The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 49

but probably means "food." The Hebrew from the llfonbites before Ismel obto.ined Keri, i.e. it.a marginal reading, gi~es the possession of them, o.nd they were afterworda ea.me word as that rendered "spoil" in eh. claimed as belonging to the Israelites by xxvii. 5. The meaning is substantially the right of conquest (Judg. xi. 23), and there l!ame whichever word we choose. Ezekiel, may therefore be a touoh of irony in Eze- it will be noticed, says nothing about th.i kiel's language d.isoribing them o.s Moahite return of 1.he Ammonites, but contemplates, cities. Colleotively they were the glory of ns in eh. xxi. 32, entire destruction. The the country, the region !mown as the Bel1ui, meaning of Rabbah ("great" or "popu- in whioh they were situated, giving the beet lous"), the mother-city of Ammon, gives pasturage, then as now, in Southern Syria. grratcr force to the prophecy of desolation. ~a vernick qno~s a Bedouin proverb, "There Ver. 8.-Moab and Seir. " Seir" stands 18 no land like Belka" (see Tristram'a clse'l"l'here for Edom, but here appears as '~9:nd of Moab,' pp. 275, 803-305, 350). distinguished from it, the latter nation KirJBth o.nd Baal-meon appear in Mesha'a having a distinct message in ver. 12. A inscription on the Moabile Stone. possible explanation is found in 2 Chron. xx. Ver. 10.-Unto the men of the east with 23, where we find Moab and Ammon joined the Ammonites. The Authorized Version together against the inhabitants of Mount is obscure. What ie meant is that the Scir. The Moo.bites may have retained Moabites as well as the Ammonites were 1o possession of it, and so Ezekiel may have be given to the nomadic tribes, the "children coup!ed the two names together. Their sin of the ee.st," for a possession. The doom also, like that of Ammon, is that they ex- that Ammon was to be no more remembered ultd in the fall of Jerusalem. It was come ( eh. xxi. 32) was to be carried out to the down to the level of other cities, no longer uttermost, and the children of the east were to exalted above them by the blessing of complete what Nebuchadnezzar bad begun. Jehornh. The Moabite Stone, found in the The utter destruction of Ammon was, as it ruins of Dibon ('Records of the Past,' ix. were, uppermost in the prophet's thoughts, 165),on which Mesha.,KingofMoab,narrates and that of Moab was but secondary. His- his conquests over neighbouring nations, torically, the words received a partial fulfil- including Israel, testifies to the strength of ment in Nebuchadnezzru:'s conquests five the kingdom, and in Isa. xv. and xvi. it is years after the destruction of Jerusalem represented as conspicuous for its pride. (Josephus,' Ant.,'x. 9, 7,andM. vonNiebuhr's They too, like the Ammonites, served in ' Geach. Assure,' p. 215), but the Ammonites Nebuchadnezzar's army (2 Kings xxiv. 2). were still an important people in the time Ver. 9.-I will open the side of Moab; of the Ma.ccabees (I Mace. v. 6, 30-45) and literally, the shoulder, i.e. the elopes of the Justin Martyr (' Dial. cum Trypho, p. 272). mountain of Moab ( J oeh. xv. 8, 10). For Vera. 12, 13.-Beoa.11Be that Edom hath :Beth-jeshimoth ( equivalent to "Honse of dealt against the house of 1uda.h, etc. The wastes"), see Numb, xxxiii. 49; Josh. xii. statement receives many illustrations, notably 3; xiii. 20. It had been assigned to Reuben, in Ps. cx:uvii. 7, and at an earlier date but had been seized by the Moabitee. It in Amos i. 11 ; Obad. 11. What had been hns been identified by De Sauley with the malicious exultation (the l'll'lx«•P•"""'"' ruins now known as B=ime, on the north- which Aristotle describes as the extremest eaftern border of the Dead Sea. Baal- type of evil) passed in the case of Edam into mean (Numb. xxxii 38), more fully Beth- overt acts of hostility. The moment of bai;,1-meon (Josh. xiii. 17), or Beth-mean Judah'e weakness was seized on as an oppor- (Jer. xlviii. 23). The name ie found in tunity for gratifying what Ezekiel elsewhere ruins of some extent, known oe the fortress (eh. :uxv. 5) calls the "perpetual hatred" of Mfun or Maein, about three miles south of the people against Israel, for taking ven- of Heshbon ('Diet.Bible,' s.11.). Xiriatha.im. geance for the primal wrong which Esau The dual form of the name (equivalent to had suffered at the hand of Jacob (Gen. "Two cities") implies, perhaps, the union of :uvii. 36). (For other prophecies against an old and new town, or two towns on the Edam, see Numb. xxiv. 18, 19; Isa. xi. 14: opposite sides of a brook or wady. The name Jer. xlix. 7-12; Joel iii. 19.) Teman. The appears in Gen. xiv. 5; Numb. xxxii. 37; name, which signifies " South," was probably Josh. xiii. 19; Jer. xlviii. 1, 23. It has been applied to a district-twice, here and in identified with El-Teym, about two miles Jer. xlix. 7, 8, coupled with Dedan. lo from Medeba (Burckhardt), and with Kurei- Jer. xlix. 20, 21 the cry of the inhabitants vat, on the south side of Jebel AttaruB. Euse- of Teman is said to have been "heard in the bins (' Onom.,' a.11.) describes it as about ten Red Sea," and this determines its geogra- miles from Medeba, and close to the Barie, phical position, as being, in accordance with but nothing is known as to the last-named its name, the southern region of Edam. In place. The three cities all belonged to the Job ii. 11 we have Eliphaz the Temanite RB region which Sihon und Og had conquered one of the patriarch's friendd, and the same OH, xxv.1-17.] Tl:IE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 51