is the opposite of courage, but not the fear of the Lord. Where God kindles a fire, it is always for judgment; the old is consumed therein, but a new springs forth out of the ruins.-Without casting down, no progress in the life of humanity. -Ver. 16. Must not man always be engaged in conflict?-Ver. 17. With its youth the human future of a people goes down. Even the youth should be "the chosen" of God; instead of this, Satan at no period has so much of his nature in men as in the season of youth.-Vers. 18, 19. Walk in the light while ye still have the light, -we, that is, who have the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ.-The judgment of God may, through the dogmas of men and a false philosophy, veil to us also the sun of truth, and wrap in darkness to men's view heaven and eternity. When at length, with the authority of God, the authority also of the law over men gives way, then, where superstition gives place to unbelief, there falls upon them yoke for yoke, one in the room of another; there is only an exchange of tyrants.-How much old and high renown have the gravediggers of the world's history already buried under the sod among other sweepings! What is gloria mundi?—a transit.-The new plagues of Egypt.-The spirit of Pharaoh continued to be the spirit of the Pharaohs.-Selfheights are no heights-none, at least, that stand in the judgment of God, and remain above though all else should go down and disappear; but a height in the true sense is that simply whereof it is said, As high as heaven is above the earth, Ps. ciii. 11. This ought to be recognised, and that not merely at the last, amid howlings and gnashings of teeth, but betimes, when it may still serve for peace, with the calm open eye. The most wretched of all thoughts is that of having no part in God. How many an evil-doer has readily presented his head to the sword, in the conviction that through the punishment he should become a partaker of God!" (H.) Vers. 20-26. How many the things are that men prize as an "arm," and how easily these arms are broken!-The arm of the Lord (Isa. liii.), and the arm of man, and the armies of princes."More easily is an arm broken than healed; but now first of all the conscience, how painfully does it sting, and how long is it in healing!" (STCK.)-What God has broken, God only can heal.-Ver. 22. But man never has enough by a fracture; so long as he can still move and stir otherwise, he must show himself. Therefore shall there come to be a destruction without mercy, if we will not submit to God on the footing of grace.—“Sickness breaks one arm, death both arms (STCK.). — Every breakage which we must suffer is a call to repentance. Ver. 23. "He who will not fear God in his fatherland has no injustice done him, if in a foreign land he is made to experience all sorts of misfortune" (ST.). — Vers. 24-26. 'Strength and weakness come both from God" (W.).— "Upon whose side Jehovah stands, that man prevails in the conflict; to him there is prosperity in life; he enjoys a blessing with his work. But this favour has the Lord promised to the righteous. Without God all ends unfortunately, mournfully, and in perdition" (STCK.).-What serves God, that serves also the kingdom and the power of the Spirit; just as at the last, all the kingdoms if this world shall become God's and His Christ's. On Ch. xxxi. Vers. 1, 2. "The greatness of Egypt was the presumption against the warnings of the prophet. But greatness is no security against destruction; no greatness upon earth can withstand the strokes of God" (H.).—"With justice are kingdoms compared in Scripture to trees, as well on account of their form, the protection and shadow they afford to men and beasts, as also on account of their fruits; and still farther in this respect, that kingdoms, like trees, flourish and again cease to exist, torn up by the wind, or cut down by the hatchet of man (L.).-It is very well for people to compare themselves with others, though not for the purpose of thinking better of themselves than others, as the Pharisee in the temple over against the publican, or in order to envy others; but humbly to learn that we are a part of mankind, and that what is human may befall us, and shall at last take place without exception. Also to make each one more contented with his lot, a comparison with others is, as a rule, fitted to be serviceable.-"Both the one and the other inference is right: As God has elevated that humble one, so can He, in His own time, elevate me ; as God has abased that proud one, so may it also be done with me" (STCK.). Vers. 3-9. "The histories of the world might teach great lords much, that they should not rely upon their own powers" (LG.). · Rulers and princes should be shady trees to the righteous. "God has done good also to the heathen, that they might seek Him, if haply they might find Him, Acts xvii. 26, 27" (STCK.).