The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 1 — Section 152

meet its doom? And so we pass into the and placed, with e.n e.ltnr dedicnted to it, in second series of prophecies which ends with the house of the Lord (2 Kings xxi. 3; ch. xiii. 23. It would seem e.e if the en- 2 Chron. xxxiii, 3), or one of Be.al, or of quirers he,d kept silent e.e well a.s the pro- Ashte.roth, or even of Tnmmuz (see ver. 14). phet. We are not told the,t they asked As the word " grove " does not ocour in anything. His look and manner, perhaps Ezekiel, it me.yd be sufficient to state the.t also attitude and gesture, forbade utterance. the A shera we.s 11, pille.r symbolionl either of The hand of the Lord-the trance-state- 11, goddess of the same n11,me, or, 11,s some was in the ad to fall on him (see notes on think, of the Phmnioian Aste.rte. The wor- eh. iii. H, 22). When the trance-state was ship seems to h11,ve first beoome popul11.r over, we may think of him as reporting and under Jezebel (1 Kings xviii. 19), and took recording what he had thus seen in vision. , deep root both in Israel e.nd Judah. The Ver. 2.-I beheld, 8.Ild lo a likeness, etc. oultus, e.s in 2 Kings xxiii. 7, seems to he.ve The tision opens with a theophany like that been connected with the foulest licence, like of eh. i.; but here, as there, Ezekiel uses the.t of the Be.bylonie.n "Mylitta (Herod., i. the word which emphasizes the fact that 199; Be.ruch vi. 43). The work of Josiah what he had seen was bnt a "likeness" of he.d clearly had but a temporary success, the ineffable glory, an image of the Unseen. and the people had gone back to the con- (For" amber," see eh. i. 4, 27.) In this case fluent polytheism of the reign of Manasseh. we note the absence of the cherubic :figures. In snob a ste.te of things. the worst wa.e It is simply the "appearance of the likeness possible. For recent discussions on the of the glory of Jehovah," seen now in the .Ashera, see Kuenen, 'Relig. Isr.' (Eng. glow of :fire, without the milder, more hope- transl.), i. 88; Schrader; Robertson Smith, ful brightness of the rainbow (eh. i. 28). 'Relig. of Semites,' p. 172; and T. K. Ver. 3.-The form of 8.Il hand (comp. eh. Cheyne, in the Academy of December 14, ii. 9; Dan. v. 5). For the mode of transit, 1889. see Bel and the Dragon, ver. 36, as probably Vere. 4, 5.-And, behold, etc. In appalling a direct imitation. The touch of the "ha.nd" contrast with the.t "image of jealousy,'' was followed by the action of the Spirit, Ezekiel saw whe.t he had not seen, e.s he in visions which he knew to be more than first became conscious that he was in the dreams, visions that came from God (comp. court of the temple-the vision of the Divine eh. i. 1; xl. 2). The word is not the same glory, such as he had seen it on the banks as that commonly used by Daniel (chazon), of Chebe.r ( eh.' i. 4-28). He was to look and often by Ezekiel himself (eh. vii. 13; :first on this picture and then on that, and xii. 22, 23, et al.), bnt mareh, which implies the guilt of Judah was measured by that a more direct act of intnition. The word contrast. appears again in eh. xi 24; xliii. 3, and in Ver. 6.-The.t I shonld go far 011', etc. Dan. viii. 26, 27, et al. To the door of The lesson taught was that already implied the gate, etc. From the :first we trace the in the fact th11t the glorious vision had come priest's familiarity with the strncttll'e of the to him from the north (eh. i. 4). The temple temple. He is brought, as it were, after his was already as a God-deserted shrine. His journey in the spirit, to the door of the gate return to it now we.s but the coming of the of the inner oourt that looketh towards the Judge and the Destroyer. We are reminded north (Revised Version). This is identified of the Mera/3al11wµe11 (,,.,.,v6e11 (" Let us de- in ver. 5 with the "gate of the altar." It may part hence"), which was heard in the dark- probably e.lso be identified with the "upper ness of the night before the later destruction gate " of eh. ix. 2 ; the " high gate" of J er. of Jerusalem (Josephus, 'Bell. Jud.,' vi. xx. 2; the "higher gate" of 2 Kings xv. 35, 5. 3). Be.d begins, but worse remains behind. built by Jotham; the "new gate" of Jer. The prophet is Jed onward e.s through the xxxvi. 10. Obviously it was one of the most successive stages of an inferno of idolatries. conspicuous portions of the temple, where Ver. 7.-To the door of the ootll't, Whe.t the people gathered in large nnmbers. And follows suggests that the prophet was led to here the prophet sees what he calls the the gate that opened from the inner to the image of jealowry. The words that follow outer court. This we.s surrounded by probably give his exphl.nation of the strange chambers or cells (Jer. xxxv. 4). The term vLrase, not found el~ewhere, though it might for "wall" (kir) is that specie.Uy used for the naturally be Enggested by Dent. xxxii. 16, wall which encloses a whole group of build- 21; Ps. Ixxviii. 58. What this image was ings (Numb. xxxv. 4). Behold e. hole in we can onl'j conjecture. The word for the wall. The fact was clee.rly significant. "iwage" is a rare one, and is found only The worship here we.a more clandestine the.n here and in Dent. iv. 16; 2 Chron. xxxiii. that ror the "image of jealousy." We nro 7, 15. It may have been the Asherah (the not warranted, perhaps, in insisting on •· grove" of the Authorized Version), or minute consistency in the world of vi~ions, wuical stone, such as Manasseh had ma.de Lut the question naturaJiy arises-How did en. vm. 1-18.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 145