A-B. CHAPTERS XXV.-XXXII.

THE TRANSITION FROM THE PROPHECY OF JUDGMENT TO THE PROPHECY OF COMPASSION, OR THE PROPHECIES AGAINST THE ADVERSARIES.

THE prophecies against the heathen nations are put here into one collection, as is the case also in Jeremiah and Isaiah (Introd. pp. 10, 11). The common character of their contents admits of their standing thus together, whilst they are also distinguished from each other by occasional chronological notices. From ch. xxix. 17, it is probable that the prophet made up at that time the preceding smaller collection, if not the greater one, of his whole book; comp. ch. xl. 1. According to most, however, these prophecies actually lie between ch. xxiv. and xxxiii.

"The prophecies (Kliefoth remarks) against foreign nations, that is, against heathenism and the heathen world, against the worldly power as opposing the kingdom of God and its development, form continually, since the prophecy of Balaam (Num. xxiv. 17-24), a separate chapter of prophecy." So is it first of all in Obadiah, then also in Joel, Amos, etc. The later prophets in this lean upon their predecessors, whose prophecies they partly employ by citation, partly supplement and expand.

The thought which dominates the collection of Ezekiel is that of judgment, as seen in the burning of Jerusalem, the flight-fire. Ezekiel, in consequence, limits himself in the survey he takes of the heathen, as that is also still further limited, that no reference is made in it to the Chaldeans.

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Only the idea of judgment connects exactly with ch. xxiv. The discourse of judgment as now to go forth upon the adversaries was, as the silence of compassion had been, an astonishment," in respect to its being appointed to the prophet for this particular time. If the prophecies are viewed as an appendage to the first main division, the connection can scarcely be conceived of more precisely.

The judicial character of these chapters, however, still keeps within the historical position, -the recompense which actually takes place in the world's history. Among the peoples that here make their appearance, there occur the heathen members of the coalition against Babylon, those who partook in Judah's breach of oath and fidelity, denounced in ch. xvii. The prophets are "the divinely-authorized conscience-preachers," as Tholuck designates them, "the directors of conscience whether wished for or not," who stand among the people, "as the wakeful eye of the God of Israel." The judgment of Judah must go forth from them upon these heathens; for that in human affairs there prevails a holy ordering of retributive righteousness is the general theme of prophecy.

The limitation in Ezekiel's predictions to judgment is not to be regarded as an exclusion of the heathen from Messiah's salvation. For out of the judgment, as for Israel, so also for the heathen, comes forth the great salvation of the future destined to embrace both. Ezekiel stands in no antagonism to the other prophets as regards their prophetic announcements on the heathen nations. It is enough to compare ch. xvi. There is merely a certain difference between him and them in this respect. "But he still holds by the right landmarks; temporal subversion alone, the loss of their political and civil existence, is what he threatens them with; but that a remnant of them should survive, according to the word of the earlier prophets, and that this might spiritually attain to blessing, he leaves open, without contradiction" (Kliefoth).

That the idea of judgment specially controls the following collection of Ezekiel has its explanation in his prophetic mission. It is so precisely adapted to this, that, in consequence, we find in this collection no prophetic judgment against Babylon. The explanation which is given, even by Hengstenberg, that "no reason existed for his braving the danger," can afford little satisfaction; must "the personal relations" have been pleasantly adjusted for an Ezekiel? If ch. xxi. 30 sq. is not to be understood as directed against Babylon (see, however, at the passage), the silence of Ezekiel generally respecting the judgment upon Babylon, and in par

