pride of heart against the one living God (cf. introductory note to ch. xxv.). The prophet does not pursue the destiny of the nations further, nor state how much their recognition of Jehovah implies. But cf. final notes, ch. xvi.

(1) Ch. xxv. Judgment on the smaller nations around Israel, and revelation to them of Jehovah-Ammon, Moab, Edom and the Philistines.

(2) Ch. xxvi.-xxviii. 19. Judgment on Tyre for her pride of heart, and on the prince of Tyre, who said, I am God!

(3) Ch. xxviii. 20-26. Judgment on Sidon that it may no more be a pricking briar to the house of Israel.

(4) Ch. xxix.-xxxii. Judgments on Egypt. It shall be humbled and reduced to be a base kingdom, that it may no more be a delusive stay to the house of Israel, nor seduce them from trust in Jehovah alone.

Second section, ch. xxxiii.—xxxix. Positive prophecies of the restoration of the people, and reconstitution of the kingdom of the Lord.

(1) Ch. xxxiii. The place of the prophet in preparing for the kingdom. He is a watchman, warning every individual soul that by repentance and righteousness it may live. The conditions of entering the new kingdom and of life are altogether moral, and each man shall enter it for himself (cf. final note to the ch.).

(2) Ch. xxxiv. The Ruler. The former evil shepherds, who fed themselves and not the flock, shall be removed; Jehovah himself will take in hand the feeding of his flock, and will set up one shepherd over them, even his servant David, to feed them for ever.

(3) Ch. xxxv.—xxxvi. The Land. The land of the Lord, rescued from the grasp of Edom and the nations who have usurped it, shall be given again to Israel for ever; it shall be luxuriant in fertility and teem with people.-The principle that moves the Lord to do these things for Israel is regard to his holy name, even that he may reveal himself, as he truly is, to mankind. His forgiveness and regeneration of the people, who shall henceforth be led by his spirit (xxxvi. 16-38, cf. final note).

(4) Ch. xxxvii. The People. Thus the nation, now dead, shall be reawakened into life and restored. In the restitution Ephraim and Judah shall no more be divided, but shall have one king, even David, over them for ever.

Thus the restitution of the people is complete, and their holiness as the people of the Lord perfect. Jehovah sanctifies them by dwelling among them; the people know that he is their God, and the nations know that he sanctifies them (xxxvii. 28). So far that which is the purpose of all history has been attained: Jehovah has been revealed both to his people and to the nations. The nations, however, who have learned to know Jehovah, whether from his judgments lighting on themselves (xxv.-xxxii.), or from their observation of the principles on which he rules his people, are the nations who have long been on the stage of history and played their parts beside Israel. There are far-off peoples lying in the ends of the earth who have not heard Jehovah's fame nor seen his glory. One great act in the drama of history has still to be performed. He who is God alone is known to the world as the God of Israel, and it is only through Israel that he can reveal himself to all. These distant peoples shall come up from the ends of the earth, and, like other nations, also touch on Israel, and then shall the glory of the Lord be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. History as the prophet conceives it, whether of Israel or of the nations, is Jehovah's revelation of himself to mankind; every movement of it carries this burden, "Ye shall know that I am the Lord." The wave of history pauses on the shore when Jehovah's glory rises on the uttermost ends of the earth.

(5) ch. xxxviii., xxxix. Invasion of Israel in the latter day by Gog and all the nations lying in the far-off corners of the earth. The Lord's defence of his people, now that they are holy and true, reveals to the nations not only his power but his nature, and the principles on which he rules his people and the world. He is known to the ends of the earth.

Third section, ch. xl.-xlviii. A vision of the final glory and peace of the redeemed people of the Lord.

Preceding prophecies described the redemption and restoration of the people (xxxiii.—xxxvii.); the present section gives a picture of the condition of the people thus for ever redeemed. The background of the picture is the whole preceding part of the book. The last words of ch. i.—xxxix. are, “And I will hide my face from them no more; for I have poured out my spirit on the house of Israel, saith the Lord God." The people are all righteous, led by the spirit of the Lord, and knowing that Jehovah is their God. The passage does not describe how salvation is to be attained, for the salvation is realized and enjoyed; it describes the state and life of the people now that their redemption is come. The fact that the subject of the passage is the final blessedness of the people accounts for the supernatural elements in the picture. But both the natural and the supernatural features of the people's condition are to be understood literally. The Temple, the services and the like are meant in a real sense, and no less literally meant is the supernatural presence of Jehovah in his House, the transfiguration of nature, the turning of the desert into a garden, and the sweetening of the waters of the Dead Sea (cf. introductory note to ch. xl.).

