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INTRODUCTION.

CHAPTER I.

THE BOOK OF EZEKIEL.

THE Book of Ezekiel is simpler and more perspicuous in its arrangement than any other of the great prophetical books. It was probably committed to writing late in the prophet's life, and, unlike the prophecies of Isaiah, which were given out piecemeal, was issued in its complete form at once. The prophecies are disposed upon the whole in chronological order, though the book may contain much that was never actually spoken, and even the prophecies that were orally delivered may have undergone considerable modification under the pen of the prophet when reproducing them. None of the prophets shews any anxiety to record his discourses in the precise form in which he delivered them. The aim of the prophets in their writings was not literary but practical, as it was in their speeches. It was their purpose to influence the minds of the people when they spoke, and this was equally their purpose when they wrote, and, if in the interval the circumstances of the people had to some extent changed, they did not hesitate to accommodate their former discourses to the new situation.

The book of Ezekiel is occupied with two great themes: the destruction of the city and nation; and the reconstitution of the people and their eternal peace. The book thus falls into two equal divisions of 24 chapters each :—

EZEKIEL

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First Division, ch. i.-xxiv., Prophecies of the destruction of the city and nation, its certainty and necessity.

Second Division, ch. xxv.—xlviii., Prophecies of the restoration of the people, their regeneration and eternal peace as the people of the Lord.

These prophecies are for the most part symbolical actions, of which the explanation is added; or allegories and riddles, the meaning of which is read to the people. Though a good many actual events are referred to, the book contains little that is historical. It is rather a book of general principles. These principles are all but deductions from the prophet's conception of Jehovah, God of Israel and God over all. In this respect Ezekiel resembles the author of Is. xl-lxvi, though he has neither the breadth of sympathy nor the glow of emotion that distinguish the Evangelist of the Old Testament.

First Division, ch. i.-xxiv. Prophecies of the destruction of the nation.

First section, ch. i.—iii. 21. The prophet's consecration to his calling, and first period of his ministry (July 592 B.C.).

(1) Ch. i. Vision of Jehovah, the God of Israel, who calls and sends him.

(2) Ch. ii. 1-iii. 9. His mission to Israel as a prophet. His inspiration, under the symbol of eating the roll of a book presented to him in the hand of Jehovah.

(3) Ch. iii. 10-21. He goes to the Exiles, and when among them receives a clearer view of his mission, which is to be a watchman to warn every individual person, the wicked that he may turn from his evil, and the righteous lest he fall from his righteousness.

The theophany of chi is a vision of Jehovah as he is in himself (final note to the Chapter). The appointment of the prophet to be a watchman is not a change on his original appointment to be a prophet, it is a more precise definition of it. The prophet of this age is a watchman, a warner of individual men. For the old order has changed, the state is disappearing, and only individuals remain out of which the new and eternal kingdom of the Lord has to be reconstructed (note

on iii. 16). On the general meaning of the whole section cf. note on iii. 21.

Second section, ch. iii. 22-vii. 27. of the overthrow of the city and state.

Symbolical prophecies (Under foregoing date.) (1) Ch. iii. 22—27. Change in the prophet's procedure: he is commanded to cease for a time from being a public reprover. (2) Ch. iv. Symbols of the siege of the city, the terrible scarcity within it, and of the people's bearing their iniquity in exile.

(3) Ch. v.

Further symbols of the fate of the inhabitants: a third shall die of famine; a third fall by the sword around the city, and a third be scattered among the nations, still pursued by the sword.

(4) Ch. vi. Prophecy of destruction on the mountains, the mountain-land of Israel, where idolatries everywhere prevailed. (5) Ch. vii. Dirge over the downfall of the city and nation. Third section, ch. viii.-xi. More precise symbolical prophecies of the destruction of the city and people at Jehovah's own hand, because of the idolatrous pollution of his house (Aug. 591 B.C.).

(1) Ch. viii. The multiplied idolatries in the Temple: the image of jealousy in the court; the worshippers in the chambers of imagery; the women wailing for Tammuz; and the sun-worship between the Temple and the altar (cf. final note to the ch.).

