The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 1 — Section 384

n u,1 it slrn.11 not be," elo. This will be a suffi- with names (in this msc probably Rl\bbn.lh ciont summnry of I.he difficulties of the exe- and Jerus11lem) written on thom. Ono wne geticRl problem. At the best, we must so.y then drawn, or thrown, out its by oho.nee, l\n,l thRl it reme.ins unsolved. decided tl1e direction of the co.mpnign. (2) Yer. 14.-Smite thine he.nds together, eto. He oonsults the imageB (Hebrew, te1·aphim). A nolher gesture follows, either of horror The moduB operandi in this cnso is not Rnd Jamento.tion, or perhRps, looking to ver. known, but Judg. xviii. 18 and Hos. iii. 4 17, of impt,ratirn command. The sword is point to some such use of them. (3) Thero to do its thrice-redoubled work (the words remnins the sacrifice and the inspection of emphasize generally the intensity, and are the liver, familiar alike in Greek, Etrminn, scarcely to be taken numerically, of the and Roman divination (Cicero, • Do Diviu.,' repeated invasions of the Chaldea.ns); it is vi. 13). "the sword of thEl slain" (better, pierced Ver. 22.-At his right hand waa, etc.; ones, or. with Revised Version, the deadly better, into his 1·ight hand came, eto.; sc. U>Ou11ded). The next clause should be the arrow marked for Jerusalem was that taken. with the Revised Version, in the which came into the king's hand as the singular-the sword of the great one that is quiver was shaken. To appoint captains; deadly wounded; sc:.- tlw sword should better, battering-rams, in both olanses. The smite the king as well as the people. For same Hebrew word is used in both (see entereth into their privy chambers, reed, note on eh. iv. 2). 'l'he verse paints the with the llevised Version (ma1·gin), Ewald, engineering operations of the besiegers, and Keil, it compassdh them about. following on the issue of the divination. Yer. 15.-For their ruins shall be multi- (For the mount, comp. Isa. xxxvii. 33.) plied, read, with the Revised Version, that Ver. 23.-The whole verse is obscure, and their stumblings; and for wrapped up, has been very variously interpreted. I poi,nted, or sharpened. follow the translation of the Revised Ver- Ver.16.-Go thee one way or another, etc.; sion, and explain it by inserting words i.e. as in the following, to the right hand or which are needed to bring out its meaning : the left-to the north or the south. Which- It (what Nebuchadnezzar has done) shall ever way the prophet turned (eh. :x.x. 47), he be as a vain divination in their sight (Bo. in would see nothing but the sword and its that of the men of Jerusalem), which have work of slaughter. Jehovah had given sworn unto them (so. have taken oaths of that command with the gesture of supreme fealty to the Chaldeans, aud a.re ready to authority. He would not rest till he had take them again), but he (Nebuchadnezzar) appeased his wrath by letting it work brings iniquity to remembranoe. The fact itself out even to the end. With these represented is that when the people of words the "Lay of the Sword of J ebovah" Jerusalem heaxd of the divination o.t the ends, e.nd there is a.gain an interval of parting of the ways, they still lulled them- silence. selves in e. false security. They ancl Zede- Yers. 17-19.-The new section opens in kie.h bad sworn obedic,nee, and that oath a different strain. Ezekiel sees, a.s in would protect them. "Not so," rejoins the vision, Nebuchadnezzar e.nd his army on prophet; "the Chaldean king knows how their march. He is told to appoint (better, those oaths have been kept." The LXX. make, or mark, as on a brick or tile, e.s in eh. omi ta all reference to "oaths." The Vul- iv. I) a place where the road bifurcated. Both gate, taking the word for "oath" in its other come from one land, i.e. from Babylon; but sense of" sabba.th," gives the curious 1·ender- from that point onwards one road Jed to ing, Erit,q_ue quasi consulens jrUBtra oraculum Rabbath, the capital of the Ammonites in eorum oculis, et sabbatorom otium imitans. (Dent. iii. 11; 2 Se.m. xi 1), the other to In spite of the reports that reached them, Jernsalem. Apparently, tile exiles and the the men of Jerusalem thought themselves people of Jnde.h flattered themselves that e.s safe as if the Che.ldean king were keep- the former was the o~jeci of the expedi- ing a sabbath de.y. Ewald partly follows tion. The answer to that false hope is a the Vulgate, and renders, They believe they vivid picture of what was passing in the have weeks on weelcs, i.e. will not belic,ve council of we.r which Nebuchadnezzar was that the dttnger is close at hand. Keil and holding e.t that parting of the ways. The lfavernick: Oaths of oaths are theirs; i.e. prophet sees, as it were, the sign-post point- they eount on the oath of Jehovah, on his ing, as with a hand, to each of the two promises of protection, but he (Jehovah) cities. 'l'he king consults his soothsayers, brings iniquity to remembrance. That they and uses divinations. Of these Ezekiel ma.y be taken; i.e. be seized by the invader enumerates three: (I) He shaket the arrowB a.nd either slain or made prisoners. to and fro (Revised Version). 'I'his was Ver. 24.-The prophet adds wol'ds which known among the Greeks as the {3b.. oµa.v- in part cxpl11iu those that precede. The 'TEia.. 'l'lie arrows were put into a quiver, iniquity of the people has fo1·ced, not the 011. xx1. 1-82.J '!'HE BOOK OF THE PROPHE'l' EZEKIEL. 3d7