tter know what she must expect.
      
cedar in Lebanon--often eighty feet high, and the diameter of the space covered by its boughs still greater: the symmetry perfect. Compare the similar image ( Eze 17:3; Da 4:20-22\Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p7.1").
      
with a shadowing shroud--with an overshadowing thicket.
      
top ... among ... thick boughs--rather [Hengstenberg], "among the clouds." But \iEnglish Version\iagrees better with the \iHebrew.\iThe \itop,\ior \itopmost shoot,\irepresents the king; the \ithick boughs,\ithe large resources of the empire.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p9.2"4. waters ... little rivers--the Tigris with its branches and "rivulets," or "conduits" for irrigation, the source of Assyria's fertility. "The deep" is the ever flowing water, never dry. Metaphorically, for Assyria's resources, as the "conduits" are her colonies.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p10.1"5. when he shot forth--because of the abundant moisture which nourished him in shooting forth. But see \iMargin\i.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p11.1"6. fowls ... made ... nests in ... boughs--so Eze 17:23; Da 4:12\Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p12.1". The gospel kingdom shall gather all under its covert, for their good and for the glory of God, which the world kingdoms did for evil and for self-aggrandizement ( Mt 13:32\Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p12.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p12.3" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p12.4"8. cedars ... could not hide him--could not outtop him. No other king eclipsed him.
      
were not like--were not comparable to.
      
garden of God--As in the case of Tyre ( Eze 28:13\Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p15.1"), the imagery, that is applied to the Assyrian king, is taken from Eden; peculiarly appropriate, as Eden was watered by rivers that afterwards watered Assyria ( Ge 2:10-14\Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p15.2"). This cedar seemed to revive in itself all the glories of paradise, so that no tree there outtopped it.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p15.3"9. I ... made him--It was all due to \iMy\ifree grace.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p16.1"10. thou ... he--The change of persons is because the language refers partly to the cedar, partly to the person signified by the cedar.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p17.1"11.Here the literal supersedes the figurative.
      
shall surely deal with him--according to his own pleasure, and according to the Assyrian's (Sardanapalus) desert. Nebuchadnezzar is called "the mighty one" ( \iEl,\ia name of God), because he was God's representative and instrument of judgment ( Da 2:37, 38\Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p19.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p19.2"12. from his shadow-- \iunder\iwhich they had formerly \idwelt\ias their covert ( Eze 31:6\Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p20.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p20.2"13.Birds and beasts shall insult over his fallen trunk.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p21.1"14. trees by the waters--that is, that are plentifully supplied by the waters: nations abounding in resources.
      
stand up in their height--that is, trust in their height: \istand upon\iit as their ground of confidence.Fairbairnpoints the \iHebrew\idifferently, so as for "their trees," to translate, "(And that none that drink water may stand) \ion themselves,\i(because of their greatness)." But the usual reading is better, as Assyria and the confederate states throughout are compared to strong trees. The clause, "All that drink water," marks the ground of the trees' confidence "in their height," namely, that they have ample sources of supply.Maurer, retaining the same \iHebrew,\itranslates, "that neither their \iterebinth trees\imay stand up in their height, nor all (the other trees) that drink water."
      
to ... nether ... earth ... pit--( Eze 32:18; Ps 82:7\Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p24.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p24.2"15. covered the deep--as mourners cover their heads in token of mourning, "I made the deep that watered the cedar" to wrap itself in mourning for him. The waters of the deep are the tributary peoples of Assyria ( Re 17:15\Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p25.1").
      
fainted--literally, were "faintness" (itself); more forcible than the verb.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p26.1"16. hell--Sheol or Hades, the unseen world: equivalent to, "I cast him into oblivion" (compare Isa 14:9-11\Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p27.1").
      
shall be comforted--because so great a king as the Assyrian is brought down to a level with them. It is a kind of consolation to the wretched to have companions in misery.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p28.1"17. his arm, that dwelt under his shadow--those who were the helpers or tool of his tyranny, and therefore enjoyed his protection (for example, Syria and her neighbors). These were sure to share her fate. Compare the same phrase as to the Jews living under the protection of their king ( La 4:20\Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p29.1"); both alike "making flesh their arm, and in heart departing from the Lord" ( Jer 17:5\Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p29.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p29.3"18.Application of the parabolic description of Assyria to the parallel case of Egypt. "All that has been said of the Assyrian consider as said to thyself. To whom art thou so like, as thou art to the Assyrian? To none." The lesson on a gigantic scale of Eden-like privileges abused to pride and sin by the Assyrian, as in the case of the first man in Eden, ending in ruin, was to be repeated in Egypt's case. For the unchangeable God governs the world on the same unchangeable principles.
      
thou shall lie in ... uncircumcised--As circumcision was an object of mocking to thee, thou shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, slain by their sword [Grotius]. Retribution in kind ( Eze 28:10\Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p31.2").
      
This is Pharaoh--Pharaoh's end shall be the same humiliating one as I have depicted the Assyrian's to have been. "This" is demonstrative, as if he were pointing with the finger to Pharaoh lying prostrate, a spectacle to all, as on the shore of the Red Sea ( Ex 14:30, 31\Q="x.xxvi.xxxii-p32.1").
      

\C3="Chapter 32" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p0.1"CHAPTER 32
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p1.1" Eze 32:1-32\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p2.1".Two Elegies over Pharaoh, One Delivered on the First Day( Eze 32:1\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p2.3"),THE Other on the Fifteenth Day of the Same Month, the Twelfth of the Twelfth Year.
      
1.The twelfth year from the carrying away of Jehoiachin; Jerusalem was by this time overthrown, and Amasis was beginning his revolt against Pharaoh-hophra.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p3.1"2. Pharaoh--"Phra" in Burmah, signifies the king, high priest, and idol.
      
whale--rather, any monster of the waters; here, the crocodile of the Nile. Pharaoh is as a lion on dry land, a crocodile in the waters; that is, an object of terror everywhere.
      
camest forth with thy rivers--"breakest forth" [Fairbairn]. The antithesis of "seas" and "rivers" favorsGrotiusrendering, "Thou camest forth from the sea \iinto\ithe rivers"; that is, from thy own empire into other states. However, \iEnglish Version\iis favored by the "thy": thou camest forth with \ithy\irivers (that is, with thy forces) and with thy feet didst fall irrecoverably; so Israel, once desolate, troubles the waters (that is, neighboring states).
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p6.3"3. with a company of many people--namely, the Chaldeans ( Eze 29:3, 4; Ho 7:12\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p7.1").
      
my net--for they are My instrument.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p8.1"4. leave thee upon the land--as a fish drawn out of the water loses all its strength, so Pharaoh (in Eze 32:3\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p9.1", compared to a water monster) shall be ( Eze 29:5\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p9.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p9.3"5. thy height--thy hugeness [Fairbairn]. The great heap of corpses of thy forces, on which thou pridest thyself. "Height" may refer to \imental elevation,\ias well as bodily [Vatablus].
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p10.3"6. land wherein thou swimmest--Egypt: the land watered by the Nile, the the source of its fertility, wherein thou swimmest (carrying on the image of the crocodile, that is, wherein thou dost exercise thy wanton power at will). Irony. The land shall still afford seas to swim in, but they shall be seas of blood. Alluding to the plague ( Ex 7:19; Re 8:8\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p11.1").Havernicktranslates, "I will water the land with \iwhat flows from thee,\ieven thy blood, reaching to the mountains": "with thy blood \ioverflowing\ieven to the mountains." Perhaps this is better.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p11.3"7. put thee out--extinguish thy light ( Job 18:5\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p12.1"). Pharaoh is represented as a bright star, at the extinguishing of whose light in the political sky the whole heavenly host is shrouded in sympathetic darkness. Here, too, as in Eze 32:6\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p12.2", there is an allusion to the supernatural darkness sent formerly ( Ex 10:21-23\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p12.3"). The heavenly bodies are often made images of earthly dynasties ( Isa 13:10; Mt 24:29\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p12.4").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p12.5" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p12.6"9. thy destruction--that is, tidings of thy destruction (literally, "thy breakage") carried by captive and dispersed Egyptians "among the nations" [Grotius]; or, \ithy broken people,\iresembling one great \ifracture,\ithe ruins of what they had been [Fairbairn].
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p13.3"10. brandish my sword before them--literally, "in their faces," or sight.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p14.1" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p14.2" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p14.3"13.(See on). The picture is ideally true, not to be interpreted by the letter. The political ascendency of Egypt was to cease with the Chaldean conquest [Fairbairn]. Henceforth Pharaoh must figuratively no longer \itrouble the waters by man or beast,\ithat is, no longer was he to flood other peoples with his overwhelming forces.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p15.4"14. make their waters deep--rather, "make ... \ito subside\i"; literally, "sink" [Fairbairn].
      
like oil--emblem of \iquietness.\iNo longer shall they descend violently on other countries as the overflowing Nile, but shall be still and sluggish in political action.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p17.1" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p17.2"16.As in Eze 19:14\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p18.1". This is a prophetical lamentation; yet so it shall come to pass [Grotius].
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p18.3"17.The second lamentation for Pharaoh. This funeral dirge in imagination accompanies him to the unseen world. Egypt personified in its political head is ideally represented as undergoing the change by death to which man is liable. Expressing that Egypt's supremacy is no more, a thing of the past, never to be again.
      
the month--the twelfth month ( Eze 32:1\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p20.1"); fourteen days after the former vision.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p20.2"18. cast them down--that is, predict that they shall be \icast down\i(so Jer 1:10\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p21.1"). The prophet's word was God's, and carried with it its own fulfilment.
      
daughters of ... nations--that is, the nations with their peoples. Egypt is to share the fate of other ancient nations once famous, now consigned to oblivion: Elam ( Eze 32:24\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p22.1"), Meshech, &c. ( Eze 32:26\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p22.2"), Edom ( Eze 32:29\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p22.3"), Zidon ( Eze 32:30\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p22.4").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p22.5"19. Whom dost thou pass in beauty?--Beautiful as thou art, thou art not more so than other nations, which nevertheless have perished.
      
go down,&c.--to the nether world, where all "beauty" is speedily marred.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p24.1"20. she is delivered to the sword--namely, by God.
      
draw her--as if addressing her executioners: drag her forth to death.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p26.1"21.( Eze 31:16\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p27.1"). Ezekiel has before his eyes Isa 14:9\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p27.2", &c.
      
shall speak to him--with "him" join "with them that help him"; \ishall speak to him and his helpers\iwith a taunting welcome, as now one of themselves.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p28.1"22. her ... his--The abrupt change of gender is, because Ezekiel has in view at one time the \ikingdom\i(feminine), at another the \imonarch.\i"Asshur," or Assyria, is placed first in punishment, as being first in guilt.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p29.1"23. in the sides of the pit--Sepulchres in the East were caves hollowed out of the rock, and the bodies were laid in niches formed at the sides.Maurerneedlessly departs from the ordinary meaning, and translates, "extremities" (compare Isa 14:13, 15\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p30.2").
      
which caused terror--They, who alive were a terror to others, are now, in the nether world, themselves a terrible object to behold.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p31.1"24. Elam--placed next, as having been an auxiliary to Assyria. Its territory lay in Persia. In Abraham's time an independent kingdom ( Ge 14:1\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p32.1"). Famous for its bowmen ( Isa 22:6\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p32.2").
      
borne their shame--the just retribution of their lawless \ipride.\iDestroyed by Nebuchadnezzar ( Jer 49:34-38\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p33.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p33.2"25. a bed--a sepulchral niche.
      
all ... slain by ... sword,&c.--( Eze 32:21, 23, 24\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p35.1"). The very monotony of the phraseology gives to the dirge an awe-inspiring effect.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p35.2"26. Meshech, Tubal--northern nations: the Moschi and Tibareni, between the Black and Caspian Seas.Herodotus[3.94], mentions them as a subjugated people, tributaries to Darius Hystaspes (see Eze 27:13\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p36.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p36.3"27. they shall not lie with the mighty--that is, they shall not have separate tombs such as mighty conquerors have: but shall all be heaped together in one pit, as is the case with the vanquished [Grotius].Havernickreads it interrogatively, "Shall they not lie with the mighty that are fallen?" But \iEnglish Version\iis supported by the parallel ( Isa 14:18, 19\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p37.3"), to which Ezekiel refers, and which represents them as \inot\ilying as mighty kings lie in a grave, but cast out of one, as a carcass trodden under foot.
      
with ... weapons of war--alluding to the custom of burying warriors with their arms ( 1 Maccabees 13:29\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p38.1"). Though honored by the laying of "their swords under their heads," yet the punishment of "their iniquities shall be upon their bones." Their swords shall thus attest their shame, not their glory ( Mt 26:52\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p38.2"), being the instruments of their violence, the penalty of which they are paying.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p38.3"28. Yea, thou--Thou, too, Egypt, like them, shalt lie as one vanquished.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p39.1"29. princes--Edom was not only governed by kings, but by subordinate "princes" or "dukes" ( Ge 36:40\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p40.1").
      
with their might--notwithstanding their might, they shall be brought down ( Isa 34:5, 10-17; Jer 49:7, 13-18\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p41.1").
      
lie with the uncircumcised--Though Edom was circumcised, being descended from Isaac, he shall lie with the uncircumcised; much more shall Egypt, who had no hereditary right to circumcision.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p42.1"30. princes of the north--Syria, which is still called by the Arabs the north; or the Tyrians, north of Palestine, conquered by Nebuchadnezzar ( Eze 26:1-28:26\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p43.1"), [Grotius].
      
Zidonians--who shared the fate of Tyre ( Eze 28:21\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p44.1").
      
with their terror they are ashamed of their might--that is, notwithstanding the terror which they inspired in their contemporaries. "Might" is connected byMaurerthus, "Notwithstanding the terror which resulted from their might."
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p45.2"31. comforted--with the melancholy satisfaction of not being alone, but of having other kingdoms companions in his downfall. This shall be his only comfort--a very poor one!
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p46.1"32. my terror--the \iMargin\ior \iKeri.\iThe \iHebrew\itext or \iChetib\iis " \ihis\iterror," which gives good sense ( Eze 32:25, 30\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p47.1"). " \iMy\iterror" implies that God puts \iHis\iterror on Pharaoh's multitude, as they put "their terror" on others, for example, under Pharaoh-necho on Judea. As "the land of the living" was the scene of "their terror," so it shall be God's; especially in Judea, He will display His glory to the terror of Israel's foes ( Eze 26:20\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiii-p47.2"). In Israel's case the judgment is temporary, ending in their future restoration under Messiah. In the case of the world kingdoms which flourished for a time, they fall to rise no more.
      