(1) ch. xl. I-xliii. 27. Account of the Temple buildings. (a) ch. xl. 1-27, description of the outer gateway and outer court. (b) ch. xl. 28-47, the inner gateway and inner court. (c) ch. xl. 48-xli. 26, the house itself with its annexed buildings. (d) ch. xlii., other buildings in the inner court, and dimensions of the whole. (e) ch. xliii. 1-12, entry of Jehovah into his House. (ƒ) ch. xliii. 13—27, the altar of burnt-offering, and the rites consecrating it.

(2) ch. xliv.-xlvi. Ordinances regarding the Temple. (a) ch. xliv., those who shall minister in the house, priests and Levites. (6) ch. xlv. 1—17, revenues of priests, Levites and prince; the duties devolving on the prince in upholding the ritual. (c) ch. xlv. 18—xlvi. 24, the special and daily services in the Temple; the special offerings of the prince.

(3) ch. xlvii., xlviii. The boundaries of the holy land, and new disposition of the tribes within it. (a) ch. xlvii., the life

giving stream issuing from the Temple; the boundaries of the holy land. (6) ch. xlviii., disposition of the tribes in the land; dimensions and gates of the holy city.

CHAPTER II.

EZEKIEL'S HISTORY AND PROPHETIC WORK.

EZEKIEL was the son of Buzi, of whom nothing further is known. This name has some resemblance to the word "to despise," and a rabbinical fancy interprets it of Jeremiah, "the despised," making Ezekiel the lineal descendant of this prophet, as he is his child in thought and faith. Ezekiel is styled the priest, and in all probability he was of the family of Zadok. The priests had already in this age attained to great influence; they were the aristocracy, standing next to the royal family (xxii. 25, 26). It is not certain whether Ezekiel had actually been engaged in priestly duties before his captivity, though it is not unlikely, both from the name priest applied to him and from the minute acquaintance which he shews with the Temple, its dimensions and furniture, and with the sacerdotal rites. The passage iv. 14 is not certain evidence, as the prohibition to eat carrion was binding on all the people (Ex. xxii. 31, though some consider this verse a later insertion). The age at which priests undertook their duties is not clearly stated in the Law. Ezekiel began to prophesy five years after the captivity of Jehoiachin (597 B.C.), and he states that this was in the thirtieth year. If this statement referred to his age he would have been grown up to manhood some years before his exile, but the words are obscure (notes on i. 1-3). It is doubtful if the statement of Josephus (Ant. x. 6, 3) that he was carried captive "when a youth" has any ground beyond the historian's own fancy. The evidence points in a different direction. In several passages the prophet's "house" is mentioned (iii. 24, xii. 3 seq.); the "elders" occasionally assemble there (viii. 1, xiv. 1, xx. 1), and according to xxiv. 18 he was married. Reuss is hardly right in regarding his wife and her

death as fictions; the language used implies that she was a real person and that her death occurred as stated, though, as usual, the prophet employed the incident for didactic purposes, and some of the details may be creations of his idealism; for it is characteristic of him that real events float before his eye in a moral atmosphere, which magnifies them and gives them an outline which is ideal only. The uncompromising attitude taken up by him towards his fellow captives is a thing hardly to be expected from a mere youth (Jer. i. 6); and even in the earliest part of his Book his views appear fully formed, and his convictions regarding the impending fate of his country unalterably fixed. The weight due to the last fact, however, may not be so great, because the Book was written at an advanced period of life, and even the earlier parts of it may be coloured with reflections of a later time.

The period at which the prophet's youth was passed was rich in influences that must have powerfully affected him. Though too young to take part in the reform of Josiah (620), or perhaps to remember it, he grew up in the midst of the changes which it had introduced, and probably learned to estimate previous history from the point of view which it gave him. The tragic events which followed one another closely at this epoch, such as the death of Josiah (608), the exile of Jehoahaz to Egypt and of Jehoiachin to Babylon, made a lasting impression on his mind. The last event formed the chief landmark of his life, and that not solely because his own history was so closely connected with it; and how deeply the fate of the two young princes touched him, and how well he could sympathise with the country's sorrow over it, a sorrow recorded also by Jeremiah (xxii. 10), is seen in his Elegy on the princes of Israel (ch. xix.). He has a fondness for historical study, and no history is to him without a moral; and silently the events of this time were writing principles upon his mind to which in after years he was to give forcible enough expression.

It was not, however, merely the silent teaching of events from which Ezekiel learned. He had a master interpreting