The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 352

tha.t he sa.w the glory of the Lord entering out a "Tbue eaith the Lord."; Hence the into and taking possession of the" house," e.s notion that the speaker was Jehovah ie, formerly it hCLd entered into and ta.ken perhaps, the one freest frorn difficulty. The possession of the tn.berne.cle and the tern pie message announced or communication made (Exod, xl. 34, 35; 1 Kings viii. 10, 11), and that of this he we.s further a.eeured by to the prophet related first to J ehnvah's experiencing immediately thereafter-not a. purpose in entering the temple (vere. 7-9), push from the wind, as Luther and Kliefoth and secondly to his object in showing the translate, but an impulse from the Spirit house to the prophet, viz. that he ruight (not "a spirit," Ewald, though the Hebrew show it to the houso of Israel (vers.10-12). word wants the article), which raised him from the ground upon which he had fallen Ver. 7.-The LXX. ·and the Vulgate (ver, 3), took him up (see on eh. ii. 2 ; iii. divide the present verse into two parts, and 12), and brought him into the inner court, take the first as equivalent to e. solemn word exactly in front of the " honee," where, of consecration, the former supplying U,pa.icu having looked into the interior, he saw that the latter vidisti, " thou hast seen." The the glory of the Lord filled the house, the Chaldee Targum inserts, hie ed locus, " this • language being that used in connection with is the place," and in so doing is followed by the tabernacle and the temple. Luther and the Revised Version. Some Ver. 6.-And I heard him (better, one) word, it is obvious, either a" see I " or a" be- speaking unto me out of the house ; and the hold I" must be interpolated, in thought at (literally, a) man atood by me. Two ques- least, unless one adopts the construction of tions arise-Who was the speaker ? and, Who the Authorized Version, with which Smend the man? .As to the speaker, the natural agrees, and ml\kes "the place of my throne," reply is that the One who addressed Ezekiel etc., to be governed by the verb" defile," or, from the interior of the "house" was with Ewe.Id, places it under the regimen of Jehovah himself, whose "glory" had just "show" in var. 10, throwing the whole entered in to take possession of thf house, intervening clause into e. long parenthesis and this view is adopted by most interpreters, -e. device which does not contribute to though Hengetenberg and Schroder regard lucidity. Of the two expressions here the man who stood beside the prophet as the employed to deeignote the sanctuary-not one who addressed him. .As to the man, it the temple proper, bnt the whole house cannot, as Kliefoth maintains, be decided with its surroundings-the former, the plaoe solely by the absence of the article before of my throne, though peculiar to Ezekiel, "man " that this was e. different person receives explanation from the conception, from the guide who had hitherto conducted fe.milia.r to earlier writers, of Jehovuh e.s the prophet and measured the building. dwelling between the cherubim (Exod. xxv. The article mny have been omitted because 22; 1 Sam. iv. 4; 2 Kings xix. 15; Ps. the important point to be recorded was not lxxx. 1 ; lea. xxxvii. 16); the latter, the the circnmetanoe that the •• one" who stood place of the soles of my feet, was of frequent beBide him WCLB his quondam guide, but the ocourrence to denote the ark of the covenCLut foct thCLt this "one" was CL man. That he (1 Chron. xxviii. 2 ; Ps. xoiL 5 ; cxxxii. 7) wne also Ezekiel's old conductor is at least a and the temple (lea. Ix. 13; Lam. ii. 1). natural suggestion when one finds him after- The word of consecration was expressed in WCLrds appearing as e. measurer with a line the promise, I will dwell (in the temple) in in hie he.nd (eh. xlvii. 3). the midst of the ohildren of Israel for ever, Vere. 7-12.-Debate exists ae to who the eto., which went beyond anything thu.t had speaker in the seventh verse was, whether been spoken concerning either the tabernacle of Moses or the temple of Solomon (cornp. Jehovah or the ma.n-eomo holding with Exod. xxv. 8; xxix. 45; 1 Kings vi. 13). Kliefoth, Ewotld, Smend, and Currey, thnt The second pCLrt of the verse a.nnounces whnt he was Jehovnh; others, with Hil.vernick, would be the result of Jehovah'e perpetual Keil, Hengstenberg, and Schroder, that he inhabitation of the temple - the house of was "the man; " and still others, with Israel would no more defile his holy Ne.me either by their whoredom or by the oarcase1 Plumptre, that it cannot be decided which of their kings in their high plaoes, or, no- he was. One thing is clear, that if " the cording to another reuding, in their death. man " was the spenker, his words nnd That the whoredom signified idolatry message were not his own, but Jehovah'e. (comp. eh. xvi.) commentators nre agreed. Yet unless tho man had been the angel of What divides them is whether this nlso is alluded to in the alterna.tive cfoueo. Roson- tho Lord-the view of Hengslouberg nnd mtiller, Hii.veruick, Keil, Fuirbairn, and Schroder-it will always seem incongruous Plumptre believe it is, contending that the that he should hCLve addressed Ezekiel with- "ca.rcasee of their kings" (comp. Lev. :uvi. 366 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [ou. XLIII. 1-27.