\C3="Chapter 33" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p0.1"CHAPTER 33
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p1.1" Eze 33:1-33\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p2.1".Renewal of Ezekiel's Commission, Now that He Is Again to Address His Countrymen, and in a New Tone.
      
Heretofore his functions had been chiefly threatening; from this point, after the evil had got to its worst in the overthrow of Jerusalem, the consolatory element preponderates.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p3.1"2. to the children of thy people--whom he had been forbidden to address from Eze 24:26, 27\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p4.1", till Jerusalem was overthrown, and the "escaped" came with tidings of the judgment being completed. So now, in Eze 33:21\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p4.2", the tidings of the fact having arrived, he opens his heretofore closed lips to the Jews. In the interval he had prophesied as to foreign nations. The former part of the chapter, at Eze 33:2-20\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p4.3", seems to have been imparted to Ezekiel on the evening previous ( Eze 33:22\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p4.4"), being a preparation for the latter part ( Eze 33:23-33\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p4.5") imparted after the tidings had come. This accounts for the first part standing without intimation of the date, which was properly reserved for the latter part, to which the former was the anticipatory introduction [Fairbairn].
      
watchman-- Eze 33:1-9\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p5.1"exhibit Ezekiel's office as a spiritual watchman; so in Eze 3:16-21\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p5.2"; only here the duties of the earthly watchman (compare 2Sa 18:24, 25; 2Ki 9:17\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p5.3") are detailed first, and then the application is made to the spiritual watchman's duty (compare Isa 21:6-10; Ho 9:8; Hab 2:1\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p5.4"). "A man of their coasts" is a man specially chosen for the office \iout of their whole number.\iSo Jud 18:2\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p5.5", "five men \ifrom their coasts\i"; also the \iHebrew\iof Ge 47:2\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p5.6"; implying the care needed in the choice of the watchman, the spiritual as well as the temporal ( Ac 1:21, 22, 24-26; 1Ti 5:22\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p5.7").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p5.8"3. the sword--invaders. An appropriate illustration at the time of the invasion of Judea by Nebuchadnezzar.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p6.1"4. blood ... upon his own head--metaphor from sacrificial victims, on the heads of which they used to lay their hands, praying that their guilt should be upon the victims.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p7.1" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p7.2"6. his iniquity--his negligence in not maintaining constant watchfulness, as they who are in warfare ought to do. The thing signified here appears from under the image.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p8.1"7. I have set thee a watchman--application of the image. Ezekiel's appointment to be a watchman spiritually is far more solemn, as it is derived from God, not from the people.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p9.1"8. thou shalt surely die--by a violent death, the earnest of everlasting death; the qualification being supposed, "if thou dost not repent."
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p10.1"9.Blood had by this time been shed ( Eze 33:21\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p11.1"), but Ezekiel was clear.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p11.2"10. be upon us--that is, their guilt remain on us.
      
pine away in them--if we suffer the penalty threatened for them in Eze 24:23\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p13.1", according to the law ( Le 26:39\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p13.2").
      
how should we ... live?--as Thou dost promise in Eze 33:5\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p14.1"(compare Eze 37:11; Isa 49:14\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p14.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p14.3"11.To meet the Jews' cry of despair in Eze 33:10\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p15.1", Ezekiel here cheers them by the assurance that God has no pleasure in their death, but that they should repent and live ( 2Pe 3:9\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p15.2"). A yearning tenderness manifests itself here, notwithstanding all their past sins; yet with it a holiness that abates nothing of its demands for the honor of God's authority. God's righteousness is vindicated as in Eze 3:18-21 and Eze 18:1-32\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p15.3", by the statement that each should be treated with the closest adaptation of God's justice to his particular case.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p15.4"12. not fall ... in the day that he turneth--( 2Ch 7:14\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p16.1"; see Eze 3:20; 18:24\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p16.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p16.3" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p16.4" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p16.5"15. give again that he had robbed--( Lu 19:8\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p17.1").
      
statutes of life--in the obeying of which life is promised ( Le 18:5\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p18.1"). If the law has failed to give life to man, it has not been the fault of the law, but of man's sinful inability to keep it ( Ro 7:10, 12; Ga 3:21\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p18.2"). It becomes life-giving through Christ's righteous obedience to it ( 2Co 3:6\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p18.3").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p18.4" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p18.5"17. The way of the Lord--The Lord's way of dealing in His moral government.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p19.1" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p19.2" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p19.3" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p19.4"21. twelfth year ... tenth month--a year and a half after the capture of the city ( Jer 39:2; 52:5, 6\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p20.1"), in the eleventh year and fourth month. The one who escaped (as foretold, Eze 24:26\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p20.2") may have been so long on the road through fear of entering the enemy's country [Henderson]; or, the \isingular\iis used for the \iplural\iin a collective sense, "the escaped remnant." Compare similar phrases, "the escaped of Moab," Isa 15:9\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p20.4"; "He that escapeth of them," Am 9:1\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p20.5". Naturally the reopening of the prophet's mouth for consolation would be deferred till the number of the escaped remnant was complete: the removal of such a large number would easily have occupied seventeen or eighteen months.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p20.6"22. in the evening--(see on). Thus the capture of Jerusalem was known to Ezekiel by revelation before the messenger came.
      
my mouth ... no more dumb--that is, to my countrymen; as foretold ( Eze 24:27\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p22.1"), He spake ( Eze 33:2-20\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p22.2") in the evening before the tidings came.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p22.3" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p22.4"24. they that inhabit ... wastes of ... Israel--marking the blindness of the fraction of Jews under Gedaliah who, though dwelling amidst regions laid waste by the foe, still cherished hopes of deliverance, and this without repentance.
      
Abraham was one ... but we are many--If God gave the land for an inheritance to Abraham, who was but one ( Isa 51:2\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p24.1"), much more it is given to us, who, though reduced, are still many. If he, with 318 servants, was able to defend himself amid so many foes, much more shall we, so much more numerous, retain our own. The grant of the land was not for his sole use, but for his numerous posterity.
      
inherited the land--not actually possessed it ( Ac 7:5\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p25.1"), but had the right of dwelling and pasturing his flocks in it [Grotius]. The Jews boasted similarly of their Abrahamic descent in Mt 3:9 and Joh 8:39\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p25.3".
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p25.4"25. eat with the blood--in opposition to the law ( Le 19:26\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p26.1"; compare Ge 9:4\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p26.2"). They did so as an idolatrous rite.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p26.3"26. Ye stand upon your sword--Your dependence is, not on right and equity, but on force and arms.
      
every one--Scarcely anyone refrains from adultery.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p28.1"27. shall fall by the sword--The very object of their confidence would be the instrument of their destruction. Thinking to "stand" by it, by it they shall "fall." Just retribution! Some fell by the sword of Ishmael; others by the Chaldeans in revenge for the murder of Gedaliah ( Jer 40:1-44:30\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p29.1").
      
caves--( Jud 6:2; 1Sa 13:6\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p30.1"). In the hilly parts of Judea there were caves almost inaccessible, as having only crooked and extremely narrow paths of ascent, with rock in front stretching down into the valleys beneath perpendicularly [Josephus, \iWars of the Jews,\i1.16.4].
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p30.3"28. most desolate--( Jer 4:27; 12:11\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p31.1").
      
none ... pass through--from fear of wild beasts and pestilence [Grotius].
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p32.2" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p32.3"30.Not only the remnant in Judea, but those at the Chebar, though less flagrantly, betrayed the same unbelieving spirit.
      
talking against thee--Though going to the prophet to hear the word of the Lord, they criticised, \iin an unfriendly spirit,\ihis peculiarities of manner and his enigmatical style ( Eze 20:49\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p34.1"); making these the excuse for their impenitence. Their talking was not directly " \iagainst\i" Ezekiel, for they professed to like his ministrations; but God's word speaks of things as they really are, not as they appear.
      
by the walls--in the public haunts. In the East groups assemble under the walls of their houses in winter for conversation.
      
in the doors--privately.
      
what is the word--Their motive was curiosity, seeking pastime and gratification of the ear ( 2Ti 4:3\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p37.1"); not reformation of the heart. Compare Johanan's consultation of Jeremiah, to hear the word of the Lord without desiring to \ido\iit ( Jer 42:1-43:13\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p37.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p37.3"31. as the people cometh--that is, in crowds, as disciples flock to their teacher.
      
sit before thee--on lower seats at thy feet, according to the Jewish custom of pupils ( De 33:3; 2Ki 4:38; Lu 10:39; Ac 22:3\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p39.1").
      
as my people--though they are not.
      
hear ... not do--( Mt 13:20, 21; Jas 1:23, 24\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p41.1").
      
they show much love--literally, "make love," that is, act the part of lovers. Profess love to the Lord ( Mt 7:21\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p42.1").Geseniustranslates, according to \iArabic\iidiom, "They do the delights of God," that is, all that is agreeable to God. \iVulgate\itranslates, "They turn thy words into a song of their mouths."
      
heart goeth after ... covetousness--the grand rival to the love of God; therefore called "idolatry," and therefore associated with impure carnal love, as both alike transfer the heart's affection from the Creator to the creature ( Mt 13:22; Eph 5:5; 1Ti 6:10\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p43.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p43.2"32. very lovely song--literally, a "song of loves": a lover's song. They praise thy eloquence, but care not for the subject of it as a real and personal thing; just as many do in the modern church [Jerome].
      
play well on an instrument--Hebrew singers accompanied the "voice" with the harp.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p45.1"33. when this cometh to pass--when My predictions are verified.
      
lo, it will come--rather, "lo it \iis\icome" (see Eze 33:22\Q="x.xxvi.xxxiv-p47.1").
      
know--experimentally, and to their cost.
      

\C3="Chapter 34" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p0.1"CHAPTER 34
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p1.1" Eze 34:1-31\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p2.1".Reproof of the False Shepherds; Promise of the True and Good Shepherd.
      
Having in the thirty-third chapter laid down repentance as the necessary preliminary to happier times for the people, He now promises the removal of the false shepherds as preparatory to the raising up of the Good Shepherd.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p3.1"2. Jer 23:1 and Zec 11:17\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p4.1"similarly make the removal of the false shepherds the preliminary to the interposition of Messiah the Good Shepherd in behalf of His people Israel. The "shepherds" are not prophets or priests, but \irulers\iwho sought in their government their own selfish ends, not the good of the people ruled. The term was appropriate, as David, the first king and the type of the true David ( Eze 34:23, 24\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p4.2"), was taken from being a shepherd ( 2Sa 5:2; Ps 78:70, 71\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p4.3"); and the office, like that of a shepherd for his flock, is to guard and provide for his people. The choice of a \ishepherd\ifor the first king was therefore designed to suggest this thought, just as Jesus' selection of \ifishermen\ifor apostles was designed to remind them of their spiritual office of catching men (compare Isa 44:28; Jer 2:8; 3:15; 10:21; 23:1, 2\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p4.4").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p4.5"3. fat--or, by differently pointing the \iHebrew,\i"milk" [ \iSeptuagint\i]. Thus the repetition "fat" and "fed" is avoided: also the eating of "fat" would not probably be put before the "killing" of the sheep. The eating of sheep's or goats' milk as food ( De 32:14; Pr 27:27\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p5.1") was unobjectionable, had not these shepherds milked them too often, and that without duly "feeding" them [Bochart], ( Isa 56:11\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p5.3"). The rulers levied exorbitant tributes.
      
kill ... fed--kill the rich by false accusation so as to get possession of their property.
      
feed not ... flock--take no care of the people ( Joh 10:12\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p7.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p7.2"4. The diseased--rather, those \iweak\ifrom the effects of "disease," as "strengthened" (that is, with due nourishment) requires [Grotius].
      
broken--that is, fractures from wounds inflicted by the wolf.
      
brought again ... driven away--( Ex 23:4\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p10.1"). Those "driven away" by the enemy into foreign lands through God's judgments are meant ( Jer 23:3\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p10.2"). A spiritual reformation of the state by the rulers would have turned away God's wrath, and "brought again" the exiles. The rulers are censured as \ichiefly\iguilty (though the people, too, were guilty), because they, who ought to have been foremost in checking the evil, promoted it.
      
neither ... sought ... lost--Contrast the Good Shepherd's love ( Lu 15:4\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p11.1").
      
with force ... ruled--( Ex 1:13, 14\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p12.1"). With an Egyptian bondage. The very thing forbidden by the law they did ( Le 25:43\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p12.2"; compare 1Pe 5:3\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p12.3").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p12.4"5. scattered, because ... no shepherd--that is, none worthy of the name, though there were some \icalled\ishepherds ( 1Ki 22:17; Mt 9:36\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p13.1"). Compare Mt 26:31\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p13.2", where the sheep were scattered when the true Shepherd was smitten. God calls them " \iMy\isheep"; for they were not, as the shepherds treated them, \itheir\ipatrimony whereby to "feed themselves."
      
meat to all ... beasts--They became a prey to the Syrians, Ammon, Moab, and Assyria.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p14.1"6. every high hill--the scene of their idolatries sanctioned by the rulers.
      
search ... seek--rather, "seek ... search." The former is the part of the superior rulers \ito inquire after: to search out\iis the duty of the subordinate rulers [Junius].
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p16.2" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p16.3" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p16.4" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p16.5"10. I will require my flock--( Heb 13:17\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p17.1"), rather, "I require," &c., for God already had begun to do so, punishing Zedekiah and the other princes severely ( Jer 52:10\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p17.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p17.3"11. I ... will ... search--doing that which the so-called shepherds had failed to do, I being the rightful owner of the flock.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p18.1"12. in the day that he is among-- \iin the midst of\i( \iHebrew\i) His sheep that had been scattered. Referring to Messiah's second advent, when He shall be "the glory \iin the midst of\iIsrael" ( Zec 2:5\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p19.1").
      
