives severity and the limits of their punishment. " chief leaders," ta.king "rams " in another I adopt, without any hesitation, the view figurative sense; but, in the face of the LXX. that we have here the record of e. fact, and and Vulgate, there is no reason for accept- not of e. vision narrated. 'l'he object of the ing this. Battering-re.ms frequently appear act was to startle men and make them won- in Assyrian bas-reliefs of e. much earlier date der. As week after week went on this, than Ezekiel's time, e.t Nimroud (Ve.nx, ezceptis ezcipiendis, was to be Ezekiel's per- • Nineveh and Persepolis,' p. 456), Kon- manent attitude, as of one crushed to the ynnyik (Layard, • Nineveh and Babylon,' p. very ground, prostrate under the burden 149), and elsewhere. They were hung by thus la.id upon him, e.s impersonating his chains near the bottom of the besiegers' people. towers, and were propelled age.inst the Ver. 5.-Three hundred and ninety de.ye, walls. et.c. The de.ye, e.s stated in ver. 6, stand for Ver. 8.-All iron pan. The word is used years according to the symbolism (with in Lev. ii. 5 ; vi. 21, et al., for e. flat or shal- which Ezekiel was probably acquainted) of low vessel in which cakes were baked or Numb. xiv. 84. How we e.1·e to explain the fried. Such e. pan, like the Scotch "girdle," precise number chosen is a problem which or our" gridiron," may well have formed part has much exercised the minds of interpreters. of the furniture of the prophet's house when I will begin by stating what seems to me it was taken for this strange use. It was to the most tenable solution. In doing this represeut the kind of shield or fence set up I follow Smend and Comill in taking the on the ground, from behind which the be- LXX. as giving the original reading, and siegers discharged their arrows. Such the Hebrew as a later correction, me.de with shields are seen, like the battering-rams, in e. purpose. (1) Jerome and Origen bear wit- Assyrian bas-reliefs (Le.yard, 'Nineveh,' ness to the fact that most copies of the etc., ii 345). Other interpretations, which former gave 190 years, some 150, and others, see in it the symbol of the circnmve.llation agreeing with the Hebrew, 890. The fil'st of the city, or of the impenetrable ba1Tier of these numbers fits in with the thought which the sins of the people had set up that Ezekiel's act was to represent the between themselves and Jehovah, or of the period of the punishment of the northern prophet himself e.s strong and unyielding kingdom. That punishment starts from the (Jer. i. 18), do not commend themselves. first captivity under Pekah about B.o. 734. The flat plate did not go round the city, and Reckoning from that date, the 190 yea.re the 11piritual meaning is out of harmolly bring us to about B,O. 544. The punish- on. rv. 1-17.] 'l'HE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 73