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B. SECOND PRINCIPAL PART.-CH. XXXIII.-XLVIII.

THE PROPHECY OF GOD'S MERCIES TOWARD HIS PEOPLE IN THE WORLD.

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 [fan] 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 cap22 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 norissimis suis—(licet ex infimis suis, ROSENM., vel de excellentioribus, LTBA).
Ver. 3 Sept.:

καὶ σημανη τ. λαῶ,

Ver. 4.... xas un quλažyras – et non se observaverit—

Ver. 12. Sept. . . . ἀνομία άνομου οὐ μη κάκωση αὐτον . . . δυνήσεται σωθηναι

Ver. 16....

Ver. 21. Sept.

ἐν αὐτοῖς ζησεται.

iv T. òwòexxTW μnv-Vulg.: vastata est civitas! (Another read.: 'nwya, Syr.)

Ver. 22. . . . κ. συνεκλείσθη έτι.

Ver. 25. Another read. : DDV, fully.

Ver. 26. . . . xas åvnę tov zλnosov avtov imavate— (Another read.: Dh'wy.)

Ver. 28. Sept.: δια το μη είναι διαπορευομένον.

Ver. 31. . . . ότι ψευδος ἐν τ. στοματι αύτων κ. όπισω τ. μιασματων αύτων—Vulg. : quia in canticum oris sui vertunt illo et avaritiam suam

Ver. 32. Kaı yın avtois is qwrn Jadrngiou kòuçwvou suaqueoto-Vulg.: quasi carmen musicum, quod suavi dulsique sono canitur ;—

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EXEGETICAL REMARKS.

threatenings and warnings, are not suited as an introduction to the promises of the third part; It's question whether the last division of our while, on the contrary, they are quite proper as a book opens with this chapter. Kliefoth denies it conclusion to the preceding portions. Hengstenfrom the contents, which point back to what pre-berg also regards ch. xxxiii. 1-20 as the author's cedes, 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,

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 resume 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,

Hitzig justly points to the historical notice stand-preparation and introduction, the prophecy of ing in the middle, vers. 21, 22. Its importance God's mercies toward His people in the world,for the present chapter, in fact, makes any farther is the second main division of the book. The indication of time superfluous; as was remarked passage, also, ver. 10 sq. explicitly directs the by Hav., who in this only goes too far, that he despairing to grace, while in the parallel passage, makes the revelations on to ch. xxxix. to have ver. 24 sq., the stout-hearted are, on the contrary, been imparted to the prophet in one night-the pointed to the judgment; so that the section ver. portion vers. 1-20 forming the somewhat earlier 23 sq. speaks just as much of threatening as of introduction revealed to him, and vers. 21-33 the opposite. attaching itself to the other very closely as a new introduction.

Vers. 1-20. What kind of a sending of Ezekiel that was which is now renewed.

Ver. 1. On what occurred in the twelfth year, after the taking of Jerusalem, on the evening or during the night before the escaped made his appearance, comp. at ver. 22. The address being

divides the book. If an application to the fellow-exiles of the prophet is primarily to be understood, there is still a more general one indicated in what follows,-that to the Israel of the captivity the Israel at home were to be added, that Israel generally were to be contemplated. For with this also agrees "the house of Israel" in the application of the similitude (ver. 7), according to which the children of the people of the prophet were thought of in common, as those who were entering into one and the same condition (Ni), just as in the similitude itself "land" is spoken of, and placed quite abso

