thie unbelieving and rebellious people. He will not leave himself without faithful witnesses, who will speak hie word even to the most sceptical and stubborn of men (cf. eh. ii. 3-7; iii. 4-11). 2. By its full and speedy fulfilment. The Lord here declares that: (1) His word should be fulfilled speedily. "Say unto them The days are at hand, and the effect of every vision. . .. I will speak, and the w'ord that I shall speak shall come to pass; it shall be no more prolonged: for in your days O rebellious house, will I say the word, and will perform it, saith the Lord God .. '. , There shall none of my words be prolonged any more, but the word which I have spoken shall be done, saith the Lord God." And, as Hengstenberg says "the announcement of the prophet has passed into fulfilment in a terrible manner. S~arcely five years elapsed when Jerusalem with its temple lay in ruins; and those who had filled their belly with the east wind of their proud hopes of the future were either lost or envied the dead." (2) His word should be fulfilled completely. " The days are at hand, and the effect of every vision." The full "contents of every prediction" would be brought to pass. The unbelieving and rebellious people probably thought that even if things came to the worst, they could not be so bad as in the prophetic representations that Jeremiah had exaggerated the troubles that were coming upon the nation. But "the word of every vision" was at hand. No partial fulfilment was about to take place. Every word of prophetic prediction was to be realized. 3. By putting to silence the false prophets who had discredited it. "There shall no more be any vain vision nor flattering divination within the house of Israel." The events that were drawing so near would confound these prophesiers of smooth things. The complete fulfilment of the visions of the true prophet would effectually stop the mouths of the false ones. CONCLUSION. Our subject presents to ue : 1. An assurance of the certainty of the fulfilment of the Word of the Lord. (Cf. Numb. xxiii.19 ; Ps. lxxxi.x. 34; Matt. v. 18 ; :x:riv. 35; Luke xvi. 17; 1 Pet. i. 23-25.) 2. Warning against unbelief of the Word ~f the Lord, and against the false security arising therefrom. The punishment denounced against sin will certainly be inflicted unless the sinner tum from his evil way. 3. Encouragement to trust the Word of the Lord. Its promises are true and reliable. The hopes which it inspires are not delusive. "For how many soever be the promises of God, in him is the Yea: wherefore also through him is the Amen, unto the glory of God through us."-W. J.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER XIll. by men (Gal. i. 12); that he had no selfish by-ends in what he said and did; that he Ver. !.-Another interval follows, and was risking peace, reputation, life itself, for then a fresh and fuller burst of inspiration, the truth revealed to him,-nothing could manifestly in close connection with eh. xii be more repulsive than this claim to have 21-28, and to be read in combination seen a vision of Jehovah, by men who bad in with Jer. xxiii., which, as Jeremiah was in reality seen nothing. For foolish prophets, communicaticm with the exiles (Jer. xxix. read, with the stronger Hebrew, the prophets, I), Ezekiel may probably have seen. '!'here the fools, the words deriving their force from were false prophets and prophetesses among a kind of pe.ronomasia of alliteration. The the exiles as well as in Jerusalem, and an nabiim are also the n'balim. utterance is now found for his long-pent-up Ver. 4.-Like the foxes in the deserts, etc. indignation. The points of comparison are manifold. Vers. 2, 3.-Son o! man, prophesy, etc. The fox is cunning (Luke xiii. 32, where The sin of the men whom Ezekiel denounced the term is applied to Herod Antipas). It was that they prophesied out o! their own spoils the vine and its fruits (Song of Sol. hearts (Jer. xiv. 14; xxiii. 16, 26), and ii. 15); it burrows among ruins (N eh. iv. 3; followed their own Bpi.rit instead of the Lam. v. 18). So the false prophets were Spirit of Jehovah. All was human and of crafty, laid waste the vineyard of the Lord the earth. Not a single fact in the future, of hoBts (Isa. v. 7), made their profit out not a single eternal law governing both the of the ruin of I sro,cl, and made that ruin future and the pa,;t, waB brought to light worse. The 'Reineke Fuchs,' in satirizing by it. To one who was conscious that he the monks and priests of the sixteenth cen- had a mesrnge which he had not devised tury under the same comparison, presents himself, and which he bad not been taught a curious, though probably unconscious, oH, xm. 1-23.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL, 229