in the cloudy ... day--the day of the nation's calamity ( Joe 2:2\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p20.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p20.2"13. And I will bring them out from the people,&c.--( Eze 28:25; 36:24; 37:21, 22; Isa 65:9, 10; Jer 23:3\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p21.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p21.2"14. good pasture--( Ps 23:2\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p22.1").
      
high mountains of Israel--In Eze 17:23; 20:40\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p23.1", the phrase is "the mountain of the height of Israel" in the \isingular\inumber. The reason for the difference is: \ithere\iEzekiel spoke of the central seat of the kingdom, Mount Zion, where the people met for the worship of Jehovah; \ihere\ihe speaks of the kingdom of Israel at large, all the parts of which are regarded as possessing a moral elevation.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p23.2" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p23.3"16.In contrast to the unfaithful shepherds ( Eze 34:4\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p24.1"). The several duties neglected by \ithem I\iwill faithfully discharge.
      
fat ... strong--that is, those rendered wanton by prosperity ( De 32:15; Jer 5:28\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p25.1"), who use their strength to oppress the weak. Compare Eze 34:20\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p25.2", "the fat cattle" ( Isa 10:16\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p25.3"). The image is from fat cattle that wax refractory.
      
with judgment--that is, justice and equity, as contrasted with the "force" and "cruelty" with which the unfaithful shepherds ruled the flock ( Eze 34:4\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p26.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p26.2"17. you, ... my flock--passing from the rulers to the people.
      
cattle and cattle--rather, "sheep and sheep"; \iMargin,\i"small cattle," or "flocks of lambs and kids," that is, I judge between one class of citizens and another, so as to award what is right to each. He then defines the class about to be punitively "judged," namely, "the rams and he-goats," or "great he-goats" (compare Isa 14:9\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p28.1", \iMargin;\i Zec 10:3; Mt 25:32, 33\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p28.2"). They answer to "the fat and strong," as opposed to the "sick" ( Eze 34:16\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p28.3"). The rich and ungodly of the people are meant, who imitated the bad rulers in oppressing their poorer brethren, as if it enhanced their own joys to trample on others' rights ( Eze 34:18\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p28.4").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p28.5"18, 19.Not content with appropriating to their own use the goods of others, they from mere wantonness spoiled what they did not use, so as to be of no use to the owners.
      
deep waters--that is, "limpid," as deep waters are generally \iclear.\iGrotiusexplains the image as referring to the usuries with which the rich ground the poor ( Eze 22:12; Isa 24:2\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p30.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p30.3"19. they eat--scantily.
      
they drink--sorrowfully.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p32.1"20. fat ... lean--the rich oppressors ... the humble poor.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p33.1"21. scattered them abroad--down to the time of the carrying away to Babylon [Grotius].
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p34.2"22.After the restoration from Babylon, the Jews were delivered in some degree from the oppression, not only of foreigners, but also of their own great people ( Ne 5:1-19\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p35.1"). The full and final fulfilment of this prophecy is future.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p35.2"23. set up--that is, raise up by divine appointment; alluding to the declaration of God to David, "I will \iset up\ithy seed after thee" ( 2Sa 7:12\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p36.1"); and, "Yet have I set My king on My holy hill of Zion" ( Ps 2:6\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p36.2"; compare Ac 2:30; 13:23\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p36.3").
      
one shepherd--literally, "a Shepherd, one": singularly and pre-eminently \ione:\ithe only one of His kind, to whom none is comparable ( So 5:10\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p37.1"). The Lord Jesus refers to this prophecy ( Joh 10:14\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p37.2"), "I amTHEGood Shepherd." Also "one" as uniting in one the heretofore divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and also "gathering together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and on earth" ( Eph 1:10\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p37.4"); thus healing worse breaches than that between Israel and Judah ( Col 1:20\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p37.5"). "God by Him reconciling all things unto Himself, whether things in earth or in heaven."
      
David--the antitypical David, Messiah, of the seed of David, which no other king after the captivity was: who was \ifully,\iwhat David was only in a degree, "the man after God's own heart." Also, David means \ibeloved:\iMessiah was truly God's \ibeloved\iSon ( Isa 42:1; Mt 3:17\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p38.1"). Shepherd means \iKing,\irather than religious instructor; in this pre-eminently He was the true David, who was the \iShepherd King\i( Lu 1:32, 33\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p38.2"). Messiah is called "David" in Isa 55:3, 4; Jer 30:9; Ho 3:5\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p38.3".
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p38.4"24. my servant--implying fitness for ruling in the name of God, not pursuing a self-chosen course, as other kings, but acting as the faithful administrator of the will of God; Messiah realized fully this character ( Ps 40:7, 8; Isa 42:1; 49:3, 6; 53:11; Php 2:7\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p39.1"), which David typically and partially represented ( Ac 13:36\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p39.2"); so He is the fittest person to wield the world scepter, abused by all the world kings ( Da 2:34, 35, 44, 45\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p39.3").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p39.4"25. covenant of peace ... evil beasts ... to cease ... dwell safely--The original promise of the law ( Le 26:6\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p40.1") shall be realized for the first time fully under Messiah ( Isa 11:6-9; 35:9; Ho 2:18\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p40.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p40.3"26. them and the places round about my hill--The Jews, and Zion, God's hill ( Ps 2:6\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p41.1"), are to be sources of blessing, not merely to themselves, but to the surrounding heathen ( Isa 19:24; 56:6, 7; 60:3; Mic 5:7; Zec 8:13\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p41.2"). The literal fulfilment is, however, the primary one, though the spiritual also is designed. In correspondence with the settled reign of righteousness internally, all is to be prosperity externally, fertilizing showers (according to the promise of the ancient covenant, Le 26:4; Ps 68:9; Mal 3:10\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p41.3"), and productive trees and lands ( Eze 34:27\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p41.4"). Thus shall they realize the image of Eze 34:14\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p41.5"; namely, a flock richly pastured by God Himself.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p41.6"27. served themselves of them--availed themselves of their services, as if the Jews were their slaves ( Jer 22:13; 25:14\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p42.1"; compare Ge 15:13; Ex 1:14\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p42.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p42.3"28. dwell safely--( Jer 23:6\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p43.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p43.2"29. plant of renown--Messiah, the "Rod" and "Branch" ( Isa 11:1\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p44.1"), the "righteous Branch" ( Jer 23:5\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p44.2"), who shall obtain for them "renown."Fairbairnless probably translates, "A plantation for a name," that is, a flourishing condition, represented as a garden (alluding to Eden, Ge 2:8-11\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p44.4", with its various trees, good for food and pleasant to the sight), the planting of the Lord ( Isa 60:21; 61:3\Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p44.5"), and an object of "renown" among the heathen.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p44.6" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxv-p44.7"31. ye my flock ... are men--not merely an explanation of the image, asJeromerepresents. But as God had promised many things which mere "men" could not expect to realize, He shows that it is not from \iman's\imight their realization is to be looked for, but fromGod, who would perform them for His covenant-people, " \iHis\iflock" [Rosenmuller]. When we realize most our weakness and God's power and faithfulness to His covenant, we are in the fittest state for receiving His blessings.
      

\C3="Chapter 35" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p0.1"CHAPTER 35
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p1.1" Eze 35:1-15\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p2.1".Judgment on Edom.
      
Another feature of Israel's prosperity; those who exulted over Israel's humiliation, shall themselves be a "prey." Already stated in Eze 25:12-14\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p3.1"; properly repeated here in full detail, as a commentary on Eze 34:28\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p3.2". The Israelites "shall be no more a prey"; but Edom, the type of their most bitter foes, shall be destroyed irrecoverably.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p3.3"2. Mount Seir--that is, Idumea ( Ge 36:9\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p4.1"). Singled out as badly pre-eminent in its bitterness against God's people, to represent all their enemies everywhere and in all ages. So in Isa 34:5; 63:1-4\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p4.2", Edom, the region of the greatest enmity towards God's people, is the ideal scene of the final judgments of all God's foes. "Seir" means "shaggy," alluding to its rugged hills and forests.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p4.3"3. most desolate--literally, "desolation and desolateness" ( Jer 49:17\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p5.1", &c.). It is only in their national character of foes to God's people, that the Edomites are to be utterly destroyed. A \iremnant\iof Edom, as of the other heathen, is to be "called by the name of God" ( Am 9:12\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p5.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p5.3" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p5.4"5. perpetual hatred--( Ps 137:7; Am 1:11; Ob 10-16\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p6.1"). Edom perpetuated the hereditary hatred derived from Esau against Jacob.
      
shed \ithe blood of,\i&c.--The literal translation is better. "Thou hast \ipoured\iout the children of Israel"; namely, like water. So Ps 22:14; 63:10\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p7.1", \iMargin;\i Jer 18:21\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p7.2". Compare 2Sa 14:14\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p7.3".
      
by the force of the sword--literally, "by" or "upon the hands of the sword"; the sword being personified as a devourer whose "hands" were the instruments of destruction.
      
in the time that their iniquity had an end--that is, had its consummation ( Eze 21:25, 29\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p9.1"). Edom consummated his guilt when he exulted over Jerusalem's downfall, and helped the foe to destroy it ( Ps 137:7; Ob 11\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p9.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p9.3"6. I will prepare thee unto blood--I will expose thee to slaughter.
      
sith-- \iold\iEnglish for "seeing that" or "since."
      
thou hast not hated blood--The \iHebrew\iorder is, "thou hast hated not--blood"; that is, thou couldst not bear to live without bloodshed [Grotius]. There is a play on similar sounds in the \iHebrew; Edom\iresembling \idam,\ithe \iHebrew\ifor "blood"; as "Edom" means "red," the transition to "blood" is easy. Edom, akin to blood in name, so also in nature and acts; "blood therefore shall pursue thee." The measure which Edom meted to others should be meted to himself ( Ps 109:17; Mt 7:2; 26:52\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p12.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p12.3"7. cut off ... him that passeth--that is, every passer to and fro; "the highways shall be unoccupied" ( Eze 29:11; Jud 5:6\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p13.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p13.2" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p13.3"9. shall not return--to their former state ( Eze 16:55\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p14.1"); shall not be restored. The \iHebrew\itext ( \iChetib\i) reads, "shall not \ibe inhabited\i" (compare Eze 26:20; Mal 1:3, 4\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p14.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p14.3"10.So far from being allowed to enter on Israel's vacated inheritance, as Edom hoped ( Eze 36:5; Ps 83:4, 12; Ob 13\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p15.1"), it shall be that he shall be deprived of his own; and whereas Israel's humiliation was temporary, Edom's shall be perpetual.
      
Lord was there--( Eze 48:35; Ps 48:1, 3; 132:13, 14\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p16.1"). Jehovah claimed Judea as His own, even when the Chaldeans had overthrown the state; they could not remove Him, as they did the idols of heathen lands. The broken sentences express the excited feelings of the prophet at Edom's wicked presumption. The transition from the "two nations and two countries" to "it" marks that the two are regarded as one whole. The last clause, "and Jehovah was there," bursts in, like a flash of lightning, reproving the wicked presumption of Edom's thought.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p16.2"11. according to thine anger--( Jas 2:13\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p17.1"). As thou in anger and envy hast injured them, so I will injure thee.
      
I will make myself known among them--namely, the Israelites. I will manifest My favor to them, after I have punished thee.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p18.1"12, 13. blasphemies ... against ... Israel ... against me--God regards what is done against His people as done against Himself ( Mt 25:45; Ac 9:2, 4, 5\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p19.1"). Edom \iimplied,\iif he did not express it, in his taunts against Israel, that God had not sufficient power to protect His people. A type of the spirit of all the foes of God and His people ( 1Sa 2:3; Re 13:6\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p19.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p19.3" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p19.4"14.( Isa 65:13, 14\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p20.1"). "The whole earth" refers to \iJudea and the nations that submit themselves to Judea's God;\iwhen these rejoice, the foes of God and His people, represented by Edom \ias a nation,\ishall be desolate. Things shall be completely reversed; Israel, that now for a time mourns, shall then rejoice and for ever. Edom, that now rejoices over fallen Israel, shall then, when elsewhere all is joy, mourn, and for ever ( Isa 65:17-19; Mt 5:4; Lu 6:25\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p20.2").Havernickloses this striking antithesis by translating, "According to the joy of the whole land (of Edom), so I will make thee desolate"; which would make Eze 35:15\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p20.4"a mere repetition of this.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p20.5"15.( Ob 12, 15\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvi-p21.1").
      

\C3="Chapter 36" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p0.1"CHAPTER 36
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p1.1" Eze 36:1-38\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p2.1".Israel Avenged of Her Foes, and Restored, First to Inward Holiness, Then to Outward Prosperity.
      
The distinction between Israel and the heathen (as Edom) is: Israel has a covenant relation to God ensuring restoration after chastisement, so that the heathen's hope of getting possession of the elect people's inheritance must fail, and they themselves be made desolate ( Eze 36:1-15\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p3.1"). The reason for the chastisement of Israel was Israel's sin and profanation of God's name ( Eze 36:16-21\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p3.2"). God has good in store for Israel, for His own name's sake, to revive His people; first, by a spiritual renewal of their hearts, and, next, by an external restoration to prosperity ( Eze 36:22-33\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p3.3"). The result is that the heathen shall be impressed with the power and goodness of God manifested so palpably towards the restored people ( Eze 36:34-38\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p3.4").
      