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This chapter has first of all its relation to the transition portion, ch. xxv.-xxxii. In this respect it likewise has a transition character, which on one side gives indication of itself in this, that it, as also ch. xxv.-xxxii., points back to the earlier part. For as the predictions of judgment upon those without are in some to the sons of thy people (ver. 2), shows that he sense an appendage to the repeated, always in- was now to turn from foreign nations to Israel creasingly definite prophecy of the destruction of again - although Tey is still used, not "py, as Jerusalem, so ch. xxxiii. 2 sq, in what it says of the watchman - agency of Ezekiel, attaches an at ver. 31 for the first time. There is already admonition for Israel to try themselves, in pre-a preparation made for the great turn which sence of this activity of the prophet, whether Ezekiel had not dealt faithfully with his obligation, or Israel with his warning; but especially as regards the exiled, the verses 10 sq. render conspicuous, in contrast with the despair of these, God's will and procedure, and verses 17 sq. set forth these as being the right way. If people will not renounce every kind of a connection, for which there is no foundation, they will findwhere now what was announced in ch. xxiv. 26 sq. begins to enter-the supposition of a close to the past prophetic activity of Ezekiel, the prophecy of judgment, quite deserving of acceptation. It was a close proceeding out of as well as with that which had preceded. But by reason of the lutely (comp. xiv. 13). The idea is first expressed relation of this chapter, as now indicated, pri- figuratively, vers. 2-6, before Israel is put into marily to ch. xxv.-xxxii., is farther expressed the frame and hung on the wall (vers. 7-9).— its relation to the first main division, ch. i.-xxiv. On the other side, however, the transition cha-, spoken generally, but not altogether racter of the section ch. xxv.-xxxii. (pp. 11, 12) hypothetically; so, however, that the hearers is proved by that which is contained in these should think of a case before them which had chapters of a preparatory, introductory nature to either actually occurred or was in the act of doing the second main division of the book. This is So. The enemy was on the way (HITZ., GROT.), the case also with our present chapter. It might was standing at the cross-way (ch. xxi. 26 [21], already be regarded as a preparation for some- xxiv. 2). The turning of the matter into a similithing new, that at the close with what precedes the tude is peculiar to our passage, as distinguished call of Ezekiel is formulated out of it, and Israel from ch. iii. 16-21. Peculiar, also, is the trait in is challenged to self-examination, as also to an a manner necessitating a certain experience on acquittal of the prophet and a justification of the part of the hearers, that the people of the land God. The in part verbal reference of this chapter in question, the men, were themselves to appoint to ch. iii. and xviii., in vers. 2-20, certainly does the watchmen, whence, in case they did not give not (as Keil supposes) set forth the call of Ezekiel heed to him, they withstood and strove against for the future, but it contains a renewal of his themselves, and so should be the more convicted divine mission. The connecting together of the of their guilt and folly.—spp, singular, but two halves of the chapter is on no account to be regarded as "merely accidental." "The two in a plural sense: from the end on all sides, the verses 25 and 26, just as ver. 15, alike point back entire territory of the land; according to the to ch. xviii.; and on the other hand, that ver. suffix, to be understood of the whole community, 106 is in accord with ch. xxiv. 23, cannot be with reference top and Dan (Gen. xix. overlooked" (HITZ.). The full-toned charge in ver. 2: "Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to 4; 1 Kings xii. 31). Häv., Tuch decide for an them," suits well as a commencement, while ver. ellipsis Sp-On, comp. on ch. iii. 17. 24 looks only like a continuation. What Ezekiel must say to the sons of his people (ver. 2) pre-Ver. 3. Corresponding to the fundamental idea pares for the opening of his mouth (ver. 22), and of MD, Ni of the clear resounding so introduces what is to be said in ver. 25. tone. That we are to think of a horny sort of There can be no doubt that what is stated in vers. instrument, if not one simply of horn, is evident 21, 22 is the fulfilment of ch. xxiv. 26, 27; so that the new, to which the verses 2-20 form the from its being exchanged with in Josh. vi.

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for example. piyp is distinguished as a among the people, as was really the case, and indeed is clear from their own lips, as stated here. signal for the calling together of the people, in, their saying is set over against that Num. x. 6, 7, from the sounding of an alarm at a breaking up. Here it is manifestly applied to the announcement of the enemy, for a warning or advertisement to the people (comp. ch. iii. 17, and pp. 72, 73). — Ver. 4. you you, who hath ears to hear (Rev. ii. 7, 11, etc.).—

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which had been said to the prophet in divine their doing also in regard to the Lord, as they direction, according to which he must speak, had known it from the prophet's behaviour toforward them, set over against his doing and acting.

12. —And the sword comes, when the sword is
a-coming, and what is to be feared cannot be a
matter of doubt. EWALD: "so that the sword
came and carried him away, then his blood," etc.
According to HENGST.: because people are wont
to carry on their heads; according to others, the
image is derived from sacrifice, in which the
offerer transferred his guilt to his victim by the
laying on of his hand (Lev. i. 4, xxiv. 14; Matt.
xxvii. 25).-Ver. 5. The alone self-guiltiness of
the individual is here made still more manifest.
An explication without any need of the, for.
-ja, as much as
ver. 4.-HITZIG: "Be-

