The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 1 — Section 116

tho Rovised Version," I have broken their 20; iii. G; Tea. !vii. 5. In Hos. iv. 13, o«ka whorish heart." So taken, thought and (or terehinthe), poplars, and elm, are specifi- words aro both connected with Pa. Ii. 17, and cally named (comp. Dent. xii. 2; 2 Kin"B the self-loathing that follows has its counter- xvi. 4). Where they did offer sweet savoir, part in Job xiii. 6, The thought is emi- etc. The phrase is eminently characteristic nenLly characteristio of Ezekiel (xx. 43; of Ezekiel as a priest (eh. xvi. 19; xx. 28, xxxvi. 31), and, we may add also, of 41), and is specially prominent in the books Leviticus (xxvi. 39-42). which he must have studied. It meets us Ver. 10.-1 he.ve not said in ve.in, etc. three times in Exodus, seventeen in Levi- 'l'he thought of that self-loathing and ticus, seventeen in Numbers, and seldom repentance reconciles Ezekiel to his work. elsewhere. The crowning sin, from the To "labour in vain" is the great misery of prophet's point of view, was that the in- all workers for God. A time will come cense which was due to Jehovah had been when he shall see the.t God has not sent lavished on the false gods of the nations. him to such a work "in vain." What before Ver. 14.-ll!ore desolate than the wilder- was dark will be made clear unto him ness towards Diblath ; better, with the (comp. eh. xiv. 23). Ezekiel's words, "not Authorized Version, from the wilderness. in vain," are echoed frequently by St. Paul The name does not appear elsewhere, and (I Cor. xv. 14, 58; 2 Cor. vi. 1; Phil. ii. has not betln identified. Assuming the 16, et al.). 'fho corresponding phrase, "I Authorized Version rendering, we must have broken their eyes," sounds strange to think of Ezekiel as naming, 11s Dante us; but, after all, the heart is not literally names the Valdichiana (' lnf.,' :xxix. 47), broken more than the eyes, e.nd figuratively some epecfolly horrible and desolate region. the same words may be applied to either, so For S11Ch a region the name of Diblah (e. that there is no need for supposing, with cairn of figs) does not seem approprie.te. some 01·itics, that a more appropriate verb Taking the Revised Version translation has been dropped out. Eyes and heart (" from the wilderness toward Diblah "), were alike involved in the sin (eh. xx. 7, we have e. phrase analogous to "from Dan 8, 2-l; Numb. xv. 39), and both came under to Beershcbe.," e.s denoting the extent of the same chastisement that was to lead the desolation. The "wilderness" is usuo.lly them to repentance. applied to the nomad region south of Pales- Ver. 11.-Smite with thine hand, etc. The tine, and this would lend us to look for outward gestures were to give a dramatic Diblah in the north, and so to look else- emphasis to the mingled indignation and where than to the two places Beth-dibla- sorrow with which the prophet was to otter thaim (Jer. xlviii. 22) and Almon-diblathaim his woe. A like &ction meets us in eh. xxi. (Numb. xxi.iii. 46), both of which nre in 12. Instances of its use for other feelings Moab. The difficulty was solved by Jerome meet us in eh. xxii. 13; Numb. xxiv. 10 by the conjectural emendation of Riblah, (anger); Jer. xxxi. 19 (she.me). the two Hebrew letters for d and r being Ver. 12.-He that is far off', etc. The often written by copyists for ench other. three forms of judgment named in ver. 11 Riblah (it is a suggestive fe.ct that the two llflve ea.eh their special victims. Pesti- chief manuscripts of the LXX., the Alex- lenoe comes chiefly on those who a.re andrian e.nd the V11tican, have Deblatha, outside the city, exposed to the weather or Deblaa, in 2 Kings x.xiii. 33; xxv. 6) changes and the taint of unburied corpses wo.s a fortified town on tho north road from (vcr. 5) ; the sword of the Che.ldcans on Palestine to Babylon, where the B&bylonian those who venture on e. sally, or try to kings used to take up their position during escape from the city; fa.mine presses heaviest their invasions of the former. Within e. on those who a.re besieged within it. None short time e.fter Ezokiel wrote this chapter, can escnpe the judgment. The word be- it bece.me memoro.ble in its connection with sieged is the same a.a in Isa. i. 8; but it Zedekiah's sufferings (comp. 2 Kings xxiii. may have the sense, as in Isa.. xlix. 6, of 33 ; xxv. 6, 20, 21 ; J er. x:xxix. 5, 6; Iii. 9, "kept," or "preserved," for the worst evil 10, 26). Its probable site is fixed on the of the three. banks of the Orontes. The evidence, ou Ver. 13.-The thought is the same as in the whole, is, I think, in favour of this ver. 6, but the localities &re given in gree.ter intorprete.tion. It is e.dopted by Ewald, detail. The " hills" e.nd "mountains" Cornill, Sruend, Gesenias, and most recent were naturally the scenes of the worship of eritics. An additional foct in its favour is the "high places," and these were commonly tho.t Hnmath, in the same region, appears a.a associated with groves of trees, as in J er. ii. nu ide11l northern boundary i.u eh. xl vii. 16. 104: THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [cm:. vi.1-14,