1, 2. mountains of Israel--in contrast to " \iMount\iSeir" of the previous prophecy. They are here personified; Israel's elevation is moral, not merely physical, as Edom's. Her hills are "the everlasting hills" of Jacob's prophecy ( Ge 49:26\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p4.1"). "The enemy" (Edom, the singled-out representative of all God's foes), with a shout of exultation, "Aha!" had claimed, as the nearest kinsman of Israel (the brother of their father Esau), his vacated inheritance; as much as to say, the so-called "everlasting" inheritance of Israel and of the "hills," which typified the unmoved perpetuity of it ( Ps 125:1, 2\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p4.2"), has come to an end, in spite of the promise of God, and has become "ours" (compare De 32:13; 33:15\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p4.3").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p4.4" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p4.5"3.Literally, "Because, even because."
      
swallowed you up--literally, "panted after" you, as a beast after its prey; implying the greedy cupidity of Edom as to Israel's inheritance ( Ps 56:1, 2\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p6.1").
      
lips of talkers--literally, "lips of \ithe tongue,\i" that is, of the slanderer, the man of tongue. Edom slandered Israel because of the connection of the latter with Jehovah, as though He were unable to save them. De 28:37, and Jer 24:9\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p7.1"had foretold Israel's reproach among the heathen ( Da 9:16\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p7.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p7.3"4.Inanimate creatures are addressed, to imply that the creature also, as it were, groans for deliverance from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God ( Ro 8:19-21\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p8.1") [Polanus]. The completeness of the renewed blessedness of all parts of the land is implied.
      
derision--( Ps 79:4\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p9.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p9.2"5. to cast it out for a prey--that is, to take the land for a prey, its inhabitants being cast out. Or the land is compared to a prey cast forth to wild beasts.Fairbairnneedlessly alters the \iHebrew\ipointing and translates, "that they may plunder its pasturage."
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p10.2"6. the shame of the heathen--namely, the shame with which the heathen cover you ( Ps 123:3, 4\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p11.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p11.2"7. lifted ... mine hand--in token of an oath ( Eze 20:5; Ge 14:22\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p12.1").
      
they shall bear their shame--a \iperpetual\ishame; whereas the "shame" which Israel bore from these heathen was only for a time.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p13.1"8. they are at hand to come--that is, the Israelites are soon about to return to their land. This proves that the primary reference of the prophecy is to the return from Babylon, which was "at hand," or comparatively near. But this only in part fulfilled the prediction, the full and final blessing in future, and the restoration from Babylon was an earnest of it.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p14.1" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p14.2"10. wastes builded-- Isa 58:12; 61:4; Am 9:11, 12, 14\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p15.1", where, as here ( Eze 34:23, 24\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p15.2"), the names of David, Messiah's type, and Edom, Israel's foe, are introduced in connection with the coming restoration.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p15.3"11. do better ... than at your beginnings--as in the case of Job ( Job 42:12\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p16.1"). Whereas the heathen nations fall irrevocably, Israel shall be more than restored; its last estate shall exceed even its first.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p16.2"12. to walk upon you--O mountains of Israel ( Eze 36:8\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p17.1")!
      
thee ... thou--change from \iplural\ito \isingular:\iO hill of Zion, singled out from the other mountains of Israel ( Eze 34:26\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p18.1"); or land.
      
thou shall no more ... bereave them \iof men\i--Thou shalt no more provoke God to bereave them \iof children\i(so the ellipsis ought to be supplied, as Ezekiel probably alludes to Jer 15:7\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p19.1", "I will bereave them \iof children\i").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p19.2"13. Thou land devourest up men--alluding to the words of the spies ( Nu 13:32\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p20.1"). The land personified is represented as doing that which was done in it. Like an unnatural mother it devoured, that is, it was the grave of its people; of the Canaanites, its former possessors, through mutual wars, and finally by the sword of Israel; and now, of the Jews, through internal and external ills; for example, wars, famine (to which Eze 36:30\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p20.2", "reproach of \ifamine\iamong the heathen," implies the allusion here is).
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p20.3"14. bereave--so the \iKeri,\ior \iHebrew Margin\ireads, to correspond to "bereave" in Eze 36:13\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p21.1"; but "cause to fall" or "stumble," in the \iHebrew\itext or \iChetib,\ibeing the more difficult reading, is the one least likely to come from a corrector; also, it forms a good transition to the next subject, namely, the moral \icause\iof the people's calamities, namely, their \ifalls,\ior \istumblings\ithrough sin. The latter ceasing, the former also cease. So the same expression follows in Eze 36:15\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p21.2", "Neither shalt thou cause thy nations to \ifall\iany more."
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p21.3" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p21.4" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p21.5"17. removed woman--( Le 15:19\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p22.1", &c.).
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p22.2"18, 19. The reason for their removal was their sin, which God's holiness could not let pass unpunished; just as a woman's legal uncleanness was the reason for her being \iseparated\ifrom the congregation.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p23.1" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p23.2"20. profaned my holy name, when they--the heathen
      
said to them--the Israelites.
      
These,&c.--The Israelites gave a handle of reproach to the heathen against God, who would naturally say, These who take usury, oppress, commit adultery, &c., and who, in such an abject plight, are "gone forth" as exiles "out of His land," are specimens of what Jehovah can or will effect, for His people, and show what kind of a God this so-called holy, omnipotent, covenant-keeping God must be! ( Isa 52:5; Ro 2:24\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p26.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p26.2"21. I had pity for mine holy name--that is, I felt pity for it; God's own name, so dishonored, was the primary object of His pitying concern; then His people, secondarily, through His concern for it [Fairbairn].
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p27.2"22. not ... for your sakes--that is, not for any merit in you; for, on the contrary, on your part, there is everything to call down continued severity (compare De 9:5, 6\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p28.1"). The sole and sure ground of hope was God's regard to "His own name," as the God of covenant grace ( Ps 106:45\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p28.2"), which He must vindicate from the dishonor brought on it by the Jews, before the heathen.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p28.3"23. sanctify--vindicate and manifest as holy, in opposition to the heathen reproaches of it brought on by the Jews' sins and their punishment (see on).
      
sanctified in you--that is, in respect of you; I shall be regarded in their eyes as the Holy One, and righteous in My dealings towards you ( Eze 20:41; 28:22\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p30.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p30.2"24.Fulfilled primarily in the restoration from Babylon; ultimately to be so in the restoration "from all countries."
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p31.1"25.The \iexternal\irestoration must be preceded by an \iinternal\ione. The change in their condition must not be superficial, but must be based on a radical renewal of the heart. Then the heathen, understanding from the regenerated lives of God's people how holy God is, would perceive Israel's past troubles to have been only the necessary vindications of His righteousness. Thus God's name would be "sanctified" before the heathen, and God's people be prepared for outward blessings.
      
sprinkle ... water--phraseology taken from the law; namely, the water mixed with the ashes of a heifer sprinkled with a hyssop on the unclean ( Nu 19:9-18\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p33.1"); the thing signified being the cleansing blood of Christ sprinkled on the conscience and heart ( Heb 9:13, 14; 10:22\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p33.2"; compare Jer 33:8; Eph 5:26\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p33.3").
      
from all your idols--Literal idolatry has ceased among the Jews ever since the captivity; so far, the prophecy has been already fulfilled; but "cleansing from \iall\itheir idols," for example, covetousness, prejudices against Jesus of Nazareth, is yet future.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p34.1"26. new heart--mind and will.
      
spirit--motive and principle of action.
      
stony heart--unimpressible in serious things; like the "stony ground" ( Mt 13:5, 20\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p37.1"), unfit for receiving the good seed so as to bring forth fruit.
      
heart of flesh--not "carnal" in opposition to "spiritual"; but impressible and docile, fit for receiving the good seed. In Eze 18:31\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p38.1"they are commanded, " \iMake you\ia new heart, and a new spirit." Here God says, "A new heart will \iI give\iyou, and a new spirit will \iI put\iwithin you." Thus the responsibility of man, and the sovereign grace of God, are shown to be coexistent. Man cannot make himself a new heart unless God gives it ( Php 2:12, 13\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p38.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p38.3"27. my spirit--( Eze 11:19; Jer 32:39\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p39.1"). The partial reformation at the return from Babylon ( Ezr 10:6, &c.; Ne 8:1-9:38\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p39.2") was an earnest of the full renewal hereafter under Messiah.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p39.3"28. ye ... my people, ... I ... your God--( Eze 11:20; Jer 30:22\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p40.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p40.2"29. save ... from all ... uncleannesses--the province of Jesus, according to the signification of His name ( Mt 1:21\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p41.1"). To be specially exercised in behalf of the Jews in the latter days ( Ro 11:26\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p41.2").
      
call for ... corn--as a master "calls for" a servant; all the powers and productions of nature are the servants of Jehovah ( Ps 105:16; Mt 8:8, 9\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p42.1"). Compare as to the subordination of all the intermediate agents to the Great First Cause, who will give "corn" and all good things to His people, Ho 2:21, 22; Zec 8:12\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p42.2".
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p42.3"30. no more reproach of famine among the heathen--to which their taunt ( Eze 36:13\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p43.1"), "Thou land devourest up men," in part referred.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p43.2"31. remember your ... evil ways--with shame and loathing. The unexpected grace and love of God, manifested in Christ to Israel, shall melt the people into true repentance, which mere legal fear could not ( Eze 16:61, 63; Ps 130:4; Zec 12:10\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p44.1"; compare Jer 33:8, 9\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p44.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p44.3" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p44.4" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p44.5" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p44.6"35. they shall say--The heathen, who once made Israel's desolation a ground of reproach against the name of Jehovah Himself ( Eze 36:20, 21\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p45.1"); but now He so vindicates its sanctity ( Eze 36:22, 23\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p45.2") that these same heathen are constrained to acknowledge Israel's more than renewed blessedness to be God's own work, and a ground for glorifying His name ( Eze 36:36\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p45.3").
      
Eden--as Tyre (the type of the world powers in general: so Assyria, a cedar "in the garden of God, Eden," Eze 31:8, 9\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p46.1"), in original advantages, had been compared to "Eden, the garden of God" ( Eze 28:13\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p46.2"), from which she had fallen irrecoverably; so Israel, once desolate, is to be as "the garden of Eden" ( Isa 51:3\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p46.3"), and is to be so unchangeably.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p46.4"36. Lord ... spoken ... do it--( Nu 23:19\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p47.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p47.2"37. I will yet for this be inquired of--so as to grant it. On former occasions He had refused to be inquired of by Israel because the inquirers were not in a fit condition of mind to receive a blessing ( Eze 14:3; 20:3\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p48.1"). But hereafter, as in the restoration from Babylon ( Ne 8:1-9:38; Da 9:3-20, 21, 23\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p48.2"), God will prepare His people's hearts ( Eze 36:26\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p48.3") to pray aright for the blessings which He is about to give ( Ps 102:13-17, 20; Zec 12:10-14; 13:1\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p48.4").
      
like a flock--resuming the image ( Eze 34:23, 31\Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p49.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxvii-p49.2"38. As the holy flock--the great flock of choice animals for sacrifice, brought up to Jerusalem at the three great yearly festivals, the passover, pentecost, and feast of the tabernacles.
      

\C3="Chapter 37" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p0.1"CHAPTER 37
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p1.1" Eze 37:1-28\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p2.1".The Vision of Dry Bones Revivified, Symbolizing Israel's Death and Resurrection.
      
Three stages in Israel's revival present themselves to the prophet's eye. (1) The new awakening of the people, the resurrection of the dead ( Eze 37:1-14\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p3.1"). (2) The reunion of the formerly hostile members of the community, whose contentions had affected the whole ( Eze 37:15-28\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p3.2"). (3) The community thus restored is strong enough to withstand the assault of Gog, &c. ( Eze 38:1-39:29\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p3.3") [Ewald].
      
1. carried ... in the spirit--The matters transacted, therefore, were not literal, but in vision.
      
the valley--probably that by the Chebar ( Eze 3:22\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p5.1"). The valley represents Mesopotamia, the scene of Israel's sojourn in her state of national deadness.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p5.2"2. dry--bleached by long exposure to the atmosphere.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p6.1"3. can these bones live? ... thou knowest--implying that, humanly speaking, they could not; but faith leaves the question of possibility to rest with God, with whom nothing is impossible ( De 32:39\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p7.1"). An image of Christian faith which believes in the coming general resurrection of the dead, in spite of all appearances against it, because God has said it ( Joh 5:21; Ro 4:17; 2Co 1:9\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p7.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p7.3"4. Prophesy--Proclaim God's quickening word to them. On account of this innate power of the divine word to effect its end, prophets are said to \ido\ithat which they \iprophesy as about to be done\i( Jer 1:10\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p8.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p8.2"5. I ... cause breath to enter into you--So Isa 26:19\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p9.1", containing the same vision, refers \iprimarily\ito Israel's restoration. Compare as to God's renovation of the earth and all its creatures hereafter by His breath, Ps 104:30\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p9.2".
      
ye shall live--come to life \iagain.\i
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p10.1"6. ye shall know that I am the Lord--by the actual proof of My divinity which I will give in reviving Israel.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p11.1"7. noise--of the bones when coming in mutual collision. Perhaps referring to the decree of Cyrus, or the noise of the Jews' exultation at their deliverance and return.
      
bones came together--literally, " \iye\ibones came together"; as in Jer 49:11\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p13.1"( \iHebrew\i), " \iye\iwidows of thine shall trust in Me." The second person puts the scene vividly before one's eyes, for the whole resurrection scene is a \iprophecy in action\ito render more palpably to the people the prophecy in word ( Eze 37:21\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p13.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p13.3"8.So far, they were only cohering in order as unsightly skeletons. The next step, that of covering them successively with sinews, skin, and flesh, gives them beauty; but still "no breath" of life in them. This may imply that Israel hereafter, as at the restoration from Babylon was the case in part, shall return to Judea unconverted at first ( Zec 13:8, 9\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p14.1"). Spiritually: a man may assume all the semblances of spiritual life, yet have none, and so be dead before God.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p14.2"9. wind--rather, \ithe spirit\iof life or \ilife-breath\i( \iMargin\i). For it is distinct from "the four \iwinds\i" from which it is summoned.
      
from the four winds--implying that Israel is to be gathered from the four quarters of the earth ( Isa 43:5, 6; Jer 31:8\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p16.1"), even as they were "scattered into all the winds" ( Eze 5:10; 12:14; 17:21\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p16.2"; compare Re 7:1, 4\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p16.3").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p16.4"10.Such honor God gives to the divine word, even in the mouth of a man. How much more when in the mouth of the Son of God! ( Joh 5:25-29\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p17.1"). Though this chapter does not \idirectly\iprove the resurrection of the dead, it does so \iindirectly;\ifor it takes for granted the future fact as one recognized by believing Jews, and so made the image of their national restoration (so Isa 25:8; 26:19; Da 12:2; Ho 6:2; 13:14\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p17.2"; compare \iNote,\isee on).
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p17.5"11. Our bones are dried--( Ps 141:7\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p18.1"), explained by "our hope is lost" ( Isa 49:14\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p18.2"); our national state is as hopeless of resuscitation, as marrowless bones are of reanimation.
      
cut off for our parts--that is, so far as we are concerned. There is nothing in us to give hope, like a withered branch "cut off" from a tree, or a limb from the body.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p19.1"12. my people--in antithesis to "for our parts" ( Eze 37:11\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p20.1"). The hope that is utterly gone, if looking at \ithemselves,\iis sure for them in \iGod,\ibecause He regards them as \iHis\ipeople. Their covenant relation to God ensures His not letting death permanently reign over them. Christ makes the same principle the ground on which the literal resurrection rests. God had said, "I am the God of Abraham," &c.; God, by taking the patriarchs as \iHis,\iundertook to do for them all that Omnipotence can perform: He, being the ever living God, is necessarily the God of, not dead, but living persons, that is, of those whose bodies His covenant love binds Him to raise again. He can--and because He can--He will--He must [Fairbairn]. He calls them " \iMy\ipeople" when receiving them into favor; but " \ithy\ipeople," in addressing His servant, as if He would put them away from Him ( Eze 13:17; 33:2; Ex 32:7\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p20.3").
      
out of your graves--out of your politically dead state, primarily in Babylon, finally hereafter in all lands (compare Eze 6:8; Ho 13:14\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p21.1"). The Jews regarded the lands of their captivity and dispersion as their "graves"; their restoration was to be as "life from the dead" ( Ro 11:15\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p21.2"). Before, the bones were in the open plain ( Eze 37:1, 2\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p21.3"); now, in the graves, that is, some of the Jews were in the graves of actual captivity, others at large but dispersed. Both alike were nationally dead.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p21.4" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p21.5" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p21.6" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p21.7"16. stick--alluding to Nu 17:2\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p22.1", the tribal rod. The union of the two rods was a prophecy in action of the brotherly union which is to reunite the ten tribes and Judah. As their severance under Jeroboam was fraught with the greatest evil to the covenant-people, so the first result of both being joined by the spirit of life to God is that they become joined to one another under the one covenant King, Messiah-David.
      