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While

-Of what nature the divine mission of Ezekiel
was from the first has been repeated (vers. 2–9)
in the similitude and its explanation, and now
(hence repeated in ver. 11) there follows in
what manner this mission of his is renewed to
the prophet. A reference is made back to ch.
xviii., but the difference between what is said
there and here must not be overlooked.
there no consciousness of guilt, no confession of
sin, appears (xviii. 2), the predominantly re-
criminative work of Ezekiel has still produced
so much effect that they now say: Our trans-
But this
gressions and our sins are upon us.
consciousness and this confession tinges in the
darkest manner the feeling of despair in regard to
life. It is by no means for the purpose of ex-
cusing themselves that the people appeal to the
passage Lev. xxvi. 39. Consequently, the upon
us is not to be understood as meaning: "testify
against us" (ROSENM.), but as of a burden under
which they are sinking (D'p, comp. on
ch. xxiv. 23, iv. 17). Those who represented
themselves in ch. xviii. as expiatory sufferers
for their ancestors, here are pining away under
their own burden, and that with reference to the
prospect of life, likewise repeatedly opened up in
ch. xviii. (vers. 23, 32). We must, therefore,
take into account the pressure, were it only of the
evil forebodings, the foreshadows of the event
mentioned in ver. 21, if not the actual knowledge
of the taking of Jerusalem; so that in this also
may be seen preparation, an introduction to what
was to follow.

cause he let himself be warned, he has delivered his soul."!? is here the participle. Ver. 6. The similitude has hitherto proceeded on the supposition that the watchman does his duty, because this is really the case in hand. But now the other supposition is made, that he has neglected what belonged to his calling.-, masculine, referring to. Since only the soul which continues in sin is liable to death (ch. xviii. 4, etc.), a wicked person is presupposed (as at ch. iii. 18) as the one that should be carried away; it should be through his guilt, on account of it and in it. But while previously the guilt of his blood was simply his own, the blood-guilt of his disobedience in respect to the intended warning is now, without regard to his guilt otherwise and generally, sought at the hand of Ver. 11. What for this despair in respect to the watchman. It is to be observed that for this life (i.e. deliverance, salvation, favour) was the is used here, while we have pa at ch. iii. declared mind and will of Jehovah in ch. xviii. 18, 20.-That the case supposed is only a pos- liar protestation: As I live, while there it is only: 23, 32, the same is here emphasized in the pecusible, by no means a real one, appears from the "Have I any pleasure? or: for I have no plea application made of it at Ver. 7 to Ezekiel-for the grass the odoris (comp. Heb. xiii. 17). We learn, however, that the question is about -see there also ch. xviii. 30, 31.-Ver. 12. At the same time is his installation as watchman conversion: "He combats despair only in so far to the house of Israel taken out of human hands, as it is a hindrance to repentance. To afford -in that case, when men appoint for themselves a watchman, the last-named possibility (ver. 6) (HENGST.). Comp. on ch. xviii. 20, where in mere tranquillity is not the aim of the prophet might all the more readily take place, and like manner with reference to conversion we have Jehovah carries back the watchman-office of this antithesis: "righteousness of the righteous,' Ezekiel expressly to Himself (I have given and: "wickedness of the wicked.' Through this

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לֹא יִכָּשֶׁל the expression לֹא תַּצִילֵנוּ such literally was the expression antithesis to וְשָׁמַעְתָּ' -.(thee

used of the call given in ch. iii. 17, so that we must think of supplying to the words marks of quotation; therefore not importing that the prophet must thereby be instructed with respect to the future.-Ver. 8. The same as before, only with a still more emphatic address than at ch. iii. 18.-Ver. 9. So here again; comp. at ch. iii. 19 (Acts xx. 25, 26).

Ver. 10. Since nothing of the neglect of duty which had taken place is charged upon the prophet, only the original direction given him is again literally repeated: the guilt must be sought

becomes clear (Niphal); GESEN.: "he shall not be unfortunate.' His own righteousness no means of deliverance, so soon as he falls into transgression; and wickedness, again, no necessary destruction, so soon as a change to the better comes. (iy is likewise infinitive.)

Because

presently the case of the righteous was to be spoken of, it is said by way of introduction thereto: And a righteous man, etc., in, through,

on account of his righteousness.-Ver. 13. To

the righteous man who continues such, assurance turning-point for the prophet (for Jerusalem was of life is promised. Confidence in one's own righteousness (singular, as an actual quality), when one does unrighteousness (ch. iii. 20), may be on the one side, but on the other side there will be no remembrance of the earlier righteousnesses. Comp. ch. xviii. 24, 26.-Ver. 14. The contrast with the wicked. Here an address to such, because this is what is wished for; comp. ch, xviii. 21.-Ver. 15. A lively form of speech, hence without the copula, an exemplification. Comp. in reference to it, ch. xviii. 7, 12, 16, 21, 28, xx. 11.-Ver. 16. Comp. ch. xviii. 22.

