Oho.ldean king only, but Jehovo.h himself, The passage is noticeable e.s being Ezekiel'3 to remember and to punish them. first distinct utterance of the hope of 11. Ver. 25.-Aud thou, profane wioked prince personal Messiah. Afterwards, in eh. xxxi v. of J'udah, etc. ; better, with the Revised 23, it is definite enough. Version, 0 deadly wounded, etc., o.e in ver, Ver. 28.-Thns saith the Lord God con- 29, where the same word is translated in oeming the Ammonites. Ezekiel hae not tho Authorized Version as "slain." 'fhe forgotten that scene at the parting of the Authorized Version follows the LXX. and ways. The Ammonites, when they saw the Vulgo.te, apparently in order to make the issue of the divination, and the march of word fit in with the fo.ot tho.t Zedekiah was the Chaldean army to the west, thought them- not slain, but carried into exile. The word selves safe. They took up their reproach "deo.dly wounded," or "sorely smitten," against Jerusalem, and exulted in its fall. mo.y rightly be applied to one who fell, as They are warned, as in another strophe of Zedekio.h did, from his high estate. From the "Lay of the Sword of Jehovah." that the sine of the people the prophet turns their confidence is vain (comp. Zeph. ii. 8 to the special guilt of Zedekiah, who had for a like exultation at an earlier period). proved unfaithful alike to Jehovah o.nd to Ver. 29.-Whiles they see, etc. The words the Chaldean king, whom he had owned as may possibly refer to Nebuchadnezzar's hie suzerain. Hie day had at last come, the diviners in ver. 21, but more probably to time of the iniquity of the end of the last those whom the Ammonites themselves transgression which was to bring down on consulted. The pronoun "thee" in both him the finnl punishment. clauses refers to Ammon. The result of Ver. 26.-Bemove the diadem, etc. The those who divined falsely was that the sword nollll is used throughout the Pentateuoh would be drawn against the necks of the (e.g. Exod. xxviii. 4; xxxvii. 39; Lev. viii. Ammonites and throw them npon the heap 9; xvi. 4) for the "turban" or "mitre" of of the slaughtered ones. For them, as in the high priest, and Keil so takes it here, as the words that end the verse, reproducing pointing to the punishment of the priest as those of ver. 25, punishment is decreed, and well as of tile king. This shall not be the that punishment will come. so.me ; literally, this shall not be this; or, as Ver. 30.-She.ll I co.use it, etc.? The the Revised Version paraphrases, this shall question of the Anthorized Version suggests be no more the same; i.e. the mitre and the a negative answer, as though the speaker crown shall alike pass away-to.ken from were Jehovah, and the sheath that of his their unworthy wearers. There was to be, sword. The Revised Version, which trans- e.e in the following words, e. great upturning lates it, with Keil, the LXX., and the of all things : the high brought low, the Vulgate, as e.n imperative, dee.ls with it as lowly exalted. addressed to the Ammonites. They are Ver. 27.-I will overthrow. The sen- told to sheath their sword: it would be of tence of destruction is emphasized, after the no avail against the sharp, glittering weapon Hebrew manner, by e. threefold iteration of Jehovah. Their judgment wonld soon (Isa. vi. 3: Jer. xxii. 29). It shall be no come on them in their own land, not, as in more. The pronoun in both clauses pro- the case of Judah, in the form of exile be.bi v refers to the established order of (comp. eh. xxv. 1-8 as an expansion of the the 'kingdom and the priesthood. "TI.Jot prophet's tilought ). order," Ezekiel says, "shall be no more." Ver. 31.-I will blow against, eto. The Keil, however, takes the second "it"- imagery of fire takes the place of that of lhe the "this'' of the Revised Version-as sword. The brutish men (same word e.s in meaning the fe.ot of the overthrow. 'fhat Pe. xlix. 10; xcii. 6) are the Che.ldean cou- also was not fine.I; all things were e.s in a querors. The fe.ot that the adjective may state of flux till the Meseie.nio kingdom also mean" those that burn" may, in po.rt, hinted at in the next clause should restore have determined Ezekiel'e choice of it. the true order. Until he oome whose right Ver. 82.-For Ammon there is no hope of it is. The words contain a singularly a restoration like that which Ezekiel speaks suggestive allusion to Gen. xlix. 10, where of as possible for Jerusalem, and even for a probable interpretation of the word Sodom and Samaria. Its doom is written " Shiloh" is "he to whom it belongs;" or, in the words, it shall be ,uo more remem- e.e the LXX. gives it, ...a a.,ro1«/µ.e11a. a.b ... ,;. bered (oomp. oh. xxv. 7).
HOMILETICS. Ver. 4.-'ZVie common fate of 1·ighteous and wicked. Both the righteous and the wicked are to be cnt off. Though not equal in moral character, they are to share in the sa.mo general calamities. 388 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL, [cH, xxr.1-32,