The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 1 — Section 277

we have the familiar phrase of eh. "<"i. 13. -it _seems probable thnt the praotico wns A The scene brought before us is thnt of o. survn•al of the custom to which Ezeldel eaC'ri.ficial feast, in which cakos or flour, refers. As in tho llfylilt1L•Worship nt B,1by- honey, and oil were eaton whilst inC'ense was !011 (Herod., i. 262; Dar., vi. 43) and that of offered. So we have the "adorC'a liba" of Aphrodite ILi Corinth, prostitution nssumod Virgil, 'lEneid,' vii. 109, or more fully A quasi-religious cbamcter, nnd the harlot in Tibullus, 'Eleg.,' i. 7, 53, 54, the" thuris sat in a small cell, or clmpcl, inviting tl.10 honores," the "Jiba ... dulcia melle." pa.seers-by, and treating her hire ns, in part Thus it was, etc. As in ver. 16, the descrip- an offering to the goddess whom she served'. tion seems to rouse o.n instiucti,·e abhorrence Such chapels of prostitution were to ho in the prophet's mind, which finds utterance found natnro.lly in the "high plac.ee" of in this form : " Yes, it was ernn so." The Judah (the word, however, is not that words are, however, taken by the LXX., commonly so translatecl), and in the cross- Vulgat.e, and Luther as opening the follow- ways of intersecting roads. To such a harlot ing ven,e : "And it co.me to pa.ss that." Ezekiel compares the daughter of Judah,' Ver. 20.-The next stage of idolatry is and proceeds to paint her life with e. terrible that of Moloch-worship, which never wholly minuteness, even to the very attitude that oeased as long PS the monarchy of Judah invited to sin. lasted (2 Kings xvi. 3 ; Ps. cvi. 37 ; Isa. lvii. Ver, 26.-With the Egyptians. The 5; Jer. vii. 32; :i;:ix. 5; Micah vi. 7; Lev. words point to politico.I and commercia.l uiii. 21 ; x:i:. 2). It will be noticed that allianoes, in 'themselves e. whoredom (Isa. the words, "the fire," are in italics, i.e. xxiii. 17; N ah. iii. 4), such as Zedekirth, are not in the Hebrew, the verb "to pass like some of his predecessors, had trusted in, through" having acquired so technical a es well e.s to the adoption of Egyptian meaning that it was enough without that worship, such as we have seen in eh. viii. 10, addition. This, as the closing words the one leading naturally to the other. The indi<'a.te, was the crowning point. As though words, great of flesh, may point, as we inter- idolatry in itself was a small matter, it was pret the parable, to the supposed strength of intensified by infanticide. the stout and stalwart soldiers, the chariots Ver. 22.-Thau hast not remembered. The and horses of the Egyptians, but possibly words gain a fuller significance when we also may be a euphemism for the mere recollect those of Ezekiel's master (Jer. ii. animal vigour which stimulat,id passion. 2). The husband remembered "the love of Ver. 27.-Have diminished thine ordinary her espousals ; " the faithless wife forgot from food. The husband was bound to provide what a life of shame a.nd misery she had hie wife with food and raiment (Exod. xxi. then been rescued. 10). Here his first discipline for the un- Ver. 23.-Woe unto thee, etc. ! The inter- faithful wife is to place her on a short allow- jectional parenthesis, ha.If-anathema o.nd ance. Jehovah, to interpret the parable, ho.d half-lamentation, looks forward rather than placed Israel under the discipline of famine backward. Up to this point Ezekiel had and other visitations that involved a lose of dwelt on the forme of idolatry which were wealth and power. Hos. ii. 9, 10 supplies indigenous to Canaan and the nations in a striking parallel. The daughters of the i.mmedis.t.e contact with it. Now he enters Philistines. So in ver. 57. The phro.ee, like on the later forms of evil which had been "the 'daughter of Zion," indicates the adopted from more diet.ant nations. We Philistine cities. These had been, from pass from the time of Solomon to that of the days of Samuel to those of Ahaz (2 Ahaz and Manasseh. Chron. xxviii. 18), among the most persistent Ver. 24.-An eminent place; 'loftv (Re- enemies of Judah (comp. Amoe i. 6; iii. 9; vised Version) ; bnt the word strict] y points Joel iii. 4; Isa. ix. 12; xiv. 29). In the t.o the form of a vault, with the added words, were ashamed of thy lewd way, the meaning, as in the LXX., o11C'T/µa. wopvudw, prophet points, as his master had done and the Vulgate, lupanar, of its being (Jer. ii. 10), to the fact that other nations used for prostitution. It ie, at least, a had at least been faithful to their inherited curious fact that the Latinfornicari and its religion, while Judah had forsaken hers. derivatives, take their start from the forniees, Ver. 28.-With the Assyrians. Here o.lso the vaults or c.ells which were the haunts the words include politic1Ll ellinnoes like tb11t of the harlots of Rome. Looking to the fact of Ahaz with Tiglath-PileHer (2 Kiugs xvi. tbut all the worst forms of sensual evil came 7), as well as the adoption of idolatrous to Rome from the East, and specially from worship. '!'he latter probably followed Syria- under Ahaz as a consequence of the former, and afterwards spread through the influence .. Je.mpridem in Tiberim Syrus delluxit of the Assyrian coloniste-e11oh nation with Orontes" its own deities-in Samaria (2 Kings xvii. (Juv., 'Sat.', iii. 62) 24). The cult111 of the quoen of heaven tm, XVI. 1--63,] TH~ DOOK OF THE PnOPHET .EZEKIEL. 275