to treat. And they thus injured those whom they should have protected, viz. '' the poor and needy and the stranger." Frequently these were specially commended to the care of the Israelites; and God bad taken them under his own special guardianship (cf, Exod. xxii. 21; Deut. x. 18, 19; xxvii. 19; Ps. x. 14; xii. 1; ex!. 12; cxlvi. 9; Prov. xiv. 21; Zech. vii. 9, 10). Moreover, it is inexpressibly mean to wrong those who are unable to defend themselves end their rights. Yet it is not to be wondered at that these things were done by the common people; for in so doing they trod in the footsteps of their guides and rulers. Thus amongst all classes wickedness in some of its worst forms was terribly prevalent. 3. In the fact that no one was found to keep back the destruction which it was bringing upon the land. "And I sought for a man among them that should make up the fence," etc. (ver. 30; ef. Isa. lix. 4; Jer. v. 1; aud see our homily on eh. xiii. 6). The Lord represents himself as looking solicitously and diligently for such a man, but finding none. "Jeremiah," says Hengstenberg, "by bis powerful preaching of repentance, presented himself as such a public deliverer; but they despised him, and he could gain no position. The man alone is nothing. The position must be added, and the people must gather around him. One • against whom every man contends' cannot avert the judgment of God; he can only accelerate it." 11 THE CONSEQUENT CERTAmTY OF JUDGHENT. When wickedness bas become so flagrant and universally prevalent, and there is no one to stand between the guilty people and the approaching judgment, the execution of judgment is inevitable. Notice: 1. The dread severity of this fudgment. "Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath" (ver. 31). Words similar to these we have already noticed (ver. 22; eh. xxi. 31). The judgment is so certain that it is spoken of as already accomplished. And as to its severity, what a day is "the day of the indignation" of God I Wno can even conceive the terrors of his indignation? or the dread intensity of his wrath? 2, The total absence of alleviG- tions of this Judgment. "Thou art a land that is not rained upon in the day of indignation" (ver. 24); that "is a land that in the outburst of the Divine judgment finds no grace; and simply, as the connection shows, because its impurity is not removed. The rain in the day of indignation would be a benefit. It would quench the flame of the Divine indignation n (Hengstenberg). But such rain it will not have, The clause we are dealing with amounts to a declaration like this: " Thou shalt have no mercy when the fire of my wrath is kindled." 3. The retributiveness of this fudg- ment. "Their own way have I brought upon their heads, saith the Lord God." This aspect of the Divine judgment has already engaged our attention more than once (on eh. vii. 3, 4; ix. 10; xvi. 43). CoNoLUBION, The whole subject is charged with most solemn warnings to the wicked, both as individuals and as communities or nations (Ps. ii. 10-12; Isa. Iv. 6, 7).-W.J,
EXPOSITION,
OHAPTER XXIII. of Ephrnim to supremacy appearing again and again long before the revolt of the ten After another pause, the prophet enters tribes under Jeroboam (,Tudg. viii. I; xii. 1; on another elaborate parallel, nftor the 2 Sam. xix. 43). Both were o.like tainted with pattern of oh. xvi., but with a marked vari• idolatry, as in the history of the golden calf, ation. There we have the history of one when they came out of Egypt (comp. eh. harlot, so. of Israel in its collective unity. xvi. 7; xx. 7, 8), Yet even then Jehovah, Here we have two sister harlots, the daughters like Hosea. in the personal history which was of one mother, and they are Samaria. and to be to him as a. pnroble of that of Israel, Jerusalem, as both belonging to Israel. For had compassion on them, harlots though they tho purpose of the parable, they are repre- were (Hos. i. 2). They became his, and "bare sented ns having had o. separate existenoe, sons o.nd daughters." oven during the period of the eojoum in Ver. 4.-The occurrence of proper name11 Egypt. This was probably historically true, is almost uuiquo in the parables of tbo the liuo of oleavoge caused by the cl1\\rus Bible, the L11z~rus of Luke xvi. 20 being EllEKIEL-II, C 18 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHE'l' EZEKIEL. [on. xxrn. 1-49,