The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 1 — Section 231

to me, saying, Son of me.n, ee.t thy bread with quaking," etc. This paracrraph we.s addressed to Ezekiel's fellow-exiles. "Say unto the people of the land; " i.e. of Chaldea. 'l'be design was to discourage the false expectations of the captives, who were looking forward to an early season of prosperity for their native land, in which they hoped to share._ To this end the prophet shows to _them that, in respe~t to their fellow-country- men m Jernsalem, there would be a cuttmg off of the physical comforts of life' great anxiety and distress of min~, and sad devastation of both _cities and country, a'nd all these things because of the sms of the people, or "for the v10lence of all who dwell in it." Se'l'eral things call for attention. I. Sm DEPRIVING sr:r.."NERS OF THE PHYSICAL COMFORTS OF LIFE. "Son of man eat thy bread with quaking, and drink thy water with trembling and with careful~ess· and say unto the people of the land, Thus saith the Lord God of the inhabitants of J crusalem, and of the land of Israel [ or, 'in the land of Israel ']; 'l'hey shall eat their bread with carefulness, and drink their water with astonishment." 'l'hese words point to the cutting off of the comforts of life, and the possession of the mere neces- saries thereof. But not always does sin produce consequences such as this. Sin and secular prosperity ha'"e often gone hand-in-hand (cf. Gen. xiii. 10, 13; Ps. lxxiii. 3-12; Luke xii. 16-20; xvi. 19-26). But io these cases the prosperity was precedent to the Divine judgment or to the full development of sin. Wheo that development bad taken place, and that judgment was being exercised, there was a strikiog reversal of circumstances in each case. In the siege of Jerusalem, to which our text points, physical comforts and luxuries disappeared, and long before its close men deemed themselves fortunate if they could secure bread and water. And in our age the v.icked may prosper in the world and increase in riches; but in the time of retribution, whenever it arrives, sin will be found injurious to all the true interests of man. Sin often strips the sinner of physical comforts, and even of the bare neces- saries of life. Drunkenness, gluttony, iodolence, wastefulness, bring many a person aod many a family to abject poverty and want (cf. Prov. vi. 9-11; x.i.x. 15; xxiii. 21; n:iv. 30-34). II. Sm DEPRIVING SINNERS OF PEACE AND SERENITY OF SPIRIT. " Son of man, eat thy bread with quaking, and drink thy water with trembling and with carefulness. . . . They shall eat their bread with carefulness, and drink their water with astonish- ment." They would eat even the necessaries of life, not in peace and comfort, but in anxiety and alarm. Their distress may have arisen from fear lest their scanty supplies of food should fail them. and so they ate" their bread with carefulness." And to this was joined terror of their enemies who surrounded them, causing them to take of the sustenance of life "with quaking, trembliog, and astooishment." It is of the nature of sin, when it is developed, to destroy peace and calmness of mind, and to produce terror and distress. "The wicked are like the troubled sea," etc. (Isa. !vii. 20, 21). Without doubt we may often find the wicked in their sad career untroubled either by guilt or fear; but for every one the time of awakening comes, and with it security departs and terror arrives. "When the pleasure has been tasted and is gone," says Mr. Froude, "and nothing is left of the crime but the ruin which it has wrought, then the fories take their seats upc;n the midnight pillow." "The wicked flee when no man pursueth." " The sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth." III. Sm DESOLATING THE LAND IN WBICH IT WAB COMMITTED. "That her land may be desolate from all that is therein, because of the violence of all them that dwell therein. And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be desolate." Instead of "That her land may be desolate from all that is therein," the margio reads, "from the [ulness thereof." The meaning seems to be that the land would be "stripped of all i.ts inhabitants and of all its wealth." The lan_d of Israel was once fair and fertile--" a l;""Vd land, a land of brooks of water, of fountams and depths that spring out of valleys and hills," etc. (Deut. viii. 7-9). In the time of Solomon the Tyrians received large quantities of corn and wine and oil from this fruitful land (1 Kings v. 11 ; 2 Chron. ii. 10). But what is its condition now? And what has been its condition for ages past? "He turneth a fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein." "The plain of Jordan, well-watered every- where, and III the garden of the Lord" (Gen. xiii. 10) is not the only example of 011, xu. 1-28.J 'l'HE BOOK OF THE PROPHE'l' EZEKIEL. 227