The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 260

Revised Versions), or" For Joseph and the the Revised Version margin, "And will put whole house of Israel" (Keil), or simply them together with it, unto [ or, 'to be'] the "For Joseph" (Ewald, Hiivernick, Smead), stick of Judah." Keil's rendering, "I will cannot be determined. Each interpreta- take the stick of Joseph ... and the tribes tion can be snpported by quite reasonable of Israel his companions, which I put there- considerations. For the first may be pleaded on [literally, • e.nd I put them,' viz. the that it best accords with the natural sense tribes, ' upon it,' i.e. the stick of Joseph] of the text; for the second, that the phrase, with the stick of Judah,"' is too involved. the stick of Ephraim, appears to be explana• Vere. 21-28 explain how the unification tory of 1md in opposition to" For Joseph;" of the two kingdoms should be brought for the third, that all the house of Israel about. The first step should be the bring• stands, like "Ephraim," under the regimen of '' stick." The introduction of Joseph as ing of the people home to their own land the representative of the nortilern kingdom (vers. 21, 22); the second, their purification rests, not on the faot that J oseph's was the from idolatry (ver. 23); the third, the in- most honourable name among the ten tribes stallation over them, thus united ond puri- (Hiivernick), but on the circumstance tilat fied, of one King, the ideal David of the the tribe of Joseph, o.s represented by Ephraim and Manasseh, constituted the future, or the Messiah (vers. 24, 25); the main body of the northern kingdom. The fourth, the establiphment with them of addition of Ephraim'e name is best BC• Jehovah's covene.nt of peace (ver. 26), and counted for by remembering that in his the perma.nent erection e.mongst them of hand lay the hegemony of the kingdom. •• All the house of Israel hie companions" Jehovah'e temple (vers. 27, 28). signified the rest of the ten tribes. That Vere. 21, 22.-I will take the children of the two sticks, when joined together in the Israel from e.mong the heathen. 'fhat this prophet's hand, were to become one cannot promise was intended to find nn initial Bud signify that they were then and there to p!ll'tial fulfilment in the return from B11bylon be miraculously united. is undoubted. Tho.t it was e.lso designed to Vere. 18-20.-Wilt thou not show us look noroes the centuries towards the ftn11,l what thou meanest by these 1 literally, what inge.thering of God's spiritunl Israel in to these (two pieces of wood) are to thee. The their permanent inheritance, Jhe heavenly suggestion that such e. request would be Canaan, an exo.ruination of its terms shows preferred to Ezekiel mo.1i:es it oleor he was These clearly presuppose a wider dispersion meo.nt to perform the symbolio action in of Israel than had then, i.e. in Ezekiel's publio. That his countrymen should fail d11y, ta.ken plnoe ; and th11t Isro.el hos never to understand this action accorded with yet been made one nation upon the moun- their proverbiol dulness of apprehension tains of Israel, is inoontestoble. Nor is there (comp. eh. xii. 9; xxiv. 19). In explane.- ground for expecting she ever will ho. Not tion, the prophet was enjoined to say unto even after the exile closed did 1111 Isrnel them, while holding the stioks in his ho.nd, return to Palestine. Nor did it evt'r come tb11t just o.s he had made the sticks one in true in their experience thot one king Willi bis h11nd, so would God moke one in his king to them all, since, in point of fnct. bond the two kingdoms symbolized by tile they never afterwards hud an c11rtllly sove- sticks. The union of the sticks was to be reign at oll who was properly independent. Ezckiel's work (ver. 17, "in thy hand") ; If, therefore, the prince who in the future the union of the kingdoms should be Jeho- should shepherd them woe not to be l\ voh's (ver. 19, "in my ho.nd "). The separa- temporal monarch, but the Messiah, the tion of the kingdoms hBd been Ephraim'e prob11bility is th11t the lame! he should doing (" in tile hand of Ephr11im "); their shepherd was designed to ho, not lm\Cl combination should be God's (" in my after the flesh, but Israel 11fter the spirit, hand"). Their severance had been effected, who should walk in his judgrnents 11nd on the port of Ephraim, by an unle.wful observe hie statutes, and who, in the fulness breaking off from the llonse of Judah, and of the times, should devolop out into the the oat11blishment of o.n independent king- Christian Church. Hence it seems ro11son- dom; their unification should be brought o.blo to conclude that their own land, into nbout bJ the putting down of Epllraim, which they should eventually be brought, ond the confirming of the crown rights of would be not so muoh the veritablo soil Judah. The tl'Bnslation, And will put them from which their ancestors h11d boon ex- with him, even with the stiok of J'udah, pelled, as the country or region in which signifying "And will put the tribes of Israel the new, rejuvenoted,' reunitod, and re- witll him," i.e. the tribe of Judah, supported formed Israel shoulJ dwell, which, 11go.ia, by the L:X.X.., and preferred by Ewald, should ho a territory cleansed from sin 11nd &lend, lllld otllera, is superior Mi thnt of idolatry, IIO as w reuder it a fit sbo<l.o for  TRE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEIJ. [011. xxxvu, 1-28.