-"Oh, what streams of grace flow upon the unthankful, if they would only perceive them! The waters are indeed not of one sort-one portion swims in pure felicity, another in tribulation and adversity; but the aim is uniform, and the divine loving-kind nesses which are concealed under the latter are certainly greater than the former, in the eyes of those who know to estimate things aright" (B. B.). But their favourable condition and the friendliness of God only serve with many to puff them up, and render them proud and arrogant,an end for which certainly all this was not given. He with whom it overflows should make it trickle over upon others.-Ver. 7. To be radical in the proper sense is a good thing, namely, that one should know that his root is in God."The true comeliness of a prince stands in comely virtues, which adorn every man, especially a prince,-clemency and justice above all; to afford protection and solace to the persecuted; to spread forth as it were his branches to the miserable; to have about him servants resplendent with his own virtues, so that, as in every branch the nature of the tree, so in every servant the character of the prince, may appear reflected. He and they must not be terrible to the good, nor oppressive to his subjects. The love of the people is a good root for a race of princes" (Cocc.).-Ver. 8. Better to be envied than commiserated. God makes man beautiful, as He alone also makes him good; the latter is the divine nature, the former the divine form, of a man. Vers. 10-13. I have given thee into the hand of such and such an one-this explains much darkness.-The haughty spirit going before, the key to the fall afterwards.-"Now, however, we are all in Adam inclined to pride of soul; and he who exalts himself shall be abased, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted."Thus God throws the loftinesses of men into one heap" (B. B.).-"And so circumcision makes a distinction in death not, of course, that which is done in the flesh, but the circumcised heart; so that a circumuncircumcised, as, on the other side, uncircumcised persons, who are not so in heart, may be counted as circumcised. At the close, however, the prophet writes the name 'Pharaoh' on the lid of the coffin" (Cocc.). On Ch. xxxii. Vers. 1, 2. How far otherwise have the court. poets ever and anon elegized!-The comparison with lions and dragons withdraws much that is human in respect to Pharaoh.-"This robber fish (?) and dragon, which with his feet troubles the streams, is like the beast that should ascend out of the sea (Rev. xiii.). Pharaoh is hence the enemy of the chosen, a roaring lion, which troubles the waters of heavenly wisdom with the slime of human additions, so that they provide no proper drink for those who thirst for salvation" (H. H.).—"Should Christian kings be like lions and dragons? They ought to be the fathers of their country, caring day and night for the welfare of their subjects" (ST.).-"Tyrants and the covetous are insatiable, and cannot be at rest" (STCK.).-"Ah! how much misfortune can be brought about by a restless ruler! Therefore pray for a peaceful government of the kingdom" (ST.). the perishing things of this world, riches, honour, splendour, beauty, knowledge, etc., nourish our natural inclination, being all things which we overestimate. However, even a plain smockfrock often covers a repulsive arrogance. But kings are through their flatterers nourished in this vice, which is the root of all others" (L.).—cised person may have his place also among the One must grow in order to be able to lift the top so high; this is not so quickly reached ;- -on the other hand, to arrive at the lowest depth there needs only one overthrow, which may take place in a single moment.-One falls more quickly down a stair than one mounts up again.- God cannot suffer pride; I am meek and lowly in heart, it was said by Him who was God manifest in the flesh, Matt. xi. 29.-Out of the heart of man proceed also all high things that are offensive to God, which need not always wear a crown, but may have merely a pen behind the ear, or a pair of spectacles on the nose..-Vers. 12, 13. From the foreign land comes much suffering first foreign sins, then punishment through foreigners. -A shameful fall into sin, and a frightful fall into misfortune-both invite to study.-There must also fall into the valleys branches that have been broken off, that poor people may not think the great ones of the earth are freed from death and judgment.-When the punishments of God break forth, then such as can flee gladly make off, while they were not to be enticed out of the shadow of sin, in which they delighted themselves. God shakes the luxurious tree from top to bottom, and then all that stuck to its branches fall off; and so they are struck off, since they did not allow themselves to be warned off."How does the shadow of the rich vanish with the sun of prosperity, and with the shadow depart also the flatterers and panegyrists!" (STCK.)-He who chooses to be forsaken inust become poor.-Fate can keep up the interest, but a rich man who has become poor is a woe-begone phenomenon for the world."How often do the goods of a rich man become scattered over the world after his death!" (STCK.) Discern false friends in adversity !