ticular the absence of any prediction of judgment in the section ch. xxv.-xxxii., finds its explanation simply in his position and calling in the exile. That Ammon, Moab, Edom, the Philistines, Tyre, Sidon, Egypt, were accessaries to the judgment upon Judah, to Judah's faithless breach of oath towards Babylon,-this of itself would have made Babylon's place in the midst of them fit badly. In that respect alone it would have injured the moral nexus. Still more, however, in another respect was silence upon Babylon's judgment ordered. It may be enough for this to point to ch. xxiii. 45; for that other decisive respect is the circumstance that Babylon had, in God's name, to execute judgment as well upon the nations in question as upon Judah-Israel. Ezekiel's prophetic mission we have recognised to be that of the prophet of Jehovah's glory in the exile; and likewise, the revelation of the glory of Jehovah meets us immediately in the 1st chapter as primarily taking effect in judgment and through righteousness. Hence it follows that it was also very suitable to the prophetic mission of Ezekiel, since it accords with the glory of Jehovah as now manifesting itself, that Babylon, its instrument, should directly appear only as such, in the light of the divine judgment and the divine righteousness upon Israel, and upon the related heathen nations. The exile in its primary aspect was judgment, the judgment of God, which Babylon inflicted. With this did not suit a prophetic judgment also upon Babylon. [More especially as one of the prevailing tendencies of the time was to overlook the hand of God in the present elevation of Babylon to its high ascendency, and to fret against the dominion which God had for a season given her over the nations.-P. F.] It should necessarily, too, have obscured the more direct impression to be produced. Whosoever," says Hengstenberg, "obtained an insight into the whole of God's judicial acts, must have been powerfully drawn away from politics to repentance."

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That the announcement of judgment, and of judgment alone, upon the heathen was done for the sake of consolation, which was implied therein for the exiled, that such a consoling must here already be regarded as the prophetic mission of Ezekiel, is without warrant, according to ch. i.-xxiv., and is certainly not agreeable to the manner in which ch. xxv.-xxxii. are connected with that principal portion of our book.

It becomes, then, a matter of special importance to justify the position of this collection of predictions here against the heathen after ch. xxiv., with the contents, design, etc., of these predictions. The question of place goes first; the question of time follows as the second. For as their fulfilment took place later than the downfall of Jerusalem-Judah, so their announcement also took place, and consequently the reading of them, first at the time of the second main division, so that they might also serve as a foil for this. Considered from the point of view of the later publication, we may therefore conjoin with the mode of connecting this collection relatively to the first main division, a transition-character to the idea of the second main division of our book, as scattered and occasional indications of such a transition are to be found in ch. xxviii. 24 sq., xxix. 21. "These prophecies present themselves as forerunners of cheering intelligence, in so far as the downfall of the heathen powers here announced is throughout total and definitive, whereas hope is still always left to Israel" (Hengst.). This is also to be considered in accordance with the same, that the injury done to Israel is brought prominently forward among the causes of the divine judgment upon the heathen, ch. xxv. 3, 8, 12, 15. Ewald remarks, besides, that the punishment of Edom was expected from Israel, and for the Philistines immediately from Jehovah Himself, which would connect more closely with the manner in which the prophet, onwards from ch. xxxiii., is going to speak of Israel (comp. also Introd. § 6).

In agreement with the general considerations affecting the whole, which serve to justify the position and character of the following collection, there is also to be noticed this and that individual trait in the particular parts, which belong alike to the form and to the substance of these predictions.

There are seven separate prophecies; and to this number, says Hitzig, "he very persistently adheres." With a symbolic tendency, the Philistines are reckoned in the number, who do not appear as members of that coalition in Jer. xxvii.; and so, too, Tyre and Sidon are kept quite apart from each other, as in Jeremiah. "The placing together also of four nations immediately at the beginning, while three follow, indicates the clear consciousness with which the author is minded to make out a seven number" (Hitzig). This intentional form should be reckoned as belonging to the transition-character of the portion ch. xxv.xxxii.: On the ground of the covenant of the Eternal with Israel, the judgment upon their open and secret enemies goes forth. In these judgments, therefore, Jehovah brings to remembrance His covenant with Israel.

