(Exod. xxii. 21 ; xxiii. 9; Lev. xix. 84; wards was intended as o. oompeneo.tion fop Dent. i. 16; xxiv. 14), admitt.ed to offer the withdrawment of the territory e&st of eaorifioe (Lev. xvii. 8, 10, 13), and even the Jordan; and (4) that in dividing among allowed to partake of the Passover on sub- mitting t.o circumcision (Exod. xii. 48), but tribes rather the.n o.mong families Ezekiel on no e.ocount permitted to hold property in deviates from both the Jehovietio tradition land (Lev. xxv. 47-55). But if the priest- and the priest-code. But (1) if the above- code W8.8 later than Ezekiel, why should it cited pa.ssages do not extend Asher'& have receded from the freer and more liberal territory beyond Tyre, Gen. xv. 18, which spirit of Ezekiel? If progressive develop- oritics assign to the Elohist. one of the ment ca.n determine the relative ages of two documents, then Ezekiel, which accords authors of J.E., the so-oalled prophetical equal rights to Jew and Gentile in the new narrative of the Hezateuch, e.nd Exod. xxiii. Israel, and thus anticipates that breaking SI, which, according to the ea.me autho- down of the middle wall of partition which rities, formed pa.rt of the commonly styled ha.s taken pla.ce under the gospel (John x. book of the covenant, expressly mention 16; Rom. ii 10, 11; ix. 24; Ga.I. iii. 8-14, 28; Eph. ii. 14-16), should be posterior to the great river Euphrates as the north the priest-code, which shows itself to be not boundary of the le.nd, while the same is yet emancipated from the trammels of recognized by the Denteronomist (xi. 24; Jewish exclusivism. At the ea.me time, xix. 8). (2) I Kings iv. 24; viii. 65; and Ezekiel'e Torah does not gra.nt equa.l rights 2 Kings xiv. 25 (comp. 2 Chron. vii 8; viii with native-born Isra.elites to " strang:era" indiscrimina.tely, or only t.o those of them 3, 4) show that in the time of Solomon the who should ha.ve families, a,e Hitzig boundaries of the land rea.ched as for north suggest.s, in reward for their increa.sing the as Hama.th. (3) As it W&B not origin&Ily population, but to such of them as should contemplated by the Mosa.ic distribution to perme.nently settle in the midst of Isra.el, t&ke immediate possession of the e&st Jord&n and show this by begetting children, and in this manner "building houses" for them- land (Numb. xxxiv. 10-12), a.nd this was i;elvee. Kliefoth justly cautions age.inst only gra.nted to Reuben, Gad, and half concluding from the prophet's sta.tement Manasseh on their entreaty (Numb. xxxii. tha.t the time in which the prophet's vision 33--42), no ground existed why its with- realizes itself will necessarily be one in drawal should be compensated for. (4) It which ma.rrying e.nd begetting children will Ezekiel's division of the land according to take pla.ce; and with equa.l justice points out that the number of Isra.el, especially tribes rather than f&milies shows that it when swelled up by an in.fl.11.l[ of Gentiles, existed prior to the priest-code, then the will be so grea.t (comp. ver. 10) as to render same argument should demonstrate its prior their settlement within the n&rrow boun- exi.dtence to J.E., which throughout as- daries of the l,md an impossibility-in this sumes the principle of division according to circnmsta.nPe finding anotherindica.tion tha.t the prophet's langua.ge wa,s intended to be families. (5) If Ezekiel preceded the symbolically, not literally, interpreted. priest-code, it will require some'expla.n&tion NoTE.-On. the boundaries of the land. to understand, first, why the author of the Bmend thinks (1) tha.t in respect of the latter should have followed the compara- north bounda.ry, Ezekiel a.nd the priest-code tively uncert&in J ehovistic tradition rather contradict the older source of the Pent&teuch, than the definite arrangements made by a which does not permit the territory of Asher prophet whom he regarded as practically to extend so far north as Ha.m&th (see Josh. the origina.tor of his faith ; and secondly, xi.x. 24-31; and comp. Judg. i 31); (2) why he should have so materially altered that never at any time did Israelites dwell that prophet's land-boundaries and tribe- so far north as at the entering in of Hamath; dispositiona, (3) that this extension of the land north-
HOMILETICS. Vere. 1-5.-The vision of the waters. Hitherto most of Ezekiel'& representations of the happy age of the restoration have been given in somewhat prosaic details whicli could be realized in actual facts, But now he returns to his figurative style, ao,d sots on. XLVIT, 1-23.J THE BOOK OE1 THE PROPHET EZEKIEL, 453