The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 436

euch thought ae " ye see" (Hengstenberg), is matter of dispute; Rowland and Keil or "ye shall measure" (Keil), which ver. find it in the spring '.A.in Eades, at the 18 shows was in the prophet's mind. Com- north-west comer of the mountain-land of pared with the ancient north boundary of Aze.zirneh, which stretches on the south of Canaan (Numb. xxxiv. 7-9), this appointed Palestine from the south-south-west to the by Ezekiel'e Torah for the new land shows north-north-east, and forms the watershed a marked correepoudence. between the Mediterr11nee.n e.nd the Are.bah ~- Ver. 18.-The east boundary. And the valley. Delitzsch and Conder seek it in the ee.st Bide ye she.11 measure from He.ure.n, etc. neighbourhood of the Wady-el-Jemen, on the The Revised Version, arter Keil e.nd Kliefoth, south-east side of the above watershed, a.nd tre.nsle.tes,".And the east Bide, between Hauran on the roe.d from Mount Hor. Robinson and Damascus and Gilead, and ths land of (' Bihl. Res.,' ii. 582) discovers it in' .Ain-el- Israel, shall be (the) Jordan; from the (north) Weibeh, not fe.r from Petre.. A writer (Sm., border unto the east sea shall ye measure. Smend ?) in Riehm (' He.ndworterbuch des Bmend offers as the correct rendering, The Biblischen Alterthums,' a.rt. " Kades ") east Bide goes from between Hauran and pleads for a. site on the west side of the DamaBCUB, and from bet1oeen Gilead and the A.ze.zimeh plateau, and in the vicinity of land of Israel, along the Jordan, from the the road by Shur to Egypt. Leaving border unto the east sea. In any case, by Kadesh, the boundary should continue to this instruction, first the land of Israel was the river, or, brook, i.e. of Egypt, and thence defined as the territory lying west of the extend to the great see., or Mediterranean. Jordan, and secondly its boundary should The punctuntion of 11~!1h which makes the extend from the last-named north border at word signify "lot," must be changed into its easternmost point, He.zar-ena.n, down the 11?J:11, so e.s to mean "river,'' since the Jordan valley to the Dce.d Sea. The reference manifestly is to the torrent of practical effect of this would be to cut off Egypt, the Wady-el-Arish, on the borders the la.nde which in the earlier di vision of Palestine and Egypt, which enters the (Numb. xxxiv. 14, 15) he.d been assigned to Mediterranean nee.r Rhinocornra ('P,vo1<&- Reuben, Gad, and the he.lf-tribe of Manasseh. poupa.). In Numb. xxxiv. 5 it is cnlled the Otherwise the boundary here given corre- river of Egypt. And this ie the ■outh side sponds with that traced in Numbers, though southward (see on var. 17). The corre- the latter is more minute. Hengstenbcrg, spondence between this line and that of tho however, thinks the prophet cannot have eu.rlier cha.rt (Numb. xxxiv. 4, 5) is once intended to assert that the new Israel more apparent. should not possess the land of Gilead 11,s a Ver. 20.-The tD68tem boundary. This, ae frontier in the future a.s formerly, as in that in Numb. xxxiv. 6, should be the gree.t sea co.so he would have been at variance, not from the border, i.e. the southern boundary only with pre-existing Scriplure (comp. last mentioned (var. 19), till a me.n oome Ps. Ix. 7; Mico.h vii. 14; Jer. 1. 19; Zech. over against Hame.th; literally, unto (the x 10), but with eubsequent history. place which is) over against the coming to Ver.19.-Thesouthboundary. Thisshonh\ Hamath; i.e. till opposite the point (on the begin where the east boundary terminated, ooast) at which one enters tho territory of viz. at Tamar," Palm tree." Different from Hamath (comp. Judg. xix. 10; xx. 43). Hazezon-Te.mar, or Engedi (ver. 10; 2 Vere. 21-23.-The geogro.phical boun- Chron. xx. 2), which lay too far up the daries of the land having been indicnted, west side of the sea, Tamar can hardly be general directions nro furnished a.a to the identified either with the Tamnr of I Kings mnnner of its distribution. (1) It should be ix. 18 near Tadmor in the wilderness, or partitioned among the tribes e.s tribes rather with the T11amara (011µ11pd.) of Eusebius than among the families of Israel (seo on between Hebron and Elath, supposed by var. 13). (2) The division of the territory Robinson (' Bihl. Res.,' ii. 616, 622) to be should be made by lot. This iij pointed to by Kurnub, six hours south of Milh, towards the po.as of Es-Sufah, since this was too the use of p~r;, (from p?r.i, "a smooth stone"), distant from the Dead Sea. The most whioh signifies "to divide by lot." (3) The plausible conjectnre is thnt To.mar was" a stro.ngers who should sojourn amongst the village near the southern end of the Dead tribes e.nd beget children amongst them Sea." (Currey). Proceeding westward, the should inherit equally with Isrncliks who southern bound1uy should ree.ch to the should be born in the country. (4) Tho we.ters of strife in Ke.deah ; better, to the inheritance of the stranger should ho t0alers of Meribol/1 Kadeah. These were in assigned him in the tribe where ho sojourned. the Desert of Sin, near Ke.desh-Be.rnea Of these regulations tho le.at two were an (Numb. xx. 1-13), which.a.gain, woe on the e.dve.nce on the eo.rlier Mosaic legislation road from Hebron to Egypt (Gen. xvi. 14). with regard to "strangers," or O'':,A, who 'J:'he e]!:uct ~ite, however, of Ke.desh-De.rnoa were to be treated with affectionate kindneas 452 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [ou. XLVII, 1-23.