THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET

EZEKIEL.

EZEKIEL, like Jeremiah, was of the sacerdotal race, and was one of the captives carried away, at the same time with Jehoiachin king of Judah, to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. He was stationed with other captives at some place on the river Chebar; and it does not appear that he exercised the prophetic office until he had been removed from his own country. The thirtieth year,' which he gives as the date of his first prophecy, is supposed by some to be the year of his own age; it was certainly, as explained in the second verse, equivalent to the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity, which leads Calmet to conjecture that it was rather the thirtieth year from the renewal of the covenant with God in the time of Josiah, as this was just thirty years prior to the time stated in the second and explanatory date. From a comparison of this date with that in chap. xxix. 17, it will appear that Ezekiel continued to prophesy nearly twenty-two years-the first being in the fifth year of his own captivity, and the last in the twenty-seventh. Thus Ezekiel, in Mesopotamia, did, during a very important period, prophesy contemporaneously with Jeremiah in Judæa; but he began his prophecies later and continued them later than Jeremiah. As the predictions of the prophets, so distant from each other, referred in a very considerable degree to the same events, and were mutually corroborative, it is not unlikely, as Jerome conjectures, that the prophecies of Jeremiah were sent to Mesopotamia, and those of Ezekiel to Judæa, to give encouragement and confidence to the captive Jews, on the one hand, and, on the other, to reprove and leave without excuse those that remained in their own country.

Ezekiel is reputed by the traditionists to have presided in the government of the tribes of Gad and Asher in Assyria; and among other fabulous miracles, is said to have punished them for idolatry by a visitation of fiery serpents. In addition to these old popular legends, it is alleged that his countrymen were so incensed against him as to put him to a cruel death. In the Lives of the Prophets, falsely ascribed to Epiphanius, it is described as the common belief that his remains were deposited in the same sepulchre with those of Shem and Arphaxad, which was supposed to be situated between the river Euphrates and the Chaboras, and which was much resorted to not only by the Jews, but also by the Medes and Persians, who reverenced the tomb of the prophet with extravagant devotion. The Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, who visited the place in A.D. 1173, gives a curious account of it, and of the synagogue connected with it. This place is considered holy even to the present day, and is one of those to which people resort from remote countries in order to pray, particularly at the new year and the day of atonement. Great rejoicings take place there about this time, which are attended even by the Prince of the Captivity and the presidents of the colleges of Baghdad. The assembly is so large that their temporary abodes cover twenty-two miles of open ground, and attracts many Arabian merchants, who keep a market or fair. On the day of the atonement the proper lesson for the day is read from a very large manuscript Pentateuch of Ezekiel's handwriting. A lamp burns day and night in the sepulchre of the prophet, and has always been kept burning since the day he lighted it himself. A large house belonging to the sanctuary contains a very numerous collection of books, some of them as ancient as the second, some even coeval with the first, temple, it being the custom that whoever dies childless bequeaths his books to the sanctuary. The inhabitants of the country lead to the sepulchre all foreign Jews who come from Media and Persia, to visit, in consequence of vows which they have taken. The noble Mohammedans also resort thither to pray, because they hold the prophet Ezekiel, upon whom be peace! in great veneration and they call this place Dar Malicha. The sepulchre is also visited by all devout Arabs. Even in time of war neither Jew nor Mohammedan ventures to spoil or profane the sepulchre of Ezekiel.' The tomb still subsists on the road from Babylon to Meshid Ali. It is a large clumsy building without beauty or ornament, and is still much frequented by Jewish pilgrims.

The principal object of Ezekiel's prophecies, according to their immediate and literal sense, is to rebuke the children of Israel for their idolatries and unbelief, and to announce-as Jeremiah had done before and was then doing-the terrible judgments which the Lord would exercise upon them

by the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. This is the general subject of the first twenty-four chapters. The eight chapters following embrace prophecies against the Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, Philistines, Tyrians, Sidonians, Egyptians, and Babylonians. These prophecies respecting foreign nations, besides the conclusive evidence which they furnish to all ages of the Divine authority by which the prophets spoke, were, by the speedy accomplishment of many of them, well calculated to assure the Hebrews of the certain fulfilment of those other prophecies in which they were themselves more immediately interested. The remainder of the book, again, relates principally to the Hebrews, who, after proper warnings and reproofs, are assured of their final and happy re-establishment in their own country.