Judah, and ... children of Israel his companions--that is, Judah and, besides Benjamin and Levi, those who had joined themselves to him of Ephraim, Manasseh, Simeon, Asher, Zebulun, Issachar, as having the temple and lawful priesthood in his borders ( 2Ch 11:12, 13, 16; 15:9; 30:11, 18\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p23.1"). The latter became identified with Judah after the carrying away of the ten tribes, and returned with Judah from Babylon, and so shall be associated with that tribe at the future restoration.
      
For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim--Ephraim's posterity took the lead, not only of the other descendants of Joseph (compare Eze 37:19\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p24.1"), but of the ten tribes of Israel. For four hundred years, during the period of the judges, with Manasseh and Benjamin, its dependent tribes, it had formerly taken the lead: Shiloh was its religious capital; Shechem, its civil capital. God had transferred the birthright from Reuben (for dishonoring his father's bed) to Joseph, whose representative, Ephraim, though the younger, was made ( Ge 48:19; 1Ch 5:1\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p24.2"). From its pre-eminence "Israel" is attached to it as "companions." The "all" in this case, not in that of Judah, which has only attached as "companions" "the children of Israel" (that is, some of them, namely, those who followed the fortunes of Judah), implies that the \ibulk\iof the ten tribes did not return at the restoration from Babylon, but are distinct from Judah, until the coming union with it at the restoration.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p24.3" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p24.4"18.God does not explain the symbolical prophecy until the Jews have been stimulated by the type to consult the prophet.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p25.1"19.The union effected at the restoration from Babylon embraced but comparatively few of Israel; a future complete fulfilment must therefore be looked for.
      
stick of Joseph ... in the hand of Ephraim--Ephraim, of the descendants of Joseph, had exercised the rule among the ten tribes: that rule, symbolized by the "stick," was now to be withdrawn from him, and to be made one with the other, Judah's rule, in God's hand.
      
them--the " \istick\iof Joseph," would strictly require "it"; but Ezekiel expresses the sense, namely, the ten tribes who were subject to it.
      
with him--that is, Judah; or "it," that is, the stick of Judah.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p29.1" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p29.2" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p29.3"22. one nation--( Isa 11:13; Jer 3:18; Ho 1:11\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p30.1").
      
one king--not Zerubbabel, who was not a king either in fact or name, and who ruled over but a few Jews, and that only for a few years; whereas the King here reigns for ever.Messiahis meant ( Eze 34:23, 24\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p31.2"). The union of Judah and Israel under King Messiah symbolizes the union of Jews and Gentiles under Him, partly now, perfectly hereafter ( Eze 37:24; Joh 10:16\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p31.3").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p31.4"23.( Eze 36:25\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p32.1").
      
out of ... their dwelling-places--( Eze 36:28, 33\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p33.1"). I will remove them from the scene of their idolatries to dwell in their own land, and to serve idols no more.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p33.2"24. David--Messiah (See on).
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p34.3"25. for ever--( Isa 60:21; Joe 3:20; Am 9:15\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p35.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p35.2"26. covenant of peace--better than the old legal covenant, because an unchangeable covenant of grace ( Eze 34:25; Isa 55:3; Jer 32:40\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p36.1").
      
I will place them--set them in an established position; no longer unsettled as heretofore.
      
my sanctuary--the temple of God; spiritual in the heart of all true followers of Messiah ( 2Co 6:16\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p38.1"); and, in some literal sense, in the restored Israel ( Eze 40:1-44:31\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p38.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p38.3"27. My tabernacle ... with them--as foretold ( Ge 9:27\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p39.1"); Joh 1:14\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p39.2", "The Word ... \idwelt\iamong us" (literally, "tabernacled"); first, in humiliation; hereafter, in manifested glory ( Re 21:3\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p39.3").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p39.4"28.( Eze 36:23\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p40.1").
      
sanctify Israel--set it apart as holy unto Myself and inviolable ( Ex 19:5, 6\Q="x.xxvi.xxxviii-p41.1").
      

\C3="Chapter 38" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p0.1"CHAPTER 38
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p1.1" Eze 38:1-23\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p2.1".The Assault of Gog, and God's Judgment on Him.
      
The objections to a \iliteral\iinterpretation of the prophecy are--(1) The ideal nature of the name Gog, which is the root of Magog, the only kindred name found in Scripture or history. (2) The nations congregated are selected from places most distant from Israel, and from one another, and therefore most unlikely to act in concert (Persians and Libyans, &c.). (3) The whole spoil of Israel could not have given a handful to a tithe of their number, or maintained the myriads of invaders a single day ( Eze 38:12, 13\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p3.1"). (4) The wood of their invaders' weapons was to serve for fuel to Israel for seven years! And \iall\iIsrael were to take seven months in burying the dead! Supposing a million of Israelites to bury each two corpses a day, the aggregate buried in the hundred eighty working days of the seven months would be three hundred sixty millions of corpses! Then the pestilential vapors from such masses of victims before they were all buried! What Israelite could live in such an atmosphere? (5) The scene of the Lord's controversy here is different from that in Isa 34:6\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p3.2", Edom, which creates a discrepancy. (But probably a different judgment is alluded to). (6) The gross carnality of the representation of God's dealings with His adversaries is inconsistent with Messianic times. It therefore requires a non-literal interpretation. The prophetical delineations of the divine principles of government are thrown into the familiar forms of Old Testament relations. The final triumph of Messiah's truth over the most distant and barbarous nations is represented as a literal conflict on a gigantic scale, Israel being the battlefield, ending in the complete triumph of Israel's anointed King, the Saviour of the world. It is a \iprophetical\iparable [Fairbairn]. However, though the \idetails\iare not literal, the distinctiveness in this picture, characterizing also parallel descriptions in writers less ideally picturesque than Ezekiel, gives probability to a more definite and generally literal interpretation. The awful desolations caused in Judea by Antiochus Epiphanes, of Syria (1 Maccabees; andPorphyry, quoted byJeromeon Ezekiel), his defilement of Jehovah's temple by sacrificing swine and sprinkling the altar with the broth, and setting up the altar of Jupiter Olympius, seem to be an earnest of the final desolations to be caused by Antichrist in Israel, previous to His overthrow by the Lord Himself, coming to reign (compare Da 8:10-26; 11:21-45; 12:1; Zec 13:9; 14:2, 3\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p3.6").Grotiusexplains Gog as a name taken from Gyges, king of Lydia; and Magog as Syria, in which was a city called Magog [Pliny, 5.28]. What Ezekiel stated more generally, Re 20:7-9\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p3.9"states more definitely as to the anti-Christian confederacy which is to assail the beloved city.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p3.10"2. Gog--the prince of the land of Magog. The title was probably a common one of the kings of the country, as "Pharaoh" in Egypt. Chakan was the name given by the Northern Asiatics to their king, and is still a title of the Turkish sultan: "Gog" may be a contraction of this. In Ezekiel's time a horde of northern Asiatics, termed by the Greeks "Scythians," and probably including the Moschi and Tibareni, near the Caucasus, here ("Meshech ... Tubal") undertook an expedition against Egypt [Herodotus, 1.103-106]. These names might be adopted by Ezekiel from the historical fact familiar to men at the time, as ideal titles for the great last anti-Christian confederacy.
      
Magog--( Ge 10:2; 1Ch 1:5\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p5.1"). The name of a land belonging to Japheth's posterity. \iMaha,\iin Sanskrit, means "land." Gog is the ideal political head of the region. In Re 20:8\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p5.2", Gog and Magog are two peoples.
      
the chief prince--rather, "prince of \iRosh,\i" or " \iRhos\i" [ \iSeptuagint\i]. The Scythian Tauri in the Crimea were so called. The Araxes also was called "Rhos." The modern Russians may have hence \iassumed\itheir name, as Moscow and Tobolsk from Meshech and Tubal, though their \iproper\iancient name was \iSlavi,\ior \iWends.\iHengstenbergsupports \iEnglish Version,\ias "Rosh" is not found in the Bible. "Magog was Gog's original kingdom, though he acquired also Meshech and Tubal, so as to be called their \ichief prince.\i"
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p6.2"3.His high-sounding titles are repeated to imply the haughty self-confidence of the invader as if invincible.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p7.1"4. turn thee back--as a refractory wild beast, which thinks to take its own way, but is bent by a superior power to turn on a course which must end in its destruction. Satan shall be, by overruling Providence, permitted to deceive them to their ruin ( Re 20:7, 8\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p8.1").
      
hooks into thy jaws--( Eze 29:4; 2Ki 19:28\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p9.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p9.2"5. Persia ... Libya--expressly specified byAppianas supplying the ranks of Antiochus' army.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p10.2"6. Gomer--the Celtic Cimmerians of Crim-Tartary.
      
Togarmah--the Armenians of the Caucasus, south of Iberia.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p12.1"7.Irony. Prepare thee and all thine with all needful accoutrements for war--that ye may perish together.
      
be ... a guard unto them--that is, \iif thou canst.\i
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p14.1"8. thou shall be visited--in wrath, by God ( Isa 29:6\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p15.1"). Probably there is allusion to Isa 24:21, 22\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p15.2", "The host of the high ones ... shall be gathered ... as prisoners ... in the pit ... and \iafter many days shall they be visited.\i" I therefore prefer \iEnglish Version\itoGrotiusrendering, "Thou shalt get \ithe command\i" of the expedition. The "after many days" is defined by "in the latter years," that is, in the times just before the coming of Messiah, namely, under Antiochus, before His first coming; under Antichrist, before His second coming.
      
the mountains of Israel ... always waste--that is, waste during the long period of the captivity, the earnest of the much longer period of Judea's present desolation (to which the language "always waste" more fully applies). This marks the impious atrocity of the act, to assail God's people, who had only begun to recover from their protracted calamities.
      
but it is brought ... and they shall dwell--rather, "And they (the Israelites) were brought ... dwelt safely" [Fairbairn]. \iEnglish Version\imeans, "Against Israel, which has been waste, but which (that is, whose people) is now (at the time of the invasion) brought forth out of the nations where they were dispersed, and shall be found by the invader dwelling securely, so as to seem an easy prey to him."
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p17.2"9. cloud to cover the land--with the multitude of thy forces.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p18.1"10. an evil thought--as to attacking God's people in their defenseless state.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p19.1"11. dwell safely--that is, securely, without fear of danger (compare Es 9:19\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p20.1"). Antiochus, the type of Antichrist, took Jerusalem without a blow.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p20.2"12. midst of the land--literally, "the navel" of the land ( Jud 9:37\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p21.1", \iMargin\i). So, in Eze 5:5\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p21.2", Israel is said to be set "in the midst of the nations"; not physically, but morally, a central position for being a blessing to the world: so (as the favored or "beloved city," Re 20:9\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p21.3") an object of envy.Grotiustranslates, "In the \iheight\iof the land" (so Eze 38:8\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p21.5"), "the mountains of Israel," Israel being morally elevated above the rest of the world.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p21.6"13. Sheba,&c.--These mercantile peoples, though not taking an active part against the cause of God, are well pleased to see others do it. Worldliness makes them ready to deal in the ill-gotten spoil of the invaders of God's people. Gain is before godliness with them ( 1 Maccabees 3:41\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p22.1").
      
young lions--daring princes and leaders.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p23.1"14. shalt thou not know it?--to thy cost, being visited with punishment, while Israel dwells safely.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p24.1" \Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p24.2"16. I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me--So in Ex 9:16\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p25.1", God tells Pharaoh, "For this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee My power; and that My name may be declared throughout all the earth."
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p25.2"17. thou he of whom I have spoken in old time--Gog, &c. are here identified with the enemies spoken of in other prophecies ( Nu 24:17-24; Isa 27:1\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p26.1"; compare Isa 26:20, 21; Jer 30:23, 24; Joe 3:1; Mic 5:5, 6; Isa 14:12-14; 59:19\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p26.2"). God is represented as addressing Gog at the time of his assault; therefore, the "old time" is the time long prior, when Ezekiel uttered these prophecies; so, he also, as well as Daniel ( Da 11:1-45\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p26.3") and Zechariah ( Zec 14:1-21\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p26.4") are included among "the prophets of Israel" here.
      
many years--ago.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p27.1"18. fury shall come up in my face--literally, "nose"; in \iHebrew,\ithe idiomatic expression for \ianger,\ias men in anger breathe strongly through the nostrils. Anthropopathy: God stooping to human modes of thought ( Ps 18:8\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p28.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p28.2"19. great shaking--an earthquake: physical agitations after accompanying social and moral revolutions. Foretold also in Joe 3:16\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p29.1"; (compare Hag 2:6, 7; Mt 24:7, 29; Re 16:18\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p29.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p29.3"20. fishes--disturbed by the fleets which I will bring.
      
fowls,&c.--frightened at the sight of so many men: an ideal picture.
      
mountains--that is, the fortresses on the mountains.
      
steep places--literally, "stairs" ( So 2:14\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p33.1"); steep terraces for vines on the sides of hills, to prevent the earth being washed down by the rains.
      
every wall--of towns.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p34.1"21. every man's sword ... against his brother--I will destroy them partly by My people's sword, partly by their swords being turned against one another (compare 2Ch 20:23\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p35.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p35.2"22. plead--a forensic term; because God in His inflictions acts on the principles of His own immutable \ijustice,\inot by arbitrary impulse ( Isa 66:16; Jer 25:31\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p36.1").
      
blood ... hailstones, fire--( Re 8:7; 16:21\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p37.1"). The imagery is taken from the destruction of Sodom and the plagues of Egypt (compare Ps 11:6\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p37.2"). Antiochus died by "pestilence" ( 2 Maccabees 9:5\Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p37.3").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xxxix-p37.4"
\C3="Chapter 39" \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p0.1"CHAPTER 39
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p1.1" Eze 39:1-29\Q="x.xxvi.xl-p2.1".Continuation of the Prophecy against Gog.
      
