The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 434

These, e.coording to the prophet, should not remarks of Thomson, in 'The Land and the be healed (better than, "cmd that which Book' (pp. 660-663), are worthy of being shall not be healed," as in the margin of the consulted. Authorized Text), obviously because the Vere. 13--23.-The boundaries of the waters of the temple-river should not reach them but should be given to salt. When land. and the manner of its division. the ~atere of the above-mentioned pools Ver. 13.-Thua saith the Lord. The nsual have been dried up or evaporated, they formula introducing a new Divine enact- leave behind them e. deposit of salt (see ment (comp. eh. xlili. 18; xliv. 9; xlv. 9, Robinson 'Bihl. Ree.,' ii 226), and Ca.non 18; xlvi 1, 16). This. MJ is obvionsly a Driver (.'Literature of the Old Testament,' p 276), following Smend, conceives that t~e copyist's error for ,TT, which the LXX., the above-named miry places e.nd marshes lil Vulgate, and the Targum have substituted the vicinity of the Dead Sea were to be for it ; the change seems demanded by the e.!lowed to remain e.s they were on account complete untranslatability of M.J, and by of the excellent salt which they furnished. the fact that ~~ n.n recurs in ver. 15. (On the supposed (I) excellence of the salt The border, whereby· ye shall inherit the derived from the Dead Sea, Thomson's land; or, divide the land for inheritance • Land and the Book,' p. 616, may be con- (Revised Version). The term ',o~, applied sulted.) If this, however, were the correct in eh. xliii 13, 17 to the border of the altar, import of the prophet's words, then the here signifies the boundary or limit of the clause would describe an additional blessing land. (For the verb, comp. Numb. xxxii. to be enjoyed by the land, v;iz• that t~e 18 ; xuiv. 13; Isa. xiv. 2.) According to temple-river would not be permitted to spoil the twelve tribes. Thie presupposed that its "salt-pans;" but the manifest !nt_en~on at least representatives of the twelve tribes of the prophet was to indicate a l~tation would return from exile ; but it is doubtful to the life-giving influence of the nve~, ~nd if this can he proved from Scripture to havo to signify that places and persons unvmted taken place, which once more sbowe that by its healing stre~ would be_abandone~ a literal interpretation of this temple-vision to incurable destruction. " To give to ea.It cannot be consistently carried through. is in Scripture never expressive of blessing, Smend observes that the word commo:.lv em- but always of judgment {~ee Dent. xxi~. ployed in the priest-code to denote "tribes" 23; Jurlg. ix. 47. Pa. cvu. 3!; Jer. xvu. is n\ta>r;> (Numb. xxvi. 55; UL 1; x.u.i 4; 6; Zeph. ii. 9). xxxiii 54; Josh. xiv. 1; xxi 1 ; xxil. 14), Ver. 12.-The effect of the river upon the which is never used by Ezekiel, who vegetation growing on its banks is the lo.et habitually selects, as here, the term D'??:;ref feature added to the prophet's picture. (oh. xuvil. 19; xlv. 8; xlviii. 1), which Already referred to in ver. 7, it .is tore also was not unknown to the priest-code developed at greater length. The "very (Exod. x:uix. 14; Numb. xvili. 2; Josh. many trees" of that verse beoome in xiii 29; xxi. 16; xxii. 9, 10, 11, 13). Tho.t this all trees, or every tree for meat, i.e. is to say, if the priest-code existed before every sort of tree with edible frnit ( comp. Ezekiel, he had the choice of both terma, Lev. xix. 23), whose leaf should not fade or and selected 1hebhet ; whereas if Ezekiel wither, and whose fruit should not be con- existed before the priest-code, and prepared sumed or finished, i.e. should not fail, but the way for it, the author of the latter continue to bring forth new frnit, i.e. early rejeoted Ezekiel's word shebhet, and adopted or firetfruite (Revised Version margin), another perfectly unknown to the prophet. according to hie (or, its) months; or, everiJ This foot o.ppeo.rs to point to o. dependence month; the ~ in D'o/'.;i;1~ being to.ken dis- of Ezekiel on the priest-code rather tho.n of tributively, as in lea. xlvil. 13 (compare the priest-code on Ezok:iel. J'o■eph shnll c,,r,, "every day," in eh. xlvi. 13). Thie havo two portions; ro.ther, Joseph portions, reiiiarko.ble productivity, the prophet ee.w, as c•',:in is not dual. Yot tho.t two wore was due, not eo much to the fact that intend~d is undoubted (soa Gan. xlviii 22; the tree roots sucked up moisture from the Josh. xvii. 14, 17). stream, e.e to the ciroumetance that the Ver. 14.-Ye shall inherit it, one as well waters which they drank up is■ued out of as another; litero.lly, a man a, his bTother- the sanotuary. To the se.me oircumstence the customary Hebrew phrase for "equally,. were owing the nutritive and medicinal (see, however, 2 Sam. xi. 25). The equal propertiea of their fruit and lea. ves reepec- participants were to he tribes, not the li vely. The picture in this verHe is unmis- families, as in the Moso.io distribution takably based on Gen. ii. 9, and is as (Numb. xniii 54). Bo.d the earlier prin- oleo.rly reproduced by the Apocalyptic seer ciple of allotment been indicated as that to in Rev. xxii. 2. On this whole vision the be followed in the future, it would not have EZEKIEL-II, 2 G 4-50 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [cH. XLVII. 1-28,