The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 312

ohnmbere and courts, rose ma.jeetica.lly before and Smend put in IL pies for the east gate, the prophet's view, with all the magaiflceace, on the grounds that it was the principal aad iadeed (a.a the particle •~ indicates), entrance to the sanctuary, and the distance with the exteraal nppea.ra.nce of a. city. between it and the north gate, five hunclred That the prophet should speak of it as "on cubits, we.a too great to be passed over so the south" receives sufficient explanation slightly as in ver. 6. from the circumstance that he himself came Ver. 4.-Tbe threefold summons addressed from the north, and had it always before to the prophet (comp. eh. xliv. 5) intimated him in a southerly direction. The idea is the importance of the communication about correctly enough expressed by the a.1d11a11n to be me.de, e.nd reminded him of the neces- of the LXX., which signifies" over against" sity of giving it the closest attention in to one comiag from the north. order to be 1Lb!e to impart it to the people Ver. 3.-The word "thither" carries the (comp. eh. xliii. I 0, 11 ). thought back to ver. 1. When the prophet Vere. 5-27.-The outer court, with its had been brought into the land of Ierael, to gates e.nd chambers: (I) the enclosing wall the mountain and to the building, he per• ceived a man, whose appearanoe was like the (ver. 5); (2) the east gate (vers. 5-16); (3) appearance of brass, or, according to the the outer court (vere. 17-19); (4) the north LXX., "shining or polished braes," X'""oii gate (vere. 20-23); (5) the south gate (vere. ,,-.,-l11.1Jo11Tos, es in eh. i 7-a description 24-27). recalliag those of the likeneBB of Jehovah in eh. i. 26, 27, of the angel who appeared to "'Ver. 5.-The encloBing u:all. And behold Daniel (x. 6), and of the glorified Christ a wall on the outside of the house round (Rev. i. 15), and suggesting ideas of strength, about. The " house "-n•:ai;, with the article beauty, and durability, In hie hand he -we.a the temple e.s the ·dwelling-place of carried a line of :du: and a measuring-reed Jehovah; only not the temple proper, but (l,aneh hammidah, or •• reed of measuring," the whole complex structure. The "we.11" reed haviag been the ouetomary material belonged to the outer court; that of the out of which such rode were made; compare inner court being afterwards mentioned the Assyrian for "a measuring-rod" qanu, ( oh. xiii, 7). In he.viag a "wall round the Greek ,cave.I11, and the Latin canna). Pos- about" Jehovo.h's s1Lnctua.ry reaembled both sibly he carried these as" emblems of buildiag Greek and Babylonian shrines (see Herod., activity" (Hengstenberg), and beoo.use "he i. 18 ; • Records of the Past,' vol. v. 126), but had many and different things to measure" differed from both the te.berne.cle, which (Kliefoth); but most likely the line was he.d none, e.nd from the Solomonio temple, meant to measure large dimensions (comp. whose "wall " formed no essential po.rt oh. xlvii. 8) and such es could not be taken of the sacred structure, but we.s more or less by a straight stick, as e.g. the girth of pi111Lre, of arbitrary erection on the part of Solomon and the rod to measure smaller dimensions, and later kings. Here, however, the wall like those of the gates and walls of the constituted e.n integral portion of the whole; temple. Hitzig's conjecture, that the line e.nd was desigaed, like that in eh. xiii. 20, was linen because the place to be measured "to make a separation between the s1Lnotu- was the sanctu1Lry, whose priests were o.ry and the profane pince," es the Greeka obliged to clothe themsel vee in linen, Klie- distinguished between the /jl/lrJ'A.011 and the foth rightly pronounces artificial and in• l,p.!11 (see Thuoyd., iv. 95). Its breadth e.nd accurate, since the line wes made, not of height were the so.me (comp. Rev. xxi. 16)- manufactured flax, or linen, but of the raw one reed, of six oubita by the oubit and an material. Thnt the" man" was Jehovah or hand-breadth; that is to say, each cubit the Angel of the Presence (comp. oh. ix. 2) measured an ordinary cubit and a h1Lnd- the analogy of Amoe viii. 7, 8 and the state- bree.dth (comp. oh. xliii. 13). Hengstenberg ment of Ezekiel in eh. xliv. 2, 5 would suggests that the greater cubit of Ezekiel seem to suggest; only it is not certain in wae borrowed from the Ch1Lldeane ; and the last of these passages that the speaker certainly Herodotue (i. 178) speaks of a was " the man " and not rather " the God of royal oubit in DILbylon which was three Israel," who he.d already to.ken possession of finger-breadths longer than the ordinary ,he house (see oh. xliii. 2), ILnd whose voice me!Lllure, while in Egypt also two such is once at lee.et distinguished from the.t of cubits of varying lengths were 0WTent the me.n (see oh. xliii. 6). Accordingly, (Bookhart, 'Metro!. Untersuoh,' p. 212); Kliefoth, Smend, and others identify the "from which it might be supposed," says " mlLn" with the ordinary angelus interpres Smend, " that the e1Lmo thing held good for (of. Rev. xxi. 9). The gate in which he AsilL Minor." Still, the hypothesis is like- stood "waiting for the new comer" we.a lier the.t the cubit in question was the ohl manifest.ly the north gate, since Ezekiel Mosoio oubit-tbe cubit of a man (Dout. came from the north, though Havernick ii, 11), equul to the length of the forearm EZEKIEL,-ll, y 322 THE DOOK OF THE PROPHE1' EZEKIEL. [cH. XL. 1-4.0