The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 19

mission of Morodnch - Ba.ladan wonld be form Inscriptions,' ii. pp. 32,117,120, where nntura.lly followed by e. return em baBBy from Shoa e.n<l Koa a.re identified with Medo- Jud11h, A later ineto.nce under Zedekiah Elamite tribes east of the Tigris), bnt the meets ue in Jer. :nix. 3. other names are unknown to history. On Ver. 15.-Exoeeding in dyed attire; better, the whole, the balance seems in favour of tcitll dyed tu.rbam, or tiaras, such a.s a.re the rendering in the text. With these a.re seen on the Assyri11n monuments of NimrO.d, joined all the Assyrians, who, antler Khorsnbad, and Kouyunyik. Nebachadnezzar, fought, of course, in his Ver. 17.-The words paint the intimate armies." Now she should see her desir- nllio.nce, the politico.I prostitution, e.e it were, able young men . . . riding upon horses involved in the alliance with Babylon. Her (the prophet repeats with sarcasm the phrase mind wa.s a.liena.ted from them. Interpreted of ver. 12) in another guise than she had by the history, the words point to the fact expected. that Juda.h soon fonnd out bow hollow was Ver. 24.-With aha.riots, waggons, and the help gained by the a.lliance with wheels, eto. The first word is only found Ba.bylon, a.nd turned, after Josiah's death, here, and probably means" armour." So the to Egypt as a counterpoise. As in the Revised Version, with weapo~, chariota, and history of Amnon (2 Sa.m. xiii. 15), lust, when waggom. They shall judge thee acoording to it had wrought its will, passed into loathing their judgments; sc. shall execnte the j udg- a.nd disgust. J ehoia.ki.m and Zedekiah were ment which God has assigned to them after examples of what we ma.y well call this their own manner, sc. their usual cruel distracted policy, But, as it was, this aliena- treatment of barbarous nations. tion did but increase her guilt. As things Ver. 25.-They shall take a.way thy nose were, it would ha.ve been better, as J eremfo.h e.nd thine ears, etc. (For instances of this all along counselled, to accept the rule of or like mutilation, in the case of prisoners the Cha.ldeans. The mind of Jehovah was of war, see the cuse of Zedekiah, Jer. alienated from Jerusalem a.s hers ha.d been Iii. 11; Herod., iii 69, 154.) Possibly it from the Chaldeane. may have been known to Ezekiel as a. Ver. 19.-Yet she multiplied her whore- punishment for the adnlterer or adulteress doms. The disappointment a.nd failure, in Egypt and other countries, and if so, he howeYer, did not lead to repentance. might have selected it as specially appropri- Foreign alliances, a.nd with them foreigu ate to his parable (Martial, 'Epigr.,' ii. 83; idola.tries, were courted more eagerly than iii. 85). Thy residue shall be consumed ever, though in a. different direction. The with fire. The Hebrew word for "residue" lovers were cha.nged, but the harlotry went (not that usually so translated) is the same on. as that previously translated "remnant." Ver. 20.-Bhe doted on her para.mours. In the first cla.uee it clearly points to the Commonly the word is used of a. concubine men of Jerusalem who are left after the (Gen. xxii. 24; Judg. viii. 31), Here it is capture. In the second its meaning is de- used in scom of the Egyptian princes whose termined by the fact that it follows after fn.vour Jndah courted, reminding us of the deportation of the sons and daughters. Homer's 'Axci,tliES ob,c.-r' 'Axcilo,, a.a indicat- All that was left-in the parable, of the ing their politico.I weakness. All that need mutilated trunk of the adulteress, in the be ea.id of the compa.rison that follows is tha.t history, of the devastated city, sc. the empty here also Ezekiel follows in the footsteps of houses-should be destroyed by fire. Jeremiah (Jer. v. 8). What is indicated is Ver. 27.-Thy whoredom brought from the that Judah threw herself into the idolatrous land of Egypt; i.e. the last politicnl. a.llio.nce ritual of Egypt with an almost orgiastic between Judah and Egypt. This, together passion. The harlot nation returned, as it with the Egyptian cultus that accompanied were, to her first love, and renewed the it, should be made to cease. That would no whoredoms of her youth. longer be in the thoughts of the exiles; Vers. 22, 23.-The lovers from whom the their hopes from that quarter were extin- mind of Judah was a.liena.ted were, as in guished for ever. ver.17, the Chaldeans. With these are joined Ver. 28.-Once again with incisive sa.rcasm Pekod, and Shoa, a.nd Xoa.. The Authorized the prophet reiterates the phrase of ver. 17. and Revised Versions, following the LXX., The punishment should be all the more take these a.s proper names, and Ewald, tenible as ooming from those whom the Smend, and Fiirst find in them those of adulteress had once loved with the love that Chaldean tribes. The Vulgate, followed by had passed into loathing. Luther, gives nobiles, tyrannosque, et prin- Ver. 29.-AJI thy la.boor; 80, all the cipes, and Keil and Hengstenberg substanti- results of labour, all thy weallh. ally adopt this rendering, giving "rulers, Vars. 31-33.-lwill give hercnp into thine lords, and nobles." •• Pekod" appears 11B a hand. (For the imBge of the eup as the plar.ein Jar.I. 20(compare Sohrader's 'Cunei- symbol of goo,! or evil fortune, see Pa.  THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [err. xxm. 1-41},