--To cut, and peck, and aid in plundering the very person in whose prosperity men formerly basked, and whom they hardly knew how to laud highly enough!"So deeply is the friendship of the world rooted, and its caresses. So long as all goes well, friends and worshippers are readily found. But when that changes, all goes otherwise" (B. B.). Ver. 14. Precautions must be taken that the trees do not grow into the heavens.-All are born naked-no one comes in purple into the world; but that is far from working so powerfully as the "They who formerly swam in pleasures, shall thought that the king must die as the beggar.- by and by swim in their own blood" (STCK.). — Death the moral of the human fable.-"A mighty Ver. 7. "The greatness of the calamity is delesson for our time" (RICHT.).-Somewhat for scribed by the prophet from the sense of those people who would see clearly upon the death of whom the tribulation affects, to whom it seems Napoleon. That there is to be a general judg- as if the whole world were enveloped in darkness" ment after this life is evident alone from death, | (H. H.).—“The lights of heaven truly shine only which strikes all, even great men.- "The con- for the happy; the sun exists not but for the sunsideration of the inevitable exit of all who live should beget moderation in pretensions. We take nothing with us of that which so many desire with such eagerness" (L.).-Vers. 15-18. Great fates cast forth also great shadows. If our terrors did but lead us to the knowledge of our misery, as well as of the glory of God!--The grave unites all at the last. "The glory of the earth must become dust and ashes, etc.-But who believes our report? may be said also here : Vers. 3-10. "The godless hasten to meet their destruction, without being afraid of it, but often secretly driven thereto by God" (H. H.).—" God is the supreme hunter and fisher; He can throw upon the lions His toils, and upon the whales His net, to catch and destroy them (W.).—"God knows how to tame the untamed, to humble the proud, and to curb the fierce; who can resist His power?" (STCK.)-To be rejected, if not thrown entirely away, is the end of the mighty after the flesh.-Corruption the last strophe also in heroic poetry.-"How mournful is it to be cast away by God!" (STCK.)-Even the ass will plant his footstep on the wounded dying lion.-What the rich boast themselves so much of is but a carcase, which those who live after them will divide among themselves.-"After death, shame and reproach overtake the wicked and shameless" (H. H.). -Vers. 5, 6. Overflowing for overflowing; for the waters of Egypt, now the blood of the hosts of Pharaoh. lit eye" (H.).-"The godly sustain themselves in such circumstances by the thought that the Lord is their light, and therefore will not suffer the light of their heart to go out” (L.).—“But he who despises the light of grace, for him the light of glory also shall not shine" (STCK.).—It is also dark, and the stars even fall from the heaven, when great, noble, important, eminent men, heroes, sages, lawgivers, governors, teachers, are carried off by death-or worse, when they fal away into superstition or unbelief, ungodliness, injustice, and violence.-Ver. 9. Many a fall leads to the elevation of others" (ST.).-To be frightened is still not to be awakened, and awakening without enlightenment is spiritual tumult without spiritual life.-The grave, too, is an unknown land, and thither we are all journey-pious is the tomb a chamber where they softly ing. Yet for faith there is a sun which rises upon it, that never goes down.-"So the Lord loves to inspire terror, that He may break fleshly confidence (H. H.).—Happy for him whom a sincere conversion has made secure against the terrors which seize upon the whole earth!-He who still has to fear for his soul, let him consider that the whole world can profit him nothing!Every moment are we in danger of death, and consequently in sight of eternity. Vers. 11-16. If no other cure proves effectual, then God betakes Himself to the sword.-The method of salvation through blood and iron; but what is the state of society presupposed in connection with it!-The guillotine and the sword both do their work quickly, and bring what is before as it were under them.-Ver. 13. "It touches a miserly man much more nearly if his beast dies, than if his children are taken from him by death" (ST.).-A stock of cattle a state of peace. Vers. 14, 15. The stillness of the desert is indeed stillness, but it is not peace, any more than to flow "like" oil is the soft nature of the spirit.-There is rest in the grave, but much unrest thereafter, yea, more unrest, and of a worse kind than existed before.-"There go the waters softly, as in mourning" (UMBR.).-But God knows how to set at rest a land and its creatures which have been plagued and misused by men. Where have the oppressors gone? They also lie still.-Lamentation does not take away the pain, but in the lamentation it lives on. sung upon him.-He to whom the earth was all, " "The grave is very deep, even though in a material point of view it may be but a few feet down; it is deep enough to shroud all glory' (H.).—" Powerfully seizes the mind and humbles the pride the ever-recurring There, when the subject of discourse has respect to a fallen king and his hosts. .. We look upon a limitless field of graves, and it is remarkable and peculiar to our prophet, that he transfers the graves also to the lower world" (UMBR.)