Ewald delineates the particulars of the prophetic series geographically as beginning on the north-east from Judah with Ammon, thence turning southwards toward Moab, going down with Edom entirely to the south, thereafter bending in a western direction to the Philistines, then in the west stretching again to Tyre and Sidon, lastly to Egypt. Hävernick finds a beautiful harmony in the following connection between the individual predictions:-First, peoples that were in open enmity to the theocracy, ch. xxv.; then, in Tyre and Sidon, haughtiness, fleshly security, ch. xxvi.-xxviii.; finally, their combination in Egypt, ch. xxix.-xxxii. Keil has

with good right perceived a distinction between Egypt and the other nations; but to suppose a formal twofold division on that account of six and one, destroys the symbol of the number seven, and is not warranted by that distinction, which lies much deeper than Keil has indicated (comp. Doct. Reflections, ch. xxix.-xxxii., 3). The idea of the coalition rather appears to have been distributed after this manner: first the four nearer are mentioned, then the two more remote members, whereupon the proper fulcrum of the whole conspiracy discovers itself according to its real significancy. The coalition could as such also historically have been one first against Babylon, and the last Egypt alone (comp. at Jer. xxvii.), and so giving play to the sequence in respect to time. With this agrees the just remark of Keil, that, as well in ch. xxviii. 24 sq. as in ch. xxix. 21, a prospect full of promise for Israel forms a cæsura in the heroic measure of the members.

According to the specific chronological statements (see Introd. § 6), there result, as successive series of prophecies against the heathen, since the indeterminate, if special reasons to the contrary do not exist, become determinate through the immediately preceding chronological indication:-1. Ammon, Moab, Edom, the Philistines, ch. xxv.; 2. Egypt (first and second word), ch. xxix. 1-16, xxx. 1-19; 3. Tyre (first, second, third, and fourth word) and Sidon, ch. xxvi.-xxviii. ; 4. Egypt (third word), ch. xxx. 20-26; 5. Egypt (fourth word), ch. xxxi.; 6. Egypt (fifth word), ch. xxxii. 1-16; 7. Egypt (sixth word), ch. xxxii. 17-32; 8. Egypt (concluding word), ch. xxix. 17-21.

1. AMMON, MOAB, EDOM, AND THE PHILISTINES (CH. XXV.).

1,2 And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying: Son of man, direct thy face 3 to the sons of Ammon, and prophesy upon them. And say to the sons of Ammon, Hear the word of the Lord Jehovah : Because thou sayest "Aha" to My sanctuary, for it is profaned, and to Israel's ground, for it desolate, 4 and to the house of Judah, for they have gone into banishment: Therefore, behold! I give thee to the sons of the east for a possession, and they place in thee their enclosures, and make in thee their dwellings: they shall eat thy 5 fruit, and they shall drink thy milk! And I have given Rabbah for pastureground [stable] of camels, and the sons of Ammon for the lair [resting-places] of 6 flocks; and ye know that I am Jehovah. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because thou didst strike the hand [in the hand], and with the foot didst stamp, and didst rejoice thyself in all thy despite in the soul upon the ground of 7 Israel; Therefore, behold! I have stretched out My hand against thee, and have given thee for food [booty] to the heathen; and I root thee out from among the peoples, and make thee to perish from among the lands: I will 8 destroy thee! and thou dost know that I am Jehovah. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because Moab says, and [as] Seir: Behold, as all the heathen 9 is the house of Judah. Therefore, behold, I open the shoulder of Moab, from the cities, from his cities, from his end, the ornament of the land, Beth10 Hajesimoth, Baal-Meon, and toward Kirjathaim, To the sons of the east, to the sons of Ammon; and I have given it for a possession, that the sons 11 of Ammon may not be [any more] a remembrance among the heathen. And 12 on Moab will I do judgment; and they know that I am Jehovah. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because Edom exercises vindictive revenge upon the house of Judah, and they made themselves guilty and guilty, and avenged 13 themselves upon them; Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah, And I have (there have I) stretched out My hand upon Edom, and I root out from him man and beast; and I have given it for salvation; from Teman and to Dedan 14 shall they fall by the sword. And I have given My vengeance on Edom by the hand of My people Israel; and they do on Edom as My wrath and My fury 15 is; and they know My vengeance-sentence of the Lord Jehovah. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because the Philistines act in revenge, and vengefully revenged themselves in disdain, in the soul, for destruction, everlasting enmity; 16 Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I stretch out My hand against the Philistines, and root out the Cherethim, and destroy the remnant 17 by the coast of the sea. And I do on them great revenges, in punishments of fury; and they know that I am Jehovah, in that I give on them My revenge.