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overcome on the 9th of the 4th month of the 11th year) teaches us to understand the expres sions: "in the day," in ch. xxiv. 25, or: "in that day," vers. 26, 27, of what was to take place more than sixteen months afterwards. Hitzig regards it as "very improbable that Ezekiel should first have received in January 586 the report of what had happened to Jerusalem in July 588;" and in place of considering that the text could not mean to speak of the report, he makes the prophet over and above "contradict himself," inasmuch as, according to ch. xxvi. 1, 2, he had already in Ver. 17. Comp. on ch. xviii. 24 sq. The im- the eleventh year heard the report of the matter mediate occasion for blame is formed here by such which, however, is not necessarily rendered a representation of the wicked (ver. 14 sq.) who clear by ch. xxvi.—and then at the close he repented, over the righteous who does unrighteous- changes the twelfth year into the eleventh, which ness. The fact alone that "a righteous man' is supported by the Syrian translation alone. could be spoken of before them in such a manner, Hengst. justly remarks that the notice does not more especially that turning, turning, is what they refer to the first report concerning the taking of are called to, while they had placed their confi- Jerusalem, and then proceeds: The news of dence upon "the righteousness of the righteous" such events spread with amazing rapidity. The (ver. 12)—if not their own, yet that which be- intelligence, doubtless, arrived in eight, or at longed to them, descended to them as the people the most fourteen days at the abode of Ezekiel; of God from their pious forefathers-that is the so that the difficulty is not removed by assuming stone in the way of the Lord which the divine most arbitrarily an error in the text, and putting address takes away, in order to throw it to the the eleventh in place of the twelfth year." The quarter to which it belongs, namely, to the false meaning of what was announced beforehand in way of Israel, which they had chosen for them-ch. xxiv., and according to our verse had now selves with their outward carnal self-righteousness actually occurred, is that in place of all reports – in such and such religious observances. Vers. so fitted to awaken hope, yet traversing the way 18, 19, however, do not simply repeat vers. 13, 14, of the Lord with His people, always again but the two cases of the righteous and the wicked paralysing their necessary conversion-which up return again in the form which is the most to the last had arrived, a certain fugitive shall appropriate for setting forth clearly and dis- now speak, and, as an eye-witness, place beyond tinctly the way of the Lord, and in which it all dispute what had actually happened. The strikes at first sight, and at the same time with matter-of-fact voucher given into the hand of the reference to the command given: "Return, re-exiled with this escaped one must have removed turn." Hence not 'by, as at ver. 13, but pay (ch. iii. 20), and with nothing farther, namely, by these two parts: turning from his righteousness, which is left unnoticed, and doing unrighteousness. (ROSENM.: y, collective.) Comp. ch. xviii. 24, 26. The wicked throws light on this caricature of turning-a turning it also is, indeed, only to what is evil by his, on the contrary, turning from his wickedness (in ver. 14 it is from "his sin").-Ver. 20, as also ch. xviii. 29, repeats the charge for the purpose of making a suitable close. Comp. ch. xviii. 30 (ch. vii. 27).

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Vers. 21, 22. The fresh turn.

out of the path of safety what at least the strong walls of Jerusalem threw in the way of their turning to the Lord. For the meaning ascribed to, to make one's escape, get off through flight (Gen. xiv. 13), it is not necessary, with lective, that is, "a band of exiles," as Ezekiel Hengstenberg, to suppose an ideal person, a col had already intimated, ch. xiv. 22, 23, that a whole host of such fugitives would come to the exiles,

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so that these by their miserable plight should be a living proclamation of the frightful catastrophe through which they had passed." Hitzig thinks that

mediately after the bloodshed at Mizpah from the the fugitive may have escaped imband of Ishmael (Jer. xli. 10); if not, which is improbable, only after the flight which ensued into Egypt." J. D. Michaelis explains out of the remoteness of Ezekiel's place of residence the so late arrival of the fugitive, especially consider The fact is now an accomplished one-Jeru-ing the frightful disorder that took place. salem is taken (ch. xxiv. 25); and therewith we have, as had been foretold at the close of ch. xxiv., not only the arrival of the escaped, but as the main thing the opening of Ezekiel's month, that he might no more be dumb. This historical notice in the middle of the chapter is therefore the kernel of the whole the renewal of the divine mission of the prophet, over against the completed acts of judgment, now gives to his prophecy the expression of God's compassions toward His people in the world, with which the second main division of the book is occupied.

The indication of time which was to mark the

Ver. 22. And the hand of Jehovah, etc.; comp. ch. xxxvii. 1, i. 3. The effect of it was the opening of the mouth. But this latter can be virtually and actually distinguished. In that respect the opening of the mouth of Ezekiel took place when it was commanded him that he should speak to the sons of his people, in respect to whom he had been dumb from the time indicated in ch. xxiv. He began to do so at ver. 1 of this chapter, to which, therefore, the expression con cerning "the hand of Jehovah" brings us back -namely, that this hand had now removed from him his previous dumbness, so that he might

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