The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 1 — Section 88

(here, and, though the Hebrew wrb is not ounces, besides other food. And this w11e the sanw, eh. x'iv. 8; xv. 7). The words to be taken, not RB huugor prornptod, but at •· prophesy against it" may imply some the appointed hour, once a day. The whole Bpoken utt.erauco of t.he natul'e of a "woe," scene of the people of the besieged oity like that of the son of Ananus (sec above), coming for their dnily mtions is brought but hardly, I think, 1t prolonged address. vividly before us. Ver. 8.-1 will lay bands upon thee, etc. Ver. 11.-The sixth part of an bin, etc. The words point to the supernatural con- According to the varying o.ocounts of the straint which would support the prophet in "hin" given by Jewish writers, this would a position as trying as tbo,t of an Indian g;ivo from 1'ii to 1\ of a pint. And this wo.s, yogi or a Stylite monk. He would himself hke the food, to be doled out once a day. be powerl<'ss to move (exceptis excipiendis, as Possibly "the brend of affliction and the before) from the prescribed position. There water of affliction," in 1 Kings xxii. 27 is, perhaps, a reference to eh. iii. 25. The and Isa. xxx. 20, contains a reference to the prople would have "put bands" upon the quantity as well as the quality of a prison prophet to hinder his work; Jehovah will dietary as thus described. Isaiah's words "put bands" upon him to help, nay, to may refer to the siege of Sennacherib, as constrain, him to finish it. Ezekiel's do to the siege of Nebuchadnezzar. Yer. 9.-Take thou also nnto thee, etc. Ver. 12.-Thou sha.lt bake it with dung, The act implies, as I have 11aid, that there etc. The process of baking in ashes was as were exceptions to the generally immovable old as the time of Abraham (Gen. xviii. 6), attitude. The symbolism seems to have a and continues in Arabia and Syria to the twofold meaning. We can scarcely exclude present day. The kneaded dough was a reference to the famine which accom- rolled into thin fiitt cakes, and they were pnnied the siege. On the other hand, one placed upon, or hung over, the hot wood special feature of it is distinctly referred, embers of the hearth or oven. But in a not to the siege, but to the exile (ver. 13). besieged city the supply of wood for fuel Starting with the former, the prophet is soon fails. The first resource is found, as told to make bread, not of wheat, the com- still often happens in the East, in using the mon food of the wealthier class (Dent. xxxii. dried dung of camels or of cattle. Before 14 ; Ps. J.xxxi. 16 ; cxl vii. 14 ; J er. xii. 13 ; Ezekiel's mind there came the vision of a xii. 8), nor of barley, the chief food of the yet more terrible necessity. That supply poor ( eh. xiii. 19 ; Hos. iii. 2; John vi. 9), also might fail, and then men would be but of these mixed with beans (2 Sam. forced to use the dried contents of the xvii. 28), lentils (2 Sam. xni. 28; Gen. xxv. "draught-houses" or cesspools of Jerusalem. 34)-tben, IUl now, largely used in Egypt They would be compelled almost literally to e.nd other Eastern countries-millet (the fulfil the taunt of Rabshakeh (Isa. xxxvi. Hebrew word is not found elsewhere), and 12). 'fhat thought, as bringing with it the :6.tches, i.e. vetches (here also the Hebrew ceremonial pollution of Lev. v. 3; vii. 21, word is found only in this passage, that so was as revolting to Ezekiel as it is to us; but translated in Isa. xxviii. 25-27 standing, it like Dante, in a like revolting symbolism is said, for the seed of tbe black cummin). (' Inf.,' xviii. 114), he does not shrink from The outcome of this mixture would be a naming it. It came to him, ns with the coarse, unpalatable bread, not nnlike that authority of 1.1 Divine commiind, that he was to which the population of Paris was reduced even to do this, to represent the extreme in tLe siege of 1870-71. TLis was to be horrors of the siege. And all this was to the prophet's food, as it was to be that of be done visibly, before the eyes of his the people of Jerusalem during the 390 neighbours at Tel-Ahib. days by which that siege was symbolically, Ver. 13.-Even thne shall the children of th,,ugh not numerically, represented. It is Israel, etc. The strange command takes a uot improbable, looking to the prohibition wider range. It symbolizes, not the literal e.o-ainst mixtures of any kwd in Dent. xxii. horrors of the siege, but the "defiled brend" 9~ that it would be regarded as in itself which even the exiles would be reduced to unclean. eat. So taken, the words remind us of the Ver. 10.-Thy meat, etc.; better, food, risk of eating unclean food, which almost here and elsewhere. Conrse as the food incvitnbly attended the position of the was, the people would have but scanty exiles (Hos. ix. 3; Dan. i. 8), and which, it ratiolll3 of it. Men were not, e.s usual, to may be, Ezekiel had already felt keenly. measure the corn, but to weigh the breo.d There is obviously something more than oan (Lev. xxvi. 26). Taking the Bhekel at be explained by a reference to "the bitter about 220 grainB, the twenty shekel.a would bread of bnnishment," or to Dnn tc'e "Come 1e al,out 10 or 12 ounces. The common sa di sale ... " (' Par.,' xvii. 58). e.llowanee in England for prison or po.aper Ver. 14.-Then said I, Ah, Lord God! etc. dietaries gives, I believe, from 24 to 32 The formula is, curiously enough, equally OH, rv.1-17.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL.· 75