The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 1 — Section 234

o.nalogue, In Matt. vii. 15 and Acts n:. retnm from the Captivity. One notes the 29 wolves appear as the types of the false contrast between the "my people" which prophet. recognizes Israel as still the heritage of Ver. 5.-The verse contains two distinct Jehovah, and the "thy people" used in images. '!'here were breaches in the walls eh. iii. 11 of the rebellious house of the of Jerusalem, literally and spiritually, and Captivity. For the false prophets there the false prophets had not been as " repairers should be no return to the land of Israel of the breach" (Isa.. lviii. 12; Ps. cvi. 23). such as that which the prophet anticipated The hedge of the vineyard of Israel bad for the faithful and the penitent (eh. xx.xvii. been broken through (Isa.. v, 5), and they 21 ; comp. Isa. 1vii. 13). Here there is no had done nothing to restore it ( eh. xxii. 30). specific mention of the name being struck The day of battle, the day of the Lord, had out. The prophet contemplates a new come, and they were betraying the people register, in which their names will never instead of helping. even have appeared. Ver. 6.-The Lord saith. The verb is that Ver. 10.-Peace, when there was no peace, specially used for the utterance of prophets, This, e.s in Micah iii. 5 ; J er. vi. 14; xxiii. and the deceivers used it without the autho- 17; Zech. x. 2, was the root-evil of the false rity of a true mission. For they have made prophet's work. He lulled men into a false others (or, men) to hope, etc., as in the Au- security, and so narcotized their consciences, thorized Version and Revised Version, read, One bnilt up a wall. The imagery starts with the margin of Revised Version, they from the picture of a ruined city already hope to confirm their word, taking the verb implied in vers. 4 and 5, and expands into as in Pa. oxix. 43, 49; Job vi. 11, et al.), a parable in which we note a parallelism So the V ulgate, perseveraverunt confirmare. (1) to Isaiah's picture of dishonest and nn- Through deceiving others, they came to safe bnilding (xx.x. 13); (2) to our Lord'11 deceive themselves, and were really expect- parable at the end of the sermon on the ing a fulfilment. mount (Matt. vii. 2!, 25; Luke vi. 47-49). Ver. 9.-Mine ha.nd shall be, eto. After With an incisive sarcasm, Ezekiel describes Ezekiel's manner, the thought of ver. 6 is what we should ca.11 the "scamp-work" of repeated in an altered form in vers. 7, 8. their spiritual building. They profess to What h~ been a statement appears as a be "repairers of the breach" (Isa. lvili. 12) question to which there could be but one in the walls of the spiritual Zion, and thia answer. The prophet, as it were, oross- is how they set about it. One built up a examines his rivRls. Could they deny the wall. This may point to a false prophet, ohRrge? Was not every word of it true? but the "one" (Hebrew, "he") is probably Then, after the statement of the sin of the indefinite, like the French on, equivalent to false prophets, comes the proclamation of "some one." Some scheme is devised, an the punishment. The hand of Jehovah Egyptian alliance or the like, to which the would be upon them for evil and not for people look for safety. It is, as in the margin good. In the assembly of my people. The of the Authorized Version, u "slight wall," Hebrew word indicates not a large popular snch as WI\S used for partition wulls inside gathering, but a secret council of those who houses. They make it do duty as o.n out- deliberate together to carry out their plans side wall (kir in ver. 12). It he.a no snre (Ps. lxxxi.x. 7; cxi. 1; Jer. vi. 11). The "footings," and materials and workmanship prophets who had aoled together, and been are ulike defective. The false prophets looked up to by the people as forming such would smear it over with nntempered mortar o. council, should lose that position of au- (the Hebrew word is found only here and thority. The words that follow point to a in eh. x.x.ii. 28, and is probubly e.n exumple yet lower degradation. They should be in of Ezekiel's acquaintance with the technical the strictest sense of the word excommuni- vocabulary of his time)-with a stucco or cated. The city of Jerusalem, perhaps every ploster, which is hurdly better than white- city of Judah, had its register of citizens, wush (compare the "whitened" or plastered In such a register were inscribed al~o the wall or sepulchre of Mutt. xxiii. 27 ; Luke names of proselytes of other races (Ps. I.xx.xvii. xi. 44; Acts x.xiii, 3), used to hide its defects 6), and so men came to think of a like und give it a semblunce of solidity. They register as kept by the King of kings, come, that is, with smooth words o.nd pro- containing the names of those who were mises of peuce. heirs of the "life" of the true Israel (Exod, Ver. 11.-In words which would o.lmost n:xii. 32; Isa. iv. 3; Dan. xii. 1). In seem to huve been in our Lord's thonghta neither of those registers, the earthly and in Matt. vii. 25, we have the picture of e.n the heavenly (but stress is probably laid Eastern storm, torrents of rain passing into upon the former), shall the folse prophets hail (LXX., Al6o, ,r.-rp&/30Ao1), accompanied find o. place. Ezro. ii. 62 gives an exumple by e. tornado of irres1Stible violence (oom- of fue we made of such registers Oil the p!ll'e like pictures in Exod. ix. 22; Josh. 230 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [cu. xm.1-23.