." As the elect come from the east and the west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God, so the cast off find their way to the uncircumcised, to the pierced by the sword, in the depths below" (H. H.).—Here many graves, in Vers. 17-32. Whoever would gain a thorough the house of the Father many mansions.-The insight into the dominions and powers of the counterpart of the fellowship of believers upon earth, he must look down into hell.-The instruc-earth, of the elect in heaven.-The lowest Sheol tive glance into hell.-The song of hell.-La divina comedia of Ezekiel.-The doctrine of Sheol as the doctrine of the state after death.-What does the Sheol of the Old Testament signify? (1) According to its name, the demand of death on all persons and things, therefore the power of death over every individual person and thing; therefore that death is the wages of sin, the judgment of God's wrath which takes effect on the flesh. (2) As to the thing, it is the state after death as existence in a spacious grave; that is, notwithstanding the dissolution of the body and the separation of soul and body, a continuous life of the spirit, and that with consciousness and recollection-hence, according to the character of this, in peace or disquiet.-Woe to him whom the doom of death precipitates into condemnation in death-One can strike up no song to the living more unacceptable, yet at the same time none more profitable, than one about dying; should any one refuse to accompany it, it will still be and the heavenly Jerusalem.-The earth is everywhere indeed the Lord's, but not all the dead die in the Lord.-Ver. 27. Men take with them into the state of the dead their knowledge, and along therewith the judicial sentence due to their manner of life.-Nothing is forgotten before God which is not forgiven. The wrath of God remains on them, it is said in John. Ver. 31. "It is a wretched consolation which is derived from the circumstance that people see in others the same torments which themselves experience. And yet misguided mortals do really comfort themselves with it. It is a common necessity, they say; others have experienced the same, and are experiencing it daily," etc. (H. H.)—The word of God, however, brings home to every man at last the application: this is such and such an one; as we find written on the tombstones: Here lies N. N.-"The Pharaohs prepare to swallow up without mercy: Jacob's Shepherd laughs at them," etc. (HILLER.) B. SECOND PRINCIPAL PART.-CH. XXXIII.-XLVIII. THE PROPHECY OF GOD'S MERCIES TOWARD HIS PEOPLE 1, 2 I. THE RENEWAL OF EZEKIEL'S DIVINE MISSION.-CH. XXXIII. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, speak to the sons of thy people, and say to them, When I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their borders, and set him for 3 their watchman; And he sees the sword coming upon the land, and blows 4 the trumpet, and warns the people; And any one hears the sound of the trumpet, and does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him 5 away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him, since, letting 6 himself be warned, he would make his soul [his life] escape [would deliver it]. And the watchman, when he sees the sword coming, and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword shall come and take away a soul [a man] from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood 7 will I require at the watchman's hand. And thou, son of man, [as a] watchman have I given thee to the house of Israel, and [so] thou hearest the word 8 out of My mouth, and thou warnest them from Me. If I say to the wicked, Wicked man, thou shalt surely die, and thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, he, the wicked man, in [on account of] his iniquity shall 9 die, but his blood will I require at thy hand. But if thou dost warn a wicked man of his way, that he turn from it, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in [on account of] his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul. 10 And thou, son of man, say to the house of Israel: Thus ye say, saying, If our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we pine in [on account of] them, 11 how shall [can] we then live? Say to them, As I live, saith [sentence of] the Lord Jehovah, if I should have pleasure in the death of the wicked! but in the turning of a wicked man from his way, that he may live. Turn ye, turn ye 12 from your evil ways; and why will ye die, O house of Israel? And thou, son of man, say to the sons of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression, and through [in the] wickedness of the wicked shall he [the wicked] not stumble [fall] in the day of his turning from his wickedness; and a righteous man shall not be able to 13 live thereby [namely, because he is a righteous man] in the day of his sin. When I say of the [to the] righteous, He shall surely live, and he trusts in his righteousness and commits iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered, and in 14 his iniquity which he does, in it shall he die. And