Ezekiel heard from the meeecngcr. He it The words paint, with a terrible vividness, was who reported the boastful claims of what was passing in Ezekiel's fatherland. those who had been !en in the land by the Did the fugitives of Judah seek the open Chaldean armies-the "bad figs" of Jere- country ? they were exposed to the sword of miah's parable, the least worthy represen- the Chaldeans or of marauding outll\WB. tatives of the eeed of Abraham, the nesaeeins Did they seek safety in fortresses or caves ? of Gedalinh (Jer. xii. 1, 2), who in these they were exposed, crowded together as "waste places," the dene and caves in which they were under the worst possible con- they found a refuge (or, it may be, the ditions, to the ravages of pestilence. phrnse describee the condition of the whole Ver. 30.-The children of thy people. country), led the lives of outlaws and The words, like those of eh. xw. 1 and xx. 1, bandits. The very words of their boast are 49, throw light on the prophet's relations to reproduced: "Abraham, when he was yet his people. Now that the long silence waa but one, received the promise of inheritance. broken, and the prophet spoke with greater We are comparatively many, and are left as freedom than he had ever done before, he the true seed of Abraham (comp.Matt. iii. 9). acquired a fresh notoriety. The character The land is ours, and we will take posses- of his last utterance, vindicating, as it might sion of the estates of the exiles." seem, the claim of the exiles to "possess Ver. 25.-Ye eat with the blood. It is the land," as against that of the remnant characteristic of Ezekiel that the first " in the wastes," may even have mado hiru offence which he names with horror should popular. The Authorized Version against be a sin against a positive commandment. is misleading; rea.d, with the margin and He felt, as it were, a sense of loo.thing at the Revised Version, about. There was for what seemed to him a deecent into the the time no open hostility. They talked worst form of pollution, forbidden, not to much, in places of private or public resort, the Jews only (Lev. x vii. 10 ; xix. 26; of the prophet's new action. Each invited Deut. xii. 16), but to mankind (Gen. ix. 4); his neighbour to go and hear the prophet compare the scene in 1 Sam. xiv. 32. The as he spake to them his message from same feeling shows itself in Zech. ix. 7 and Jehovah. Aud they came as the people Acts xv. 20, 29. The prohibition of blood oometh, in crowds, even as my people, the took its place, in later Judaism, as among people of Jehovah, with reverent gestures the precepts of Noah, which were binding and listening engerly. Nover before, we even on tho proselytes of the gate, upon may well believe, had the prophet had so whom, oa distinct from the proselytes of large or so promising a eougregn.tion. But righteousness, the rite of oiroumcision wo.s he was taught to look below the surface and not enforced ; and as such were accepted by to read their thoughts, o.nd there he read. the council at J cruso.lem, as binding also as preachers of all ages have too often road among Christian converts. Not for such as after him, that they were heo.rers. o.nd not these wos the inherito.nco of Israel, and the doers (Matt. vii. 2-1--27; Jo.a. i. 23-25). prophet o.sks indignantly. after naming yet In words they showed muoh love (the LXX. more hateful offenocs, Shall ye posseSB the gives "falsehood"), spoke pleasant things, land 1 but the root-evil, the besetting sin, was still Ver. 26.-Ye stand upon your sword. The there. Their heo.rt went after their oovetous- words point to the open assertion of tho In w nees (comp. Matt. xiii. 22; 2 Tim. iv. 10). that might is right. Men relied on the Ver. 32.-A very lovely song; literally, sword, and on that only, for their support. a song of love, an erotio idy 11, the word being Assossinations, as in Jer. xii., were, so to the same 11s in ver. 31. Yet this wus the speak, e.s the order of the day. Ye work meaning of the huge gathering. 'rhey came abomination. The noun, Ezekiel'& over- to hear the prophet. o.s they would to haur reourring word, inuim1tes both the a.et of a hired singer at a banquet, like those of idolatry and the foul orgiastic rites thut Amos vi. 5. The prophet's words passed accompanied it. The verb, curiously enough, ovor them and left no lasting impression. hos the feminine suffix. Was it used in- All that they sought was the momentary tentionally, either as pointing to the promi- tickling of the sense. The words receive a nence of women in those rites(Jer. xliv. 15), special siguiflcance from Ps. cxxxvii. 3. or to the degrnding vices which involved The Jewish exiles were famous among their the loss of true ml\nhood (2 Kings xxiii. 7)? conquerors for the minstrel's art. The So some have thought; but I agree with nobler singers refused to " sing the songs of Keil. Smond, and others, in seeing only an Zion in e. straugo land;" othcra, it may be, error of transcription. Ouce more, after wore not so scrupulous. Had the prophet heaping up his accusations. Ezekiel asks seen hie people gnthor to listen to such a the question, " Shall ye possess the laud ? " singer? Were they better occupied when " Are you the see,l of Abraham?" they were listening to hie message from Ver. 27.-The:, that are in the wute1. Jehovah? 1:36 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [on. xxxm. 1-83.
Ver. 33.-When this cometh to pass. 'l'he 20. That wns the prophet's message of words can scarcely refor to the immediately judgment, his call to repentance. When preceding predictions in vers. 27, 28, which the judgment should come, as it surely were primarily addressed to "the people in would, then they would know, in the bitter- the waste places," tile remnant left in ness of self-condemnation, that they had Judnh, and we have to go back to the been listening, not to a hil'cling singer, but wider, more general teaching of vers. 10- to a prophet of Jehovah.