Ver. 7. D, Sept. Arabs.

Ver. 8. Sept. : . . . ὁ οίκος Ισραηλ και Ιουδα

Ver 9. . . . ἀπὸ πολεων ἀκρωτηρίων αὐτοῦ, ἐκλεκτην γην, . . . έπανω πηγης πολεως παραθαλασσίας
Ver 12. . . . και εμνησικακησαν κ. ἐξεδίκησαν δίκην,

Ver. 13. καὶ ἐκ Θαιμαν διωκόμενοι ἐν ρομφαία

Ver. 15. Sept.:

του έξαλειψαι έως αἰωνος,—implentes inimicitias veteres Ver. 16. Vulg.: . . . et interficiam interfectores.

EXEGETICAL REMARKS.

Vers. 1-7. The Ammonites.

The

this day" (HENGST.).-HITZIG translates: "and settled in thee shall be their pens;" but is probably Piel, though only here. are The time is not specified in ver. 1. As will be the enclosures (for cattle) of a nomad village.seen from what follows, however, the final execu- The repeated impressively dismisses the tion of judgment on Jerusalem is presupposed. Ammonites from their territory, because others If the actual fact is assumed, the prediction would have taken their place. Besides the fruit of the have its proper place after ch. xxxiii. (JEROME). ground (75), there is mentioned exhaustively The presupposition, however, is that only of anticipation, the position of the prophecy being the produce from the cattle-tending. - Ver. 5. taken from the idea of the connection with ch. There is here still an especial signalizing of the xxiv. As the prophet foretells how it is going to old Ammonite capital city, Rabbah, ch. xxi. 20 be with Ammon, there is a pointing backwards also (later, Philadelphia). HENGST.: "the name to what Ammon has been. It cannot behave itself (the populous) in melancholy contrast to what otherwise than it has been perpetually manifest- follows, as camel and wilderness go inseparably ing itself. See Doct. Reflections, i. 3.-Ver. 2. together;" comp. Amos i. 14; Jer. xlix. 2. Comp. ch. vi. 2, xxi. 2, xiii. 17. With eye and sons of Ammon, parallel for "their other cities" hand.-Comp. for the following prophecy that (Zeph. ii. 9). [Surely a somewhat peculiar already pronounced against Ammon in ch. xxi. parallel: the sons of Ammon are just the Am28 sqq.-Ver. 3. Ch. vi. 3, xiii. 2. Where monites; men, not cities or places. But they parties look merely at results that are pleasing to were to be given "for the couching of flocks" them, they ought assuredly at the outset to be flocks for men, and not that merely, but flocks In plain terms, the called upon to hear, and, indeed, what Jehovah in a state of perfect repose. says, not what they may themselves think, and ap- agricultural parts of the country were to become provingly give one another to hear.-The current pastoral-where men were wont to be seen speech of Ammon (7)—feminine as a nation, labouring, there should only be found sheep browsing or resting.-P. F.] In the present the popular community significantly places itself day, Rabbah, while it has great ruins, for exdirectly over against My sanctuary. In the ample, of a theatre belonging to the Roman judgment of it His people vanish, as in His compassion their sins vanish; He meets on behalf of period, yet it is wholly destitute of inhabitants. Arabians with camels met Seetzen in the neighthis people the Aha, the malignant joy, of their bourhood, dangerous people for a visit to these enemies; comp. ch. xxiv. 21. At the same ruins. When Buckingham spent a night among time, the enmity of Ammon is thereby, from the the ruins, an Arab was pitching there; and the first, marked as blasphemy of the Spirit who traveller could not sleep for the bleating of sheep, ruled over and in Judah-Israel. It is not merely the neighing of horses, and the barking of dogs. injury to the land and people (ch. xxi. 28), that The transition to the Ammonites themselves is their national, human form of existence should be shattered to pieces, although there should be this also, in accordance with what follows. the latter respect, the neighbourly relation has to be thought of, which, in point of space, was relationship of the nearest kind, to say nothing of what there was of blood-relationship, in consequence of the derivation through Lot.-, HENGST.: went as exiles;" comp. ch. xii. 11.Ver. 4. The offence draws after it the punish ment, wherein Nebuchadnezzar entirely falls into abeyance. Jehovah comes forth, and the sons of the east-according to Grotius and others, undoubtedly the Chaldeans; according to that which is here declared of them, and always elsewhere, the Arabian tribes-descendants of Ishmael, the Bedouin, especially as in the text it is not properly the execution that is assigned to them; but they. after the judgment took effect, only gave conclusive evidence of the completed fact. They are in a sort of way classical for this, since "they always appear where fire and sword have wasted a country" (HENGST.), or generally where a place has become desert. "The old Ammonitis, the ruin of which began in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, and continued thenc forward without interruption, is abandoned to the Bedouin Arabs to