when I say to the wicked, Thou shalt surely die, and he turns from his sin, and does judgment and 15 righteousness: If the wicked shall restore a pledge, shall repay what he had robbed, if he walks in the statutes of life, that he do no iniquity-he shall 16 surely live, he shall not die! All his sins which he sinned, they shall not be remembered to him; he does judgment and righteousness; he shall surely 17 live! And the sons of thy people are saying, The way of the Lord is not 18 right but they, their way is not right! When a righteous man turns from his 19 righteousness and commits iniquity, then he shall die thereby: And when a wicked man turns from his wickedness, and does judgment and righteousness, 20 thereby shall he live. And ye say: The way of the Lord is not right? Every 21 one as his ways [are] will I judge you, O house of Israel.—And it came to pass, in the twelfth year, in the tenth [month], on the fifth of the month of our cap 22 tivity, the escaped from Jerusalem came to me, saying, The city is taken. And the hand of Jehovah was upon me [came upon me] in the evening before the coming of the escaped, and He opened my mouth, until he came to me in 23 the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no longer dumb. And 24 the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Son of man, the inhabitants of those ruins on the ground of Israel are saying, Abraham was one, and he got the land for a possession, and we [are] many, and the land is given us for a posses25 sion. Therefore say to them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Ye eat upon [with] the blood, and ye lift your eyes [continually] to your abominable idols, and shed 26 blood, and shall ye possess the land? Ye stand upon your sword, ye do abomination, and pollute every one his neighbour's wife, and shall ye possess 27 the land? Say thus unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, As I live, if they who are in the ruins shall not fall by the sword! And him that is in the field will I give to the beasts to be eaten, and they that are in the forts 28 and in the caves shall die of the pestilence. And I give the land to waste and desolation, and the pride of its strength ceases; and the mountains of 29 Israel are waste, that no one passes over them. And they know that I [am] Jehovah, when I give the land to waste and desolation, because of all their 30 abominations which they have done. And thou, son of man, the sons of thy people talk of thee beside the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one with another, each with his brother, saying, Come now, and hear 31 what the word is which proceedeth from Jehovah! And they will come to thee as a people comes, and will be before thee [as] My people, and they hear thy words, and they will not do them; for [but] in their mouth they are prating loves [ever making love-songs, have wanton pieces in their mouth]; their heart goes after 32 their gain. And lo! thou art to them as a wanton song, beautiful of sound [voice], and one striking the chords well; and they hear thy words, and do 33 them not. And when it comes-lo! it comes, then they know that a prophet was in the midst of them. Ver. 2. Vulg.: de novissimis suis-(licet ex infimis suis, ROSENM., vel de excellentioribus, LYRA). Ver. 3. Sept.: . . . καὶ σημανη τ. λαῶ, Ver. 4....nas un quλažytas – et non se observaverit— Ver. 21. Sept. . . . iv r. dwòsxara μnvi-Vulg.: vastata est civitas! (Another read.: y 'nya, Syr.) Ver. 26. ... nas άvnę tov xànciov αúrou iμavaT-(Another read.: Dy.) Ver. 28. Sept.: .. δια το μη είναι διαπορευομενον. Ver. 31. . . . ότι ψεύδος ἐν τ. στοματι αύτων κ. έπισω τ. μιασματων αὐτων—Vulg. : quia in canticum oris sui vertunt illos et avaritiam suam→→→ Ver. 32. Kai yin aurois is qwrn Yaλrngiou nòuqwvou súmquesтov-Vulg.: quasi carmen musicum, quod suavi dulsique sono canitur ;— Ver. 33. . . . έρουσιν Ιδου ήκει EXEGETICAL REMARKS. It's question whether the last division of our book opens with this chapter. Kliefoth denies it from the contents, which point back to what precedes, ch. iii. 17 sq., xviii. 20 sq. The third part must begin with ver. 21. In contrast to the foreign nations, ver. 2 associates this word of threatening against Israel with the words of threatening against foreign nations previously given, as is done also in Isaiah and Jeremiah. Ch. xxv. 1xxxii. 32 numbers thirteen words of God; thereto belongs ch. xxxiii. 1-20 as a fourteenth, in order to make out the number 2 X 7. The contents, threatenings and warnings, are not suited as an introduction to the promises of the third part; while, on the contrary, they are quite proper as a conclusion to the preceding portions. Hengstenberg also regards ch. xxxiii. 1-20 as the author's conclusion, but to the whole of what precedes, namely, ch. i.-xxxii. The text does not show the impossibility of Ezekiel having delivered a prophecy to his people before the arrival of the escaped; but the admitted résume out of the preceding is no argument against the supposition of an introduction to the following, as we shall see, just as little as the want of a specification of time. For with reference to the latter point, |