1.Repeated from Eze 38:3\Q="x.xxvi.xl-p3.1", to impress the prophecy more on the mind.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p3.2"2. leave but the sixth part of thee-- \iMargin,\i"strike thee with six plagues" (namely, pestilence, blood, overflowing rain, hailstones, fire, brimstone, Eze 38:22\Q="x.xxvi.xl-p4.1"); or, "draw thee back with an hook of six teeth" ( Eze 38:4\Q="x.xxvi.xl-p4.2"), the six teeth being those six plagues. Rather, "lead thee about" [Ludovicus De Dieuand \iSeptuagint\i]. As Antiochus was led (to his ruin) to leave Egypt for an expedition against Palestine, so shall the last great enemy of God be.
      
north parts--from the extreme north [Fairbairn].
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p5.2"3. bow--in which the Scythians were most expert.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p6.1"4, 5.(Compare Eze 39:17-20\Q="x.xxvi.xl-p7.1").
      
upon the mountains of Israel--The scene of Israel's preservation shall be that of the ungodly foe's destruction.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p8.1" \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p8.2"6. carelessly--in self-confident security.
      
the isles--Those dwelling in maritime regions, who had helped Gog with fleets and troops, shall be visited with the fire of God's wrath in their own lands.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p10.1"7. not let them pollute my holy name--by their sins bringing down judgments which made the heathen think that I was unable or unwilling to save My people.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p11.1"8. it is come ... it is done--The prediction of the salvation of My people, and the ruin of their enemy, is come to pass--is done: expressing that the event foretold is as certain as if it were already accomplished.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p12.1"9, 10.The burning of the foe's weapons implies that nothing belonging to them should be left to pollute the land. The \iseven\iyears ( \iseven\ibeing the sacred number) spent on this work, implies the completeness of the cleansing, and the people's zeal for purity. How different from the ancient Israelites, who left not merely the arms, but the heathen themselves, to remain among them [Fairbairn], ( Jud 1:27, 28; 2:2, 3; Ps 106:34-36\Q="x.xxvi.xl-p13.2"). The desolation by Antiochus began in the one hundred and forty-first year of the Seleucidæ. From this date to 148, a period of six years and four months ("2300 days," Da 8:14\Q="x.xxvi.xl-p13.3"), when the temple-worship was restored ( 1 Maccabees 4:52\Q="x.xxvi.xl-p13.4"), God vouchsafed many triumphs to His people; from this time to the death of Antiochus, early in 149, a period of seven months, the Jews had rest from Antiochus, and purified their land, and on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month celebrated the Encænia, or feast of dedication ( Joh 10:22\Q="x.xxvi.xl-p13.5") and purification of the temple. The whole period, in round numbers, was seven years. Mattathias was the patriotic Jewish leader, and his third son, Judas, the military commander under whom the Syrian generals were defeated. He retook Jerusalem and purified the temple. Simon and Jonathan, his brothers, succeeded him: the independence of the Jews was secured, and the crown vested in the Asmonean family, in which it continued till Herod the Great.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p13.6" \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p13.7"11. place ... of graves--Gog found only a grave where he had expected the spoils of conquest.
      
valley--So vast were to be the masses that nothing but a deep valley would suffice for their corpses.
      
the passengers on the east of the sea--those travelling on the high road, east of the Dead Sea, from Syria to Petra and Egypt. The publicity of the road would cause many to observe God's judgments, as the stench (as \iEnglish Version\itranslates) or the multitude of graves (asHendersontranslates, "it shall \istop the passengers\i") would arrest the attention of passers-by. Their grave would be close to that of their ancient prototypes, Sodom and Gomorrah in the Dead Sea, both alike being signal instances of God's judgments.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p16.2" \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p16.3"13. I ... glorified--in destroying the foe ( Eze 28:22\Q="x.xxvi.xl-p17.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p17.2"14. with the passengers--The men employed continually in the burying were to be helped by those happening to pass by; all were to combine.
      
after the end of seven months shall they search--to see if the work was complete [Munster].
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p19.2"15.First " \iall\ithe people of the land" engaged in the burying for seven months; then special men were employed, at the end of the seven months, to search for any still left unburied. The passers-by helped them by setting up a mark near any such bones, in order to keep others from being defiled by casually touching them, and that the buriers might come and remove them. Denoting the minute care to put away every relic of heathen pollution from the Holy Land.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p20.1"16.A city in the neighborhood was to receive the name Hamonah, "multitude," to commemorate the overthrow of the multitudes of the foe [Henderson]. The multitude of the slain shall give a name to the city of Jerusalem after the land shall have been cleansed [Grotius]. Jerusalem shall be famed as the conqueror of multitudes.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p21.3"17.( Re 19:17\Q="x.xxvi.xl-p22.1").
      
sacrifice--Anciently worshippers feasted on the sacrifices. The birds and beasts of prey are invited to the sacrificial feast provided by God (compare Isa 18:6; 34:6; Zep 1:7; Mr 9:49\Q="x.xxvi.xl-p23.1"). Here this sacrifice holds only a subordinate place in the picture, and so is put last. Not only shall their bones lie long unburied, but they shall be stripped of the flesh by beasts and birds of prey.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p23.2"18. rams ... lambs ... goats--By these various animal victims used in sacrifices are meant various ranks of men, princes, generals, and soldiers (compare Isa 34:6\Q="x.xxvi.xl-p24.1").
      
fatlings of Bashan--ungodly men of might ( Ps 22:12\Q="x.xxvi.xl-p25.1"). Bashan, beyond Jordan, was famed for its fat cattle. Fat implies prosperity which often makes men refractory towards God ( De 32:14, 15\Q="x.xxvi.xl-p25.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p25.3" \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p25.4"20. my table--the field of battle on the mountains of Israel ( Eze 38:8, 20\Q="x.xxvi.xl-p26.1").
      
chariots--that is, charioteers.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p27.1" \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p27.2"22. So the house of Israel shall know ... Lord--by My interposition for them. So, too, the heathen shall be led to fear the name of the Lord ( Ps 102:15\Q="x.xxvi.xl-p28.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p28.2"23. hid I my face--( De 31:17; Isa 59:2\Q="x.xxvi.xl-p29.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p29.2" \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p29.3"25. bring again the captivity--restore from calamity to prosperity.
      
the whole house of Israel--so " \iall\iIsrael" ( Ro 11:26\Q="x.xxvi.xl-p31.1"). The restorations of Israel heretofore have been partial; there must be one yet future that is to be \iuniversal\i( Ho 1:11\Q="x.xxvi.xl-p31.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p31.3"26. After that they have borne their shame--the punishment of their sin: after they have become sensible of their guilt, and ashamed of it ( Eze 20:43; 36:31\Q="x.xxvi.xl-p32.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p32.2"27. sanctified in them--vindicated as holy in My dealings with them.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p33.1"28.The Jews, having no dominion, settled country, or fixed property to detain them, may return at any time without difficulty (compare Ho 3:4, 5\Q="x.xxvi.xl-p34.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xl-p34.2"29. poured out my Spirit upon ... Israel--the sure forerunner of their conversion ( Joe 2:28; Zec 12:10\Q="x.xxvi.xl-p35.1"). The pouring out of His Spirit is a pledge that He will hide His face no more ( 2Co 1:22; Eph 1:14; Php 1:6\Q="x.xxvi.xl-p35.2").
      

\C3="Chapter 40" \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p0.1"CHAPTER 40
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p1.1" Eze 40:1-49\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p2.1".The Remaining Chapters, the Fortieth through Forty-eighth, Give an Ideal Picture of the Restored Jewish Temple.
      
The arrangements as to the land and the temple are, in many particulars, different from those subsisting before the captivity. There are things in it so improbable physically as to preclude a \ipurely\iliteral interpretation. The general truth seems to hold good that, as Israel served the nations for his rejection of Messiah, so shall they serve him in the person of Messiah, when he shall acknowledge Messiah ( Isa 60:12; Zec 14:17-19\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p3.1"; compare Ps 72:11\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p3.2"). The ideal temple exhibits, under Old Testament forms (used as being those then familiar to the men whom Ezekiel, a priest himself, and one who delighted in sacrificial images, addresses), not the precise literal outline, but \ithe essential character\iof the worship of Messiah as it shall be when He shall exercise sway in Jerusalem among His own people, the Jews, and thence to the ends of the earth. The very fact that the whole is a vision ( Eze 40:2\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p3.3"), not an oral face-to-face communication such as that granted to Moses ( Nu 12:6-8\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p3.4"), implies that the directions are not to be understood so precisely literally as those given to the Jewish lawgiver. The description involves things which, taken literally, almost involve natural impossibilities. The square of the temple, in Eze 42:20\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p3.5", is six times as large as the circuit of the wall enclosing the old temple, and larger than all the earthly Jerusalem. Ezekiel gives three and a half miles and one hundred forty yards to his temple square. The boundaries of the ancient city were about two and a half miles. Again, the city in Ezekiel has an area between three or four thousand square miles, including the holy ground set apart for the prince, priests, and Levites. This is nearly as large as the whole of Judea west of the Jordan. As Zion lay in the center of the ideal city, the one-half of the sacred portion extended to nearly thirty miles south of Jerusalem, that is, covered nearly the whole southern territory, which reached only to the Dead Sea ( Eze 47:19\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p3.6"), and yet five tribes were to have their inheritance on that side of Jerusalem, \ibeyond\ithe sacred portion ( Eze 48:23-28\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p3.7"). Where was land to be found for them there? A breadth of but four or five miles apiece would be left. As the boundaries of the land are given the same as under Moses, these incongruities cannot be explained away by supposing physical changes about to be effected in the land such as will meet the difficulties of the purely literal interpretation. The distribution of the land is in equal portions among the twelve tribes, without respect to their relative numbers, and the parallel sections running from east to west. There is a difficulty also in the supposed separate existence of the twelve tribes, such separate tribeships no longer existing, and it being hard to imagine how they could be restored as distinct tribes, mingled as they now are. So the stream that issued from the east threshold of the temple and flowed into the Dead Sea, in the rapidity of its increase and the quality of its waters, is unlike anything ever known in Judea or elsewhere in the world. Lastly, the catholicity of the Christian dispensation, and the spirituality of its worship, seem incompatible with a return to the local narrowness and "beggarly elements" of the Jewish ritual and carnal ordinances, disannulled "because of the unprofitableness thereof" [Fairbairn], ( Ga 4:3, 9; 5:1; Heb 9:10; 10:18\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p3.9"). "A temple with sacrifices now would be a denial of the all-sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ. He who sacrificed before confessed the Messiah. He who should sacrifice now would solemnly deny Him" [Douglas]. These difficulties, however, may be all \iseeming,\inot real. Faith accepts God's Word as it is, waits for the event, sure that it will clear up all such difficulties. Perhaps, as some think, the beau ideal of a sacred commonwealth is given according to the then existing pattern of temple services, which would be the imagery most familiar to the prophet and his hearers at the time. The minute particularizing of details is in accordance with Ezekiel's style, even in describing purely ideal scenes. The old temple embodied in visible forms and rites spiritual truths affecting the people even when absent from it. So this ideal temple is made in the absence of the outward temple to serve by description the same purpose of symbolical instruction as the old literal temple did by forms and acts. As in the beginning God promised to be a "sanctuary" ( Eze 11:16\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p3.11") to the captives at the Chebar, so now at the close is promised a complete restoration and realization of the theocratic worship and polity under Messiah in its noblest ideal (compare Jer 31:38-40\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p3.12"). In Re 21:22\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p3.13""no temple" is seen, as in the perfection of the new dispensation the accidents of place and form are no longer needed to realize to Christians what Ezekiel imparts to Jewish minds by the imagery familiar to them. In Ezekiel's temple holiness stretches over the entire temple, so that in this there is no longer a distinction between the different parts, as in the old temple: parts left undeterminate in the latter obtain now a divine sanction, so that all arbitrariness is excluded. So that it is be a perfect manifestation of the love of God to His covenant-people ( Eze 40:1-43:12\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p3.14"); and from it, as from a new center of religious life, there gushes forth the fulness of blessings to them, and so to all people ( Eze 47:1-23\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p3.15") [FairbairnandHavernick]. The temple built at the return from Babylon can only very partially have realized the model here given. The law is seemingly opposed to the gospel ( Mt 5:21, 22, 27, 28, 33, 34\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p3.18"). It is not really so (compare Mt 5:17, 18; Ro 3:31; Ga 3:21, 22\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p3.19"). It is true Christ's sacrifice superseded the law sacrifices ( Heb 10:12-18\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p3.20"). Israel's province may hereafter be to show the essential identity, even in the minute details of the temple sacrifices, between the law and gospel ( Ro 10:8\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p3.21"). The ideal of the theocratic temple will then first be realized.
      