In

prepared for ver. 6 (Dnym”).

Ver. 6. Comp. for the gestures, ch. xxi. 14, 17, vi. 11. The undoubted import is given by the and thou didst rejoice. The malicious joy is strengthened, marked, and deepened, since, as hand and foot were not wanting in it, nothing failed of despite; it was whole and entire: in the innermost soul. (HITZIG: "So that one is therein with the soul, with passion; therefore with the whole heart's contempt of which you are capable.") - Ver. 7. Hand against hand. Instead of, for food, the Qeri has, for booty. But "booty" expresses too little, where allotment,' a portion had been explicitly assured, and in the comparison at ver. 4 is so very suitable. HITZIG only objects that “the book of Daniel is not contemporaneous with Ezekiel;" for in Dan. i. 5, 8, etc., ang is used of court-food [this latter word being thought by Hengst., Häv., and others to countenance the text against the Qeri here.-P. F.]

an

Vers. 8-11. The Moabites.

The association of Edom, by means of the mountain (Seir), with Moas in this affair, im

plies that the sentiment uttered was one that procedure as the incurring of guilt; comp. be had a much more extensive prevalence, and sides, Gen. xxxvi. 31 sq., xxvii. 17 sq.; Obad. already provides a ground for the later judicial 10 sq.; Amos i. 11; Ps. cxxxvii.--Ver. 13. In sentence upon Edom. What they say amounts such dealings the stretching out of the hand is to disavowal and blasphemy of the Spirit in plain enough (ver. 7). The 1, and, denotes conJudah. Comp. with Ammon (= where is now tinuation of the foregoing punishments, which their God?).-Ver. 9. The punishment is, as in form one chain.-Ch. xiv. 13, 17.-Ch. v. 14.the case of Ammon, that the land is opened to From Teman to Dedan designates the land of the the nomadic Arabians (ver. 10), and primarily, Edomites from south to north.-Ch. xxiv. 21.— indeed, with an eye to the fortified cities. The Ver. 14. Revenge for revenge. So also My portion contemplated therein, because it was the people Israel is set over against Edom, withupper north side which leant on Ammon, is out, however, thereby referring to the mode of called the shoulder of Moab, on account of the execution. Since Israel is here so expressly anthe position, which is more clearly indicated in nounced as the executor of the divine vengeance, what follows, probably not without respect to Nebuchadnezzar cannot possibly be thought of in the gradually ascending or sloping ground; but connection with it; but we must think of the hardly, with Grotius and Hengst.: "because times of the Maccabees (John Hyrcanus). The there blows and sword-strokes are most easily Messianic interest must not be brought into view. applied," of which nothing is said. From the The compulsory reception into Israel, whereby cities (the on no account to be taken in a the Edomites ceased as a people, is plainly to be privative sense, with Hitzig: "bare of cities") regarded as the proper execution of judgment, as commences the opening very intelligibly; then this national annihilation. occurs the strongest opposition, and, indeed, from the cities, which are designated as from the end (not: "to the last," for to how far has not yet been said), that is, as border cities in the extremity of the land, according to the supposed side; so must the rest of the land assuredly lie open, as it is called the ornament of the land, therefore that which is brilliant by its fruitfulness, or perhaps by rich pastures. After some cities, mentioned by way of example, there is expressed in to Kirjathaim the point how far, and the intended compass is marked off.

