an Oriente.l king, as in the case of the seventeen years after those which precede oaptivities of Se.maria (2 Kings xvii. 6) e.nd and follow it, oithcr by the prophet, oe Jeruse.lem, and of the nations that were he oollected ond revised his writings, or settled in Sam1Lria (2 Kings xvii. 6), and of by some later editor, as e. proof tho.t hie the Persians by D11.rins; th11t iC we find ea.rlior predictions had already received, or reason to believe that Egypt was invaded were on the point of receiving, their fulfil- by Nebuchadnezzar after the destruction of ment. The fact the.t the special word ol Jerusalem, we may assume, with little risk the Lord oame on the first dny or the year of doubt, that it was followed by what is not without significance, 'fhen, es now, Ezekiel describes. the beginning of a new yeo.r was a time Ver. 13.-At the end of forty years. for men generally to look before and after, The restoration described may probably be for a prophet to ask hirnseU what new ste.ge connected with the policy of the Persian in the order of the Divine government the kings. There may have been a parallel, ns year was likely to produce. regards Egypt, to the return of the Jewish Ver. 18.-Nebuche.dnezze.r, etc. The e.xiles under Cyrus e.nd his successors, words carry us to the close of the thirteen though it has not left its mark on history. years' siege of Tyre referred to in the notes Ver. H.-Into the land of Pathros. (For on eh. xxviii., o.nd enable us to refer the the le.nd of their h&bite.tion, read, with the commencement of that siege to the four- Rcnsed Version, the land of their birth.) (For teenth year of Jehoiachin's captivity, oirc, Pathros, see Gen. x. rn, H ; I Chron. i. 12 ; B.o. 586, two years after the destruction Isa.. :ri. I; Jer. xliv. I.) Its position is some- of Jerusalem. 1'his agrees with the whe.t doubtful, but the balan<'-e or evidence report of the Tyria.n Annals given by is in favour of placi.ng it in the Thebaid of Josephus (' Contra. Apion,' i 21), who gives Upper Egypt, which Herodotus (ii. 4, 15) the names of the kings of Tyre from describes as the original seat of the Ithoba.l to Hirom, in the fourteenth year of Egyptian monarchy. Its name may be whose reign Cyrus became King of Persia. connected with the Pe.thyrite nome in Josephus, however, gives the seventh, in- which Thebes wae situated (Pliny, 'Hist. stead of the seventeenth, year of Nebuchad- Nat.,' v. 9). The LXX. gives the form nezzar es the date of the beginning of the Pathure11, and is followed by the Vulge.te, siege. Here the point dwelt on is not the with a slight change, Phathures. sncce88 of the sieg11, bnt its comparative Ver. 15.-It shall be the be.seat of the failure. The _le.bO'llrs and sufferings of kingdoms. The words describe vividly the besiegers had been immense. Jerome the condition of Egypt under the Persian (in Zoe.) states (not, however, giving his monarchy, after its conquest by Cambyses, authority) that these la.hours consisted With the Ptolemies it rose again to some- mainly in the attempt to fill up the strait thing like eminence, but that, it must be between the island-city and the mainland remembered, W88 an alien dyne.sty. The with masses of stone e.ud rubbish. These na.tiona.lity of Egypt wee suppressed, and were carried on the heads and shoulders of Alexandria., practically a Greek city, took the troops, and the natural result was that the ple.oe of Memphis, Sa.is, and Thebes. the former lost their hair and the latter Ver. 16.-It shall be no more the con- their skin, and the whole army was in 11 lidenoe of the ho11Se of Israel Throughout miserable plight. .And after all, the king the history or the two kingdome of Israel had no we.gee for his labours. The oity, and J uda.h, e.e in the oaee of Hoshea (2 indeed, was taken, but the inhabitants Kings xvii. 4), Hezekiah (Isa. xu:. 2, 3: me.de their escape by sea, with their ohief xxxvi. 4, 6), and Jehoiakim (2 Kings u:iii possessions, and the hopes of spoil were S5), their temptation had been to pla.ce its dise.ppointed. "confidence " in the " cha.riots and horses " Ver. 19.-Behold I give the land of of Egypt 88 an ally. That temptation Egypt, eto. For this disappointment, should not recur age.in. Egypt should not Ezekiel, writing, so to speak, the postscript in that way bring the iniquity of Israel to which he incorporates with his earlier the remembrance of the Judge, acting, as it oracles, promises compensation. Egypt, as were, a.a a Satan, first tempting and then he had ea.id seventeen yoars before, should accusing. There should be no more look- be conquered, and its oities plundered, and \c.g after Egypt instead of Jehovah, as their so there should be wages enough for the 1uccour n.nd defenoe. whole thirteen years of fruitless labour in Ver. 17.-In the seven and twentieth,etc. the siege of Tyre. In that labour, the The section that follows has the interest of prophet adds (ver. 20), they, though they being, 88 far as the de.lee recorded enable knew it not, had been working out the will us to determine, the latest of Ezekiel's of the Supreme. They also had been propheciBB, and brings us to B.O. 572. It servants of Jehovah, e.s Jeremie.h (uv. 9) wa.B manifestly inaerted e.t e. later date, had described Nebuohe.dnczzar himself. mr. XXIX, 1-21.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKJEL. 127
Ver. 21.-The hom of the houae oflarael. work as the teacher of his people, which had The "hom" is, o.s o.lwo.ys (1 Sam. ii. 1 • e.ppe.rently been suspended for many yeal'8 Ps. xoii. 10; cxil. 9; cxxxii. 17) th~ e.fter the closing vision of the restora.tiou symbol of power. Jeremie.h's use 'or it of the temple and of Israel. The words (Le.m, ii. 3) mo.y well have been present to justify the conclusion that Ezekiel resumed Ezekiel's thoughts. Tho.t hom had been his labours after B.o. 572. Was he watch- out off, but it sho1;1ld begin to sprout o.gain, ing the growth of Balathiel or Zerubbabel? o.nd the prophet himself should resume his