1. beginning of the year--the ecclesiastical year, the first month of which was Nisan.
      
the city ... thither--Jerusalem, the center to which all the prophet's thoughts tended.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p5.1"2. visions of God--divinely sent visions.
      
very high mountain--Moriah, very high, as compared with the plains of Babylon, still more so as to its \imoral\ielevation ( Eze 17:22; 20:40\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p7.1").
      
by which--Ezekiel coming from the north is set down \iat\i(as the \iHebrew\ifor "upon" may be translated) Mount Moriah, and sees the city-like frame of the temple stretching \isouthward.\iIn Eze 40:3\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p8.1", "God brings him thither," that is, close up to it, so as to inspect it minutely (compare Re 21:10\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p8.2"). In this closing vision, as in the opening one of the book, the divine hand is laid on the prophet, and he is borne away in the visions of God. But the scene there was by the Chebar, Jehovah having forsaken Jerusalem; now it is the mountain of God, Jehovah having returned thither; there, the vision was calculated to inspire terror; here, hope and assurance.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p8.3"3. man--The Old Testament manifestations of heavenly beings as \imen\iprepared men's minds for the coming incarnation.
      
brass--resplendent.
      
line--used for longer measurements ( Zec 2:1\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p11.1").
      
reed--used in measuring houses ( Re 21:15\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p12.1"). It marked the straightness of the walls.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p12.2" \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p12.3"5.Measures were mostly taken from the human body. The \igreater cubit,\ithe length from the elbow to the end of the middle finger, a little more than two feet: exceeding the ordinary \icubit\i(from the elbow to the wrist) by an hand-breadth, that is, twenty-one inches in all. Compare Eze 43:13, with Eze 40:5\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p13.1". The \ipalm\iwas the full breadth of the hand, three and a half inches.
      
breadth of the building--that is, the boundary wall. The imperfections in the old temple's boundary wall were to have no place here. The buildings attached to it had been sometimes turned to common uses; for example, Jeremiah was imprisoned in one ( Jer 20:2; 29:26\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p14.1"). But now all these were to be holy to the Lord. The gates and doorways to the city of God were to be imprinted in their architecture with the idea of the exclusion of everything defiled ( Re 21:27\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p14.2"). The east gate was to be especially sacred, as it was through it the glory of God had departed ( Eze 11:23\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p14.3"), and through it the glory was to return ( Eze 43:1, 2; 44:2, 3\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p14.4").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p14.5"6. the stairs--seven in number ( Eze 40:26\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p15.1").
      
threshold--the sill [Fairbairn].
      
other threshold--Fairbairnconsiders there is but one threshold, and translates, "even the one threshold, one rod broad." But there is another threshold mentioned in Eze 40:7\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p17.2". The two thresholds here seem to be the upper and the lower.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p17.3"7. chamber--These chambers were for the use of the Levites who watched at the temple gates; \iguard-chambers\i( 2Ki 22:4; 1Ch 9:26, 27\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p18.1"); also used for storing utensils and musical instruments.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p18.2" \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p18.3"9. posts--projecting column-faced fronts of the sides of the doorway, opposite to one another.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p19.1" \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p19.2" \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p19.3"12. space--rather, "the boundary."
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p20.1" \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p20.2" \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p20.3" \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p20.4"16. narrow--latticed [Henderson]. The ancients had no glass, so they had them latticed, narrow in the interior of the walls, and widening at the exterior. "Made fast," or "firmly fixed in the chambers" [Maurer].
      
arches--rather, "porches."
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p22.1"17. pavement--tesselated mosaic ( Es 1:6\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p23.1").
      
chambers--serving as lodgings for the priests on duty in the temple, and as receptacles of the tithes of salt, wine, and oil.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p24.1"18.The higher pavement was level with the entrance of the gates, the lower was on either side of the raised pavement thus formed. Whereas Solomon's temple had an outer court open to alterations and even idolatrous innovations ( 2Ki 23:11, 12; 1Ch 20:5\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p25.1"), in this there was to be no room for human corruptions. Its compass was exactly defined, one hundred cubits; and the fine pavement implied it was to be trodden only by clean feet (compare Isa 35:8\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p25.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p25.3" \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p25.4"20-27.The different approaches corresponded in plan. In the case of these two other gates, however, no mention is made of a building with thirty chambers such as was found on the east side. Only one was needed, and it was assigned to the east as being the sacred quarter, and that most conveniently situated for the officiating priests.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p26.1" \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p26.2" \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p26.3"23. and toward the east--an elliptical expression for "The gate of the inner court was over against the (outer) gate toward the north (just as the inner gate was over against the outer gate) toward the east."
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p27.1" \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p27.2" \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p27.3" \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p27.4" \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p27.5"28-37.The inner court and its gates.
      
according to these measures--namely, the measures of the outer gate. The figure and proportions of the inner answered to the outer.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p29.1" \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p29.2"30.This verse is omitted in the \iSeptuagint,\ithe Vatican manuscript, and others. The dimensions here of the inner gate do not correspond to the outer, though Eze 40:28\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p30.1"asserts that they do.Havernick, retaining the verse, understands it of another porch looking inwards toward the temple.
      
arches--the porch [Fairbairn]; the columns on which the arches rest [Henderson].
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p31.3"31. eight steps--The outer porch had only \iseven\i( Eze 40:26\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p32.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p32.2" \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p32.3" \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p32.4" \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p32.5" \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p32.6" \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p32.7"37. posts--the \iSeptuagint\iand \iVulgate\iread, "the porch," which answers better to Eze 40:31-34\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p33.1". "The arches" or "porch" [Maurer].
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p33.3"38. chambers ... entries--literally, "a chamber and its door."
      
by the posts--that is, \iat\ior \iclose by\ithe posts or \icolumns.\i
      
where they washed the burnt offering--This does not apply to all the gates but only to the north gate. For Le 1:11\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p36.1"directs the sacrifices to be killed north of the altar; and Eze 8:5\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p36.2"calls the north gate, "the gate of the altar." And Eze 40:40\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p36.3"particularly mentions the \inorth gate.\i
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p36.4" \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p36.5" \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p36.6" \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p36.7" \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p36.8"43. hooks--cooking apparatus for cooking the flesh of the sacrifices that fell to the priests. The hooks were "fastened" in the walls within the apartment, to hang the meat from, so as to roast it. The \iHebrew\icomes from a root "fixed" or "placed."
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p37.1"44. the chambers of the singers--two in number, as proved by what follows: "and their prospect (that is, the prospect of \ione\i) was toward the south, (and) one toward the north." So the \iSeptuagint.\i
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p38.1" \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p38.2"46. Zadok--lineally descended from Aaron. He had the high priesthood conferred on him by Solomon, who had set aside the family of Ithamar because of the part which Abiathar had taken in the rebellion of Adonijah ( 1Ki 1:7; 2:26, 27\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p39.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p39.2"47. court, an hundred cubits ... foursquare--not to be confounded with the inner court, or court of Israel, which was open to all who had sacrifices to bring, and went round the three sides of the sacred territory, one hundred cubits broad. This court was one hundred cubits square, and had the altar in it, in front of the temple. It was the court of the priests, and hence is connected with those who had charge of the altar and the music. The description here is brief, as the things connected with this portion were from the first divinely regulated.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p40.1"48, 49.These two verses belong to the forty-first chapter, which treats of the temple itself.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xli-p41.1"49. twenty ... eleven cubits--in Solomon's temple ( 1Ki 6:3\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p42.1") "twenty ... \iten\icubits." The breadth perhaps was ten \iand a half;\i 1Ki 6:3\Q="x.xxvi.xli-p42.2"designates the number by the \ilesser\inext round number, "ten"; Ezekiel here, by the \ilarger\inumber, "eleven" [Menochius]. The \iSeptuagint\ireads "twelve."
      
he brought me by the steps--They were \iten\iin number [ \iSeptuagint\i].
      

\C3="Chapter 41" \Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p0.1"CHAPTER 41
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p1.1" Eze 41:1-26\Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p2.1".The Chambers and Ornaments of the Temple.
      
1. tabernacle--As in the measurement of the outer porch he had pointed to Solomon's \itemple,\iso here in the edifice itself, he points to the old \itabernacle,\iwhich being eight boards in breadth (each one and a half cubits broad) would make in all twelve cubits, as here. On the interior it was only ten cubits.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p3.1"2. length thereof--namely, of the holy place [Fairbairn].
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p4.2"3. inward--towards the most holy place.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p5.1"4. thereof--of the holy of holies.
      
before the temple--that is, before, or in front of the most holy place (so "temple" is used in 1Ki 6:3\Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p7.1"). The angel went in and measured it, while Ezekiel stood in front, in the only part of the temple accessible to him. The dimensions of the two apartments are the same as in Solomon's temple, since being fixed originally by God, they are regarded as finally determined.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p7.2"5. side chamber--the singular used collectively for the plural. These chambers were appendages attached to the outside of the temple, on the west, north, and south; for on the east side, the principal entrance, there were no chambers. The narrowness of the chambers was in order that the beams could be supported without needing pillars. The plan is similar to that of the hall at Koyunjik, a large central hall, called the oracle, with smaller rooms built round it.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p8.1"6. might ... hold, but ... not hold in ... wall of the house-- 1Ki 6:6\Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p9.1"tells us there were rests made in the walls of the temple for supports to the side chambers; but the temple walls did not thereby become part of this side building; they stood separate from it. "They entered," namely, the beams of the chambers, which were three-storied and thirty in consecutive order, entered into the wall, that is, were made to lean on rests projecting from the wall.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p9.2"7. the breadth ... so increased from the lowest ... to the highest--that is, the breadth of the interior space above was greater than that below.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p10.1"8. foundations ... six ... cubits--the substructure, on which the foundations rested, was a full reed of six cubits.
      
great--literally, "to the extremity" or root, namely, of the hand [Henderson]. "To the joining," or point, where the foundation of one chamber ceased and another began [Fairbairn].
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p12.3"9. that which was left--There was an unoccupied place within chambers that belonged to the house. The buildings in this unoccupied place, west of the temple, and so much resembling it in size, imply that no place was to be left which was to be held, as of old, not sacred. Manasseh ( 2Ki 23:11\Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p13.1") had abused these "suburbs of the temple" to keeping horses sacred to the sun. All excuse for such abominations was henceforth to be taken away, the Lord claiming every space, and filling up this also with sacred erections [Fairbairn].
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p13.3"10. the chambers--that is, of the priests in the court: between these and the side chambers was the wideness, &c. While long details are given as to the chambers, &c., no mention is made of the ark of the covenant.Fairbairnthus interprets this: In future there was to be a perfect conformity to the divine idea, such as there had not been before. The dwellings of His people should all become true sanctuaries of piety. Jehovah Himself, in the full display of the divine Shekinah, shall come in the room of the ark of the covenant ( Jer 3:16, 17\Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p14.2"). The interior of the temple stands empty, waiting for His entrance to fill it with His glory ( Eze 43:1-12\Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p14.3"). It is the same temple, but the courts of it have become different to accommodate a more numerous people. The entire compass of the temple mount has become a holy of holies ( Eze 43:12\Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p14.4").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p14.5" \Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p14.6"12-15.Sum of the measures of the temple, and of the buildings behind and on the side of it.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p15.1" \Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p15.2" \Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p15.3"15. galleries--terrace buildings. On the west or back of the temple, there was a separate place occupied by buildings of the same external dimensions as the temple, that is, one hundred cubits square in the entire compass [Fairbairn].
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p16.2"16. covered--being the highest windows they were "covered" from the view below. Or else "covered \iwith lattice-work.\i"
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p17.1"17. by measure--Measurements were taken [Fairbairn].
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p18.2" \Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p18.3" \Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p18.4" \Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p18.5"21. appearance of the one as the appearance of the other--The appearance of the sanctuary or holy of holies was similar to that of the temple. They differed only in magnitude.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p19.1"22. table ... before the Lord--the altar of incense ( Eze 44:16\Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p20.1"). At it, not at the table of showbread, the priests daily ministered. It stood in front of the veil, and is therefore said to be "before the Lord." It is called a table, as being that at which the Lord will take delight in His people, as at a feast. Hence its dimensions are larger than that of old--three cubits high, two broad, instead of two and one.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p20.2" \Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p20.3" \Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p20.4"25. thick planks--a thick-plank work at the threshold.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlii-p21.1"
\C3="Chapter 42" \Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p0.1"CHAPTER 42
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p1.1" Eze 42:1-20\Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p2.1".Chambers of the Priests: Measurements of the Temple.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p2.3"2. Before the length of an hundred cubits--that is, before "the separate place," which was that length ( Eze 41:13\Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p3.1"). He had before spoken of chambers for the officiating priests on the north and south gates of the inner court ( Eze 40:44-46\Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p3.2"). He now returns to take a more exact view of them.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p3.3" \Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p3.4" \Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p3.5"5. shorter--that is, the building became \inarrower\ias it rose in height. The chambers were many: so "in My Father's house are many mansions" ( Joh 14:2\Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p4.1"); and besides these there was much "room" still left (compare Lu 14:22\Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p4.2"). The chambers, though private, were near the temple. Prayer in our chambers is to prepare us for public devotions, and to help us in improving them.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p4.3" \Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p4.4" \Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p4.5" \Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p4.6" \Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p4.7" \Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p4.8" \Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p4.9" \Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p4.10" \Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p4.11" \Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p4.12" \Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p4.13"16. five hundred reeds--the \iSeptuagint\isubstitutes "cubits" for "reeds," to escape the immense compass assigned to the whole, namely, a square of five hundred rods or three thousand cubits (two feet each; Eze 40:5\Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p5.1"), in all a square of one and one-seventh miles, that is, more than all ancient Jerusalem; also, there is much space thus left unappropriated.Fairbairnrightly supports \iEnglish Version,\iwhich agrees with the \iHebrew.\iThe vast extent is another feature marking the ideal character of the temple. It symbolizes the great enlargement of the kingdom of God, when Jehovah-Messiah shall reign at Jerusalem, and from thence to the ends of the earth ( Isa 2:2-4; Jer 3:17; Ro 11:12, 15\Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p5.3").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p5.4" \Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p5.5" \Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p5.6" \Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p5.7"20. wall ... separation between ... sanctuary and ... profane--No longer shall the wall of partition be to separate the Jew and the Gentile ( Eph 2:14\Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p6.1"), but to separate the sacred from the profane. The lowness of it renders it unfit for the purpose of defense (the object of the wall, Re 21:12\Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p6.2"). But its square form (as in the city, Re 21:16\Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p6.3") is the emblem of the kingdom that cannot be shaken ( Heb 12:28\Q="x.xxvi.xliii-p6.4"), resting on prophets and apostles, Jesus Christ being the chief corner-stone.
      