', south or south-east from Jericho, on the Dead Sea (Bethsimuth, Besimoth), signifies house of the wastes-might it be Suaime, on the north-east border of the Dead Sea ?-Baalmeon, now Main, the considerable ruins of which Seetzen saw from a distance, lying on the east of Attarus, where there are said to be springs.Kirjathaim, west of Medaba, el Teym (?). These cities clearly point to the ancient inheritance of Reuben (Josh. xiii.); but when the Assyrians led into captivity the transjordanic tribes, the Moabites obtained possession of them. Comp. on ch. xxi. 36 [28] sq. (EWALD: "Therefore I now loose Moab's crown from the cities.")-Ver. 10. by, on to, upon Ammon and also Moab (ch. xvi. 87). HÄVERNICK: "primarily upon Ammon, then pouring itself forth upon Moab." The Ammonites still stand forth directly before the Moabites. Comp. on ch. xxi. 37 [32].-Ver. 11. When the land of the Ammonites should fall into the enemy's hand, then would similar divine judgments be executed on Moab, ch. v. 10. (Comp. besides, Isa. xvi. 6; Jer. xlviii.)

Vers. 12-14. The Edomites.

The charge in respect to sinning mounts up; for as Edom appears in ver. 8 as the ringleader against the people of the Lord, so is it as to intellectual supremacy.-Ver. 12. The old spirit of revenge, in which he had acted from the olden time, still keeps by his side. While in the more distant relationship of Ammon and Moab, malignant joy is the expression of hostile feeling, with Edom, in his much nearer relationship, the same feeling vents itself in actions of revenge (op opmey): hence the charge of sinful

Vers. 15-17. The Philistines.

The Philistines are in ver. 15 joined to Edom on the side of their doing (ver. 12 sq.); to Ammon-Moab on account of their contempt of the people of God. The latter was the inmost feeling, hostility the impelling force, wherein the distinction from Edom lay. For destruction, this is the design, the abiding tendency. The everlasting enmity reaches back to the earliest days. A perpetually enduring war is the standing feature of the relation, while fixed hostility was the root of it.-Ver. 16. The outstretched hand,

as in vers. 13, 7.-The effect of the action on the Philistines is the extirpation of the Cherethites, a name manifestly given, not to a part of this people, but to the whole of the Philistines, for the sake of the paronomasia. HENGST. "The name Philistines probably signifies the emigrants, those from the regions on the Black Sea, from Colchis and the adjacent Pontic Cappadocia, Kaphtor. Of substantially the same import with this name is Kretim (Eng. form: Cherethites), that is, the extirpated, namely, from their native country. These Kretim are now to become a second time Kretim; their name shall verify itself anew."-The annihilation is announced as total, including the remnant also by the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. To this also corresponds the closing word, ver. 17 in punishments of fury, as at ch. v. 15. "Jehovah Himself, never again ceasing" (HITZIG).

DOCTRINAL REFLECTIONS.

1. Ammon and Moab share together, not merely the incestuous nature of their origin (Gen. xix. 30 sq.), but the juxtaposition of their residences, their historical outcome, in particular their hostility toward the people of God, which, having respect to what is said of them in the time of Moses (Deut. ii. 9-23), was the more unjustifiable in its manifestations. (See Doctrinal Reflections, 4, at the passage.) There is nothing to be alleged in vindication of it, for its root is to be traced to the strife, in Gen. xiii. 6 sq., which led to the separation from Israel,-a separation which was kept up by the latter with the utmost care and vigilance. It is therefore the natural contrast of the