eented, os she had done, e. confluence of all Syria o.nrl Philistia-the Assyrian and Clial- the worst idolatries. The words find some- dean invasions. (For the grouping of the thing like nn echo in our Lord's teaching in two nations e.s enemies of Judah, see Isa. ix. Mott. x. 15; xi. 24. And, as is common in 12; o.nd for special acts of hostility, 2 Kings such co.sea," she ho.d judged," i.e. had passed xv. 37; xvi. 6; o.nd 2 Uhron. xxviii. 18, 19.) sentence of condemnation on those who Ver. 58.-Thou hast borne, etc. Judah, were more righteous tho.n herself. The i.e., had received the full measnre of its Revised Version cho.nges both mea11ing and punishments. The righteousness ot' God had punctuo.tion : Bear thine own shame, in that been o.dequately vindicated. And so, if the thou hast given judgment for thy Bister,; punishment led to repentances, there was through thy sim that thou hast committed more room for pardon (compare for the thought, abominable than they, they are more righteous Isa. xl. 2). than thoo; but the Anthorized Version seems Vers. 59, 60,-I will even deal with thee, prefero.ble. It mo.y be questioned whether etc. The law of retribution is stated in all the word for judged is ever used of an its fulness. Fe.lling back upon the idea of o.cquitte.L The point of the sentence is that the espousals of Israel in the covenant me.de Judah condemned those who were less guilty o.t Sinai (Lev. xxvi, 42, 45; Dent. xxix. 11, tho.n herself (comp. Rom. ii. 17-23). 12), Ezekiel presses home on Judah the Ver. 53.-When I shall bring ago.in; better, thought tho.t she ho.d broken that covenant. with the Revised Version, both here and in She must suffer as though it no longer ver. 55, and I will turn again. The A utho- existed. She must " dree her weird " o.ud rized Version reads like e. sentence of hope- "o.ccept her punishment" (Lev. xxvi. 41). less and perpetual condemnation, e.s per And then Jehovah would show that he had impossible. When Sodom and Samaria. not really been unminrlfnl of his part in it. ehould be pardoned, then, and not till He bad remained faithful in spite of her then, should there be hope for Judah. But unfaithfulness. And so in the day of her o.11 that follows in the chapter shows that repentance he will not only renew it, but what is meant is e. promise of restoration, not will give it e. higher o.nd more permanent for Judah only, but o.lso for her less-guilty cbo.racter. The" new covenant" of which sisters. Ezekiel sees e. far-off hope for his Ezekiel's mo.ster had spoken (Jer. :u:ii. 31) own no.tion, o.nd he cannot limit the mercy should not be o.s the old, decaying o.nd van- of God in bringing them also, o.s she wo.s to ishing away, but should be for everlasting. be brought, to repentance. For them o.lso Ver. 61.-Then thou shalt remember thy punishment we.a a means to o.n end beyond wo.ys, etc. The pardon which God gives itself, corrective, o.nd not merely retributive. is not, as men sometimes dream, a water The lo.nguo.ge of Iso.iah (xix. 23-25) o.s to of Lethe, blotting oiit the memory of the Egypt o.nd Assyria. presents e. striking evil po.at. Ezekiel represents that memory parallel, o.nd mo.y ho.ve been in Ezekiel's as quickened to e. new intensity in the very thoughts. hour of restoration. The she.me which it Ver. 54.-Even in tho.t restoration, how- brings with it is necessary as the safeguard ever, there should be e. further element of of the new blessedness. Thy sisters, thine humilio.tion. Judah should be e. comfort elder and thy younger. It is significant (see eh. xiv. 22) to those who should see her that, o.s in the Revised Version, both the plo.ced lower than themselves, content, at adjectives a.re now in the plural. What last, to take the lowest plo.ce, humbling her- was possible for Sodom and Samaria was pos- self tho.t she might be (ver. 61) o.fterwo.rds sible o.lso, o.s for the cities more immediately exalted. connected with them, so also for other Ver. 55.-Readand for when, ns iu ver. 53. nations of the heo.then world. They too Ver. 56.-Thy sister Sodom, etc. The words should be admitted into fellowship, not now ore obscure. The most tenable interpreta- o.s sisters, but as daughters, acknowledging, tion mo.y be expressed by e. paraphrase. i.e., her superiority. 'fhe limitation which The name of Sodom we.a not in the lips of follows, not by thy coveno.nt, asserts, o.s it Judo.h in the do.ye of her prosperity. It was were, the restored prerogative of J udo.h, too vile for utterance, except o.s e. byword much o.s St. Paul asserts it in Rom. ix.-xi. of reproach. Iso.io.h (i. 9, 10) had in vuin Those who a.re within the covenant of Isro.el, reminded her tho.t she ha.d me.de herself like including, as it does, those who a.re the heir;, them. Her fo.te could never be like theirs. of the fo.ith of Abruham as well us his Now, in the do.y of the discovery (the un- children according to the flesh, are in a. covering, or lo.ying be.re) of her wiokedness closer relation to him tho.n others who sh,tre (ver. 57), she had lee.rut the lesson. in wh11t have been culled (the phrase, per- Ver. 57.-For thy reproaoh, read, with the ho.ps, ta.king its origin from these very Revised Version, the reproach. The words words) the "uncovenanted mercies" of God. point prima1·ily to the diso.sters, not of Ver. 63.-That thou mayest remember. Judah, but to those that fell on the cities of The words po.int vividly the attitude of the 278 TITn noott OF TIT~ PlWPilET EZEKrnt. [err. xn. 1--Gn,
penitent adnltcrPss, hnmbh,. C'On1ritc, silent, l~a,l np to nothing: hut otcrnnl coni!Pmun• ashamed (Hos. iii. :l-5), itnd yet u-itll n sense tion, How far the ilropl1et expected a literal that she is pardoned, and that the husband fulfilment in the restoration of Sodom nnd against whom she has sinned is at last paoified. Samaria,_ we ca1~not define with ce1·tainty: Rensed Version, when I have .forgiven thee. but the ideal picture of the purification of Tbe Hebrew .-erb so rendered is that which the waters of tlle Dead Soo in oh. xl vii. 8 expresses the fullest idea of forgiveness, and suggests that it entered into his vision of which marked both the •· dity '' and the the future. For us, nt least, it is enough "eacrific~" of atonement (Numb. viii. 12; to pass from the temporo.l to the eterno.l Lev. niii. 27, et al.). This, according to the from the historical to the spiritual, and ti receiv~d etymology, was represented in the see in his words the noblest utterance of mercy-se~t, the i>..a1Trl,pwv, of the ark of the mercy prevailing over judgment-e. theodi- co,·enRnt (cop"hereth, as from caphar). So kea,, a " vindication of the ways of God to the prophet closes with the words of an ma.n," like that of Rom. :xi. 33-36. eternal hope what had at first seemed to