The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 200

EXPOSITION. next clause, this is probably preferable CHAPTER XXXIV. (comp. l Cor. ix. 7; Isa. vii. 22). Ver. 4. -The diseased he.ve ye not Ver. 1.-And the word of the lord, eto. strengthened. The verbs indicate the dif- As no da.te is giYen, we ma.y infer that what ference between the "diseased," i.e. the follows came e.s a.n almost immediate sequel weak sheep (comp. lee.. xl.11; Ps. I:u:viii. 71) to that which precedes it. The kernel of and the sick, tbo.t were suffering from more the che.pter is found in the Messie.nio definite mo.ladies. So the broken are the prophecies of vers. 23, 24, e.s the first stage sheep tho.t ho.ve fe.llen from a rock and thus in the restore.tion of Israel which is begin- maimed themselves. Ee.oh case required ita ning to open to the prophet's gaze. We can appropriate treatment, and none had met he.rdly a.void seeing in it the deliberate with it. expression of words that bnd been spoken Ver. 5.-And they·were scattered. The by Ezekiel's master (Jer. xxiii. 1-4), e.nd words are an echo of l Kings xxii. 17, and which in his oose also were followed by e. o.re, in their turn, echoed by Matt. ix. 86. directly Messianic announcement. In Ma.tt. The words that follow paint the sufferings ix. 36, still more in John x. 1-16, we can of the exiles who left their homes and were scarcely avoid recognizing the distinct ap• scattered among the heathen in the days of propriation of the words to himself by him Jeboiachiu and Zedelriah. Of these the of wboru they both he.d spoken. So fe.r as kings took no heed, and shut themselves up we may venture to speculate ou the influence, in the l ux nrious sec! usion of their pa.lace. so to speak, of the words of the prophets of Vere. 7-10.-As I live, se.ith the I.ord the Old Testament on onr Lord's human God, etc. The sentence of the Supreme eonl, we may think of these as having Judge, of the" chief Shepherd" (1 Pet. v. 4), marked out for him the work which he was that follows, is naturally preceded by e. to do, just as we may think of Pe. :xxii. and recapitulation of the guilt of the tyrannous Isa. liii. as having pointed out to him the rulers-the "idol" or eho.m shepherds of path of snffering which be was to tree.cl. Zech. xi. 17 (comp. alao Zech. x. 8). Both Ver. 2.-Prophesy age.inst the shepherds chapters should be studied as throwing of Israel, etc. Onr modern e.ssociatione with light on the teaching of the earlier prophet. the words, onr use of terms like " the pastoral It may be noted also how the thought enters office," "the pastoral Epistles," lee.cl ne to into Ezekiel's vision of the restored Israel think of the priest.sand prophets, the spiritue.l (eh. xlv. 8-10). guides of the people, as being those whom Ver. 11.-:Behold, I, even I, etc. The the prophet has in view. In the language words, as the last reference shows, and e.e of the Old Teeto.ment, however, as in tha.t of we find i11 vers. 23-81, do not exclude, Homer(' Iliad,' i. 1. 263; ii. l. 85, etc.), the rather they imply, human instrumentality, shepherds of the people are always its kings just us onr Lord's do in Matt. xviii. 12 and and other civil rulers (1 Kings xxii. 17; Luke xv. 4-7; but they reveal the truth Ps. lx.xvii 20; l.x.xviii. 71; Jer. x:xiii. 1-6), that Jehovah is the true Shepherd of hie and those whom Ezekiel he.d in hie people. Not the sweet psalmist of Israel thoughts were the tyrannous rulers of the only, but the lowest outcost, might use the honee of David, like Jeboiakici and Zede- language of Ps. xxiii., and say, "The kiah and their satellites. Our Christian Lord is my Shepherd," He will gather thonghts of the word a.re the ontcome of the the sheep that have been scattered in the lea<ling of John x. 1-16; xxi. 15-17; "cloudy and dark day,'' the day of the Lord'• l Pet. v. 2-4; Acts xx. 28; but it is pro- judgment (eh. xx.x. 3). For the prophet the bably true that even there the original words poi11ted to that vision of a restored thought is still dominant. Christ is the Israel, which was dominant in the expecta- "good Shepherd,'' because he is the true tions both of Isaiah (or the deutero-Ise.iah) King. His ministers are shepherds as being in eh. xl.-xlviii., and in Jeremiah (xxxiii. officers in bis kingdom. Should not the 12-18), whic·h floated before the minds of 1hepherds feed the fiocks ! The question is the apo8tlee (Acts i. 6), and to whiob even ,an appeal to the universe.I conscieuce of St. Paul looked forward as the solution of Israel and of maukind. No shepherd was the great vroblems of the world's history worthy of hie name who did not do the.t (Rom. ix.-xi.). which the very narue implied. He that Vere. 13-15.-0n the mountains of Israel 1;1eglecte that duty is simply as a hireling by the rivers. The picture of the plee.so.nt or a robber (John x. 10, 12). pasture-lBnds of Judah, almost, as it were, Ver. 3.-Ye eat the fat. The LXX. and an expansion of Ps. xxiii., of the mountains t~e Vulgate, following a different reading, which are not barren and stony, of the .give milk, and, e.s "killing" comes in the streams that flow calmly in the hlhabited <:H. xxx1v. 1-31.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 207