The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 399

1poil (comp. eh. vii. II, 23; viii. 17; Jer. without supposing either that an error vi. 7; xx. 8; Hau. i. 3) or by euotions- bas crept in through transcription, or that litere.lly, e:,;pulsiom, or drivings of persons the chronicler has employed the late Greek out of their possessions, such as had been style of reckoning, in which one mino. is practised on Ne.both by Aha.b (I Kings equivalent to 11, hundred drachmas. Again, xxi.)-but levied withjudgment and justice, the Hebrew and Attic talents, when ex- ,which, besides, should regulate their whole amined. fail to solve Uie problem as to how behaviour towards their subjects (comp. the text shonld be rendered. The Hebrew 2 Sam. viii. 15; J er. uiii. 5; xxxiii. 25). talent,~~. contained 3000 sacred or Mosaic Ver. 10.-The exhortation addressed to shekels acoording to Exod. xxxviii. 25, 26; the princes to practise justice and jud"- and the Attic talent 60 mines, ea.eh of 100 ment now extends itself so as to include drachmas, i.e. 6000 dre.ch mas, or 3000 di. their subjects, who are required, in all their drachmas, each of which again was equal commercial dealings, to have just be.lances to o. Hebrew shekel. Hence the Attic mine. and just measures-a just ephah for dry must have been one-sixtieth part of 3000, goods, and a just bath for liquids (compare i.e. 50 shekels, which once more fails to the prescriptions in Lev. xill:. 35, 36 and correspond with Ezekiel's notation. What Deut. xxv. 13-15, and contrast the prac- this notation is depends on how the clauses tices iu Hos. xii 7; A.mos viii. 5 ; Micah vi. shonld be connected. If with "and," as 10, 11; see also Prov. xvi. 11). Ewald, following the Te.rgumiste, thinks, Ver. 11.-The ephah (a. word of Egyptian Ezekiel is supposed to have ordained that origin) and the bath shall be of one mea- in the future the me.neh should be, not 50, sure, That is, each was to be the tanth but 60 (20 + 25 + 15) shekels-the wei~ht part of an homer (see Lev. xx vii. 16 ; Numb. of the :Babylonian mana (' Records of the xi. 32), or cor ("6, ,c&pos, 1 Kings iv. 22; Past,' iv. 97, second aeries); only, if he so Luke xvi. 7), which appears to ho.ve con- intended, one sees not why he should have tained about seventy-five gallons, or thirty- a<.lopted this roundo.bout method of expres- two pecks. The homer (or, chomer) is to sion iusteo.d of simply stating tliat hence- be distinguished from the 'omer of Exod. forth the mo.neh eliould be sixty shekels. xvi. 36, which was the tenth part of an If with "or," as Michaelis, Gesenius, Hit- ephe.h. zig, and Hengstenberg prefer, then the Ver. 12.-The shekel shall be twenty prophet is rego.rded os asserting that in gerahs. This ordained that the standard the future three rne.nehs of varying values for money weights should remain ns it had should be current-one of gold, a.nother of been fixed by the Law (Exod. xxx. 13 ; silver, aud o. third of copper (Hitzig), or all Lev. x.xvii. 25; Numb. iii. 47). The of the same mete.I, but of different mag- nitudes (Michaelis); and this o.rre.ngement "shekel" (or "weight," from ~P-~• "to might well have been appointed for the weigh;" compare the Ito.lio.n lira, the future, a.lthough no historical trnco co.n Fronoh !ivre out of the Le.tin libra, and be found of o.ny such ruanchs of twenty, the English pound sterling) was a piece twenty-five, and fifteen shekels respectively of silver whoso vnlue, originally determined having been in oirculo.tion eithor a.mong by weight, becnmo gra.duo.lly fixed at the the Hebrews or among foreign peoples. definite sum of twenty "gere.hs," beans, or Kliefoth pronounces both solutions unsatis- gra.ins (from ,:i~, "to roll"). The "gero.h," fe.otory, but has nothing better to offer. vu.Jue twopence, was the smallest silver Keil supposes o. corruption of the text of coin; the " shekel," therefore, wa.s forty old standing, for the correction of which we pence, or 3s. 4d. Commento.tors a.re di- o.re as yet witliout me.terit1ls. Berthea.u vided as to how the second ho.If of tliis and lluvernick follow the LXX. (Cod. verso should be understood : twenty shekels, Alex.), oz 'lf<v-r• <T11<>..01 1dll'T•, ,ccu oi"" five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels ulrc>.01 U,ccz, 1<<11 'lfEV-r.fi,cov-ra. u[,c>.01 7/ µ.vii shall be your maneh. The "mo.neh" (or l<T-ra., ~µ.'iv, " The five shekel (piece) shall be "portion," from i1)9, "to be divided"), fi1Je shekels, and the ten shekal (piece) shnll which occurs only here and in l l{ings x. be ten shekels, and fifty shekels shall your 17; Ezro. ii. 69; and Neh. vii. 71, 72- maneh be;" but Hitzig's judgment on this " tho.t is to say, only in books written proposal, with whioh Kliefoth e.nd Keil during the Captivity or subsequent to it" o.gree, will most likely be deemed correct, (Keil)-was proba.bly the ea.me coin as the tho.t "it carries on the face of it the pro- Greek mino. (µvii), though its weight me.y bability of its resting upon notliing more have somewha.t differed. A comparison of than an attempt to bring the text into 1 Kings x. 17 with 2 Chron. ix. 16 shows harmony with the ordinary vo.lue of the that a. mo.neh wo.s equal to a hundred mina." phekels, which co.nnot be mo.de to har- Vere. 13-15.-The offerings thl) people monizo with the eto.tement in this verse should present e,re ne:1.t specified. (l) or 414 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [oH, nv. 1-26.