There is a kind of unity in the arrangement of Ezekiel's prophecies which we do not remark in those of Isaiah and Jeremiah. The central point of the whole is the destruction of Jerusalem. Previous to that catastrophe the chief object of the prophet is to call to repentance those who were living in careless security; to warn them against indulging in blind confidence, that, by the help of the Egyptians (Ezek. xvii. 15-17; Jer. xxxvii. 7), the Babylonian yoke would be shaken off; and to assure them that the destruction of their city and temple was inevitable and fast approaching. After this event his principal care is to console the captives by promises of future deliverance and restoration to their own land, and to encourage them by the assurance of future blessings. The predictions against foreign nations stand between these two great divisions, and were for the most part uttered in the interval of suspense between the divine intimation that Nebuchadnezzar was besieging Jerusalem (ch. xxiv. 2), and the arrival of the news that he had taken it (ch. xxxiii. 21). The predictions are manifestly arranged on a plan corresponding with these the chief subjects of them, and the time of their utterance is so frequently noted that there is little difficulty in arranging their chronological order. This order is followed throughout, except in the middle portion, relating to foreign nations, where it is in some cases departed from to secure greater unity of object. The arrangement is very evidently designed, and was probably made by Ezekiel himself. This is maintained by Hävernick (in the Introduction to his commentary on the book), on the following grounds: 1. The arrangement proceeds throughout on a plan corresponding with the subjects of the predictions. In those against foreign nations, chronological is united with material order, while in those which relate to Israel the order of time is strictly followed. 2. The predictions stand in such connection with each other that every part has reference to what has preceded it. 3. Historical notices are occasionally appended to the predictions, which could scarcely be done by a transcriber; e. g. the notice respecting himself in chaps. xi., xxiv., xxv., and the close of xix., which Hävernick translates thus: This is a lamentation, and was for a lamentation.' Gotch's article EZEKIEL in Kitto's 'Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature.'

The visions of Ezekiel, particularly those with which the book opens and terminates, have always been regarded, both by Jews and Christians, as very abstruse and of difficult interpretation,-so much so, indeed, that the former anciently forbade either of them to be read by persons under thirty years of age.

The style and manner of this prophet is marked by a peculiar character of its own, which is easily distinguishable even in a translation. It is thus discriminated by Bishop Lowth:- Ezekiel is much inferior to Jeremiah in elegance; in sublimity he is not even excelled by Isaiah: but his sublimity is of a totally different kind. He is deep, vehement, tragical; the only sensation he affects to excite is the terrible his sentiments are elevated, fervid, full of fire, indignant; his imagery is crowded, magnificent, terrific, sometimes almost to disgust; his language is pompous, solemn, austere, rough, and at times unpolished: he employs frequent repetitions, not for the sake of grace or elegance, but from the vehemence of passion and indignation. Whatever subject he treats of, that he sedulously pursues, from that he rarely departs, but cleaves as it were to it, whence the connection is in general evident and well preserved. In many respects he is perhaps excelled by the other prophets; but in that species of composition to which he seems by nature adapted, the forcible, the impetuous, the great and solemn, not one of the sacred writers is superior to him. His diction is sufficiently perspicuous, all his obscurity consists in the nature of his subject.' This estimate has been objected to by some writers, and particularly by Michaelis, who can by no means allow that Ezekiel is equal in sublimity to Isaiah: but to such discussions about style and manner, it may be well to append the remark of Archbishop Newcome, that the holy prophet is not to be considered merely as a poet, or as a framer of those august and astonishing visions, and of those admirable poetical representations which he committed to writing; but as an instrument in the hands of God, who vouchsafed to reveal himself through a long succession of ages, not only in divers parts constituting a magnificent and uniform whole, but also in divers manner, as by a voice, by dreams, by inspiration, and by plain or enigmatical vision.'