\C3="Chapter 43" \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p0.1"CHAPTER 43
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p1.1" Eze 43:1-27\Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p2.1".Jehovah's Return to the Temple.
      
Everything was now ready for His reception. As the Shekinah glory was the peculiar distinction of the old temple, so it was to be in the new in a degree as much more transcendent as the proportions of the new exceeded those of the old. The fact that the Shekinah glory was not in the second temple proves that it cannot be that temple which is meant in the prophecy.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p3.1"2. the way of the east--the way whereby the glory had departed ( Eze 11:22, 23\Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p4.1"), and rested on Mount Olivet (compare Zec 14:4\Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p4.2").
      
his voice ... like ... many waters--So \iEnglish Version\irightly, as in Eze 1:24\Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p5.1", "voice of the Almighty"; Re 1:15; 14:2\Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p5.2", prove this. Not asFairbairntranslates, "its noise."
      
earth his glory--( Re 18:1\Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p6.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p6.2"3. when I came to destroy the city--that is, to pronounce God's word for its destruction. So completely did the prophets identify themselves with Him in whose name they spake.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p7.1" \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p7.2" \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p7.3"6. the man--who had been measuring the buildings ( Eze 40:3\Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p8.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p8.2"7. the place--that is, " \ibehold\ithe place of My throne"--the place on which your thoughts have so much dwelt ( Isa 2:1-3; Jer 3:17; Zec 14:16-20; Mal 3:1\Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p9.1"). God from the first claimed to be their King politically as well as religiously: and He had resisted their wish to have a human king, as implying a rejection of Him as the proper Head of the state. Even when He yielded to their wish, it was with a protest against their king ruling except as His vicegerent. When Messiah shall reign at Jerusalem, He shall then first realize the original idea of the theocracy, with its at once divine and human king reigning in righteousness over a people all righteous ( Eze 43:12; Isa 52:1; 54:13; 60:21\Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p9.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p9.3" \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p9.4"9. carcasses of their kings--It is supposed that some of their idolatrous kings were buried within the bounds of Solomon's temple [Henderson]. Rather, "the carcasses of their \iidols,\i" here called "kings," as having had lordship over them in past times ( Isa 26:13\Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p10.2"); but henceforth Jehovah, alone their rightful lord, shall be their king, and the idols that had been their "king" would appear but as "carcasses." Hence these defunct kings are associated with the "high places" in Eze 43:7\Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p10.3"[Fairbairn]. Le 26:30 and Jer 16:18\Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p10.5", confirm this. Manasseh had built altars in the courts of the temple to the host of heaven ( 2Ki 21:5; 23:6\Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p10.6").
      
I will dwell in the midst ... for ever--( Re 21:3\Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p11.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p11.2"10. show the house ... that they may be ashamed of their iniquities--When the spirituality of the Christian scheme is \ishown\ito men by the Holy Ghost, it makes them "ashamed of their iniquities."
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p12.1" \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p12.2"12. whole ... most holy--This superlative, which had been used exclusively of the holy of holies ( Ex 26:34\Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p13.1"), was now to characterize the entire building. This all-pervading sanctity was to be " \ithe\ilaw of the (whole) house," as distinguished from the Levitical law, which confined the peculiar sanctity to a single apartment of it.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p13.2"13-27.As to the altar of burnt offering, which was the appointed means of access to God.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p14.1" \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p14.2"15. altar-- \iHebrew, Harel,\ithat is, "mount of God"; denoting the high security to be imparted by it to the restored Israel. It was a high place, but a high place \iof God,\inot of idols.
      
from the altar--literally, "the lion of God," \iAriel\i(in Isa 29:1\Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p16.1", "Ariel" is applied to Jerusalem).Menochiussupposes that on it four animals were carved; the lion perhaps was the uppermost, whence the horns were made to issue.Geseniusregards the two words as expressing the "hearth" or fireplace of the altar.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p16.4"16. square in the four squares--square on the four sides of its squares [Fairbairn].
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p17.2"17. settle--ledge [Fairbairn].
      
stairs--rather, "the ascent," as "steps" up to God's altar were forbidden in Ex 20:26\Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p19.1".
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p19.2"18-27.The sacrifices here are not mere commemorative, but propitiatory ones. The expressions, "blood" ( Eze 43:18\Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p20.1"), and "for a sin offering" ( Eze 43:19, 21, 22\Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p20.2"), prove this. In the \iliteral\isense they can only apply to the second temple. Under the Christian dispensation they would directly oppose the doctrine taught in Heb 10:1-18\Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p20.3", namely, that Christ has by one offering for ever atoned for sin. However, it is \ipossible\ithat they might exist with a \iretrospective\ireference to Christ's sufferings, as the Levitical sacrifices had a \iprospective\ireference to them; not propitiatory in themselves, but memorials to keep up the remembrance of His propitiatory sufferings, which form the foundation of His kingdom, lest they should be lost sight of in the glory of that kingdom [De Burgh]. The particularity of the directions make it unlikely that they are to be understood in a merely vague spiritual sense.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p20.5" \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p20.6"20. cleanse--literally, "make expiation for."
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p21.1"21. burn it ... without the sanctuary--( Heb 13:11\Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p22.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p22.2" \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p22.3" \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p22.4" \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p22.5" \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p22.6"26. Seven days--referring to the original directions of Moses for seven days' purification services of the altar ( Ex 29:37\Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p23.1").
      
consecrate themselves--literally, "fill their hands," namely, with offerings; referring to the mode of consecrating a priest ( Ex 29:24, 35\Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p24.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p24.2"27. I will accept you--( Eze 20:40, 41; Ro 12:1; 1Pe 2:5\Q="x.xxvi.xliv-p25.1").
      

\C3="Chapter 44" \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p0.1"CHAPTER 44
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p1.1" Eze 44:1-31\Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p2.1".Ordinances for the Prince and the Priests.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p2.3"2. shut ... not be opened--( Job 12:14; Isa 22:22; Re 3:7\Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p3.1"). "Shut" to the people ( Ex 19:21, 22\Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p3.2"), but open to "the prince" ( Eze 44:3\Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p3.3"), he holding the place of God in political concerns, as the priests do in spiritual. As a mark of respect to an Eastern monarch, the gate by which he enters is thenceforth shut to all other persons (compare Ex 19:24\Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p3.4").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p3.5"3. the prince--not King Messiah, as He never would offer a burnt offering for Himself, as the prince is to do ( Eze 46:4\Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p4.1"). The prince must mean the civil ruler under Messiah. His connection with the east gate (by which the Lord had returned to His temple) implies, that, as ruling under God, he is to stand in a place of peculiar nearness to God. He represents Messiah, who entered heaven, the true sanctuary, by a way that none other could, namely, by His own holiness; all others must enter as sinners by faith in His blood, through grace.
      
eat bread before the Lord--a custom connected with sacrifices ( Ge 31:54; Ex 18:12; 24:11; 1Co 10:18\Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p5.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p5.2"4-6.Directions as to the priests. Their acts of desecration are attributed to "the house of Israel" ( Eze 44:6, 7\Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p6.1"), as the sins of the priesthood and of the people acted and reacted on one another; "like people, like priest" ( Jer 5:31; Ho 4:9\Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p6.2").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p6.3" \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p6.4" \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p6.5"7. uncircumcised in heart--Israelites circumcised outwardly, but wanting the true circumcision of the heart ( De 10:16; Ac 7:51\Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p7.1").
      
uncircumcised in flesh--not having even the outward badge of the covenant-people.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p8.1"8. keepers ... for yourselves--such as you yourselves thought fit, not such as I approve of. Or else, "Ye have not \iyourselves\ikept the charge of My holy things, but have set \iothers as\ikeepers of My charge in My sanctuary for yourselves" [Maurer].
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p9.2" \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p9.3"10, 11. Levites ... shall ... bear--namely, the punishment of
      
their iniquity ... Yet they shall be ministers--So Mark, a \iLevite,\inephew of Barnabas ( Ac 4:36\Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p11.1"), was punished by Paul for losing an opportunity of bearing the cross of Christ, and yet was afterwards admitted into his friendship again, and showed his zeal ( Ac 13:13; 15:37; Col 4:10; 2Ti 4:11\Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p11.2"). One may be a believer, and that too in a distinguished place, and yet lose some special honor--be acknowledged as pious, yet be excluded from some dignity [Bengel].
      
charge at the gates--Better to be "a doorkeeper in the house of God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness" ( Ps 84:10\Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p12.1"). Though standing as a mere doorkeeper, it is in the \ihouse\iof God, which hath foundations: whereas he who \idwells\iwith the wicked, dwells in but shifting \itents.\i
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p12.2" \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p12.3" \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p12.4" \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p12.5" \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p12.6"15. Zadok--The priests of the line of Ithamar were to be discharged from ministrations in the temple, because of their corruptions, following in the steps of Eli's sons, against whom the same denunciation was uttered ( 1Sa 2:32, 35\Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p13.1"). Zadok, according to his name (which means "righteous") and his line, were to succeed ( 1Ki 2:35; 1Ch 24:3\Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p13.2"), as they did not take part in the general apostasy to the same degree, and perhaps [Fairbairn] the prophet, referring to their original state, speaks of them as they appeared when first chosen to the office.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p13.4" \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p13.5"17. linen--symbolical of purity. Wool soon induces perspiration in the sultry East and so becomes uncleanly.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p14.1"18. bonnets--turbans.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p15.1"19. not sanctify the people with their garments--namely, those peculiarly priestly vestments in which they ministered in the sanctuary.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p16.1"20. Neither ... shave ... heads--as mourners do ( Le 21:1-5\Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p17.1"). The worshippers of the Egyptian idols Serapis and Isis shaved their heads; another reason why Jehovah's priests are not to do so.
      
nor suffer ... locks to grow long--as the luxurious, barbarians, and soldiers in warfare did [Jerome].
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p18.2"21. Neither ... wine--lest the holy enthusiasm of their devotion should be mistaken for inebriation, as in Peter's case ( Ac 2:13, 15, 18\Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p19.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p19.2" \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p19.3" \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p19.4" \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p19.5" \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p19.6" \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p19.7" \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p19.8"28. I am their inheritance--( Nu 18:20; De 10:9; 18:1; Jos 13:14, 32\Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p20.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p20.2" \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p20.3"30. give ... priest the first ... that he may cause the blessing to rest--( Pr 3:9, 10; Mal 3:10\Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p21.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlv-p21.2"
\C3="Chapter 45" \Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p0.1"CHAPTER 45
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p1.1" Eze 45:1-25\Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p2.1".Allotment of the Land for the Sanctuary, the City, and the Prince.
      
1. offer an oblation--from a \iHebrew\iroot to "heave" or "raise"; when anything was offered to God, the offerer raised the hand. The special territorial division for the tribes is given in the forty-seventh and forty-eighth chapters. Only Jehovah's portion is here subdivided into its three parts: (1) that for the sanctuary ( Eze 45:2, 3\Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p3.1"); (2) that for the priests ( Eze 45:4\Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p3.2"); (3) that for the Levites ( Eze 45:5\Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p3.3"). Compare Eze 48:8-13\Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p3.4".
      
five and twenty thousand \ireeds,\i&c.--So \iEnglish Version\irightly fills the ellipsis (compare \iNote,\isee on). Hence "cubits" are mentioned in Eze 45:2\Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p4.3", not here, implying that \ithere alone\icubits are meant. Taking each reed at twelve feet, the area of the whole would be a square of sixty miles on each side. The whole forming a square betokens the settled stability of the community and the harmony of all classes. "An holy portion of the land" ( Eze 45:1\Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p4.4") comprised the whole length, and only two-fifths of the breadth. The outer territory in its distribution harmonizes with the inner and more sacred arrangements of the sanctuary. No room is to be given for \ioppression\i(see Eze 45:8\Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p4.5"), all having ample provision made for their wants and comforts. All will mutually co-operate without constraint or contention.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p4.6" \Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p4.7" \Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p4.8" \Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p4.9" \Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p4.10" \Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p4.11"7.The prince's possession is to consist of two halves, one on the west, the other on the east, of the sacred territory. The prince, as head of the holy community, stands in closest connection with the sanctuary; his possession, therefore, on both sides must adjoin that which was peculiarly the Lord's [Fairbairn].
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p5.2" \Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p5.3" \Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p5.4" \Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p5.5" \Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p5.6"12.The standard weights were lost when the Chaldeans destroyed the temple. The threefold enumeration of shekels (twenty, twenty-five, fifteen) probably refers to coins of different value, representing respectively so many shekels, the three collectively making up a \imaneh.\iBy weighing these together against the \imaneh,\ia test was afforded whether they severally had their proper weight: sixty shekels in all, containing one coin a fourth of the whole (fifteen shekels), another a third (twenty shekels), another a third and a twelfth (twenty-five shekels) [Menochius]. The \iSeptuagint\ireads, " \ififty\ishekels shall be your \imaneh.\i"
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p6.2"13-15.In these oblations there is a progression as to the relation between the kind and the quantity: of the corn, the sixth of a tenth, that is, a sixtieth part of the quantity specified; of the oil, the tenth of a tenth, that is, an hundredth part; and of the flock, one from every two hundred.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p7.1" \Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p7.2" \Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p7.3" \Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p7.4" \Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p7.5"18.The year is to begin with a consecration service, not mentioned under the Levitical law; but an earnest of it is given in the feast of dedication of the second temple, which celebrated its purification by Judas Maccabeus, after its defilement by Antiochus.
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p8.1" \Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p8.2"20. for him that is simple--for sins of ignorance ( Le 4:2, 13, 27\Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p9.1").
      
 \Q="x.xxvi.xlvi-p9.2"21.As a new solemnity, the feast of consecration is to prepare for the passover; so the passover itself is to have different sacrifices from those of the Mosaic law. Instead of one ram and seven lambs for the daily burnt offering, there are to be seven bullocks and seven rams. So also whereas the feast of tabernacles had its own offerings, which diminished as the days of the feast advanced, here the same are appointed as on the passover. Thus it is implied that the letter of the law is to give place to its spirit, those outward rites of Judaism having no intrinsi