The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 257

intensified inspiration is evident, not alone the natural and purely human consoiousnees from the contents of the vision, but also of the same," to whioh Israel's restoration from the language in which it is recorded. appeared e.s unlikely e.n ooourrenoe e.e the And carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord. reanimation of the withered bones that lay So the Vulgate and Hitzig-a. translation around. The extreme improbability, if not which Smend thinks might be justified by absolute impossibility, of the ocourrenoe, at an appeal to eh. xi. 24, in which the similar least to human reason and power, is perhaps phrase, "Spirit of God (Ewhim)," ocours; pointed at in the designation "Son of man" though, with Grotius, Havernick, Keil, and here given to the prophet. The prophet's others, he prefers the rendering of the answer, 0 Lord God, thou knowest, is not to LXX., "And Jehovah carried me oat in be interpreted as proving that to the prophet the Spirit." The Revised Version combines hitherto the thought of a resurrection had the two thus: "And he carried me out in the been unfamiliar, if not completely absent, Spirit of tbe Lord." Keil suggests that the or as giving a direct reply either affirmative words, "of God," in eh. xi. 24, were omitted or negative to the question proposed to here because of the word "Jehovah" imme- him, but merely as expressing the prophet's diately following. And set me down in the sense of the greatness of the wonder sug- midst of the valley. As the article indi- gested to his mind, with/erhaps e. latent cates, the valley in the neighbourhood of acknowledgment that Go alone had the Tel-Abib, where the prophet received bis power by which such a wonder could, and first instructions concerning bis mission therefore alone also the knowledge whether (eh. iii. 22); although Hengstenberg holds, it would, be accomplished (comp.Bev. vii. 14). wrongly we think, that "the valley here Ver. 4.-Prophesy upon (or, 01le1") these has nothing to do with the valley in eh. iii bones. This instruction-which shows Je- 22." Which (literally, and it) was full of hovah regarded the prophet's answer as bones; i.e. of men who had been slaughtered equivalent to an admission that the revivi- there (ver. 9; comp. ob. xxxix. 11), and fication of the bones lay within his (Jeho- whose corpses bad been left unburied upon vah's) power-was not a mere command to the face of the plain (ver. 3), so that they predict, e.s in eh. vi. 2 and xi. 4, but an injunc- were seen by the prophet. Whether these tion to utter the Divine word through which bones were actuelly in the valley, or merely the miracle (of creation, e.s it really was) formed po.rt of the vision, can only be con- should be performed. •• The significance of jectured, though the latter opinion seems the command lies in the fact that it taught the more probable. At the same time, such the prophet that he was himself to be in- a plain as is here depicted may well have strumente.l in the great work of resusoite.- been a battle-ground on which Assyrian tion. He who ho.d been so often troubled and Chaldean armies had often met. with the sense of impotence and failure, Ver. 2.-And he caused me to pass by who ho.d heo.rd the people say of him. them round about. Not over, as Keil, Klie- 'Doth he not speak parables?' who had foth, and Plnmptre translate, but round been to them e.e the lovely song of one that about them, so as to view them from every bath a pleasant voice, and nothing more side. The result of the prophet's inspection than that, was at last to learn that the of the bones was to excite within him e. • word of the Lord,' spoken by his lips, was feeling of surprise which expres11ed itself mighty, and would not return to him void" in a twofold behold; the first occaaioned by (Plumptre). o. contemplation of their number, very man:,, Ver. 5.-I will oause breath to enter into aad their situation, in the open valley, you; literally, I am causing breath (or, s-pirit) literally, upon the face of the 'Dalley; i.e. not to enter into you. The real a.gent, therefore, underground, where they could not have in the resuscitation of the bones was to be, been seen, but upon the surface of the soil, not the prophet or the word, but Jehovah and not piled up in heaps, but scattered himself; and tuat the end aimed at by the over the ground; and the second by a dis- Di vine activity was "life " shows the breath cernment of their condition ss very dry, so spoken of (roach) was not to be the wind, o.s bi eached and withered as to foreclose, not in ver. 9, or the Spirit but the breath of the possibility alone, but also the thought life, as in Gen. vi.17 and vii. 22 (comp. Gen. of their resuscitation. ii, 7; Ps. civ. 80; Isa. xxvi. 19), Ver. 3.-Son of man, can these bones live t Ver. 6.-The process of revivification is Whether or not this question was directed, now divided into two stages-a preliminary as Plumptre surmises, to meet despairing stage which should effect the reconstruction thoughts which had arisen in the prophet's of the external skeleton, by bringing to- own mind, it seems reasonable to hold, with gether its different parts o.nd clothing them Havernick, that the question was addressed with sinews, fieeh, and skin (comp. Job L to him as representing "over against God 11); and a finishing stage, whioh should the people, and certainly as to this point ooDSiet i.e. ani.m11,ting, or" putting breath in," OIL x.xxvn. 1-28.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL, 265