The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 435

been possible to give the tribes equal por• was probably the ea.me as Berothe.i (2 Sam. tions, A,S some tribes would certainly have e. vii~. 8), _1;-fterwo.~ called Ohun (1 Ohren. IR.rg-er number of families than others. XVlll. 8), 1f Chun 1s not a textual corruption. N c'°ertb eless, the division was to be equal The towt1 in question cannot be identified nmong the tribes, which shows it wo.s either with tl1e modem Beirut on the rn ther of an ideal than of an actual distri- Phcenician coast (Conder), since it must bution the prophet wa.s speaking. Then have lain west of He.math, and therefore at what they should divide amongst themselves e. considerable distance from the see. • or was to be the land coneeruing which with Birlha, the present day El-Bi; or Jehovah bad lifted up bis hand-a peculiarly Bir_ah, _on the east bank of the Euphr~tes, Ezekelian phrase (see eh. xx. 5, 6, 15, 23, wluch IS too far east; or with the Galilaian 28, 42), signifying "to swear" ( comp. Gen, Berotha, near Kadesh (Josephus), as this is xiv. 22; Deut. xxxiii. 40)---to give it unto too far south; but must be sou.,.ht for their fathers (see Gen. xii 7; xviii 8; ~etween Hamath and Damascus, a~d most xxvi 3 ; xxviii. 13). That the land was likely close to the former. Sibraim, occur- n~t divided after this fashion among the ring here only, may, on the other he.nd, be tribes thnt returnedfrom exile is one more a.esnmed to have lain nearer Damascus, and attestation that the prophet's directions were may, perhaps, be identified with Ziphron not intended to be literally carried out. (Numb. xx.xiv. 9), though the site of this Ver. 15.-The north boundary. And tllis town cannot be where Wetetein placed it, at shall be the border of the land toward the Zifran, north-east of Damascus, and on the north side. The Revised Version follows road to Palmyra. Smend compares it with Kliefoth and Keil in detaching the lll,St Sepharvaim (2 Kings xviL 24). -Dama.sous clause from the preceding words, e.nd read- was the well-known capital of Syria. (Isa.. ing. This shall be the border of the land : on vii 8), and the principal emporium of com- the north side. From the great see., the merce between East and West Asia (eh. Mediterranean, by the way of Hethlon, ae xxvii. 18). Its high antiquity is testified men go to (or, unto the entering in of) Zeda.d. by both Scripture (Gen. xiv. 15; xv. 2) and The former of these places ( Chethwn), which the cuneiform inscriptions, in which it is again mentioned in eh. xlviii 1, has not appears as Dimaski and Dimas1,a (Schrader, yet been identified, though Currey suggests 'Die Keilinschriften und de.a Alte Testa- for the "way," " the defile between the ment,' p. 138). Haze.r-hatticon; or, the ranges of Lebe.nns and .A.ntilibe.nus, from middle Bazar, was probably so styled to the see. to Hamath." The latter (Zedad) distinguish it from Haze.r-ene.n (ver. I 7)- Wetstein and Robinson find in the city of (On the import of Hatticon, see Exod. xxvi. Sadad (Su.dud), east of the road leading 28 and 2 Kings xx. 4, in both of which from Damascus to Hums (Emesa), and places it signifies" the middle.") The word therefore west of Hamath ; but as Hamath Hazar (i~!! ), "an enclosure," or " plo.co in all probability lay to the Nl,t of Zedad, fenced off/' was employed to denote this opinion must be rejected. villages or townships, of which at least six Ver. 16.-The four names here mentioned are mentioned in Scripture (see Gesenine, belong to towns or places lying on the road 'Lexicon,' sub roce). Hauran, Avpavi-r,s to Zedad, and stretching from west to east. (LXX.), "Cave-land," so called because of Hamath, called also He.math the Great the number of its caverns, was most likely (A.mos vi 2), situated on the Orontes, north designed to designate "the whole tract of of Hermon and, .A.ntilibanus (Josh. xiii. 5; land between Damascus and the country of Judg. ill. 3), was the capita.I of e. kingdom Gilead" (Keil). to which also belonged Riblah (2 Kings Ver. 17.-The northern boundary is xxiii 33). Originally colonized by the further defined as extending from the sea, Canaanites (Gen. L 18), it became in David's i.e. the Mediterranean on the west, to Hazar- time a flourishing kingdom under Toi, who enan, or the "Village of fountains," in tho formed au alliance with the Hebrew sove- east, whioh village again is declared to have reign against Hadadezer of Zobo. (2 Sam. been the border, frontier city (Keil), at the viii. 9 ; 1 Chron. xviii 9). It was subse- border (Revised Version) of De.masons, and quently conquered by the King of Assyria as having on the north northward the border (2 Kings xviii 34). Winer thinks it never or territory of He.matb. The final clause belonged to Israel ; but Sch iirer cites adds, And this is the north Bide, either 1 Kings ix. 19 and 2 Chron. viii. 3, 4 to understanding n~), with Gesenius, as equiva- show that at least in Solomon's reign it was lent to c&,h&s, ipse, "this same," or with temporarily annexed to the empire of Hitzig and Smend, after the Syriao, substi• David's son. In Ezekiel's oho.rt the terri- tuting for it here and in vers. 18, 19 nK1 tory of united Israel should extend, not to as in ver. 20 ; though Hengstenberg and the town of Hamath, but to the southern Keil prefer to regard n!'! as the customary boundary of the land of He.math. Berotha.h sign of the acousative, and to supply some oa. xr.v11. 1-23.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 451