The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 1 — Section 196

thnt the Mldron prntccts the meat in it from ected by the ca.ldron nor to meet their the fire. The walls of the city will protect doom in it, b!lt to be brought out of it. us from the armv of the Chaldeans." The Death, by famme, sword, or pestilence (eh. temper which clothed it.self in this language v. 12), might be the doom of some but for was that of the self-confident boastful others, perhaps specially for thos~ whom security of Jer. xniii. 3; and the death the prophet addresses, there would be of Ha.na.niah, the son of Azur, in t.ha.t his- captivity first, and denth from the sword tory presents a parallel to that of Pelatiah which they feared, afterwards. in this. (2) Grammatira.lly, however, the Ver. 9.-The strangers e.i:e, of course, the rendering of the Revised Version is prefer- Chaldean invaders, and the prediction finds able : The t;me is not near for building its fu!Jilment in the massacre of the lwuse,s; probably, as before, with a reference princes of Judah at Riblah (Jer. Iii. 9, 10), to Jeremiah's advice. "We," they seem to which was in Hame.th, the northern border say, "are not come to that point yet. We of Israel (1 Kings viii. 65; 2 Kings ltiv. will trust, as in (l), in our int.erpretation of 25). Then they should see that their defiant the caldron." (3) On the whole, I incline, speech as to the " caldron " and " the flesh ,. while adopting the Revised Version render- would be of no avail. Thus they should ing, to interpret the words, ll.'! Smend takes know that the prophet had spoke!! in the them, 11-'l the defiant utterance of despair: name of J ehove.h, and that their punishment "It is no time for building houses, here or by the heathen was the righteous retribution elsewhere. We are doomed. We are for their having we.l.ked in the ways of the destined (I borrow the nearest analogue of heathen. modern proverbial speech) ' to stew in our Ver. 13.-Pelatiah the son of Benaiah. own jnice.' Well, let us meet it as we best We must remember that this was part of the may." I find what snggests this view (1) vision, bat it may be assumed, in the nature in the improbability that the thought of of the case, tbe.t it represented what then the caldron could ever have been received or afterwards was a fa.et in history. Had as a message of safety (comp. eh. x.xi.v. 3, Pelatie.h died suddenly during a council 6); and (2) in the despairing tone of most of meeting? Compare the death of Hane.niah the sayings that Ezekiel records (xviii. 2 ; in Jer. xxviii. 17. As it was, even in the x:.xvii. 11 ). Probably there were, as in other vision, the death so startled and horrified the like crises in the history of nations (say, e.g., prophet, that he burst out again into a in those of the Franco-German War) rapid prayer like that of eh. ix. 8. WBB the alternations between the two moods of boast- "residue," the •• remnant " of Israel, repre- ful security and defiant despair-the gal,gen- sented by one of the chief counsellors of the humor, the courage of the ga.llows, as Smend city, to be thus cut off? calls it; and the same words might be Ver. 14.-The answer to that question uttered now in this temper, and now in that. comes as by e. new inspiration from the word In either case, there we.a the root-element of the Lord. of the absence of repentance and submission. Ver. 15.-The men of thy kindred, eto. Vere. 4, 5.-The prophet still, we must The full force of the phrase ca.n hardly be remember, in his vision, is bidden to do his understood without remembering that the work as a. true prophet, and to rebuke the word for "kindred " implies the function defiant speech which he had heard. As in a.nd office of e. goel, the redeemer and eh. ii. 2, the Spirit of Jehovah comes upon avenger of those among his relations who him, and throws him into the prophetic had suffered wrong (Lev. xxv. 25, 48; ecstasy. It is noticeable that here, as in Numb. v. 8), and the point of the revelation eh. ii. 3, his message iB not to Judah only, is that Ezekiel is to find those who have but to the whole ho11Se of Israel as repre- this claim on him, his true " brethren," not sented by those to whom he spoke. I know only or chiefly in his natural relations in the things. This, as ever, was one of the the priesthood, but in the companions of hie rrntcs of a trne prophet, that he shared, as exile (the LXX., following a different read- was needed for his work, in the knowledge ing, gives, '' the men of the Co.ptivity "), of him from whom no secrets are hid (John and the whole house of !ere.cl, who were ii. 24, 25; Matt. ix. 4; 1 Cor. xiv. 25). in a like position, who were condemned by TJ,oughta, as well as words, were laid bare those who had been left in Jerusalem. As before him, as they were to his Lord (Heb. in Jeromiah's vision (xxiv. 1), they were iv. 12). the " good figs; " those in the city, the vile Yer. 7.-They a.re the fieah, etc. The and worthless. They were the remnant, prophet is led to retort their derisive or the residue, for whom there was e. hope of defiant words. Not they, but the co.rca.ses better things. They wero dedpised e.s fe.r of their victims, were as the •• fleeh" in the off from the Lord. 'fhey were really nee.ror '· caldron." For themselves, there we.a to his presence the.n those who worshipped • ·,,,ther fa.te in reserve. Neither to be pro- in the temple from which J ehove.h had on. x1. 1-25.] 'l'HE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 191