(2) Ch. ix. Symbol of the slaughter of the idolatrous people. A messenger from the Lord passes through the city putting a mark on the forehead of all who bewail the evils that prevail, and he is followed by divine executioners who slay all not so sealed.

(3) Ch. x. from God.

Symbol of the destruction of the city by fire

(4) Ch. xi. Symbol of the Lord's departure from his House, and abandonment of the city to the fury of her enemies.

Fourth section, ch. xii.—xix. The same theme of the certainty of the destruction of the nation, with proofs of its moral necessity. (Without date, but later than preceding.)

(1) Ch. xii. 1—20. The unbelief of the people is such that new signs must be given them. Symbolical prophecy of the attempted escape of the king, and his capture by the Chaldeans.

(2) Ch. xii. 21-28. The people's unbelief is partly due to their observation of the character of prophecy. But the popular imagination that prophecies of evil fail to come true, or refer to the distant future, shall receive a speedy and terrible refutation.

(3) Ch. xiii., xiv. These delusions of the people are fostered by the false prophets, who prophesy only of prosperity. The prophets who deceive and those who are deceived by them shall perish together.

(4) Ch. xv. But will the Lord destroy the nation of Israel, the vine of his planting?-The nation of Israel among the nations is like the vine branch among the trees. Good for little when whole, what is it good for now when half-burnt in the fire? Only to be flung again into the fire and wholly consumed.

(5) Ch. xvi. Parable of the foundling child who became the faithless wife. Let Israel's history be judged. What has it been but one persistent course of ingratitude and unfaithfulness to Jehovah? Her chastisement cannot be deferred.

(6) Ch. xvii. And must not Zedekiah's perfidy against the king of Babylon, and his breaking the oath of Jehovah be punished? He has brought ruin both on himself and on the kingdom. Yet the Lord will set up a new kingdom on the land of Israel, into which all nations shall be gathered.

(7) Ch. xviii. The principles of this kingdom: the righteous shall live in his righteousness and the sinner die in his sin. The Lord hath no pleasure in the death of him that dieth. None shall perish for the sins of another: neither does any man lie under a ban from his own past life. Therefore let every man repent that he may live (cf. final note to the ch.). (8) Ch. xix. Lament over Judah and her royal house. Fifth section, ch. xx-xxiii. Concluding prophecies demonstrating the necessity of Israel's destruction. (Aug. 590 B.C.)

(1) Ch. xx. That which has preserved Israel from destruction at every stage of her history, and that which has given her a history, has been Jehovah's regard for his own name-lest it should be profaned among the nations.

(2) Ch. xxi. But now his threats uttered long ago must take effect. The sword of the Lord is whetted and furbished against Jerusalem.

(3) Ch. xxii. The aggravated sins of all classes of the people the royal house, the priests, the prophets, and the people of the land.

(4) Ch. xxiii. New exposure of the life-long immoralities of the two adulterous women, Oholah and Oholibah (Samaria and Jerusalem).

After a silence of several years the military movements of Nebuchadnezzar drew a new and final oracle from the prophet against Jerusalem, Jan. 587 B.C., the time when Nebuchadnezzar began to invest the city.

(5) Ch. xxiv. Final symbol of the siege and the dispersion of the people, and of their purification from evil amidst the afflictions of the exile. A rusted caldron is set upon the fire that its contents may be seethed and pulled out indiscriminately (the siege and dispersion), and that its brass may glow and its rust and foulness may be molten and purged away.

Second Division, ch. xxv.—xlviii. Prophecies of the restoration and reconstruction of the nation (xxv.—xxxix); and vision of the final and perfect state of Israel as the people of the Lord (ch. xl. seq.).

First section, ch. xxv.-xxxii. Prophecies concerning the

nations.

These prophecies occupy the place in the prophet's book proper to their contents. They are an introduction to the positive prophecies of the restoration of Israel. The judgments on the nations prepare the way for the restitution of the people. The purpose and effect of them is to make Jehovah, God of Israel, and God over all, known to the nations, so that they shall no more vex or seduce his people, as they have done in the past (ch. xxviii. 25, 26); and no more lift themselves up in