It is remarkable that there is no explicit reference to this large book or quotation from it in the New Testament. The following texts are indeed adduced by Eichhorn as having an apparent reference to it-Rom. ii. 14 to Ezek. xxxvi. 21; Rom. x. 5 and Gal. iii. 12 to Ezek. xx. 11;

2 Pet. iii. 4 to Ezek. xii. 22; but none of these are quotations. The closing visions of Ezekiel are, however, clearly referred to, though not quoted, in the closing chapters of the Apocalypse. The canonicity of the book is, moreover, well established by the testimony of the usual Jewish and Christian authorities. The prophecy of Ezekiel is distinctly referred to by the Son of Sirach (Ecclus. xlix. 8): 'It was Ezekiel who saw the glorious vision, which was shewed him upon the chariot of the cherubims.' Josephus also refers to it (Antiq. x. 5. 1; x. 6. 3; x. 7. 2; x. 8. 2). It is also mentioned as forming part of the canon in the catalogues of Melito, Origen, Jerome, and the Talmud.

There are Jewish commentaries on the book of Ezekiel by Jarchi, Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Solomon ben Melech. Origen composed a large work on this prophet; but all we have of it are four Homilies translated into Latin by Jerome. Ephræm Syrus, Theodoret, and Jerome have left commentaries on the book, of which the last is doubtless the best contribution to the knowledge of these important prophecies which the Fathers have bequeathed to us. Of more modern date the following works on this prophet may be named :-Ecolampadii Comment. in Ezechielem, Argent., 1534; Strigelii Ezechiel Propheta, ad Ebraicam veritatem recognitus, et Argumentis atque Scholiis illustratus, Lips., 1564; Calvini Prælectiones in Ezechielis Prophetæ, Geneva, 1565; Pinti Comment, in Ezech., Salamant., 1568; Heilbrunner, Ezechielis Propheta Vaticinia, etc., 1587; Pradi et Villalpandi in Ezechielem Explanationes, Romæ, 1596; Polanus, Comment. in Ezech., Basil, 1601; Junii Comment. in Ezech., Geneva, 1609; Sanctii Comment. in Ezech., Basil, 1621; Greenhill, Exposition of the Prophecy of Ezekiel, Lond., 1649, 4 vols. 4to., reprinted in 1837 in 1 vol. 8vo.; Cocceii Comment. in Ezech., Lugd., 1668; Starckii Comment. in P. Ezechel, Francf., 1731; Volborth, Ezechiel aufs Neue aus dem Hebräischen übersetzt, etc., Goett., 1787; Newcome (Abp.), An Attempt towards an improved Version, a Metrical Arrangement, and an Explanation of the Prophet Ezekiel, Dublin, 1788: this has gone through several editions, and is the most popular separate commentary on the book in the English language; Venema, Lectiones Academica ad Ezecheliem, Leovard., 1790; Eichhorn, Ezechielis Vaticinia, Götting., 1818; M'Farlane, A Version of the Prophecies of Ezekiel, Edinb., 1845. [Der Prophet Ezechiel erklärt v. F. Hitzig, 1847; Fairbairn, Exposition of the Book of Ezekiel, 1851.]

CHAPTER I.

1 The time of Ezekiel's prophecy at Chebar. 4 His vision of four cherubims, 15 of the four wheels, 26 and of the glory of God.

OW it came

to

pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the 'captives by the river of Chebar, that the hea

vens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
2 In the fifth day of the month, which was
the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity,

3 The word of the LORD came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was there upon him. 4 And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire "infolding itself, and a brightness

was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.

5 Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man.

6 And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings.

7 And their feet were 'straight feet; the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass.

8 And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings.

9 Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward.

10 As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.

11 Thus were their faces: and their wings were 'stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies.

3 Heb. catching itself.

up over against them: for the spirit "of the living creature was in the wheels.

22 And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.

23 And under the firmament were their wings straight, the one toward the other: every one had two, which covered on this side, and every one had two, which covered on that light-side, their bodies.

7 Or, of life.

3 Or, rebels.

3 And he said unto me, Son of man, cause MOREOVER he said unto me, Son of man, eat thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this