used sp~ie.llyof prophetic utternnces(cb. xxi. Luke xxiii. 31 we may probobly find ou 2; Amos vii. 6; Mice.h ii. 6, 11), e.nd stands, echo of Ezekiel's imagery. therefore. in the Hebrew without au object. Ver. 47.-All faoes from the south to the Toward the south. Three distinct words e.re north, etc. The phrase seems, ot first, to used in the Hebrew for the thrice-repeated pass from the figure to the renlity. Possibly, "south" of the Authorized Version. (1) One however, face may stand for "the outword which prime.rily means "the region on the appearance," the leaves nnrl brauches, of the right hand," so. as a man looks to the en.at, trees. "From the south(Negeb) to the north" which Ezekiel also usBS in eh. xlvii. 19; takes the place of the older "from Do.u to xlviii. 28); (2) the "shining laud," used Beersheba" (Judg. xx. I; I So.m. iii. 20). repeatedly in eh. xl., xiii. (Dent. xxxiii. 23; Of that "fire" of judgment, it is sui<l, as in Job xxxv:ii. 17; Eccles. i. 6; x:i. 3); and our Lord's use of a like imagery, that it shall (3) the Negeb, the "dry" or "parched" not be quenched (Mnrk ix. 43). It shall laud, the South (always in Revised Version do its dread work till that work is accom- -.,.ith a capital letter), of Josh. xv. 21, and plished. the historical books generally, the region Ver. 49.-Doth he not speak parables, lying to the south of Judah. The use of We ce.n scarcely wonder that Ezekiel's enig- tl.Je three words where one might have suf- matic words he1·e 1 as in eh. xv.,xvi., and xvii., ficed is, perhaps, characteristic of Ezekiel's should have called forth some such expression affluence of diction. The LXX. treats all from his hearers; but he obviously record11 three as proper names, and transliterates them the whisper which he thus heard, in a tone as Thaiman, Darom, and N'ageb. Against of sorrow and indignation. It was to him a this region and its inhabitants (they, of proof, as a like question was to the Christ course, a.re the " trees ") Ezekiel is directed (Matt. xv. 16; xvi. 9 ; Mark viii. 21) a to utter his words of judgment. The proof that those hearers were yet without parenthesis in the last sentence gives the understanding. The question was, for thoso key to the prophet's cypher-writing. From who asked it, an excuse for hardening their Ezekiel's standpoint on the Chebar, the hearts against remonstrances which needed whole of J uduh is as the iorest of the south. no explanation. The indignation was The "green tree," as in Ps. i. I, 2, is the followed by another interval of silence, man who is relatively righteous; the "dry during which he brooded over their stubborn- tree " is the sinner whose true life is ness, and at last, in eh. xxi. I, the word of withered; the" fire"the devastation wrought the Lord comes to him, and he speaks "no by the Chaldean invaders, as executing the more in proverbs," but interprets the la.test Divine juugment. In our Lord's words in parable even in its details.
HOMILETICS. Vera. 1-3.-17,,e silent oracZe. An embassy of elders is sent to Ezekiel to make an inquiry of the Lord through the prophet as to what is to be expected at a new juncture of national affairs, and Ezekiel is instructed to tell them that God will vouchsafe no auswer. I. THOSE WHO REFUSE TO HEAR WHAT Goo DESIRES TO TEAOH THEM ABE ANXIOUS FOB LIGHT ON LESS IMPORTANT QUESTIONS. This was the peculiar, the anomalous, position of Israel. God had not been keeping silence. On the contrary, he had been sending repeated messages to his people, and the Prophet Ezekiel had been busy in teachiug what God had revealed to him. 'l'his was not a time, like that of Samuel, when the word of the Lord was rare. But the people had not cared to receive the Divine messages. Here was Ezekiel's trouble. He bad to preach to deaf ears and to exhibit his prophetic signs to blind eyes (eh. xii. 2). The perversity of his audience had driven him to novel and startling symbolical representations of truth in a last, despairing endeavour to arrest attention. And yet even these efforts seemed to have been all in l"ain. Then there came to him an embassy, innocently ignoring all these neglected oracles, and blandly requesting a Divine answer to certain inquiries of their own. V.'as there ever a more insolent approach to God? Now, we have a full and rich Divine revelation in the Bible, and especially in the gospel of Christ. Here we may see God's message to man and God's answer to the most momentous inquiries ot the soul. Yet there are men who set aside these voices of God, and then plead piteously for light. No doubt these elder8 of Israel did not wish to be troubled about their sins; 1 Ley were au~uus for light on their fate. They were like those people who di~cuss the: prul,lcrn of future punishwent, and with keen interest, but who are indifferent to on. xx. 1-49.] THE BOOK OF 'rIIE PlWPI-IE'r EZEKIEL. 350