The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 48

EXPOSITION. OHAPTER XXV. may have been personally fnourcd by Nebuchadnezzar and bis officials; anrl The section on which we now enter-the Daniel, whom be mentions with honour great " parenthesis," as I have called it, of (eh. xiv. 14), and whom he may havo known Ezekiel'e prophetio work-contains messages personally, was the king's cbief minister. to the seven nations that were most closely There was, we may well believe, a sufficient connected with the fortunes of Israel and reason for this exceptional reticence. Judah. These were (1) Ammon (eh. xxv. Ver. 2.-Bet thy face against the Ammon- 1-7); (2) Moab(ch. xxv. 8-11); (3) Edom ites. The me.in facts that are essential to (eh. xxv. 12-14); (4) Philietia (eh. x.xv. e. right understanding of the message to this 15-17); (5) Tyre (eh. xxvi.1-xxviii. 19); people, not to speak of their long-standing (6) Zidon (eh. xxviii, 20-24); (7) Egypt enmity age.inst Israel for many centuries, (eh. xxix. 1-xx.xii. 32). A prophet's work are (1) that they formed part of Nebu- chadnezzar's army, as allies or tributaries, wae hardly complete without such a survey against Jehoiakim (2 Kings x.xiv. 2); (2) of the Di vine order of the world so far 11s that afterwards they, with other neighbour- it came within the horizon of hie thoughts; ing nations, intrigued with Zedekiah age.inst and Ezekiel bad before him the example of the Cl:aldean king (Jer. xxvii. 3), so that like groups of prophecies addressed to the it was an open question whether his first act of vengeance should fall on Babbath- heathen nations with which Israel was Ammon or Jerusalem (eh. xJ:i. 20). In eh. brought intocontact,in Isa. xiii.-xxiii.'and J:Xi. 28-32, written not long before, Ezekiel Jer. xlvi-li. It was natural that the two bad uttered bis prediction of the coming contemporary prophets should be led to judgment. Here we read that when they address their messages to the same nations, se. w that Jerusalem had been laid waste, they, like Edom (Ps. cxxxvii. 7), exulted and so we find Ezekiel's seven named to- in her downfall. Earlier traces of cruelty gether with others in Jer. xxv. 15-26, and outrage are found in Ps. hxxiii. 7 ; and five of them (Egypt and Philietia being Amos i. 13-15; Zepb. ii. 8-11. We learn excepted) in Jer. xxvii 1-4; while we from J er. xl. 14 that the name of the have fuller and special prophecies for Egypt Ammonite king at this time WW! Bae.lie. Vera. 4, 5.-The men of the eaat; Hebrew, (Jer. xlvi.); Philistia (Jer. xlvii.); Moab children of the eaat. The name is applied (Jer. xlviii.); Ammon (Jer. xlix. 1-6); in Gen. x.xix. 1 ; l Kings iv. 30; Job i. S; Edom (Jer. xlix. 7-22), with the addition Judg. vi. 3, 33; vii. 12: viii. 10, to the of Damascne (Jer. xlix. 23-27); Kedar nomadic tribes, Midie.nites and others, which (Jer. xlix. 28-33); Elnm (Jer. xlix. 34- roamed to and fro in the wilderness east of Ammon and Mo11b, after the manner of the 39); Babylon (Jer. l. 1). What is remark- modern Bedouins, with their sheep nnd nble in Ezekiel is that he bas no message camels, crnd were looked upon ns descendants for Babylon, which for Isaiah and Jeremiah oflshmo.el. Pale.oes; beUer, with the Revised woe the leading represent.a.tive of the world- Version, encampments, or tent-villages. The powers considered in their nntogonism to word is found, in tlais sense, in Gen. xxv. 16; Ps. lxix. 25; Numb. xxxi. 10. Thie wo.s, the Divine kingdom. This may, in part, be probably, the immediate resultofNebuchnd- explclined by supposing that he omitted it in nezzo.r's march. Rnbbe.h was left unde- order to keep to his number of seven nations fended, and became a stable for the camel.a as the symbol of completeness; but a more of tll8 Midianites nnd other tribes (Judg. vi. probable hypothesis is that he was led, ns 5). The prediction ho.a been slowly fulfilled. Under the Grmco-Egyptian rnle the city Jeromiah bad at one time been (Jer. xxix. revived, was named after Ptolomy Philadel- 1-7), to see in the Ohe.ldcan monarchy the pbus, nnd wo.s flourishing under the Roman nppointcd minister of the Divine judgmente empire. Remo.ins of temples, thee.tree, on J eruealem and on the other nations. For houses, nre still found on its site, but its hie immediate purpose it was fitter that the present desolate condition agrees wHh the exiles for whom be wrote should "seek the picture drnwn here by Ezekiel nnd in Jer. xlix. 2. The lo.nguage of Jer. xlix. 6 peMe" of the people among whom they implies captivity and o. partial return from it. dwelt rather than that they should exult in Ver. 7.-A spoil to the heathen. Tho its future downfall. He, like Jerem'ab, noun for "spoil" is not found elsewhere, :lZEKIEL--U, i::  THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [oH. xxv.1-17.