la lhe administration of the Divine government there is a close relation and proportion between sin and its punishment. "It is fit," says Matthew Henry, "that those who sin before all should be rebuked before all, and that the reputation of those should not be consulted by the concealmeut of their punishment who were so impudent as not to desire the concealment of their sin." !V, WHEN WICKEDNESS HAS BECOME UTTERLY INVETERATE, THE TIME FOR THE EXEOUTION OF JUDOMENT BAB COME. Several things in the text indicate the invete- racy of the wickedness of the people. The scum or rust of the cauldron was not cleansed (vers. 6, 12) ; so the cauldron shall be put empty upon the fire, that the rust may be burnt away (ver. 11). J. D. Michaelis explains this verse: "When verdigris has eaten very deeply into it, copper is made red-hot in the fire, and cooled in water, when the rust falls off in scales. It can be partially dissolved by the application of vinegar, Only one must not think of a melting away of the rust by the fire, since in that case the copper would necessarily be melted along with it. Also through the mere heating the greater part can be loosened, so that it can be rubbed off." But here it seems that both the cauldron and the rust are to be consumed; both Jerusalem and its guilty inhabitants are to be destroyed, Nothing will avail to cleanse them but the fierce fires of stem retribution, Another evidence of the exceeding wickedness of the people is the application to them of the word translated " lewdness." ilQ! means "deliberate wickedness," wickedness meditated and planned. For such wilful and studied evil-doing there remained but judgment, "All measures of a less extreme kind," says Fairbairn, "had been tried in vain; those were non-exhausted ; and as the iniquity appeared to be entwined with the whole fabric and constitution of things, nothing remained but to subject all to the crucible of a severe and overwhelming catastrophe. '£bis is represented by keeping the cauldron on the fire till its content, were stewed away, and the very bones burnt. And as if even this were not enough, as if something more were necessary to avenge and purge out such scandalous wicked- ness, the cauldron itself must be kept bot and burning till the pollution should be thoroughly consumed out of it. 'l'he wicked city must be laid in ruins (cf. Isa. iv. 4). . . . In plain terms, the Lord was no longer going to deal with them by half-measures; their condition called for the greatest degree of severity compatible with their preser- vation as a distinct and separate people, and so the indignation of the Lord was to rest on them till a separation was effected between them and sin." V. THAT THE JUDOMENTS OF Goo ARE RETRIBUTORY m THEIR CHAR.1.CTER. " Accord- ing to thy ways, and according to thy doings, shall they judge thee, saith the Lord God." (We have already noticed this aspect of the Divine judgments in our treatment of eh. vii. 3, 4; ix. 10; xvi 43.)-W. J.
Vers. 15, 16.-A sudden and sorrowful bereavement. "Also the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes," etc. 'l'ho death of the prophet's wife is introduced here as a type of the calamities which were impending over Jerusalem and its inhabitants. \Ve believe that her death was a fact, and not merely "a vividly drawn "figure" designed to set forth the more impressively the overwhelming troubles which were coming upon the Jews. We may notice, in passing, that the fact that Ezekiel had a wife suggests the unscripturalDess of the papal dogma of the celibacy of the clergy. Moses was most eminent as a prophet, and he was married (Exod. ii. 21, 22). So also was his brother Aaron, the high priest. Samuel the seer and judge was married (1 Sam. viii. 1, 2); and St. Peter (Matt. viii. 14). St. Paul claimed for himself the "right to lend about a wife that is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas " (1 Cor. ix. 5). And he writes of the prohibition of marriage as a "doctrine of demons" (1 'l'im. iv. 1-3). Regarding the death of the wife of the prophet as a real actual occurrence, we propose to consider it at present apart from its typical significance. We notice- I. 'l'BE REMOVAL OF A BELOVED RELATIVE DY DEATH. "Son of man, behold, I take away ... the desire of thine eyes." 'l'his undoubtedly refers to the wife of Ezekiel; and this mode of speaking of her indicates the high esteem and tender affection in which sne was held by her husband. "A good wifo," says Jeremy Taylor, "is Heaven's bst 1,c,t gift to man-his angel and minister of graces innumerable-bis i;em of many TUE BOOK OF 'l'HE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [au, xxn•. 1-27.