The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 1 — Section 220

utterances in the past (lea. vi. 9; xiii. 20), ! wo.y ho would become, o.s he ho.d been before and by Ezckiel's contemporary (Jer. v. 21), in like symbolic Rcts (eh. iv., v.), as Isaiah and in the future by our Lord (Matt. xiii. 13), (xx. 2) and Jeremiah (xxvii. 2) had been by St. John (John xii. 40), ancl lastly by before him, e. sign unto the house of Israel. St. Paul (Acts xxviii. 27). The thought Vere. 8, 9.-The comme.ncls wero obeyed, and phrase were n1\turally as ever-reourring and the prophet waited for tho next inspira- o.e the foct. tion, the next word of the Lord. It would Vere. 3-7.-Prepe.re thee aid for remov- seem as if he bad himself done what he 214 THE BOOJ.t OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. (01t, xu. 1-28. wns told to do withont knowing what it than the books of the two prophets, and hie mecuit. It was not till night bad passed to narrative looks rather like an imno-ined morning that be was able to aRswer tho hbtory of what might have been. " qu,·stion which the exiles asked him, What Vers. 14, 15.-And I will soatter, The doest thou 1 At last the answer came. ropture of the king would naturnlly be Vers. 10, 11.-This burden concerneth the followed by the dispenion of his adherents, prince in Jerusalem; litemlly, the prince soruo of whom would foll by the swor<l is this lntrden in Jerusalem. The word while a few (Hebrew, men of number, i.e: " bur,len," in the sense of " prophecy," so easily counted) would escnpe to some m·i"h• common in lsainh and Jeremiah and other bouring country, where they might hop; to prophets, ns Hosea (viii. 10) and Nnhum find 11, refuge. There they would hnvo to (i. 1), is used by Ezekiel here only. Possibly tell their tale of shame, and to let the lw on the whole avoided it, as having heathen know that Jehovnh was thus fallen into ,liscredit through its constant use punishing their abominations ( comp. eh. by ihe folse prophets (Jer. xxiii. 33-38), xiv. 22, 23). The propheoy ends with the and preferred the formulll of" the word of familiar formula, They shall knew that I Jehornh." As interpreted by Jer. xxxix. am the Lord. 4 and 2 Kings xxv. 4, the "prince" is Ver. 17.-The opening words, The word Zc<lekiah. Possibly Ezekiel avoided the of the Lord oame to me, imply an interval title "kiug," as seeing in him one who wo.s of passivity and silence. One conscious n ruler de facto, but not a king de jure. burst of inspiration came to an end, and was The facts related in Jcr. xxxix. 4 exactly followed, after a time, by another. correspond with the symbolic act. Zede- Ver. 18.-Eat thy bread with qua.king, kiah and his men of wnr escape from the etc. No special stress is to be laid on the city by night, "by the way of the king's fact that only bread and water are named. gwtlen, by the gate between the two walls," The prophet is not dwelling now on the prouably enough with faces covered, ns scnroity of food in the besieged city, ns he David'., was in his flight (2 Sam. xv. 30), harl done in eh. iv. 9-17, but on the fear to nvoid detection, or as n sign of mourning, antl terror which should ho.unt the lives of ancl through some freshly made exit from the be8ieged. Here again we can scarcely the pa.lace. The further signiticance of the doubt that, as in ver. 11, Ezekiel was a co,·ered face is found iu the fact that Zcde- sign to those among whom he lived. Out- kiah was blinded at Riblah by Nebuchad- wardly itnd visibly he was seen after hia nezzar's orders, and from that time could strange flitting, cowering in a corner, a.s one not see the ground on which he trod. Those hunted down and dreading pursuit, with who see in every Old Testament prediction every look and gesture of extremest terror. notliing but a prophecy n, e1Jentu infer from This was to be the portion of those who this that this section of Ezekiel we.s written escaped and whose life was" given them for after the destruction of Jerusalem. I do a prey." The strange e.ct was to be ox- not take that view, and place it in close con- plained to "the people of the land," i.e. the nection with the preceding chapters. We exiles among- whom Ezekiel lived. The uote in ver. 11 the peculiar phrase, " I nm short prediction ends wilh the usual for- your sign." Ezekiel, in what he does in the mula. There is nnothe1· inlcrval, and then presence of the exiles, is figuring that which, another inspiration. before long, will come to pass in Jerusalem, Ver. 22.-What is that proverb, etc.? They were to go forth into eapti vity as he The words indicate how the previous mes- hud gone. For they shall remove, the sages had been received. Like the men of Hedsed Version gives, thev shall go into Jerusalem, the exiles could not believe thut exile. the judgrncnt wns so near. '.rhey said, in Ver. 12.-For that he see not, read, with word~ that had becoruo proverbial: (I) the Revised Version, beca'!U!e he shall not ,ee. Tho days are prolonged. "Mouth after month Ver. 13.-My net also will I spread, etc. passes" (it is obvious that they hBtl so passetl Compare the same image in Lam. i. 13. ~ince Ezekiel began his work), "and yet the 'fhe prediction of ver. 12 is reiterated with entl comes not." Such throughout the ernph"'8is. Zedekiah shall be in Babylon, world's history has been the cry of those of yet bi.all not see. Josephus (' Ant.,' x. little, or of no, faith (Amos vi. 3; Isa, v. 19; vii. 2; viii. 2) relates that Ezekiel sent tl,is Jer. xvii. 15; Mittt. xxiv. 48: 2 Pet. iii. 4). prophecy to Jerusalem, and that Zedekiah, (2) Every vision faileth. "The prophet is a fui,ling an apparent discrep,rncy in tile tlrcamer of drea111s. ,ve have heard of many wortls that he should not see Babylon, and such visions, yet still Rll things continue WI those of Jeremiah (xxxii. 4; xxxiv. 3), they were." l ,ardened himself in his unbelief. There is Ver. 23.-The prophet meets (ho current 110 reason, however, for eupposiug that proverb with o. counter-proverb of his own: J oscphus had access to any other records "'.rho do.ye are not far off, but hnvo cowe orr. 1m. 1-28.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 215